Legends of the Four Masters
#13—Desert Discord
"Ah, Princess Azula, it's an honor to have you here. What brings you to my camp anyway?" A soldier stationed at a Fire Nation base asked when Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee strolled on in.
Azula grinned and held up a folded piece of parchment. "I need you to do an errand on my behalf. Something has come up that requires my undivided attention, but the matter I was addressing before is too important to just ignore. So I need you to put someone of good caliber on it."
"Of course. Anything you say Princess." The soldier said. "You're in luck. The Rough Rhinos are coming here tonight to give a show. When they're done I'll ask them to get on this."
"Rough Rhinos?" Mai asked, unfamiliar with the name.
"Oh I know them." Ty Lee said with a smile. "They're really good. Before I became a circus star I tried to join their group. But they told me I didn't quite meet the standards of the group, such as how I don't fight with a weapon or firebending and how I sing like an armadillo-bear in heat. Their words not mine."
"Can these Rough Rhinos of yours capture fugitives?" Azula asked.
The soldier nodded. "It's one of their specialties. Who are the fugitives?"
"My brother and uncle, Zuko the banished prince and Iroh the Dragon of the West. As well as some new male companion of theirs I do not know the name of." The Fire Princess answered. "Since these are such wanted criminals, I want reassurance that these men you have in mind are capable of doing the task."
"I have faith in them. But if you have time to wait you can see their qualifications tonight."
"I wouldn't mind waiting Azula." Ty Lee offered.
"What would we do while we wait? You know I hate being bored." Mai asked.
Azula's eyes darted right then left for a moment while she hummed in thought, then glanced at the parchment in her hands. "I'm afraid we'll have to pass. We need to make it to the northern Earth Kingdom post haste. If these Rough Rhinos are worth the job, that will suffice."
The soldier nodded with a smile, but he had a hard time keeping it when Azula gave her own wicked grin. "Because if they don't, you will be demoted to cleaning up the animal dung around here."
"But we don't have any animals here." The soldier pointed out.
Azula kept her grin. "Then you won't be needed now will you?"
The soldier nodded. "I understand Princess. They will not fail you."
"YOU LOST APPA?!"
"We were ambushed by sandbenders." Kasumi tried to tell him.
"And you just stood there and let them take Appa?" Aang asked, his anger skyrocketing once the shock had passed.
"Do we look like the kind of girls who'd just stand back and do nothing Twinkle Toes?" Toph told him.
"You're supposed to be this great and powerful earthbender! How could you not stop them?" He pressed, getting in the blind girl's face.
"I told you this is sand. Bending sand is different than bending normal earth. Besides they attacked Kasumi too. I couldn't save them both." The blind girl explained, spreading her arms as she spoke.
Aang didn't look like this was good enough for him. "You mean you didn't want to save them both! You never liked Appa! You probably wanted them to take him!"
"That's not true Aang." Kasumi said, walking up to the young boy.
Aang turned his angry look towards the quiet housekeeper. "And what about you? What were you doing when Appa was being taken by sandbenders?"
"I was almost being taken myself. Look at my clothes. They were trying to take me captive too."
"Well maybe they should have taken you instead of Appa!" Aang declared angrily.
Everyone was surprised to hear the Avatar say that to the quiet housekeeper.
"Hey! You take that back!" Ranma said as he stomped up to the younger airbender.
Aang glared at the older male. "Why should I? It's because she's so weak that my only friend was taken away from me!"
"Your only friend? So all this time you haven't been traveling around with others? It's been just you and the buffalo?" Ranma argued.
"Ranma, Aang, calm down." Kasumi tried to say, but it looked like they ignored her.
"What do you know about Appa and me? You're not even a real Air Nomad in the first place!" Aang yelled, trying to get in Ranma's face despite the difference in their heights.
"That's right, I'm not an Air Nomad. But I don't need to be one to know that saving a woman from being abducted is not a bad thing."
"And how are we supposed to get out of this desert? Ride Kasumi's back?" Aang asked.
Ranma snorted. "I get the feeling you wouldn't be this angry if Toph had saved Katara instead now would you?"
Aang blinked but he still looked mad. "That's completely different."
