I barely slept that night, too worked up with emotion to properly rest even as I lay beside my mother, her arms wrapped around me and holding me close. At dawn I was up and cooking everybody breakfast, wanting something to do and occupy my mind as I continued to wait for my father's return, nervous with anticipation. "You're awake. Did you even sleep?" Zuko asked me as he came out of his tent, hair ruffled from where he'd been sleeping.
"Not much, I had a lot on my mind." I sighed, stacking up pancakes and stirring porridge among other things. "What if I'm not what he expected? What if he's disappointed?"
"You're worrying too much. You heard your mom last night, when your dad found out that you existed, he wanted to search all over the world for you, but he had a duty to the people he was protecting." Zuko said as he came up behind me and wrapped his arms across my shoulders and waist, holding me reassuringly as his face turned into my hair. "You're just nervous, it's going to be fine."
"I just hope those pirates leave so he can come back soon. I've waited seventeen years for this, I'm not sure I have any patience left to wait any longer." Zuko chuckled into my hair and I turned my face towards him, naturally nuzzling him back as I placed my hand over his. "You hungry?"
"Not yet." So instead we just stayed like that for a while, my mind becoming peaceful and blank until I began to think about what Mai said to me, that part of the reason Zuko had left the Fire Nation and his family was because of me. I wanted to ask him about it, but I was too much of a coward to say anything, so I just kept my mouth shut and thought to myself. The way he was affectionate was a good sign, right? But then, why didn't he say anything either? Was he still unsure? Second guessing? Did he have doubts about his feelings? Ugh, I hate all this uncertainty.
When others began to stir and get up, smelling the breakfast delights that I was cooking, Zuko let me go and quickly stepped away before we could be spotted, both of us blushing slightly as we looked away from one another. Everyone gathered together for food, complimenting how much I'd improved and Wu Lang laughingly joked it was nice to be able to take a break from cooking. My friends seemed to really enjoy spending time with my family, since they were a lively and rowdy bunch and eagerly asked questions about how we all saved the world.
We were all laughing as Aang narrated the time Katara stole a water bending scroll from pirates when there was a sudden shout from outside the camp. It sounded like something was wrong and I stood up as my mom rushed forwards, seeing a man clad in water tribe armour and for a moment, my heart stopped, thinking maybe this was my dad but then mom called him a different name. "Yorik! What happened?" He looked in bad shape, clutching a wound at his side and I could see several more abrasions so I looked at Katara who nodded her head, already getting up. "Where's Koda?"
"We were ambushed, the pirates knew we were coming and set us up." The guy Yorik reported as mom reached him and helped him into the camp before letting him lay down as Katara and I both pulled water from our pouches.
"Let us help mom, stand back." I instructed before together, Katara and I started to heal the injuries that were extensive but not life threatening. Yorik looked a lot like Sokka and Katara and all the other Southern Water Tribesmen I'd seen. Blue eyes, browned skin and hair grown to just below his ears with several braids and beads adorning the crown of his head, pulled back into a ponytail like Sokka's. Yorik blinked at me as I concentrated, focusing on healing his injuries first before we could ask him to explain further on what happened.
"You…you're Koda's little girl, aren't you?" He said to me, staring at me openly so I turned a smile to him.
"Yeah, that's me. Just lie still for now, you're going to be okay. Can you tell us what happened? Is my father okay?" Yorik winced then shook his head, making my face fall with worry.
"We got the report that pirates were attacking the coastal harbour a few miles from here so we went to intercept them. At first there was just the one ship looting the merchant trader's and stealing everything of value, so we took care of it. Next thing we knew, there were over a dozen more ships sailing out from the hidden cove and surrounded us. They had fire benders with them, and they burned most of our own boats out of the water."
"No!" Mom gasped, starting to cry so Suki comforted her as she pressed her hands to her face with worry.
"I got hurt badly, but we needed to get help. Koda put me in a canoe and told me to find help. Last I saw, he and the rest of our boats were leading the pirates away from the harbour but were pinned inside the cove. It's low tide at the moment so only our boats can go in without being run aground on the reef, but the tide will rise soon then they'll be cornered." Pulling my hands away, I lifted Yorik's head and gave him water to drink from my pouch, my eyes hardening with resolve.
"Where's the cove?" After drinking some water, Yorik gave me the location but warned me that I wouldn't make it in time before high tide since it was too far away. He'd only come here because the camp was closer than the town and asked if someone would go and alert the guards to send for some help.
