During the following two months, the Kyoshi Warriors experienced a period of calmness. The girls could finally relax somewhat and concentrate on their own well-being.
Asha's relationship with Kavi developed nicely. She has spent lots of time with him, often favoring the boy over other, more important things, like the usual afternoon training. Okako let it pass, though, as Kavi was having a very good influence on Asha. The young girl's shyness and insecurity faded away and were replaced with the wildness and recklessness that characterized her before the captivity.
Kitara has found a great friend in the person of Ty Lee. They were like a moving bubble of silliness: Kitara was always joking and Ty Lee was always laughing. The young acrobat even took her out for a whole day to go around the capital. This way, Kitara could confirm Nirmal's words about the difficulty to leave the island, but she also told the other girls that she had requested the necessary papers from the Fire Nation Ministry of Internal Affairs. Of course, she gave the prison as her current residence and proudly filled the request with the truth. She also gave the family name 'Kyoshi' because she thought that 'Kitara Kyoshi' sounded neat.
Nirmal continued her indifferent approach, but her newfound revelation made things way more uncomfortable than they should be. She firmly believed that the Kyoshi Warriors should accede to Azula's demands, but at least she didn't force her opinion on the others. Her views still sowed the seeds of doubt and the topic came up more and more often.
Okako just tried her best to keep everything in hand. As the girls grew more comfortable, she could devote less time to looking after them and more to coming up with something for the future. She worked on several ideas simultaneously, to no worthwhile end. She didn't give up, but the lack of success made her drift towards Nirmal's attitude.
Pema just let it pass. It seemed that she had enough of it all and would do anything for a little change. She reluctantly opposed Nirmal's idea mostly because she still thought that the Kyoshi Warrior initiates could show up any time. She didn't want to disappoint them. She didn't want to bring shame on Instructor Tamara's head for raising such weak-hearted girls.
To add some unneeded excitement, Azula has also rediscovered the Kyoshi Warriors. The girls stuck to their agreement to remain completely passive in the princess' presence, but it had no effect. Or at least not the one they wanted. Azula patiently waited for hours, silently watching the girls, who usually just did their own thing without even looking back at the princess. Her visitations were rare, but they were still very unpleasant. The girls had no idea what game she was playing with this behavior. They all had a bad feeling that Azula was a step ahead of them again, but they had no evidence either way.
The girls had other things to worry about, too. Okako and Nirmal devised an elaborate plan to try to communicate with the outside world. They tasked Asha with manipulating Kavi into sending a letter to Kyoshi Island to inform Chief Oyaji about their current situation Okako taught the cadre's traditional headshake to Ty Lee – and hid a secret message into the delicate hand movements, so if the girl ran into other Kyoshi Warriors, she would involuntary convey a short message. Okako and Nirmal hoped that Ty Lee would eventually meet with Suki and try out the handshake with her. That would be a great success, especially if Suki would have the opportunity to send an answer somehow.
To their great surprise, the letter came back much sooner. They didn't really think that it would reach its designation, but it still did. Kavi probably put lots of effort into doing justice to Asha's wish.
The reply letter was a rather odd thing. It wasn't written by Chief Oyaji, but by a woman named Aoi. It didn't make much sense first, as the words were in complete disorder, but after a few days of examination, Nirmal figured out that it was in fact encoded to hide the real message. Even though the letter itself was three pages long, the decoding reduced its size to only a few lines, and even then it didn't have anything new. It was effectively a barrage of scolding that ordered the girls to stay put and avoid impetuous actions. Overall, it was pretty disappointing.
The other thing that didn't really work was the chi-blocking training. Ty Lee was enthusiastic, but she could barely teach the girls the basics so far. Out of pure luck, Asha and Kitara discovered a few effective strikes while they tried to chi-block each other as practice, but pretty much that was all they had. They were still a world away from the stuff Ty Lee could do, and while getting the chi-blocking lessons, they also had to face the cold fact that their Kyoshi Warrior training was also imperfect on various levels. It wasn't surprising, since Instructor Tamara couldn't teach everything before she disappeared, but the scale of their backwardness was still startling, especially around their offensive capabilities.