"And what makes Katara worth saving but not Kasumi?" Ranma challenged.
"I'm not saying that." The bald monk objected.
"Look boys, there's no need to fight." Kasumi said, stepping up to the arguing boys.
"No, I want to hear why the great peace-loving Avatar believes a bunch of grown men should have taken you instead of Appa." Ranma insisted firmly.
"Toph should have been able to save them both!" Aang claimed.
"I told you I couldn't." Toph reminded him. "They had the advantage out here and it was easier to free Kasumi. Even if I had tried saving Appa there was no guarantee I could have."
"Guys, can we focus on the bigger problem?" Sokka asked. "How are we going to get out of this desert?"
Aang looked like he was ready to attack each and every one of them right then. "How can you think about leaving this place when we should be trying to rescue Appa? None of you care about anything but yourselves!"
"Oh yeah, the little boy throwing a tantrum is the mature one here." Ranma said sarcastically, crossing his arms.
Aang quickly turned to glare at the older airbender. "What did you just say to me?"
"I said you're a little boy throwing a tantrum. You think you're not?" Ranma repeated.
Aang spun and sent an air blast at Ranma, who jumped over it. Ranma then made a beckoning motion with her hand while taking a stance, and Aang charged at him, sending another air attack.
"Guys stop it!" Katara yelled, shocked to see them start fighting.
Ranma rolled away from the air blast and spun his new staff, sending a cloud of swept sand into the air which obscured Aang's vision. The bald monk created a whirlwind to blow away the sand. Ranma got in close and punched the boy in the stomach.
Aang fell to his knees gasping for breath, but looked up and Ranma and glared again, jumping up to punch the pigtailed young man in the jaw. Ranma went back but not off his feet.
"So you can do something other than blow your breath. Good, but not good enough." Ranma remarked, rubbing his jaw.
Yelling, Aang tried to hit Ranma with his staff, but the older boy blocked it with his own.
"How do we stop them guys?" Katara asked, seeing the two exchange blows with their staffs like swordfighters in quick succession.
"We don't." Shampoo answered.
"What? You can't be serious. We can't be fighting among ourselves."
"We're not. Don't you see what Airen's doing?"
Katara blinked. "He's fighting Aang. He's just making him madder."
Sokka got a knowing expression on his face. "Wait, I get it. Ranma's not trying to get Aang madder Katara. He's giving Aang an outlet for his anger."
"What do you mean?" The Water Tribe girl asked.
"It's like Sokka said. Aang is incredibly angry over losing Appa. He was lashing out at you guys, even Kasumi of all people." Shampoo explained. "Airen is giving Aang a target to lash out on now. Something to take all that anger out on and get it out of his system. When this is over, Aang is going to feel a whole lot better and not do something stupid."
Katara looked skeptical. "Oh, and fighting in anger isn't stupid?"
"Not right now it isn't." Kasumi spoke up. "Ranma's used to being the one people take their anger out on. This time though is one of the few times he can fight back. And in doing so he can learn some airbending for himself. Trust me Katara, this is the best thing Ranma can do for Aang right now."
Back with the fighters, Aang had enough of them clashing staffs and jumped back, airbending to propel himself far enough to get some distance. "What's with you? You're not bending at all."
"I don't need to." Ranma answered, twirling his staff around. "But if you insist, I could show you some things I read in the library. Show you how an airbender fights."
Aang grit his teeth. "I'll show you how an airbender fights!" He then started running to his opponent, quickly enough to kick up a large sand cloud trail behind him.
Ranma spun one of his hands around creating a visible whirlwind above him, flattened like a small hurricane. He spun around on his left foot and threw the whirlwind like a disc, and like a disc it flew forward in a curve that missed Aang. Then it sort of fizzled into nonexistance.
'Not good. It wasn't supposed to do that.' Ranma thought.
The bald monk had to slow down to jump and do a cartwheel kick that sent an air blast at Ranma from above like a hammer strike. Ranma ducked and rolled forward, jumping up and throwing a punch that sent a burst of air to push Aang back just a bit.