"We can fly on Appa. If we go now, we should make it." Aang announced, picking up his staff confidently as he smiled to me. "Let's go rescue your dad, Kayo." Setting down Yorik's head lightly into my mom's hands so that she could support him, I jumped and flung my arms around Aang to hug him tightly.
"Alright! Let's go fight some pirates!" Sokka cheered, hobbling on the one leg with his crutch which made his sister glare at him.
"You're in no condition to fight Sokka, and you don't have your sword or your boomerang." She pointed out but Sokka insisted he was fine and that he could still help. "You can come along, but you have to stay with Appa and Momo."
"Aw man! I'm back on bison and lemur duty? No fair…" But Sokka agreed, so after I quickly hugged and kissed my mom, I promised her that I'd bring dad back safe and sound.
"Koda's talked about nothing but you ever since he got the message from Tornak that he had a daughter who was out there saving the world." Yorik said to me, making me pause as everybody rushed to Appa, Momo chittering as he followed Aang. Yorik smiled at me warmly as my stomach twisted with nerves and happiness. "He's a tough old seadog, doesn't really show his feelings much, but when he learned about you, that was the first time I saw that man cry in all our years knowing each other."
"Really?" Brightening, I couldn't help but grin. "Then I better go introduce myself. We'll be back soon, those pirates won't know what hit 'em!" My troupe all cheered, wishing me good luck as I ran up Appa's tail as he lifted it, throwing me up into the saddle with a lift before he took off into the air, everybody cheering and waving.
"Be careful Kayo!" Mom yelled to me desperately so I leaned over and waved.
"I will!" Appa seemed to know that I was eager to get there as soon as possible as he flew faster than usual, gliding over the clouds as we rushed to find my father and his men.
"How am I going to see on a bunch of boats on the water?" Toph questioned as everybody prepared themselves for a fight. "And how am I going to bend? I can bend metal, not wood."
"You can stand on the cliff above the cove and bend from there. If you can't see, I'll help you aim." Sokka suggested so she cracked her knuckles and grinned, rolling her neck in anticipation for a fight.
"Sounds good to me. I can't wait to sink some pirates, this is gonna be fun!"
"There's probably a lot of people injured so I can focus on healing those who need it." Katara added as we all began to make a plan, Sokka having pulled out a map of this particular area he happened to have on him. "Sokka, where'd you get that?"
"What? I like collecting maps, okay? Moving on." Not arguing since it came in handy, Sokka pointed out the cove where my dad and his men were trapped, figuring out how best to deal with the pirate ships by utilising all our strengths. "If the pirates get into the cove then it's unlikely we'll be able to save everyone. They'll get pinned down and we can't get Appa down there to pull people out without attention turning to us. So, we'll have the water benders focus on bending the water around the reef here." His finger followed the rim of the cove where the seafloor was highest, the only way in and out from the sea. "The tide is coming in so you're going to have to push it back and keep the pirates from getting into the cove."
"That's easy enough, we're three water benders strong so it'll be a piece of cake." Aang said as he leaned over us as we all crouched down in Appa's saddle, Appa flying himself as we all strategized.
"What about here? They could easily scale these cliffs and attack from land or board the ships themselves if the tide moves in." Zuko pointed out to where there seemed to be a strip of rocky land which was accessible during high tide from which people could alight and enter the cove on foot if they kept close to the cliffs.
"Hm, that'll be on Toph to make sure no one takes the cliffs. Those rocks will be your territory so make sure no one tries to take it or circles around above to attack."
"You got it." Punching her fist into her palm, Toph ground them together, eager for the fight.
"That just leaves the pirates themselves. Zuko and Suki can start to take them down once we get there and the water benders have secured the cove. Once the Water Tribe boats are back into open water, they'll have more room to manoeuvre and we can either drive them off or take them down for good."
"We should take their captains. If a crew sees their captain defeated, they'll likely give up or scatter." Zuko said to us all. "If it's a large fleet of pirate ships, there might be one guy who's in charge, a pirate commodore or commander, he'll be the main target."
"That's great, everybody keep your eyes peeled for a guy in a big hat." Sokka instructed, before everyone then looked at me as he looked up. "How does that sound Kayo? Once we rescue your dad, you can go crazy sinking as many pirate ships as you want."
