It's been a long, long time between posts, but let's see how I do with another freestyling session...
Van Tsu-Yan (Qiang or Spear wielder)
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Si Wong Desert...
How the hell does anyone even live out here? It's hotter than being sandwiched between two fat people in a sauna in the day time, and at night it turns into the middle of winter in the North Pole, that is if you can even say it's anything but winter up there. Add to that the constant lack of water and having to ride on animals that smelled bad even when they weren't sweating and it's just a miserable condition to live in. The desert sucks, but damn it, it's a great place to get away with whatever you want.
And it's also a good place to disappear.
Van threw back his head, pulled the wraps from his face, and gulped down a mouth full of water. It was bitter and there were flakes of dirt in it, but there was only 8 good wells in the entire Si Wong desert and the nearest was a 3 day trek by foot. Through the hazy mirage causing air, he made out the temporary shanty town the Shinei Sandbender tribe set up almost a mile in the distance. His elk-camel spotted the town too and picked up it's pace before Van could give a kick to the ribs. It didn't like the extra weight it was carrying very much.
Van patted it on it's head, "Don't worry girl, not much farther. You'll be stuffing your craw with moldy dates and sellick roots in no time. I'll be eating the good stuff myself." The elk-camel shook around underneath Van, nearly shaking him off. "Okay, okay, you can have some too. Picky animal."
He stepped through the curtain entrance into Xin Mao's tent. This guy was a real piece of work. Even in the middle of a place like this, he still managed to keep three beautiful women around him and despite an obvious shortage of food, had a belly that would make a hippo cow jealous. Van wouldn't complain through. He'd much rather travel the desert with a tribe with a leader that likes women than the other one that doesn't. Desert life can get lonely and it wasn't a woman friendly occupation to ransack land trawlers for it's cargo. So, when life gave Sandbender's lemons they...Van didn't even want to think about it.
Normally, Xin Mao's bodyguards would've hacked Van into dog meat for just walzting in on their leader without announcing himself, but the wrapped spear Van had slung over his back was a dead giveaway who he was.
"Ahh, Van, made off with some good loot have you?" Xin Mao also suffered from delusions of granduer. He was wearing all purple like he was the king of the freakin' world.
Van tossed the bags in front of Xin Mao's spread futon thing. They landed with a jingle of metal "You tell me, boss."
Xin Mao smiled at Van's show of disrespect and waved for one of his lackies to go through the bag. He took out a silver plated...plate. There was also some other eating utensils in the bag. The bodyguard looked annoyed. Xin Mao looked just confused.
Van shrugged. "I thought you would enjoy the new silverware." He let them see his teeth. "No, the real stuff is in the other bag."
The lacky opened it up and his face lit up as he took out a long pearl necklace. One of the beauties at the big sack of fat's side, one with pale skin and black hair Van recognized instantly, crawled over and let out the traditional "oooh, ahhh" sound. She was fairly new to the tribe too as she came after Van while he was out scoring some loot.
Shuffling on her knees, a position Van knew for a fact she was used to, she brought it back to Xin Mao and asked, "Can I have this?"
"Absolutely, Siyo. A job well done as always, Van. As I'm sure you've already taken your cut, you can go," he said waving his hand slightly sipping from a cup with the other.
"You know it boss man. See ya later," he turned to leave, but was staring a man in the chest. He looked up at the bruiser then back at Xin Mao. "Uh...you mind telling him to move?"
Xin Mao made the guy move, but it wasn't what Van had in mind. Xin Mao nodded slightly and the bodyguard punched Van in the stomach. Hard.
It felt like his insides and just been knocked out through is back. He gasped for breath but couldn't find any.
What the hell was going on?
There came a moment of silence, save for Van's attempts to breathe, as Xin Mao climbed to his stubby feet. "Van, Van, my dear Van. Look at what you made me do. Oh Van, s man such as myself doesn't get to where I am by being a fool. I have to be smarter than anyone else and not let anything get past me."
"Like anything coated in sugar or slathered in gravy" Is what Van wanted to say, but he was still struggling to breathe. And didn't even recall when he fell face first on the ground, but he felt rough hands dragging him to his feet and supporting him by gripping his arms. Out of the corner of his eye, Van saw someone holding his spear.
"I like you, Van. I really do. That's why I took you in, clothed you, gave you food, women. And when you agreed to return the favor by joining us, I allowed that. but I can't let anyone make a fool out of me. And I definetly can't let anyone sell me out."
Sell him out? What was he talking about?
Xin Mao snorted. "Look at that face. Even when I've caught you red handed you feign ignorance? Disgraceful and frankly, I thought you were better than that. Of course, I also thought you were better than outright betrayal, but then again, I should've known better. Given your history."
Van finally sucked in enough air to spit out coherent sounds. "Do'...kno'...wha'...ta'kin'... bou'...!" Maybe not all that coherent.
Bright red pain flashed where the brusier slapped him.
"Enough of this game, Van. Because of you, Lang Mi, Ayako, and Chung are all dead. They ambushed them at their hideout at the hidden cave. No one but the people in this room and them knew where that was. I know I didn't tell. I know my personal bodyguards didn't either, so that only leaves one option, Van. Care to guess who it might be?"
Through gritted teeth Van rasped, "Why would I tell the Hami Tribe anything? They'd kill me on sight!"
