Behind the Flames .:H2OVanoss:.

.:Chapter 21:.

          "Everyone, regroup down into the forest!" Tyler commanded through the smoke. Evan looked back at the dragon once more, then walked alongside Jonathan to the edge of the trees. Sizzling carcasses were scattered everywhere, soon to be covered by the light snow following the rain.
          Jonathan walked past the first couple trees, but soon he noticed there were no more footsteps next to him. He stopped and look back at Evan. "What's wrong? Aren't you coming?"
          Evan sighed with no response. Jon sent him a look of sympathy as he walked back to him.
          "Don't worry, the dragon is going to be fine. She is strong, just like you." He rubbed the fire bender's shoulder.
"Thanks, but.. that's not exactly the biggest thing on my mind." He scratched the back of his head as Jon frowned. "I just realized that I'm going to have to confront Craig and Luke again. After what I did to betray them.. I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted me gone. I know Tyler wouldn't argue, either."
He bowed his head. Jonathan paused briefly and scowled. "Like hell I'd let them send you away. I used to be best friends with Luke, and if I still know Craig it's that he's very kind and accepting. I'll help you talk to them." He smiled brightly behind his mask when Evan looked up again. "Plus, you are a very important part to the future of the world! They can't just let you walk away! I don't think the spirits would let it happen, either!" He paused, and said more quietly, "You're also very important to me."
Evan stood rigid and pondered his words with a little smile. The warmth in his chest wanted so desperately to break free and envelop the water bender in a strong embrace, but he crossed his arms to keep his composure. "Ya, I guess you're right. I'm worrying over nothing."
"Ya, you are, but it's alright to be worried. Hell, I was worried when I first reunited with everyone. I was scared they would want to see my face or treat me like a kid because they only knew me when I could hardly bend at all. Of course, that was eleven years ago, but what's past is in the past and it's who we are now that matters most." His eyes glimmered with faith and kindness. "You can do it. Have a little faith in yourself."
          Jonathan smiled and turned on his toes. "Also, if Tyler is going to be so quick to accept Craig and Luke into the group, there's gonna be a serious conversation about why he only hates you. And I'm not quitting until I figure out why!"
          Evan's heart sank. He would never underestimate a mature grudge holder like Tyler, so he must have a valid reason to hate him. If so, it was possible it could be Evan's fault completely, but the fact that Jonathan was willing to stand up for him kept his heart fluttering. As Jonathan started down the path, Evan stared at the ground again. "What did I ever do to deserve you?"
"What was that?"
"Nothing. Just talking to myself. Let's go find the others."

                            .•••.•••.

"Is everyone here?" Brock pointed a finger as he counted each individual. Brian, Tyler, Marcel, Craig, Arlan, Lui, and Luke were present. A couple seconds later, David emerged from the brush. Craig and Luke were looking around like a couple of giddy kids, with Craig explaining a couple of things quietly to him.
"We are still missing- oh wait, there they are." David looked up the slope to where Jonathan dragged Evan down with him.
"Sorry, we were talking." Jon slid down beside David, while Evan purposely went behind him so he wouldn't be seen.
"Wait, don't tell me!" Craig's silly accent hasn't changed a bit. He stared at both Jonathan and David long and hard, humming in thought. "Mmmm.... oh!! David," he pointed at David, who gave a thumbs up and smiled. "Yes, I knew it! And you-!!" He turned to Jonathan and paused awkwardly. "Uh... give me a hint."
          Jon looked at David with excitement, who smiled and rolled his eyes, and as if on cue Jonathan started to laugh. Craig's eyes widened and Luke went rigid.
          "Oh my Rava is that you Jonathan?!" Craig leapt forward and threw his arms around him. "Holy spirits it's been too long!" He pulled back and adjusted his broken glasses. "I love the mask!! You look so badass!"