"Sounds good to me, I feel like I need to vent out some pent up frustrations so this is actually perfect. We'll go along with you Sokka."
"Perfect, then I'll stay with Appa and Toph on the cliffs and command from there." He puffed out his chest proudly, making Suki giggle.
"Of course, commander." It was meant as a joke but Sokka took it seriously, liking the authoritative sound of 'Commander Sokka' and started to call himself that in front of us all. As we began to get closer to the cove, Zuko reached out to me.
"How do you feel?"
"Like I'm about to throw up." I groaned, feeling more than a little nauseous. Momo jumped onto me then and started jumping up and down on my knee, squawking urgently. "What is it little buddy?" he then leaped onto the rim of the saddle so I followed him and looked over only to stare in horrified shock, the others following suit.
"No way…"
"That's a lot of pirates." Suki worried as Toph blinked.
"Anybody want to tell the blind girl what's going on?"
"Let's just say there's more pirates than we thought." Sokka answered, all of us staring down at the glistening blue ocean where black shapes were scattered across the surface like tiny ant-flies as they steadily grew bigger.
"How many more? Twenty? Thirty?"
"Try…more like a hundred."
"I don't get it, how can there be that many pirate ships?" I demanded in confusion, gripping my hair with concern for my father's welfare. "Where did they all come from? Every pirate from across the sea must be here."
"No wait, don't you see? This is perfect!" Sokka beamed, getting all excited as I just stared at him incredulously. "Your dad must have been so good at beating pirates from raiding coastal towns and ports and protecting the trade routes that they decided that they had to get rid of him, so they gathered everybody here to take him out, but that just puts every pirate vessel and crew from all around the Earth Kingdom right in front of us. This is the perfect opportunity to take them down and reduce the pirate raids for good." Oh, I guess that kind of makes sense.
"So what's the plan Sokka? What should we do?" Aang asked him as Sokka thought quickly.
"Same plan but with a few extra jobs. Aang, think you can create an ice wall around every pirate ship to make a barrier so they can't escape? We can't let any of them go otherwise the raids will just continue after today."
"Sure, I can handle that." Aang nodded his head confidently as Sokka continued.
"Good, okay people. There's a lot more ships than we thought, so we're going to have to just fight hard and sink them quickly. Katara and Kayo, you two make sure to capture anyone who tries to make a swim for it, and Toph, you handle the cliffs. If anyone tries to escape over land, you pin them down. Zuko, make sure to burn their sails and also destroy the rudders so that their ships become dead in the water, then they definitely have no way of escaping."
"What about my dad and his fleet of boats? If we trap the pirates, we're also trapping them and if we're all fighting, we can't keep pushing the tide back from reaching the cove." I pointed out so Sokka hummed in thought.
"Then I guess we'll have to get them out of there first. Water Tribe warriors won't abandon their boats unless they have no other choice, so they'll either refuse to leave them or insist in joining in the fight. It'll be best if we get them out of the cove and into open water just like we planned. They can help us take down the ships, but before they go we'll get all of their injured onto Appa and he'll bring them up to the top of the cliff where they'll be safe with Toph." Nodding my head in satisfaction, all of us got ready as the cove and all the pirate ships came into view.
Fireballs and huge chunks of rocks were being flung from the first few rows of ships into the cove, striking the water and making it churn so that the boats tipped and veered precariously, turning it into a bloodbath if we didn't do something soon. Thankfully the cove was large enough that all the ships fit with room to spare, most of the projectiles missing their mark but I could see one or two of the boats burning, warriors swimming to other boats and being pulled into the water. "Get ready gang, this is it!" Sokka held up his hand like he was pointing his sword, and I couldn't help but laugh at the comical look on his face. I felt a little better, thanks Sokka.
Appa growled and people started to look up, surprised to see a creature flying. He swooped down and turned on his side so that Aang, Katara and I could leap from the saddle to fall through the air towards the cove entrance where Aang slowed our decent with air bending before all three of us moved in synchrony, pushing our hands as we shifted through our stances to send the water back out of the cove into a curling wave. The cluster of pirate ships closest to the cove where pushed back and several crashed against one another as we lowered the tide and held it, giving Appa time to get to the Water Tribe warriors behind us as Sokka called for all the injured to climb aboard.
