Mutiny or an Act of Conscience

[Zai Saika]

Just half of them were that stupid? Which side of the fence did Selzan fall on if she was going to not allow him to take the blame....no that was not an appropriate thought, she had tried to help him the best she could. His head really hurt and the water wasn't doing anything good for it, the cold hit harder than it normally would as his vision faded a bit and everything seemed a bit fuzzy at the corners of his periphery. He shook his head fast and bit down on his inner lip hard until he tasted blood, the pain was muted but it served as an focal aid. He stared at the planks on the deck and listend to Selzan lecture the crew about being slavers which of course he was obliged to agree with mentally if not vocally.

Then as Perrin shushed her and everyone else around he sat there trying to get at the rope the best he could without drawing attention to himself. He listened to Perrin and nodded adamantly.

"Not that anyone is going to listen to the Fire Nation guy here and what I have to say, but I agree with Perrin and Selzan. Hate me and my Nation all you want, but there is no honor at all in what you are doing. No one was supposed to die he's right, but then again you're not supposed to swing an axe at an unarmed prisoner either."

He elbowed both of them lightly again could they have seen his face they would of seen a look of genuine...albeit concussed gratitude.

He then whispered to them as quietly as he could so that hopefully they could still hear him while the guards were turned away for a brief moment.

"So you two know before all die, you're my family now. Whether you have family or not in the Fire Nation, you are my brother Perrin and you are my Sister Selzan. Thank you for what you tried to do for me, whether it worked or not."

[Selzan]

Suddenly, Selzan felt oddly endeared to the two young men fighting to take the blame away from her and keep it for themselves, even against each other... was that how idiotic she'd sounded all this time? It had always been the safest plan for Selzan to take the blame when something went wrong. It hadn't always worked out in her favor, but it had helped other a lot over the years, and she was better at getting herself out of trouble than most so it worked out. Today was turning out to be an exception in many respects. Here she was tied to a post with no obvious means of escape, and yet here too was not one but two others trying to take the blame for her.

Zai's words cut to the quick, adding depth to Selzan's unsettling thoughts; the Si Wong woman was only just beginning to find her voice again - preparing to try and find some other way to get her stupid self and these boys out of trouble - when a door slammed open and cut her short.

"I'm gonna cry! Perrin you got Fire Nation family?" Captain Shao-Mi emerged from his cabin onto the deck of the sloop and strode over to the mast amidst the cackles of his crew. "Why didn't you say so? We would've wrapped him up in rice paper and sent him home to your folks with a bow on top! No I don't buy that..."

The morning light was young, and not yet come into any clearly aligned form, but the horizon was clear of clouds, and a dull purplish pink illumination had begun to grow in the east. With that glow and the torches of two crew members, Shao-Mi and closer and inspected the three failed mutineers tied to the mast, starting with Perrin.

"Who knew you were so robust under it all - wow that was a good hit -" the captain held his sheathed sword in his right hand and used the pummel to turn Perrin's head in the light. "Yeah I don't think you've got Fire Nation family, but I suppose a kid who can go from barely making eye contact to knocking out Hojo with his bare hands overnight... I guess I could see you sympathizing with an underdog. Speaking of which!" Shoving Perrin's face aside, Shao-Mi sidestepped to his left and tucked the pummel of his sword under Zai's chin, lifting his own chin in a mirroring gesture as he lifted the Fire Nation youth's face into the light.

"I have to admit I enjoyed seeing you in action. Catching you was a little too easy for my tastes. You know, we're not even sure if Gonshu is gonna wake up again after what you did to him. If anyone liked him that much I'd have a real problem with that, but I guess we'll just call it even on that count."

Shao-Mi began to turn away and then paused, glancing back at Zai. "Actually -" Shao-Mi turned back and twisted, putting his core muscles behind the strength of his arm and he slid the sword halfway out of its sheath and slammed the pommel into Zai's side with an audible thump. The captain glanced at his crew. "Even? I'd say..." many of the crew nodded and grunted their agreement, and Shao-Mi turned back to Zai. "Yeah, now we're even."

With a sigh, the captain moved on to the last of the pathetic, dripping mutineers hanging from the mast, and Selzan did her best not to slump as she looked him in the eye.

"If I knew Perrin better he might confuse me more, but I do know you Selzan, so you do confuse me. See back in the day I thought you would have been one of the ones to race off after Ra Jinn and join the Earth Navy. I mean aren't the Si Wong basically the "Little Guy" in cultural form? It just doesn't make... Look, what I'm trying to say is I thought you'd be the first one chomping to taking the fight to the Fire Nation, not the one trying to spring our first legitimate prisoner of war from his hold."

Shao-Mi drew his sword fully from its sheath and lay the flat of the blade on Selzan's shoulder, it's curved edge brushing gently against her exposed neck. "If I were a responsible citizen of the Earth Kingdom, I really should have killed you for this treasonous...ness. But you know, I'm not such a hard nose, and since Ra Jinn liked you so much I won't kill you, just this once." Lifting his sword from her shoulder, Shao-Mi slapped Selzan's cheek with it a couple of times in an insultingly chiding manner, and then stepped away as he sheathed the blade. She glared daggers into his back, for all things he had and hadn't said, but there was precious little else she could do.

