Washed Up Upon the Sand
Kyoshi, Free Port of
By Pat Squared
Twenty Seven Years after the Battle of the Black Sun
The war was over and the veterans returned home to remake their little corner of their world. People married and babies were soon born.
However there were some that could not function in the new world. They could not let go of the roar of battle lust running through their souls. These souls plagued the roads as highwaymen extorting special tolls from all they encountered. Others joined the rank of pirates raiding across oceans that were once policed by the now defunct Fire Nation Navy. Some were quickly dispatched or taken before the bar of justice. Some were never caught and became legends.
Kyoshi Island had fought several battles against the pirates that plagued the Southern Ocean. At first, the pirates thought the island easy pickings. However, after fifth big clash, the pirates made it a point to avoid getting too close to the island's small fleet...at least with the intention to loot.
Kyoshi Island had suffered near total isolation during the century long war and it was on a subsistence economy, growing and producing everything the residents of the island consumed. The only source of outside goods was the pirates who need someplace where they can get the fresh water and fruits needed by the boats.
So a deal was made. The pirates agreed to keep the peace of the island. No fights between rival crews. No thievery aloud. No slavery permitted. No dumping bodies or waste in the waters of Kyoshi. In addition, everyone will pretend to be honest merchants within a dozen leagues of the island.
Soon the pirates and the locals merged as Kyoshi became the wealthiest free port in the Southern Ocean. The pirates became privateers with letters of marque and reprisal. The captains became honest respected citizens of Kyoshi. The crews became the fathers of many of the island youths and the next generation of privateers who plied the pirate's trade in the oceans of the world.
Just as things were starting to look up...fate had a way of dumping crap upon your head.
There were two ports.
The first is the bay. Ships were not allowed to sail or fish along the bay for the Elephant Koi and Unagi were sacred to the residents of Kyoshi and the pirates who settled the island knew better than to aggravate their wives and in-laws. Besides there was a better harbor.
The second is the harbor that the merchants used to move their goods in and out. The action was always on the harbor. That was where the money moved.
However the Unagi's Bay seemed to be the landing spot for fate. Twenty eight years ago, the avatar landed in the bay.
Today, someone else was washed upon the shores.
Koko, once the head of the Kyoshi branch of Avatar Aang's fan club, was watching her youngest daughter and her friend play on the sands of the bay when she spotted a body floating in the waters. Within minutes her eldest son brought the body unto shore.
A weak groan told the gathering crowd that the middle aged man was still alive. The loincloth, the calluses, and the scars told of a lifetime of slavery. The cloth over the eyes told of the reason the slave was thrown overboard. A blind slave was next to worthless.
There was only one nation that practiced slavery...the Fire Nation. However after the defeat of Ozai, the Fire Nation withdrew back into its traditional enclaves only holding onto a few ports on the west coast of the mainland.
What the residents of Kyoshi did not know what that this particular Fire Nation slave was going to be the harbinger of trouble times ahead.