Alright fanfic fanatics, Word's back with a new plot, new charries, and new surprises.
Love me, hate me, as long as you enjoy my fics. Have fun with this one, it makes me giggle.
It's been nearly four hundred years since avatar Aang saved the world and restored balance to the four nations. The Air temples have been rebuilt and a small community of nomads are flourishing under Haishi, a direct descendent of Aang. The Northern and Southern Water Tribes have also experienced a great increase in prosperity, their trade no longer impeded by the fire nation navy. The Southern Tribe has increased amazingly, now consisting of a series of small villages and cities, the largest of which was built up by Katara after the war, on the spot where her old village had once stood, destroyed during a rebel fire nation attack during the political unrest after the death of Ozai and the instatement of Zuko on the throne.
In that time, four more avatars have passed through incarnations, Water Jiang, Earth Hyun, Fire Taniki and the Air Nanpuu. However, Avatar Nanpuu died just over fifteen years ago, and the search for the next avatar has been long and far-reaching. The Water Tribe shamans have not yet determined the identity of the avatar, the secluded ideals of the poles allowing for little genetic diversity, making a higher percentage of benders available to test.
Not everything, however, is as pleasant as it seems. The Fire Nation, although rebuilt and forgiven from the war it started five centuries ago, has come under the rule of weak Noble, the Fire Lord Kurosai. The Lord is being easily manipulated by his ambitious advisors, led by his aunt and caretaker, Praiti . While they too are enjoying the prosperity that came after the rebuilding, is becoming annoyed with the failure of the water tribes to produce the avatar.
For five years, spies have been placed not only in the Water Tribes, but also in the cities and major trading-spots in the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation. Praiti is confident that with the help of Kasashin, her spymaster and childhood caretaker, that she will be able to find and control the avatar just as easily as she controls her weak nephew.
I begin the story on Gonge, a large port city on Tansei Island, a piece of earth only four or five miles from mainland Kingdom soil. It is well populated, vibrant, and home to representatives of all four nations, the water and earth inhabitants are especially well represented. It's in the prime of summer, and the trade is just about to enter it's full swing. Water Tribe in particular like this port for it's diversity, and on the horizon their ships can already be spotted. It's on one of these blue-sailed boats that a young girl stands, eagerly awaiting the shore that rises to meet her.
It was a nice day. The sun was bright, the wind was strong and steady, and the Gonge port was only a few miles away. Suiko stood on the bow of the boat, laughing as the water splashed into her face.
She was an average girl of sixteen, with the water tribes' grey-blue eyes and dark brown hair. Suiko wore her hair up in a high bun, a small braid fastened around the bun with a whalebone comb. Her bangs were pushed three to one side, one to the other, small braided coils with moon-shaped beads at the base of her head and at the bottom of the braid.
Her summer dark blue shirt cut off above her navel and was sleeveless, small flares accentuating the shoulders. She kept her stomach covered with dark leather wrappings that hugged what little curves she had.
The half-tunic was decorated with geometric designs along the edges of the high collar, around the sleeves and along the bottom of the shirt. It buttoned up with small teeth used as fasteners, the top hook open. Her large obi-like sash around her waist and hips held up her skirt that had slits up her thigh. Suiko kept decent with the tight black leggings she wore into her fur-lined boots.
Brushing a few braided bangs away, Suiko giggled and ran to the stern of the ship. Her father was the helmsman and he smiled as he saw his daughter so excited. This was only her second time to Gonge, the last visit having been six years ago, when Suiko was ten. She stopped and stood by him as he maneuvered into the harbor, the wooden ship coming to a delicate rest in a dock. They were there to sell furs and other wares, but that was a mans job, not meant for Suiko, and the young waterbender was eager to disembark the ship.
Ayuri held up his hand as Suiko opened her mouth. He smiled and pulled out a small pouch of coins.
"Promise to be good?" He asked his daughter, who smiled up at him.
"Always am dad." She said, snatching the purse from her fathers hands and dashing out into the city of Gonge, bending an ice-bridge from the boat to the pier, startling the dockworkers who were tying the boat to the wooden poles that secured the pier to the marketplace.
"Be back by sunset Suiko!"
"Sure thing!" Suiko yelled, disappearing into the crowded souk, a bright smile on her face as she imagined the things she could buy with the money her father had generously lent her. The rushing crowds surged on, not noticing the young girl that had joined their ranks. Suiko laughed and weaved through the green and blue clad customers, stopping at a small stall that had caught her eyes.
