One step Forward, Two steps Back

There were three reasons that shocked Loralle about what she saw through the earth.

One was that Rick, a known Water Tribe protector was taken prisoner.

Loralle had completely forgotten these protectors and frowned to their own stupidity.

Should she had told them to leave? Hadn’t she already told them that earlier though?

They should have known that being in the Fire Tribe was trouble!

But…They had been there because of her, and this fact did make her feel sad, especially since two of them had been killed…

What was worse, was that the Fire Tribe told this news openly to the Water Tribe, adding to that the other two protector’s deaths!

Straight after, the Water Tribal member’s morale had declined. Loralle hadn’t seen this particular setting but heard it amongst the Water Tribesmen’s sorrow filled words.

Then, the second reason, came after the Fire Tribe had advanced, they had said that their leader had already been into the Fire Tribe village and had never killed them!

The reason why this was so believable, was because of the reason why the protectors had been in the Fire Tribe and having been caught…They had obviously been there to get their leader back!

Why else would they easily travel into their enemy’s territory!?

There simply was no other way to explain it…Their leader had been there yet had done nothing!

…Absolutely nothing…

The Water Tribesmen started to feel despair as they all knew that their leader had never returned to them. They didn’t want to accept this news…But it all made sense…

This despair ran deep within the Water Tribe, in which led to the Fire Tribe to advance even further upon the Water Tribe’s land!

The last reason…Daniel himself released the news of his third child being born under the most powerful eruption from the volcano, that was ever recorded in the Fire Tribe history!

Loralle was stunned at this news…For a whole day, she thought about it and finally realized something, when she saw who the mother was…

It was Emily…

The two people she had forced to accept the fire power, had a child, that made the volcano erupt the biggest eruption known…

Even though the child had been a girl, Daniel was very happy and didn’t hold back telling the Water Tribe this pleasant news.

Loralle felt a cold chill run down her spine. The protectors had gotten caught because of her…

She had stated herself, that she didn’t want to fight to the Water Tribe’s enemy…!

Daniel and Emily’s powerful child, was also because of her!

So, what the Fire Tribe was actually fighting with, was the morale of the Water Tribesmen…And they had successfully knocked it all out of them with true facts that they could only question and see some reasons on how it could be the right information! The war wasn’t really a war since they had started to fight again, it was practically overkill of the Water Tribe!

…And she was the reason how these events all occurred!

Devastation ran through her. How could she have known things were going to happen like this? What was she to do now to fix this? If she hadn’t run from the Water Tribe…All of this wouldn’t have happened!

No…

If she hadn’t existed in the first place! My father, why did he do what he did to me!

Then…Suddenly…Another realization suddenly dawned on her at that moment.

He had been able to see through the hate…For him to be able to come up with an idea like me…

She breathed in, shocked!

He must have survived the huge, menacing lake!

For him to get with someone from the Fire Tribe to produce me, he would have had to be accepted by the water element!

That must be it! That’s what changed everything!

…Loralle put her head down in defeat…

Her mother, who Loralle assumed that she had not been accepted by the fire element, would have hated her and her father very much!

My father gave me water powers, my mother gave me fire powers. She must have even tried to kill me in her womb!

If my mother were still alive…There was no doubt that she would not see me.

…It all added up…It all made sense.

…And Loralle cried for the first time in her life.

***

It only took two more days, for Loralle’s deep wounds to become scratches, and for her to be able to feel normal again. Not that it was noticed to Loralle though.

Because when she exited her house, all who saw her, had a questioning look.

She looked sad, devastated, unhappy and lost.

The Air Tribal members didn’t run up to her, nor did they leave. They all just looked at her.

…She also looked a little different, as her hair was no longer messy. Now, she looked entirely feminine and beautiful and their response was a lot different to how Daniel would have reacted! His eyes would have bulged out of his sockets and his hands would have wanted to touch! Whereas, the Air Tribe thought the change as normal, befitting of someone of being approved of the air element and of who they had accepted.

“Leaving.” Loralle said, the first words that she had uttered in a year.

The Air Tribesmen were suddenly stomped…They had thought that she couldn’t talk, just like them…

Sitting down, Loralle bowed her head, “Bye.”

…And she left.

There were different emotions written on the Air Tribal member’s faces as Loralle went out of sight. For the most part, they were confused and sad. A lot had felt the urge to even hug her when she had come out of her house…

They hadn’t wanted her to leave! She was a part of their tribe!

But it was too late…Before they could find her, then stop her through the air, she was already on her way to the Metal Tribe…

Deciding not to go straight through to the Metal Tribe, as they had their own small skirmishes between themselves and the Air Tribe, she went around the side, which was even further away from the Air Tribe.

