Book 4 - Air
Episode 5 "The blossom of the White Lotus"
Part 1 of 3
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This episode ended up being way longer then expected. I think part of it could be moved to the previous episode to keep the content amount similar, it should still play out in an episode timeframe though.
Thanks for all the feedback so far, keep it up and spread the good word. A special thanks to 'Ryan Lohner' for mentioning this story in Avatar forums. As I am not really active in the web, any assistance in getting this out to a larger audience is appreciated.
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- Iroh sat kneeling in front of a small writing table in his private quarters. The only illumination came from two orange lamps which flanked the small working desk. In front of him lay the small letter from Zuko. Iroh frowned as he read the last line.
((
… Idealism won't be enough to ensure a smooth transfer. There are too few people I can trust to keep a cool head. I am sorry I have to keep coming back to you for guidance and support, but too many people have suffered already as a consequence of this war. I feel compelled to end the turmoil as quickly as I can. To do so, I require considerable 'competent' assistance, and as soon as possible….
Zuko.
))
Leaning back slightly, Iroh stroked his beard thoughtfully for a few seconds.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.
"Come in" instructed Iroh kindly.
"Grand Lotus" said an elderly servant, poking his head through the door, "the members you have requested are assembled in the tearoom."
"Very good" replied the older, retired general kindly.
- Iroh opened the sliding door to reveal three White Lotus members sitting patiently. Jeong Jeong, King Bumi and Pakku all nodded respectfully as Iroh entered.
"I thank you all for coming to this private meeting" said Iroh, taking a seat in front of the three.
"Of course, of course" said King Bumi enthusiastically, "who doesn't enjoy a bit of skulduggery after all."
The king laughed and snorted a bit at his blunt statement.
"The grand gathering of the order is tomorrow" said Master Pakku, "we naturally assume your reason for calling us here separately is important."
Iroh nodded.
Joeng Joeng suddenly spoke up.
"I must therefore pass on the sincerest apologies of Master Piandao for not attending. But I am afraid that without Firelord Zuko in the capital, it is too dangerous at the moment to leave any more of a power vacuum."
Iroh nodded again in acceptance of the apology before replying.
"That is the reasons why I have called a grand gathering of the order, and specifically why I have called you here today" he said calmly, "it has become apparent that more assistance is required."
The three masters all looked on gravely, Joeng Joeng nodding his head in agreement.
"You are well aware that members of the White Lotus should not interfere with the government of another nation, normally not even on behalf of the order" said Master Pakku carefully.
"I am aware of this," said Iroh thoughtfully, "what I want to suggest tomorrow is not to work on behalf of any single nation, but to work on behalf of all nations."
"Where would this be possible?" asked Joeng Joeng sceptically.
Iroh waited a second before replying.
"The war has changed the face of our world. Never before have the boarders been moved so much, or a single area existed with such a mix of different nationalities."
"You are talking about the fire colonies?" said Master Pakku.
"Correct" answered Iroh, "even Watertribe refugees are mixed in-between the upheaval of populations on the west coast of the Earthkingdom continent."
"The area is still, however, Earthkingdom territory," said King Bumi, raising the eyebrow of his bigger eye.
"And it will be again" said Iroh, without hesitation, "but it will take time, particularly if we want to ensure the safety and rights of all effected peoples. I have talked the matter through with the Firelord and the Earthking, they are both in agreement that it would be best if some type of international force to take temporary administration of the colonies and surrounding areas."
The three listening members all thought for a second before King Bumi spoke up.
"Sounds good to me!" he said simply with a big smile.
This was followed by a nod from Master Pakku.
"I am not sure the other members will be quite as easily convinced as us however" warned Master Pakku.
"I know" replied Iroh, a cunning grin spreading across his face, "that is why I wanted to coordinate with you regarding your 'spontaneous support' tomorrow when, you, present, my, idea to the members."
Master Pakku and Jong Jong smiled knowingly. Bumi simply rubbed his hands together gleefully.
"Spontaneous" the ancient earth bender said happily, "I am the master of spontaneous."