"Yeah, I'm a nice guy. I should kill all three of you for this nonsense, but as it just so happens, while you all were enjoying a forced nap, a messenger hawk I've been waiting on for two weeks finally caught up to us, and the news was better than I thought! We've got jobs back west, closer to the front; someone has finally decided to put our sweet sweet Summer Surf to good use in the war effort. Not on the war front - I'm nice but I'm not stupid - no they're gonna let us do what we do best which is move important things quickly. But we also need to get there to sign our nice military contract quickly as well, which means I'm gonna have to disappoint the guy who wanted to buy you off my hands, Zai... Zai? Zai, it is Zai. Yeah.

"So here's what I'm thinking fellas," Shao-Mi said, turning again to the rest of his crew. "I'm thinking we do one, single, truly classic act of piracy before we go and become upstanding servants of the Earth Kingdom. I'm thinking we have these three walk the plank, how about that boys?"

The rest of the crew broke into a cacophony of laughter and jeering, starting with the newer and rougher crewmen, followed by the more tenured ones who weren't terribly keen on walking the plank themselves. Shao-Mi turned back to the three mutineers with a satisfied grin on his face. "Oh yes, this is going to be memorable. Don't go anywhere okay? You're gonna wanna see this."

As the captain strode away to go make course adjustments, Selzan pushed out a frustrated sigh and slumped in the ropes, mentally adding Shao-Mi to the list of people whose character she'd misjudged over the years. "Well... I'm sorry boys. I hope you two can swim better than I can."

[Perrin]

To say Perrin wasn’t at his best would have been a laughable understatement… But he wasn’t at his weakest or worst either. The lightly built youth didn’t react much or put up any kind of interesting struggle when Shao-Mi made a show of checking his bruises or commenting on him. Perrin rested the side of his face back against the mast and watched through frustrated but unprotesting half-open eyes while their captain… The man didn’t feel suited to be called captain anymore, but the world wasn’t fair, so it was what it was… continued on with Zai in harsher fashion…. And then Selzan… and then the louder or the more nervous members of the crew cheered their way from slaving into full piracy. War did ugly things to people. Fear was just as bad.

He was sorry, too. None of this was going how he’d wanted or how he’d tried to plan. He wasn’t out of ideas yet…… but this was getting harder. And he didn’t trust Shao-Mi’s word even if Perrin had wanted to barter with the man for something he’d like better.

By the time their new pirate captain sauntered away, Perrin nudged Zai in concern and frowned past him to the bit of Selzan’s ear he could see.

“Selzan… What are you doing here if you don’t swim? It isn’t that hard. Worst case just don't breathe water and try following the bubbles… We’ll do what we can. You too, Zai. Stay awake.”

[Selzan]

Selzan’s jaw finally relaxed as she heard Perrin’s voice cut through the slowly waning din of the deckhands. He was such a good soul – wasted on the likes of this crew, she thought, now that she had seen their lack of spine. They were a bunch of sniveling cowards, or worse, and if they thought they were going to like war any more than all of this, they had another thing coming. But they weren’t her responsibility anymore. Speaking of responsibility

“Aw you know why I’m here, Perrin.” Selzan craned her head around till she could see half of Perrin’s face around the mast. “Every ship has to go ashore somewhere. Like I said, I’ve never needed to swim before now. I only get out of the boat if there’s to much sand to go any further.”

She shrugged a little uncertainly. “We’re just gonna have to stretch the definition of ‘too much’ a little bit this time...”

The three failed mutineers stood suspended around the mast for some significant amount of time. Plenty long enough to replay the failed escape attempt over in their heads, undoubtedly. Time enough for the far horizon to warm and the sun to appear. Time enough for a tiny little string of islands to appear in the distance, and then grow less tiny. Still, by the time someone emerged onto the deck and began shouting orders, the islands were still disappointingly small.

At last, Shao-Mi appeared at the door of the captain’s cabin just shortly after the daytime crew emerged to begin their morning activities. Everyone paused in their paths and glanced at him.

“Well don’t just stand there gawking. We’ve got a busy day ahead of us, let’s get it started off right! Shoji, go get the big board!” He paused and glanced at the crew. “Oh, I mean, ‘The Plank’.”

A few of the crewmen cackled at the bad joke, and people generally found a stopping spot with whatever they were in the middle of so they could gather at the starboard rail of the ship. Shao-Mi strode by the three mutineers and displayed a smile that suggested he was pretty pleased with himself, and probably that they should be too. At last, Shoji appeared with the gangplank over his shoulder and locked it down in it’s high-dock position. The plank hung in the air, probably some eight feet above the water, by Selzan’s guess. She didn’t have time to think about it much before Shao-Mi pulled out his sword and flourished it enthusiastically.

“Cut em loose!... No-I swear Mochu, if you actually cut that rope you’re going in right after them.”

The crew laughed and jeered as Mochu re-sheathed his knife with stricken eyes and began fumbling with the knots holding the three mutineers in place.

“Hmmm…” Shao-Mi eyed Selzan, Zai, and Perrin thoughtfully for a moment once their bonds fell away – a good eight or nine crewmen already stood around them with various weapons at the ready.

“Who should go first…?”

He eyed them for a moment longer, and then with resolve, his hand rose up as if to make a mighty proclamation – the crew stared at him in eager silence…

“Catcha Frog-and Lose-your Way, Catcha Heron Save-the Day; Ink-is Safely In-the Pot, Waste-in Not-a Single Drop. Aha! Step right up young man.”

