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Key

"Elvin Dialog" Meaning

'Thoughts...'

"Dirt writing"

'Telepathic speaking...'

The Brother and the Sister

Zuko opened his eyes and saw a white light surrounded him. He decided to ask the most typical question, since that more or less got an answer; "Where am I?" The last thing he remembered he was in his study trying to figure out plans for the next place on the list that needed the most help in rebuilding what was lost during the war.

"I have brought you here, Fire Lord Zuko," A soft and reassuring male voice said.

Zuko raised an eyebrow. After a year, he was still getting used to being called that. Typical question number two; "Why?"

"To inform you about my sister and I, who will be arriving in Ba Sing Se in a few weeks. Around the time you and your friends are supposed to meet for your…monthly 'ketchup' time, as Warrior Sokka put it," the person informed him with a chuckle.

Zuko took note of the small burst of laughter, figuring it would be the first thing he noticed before the stranger spoke in real life. He was certainly in dream-state, that was the only explanation for the white surroundings, the voice of a person he could not see, and the fact said voice knew his name…then again being Fire Lord, everyone knew his name. What about how he knew Sokka? Duh, Sokka helped the Aang, the Avatar. He palmed his forehead, "Mai said I think too much…"

"Then I will leave you to rest. You might want to think about sneaking away to start your journey with Mai as soon as possible, so none of your servants or guards follow you. You can also be in Ba Sing Se early and be on the lookout for us," the stranger stated.

"Be on the lookout for you? How can I be on the lookout when I don't even know what you look like? I don't even know your name!" Zuko stated back irritated.

"Be calm, Fire Lord Zuko," the male said soothingly. The Wind whirled about and then a figure made a shy wave. The outfit he was wearing was extremely similar in style to Aang's, but with certain differences. His top was exact, but without the collar and orange shoulder-cloak. His pants were orange held by a red sash and he had brown boots, and a cream colored cloak kept his face shadowed.

Zuko took the new person in as best he could. The person in front of him was around 5ft 10, and his build was medium…possibly muscled not from fighting, but from constant training. He noticed the three swirls on the broach that held his cloak together, "That symbol…but how? I thought all Air Benders were extinct!"

"They are…True Air Benders at least. However, that doesn't mean descendants don't have the same power. Over time all it is, is that it has been watered down. Though, it's stronger in her than it is me, really. I have other specialties…" the stranger shrugged and then sighed, rubbing his forehead, "My time with you runs short, Fire Lord Zuko. I can only keep this up for so long. I hope you understand?"

"Yes…of course," Zuko sighed, "I will not keep you from your sister any longer. You said she was weakened…but not ill…what happened?"

"We passed through a Fire Nation prison just the other day…ran into an old woman from the Southern Water Tribe…A Blood Bender she called herself…Hama I think was her real name," the descended Air Bender explained. He bowed once more, "Namaarie." Farewell. With that, the Wind whirled again and he was gone.

Zuko closed his eyes against the whip of the breeze and the white light vanished. He opened his eyes again and woke up in his own bed. Looking to his side he saw a content Mai asleep by his side and figured she had been the one to put him there. He smiled softly and cuddled closer to her before retuning back to the sweet world of sleep.

"Brother? Are we almost there?" a weak voice asked. It was two weeks after she had that encounter with Hama, but she was still so tired and felt ill but had no fever…her "seal cough" was proof enough, though, for anyone who bothered. As she looked up at the sky she saw just a sliver of the moon and felt better. The past three days she'd been extremely sick and also during those nights it had been the New Moon. She had just started recovering today.

"We'll be at the wall in the morning, sister, and then by early afternoon we'll be somewhere where you can rest and relax from the long travel," the brother said gently. He snapped the rains slightly and sped the horses a bit faster. Yesterday, thankfully, they had crossed a merchant town and had been given a carriage so he could carry his sister easier to Ba Sing Se.

"Alright, that sounds good," the sister smiled softly as her black lemur with white trimmings and purple eyes leapt up. She moved aside her cream cloak, matching to her brother's, so the big-eared critter could curl up against her chest, and then covered him. She wore the same kind of outfit as her brother, but the colors were switched. Her top was the same, but her baggy pants were red while her sash was orange, and she had black flat shoes.

"Try to sleep," he requested softly, "Ventus will take care of you."

She petted the little lemur named Ventus, "I know…and you will, too?"

"Always…I will, too."

"Zuko, are you alright?" Iroh asked his nephew who was looking at the door, "That's the sixth time you've looked at the door since noon."

"Not counting the other three dozen times since we got here this morning," Mai stated with a sigh.