So their hopes of getting out from the prison on their own were passing away. They were stuck.
Today was a special day. The girls decided that they would skip the chi-blocking training and for a change of pace, they would actually give something back to Ty Lee.
They introduced the cadre in detail to the young acrobat. Not just the important stuff that they had to tell to Azula, but everything.
They sat in a circle in the middle of the room, with dozens of sheets of paper all around them. The girls have already shown Ty Lee the general layout of Kyoshi Island, their home in the main village, their dojo and the shrine of Kyoshi. They made lots of drawings to give Ty Lee some visual basis, using papers and crayon they had found in the junk-room.
And now, it was history class.
"The first Kyoshi Warrior was a girl named Koko," began Okako. "She fled to KyoshiIsland shortly after Avatar Kyoshi separated it from the mainland. She was a poor and homeless orphan, and she sought a shelter."
"Right in Avatar Kyoshi's house to be exact!" continued Kitara. "She tried to be sneaky at the beginning, as she feared the mighty Avatar and thought that as an intruder, she has no right to be on the island. But eventually, Avatar Kyoshi found her and after their initial confrontation, she took pity on her."
"Koko's story made a great impact on Avatar Kyoshi," took up Nirmal. "She decided to take in the young girl and raise her as her own. After some time, though, she realized that Koko wasn't the only girl who needed such caretaking, but just the one who actually managed to get to her."
"So she founded our cadre, the Kyoshi Warriors," said Pema. "She gathered many girls from all around the world, girls like Koko. She saved them from great hardship and suffering and took them to KyoshiIsland. She granted them the blessing of her spiritual motherhood and those girls gladly accepted it. Later, when these girls grew up, they left KyoshiIsland to seek out and save other young girls. They took them back to Kyoshi Island, just like Avatar Kyoshi had done with them, and they were all initiated into the cadre as well."
"Avatar Kyoshi raised up more than a hundred girls in her lifetime!" added Asha. "And after her death, her daughters chose one of their own to continue her work."
"That's a wonderful story!" confessed Ty Lee. "So that's why you are all sisters?"
"Yes… Pretty much," answered Okako. "We are not sisters by blood, but by the spiritual guardianship of Avatar Kyoshi we all share."
"But it is totally like we are real sisters!" added Kitara. "Me, Okako, Nirmal and Pema have been together since we were little babies! Well, Suki too, but she lived with another family. Kei joined some five years later, and Asha popped up like… eight years later or so?"
"Amazing! And do you know your real parents?"
The girls flinched. This question was a little bit thoughtless from Ty Lee, and she nailed a pretty sensitive spot with it.
"No we don't," said Okako after a short, awkward pause. She dug into her hair as she tried to put this very complicated topic into actual words. "Thing is, that as we've said, all Kyoshi Warriors would be doomed without the new life the cadre granted them. If we had stayed with our original families, then we would have been dead. Or worse." She took a deep breath. "Our real parents are either no longer alive or they are very bad people. We know nothing about them, because Instructor Tamara wanted to protect us from them."
Now, this immediately broke Ty Lee's cheerfulness.
"Oh sorry…" she said with a sincerely regretting tone. "That's horrible! Knowing that you can't rely on your mom and dad would be really unpleasant!"
"Nah, it isn't that bad!" Kitara's voice was completely devoid of sadness. "Okako was exaggerating a little bit. As she said, we know nothing about our parents. So we can't say for sure if they are bad people or not."
"They should be!" protested Okako. "Otherwise, why would the initiates separate us from them?"
"Well, maybe they are good people with some bad problems," replied Kitara instantly. "Maybe they took us to KyoshiIsland to protect us! Isn't that plausible? I think my parents are definitely nice people, because only nice parents could have such a nice girl like me!"
