She wrests the branch out of Fen's hand with one hand and firmly grabs their shoulder with the other, so they can't run off or rush any of the soldiers.

"I'm sure he's nicer if you don't wave sticks in his face," she says, despite being sure of no such thing.

That assertion actually gets a slight smile out of the scarred boy.

"PROBABLY NOT," says Fen, glaring. "He's MEAN and you should BEAT HIM UP."

The scarred boy raises his eyebrow—he's only got the one—in a mildly skeptical expression. "Should she?" Skepticism shifts to interest; he looks more directly at Karen. "And how do you expect her to manage that?"

She actually really wants to find out whether she can beat all of these people up without resorting to killing any of them.

She really really wants none of these helpful civilians to get themselves killed.

"I'd rather not test it."

"I bet you can take him," says Fen, with wholly unsupported confidence.

"Is that so..." The scarred boy's ever-present frown takes on a more thoughtful cast. He's looking intently at Karen now. His eyes are a strikingly pretty shade of golden yellow. "Maybe the Avatar isn't so far away after all."

"Wait, what??" says Fen, bewildered.

"I wouldn't know."

Do you know what the Avatar is?

Of course! says the spirit. The Avatar is the bridge between the human and spirit worlds, and master of the four elements. I saw them once a long time ago! They looked busy so I didn't try to say hi.

The scarred boy thinks for a moment longer, then nods decisively.

"Let go of the kid," he says to Karen. "You're coming with me."

Mrrgh.

She probably can't take all of the soldiers in the town, especially if there are more she can't see. It'll be harder to get away if she gives them more control of the situation, but maybe she can put some distance between them and the village before she makes a break for it. 

"All right," she says, shrugging. "Can you go right home, Fen?"

Fen scowls. "NO. I'm NOT letting the scary soldiers take you. If you won't fight them, I WILL."

They grab for the branch.

She tosses the branch away and kneels to look Fen in the eye.

"Listen. Fen. I'm gonna be fine. The best thing you can do for me right now is go on home and make sure you're still in one piece when your mom gets home. OK? Can you do that for me? Please?"

Fen's scowl wavers—steadies—wavers again—and then they burst into tears and cling to Karen's arm with all their strength. "You can't just LET them TAKE you!!! You CAN'T!!! I w-won't let you!!!!!"

She hugs Fen tight.

"Shhhh. I'm not the person they're looking for anyway. They'll let me go in a few days and it'll be fine. I just don't wanna have to be worrying about you during that time, OK?"

Fen is crying too hard to respond to this line of argument.

"Ugh," the scarred boy mutters under his breath. "Enough of this." He nods to the closest pair of soldiers. "Separate them. Don't hurt the kid more than you have to."

The soldiers begin prying Fen off of Karen. They're not especially gentle about it but do avoid causing major injury.

She lets them.

She stands and regards the scarred boy evenly.

He looks back at her for a moment, then turns to Fen, who is currently doing an excellent impression of a passionately furious bobcat and requiring the full strength of both soldiers to restrain.

"Kid," he says sharply. This has no effect. "Fen. Look at me."

The frantic struggles begin to slow.

"Do you know what happens when you pick a fight you can't win?"

Fen subsides further, looks up at him, and slowly shakes their head.

The scarred boy points at his face.

Fen's eyes go wide.

"If your friend isn't the Avatar and doesn't know where to find them, or tells me everything she does know, I'll let her go. I promise you that on my honour as a prince of the Fire Nation."

A few of the soldiers shift their weight slightly, as though shocked by this declaration but too disciplined to react more overtly. The villagers, already cowering, cower harder.

Fen nods slowly. "Okay," they whisper, their voice hoarse from crying. "Okay."

The soldiers let go. Fen sits down in the middle of the street and hugs their knees and sniffles.

She doesn't react, other than to mentally adjust her opinion of the scarred kid up somewhat and note that oh, hey, prince, apparently.

Hey. Do you remember where we left Wishbone? Are you able to tell him what's happening without anyone noticing?

Yes but I can't talk to him without going there and I don't want to leave you alone because what if the scary firebender says something important while I'm gone and you don't understand??? And people might see me if I went out in front of everybody. I'm not really sure how easy it is for people to see me.

Right, yeah, OK. Just keeping track of my options. We'll let him know whenever it seems like nobody's likely to say anything important, I guess.

The scarred kid flicks a glance at Karen and jerks his head in a beckoning motion, then turns and walks away, obviously expecting her to follow him. Soldiers fall in around her.

Well, then she'll follow, continuing to look as unconcerned and harmless as she can. She thinks she's doing OK at it.

They walk. Out of the village and along the road to the west.

No one seems very inclined to make conversation.

How much time would you have to be away for to go tell Wishbone?

I'm not sure... I'm not very good at time.

...maybe we'll wait until they go to sleep.

Okay.