Up in the air Aang used his glider to maneuver himself and dive towards Ranma, throwing some air blasts that made the sand around the pigtailed young man practically erupt and sting his eyes. Blinded for a bit, Ranma ducked and rolled, just barely missing Aang's attempt to headbutt him.
Back on his feet and rubbing his eyes, Ranma spun around and threw another small cyclone that flew in a curve missing Aang. The bald monk dropped to the ground and did a powerful air blast that send Ranma flying back a good seven meters, crashing into the sand.
That was when the cyclone Ranma had made earlier returned to hit Aang in the back. That particular airbending exercise created the airbending equivalent of a boomerang, meant to hit the target from behind rather than up front.
The attack didn't hurt Aang any more than any normal airbending move can before, but the shock value did its job and made him get on his knees and pause the fight for a bit.
"Now, are you going to help your friends survive this desert? Or are you going to keep thinking that you're the only one here that's got a problem?" Ranma asked, sitting up in the sand.
Aang fumed, eyes throwing daggers at the older boy, but he didn't continue the conflict. Instead he sat down and looked away, like he was sulking.
Ranma got up, dusted off his clothes and rejoined the others while Katara walked past him heading to Aang.
"I'm disappointed in you Ranma." She said softly.
"You're not the first woman to feel that way." He muttered.
Katara came up from behind the sulking Air Nomad. "Aang, it's okay. We're all concerned about Appa. Even Ranma is despite his attitude. You're not the only one who's upset. But fighting us isn't going to make him come back. Right now we have to-"
She stopped when he stood up and continued to face away from her. He took a deep breath and put one foot forward.
"I'm going after Appa. I'm not going anywhere until I have him back."
"Aang wait!" Katara called as he took to the air, flying off towards the horizon.
"Now what?" Toph asked, kicking some sand.
"We have to try and get to Ba Sing Se. They have to be told about the solar eclipse." The Water Tribe girl answered.
"You expect us to just walk to Ba Sing Se from here?" Sokka asked.
"You got a better idea?" His sister asked back.
"Maybe the giant owl would give us a ride?" He suggested. Everyone gave him a deadpan look. "Yeah I didn't think so either."
With no other choice, they started walking in a random direction, hoping to reach the edge of the desert at some point if not Ba Sing Se itself.
"Very good Ryoga. You're learning well." Iroh said while watching the lost boy shoot out fireballs from each hand and foot one by one.
"Thanks. I can't wait to show Ranma what I've learned when I find him again." Ryoga said confidently.
"For now though, let's move onto a new method of training." Iroh said, drawing a grid diagram in the sand while holding a bag filled with something. "Are you familiar with Pai Sho?"
"No, not at all."
Zuko, who had been training too, stopped for a moment. "You're going to call a game training Uncle?"
"Pai Sho is more than just a game Zuko. It helps teach many things. Such as strategy, formation, and awareness of your opponent's methods. Most firebenders prefer to just strike in rapid succession and let the fire do the rest. But if you think of battle as one big Pai Sho game, you see that it's smarter to outmaneuver the enemy than clobber them."
"So it's like shogi?" Ryoga asked.
Iroh shrugged. "I don't know what that is so I couldn't say. But I can teach you this game. If you get it, you'll find your firebending to be more effective. Same with your attitude."
"I told you I don't have an attitude problem." Ryoga insisted.
"Then keep it that way, lest you end up like Zuko's sister." Iroh warned.
"I stood up to her last time. I can do it again." The lost boy claimed.
Zuko jolted back a bit. "Dude, you burned her clothes off. Right now she's probably trying to decide whether or not to have your remains dumped at sea or thrown in a volcano."
Ryoga paled to hear this.
"Let's not think about gruesome death right now. Let's just play a calming game of Pai Sho." Iroh offered, sitting on the ground at one end of the grid diagram and opening the pouch containing his game tiles. "Now, here's how you play..."
The Avatar group, currently lacking the Avatar, had been walking through the desert for an amount of time none had even considered measuring, and the heat was getting to them all.
"Can't you watch where you're-?" Sokka started after Toph bumped into him.
"No, I can't." She reminded him.
"Right, sorry."
"C'mon guys, we got to stick together." Katara said.
