She focused on training for the next week. Every day, she'd work on her fire production for an hour, then she'd train with a basic technique for the rest the day. Akmei demonstrated each with mastered ease, while Lai struggled to control the flame. This normally led to new breathing exercises. There was no sparring. Still, Lai could feel improvement, despite the slow pace.
The week ended with a day off. Lai got up very late, and walked out of the house at around 10 o'clock. To her amazement, Akmei was up and practising still. It looked like she was trying to blast a rock with fire. 'What are you doing?' Lai asked.
'Nothing.' Akmei immediately stopped. 'Let's get some breakfast.'
They wandered into the kitchen, where they put on some ready-noodles. 'Training going well?' Akmei asked, as she started to heat up some soup.
'Alright. Wish he'd let me spar though. I've no idea what I'm doing like.'
'Don't worry about it. Tiku just focuses on the basics. He'll let you spar soon.'
'Huh.'
Akmei brought the soup over, along with a bowl of noodles. 'You OK? You seem kindda off this morning.'
'It's just –' She leaned back, thinking how to word it. 'I've been checking my email every day, but today I started to read through them.'
'And?' Akmei asked.
'They're the weirdest collection of things I've seen.' She leaned closer. 'A few from my friends and stuff, but there was a load trying to sell me things. A load of book deal offers and interviews and stuff. There are a lot asking about random details about me, or to train with me. Some have asked me for help – or just advice. Someone asked me how to prepare seaprunes.'
'There was one guy who wanted me to be a part of his wall of Avatars. Another person who claims to be my distant cousin, and wants to meet up. And then there was this final one which was invitation to a probending match. No other details – just said to turn up to a probending match. Didn't say where or when. So yeah, I've got a new email address.'
'How can they contact you?' Akmei asked.
'That's easy. My email was .ga. A few lucky guesses are all people need. Plus I gave it out.'
'I see.' Akmei said, looking at her noodles.
'So, got any plans for today?' She asked, brightly.
'Not really.' She ate a mouthful of noodles, and then continued. 'Maybe phone my friends and stuff. Or maybe do a little earthbending practise.'
'Yes yes yes!' Akmei said quickly. She almost clapped. 'I'd love to see some earthbending!'
'You've never seen it before?' Not that she was that happy being some Princesses entertainment.
'Not up close.' She seemed to be calming herself down. 'But there's so much crossover. I'm sure studying different disciplines would be incredibly useful.'
'Maybe.' She leaned back. 'Still, I haven't had a chance to look around yet. Maybe I'll go explore. You want to come?'
Akmei bit her lip. For some reason she looked nervous. 'I'm not sure I should. I mean, I've lost time on my studies-'
'Down mind that.' Lai stood up. 'I'm sure you can miss one day of work. Let's go now.'
'I should probably get Liko.'
'You don't need him. You have the Avatar to protect you.'
She smiled at that. 'And who protects you?'
'A Fire Nation princess of course. Let's go.' She started off down the hill. Akmei hesitated, then came back after her.
Looking down, Lai realised they'd underestimated the size of Yusami. It sprawled, with the village broken up into several parts separated by fields and hills. All pushed together, it probably would have been a sizeable town.
The path was just as steep as she remembered it though. 'Hold onto something.' She said to Akmei.
'Why whats – AAAH!' as Lai began bend them down the hill. They went down with great speed, and slightly skidded at the bottom. Akmei was thrown off – Lai reflected that she rarely did it with anyone else and so most wouldn't be used to it – but she turned it into an elegant landing.
'You OK?' she asked.
'Don't worry, I'm fine.' The energy from before was back into her voice. 'That was amazing! Do you do that all the time at home?'
'No way, the fuzz'd bust me in no time.' She looked around. 'So what's there to see here? Or do?'
'Not much. There's a river, and a leisure centre, and that's about it.'
'Exciting river is it?' It sounded like home. 'No place where benders are allowed smash each other apart?'
Akmei looked confused. 'That's the training ground.'
'I mean unofficially.' Akmei looked even more confused. 'Look, benders have a lot of power, and when they're young they want to throw it around. But the town don't want them smashing apart the city streets, or punching up nonbenders, so they just accept that one area isn't visited by the police. If some gets hurt, they don't ask questions, provided no sees it except those who all agree it's an accident.'
'But what happens if some dies? And wouldn't criminals use it.'
'Well if some dies then the police come down on them like a landslide. It's a trust thing. Normally there's a police officer who comes along off duty to these things anyway. So generally no other criminals do it.'
'I don't think we have anything like that here.' Akmei said. She sounded a tad disgusted. 'It'd be too easy for illegal Agni Kai's to happen. And the law takes that very seriously.'
'Oh well. River it is.'
The river was actually very pretty, but not exactly worth coming a long way. But Lai guessed this was picked as a boring place so there were no distractions from training. Not that she liked it. They wandered along the river, making ideal small talk. Lai told Akmei – with a little prompting – about her family, and Akmei told Lai – with no prompting – about hers. 'I haven't seen my father in a long time though.'
