Disclaimer: You know the drill, not mine, just playing with it, not trying to claim or steal anything.

A Desert Made of Water

"You want me to do what?"

Hakoda, chieftan of the Southern Water Tribe smiled at the look on his best friend's face, despite the heft of the subject. "I want you to go to the Fire Nation as Yangchen's bodyguard."

The scarred warrior collected himself for a moment, then said, "Why send me? Hakoda, I can think of a dozen reasons not to."

Hakoda held up a closed hand. "Then I'll tell you my reasons for picking you. First," One finger unfolded from his palm, "I trust you, and your instincts, absolutely. You're good at spotting trouble, even if you're not always fast enough to dodge it. Second, Katara trusts you absolutely, and you accompanying her daughter ought to make her a lot calmer about this, since at the moment we can't exactly get out of it." Calming Katara down quickly was a non-trivial concern. Their own city was still mostly Waterbent ice... and while Katara had gotten a much better hold on her temper over the years... she was still one of the most powerful living Waterbenders in the world, and when she was angry, ice shredded all around her.

And Tui and La, was she ever angry right now, since Aang landed early yesterday to give her the 'good news.' The fact that a bodyguard could be sent was part of why Hakoda hadn't gone off on his son-in-law after his daughter had finished. In an old fashioned Kin Holding, that simply wasn't done, nor in the 'civilized' version the Earth Kingdom practiced, from what he could find. Indeed, it was more or less the exact opposite of the point of such an arrangement – you wanted the chief's son you held to be as vulnerable as possible. As good-faith gestures went, it was actually a fairly noticeable one.

Hakoda had long since given up on teaching his son-in-law good sense, though he'd managed to ingrain at least some sense into his grandson Kenzin. He shook that thought off and continued. "Third, Yangchen likes you, and she'll need a familiar face she can trust while she's away from home for so long."

"Forth, even though you're not a Bender, you're still my most trusted warrior, and you've no small importance in the Tribe's government. If you hear anything... that would be a concern for us here... I figure you'd be able to get word out." A pause. "Sokka assures me I can trust Zuko, but I don't trust Zuko's people all that much."

"That brings up one of the other problems," cut in Bato. "The Fire Nation puts even more importance than we do on Bending – what if they decide you sending an ordinary man along is an insult?"

Hakoda couldn't keep a sardonic smirk off his face."What, to their assassins?"

Bato sighed. Hakoda, it seemed, would never grow up entirely. "More in general, but I suppose that applies, too."

He paused as Hakoda shrugged expressively, silently saying he didn't much care about insulting Fire Nation nobles. "The people over there who matter know who you are, and why you being there isn't a slight on them."

Bato gave a noncommital grunt, not willing to cede the point to his old friend and chief just yet. "And Yangchen's Waterbending training?"

"This is why we have scrolls. One of Sokka's jobs today is collecting up a bunch of useful ones for her."

"Well then. I know this might be hard for you to remember, but your granddaughter is starting to grow up. She's of an age where she probably won't want a dried up old man hanging around. For that matter, there'll be situations where a bodyguard should go where a man won't be able to follow."

"She's a waterbender, and not a weak one. If letting her out of your sight for a few minutes to deal with... personal issues... is going to put her in unacceptable danger, we've already lost."

Finally Bato asked the question that was really on his mind. "Why not one of our own Waterbenders?"

Hakoda sighed, expression sobering. "Because I don't think any of them fit the criteria as you. All our native-born Southern Waterbenders are around Yangchen's own age or younger, and for all they came here to have a little more freedom than they would in the North, the Northern immigrants still carry a fair bit of cultural baggage from the North." Another pause. "And for all we got hit harder, the Northern Water Tribe seems to hate the Fire Nation even more."

"I'm hardly fond of them myself."

"I know, but you know when not to make a scene."

Bato mumbled something incoherent. Changing topics, he asked, "Do you know where you're going to put them up, yet? I doubt a Fire Princess and her own bodyguard will be terribly fond of the cold."

