Chapter 3: Plotting in the night

POV:3

I had waded my way deep into the river, so that the water came up to my mid chest. Experimentally, I raised my right arm, and a water tendril flowed up to greet it. I let it fall with said arm, and testily raised my left arm. To my surprise, another tendril-though not quite as versatile- rose from the surface. It moved when my metal appendage did, mirroring its actions, as if the arm were made of flesh like any other. In exhilaration I raised both arms and a huge column of water jutted from the river, slashing both arms in an X, morphed the pillar to black tinged ice. Using my right arm, I melted it with a fire whip; its blazing talons grasping the ice; disintegrating it.

I splashed my way to shore, and dried off my clothes by removing all water from the material, then let it fall uselessly to the earth. I furrowed my brow, and shot white hot fireballs from my right fist, purposefully making sure that they would collide with each other. On their impact, they exploded, and shot at least 20 smaller balls of fire in random directions. I jumped off from the ground, twisted in mid air, and caught one with my shin, smacking it into next week. Another approached and I somersaulted, landing on the ground, and then effortlessly doing a cartwheel to avoid it. It set the grass next to me ablaze, and twisting my hands in a circle, I caused the small sparks to augment into a roaring fire. In the heat of the flames I raised my left arm, and tried to bend water from the stream to set it out. But doing three different things at once bested me, and my arms molten joints slid from its metal base. Dancing around me on all sides was a cage of fire, slowly creeping closer to my body, waiting to consume the last living thing around it; its creator. Fire is dangerous and beautiful, and element that has deserved it place being feared and awed by all. I was such a fool to think that at a time of such instability, I could balance my chi's. And now, I would pay the price, just as many other great fire bending masters have done in the past.

Suddenly, I heard a frenzied whinny and was hoisted into the air by the mane of my lion's mask. It was Hymn!

I love this crazy beast!

He bounded away from the fire, before I flipped over his neck, now mounted on his back. I closed my eyes, and willed my chi to calm; the fire slowed from a fierce tango to a slow waltz, but still as high as ever. Raising my right arm, a tidal wave of water sloshed out from the dark river, swallowing the fire. The light died with a dreadful serpentine hiss, and the blaze was quenched. Acrid black smoke was blown away by a sudden gust of wind, and all was still again in the now charred river valley.

Hymn started to trot, following the river up to the mountain slope.

"You gonna take me somewhere?" I asked sleepily, leaning onto his long neck. (I trusted him enough now to keep me safe, as he seemed to do a better job of it than I did myself.) He snorted in response, as if to say 'yes' and started to canter. We sped into a gallop, both stead and rider perfectly in sync. We seemed to cross miles in mere minutes, until we were at the top of the small mountain, overlooking the plains the northern earth kingdom. I spotted a tiny light far below us, it must be our campsite. Guiltily I thought about my promise to Pearl, but it was forgotten again when Hymn came to a sudden halt, knocking some small pebbles over the side of the cliff.

"What's that!" A rough man's voice said suddenly from below. "Who's there?" Neither Hymn or I made a sound, after a while the sounds of eating resumed.

"Must have been a badger-mole Jinku." Another voice said, this time female. "They're more than common in these here parts."

"s'pose yer right Miira…" Jinku said, and he refocused on his eating.

I wondered who these travelers were, I dismounted and was going to make my presence known, but found Hymn in my way, blocking my path. His eyes seemed to warn me not to speak, but listen, and for once, I did what I was told. I army crawled until my eyes were peeping down the cliff wall, to a scene 20 feet or so below.

It was a group of about 10 or 15 assorted men and women, all in their late 40's and 50's. The man I assumed to be named Jinku looked like a old, powerful Gorillagator; he had jet black hair streaked with gray, and a foot long beard as silver as the moon. His arms were sun beaten and muscular, with bulging muscles like bags of ripe fruit. Across each of them, several wicked looking scars rested, marred into his flesh.

The woman I assumed was Miira was sitting next to him, I guessed that she must be his daughter, not only because she was the youngest person there; barely over 30,but because her and Jinku shared the same stature, and air of high authority over the rest of the circle. She had a short, cropped ponytail and a fierce look in her blazing eye. Her other, was covered in a navy blue eye patch with the Northern water tribes insignia stitched to it with tan yarn. All her limbs were muscular; she was lean, but built powerfully.