"If I sweat any more, sticking together won't be a problem." Sokka commented, trying to get Toph and himself unstuck. With a push, the blind girl managed to make that happen.
"Katara, can I have some water?" Toph asked.
Katara looked to Kasumi, who looked a bit upset. "Sorry, I tried to fight off the sandbenders but it didn't work. I lost all my water and it evaporated before I could try to bend it out of the sand."
"You didn't get hurt did you?"
"No, but I punched one of them good." Kasumi answered, looking at her hand. "Probably not my best idea."
"Why? Did you hurt your hand?" Katara asked.
"It's not important." The housekeeper said, looking away.
"Water please." Toph repeated.
"Alright, but we have to make it last." The Water Tribe girl then bent it into seven of small hovering balls and had them hover to her companions faces, who swallowed their offers. This included Momo and herself.
"Wait, are we drinking your bending water?" Sokka asked, noting a strange aftertaste. Then a memory came to him. "You used this on the swamp guys!"
"It does taste swampy." Toph added.
Momo couldn't complain, but he looked like the taste bothered him too.
"It's all we have." Katara said apologetically.
"What swamp guys?" Ranma asked, wiping his mouth.
"A few waterbenders they encountered before they met Toph." Kasumi answered.
"Hey look!" Sokka said, pointing to a cactus. He went right up to it and chopped off a segment and held it like a bowl, drinking some of the juice within.
"Sokka wait, you shouldn't be eating strange plants." Katara warned, grabbing Toph's wrist before rushing to her brother.
Sokka ignored her and helped himself to some more cactus juice, even giving some to Momo. "There's water trapped inside these." He said, offering them a makeshift bowl.
"I don't know." Katara said, uncertain.
"I'll have some." Shampoo said, taking a bowl and drinking it.
"You sure about that?" Katara asked.
Shampoo nodded. "We have a special breed of cactus growing near my home. We ate and drank from them all the time."
"Oh yeah, I remember seeing some cactus around that area. Pop fell into a batch the day before we got to see your village." Ranma said with a laugh, remembering the panda covered with cactus needles.
"You oughta try this guys. It's very thirst-quenching." The Water Tribe boy stated.
At that point his pupils dilated and his mind felt very relaxed and somewhat disconnected. "Drink cactus juice, It'll quench you." He then got on the sand and started moving like a worm. "Nothing's quenchier." Done with that, he jumped back to his feet and tried to look directly in Katara's eyes. "It's the quenchiest."
"I think you've had enough." Katara said, taking his cactus juice and pouring it into the sand.
"Could I have some?" Toph asked, unable to see Sokka's behavior.
"Bad idea." Katara warned.
Sokka leaned in to examine the blind girl. "Who lit Toph on fire?"
Above them, Momo was loudly flying around in circles like he was trying to catch his own tail, before diving right into the sand. Even after the lemur landed, Sokka kept looking up.
Shampoo meanwhile was looking at her outstretched hands, moving them as if she was trying to find something in the dark. "Whoa, look at that. The sand is changing colors. Was it always doing that? Oh the sky is too now."
"We should get going." Katara advised, picking up the drugged lemur and walking off, followed by Toph. Then she went back and dragged her dazed brother too.
"This way Shampoo." Ranma said, putting his hands on her shoulders from behind and guiding her forward.
"Airen, your face is upside-down." Shampoo said, putting her hand on his face to feel for it. Sadly for Ranma this meant she came close to poking him in the eye. It got worse when he grabbed him and started turning, like she was trying to get his face back into its proper position.
"How did we get out here in the middle of the ocean?" Sokka asked, making his sister sigh.
"This is going to be a long day." Katara complained.
"APPA!" Aang yelled, trying everything he could to find his animal companion. But looking, yelling, even the bison whistle, nothing seemed to work. It was as if the desert had simply swallowed him.
"APPA!" Aang called again, landing on a dune to give himself a rest from gliding.
'What if he's... gone for good?' He asked himself, on the verge of tears now.
"No." He said to himself, closing his eyes as if to deny himself any crying. "NO!" He then jumped and hit the sand with a powerful air burst, taking his anger out on the desert. This created a giant mushroom cloud of sand that could be seen for miles. The aftershocks spread out, hitting his friends as they crossed over a dune.
