Moon Child

Chapter Two

At the center of Republic City, the portal to the Spirit World glowed brighter than usual. The few residents walking along the ridge of the crater didn't notice, the towering spike of soft green light had lost it's wonder to most. The portal to a different realm was as common a sight as the park fountain or the towering statue of Avatar Aang.

So no one the city noticed when a figure emerged from the green light, or the little spirit that fluttered around her head in short, nervous zips.

"Where are we?" The spirit asked, morphing from a blob into the form of a crow, landing on the human girl's shoulder.

"I don't know, Raki." Ula said, rubbing her own arms as she looked around at the tall buildings surrounding the portal's crater. "It's warmer, here…" She gave Raki a reassuring stroke across his blue-green feathers. The spirit nuzzled against the fabric of the hood covering her hair. Raki was trembling, and Ula couldn't blame him. "It's okay. We're going to be okay." Ula looked up at the night sky, and saw the stars dotting the blue-black stretch to the horizon. She spotted the white and grey glowing full moon, and her dry and cracked lips parted with a soft gasp. "Raki… Look. Look! It's the moon." Tears swam in Ula's eyes, and Raki turned himself into a snake, coiling tight around Ula's shoulders to hug her. "It's… it's beautiful!" Ula said, and the fatigue from her long, long journey swept over her as waves of relief, and she fell to her knees. "I can't believe it. We're… we're in the physical world. We made it!"

Raki curled up in Ula's lap as a blue-green colored ferret. "Princess, please…! It's not too late to turn back!"

"Hush, Raki. Don't call me that. Not here." Ula swung her ragged pack off her shoulder to rummage through it. "We're so close, we can't give up now."

"But you're exhausted! You need to eat, sleep!"

"If I turn back now, then the entire journey through the Spirit World to get here will have been for nothing." Ula squeezed the last few drops out of her water pouch into her mouth, and it nothing to get rid of the cotton-like feeling on her tongue. "I have to find the Avatar, Raki. He's the only one who can help me, now."

"There are other ways to stop what's coming!"

"Raki. That's enough." Ula lifted the ferret spirit off her lap as she stood back up. "I need you to hide," She tapped the silver circle pendant around her neck. "Do not come out until I tell you to, understand?"

"Princess-"

"Please Raki. I need you to trust me, okay?" Ula cradled Raki's little face in her hands and brushed her thumbs across his furry cheeks. "We've made it this far. I can do this." Ula's eyes glanced at the moon hanging above them. "I have her looking out for me, now."

Despite the troubled look on Raki's face, he nodded. "Just let me out when you need me." The little spirit disappeared from her hands and turned himself into a sparkling green gem, that sat perfectly in the silver circle of her pendant. Once he was gone, Ula hurriedly tucked the pendant into the fabric around her neck, and pulled her hood tighter over her distinctive hair.

She needed water, and she had no idea where to go to get it. Her need for it would have to wait, though…

Never in Ula's life had she spoken to a person from the physical world. She had no idea what to expect, but she had no choice but to find one. So she put her pack back on and climbed out of the crater. The soles of her fur-lined boots treaded on something hard, and she bent down to run her hands over it. Smooth stone… She wondered if this was the work of earth benders…. She had heard of people who had the power to move rock and stone the way she could move water. Ula had never seen such a thing before, but she had spent many hours in a library, reading any book she could find on the physical world…

Books on what the world was like before the Great Flood. Books about people who could bend rocks and fire… even air. But mostly books on the one person alive who could bend all of them.

As Ula knelt in the road, running hands over the smooth stones, a light brighter than the sun suddenly blinded her, and a loud sound she had never heard before made her yell with fright and jump out of the way.

"Stay out of the street, you bum!" An angry man shouted at her, and rode by inside of an animal that Ula had never seen before.

It made a strange sound and erupted steam that made Ula cough and sputter. She had expected to see strange things, but she couldn't quite prepare herself for that. She stumbled out of the street and nearly ran into an elderly couple walking hand in hand. "Oh, I am so sorry!" She said, holding her hands out to steady the woman.

The man pulled the woman closer and eyed Ula with a wary expression on his aged face, taking a few steps back and away from her.

