The Desertion- Chapter 7
Jeong peered over the hillside through the tall blades of green-yellow grass. Several of his other team members lay in the grass near him, waiting for Jeong to give the signal to attack. Sitting ahead was the camp of the one last group of Earth Kingdom vigilantes troubling the region, all of them decent Earth Benders. It was early in the morning, all of the campers had just gotten up, and surrounded a fire while breakfast was prepared. By the way they moved, they were groggy from the previous night shifts and small rigorous battles from other fire nation troops.
Jeong loved this time of day. The sunrise was always a large source of power for firebenders, with it chasing away the moon and cold at night and bringing in the drastic change of heat and energy. A firebender's powers were prime at this time, and this gave Jeong and his troop the advantage in this fight. He raised his hand into a fist, ready to signal the others behind him to move.
They were going to approach this quickly, not letting the Earthbenders react or know what hit them. Finally, he pushed his fist forward, and his troops rushed up from behind and charged down the hill, trampling the grass and yelling battle cries. Jeong could feel the heat from the firebending as he stood up and joined his men in battle.
Even with the time of day, the earthbenders put up a good fight after quickly organizing themselves when they realized they were getting attacked. Jeong made a fire wave that took out a group of them before they could even strike with their earthbending, and some of his men followed his example. Others weren't so lucky. While their fireballs were powerful, they lacked control and often missed the targets, allowing an open spot for the earthbenders to strike and knock some his men out .
While Jeong took out a few more enemies with a round kick of fire, his attention focused to the center of the camp. He saw several of his troops getting thrown about the field with large rocks hitting them in their core or having half of their bodies sink into land. The one causing the trouble was the leader of the enemies. He wore thick dark green armor and a helm completely covering his face, with a long green plume reaching all the way down to his back. In order to take some of the pressure off his less experienced men, Jeong called for the leader's attention.
"HEY! Why don't you fight someone who's more of a challenge?" He called, causing the enemy's head to turn in his direction. His firebenders were smart enough to get the hint, and moved out of the way to allow Jeong to take control. They all shifted their attention to the remainder of the vigilantes.
"You their General Jian Jian?" The man said in a rough uncultured tone.
"Commander Jeong Jeong. You are mistaking me for my brother. I'm here to punish you for your crimes of rebelling against the Fire Nation." Jeong couldn't help but feel angry that he was on another one of these missions, but for some reason he couldn't feel the same sympathy he did for Kai and her people. Their vigilance in fighting was admirable, but the Earth Kingdom had been their main enemies for so long it was sickening. He couldn't even count how many battles he had fought against them. While Jeong was usually an advocate for reservation of firebending, he wouldn't mind using everything he had to take these men out just to get his victory. Anything to end this war and bloodshed sooner, I'm just so sick of it. Jeong took his regular low stance, prepared for whatever his opponent might throw at him.
"My crimes?" the man snorted, "what about your crimes firebender? You're all the same! You come into our land and think you own it—"
"QUIET!" Jeong punched a fireball towards his opponent's feet, "let's just get this over with." He didn't want to hear it today. Ever since he talked to Kai in her jail cell over six months ago now, the thoughts about why the fire nation fought this war crept into his mind every single day. It was almost unbearable, and he didn't want anymore flack from this man right now.
"Haha, I like how you think," the man chuckled. He took his stance as well, putting his hand into the regular strong fists of his style. He remained quiet and still for a moment then made the first move, stomping into the ground and summoning up a large ball of rock. Jeong quickly deflected with a small ball of fire, causing an explosion of dust in the air.
The enemy continued to throw large rocks at him, very quickly for an earthbender. Jeong could see why his men got overwhelmed. Still, with every single ball of rock Jeong easily deflected it with his fire. The enemy rose to the challenge when he made of wave of earth, and rode it towards him.
Jeong jumped up as the man got close, and left behind a wall of fire with his feet after he used it to propel himself over. The man didn't stop in time, and ran straight through the wall causing him to catch on fire. After listening to the cries of pain, Jeong determined it had burned into his armor. He landed and watched the man fall to the ground struggling in vain to get his armor off or roll around to put the flames out. What a brutal way to die, he thought, at least he put up an honorable fight. Though this campaign was long and arduous, he preferred a quick battle like this over the quick slaughter on Kai's island.
Jeong walked closer to the body and bent down to observe the enemy leader. The smell coming from the combination of the armor burning and skin almost made him choke. When he observed closer, he noticed the man's hand digging, making movement and the dirt swirl in the ground .
