56 Danev

I had never gone to the blacksmith in the slums. I had seen it before, but it had changed more hands than I could count. Sometimes you had somebody sympathetic to the Hornets, then someone to the Rats. You never knew. This time, it was the latter. The man was supposedly from Ba-Sing-Se. How the Fire Nation hadn't found him yet was beyond me. Whatever they had going inside their fancy walls better be worth this shit.

I knelt down by Riu who was waiting, short sword in hand. You could tell it was Fire Nation by design. I tried telling Riu it was a risk carrying it around, but he insisted that anybody who saw it up close wouldn't remember anything about it. Guess we would be testing that theory right now.

"2 by the entrance. Iron swords. Smithy's not home."

"Fuck. Sure, he's not inside?"

"Yes. He's not here. Could be making deliveries. This could work though. If he comes back to see his security fucked up and his shop burned to ash, maybe he'll reconsider allegiance."

"Fuck his allegiance. You said yourself that we kill the Rats and those associated with them. What does his allegiance count for?"

"Fire Nation might look kindly on more helping hands than they had before."

"Fuck it. Fine. Let's go."

He tossed the sword from hand to hand. A nervous king I had picked up on over the years. He was a soldier by heart, but a smart soldier knew when to be nervous. We weren't attacking unwary unarmed Rats this time. This would be interesting.\

"Alright." He said. "I'll take the bigger one on the right. I'll run past the one on the left, distracting him. You take him while he's focusing on me and then we take out the last one together. Cool?"

"Cool."

"Good."

And with that, he lept out of cover, sprinting past the blacksmith and the guard on the left of it. I sprinted off after him and Riu had gotten in right. The Rat on the left turned his attention to Riu, leaving me open to knife my own sword straight through his back. I could see the glint of the sunlight off its blade as it left the man's chest. I pulled it back out, putting a foot against the dying man's back to get it completely out.

The bloodied blade, now free of its host was ready for the other Rat who was already occupied by Riu, but he didn't need my help as he'd explained to me. The first Rat's swing was too short as Riu easily back stepped. The Rat swung right this time, missing completely. His swing was too strong and was unable to recover his stance and blade before Riu made a fatal cut along the Rat's stomach. The man fell to the floor, choking on his own blood.

It was over, and our blades were sheathed. That's when I noticed the 2 people we had killed weren't Rats. They were men. Just some hired guards by the look of it. "The fuck?" Riu asked, turning to me in confusion. "Trap told us Rats were guarding the place."

I wiped my blade off with one of the dead man's garment as I bent low to investigate the corpse. The man was rolled onto his stomach, but I could still make out a patch of green under the leather armor he wore. I rolled the body over, stripping the leather chest piece from him, revealing an Earth Kingdom badge.

"Damn it." I murmured to myself. "Luke was right."

"What do you mean?" Riu asked from behind me. At this point, the street was empty where it had been full a minute ago. Guess violence had that effect.

"Something Luke told me a while back. Didn't get the chance to tell you. Thought Luke might've been wrong."

"Wrong about what?"

"The Earth Kingdom is inside Citadel. Luke said that the Rats had an Earth Bender. That's how they got supplies and information in and out of Citadel. Didn't believe it until now. Just seemed to far-fetched, you know?"

"Does the Fire Nation know this?"

"No. Not from what they told me. Figured if they did know, they wouldn't have slum rats dealing with it."

"I see" he said, putting a hand to his chin, definitely thinking about what this meant for us.

"Take the patches off the bodies. Hide them, burn them with the rest of the blacksmith, I don't care."

I knew what he meant. He, as well as I, knew the value of what lay before us. I smiled. "So, we have a bargaining chip now. Something that the Fire Nation doesn't have.

"Or even know it needs. So Luke knows?"

"Yes."

"How'd he come about this knowledge?"

"Don't know. He told me he pieced it together on his own, but I don't buy it."

"Think he's playing 2 sides again?"

"No. I don't. He's with us now. I trust him."

"So, you still vouch for him. After all these months."

"He hasn't let me down yet."

He smiled. "No. He hasn't. let's hope he keeps it that way."

So, we finished our jobs. We left the bodies where they were but stripped them of all allegiance to the Earth Kingdom. We torched the memorabilia along with the rest of the shop. I wouldn't understand why the soldier would wear any form of identification on them. Were they even soldiers? Spies, mercenaries, who knows?

It was at that point that Goni, Luke, and Trap made their ways from the alleys leading to the Grain street. They didn't have any of the loot on them, so I assumed they did as they were told and left it somewhere safe until we could come back for it.

"You do your part?" I asked, approaching Luke and the others.

"Gangers out for the count and stash is ash."

"Nice poetry. I like it."

"Thanks. Been working on it. I can see the flames of the blacksmith behind you, so I assume you did yours?"

"Pretty much. Next thing on Trap's list was a warehouse that connected with the inner district, but we already knew about that. So next would be- "

I was distracted by the shout of "Rats!" coming from one of our Hornets. I couldn't tell who. And just like that, out from the alleys stormed waves of Rats, armed, and dangerous. We were outnumbered. We ran.

When we planned for this sort of scenario, there were 2 catches. One, the Rats knew where the Hive was and might catch on. Two, they might just let us retreat and call it a victory. The latter, we accounted for by making sure we did as much damage as possible before they got the jump on us. Would make them angry enough to pursue. The second, we trusted on adrenaline and anger to account for. There were around 20 Rats following us. We knew their numbers had been bolstered, but to what extent, we didn't know.

Luke, striking at the food storage warehouse, would alert them. Us hitting the blacksmith, trouble with the Earth kingdom thrown aside, would show where we were headed. So, they chased us into the alleys. We ran. Not as fast as we could, but fast enough to make it seem real. We all knew the plan and what our intentions for the day today were. Really, it was Riu that made it happen. He has proven to be more adaptable than I thought possible in the last few days. He's changed his priorities, he's learned that survival is more important than pride. A few months ago, Riu vowed never to leave the Hive undefended, but today, none of that mattered. I heard the whistle come from his lips as we stopped at a nice open area in the alleyways, preparing our weapons and readying ourselves for what came next. Today, however, Riu learned to make sacrifices. Learned to make smart moves. This was one of them. From the rooftops of the one-story slum homes came out our Hornets, armed with bows, spear, and swords. The ones equipped for melee hopped down, striking at the Rats still trying to piece together what was happening. "Fire" Riu yelled. The ones armed with bows shot arrow after arrow at the unsuspecting Rats clawing at the walls trying to get away.

"Fire!" Riu yelled again, calling for another barrage of arrows to come down.

"Fire!" he yelled again. More arrows.

"Fire!"