Looking back over my shoulder I watched as the wounded were transferred to Appa, wondering where among those men my father stood. This was the closest I had ever been to my father, just a across a stretch of water, yet I still couldn't see him. "Okay! We're ready!" Sokka yelled to us as Appa lifted up so Katara, Aang and I all nodded to one another before we pushed the wave forwards all at once, washing away the frontal pirate ships before Aang sprung up with a burst of air in order to fly in his air ball around the perimeter, raising the ice wall as Katara went the other way, riding on a wave as the two met up in the middle.
Turning around, I focused on the water within the cove itself, taking a deep breath before beginning to roll my wrists, pulling the water behind me to feed in and create a greater bulk so I could draw at a wave, lifting it higher and letting it sway forwards and back as the boats all followed, the men on board shouting to one another to prepare to ride the wave before all at once, I moved my hands across my body as I turned and thrust them outwards, the wave responding behind me. The boats all surged forwards, rising upon the water and quickly moving out of the cove as I dove into the water and swam underneath the wave, looking up as half a dozen underbellies of the boats flew overhead before they were out in the open water, free to move as they willed.
Releasing the breath I held I twirled with my arms in order to propel myself out of the water with a burst, shooting up into the air with perhaps a little too much force as I pirouetted and pulled the water off my body in mid-air so that I became surrounded in a shroud of glittering droplets as fine as crystal beads, catching the light and drizzling with bursts of colour as I dried myself off then landed on one of the boats, causing it to dip and bob as it took on my momentum. All these strange men were staring at me as I picked myself up, brushing myself off before looking around with baited breath. "Is…?"
"Koda is up there." One of the older looking men answered before I could ask, smiling in greeting as he approached me, snow white hair pulled back from his weather worn face. "He was hurt badly securing our escape, but he's going to be okay. You must be Kayo, we've been waiting for you." Straightening up I whirled around, looking to the cliffs where the wounded were being unloaded from Appa before Zuko and Suki took off with him again in order to join the fight. "He'll want to see you, he's talked about nothing else for the past month."
"I…" Intending to go, I made a step forwards when without warning, the boat was hit by a projectile and everything tilted on its side. I cried out in alarm, starting to fall over but the guy who'd spoken to me quickly grabbed hold of me and used his body as a shield as the boat almost turned into the water but I quickly raised my hand with a pulling motion to create a massive ice support to push us back, everyone recovering the balance. The man let me go and I quickly water bended at the flames that scorched the side of the boat, dousing them. "We'll deal with the pirates first. You guys can all still fight, right?" They all smirked at me with mirth and confidence, grabbing their weapons.
"These cowards haven't done us in yet, we've got plenty of fight left in us, little girl." The man told me so I grinned, cracking my knuckles in anticipation.
"Great, then here's what we're going to do." I started to tell everybody my idea, wanting the boats to move steadily forwards and take down the pirate ships one by one. "Focus on securing the captain and the cargo. Pirates love treasure, so if they have something of value they won't risk losing it. Break off into twos, flank the ships one by one and take out their mainsails and rudders. We've got plenty of work to do, so let's get to it. We'll put these barnacle brains in their place." The warriors all cheered and the silver hair man in front of me bellowed with laughter.
"You're Koda's kid alright. He'd be down here himself if he weren't so roughed up." Reaching out to me, I couldn't help but feel a sort of connection to this man as he placed his hand against my head, smiling at me warmly. "I'm your uncle, but the way, Koda's older brother. You can call me Kainon."
"Uncle…Kainon?" Taking it all in, I suddenly beamed and rushed forwards, hugging my newly found uncle tightly as he squeezed me back lightly. "I'm so glad to meet you, you have no idea how…" We were interrupted by another incoming projectile, though this time I pulled up a wave and blocked it, raising the water into a whip with the rock held at the top as I swung it around like a slingshot, throwing it back at one of the pirate ships and breaching the hull. "I guess introductions will have to wait."
"Guess so. Go show those pirates not to mess with the Southern Water Tribe!" Uncle Kainon encouraged so with a nod of my head I leaped over the side of the boat and surfed forwards, going for the ship and dove underwater. I create massive ice spikes to force them out of the water, breaking their ships before launching myself up onto the deck of another and turned on the ball of my foot, leg arced as I twirled and moved the water with extreme precision to take out pirates as they ran at me.
