AVATAR: THE LONG ROAD

Chapter 2

Present day…

"We have already prepared the next course of action, Ismail," said Chief Koh. "In one month, when your training is finished, you and our Shaman will head to Republic City. Arzu will act as your spiritual guide-she will explain that to you later. The two of you are to meet up with our friend in the Fire Sages and begin the search for the Avatar."

"Of course, in the unlikely event that the Fire Sages find him within the month, you are simply to convince him to help us," Chief Hong interjected.

" Yes. In the meantime, Arzu will head to the State Building to deliver a speech to the United Republic. Hopefully they can end this civil war. Any questions?"

It all sounded simple to Ismail. Koh did not mention any sort of battles or trials for him; the whole thing seemed more suited to an ambassador rather than the Paladin of the Sun Warriors. I spent seven years of my life training for life-and-death situations, Ismail ruminated, please tell me I didn't just waste seven years of my life for this. He did have many questions for Koh, though. "How am I supposed to look for a single person in fraggin' Republic City?" If any of the Elders were offended by Ismail's usage of a mild expletive, they did not show it. Chief Hong replied. "You will not be finding her alone-the Fire Sages will aid you. Their temples are attuned to the spirit energy within the Avatar, which should be amplified in the presence of the spirit portal within Republic City. The Fire Sages want the civil war in their homeland to end, so we have a common interest in seeking the Avatar."

"We're placing all our hopes on their word," Ismail said flatly.

Chief Koh sighed. "We have no other choice."

"Why do I have to be there then? Why not have the Fire Sages send him over if they're so invested?"

Chief Hong and Chief Koh looked at each other uncomfortably. "And suppose we find the Avatar," Ismail continued. "Then what? He's not gonna be a fully-fledged Avatar. He's probably going to be a scared little kid-I mean, are we just supposed to drag him here and force him to fix our problems? What about the White Lotus?"

Chief Koh grimaced, clearly thinking about what to say. "I'll explain," said Chief Hong. "Ismail, Republic City is an extremely dangerous place. There are… certain groups of people who want the Avatar for themselves. We have no idea where the White Lotus is, or what they're doing, so their help is out of the question. I think-"

"Wait, just who wants the Avatar?"

"These are just rumors, but we think fringe groups like the Ember Order and the Sea Wolves are looking for him. Even if they aren't, their mere presence in Republic City makes it dangerous."

The Ember Order? I've heard that name before… It was on the news I think?

"Those are political organizations though. Aren't they technically legal?" one of the other Elders asked.

"I don't care about the technicalities, they're paramilitary political organizations with shady backgrounds" said Chief Hong, aghast. She turned back to Ismail. "As I was saying, Republic City is very dangerous. There is a lot of unrest, though not as much as here, and someone's been targeting the Fire Sages. As the Paladin of the Sun Warriors, wielder of the Sword of Ran and Shaw, your mission is to protect both the Sages and the Avatar from any threats." There was a small pause. "Any more questions?"

Ismail shook his head.

"Good," Chief Hong said. "Arzu will speak with you about her role, and then you can be on your way."

Realistically, Ismail was the only person the Elders could send to Republic City. Aside from Arzu, there were very few firebenders left within the Red Hills tribe, and most were either children who had just discovered their abilities, or men and women too old to fight. In fact, there were very few healthy men and women between twenty and forty years old left, bender or not. Emigration, disease, starvation and of course the ever-present conscription had taken their toll. Ismail's generation was the flower of the tribe; their last hope to recover and flourish, and only Ismail had been trained to access the power within the Sword of the Dragons.


As the meeting ended Arzu walked up to Ismail. For all the importance she had in shaping his life, she had only met him a handful of times. He still resembled the child in her dream, though he was obviously older and taller. His gray eyes betrayed a feeling of weariness and bitterness, channeled through an intense gaze. In the span of a heartbeat, Arzu felt… guilty. She had doomed him to his life as the Paladin, the seventh one in the history of the Sun Warriors. I wish you had a choice in all this. "Alright, as your spiritual guide, I'm gonna help you navigate your way through the Spirit Wilds in Republic City," Arzu explained. "I'll also help you communicate with them so you can ask for help-or get to safety if things get sticky."