The crew had been baffled to hear a child’s rhyme escape their captain’s mouth, rather than the bold declaration they’d been expecting, but they were no less eager to rumble and jeer when the Captain’s pointing finger came to a stop on Perrin.

[Perrin]

Perrin built lighter than most of the crewmen—probably less than Zai, too—but he was hardier than he looked, and he was older than Zai for whatever that was worth. And, Perrin was definitely less beaten. He tried to nudge himself in font of Zai a little during the long minute that the rope holding them was being fumbled with, so that at least they both stayed upright-ish. He glanced at Zai a bit worriedly to check on him, and then fixed his eyes on Selzan’s when they had the chance, but then otherwise stood motionless during the antics.

There wasn’t a point listening to Shao-Mi’s silly rhyme or paying attention to the other crew. They were way past that unfortunately.

Perrin inhaled again. While he held the breath, the youth considered and abandoned for the final time the different ways he could cause enough problem to... probably... turn things around in their favor. There weren't that many benders onboard. It wasn't like the ship had much earth on it anyway. Especially if Zai was still able, too, he could probably... But no matter how Perrin turned it in his head, even if they all lived, the day ended with too many people dead. Some of them had it coming... but Perrin didn't want to live with it. At least in the water he could go back in time a few hours to only worrying about the three of them. He held the breath in until his chest and itching hands told him there was nothing left in it that he could use. He let go of the spent air through pursed lips and repeated; taking more than he gave back from each cycle. He needed it more than the breeze did.

‘Aha! Step right up young man.’

Had he hoped to go first or last? He worried about what would happen to the other two while he couldn’t reach them, but he guessed that being in the water first would only help… he guessed. When Shao-Mi and the scared crew jeered, Perrin glanced at his companions in this whole mess and then at the “plank.” He was bruised and not quite his best self, nevermind the wet ropes that still kept his hands behind him, but the thin youth was still lightfooted enough to walk to the board without giving the crew much of interest.

“Sorry this turned out so hard. See you in a minute though.” he told Selzan and Zai. “Don’t worry.”

Breathing one more time, Perrin dropped off the board. The ocean met him and slapped over him with a cold splash of water and air that sprayed almost as high as the board.

[Zai Saika]

Zai had been working quietly on the rope as he had been tied to the pole. Tiny flames from his fingers heating and drying it out, he had hoped he hadn't burned it, but one of the first things he had learned from his father was control. So that hope was backed up by years of rigorous training and focus, he'd have been surprised if he had actually burned the rope in perceptible way, but he had heated it, his wrists were becoming uncomfortably warm with it against his skin. As he had been pulled to his feet, he had hoped that Mochu was actually stupid enough to cut his restraints, because if he was, Zai was going to make absolutely sure that the last thing any member of the crew saw before their demise was the captain burning alive. That thought was beyond tempting, this crew with the exception of Selzan and Perrin and shown a complete lack of honor. He had understood being captured by them, he had understood being held as a prisoner by them, but the way they had acted since then had been beyond deplorable.

"I had a sword, you should let me die with honor and throw it in with me."

He doubted the captain would oblige him, the man was despicable and had shown even less honor than the rest of his crew, but it was worth a try. Zai clenched his jaw as he felt himself being pushed towards the plank. Perrin was in front of him, he was worried about him, but not as worried as he was about Selzan. They both had shown great honor and poise during this entire situation, risking their lives for an enemy. If they got out of here, he'd make sure they were granted asylum in the Fire Nation, saving the life of the son of General Saika had to count for something and asylum was the minimum that could be done for them. Zai tried focus on his own well being at the moment, he took several deep breaths in as he watched Perrin move towards the edge of the plank. He glanced back at Selzan and nodded calmly. "Don't worry?" He heard Perrin say, why would he not be worried? Perrin didn't seem like he was much trained in anything, it was odd that he was so confident at this moment.

The breaths filled his lungs but his head throbbed as he pulled them in. The thing he'd have to worry about must is disorientation once in the water, so once more he bit his lip, the pain allowed him to focus on the moment, the here and now is what was important, everything else was just noise, even Perrin's disappearance off the edge of the plank was a distraction, he couldn't save either of them if he wasn't focused on making sure he survived as well.

Zai stepped up onto the plank, he glanced down at his boots, as the walked near the edge. As he was a mere two steps away, he stopped and turned all the way around and looked at the crew, making sure they saw his eyes. His roped hands facing away from them as he took two steps bac and was at the edge of the plank. He made sure his stare was calm and filled with as much poise as he could muster, he wanted them to remember the look in his eyes, so they understood what real honor was.

Of course the ulterior motive was now that his roped hands were out of sight he had begun burning them carefully, but quickly, as he began to smell the smoke, he let himself drop backwards, in the instant he was falling he pulled both of his wrists apart and the rope snapped right before he hit the water with loud splash.

[Selzan]

Perrin was first.

At one time, Selzan had thought of Shao-Mi as a fairly entertaining person. When he'd been first mate of the ship, he'd done a good job of keeping men in order with his no-nonsense work pace that somehow coupled harmoniously with his nonsensical humor. To see that pleasant demeanor now asserted with equal vigor in the task of having former crewmen walk the plank was a demented joke, and it made Selzan's belly churn. But not as much as the sense of finality that sunk in as their ears heard Perrin hit the water.