He finished by laughing and snorting mischievously.
- The entire gang made their way slowly down a winding path. They were in the forest that represented no-mans land between the Firenation troops and the Earthkingdom soldiers. It was about mid-morning, and all were dressed in none-descript reddish brown and tan peasant clothes. Sokka and Zuko still carried older looking swords, but were otherwise loaded up with large, but light, baggage strapped to their backs.
Aang was leading an ostrich-horse with a simple wooden staff in hand; his head was covered by a simple turban to cover his arrow. The animal was pulling a two wheeled cart, on which, a mound of simple farmer belongings were stacked high. Toph was to the side of the cart behind a wheel, holding on to the wood to keep up her act of being completely blind.
The other three girls were also walking beside the cart, apparently unarmed and carrying small bundles slung around their shoulders.
Zuko fell back from his leading position with Sokka to fall into step beside Toph.
"Are you sure you felt someone following us before?" he asked with a hint of impatients.
"I already told you, yes" said Toph in a mildly annoyed whisper, "and I'm getting a funny feeling at the moment, so get back up in front already."
Zuko nodded, and then headed forward again, slowing down as he passed Mai.
"How are you doing?" he asked kindly.
Mai had her hair down and her fringe ruffled to keep to the image of a peasant girl, she gave her boyfriend a wane smile.
"I've had worse assignments" she said kindly.
The two walked side by side for a moment, Zuko looking across.
"You look good with your hair like that" he said a moment later.
Mai blushed slightly, and then smiled.
"Don't get used to the peasant look" she said teasingly, "now get back forward, like Toph said."
Zuko smirked, and then walked forward back to the side of Sokka,
Once Zuko left, Mai automatically brought her free hand up to her hair, smiling slightly to herself.
Behind Mai, Katara and Suki moved closer to Toph.
"I hope they attack soon" said Toph quietly to Katara nearby, "This is getting really boring, I need a bit of action to loosen me up."
Toph then moved her head back and forth, cracking her neck noisily to emphasise her point.
"Now don't get too excited" warned Katara quietly, "as we agreed before, no attacking anyone until we have identified the leader."
"If we take 'em all down, one of them has to be the leader" Toph suggested enthusiastically.
"I wouldn't be so hasty" said Suki from the side, "by the looks of the whole thing, it is a much bigger operation. The leader probably isn't even involved in the raids himself."
Toph looked disappointed.
"Just have a little patients Toph" said Katara with a knowing smile, "once they take us back to their base, there'll be a lot more people for you to fight."
Toph smiled at that.
"You know what sugar queen" Toph said happily, "you're getting a lot better at talking my language."
Katara simply smiled.
Up ahead, Zuko was walking next to Sokka.
"So do you think they are just going to jump out at us?" Zuko asked Sokka, after a while.
"Who knows" replied Sokka "I just hope they're halfway decent fighters. Otherwise it's going to be hard to, lose, convincingly."
Zuko and Sokka looked at each other, and then shared an evil chuckle regarding their confidence in their own abilities.
"Aarg!" screamed Sokka suddenly as the ground gave away below him.
Zuko jumped back automatically, but was then caught in a flying net before he had a chance to further react. The momentum of the net sent the young Firelord sliding along the dirt roughly.
Out of the forest appeared a very rough, but strong looking group of bandits, ten in total, most carried weapons but a few appeared to be earth benders.
The ostrich-horse reared at the sudden appearance of the men, and Aang had to fight a bit to control the animal.
Sukki and Katara immediately surrounded Toph protectively.
Mai pulled a dagger and backed towards the other girls.
Once Aang had clamed the Ostrich-horse, he drew into a defensive stance with his staff.
"Back off!" called Katara threateningly, "we have nothing of value, leave us alone!"
One of the bandits simply smiled broadly.
"Oh, but you do" said an earth bending bandit with a sickening smile
"It's not worth the trouble" added Mai darkly, holding the dagger in front of her.
A few of the bandits laughed amongst themselves, obviously not threatened. One of them moved forward to disarm Mai, but had to take a hurried few steps back as Mai lunged viscously.