Loralle stopped a day travel's time away and started to do as she did at the Air Tribe to get the air power. But there was a problem...

It was like she had lost her heart…

Many times, she had sat there and started to concentrate, but ended up looking out at nothing instead.

She wasn’t questioning what she was doing, how she was feeling, she just continued to feel lost and without will.

Not looking at anything about the Fire or Water Tribe, not worried even about the hate, she also didn’t care that she had no appetite. Not even the recent advancement on being approved by the air element and gaining its effects, had entered her mind.

Nothing…At that moment…Mattered…

She didn’t care for anything…

***

While Loralle was lost in her own little world, dramatic changes occurred in the Water Tribe.

They had been defeated to their last line of defence! And even though they were in their own territory, the Fire Tribe withstood triumphantly against them.

What stunned the Water Tribe, was that the Fire Tribe had obviously planned this for so long!

The magma bridge had only been the first step in their plan!

The second step was building a trench to lead magma towards the water village, which had already been near completion before the war had begun!

The third step included the advance and a particular magma bridge supporting the magma trench across the river of water, that used to be a bottomless pit.

Before the news of Daniel’s third powerful child being born, they had already continued the magma trench beyond the bridges and onto the Water Tribe’s land!

This trench was an amazing offensive and defensive strategy, as the legion of the Fire Tribe could stay within the trench but still continue to slowly advance!

With the water powers having already tried to stop the magma flow, the trench did have a time that it had slowed down, but now that the Water Tribe had lost all their morale, less and less people were trying to stop the magma trench and it had gotten a tiny bit faster as the people inside use their fire powers to continue to keep it hot and flowing…

A big long trench of magma, that was continued from the volcano, passed right through the earth between the two tribes and was slowly flowing into the Water Tribe!

Now that the Water Tribe had been forced back into their own village, they were all distraught. Their leader was gone! Their protectors were gone! The news of the Fire Tribe's next generation being more powerful could be true!

…Just outside, there was magma. Magma so close to them!

They had lost half of their population and most of what was left was women and children…

Never…Would they have thought that they would be stuck like this!

The people were scared, even knowing about the deep lakes that they could escape in…

But, in the next few days…Even escaping into the lakes became something that couldn’t be done!

The magma slowly came closer and closer and the Water Tribesmen watched as people even in puddles were burnt alive!

The Fire Tribe were completely ruthless!

Of course, this needed a lot of magma, so the Fire Tribesmen, along the long trench line, would spend hours constantly adding their fire powers into the trench, so to keep it hot and flowing, especially that of Daniel…So…Most of the men didn’t ‘fight’, as their job was merely to keep the flow of the magma going!

Sadly, for the Water Tribe, that was all that the Fire Tribe had to do now.

There were no more fights, just magma slowly swallowing up one lake at a time.

As the days went by, more and more lakes were consumed, and magma reached towards the inner, bigger lakes of the water village.

One choice was made by a noble of the water village, and that was to vacate the Water Tribe…

Once one person ran, others followed…Those who stayed behind either killed themselves or died because of the magma entering their lakes…It was a completely devastating sight, even for the Fire Tribe, to see people yelling and screaming in a dull way through the water, only for steam and bubbles to take over it…

They hadn’t known what was going to happen, but some of these sights gave a couple of them nightmares…

For the most part though, the rest of the Fire Tribal members did not take these deaths to heart and knew that this was the plan for many, many years…

They had finally won the war!

And…Several days later…The Water Tribe…No longer existed…

***

One year later

The Fire Tribe still relished in the Water Tribe’s defeat. They felt like the rulers of Mondal and that they had no adversary that could match them!

Their natural ego had doubled, making them start to believe that they were God’s!

Those who had fought the ‘Battle of the end of the Water Tribe’, had believed that that they were practically immortal and deserved the best of everything!

To the commoners, even though war had been upon them a year ago, they believed they had lived better in the past…Now, they are being herded around, being treated more like slaves that didn’t have freedom and so…The Fire Tribe had taken a change in the way things were governed, entirely because some of them felt like the world was theirs…

With their arrogance, their legion army continued to be lazy and without a care, treating many beneath them ruthlessly. Many of them forcefully took wives, with those newly made wife’s unable to state a thing against their new husband.

Since more items could now be traded now, with the new added land, commoners had more work to do and there didn’t seem to be enough of them anymore, so even some children were sold off, so that their parents did not have to work sixteen-hour days!

Too much change had happened, and the leader had been completely unprepared to handle it all!

Some Fire Tribe members had even taken residence on were the Water Tribe used to be, but many still resided back in the Fire Tribe village, near the volcano, knowing that what they wanted in life was already there.