They yelled and brandished their swords, swinging in from the rigging at all angles so I cut the ropes with water then whipped it forwards, disarming them of their swords as I controlled several tendrils all at once, extending my reach to nearby ships until I was like a giant octopus causing general mayhem and havoc. Several of the ships towards the far side of the ice barrier were on fire, probably Zuko's doing and I saw Suki swinging from one ship to another on a rope but when one pirate cut the rope with a throwing knife, Suki cried out and started to drop.
Moving the water below her I gave her a boost onto the ship where she landed with a roll before rising to her feet and quickly taking out a pirate, giving her a moment to breathe where she looked back and waved to me in thanks. We were all completely tearing through the ships, but the problem was there were so many of them, and some of the pirates were benders which made thinks a little more difficult. I found myself facing off with three fire benders, diving under a three way blast before I turned on my back and swung my legs in a circular rotation as I pushed myself off the ground, copying a move I had seen Zuko do and the water rose up and washed them all away as they yelled.
Running to the head of the ship I raised my arms and pulled the water up either side of another ship, slamming the tow cascading waves like geysers to cripple the wood and it began to sink as I then washed away several more, spearing their hulls with ice spikes before drawing them back so that water could pour in and forcing the pirates to abandon ship. Jumping off the boat I hopped across the water, plumes rising up to meet my feet so that I could land on the next ship where Zuko was punching fire from his fist, facing half a dozen pirates all at once before I swung my leg around for a water slice which smacked against their torsos and flung them over board as I then landed, standing back to back with him.
"Having fun yet?"
"Feels just like old times." He answered, the both of us smiling at each other before we sprung back into the battle. We secured the captain of the ship and I gathered up the collection I'd been keeping, sending all the pirate captains I'd found wrapped up on a wave before letting them wash up on my uncle's tribal boat for them to be secured and bound. "This is taking forever." Zuko complained, getting tired of beating up people who didn't really match up. I was about to tease him for being such a grouch when something caught my attention out the corner of my eye.
A couple of pirates had a large barrel between them with a fuse hanging out the top which they lit on fire with some fire bending before they stepped aside and an earth bending pirate used a chunk of earth to launch it in the air. I froze momentarily, watching as they all dove for cover and the barrel flew towards Zuko and I, rotating in the air until I saw a jelly like substance spray out, the fuse quickly being eaten away as the answer came with a sudden rush. "ZUKO!" Screaming in terror I launched myself at him in order to push us both off the deck of the ship just as the blasting jelly exploded with enough force to send us flying.
We hit the water as I made it catch us, my arms wrapped around Zuko and we floated underwater, recovering then looking at each other. We were both holding our breath and he looked fine, so I turned my face upwards only to see everything being engulfed in fire. Kicking upwards to the surface, we quickly gasped for air as the entire ship burned, the pirates having chosen to sacrifice their ships to try and catch us in the process. Several more booms followed, pirates using blasting jelly as their final offence and I saw Aang get knocked out of the sky and even Katara was blown of a ship as she surrounded herself in water to shield herself.
"Kayo look out!" Grabbing my head Zuko pushed me back underwater without any further warning, diving under with me as smaller, handheld bombs were thrown into the water at us. I saw one drop right in front of my face, making me squeak before I froze it in a casing of ice then launched it back at the ship before it could detonate. How had they managed to make the fuses continue to burn even underwater? Whatever the answer was, now wasn't the time to wonder.
Grabbing hold of Zuko I lifted us up on a large float of ice to give us solid ground to stand on, but the moment we were in view again more grenades were launched our way. I swept them aside with water lashes, Zuko also blasting them so that they would explode before reaching us. "We're pinned down!" I yelled, the ice float starting to rock as we continued moving, making our footing unsteady and I slipped, falling against Zuko's back. "Aang!"
"Hold on guys!" Aang was back on his feet and using his air bending and water bending simultaneously to counter the blasting jelly, throwing them back each time they were launched or slicing through the fuse to cut off the flame from the explosive. Aang rescued Katara and Suki first on Appa before making his way to us, the ice float breaking from us moving around too much before a larger bomb landed between us, causing my heart to stop and everything seemingly slowed down. My first instinct was to protect Zuko, crying out as I pulled at the water to wrap around his waist and flung him away from the blast as he yelled to me, reaching out his hand desperately as I then thrust my hands upwards to encase the bomb in a rush of water as it exploded and the blast was powerful enough to break the water apart and I was flung back into the ocean with so much force that I blacked out momentarily.
