tora
Lemur
Yes, I know it's Haru. No, I don't care.
Posts: 26
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Post by tora on Jan 5, 2006 19:57:00 GMT -5
Tora was blinded by the dirt and dust flying around them, so when Gan grabbed her she just ran. She was sucking sand into her lungs with every breath, but she just kept running. Choking could come later.
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Post by kalotnav on Jan 5, 2006 22:22:03 GMT -5
Gan heard her struggling to breathe and thought, She wasn't kidding. Making a slashing motion with his hand he shoved away the sand from in front of her like he was doing instinctively with himself. Just because he made the cloud didn't mean he had deal with the consequences. That was for the Firebenders to suffer. He and Tora had nothing to fear from the earth.
When he judged they were far enough he pulled Tora to a stop. He waved his free hand around in a wide circle in front of him two times, then bent at the waist and made the same motion directed at the ground. The earth beneath them, except for a disk just big enough for them to stand on, belched up and added its volume to the hissing cloud. "I displaced the soil," he said for Tora's benefit. The disk dropped them abruptly into the hole, which was just deep enough to hold them as they sat. "Stay down." Throwing both arms up over his head he threw a coating of sand up over the top of the hole. To someone topside, there would be no difference in how the ground looked, but from underneath Gan could see as if through a hazy window. He sat there, tense, ready to increase the cover's density to allow someone or ones to wake across the hole without ever feeling a difference beneath their feet.
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npc
Lemur
Posts: 4
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Post by npc on Jan 8, 2006 20:07:39 GMT -5
Though the soldiers weren't particularly well trained, the essence of firebending *was* in the breath, so they did manage to hold theirs rather than choking back most of the dust. Visibility, however, was damned near impossible.
"Fan out," instructed their leader, once the dust had cleared to a tolerable level. "In these wildlands, they can't have gotten far."
With that, they began searching for the two young people from the Earth Kingdom.
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tora
Lemur
Yes, I know it's Haru. No, I don't care.
Posts: 26
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Post by tora on Jan 8, 2006 21:55:26 GMT -5
Tora took two long, deep breaths and added suffocating to her list of one of the worst ways to go. Staring up, she saw the dust still curling around the top of their hiding place. She leaned her head against the wall of dirt behind her and sighed. Go learn Earthbending, they told me. It'll be fun, they told me. May the bird of paradise molt on their egg foo young.
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Post by kalotnav on Jan 9, 2006 2:40:34 GMT -5
((XD Nice line.))
Gan closed his eyes as he leaned back against the side of the shallow bowl. He trusted he would be able to feel the Firebendeers' footfalls through the ground. They were, after all, wearing armor, and because of their surety of being 'the power' of the land (despite the fact this wasn't their country) he doubted they would try overhard to be discreet. Feeling, rather than watching, required less concentration so he could let his mind mull over other things. Like what to do when the Firebenders finally reached where they were. He would need to immobilize their hands and feet, firstly. Optimally, he could encompass them in mounds of earth. Or... He could displace the ground beneath them and bury them up to their necks with the added benefit of the dust thrown up from the displacement again covering his and Tora's direction of departure. Then he wouldn't need to worry about the mound collapsing after he stopped concentrating on it, or the Firebenders breaking free on their own. There was always the chance of another of their cohorts finding the imprisoned Firebenders and freeing them, but by that time he and Tora should be far enough away that it shouldn't be too much a problem. He nodded to himself, resolved.
It was a good plan, Gan decided, since all he wanted to do was put considerable distance between them and the Firebenders.
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tora
Lemur
Yes, I know it's Haru. No, I don't care.
Posts: 26
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Post by tora on Jan 11, 2006 16:04:24 GMT -5
She leaned her head up again as Gan nodded to himself. "You seem awfully convinced about something," she whispered, not knowing if the soldiers could hear them and not wanting to find out. At this point she was thinking it was the inevitability of their demise.
In the back of her mind, she realized that as her blood pressure went up, so did the number of syllables she used.
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Post by kalotnav on Jan 11, 2006 20:40:57 GMT -5
Gan didn't yet feel vibrations of the approaching soldiers but he kept his voice low when he replied. "I was deciding on what to do when the Firebenders catch up to where we are. I don't want to hurt them more than necessary, so I'll do to them a variation of what I've done here," he said, moving his hand to indicate the space they were occupying.
