August 11th  -  1 note  -  O

Mako shot Bolin a horrified look, his hand coming to rest on his pocket where he’d stored the yuans. It was all the money he had until who knows when. He couldn’t give it up.

“Cut the garbage. Are we gonna stay here and beat our gums all night, or are you gonna give us what we want?” the goateed teenager rough handling Bolin demanded, his tone irritated, his body tense and jumpy. There was a slightly crazed look in his eyes, one Mako had occasionally recognized in his own. The guy was starving, probably hadn’t eaten in a week or more, which made him all the more dangerous.

“I’m sorry, Mako. I was just hungry,” Bolin cried, his lower lip trembling.

“Shut up!” The stocky one punched Bolin in the gut and that’s when Mako attacked. He went into defender mode, bending the flames he’d formed in his hands to lash out, first at the one who was holding Bolin, then at the one who had punched him.

“Shit, he’s a bender!” the one with the cigarette cried out, ducking away from the flames as the one holding Bolin let him go.

“Do it, Bolin!” Mako yelled, swinging into a roundhouse kick at the tallest boy, hoping to hit him in the neck and knock him over, but he missed and was thrown to the ground.

Laughing, the tall teen and the smoker were about to pummel Mako when a block of earth extended so violently out of the ground that Mako heard the tall thug’s jaw break, blood and broken teeth spilling out of his mouth as he screamed in pain. The smoker’s own jaw dropped in surprise, his cigarette falling to the ground as he turned and ran away, his oily haired friend at his heels. Scurrying to his feet, Mako threw a punch at the shorter teen, bending fire out of the heel of his palm, scorching the boy’s coat. Bolin had his brother’s back, using his earthbending to throw rocks at the thug.

- Excerpt from Starvation by Purple.Slippers.18