This caused his comrades to laugh heartily at the sceptical.
The earth bending bandit had and amused expression, which then turned deadly serious. With a stomp of his foot he sent a column of earth up underneath Mai's hand, knocking the dagger out of her grip.
With one hand holding her wrist, Mai backed up to the other girls which surrounded Toph.
"Don't you touch them!" called Zuko angrily from his net.
A nearby bandit gave the Firelord a nasty kick to the side.
Mai seemingly began to move, but a hand closed around her wrist. Looking back, she saw Katara's stern gaze, compelling her not to act, which reluctantly she followed.
"Don't damage the merchandise!" commanded the earth bending bandit angrily towards his colleague. He was the same man who had disarmed Mai and was obviously the leader of the group.
"We wouldn't want to devalue our newly acquired goods, after all" he said with an evil smile, looking between the young group.
Aang lowered his staff as his mouth dropped open, realising that the bandit leader was talking about them.
Suddenly a comical voice broke through the serious mood coming from the newly formed pit.
"Can someone get me out of here?" asked Sokka weakly, obviously in discomfort and not caring who got him out.
- The young group marched in a small column behind their captured wagon. All had their hands tied to two long ropes which were tied to the back end of the cart. The bandits had dispersed into two groups, one in front of the captured youths and one behind, they obviously did not consider the youths a threat.
The youngsters were free to talk amongst themselves quietly.
"They are planning on selling us?" said Toph disbelieving, "man. I can't wait to be let loose on these creeps" she added angrily.
"It makes sense" said Aang, "both sides said that they had lost people seemingly captured to the other side."
"At least that means they're not going to treat us too badly" said Suki quietly.
Zuko moved to indicate that his side still hurt from the kick, something Suki noticed.
"As long as we don't antagonise them," she added with a sheepish smile.
"That's good advice," said Zuko darkly.
"How long are we going to keep this up?" asked Mai, obviously not amused with the current state of affairs.
"If they are planning on selling us" said Aang seriously "there must be someone they are going to sell us to."
"Probably a dealer of some kind… a go-between" suggested Katara.
"Exactly" confirmed Aang, "that's the person we have to get, he's the real bad guy."
"If we can get him, we can unravel the entire operation" agreed Sokka, his mind already planning ahead.
"So what's the plan?" asked Zuko impatiently.
Sokka thought about this for a second.
"There is no plan" he said a moment later, "We'll just have to play it by ear when we get to their base… but two things are certain, we have to find out who the leader is, and we have to find information about this dealer person."
This generated a series of nods from the group.
"So it's best that no one acts until we have all agreed" Sokka continued, "or at least before we have had a chance to discuss it again."
"We'll just have to put up with this for a bit longer" said Aang, raising his bound hands to indicate their current state, "a bit of misery for us, means we save a lot of people from something worse."
Mai and Toph did not look amused by the notion, but quickly conceded.
- The captives and bandits made their way down a winding path deep in the centre of the old forest. Coming around a corner they suddenly found themselves in a half clearing. In the middle of the clearing was an old rundown tavern, surrounded by a few dilapidated buildings. The central compound was encircled by a very basic earth and wood stockade, which appeared to be only half finished. It was obviously the base of the bandits, and looked like it was only moments from falling apart from lack of maintenance.
Scattered around the stockade were a patchwork of basic fields being tended too by a few miserable souls. The few workers were men and woman, their legs in irons, and being watched by a few bandits lazing under a nearby tree.
Aang frowned at the surrounding misery.
Entering the stockade, the returning group met up with three large burly men.
"Looks like a successful day's work" called out the largest of the three, a scarred, barrel of a man with irregular tufts of short hair still on his head.
The leader of the returning group smiled broadly.
"They should fetch quite a price boss" he said proudly, "they're all young and strong."
The boss walked over to the youngsters, inspecting them one after the other. All looked defiant, disgusted by what they saw around the base.
