Gordez

Jingping was on a knife's edge.

The last week had been a desperate hustle, minute by minute, to ready ourselves as much as physically possible for the day we all knew was coming.

It was a new moon tonight.

The attack on Xiahu had been one of surprise, one launched before Water Tribe forces could get involved.

Now, the Water Tribe was here, yet they would be next to powerless.

As cruel an irony as it was, we were more than eager to take the assistance. We were shorthanded already.

Between worrying my ass off about where the hell Zek, Luke, and Zare were, as well as trying to keep tabs on Ka'lira who seemed to be spiraling further and further downwards, I was, courtesy of Cholla, helping to organize the upcoming defense of the large town.

Cholla had made it his personal initiative, starting from day 1, to arm any man capable of bearing arms, his conscription not excluding children. It was difficult to call it "arming" however. A good quantity of weapons had been lost along with Xiahu and Cholla's own force was underarmed, a harrowing thought considering his men were that of a military fortress's garrison as opposed to the 'soldiers', if you could even call them that, were simply a town guard.

A number of the town guard who had defected from Xinhai's command had readily told Cholla were the town armory was, which was promptly seized, allowing Cholla to, at the very least, arm his own men. The recovered weapons however were by no means sufficient to arm the growing number of Earth Kingdom militiamen being conscripted by the antsy Commander, and thus, town forges were put to work in preparing as many weapons as possible in the span of the week. The work was destined to be rushed, shoddy, inefficient, but it was better than sending people to their deaths with nothing more than farming tools and sharpened sticks.

Weapons aside, there was the issue of armor. There was no hope of putting together Earth Kingdom armor plating in such a short span of time nor even being capable of crafting leather protection. The militiamen would be forced to fight in their everyday clothes. Then there was the other vital protection, against the weapon we had become more than acquainted with during our last encounter. Cholla's own guard had carried their gas masks over from Xiahu, but then came the issue of Jingping, whose stocks were already detestably low. There weren't enough gas hoods to protect the acting garrison. Cholla had thus been forced to divide the militiamen into fireteams of 4, each of which would only have 1 mask between them.

We were low on weapons, armor, and masks. The casualties would be high.

Such is why as much emphasis was being put on creating as proper defenses as possible. The Earth Benders and Water Benders were more than capable of altering the terrain as they saw fit.

Barricades of Earth and Ice were created spanning hundreds of feet out into the sea, us praying they would prove effective in, at the very least, slowing down their cruisers from putting together a landing. I was unsure just what the defending forces have seen, however, of the Fire Nation's new fleet, of just what these new vessels were capable of, their size towering above this town's largest structures. Put side by side with the comparatively measly barricades that were being set up, I had my doubts of them doing any good.

Artillery had been set up along the shore. The only blasting jelly-operated cannon had been lost at Xiahu, Jingping's defenses now only containing catapults and a single trebuchet that would be rather useless given the range it would be operating at.

The memory of the cavalry flank we had suffered at the hands of the Rough Rhinos had, luckily, not been lost by Commander Cholla, and thus there had been no hesitation in setting up ground defenses around the city as well, assigning archers to defensive positions, running drills, and the like.

Fallback zones were determined, the grim reality that they would most likely come into use dawning on those who found their homes excluded from one defensive perimeter after another, praying the fighting wouldn't extend so far.

Those who had been at Xiahu were not so hopeful.

It was difficult to admit that I had only noticed that Zek and the others were missing after an entire day, myself strained to remember when I had last seen them, where they had been, running memory back and forth to ensure that they hadn't been left behind at Xiahu or something along those lines. It had only been the stray comment of a guard at the gates that saw me informed of how the trio had left Jingping, headed westwards.

For what purpose, I couldn't begin to comprehend.

My first instinct had been to leave, naturally.

Apparently, however, I had had less fortune slipping out than the others had, and was promptly apprehended and stopped.

Cholla pulled every card up his sleeve to keep me from bolting the moment he had his men let go of me, the most successful argument of his being that they could handle themselves, and if I really thought they would leave without coming back.