"I have. Mark off another advantage to some of the crazy people who followed Sokka back, those Earthbent houses work fine for this sort of thing."

It had been one of the odder things about the Tribe's rebuilding after the war's end. They'd expected, at first, a small trickle from the Northern Tribe, and nothing else; were prepared to lay down their weapons and get back to the hard work of rebuilding at the pole. There'd been two factors Hakoda hadn't counted on.

First, people trying to curry favour with the Avatar. The fact that the young Airbender considered members of the Southern Water Tribe as kin had brought an assortment of politically-motivated folks south in his wake. Not all that many had stayed of course – most of the hangers-on had fled the cold. A few, however, had decided to stick it out. Some had thin traces of Air Nomad blood – proof, Hakoda liked to think, that even the most strict and rigid of monastic upbringings was hard-pressed to deal with the hormones of a teenager away from home with inadequate supervision. A little proof that they'd been more like the other, less enlightened nations than, he had no doubt, they'd like to admit. Some of the others who'd followed Aang simply considered him an inspiration to follow. They'd all had their reasons, and a goodly quantity of guts to stay when the harsh realities of polar life set in. Even a few of the purely political followers.

The second factor... had been his children. Katara had inspired many people with her own hope and skill and raw determination to never give up. Not quite so many of them had come south – when she realized her heroism was gaining her a following, she'd told as many as she could that the best way to make a difference was to start at your own home – but some had, and as a result the South Pole now had the perhaps dubious honor of the strongest women's group outside of Kyoshi Island itself. Sokka had, entirely without trying, brought along a more varied and far, far crazier bunch. An ordinary man who stood beside master Benders and was still core to the team... it was an image that a lot of people found appealing. His penchant for wild ideas that still somehow worked, and his inventive streak, had attracted a number of artisans and free thinkers. Oh, many of the former group had followed the Mechanist to the Northern Air Temple, but some would rather brave the cold than the heights.

They'd improved on the submersibles created for the invasion, made various ingenious devices for everything from making saltwater drinkable without Waterbending to navigating without sun or stars to making it easier to control the heat of a forge without Firebending.

And a few of them, five Earthbenders, siblings and cousins from distant Omashu, had decided that the ice shelf the Southern Water Tribe's rapidly growing, Waterbent city, needed some rock. And they'd piled into a submersible along with Sokka and two patently mad Northern Waterbenders, and raised the sea floor itself over the course of a week beneath the entire city. Then they'd Earthbent themselves homes where one could(could one find fuel, at least) start a fire for warmth without creating problems. It had been an impressive undertaking, and one that had lead to a great number of useful little things, and likely would again.

Such as having a home a 'civilized' person wouldn't turn her nose up at the moment she saw it. That, too, would probably help things.

Bato spoke again, breaking him from his musing. "So, you've thought this through. Still not sure I like this plan, I have some bad memories of Fire Nation 'Hospitality.'"

"I know, old friend. And believe me, I hate to put you in this position, you're just the best man for the job."

Bato sighed again, nodding. "I understand. I suppose I'd better pack my things."

Fire Princess Ursa pulled her robes tighter around herself as the Ten Winds slowly eased its way into the Southern Water Tribe's main port, maneuvering into the shelter of its Waterbent ice walls. The heavy, double-weave koala-sheep wool robes had seemed almost silly to her when Mother had presented it while she'd packed her things. For the last two days, as Ten Winds had steamed into arctic waters, it seemed a lot less funny.

This had whole thing had felt like an adventure back home. Now it just felt cold.

Beside her, and just behind, stood her bodyguard. Sergeant Akagi had been her shadow for a few years now, and she found the presence of the older Firebender to be very, very comforting. Normally, she wasn't terribly fond of the woman, and the whispers she tended to attract about her daddy not having faith in Ursa's ability to take care of herself, but... after hearing a few stories about what happened to her parents and grandparents in their own youths because nobody'd been looking out for them (Indeed, her uncle Toma often spoke of being kidnapped by the resistance in Omashu) on the whole she actually kinda liked the idea of a bodyguard. Even a Princess couldn't keep track of everything going on around her.