Zai was next.

The crew chuckled and badgered as the Fire Nation youth suggested that his weaponry should be returned to him. Selzan rolled her eyes at the defiant sentiment, but she appreciated it as well. Zai was the real victim here, but he'd held his head high and proved his quality. Truth be told, if he was even an average swimmer by Fire Nation standards, he could probably have have swam the distance even with his swords. She suspected Perrin was probably good for the distance as well. They were both different from her in that way.

But now, it was Selzan's turn. She couldn't swim the distance.

"Well young lady, consider this island paradise your early retirement. Assuming you can swim the distance!"

Shao-Mi grinned and motioned Selzan forward as the ropes slackened around her waist. "You can swim, can't you?"

Selzan sighed heavily and fixed her former comrade with as exasperated a stare as she could manage. "What a foolish question. You know there has to be at least one person on the ship with land legs. Too bad you're throwing yours overboard."

"Yes indeed, your absence will be felt, until we find a new earth bender."

"Dont flatter yourselves, you have three other earthbenders already. You can only replace me with another sandbender, and after today's treachery, you'll never get another one to board your ship. We can smell unscrupulous people a mile away. And this ship is beginning to stink."

"Ah yes! I was feeling so compelled by your guilt trip I almost forgot I was about to throw you overboard. But enough of that; off you go."

And with those few bold words exchanged, Selzan's stomach began to churn again. She wished her hands were untied, but it was a non-issue. If she survived the day, it wasn't going to be because her hands were loose.

The Si Wong woman strode to the plank as resolutely as she could, looking her crewmen in the eyes as she went. They'd worked by her side these many months - some of them even years - and now they were going to stand by and watch her take the plunge. As she was about to step onto the plank, she turned and glanced back at them where they stood.

"I thought better of you," she said to no one in particular among them. And then she stepped onto the plank.

The water around the ship had never been an especially daunting sight to her, but even as accustomed to the sea as she was, Selzan couldn't help the creature fear that clawed at her as the plank arched under her weight. She looked at the other two in the water, and knew beyond a doubt that they would do their best to help her reach the shore. But the shore was roughly a mile out - a hard distance by any swimmer's standard. She wasn't going to be the dead weight that kept either of them from reaching land.

Standing at the edge, the sandbender took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. The ocean was all around her, but even the ocean rested on something deeper. That was the only goal she could strive for with any hope at all. Selzan took one more deep breath, and glanced at the other two.

"Don't wait for me."

Hands tied and heart pounding, Selzan exhaled the rest of her breath and jumped face first into the water. When the water had stilled, she was nowhere to be seen.

[Perrin]

“You're too fast again, Tsering!”

“Then get ahead!” The boy shouted back over his shoulder on an exhale before he sucked in a new breath, running almost two leaps ahead of the handful of nine or ten and eleven year-old children who all streaked with and against each other toward the cliffs.

Tsering was the fastest like he usually was. He reached the tree and threw his mark at it in a whirl of a thousand fallen twist pods. Some of the seeds swirled high enough to be caught away in the winds before the rest fluttered back down in the settling spiral of air.

“Here Gyashi, give me your shoes!”

The boy stripped off his shirt and sandals in enough time to catch two of the others' garments for them while they all shed anything they wanted to get free of and tossed them into piles around the roots with a staff or two to weight down the clothes. Some of them ran to the cliff and leapt off ahead of him.

The wind was full of yells and whoops and wild bursts of currents while they all streamed off the rock edge. Some of them looped in the air first for fun, some others threw out drafts to slow their fall into the bay. Tsering had done both plenty of times, but the sun was scorching hot and he wanted to swim with his friends. He jumped ahead of the two that mattered right now, dropping into the cold slap of pressure that hit every bruise on him at once and made his made head ring with buzzing and a shock of shouts from a better day. Perrin got ahold of himself. He kept the calm tension in his limbs and caught a fist-sized sphere of air between his tied hands in the plunge from their element into the much heavier one.

The globe in his hands longed to escape, or at least push up his wrists, but he kept his arms close against his back. The instant he felt deep enough, Perrin let threads of air push up into the knot. He pressed into the friction points, quickly working at twisting and squeezing his bubble through the tension until his wrists pulled free of the loops.

Perrin shot back to the surface not far from where they’d been. His burning lungs traded his spent breath for a new one while he searched the water.

“Selzan!”

The boat was abandoning them already. He swam toward a sound and caught a glimpse of Zai. It looked like he’d gotten his hands free. Perrin was worried about the Fire boy, too, but he hadn’t been looking for Zai yet. He was more worried about Selzan. Also he liked her so much better, but at that wasn't really the point.

“Sel!”

He dropped under the surface again, but he couldn’t find her. Swim or not, she was capable. She wasn’t hurt and she shouldn’t have drowned that fast. What had she been trying to tell them before? She was a sandbender. Was she trying to… How far was it? Did she know?

He swam up, then down to search and back up when he’d used all the breath in his chest again. He could replace the air, but he was having a hard time calming the dread.

He found Zai and got to him. Swimming through depths wasn’t much more of a skill for him than anyone else, but at the surface there weren’t many stronger swimmers than Perrin outside the Water Tribes. Not that he’d met lately anyway.

Perrin snuffed water from his nose and tried to gage how Zai was doing. He must have been trained to get through worse, but he’d looked hurt even tied to the mast; let alone now.

