Chapter 23: Herb Hunting

The next morning Liberty didn't quite make it to the yard before she was stopped by her father, Dust.
"Look, Nightgale still has herbs to find," he explained. "Your mother thinks you should go look for them."
Liberty growled. "I'm telling you, I didn't do it."
Dust shrugged. "I don't blame you for denying it. Herb hunting sucks," he chuckled.
"That's what it's called?" Liberty said, giving him a look.
"Well...that's what Rusty and I call it anyway. But look, if you don't go Charlotte's gonna be mad. At both of us," Dust said nervously. "So I'd hop to it if I were you."
Liberty sighed, cursing under her breath as she left The Bending Tower, growling to herself when she was far away enough that her father couldn't hear. This is unfair, she kept repeating to herself. I didn't do anything, and I have to go herb hunting. I have to become the most hated animal in this place. Stupid opposite...
She went out into the yard, ignoring other animals' glares and whispering as she walked past. As she walked, she noticed the snow had melted a bit and it wasn't so deep now. Currently, the sky was bright blue and the sun was up in the sky, and there were only a few clouds here and there. It was still pretty cold out, however.
Liberty almost got to the exit before she felt some latch onto her back right leg.
"Hey!" she exclaimed, whipping around, only to find it was Lucky. "Oh." She relaxed. "It's you."
"Hi!" Lucky greeted her before batting at her tail with his claws extended. Liberty turned around to stop him from doing so. "Whatcha doing?" he asked.
"I'm about to head out," Liberty said.
"Out? Outside?" Lucky said, head tilted.
Liberty nodded.
"Can I come? Please?" Lucky asked eagerly.
"You don't like snow," Liberty pointed out.
"There's not as much now! And I like exploring! Pleeeeaaaasssee?" he begged.
Liberty gave an irritated sigh. "Fine."
"Yay!" Lucky exclaimed eagerly.
"But you're walking this time. You need to learn to walk in the snow," Liberty insisted.
"Okay," Lucky nodded.
Lucky followed her out of the yard and to the forest. Liberty looked around, wondering where she might find herbs. Maybe just anywhere in the forest, Liberty suggested to herself. But how do you tell an herb from a regular plant...?
"What're we doing out here?" Lucky asked, snapping Liberty back to reality.
"Herb hunting," she replied.
"What's that?"
"It's when you look for plants that can help cure sickness and injuries."
Lucky frowned. "Huh?"
"It's medicine," Liberty translated, "that helps you when you get sick or heals places that hurt. Okay?"
"Ohhhh," murmured Lucky in understanding.
Liberty stopped as she realized they were by the tree-fall place. There were surprisingly no animals there; normally apprentices always came here for training. "Maybe there are herbs around here," suggested Liberty, mainly to herself.
"I'll look for some!" exclaimed Lucky, beaming.
"No, I don't think you'd recognize one," Liberty insisted with a dismissive wave of her tail.
"Then what do I do?" Lucky asked, batting playfully at Liberty's tail.
Liberty snatched her tail away. "Don't do that."
"Sorry," Lucky apologized.
"Anyways, I want you to practice tree climbing. That almost got you in trouble yesterday in tag. If you practice more, you won't end up like that again," Liberty said.
"Why do I have to?" Lucky asked. His tail-tip twitched and as he spotted it he began to bat at it.
"Not only it will help you in tag, it also will in a real fight one day. So think of this as battle training," Liberty suggested.
Lucky nodded eagerly. "I'll do it!" He ran over to the nearest tree.
Liberty sighed. "That should keep him occupied," she muttered to herself before examining some of the bushes.
She examined the bushes, looking first for any type of herb she'd recognize. There were several dead flowers but nothing that seemed like would help. Liberty growled in annoyance. Yeah, send me to find some stupid herbs. Because I know all about healing, right?
"Liberty! Look at me!" exclaimed Lucky's voice.
Liberty turned to see Lucky was in the first branch of the tree. "Good!" she shouted over to him. "Keep practicing!"
"Okay!" he said back.
Liberty turned to keep looking for herbs and then she noticed some other Benders not too far away, ones she recognized; Leafy, Malroy, Twig, Ryker, Nyla, Sparky, Max, Spot, Crash, Audrey, Stone and Ekaj. Immediately she was confused. What's with the big patrol? she asked. Normally they were never this big.
