Aang leaned back in his chair. This job was too hard. "Zuko, let's take a break!" he said.
"No way. You've held this off for too long. You're going to help me figure out how to repair this country before," He looked out the window at the setting sun. "Dammit, the day is almost over."
Aang perked up. "Can I go now?"
"Fine, you can go."
Aang airbended out of his chair and rushed to the coat hanger. He was 15 now, and although he had greatly matured since they met three years ago, he was still a kid.
"Where are you going, anyway?" Zuko asked Aang, who was pulling on his orange cloak, and puffing up his collar.
"Toph and Katara are having a showdown in the courtyard."
"Did they get in another fight?"
"Nope, this one's just for practice. And entertainment." He added. "Are you coming?"
"I'm going to finish up here, thanks."
"Come on, Zuko, it'll be fun!"
Zuko only shook his head. "Fire Lord." He said, pointing at the flame done up in his hair.
"Suit yourself" he walked out the room and turned a corner.
Zuko went back to his papers and sighed. Since becoming the new Fire Lord, the responsibilities had piled up. He had taken the throne at the worst possible time, economically, for the country. And he still had quite a few radical fire associates in the palace who had supported Fire Lord Ozai's original plan, although most of the country's citizens had long grown tired of it. The Fire Nation officials had spent so much money on the war, that many of the nation's smaller towns and villages had been reduced to poverty; some had even been abandoned.
Zuko knew all this, and sighed as he asked himself how he was going to help his people. He leaned back in his chair, and clasped his hands on his forehead.
"That does it!" he stood up, knocking over his chair, and left the room, turning a corner.
"Hey, Zuko!" Zuko turned around and saw a figure running at him.
"Sokka! I haven't seen you around in a while."
"Yeah, I've been busy. Water tribes stuff. Are you coming to the courtyard?"
"Yep. I'm betting on Toph."
"I don't know, Katara can be pretty fierce."
"Oh, I know." Said Zuko. "Bad memories."
They reached the courtyard where Toph, Katara, and Aang were chatting.
"Hey, Sokka! Zuko!" waved Katara.
"Twinkle Toes was just telling us you weren't coming." Toph said to Zuko.
"Yeah, well, I needed a break."
"Are we gonna do this?" Said Sokka.
"Let's get going! Although," said Katara, "I had an idea, earlier."
"Tell us about it." Said Aang.
- - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
At the front gate, someone was knocking rapidly. The servants rushed to the door to see who it was.
"What on Earth..?" Said one servant, peering out the peep hole.
- - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Alright! Everyone ready?" Toph shouted. "Then let's go!" Toph and Zuko stood opposite Katara, Aang, and Sokka. Several things happened at once.
Toph, always the first to act, sent a boulder hurtling at Aang. He sank in to the earth as Katara sent a frozen spear right at Toph's head. Zuko melted it in mid air, as Sokka's boomerang flew past and hit him in the back of his head.
"Hiya! I gotcha!" He shouted, right before he sank knee deep into the ground. "Aw, Toph!" He whined.
Aang emerged from underground and sent a slice of wind at Toph and Zuko, leaving a two foot deep ditch in the ground.
"Stinkin airbending!" Growled Toph, as she lifted a wall from the ground to shield herself and Zuko.
"Wait!" Shouted Katara.
"What, done already?" Asked Aang, dropping a frozen ball of ice.
"No, look!"
A servant stood at the edge of the courtyard, panting.
"My lord," she wheezed. "There's someone here to see you. He says it's urgent."
"Ah geez." Zuko sighed. "I'll be right there."
"He asked for the Avatar, as well."
The Gaang looked around at each other.
"What is this about?" Asked Sokka, still knee deep in the ground.
"He wouldn't say. Please, sir, he was very worried."
"Alright, let's go." Said Toph. She stomped her foot, and Sokka popped out of the ground, falling flat on his face.
They followed the servant down the hall, into the meeting room, where a very ragged looking old man sat, twitching.
"Fire Lord." He got up and bowed. "I've waited a long time for this." The group sat, facing him at the table.
"What are you here for?" Asked Zuko, center.