“Zai— you okay?”

[Zai Saika]

The impact of the water wasn't anything to brush off, in his focus on the ropes he hadn't maintained a totally great posture for hitting the water. Though the ropes broke as they should the force of the impact took his breath away, his first instinct was to take a gasp of air, but being aware of his surroundings and well disciplined he suppressed this urge. Instead he forced his mouth shut, the cold sea water stinging his eyes, he kicked towards the surface.

Once there he took a deep breath and looked around as he tread water. He shook his head, a definite ringing in his ears was present, he thought he heard his name for a brief moment but wasn't exactly sure. He had to work out his bearings. Where was land? Given the absuridity of the situation he could not help but enjoy a small but refreshing sip of bitter anger. A delicate drink, one best not to be indulged in, or at least so said his father. In that moment while enjoying it, he had visions of burning the ship and the crew alive, if only for a moment. It brought a small smile to his face, sometimes thinking about the deed was better than actually doing it, it was cleaner and there was no regret. He looked to see Perrin, the one of the three he wasn't sure was going to be alive. Then slowly realized that it was Perrin who had said his name, he shook his head once more and heard the young man ask if he was okay.

"Always, I'm trained for this, but to say it was how I wanted to spend my night is.....Are you okay? Where is Selzan? We need to find her and get to land now.

[Perrin]

Whatever sense of kinship Perrin felt for the Firebender boy faded again the moment Zai started answering him. Of course Zai felt calm and trained for all this. He was a lord’s son and already trained like an officer. Of course he assumed by default that he was in charge and worth listening to.

Perrin scrubbed a hand across his face to swipe some of the salt sting from his eyes and keep his face neutral. At least they were both worried about Selzan… and Zai was right; they needed to get to land.

“I’m alright. Less hurt than you and a good swimmer. Selzan… isn’t but she said trust her and don't wait. I dove looking for her twice as soon as I had my hands loose but she’s too deep already or she’s not here. I had to give up and find you... You need help?”

[Selzan]

The image of the island in the distance still glowed in the light of Selzan’s inner eye, and she focused on it with all of her might until she thought it might burn out from her eyes and seer itself onto the insides of her eyelids. She had to remain focused or she was dead. Whether or not she was dragging anyone down with her, Selzan knew she was deadweight, and the water would bear aloft no solution for her.

She had to go deeper.

Eyes still closed, mind still clinging to the image of the sandy shore beyond, Selzan swiveled and kicked and twisted, pushing herself further and further down into the cold, dark abyss that she felt looming up around her. The chill in the deeper water was a hateful gnawing sensation against her sunkissed Si Wong skin, but she fought past it and kept digging deeper, repulsing it out away from her body with the heat of her bones as she moved.

Deeper… deeper… deeper into the depths she dug, clawing ahead of herself blindly, willing the ocean to yield to her and give up its roots. She could feel the same creature fear from a moment ago trying to chew through her focus, but she refused to yield. She was a daughter of the sands and the stones - a child of Laufi the Liberator - and she would not perish in the clutches of any captor, including the sea.

When her stony knuckles finally plunged into the sand, Selzan felt such relief that she nearly gasped, but she checked the impulse and sank her claws into the softness beneath her. It was vague and blurry, but she could see again through her hands - even weighed down by the ocean, the sands carried their tremors to her senses. The sensation was welcome, but she wasn’t there to sight-see; already she could feel her lungs beginning to protest the lack of air. Sinking her talon-like fingers deeper into the wet sand, Selzan commanded it to rise up and bind around her, and then to wind forward. She could still see the image of the island in her mind, but she folded the slopes of the dunes to her will, and unleashed them like a storm upon the desert.

The sands under the sea clung to each other like wet clay, and they were slow to bend to Selzan’s will as she found them, but bend they did, and she moved her limbs like a tigerdillo, loping across the sand in pursuit of prey. Her prey was the shore, and she could not yet see it, but she knew that if she could only keep pushing forward, it would come into view. The sands of the seabed surged as Selzan came near to them, reaching up and swaying in acquiescence with her will to propel her forward faster and faster until she felt the bite of their churn like the loose grains that scratched against the face in the gale of a desperate sandward crossing. And still she pushed onward.

The wet sands availed Selzan of only a small glimpse at the world around her. They weren’t enough to navigate by, only enough to dodge an odd rock or reef, and at the speed she felt, or at least hoped she was moving at, it would have been a nearly impossible to see even if she were standing atop the smoothest dune in the Si Wong Desert. The fear scratching at the back of her mind began to make inroads when it occurred to her that she might have missed her mark. Selzan’s lungs began to burn in protest, resist though she might against the impulse to inhale. She was tempted to try and push aloft, to throw herself up out of the surf and take a quick look at her surroundings, but it was more of a gamble than she dared to make. If she was still too deep, she might lose both her connection to the earth and her momentum before she reached the top, and then she would perish for certain, scrambling to reclaim a depth she had already earned.

Desperation drove strength into Selzan’s will, and the sands bent even further, wider, and faster to her demand for speed. Her lungs screamed in correlation to her strain, and she began to feel as though she were imploding from the lack of breath. Her eyes balked at being clinched so tightly, and the patterns of strange wavering light that played out in her vision began to consume the image of the desert island that she held onto so tightly. Every fiber of her being screamed for air; for breath; for life! The sandbender abandoned caution when she felt her angle of drift start to steepen, and bellowed in her mind, demanding - no, pleading with the earth to save her from her captivity below the waves.

