In the afternoon where warm winds were known to sweep across the Earth Kingdom, a breeze pleasant to the body and calming to the soul wafted along the forest, caressing the flora and fauna inhibiting the lush plot of nature with its airy whispers.
In a certain province somewhere in between the south and middle portion of one of the remaining unconquered nations was a lone girl in her teen years lost in the forest. "I'm pretty sure this forest is the shortcut to the next town, right?" Currently, she was comparing the personalised map drawn on her left arm and the torn map she held on her other hand. She breathes out a frustrated sigh at her luck. The two maps looked the same but made as much sense as describing colours to a badgermole. If only she kept the map in her bag before heading to the market, it would not have torn in two and if that was what happened she wouldn't be in this forest in the first place.
"Hey, have you heard?"
Sayuri stops in her tracks when she picks up a different voice from her own coming from somewhere close and takes a keen gander for the source of the voice.
"Heard what?"
"The townsfolk said they've seen a young woman enter this forest," A deep voice said.
"Yeah," Replied a younger sounding one. "Well, she might be worth something."
"Oh, I'll show you my worth." Sayuri challenges, jamming the map in her pocket and rolling her sleeves up. She looks around for a weapon and spots a fairly sized branch near the base of a tree. "That'll work, I guess. Better get out of here fast." Sayuri bends down to grab the branch when a snapping sound ricochets in the air. She makes a face at her uncooperative foot. "Really?"
"You heard that?"
"Look! There she is!"
"Back off or face the wrath of my sword!" She shouts out, meaning business to the two men running towards her, the broken branch is swung in front of her, the broken end flopping side-to-side like a wilted vegetable.
"That's a stick." The man with a brown bandana on his head says, laughing while trying to avoid getting hit by the end of the tree branch.
"Exactly. Now fetch!" Sayuri snickered and flung the branch towards the two men, successfully hitting one square on the head.
"Why you-!"
Sayuri lets out a laugh and breaks into a run towards the other direction.
"Hey, get back here!" One guy shouted. "You have something that we want!"
"And that would be?" Sayuri shouted back.
The source of an intense light was just a mere distance away and ghosts of gusts of wind were hitting her body and were blowing the loose tail part of her hood in all sorts of directions, her feet picked up pace and soon she made it to the exit. As she was about to jump into the blinding light, impairing her of her vision for a moment, audible slapping sounds of waves hitting the earth reached her ears. The wind also blew hard forcing her to rock back on her heels to regain balance. "Whoa!"
Sayuri managed to shift her weight and luckily landed on her behind.
That was close.
She exhaled, blinking her eyes in surprise before carefully crawling forward to peek between the trees if her hunch was right.
Uh huh, her hunch was right. She almost jumped off a cliff.
"Finally! We caught up with you!" The guy smirked.
Sayuri quickly got to her feet and faced her two stalkers, putting some distance between them but keeping in mind that just a few missteps backwards and she'd be kissing the ocean below.
"Can we negotiate back inside the forest? This place doesn't look very accommodating. A ha ha...ha." She blurted out, a wry smile on her face. Either she cooperated and handed over her money then leave her alone or jump twenty feet into the ocean. She had nowhere to run and one wrong step would be her doom.
One guy slowly approached her with a smug grin. "Come on, miss, just give us your money and we'll leave you alone." Both men not looking in the mood to negotiate.
"Does it look like I'll give it to you?" Sayuri said flatly, looking at the two men and thinking of ways to escape her muggers. They were in the shade while half her body was bathing in the sun, how splendid.
"Give us your money or we'll hack you open and feed your guts to the whalesharks!" To prove his point, the man withdrew his crescent shaped sword and pointed it to her throat.
"Okay! Okay! I'll give it you!"
She reached for her coin pouch and swung it side to side, the few change clinking against each other. She untied it from her waist and frowned. It was all that was left of her money!
The pouch was in the air soon and was caught by the unarmed man, he snickered and quickly peered inside.
Sayuri was about to jump in between the two men, back to the safe ground of the forest when the man holding the pouch turned to raise his eyebrow at her. "There's only five copper pieces and a couple of dust in here. Why are the copper pieces so light?"
She holds that thought, offended that her hard earned money was being looked down upon. That pouch was pretty heavy when it was tied to her waist! "How should I know? Are you insulting me? That's not good enough for you? It's still money!"
"Eh, I bet the dust is what made this pouch heavier. These copper pieces must be fake."
Sayuri scoffed. "Excuse me? Those copper pieces are not fake!"
The man cackled and withdrew his sword. "Ha! You poor girl. Here, you can have it back along with this rock to give your pouch some weight! Ha ha ha!" He snatches the pouch from his companion and puts a rock inside the pouch before chucking it towards Sayuri.
"My pouch..!" Sayuri jumps to catch her belittled pouch on instinct when an important thought occurs to her in those seconds of her airborne state.
The cliff was just a jump away.
She thinks she heard a gasp when she misses the catch or was that when she jumped? She wasn't so sure when the pouch lands squarely on her head with a loud thwack knocking half of her consciousness off before sliding down her face, losing some of its copper pieces to the pull of the earth.
A question of why everything was suddenly lightweight and spinning pops in Sayuri brain as the ocean below sparkle in greeting, awaiting her fall.
"...you just killed-"
"It wasn't my fault. It was the rock's fault." The bandit who put the rock in the pouch says before innocently whistling a tune.
