The Moon is a Guardian of Maidens
by Suzume
Oct. 1, 2009
for meredyd, because her stories inspired this and I also shamelessly snagged Masako from them.
Kyoshi Island wasn't really that big, but Ty Lee had only been living there for three days now. It was probably too early for her to go wandering off into the trees alone, but the swaying bamboo had caught her imagination and she wanted to see if she could climb it and find a way to make use of its supple strength in her gymnastics, so off she went. Her training was complete for the day, so no one could complain if she wanted to goof off a little bit. And she enjoyed goofing off. It was her main pleasure in life.
But night fell. And Masako wondered why Ty Lee had not shown up for dinner and her heart began to beat faster with the fear of concern for the wellbeing of one she loved. Ty Lee was agile and strong. There were few animals on the island that could pose a danger to anyone larger than a child...but...but she could still be hurt. She could have fallen on a rock or twisted her ankle on a branch. She could have gone alone to some far shore and swam alone and...drowned. Masako jumped up, dropping the ladle into the pot of rice. She had to go. Ty Lee might need her. She rushed out of the wooden house, barely closing the paneled door behind her.
Why did she feel this way? She barely knew Ty Lee. And, actually, she mostly knew her as a teasing captor. ...a thin, silly captor who tried to teach her to walk on her hands. They weren't friends yet. There was still a long ways to go until she could say she fully trusted her. ...It wasn't really that she didn't trust Ty Lee, but she she didn't really trust her either. Certainly not the way she trusted Suki and Rie and Meiko and her other sisters within the group of warriors.
You needed to know someone well to be their friend. ...But you barely needed to know them at all to fall in love with them. The heart was confusing like that. Infatuation could come before trust.
On a hunch she proceeded into the forest, pushing back the bamboo to clear a path. If she had been thinking ahead she would've brought a lantern to aid in her search, but she had been acting so much on mere gut instinct that her panic had overwhelmed her common sense. Of course, she had lived on Kyoshi Island her entire life, so she knew roughly where she was going even in the darkness with the moon shrouded by the cover of trees and beyond them the cover of clouds. She could imagine that beyond those veils, the moon was worried too, unable to see Ty Lee with all those obstacles in front of her face. The moon was a gentle protector who looked down on all those wandering at night and prayed for their safety, providing aid with her soft, shimmering light. When her light was cut off from those on the earth, she was as helpless as a child awaiting the return of a parent they fear may never return.
Masako was worried, but she did not doubt she would eventually find Ty Lee. It was only her condition when she did find her that she worried over.
This was just terrible. Ty Lee sat on the moist dirt, rubbing her swollen ankle with both hands. The sharp pain she had experienced at first had receded, replaced by a dull ache while she was sitting, but whenever she stood and tried to put weight on the injured ankle, she found the original pain redoubled and she had to sit down again. It was dark and she was alone. She wasn't used to being alone. There had always been her sisters, or her friends at the circus, or Azula and Mai, and even now there were the Kyoshi warriors.
It had been hours earlier that she had first ventured out into the forest. At first she had had fun, swinging on the tall bamboo and climbing the highest tree she could find to look back down at the little village cradled between the trees and the ocean. She was in fine form flipping into the air and landing perfectly on the ground. The circus would've taken her back that very day based on the strength of her act she had wanted to return to them. That made it all the more embarrassing how she had managed to hurt herself. She was walking backwards, trying to steal a peek at an exotic bird in a tree when she had fallen over a tiny branch. That alone would've been no problem as she was an expert at regaining her balance, but that same fallen branch had been perched at the edge of a hole, and she hadn't been expecting that. She crashed into the hole, scraping her arms on its rocky edges and as she crawled out and brushed herself off she became aware of the pain radiating from her ankle.
She had been too foolish that day. She regretted the cockiness that had allowed her to walk backwards through unfamiliar territory. Azula would've been so angry with her if this had happened on her watch. Thinking about Azula didn't make it any better either. She frowned and ran one hand through the loose soil. Azula was as crazy as a rabid skunkbear, but she still missed her.
Masako continued on, noticing a few snapped stalks of pampas grass. Someone had been through her recently. If she was lucky, that someone was Ty Lee.
Suddenly it occurred to her that she had no reason to proceed so silently. This wasn't a wartime spying mission or even a peacetime sneaking up on Suki to see if she could manage it mission. She was searching for a lost girl and when someone was lost, what did you do but call out for them?
She cupped her hands around her mouth. She hadn't taken off her makeup yet for the night and some white powder rubbed off onto the sides of her hands. "Ty Lee!" she called into the night. The moon was silent, or she certainly would've joined in the call.
"Ty Lee!" she cried again, moving onward up the slope. It wasn't much farther in this direction before you reached the drop-off to the ocean. It was gray and slick and steep. She hoped that she would find Ty Lee somewhere before those dangerous cliffs. The stones loomed ominously in her mind, weighing down her heart.
Ty Lee's nimble ears caught the faintest echo of her name. Someone was calling for her? Who could be doing that? No one knew she was out here, as far as she knew. Of course, she had made no secret of her little pleasure trip. One of the villagers or even one of the other girls could have caught sight of her as she disappeared into the green foliage.
She listened hard. She didn't hear it again. Maybe she was just imagining things.
"Ty Lee!" Masako called a third time.
This time Ty Lee was sure she heard it. It was close by. One of the Kyoshi warriors. Maybe that slender one with the long, long hair she let down when she was not practicing to brush against her proud shoulders. Masako.
Masako knew she was coming to a tricky area and she kept a close watch on her feet, springing lightly into the air at precisely the right spot to avoid falling into a rocky crevice in the ground. She had learned her lesson about this spot the hard way, having fallen into it more than once before its precise location was embedded permanently in her mind.
The next thing Ty Lee knew, Masako was flying toward her through the air. "Masako?!" she gasped in shock, scrambling backward on her hands and knees to avoid being crushed by her comrade's landing.
Masako hadn't expected her to be so close by. She reeled backwards on her heels, but managed to catch herself from falling into the hole or forward onto Ty Lee. She wasn't as good on her feet at Ty Lee, but still, the acrobat was impressed by how speedily she adapted to the changing situation. "Ty Lee! There you are! I was looking for you!" she gasped out quickly, one word stumbling heavily over the next. She held out her hand, but Ty Lee, not wanting to lean on her injured ankle, brushed it away. "I was worried about you," Masako finished quietly, her breath regained.
"You were worried...about me?"
"Well, yeah..." Masako answered. Suddenly she was a little embarrassed by the intensity of emotion she had exhibited. She was sure she still had enough makeup left on her face to cover her growing blush.
"Wow, I'm so lucky," Ty Lee said. "I, uh, hurt my ankle. And since I didn't know which way to go in the dark, I was just sort of hoping it would stop hurting so much and that the moon would break through the clouds so I could hobble back and only be scolded by Suki tomorrow, not like, die of exposure or anything."
Masako stopped blushing. She looked at Ty Lee, surprised by this strange admission. She smiled. And then she actually laughed. "Die of exposure? That's crazy! There's no way someone wouldn't come out here to help you before that happened. You're one of us now, and we never leave behind one of our own."
"Oh, that's good. Because Azula was definitely not above leaving behind one of her own."
"Here, let me help you," Masako knelt down, "Put your arm around my shoulders and I'll support you like a crutch so you don't have to step on that foot." They arranged themselves silently, white-painted cheeks touching as Ty Lee took Masako at her word and leaned against her. Ty Lee's face was cold from the night air. Masako's was warm from exertion. Cheeks still pressed together, they looked at one another and they smiled.