𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐒; ₛₒₖₖₐ

Chapter 2 ~ The ship

I woke up feeling seasick. I held my stomach, knowing I would have to tough it out until the boat stopped moving. I felt so much guilt from having left so suddenly the day before, without even having said a proper goodbye to everyone. My parents, grandma, Zuri... They must have been so worried.

I took some cookies from my backpack. Their familiar taste reminded me of home. Had I not run away, we would have been enjoying the same cookies and tea, chatting about the party from the day before.

I wondered if I could already be homesick... I had only been gone a day, if I kept acting like this, I wouldn't last a week!

I rubbed the stone Zuri gave me. At first glace, it was red all over, but if you looked carefully, there were little pink flowers dotting the stone. It reminded me of her. Strong and red at first glace, but if you got to know her, kind and beautiful, like the pink flowers.

I heard the door open as a fire nation soldier came in to inspect the cargo. I held my breath as he got closer to me. He stopped right in front of me, looked to his left, to his right... My heart was thumping out of my chest. He leaned down to look behind the crate I was resting against. We had a brief eye-contact before we both jumped to action.

I was just about to firebend at him, but he was quicker. He conjured a flame in his hand, wave it in front of my face and said:

"Don't even try to firebend at me. It's best if you just come with me."

I nodded and he grabbed me by the arm. I winced at the contact. It reminded me of the incident from the day before. I hurriedly swung my backpack over my shoulder.

He dragged me along the hallways of the ship until we got to the deck.

"Sorry to bother you captain." He said, shoving me towards the captain. "I found a stowaway hiding in the cargo room."

The captain looked at me with his piercing eyes, and I felt intimidated. He definitely had the look of a captain of a fire nation ship. He was well-built, tall and he had a confident look on his face.

"Throw her overboard." He said. "We don't need the likes of her around"

"Yes captain." The fire nation soldier said, taking my arm again.

He led me to the side of the ship. I looked at the cold rushing water.

"You can jump or I can push you in." He said

"I'll jump."

He released my arm and I prepared to jump. I closed my eyes, hugged my backpack, took a deep breath and jumped as far as I could.

For a few seconds it was like I was flying. All the air rushing past me was exhilarating. Then I felt the impact.

It was like falling on rocks. The cold water went into my ears and nose, and I furiously kicked towards the surface. I took one breath before getting shoved back under the water by the waves. For about five minutes I fought to stay about water, and suddenly, the waves calmed down.

I took in some much needed breaths of air before turning to look at the ship. It was getting further away. My only way out of the sea was getting smaller and smaller, until finally, it was just a dot. I realized the waves must have come from the ships engine. I was lucky the sea was calm. I swam in the frigid water without knowing where I was going, just to keep moving.

Time skip - 10 minutes

I was starting to lose feeling in my feet and hands. I tried to fire bend a small fire above water to warm my fingers, and it did. I continued to swim around and I saw an indistinct shape on the water.

Hoping that whoever was on it might give me a ride, I swam as fast as I could towards it. After a while, I reached the object. It was a small fishing boat, and if the owner was kind enough, there would be space for me on it.

"Hey!" I cried.

"Huh? Who said that?" the fisherman said, turning his head around. "Oh, you did."

"Yeah I did. Would you be so kind as to let me on your boat?" I asked.

"Oh, sure." He said, helping me on the boat.

"Thanks."

"You must be freezing!" He exclaimed. "Here, take my jacket."

I hadn't realized I was shivering until my I had wrapped the jacket around me and held my hands together. I opened my backpack. The food was ruined, so I threw it away. Otherwise, the contents of my bag were unharmed.

"So, what's your name?" The fisherman asked.

"Y/N" I replied. "What's yours?"

"Bahu. I'm from Bah Sing Se."

"I'm from a small city in the fire nation, you've probably never heard of it. Where are we headed anyways?"

"We're going to Omashu, but first I have to stop at a earth kingdom outpost to deliver some fish. We'll be there in a few hours. So what were you doing in the water, it's a bit cold to go swimming."

I smiled. It was going to be a fun trip.

Thanks for reading! Hope you liked this chapter :D