Okako just grumbled something as an answer. But at least Ty Lee's mood had improved. She was now smiling again, or at least she made an effort to do it.
"Anyways, you shouldn't pity us because of this," added Nirmal. "We have plenty of people who want to substitute for our parents."
"Like the Kyoshi Warrior initiates?"
"Not exactly. For example, there is this woman who trains me in the art of healing. Her name is Shiela, and she isn't even from KyoshiIsland. She only visits me periodically, but I can always rely on her. She is like a mother figure for me, even though she is the cold and rigorous type…" Nirmal stopped for a moment as she relived some nice memories. "But she is also so intelligent and level-headed! I have her to thank for many things she taught me, and not only my healing skills!"
"And what about Instructor Tamara?" asked Ty Lee pryingly. She definitely had been wanting an answer to this for a long time. "You mention her a lot, but I still don't know who she is…"
Pema released a small, haughty laugh and exultantly sprang to her feet.
"It is because you don't want to know who she is!" The young girl punched into the air. "Instructor Tamara is one of the mightiest warriors you could ever meet! She is totally awesome and she would kick Azula's butt right into the moon for what she has done with us!"
After her aggressive outburst, Pema flopped back down to the floor. She still had a smug smile that slightly frightened Ty Lee. The acrobat crawled a little bit away from her, just in case.
"That sounds neat…" she mumbled timidly to appease Pema.
"Tell me about it! Mom will be super-angry to see us like this." She shot a stern gaze towards Nirmal. "And to hear about things some of us did…"
Nirmal just shrugged. But Ty Lee raised her eyebrows.
"Mom? So you know your real mother?"
Pema laughed up, and the other Kyoshi Warriors chuckled too. In her awkwardness, Ty Lee also tried to get the joke, and forced out a giggle.
"See…" began Pema the explanation. "Instructor Tamara is the closest thing we have for a real, physical mother. She was the one who raised us, who taught us everything we know and above all, the one who heartily loved us. She is the best mother you could ever wish for! Yeah, personally, I don't even care who my real parents are! I just want Instructor Tamara back! As soon as we have her again, I wouldn't even mind Fire Lord Ozai as my real father!"
They all laughed on this.
Kitara playfully poked Ty Lee in the side.
"We are totally fine with our current family situation! We have each other and that is the most important thing! If some parents show up along the way, that's the better!"
"It should be awesome to be the part of such a community!" admitted Ty Lee. "You honor me greatly by accepting my presence!"
"Gheez, thank you!" giggled Okako awkwardly. "But don't forget: the last word belongs to Suki. We can make your membership permanent only if she is okay with it. And I guess we should ask Instructor Tamara too!"
The girls fell silent for a moment. The only sound in the room was some scratching, as Asha had picked up some papers and crayon and now she was busy drawing something.
Okako drew a little bit closer to her to see what she was doing. But when Asha noticed her peeping, she quickly turned away, hiding the drawing under her body.
"What are you drawing Asha?" asked Pema inquisitively. "A naked Kavi? Do you need help to draw his groins area? Or will you wait with it until your date tonight, so you can have first-hand experiences?"
Kitara and Ty Lee giggled, but Asha didn't even flinch. She kept on drawing, and from the colors she used, it was clear that her picture won't be about Kavi.
Okako tried to approach her again, now more carefully. She had some success, but Asha still kept the paper out from her sight.
"Is there a problem Asha?" asked Okako, slightly worriedly. As she was sitting besides Asha, she could see the young girl's darkened face and the bitterness in her eyes.
"Unlike you, I know my real parents." She pushed down the crayon in her hand so hardly, that it cracked. "But I wish I didn't."
None of the other girls knew anything about Asha's past before she got to Kyoshi Island. Or at least not much. They knew that she was with some sort of primitive tribe, and that she was an outcast there, but that was all.
They all crawled a little bit closer, to hear her story.