For her own part, Akagi was doing her best to look stoic in the cold. She knew why she'd been tasked with this, and a small part of her knew that if they'd picked some other, more political or important or potent person to take her place guarding the Fire Princess, she'dve been more than a little offended. But that didn't make these damned polar winds any more fun to deal with.

Many of the qualifications that had led to her being transferred to the Royal Guard to watch out for the Princess in the first place actually made her a better choice than most. She'd not served during the War; finishing her stint in the academy a few months after the armistice, and so had no innocent blood on her hands. She'd spent her time in service as a Marine, first on a frigate on antipiracy and convoy escort duty, where she'd proven herself. Then a year doing more or less the same thing, but with pickier bosses, as a guard in the Merchant Marine. She'd had a fair bit of contact with the other nations (mostly those parts of the other nations closest to the docks, but the principle was sound) and she'd completed a season of polar cruises in her Marine days.

That didn't make the cold any nicer now, of course. And the occasional painfully polite exchange of words with Northern Water Tribe sailors when they'd passed on convoy or patrol hadn't really been enough to give her a good grasp of the Water Tribes. She'd taken the opportunity to bone up on her knowledge there, however – studying scrolls written by Avatar Roku about his time with them. The treatise was old, of course, but it had given her a window of tradition and culture to frame her observations of the tribes. The Dragon of the West had written another, perhaps sparser in details, but newer, which helped. If one could pierce the somewhat impenetrable wall of rambling that tended to accompany anything the Dragon wrote. At least most of the rambling, being cultural musings slotted around tactical doctrine, was useful.

Beneath their feet, the low, steady rumble of the steam engine faded almost to nothing as they entered the harbor proper. The narrow warship – they were too polite to have trebuchets mounted at the moment, but there was no mistaking the sleek crusier for a merchant steamer – lost weigh slowly, listing very slightly to the port side as she settled into the water. Akagi shifted uncomfortably; professional paranoia trickling up her spine as she looked at the tops of the harbor walls. They looked like the walls around the harbor at the capitol, if on a slightly lesser scale, and though they lacked ballistae, they still had a handful of soldiers patrolling them. One of them, the spear leaning against his other shoulder marking him as probably not a bender, gave a friendly wave. Absently, as her gaze scanned the top of the walls, she noted that the bite of the wind had dropped off precipitously. Defense against wind, probably storms, and hostile ships. It was an eminently sensible layout for the harbor and if she didn't have a very important princess to guard, she'd probably be nearly calm, being on a ship in the middle of this little enfilade.

From the docks came a pair of small boats, each with a trio of Waterbenders aboard. They pulled alongside Ten Winds and shouted up; lines were cast down, and the Benders set about towing the big ship up to one of the docks; a spit of stone that looked both decidedly out of place next to all the ice and very, very welcome.

Say whatever else one might about being towed into dock, the harbor Waterbenders knew their trade. The big ironclad came to a stop without even a slight bump against the dock. As sailors busied themselves tossing mooring lines back and forth with the Water Tribesmen on the docks and securing the ship, the bow ramp descended, slowly, crunching only slightly into the ice; the polite way to go about it. Akagi waited a moment for the captain to join them, as well as a few of the ships company. Down the ramp they went, Captain and two of his Marines first, then the Princess, and Akagi taking up the rear. Far enough behind them to be officially outside of notice came two middies, at the moment tasked with the luggage.

Waiting for them was a small party of Water Tribesmen. Three warriors she didn't recognize, Chief Hakoda, and his son Sokka. No benders. Odd. I'd think they'd have at least a few of them here for this...

The Chief gave a passable imitation of a Fire Nation bow, followed by his subordinates(the warriors were a little sloppier, his son's was court-perfect), then said, "Greetings, Fire Princess Ursa. I am Chief Hakoda. On behalf of the Southern Water Tribe, I welcome you to our city."