Jeong's eyes widened. He jumped back as quickly as possible when he saw a spear of earth come up from the ground, and the man quickly lifting up his head to accompany the attack. He reacted too slow though, and as he moved back, the spear plunged deep into his upper left thigh, causing a wave of blood to stream down his bent leg.
"Dammit, you're quick…that should've killed you," he said weakly, before laying down his head and letting his last breath escape from him.
Even with his death, the earth spear stayed in place, lodged in deep. Jeong had to do this carefully, if he moved too quickly the earth could break off into his skin causing infection, or make an even worse wound. Taking a deep breath, he slowly stood up, easing the spear out and wincing at the pain. He fell down on the ground after it got out, clutching his leg to try to stop some of the bleeding.
"Commander Jeong Jeong! Someone get a medic!" One of his troops cried out. They had all been successful at either defeating or causing men to surrender, ultimately winning the battle.
"Psh, it's just a poke. Don't worry about it," Jeong said while the medic had fussed with his leg, tightly wrapping it up and stopping the bleeding. Some of his men helped him up , and he used one of them to lean on. He looked at the defeated enemy commander on the ground and smiled.
"It's over men. We can finally go home!" His declaration was followed by yells of happiness. They were all tired from this campaign, a total of four months of raking an area of rivers and woods free of rebels. He knew his men would be happy to go home, he was happy too. Even though he probably wouldn't be met with the best reception at home other than his mother and brother. All these months alone made Jeong miss Kai's sassy remarks and cold looks. Who am I kidding? I just miss her presence. Smirking at the thought, he limped back to his ship, ready to take his first steps back home.
"Surely you must think Jeong Jeong is somewhat attractive, Kai," Lady Bian said as she adjusted herself in her seat, trying to manage the little moving bundle of blankets in her arms.
"I mean, have you seen him when he's training students? When they all have nothing but pants on? Those abs! If I weren't married to the second most powerful man in the fire nation, I'd be after that," she said with assurance.
Kai couldn't help but bury her face in her hands and laugh. If there was one thing Bian was good at it was embarrassing her.
"OH! I see blushing! You agree with me then? Does that mean you might treat him a little better when he gets back? If you don't someone else might…" This time the laugher came from Ursa.
"Lady Bian, please stop harassing her! Your husband is attractive enough. Especially after coming back from killing those dragons." She took a sip of tea.
"Oh yes, the short and stumpy Dragon of the West, so attractive…" Ursa and Kai looked back and forth at each other, neither could tell if she was being sarcastic.
"Goodness look at your faces! Haha, I love my husband! Especially after he gave me this little gift." Getting rid of her usual humor, her features softened when she looked down into her arms. Little baby Lu Ten had a healthy head of black hair, round cheeks, and big bright golden eyes, which squirmed up as he began to whimper. Even at this young age, he just looked like a baby version of General Iroh.
"Ohhh, what's wrong Lu Ten," Bian cooed, "I think he's tired. I'm going to put him down for a nap." She then stood up and walked inside while gently rocking the baby bath and forth.
Ursa and Kai sat at a small round table in one of the dozens of courtyards at the Royal Palace. A large crimson umbrella covered them from the harsh sun that day, as they sipped on some ginseng tea, Kai drinking a non-spiced version of it.
Kai spent a lot of her days here, ever since that day in the reading room, she, Bian, and Lady Rou became really close. That day Kai released all of her frustrations about being in the Fire Nation. Everything from the sadness of losing her island and her brother, being forced to move here and marry Jeong Jeong, to the spicy food that constantly gave her an upset stomach. In her ranting she even mistakenly cursed Huojin in front of Lady Rou. To her surprise the lady reacted calmly, and told Kai that she would have a talk with her husband. Whatever she did must have worked, for now instead of cold looks and insults, Kai just got the cold looks. With the other issues, Lady Bian used light-hearted humor to comfort her, and then the next day invited Kai to have tea with her and some of her friends, thinking that maybe she needed some company other than the servants and her husband.
At first Kai felt out of place at these little gatherings, often standing in the corner sipping on the disgusting spiced tea, but the second Bian saw her alone she moved in and brought the conversation to Kai. She even made a servant get Kai some un-spiced tea in order to make her feel better. All of the women there were extremely interested in her island, though most of the questions were small and trivial, like "what is the food like there?" Kai responded cleverly by saying, "Better than what is being served here." At first everyone looked shocked at Kai's joke, glancing around at each other as if they couldn't decide if it was funny or not, Especially considering that she said it in the royal palace where everything was supposed to be perfect, they might've gotten in trouble if they chuckled. Then Lady Bian burst out in laughter almost to the point of tears, causing everyone to join in.