"What is that?" Katara asked, seeing the explosion but not the cause.
"What? What is what?" Toph asked, looking around futilely.
"It's... it's a... a giant mushroom!" Sokka said happily, spreading his arms out in a welcoming manner.
"Hey look it's smiling at us." Shampoo added, pointing at the cloud then waving at it.
"Maybe it's friendly!" Sokka added.
"Let's just keep moving you two." Katara said, guiding Toph some more. "I hope Aang's okay." She said quietly to herself.
Sokka waved his arms around as if trying to beckon to the mushroom he saw, and Shampoo soon joined him in those same moves. "Friendly mushroom. Mushy giant friend..."
Shampoo said some kind of gibberish in her native Chinese, but the way she said it made it sound like she was trying to give the 'mushroom' a lullaby.
Ranma sighed and grabbed them both at the collars from behind, dragging them. "Come on you two. The mushroom's a little busy right now."
Back at the sight of the explosion. Aang took a few breaths then went back to his aerial search.
"Thank you for putting on a good show for us Colonel Mon Kei." The soldier who had spoken with Azula earlier said to a new guest of his camp. "My men really appreciated it."
"We only did it because we're low on work and these shows help us keep our stomachs full." A man with a no nonsense demeanor replied, arms crossed like he wasn't proud of what he had just done.
"If you need work, I do have a job for you. The Fire Princess herself requested it of your men." The soldier said. "She wants you to find some fugitives."
Mon Kei sighed. "I miss being on the front lines. Back then we made a different. Now with nothing but Ba Sing Se left to conquer, I've been reduced to a mere errand boy for the higher ups."
"She said one of the fugitives is her uncle. The man once known as the Dragon of the West."
Mon Kei arched an eyebrow. "The man who came close to conquering Ba Sing Se then just gave up? Now that's a target I don't mind hunting down."
The sun was setting and there was still no end in sight to the desert. But Aang had returned to his friends.
"Aang!" Katara called out as she rushed over to him when he landed, relieved to see him again. Once she saw him, it was very clear that he was still in a terrible mood, making her stop in place.
"Aang, I'm sorry. I know this is hard for you." She started. "But we need to focus on getting out of here."
"What's the difference?" The bald monk asked, sounding more sad than angry. "We won't survive out here without Appa. We all know it."
"C'mon Aang, we can do this if we work together." Katara tried to reason. "Right Toph?"
"As far as I can feel, we're still in the same place we always were. I can't sense anything that can help us."
"Kasumi, I don't suppose you know anything that could help us right now, do you?"
"Sorry no. The only thing I know about Ba Sing Se is it's the capital of the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation is still trying to conquer it." Kasumi answered. "The story was very vague about that place."
"Why don't you ask the circle birds?" Sokka suggested, laying on his back pointing to the sky.
Everyone except Toph and Aang looked up, seeing four buzzard-bees hovering over them like vultures.
"Are those vultures or insects?" Ranma asked, seeing them act like vultures but they sounded like wasps.
"They're goldfish Airen." Shampoo answered, smiling, but she stopped smiling. "Wait, are we underwater?" Right away she started holding her breath and starting trying to swim up through the air, failing for obvious reasons.
"You're not underwater Shampoo." Ranma said, shaking her a little to get her to calm down.
"We're getting out of this desert and we're going to do it together. Aang, get up. Everybody, hold hands." Katara said, taking charge.
She led the way holding Aang's hand, and in order it went Toph, Kasumi, Ranma, Shampoo, Sokka, and Momo.
"We can do this. We have to."
"A hundred bottles of blubber on the wall." Sokka started singing with a grin. "A hundred-"
"SHUT UP!"
Night had fallen and everyone had finally stopped for a bit, exhausted and starved and now chilly but still alive.
"Airen I'm cold. Help me get warm." Shampoo said, wrapping her arms and legs around the boy she admired. And as always, Ranma was helpless to escape her grasp.
"Is there anymore water?" Toph asked in a raspy voice. "My throat feels like granite."
"This is the last of it." Katara said, bending all she had left aside from her healing water from the North Pole. That had to be spared in case they got hurt.