'Oh – when was last time.'
'4 months ago. When I came home from school, before I came here. I phone him on occasion, but he's so busy. He is Fire Lord I guess. I see the rest of my family lot though.'
'What are your family doing anyway? You're brother and sister are both adults after all.'
'Well, Zuko's in the navy. It's training for Fire Lord I guess. Daimo is at University – she wants to go into the army – and that's for life, of course. I'm not surprised, she's kindda cold, you know?'
'Not really – never met them.'
Akmei blushed. 'Well anyway, I don't think Zuko will be in the navy much longer.'
'Why?' Then Lai realised the answer. 'Your father's planning to abdicate.'
'Yeah. It's tradition, and Zuko will have him as an advisor.'
'What about you – what are your plans?'
'Well, I'll become a diplomat, so I want to see the world. Maybe study in Republic City, or the Northern Water tribe. I here that they have a-'
'Wait. You here that?' There was the sound of talking ahead of them, at a shingly beech on the river. Lai walked off in that direction, Akmei following closely behind.
In the distance, she saw 4 people on the beach. They'd set a load of clothes on the floor as some kind of markers. She heard one saying 'Sorry guys, Ruyi and Lin didn't show up, so unless you know another earthbender-'
My cue. 'DID SOMEONE SAY EARTHBENDER?' she cried, stamping up a rock pillar next to her to lean on. There was a look of surprise on the faces of those around her. The one who had been speaking spoke first. 'Avatar!'
Damn, there goes my confidence. She was confident in her skill as an earthbender – that they knew as the Avatar, she was less confident. Nothing to do but bluff it though. 'That's me.'
'You're here to bring balance to our bending game?' one guy behind him with long hair said.
'It's a new service. My names Lai.'
'Nino.' The first speaker said. 'The one with the sense of humour is Zhao. The Earthbender is Shoyu,' pointing to a girl behind him, 'And the other one's Drato.'
'Thanks for that.' said Drato. 'And we still need another firebender.'
'Got it sorted.' She pointed to Akmei, who came out if the forest looking rather meek. 'Hello.' She said quietly, with the tiniest of waves. She stood almost half behind Lai.
'Princess Akmei!' said Zhao, who bowed. The others, who seemed to have not recognised her, quickly bowed too.
'So we doing this match? A two fire one earth deal?'
'Yeah.' Said Nino. 'You played before?'
'Yeah, but I imagine the rules are different. Unless you also allow badger-mole players?'
'You're joking?' Shoyu asked.
'I wish I was.' Lai responded.
'OK, games pretty simple. There's a plastic ball,' Nino picked up the ball to show it. 'we throw it in, and then we smash each other between the goals with bending. Don't go in front of the markings. Avoid the ball, it does nothing. Try to avoid hitting the face. Oh, and only earth, Avatar. Got it?'
Everyone nodded. Akmei looked a tad nervous, but not about the game. She didn't look any more nervous than she did a moment ago.
'OK, so me, Princess Akmei and Shoyu on my team, and Ava-Lai, Drato and Zhao on the other team. That good? Yep, let's do it,'
They lined up in the markings. Nino stood in the middle of his line, and hurled the ball up. 'Go!'
Two fireballs arched at Lai. She slammed an earth-disk into them both, and hurled it at Nino, who was forced out of the markings by the weight of it. Shoyu was blasted by fire from the others on her team, but she tried to give no ground, and Akmei launched them out and turned one back, staggering Drato back. Lai lanced a disk at Shoyu, but she reflected it at Drato too. He was thrown backwards. Lai had to dodge a volley of earth disks, slamming them into the ground, only to see Zhao was being thrown out too. Annoyed, she smashed a disk at Shoyu, knocking her off balancing and forcing her back. But it was too late; as she tried to gain the initiative, Akmei arched a volley of intense fire blasts at her. She was smashed back, out of the ring.
'Good game!' Nino called. 'Maybe too small a size, but geography limits us. Again?'
They played again. The victories went back and forth, but Lai and Akmei were noticeably active each time. Eventually, the others decided to leave. 'Hopefully we'll meet again, Avatar.' Nino called as he left.
Lai turned to Akmei to speak to her – she'd gotten better, but seemed happy to be heading back However, she saw in the corner of her eye someone coming back. It was Drago.
'Avatar, I want to speak to you about something.'
'What?'
'There's something going on here. There's been violence, robberies, and other things going, people meeting out on the hills at night. And I've heard rumours that they're all connected. And the police won't look at any of it! Even the murders!'
'What!?'
'They say they're accidents, and they're only a few, but it adds up! Something's weird's going on, and I though you should know, Avatar.' He turned away. 'But you didn't hear it from me!'
Lai went back to Akmei. She looked like she was about to say something, but she stopped after she heard what Lai had been told. They went back up the hill, with worries in their heads.