          "Aw, thanks!" Jonathan grinned, despite knowing Craig couldn't see it. The smaller fire bender looked over to David and had to jump to give him a hug. Luke awkwardly stood still, contemplating if he should try to interact or just stay silent. Jonathan noted that he looked stunning with a beard.
          "I'm so happy right now, you have no idea! I really thought I'd never see any of you again!" Craig bounced around like a child at a festival.
          David released the hug and chuckled. "It's great to see you too, Craig."
          He smiled and looked over David's shoulder, catching a glimpse of someone standing behind Jonathan. He let go of David and looked around the man in the mask. "Wait, who are..?" He stepped back, staring straight into the eyes of the last person he thought he'd see. Everyone held their breaths. Craig was petrified and looked to be on the verge of crying. "H-how...?"
Luke saw him almost immediately after, and his fury took complete control over himself. He shoved both Jon and Craig aside and tackled Evan to the ground. They rolled in the slush, threw muddy punches as Luke shouted vulgar curses. Everyone leapt back to avoid the chaos.
          "Luke, stop it! Don't hurt him!!" Jonathan tried to get close but Luke had lit his fists on fire, swinging them with rage and trying to land a blow anywhere on Evan's face. Evan swiftly turned to the side and rolled out from under him. He got to his feet and duplicated Luke's move. After a second of catching their breath, they fought on as if life depended on it. Thankfully everything was wet, so no trees or bushes could catch fire around them.
Luke spun into the air and drew out a long wave of fire from his boot. Evan ran towards it, using his own fire to slice through, and countered with a powerful stream from his fist while his opponent was vulnerable in the air. Luke retaliated with the same move, and their flames collided and burst all over. Everyone jumped down the side of the path to take cover from the explosion.
The wind and smoke forced Jonathan to shield his eyes. When it cleared up a little bit, both men were down. Luke had slid down the angled mud road and rolled into a bunch of overgrowing roots. Meanwhile Evan had been launched straight into a large tree, now dangling off a breaking branch. A moment later the branch snapped, and he landed with a grunt in the mud.
Luke managed to bring himself up first, spitting from his mouth, quickly locating Evan in front of the tree. His fingers sparked with life yet again as he trudged through the snow to bring an end to his rival. Evan however, was not through yet. He smeared the blood from his scratch across his face and pushed himself to stand. Then he faced Luke and brought his fire out defensively.
Jonathan wouldn't stand for this. They needed to stop fighting now. He clawed his way up the side of the trail, pulled with him a huge pool of freezing water, and leapt in between them. Right before they collided again, he released the giant pool of water, splashing and soaking all three of them down to their skin. Their fire sizzled out, and both fire benders slid to a stop in mid-punch, shivering.
"That's enough, you two!!" He shouted furiously. Evan looked down in shame, lowering his fists with an angry sigh. Luke eventually did the same. "Evan, go see David and get yourself healed." He demanded. Evan had enough arguing, so he obediently turned away. He joined David on a root and listened from a distance.
Luke looked like he was about to strike him again, but Jonathan reacted quickly and cooled the water on his feet and hands into a light frost. Luke cursed, then spat furiously at Jonathan.
"You are a fool if you think you can keep him here. No matter what friendship you guys had in the past, it's gone now." Luke tried to persuade. There was even a hint of desperation in his tone.
Jonathan remained unfazed. "It's ok, Luke. Evan remembers everything now." He calmed his voice gently, but Luke still looked skeptical.
"That's impossible. I've been trying to remember for years, but everything is so foggy and I haven't been able to grasp it all! He's lying to get information from you guys!" He shivered in the cold and became obviously nervous. "He's been denying the truth for many years, it's impossible that he would suddenly just remember and accept it all!"
"No Luke, he's changed! And we all know it! We were witnesses as he was called by Mìngyùn, the spirit of time! He had his entire past played out for him. In the many weeks he's spent with us, he has become a whole new person. Once he was our prisoner, now he's our friend. My friend." Jon looked up at Tyler as he stepped forward, who stayed emotionless at his words. Everyone began to crowd around them, Craig included, with worry on their faces.
