Koete ↠ Sokka

Chapter 8: The Rebels - Part 2

"Walking stinks," he complained loudly as he stomped through the leaves crowding his feet. "How do people go anywhere without a flying bison?"

Charlie raised an eyebrow at him judgmentally. "It's been ten minutes."

"Ten minutes too long. I miss flying," he mumbled, pouting his lip. "And this pack is heavy! I'm tired of carrying it."

"You know who you should ask to carry it for a while," Katara began in a devious tone, her eyebrows raised sardonically. "Sokka's instincts!"

A wide smile split across Aang's face. "That's a great idea! Hey, Sokka's instincts, would you mind—"

"Okay, okay, I get it," Sokka said snappishly. "Look guys, I'm tired too, but the important thing is that we're safe from the—" He brushed aside the red, leafy foliage of a tree, finding a small army of men staring at them from around a campfire while frozen half-way through their meals. Weakly, he muttered out, "—Fire... Nation."

Charlie cleared her throat awkwardly. "Hi there. Don't mind us, just passing through."

The soldiers rose to their feet, swords and fists raised. "Run!" Sokka shouted, dropping his pack and taking off. Charlie spun to sprint back the way they'd come from, but a soldier sent a blast of fire between them which ignited the tree, blocking their path. "We're cut off! We need a new plan."

She felt a heat radiating from her side. Looking over, Charlie's eyes widened when she saw Sokka unaware that his sleeve was aflame. "You're on fire."

"Thanks Charlie, but—"

"No, literally." Charlie pointed out his arm, watching as he let out a wimpish scream and leaned back in what looked like an attempt to detach his shoulder from his body. He was quickly doused by Katara, who'd pulled a line of water from her pouch. When they looked back up, the soldiers had backed them into a corner, sandwiched between a wall of fire and twenty swords.

"Everyone behind me!" Sokka ordered, holding out his arms.

"I still vote we run," Charlie supplied over his shoulder. Aang and Katara stood defensively with their hands up in bending stances, ready to fight. Her comment was promptly ignored.

"If you let us pass, we promise not to hurt you," Sokka stated strongly.

Katara leaned slightly closer to her brother. "What are you doing?" she whispered from the side of her mouth.

Sokka gave a tense shrug. "Bluffing?"

One soldier took a step forward with a scoff, inching closer into their defense lines. "You promise not to hurt us?" he said with narrowed eyes, a smirk crawling on his face. In a blink, his face fell and he collapsed to the floor.

"Nice work Sokka!" Aang cheered immediately, dropping his hands. "How'd you do that?"

"Uh, instinct?" he stuttered out.

Katara gasped, so Charlie followed her hand where she pointed into the trees above. There on a thick branch stood Jet, clad in strips of leather armour. He drew his dual hook swords and jumped down, using the curve of his weapons to swing and propel himself onto the backs of two soldiers. He stood on top of them for a moment and smirked, the leaf stem twitching between his lips.

He sprinted forwards, staying low to the ground so he could hook each of his swords around the legs of two more soldiers. He fluidly swiped them off their feet where they flipped over and crashed to the ground. Jet landed in a squat, holding one sword in front of him and the other out behind. "Down you go," he said with a casual smirk.