Captured by the Air Nomads

Agonizing capture

Garbled words interspersed by the ever-present pain in my ruined arm was all I could determine. With no idea how much time had passed, all I knew was someone had captured me with ridiculous ease and was bringing me somewhere. When the fog from nonstop pain cleared just enough, I first noticed two things. 1, a visor covered my eyes and greatly reduced my hearing. This made it impossible for me to both assess my surroundings or discern what my captors were talking about. Most likely it didn't matter. They had claimed me as their prize and sending me to wherever rookie air benders were sold. 2, dozens of chains fastened me to a metallic bed, causing shooting pain on my aching back. This was still somewhat tolerable for the time being. It was the restraints on my left arm that served as a nonstop agony. Any attempts to move my left arm were compensated with worsening pain, and my face soon overflowed with tears. A tangy metallic gag in the shape of a rounded bar kept my mouth permanently open. Which at first didn't seem to make any sense since I could still use air bending with a yell. That is until I realized my tongue was pressed to the bottom and I could barely swallow saliva, much less speak. To curb my boredom, I spent the better portion of this time rolling the metal tube back and forth.

I was still wearing clothes, but the only hints of my whereabouts were offered by the nonstop vibration picked up by my bed. Could it be a magnetic train? A viable possibility given I was likely being transported to Ba Sing Se. Being a soldier might not be the worst fate for me. At least they will feed me. If I behaved, maybe I will be allowed to send a letter to my family. Killing people disgusted me, but this fate didn't seem like the worst option.

Over time, the pain in my arm worsened even further, and now even toying with the metal gag ceased to serve as a useful distractor. I no longer cared about this curse or my grim fate living underground. It was the idea that if I didn't get proper medical attention soon, my left arm would never heal correctly and I would be punished through no fault of my own from permanent injuries. At least it wasn't my dominant hand. Small solace indeed.

Exhaustion soon overcame fear and pain, and my muddled senses soon gave way to sleep intermixed with brief moments of consciousness overcome with nonstop pain. Eventually, someone removed something and I could hear normal again. This was followed by a pulling that placed my metallic bed in a vertical position. If my captors tried saying something to me, I didn't understand as shooting pain coursed every fiber of my body leaving me writhing from the change of position until I collapsed on the restraints. Slick layers of sweat hovered on my temples that dropped to my forehead as chains pressed against my slumped forehead.

Heated words were exchanged that I couldn't comprehend. Were they angry at me for not obeying a command? Given I was not fighting or antagonizing them in any way, I didn't fear any repercussions. The agony I endured was more than enough to make me stop caring about anything else. That was, until hands started prowling the restraints, maybe assuming they were loose, which was partially true. This was followed by additional words and someone stomping behind my bedding to pull the chains tauter. Worse pain throbbed on my arm, making my muchles tighten in pointless attempts at alleviating the pain. As my mind started veering into unconsciousness, a hand tightened around the worst portion of my arm, gifting me the joy of blissfull nothingnss as my prize for pain that was too awful for my battered mind to care. Whether it was an hour or days, my captors tried offering me spoonfuls of water. Only for the pain and exhaustion for being placed in a forceful standing position to make the water spill from the sides of my mouth. The few times some water passed my mouth, it always went towards my lungs, giving me the added suffering of controlling air bending from coughing fits interspersed with the omnipresent arm pain. I was so dehydrated that I never felt any need to pee, along with increased weakness from having been deprived of nourishment. Eventually, I was stirred awake as the bedding was shoved to the ground, tensing my muscles in painful spasms. More garbled noise was traded that I couldn't understand. Only this time, I heard a feminine voice who spoke in a stern and dismissive tone.