Zuko rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "Um…I'm just wondering where Sokka and Suki are," he half-lied. The truth was he was worried that the brother with the sick sister hadn't been able to get through the wall. He had gotten here a week early, as suggested, and informed the needed officials about them, and not to do anything to people wearing colors similar to Aang's and carrying same symbol as well. They had told him they would do their best to make sure the two also got to The Jasmine Dragon safely…but he still worried if "get there early" hadn't meant doing what he had done in order to help.

"Toph is with them, they'll be fine," Katara waved an unconcerned hand.

"Not what I'm worried about, but alright…" Zuko sighed, "Never mind…they'll be here when they want."

"Come on, Toph! We're late!" Suki called behind her.

"Hang on, I feel a carriage coming. I'd rather not be toppled over by horses," Toph shook her head.

"Oh, well, that's different," Sokka agreed and pulled Suki out of the way just in time as a small cloud of dust showed in the distance and the horses showed before the carriage and then two similar-looking people came towards them. They stopped, though, when they reached Toph.

The male who was driving the carriage had ocean blue eyes, and his hair was caramel colored, shaggy get sort of spiked, and the strips that framed his face were dark brown. He smiled kindly at the three of them, but then saw the girl wearing green was blind, but her blank eyes were mint-green colored. He chuckled and got down. He saw her gasp and back up, frowning and narrowing her eyes. He shifted his stance, and she calmed. He placed his hand near her ear and made his cloak rustle, before setting his hand on her shoulder. He tugged gently, trying to see if she would understand the simple gesture.

Toph's eyes were wide. His movements…they were light, like Twinkle Toes, but he was shifting so weirdly…like he didn't want her to shout it out. The rustle of his cloak…she had seen what it was, because the air brushing through her made her see like she did with her feet. The tugging… "Do you want me to follow you?" he tugged again, "Okay…" She walked with him to the other side of the carriage and as he bent down to the ground he shifted and she somehow knew he didn't want her to do the same.

Sokka and Suki blinked. Sokka folded his arms, "What are we? Chopped liver?"

"Sokka, I don't think they're bad people…" Suki said placing her hand on his shoulder soothingly.

"How do you figure?" Sokka raised an eyebrow.

"Well, look at their outfits," Suki motioned to the girl whose ocean blue eyes widened. The Kyoshi Warrior watched as she placed a hand over the broach and closed the cloak around her body to hide the outfit. She blinked and realized they were trying to stay secret, at least for now.

"What do you mean?" Sokka asked curiously.

"Never mind, let's just watch Toph," Suki smiled as Sokka shrugged.

Toph stared at the speedy display of what she guessed to be kanji writing. She couldn't read of course, being blind, but somehow, as she watched more and more, she began to understand. 'Finally, someone who thought to use the dirt to teach me something I don't know…' she smiled lightly. Time went on, and what she thought to be an hour, even more, was only just about five minutes. By the time he was done and the slate on the ground was like he had never written a thing, she understood what took years for others to learn…how to read and understand kanji, and no doubt she could write it as well now. Just by using the dirt…

"Wow…" was all she had to say.

The stranger smiled and wrote in the Earth, "I am glad you understand. Now I have a few questions to ask you."

Toph began to bend down to kneel and write as well, and was glad he didn't move to signal her to stop. She wrote, "Ask away. It is the least I can do for your lesson."

"I have been traveling for a while with my sister who is in the carriage," he explained first, "Typically; we came here from a far away land, seeking the Avatar. It is not urgent, quite the contrary. It is more a quest to teach him some things he might be interested in. However, this is our first time in Ba Sing Se. I got help from Fire Lord Zuko so we could enter this place, but I am afraid we still do not know our way around. We are looking for The Jasmine Dragon. At least…I am, so my sister can stay there and rest while I find us a place to stay."

"Why are you keeping this a secret? Can you not talk?" Toph asked.

He readily laughed at that, "I am not mute, thank you, and neither is my sister. I am sorry to say that I caught onto my sister's riddle ways and like to keep people guessing and wondering instead of getting to the point. So, we use a foreign language to mask what we say until we can speak normally. All will be revealed in time…"

"If you want it secret, then why are you telling me? I can easily turn around and spill all of this to Sokka and Suki over there and then to the rest of my friends," Toph stated rather matter-of-factly.

"You are a lot of things, Toph, I can tell that just by looking at you and the way you're writing. You're blank mint-green eyes may be blind, but they tell more than you know. I can see you are not one to betray others. Also, I trust you with this. Besides, you will probably only need to keep it for a couple days," he promised.

"A couple days as in sometime tomorrow, right? Or couple days as in two days?" Toph asked. She didn't know what 'mint-green' was, but she figured with this guy, she would figure it out another time.