"I've traveled across the world to reach you, and the Avatar. My country is in great need of help."
"The Earth Kingdom?" Asked Katara.
"The Wood Island."
The group sat silent. "The what?" Asked Sokka.
"I'm not surprised you don't know of it. The Wood Island and the Metal Island have been estranged from the world for many years."
Zuko got up and pulled back a curtain hanging on the wall, revealing a world map. "Can you show us where your islands are?"
"Certainly. Right.. here." He pointed at two miniscule islands below the Western Air Temple, surrounded by hundreds of even smaller islands, closely grouped together.
"You hardly notice them," Said Katara, squinting.
"Why aren't they labeled?" Asked Sokka.
"Well, that part of the world is largely unexplored." Said Zuko. "My father always assumed they were all uninhabited islands.
"There were legends among the Air Temples of two islands, where there were two more, secret elements." Said Aang, "But, I mean, they were just stories. Nobody even knew where the islands were."
"Well, they're both right here." The man tapped the map. "This one's the Metal Island," He pointed to the larger of the two, "and this one's the Wood Island."
"So what's the problem?" Zuko asked as they sat down again.
"The problem is that the Metal Nation has been destroying the Wood Island. I left the island a year ago, and it wasn't pretty. The Metal people have been colonizing the Wood peoples' land, and making the Wood people work as their servants. They've destroyed whole villages, leaving the people who lived there with nowhere to go but to a metal colony to work! There are almost no woodbenders left," He said, stomping his foot. "and the Wood culture is dying out. It took me a year just to get here." He turned to Aang. "You've got to help."
"We'll need to talk it over," Said Zuko, standing.
"We have a lot to deal with right now," Said Aang, "But we'll see what we can do." The group stood and left the room.
Later that night, at dinner, the five discussed it.
"What I don't understand," said Toph, "is why you, as the Avatar, didn't know about this. Wouldn't one of your spirit buddies have let you in on it?"
Aang shrugged.
"Yeah, Toph's right." Said Sokka. "I'm not sure I trust this guy."
"But if he's right, it means that a whole country needs our help." Offered Katara. "We can't just say no to that."
"The Avatar is the one this man wants, not the Fire Lord." Said Zuko. "What do you think, Aang?"
"I think.." he looked up from his food. "I think I'd better sleep on it." He stood up from the table. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."
- - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Kaeo stepped out into the sunlight, and wormed her way through the crowd. It had been weeks since the nuns had let her out of the convent, and she was going to take advantage of it. She scanned the tables, and took in the sweet aroma of coconut, mango, and passionfruit. She could almost see the scents drifting through the air. She closed her eyes and took it all in; she loved the marketplace. She added a few kiwis to her basket, and then headed over for some lettuce, skipping the meat and poultry section. The nuns were vegetarians.
When Kaeo returned to the convent, she found the head nuns gathered around the main table.
Kaeo bowed her head and proceeded to the kitchen.
"Kaeo," a nun beckoned her to the table.
"But the groceries.." She lifted up her basket.
"Leave them on the stairs."
Kaeo approached the solemn nuns with caution. Nothing could be good all the head nuns in the convent wanting to talk to her, a serf.
"Sit down."
A kinder looking old woman touched Kaeo's arm. "Kaeo, you're 16 now. That means you must choose to stay here, and serve the convent and our Lord," the nuns bowed their heads and whispered, "may we serve our Lord well", "Or," continued the nun, "you can take up work as a private maid to a family living here."
Kaeo had never enjoyed her life in the convent. After her parents' death, she had lead a life of slavery, serving a god that she didn't believe in. The nuns had oppressed her, trying to take her own culture away from her. They told her daily that she came from an inferior race, that she must fight to rise above it. Her people were nothing but savages, they said, practicing spirtual voodoo.
"Does the family have a mother?" She asked.
Before the nuns could answer, the giant doors to the colonial style building opened up, and in walked a tall man dressed in silk clothing, adorned with metal.
"Is this her?" the nuns nodded.
"She looks well mannered. She'll do fine." And just as quickly as the tall man had entered, he left.