Her eyes widened as she stepped closer to the vendor, and she reached out a hand to inspect the bright trinkets. They were glass beads, beautifully blown and constructed in all shades of colors, strung on small leather thongs that swayed lightly in the small wind. Suiko sighed as she looked at them, then glanced at her purse.
It was awfully small. . .
She really didn't need a necklace, beautiful as they were, and pulled away from the stall wistfully, ignoring the insistent salesman. Suiko continued through the busy shopping center. Hao was always looking for something to play with.
Suiko smiled as she recalled her little brother, left at home with her mother and grand mother. The crowds had dwindled, the afternoon sun beating down harder as the hours passed. Suiko began to feel thirsty and began looking for the giant pots of water stationed around the city, placed in case of a fire.
She found one, near the entrance to an alleyway, and smiled running lightly over to it. Suiko scowled as she saw it, seeing that the water was stagnant. Sighing, she tried to purify the fetid water, drawing up a stream with her right hand and using her left hand as a sort of filter, passing it through the water from her palm down to the edge of the pot.
It didn't work as well as she had hoped, a few stray scraps of leaves and dirt still in the water. Suiko stuck her tongue out at the water and let it drop, the small pillar not making even a splash.
In the relative silence of the marketplace, Suiko noticed some noises coming from the alleyway that she had stopped in front of. It was louder than the bartering and the chattering of the bazaar, and sounded like a small group of people yelling. Glancing at the marketplace again, and making sure her small purse was still tucked into her obi, Suiko went down the alley.
Contrary to her first thought, it turned to the left, a small wooden gate enclosing an earthen courtyard. The yelling had definitely gotten louder, and Suiko frowned, only seeing a small part of the courtyard, surrounded as it was by buildings. Suddenly, amid a deafening roar, a boy about her age was slammed against the wall only five feet in front of her, the direct of what hit him hidden from her view/
Suiko gasped and pushed the gate open, running towards the shaggy-haired boy her eyes wide with shock.
"Are you alright?" She gasped kneeling next to the shirtless boy, seeing a mass of bruises already beginning to form on his abdomen. She cursed that she hadn't paid more attention to Zaeshi when she was teaching her healing. The cheers continued and she turned to see who had pushed the boy against the wall.
"KA-GO! KA-GO! KA-GO!!!" Came the chant, the crowd of boys gathering around a tall, tanned boy, Kago, as he held up his bandaged hands, smiling and nodding. A couple boys came over and helped the beaten boy up, heading out of the small clearing with their friend on their shoulders.
Suiko stood, fury and shock still coloring her dark skin a bright red. How dare this other boy do nothing while his opponent was carted off, knocked out! That other boy probably had at least two broken ribs and who knows what kind of internal damage this Kago ruffian had induced!?
The maternal instincts Suiko had inherited from her intensely overprotective mother came out as she stomped over to Kago, pushing aside the cheering boys and turning him around so that he could see her enraged face.
"You're just going to let him leave like that?!" She asked, yelling into Kago's face. "What were you doing to that boy, to make him bruised an beaten like that? What is your problem?!" Suiko was in full rage now, pointing accusingly at Kago, pushing her face closer to the boys, a good five inches shorter than the Earth boy.
"Do you know what you might have done to him?! He could die of internal bleeding or something like that! He could be paralyzed! It would be all your fault." Suiko charged the boy, jabbing her finger at Kago's exposed collarbone.
While this was happening the clique of boys had backed up, leaving a small circle around the Water Tribe girl and Kago. Kago, however, was smirking down at Suiko, his wild hair pulled back in a tight topknot, a few bangs handing in front of his light grey eyes, the rest shorn jaggedly around earlobe level.
"Lookie here, girl." Kago cut in, interrupting Suiko's tirade. His r's were long and he added an extra 'ay' sound to girl, his accent coming through thickly. "He asked fo' it. We were fightin' fair an' square an' he didn't fight well enough." Kago said, shrugging.
"Fine!" Suiko said, and stalked off about ten feet away from Kago, the line of boys that had surrounded them parting.
"Fight me then!" Suiko yelled, turning on her heel and settling into a deep Waterbending stance, her feet a little over shoulder width apart, left leg in front of her right, placing most of her weight onto her back leg, and setting one of her arms nearly parallel to the ground, the other relaxed, palm open, at her waist.
"You don't want to do that!" Came the cry from one of the boys. They all laughed and Suiko frowned.
"I'll do what I like! And right now I'm calling you a coward if you don't fight me!"