If the Fire Princess was offput by the odd situation, she never showed it. "I thank you for the kind welcome, and this invitation to see your way of life." A pause, then she gestured at Akagi. "This is Lieutenant Akagi, my aide." The polite fiction passed without comment; Hakoda offered another, slighter bow to the bodyguard. As he straightened, he gave her a look heavy with meaning – respect for a soldier given a difficult task, a promise to make that task no harder than it need be, and a demand for similar respect in return.

Akagi felt a tiny shiver shoot up her spine. She wasn't entirely sure what she'd expected from the Water Tribe chief, but that hadn't been it. It was also better than what she'd figured herself likely to get. All in all, not a bad sign.

Apparently deciding that the formalities were done with, Hakoda's serious, official expression cracked into a smile, and the big man gestured past the warehouse-like buildings Bent out of the ice and towards the city proper. "Well then. We'll be holding a feast in honour of your arrival, young Princess, but we've a few hours until then. If you'll come with us, we can show you to your rooms and let you get settled in."

Ursa's smile went from polite to dimpled, and she said, "That sounds good. How far is it?"

"Not too far. Here, we'll get the bags. Captain Yang," he turned briefly to the navy officer, "The harbormaster should be here shortly, if you need to take on any supplies before you go."

"Thank you, Chief Hakoda."

The Chief hefted one of the Princess' larger bags without any apparent effort; Sokka got her own duffel, and the other warriors grabbed the remaining bags between them, then they were off. Ursa seemed a little nervous, but far more curious about what was around her. While it was still cold enough that their breath looked like little clouds of steam with every breath, within the walls and out of the wind's bite, it was almost reasonable. The little Princess was looking at anything and everything.

"Why do all the buildings look different?" she asked after a few blocks – Akagi thought it had been a few blocks at least; none of the streets were particularly straight, which made figuring such things difficult.

"Couple reasons," began Sokka, "Some of them we built the old fashioned way, cutting blocks out of ice and stacking them, most are Waterbent, the tall ones we're heading towards are actually Earthbent up through the ice from below. Everybody who worked on a building had their own idea about how stuff should look, and some Waterbenders just sort of grew their houses whenever they wanted and, well..."

Hakoda took over with a lopsided grin. "And we didn't expect the city to grow nearly so much as it did, so when things started out we didn't exactly plan anything. Trying to impose order on the building didn't work so well, so we finally just accepted it and moved the outer walls to keep the whole thing in a weather shadow."

Ursa's face scrunched up in thought for a moment. "What's a weather shadow?"

There was a moment's pause, then Sokka picked up the explanation. "Well, did you see any sailing ships on your trip?"

"A few." More than a few, to Akagi's memory – several Earth Kingdom merchantmen and some fishing boats.

"Did you see how their sails sort of puff out when the wind hits them?"

"Yes," Ursa replied, with a faint hint of 'don't talk down to me, I'm not an infant.'

"Well, the sail blocks the wind. So if you're on the side that's puffed out, you don't really feel it because the sail's in the way. We set up the walls so that whatever direction the wind blows from, it hits the wall and doesn't blow through the streets. Keeps the storms out, mostly, too."

The Fire Princess looked thoughtful a moment. "But what about when the wind comes from the sea? There's a hole in the wall at the harbor."

"We cheated a bit there," said Sokka with a grin. "Did you notice how the streets curved a bunch when we walked by the warehouses?"

The Princess nodded slowly, thinking furiously. "Then... the warehouses block the wind there?"

"Mostly. Since those were for the city and not houses, we got 'em designed specifically to do that little job. It's not perfect, but it gets the job done."

Ursa looked quite happy with herself for figuring out the bit she had, and she continued to pepper Sokka with questions as they walked, and again Akagi found herself getting a look from Hakoda, this one asking is she always this chatty?