Stone stepped forward. "Liberty, I'm gonna have to ask you and that kit to leave," she growled. "We're doing assessments."
"I have to look for herbs," Liberty insisted, glaring at the raccoon.
"Oh yeah. You destroyed a bunch of them," Leafy remarked. "Why?"
"'Cause she's a jerk, that's why," Ryker growled, taking a few steps forward.
Anger rushed through Liberty. "I di--" she began, but stopped herself. It's pointless to keep saying you didn't do it, she realized. No one believes you. 
"You didn't do it?" Ryker sneered. "Is that the lie you're trying to convince us of? You're innocent of all the things you did?"
There was more meaning to the words, and Liberty realized Ryker was talking about how her opposite had tried to kill Sirius, supposedly on Fake-Ash's orders. Dread filled Liberty; if Ryker told others about it, there was no way they'd keep her in The Bending Tower. And they definitely wouldn't believe the whole "Fake-Ash's-orders-thing". The whole Tower thought he was a hero, still the same Ash who'd been there before Yin and Yang started their fight.
Liberty gritted her teeth but didn't reply.
"Ryker, hush," Nyla scolded her son. She then looked at Liberty. "You're going to have to leave though."
Despite the fact that Liberty had been framed of all these things, she knew she could trust Nyla to be kind. "Can you tell me where I can find some herbs?"
"Why should we--" Ryker began, but Crash cut him off.
"By Ice River. Herbs tend to grow there," Crash said.
"Thank you," Liberty mumbled.
"And take your cat with you," Stone said through narrowed eyes. "He'll just get in the way."
Liberty sighed and turned to look at Lucky, who was still climbing, ignoring the situation. "C'mon, Lucky," Liberty called. "We have to go."
"Aww!" Lucky protested. "I was doing good!"
"Let's go," Liberty insisted.
She began to walk off for Ice River, knowing Lucky would catch up, but before she got past the patrol she was stopped by Sparky. He had anger in his eyes as he looked at her, but - despite him being taller and bigger than Liberty - it didn't intimidate her, and she looked back at him. "I don't want you going near my sister again," he hissed.
"What do you mean?" Liberty retorted calmly.
"I mean...don't go near her!" he roared before slashing his claws across Liberty's shoulder, much stronger than Liberty would've anticipated. This made her yelp out and she fell to the ground, and only just had time to see Sparky jump for her again, but Max and Nyla pulled him back. Liberty scrambled back to her paws, blood running down her shoulder as Sparky screamed out. "She's the reason my sister's gonna die! She's responsible for it! Let me kill her! Let me kill her!"
"Sparky!" Nyla snarled, and Liberty briefly saw the look she'd have when Lephos and Sidew did something bad - but the look was much stronger. The Border Collie threw Sparky onto the ground and put her paws down on him to keep him there. "Don't hurt Liberty for this! Stop!"
"Get off me!" Sparky barked, struggling under Nyla's grasp.
"Go!" exclaimed a voice, and Liberty realized it was Spot. "Get out of here! Run!"
Liberty nodded and darted off, not bothering to wait for Lucky as Sparky's screams filled the air; the black kitten would be okay. She kept running further and further into Bending Tower territory until Sparky's yells became nothing more than a faint echo.
She stopped in a clearing, panting, and looked back at where she had come from. That was his opposite, she realized. It had to be. Liberty doubted the real Sparky would be that violent or crazy-sounding. But what did this mean for the orange wolf? Would he be shunned by The Bending Tower because of this?
And why was Spot all of the sudden concerned? Liberty decided to brush that thought off; it didn't seem like anything to be suspicious about.
After she caught her breath Liberty kept running, this time in the direction of Ice River. Whether Sparky threatened her or not, she still was on an herb hunt. She ran through the territory, trying to focus on the sounds of the birds singing rather than the thought of Sparky screaming at the top his lungs. Liberty closed her eyes in attempts to calm herself down, then slowly opened them.
And that's when Liberty ran into herself.

Author's Note:
Sorry for the late chapter. School. ^^; That's been getting in the way a lot lately, huh?
But anyway, have you guys listened to Imagine Dragons's new album? It is SO good. Check it out, especially the songs "Gold", "Friction" and "Shots". :D