For a moment I floated, feeling dizzy and disorientated as I opened my eyes and looked up. Black shapes of ships cut across my vision, illuminated by the fiery blasts of explosives as the others struggled to hold everything back as there was too much going on. Shaking off my daze, I twisted in the water, creating a cyclone which raised me up and back into the open air so that I could breathe, rising higher and higher until I was stood on my water twister so that I was higher than even the tallest ship, my shoulders rolling as I moved my hands with an angered yell, unleashing my fury as I brought them around behind my head and stepped off my cyclone to pick it up and swing it, bringing the entire thing up over my head and down upon the ships that were focusing their attack on my friends with all my might.
The water cyclone crippled everything in its path, buckling the pirate ships and turning them into nothing more than driftwood as I started to fall through the air back towards the water, where I landed upon a surf and began to race over the ocean, creating walls and waves of ice to block the blasting jelly as Aang jumped from Appa's head with his tattoos and eyes flashing with a bright glow, switching to his Avatar state in order to deal with the situation. He landed close to me where I naturally reached out my hand for him and he grabbed on, surprisingly strong for a twelve year old kid as he picked me up and placed me on one of the abandoned ships. "You got this Aang." I said to him and he nodded, fully focused on the task.
He then started to turn the water, pulling the ships that had not yet been touched into a swirling whirlpool which he created, the mouth expanding as it grew larger and larger. The boats began to shift, smashing into one another as the pirates all yelled in fear as they stared at the Avatar, finally witnessing his full power. Aang dealt with the whirlpool and I focused on my father's fleet of tribal boats, pushing the water in the other direction as they began to be sucked into the swirling mass, churning the water to create an omnidirectional flow. Katara soon landed from where she'd jumped from Appa and started to help me, pushing them towards the ice wall where I then dropped a section to create an opening, allowing them to escape before I raised it once more and turned to watch Aang.
"You know, sometimes it really takes your breath away." I said to Katara as we stared, seeing him utterly destroy the last of the ships and pull every last soul out of the water and stranding them on an ice island with nowhere else to go. "Seeing just how strong and powerful the Avatar is, I forget that Aang is just a goofy little kid whenever I see him like that."
"I know. It's amazing." Katara agreed, our boat beginning to sink so we climbed on board Appa as Suki and Zuko came back for us, the latter holding out his hand to help pull us aboard before we flew back towards the cove, Aang soon joining us. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, just a little tired, but that was a lot of fun! We're like the anti-pirates, sailing the seas in the name of justice!" He grinned, returning to said goofy self and I just laughed.
"What are we going to do about the pirates?"
"Well, it's not like they can go anywhere, so they can just stay put until they can be arrested and made to pay for their crimes. They won't be terrorising anyone else any longer." Aang shrugged, making Katara smile at him. Now I turned to the cliff top, where Toph was waiting for us from where she had been throwing rocks to sink ships at Sokka's direction, the injured all resting and watching the rather impressive display we'd given them.
The moment Appa landed I slid down his side and planted my feet on the ground, the flaps of my skirt flaring to show the skin tight pants underneath as I started forwards. The warriors were all smiling knowingly, looking at me before gradually they parted ways, slowly moving aside as Toph and Sokka approached. "Hey Kayo! You'll never guess who we met, it's your-!" Toph punched him in the gut to shut him up.
"Let the girl find out for herself, you fruitcake." I couldn't breathe, stepping forwards hesitantly as the last few warriors stepped aside to reveal a single man facing me. He was tall and broad, built like an ox-bull with year of battle experience and war hardening him against the ages. His face was deeply tanned from sunlight exposure and aged from being on the sea, but the lines of his face made him appear a little softer than you might expect. His eyes were a light bluish grey, exactly like mine, with a strong, straight nose and firm jawline which sported a deep brown beard streaked with grey and white hairs, trimmed neatly to follow the shape of his face.
There was a deep scar over his left eye, jagged and clearly old with another scar on his mouth which was smaller and little more than a silvery white line. His hair was like mine too, dark with brown undertones though his was also greying like his beard, pulled back from his face and much longer than I had imagined, falling below his shoulders with several warrior braids which I could see hanging behind his ear. I lost the ability to move, staring at him with so much emotion that I could hardly understand what it was I was feeling. Strangely, I felt a great deal of sadness and regret for the fact that I had lost so much time and opportunity to spend with my real father, who had not known I even existed until a month ago.
Looking at my father, all I could do was choke on a sob and fall to my knees.