"What d'you mean by sticky?"

"Y'know, tough or dangerous."

"No, I mean why would the spirits attack us? I thought relations between us and them were good?" Arzu drew a deep sigh. Oooh boy, how am I supposed to explain all the complicated post-Korra stuff that's happened? "Well," she began, "to put it simply, a lot of them hate us for destroying their homes and taking their spirit vines."

"Sounds reasonable if you ask me."

"Yeah. By the way Ismail… how are you feeling? About the whole Paladin business?" Immediately after asking this question Arzu mentally facepalmed. You ask him now, after he's spent seven years of his life training for this?

"Well, aside from the monotonous back-breaking work, soul-crushing solitude, lack of free will, and knowledge that I might die on this job, it's not so bad. Food's good I guess. It's nice not having to use ration cards." His eyes were looking down as he said the words with only a slight hint of sourness. Ismail sounded more defeated than sarcastic. "It'll all be good once we get the Avatar," Arzu said unsteadily. She had no idea what "it" was, or what "good" meant, but she couldn't think of anything else to say.

There were few further words between them. The two of them shook hands and said their goodbyes, scheduled to meet each other again in one month. Jin met her on the way out of the town hall. "We've got a call to mediate between farmers and spirits down by the river."


As Uncle Sai wished, Ismail met with Zane to make amends.

"Listen man, I had no idea Mei would flip out! I swear I was just jokin' around, tryin' to reach out. Look Ismail, I never meant any of that." It was a bit hard for Zane to speak due to his swollen cheek. The injuries Ismail inflicted on him seemed to have tempered his earlier bullying mood, Still, Ismail fixed Zane with a sharp, hard stare. "You made fun of her family," he growled. "Zane, you have no idea what she's going through." Calm thoughts, Ismail. Think calm thoughts… Butterflies, um, ice cream, bubblegum…

"Okay, okay," backpedaled Zane, waving his unbroken right arm, "So I might've brought up her brother-"

Son of a bitch!

"-being in jail after she got mad at me for making a run with the Jade Streeters. That was wrong," he admitted.

"'Making a run?'" Ismail was incredulous. "Don't give me that crap!" Butterflies...ice cream...bubblegum...happy thoughts... "You were probably extorting some folks or running a protection racket."

Surprisingly, Zane's expression hardened. "That's a bit hypocritical coming from a petty thief," he hissed.

"I was trying to help my friends!" Ismail spat. "You did everything for yourself! And you actually hurt people."

Zane flung up his right arm as if to surrender. "Look, I swear, I was just trying to make some quick cash smuggling stuff. I stopped hurting guys after that thing happened at the cafe."

Asha was also trying to "make some quick cash smuggling stuff." Why is he in jail and not you? The truth was, Ismail already knew the answer to that. Zane was a favorite among the Elders, a rising star in their eyes. Some of them believed that he, not Ismail, should have been chosen as the Paladin. It helped that he was one of the tribe's few remaining able-bodied firebenders, while Ismail was a nonbender. Maybe that's it.

"Zane, you've always wanted to be the Paladin haven't you?"

"Huh?" Zane's eyebrows shot up. He was frozen for a moment. "K-Kinda," he stammered at last.

"You're jealous, aren't you?"

"Of what?"

"Of me," Ismail pointed at himself, "a nonbender who got chosen over the tribe's pre-eminent firebender. That's why you've been harassing me and my friends."

Zane clenched his jaw, his fist, and seemingly every other muscle in his body into a wound-up coil. Normally this would have looked downright intimidating. Zane's broken arm, comically-swollen cheek and myriad of other injuries made him look like a child who had scraped his leg and was trying to hide the fact that he was crying.

"It's not fair," he breathed.

"You're right," Ismail said quietly.

"Every kid grows up wanting to be the Paladin…"

"No kid deserves to be handed this job. No kid deserves to be sent into danger and possibly die."

There was silence for a moment. "You don't like it?" asked Zane tentatively.

Ismail drew the Sword of Ran and Shaw from its sheath and examined it. "Being the 'Chosen One' isn't all they make it out to be. It never is," he said.