He chuckled, "I speak in riddles, I know…but I blame it on my sister who caught me in them all the time when we were young. I learned to play her game, but then it grew on me. Yes, sometime tomorrow…"

"Let me, Sokka, and Suki take your sister to The Jasmine Dragon. We are going there anyway for some time together with our friends," Toph told him.

"May I accompany you? I'd like to be able to find it if I need to," the stranger requested.

Toph thought for a moment, "Sure, alright, that sounds good." She didn't write any more, just stood up.

The man stood up also, "Ya auta yeste'?" Who's leading?

Toph raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?" That didn't sound like any Japanese, Chinese, or any other language she'd heard of.

"It's Elvin, the foreign language I told you about. I was asking who was leading," the stranger wrote in the dirt quickly with his boot before wiping it away. He climbed in the carriage and turned it around. He repeated, "Ya auta yeste'?"

"Oh…Um, Sokka's leading," Toph pointed to the said teenager.

"FINALLY! We've been noticed!" Sokka shouted sarcastically/excitedly throwing his hands up in the air.

Suki giggle as well as the stranger girl, "I knew we would be eventually, Sokka. It's all about being patient," she soothed patting his shoulder. She tugged his hand, "Let's introduce ourselves to the strangers, okay?"

"Okay," Sokka nodded.

The two walked over and Suki held her hand out to the stranger, "Hi, I'm Suki, from the Kiyoshi Warriors. This is Sokka from Southern Water Tribe," she motioned to her crush.

"Hi there," Sokka waved cheerfully.

Suki giggled, "It's a pleasure to meet you…um…"

"Tharsirion," the stranger smiled shaking his hand, "Saesa omentien lle, Suki," Pleasure meeting you, Suki.

Suki giggled, "You use an…interesting language."

"It's Elvin," Toph told her.

"Elvin? How can you tell?" Sokka asked.

"He told me," Toph answered.

"When?! I didn't hear him say anything," Sokka narrowed his eyes at Tharsirion.

"He used the dirt and wrote Kanji. I understood it perfectly," Toph shrugged.

"You can't read, though! You're blind!" Sokka protested.

Toph ignored him and looked at Tharsirion, "Can I call you Thar?"

Tharsirion chuckled and nodded his approval. Only his sister called him that, but he supposed now things would change a lot. He admired how she completely ignored Sokka in order to avoid answering his question by talking to him.

Sokka narrowed his eyes with Toph patted his shoulder, "Why did you ignore me like that?"

"All will be revealed in time," Toph repeated what Thar told her with a grin. She then went back and actually willingly gave up her ability to see with her feet and climbed up in the seat next to Tharsirion and Suki just went to walk with Sokka. Together they all traveled to The Jasmine Dragon.

Zuko glanced at the door just in time to see Sokka and Suki come in, "Hi! What took you all so long? Where is Toph?" he asked excitedly going over to them.

"Aren't we excited today?" Sokka raised an eyebrow and shrugged before going over to his and Suki's usual table, "Why are you so worked up?"

"Oh…no reason in particular. It's just that we only get so many days to get together and talk; I just don't want to waste any of the time we all have together," Zuko said reasonably.

Suki giggled, "Toph is out with a guy she met. His sister will be in shortly with her while the brother goes off to get them a place to stay.

As she said that, there were people talking right outside the door. "Cormamin niuve tenna' ta elea lle au'…" My heart shall weep until it sees thee again. It was Tharsirion who spoke.

"Tenna' ento lye omenta," Until we next meet. A sweet female voice giggled.

"Enough small-talk you two. Let's go, they're waiting," Toph's voice easily huffed.

"Namaarie!" the girl called laughing.

"Namaarie," Thar sighed before the sound of the carriage sped off.

Zuko stared at the door as Toph and a woman, around 5ft even in height came in. The strange girl had long, chocolate brown colored hair tied in a braid, and framing her face were caramel strips with twists at the ends. Her ocean blue eyes sparkled happily as she looked around the room, but she also seemed embarrassed since she knew no one. Namaarie… and the way the man outside had said it…it had to be them.

Toph led the girl to her table, but as she sat down the stranger shook her head before turning to go towards the counter. She shrugged, knowing Zuko would deliver her usual in a few minutes.

The girl smiled at Iroh when she was about halfway, but then as Zuko was about to set down the tray of teas at the table with Aang and Katara, Aang got up to come greet her, not noticing his staff accidentally sent Zuko flying off his feet. "Tira ten' rashwe!" Look out! She called to Katara, who the teas were flying right at.