"Mommy. Sob." The little girl cried in the cage she was being held in.
Bang!
"Shut up!" A man with a sword shouted at her after banging her cage.
The men that were with him roared in laughter.
"No one's going to come for you here, princess!"
They were in the middle of a forest, half a day's walk away from the nearest town.
"I can't wait to get our hands on that ransom money."
"They should give it to us easily. It's just chump change compared to what they make in a day anyway."
"That's what I've been telling you guys. We should have asked for more!"
"No." One of them that seemed to be the leader of the group said. "We can never be greedy. That what why we haven't been caught yet. If we stick to my rules we'll be-"
Rustle. Rustle.
Just then, two men entered their camp.
"Pant. Pant." Both of them gasping for breath.
"We're sorry. Pant. Don't worry, we'll just be passing through." One of the two strange men said.
The group that was camping there was dead silent. Each of them cautiously reached for their weapons.
One of the strange men waved his hand when he saw this. "No, we're not looking for trouble." He tried to reason with them.
The leader spoke first. "Why are you running in the forest at night?"
"Yes? Well, we just needed to be somewhere fast. Haha." He chuckled nervously.
The leader of the group grinned mischievously. "You're criminals."
The strange men widened their eyes. "No, we're not. It's just that the circumstances are complicated right now and we really should go on our separate ways."
"Really? But now that you've seen us, we can't really just let you go like that." He then drew his dual swords and all the other members also went into their battle stances.
"We really don't need to do thi-" The man still tried to reason with them but he got cut off by his companion. The younger one of them tapped on his arm and gestured toward the cage.
"That's why they won't let us go." He explained.
Both of them looked at the little girl with dried tears on her face and shivering in fear at the corner of the cage.
"...I guess so." His expression turned serious as assessed the situation.
"As you can see, you have to die here." The leader of the group said ominously.
"Ha. Haha. Hahahaha." The older one of the duo that was trying to reason with them earlier started laughing uncontrollably.
"Ummm... Lang?" The younger one looked at him confused.
"Haru. You haven't showed me how much you've mastered earthbending yet. This is your chance."
"Huh?" The leader of the criminals raised his eyebrow at him. "So both of you are earthbenders, we have benders on our side too." He grinned.
"We better finish this quick, Haru. Focus on defense. I'll handle the rest!" He exclaimed as he rushed towards the nearest enemy.
"Wha-what- Argh!" Haru had no time to be confused and immediately blocked rocks that were flying his way with an earth wall of his own.
Meanwhile, Lang, was weaving through numerous attacks like he was dancing. He was light and quick on his feet. As soon as he got close to an enemy, he immediately targeted their pressure points and knocked them out.
"Lang! Ugh!" Haru shouted for help as he was getting swarmed by attacks. He traded punches, rocks, and dodged fire attacks but he couldn't defend against it all and sustained some blows.
"I'm coming!" Lang immediately went to help him as he bended rocks at them.
One of the assailants attacking Haru got knocked out, but the other two just panned their attention towards him. But it was too late, Lang got close enough to hit them at their pressure points and knocked them out.
"Kiyoshi..." The leader of the criminals, now alone, muttered. "How do you know the Kiyoshi warrior style of fighting?"
"You noticed. Huh." Lang sounded impressed. "You have a good eye. Since you're the leader, you must be the strongest. Should I go all out?" The metall bracers on his arm melted towards his hand and formed into swords.
The leader finally looked at him more seriously and took a stance. Fire began to circulate around him like a dragon that wanted to burn everything that comes close.
Lang also readied himself, but something unimaginable happened. His eyes began to glow bright blue. As well as his arms and his forehead. Like airbending tattoos, but composed of weirdly thin straight lines.
Fire began to come out of the sole of his feet and lifted him up off the ground. The air around him stabilized him.
"Y- you're-!" Those were his last words before he lost his consciousness to the otherworldly being rushing at him.
*Thud*
When he came to, his group that had woken up before him were being apprehended by the earth kingdom soldiers. The little girl they kidnapped for ransom was already crying while being held by one of the soldiers.
"To think we'd be able to catch these guys sleeping while we were tracking down that guy." The soldier that was tying him up said.
"We lucked out. Who cares about some petty offender when we got the men who kidnapped the Princess of Omashu just yesterday." The soldiers laughed. "What kind of criminals are you anyway? How can you fall asleep without a lookout."
"Wha-" the leader of the criminals frantically looked around looking for the man knocked him out. As he was looking around, he noticed that the traces of the fight got cleaned up and made to look like they were just sleeping.
"No!" He wriggled around in protest. "We didn't fall asleep! We got attacked by the Avatar!"
"HAHAHAHAHA" The soldiers laughed. "Look at him making excuses for such a lousy job."
"You really failed in life." They continued to ridicule him.
"Tsk!" His ego was hurt but he didn't give up. He kept thinking of a way to prove him right. Then, his eyes went to the little girl that they kidnapped. "Th-the princess! Ask the princess! She saw everthing- Gahk!" He got punched at the back of his head.
"Don't torment the princess anymore." The soldier that hit him commanded.
"No... I'm telling the truth... Please..." He begged as he put his last hope of redemption on the Princess.
"Haaa..." the soldier sighed and looked at the Princess to confirm. But she just shook her head and covered her face in the soldier's arms.
The leader of the kidnappers hung his head in disappointment.
Meanwhile, Lang and Haru were now walking towards a residential area near the shore line. The sun was starting to rise.
"You're really not the Avatar?" Haru asked Lang.
"No."
"Come on. Why keep it a secret at this point? You went into the avatar state last night."
"That was just a coincidence."
"What kind of lame excuse is that?"
Lang shrugged his shoulders. "It's a long story. If we're gonna travel together, I'll tell you. Starting with my real name."
"Your real name's not Lang?!" Haru widened his eyes.
"My real name is..."