The bandit boss stopped at Toph, the girl not looking up at him. He attempted to raise her chin but she tore her head away. Smiling at the defiance, he simply grabbed the front of her collar, lifting her into the air until he could see her face. Toph squirmed in his grip, her legs flailing.
"Let me go you big jerk!" shouted Toph in irritation.
"What's wrong with her?" he asked sceptically, ignoring her comment.
"She's blind Sir" said Katara quickly, taking a step forward, "but she can work, she's strong" she added for show.
"Hmmph" said the boss. Without another thought, he simply let Toph drop, the earth bender falling and landing on her backside.
Aang immediately moved to help Toph up, and secretly to stop her from earth bending in anger.
The boss took a step over to the older girls. After inspecting the three of a second he grabbed Suki's chin to more closely inspect her face.
Suki tried to break away but was held in place by the strong grip. Sokka immediately moved forward to intervene, his teeth gnashing. A guard nearby knocked the wind out of him with a savage backhand to his chest, blocking his path.
The boss noticed the defiance, letting Suki break away on her second attempt.
"Looks like you all have a little too much energy and spirit" the boss said calmly, "we'll soon have you too tired to even think about resistance."
The larger man turned to his two companions.
"Take those two to help with the stockade," he said, referring to Sokka and Zuko, "That should tire them out a bit" he added with a cruel smile.
"These three go to Lin, she should put them to work" said the large leader of the bandits, referring to the older three girls.
"And these two go into the kitchen, where they better be of some use" he finished, referring to Toph and Aang.
The other bandits moved to untie the captured youths. The youngsters sharing meaningful looks to wish each other well before being shoved and dragged in separate directions.
- Lin turned out to be a sad looking middle aged woman who was obviously a long-term captive of the bandits.
The sun was high into a midday sky and Katara, Mai and Suki were busy helping Lin and a few other younger women in a make-shift large laundry room, the old building having half of its roof caved in.
A pair of scruffy bandits walked by the doorway, stopping to take a quick look at the new captives.
One of the two whistled favourably at the site.
"Hey Lin" said one of the bandits, "make sure you send the three new girls tonight to serve dinner."
"Yay, it's always nice to get a bit of fresh meet" said the second bandit encouragingly.
The three girls reacted with distain.
"As you wish" said Lin after a second, though not sounding too definite.
"And don't disobey our instructions again," warned the first bandit threateningly, "You know what happened last time."
Lin winced as a reflex.
"Yes, I will send them… yes" she said more meekly.
The two bandits smiled cruelly before continuing on.
Katara glowered after the two bandits.
"Pigs" she said, disgruntled, before turning her concerned face to the older woman.
"How long have you had to put up with this?" Katara asked kindly, moving her work closer to be able to talk to Lin.
Lin gave the young water bender a sceptical look before obviously conceding an answer.
"I've been here for over a year now, they keep me on because I know how to run everything" she said in a tired voice. Taking another look at Katara, she added, "I prey you are not here that long my child."
"Do they sell everyone they capture?" asked Katara.
"Eventually yes, they don't want to make us too weak or keep us for too long, otherwise our value goes down."
Suki appeared on the other side of Lin with a large pile of laundry, working as she spoke.
"Do you know how long this has been going on for?" asked thy young Kyoshi warrior.
"I can't say for certain" said Lin, "but from what I have overheard, they have had their base here for about three years."
"Unbelievable" said Katara angrily, "and how often are people sold? And to who?"
"A man comes around every month or so to buy them from the boss," continued Lin as she worked away, "he must be very powerful. He has his own guards and sometimes already has other bought captives with him."
"You mean there are other bandits he buys from?" said Suki, shocked.
"I think so" said Lin, finishing her bundle, "he is due very soon again, so you will see him soon enough."
Lin placed the large basket to her hip, facing the two young women.
"Look, its only fair I tell you about your fate, but don't go asking too many questions, the bandits will treat you badly if they think your snooping around" she warned. "You had better hurry up, we still have to clean the residence before dinner" said Lin finally, before turning away.
Lin's place between Suki and Katara was taken by Mai, whose bundle of washing was looking particularly disorganised.