His sword had a circular silver pommel. Its grip consisted of a metal core encased in spirit-vine wood and wrapped in russet colored dragon-leather. The guard consisted of two intertwined steel dragons, one red and one black, meant to represent Ran and Shaw. The blade was about eighty centimeters long, straight, double-edged and colored in a dull silver. On the flat of the blade, three characters were inscribed into the metal: Sun, Moon, and Earth.

Ismail presented the sword to Zane. "Wanna take a look?"

"Wha-what!?"

"It doesn't bite. Well, not if you're just holding it."

Zane gingerly reached for the sword and stroked it, as one would stroke a kitten. He looked at Ismail with pleading eyes. "May I?"


"This human has been stealing my trees!" Tai said. Tai was a slender, gnarled and rather dry-looking oak spirit. A tree person basically, and a rather distressed one at that. "You must punish this thief at once!" He shrilled. "My poor, poor trees…Oh, will someone think of the poor saplings?"

Oh the humanity. Arzu was thankful that oak spirit mouths apparently didn't have saliva. If they did, there would be spittle all over her face. The "thief" in question was some yokel farmer named Wang. Full name's probably Wang Fire or something. He was from Yichin village, twelve miles southwest from Kashi town and seven miles from the "no man's land" that bordered Monarchist and Republican territory.

"Now lookee here, tree-boy," Wang said. "I wus' jus' gatherin' sum supplies fer rebuildin' my cattle fence. Old one got blown all tuh' hell last week. Now quit bein' so stingy; I didn't mean tuh' harm you none."

"Stingy? This human stole half of my babies. Thirty-five of my children." Tai was hysterical. "I risked life and limb for them!" Arzu raised a brow and looked at Wang.

"You need thirty-five trees to repair a fence?"

Wang rubbed his unkempt beard. "Waal," he said with a shrug, "big portion of mah old fence got exploded. I alreadeh tol' you this didn't I?"

"Exploded? By what?"

"I'm not entahrly sure. One evenin' I wus' jus' mindin' my business, spendin' time with tha' family. Jus' after w'ate dinner, we heard sumthin' like a thunder storm jus' outside. Bright flashes too, like fireworks. It went on for an hour an' scared the livin' daylights outta us. Tha next day, when I went ta' check what it wus,' I saw large smokin' craters where mah fence wus."

Arzu and Wang walked through the fields of Wang's farm in Yichin. Wang pointed towards a dip in the ground vivisected by a patch of land slightly darker in color than its surroundings.

"That's where thuh fence wus.'"

The fence had been situated next to a small stream known as Cattail Creek, beyond which lay the old Imperial Road leading into the Dragon Mountains. As Arzu approached the dip, she saw that the whole area had been pockmarked with craters, some more than five feet wide. Everything around the craters was charred black. This place was hit pretty hard. Arzu picked up a strange object from the ground-it was a metal fragment, clearly man-made. Only spirit-energy based ordnance could cause this much damage. Collateral from stray artillery shells? No, the craters are too close together; this area must've been a deliberate target.

The skirmishes had intensified over the past month, but Arzu never thought they would get this close to Kashi.


It could be heard before it was seen. The hum of engines and the clanking of equipment preceded the long column of military vehicles rolling into Kuzon. Young children, unaware of the gravity of the situation, pointed in awe at the convoy on the Imperial Road.

It was a serpentine machine, menacing but fascinating to the youngsters who had never seen such contraptions. For the past decade, the Civil War had meant constant small-scale raids, meant to steal food or press-gang civilians. The adults quickly grabbed their sons and daughters, fearful for their safety; temple priests prayed to their ancestors for protection. They understood that this was no mere raiding force, for the column stretched on for several miles.

To be sure, both the Republicans and Monarchists had set up strongholds in Kuzon, but most were in the peripheral foothills rather than the heavily populated plains. As expected, the Republicans set up shop in the townships, while the Monarchists ingratiated themselves with the large landowners in the countryside. There were chronic skirmishes and firefights between the two, but nothing involving more than a thousand fighters on either side.

The arrival of the large column signaled that that was about to change. Truly, war had come to Kuzon.


Here it is guys! Remember, I appreciate all forms of feedback. I'll be working on the next chapter soon!

Edit: Added on a new scene.

Edit: Elaborated on Wang's description.