Second Child Of Agni: Chapter 7 (Patreon)

Jun dragged the whetstone across the length of her sword, sending sparks skittering across the ground in front of her. In the darkness away from the campfire, they were as bright as the stars beaming through the canopy above. She gave her weapon a few more careful strokes, before bringing the edge up to her face for scrutiny.

Satisfied, she sheathed the weapon and arched to her feet. The wooden stump had left quite an imprint in her rear. Pins and needles. She would have stolen one of the saddles if she knew she was gonna be there for so long.

Grabbing her worn armor, she strapped it on and strapped the sword to her belt, before making her way into camp. The other rebels were busy at work around her, working on their own weapons or packing up camp. She frowned as she looked around at the cave clearing that had been their home for the past few months. It was a shame to see it go like that.

Feng was loading crates up into a cart and she came up beside him, making her steps loud so she didn’t startle him. As he turned to look at her, she asked, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Grey eyes looked her up and down before he tilted his head towards the stack of boxes. “Sure thing. Grab a box and haul it up here. We need to get this done before morning or we’re going to have a time of it trying to make sure everything’s done when its time to leave.”

Jun nodded and knelt down, hooking her fingers underneath splintering wood and hauling it up. It was heavy, and she had to readjust her grip several times, but the need to be useful far outweighed the pain so she powered through it. One by one, they filled the cart up with their essential supplies. There were no weapons; that would be too conspicuous. All of this stuff was feed for the mounts and the troops. 

By the time they were done, the cart wasn’t even half full. It was the only one.

Rubbing sweat off her brow, Jun turned to look out at the camp. Feng came to join her, standing beside her quietly as they watched the other rebels work. 

“I wish we didn’t have to move,” Jun said quietly, watching as a pair of earthbenders worked on covering the footsteps in the cave. They had to take it slow or it would make a lot of noise, and that was the last thing they wanted right now. 

“I wish we didn’t either. We’ve got a nice thing going here,” Feng agreed. His face was stoney, but there was a melancholy in his expression, behind all that mustache. He turned to her. “But we can’t take any chances. We’ve been here too long. If the Fire Nation finds this camp, we won’t stand a chance.”

Jun nodded. She knew that as well as everyone. Her hand found its way to her sword, fingers curling around the hilt.

“We were so close,” she whispered. “All the soldiers in the province were in that base and they were so weak. But we still lost. And now all of our brothers and sisters are sitting pretty in their dungeons.”

“We got overzealous,” Feng agreed, his voice low. “We should have prepared better but we didn’t and now they’re paying the price. It won’t happen again.”

“We committed all of our best fighters to that assault,” Jun said. “How are we supposed to keep going after that? There’s almost nobody left.”

A heavy hand fell on her shoulder. Feng gave her a tight smile and said, “We’ll find a way. We always do.”

They moved to the campfire, joining a few other rebels sitting around it. The fire was nothing but embers now, sparks popping and spitting pitifully as another rebel, Li, poked at it with a stick and muttered obscenities to himself. He prodded at the ashes, trying to stoke the fire high enough to reach the pot dangling above it.

“C’mon,” he muttered, tossing another stick into the pearl-white ash. It didn’t do anything but deprive what little fire there was of oxygen and soon enough, it died completely. He sighed. “Oh come on!”

He looked up and saw Jun standing there and his face lit up. Jun sighed, already knowing what was coming, and interrupted him before he even opened his mouth. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Thanks, Jun. You’re the best.” He stepped back and Jun took his position beside the fire. Rearing a fist back and focusing her chi, she thrust it forward. A stream of black-colored smoke burst out of her palm and surrounded the dwindling fire. As it made contact, the sputtering blaze suddenly erupted upwards, engulfing the pot and rising even higher. Cursing, she stopped the stream, allowing her inner fire to settle until the campfire only just grazed the pot.

“Thanks. Maybe one day you’ll be able to throw some real fire around. Li leaned in, opening the pot and tilting his head. “You burnt my tea leaves.”

“Better than cold tea, right?” Jun shot back a little aggressively as she walked back towards Feng. Li shrugged, deciding that she was probably right, and sat back to wait for the tea to steep.

Jun sat in front of the log, beside Feng. She curled her knees to her chest and stared at the flickering flames, trying to ignore the feeling of eyes on her back. For a few seconds, the pop-pop of the fire was the only sound around the campsite, louder than even the voices at its perimeter.

“It’s not fair,” she said, mostly to herself. “They’re already here. They have the land and everything in it. They’ve had it. Why do they still have to make our lives hell?”

She could feel Feng’s eyes on her. After a second, he sighed. “The Fire Nation only cares about conquering and destroying. Their nation and its people are the only thing that matters to them. They couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the rest of the world.”