"Kaeo," a nun walked forward with another servant following close behind, carrying a wooden box.
"When you came to us, eight years ago, all of your belongings were taken from you. You remember this?"
Kaeo nodded. Worldly possessions were not needed in the house of the Lord, the nuns always said.
"These things are not ours to keep. They are yours."
Kaeo took the box and held it against her side.
"Your nex master is outside, waiting for you. And Kaeo," said the oldest nun in the room, the one that had touched her arm. "You will pray to our heavenly father?" Again, the nuns bowed their heads and murmured.
Kaeo faked a smile. "I'll do my best." She turned around and whispered to herself, 'you senile old bat.'
She pushed open the heavy wooden doors and once again, stepped out into the heat. On the porch stood the tall man, smoking a long metal pipe.
"Ah, here you are." He said. "I was wondering if the nuns would ever let you go." He scanned her up and down.
Kaeo had an average height. Her silvery blonde hair was tied with a plain gray ribbon and reached down to her shoulders. She was wearing the clothes given to her by the convent, marking her place as a maid. A gray elbow length cotton blouse, followed by a gray skirt of the same fabric, reaching down to her feet. A small white apron covered the upper half of her skirt. She wore no shoes.
The man moved his eyes up. She had strong arms, probably from carrying buckets of water up and down stairs. Her hands were dirty, her face was dirty. Her eyes had the look of someone who had been through a lot of pain. And she had. He had heard the story of the greatest woodbending family in the country, and how they had been torn apart by his country's religious intolerance.
Very few people knew the secrets of the wood benders, and the tall man was one of them. It had been his generation that had purged the Wood Nation of their benders. The wood benders were a peaceful people who focused on Karma, giving back to the Earth, and communicating with the Spirit World.
The Metal Nation's religion, however, focused not on the Spirit World, but on one god, their relationship with that one god, and helping others to form a similar relationship Their religion ultimately prevailed, and as Metal Nation citizens colonized the Wood Nation, they also spread their religion even deeper.
The man sighed as he looked into his new servant's eyes. He saw in them the last fifty years of pain and misery for this girl's people.
The girl approached the tall man, and as he took a puff of his pipe, she took a mental note of his appearance. He had black hair and pale white skin. He wore long, black, silky pants, and a black coat. A golden necklace shined through his coat, with a tortoise engraved on the bronze pendant.
"My name, is Taine." He held out his hand.
"Kaeo." She shook it.
"We'll have to get you some new clothes. The other maids at the house have a very different uniform."
Taine was not at all what Kaeo had expected in her new boss. All the same, she followed him down the steps and away from the convent that she had spent the last eight years of her life.
Taine and Kaeo passed through the wood village, and after a short walk on a dirt road bordered by familiar tropical trees and plants. They came to a clearing in the forest. Tall iron buildings loomed over them. Kaeo studies the buildings closer. Each one had large iron doorknobs, many with the design of a turtle on them.
"Have you ever been to the metal colonies before?" Taine asked.
"When I was younger, before I worked at the convent, I went to a metal trading post. There were maybe 50 colonizers buliding houses there. But nothing as elaborate as this." She rolled up her sleeves and looked up at the roofs. They all had iron weather vanes. And further down, each building had iron staircases running down the walls.
"You were probably here, about ten years ago."
"What, this place? That's impossible, this place is nothing like the trading post I went to."
"Well, it's been built up a bit since then." He said.
"Geez, how fast do metal benders work?" She said, awed.
"Faster than wood benders." He answered.
Kaeo averted her eyes. The subject of woodbending was rarely brought up.
"Did you help build this place?" She asked.
"You mean to ask, am I a metal bender?"
Kaeo, embarassed, nodded. "Just curious."
"Well, yes. I am. It's in my family." He said. "And you?"
She looked up. "And I what?"
"Are you a bender?" This man was too strange. Where had he been the last ten years?
"Well, no. Nobody woodbends anymore."
"I see. It's a shame. The two elements go so nicely together."
"They're opposites, though." Kaeo replied, kicking her bare feet into the road.
"Opposites attract, some say. Well, here we are!" Taine stopped in front of a large, iron building.