Running from the target (bailey, loolaalee)

Only after Clarissa asked if Kaia was okay did she notice the blood on her hand, and the stinging pain of a cut. She gasped in surprise at the wound. "Woah, when did that happen?" she said, more talking to herself instead of to Clarissa. Then it hit her. When she had blocked that blow from a sword using her fan...the blade must have somehow reached her hand and cut her, but she was too hyped up by the battle to realize it. She quickly reached into her bag with her good hand and grabbed a bandage and a disinfecting cream developed by some medical researchers working for the same man she worked for. "Dang it...I hope they don't have tracking hounds, or they will be able to track us by the smell of my blood..." she said, her voice trailing off in thought.

Clarissa looked over at her before checking again for the one man waiting at the rail. "There's only one person there. think it's safe to move?" She asked, keeping her voice low and almost inaudible. "Between the three of us, it should be simple." She kept looking up at the direction in which the person stood, but wasn't looking at the right angle. Instead, it looked as inf she was staring at the clouds in the sky.

Kaia looked up, noticing that the man leaning over the rail wasn't one of the enemies, but some random tourist. Kaia nodded. "I think we should be okay. There should be a cave entrance nearby here, with a tunnel in it that leads up to an easier access area. From there, we should be able to get to an inn and stay out of sight. Can you earth bend a way for us to get down there?" she asked. Before coming to the temple, Kaia had studied the geography of the area, looking for possible escape routes in case something went wrong.

Clarissa looked down the mountainside to see what cave Kaia was talking about. It wasn't too far down and would be simple enough for her to give them an access point, but she was worried about someone being able to follow them there. With a nod, Clarissa slammed her foot on the ground, moving the earth a bit to make shallow but usable steps down to their desired cave. Ranger, being quicker on his feet than Clarissa, jumped down to the steps and started to trot to the cave. "Does that work? or do you need them to come out a bit more?" She asked as she started to follow Ranger. Compared to Ranger's tiny size, Clarissa had to almost balance herself on the mountain in order to walk easily.

Kaia nodded. "This should be fine. Wouldn't want to be seen by anybody above us, so staying as close to the mountain as possible is the better option." she said, then began to make her way down the stairs. When she got to the bottom, she slipped into the cave. Unfortunately, she didn't have any torches, so she figured that she would be going through the tunnel blind. She placed her hands on the walls on either side of the cave and began walking deeper into the cavern. Luckily, she knew that there weren't any forks in the path, so she didn't need to know which ways to go.

Clarissa reached the cave easily and Ranger ran a bit ahead of them. Using her earth bending, Clarissa walked easily through the cave, unchanged by the darkness around her. She could feel Kaia keeping to the walls and almost laughed realizing that Kaia now couldn't see. "Oh how the tides have changed." She whispered to herself before handing Ranger a small treat.

Kaia looked in the direction where she last heard Clarissa's footprints. "How can you walk through the darkness so easily? I feel completely blind being down here." she said. Kaia wasn't a fan of caves, although she did like darkness. But usually, there's always a bit of light. Down here, however, it was pitch black, and she couldn't see a thing. As a result, she almost tripped about every three feet. Great. Nothing better than wandering around blind in the darkness, she thought.

Clarissa laughed as Ranger joined her at her side. She took Kaia's hand in hers and lead her through the tunneled cave. "I have a earth bending sight, I can see where the earth around me is and what's near it. If it touches the earth, I can see it through the darkness." Clarissa tried to respond without giving away her blindness.

Kaia had heard that many eartgbenders could see their surroundings using that method, although it seemed like Clarissa was really good at it. "I guess you practice this method of sight a lot then?" She asked. She was a bit jealous that Clarissa was able to see through the darkness and Kaia wasn't. Finally, she just shrugged, accepting the fact that she had just gotten help from a bender (Kaia is a nonbender). It was times like this that Kaia wished she had been a little more prepared. should have brought some torches, she thought.

Clarissa smiled in the darkness as she led Kaia through the tunnel. They stopped at a fork in the cave and Clarissa turned to Kaia. "Which way? Towards the city or toward the rest of the mountainside." She asked, unsure of which way Kaia wanted to go. Ranger slipped in between Clarissa's feet as she waited for an answer. "Its not really practice when the act is forced on you." She told Kaia, holding out a treat for Ranger.