With the large menacing lake still there upon where the water village used to reside, even though there were magma pools, it still held a lot of trouble for those who weren’t able to keep their emotions at bay. At first, people had thought that the menacing lake could be gotten rid of, but it quickly became known that the lake could not be swallowed up at all through adding magma into it…No…The lake was something that they had to put up with!

Even Daniel could do nothing with it, even though he was more powerful then he used to be!

So, the hatred of seeing it there was something that some could not handle, while others just tried to ignore it…

Daniel and Emily were now looked upon as very important people within the Fire Tribe. It was already known that Daniel, even though his child is still young in age, was to be the next leader. It was mostly to state that his powerful child will become the leader, probably as soon as they are of age, so Daniel was happy and sad about this news…

He wanted to be the leader, but it looked like it was to just pass leadership to his daughter…

An uproar had taken place over this idea and so nothing had been made certain yet. Not only have the Fire Tribe members never followed a female leader, but Daniel had not been the first-born son of their current leader…

Daniel’s brother hadn't cared beforehand, as he had been the first born and he had thought leadership of the Fire Tribe would undoubtedly go to him. But, upon seeing this taken from him, he became quite bitter. He led those who were loyal to him, to where the Water Tribe used to be located and decided to become the leader there instead. Their father thought it was a good idea and let him do what he wanted, especially since the idea of Daniel becoming leader seemed to be so troublesome!

Letting his eldest son start to become leader and learn a few things before his end, the people may have a change of heart…Nonetheless, there wasn’t so much problems now…Except that near half of his own followers had left with his eldest son…

He had let a laugh out in finding this out, as he had not even known that at least two families had changed their loyalty from his to his son already before he had even died!

But…He was too lazy to bother about it! There was simply too much to do still, since having won the war, and now that the problem of who was going to lead after him was somewhat straightened out, he could move on to the next problem at hand.

Less worries are good, and that is how he thinks!

With all this news, there seemed to always be some sort of thing happening within the people. Whether it be a festival or sparring, games for the children or a night full of older people drinking merrily…But again, without caring and being their usual selves, they didn’t seem to notice that things were only getting harder for the commoners and that they were running out of currency!

Daniel was exhilarated to know that he had so much power now. What he obviously preferred though, like many of his tribal members, was to have a male leader instead of female…So, he only secretly agreed with many others, that his daughter should become a leader in the future…

It had taken him quite a bit more time then Loralle, to understand why his daughter with Emily was so powerful, but once Daniel figured it out, he spent a lot more time with Emily. And due to Emily becoming so wholly favored by Daniel, she became the head wife and was respected everywhere she went. When Daniel told Emily about their child being powerful was most likely because they were both accepted by the fire power, she was quite happy again about having been in relation to Loralle in the past. The pain had subsided long ago, and there was no longer regret inside her now.

Daniel, not caring to think of others who could be accepted by fire, wanted to be the only male with this much power! If he were the only one and Emily the only female, the next obvious step would be…

…Daniel had his eyes set on Emily baring him the most powerful male child and rarely left her alone at night!

As soon as he figured out what he wanted, he had never tried so hard to impregnate a woman…Ever!

Besides, it wasn’t that bad, as being intimate wasn’t their only connection…Daniel had, all this time, continued to bathe in warm water with Emily. And because of this, Rick had finally come out of prison, all of them knowing that he had nowhere to go now that his village had been destroyed. Rick then become a servant for Daniel, to supply him with water nearly every day, among other small tasks that he was forced to do in the meantime.

It was a most agonizing task to one who used to be a protector! But Rick found that he could work for Daniel, unknowingly because Daniel had been accepted by the fire power.

On the rare occasion, where he would be bullied, hatred would come into his eyes when their fire powers were used against him. Hence, Rick only followed Daniel, as he was the only one that Rick could tolerate…But Rick continuously felt sick all the time and became quite a weak individual, which would only continue while he stayed in the Fire Tribe without having been approved of the water power.

The Fire Tribe continued on like this, yet there was rise in commoners being completely unsatisfied…Slowly, they became more and more angry…Yet, they could not do anything…They just weren’t strong enough against those who had more fire power!

Even though their anger was biting into them, making them band together in secret, there was still nothing that they could do but continue to do their job and acting the part of a slave…

The commoners decided that if something was going to be done…They had to wait…Wait to have more among them like themselves, that wanted to change the village!

Numbers could still mean something against powerful enemies. If they had the numbers, sincerity and the words, the people with power should stop and listen! So, within the Fire Tribe, there were two different leaders and factions. One was the current leader, that did his normal routine that hadn’t really changed for decades, the other was a commoner that was voted to be the leader from among the many other commoners and his thoughts, seeing many with anger, were to state that they want change, but needed more to do it!

***