He didn't know the individuals he was questioning me about, having only met them a couple of days prior, and I think his query had been a legitimate question, wondering if there was any possibility of them running away, or quite possible even turning coat.

But no, I knew it wasn't that. They would be back.

And the only thing that would stop me from kicking the shit out of them when they did was that we'd need them for what was coming. I was sure I'd find some form of payback after this was all over.

Assuming we're all still alive by then.

I had, quite stupidly, thought of asking Ka'lira if she had known where Zek had gone. Even more stupidly, I had done just that.

I don't know what it was, but reading people, something that everybody around me seemed leagues better at by comparison, had always been something I'd failed completely and miserably in.

Many of the survivors from Xiahu were being boarded with local families, some who had volunteered to do so, the remainder being forced upon less than willing occupants.

They didn't complain, however. Cholla's military rule was law, and for the moment, the people of Jingping feared the incoming Fire Nation more than they hated Cholla, and so there was submission.

It took some asking around to just find where she was. The family that had taken in Ka'lira however seemed to be of the former category however, having done it on their own free volition. They allowed me easily enough to see her once they received my name. I wasn't sure what they were looking out for, but I would come to understand soon enough.

The mere mention of Zek had turned a semi-warm greeting towards me from Ka'lira into the coldest glare I could have imagined. She had refused to speak to me with the only exception being her saying, "I don't know where he is," leaving it at that. I did not know if the questions that followed were offensive, ill-timed, or simply incomprehensible, but sooner rather than later, I was being asked to leave. I hadn't made any effort to resist, doing just as they bid.

I considered the best solution to such social difficulty to be more usual solution-duck and cover. Yet again, however, I found myself asking what Boss would do. She was family, I knew, and family wasn't just left behind.

A fitting compromise was made for myself in simply keeping tabs on her from afar. I checked in on the family housing her once in a while in between readying the town for the coming storm, ensuring she was still living and breathing. They warmed up to me soon enough, perhaps seeing I meant no ill will towards her. I believe they may have received the wrong impression as to my intentions in constantly checking up on her, and I was sure to affirm them that such was the furthest thing from the case, excluding certain details that, while they would certainly prove my innocence in that regard, were likely only to land me in an even worse world of hurt.

So I had kept my distance, attempting to focus on the most pressing concern-ensuring that my family would be safe here, that when Luke, Zek, and Zare did eventually return, they would return from a place ready to make a stand.

They had eventually returned when nothing was left of the moon but a sliver the early morning.

We knew what was coming that night. There was no avoiding it.

And we were ready, as ready as we were going to be at least.

The barricades were set up, the trenches were dug, the walls raised.

The defensive lines were established. The artillery was locked and loaded, stockpiles of boulders and pitch ready for use.

The Earth Kingdom soldiers were at the ready, archers manning the walls, infantrymen stationed in their trenches, waiting in foxholes to spring out upon the enemy. Waterbenders were aboard their canoes, others waiting on the beach head, ready to mount whatever defense they could in their weakened state.

Every male townsman capable of holding a weapon in that town was doing just that.

Our desperate defense was as ready as it was going to be in our limited timeframe. Even still, we were outnumbered, outgunned, outarmed, outequipped.

Many would die here.

I prayed that we wouldn't be among the bodies by morning whence the dust had settled.

There was no fog to shroud their approach. Our waterbenders had made sure of that. We saw the 3 vessels approaching from over a mile away.

The hour had come. Those of us who still had any faith left to spare made final prayers, and once they were done, they manned their stations, and the battle for Jingping began.

And still, the others were nowhere to be seen.

I wondered in those few moments as the Fire Navy cannons targeted our position if it was possible that Cholla's worries had been warranted, that, perhaps, it was possible that they had left, sought safety away from the coming storm.

No.

I knew them. They were my family.

They would come. They would be here.

I heard the boom of the gunpowder igniting those many hundreds of yards away and I braced for the hellfire that would touch down momentarily.

Zek, Luke, Zare, where the hell are you?