Pro-Bending Circuit | Semi Finals
Team & Position: Laogai Lion Vultures, waterbender
Fourth Story in Sequence: Characters D (Chong) & A (Sun Warrior Chief)
Prompts Used: (object) an old map | (object) one left shoe | (restriction) Start and end with the same sentence
Bonus: Use of my element (water)
Word Count: 1,252
Summary: Part four of a four-part series in which Zuko discovers Druk, Sokka finds out about him, blabs to the wandering nomads and gets Aang and Zuko in all sorts of trouble.
Nomad Discretion
Chong puffed contentedly at his pipe. Music is the language of us all, he thought wisely, his fingers plucking a familiar tune in the unfamiliar landscape.
The tune took a familiar shape and he closed his eyes, singing the words silently to himself. Don't fall in love with a travelling girl, she'll leave you broken, brokenhearted! The pipa humming quietly so as not to wake his daughter sleeping soundly at his side, Chong considered that the journey to find the Sun Warriors was maybe a case of destination fever. Something he'd learned from a Water Tribe boy who never saw the journey.
The last notes dribbled through the air around the nomad's campfire and Chong laid his hand against Jewel's braided hair. 'Sweet dreams of rambling in the sun, my moon petal.'
An owl hooted his disdain somewhere nearby.
'Oh, man.' Chong's pipa rested across his lap. 'We gotta write a song about that baby armadillo lizard.'
His wife's flute glinted in the fire. 'He's the real journey,' Lily agreed, a slow smile crawling over her face. 'He, like, knows things, you know?'
'He sure does, turtle-dove.' Chong inhaled leisurely from his pipe. 'Okay, okay… something's coming to me.' His pipa twanged as he searched for the root note...
'Armadillo!
Armadillo!
Through the mountain!
Arma,
Arma,
Arma,
Armadillo... lizard!'
Moku scratched his head slowly, blinking through the furrow in his brow. 'Wasn't it a dragon?' he asked slowly, his djembe rising and falling with his breath. He gathered the map and his thoughts in a rare moment of clarity. 'You can see an armadillo lizard any old time. But no one's seen a dragon in, like, forever. Isn't that why we're looking for these Sun Warriors?'
Chong considered his friend thoughtfully. 'You know, Moku, I can see why the Ba Sing Se University kicked you out. You're a speaker of truth, my friend, armed with nothing but your right shoe and an old map!'
Moku's smile was clear sunny days as he held up the shoe in question. 'Left shoe. I found it, but now I've lost the right one…'
To Chong's mind, it was a sign. 'This dragon song,' he began, his eyes turned towards the glut of stars far above their heads, 'is alive only in the universal music of our souls. But one day we will birth it into the flow of life and it will bring some serious love to the dreamers of this dimension.'
'Dragon song?'
The voice spoke from the darkness and before the nomads could do more than raise their heads in disinterested alarm, they were surrounded. The warriors' severe appearances were underscored by the dramatic reds and golds of their war paint, bright sunset fire in the dusky gloom. Each of them was bald except for a long tail of hair gathered at the crown of their head, tied tightly with golden-coloured leather. All but the closest warrior. The man's stern expression was thunder clouds and salty spray, towering waves in a crashing storm. His headdress reared up out of the darkness like a—
'Heyyy!' Chong exclaimed brightly, leaning forward to jab a finger at the feathered headdress. 'That sure is a far-out hat.'
The man eyed him flatly. 'This is not a hat. It is the sacred crown of my ancestors.'
'Right on, feather man.' He leaned back against the tree, impressed. 'Are you forest people?'
One of the bald men beside Feather-Hat shot the nomad a withering stare. 'We are not forest people!'
Chong blinked in confusion. 'You're not?' He scratched his head as Jewel shifted sleepily beside him. 'Then what kind of people are you?'