But aren’t we their people too? Jun wanted to say. Most of them had grown up under the Fire Nation flag. Her own parents had, and her grandparents too. At what point did they stop being worthy of being called Fire Nation and start being looked at as trash?

Jun kept her thoughts to herself, instead looking to her friend and leader and asking, “So what’s our plan now?”

Feng let out a long exhale, loud and slow. He looked up at the stars flickering through the canopy. “I guess we’ll get back to what we’ve been doing. We’re running low on supplies thanks to the attack, so we’ve cooked up another raid. Word has it that there’s a supply transfer coming up.”

Jun sat up straighter, her brow furrowing in confusion. “How? Last I checked, they didn’t even have enough supplies to feed their own men.”

That was the entire reason the raid had gone down in the first place. The base had been starved for supplies for months. The men were weak and starving. Once the walls came down, the rest of them were supposed to storm in and take whatever they had left and use the base as a place for their own operations. Or at least, that was the plan.

“Apparently, their reinforcements brought supplies with them. Rations, spare clothes, all the good stuff. They’ve got a surplus, and nowhere to store it with the extra bodies.”

Jun went silent at the explanation, returning to looking at the fire. His words tickled something else in the back of her mind, a question that had been eating at her since yesterday.

“Shu said there was a little girl on the battlefield. Said she was commanding other soldiers.”

Feng nodded. “He’s telling the truth. I would never have believed it if I didn’t see it with my own eyes. She was there alright. And she gave us a hell of a beating.”

“So the Fire Nation is conscripting little kids now?”

Feng hesitated, looking around at the rest of the camp milling around them. Li had finally gotten his tea and was slurping at it with a half-enthused expression. Jun really had burnt his leaves. She felt kinda bad for them.

Feng gestured her closer and she leaned in, scooting until her shoulder was touching his leg.

“Apparently,” he began in a hushed whisper. “That girl is the Fire Lord’s own daughter. A princess.”

Jun’s eyes widened and her head shot up as she stared at him in disbelief. “What?” She hissed. “What’s a princess doing all the way out here in the colonies? Much less actually fighting?”

Feng shrugged. “I don’t know,  but it doesn’t really matter anyway. It’s not like we’re in any position to do anything about it. We lost some good men in that attack and we can’t afford to lose any more.”

Jun remained silent, staring off into the distance. She was brought back down to earth by a strong hand on her shoulder and a stern look from her friend. “Don’t even think about it. Just put it out of your mind entirely, Jun.”

“But it’s a princess,” Jun stressed. “She could be an amazing bargaining chip! We could get food! O-Or weapons or whatever we wanted! We might even be able to make the Fire Nation leave this part of the kingdom entirely!”

“Until they muster a full battalion to come and take her back.” Feng tore the wind out of her sails without mercy. “We’ve been struggling against a couple of bases worth of regular soldiers—dregs that were either too weak or too cowardly to go off to the real war. What makes you think we’d stand a chance against whatever else the Fire Nation could muster?”

Jun scowled. “So we’re supposed to just skulk around and attack random shipments anytime things get hard? How are we supposed to change things if we never take any risks? They’re burning our farms for spirits’ sake! We can’t keep doing this forever!”

“And we won’t,” Feng said. “But its like you said, we threw a lot of resources into capturing that base. Food, weapons, good men and women; it’ll take a while to get all that stuff back. If we go looking for a fight now, we’re going to lose everything we have left.”

His words made an annoying amount of sense. Jun deflated, returning to staring at the fire. After a moment, she pressed her hands to her knees, climbing to her feet. “I’m going to bed.”

“Jun,” she looked back to find Feng staring at her. “We’ll get through this. We aren’t through yet.”

Jun really, really hoped not. Giving him a nod, she walked back to her tent.

It took a week to track down the supply route. The raid took place at the crack of dawn, so early that the mist clinging to the ground hadn’t been driven away by the sun streaming through the silver clouds. Jun was crouched in a bush, Feng at her side as they stared at the trodden path cutting deep through the heart of the forest.

“Here they come,” Feng muttered as a Fire Nation troop marched through the treeline, their crimson armor horribly out of place draped against the greens and browns of the forest around them. Feng rose, his earth-toned tunic rustling as he glanced across  the way. “Get ready.”

Jun took a deep breath, calming her nerves as she pulled her sword from its sheath with a quiet rasp. She watched with bated breath as the cart cleared the forest behind the soldiers… followed by another one. 

“Two carts,” she said, excitement painting her tone. Feng’s brow furrowed as another group of soldiers took up the rear behind the carts. There were maybe twelve of them in total, mostly men with spears with a few firebenders mixed in. They had almost twenty rebels hiding in the woods. There was no way they could lose.

