| By King Bumis Heir | Genre | Rating | Reviews | Updates |
| More from King Bumis Heir | Action/Adventure/Drama | PG 13 | None | No update page |
Overview[]
Rong Yan and Yong Ten, arrive at a northern Fire Nation village called Jiangsu Village. They collect bounties in the village.
Chapter 8: The Bounty[]
Book 1: Air
Chapter 8: The Bounty
Yong Ten and, Rong Yan look at the kiosk.
The roar of a sky bison is heard thrumming through the windy sky, a town is seen below Jippo, Yong Ten's sky bison. Yong Ten groggy from the evening before having just woken up from slumber an hour ago. He needed to throw some water into his eyes to keep him awake. Rong Yan still slept in the saddle, curled up in a ball knowingly how cold it was up in the air. Yong Ten pulled on Jippo's reins to signal him to slow down and land down near the town.
They needed some supplies, and a meal or two. Yong Ten crawls over to the sleeping Rong Yan while Jippo goes in for a nice easy landing and nudges Rong Yan. Fighting back a little to wake up, he lightly taps him with his hand, enough to annoy Rong Yan to wake up.
"Rong Yan, time to get up we just landed in a town, come on we need more supplies and a hot meal before heading off towards the Southern Air Temple." Yong Ten addressed.
Rubbing his eyes still a little heavy-eyed from his sleep, he sighs and jumps off the saddle of Jippo and lands on the ground. Yawns and then begins to stretch along with Yong Ten, Rong Yan grabs the water skin from Jippo's saddle and uncorks it, he begins to drink from the waterskin and then corks it up again before handing it to Yong Ten. Yong Ten grabs the waterskin and drinks from it too, then tosses it back into the saddle.
Rong Yan walks over to a job board right outside of the town gates, there were numerous posters up a few advertising a market stand, others looking for missing people or pets, some for job opportunities. But what caught Rong Yan's eyes were the wanted posters of the criminals in the area. The posters consisted of the known name or alias of the criminal in question, the description, and a painted picture of the criminal, at the bottom it is requested that they captured alive and returned for the crimes they have committed for a reward.
"Yong Ten, come check this out! This here notice board has posters of wanted criminals in the area." Rong Yan mentions.
Stroking his beard, and smirking Yong Ten, with a pleasured silence agrees, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" "Yeah, we should stay here longer and help clean this place up!" Rong Yan said.
"We could use a bit of coin, catching these lawbreakers should reward us with coin that will last us for weeks!" Yong Ten smiled. Rong Yan takes off one of the posters off the notice board and reads it to Yong Ten.
The poster showed a picture of Jiong.
"Wanted: Jiong, Crimes are robbing a jewelry shop in the bazaar area. Reward is fifty silver pieces." Rong Yen read.
Yong Ten walks up to the board and grabs one of the posters that intrigues him the most a wanted poster for an Air Nomad. Yong Ten sighs and then shakes his head.
"What's wrong, Yong Ten?" Rong Yan asks.
"We are Air Nomads are taught since the beginning that we are a peaceful and kind people and that we must uphold those standards to not judge others and love our neighbors regardless of their ethnicity, and here we find a wanted poster of an Air Nomad wanted for mugging." Yong Ten answered.
The poster Yong Ten grabbed, showed the picture of an airbender.
"Wanted: Jigme, crimes are enticing locals to follow him and then mugging them out of sight. The reward is fifty silver pieces. Last seen in Jiangsu village." Yong Ten read, he rerolls the poster and slides it into his pack. Rong Yan puts his inside of his belt to hold it in place while they both go looking for the criminals on the wanted posters.
Yong Ten reads the words carved into the wall of earth that is presumed the gates of the town. They read: 'Jiangsu village'. Rong Yan heads down the path towards the open gates of the town and Yong Ten soon follows, they're walking down a road and split in two different directions.
Rong Yan opens the door to a small shop and walks in, a merchant inside was looking at the contents inside of a small wooden chest he had. Most likely, counting the money from the shift before. When he notices Rong Yan, he gasps shutting the small chest and tossing it to the ground behind the counter. Rong Yan walks up to his counter and grabs the scroll tucked underneath his belt and unrolls it to reveal the wanted poster. Pointing down at the painted portrait of the man on the poster he inquires, "Have you seen this man? His name is Jiong, it's important to reveal any information you might know of him. I'm here to clean up this town."