Feather-Hat and Grumpy-Bald exchanged a meaningful look. 'Warrior people,' Feather-Hat replied cryptically. 'But enough of this! Who are you? And what are you doing in our lands?'
Lily reclined on her side, waving at the pair of warriors. 'Just going where the wind takes us. Right now, it's blowing us towards a real good story.'
Moku tapped his djembe in agreement. 'We have this old map that's leading us to the ancient Sun Warrior civilisation. They're meant to be long gone, but a Water Tribe kid with destination fever told us they've been living in secret with the last dragons.' Moku's eyes lit suddenly. 'Wait, a minute…' He looked from one warrior to the next, taking them in — from bare feet to yellow leather hair ties — and gasped. 'You guys are warriors... Do you know where we can find the Sun Warriors?'
One of the men behind Grumpy-Bald broke formation to clap a hand to his forehead; Feather-Hat looked somewhat concerned. 'No Water Tribe people have walked Sun Warrior land for centuries.'
Chong drummed idly against the top of his pipa. 'Yeah, but he's friends with the Firelord and the Avatar so that sort of thing happens to him a lot.'
Grumpy-Bald took a step forward, clenching his fist. 'The Avatar!' He turned to Feather-Hat. 'They must have spilled our secret! I knew we couldn't trust the son of Ozai!'
Feather-Hat — the Sun Warrior's Chief — held up his hand to halt his subordinate's protest. 'You forget,' he muttered, 'that the dragon chose him. And the masters entrusted him with the hatchling.' He raised his voice to address the lead nomad. 'Are you referring to the incident with the Avatar, the Firelord, and the baby dragon gifted to him by the Sun Warriors?'
Chong nodded eagerly, a lazy grin stretching his cheeks wide. 'Yeah, that's it. Our friend Destination Fever told us all about it.' He waved a hand before him as though following the progress of a shooting star. 'The double date of dragon destiny. We're writing a song about it.'
The Chief clenched his teeth grimly. 'And how does this song go exactly?'
Chong's eyes lit up. 'Funny you should ask, Feather Man, we were just talking about it ourselves!' He turned to the others. 'I've got the melody, just follow along.'
Taking his pipa in hand, he began plucking the light, dancing lick, grinning when Moku picked up a joyful, rolling drumbeat. Lily soon followed with an echoing call on her flute. The music rose with the smoke from their campfire, wriggling into the hearts of even the most severe of the warriors. Before long they found themselves tapping along to the twists and acrobatics of the song, bouncing their weight from one foot to the other in time with the larger nomad's djembe beat.
The words came to Chong from the flow of the universes, like they always did. He was just here to birth them into life.
'From dreams and visions two friends did see,
Fire and claws and howling of ancient dragons long past,
The Avatar and the Firelord,
Came far for he.
The Sun Warrior's old egg cracked wide,
And a slimy, scaly critter crawled out from deep inside,
The Avatar and the Firelord,
Too large to ride.
Sworn to secrecy, tell no one here,
They took their leave of those Warriors and journeyed to home
The Avatar and the Firelord,
Two hearts, no fear.'
Grumpy-Bald dropped his head into his hands. 'We're ruined,' he lamented in despair.
The Chief merely shook his head watching Chong light his pipe casually as though he hadn't just created a song that would expose the Chief's people.
Moku clapped against his djembe, sheer delight playing over his face. 'It speaks to me,' he gushed, eyes bright. 'It's like my soul recognises it…'
'Right on, man.' Chong puffed contentedly at his pipe.
Our mini-series uses the characters Sun Warrior Chief (A), Zuko (B), Sokka (C) and Chong the Nomad (D). The other parts are as follows:
Part 1 | The Double Date of Dragon Destiny by FictionIsSocialInquiry
Part 2 | The Dragon's Out of the Bag by ManofManyHats
Part 3 | Of Prickle-Snakes and Armadillo Lizards by misszeldsayre
Part 4 | You are here!
The locations of the other three parts are on my profile, check them out!