Before she could portion it out, Momo jumped at the glop, making it burst and fall into the sand.
"MOMO NO! YOU'VE KILLED US ALL!" Sokka screamed.
"Calm down Sokka." The Water Tribe girl said, bending the spilled water out of the sand.
"Oh right, bending."
Katara put the water back in the waterskin to prevent another spill and gave it to Toph who sipped at it. "Sokka, let me see the things you took from the library."
"What? I didn't steal anything! Who told you that?" He asked defensively, as if accusing of a crime, and guarded his back. He then looked to Momo. "it was you! You ratted me out!" He said, pointing at the lemur. Oddly enough, this actually made Momo look like he was crying.
"Sokka, I was there." Katara reminded him, taking the bag without him noticing.
"It doesn't matter. None of those will tell us where Appa is." Aang muttered.
"No, but we can find out which way Ba Sing Se is." Katara said, looking for a map. One of the things she found was a star chart. "We can use the stars to guide us out of here. We'll have to travel at night then and rest during the day. So let's get some sleep and try again in a few hours."
Toph created some sandstone little by little and sculpted it to give them a shelter that would hopefully keep them warm and out of sight of nocturnal predators. Once done she immediately went to sleep, and everyone else was quick to follow. Ranma was kept up a bit longer thanks to trying to get Shampoo off him.
"Hey Kasumi?" Katara whispered.
"Yes Katara?"
"Did something happen to your hands at some point?"
Kasumi blinked, then looked away. "It's not important."
"Something did happen didn't it? That's why it hurts you to bend. Why you can't climb a rope. What happened?" Katara replied.
Kasumi sighed and looked at both of her hands. "I was the firstborn in a family of martial artists. I was once trained to be the heir to the family dojo. But... there was an accident. My little sister Akane knocked over a stockpile of bricks that would have crushed her. I pushed her out of the way, but some of the bricks... completely crushed my hands. All the bones, even a few in my arms, they were shattered terribly."
"I'm so sorry." Katara couldn't help but say.
"It gets worse. You see, my family was in a difficult spot financially, so my father got the idea that he could mend my hands himself. He wrapped and set them himself, but the pain didn't go away and only got worse when I did any moving. Then he got me to a local medic who had just moved in and helped set my hands and soothe the pain. But that was all he could do."
"Did it work?" Katara asked.
Kasumi made fists for a moment, but relaxed them just as quickly. "Not really. The bones have healed, but there was a lot of internal damage left. My muscles and nerves have been screwed up since. I was forced to give up being a martial artist, doing housework and cleaning as a way to build up the strength in my hands again for the past ten years. But even now it still hurts to do too much with them."
She closed her eyes, remembering what else had happened because of this experience. Soun had wanted to take her to a hospital, but because he still owed a bill for the treatment of his late wife he feared they wouldn't treat his daughter without that payment first. He had tried to open more classes in his dojo but his erratic and overprotective habits in training to avoid more accidents scared off the kids, along with spreading rumors of what Kasumi had experienced making parents pull their children out of the program.
Soun felt like he had failed his daughter and did whatever he could to help Tofu treat Kasumi, including having the Nerima city council provide city-sponsored funding for non-profit organizations. Nabiki had in fact started her moneymaking schemes as an attempt to try and earn enough to get her sister proper treatment. And Akane had felt terribly guilty about being the cause of Kasumi's injury, thus resulting in her desperation to be a stronger martial artist and a ready housekeeping assistant to her. All as a way to apologize. Akane's habit of breaking bricks was even a way for her to ensure she'd never experience this injury herself.
'That one incident affected my family forever. Just like the day Mom died, and the day Ranma showed up.' Kasumi thought, opening her eyes again.
"I might be able to heal them." Katara offered.
Kasumi shook her head. "I've seen you heal Katara. This isn't a recent injury, this happened ten years ago. I don't think you can heal this anymore than you could heal Zuko's scar."
"I could try." Katara insisted.
Kasumi shook her head again then laid down in the sand. "Don't waste your water healing what can't be healed."
The Water Tribe girl looked at the older woman for a bit, then sighed and laid down, drifting off to sleep.