The merchant a little startled about the question has made him feel a little easy, he indeed, in fact, knew who the man on the poster was. He takes a deep breath and gulps because he knew if this guy wasn't found he would come back for him.
"I implore you that you capture him, if not I might have to leave town for my safety knowing this will come back and bite me in the keester." the merchant implored.
"He was here a fortnight ago, breaking into my shop and stealing some merchandise and coin from my last shipment." the merchant replied.
"And is the poster correct on his appearance?" Rong Yan guessed.
"Yes, that's exactly what he looks like, although he has a small scar on his right eye and he does wear a red bandana, he usually wears the same brown clothes every day and carries a brown satchel with him. I'm guessing that's where he carries stolen items..there have been reports that claim he might be living in a nearby cave. I'd try looking there." the merchant disclosed. Yong Ten paces around the nearby area while waiting for Rong Yan to exit the shop he walked into. He walks up to a vendor who has fruits and vegetables being sold from his stand, the man looks up at the Air Nomad and tries to reel him in.
"You Airbender! You like rich vegetation, don't you?" he began. "I have fresh fruits, vegetables, and plant milk!" he said. Yong Ten walks over to him but not to buy food, only to speak business. Reaching into his robes he pulls out the scroll containing the wanted information of the Airbender. Unrolling the scroll he shows the food vendor, who gulps and keeps quiet and to himself. He then shakes his head, although he knew who the Airbender was he preferred keeping quiet for obvious reasons.
The Fire Nation boy who tugs on Yong Ten's robes.
Yong Ten walks away, rerolls the scroll up and places it back into his robes, he then felt a slight few tugs on his robes. Looking down he sees a small child crying, "What's wrong, boy?"
The small boy continuing to cry and sniffle he points towards the backstreet near them. A woman is heard screaming from the alley. Yong Ten signals the little boy to stay near the merchant and runs off into the backstreet. A woman is being held at knifepoint by a bald man in yellowish-orange robes, and Airbender tattoos.
A coin purse in his other hand, the Airbender grinning wickedly, "Do it! Do it now, or you're dead!" he threatened the poor woman, now crying her eyes out and shaking. Yong Ten cocks his hand back as he approaches the scene and punches a torrent of air at the mugger. Jigme feels the air coming towards him and eyes the older Air Nomad who threw the air punch, taking the hit he flies a few feet from the woman, sending air slice towards his attacker. Hitting the ground with a thud, he rolls on his back and neck and kicks both feet in the air, while using his hands to push against the ground and jump into the air and stand on his feet again, getting in a Kan stance known to outsiders as the frog snake stance. Jigme stood cross-legged two open palms, one above his head and the other near his waist.
Yong Ten dodged the air slice by stepping to his left then stood in the Dui stance, known to outsiders as the hog monkey stance, he stood on his left leg while his right was bent in front of his left leg curled around it with both arms extended in front of him with only two fingers out and the other three fingers curled up on each hand. He maintained perfect balance, while the woman ran out of the alley towards her child.
"Surrender, brother nomad! Lay face down the on the ground with your hands behind your back, you're under arrest!" Yong Ten shouted.
Circling his hands in round motion a ball of air appears before Jigme, he then pushes it outward and towards Yong Ten, who catches the ball of air and forms it into an air twister twirling his hands around it trying to maintain control over the air and making it bigger. He blows it towards Jigme, spin kicking the twister of air to accelerate the speed of the air twister. The twister sucked Jigme into its orbit and spun him around for quite a bit slamming him into a wall. Rubbing his head and in a dazed state he stood up wobbling from one side to another. He tried to regain his balance and stumbled towards the gates. Yong Ten paced behind Jigme, once Jigme was able to regain his balance and was no longer dazed he made a run for it. Yong Ten tosses his glider in the air, as he springs into the air and catches it, he then sped up above Jigme. Landing a few feet in front of Jigme, he spins his closed glider in his hands slowly hovering lower to the ground.
"Stop now! Hand over the coin purse!" Yong Ten yelled.
Jigme drops the coin purse, silver coins spilling out of the pouch and scattering on the ground, he tries to sneak attack Yong Ten with a hidden knife. The knife is then parried by Yong Ten's staff, Yong Ten grabs Jigme by the wrist bending it backward. Jigme drops his grip on the knife as it clatters to the ground he winces in pain. Yong Ten places his hand to his back and then grabs the other hand and puts it behind Jigme's back. Putting one foot down on Jigme's hands, he unlatches Jigme's sash.
