Chapter 11: The Deal

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"You and I need to have a little talk, airbender."

The sentence echoes through the silent space, making my head spin. What does he want? Just this one statement causes me to break out in a cold sweat and my heart racing. 

I tremble with fear, but try hard not to show it. Your fear is your enemy's strength, my coach used to tell me during competitions, Hide it. It's actually one of the few useful things he had ever said to me.

A straight-back wooden chair is brought in by one of the Fire Nation soldiers wearing a ridiculous head gear. Next, come heavy metal chains. I'm dragged up roughly by the arms and and sat on the chair. Two soldiers come in to tie my hands, legs, and torso to it. I'm too weak to defend myself, not to mention my whole body is screaming in pain. During the whole process, the only sound I made was grunting in pain. That... monster is not going to get anything out of me.

They're treating me like I'm a murderer from an asylum. Might as well use a straitjacket.

Someone switches on the lights in the room, and I immediately look around, trying to take in my surrounding.

The rectangular room I'm in is actually bigger than I thought. For such a big room - it's almost as big as a tennis court - the ceiling is quite low, giving a feeling that I'm about to be crushed to death by it. As expected, the steel room is completely empty of any furniture, except for the chair and chain I'm tied to.

With a wave of his hand, the soldiers immediately leave our presence, leaving me alone with Zhao and another soldier who is guarding the door from the inside. The metal door clanks shut. Mentally encouraging myself, I take a deep breath, square my shoulders and stare at Zhao dead in the eyes, hoping my death stare is enough to paralyse him. But soon, I rearrange my expression so that I look bored. I watch in silence as Zhao paces in front of me at a leisurely pace, seeming deep in thought, his beady eyes shooting darts at me once every while.

Finally, after what seems like an eternity, he turns around and walks forward to face me. Grabbing the sides of the chair with his arms, he lean forward so that his face is right in mine. I try not to scrunch my nose in disgust at the close proximity. It didn't work. My face melted into one of disgust.

"Where –are –the –others?"

Of course he's going to ask that, I think with a mental eye-roll. I remain silent and gaze at him steadily, sending him a silent message: back off.

He stares at me for a long time, then leans in further till I can smell his rancid breath. Ever heard of toothpaste? This time I can't help but twist my face away from him.

"I'm giving you one last warning, you useless airbender. Where. Are. The. Others?"

Suddenly enraged on behalf of all the poor airbenders who were all sacrificed in this stupid war, I quickly turn to face him and without thinking, spit in his face.

Wow, that felt good.

The soldier who has been quietly minding his own business beside the door saw my action, and raises his eyebrow in surprise. But to my surprise, he actually looks...glad.

Zhao looks stunned for a moment, then his ugly wrinkly face quickly morphs into an even uglier and wrinklier face of rage. I don't care, he can hurt me all he wants, so long my friends stay safe.

"Fine, you want to do this the hard way?" He roars, wiping my spit off his face. I flinch, but maintain my poker face. Inside, my heart beats as fast as a hummingbird's wings. "Let's do this the hard way, then! Don't think I've forgotten about your threat to kill me before you nearly got killed yourself!"

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