Miira finished her Jook and tossed down her ladle, wiping her mouth with the ungloved part of her hand. She stood up, stretched and yelled so that she could be heard by all.

"LADIES! DINNER'S OVER! IT'S TIME FOR OUR FINAL MEETING BEFORE BED!"

Out from the shadows, many more people appeared; from what I could see they had made lodging in indentations in the cliff face, small caves in which they slept. What surprised me the most was not the large number of diverse looking people, all well on into adult hood, but the fact that Miira raised her arms over a tin trough of water, and thrashed them out, sending a long whip of water to extinguish all fires in the campsite except for one; the largest, and centermost fire that crackled at her feet. Everyone gathered around the fire, Jinku getting up to stand next to his daughter.

"I see we have some new recruits." Mirra commented, waving a hand at some of the younger looking men and women. They kowtowed out of respect, and then gave her the earth nation style bow, Miira smiled coldly, and continued.

"Since we do have some newbies, I suggest we go over the basics." Miira shot at Jinku, who nodded.

"I'll take it from here." He replied, and placed a hand on Miira's shoulder as she sat down crosslegged, at the head of the fire on a raised rock, so that she could see and be seen by all.

"Over 100 years have passed since the great war with the Fire Nation," Jinku said, pacing around the circle of people, "And over 30 have passed since the anti-airbending revolution. But now, we are in the midst of a new crisis. The numbers of benders have grown drastically in the past 100 years, and all nations are at peace. This should seem good to all of you, and you'd be damned if you didn't think peace was something to celebrate…but now, its peace that drives this conflict!" whispers and murmurs flew around the circle at these words. "Yes." Jinku continued, and all fell silent again, "it is true. All benders from all nations are becoming peaceful with one another, mating and passing on their bending genes to the next generation. Earth and Air being dominant, fire and water being recessive. Though the science of it matters little, all this means is that the probability of a child that can manipulate the elements increases with interracial births. But with all of these new benders getting along in the seemingly peaceful world…a rift is forming steadily. A gaping hole between the non benders, and the benders, who now are almost over half of the world's population. They fear us. And they seek to control us. The non bending humans who have always attempted to harness our abilities!" Shouts of outrage from around the circle, Miira smiled coldly again, fire dancing on her face, and in her eye.

"But of course, each time there has been a conflict, an Avatar has always been there to help it, and they should. It's his or her duty to protect the nations. Avatar Aang, ended the Fire Nation conquest, Avatar Korra prevented a war against the arising air nomads…but now, brothers and sisters…where is the Avatar? Not helping his bender kin…no, he is off, missing, enjoying his peaceful leisure life while the pot of tension boils underneath the lid of injustice. So, since there is no Avatar, we, the people have to fight our own war. Take matters into our own hands, and conquer the non benders, and reform them into our society! BROTHERS! SISTERS! WHAT DO YOU SAY?" Jinku roared, thrusting his hammer like arm into the air.

"AYYE!" they all roared in unison, some standing up, others shot fire or threw rocks into the air.

When Miira stood up however, all demonstrations of devotion ceased.

"We have water." She said, and caused a huge jet of it to spray over the crowd from the trough. "We have earth." Jinku stood up and stomped the ground; a huge crack appeared where his foot made contact with the rock. "We have fire." Several fire balls shot into the air from the crowd. "And we now have air." One of the men she had previously referred to as a new recruit, stood up and jumped 30 feet into the air, landing quietly on his toes.

"Men, women, brothers, sisters…together…WE ARE THE AVATAR! Now to bed with all of you! We head to Ku Won Se at dawn!"

The crowd roared their approval, but quickly headed off to bed in pairs of twos and threes by age and gender. The campsite was cleared in minutes, which left only Miira and Jinku, Miira turned to Jinku and said,

"Father, we're going to need to make sure the hostages are locked up for the night. Are any of them Benders?"

"Yeah." Jinku replied roughly, "The son; the little boy. He's a water bender, hails from the foggy swamp we think, but we're not sure. His parents won't tell us anything; but neither of them are benders."