He ties both of Jigme's hands together with the sash that was once worn around Jigme's waist. Yong Ten props Jigme up onto his feet, although his hands are still tied behind back Jigme uses his body to push Yong Ten back and free himself from the old Nomad. Yong Ten sighs, and begins moving his hands in a circular motion the now running Jigme's head is surrounded by a globe of air around his head. Yong Ten concentrating on the move, Jigme falls to his knees gasping for air, eyes bloodshot red, he slumps over to the side. He shouldn't have pushed Yong Ten enough to get oxygen cut off from his brain, he fell over unconscious and passed out due to lack of air.
A guard runs in from the opposite side of the gates of the town, she sees two Air Nomads, an older one with a younger one tied up and out cold. Recognizing the Air Nomad on the ground the female guard walks overthrows the unconscious Air Nomad over his shoulder. She jabs her head to the side pointing Yong Ten to follow her back to the barracks where Jigme will be tossed into the dungeon until prison escorts arrive to transport him to the prison in Yin La. Yong Ten tails it behind her towards the barracks to receive his reward.
The young woman who was mugged by Jigme.
Yong Ten picks up the coin purse before leaving and ties it up taking it with him. If the woman wants her coin purse she's going to have to come pick it up from the barracks or the magistrate's office in town. Meanwhile, Rong Yan enters another store to get additional information on Jiong. Inside a young Fire Nation mad was attempting to break into a small lectern most likely containing money or jewelry. Feeling the presence of someone nearby Jiong stood on one left and the other bent at the knee, he turned his body to his left and brought up his right leg to a kick fire at Rong Yan.
Rong Yan rose his right wrist upwards blocking the kick to his face that might injure him, he grabbed Jiong by the ankle and with all his strength tossed him out of the rice paper covering a window. Jiong flies out hitting and rolling across the ground picking up dust, a few bystanders back up a little scared about why he was thrown out of the store. Rong Yan walks out of the doorway dusting himself. Leaping into the air a bit and blasting fire with both arms out at Jiong, the criminal brings himself quickly to his feet with both arms crossing across his chest he absorbed the blast and unfolds his arms one bent up and the other bent down, spread the energy as the fire splits in half and he remains unharmed.
Switching his position, towards a Zuoma stance, a firm and strong stance, not me firebenders take because most favor stances that keep them on their toes and allows them to kick more rather than punch. Rong Yan jumped into the air and began shooting a barrage of fire punches at Jiong, two hit him while the others may have missed it was enough to push him up against a wall, he gasped for air as he hit the side of a house. Getting himself together he sparks embers in his hands and charges towards Rong Yan, a fire whip appears in hand and he wraps the whip around Rong Yan's left ankle and yanks it knocking Rong Yan on his butt and off-balance.
Jiong gloats at Rong Yan before bolas come out of nowhere and swaddle around his ankles knocking him off his feet. A net then flies from the left and is thrown over Jiong, Rong Yan cocks his head to his left and sees two guards walking over to Jiong and Rong Yan.
The guards lift Jiong on his feet, one of the guards points at Rong Yan, "You're coming with us too." he said.
Rong Yan pulls the wanted poster out from in between his belt and clothing and shows the guard the poster of Jiong. The guard unrolls the scroll open and nods, "Nevermind, he's a bounty hunter. You still need to come with us if you want your reward."
The other ties Jiong's hands together with a small rope he had on him, "Jiong finally someone has arrested you, you're going to prison for a LONG time, we don't need to publicly announce your crimes everyone in Jiangsu knows you." Grabbing the loose end of the rope the two guards walk in a line formation with Jiong in the middle and Rong Yan behind them.
Yong Ten approaches the sobbing woman, she lifts her head and wiping her tears with her sleeves. He reaches into his robes and hands the woman her coin purse, he never gave it to the guards because they never asked for it. The little boy claps excitingly when his mother grabs the coin purse and hugs the old monk.
"Thank you, kind sir." she smiled, still wiping the very last tears. Her son hugs Yong Ten's legs, the woman grabs her son by the arm as he lets go of Yong Ten's legs and they walk off.
He glances back at the outer gates and sees Rong Yan standing at the notice board again with his fists resting on his hips browsing the remaining posters. He walks over to the notice board himself to pick a poster for himself. Rong Yan shows him the poster he grabbed before rolling it back up walking with a bounce to his step. Yong Ten reaches the notice board and grabs the two last posters, reading it to himself.
The other wanted poster that Yong Ten grabbed, showed the picture of a man.