"Please, can you help me?" Ula asked, relieved to see another human face. A face that was much paler than the faces of her people, yet still darker than her own. "I need to find-"

Before Ula could finish, the man shoved a round, yellow thing into her hand and left, pulling his companion along with him, eager to get away from her. Puzzled, Ula looked at the shiny gold thing the man left in her hands and turned it over and over. She had no idea what such a thing was. It was covered in writing she couldn't read and some etched drawing of a man's face.

Confused, Ula put the strange thing in her pocket and let the elderly couple shuffle away. Obviously, they weren't interested in helping her.

"Excuse me? Can you help me?" She asked a woman and child as they passed. The mother pointedly grabbed the child's hand, cast her gaze at the ground and walked faster.

With a sigh, Ula tightened her dark grey scarf around her hair and continued to wander, hoping to find someone… anyone… who could just tell her where she could find the Avatar. She forced herself to not be discouraged, but with each passing person that ignored her, or even blatantly told her to go away, or 'get a job', she felt herself running down. She was tired, so very tired. She didn't remember how many days she had been traveling, or when she ran out of food, or when she had enough water to drink to soothe the horrible taste in her mouth or her chapped and peeling lips. And in what she felt should have been the home stretch of her terrible journey, she couldn't find a single person who could just point her in the right direction.

She passed what she assumed were vendors, displaying their things for sale behind glass facing the street. Life sized dolls wearing clothing similar to the kind she had seen so many of the city's people wearing. In the glass, she saw her own reflection for the first time in a long time, and suddenly she couldn't blame a single person for ignoring her. She looked absolutely terrible.

The skin of her face, normally pale and soft, looked ruddy and red, skin peeling over her cheeks and chin and forehead. Her teal eyes looked sunken and dull, ringed with the dark that came from too little sleep. Her clothes, compared to theirs, were torn, loose and dirty. Ula was glad that her hair was covered up. She shuddered to think what kind of tangled, greasy mess lay underneath her hood and scarf, and she had been on her own for so long, the thought of what she must smell like made her own stomach roll.

"Psst….! Hey, honey! Over here!"

Honey? Confused, Ula looked in the direction of the voice. A man stood in the dark space between two buildings, waving her closer.

"Come over here!"

Despite Ula's desperate need for help, and her slight thrill over being acknowledged by someone, finally, she couldn't help but feel a bit wary. No good could come from a person who lurked in dark places that smelled of rotting food and urine. She approached cautiously, knowing that she was in no position to turn down any kind of communication. "Are you speaking to me?" She asked.

"Yes, I'm 'speaking to you'. You got a funny accent, honey. Where you from?" The man grinned at her, one of his teeth the same color as the round object the old man had given her.

"A place that's very far away from here." Ula said quietly. Behind the man were two more men, dressed in similar clothes. Varying colors of dark blue, green and red. They all leered at her with cocky looks on their faces. Ula wasn't necessarily worried they would attack her…

If they did, they would instantly regret it.

"Can any of you help me?" Ula asked.

"Honey, we can help you with anything you like. What are you needing?"

"To find someone." Ula said, deliberately withholding the word 'Avatar'… She wasn't entirely sure these three could be trusted. "I can pay." Shifty men often wanted money, didn't they? To prove that she could pay, Ula took a few moon stones from her pocket. Moon stones were rare, beautiful and incredibly valuable where she was from. She could only hope they were worth something, here. Ula held the trio of silvery white stones in the palm of her fingerless glove, showing them and letting the light of the moon reflect off of their glossy edges.

She could practically see the reflections of them glowing in their surprised, greedy eyes. "What are those?"

"We call them moon stones. I have more, if you are willing to help me."

The trio exchanged looks, and the leader slipped an arm around Ula's shoulders. "Honey, if you got more of those stones?" His nose wrinkled, and he backed away again. Ula felt her red peeling cheeks grow hotter. Yeah… she must have smelled absolutely terrible. "We'll take you to our leader. He can help you find anyone you need to find, for enough of them pretty stones."

Ula nodded. "Take me to him, then. What is his name?"

"His name's Shady Shin, honey. Leader of the Triple Threat Triads."

To be continued…

A/N: A very special thanks to everyone who commented and faved this story. I apologize for this chapter taking so long to get out. The Christmas season was just so hectic! Life is getting back to normal and I will be putting out a new chapter (hopefully) every week. See you next time!