Azula enjoys a scholarly chat with Katara's grandmother post MES.
"How are you, Kanna?"
Kanna sighed. "Enjoying my stay, but starting to miss home."
She didn't have much longer to stay. Katara and Ana would be going back with her in a few short weeks. Azula was working at a breakneck pace to be sure she joined them only a few weeks later.
Azula poured herself a cup of tea and glanced over the railing to take in Rakka asleep in the strong sunlight of late morning in Ursa's garden. Ursa walked out of her apartment and folded her arms as she turned her head and tried to figure out a way around the dragon. When she turned to retreat back into her apartment, she looked up at the balcony and shot Azula a glare…as if Azula had anything to do with Rakka's sleeping habits.
Tonk leapt from a tree branch onto the balcony. She'd finally learned in the last few weeks that Rakka wasn't much of a threat, though Tonk's hunting had declined. A dragon apparently didn't increase the resident bird population of the palace.
The bearded cat trilled and jumped into Kanna's lap. She'd taken to sleeping on Kanna's bed too, the traitor. Kanna smiled and scratched Tonk's nape, immediately coaxing strong purrs. "What color is she?" Kanna asked.
It wasn't a silly question. Tonk was dappled black and orange in a dilute pattern that wasn't often found in bearded cats.
"Tortoise-shell," Azula replied. "I haven't a clue why breeders call that pattern such. If she were a dog, she would be considered a brindle."
"Is this a common color?"
"By and large that dual coloration is only found on female cats. Male cats tend to only be black or orange, but some females can carry both colors."
"I wonder why," Kanna said.
"Perhaps whatever trait that makes a cat female also coincides with carrying two colors. There are several theories."
Kanna sipped her tea and looked at Azula with surprising interest. "What are the theories?"
Azula was startled to be asked that. At this point in the conversation, Katara usually gave her a long-suffering sigh and tuned her out. "Are you truly interested or are you pretending to be polite?"
"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know."
Fair enough. "Some biologists believe that there is a specific pattern to sex traits. They believe that all creatures carry two sex traits. The first is shared among all animals whether male or female. The second determines what gender the animal will be. One rather outrageous geneticist at the university in Ba Sing Se actually used bearded cats as his model. He suggests that because female cats can carry two colors, their two sex traits must be the same. He suggests that male bearded cats carry a different sex trait that makes them male, and that the trait cannot carry a color."
Kanna cocked her head. "Is there any way to prove this?"
"Not at this point. It has been a matter of interest for many years, though not necessarily about bearded cats. About a century ago, a man in Gaoling bred foxes for hunting. He bred the gentler foxes together and produced a line that was docile and easily domesticated to sell as pets. He noticed that that line, unlike any other fox he'd ever bred or seen, displayed piebaldism and curly tails…also the tendency to bark."
"What is piebaldism?" Kanna asked.
"It's a characteristic pattern of white along the muzzle and chest."
"Ah, like our dogs at the South Pole."
"Yes," Azula replied.
"So this man thought that the white fur was related to being docile?"
Azula smiled. She enjoyed that this woman was actually listening to her. "That's the thought. There's no way to prove it though."
Kanna rubbed the cat in her lap for a moment. "What about bending?"
"Bending? As a hereditary trait?"
"Yes," Kanna said.
This was not an off-the-cuff question. Azula sipped her tea as she considered how to answer. "I imagine we'll be seeing more people of different nations bending other elements in this peacetime."
"And your children?"
Azula met Kanna's eyes. "I will love my children whether they firebend, waterbend, or don't bend at all."
Kanna gave her a long look. "I know. But you must make sure they know that too."
"Yes," she said quietly. She realized her hand was on her abdomen. "They will know."