"My father is the chieftain of a nomadic tribe in the vast plains of the eastern EarthKingdom. He is the leader of the most powerful tribe, to be exact. My mother is the shaman of the same tribe." She hunched up a little, and narrowed her eyes. "Their union was meant to be the final part of the Great Prophecy. That a Chosen One will be born: a man who carries the blessings of our ancestors and brings peace and prosperity to the warring tribes of the plains." She gulped as she reached the toughest part. "But they got me instead. 'A worthless girl,' as they said. They thought that I was a mockery of the prophecy, and they treated me exactly like that. My own parents made me an outcast, and forced me to live on scraps and the mercy of others. They continuously tried to make my life just as miserable as they could, but they were too gutless to stain their hands with my blood." She sniffed and wiped a teardrop from her face. "I hate them more than anyone else. They are spiteful people who deserve a painful death and I only wish that I could witness their demise someday."
The whole room fell to silence as Asha ended her monologue. The other girls were struck speechless as they tried to digest this horrible story. None of them could even imagine why one's parents would do something so awful. The mere thought that this had actually happened made them sick.
Okako was the first to recover from the initial shock. She fondly wrapped her arms around Asha, and this time, the young girl didn't turn away but accepted her comforting embrace.
"But now you are with us, right?" she said thoughtfully, and Asha showed a soft smile.
"Yes I am. And it is so much better! You, Instructor Tamara, Bipin, Sesi and now Kavi… You are so good to me!"
The other Kyoshi Warriors also moved closer to join the hug. Just Ty Lee was left out, though her longing expression betrayed her intention to sneak in somehow.
"I love how these serious conversations always end with group hugs!" noted Pema jokingly.
"But isn't it the most important thing?" said Ty Lee suddenly. "That no matter what, you always have each other?"
The Kyoshi Warriors smiled. Okako moved a little bit away, just to make place for another person, and silently invited Ty Lee to join with a meaningful glance. The young acrobat quickly seized the opportunity, and soon the pile grew into six girls.
Everyone was occupied with accommodating Ty Lee, so Nirmal had her chance to take a look at Asha's drawing.
It was simple, but still pretty well drawn. It showed a large, naked tree that was on fire. In front of the tree, there was a figure, standing on a pile of other people. This person was holding a sword in his hand, and the pile was filled with red stains.
Blood. Asha wanted to represent blood with it. It was a pile of dead people, slaughtered by the dark figure.
The whole picture felt murky and disturbing. It was filled with fear and anger, and it made Nirmal think about Asha's story.
About this Great Prophecy of hers. It seemed that her parents thought that a girl couldn't fulfill the Chosen's role.
But did it really prove the prophecy false?
The night sky was clear and the stars shone brightly on its black carpet. The large boulder under the blanket still had the warmth of the sun on its surface, keeping the cold of the night away. The little breeze that still reached Asha was easily negated by the thick red robe she was wearing.
She couldn't wish for a better environment to calm down after the afternoon. Yes, the group hug did some good, but it wasn't what Asha needed. She had already known that the girls would protect her, but the things that could go after her were all beyond their capabilities. They couldn't defeat Azula. They couldn't do anything with this stupid prophecy.
On the other hand, Kavi could. He had proven this when he saved Asha from those shadow monsters - even though he did it unintentionally, as he couldn't see or hear them fighting and Asha hadn't take the trouble to explain anything to him. And the fire princess tended to simply look through her whenever she caught Asha with Kavi. It seemed that the young girl became unworthy of Azula's attention, so long as someone else from the Fire Nation was alredy in Asha's company.
And Kavi happily accepted his role as Asha's protector. It quickly came out that the young Kyoshi Warrior was his very first girlfriend, and it took him quite some time to finally ease up. He still acted rather diffidently, but as their relationship progressed, he grew more and more confident. His habitude to simply do whatever Asha wanted to do was slowly vanishing, and he gladly took opportunities to present his own ideas.
Like this date tonight.
He said that he would show her something truly amazing, but he had slightly miscalculated the timing. They had been lying on this large boulder for almost an hour, and still nothing had happened. It was pretty dull, and as her surroundings were warm and comfortable at the moment, Asha slowly began to slide into sleepiness.
