Part 4
Trouble Brewing
Kita walked down the street. Her mind was lost and busy, so she little noticed the commotion around her. Shops were closing their doors early. Northern Watertribe men strode around, gazing imperiously at their Southern brethren. Someone even glared at her, but Kita didn't look up. She held a broken piece of sandstone on her gloved palm. A bit of the earthbending disks that Bolin had used when he taught her some pro-bending moves. She'd found it when she was walking through the park on her way to her healing lesson. She had been trying to forget the handsome earthbender. He had left without so much as a goodbye. Not even a backward glance. She had even heard rumors of his betrothal to Eska, but she did not know how true those were. She doubted he would have left his new bride in such a hurry.
She turned the little fragment over in her hand. She felt her cheeks heat slightly. She had kissed Bolin the last time she had been with him. She had thought there was something growing between them, but clearly she had been mistaken. For all she knew he was in a hurry to get away from her. Crazed watertribe girl, star struck by meeting her first pro-bender. She cursed herself and her natural forwardness.
She pushed aside the animal hide that served as a door to her teacher's healing house. There were several healing houses in the village, rather than one hospital, as she heard large cities had. "Master, I'm sorry I'm a little late. The streets were crowded today."
"Kita?" her teacher looked up from swirling some healing water in a basin. "I'm surprised you came today."
"You are?" Kita slid her coat from her shoulders, secreting the rock she had been holding discreetly into a pocket. "Why?"
"Where is your head at, girl?" scolded the woman, brushing her long, silver braid behind her shoulder. "Haven't you noticed what's been going on in this city?"
Kita sat down and began swirling the water with her hands in gentle, swishing motions, adding some ground herbs, as her teacher had been. "Well...I mean...I know that the Northern Watertribe has been sending troops here, and that they have us landlocked at the moment," her focused lapsed and some of the glowing water slashed onto her knee. She made a pinching motion in the air above the spot and lifted the water out of the fabric, guiding it back to the basin. "Is there something else I should know?"
Her teacher rolled her eyes. "Girl, your head is so full of nonsense all the time you can't even tell when your own people are being oppressed. I'm moving out of this city," she leaned forward, her voice lowering, "There are some settlements forming outside the city. We Southerners aren't liking the look of these Northern upstarts, so some of us are packing up."
"Northern upstarts?" Kita raised an eyebrow, but she too kept her voice low. "I thought Chief Unalaq was here to unite the tribes."
"You see much uniting going on?" her teacher asked. She fetched a step stool and began taking the dried herbs down from the rafters.
Kita stood and, without a word, took her teacher's place on the stool, handing the herbs down. "So we're being oppressed."
"Haven't you noticed that your business has gotten worse?" the old woman asked. "The Northerners aren't allowing Southerners to shop in their own town square."
"Really?" Kita handed down a bundle of strong smelling herbs that made her nose twitch,
"You need to learn to pay more attention, Kita," her teacher growled. "Honestly, it's like I haven't been trying to teach you discipline for years. Get your head out of the clouds and back down here to earth. The avatar up and left us too. War between the tribes may very well be brewing and what does she do? Off she dashes back to her beloved Republic City, and we don't hear so much as a peep from her. Humph. I think you and that avatar have a lot in common."
Kita moved the stool to reach the next bundle. Was it true? Was war brewing, and had the avatar abandoned them? Her mind strayed again to Bolin and she admonished herself. Her teacher was right. It was time to get back to reality, and Bolin was no longer a reality for her. She handed down something that had thorns, careful to hold it between her fingertips. The door flew open and two figures stood there, one supporting the other. "My brother is in need of healing," came a dull, female voice.
Kita squinted, the bright light from outside making it difficult to see, but she thought she recognized the voice.
"My goodness! Bring him over here!" gasped Kita's teacher, gesturing the figures inside.
"Desna? Eska?" Kita gasped as the watertribe royalty made their way into the healing house.
"Kita, clear the cot! Eska, please bring your brother over here! What happened?"
The young woman led her brother inside. She lowered him gently into one of the healing cots. He let out a low groan. Kita knelt beside him at ounce, hands spread over his chest. Eska watched with hooded eyes. Kita thought the princess always looked like she was tasting something foul. "It is none of your concern what happened to my brother." Eska replied, coldly.
"He has internal burns. Like he's been electrocuted," Kita mumbled. Her eyes were closed as she felt the young man's blood flowing. Felt the way his own body reacted. "Was there an attack by a firebender?"