"Wanted: Kimaru, crimes are murder, reward 75 silver pieces, this is guy must be a serious problem for them to have 75 silvers on his head." he thought to himself.
Rong Yan walks towards the magistrate's turf where he thinks he has a higher chance of finding the next outlaw. This one was another Air Nomad who might be in connection with the other one that Yong Ten grabbed. All awhile, gliding through the air on his glider Yong Ten lands in the poor streets of Jiangsu Village. Yong Ten walks down the street at sundown minding his own business, he knows it's more likely that outlaws enjoy coming out at night more often than in the morning. He strolls by a backstreet and hears a man shouting "Hey, you! Give me all your money!"
Yong Ten turns to see a man wearing dark blue clothing, leaning against a dark corner flipping a coin in his hands, he wasn't able to see the man's face, since he hid it well, the mysterious man was wearing a beaten down straw hat. "I said, give me all your money!" the man shouted at him, turning to grab something the man shot out a water whip, smacking Yong Ten on the forehead, Yong Ten reacted quickly by blasting air at the man, sending him flying near a fountain.
"You're gonna wish you never did that, old man. Now beg for a quick death!" he yelled at Yong Ten.
Circling his arms in a clockwise motion, and lifting them, water from the fountain rose up over the waterbender, then he put his hands in front of him. The water bursts out towards Yong Ten knocking him into some nearby barrels that cushion his back from being injured any further. Yong Ten with a blurred vision sees the waterbender walk towards him, he picks up a rolled-up poster, and he reads it. Nodding at the poster, he tears it up and tosses the pieces into the air.
"You're too old to be a bounty hunter.." the waterbender said, getting a clear vision again, Yong Ten pretends to be dazed, he fakes a cough and asks, "Are you Kimaru?" the waterbender grins and nods.
He bends a nearby puddle, and freezes it into an icicle lumbering towards Yong Ten, he raises the icicle into the air, then Yong Ten smiles at him and inhales air, and scrunches his eyebrows to show an angry expression on his face. In confusion Kimaru wasn't sure what the airbender was up to, he didn't take a chance and brought down the icicle at Yong Ten as quickly as he could. Yong Ten blew air out of his mouth as a last quick attempt to save himself from being killed. Kimaru grunts and flies out and hits the fountain water that is now kind of spilled onto the ground around him.
Kimaru the wanted murderer, created a shield of water.
Yong Ten runs up to Kimaru, who regains his focus and bends a shield of water around him while still trying to gather his thoughts and decide his next move. Yong Ten kicks two air blades at Kimaru's water shield cutting into the shield together and having him lose control, the water falls from a suspended state and rains down around the fountain. Kimaru panting, Yong Ten using his staff glides air to slap Kimaru against a wall near them to beat him up a bit to prevent him from getting back on his feet.
Yong Ten pulls a rope from his sash and wraps Kimaru's wrists and ankles with the rope. He drags the waterbender out of the now-empty fountain. Pulling on the rope he begins dragging Kimaru back to the barracks so he could grab his reward and finish crime-fighting for the day. Yong Ten knocks on the door to the barracks, a guard answers the door and Yong Ten pushes a tied up Kimaru towards the guard, the waterbender walks a little faster towards the guard. The guard looks at Yong Ten smiling and then looks at Kimaru, who coughs out a little bit of water.
The guard signals for assistance and then another guard comes to help the guard who calls him. They carry Kimaru into the barracks, and down the stairs into the dungeon. The guard tells Kimaru, "Looks like tomorrow we're shipping you to the Boiling Rock." Kimaru struggles and the guard grabs the handle of his sword and hits him upside the head with it. Kimaru knocks out, and the guard chuckles. The other guard walks up to the door, "There you go, old man." the guard says handing the Yong Ten a sack of 75 silver pieces. Yong Ten opens his glider and flies away.
The wanted poster had a picture of Aiko.
He remembered the poster saying, 'Wanted: Aiko, crimes are thievery and impersonating a servant, reward is 30 silver pieces.' He knew he was on the wealthier part of the town the further he walked down the path and realized that there were more shops than stands, and the people wore better clothing.
The estate, that Yong Ten found Aiko.
He walked up to it because he saw a woman off in the distance in blue rags dusting off the balcony of the manor. He strides up the entrance of the estate and walks towards the woman watching her clean for it, and jumps to the conclusion that the woman cleaning is indeed Aiko the wanted thief. He grabs one her arms and puts it behind her back, forcing her other arm behind her back as she struggles to get him off of her. She screams in terror and a short, fat Fire Nation nobleman storms out of his manor to check up on one of his servants.