Luke protested again, "I-I don't understand, Mìngyùn?! That's nothing but a folks tale! Besides, I thought her shrine was hidden in the swamps, it's impossible for a human to get there without going completely insane!"
          Marcel spoke up this time. "Ya, it is. We got there because we were guided, by our own spirits."
          Luke and Craig looked at them as if they were crazy. "What do you mean, your own spirits?" Craig asked.
          "Not just ours, yours were there too!" Lui smiled and began explaining. "Long story short, apparently there's a whole other dimension in time where something went wrong in our past, and ended up causing the entire world to become go up in flames. I saw this in a vision, and I'm guessing it means that the Fire Nation finally achieved world domination.
          "Somehow, and I don't know the whole story, but the spirits of us in that branch of time found a way to go back and fix some things. It might be with the help of Mìngyùn, which would explain why she was so eager to help us understand our positions and why they are so important. My guess is that there is still something big we have to do in order to clear that part of time, for the good of the world, which is why the spirits still linger around. Oh, and also, our spirits have some strange type of animal form. I can't quite explain that yet."
          Luke's mouth was agape and he looked completely dumbfounded. "I uh, don't know if I can believe that..." he chuckled nervously. "I mean, that's a great story and all, maybe for a fictional storybook, but I have a difficult time believing in spirits as it is. I've never seen one or felt the presence of one, and I don't plan on it ever happening." He shook the frost from his hands and blew warm air to heat them up.
He continued, "Plus, when have they ever been here for us? Craig and I went through hell alone these past few months and no 'spirit' ever cared. Why would they bother now? Especially when we are free?" He huffed. "You can believe what you want but I don't want to be a part of it, and neither does Craig."
          Craig shifted uncomfortably as a couple people looked at him. "I mean.. I have to agree with Luke, it just seems really unrealistic. I'm sorry- but that doesn't mean I don't want to go with you!" He quickly added.
          "Don't be sorry. It does sound like total bogus," Tyler shrugged. "but everything Lui said is true. I can testify that while everything was happening, I was awake and in my right mind. Choose to believe it or not, you will eventually." Luke gave Tyler another look of disbelief, and all remained in awkward silence.
"...What kind of animal was mine?" Everyone turned to look at Craig. "I-I mean, you said they had animal forms right? So.. what animal was mine if it was there, as you say?"
Lui smiled and opened his mouth to speak, but someone else beat him to it. "It was a green sparrowkeet, but instead of having a yellow head, it was bright pink." As he spoke Evan took his place beside Jonathan, now fully healed, with David standing on Jon's other side. "Luke's was a red fox with a single eye. The other was scarred over with an 'X'." He and Luke glared at one another again. Unconsciously, Luke moved his hand to caress his blind eye.
"The only two spirits we saw but couldn't figure out were the sparrowkeet and the fox. Once we saw you guys, we knew exactly who they were." Brian exclaimed.
Craig nodded slowly while Luke rolled his eye. "Unless you can prove to me this is true, I'm not buying it. It's such an illogical concept that I can't even begin to question it. Ya'll are crazy!"
He stood from his spot and almost immediately after, a draft of an unexplainable force brewed from the middle of their circle. It was like a wave of spiritual aura passing through their bodies filled with the presence of something transcendental.
It stood with its head raised and its sleek, russet chest puffed with dignity, snow-white tipped tail brushing barely above the ground, charcoal dipped ears and paws firmly planted on the quickly drying dirt. His one amber eye was so filled with life that it looked almost like a real flame. The fox spirit proudly showed itself to the unbeliever, and even barked to make sure it had Luke's undivided attention.
He had nothing to say or do, only stare in awe, like everyone else. A couple seconds later, the fox looked up to the sky, where a tiny green sparrowkeet with a pink head glided down with the soft breeze. It chirped, then both of the spirits vanished.