"No," Eska replied, simply.
Kita's teacher knelt beside her, spreading her own hands to see. "She is right. It does seem as though some form of electricity went through him. It is strange. I sense some other energy. Do you feel it Kita?"
Kita probed deeper, feeling each thrum and flow of Desna's heart beat. "I...I'm not sure. Wait!" Something was there. A cold, slithering feeling. "Spirit magic?" she asked. She had not had much experience with it. Once or twice a year someone would be attacked by a dark spirit, and a few times Kita had been available to help.
"It is," her teacher nodded, which Kita sensed rather than saw. "Can you extract it?"
"This is not the time for an inexperienced healer," Eska spoke up, her tone icy. "You will heal my brother with the best of your techniques."
"Alright," Kita's teacher sighed. "I will focus on the spirit magic, Kita, you should be able to easily repair the internal damage."
Kita focused her attention on Desna's wounds. She felt him shudder under her hands. His mouth moved fractionally, "Father. No. You must not," he hissed between thin lips. Kita felt his words reverberating his chest as she encouraged his body to heal.
She opened an eye and glanced towards the boy's pale face. His eyes were still closed. She refocused herself and continued to work.
It did not take the two healers long before Desna was well again. He said nothing to them, though his eyes caught Kita's for a moment. Perhaps there was a thanks in their blue. She decided to believe that there was. "Good bye," she called, weakly, as the two left the hut.
"I don't like the look of that at all," Kita's teacher shook her head, still watching the door where the twins had disappeared. "Spirit magic. The boy injured, but his sister won't tell us why."
"Desna said something about his father," Kita mumbled, so quietly she wasn't sure her aging teacher had heard her.
"That man," the old woman moved back to arranging herbs in a large, traveling basket. "The sooner we get out of here, the better. He's leading us down the road to ruin, you mark me, girl."
Kita felt a deep unease creeping over her. "Maybe I should go home, Master."
"I think that would be wise," her teacher nodded. "If that father of yours has any sense, which is debatable, he'll move you to one of the outposts like me."
Kita pulled her coat back on. She felt herself trembling, even though she was not cold. Something was very wrong. She had felt it in the spirit magic that lurked inside Desna. She hoped her teacher had gotten it all out of the boy.
When she got home her father was active. "Dad?" she asked. Her mind had been so lost in these new, confusing issues, that she had walked in the front door. Usually she at least pretended that her father did not know that she sneaked away for lessons. She could use her bending to get in her bedroom window at the back of the building.
"Kita," her father looked up when she came in. He was loading vases and sculptures into a wooden crate padded with hay. "Good, you're here. Go upstairs and gather your things. Then help me pack up the office."
"Dad, what's going on?" Kita stood in the doorway, her brows knit together with concern.
"Two Northern watertribe soldiers were just in here," her father's voice was tight. "They were...rude. I've decided that we're leaving."
As her father turned Kita saw a bruise blossoming on his cheek. She darted towards him, hands ready. "Rude? What did those thugs do to you?"
He waved her away, "Kita, focus. It's time we showed a little loyalty to our tribe. I'm not standing for this any more. I should have left when our neighbors did."
"They left?" Kita looked at the wall which abutted the neighboring store as though she could see through to the empty shelves beyond.
"Kita, where has your head been these last few days?" her father asked, annoyance in his voice.
"I'm sorry," she looked at her boots, ashamed. "At least let me see your cheek," she pleaded, gently. "It could be worse than a bruise."
"We don't have time for this," he grumbled, but he sat down on a stool just the same.
It was indeed only a bruise, and Kita healed it easily. Then she did as she was told and went upstairs to pack up her room. She couldn't shake the seeping feeling of unease. Would they be gone long? She should have asked, but she was too distressed by how quickly everything was falling apart. Things hadn't seemed so bad. Sure the Northerners were bullies, and over-fond of using their waterbending aggressively, but war? They couldn't go to war! Her tribe would be slaughtered. They didn't have enough warriors. Chief Tonroq was Unalaq's brother. Couldn't they work it out without bloodshed? She rolled up her blankets, glancing at the sculpture she and Bolin had made together. A crack had formed because of the way she had hardened it, but the crack only seemed to add character. Without thinking she reached over and picked up the piece. "Bolin...where did you go? Where did the avatar go?"
She finished up her room, deciding to pack sparingly. They would come back home. She had believe that. She thought about the sculpture, held it in her hands for a long moment. Then she set it back on her nightstand. It was too fragile for travel, she told herself. Or maybe she was a little mad at the man who had helped her create it.