To which she replied with a nod and a faint smile of her own.

Their Earthbent quarters were quite sensibly laid out, if a little plain, in Ursa's reckoning. There were three rooms; a large one that the door in lead to with two bedrooms that lead right into it. One was little, and near the front door. The other was bigger, with its door near the back, and on a weird angle that meant you couldn't look into it from the front door, but it ran back so that it shared a wall with the little bedroom. Each room had a skylight paned with thick, greenish glass that Sokka said they'd made 'the hard way,' whatever that meant, and little clusters of green crystals that glowed softly that looked like the crystals she'd seen a few years ago when she'd accompanied Father on a visit to Ba Sing Sei. Uncle Iroh had given her and her brothers a tour of the city while Father had been at meetings, and they'd seen the old caverns.

The shared wall was a double comfort – first, for all the city was neat and interesting and she'd honestly never seen anything like it before, it was also very, very different and alien and even in the heavy robes she was cold outside, and knowing that Akagi was right next to her was going to be more comforting than she could easily express. Second, though no less important, there was a fireplace built into it and a fully stocked coal scuttle next to the fireplace. Sokka had explained that they'd done something clever with the chimney to keep it from letting snow or cold air in, and she believed him – looking up the chimney from below, she hadn't seen sunlight coming down it, so clearly it was weirdly shaped.

There was a little coal cracking in the fireplace now, the dull red of the fire reflecting off a sheet of copper at the back and mixing oddly with the soft green glow of the crystals as she sat on the bed – which had a big heap of furs on it, most of them looking like they'd been dyed in reds or blacks or browns – and sorted through her bags.

Sweet, merciful Agni was she grateful for that little coal fire. Father had taught her a really useful little Firebending trick to make heat without making fire, and while she'd been doing it outside a little, one had to be awake to Bend.

It was a good trick, too – Father had first taught it to her and her brothers as a way to help make sore muscles feel better after a long bit of training. It was kind of like hot rocks, but without the rock. Which meant you didn't have anything to throw when your brothers were being stupid but Momma and Father didn't like it when she threw things at them anyway(Even though Momma had taught her a bunch of ways to throw stuff at bad people)

Thinking of that, she quickly checked her sleeve. They were longer than normal on these heavy robes (She was nowhere near crazy enough to try and go out of this nice warm room with its fireplace in anything less) but she could still reach the hilts of the little daggers just fine. She didn't use them much anyway, since the Firebending was more Proper, but it was nice to know other things.

She busied herself for a few minutes putting things away and getting a closer look at things. Akagi was in the main room, or her own bedroom, and not in here, so she could climb up things to get closer looks at the skylight or the crystals; or get down on the floor and get a close look at the patterns that whoever had Bent it had left. It was kind of neat.

Dinner was... well, she'd kept her Content Princess face on for all of it, but it had been a bit of a struggle. The food was weird and bland and heavy. The people were all strangers – except for Akagi and Sokka, she'd never even seen any of them before today. Everyone was polite, even if some of them were being the kind of polite that usually meant they'd rather hit you, but she didn't mind that part so much. She always got a few of those at home. She was a little disappointed that the Avatar wasn't there, but they told her he was flying his daughter to the Capitol.

She was the youngest person in the room tonight – one of only two children there, and Kenzin seemed to be ignoring her in favour of chatting with some of the other Benders. People were either politely ignoring her, shooting her unhappy looks, or talking over her. Nobody was talking to her, except for Sokka, and even he spent most of the meal chatting with other grownups. Finally, the meal ended, and she said her good byes. As she and Akagi walked back through the streets in the odd, extended polar twilight, fatigue and a profound loneliness started to weigh her down. Years of etiquette lessons held her head high and her expression neutral until they got into the privacy of their rooms.

Then she broke down; the hard reality of being so utterly separated from home and family and all that was familiar slamming down hard, and she clung to the sole rock of familiarity with her, crying herself to sleep in her bodyguard's arms.