So Kavi had to do something to keep Asha awake, and he chose to talk.
"So we are supposed to see the Tears of Xiuh," he began with a slightly embarrassed tone in his voice. He seemed really disappointed that couldn't make this date perfect. "They should have been here already, but I guess the geographical differences tricked me. Sorry for that…"
"No problem," replied Asha instantly. "I'm just happy to be with you."
They smiled at each other
"I love you too."
They kissed, and it was short and somewhat clumsy, as always. Even though they had been together for two months, they were still just experimenting with a few things – like kissing – while others were completely out of their reach.
Asha rolled over to her back, but kept her head on Kavi's chest.
"And what are these 'Tears'? It would help a lot to know what I should watch for."
Kavi swallowed a laugh.
"Don't worry, you won't miss them. The Tears of Xiuh are a swarm of small meteoroids…"
"Meteoroids?" asked Asha with confusion. The word sounded familiar, but she had no idea what it meant. As far as she could remember, Pema had mentioned it a few times when she examined the material of their Kyoshi Warrior equipment.
"Meteoroids are chunks of rock and ice. They are coming from space, and…"
"Space?" Asha shook her head. "How is that? There is nothing there, just the stars!"
"Actually, there is a lot of stuff out there. The moon, the sun, chunks of rock, clouds of gas…"
"The moon and the sun are on the sky, silly! And space is above the sky!"
This rendered Kavi speechless. Asha looked back to see why he wasn't continuing his explanation, only to notice the boy's astonished but somehow also frightened face. He was looking right at her, and Asha could see in his eyes that he was thinking about something really hard.
"Well…" he said finally. "I guess your astronomical knowledge leaves much to be desired."
Asha frowned upon hearing this.
"Are you trying to make fun of me?" She rose to her elbow and this move forced Kavi to sit up. "You just made these 'meteoroids' up didn't you?"
"No, of course not!" Kavi scratched his head. "Just, you know, you guys have some pretty interesting misconceptions."
Asha narrowed her eyes. She couldn't decide if Kavi was playing some sort of a joke on her or not. He seemed honest, but his obvious confidence and that strange little smile in the corner of his lips made him rather suspicious.
"Okay then, smarty-pants…" she said after a moment of silence. "And how do you know all this stuff?"
"From the teachings of my people. We have quite an astronomical knowledge, you know. It is one of our specialties, alongside mysticism and the true way of firebending."
Asha drew back a little. Now she was totally confused. As far as she knew Kavi was from a tribe similar to hers. Or at least that was what Pema told her. The boy was pretty secretive with his origins, and Asha thought the reason was that he wasn't proud of it.
But astronomy and mysticism weren't really the things that should concern such a community.
"Y-your people? You mean your tribe?"
"Yes! The Sun Warriors! We are the remnants of the first firebender civilization and the guardians of its many treasures. And other things too, but those are not your concern."
This struck Asha like a lightning. She glanced over Kavi but what she saw had little connection with what she had heard. Those tight muscles and crazy, crest-like hair could only belong to someone who was barbaric in nature. Why would a civilized man have such things?
"You are lying!" she stated, but she soon regretted her words.
Kavi's face instantly twisted into an angry grimace upon hearing her words. He was clearly offended, and it seemed that Asha had made a deep cut in his inner world.
"I am not lying," he said coldly. "And you, young lady, are getting impudent. I know that noble-girls like you can abuse lowly soldiers without fear of punishment, but I must warn you: I'm not an average prison guard. My father is the chieftain of that tribe and my mother is a captain of the royal firebenders." He theatrically threw back his head. "So from a certain point of view, I'm noble born too."
For a moment, Asha couldn't reply. Her instincts signaled danger, that Kavi would try to harm her as a redressing. He would hurt her, in the same way the people of her tribe always did. But just as this ran through her, her mind finally snapped out from the shock and she realized that Kavi had been playing a game all along.
