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Sho panics.The ground disappearing at their feet, Jet and Smellerbee dropping into the dark, only Longshot's quick thinking saving him from that same fate- he panics, caught in the dark and the suffocation and the crushing weight-But even as the nearby fire roars with with fear, he doesn't have time to worry about the shards of the lantern that havn't yet stilled in the grass, or what Shan has stolen his friends for. The Yuyan has spotted them. Longshot is in danger.Sho shoves Longshot ahead of him, towards the trees. The open field is a death sentence with archers behind them, and they can't lead persuers to their allies- are they still allies?- so the forest is their best bet. The bet pays off- Longshot seems to move faster here, running through the trees like it was what he was born to do. Sho wouldn't risk putting Longshot's back to the archers for anything, but in front, his eyes will catch any attempts to head them off before it's too late.And it might still be too late. Longshot may have grown up in a forest, in this very forest once upon a time, but this is the Yuyan's territory. They lost every advantage the moment they were spotted. He's so high-strung, an hour of infiltrating a stronghold then immediately running for their lives, he probably wouldn't have heard the tell-tale twang of a bowstring snapping taut any other way. He spins in a flash, dao cutting through the arrow aimed for him in two, his momentum carrying him back around and barely interrupting his run. Longshot has turned sharply- did he hear the attack, too, or did he see someone ahead? - and Sho follows, blade in one hand and the other free, ready to bend.He can hear them now that he's paying attention- hears the approaching footsteps, sees movement in the trees, flashing in his peripheral. More than five, closer to ten. He won't stop to cut them down if it gives even one a chance to attack Shot. They keep moving.Another twang, and he moves again, but this one is to the side, too close to react to, and blood spurts from his shoulder. The pain is nothing new, nothing that will stop him yet, and he dives on instinct to avoid further attack.Longshot spins for him, arrow already nocked. His eyes are wild, panicked, but his aim is sure as it lands past Sho and into the throat of a Yuyan who naively thought his shot was enough to put them down.Sho severs the arrow in his shoulder with a blade and they keep running.He hears the now familiar creak of a branch taking weight, and looks up to see two Yuyan learning from their people's mistakes, climbing high to avoid their fates. A scythe of flame cuts off their path. He sees one drop to a lower branch to avoid it, and one that doesn't manage to avoid the fire. Then he's turning, Longshot changing direction again to put space between the new direction of ambush.He remembers, between pained breaths and swerving around the trees, that Jet had asked Gan if the Yuyan were still at the stronghold. The incompetent bastard couldn't even tell them if he'd seen any leave, even after weeks of watching the place.Maybe he'll string him up next to Shan when he finds them and make him tell him how exactly idiots like him get promoted so easily.Another Yuyan jumps out in front of them, arrow nocked. Sho doesn't think- just grabs Longshot's arm and yanks him back behind him, throwing out fire as he does so to ward off attack. His attempt to shove him in a new direction - they're running out of directions, they're being surrounded- is aborted when the Yuyan fires through the fire, and his hip is forfeit. This one, he does feel, and almost misses the sound of Longshot's bow over the white-out in his eyes and ears, but his inner fire flares, rage at the Yuyan and Shan and the whole damn Fire Nation burning him up from the inside, and he cuts through the new arrow and pushes Longshot ahead again.This time, he's reluctant, cataloguing the two injuries with silent, worried eyes- or maybe it was the fire right at his shoulder, blooming large when he got hit. He can't tell, but it doesn't matter. The wounds are bleeding- he can feel the pulse of it through the throb of the ache, feel the arrow heads against every twitch of muscle- but he won't let them slow him down and he won't let them waste any time on them.He can walk away from these injuries, eventually. Longshot can't.They have to move, so they do. It's agony, but it's barely more than background noise over his pounding heartbeat and growing panic. He's not fast enough, there's too many, he should just turn and fight them head-on, hope that they focus on him.But hope has never helped him before. He won't risk Longshot in a face-to-face fight, and he won't leave Longshot alone. But it's as if the spirits hear him and disagree, because an arrow to the back of his knee send him sprawling with a scream, lightning up his leg and blood in his clothes. The earth is cold and hard under his hands.A foot, soft-soled for stealth, comes down on the small of his back to pin him, shadows falling on either side, and fire roars, yellow and blinding and searing all around him. The foot disappears and he twists, grabbing the nearest body and keeping it in the ball of fire around him as it screams.These are not firebenders. They burn faster than he ever did.All three fall and he gasps for breath from where he landed, halfway onto his back, fire sputtering out around him. All he can smell is blood and burning flesh. The pain in his shoulder, hip and leg has spread, and the agony feels all-encompassing.He's so tired.But there's more coming, and he lost sight of Longshot in the blaze. The fire. It must have scared him. Maybe he's hiding. Maybe he ran. He can't see him.They're here, painted faces looming over him, more than before. There's always more. He spits sparks, but even they die out before they can fall back down.A hand wraps around his arm near the shoulder, uncaring of the sluggishly bleeding wound, and hauls. Sho kicks, grazes the calf rather than shattering the kneecap, and another grips his other arm. He tries to pull it free, but it might as well be clamped in iron. He tries to dig his feet in when they try and move him, and a foot comes down on the arrow in his leg, sending him to his knees again.One of them pulls his wrists to come together at his back, and a strand of leather wraps around them.His vision whites out for a moment, mind thrown back into the past, and he bucks with strength he doesn't have into the nearest one, thrashing even as the bindings hold tight. His head makes contact with someone's face. Sparks at his hands create little pinpricks of warmth against the sudden numbness. His throat hurts and he hears snarling.He needs his hands free. He won't be bound again. He won't-Fingers dig into his hair, keeping his head in place. He can feel something else there, but he can't focus, his mind still gone. His wrists already feel raw, the bindings not giving an inch. It's all the same. Hands bound. Hands on him. Hands-
Thwump.
A tug in his chest, tugging inward rather than out, and a familiar spread of numbness.No.He looks down, movements sluggish compared to the frantic struggles a second ago, and sees an arrow protruding from his chest.No.He drags his eyes up again, some of that panic clawing through the tell-tale rush in his ears as all external sound falls away from him, leaving only the sounds in his own veins for now.Longshot had jumped from his hiding spot, his aim sure even as his eyes streamed, saving Sho from capture but condemning himself in the process.No.Sho tries to struggle again, even though he knows he won't manage more than a jolt. No, not now. He can't leave him. He could have withstood the knife, he could have kept their attention on him, given Shot an opening to run-But now the archers are turning their attention on him, losing interest in the dying target. One gets too close to shoot at and Longshot's grip flips, using his bow as a blunt object and lashing out with enough force to crack the wood.Then the grip on Sho's hair disappears, and he falls into the grass, gone for the moment.