          "Uh, what the fuck?!" Craig stepped forward and looked around.
          "Yours and Craig's animal spirits." Evan bravely drew their attention. "What you just saw was no hallucination. They are now watching over us, and will guide us through our trials until we set the world back on track."
          Lui nodded. "Something's telling me that they will visit you soon, and you're going to find out what your part in this journey is going to be."
          Craig slowly began to smile. "That's actually amazing! I can't believe we were chosen for this, out of an entire planet of people and benders?!" He practically jumped with joy. "This is the most amazing feeling I've ever had!"
          Luke couldn't even hold back a smile. "I guess.. it does feel good to have a purpose."
          "It may be a good feeling, but feelings don't win wars. We expect you to do your very best, even in knowing that this mission is pretty much suicide." They nodded understandably at Tyler. Lui however, sighed irritably.
          "It's not suicide, you don't have to be so dramatic about it. Besides, the spirits saved Jon from dying today- we all witnessed it. I know for sure that none of us are going to die with them at our side."
          Tyler didn't acknowledge his lecture, instead turned back to the newbies and smirked. "Y'know, it was actually pure convenience that we even found you."
          Craig furrowed his eyebrows. "Wait really? So you didn't actually plan on coming to rescue us?" He squinted at Marcel.
          Marcel waved his hands nervously. "No no, I mean, yes, we planned on coming to get you, but we had a bit of a 'lost bison' problem and we kind of needed to find them, lest we be stuck in the swamp forever. And while we were looking we stumbled on you guys about to get flayed alive."
          Craig raised an eyebrow suspiciously, but immediately after his eyes widened again. "Wait, lost bison? As in, flying bison? From the Air temples?"
          Everyone went quiet. Lui pushed forward and grabbed Craig's shoulder. "When and where did you last see them?"
          Craig fell silent. Lui was about to ask again when Luke answered instead. "We found them a couple miles away from here, about a week and a half ago. They fled, and it took forever, but we managed to catch them and loot their saddles of everything they had. Then the captain decided to sell them back in the Fire Nation, probably for fur or meat or transportation, but he didn't want to cause trouble if the owners came back to no bison. That would give away our position.
          "So we waited a while for them to come back so we could kill them in silence, but strangely, nobody returned. Many assumed they, or, you, were already dead or lost in the swamps, or that the bison had been abandoned. Whatever the reason was, we couldn't wait any longer, so the bison were taken away-"
          The furious expression Lui portrayed shocked everyone. "Those greedy sons of bitches!!" He slammed his fist into the trunk of a tree, shattering the outer layer of rotting bark and pulling back a string of sap and blood. "I'll kill them if they lay a hand on her! We need to get to them now!" He grabbed Craig's shoulders and shook them. "Where are they taking them?! Answer me!!"
          "L-Lui calm down! We'll get them back!" Arlan grabbed him from behind and held him close. The smaller male struggled with tears spilling from his lashes.
          He cried distraughtly, "We have to find them!! I can't let them kill her! She's my best friend!! You all don't understand!!"
          Arlan flipped Lui around to face him. "Lui, you need to calm down! Of course I understand, Dio has been there for me since we left the island, I would die for him and you know that too!" Lui stopped struggling. His eyes softened as the last of his sobs shivered his body. "Squee and Dio are strong and very brave. They know we are not going to leave them behind!"
          Lui glanced at the floor and sniffled. David stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We know how much they mean to you. I wouldn't dream of letting them get taken to the grave alone and without a goodbye. Not when there's still a chance at saving them." He smiled, and Lui looked up with a glimmer of hope.
          Everyone else chipped in with a cheer of determination. Lui looked around thankfully and wiped away his tears. "I guess I always do get a little worried too easily.. damn these tears, I hate them."
          "Don't shame crying, it just means you care, and that you have emotions like every other human on this planet." David laughed reassuringly.
          "Alright, alright.." Lui chuckled and looked up to Luke. "Where did you say they were taking them?"