Avatar: Bounties

The Wild Grove

The first place that our heroes arrived at was the ‘Wild Grove Forest.’ The place was filled with trees and branches all over the floor with many creatures lurking or creeping around. “NOOOOOOOO, WE FORGOT TO GET A NEW BOUNTY LISTING!” cried Da-Yong. Realizing their mistake too late they couldn’t just turn back empty handed so they had to settle with completing this mission first.

The animals were spread throughout the forest. The more terrifying and dangerous animals were in the deeper parts of the forest and the more peaceful animals like the chameleon skunk would be near the beginnings of the forest. There were signs on trees and some markers to help guide travelers but overtime some of the signs have worn out and some of the marks are gone. Unaware of this fact, the young benders continue on their journey to find their elusive yet smelly animal.

“So how are we supposed to find an animal we can smell but we technically can’t see?” asked Da-Yong. Duncan was reading his map trying to see where they were in the forest as he wasn’t sure himself how they were going to track their bounty. As time passed, they went deeper and deeper into the forest but they had no way of knowing because they were completely lost. However, there was a foul stench in the air. They both took a big whiff and began coughing in disgust how foul the smell was. “Ok that has to be it, let’s just follow that stench!” proposed Duncan. And so they continued into the forest but little did they know they were now entering a more dangerous area of the Wild Grove.

The stench was getting stronger, which meant they were near their target. They both realized the animal was right past the next few bushes and when they reached what they thought was the end what they saw was not what they had expected. “WHAT?!?! THIS ISN’T WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR!” yelled Da-Yong. For what they saw was a corpse of a very large animal. As Da-Yong was frustratedly kicking sticks on the ground, Duncan began to realize that the atmosphere around them had grown darker and gloomier. He realized that they were no longer in their area of their comfort zone. “Uh, DY I think we should go…” Duncan realized that something had to have killed that large animal and he did not want to find out what it was.

As they were about to leave the area, a squadron of animals began to descend down a thread. Duncan and Da-Yong were surrounded by Wolf-spiders (Green Bounty). They had the face and tenacity of a wolf with the body and eight legs of a spider. There were 8 of these wolf-spiders ready to strike but of course our two benders were not going away without a fight. Without hesitation Da-Yong began using his fire bending to throw fire-shurikens at the eight legged creatures to back them away. Duncan followed up by using his water bending to create ice pucks and threw them at the wolf-spiders as well. After creating some distance, Da-Yong moved quickly and struck one of the wolf-spiders with a fierce fire kick. Duncan followed up by using a surge of water he gathered from the puddles to get rid of another one. Two down but there were still six to go and our heroes were beginning to feel the effects of a long travel and lack of rest. Two of the wolf-spiders pounced up into trees to obtain high ground while the remaining four surrounded them and began to spit webs in order to entangle the two. Duncan created a water sphere around them to prevent the webs from getting to them but he couldn’t hold it for long. Da-Yong quickly told Duncan to create an opening in their sphere and right when Duncan did so, Da-Yong flew out and threw a fire uppercut at one of the creatures. Another down but that was as close as they would get. After taking out their third wolf-spider, one of the creatures on the trees pounced down and had Da-Yong pinned. The other three wolf-spiders eventually broke through and had Duncan all wrapped up in their threads.

The situation looked bleak as the two benders were about to become dinner for these creatures but a sudden noise approached from a distance. The wolf-spiders’ attention was caught and they were looking behind them in confusion with what was happening. Bolas were flying towards them and two of the creatures had all their legs wrapped up and collapsed to the floor. Then a kunai with a chain hooked around another wolf-spider. It was then dragged towards a mysterious figure who impaled the creature with his Katana. The other two wolf-spiders were furious and charged full speed towards the swordsman but as they were simultaneously running together, another fighter came in from the side and used his spear and pierced through both the creatures. The remaining two that were alive were fighting to release themselves from the bolas but they were quickly put out of their misery when another mysterious person from a distance fired two arrows right into their skulls.

Da-yong quickly burned the webs off Duncan and as they both gathered themselves, they were first stunned at the sheer awesomeness that had happened but then they realized who the 3 mysterious hunters were. Three of the most notorious hunters and high sought after bounties, only below Rice the Rampage, were them: Nase, Sitkar, and Tsuejin (Black Bounties).

Tsuejin was considered the weakest fighter of the trio. He is a master spearman whose main weapon is a giant spear and carries a shield and short spears for utility. Sitkar was the next biggest threat who carried a katana as his main weapon and a kunai with chain as his utility. And finally there was their leader Nase, known for his sharp shooting, mainly used a hand-crossbow along with bolas + daggers for his utility. Combined these three hunters were the most feared in all four nations. They had killed thousands of the most dangerous animals, well-trained benders, and rumored to be on par with the avatar’s strength.