She could hear her father still working in the store, so she went to the back room. Failed art and overstock lined the shelves. Should she bring her pottery wheel? She would save it for last. See how much they had to move, and how they were going to get it out to the camp. Instead she went over to her father's desk and began stuffing papers into a messenger bag. She little heeded what she was doing until one of the papers escaped her fingers and drifted to the floor. She made a disgruntled sound and bent down to pick it up. Her breath caught in her throat.
Kita,
I am sorry I didn't not get a chance to say goodbye to you. I stopped by your house, but you were off at training, and I realized that I don't know where that is. Your dad scares me, so I didn't ask him. Instead I figured I would write you a letter. Avatar Korra says we have to go back to Republic City. She says we have a good chance of getting an army and bringing it back to help prevent war. I shouldn't be gone very long.
I wanted you to know I liked that kiss. I didn't want you to think I didn't because I left. Eska and I aren't together any more. I told her today. She was a little mad. Alright, very mad. That's another reason we needed to leave in a hurry. That girl is scary.
I hope I'll see you again soon.
Bolin
Kita read the letter a second time, then tucked it gently into the collar of her shirt. Anger fumed inside her. What was Bolin's letter, obviously several days old, doing in her father's desk? She continued stuffing papers, though she was even less careful than she had been, into the bag. Papers tore and crumpled as she stuffed and fumed. When she finished she marched back into the shop, her best glare aimed at her parent.
"Are you ready?" Torq raised his head to look at his daughter. He must have recognized the expression on her face because he looked down again, as though hoping she would go away.
"So, Dad, I was tidying your desk and I found this," she lifted the letter from her collar. "Did you forget to give it to me or something?"
Her father didn't answer. He kept busy, packing up the last few vases, then repacking them when Kita didn't go away. "I didn't forget," he said, quietly.
Kita rarely saw her father looking ashamed. She wasn't sure what to do with it. Her father was usually yelling at her, and turning her arguments around. "Why did you keep it? If you didn't want me to have it, why not just burn it?" she leaned to one hip, arms folded.
"I wasn't sure," he said, huskily. "You know how I feel about you dating. You already have enough to keep you busy without boys complicating things. But, this boy...he's friends with the avatar."
"What?" Kita snapped. "You kept his letter because he knows the all important avatar? Not because he's a nice guy? Because he has powerful friends?"
"Kita, please, not now." Her father said. He straightened, his face firm again. Kita found herself bitterly wishing she hadn't healed his bruise. His eyes were cold now. "We do not have time for this. That boy left. It doesn't look like he, or the avatar, are coming back. They abandoned us, and he probably forgot about you as soon as he got back to the city."
"Or maybe he's busy. Or maybe our mail isn't getting through because there's a freaking blockade in the harbor. Is this the story you're going with now? That you're protecting my fragile feelings from the big, mean, boy?"
"Kita," his tone was dangerous. "I know you think you run the show because you're a bender and I'm not. Because I let you think you're sneaking out for your training. But I am your father, and I am saying we don't have time for this right now. Some of our fellow Southerners are coming with a cart to pick us up in a few minutes, and I don't want them to see us having an argument."
On cue the bell above the door rang and someone stuck his head into the shop. "Ready to go, Torq? Kita?"
"Yes," Kita's father said. He shouldered a pack, gesturing that she should follow.
Kita glanced around. "What about the stock?"
"I crated it all up. Now we lock the door and hope no one breaks in." he sighed. "At this point it's all we can do."
Kita took one long look at the shop, then followed her father out the door. As they rode in the back of the cart, holding their belongings in place so they did not fall out, Kita and her father were very quiet. She was far from ready to forgive him yet. However much she wanted to think about Bolin, however, her thoughts were too crowded with the possibility of war and the fear of whatever dark spirits Unalaq might be dealing with. Why hadn't the chief been with his wounded son? There was no denying that Eska had made the right choice to bring her brother in for help. Why hadn't their father been at their side? A shudder went through her and it had nothing to do with the cold wind that was whipping up as they left the city.
*** I don't know why the words get small after the letter from Bolin, and I also cannot figure out how to fix it. So I apologize for that. So...the show is rather unclear exactly how much time passes, so at this point I made it only a few days. If you guys think it would have been much longer, let me know. Maybe I'll find the time to fix it. I have finally seen all the episodes of the season, so I feel confident writing more about Kita, and eventually, Bolin.