"We have to find out information about this dealer" whispered Katara sternly, "there are too many people at risk if we don't capture him as well."
"We'll have a snoop around when we clean up" agreed Suki, "and we had better tell the others… if any of us get the chance."
Katara nodded in agreement.
Mai took out some of her washing between two fingers and looked at it sceptically.
"Travelling with you lot is just full of new experiences" she said dryly, breaking the serious mood.
"I bet they never taught this at the Firenation academy" teased Katara lightly.
"Not on this scale" admitted Mai, submerging the garment into the tub with a grimace.
- Toph stood on a garden path carrying two large buckets of water. She was talking to Suki halfway between a well and the kitchen building. Nodding her head, Toph walked on towards the kitchen as Suki disappeared to return to her chores.
Continuing her course, Toph walked forwards slowly, feeling her way with her feet, but in seemingly 'non-bending' style.
- To one side of Toph, smoke was pouring out of the top of the window and doorframe of the small wood storage room that backed onto the large kitchen fireplace. Outside the back door stood Aang, beside him were a bandit and another boy of about Aang's age. The three were looking up at a large, wide chimney, which unlike every other opening in the wood storage room, had little smoke coming out of it
"It's finally completely blocked up" said the scruffy looking boy, "we can't work in there feeding the fire until someone has cleaned it."
The lazy looking bandit scratched his stubble for a moment
"I'm not going up there" he said dismissively, "don't be such a weakling, get back in there and just keep your head down" he instructed.
Aang glared at the bandit. Suddenly moving forward, he quickly scaled the building until he reached the large chimney on top of the unstable looking roof.
"Get back down here!" commanded the bandit, completely shocked "you're no good to us injured!"
Aang took a quick look into the top of the chimney, suddenly jumped up and disappeared into the brickwork.
Both the bandit and the young boy gasped. The bandit then ran into the wood room, looking into the chimney with concern.
"Get out of there boy!" he called up angrily.
Aang, who had braced his legs against the chimneys' walls, smiled evilly at hearing the bandit's voice from below, sending down a powerful gust of air.
The Fireplace exploded in a cloud of soot and debris, completely covering the bandit and sending him flying backwards into the opposite wall.
Aang landed lightly next to the other boy who was smiling broadly. The two gave each other a high-five with grins. Out of the soot filled room appeared the blackened bandit, staggering and coughing loudly.
- Sokka and Zuko were shirtless, working hard in the midday sun to cut long logs and set them into the stockade with a few other men. Nearby, a few armed bandit kept watch from the shade.
"Lazy scum" said a tough looking prisoner near Zuko.
The older man helped hold the large timber stake in place with Zuko, as Sokka moved earth into position with a shovel.
Zuko looked around to make sure that there was no one else nearby
"How long have you been here?" he asked the older man nearby.
"Only a few weeks" grunted the older man, straining against the heavy wood, "they attacked the supply column I was guarding."
Sokka and Zuko exchanged looks, realising that the man was the brother of the Earthkingdom soldier they had recently fought beside. Without a word said, they continued working.
"Have you been able to figure out what the deal is here?" said Sokka quietly, continuing to work with his shovel.
"When a few of your fellow captives are from the fire colonies, its not heard to figure out" said the captured soldier wearily.
"See that man over there?" he said, nodding towards an older bearded man working the fields nearby.
"He's from the fire colonies. He was out collecting herbs when the bandits jumped him. These criminals have been playing one side against the other to keep the place lawless, so they can keep getting victims to sell to the people traffickers."
"Selling people is a capital punishment in any nation" stated Sokka sternly.
"Exactly" said the older man, "but that doesn't mean there isn't a market for them. The war was the perfect opportunity for them to start up, who's going to notice a few extra refugees disappear or soldiers for that matter, during a war? They just blame it on the other side."
Zuko and Sokka exchanged looks.
"Ha! I can believe that I thought it was the Firenation all that time" continued the older prisoner ironically.
"So none of the bandits are fire benders?" asked Zuko.