"I can agree with that! I think it's time I told my husband that something needs to get fixed around here…" She exclaimed. For the rest of the party Kai was included in the cliques of women, becoming one of the more popular ones there. After that day she and Lady Bian became extremely close, the first good friend that Kai had made here.
The young Ursa had also recently become a part of the group. Lady Bian thought it was only appropriate especially because her arranged engagement to Prince Ozai was finally getting in motion, and they were going to marry soon. She said that they could possibly bond in their experiences. Kai frowned at the thought, what could this girl possibly have in common with her? She wasn't forced to be here, and she was about to marry a prince and probably live the rest of her life in bliss. What could she have in common with me? Her thought was interrupted by Ursa's voice.
"So, I heard Commander Jeong Jeong was successful in his campaign. I received several messenger hawks earlier discussing how big of a victory this was for the fire nation. Will he be coming home soon, or staying out on the front?"
Kai sighed, "No he's definitely coming home…" she took a sip of tea after she said it. She got a messenger hawk from him personally, a long eloquently written account on how well the campaign went, how he couldn't wait to be home, and lastly, how he couldn't wait to see her. Three months ago she would have ripped the letter into pieces and thrown it into the fire, but for some reason something stopped her this time. Whether it was Bian's influence or just a random spark of kindness, Kai could not tell, but she left the letter sitting on her nightstand, and read it over again several times.
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Ursa responded, "were you and Jeong Jeong having troubles?" Kai didn't know how to answer that, if they were having troubles it would have been because of her.
"No, no. It's nothing serious. Just…it was so hard getting used to being here. I probably didn't treat him or, anyone here fairly," That was first time Kai admitted it. As much as she didn't want to realize it, she knew that Jeong Jeong only acted the way he did because he wanted to make sure she was comfortable here. Kai thought about her wedding night and when she used blood bending on him, something she vowed only to use if involved her survival…even then she hesitated in using it. That's how I treat someone who saved my life? She thought. Disgusted with herself, she drank the last few drops of her tea, and decided to change the subject.
"So, are you excited for your upcoming wedding?" Her question made Ursa look into her cup. She usually had a very calm and pensive personality, but this look on her face seemed completely depressed.
"Wow," Kai said apologetically, "I didn't mean to upset you."
"No it's not that. Prince Ozai and I get along fine. We knew this day was coming for a long time." Kai could tell she was hesitating to express her next thought, "It's just that, sometimes he gets this look in his eye…I can't even describe it. When he talks about certain battles or, sometimes things that involve his brother, he gets this look of ambition, you could tell he's pretty obsessed with it. It's a bit…disturbing." She took a sip of her tea, using Kai's ploy of changing the subject afterwards.
"Plus, I have to admit I'm a little nervous about the wedding night consummation, thing, hahaha," she awkwardly laughed. "Since you recently went through that do you think you could give me some advice?"
Kai couldn't believe she was asking this question, especially considering she was the last person she should ask. While Jeong was home they didn't touch each other, not even a hug or a kiss on the cheek, or holding each other while they slept. Kai felt terrible, because of her bloodbending she probably caused a permanent rift between them. She had to admit, she kind of missed his presence in that room even if they didn't touch each other. Without him it seemed empty and cold. Recently, when she had a nightmare about her island, she woke up and called to Jeong thinking he could comfort her. It took her only a few seconds to remember that he was gone. Maybe when he came back she would fix some of those problems, like Lady Bian said earlier, maybe as an apology. Feeling her self blush, she gave a quick answer to Ursa.
"Um, you know just, uh, let it go naturally. And a little wine always helps, for both of you," she joked.
Ursa chuckled in response, "Yes I'm sure it would." After that statement, Lady Bian came back out without little Lu Ten in her arms, and with a servant following her with a fresh kettle of tea, one spiced and one plain for Kai.
"Did I miss anything ladies?" She asked as she sat down in her chair.
"Oh nothing much!" both Kai and Ursa said at once. They both looked at each other and laughed, while Bian just sat there confused.
"Well, why don't you both have another cup of tea?" A servant picked up the plain tea and began pouring some for Kai, until she stopped him.
"Wait…why don't you pour me some of the spiced?"