The sand clawed at Selzan, dragging her body forward through the waves. She could no longer cling to her earthen shield in her desperate bid for speed, and it ripped away from around her, folding into the maelstrom of sand that bent around her and leaving her bare skin exposed to the frenzied wrath of every grain that came near. Selzan felt as though her skin was being peeled away by an unfettered sandstorm, and she wasn't sure if she was destined to tear apart from the force of her own bending, or cave in and collapse from her lack of air. Either fate seemed more likely than survival, but she had no time to stop and consider which would be worse, and when the world suddenly illuminated beyond her crushed eyelids, she had no time to slow either.

The surf of the waves at the sandy shore of the island deformed for a moment, and then parted to make way for a massive geyser of wet sand that exploded onto the shore, leaving a cloven gap in the shoreline and sending Selzan flying through the air. She wanted to scream as she sailed through the wind - whether from pain or panic, she didn’t know - but there was nothing in her lungs to cry out with, and she merely flailed awkwardly as the ground rose up to meet her once more. She tumbled upward over the mild slope of the beach several times before coming to a stop, and then air came gasping into her lungs, only to be banished straight back into the sky with a vengeance as she screamed in pain.

All during her youth, the elders had warned Selzan and her reckless friends of the horrors that awaited fools who wandered out into a sandstorm, but until that moment she’d only suspected. Now she could comprehend it with all of her senses. Her sand-and-salt scorched throat burned in protest even as it gulped in air, and her skin felt as though she’d been thrashed by a hundred whips. When she finally managed to catch her breath and uncurl enough to look at herself, she found several places where she looked like she’d been dragged the whole mile behind a sandsailer. The sun, which only a few moments ago had felt warm and pleasant, now seemed as though it had chosen to sear her alive, and Selzan knew that she couldn’t stay exposed like this with open abrasions, or she would have bigger problems to deal with.

Pushing past the pain of the impact which had already begun to abait, Selzan rose and glanced back, wondering if the others had made much progress toward land yet. She hoped so, but she couldn’t worry too much right then. She tilted toward the center of the island and strode up the shore, her eyes scouring the vegetation as she went. She could feel her many abrasions starting to stiffen, and her eyes roved desperately for the planted she needed. When she spotted it, Selzan exclaimed aloud and reached out with talon-like hands, causing the earth to launch the whole plant at her. The aloe in the leaves would keep her sandblasted skin from drying and cracking, and would help it start to heal much more quickly.

Selzan’s mother had always told her that the mixed blessing of the desert was that balm and bane often thrived as neighbors, but today she had survived the bane, and now she had the balm in her hands. Quickly slicing the leaves in half with thin razors of whirling sand, Selzan scraped out the bulkiest of the bitter gel with her teeth, leaving the long fibrous arms of the plant supple and flexible to wrap around her wounded skin. There was no good way to check all over and make sure she tended to every wound, so Selzan opted instead to settle in the shade of a tree near where she’d emerged from the surf, and wrap aloe leaves around everything that hurt. The gelatinous filling of the leaves of bitter, but it still tasted better than the grainy saltiness of the sea in her mouth. She finished tending to wounds, turned her eyes out onto the waves of the sea, and promptly fell asleep.

[Zai Saika]

Waves crashing against the shore, a muffled ringing in his ear as he stomped out of the water, his boots squishing in the wet sand. He placed a finger in his left ear and gently moved it in and out as he tilted his head to the side. With the suction created, the water oozed out of the young firebender's ear. He could feel it oozing out, creeping through his ear canal the salt burning ever so slightly as it made it's way slowly down the short passage. He must have looked rather awkward standing there like that, his hair soaked and disheveled save of course his tightly tied top knot. His uniform sopping wet, sand clinging to hit. He brushed himself and turned to see Perrin he thought of offering the older boy a hand but it did not seem as if he needed it. He looked around the island taking in this new scenery, this place that could be their home or their prison for a long while.

The first order of business was survival, they would need shelter a bit inland and away from the rising and falling tides. There was a delicate balance to be had however, too far inland and they would not be spotted by friendly passersby, too close to the beach they would not have time to seek shelter should the passersby not be so friendly. A well camouflaged and sturdy shelter just beyond those palm trees should be adequate, there was a small clearing there why could make a fire and cook food. He breathed in and wiped the dripping water out of his face. If he was alone he'd have taken his clothes off at this point and hung them from a tree to dry, this however did not seem polite to Perrin or least of all Selzan. Reasoned that Perrin would get over it and he'd have less reservations about it if it was just the two of them, but to do so in mixed company was completely unacceptable regardless of the practicality of the idea.

To the thought of Selzan now that he was on it, what he had seen had shocked and bewildered him, but then again she was a bender just like him and he was reasonably sure that some of the things he was capable of would be shocking to her. Despite potentially killing a man on the ship, he had held back so as to to hurt either of his two companions, his good Samaritans that had come to rescue him. Zai's bronze eyes scanned Selzan up and down as she tended to her wounds. In this moment, Zai was taken aback by the sheer brilliance of her plan, the pain that she must have suffered and the courage it took to pull it off. He could not possibly imagine the firebending equivalent of what she had done. He allowed himself a moment of quiet reflection in which he came to the definitive conclusion that he was happy she was on his side.