"Tsk. Non bending parents trying to protect their gifted child. Don't they know that their precious child will be much safer with us; in the new regime? They're lucky we found him, otherwise, who knows what might happen to him in the future. I'll train him personally, along with Yu Na. They should be around the same age."

Jinku grunted; Miira must have been accustomed to this vague response for she left for her quarters. But before she left, she extinguished the final fire with a swish of her hand; smoke rising from where the water collided with the hot coals. In the dim light cast by the moon, I saw Jinku climb up the cliff on the opposite side; I followed him to the mouth of a chasm. Thick iron bars spread across the gaping hole in the earth, trapping three unkempt people. Jinku and the oldest man were arguing,

"I told ya." Jinku said calmly, "If you hand over your son to our cause, you can go free!"

"Never!" The man yelled as his wife sobbed into her terrified son's hair.

"Fine." Jinku sneered, throwing a blanket disguised as a slab of prairie over the bared hole. "Have it your way. Give it a few months. You'll come around." He spat on the ground and walked away, back to the campsite. I waited several minutes while I listened to the sounds of his heavy footsteps, retreating into the darkness of the night.

It was sick. Little children, benders, being used as weapons to fight, and to start wars. If anyone knew the realities of using children for battle, it would be me. My mother, captured on a water bending pirate ship; she was a daughter of the fire nation, and its respective bender. I was illegitimately and nonconsensualy born to the captain of the fleet and to said woman. Where she is now, I fear I know not, but her having to see what a monster I had become was drive enough for me to stay away from thoughts of her. Instead, I focused on the only life I knew. One of battle in the raging sea, and sinking ships with lashes of fire. I would not let this small boy be used the same.

The family stared up at me as I removed the blanket, the moon shining down upon my dark features; I must have looked like some hero of the night, coming to rescue them.

"Stand back. I'm here to rescue you. Don't talk, don't ask questions." I said, and grasped the metal rigging with my right hand. Under my fingers I let my Yang chi release, and flow into the metal, making it flexible. I pried open a hole big enough for one person to fit through at a time, and then cooled it with excess moisture from the air surrounding us. "Come on!" I whispered, holding out my hand to the mother, who was closest to me.

"No." she said, backing away, "take Bi Hai instead. Your mount can only hold another." I glanced over my shoulder to see Hymn, waiting for me and the prisoners to depart.

"Mama! No!" The little boy said, grabbing the hem of his mother's ragged tunic.

"I'm sorry Bi Hai. But you must." She said, tears falling thick and fast from her blue eyes.

"Your mother is right my son." His father said, kneeling on one knee. "It's you they desire, not us. We'll be fine. But you, you have to escape…" Bi Hai nodded, wiping his eyes. "One more thing," his father said, reaching into his boot and drawing a long knife; its handle carved out of bone.

"Grandfathers whale bone dagger? But Father, you mustn't!"

"Hush Bi Hai. You are a man now, and you need a weapon. Take it brave warrior; it's yours now." He hugged his son tightly, a tear beading from his tightly shut eyelid. His mother too embraced him silently.

"Wo ai ni, Bi Hai. I love you." She said, and released him. I grabbed him by his collar and hoisted him in front of me, so that he was seated right at the base of Hymn's neck.

"Listen!" His mother said, addressing me, "This boy has an aunt in the town not too far from here, it's called Ku Won Se. About half a day's journey south west. Please, please, take him to her, her name it Shin Wu Fey, and she owns a tavern called 'The Locustbee inn.' There he can disguise himself as her son. She has no connection to any water tribe…they'll never think to look…"

"I will, promise." I said, bowing to her the way the water benders do. She and her husband bowed back. "But now, aren't you going to escape? The bars are open, you are free."

"I'm afraid not," she said sadly. "I am expecting another," she gestured to her belly, which I suddenly noticed was swollen like a melon. "And my husband has a broken leg. We cannot travel without them finding us. Please, seal the bars once again."

Reluctantly I closed the bars back over the couple, and replaced the fake covering, but I left a crack open for ventilation. I saw the mothers pale blue eyes staring at me as I mounted; its haunting likeness to Pearl's when she water bended had me entranced as I rode away.

"Thank you…Avatar!" she called as I rode into the dark plains with her son, misfortune shoved upon him for being fortunately gifted. It truly was a changing world we lived in; I just hoped in the future, this boy would still be part of it.