"Please hurry, Daichi!" the young mother cried, casting a frantic look behind her as the flames that were now consuming her village rose higher. But even the flames weren't the most alarming thing at hand. She appeared to be looking even beyond the flames, as though expecting somebody to be chasing her.
The giant sky bison made a loud bellow in response, as if to comfort the young woman, and flew even faster.
The young mother swallowed, and cast a hurried look down at the baby in her arms, swaddled in many blankets as to protect her from the cold mountain air, and the mother sent a silent plea to the spirits that her baby wouldn't start crying.
The infant was indeed a little different than most children her age. She rarely cried, and when she did, it was only when something out of place was happening. Just last week, her screams had nearly plunged her mother into a panic, when she wouldn't stop crying at the top of her lungs. The young woman had tried everything, feeding, changing, making faces, bouncing, singing, even creating a round little air ball for the child to sit in and play. But nothing stopped her screams. By morning, her mother was growing frantic, and met with one of her neighbors outside who hurriedly grabbed her and told her to go to the Shelter because an earthquake was headed their way.
Three days that, the young woman had turned her back for a moment to get a pie from the counter- and the baby and her lemur, Ume, were gone. Panicking, the young woman ran outside asking neighbors if they had seen her and when they began to search they heard a scream piece the air-the baby! They all ran to the back of the woman's house, and stared in amazement as the infant watched- from atop Ume's back, which was how she had gotten out- Daichi nudge a cart off a young man who had been knocked unconscious. The cart had apparently been forgotten upon the ledge of rocks that had been loosened by the earthquake a few days earlier, and the young man, flying by on his air glider, had accidentally hit the edge of the loosened rock pile, and the cart had toppled along with the rocks covering the young airbender in a kind of cache. Fortunately, he was only unconscious and suffered minor bruises and scrapes. But the neighbors still talked in amazement about how the little infant had sensed this happening- and saved the young man. The young mother was even more dazed, and secretly a little proud of her young daughter.
Suddenly, a jet of fire came from the left of the sky bison and grazed the right side of his underbelly. Daichi roared in pain as he dove to the right and flew higher, the young woman searching frantically for the sudden source of danger from the ground. Oh no- they're here! The firebenders. She thought frantically, and then tried to calm herself down. With a deep breath, she sent a powerful blast of air down to the right to uncover their position.
The trees blew back suddenly from the strong wind, and the young woman saw with horror that there had to be at least fifty of them atop komodo rhinos. She couldn't possibly fight them all, not with her baby here! She fervently wished that her husband found them in time. All of a sudden, an old voice called out, "Stop!"
Afiko, the old monk, rose alongside Daichi on his own sky bison. "Stop now, daughter, or I will take the child by force." His voice rang, cold and high, as the two growling sky bison circled each other.
The young woman looked down at her daughter, still sleeping peacefully. "All right. If Daichi and I descend and do as you wish, you will not harm us?" she murmured quietly, but an assertive strength sparked behind the subservient tone she used.
Afiko nodded sagely, his eyes boring into his daughter's eyes. "Yes. You have my word." He kept his voice authoritative and indifferent, but his eyes betrayed him as they narrowed suspiciously. She was plotting something, keeping something secret from him. But, then again, that's no surprise. Afiko thought bitterly.
The two sky bison descended slowly, never quite ceasing growling at each other. They lowered to the ground, where both father and daughter stepped down, touching the ground, each hiding secrets in their eyes.
"The child must come with us, Akiko. Alone." Afiko told her coldly, as the Fire Nation soldiers gathered around him, most still in their defensive posture, as with two irritated sky bison, their rhinos could be made into hotcakes with one misstep.
"No!" Akiko cried, drawing her daughter closer to her. "I will not leave her! She doesn't bear any threat to you or the Fire Nation- no matter what the Fire Sages say! She is only an infant, what harm could she do? She is the gentlest, kind, happy baby- "
"ENOUGH!"Afiko roared, cutting her off. "Perhaps she doesn't now, but she will soon, one day. The Fire Sages have seen this, and the Fire Lord does not approve. You knew it was strictly forbidden to have a child with a soul from the Spirit World- let alone one so dangerous and deviant! What daughter of mine are you, to have sunk so low as to marry and have the child of Kazuki, a dark soul from the land of the Spirit World?! For this transgression alone, you must be confined Akiko. You have caused me, and all of our people great shame."
"He is not as evil as you believe! It's all a misunderstanding and if you would only listen-"
"I will not be ordered about by the likes of you! Do you want to cause more destruction on the village?"
" Of course not! My daughter has nothing to do with that! It is Takehiro's child isn't it- Monk Gyatso's pupil, the Avatar that has caused your blameless ire. Because of your jealousy and rage, how many more will have to suffer, Father?"
"SILENCE!!" Afiko shouted and sent a great gust of wind at his daughter, unexpectedly knocking her several feet away from Daichi's protection. Akiko got up slowly, her head ringing, as she clutched her daughter to her chest. Luckily she was not injured, but the infant had awoken, and began to cry. As Akiko tried to soothe her, the Fire Nation soldiers began closing in surrounding her.
"No!" she cried sending out a half circle gust of wind, knocking the ones on her left side into the tree trunks. "Ume! Daichi!" Her maternal instincts made her want to hold her baby closer, but as Ume swooped low with a screech at a startled firebender, she quickly looped her child to the special carriage she had befitted to her lemur. "Go! I'll be there soon!" she cried, sending another gust at a group of soldiers, recovering and drawing closer.
With one last mournful cry of reproach, Daichi flew off narrowly avoiding the close ranging jets of fire that the soldiers sent in his direction. With Ume and the infant sitting on his head, Daichi sped off to the secret cove, flying away from the flames, away from the young mother trying to fight off the horde of firebenders, away from the sneering Afiko, the burning trees…
Please, Kazuki, Akiko implored silently as she felt a soldier jab her with his elbow to the back of her head, sending her crashing against a heavily laden boot. Please, make it in time to save her-please save our daughter from them. Protect her and Daichi and Ume, from my father and the Fire Lord. As she sank into red, then black then shapes…so much pain, unconsciousness she sent one last silent cry to the spirits- Please protect my daughter, Malu.