9 Chapter 9
Aroh sat topless on the deck of the ship in a cross legged position, his mind focused on different things. Behind him was Katara who held a blob of water, covering his back with it as it glowed soothingly.
"How are you feeling?" She asked, moving the water slowly around his back.
After she found out that he damaged his pathways, she had made it her duty to heal him everyday. She was unaware of the countdown but she was doing her best to help and little did she know that it was working.
"It's not as bad as before. It's still damaged though." He answered, pulling up the countdown.
[Days: 17, Hours: 9, Minutes: 21]
Only three days had passed but Katara's healing sped up the recovery process. Even now, it was counting down faster than it should due to her healing.
"You're getting better at that." Aroh added, praising her proficiency in her revealed ability.
"That's only because a certain someone decided to basically cripple himself." She shot back, causing him to let out a small smile.
"It's going to be worth it when I'm all healed. Trust me." He reassured Katara who scoffed before continuing.
Aroh's eyes narrowed for a moment. "What's that?"
"What's what?" Katara asked only for Aroh to gesture to the sea in front of them.
It was littered with numerous barrels, filling the path they were moving through. As the ship moved closer, Aroh's eyes widened as he got a better look.
"That's-" he was interrupted as a fire tipped arrow shot into one of the barrels, causing it to explode, starting a chain explosion and destroying the ship.
*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*
-[Jet]-
Some distance away in the trees, a brown haired boy in weird clothing and hook swords in his hands observed the explosion from afar.
"We got them. Nice job Longshot." He said to a boy in a straw hat wielding a bow and arrow. The other boy only nodded in satisfaction.
They had seen the fire Nation ship coming from afar and made preparations to stop it. 'No fire nation scum is allowed near my forest.' Jet thought darkly.
- [Aroh] -
"Did they finally find us? Who could have done such a thing?" Katara wondered as they carefully made their way into the forest.
"That wasn't the fire nation. They're too proud to employ this kind of tactic and the YuYan archers aren't anywhere near here. We're dealing with someone else." Aroh said, putting Katara down to walk on her own. 'That was close.'
Name: Aroh
Title: Child Soldier
Level:44
Chi:2250/2250
Str:50
Dex:80
Vit:63
Chi:45
Points:19
He barely had enough time to assign a few points to Dex before the explosion got to them. [Danger Sense] alerted him moments earlier. He managed to grab Katara and jump off the ship in time.
"Someone in this forest wanted us dead. They'll probably assume that we died but we still have to be careful." Aroh added as they carefully navigated their movement.
'We'll have to find a new way to move now that our ship is destroyed. Before that I'll have to take care of this.' He thought, a cold glint in his eyes as he had a hunch about who was responsible for the attack.
"So what do we do now?" Katara asked, bringing him out of his thoughts.
"What do you think we should do?" He threw the question back at her, wanting to know her input.
The girl put on a thoughtful expression for a moment before speaking. "If they think we survived then they'll probably try again. All our stuff was on the ship so we won't last long without them."
He gestured for her to continue. "If they were waiting to spring that trap on us then they probably set up camp somewhere nearby. We can find the camp and get some supplies." She finished with a nervous look.
"Not a bad plan actually." He commended, a smile surfacing on the girl's face. "But you forgot one thing."
"What's that?"
"Whoever did this won't just sit by and allow us to take their stuff. What will we do when they attack us again?" He questioned, looking at her from the corner of his eye as he led them forward.
Katara froze for a moment before following. He knew what had popped up in her head; to kill them. She was still struggling with the morality of whether or not it was wrong.
"W-we'll…" she stuttered before trailing off.
- [Katara] -
She didn't know what to think.
One one hand, it could have been an honest mistake. Whoever attacked them could have simply mistaken them for the fire nation.
On the other hand, there was the fact that they tried to kill them. She wasn't some naive girl who didn't understand what was going on in the world.
She wasn't proud of the thoughts that occasionally popped up in her head after the fire nation killed her mother. Her grandmother always taught her to be kind to people but she didn't know how long she could do it.
The final straw was when she was captured by Zhao. She was aware of her femininity and what could possibly happen to girls who were captured.
When she saw Aroh kill those firebenders, she desperately tried to hold on to her grandmother's teachings but she found it hard when she realized something.
She was taught that only cruel people killed others but since she met the fire nation teen in front of her, he didn't strike her as cruel.
She was aware of what he did to get the scroll but she didn't ask or comment on it. Sure he wasn't the most moral person but he wasn't evil either.
That was good enough for her. Even after she almost died a few minutes ago, she still felt truly safe with him there. Being able to carry her and jump out of what was almost certain death was enough proof of that.
'I'm sorry Gran Gran.' She thought sadly but determined. 'She always said that love will come on its own.' She added bitterly but happily as she looked at Aroh's bare back.
As long as he was with her, that was enough for her.
- [Aroh] -
Unaware of the deep thoughts going on in the water bender's head, Aroh narrowed his eyes. 'This forest, there's something off about it.'
His eyes flickered around the trees and bushes around them, keeping his guard up for any possible attacks.
"Katara, does this forest feel weird to you?" He asked only for the girl to look confused.
"It's…warm?" She spoke, more of a question than an answer.
'So I'm the only one who can feel it…' he thought, even more cautious than before.
As he took his next step forward, he grabbed Katara before leaping back as a creature barreled through where they previously were, crashing into a tree and destroying it.
"What was that?!" Katara asked as they landed. She pulled out water from her pouch, manipulating it to cover her arms like whips.
Aroh cursed for a moment, lamenting his lack of a weapon. His sword was among the things left in the explosion, leaving him mostly unarmed other than the few throwing knives he had hidden on his body.
The dust settled as the creature made itself known. It was a wolf that looked like it came straight from hell. It was twice the size of a normal wolf and its eyes were blood red.
Its body looked monstrous as if it went through various mutations but that wasn't what bothered Aroh.
"A wolf?"
"That's no normal wolf." He chided, his full attention on it.
It was the visible dark miasma that the creature was emitting throughout its body as it let out an unnatural growl before leaping towards them.