"That was impressive to say the least..."

Zai returned his thoughts to survival. The shelter was first, then food, building the shelter wouldn't be hard, their were supplies all over the beach, their were leaves that could be used as a roof and of course there were plenty of branches. He felt a shiver go down his spine as he rubbed his hands together feeling a slight chill with the sea air cutting him through him. He really wished he was a lone and could simply dry his clothes. No matter he thought, they would be dry soon enough. As he was about to set out to work and potentially recruit the help of the other two a wave of panic rushed over him. He patted his chest with both hands multiple times, feeling it still there, he shoved his right hand into his pocket and pulled out the parchment that was kept mostly sealed in a wax envelope. He looked down at it as he held it in his hands, water dripped out of the envelope and he dropped to his knees. The young man gingerly pulled the parchment from the envelope and closed his eyes afraid to look down at it. Slowly, but surely his bronze eyes opened and there she was, his Cheiya. Her beautiful face was smudged and her eyes were elongated, he scrunched his eyes closed in bitter frustration. He wanted to kill them, all of the pirates, he hated them and he wanted to see them burn. He once more opened his eyes and his breathing got sharper, he brought the portrait to his lips and kissed it lightly.

"I love you."

He whispered quietly as he began to slowly and carefully guide fire from his lips to a safe distance from the parchement, drying it rather quickly along with the envelope. Slowly but surely both were completely dry and he sealed the portrait back in the envelope. For the first time throughout this entire ordeal, from being captured, to killing a man, and finally to this beach out in the middle of nowhere he allowed solmen emotion to find it's way in and he began to weep quietly. He remembered the last time he saw her, when he told her he had to go, the cool air between them standing outside her Father's home. He remembered the kiss they shared and the heartache he felt as they shared their farewells. He had promised her he would return once he made sense of everything and he was going to do just that.

His head was throbbing and all he wanted to do was sit there in his thoughts for another moment or two. He turned to Perrin, tears still streaming down the young man's face.

"I want to go home."

[Perrin]

He could do it, and he did, but the swim was a more slogging fight for survival than Perrin had experienced. He couldn’t imagine how grueling it was for the Fire boy who’d been beaten that much more over the last few days and taken worse hits to his head.

He kept Zai somewhere in his sight until they reached shore. Perrin’s limbs were weak with muscle exhaustion and an…. unimaginable heaviness when he clambered from the water and stumbled to his feet. He had never felt so heavy.

Zai glanced at him while brushing some of the sand off his clothes. Perrin kept a calm demeanor while he managed to stand straighter and nodded. He was worried about their missing companion and he wanted to do… anything to find her, or that helped them. But that was the end of the energy he had for anyone. The older young man in drenched mud-colored clothes traipsed a few yards higher onto the beach and laid down with his eyes closed and his face toward the sky. Eventually he had enough energy to put an arm under his head like a cushion. He also untied the strip of cloth that kept his hair in a wet lump. It would dry better that way. Perrin just breathed.

He heard Zai moving around, walking away. He came back after what felt like a while. It might have been an hour, or it might not have actually been long; Perrin hadn’t kept much sense of time. There were a few rustles and quiet motions by the time Perrin pushed himself up to watch Zai sitting not so far down the beach, closer to the water. The breeze picked up against the back of Perrin’s neck a little while he combed a hand through his hair to stop it from sticking to him. Zai wasn’t looking at him then anyway; and even if he had, Perrin’s back was turned away from him.

He watched Zai crying and breathing the softest curls of flame over the bit of parchment he had. It was a more mournful kind of Firebending than Perrrin had seen since he was a child. Eventually Zai looked over at Perrin.

‘I want to go home,’ Zai said.

Perrin’s heart broke in empathy at the grief on Zai’s face.
Me too.

“I know,” he said. “We’ll get you there.”

He sighed and tied his hair back again before standing up. Perrin’s shoes had gone missing in the swim; he’d kicked them off at some point. “I’m sorry none of that went right on the Summer. I’m glad we’re not on it anymore anyway.”

Perrin gave Zai a small shrug and turned around to look at wherever they'd gotten themselves. He walked a short way uphill on the beach toward a little copse of a few trees and some plants. He hadn't gotten more than a handful of yards before he realized there was a person there and made eye contact with Selzan. Whatever he'd had been feeling a minute ago, the pieces of it dropped into the pit of his stomach and he stared at her, frozen.

“Selzan… …ow.” He managed to get out while he made sense of how ground up she was. And how far apart they'd been spaced on the beach just now, but it didn't even matter much. She looked terrible. And impressive.. but he'd never ever meant her to cross the distance like that.

“I’m so sorry Selzan. Zai.. is there. So you know.”

[Selzan]

There was lapping of waves in the distance when Selzan first awoke, but it wasn’t the sounds of the surf that woke her. Through the thin line of shrubbery that separated her from the shoreline, the weary sandbender could see that the young firebender appeared to have finished the swim with some energy to spare, and was trudging up the shore looking worried. Or maybe that was just his face? Selzan had time to think of him as a person now in a more mundane sort of way, and although she wasn’t sure she wanted to just yet, the thoughts came anyway. She wondered if he had played in the ocean a lot as a child, or merely learned to swim as part of his arduous bodily discipline. Either way, he certainly held up to the Fire Nation stereotype.