"Guards! Guards! Come there's a kidnapper here, trying to kidnap one of my servants." the nobleman yelled, in the distance of Jiangsu village guards ran towards the home, standing behind Yong Ten in a firebending stance, "Let her go Air Nomad! Now! Or we'll be forced to attack you." one of the guards yelled at Yong Ten.
Jerking at the struggling woman, Yong Ten pulls out the wanted poster from his pocket, tripping the woman, she falls face-first to the ground, now in tears. The guard grabs the wanted poster from Yong Ten's hand and opens it. Nodding at Yong Ten then looking at the nobleman who's confused about the stressful situation in which he finds himself in. The two guards lift the servant to her feet, then one of them tosses a sack of silver pieces to Yong Ten.
The guard opens to the scroll to read it.
"Aiko of the Northern Water Tribe, you are hereby, under arrest for theft of money, and valuables from nobles." one of the guards addressed, Aiko struggles still bawling her eyes out. The men get a good hold of her and take her away. The nobleman looks at Yong Ten, reaches into his pockets and takes out ten gold pieces and hands it to the airbender, "Thank you, airbender...I apologize for the small run-in we had just now, I thought you were trying to kidnap my servant." the nobleman said, taking the ten gold pieces from the nobleman, Yong Ten bows to the nobleman, "Apology accepted, you saved yourself and your riches by calling the guards." Yong Ten replied. Looking at the sky, Yong Ten jumps on his glider and flies off.
Yong Ten looking at the unconscious airbender.
Meanwhile, Rong Yan is shooting fireballs and dodging air blasts, Rong Yan thrusts his hands forward shooting a torrent of fire at an airbender, the airbender shoots a strong wind of air at him sending a cart of hay towards Rong Yan who then quickly shoots another torrent of fire, instantly burning the cart, but still hitting him, knocking him into nearby barrels, breaking two of the barrels on impact, to which water spills out from.
The water splashes around the cart and turns off the fire, not really causing much harm to Rong Yan. The airbender walks up to the cart, who then jump kicks as a blade of air cuts the cart in half, Rong Yan blasts another torrent of fire at the airbender, burning part of his robes, and leaving soot marks on his skin, smoke began coming off the airbender.
Rong Yan jumps into the air and does a backflip and sends it off to the airbender. The airbender reacts fast and jumps into the air dodging the wheel of fire, in the air, he blows a strong air current out of his mouth. Rong Yan flies and breaks through the wall of a nearby house.
A teenage girl wakes up and lights a candle and begins to scream, Rong Yan runs out of the house and makes a whip of fire and lashes it out at the airbender. The airbender throws another air blast at Rong Yan sending him flying through the hole in the wall and back into the screaming teenage girl's room. The airbender walks into the room, where the teenage girl still screaming. The airbender turns to look at the girl, with a swish of his staff a small current lifts the mattress of the girl and slams her into a nearby wall. The mattress falls back into place, and now the girl is unconscious. Walking back he begins to drag Rong Yan out again through the hole in the wall.
Tossing the firebender back onto the streets, unable to move due to weakness, the airbender walks to over to Rong Yan, and begins to run real quick around Rong Yan making a tornado, Rong Yan begins to suffocate. All of a sudden Yong Ten flies down on his glider and slams his staff in the direction of the airbender, the large airwave knocks the airbender out of balance and knocks him off balance and he crashes to the ground. Yong Ten runs over to Rong Yan and blasts a soft air current into his mouth from his left hand, coughing Rong Yan opens his eyes, still weakened, he tries to stand up but collapses. Yong Ten lifts the firebender on his shoulders, and begins to walk toward the airbender, lightly dropping Rong Yan to the floor, he ties the airbender up, and whistles for a nearby guard, who happened to be strolling by.
The guard runs over to the airbenders, Yong Ten picks up the scroll from Rong Yan's trousers and hands it to the guard, the guard opens it and his eyes move left to right while he's reading the scroll from beginning to end. He hands a small pouch of silver pieces to Yong Ten and takes the scroll and the airbender with him. Again lifting Rong Yan onto his shoulders, Yong Ten begins to walk to the stables within the village. At the stables, Yong Ten places Rong Yan in Jippo's saddle and climbs onto Jippo's head.
"Yip, yip!" Yong Ten shouted Jippo lifts off the ground and into the sky. Riding into the night, they leave the village and head west of the Fire Nation.
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