The laughing stopped slowly, and Kago came forward, his tanned form obvious. He was only wearing a pair of khaki-colored pants that where loosely tied at his waist and were tucked into grey bandages that started just below his knee.
"I'm Kagosage of the Earth Kingdom! I'm the bes' fighter here girl, and you wanna fight? Do you wanna end up like Eichi? Bruised and beaten and broken? Girl, you wanna fight me?!"
Suiko was nearly crying in frustration, a dark red hind to her cheeks still obvious.
"I don't want to fight you Kagosage! I will fight you!"
Kago growled and shifted, his legs spreading into a strong stance, twice the distance of his shoulders, his arms straight out and his bandaged forearms exposed to Suiko, his hands clenched into fists.
"Den it's a fight you won't forget!" Kago said, his sharp face smirking. "Ladies firs'. Or do you wanna get yor' daddy to fight for ya?"
"I'm so sick of you!" Suiko screamed, rushing towards Kago, moving her arms to the right, towards a water pot she had noticed earlier. The water quickly rose and Suiko controlled it, her arms going to the left as she jumped, raising the water above her like a giant wave to bring it crashing down on Kago.
The Earth boy reacted quickly, bringing his arms up to cross over his chest, raising two slabs of condensed earth to shield himself from the large wave. Suiko landed and direct the deflected water to the side, now in a stance that allowed her to hold the water, her feet close together, her body facing the two slabs of earth, arms held one at chest level, the other out by her side, water flowing freely in between her hands.
Suddenly the sheets shot towards her and Suiko quickly slipped a foot forward, both arms shooting straight out as the water formed into a hard wedge-like form of ice. Kago ran to Suiko's right, and the girl quickly melted the ice and formed it into a hard whip, keeping parts of the water still frozen.
Blue eyes widened as Suiko realized she didn't have enough time to hit Kago, the boy was rushing towards her too fast!
As Kago ran, he raised a large boulder with his right hand in a scooping motion and sent it flying towards the girl. Suiko's hand directed the water whip at the boulder and, preparing herself for an impact, Suiko used both arms to force the boulder down, the whip rebounding and sending Suiko vaulting over the large rock, her flight at its zenith almost ten feet high.
She used her ice-pole to slow her decent to five feet, the dropped, spun on her heel, one foot out in a 'cat form' and shot the water at Kago. The boy, surprised by Suiko's new relation to the birds, didn't have time to turn around as Suiko landed behind him, was defenceless as the water wrapped around him, forming an icy ring that secured his arms to his sides.
Suiko frowned and began to walk towards Kago to continue giving him a piece of her mind, when suddenly the earth beneath her bottomed out, leaving her stuck in the dirt to her waist. She gasped – she had forgetten that Earthbenders could bend with their feet! Her hands were still free, and she used the water in her back pouch to snap Kago's feet together, making the boy land on his butt with a small 'Oomph'.
Suiko struggled with the pit, the dirt having compacted around her body. It wasn't unduly uncomfortable, but it certainty didn't give Suiko any room to work with. Kago as well was struggling, his hands encased just as much as the rest of his arms, pinned as they were to his body.
The boy glared at Suiko, who looked up and glared right back.
"I'd say this was a tie, wouldn't you?"
"I don' tie wit' anyone."
A vein in Suiko's forehead nearly became visible as her heart pounded in indignation.
"At least I can move!"
"At least I can wait until dis ice melts! You'll be stuck until some ot'er bender gets you out!"
The group of boys had scattered at Suikos' first attack, leaving only two of the former group to crowd around Kago, who shooed them off with dark looks and an order.
"Go and tell everyone that there's a jadokubra dead over here, so that no one will come through the alley." He said, and the two boys scurried off to repeat the false message.
Jadokubras were largely poisonous snakes, that when dead gave off a deadly vapor, their poison evaporating as the venom sacs were broken down by bacteria. The toxins in the jadokubra reacted with the air, causing the poison to diffuse through the air, making the place where one died polluted with the fatal venom. The poison-mist only hung around for a day or so after death, but it was never a wise idea to approach the bright red jadokubra corpse.
Suiko's glare, however, more than made up for the fact that their wasn't any poison in the air – the venom in her gaze was plenty for the absence of a dead snake.
"You do know that I can keep bending the water so that it never thaws? You're stuck here just as much as I am."
Kago scowled, annoyed that he had overlooked the fact that she could still bend, if only slightly.
"We're both stuck then," Kago said, pouting and looking the other way. Suiko huffed.
"Fine!"
Tell me what you think. This will be ongoing, as I have quite a few ideas for dear Suiko and Kagosage.