Chapter 9
Once, guests came to me.
I was sitting on a mound of earth I had made myself, covered in grass, calmly eating a salad made of grass and berries, along with well-steamed meat with a sauce made directly from the juice of some herbs and berries. Waterbending was very helpful here. I also managed to carve a large flat plate-hat out of water. Initially, I made a regular flat plate, but then the idea came to me, and I carved a hat-plate out of wood using water. You wear it as a hat, then you take it off, turn it over, wash it, and put food on it, then eat. Wash it again and wear it again. The wood was already dry, again thanks to waterbending. In short, it turned out to be a great thing. It was also easy for me to carve it. I took a sphere of water, placed a piece of wood of the desired size inside, and simply shaved off the excess with streams of water in the sphere. And it was really cool.
So there I was, calmly eating, and I can eat a lot at once, I have a healthy appetite, when I sensed three people somewhere in the forest. By this time, my sense of water had seriously improved, especially my sense of blood, so I could distinguish one creature from another.
Three people were moving towards the beach, a bit away from me, and they were moving quite fast, considering they were running through the forest. I continued to eat and wait for the guests.
Soon they appeared and, just coming out from behind the trees, froze in shock, staring at the endless waters of the ocean. It seems they did not expect to find an ocean here.
About them. It was a woman and two children, who were a head and a half shorter than her.
One of the children, whom the woman, presumably their mother, was holding by the hands, tugged at the woman's hand and pointed at me.
The woman looked at me and, holding the children, ran towards me.
"Please! I beg you! Help! We are being chased! Please, take my children, save them! I will hold them off as long as I can!" the woman cried, falling to her knees before me. On either side of her stood two children, about ten years old. Looking closer, I realized they were twin brothers.
What a coincidence!
I looked at the children and memories I had been avoiding all this time, almost four years, awakened in me. Memories of a brother and mother. And it was them, those who came to me, that reminded me the most.
"Go away," I told them, returning to my food.
Ignoring the family further, I chewed the meat.
"What? No! Please!..." she started again.
I felt that sixteen people had entered my area of perception.
"I said go away. You heard me, you have ears. Go along the shore for about twenty steps and then back into the forest. There you will find a convenient animal path, follow it for a couple of kilometers and you will come to a spring. Follow the stream, then head east, there you will be able to get to a road. Now go quickly, before the pursuers arrive. They are already close.
Once again, ignoring the family, I continued my breakfast. Quickly finishing all that was prepared, now I prepare food for one meal, so I quickly dealt with the remaining food.
By this time, the pursuers emerged from the forest, clearly following the family's tracks. They noticed me much faster, so they immediately headed towards me.
"Who are you? Where did you put the woman with the children!?" one of the pursuers approached me and began to ask questions.
By the way, these were soldiers of the fire people, by the way.
"Seeing you, I was not surprised. I would have been surprised not to see you here. Seems like it's time to leave this place. A pity. There's still plenty of meat here, enough for about a week and a half. Though I might stay.
In response to my words, the soldiers froze, then stared at me again.
"Are you insane?" one of them asked nervously, clearly intending to find out from me where those three had gone.
"It doesn't matter now. You won't be going on any further pursuit," I said, raising one leg, "you will stay here forever."
The leg dropped, and at that moment, the ground under each of the sixteen soldiers collapsed, along with the soldiers into pits one and a half times their height. A second stomp on the ground and all the pits closed on the sides, and sixteen fountains of blood shot up, which I caught and threw into the ocean.
The soldiers didn't even have time to say anything before they were crushed.
Ah, it's a pity that these guys came out on me. Now, when the pursuit doesn't return, they will send more soldiers here, and then more and more. They will not give me peace now, I will have to leave. Decided, I will live here until the meat runs out, and then...
Perhaps I will head south, to the settlement of Chin.