#amonthehiddenone

Wherever Jinora was, it was dark, dark enough that she couldn’t see anything around her. Her wrists hurt from the rope tying them together, and her face was itchy from the cloth preventing her from talking. Pausing, she closed her eyes and took in a few deep breaths to gather her surroundings. The air was humid and smelled faintly of smoke. She could hear three others breathing in the room, one with a normal sleeping breath pattern and one with a slight whistle. Ikki and Meelo, she realized. The third however, she didn’t recognize. Whoever it was, they were calm. Calm and taking quiet, deep, measured breaths, like in meditation.

She opened her eyes, squinting in the dark to try and see the person. They were moving now, coming closer to her. Must have realized she had woken up. She struggled against her bonds, in an attempt to free herself, but to no avail. The person had stopped moving, and just a few feet in front of her. She stopped struggling, choosing to glare into the darkness. Okay, a glare from a ten year old airbender probably wasn’t that intimidating, but she gave it her best shot. Seconds passed before the person moved closer, close enough for her to see their face. A mask, pale with a red circle in the center of the forehead. She let out a muffled gasp, eyes widening. So this was the mask that everyone feared, the man who was terrorizing half the city and inspiring the other half. The man who had ambushed the probending games that Korra had been so excited about. The man the papers said could remove a person’s bending. He leaned closer to her face, and Jinora instinctively moved her face back. Though she couldn’t see his face, his eyes told her that he was smirking.

“Are you prepared to be equalized?”