"No, they just use captured uniforms from both sides. It's a pretty silk operation. They even have some type of machine that shoots fire like a fire bender. I saw them try it out a few times around here… It only fires once, and takes two men to operate, but it's an impressive contraption."
"I can imagine," said Zuko, remembering back to the strange intense flame.
Up above the three working men, the midday sun blazed away.
- A short time later, looking back down at the compound, Toph was standing near Zuko and Sokka on the pretext of giving them water. Nearby, the boy who had high-fived Aang was giving water to the others.
"Sound's like the girls discovered pretty much the same thing we did" confirmed Sokka, taking a sip and pouring a measure of water over his head.
"The girls are going to take the opportunity while cleaning to snoop around and look for information about this dealer creep" said Toph, refilling Zuko's cup with a large ladle.
"Hopefully they find something soon," said Zuko, taking another drink.
"You still worried about the Firenation soldiers and Earthkingdom troops clashing again?" asked Sokka.
"I just have a bad feeling, that's all, hopefully this is over soon" replied Zuko, also pouring some water over his head to cool himself down.
"Just remember" said Toph, "if you fell the earth rumbling, that's your queue to act… otherwise just hold off. All the prisoners sleep in two adjoining dorms, so we can probably communicate tonight if nothing has happens till then."
Both of the young men nodded.
"That's enough water!" called out an impatient bandit from the shade of a nearby tree, "get back to work!"
The other boy collected his cups from the men before running over to collect the 'blind' Toph.
"How's the blind act going?" asked Sokka before the boy got there. The two young men gave back their cups, the sun glistening of their wet physiques.
"Its OK?" admitted Toph casually, "though for some reason I suddenly get the feeling I wouldn't mind being able to see more then I do" she said, honestly puzzled.
Zuko and Sokka looked at each other with their lack of clothes, subconsciously blushing slightly as a reflex to the young girl's comments
"We'd better go" said the boy, arriving to take Toph's hand.
"Have fun" said Toph casually before being toed away.
- Mai was carefully picking a lock with a small hairpin. Releasing the catch, she slipped into the small room: Rummaging through some papers, she suddenly heard someone approach.
The bandit opened the door to find an empty room, only the window shutters had been left open.
From outside, you could see Mai balanced on a thin railing with her back to the wall, two stories above the ground. Next to her, the bandit closed the shutters again.
Cursing her luck, Mai tried to shimmy across to the next window. Slipping for a second, she clutched at the wall. Looking down, she could see a sitting bandit, who had luckily not seen her yet.
"Where is Ty Lee when you need her" said Mai darkly in a whisper to herself.
- Katara was cleaning a larger official looking room with a mop. Nearby a weasely looking older bandit was doing some paperwork. He got up to leave momentarily.
"Hurry up with that" he said impatiently on the way past.
Seeing her opportunity, Katara water bended the wet mop so that it would continue on its own, quickly racing over to have a look at the papers, her one hand twirling to keep the mop moving. It wasn't long until she heard the bandits return. Waiting till the last moment, she raced back to the mop, however, in her haste, she lost control of the water, fumbled and tripped over the falling mop.
"What are you doing?" said the bandit as he found Katara on the floor.
"he he" chuckled Katara as a timid reflex, "sorry… I slipped."
- Suki was sweeping down the hall, looking back and forth to see if anyone was around, she moved to a door, putting her ear to it for a moment before opening it.
Inside she was shocked to find a burley bandit, who was daintily trying on some makeup in a small pink mirror, both obviously stolen.
The bandit gave a shout in distress, echoed by a scream from Suki, who slammed the door shut a moment later.
Blinking a few times to rearrange her mind, the Kyoshi warrior swept furiously to be able to move away quickly.
End of Part 1
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End of part one, this episode gets three parts because of its length, and also, I still have to make this story stand out in the crowd of Book 4 stories. I have little choice but to enter more submissions until the number of fav's and comments drastically increase.
But don't worry, the other two parts are already done… part two goes up on Sunday and part three on Tuesday, just in time for Christmas ^^
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