While The Parents Are Away

Chapter 3

Pirates. They had to be pirates from the look of the ship, as well as the crew. Tenzin looked around. They could take them. This ship at least. But he knew there were many more sailing not that far. One could almost assume that was not a coincidence. They had to think carefully about their next move.

"Greetings, gentlemen!" Of course Bumi opened his mouth without even thinking first! He stepped off Oogi and onto the boat first, holding his hands in the air since there were about ten swords pointed at him. Lin followed right after him, then Tenzin and finally Kya with Su.

"If you want the bison, we have no problem with that. We stole it a few miles back from some sucker who left it unattended!" Bumi lied with a perfect grin on his face.

"Lies! You have an airbender with you!" one of the men stated the obvious. Well, it was not such a convincing lie...

"That's right... And also a waterbender," Bum looked over to Kya who rose to pillars of water at his cue, "And I don't think you guys ever met a metalbender, Lin if you please."

Hearing him, Lin got into her stance and ripped each sword out of the hand that was holding it and turned them around to be pointed at each pirate. She kept them all in the air like that, inches away from the men's faces.

"Can you hold them like that?" Tenzin asked Lin who was beginning to sweat. She's never attempted something like that, so it required all her concentration. She just nodded, never breaking eye contact with the swords.

"Cut Oogi out of the net..." Tenzin whispered to Kya who was standing closest to the animal.

Bumi heard his brother, too, and attempted to engage the crew in conversation again.

"This must be a new experience for you. Losing to an earthbender. Usually, they're pretty helpless out in the open seas, aye?"

One man saw Kya untangling the net and tried to move. Lin stopped him my pinning his shirt to the ship's hall with his sword. Unfortunately, this distracted her enough, so several crew members managed to slip past the blades she was holding up. Tenzin stepped closer to help knock a few men overboard, but it was too late.

"Lin!"

Lin turned and saw the ship's captain was holding a piece of broken glass at her sister's throat. She could use any of the weapons to attack him, but would it be fast enough? Could she kill him before he hurt her? Did she even want to kill him?

"Lin! Help me!" Tears were starting to run down Su's face as she struggled to get out of the man's grip.

Finally, Lin fell to her knees and about ten blades clashed onto the deck with her. She closed her eyes and bowed her head. Seeing her surrendering, others just followed her lead.

"Bind them!" said the Captain still holding Su, "Rope! No chains!"

This was a bad start to their adventure. Or even worse. A bad ending.

oooooooooo

Izumi watched all of this from a safe distance. She couldn't make out what was happening all that well, but she did see that her friends were not being released, but instead taken below deck. They must be counting on her to help them.

She was soaked and cold, but unharmed, so she had no problem swimming to the next nearest ship. The ships were all circling the area before they arrived, but now they all seemed to be leaving in the same direction. With some help from her bending, she managed to climb aboard the ship without being noticed, and hide behind a few crates.

The Princess then hugged her knees and tried to stay warm until the ship docked... Well, wherever they were going. She sat there for maybe a few hours, before they made port. She snuck off the ship almost as easily as she got on. From there she followed the captain who took her friends from the marina into a compound. Her friends were taken there soon after. Izumi was always quiet and graceful by nature, so all this spying wasn't a problem for her. Busting her friends out of that compound... That was probably going to be a problem.