The Origin of Roh-Shan

Jailbreak

The small torch light burned out, encompassing the jail cell in darkness in a split second, replacing the light with the faint wispy smell of candle smoke.

The inspiration to fight back was gone. For 3 straight days, Kota has been on the offensive. Escaping the police, stealing a boat, attacking Roh's captors, and walking herself and Haider directly back into the city they were trying to run from. In some ways, the action felt good. Teachers had always remarked that she had a "rebellious side" or a very "active spirit" which everyone knows are just kinder terms for troublemaker, but really, she'd never meant to cause trouble or harm directly. Rather, she was trying to test everyone's boundaries. See just how far they could be pushed before they snapped at her. Once she found that line with each person, she'd play within those parameters but never cross it again. These past few days however have involved sprinting across people's lines and being snapped at constantly. The police, the boat owners, the captors, even Maita. At first it felt freeing. Unlike Roh, she's mostly insensitive to being yelled at. This whole experience felt like provoking a beating, but instead of cowering and waiting for the hits, she realized for the first time she could run from them.

But anyone who's lived long enough in this world knows that things catch up eventually. And that's what killed her desire to keep fighting. She's never been in a fraction of as much trouble as she's in now without facing physical consequences, usually at the hands of her father. Her body was instinctively preparing to be hit but she had absolutely no idea where the strike would come from, and when.

And there was one line she'd crossed that she definitely couldn't run from. She'd kissed her best friend. And nobody brought it up since. Granted, they've been pretty busy, but there's been times when Roh could have said something. And her silence sent a perfectly clear message: she wasn't interested. Kota had finally worked up the courage to show her how she felt, and now she considered herself lucky Roh still wanted to be her friend.

Still wound up and waiting for that strike.

So when she heard a small footstep and a breath just outside her small cell, she felt like she might pass out from fear. She froze up, listened hard, and flinched away from an invisible person standing over her.

"It's me." The faintest whisper from the left reached her ears, and she turned her head in the darkness, but of course, couldn't see anything. She knew the nearest guards were at least around the next curve of the hallway.

She lit up a small flame in her palm to see better. Sure enough, Haider was crouched right outside the cell. As soon as she saw him, she put out her flame so she didn't draw attention. He pressed his palm to the rock wall next to the lock, and a few moments later, the rock crumbled into sand, falling silently to the floor and exposing the entire locking mechanism.

Not silently enough.

"Hey! Who's there!?" A guard rounded the corner and shone his torch at Kota's cell. The small, incriminating pile of sand sat on the ground, but the guard didn't seem to think anything of it. He reached Kota's cell and saw her sitting near the back, head leaned against the wall. "You hear something?"

"Light blew out." She gestured, her voice just as defeated as she looked.

The guard nodded, unsure. He poked his head into a few of the cells near her, all of which were empty. "Well, that's all you get. I'm not lighting it again for you." Apparently he didn't even know she was a firebender. Seeming satisfied, he headed back down the hall.

After a few minutes for good measure, Kota tested the bars. At first, they stayed put. But with a little pressure, one last big chunk of rock tumbled out of place. Kota held her breath for the loud sound.