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tora
Lemur
Yes, I know it's Haru. No, I don't care.
Posts: 26
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Post by tora on Jan 14, 2006 15:49:30 GMT -5
Tora nodded slowly. "Sounds like a plan." Her voice was hoarse, her throat raw from coughing, so she pulled her canteen out and drank. She thought all this walking would have put her in shape, but it looked like that wasn't the case. Either that or she had half the dust in the Kingdom in her lungs. Either way breathing was more difficult than usual.
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Post by kalotnav on Jan 14, 2006 23:27:06 GMT -5
Damn, how much sand had she inhaled? He didn't have the skill to be able to divide his concentration between the film of sand covering their hiding place and helping her clear up her lungs. The look he gave her conveyed as much. "Keep still," he advised, "and sip your air slowly, carefully, like you were drinking a very hot tea."
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npc
Lemur
Posts: 4
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Post by npc on Jan 16, 2006 23:17:46 GMT -5
Two of the soldiers heard the sound of voices not far away and motioned for their comerades to surround the general area. Though they couldn't see the earthbender and the girl with him, it was likely that they were right around this vicinity. They crept towards the source of the sound slowly but surely, until they were almost right upon the pair, but they still could not see them.
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tora
Lemur
Yes, I know it's Haru. No, I don't care.
Posts: 26
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Post by tora on Jan 21, 2006 12:36:16 GMT -5
It seemed like forever before Tora responded to the thump...thump of the soldiers' footfalls. They mixed with the thumpthumpthumpTHUMP of her heart to make a terrifying rhythym she was sure they could hear. She stared, wide-eyed, at Gan and tried to keep from hyperventilating.
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Post by kalotnav on Jan 21, 2006 19:30:23 GMT -5
Gan's eyes half-closed and his face went slack with concentration. The Firebender who stepped onto the sand film stepped onto 'solid ground' as he walked across the hole. The Firebender stopped maybe two steps from the edge of the hole, right over Tora's head. The 'ground' was harder for Gan to maintain, but he succeeded and the Firebender continued on. Gan exhaled a very quiet sigh but otherwise didn't react.
He waited until the Firebenders were far enough away before pushing the sand film away so he could stand and move better to do what he wanted to do. Moving quickly he grabbed four handfuls of sand and tossed them into the air. He then moved his arms around in an encompassing motion before smacking his palms against the ground.
A couple hundred feed away, individual holes appeared beneath the Firebenders' feet, the sand billowing into the air. The Firebenders fell before they could react, and the sand surged down to bury them until only their heads were exposed. The sand wasn't heavy enough to crush or make it too hard to breathe, but it was sufficient to keep them immobile until they were dug out.
That problem averted, Gan turned to Tora and focused on the sand she had inhaled. He moved his hand up slowly, as sand was abrasive and he didn't want to scratch up anything inside. "Exhale," he told her, and when she did, the sand came out. "That help?"
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tora
Lemur
Yes, I know it's Haru. No, I don't care.
Posts: 26
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Post by tora on Jan 21, 2006 21:42:51 GMT -5
She coughed slightly as the sand tickled her throat, but otherwise the earth-induced asthma was gone. "Yeah," she whispered. "Are they gone?"
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Post by kalotnav on Jan 22, 2006 20:37:59 GMT -5
Gan shook his head. "Not so much gone as buried to the neck. But they'll remain where they are until someone digs them out," he said reassuringly. "By the time that happens, we should be long gone. So let's start putting distance between us and them, hm?" Grabbing his pack he climbed out of the hole and started for the road, forcing himself to keep his pace natural.
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tora
Lemur
Yes, I know it's Haru. No, I don't care.
Posts: 26
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Post by tora on Jan 26, 2006 20:49:16 GMT -5
Tora crawled out after him, still rubbing her throat absently. "Distance sounds good." She jogged a couple of steps to catch up, hand trailing to touch the silver star hanging around her neck.
Too close.
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Post by kalotnav on Feb 4, 2006 4:12:49 GMT -5
Gan watched her carefully to be sure she was all right. "You might want to drink some water; it would help sooth your throat at least," he suggested.
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