If Kavi's face was angry, then Asha's became truly infuriated. She roughly punched the boy in the chest, making him fall back to the hard surface of the boulder. His angry looks quickly melted away and all that remained was utter dismay.
"You are fooling with me!" she yelled. Kavi tried to say something, but his stammering was quickly stifled. "Stop doing this! It isn't funny! You seriously scared me!"
Kavi made another futile attempt to protest, but he gave up before he could say anything. He slid a little bit lower so Asha could lie down on his chest again, and that was it.
The dark clouds of this little conflict quickly passed away. Asha was busy analyzing the conversation in her thoughts, so she paid little attention to what Kavi did. She could feel his restlessness as his muscles stretched and loosened up continuously and she could sometimes hear some scarcely audible grumbling too.
"So, your mother is a Fire Nation soldier, huh?" she asked after some thinking.
"She is a captain of the Royal Firebenders. She isn't just a petty soldier." Kavi's reward was an elbow into his side. "Hey! What was that?"
"Don't lie!"
"Mother of Dragons help me! I'm not lying! She is the main reason why I'm here in the first place! She wanted me to spend some time amongst the civilized folks, so…" his words turned into a painful groan as Asha roughly dug her elbow into his ribs again.
"You were really lying! Your tribe is uncivilized! Otherwise, your mother wouldn't think that you need the influence of the Fire Nation!"
Kavi massaged his head in embarrassment.
"Okay, I guess you caught me. The tribe is living in the middle of nowhere anyway… And my stepbrothers aren't the finest of humanity either, so to say. But by Agni himself, I promise that I will show the city to you! After your parents pay the ransom and you are free, of course."
Now it was Asha's turn to feel confused. Kavi's last sentence didn't make much sense.
"My parents? Why should they pay ransom for me?" For a moment, she thought that Azula uncovered her origins somehow, and contacted her parents. The possibility of seeing her father and mother again made Asha shudder in fear.
She calmed down only when Kavi wrapped both his arms around her again.
"As far as I know it is a common procedure in the Fire Nation. When your Fire Lord needs money, he picks some children from the less trustworthy noble families as hostages, forcing said families to pay. So he gets his money while he also depletes the resources of his opponents. A clever idea to be honest!"
"That big royal boss guy in the palace is not my Fire Lord," grumbled Asha. She lost what Kavi had said somewhere there. The rest didn't make much sense.
"Hah! That's some real rebel talk!"
Asha was just about to remind Kavi of the consequences of playing with her again, but as she raised her elbow, she spotted something strange on the night sky. It was a small white line, and it seemingly appeared from nowhere. The phenomenon only lasted for a short moment before it disappeared, but Asha could still catch it.
Then all of a sudden, a whole bunch of similar while lines showed up. They crossed through the black mantle of the night sky like the flashing blades of a dozen swords.
"Finally!" shouted Kavi. "The Tears of Xiuh are here!"
And thus, Asha could finally realize that this "Tears of Xiuh" was in fact a star shower on a pretty massive scale. It was an amazing sight, as the first couple of falling stars were followed by dozens, then hundreds and finally they were well beyond count. The sky was filled with the flashing white streaks that just kept appearing no matter how many of them had vanished only a moment before.
"According to our legends, these meteoroids are the manifestations of the mighty Xiuh, the only son of the sun god Agni," started Kavi suddenly. "During the times of creation, Chel, the goddess of earth, presented Agni with a son, Xiuh, in return for the warmth and light that fed the life on the world. Xiuh grew into a mighty warrior and a scholar of many arcane disciplines, and his greatness inspired his father to create the first dragon. As the Mother of Dragons emerged from the fire of Agni, her unearthly beauty caught the eyes of Xiuh. He fell desperately in love with her!"
"Weren't they siblings?"
Kavi shrugged.