Selzan thought she saw Perrin through the low greenery that was currently eye-level to her as well, but that wouldn’t surprise her at all, if it was the case. She already knew he was a strong swimmer. She still didn’t feel like moving, but as she sensed into her body, she realized that she didn’t quite feel like falling apart anymore either, and she began to check her improvised salves as Zai drew near. His compliment drew a soft chuckle from her as she pressed a leaf back onto her shoulder.

“Thank you,” she said wearily. “I’ve been drydocking boats for quite a few years now. I s’pose it’s only fitting I should finish my sailing career drydocking myself.”

It was peculiar to Selzan when she realized that she was more comfortable not meeting the young firebender’s eyes. She glanced up in the general direction of his face and smiled to punctuate her comment, bobbing her eyebrows a little, but she made no effort to find his eyes, and kept working on her salves until he walked away. Was she suspicious of him? Uncertain? Resentful? She couldn’t make sense of her feelings yet - she was certainly happy to be off the crew of the Summer - but there would likely be more than enough time for that later. For now, the sandbender closed her eyes and the sun soak into her bronze skin. There would be time for everything, later…

Selzan started awake again when she heard sand grinding underneath Perrin’s feet. It was a soft sound - especially in Perrin’s case, she noted - but one she’d grown attentive to in her prior life. When she saw the look of concern on his face and the sincere apologies on his lips, she shook her head and slowly began edging up the tree toward a standing position.

“Aye, I saw him a mo… little bit ago, I guess.” She corrected herself, noticing that the sun had shifted further from the horizon than it had been when Zai had trudged past her. She didn’t see Zai in the direction Perrin had pointed, but she trusted he was over there plying himself in some useful fashion as he had been before. Her eyes skated back from the shoreline to her friend again, and she smiled.

“We’re all alive though, and we’re all free now. That’s what matters, Perrin. That’s your doing… Are you okay? You look a little swooshy.”

[Zai Saika]

After several moments of sitting there Zai had nodded silently to Perrin, he gently folded up the parchment and placed it back into the envelope and shut it, placing it back in the pocket of his top. The wind cut through his clothes and he realized when he noticed that Perrin was without his shirt how stupid he was being. Zai silently stood up and unbuttoned his top and took it off and hung it from a tree branch. He then did then pulled his base shirt over his head and did the same thing. Immediately he started feeling better as the sun warmed his skin despite the wind. He nodded once more and began to pull his thoughts together. He had noticed the body language in both of them, they rescued him but they did not know what to think of him. Their were seeds of distrust that had been sewn into them and whether that was a result of propaganda or legitimate fears that his father had spoken to him of he could not be sure. He closed his eyes for a moment and he remembered that day training with his father.

"Like any good soldier, I did my duty, I led a soldiers into battle against the Air Nomads at one of their Sacred Air Temples. You know this, but what you do not know is that it was less of a battle and more of a massacre. Yes the Air Nomads did fight back and yes many Fire Nation soldiers under my command did meet their end at the hands of Air Benders. However, what we were attacking was not a military force like we were. We were attacking civilians, who were living a peaceful life. They were Monks Zai, they were innocent and we killed them all. It was not war, there was no honor in anything that we did. It was simply a massacre and a war crime, we even killed their children, children younger than you were at the time."

He remembered the raw emotion in his father's voice, he remembered the overwhelming sense of shame present in his tone. This is why he had left the Fire Nation, this is why Zai had chosen to run away. He could not face what his father said, but now being in the presence of two people who had a certain fear of him, or at the very least a deep distrust of him, he started to think that what his father said might be true. He opened his eyes and looked to Perrin and then drifted his gaze to Selzan, he had heard Perrin's words but did not respond. His two rescuers were now talking amongst themselves. Did he dare approach them? He shook his head violently, his adolescent brain clouded with emotions. If his father had been right, if the Fire Nation was evil, they would be terrified of him.

He grit his teeth and cracked his knuckles in frustration. "What are you doing? He internally said to himself. He was not evil even if the Fire Nation was....were they? Whatever was the case, they were perceived to be evil and he had to work out whether or not that was true. He swallowed his pride and his fears and he strolled up to meet the two. He was nervous and perhaps it was visible on his face, but he did not care. He needed to be humble before them, he owed them his life.

He straightened his back and gave them the Fire Nation salute before bowing to both of them. He took a knee before them and lowered his head.

"I owe you both my life and I cannot thank you enough for what you have done for me, anything you ever need of me will be done, no questions asked."

He raised his head and looked at them both but careful not to meet eye contact with Selzan who had earlier appeared uncomfortable with meeting his eyes.

"My father, was a General. He told me..His teenage voice cracked things. Unspeakable things that my country had done to the Air Nomads, I ran away from home, I...just could not make sense of any of it. I want you both to know...that I do not know what is true and what is not true, but....I'm not that. I am just me. My Father is ashamed of himself and that...made me scared because I could not believe him...I don't know. All I know is you two were brave and honorable, I am forever indebted to you..."

The young man lowered his head in submission to them and waited to be given permission to stand once again. He would rather they be working on survival at this point, but this was equally important even if they did need rest, the swim had been exhausting and Zai had began to feel it in his muscles, young or not, he was still a human.

Then off in the distance he heard something.

ROARRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

His head spun around to the towards the greenery in the distance.

"I hope that isn't what I think...it is....