"No, Van, they'd kill a Shinei on sight. You're not a Shinei. You're an outsider who had no where else to go with no real loyalties to anyone. Your skin color is proof that you weren't born in the desert. What I think happend is you were the one who got ambushed, but panicked. You knew there was no other way to avoid being killed so you told them about the cave where I keep all of my treasure. I also believe that you lead them right to the cave yourself to prove you weren't lying." His face was more grave and serious than Van had seen it. "Or maybe...that's not what happened at all..."
Van spat out some blood. "I. Don't. Know. What. You're. Talking. About!" Van's voice raised with each word. As soon as he got to the second syllable of "about" he was slapped again.
Xin Mao looked sullen now. "The only reason you aren't dead yet, is twofold Van: First, I want to know which tribe you told. And second, is because I need to know if I was right. Did you betray me to save your own life, or was it something you did on your own for money? Because this has me at odds with myself. I had actually fooled myself into thinking you didn't care about things like that. But, then I heard about what you did in your past...and well...I'm starting to wonder..."
Your past. Given your history.
That was the second time he brought that up and it just clicked. How did he know? Van never told Xin Mao about when he served front lines during the war. He had to hear it from somewhere but who could...
Van's eyes drifted to mattress where the beauties lay, all looking on what they thought would be an execution. All except one. Siyo, the only one of the group of beauties Van ever knew. Her head was down as she played with the pearl necklace that was just a few shades lighter than her skin...her skin?
Your skin color is proof you weren't born in the desert.
Van's mind went back to almost three weeks ago just after he came back from one of the better hauls of his time there. There was a big party and Xin Mao as a treat offered Van one of his women, knowing he'd probably turn him down as he always did. Van didn't want anything to do with a woman who had anything to do with Xin Mao, but Siyo wasn't the same as the others...she'd turned up out of nowhere to replace one of Xin Mao's old women who died, and Van never exactly found out why. And really she was the one who had propositioned Van first. And he did get kind of drunk even though he only had a glass or two of the sake.
It was hazy, but Van remembered laying half asleep as she massaged his back and they...talked. About him some of the time. No, most of the time. No, all of the time. They talked about Van...and...
Van cursed outloud, loud enough to turn everyone's heads.
"Siyo!" Van snarled.
It wasn't a traditional distraction, but it worked for Van's intent. He stomped on the brusier who was still holding him's foot. Heel met instep with appropriate success and Van jerked backwards striking the big man in the nose. One of the beauties shrieked. One of the bodyguards attacked, with Van's own spear no less. Not willing to be run through with his own weapon, Van pivoted and grabbed the incoming thrust just past the tip. He bent low and let leverage and momentum of the man, who clearly had little experience with the weapon, carry him over Van's body and into the other bodyguard. Van was now the only person holding his spear, just the way it was always meant to be.
If Van had any doubts about the kind of person Xin Mao was, it was confirmed now: there were four people on the bed. Xin Mao and his three concubines. When Van whirled the spear and pointed at them, only one of them wasn't cowering and whimpering like a little girl. It wasn't Xin Mao. It was Siyo. She was in a stance like she was ready to fight. But, in a confined space like this unless she was a Firebender, Van had the upperhand. Van lunged-
Siyo, somehow holding a fork, spun to the side of the tent and cut through before Van could get to her. He leaped through the gap. Mistake.
A swath was being cut through the sand straight where Van was going to land. He jabbed the end of the spear into the ground and flung himself to the side before he hit the ground and got a wound that would've taken off a leg. The swath continued past and tore through the tent, collapsing it on everyone inside. Siyo was heading straight for a small dune moving at unnatural speed. She was an Earthbender, if he hadn't realized that yet and even though Van wasn't slow by any count, he had nothing on someing using the sand to push off her steps. She made it to the dune and in a jumping gather bent all the sand away revealing a sand glider. The ground shot her up and onto the glider and she started creating a sand current to propel the glider forward. It should be noted that she was doing all this while wearing barely enough clothes to be considered actually wearing clothes.
Van gave up trying to catch her on foot on account of acute impossibility and broke off towards a covered tent with a special sleeping animal inside of it.The commotion in Xin Mao's tent drew everyone else out of their tent too. Someone shouted something about stopping Van, but nobody got to him before he'd mounted Xin Mao's eel-hound. He snapped the reigns and the beast stood up and bounded out of the tent. He pulled hard to make the beast turn.
He'd never ridden the things before but had heard of how fast they were. The descriptions did the beasts no justice, they were fast, but by the time they had gotten to where Siyo had been, he'd lost sight of her. The damn girl had the foresight to whip up a large cloud of sand, so Van had no choice but to tell the beast to run through it blindly. They made it but Van still couldn't see her. Damn, how could he have lost her so damn quick? Not willing to give up, he urged the eel hound to keep running, but she was long gone now.
Van cursed again. He'd been suckered with every man's weakness and was now what some would call a "pillow talker". He slowed the beast to a slow crawl and started turning back. He saw more sand gliders headed his way from where the camp was.
It was at this moment that Van realized that he didn't explain anything to Xin Mao about how Siyo was the one who really betrayed them and that she probably was the one who killed his previous concubine, but Xin Mao wasn't a paitent man. He wouldn't want to hear any explaination from Van now...he'd just want his head to roll. Xin Mao also wasn't a forgiving man either. He had a reputation as a ruthless desert bandit leader to uphold. There's a good chance that even if he got away today, someone might try to kill Van tomorrow.
Van shook his head and crossed off another place in his mind he couldn't go back to, and snapped the reigns for the eel hound to go into full gallop again.