Jun forced herself to calm down. The battle hadn’t even started and anything could happen. Even so, she couldn’t shake the small tremor of excitement. If those carts were loaded full, they wouldn’t have to worry about supplies for months.  They could focus on dealing some real damage to the Fire Nation.

The convoy ambled down the road. The soldiers looked relaxed. This deep into the woods, the only thing most people had to worry about was wild animals, so they had let their guards down. Jun’s fingers tightened around her sword as the convoy passed in front of them. As it passed them by, Feng made a gesture with his hand, and there was a loud crack, before a thick tree fell through the brush, right in front of the carts.

The animals pulling the carts reared, the soldiers startled, and the rebels descended upon them.

Jun was one of the first in line. She brought her sword up and cut straight through the tip of a spear, kicking the man away from her as the rest of the rebels rushed the convoy. She parried another spear strike, spinning around the man and slipping her foot underneath his as he tried to turn with her. He went sprawling, and Jun held her sword to his face as he tried to get up.

“Stay down,” she hissed, putting as much anger into her voice as possible. She saw the man’s throat bob through his chain coif, before he nodded slowly.

She kicked the spear away from his probing fingers, before turning to see how the rest of the battle was playing out. It was basically already won. The soldiers hadn’t managed to put up much of a fight before they were overwhelmed, and now they were being tied up. Jun looked around at the faces, and was relieved to see that they hadn’t lost anybody. In fact, nobody had even gotten hurt. 

Someone moved to check on the carts, Jun strolled up to Feng, an excited smile on her face. “That was easy! That princess must have made them pretty arrogant if she only sent a few of these guys with all this. We’ll be able to do a whole lot of good with all of these supplies.”

But Feng didn’t seem to share her good mood. In fact, he seemed pensive about something, staring off into the distance with a frown creasing his mustached face. Slowly, Jun’s own smile began to fall. “Uh, Feng? What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know.” Feng shook his head slowly. “I just feel—”

“They’re empty!”

Jun and Feng whipped around in unison. Li was at the carts, a look of astonishment on his face as he stared into the back. 

“What!?” Jun pushed through the crowd of rebels, stepping over a soldier on the way, before grabbing Li and pushing him to the side. “What do you mean they’re…”

Empty. The carts were stuffed with hay and a few coin chests that had been busted open to reveal empty interiors. Jun swallowed, feeling like the world had fallen out from beneath her.

“IT’S A TRAP!”

The brush around them suddenly burst open, Fire Nation soldiers pouring in from every direction. Jun turned with her sword already drawn, eyes darting around as the rebels backed away. Ten, twenty, thirty. Were those archers in the trees? How the hell didn’t they notice all of these guys sneaking up on them!?

“By order of Princess Tanya, you will lay down your weapons and surrender!” A grisled man in armor ordered them. The rebels formed a tight cluster around the carts, leaving behind their prisoners in their fear. Jun looked around, swallowing at the sheer number of soldiers. How were they supposed to defeat them all.

Feng would have a plan, he usually did, even when she didn’t agree with it. Jun looked to her friend, hoping for solace, but her heart sank at the hopeless expression on his face. He knew they were out of options.

“Well?” The soldier prodded at the continued silence. His eyes bored into Feng’s. “What is your answer.”

Feng looked around at them all, and Jun knew from the look in his eye what the answer was going to be before he even said it. The man planted his feet, pressed his arms forward, and drew them back sharply. The motion was so fact that not a single soldier had enough time to respond as the groind beneath their feet suddenly rolled underneath them. A few remained standing, but the majority of them, including the firebenders, found themselves suddenly on their asses.

“For the Earth King!”

The cry was taken up by several others as they rushed forward, a mob of righteous fury, ready to fight to the last. Jun was right there alongside them, her heart pumping blood past her ears as she dove into the melee. 

A spear rose to meet her, but she kicked it to the ground and slammed her sword’s pommel against the soldier’s helmeted head. She then swept his feet out from under him, before turning and raking the edge of her blade across another’s back as he bore down on one of her friends. Leather and chain split like butter and blood spilled across the ground.A whistle pricked her ears, and Jun looked up just in time to watch Li go down with an arrow in his back. Even more burst from the thicket. The archers. She needed to deal with the archers.

Jun backed away from the melee, sheathing her sword as she ran. Her chi roiled in her veins as she leapt up into the air and came down with shoulders squared, right foot leading and left planted solidly against the dirt. Her arms thrust forward in a straight line as if she were commanding the world before her to move, and thick, black smoke burst from her fists, embers glowing hot inside of its depths. It spread through the brush, completely cutting off sight of the battlefield. 

“JUN!” A voice screamed her name and Jun turned, but her sword couldn’t even clear its sheath before something hard and heavy slammed into her face and everything went black.