"Nephew, you must move more rapidly, allowing your heat to unleash throughout your entire body." Iroh repeated for the tenth time that day, standing up to scold his nephew. "Your movements are becoming too stiff and tense. You must relax and merely take your time."
Zuko growled. "Uncle, how can I take my time when I need to search for the Avatar? He could be out there mastering more of the elements while I'm sitting here learning things I mastered since I was a child!"
Iroh sighed. Sometimes his nephew would act difficult, and it always grew hard to work out with him when he was like that. Sure Iroh understood how much stress Zuko was under right now, but he needed to calm down and focus.
"Zuko, you and I both know that you will get nowhere unless you focus." Iroh reminded him, taking his original seat.
Zuko huffed and got into a fighting stance once more, breathing deeply. The next moment, he was practically flying through the air, fire being sent to the skies. He flailed random kicks and punches to add to the training, but nevertheless, he was concentrating on his bending. Once again, Iroh cut in.
"I just got finished explaining the problem to you, yet you continue doing it!" Iroh said warily. "Perhaps you should hesitate."
Zuko's face grew red. "No! I need to learn some new exercises to increase my skill! Do you not understand? I already mastered all of this; this is foolish! I NEED TO BE LEARNING HOW TO TAKE DOWN THE FIRE NATION'S GREATEST THREAT!"
Iroh rubbed his temple. "We are getting there, Prince Zuko. For now, get back into that stance but increase your breathing. Then-"
"Ahhhh!"
Zuko paused in mid explanation, craning his neck to look up. Someone was screaming above him, and he backed up, wondering what to do. It sounded like a girl, so he willingly held out his arms, preparing for someone to fall easily into them.
The girl landed heavily into his arms, knocking Zuko onto the ground. He let out a shocked grunt as he landed on his back, getting the air knocked out of him. Stars appeared in his mind as he regained his control, turning to glare at the person in his arms. To his surprise the girl seemed awfully familiar.
"It's you!" Zuko hissed, recognising the bistre hood and shoves the girl off of him in disgust. "What are you doing here?"
Somewhere in between her aerial descent, Sayuri regained consciousness and felt the harsh rush of air around her.
"W-Whoa!" Her head was still spinning as Sayuri wobbled backwards, swinging her arms to regain balance. "Hey, can't you be a gentleman for once? I didn't come here because I wanted to. I was being mugged and-"
"Whatever." Zuko cut in, annoyed. "I didn't ask for a whole explanation. I just want you to leave this ship at once, for me and my uncle are in the middle of training right now."
Sayuri suddenly shot up straight, suddenly remembering about her pouch while cradling the crown of her head and groaning in pain when it began to throb. Man, that rock was definitely not appreciated. "Have you seen a pouch with a rock inside?"
Zuko narrowed his eyes. Not only was she suspicious because of how conscious she was of keeping her hair hidden under the hood but also because of the way she talked with no sense at all.
"Alright. I'll take that as a no." The girl stared at him for a moment before looking around for a brown pouch. No trace of the pouch on the deck. She directed her gaze back at Zuko and smiled sheepishly. "But can we trade copper pieces before I go?"
Zuko growled and grabbed her arm, earning a surprised yelp from the girl. "Get off of my ship NOW! I don't have time for your stupid motives."
"Zuko, that is no way to speak to a lady." Iroh scolded, freeing Sayuri from Zuko's tight grasp. Zuko let smoke come from his nostrils, as he grew furious. "This girl is angering me, Uncle! I was in the middle of working out, trying to get the Avatar, and she thinks she can come and just be a bother? She needs to leave for our sake!"
"Well, I wouldn't be here if I had a map." Sayuri backed up. "My map got torn earlier when we-"
"Enough!" Zuko yelled, slapping his forehead. The girl kept talking even when he openly said he didn't have the luxury for some chit-chat and blatantly told her to leave. "I'm going to go take a nap. If anyone dares to disturb me, they will have a scar to match mine."
AN: Hello guys! It's been so long!
First of all, I would like to apologise for leaving you guys hanging for so long.
I lost the drive to write for quite a long time. But my dedication and love for ATLA has never left, only kept somewhere safe.
So...yeah, I've decided to revise Divine Wind. There are defo no words to describe how I missed traveling in the Avatarverse! I've reread it and Agni, did I cringe most of the time. Hahahaha! I'm going to make some major and some minor changes and I do hope you'll understand. Most of the names have been changed to somehow be inclined with the names in ATLA.
I have already rewritten a couple of chapters and swapped them with the old ones. :) (I'm thinking of deleting the chapters I haven't edited but I'm quite hesitant about it still.)
I apologise also for the out-of-character instances in the story, I will make sure to change it!
Oh, and by the way. About why I changed Serene's name to Sayuri then Suyin then back to Sayuri.
I felt like Sayuri is the name that really suits her. And I promise you, this is the last time I will change her name.
And as of 7/5/15 I made Sayuri wear a hood because there's an important plot behind the sudden change! I hope you understand. So, please if you had read the story beforehand, please re-imagine her wearing a bistre hood over her head. Not a strand of hair is seen peeking. Massive thanks!
Please do read it again if you have the time.
Thank you again for all the lovely comments, favs and, adding this story to your alert list! It really means a lot.
And also, I do hope you're all doing fine. I hope life has been kind to you. Stay amazing! :D