"Nah… Xiuh was formed by Chel alone from the hardest rock and the purest ice. He was like an adopted son of Agni." The boy cleared his throat to regain the thread of his story. "Anyway, the creatures of the world didn't know the secrets of fire at that time. Without the light and the heat of Agni, they were exposed to the sinister darkness and the freezing cold. During her time with the mortal creatures, the Mother of Dragons took pity on them. Even though she had the power of creating fire, the secret of the actual method was still beyond her. She decided to seduce Xiuh, who had been longing after her for some time, and persuade him to steal the secret from Agni."
"And why didn't she ask her creator herself?"
"Because Agni is a rather insufferable god," answered Kavi without hesitation. "He jealously guarded his secret of creating fire because he thought that nobody else was worthy of such a knowledge. He also firmly believed that if others gained this power, then his very existence would become meaningless."
"Huh… I see. So what happened with Xiuh? Did he get the secret?"
Kavi straightened his back upon hearing that Asha was interested in his story. She couldn't see his face, but she could easily imagine a smug smile on it.
"Yes, he did. He actually tricked Agni into giving it to him. And when he handed it to the Mother of Dragons, she immediately shared it with the mortals. But as she watched the fires of the lesser creatures flaring up in the night, Xiuh approached her to finally lay claim on her heart."
"And did they marry and live happily ever after?"
"Quite the other way around!" laughed Kavi. "The Mother of Dragons despised Xiuh and she only used him to take Agni's secret. So she chose to run away into the endless void of space, where she was safe from both Agni's wrath and her unwanted suitor. Xiuh departed to find her, but it was an impossible task. Poor Xiuh has been circling in the space ever since then, periodically returning to this world with a futile hope that his beloved Mother of Dragons returned home. The meteoroids we are watching now are the tears he shed during his journey. They signal the coming of the great Xiuh, and warn the children of the Mother to prepare themselves to greet him. It is said that if Xiuh finds this world devoid of dragons, he will know that all hope is lost and he will unleash his fury on the mortals, scouring the entire planet from life."
Asha muffled a scream. As far as she knew, the dragons were wiped out a long time ago by the Fire Nation.
"But the dragons are all dead!" she whispered timidly. She was unsure if she could say such things out loud while the tears of the god were still above them.
"No, they aren't. And remember, this is just a legend. Xiuh no longer visits this world, because only my tribe can recall his true name. The people of the Fire Nation renamed the phenomenon as Sozin's Comet. Pretty lame and uncreative, if you ask me… But nevertheless, roughly one month later, Sozin's Comet will come and not Xiuh. And I'm sure that Sozin's Comet won't mind the lack of dragons at all!"
"You think that a different name can change everything?"
"Of course! These things only work if people actually believe in them! Legends and prophecies are naught if nobody takes them seriously, but they could be surprisingly self-fulfilling when people actually do watch out for them."
Asha couldn't say anything to this. This was something she had never considered before. So far, she thought that the Great Prophecy of her tribe was after her. She tried to run away, she tried to hide, but she never tried to forget it.
Could it be that simple? Were those shadow daemons that attacked her two months ago just the creations of her own mind?
It was hard to decide, and she didn't want to think too much about it. But the notion nested itself deep into her mind. It was definitely something she should have some time to ponder.
Asha rolled to her stomach, and crawled up to face Kavi.
They looked into each other's eyes.
"Tonight, Xiuh weeps tears of envy and regret…" Kavi's face reddened as he span his words into form. "…as he can see me with a girl whose beauty surpasses the Mother's thousandfold!"
Asha blushed and flashed an awkward smile. She was still unused for these kind of compliments. Kavi really had a poet lost in those bundles of muscle.
"I love you," she said after a short moment of silence.
"I love you too."
They kissed, and this time, it was neat and long. Asha could feel the air heating up around them as the passionate kiss roused Kavi's firebending power. But she was okay with it, because she could feel a fire burning inside herself, too. It was the flame of her loving heart, and she knew that Kavi could feel it in the same way she could perceive his, even though she wasn't a firebender.
They remained like this for quite some time, cuddled up to each other under the dwindling swarm of falling stars.