“Well look what we have here, two wannabe benders!” taunted Tsuejin, Da-yong’s blood was boiling but even he knew that any rash moves would not be a wise choice. “What should we do with them Nase, we were only told to return with the samples.” Sitkar called out. At that point, both the benders were looking at each other thinking about what they meant by samples. Most people who took down animals did it for bounties but these hunters were doing something more. “Our orders were to return with the samples, but we also can’t have any witnesses.” Nase said in a malicious tone. The Duo knew they were going to be in for the fight of their lives and they had their stance ready when a giant gust of wind came blowing in. A tornado was heading their way causing all their attention to focus on the new threat. Nase quickly commanded Tsuejin to grab one of the wolf-spider’s corpses and Sitkar to grab a sample of the dead corpse. “Looks like you got lucky this time, we will fight next time we meet.” Right when he was about to leave he fired two arrows, one at both their shins. “If you survive that is!” and they disappeared out of their sight. Duncan and Da-Yong with a wound on their shins and exhausted from the battle fell to the ground slowly watching as the tornado approached them and they both fainted.

Hours later, Duncan awoke and called out to Da-Yong to bring him to consciousness as well. They were both wrapped tightly by the vines from the trees from their shoulder to their feet. “NOT AGAIN! How many times do we have to get tangled up in something?!” Da-Yong cried out. As Duncan was trying to calm him down a mysterious short person covering his face with a wooden mask made from the bark of the trees spoke to them. “Now that I have your attention, I would like to say you’re welcome for saving you both from the three hunters.” Duncan and Da-Yong looked at each other in confusion, and were in disbelief as they figured that this small person was the one who put them in the vines. “Save us? You are the reason we are tangled up in the mess!” rebuked Duncan. They argued back and forth for a while as Duncan was trying to stall for their plan but the mystery man was not easily fooled. “I know you are just trying to stall for time but I heard enough superhero stories to make sure to keep your hands in check!” The mystery man said proudly. Duncan smirked, “Well actually, you are correct, good thing we don’t need hands for this plan! DY ACTIVATE PLAN JALAPENO BREATH!” Da-Yong inhaled and let out a big breath of fire that surprised the mystery man. The flames burned off the vines and they broke free. “I still think that Plan Spitfire was a better name.” Da-Yong said with a smile.

The mystery man laid on the floor unconscious with his mask burnt off. Duncan and Da-Yong looked puzzled as neither one of them recognized the person in front of them. They were baffled that someone they didn’t know would even bother to wear a disguise. They didn’t know what to do with the guy so they decided it would be hilarious to wrap him in the vines and reverse the situation! After about an hour, he came into consciousness.

“Wait, I am sorry! I promise I meant no harm!” the stranger said nervously. Da-Yong was not buying anything he had to say but Duncan was willing to listen and asked him to continue. “My name is Nilay, I am an airbender from the air temples and I am lost in this forest. I stumbled across this forest and saw you two in a bind against the 3 hunters. I figured you two might be nice enough to help me so I waited for the perfect time to conjure that tornado to distract them from attacking you.” His story did seem to make a lot of sense but Da-Yong was still skeptical as to why he had them bind. “You both fainted and I was scared that if you woke up seeing me you might have reacted out of rage and just attacked me.” Duncan then looked to Da-Yong, “You know he has a pretty good point, you might have just fried him.” They were discussing what to do with their new hostage but as they were doing so there was a slight shift in the air that only Nilay noticed. “Please let me free, we are in huge trouble if we stay here any longer!” They were both puzzled as they hadn’t noticed anything strange around them. Da-Yong approached Nilay to make sure he wasn’t pulling any tricks but as he got closer Nilay yelled out to Duncan to duck. Duncan immediately ducked and right when he did he felt a force spring above his head. Da-Yong now noticed too.

“What was that?” Da-Yong said in a voice of panic. “They are Mantis Panthers (Purple Bounty), they have the body structure of a panther but they have the camouflage ability of a mantis.” Nilay yelled. Duncan quickly bended some water to cut off the vines entangling Nilay to set him free. “How many of them are there?” Duncan asked. “At least three maybe more, let’s just get out of here!” Nilay yelled. All at once, they all turned around and ran as fast as they could against the predators they could not see. They ran until they saw a cavern nearby. They knew there was no way they could out run the mantis panthers so they ran into the cavern for safety. Once they were in, Da-Yong created a fire wall with his bending at the entrance of the cave. With the fire blocking the predators’ path they decided to turn back but our heroes knew better than to run out back into the woods. Instead, they elected to continue their journey through the unknown caverns.