Disclaimer: I own nothing but the conceits and headcanon.
Notes: Assume each season of AtLA is a year, not just a few months.
Notes2: I want you to imagine that the Tortallan universe is on one hemisphere of the planet and the Avatar one is on the other.
Lianne and Jasson watched Liam anxiously, but he was still. Neither of them could move and the ropes were too tight. The woman in red was sitting now with her eyes closed, maybe ignoring them, maybe meditating, they didn't know. "Do you think Liam's okay?" Lianne asked her brother.
He shook his head. "I don't know. We just have to wait. Numair'll come, or Aunt Alanna, or mother or someone. You know that."
"But he said mages are hiding us," Lianne insisted. "And it's one thing to look for us, it's another when they don't even know exactly where to look. And we're underground. What if there's something here that'll block the magic? They've already put bracelets on us that suppress the Gift," she added.
Jasson looked at her, and she felt bad when she saw she was making him upset. "They'll find us." he said firmly. But then he looked back at Liam and blinked really hard a lot to keep from crying.
The men on the other side of the cave were dicing, and everything was still and quiet. Suddenly they heard a strange sound behind them, a sort of scraping and soft rumble, and the two children squirmed to look over their shoulders. Their eyes widened as the woman in red held up one freed hand, pressing it to her lips in the sign to be quiet. Both children nodded, watching as she slowly and carefully freed her legs, then did something that made water come out of a crack in the rock behind her. They stared as the water first puddled, then turned into a sort of big bubble behind her.
She eased forward, carefully, stealthily as the palace cats sneaking up on a mouse, or Auntie Alanna putting frogs in their father's bed.
Just then one of the men turned, he opened his mouth to raise the alarm, and the water came down. It was super-amazing. She moved like the Shang warriors, but instead of hitting with her hands and feet, she struck with the water that moved like a weapon for her.
The knight tried to attack her and she spun around, the water wrapping around him like a tentacle and then throwing him into the wall. Most of them were unconscious in moments, but one just ran. She tried to reach him with the water, but he was gone.
She hurried to Jasson and Lianne, grabbing a dagger and getting the ropes off them and Liam. She grabbed a wineskin off the table, tying it to her waist, then picked Liam up and called out to the children, striding forward to the exit with their brother. They followed her, because she was clearly better than staying in there with the baron and his friends.
She led them down and down and down until they reached an underground river. But there was nowhere else to go.
Katara followed the feeling of the water, sensing that the underground river would get them into open air. It was a bit of a stretch for her, but Hama's lessons, however grim they had been, had extended Katara's reach and understanding of her own element. Feeling the water in a living thing, the way Hue and Hama had taught her, was ultimately no more difficult than feeling something as large as a river as it wended its way out of the caves and into the outside world.
But the children were clearly frightened, and she had to remember that they didn't know what she knew, had maybe never seen a waterbender before and didn't know what she could do. She looked regretfully at the oldest boy, who was badly hurt, but they really didn't have time for her to stop and heal him yet, put him down, and closed her eyes. It was the work of a few moments to slide the water under the pebbly beach they stood on, and to freeze it into the shape of a boat, the interior lined with pebbles to keep the cold of the ice away from everyone and insulate a little against the melting caused by contact with people.
The two kids stared, seemed amazed, but followed her onto the boat. She put the boy down and bended them out onto the water. With her bending back in full form, it was easy to guide the boat down the rushing water, easy to keep it steady, and even easy to cushion them as they shot out over the enormous waterfall, spilling out into a rushing river.
They hurtled down the waterway for a while, but Katara was worried about the older boy and set them up on the bank sooner than she otherwise might have. Once they were on the bank, she set about healing him. Based on their clothes, these were rich children, probably not used to a lot of hardship. They might have to be on the run for a while, so she concentrated extra hard on healing the older boy. The concussion receded, the swelling on the inside of his head reducing down to nothing, the bruise from where The One In Charge had hit him lightened, yellowed and then vanished, the scrapes from where he'd hit the rock wall closed over, scabbed and then disappeared as well.
When his eyes opened, she smiled at him and sat back. And then all her efforts, her bending, her previous exhaustion and malnourishment caught up with her and she sagged, nearly blacking out. The children steadied her, leaning her back against and tree, and the younger boy scampered off while the girl began to set up a campfire.
The oldest boy sat next to her, smiled and spoke. She smiled back, but still shrugged. She put her hand on her chest and said, "Katara." Then she pointed to him and raised her eyebrows inquiringly. "Liam," he said to her, his hand on his chest. They both subsided into silence then. She'd healed the worst of his hurts, but she knew he was probably still sore and suffering a headache.
There was a soft whumping sound from where the girl was, and suddenly a fire bloomed. So, they were most likely firebenders, but they were children, possibly mostly untrained which would explain at least partly how and why they hadn't bended while escaping. The girl came over and spoke rapidly to the boy Liam, who groaned and stood, slowly making his way to the fire. Katara hauled herself to her feet as well, joining them. As she watched curiously, he reached out a hand and seemed to concentrate, and for a moment the flames seemed about to form a picture.
Whatever he was trying to do didn't work. He looked at the girl and spoke briefly. He glanced over at Katara, then said something to the girl that included the waterbender's name. Then he turned to Katara. "Lianne," he said, pointing at the girl. "Jasson," he added waving at the woods.
The younger boy came out of the woods then, saying something to the others and pointing back. "Jasson?" she asked, pointing at the boy, suspecting it was his name.
They nodded and smiled. Lianne spoke to the boy Jasson, who bowed in a formal, if unfamiliar style, and then was dragged off into the woods while he waved his hands in a way that looked a little like shooing, or maybe telling them to stay there. Still exhausted, Katara settled beside Liam and closed her eyes, listening for his movement. She should probably either keep moving or find a way to communicate, but she was tired and her mind was feeling muffled by her tiredness. It seemed only a moment before the two returned carrying a shirt that was filled with fruits of some kind, as well as -
"Momo!" Katara called, delighted to see the familiar white-and-black face of the lemur. Momo squawked and flew over to her, carrying a fruit with him. "Hey, are you okay there?" she asked, petting him. He wriggled happily in her arms before climbing onto her head and stuffing fruit into his mouth. She rolled her eyes and left him there as she picked up one of the fruits. Giving it a careful look-over, it seemed to be an apple, but not one that she'd ever seen before. One bite proved that. It was much more tart than the apples she'd had in the Earth Kingdom and a very welcome change from barely cooked fish and seaweed.
The children seemed charmed by Momo's antics and tempted him off her head with berries. They were equally amused when he made faces and spat out some or stuffed his cheeks to bursting with others. They chattered to each other and Katara sighed, letting herself relax. She was much better in some ways, and her on-the-spot healing of herself in the caves had done away with the last illness and injury of the Fire Nation capture and whoever had done so in this new land, but she was still tired from the journey, and had no idea where her friends were. As much as she wanted to go running off to find Zuko and the others, she had no idea where she'd wound up, where they would have been in relation to her, and she couldn't ask the children any questions because they didn't seem to share any language in common. At least they seemed a little competent out in this forest.
The fruits the children had found were a very good start, and when Jasson returned looking quite pleased with himself and holding a small furry animal that he'd clearly managed to catch in a snare, she smiled at him, saying, "Nice work!" He smiled back, although he probably had no idea what she was saying.
That was when things got frightening again. The man from before, the one who had hit her and hit Liam appeared with a crew of his thugs in tow. Katara was on her feet, back to the river, and fighting them off, but there were a lot and they were armed with crossbows of some kind. She couldn't defend against the bolts, protect the children and fend off all the men. She was good, but she was tired, not on top of her game and there were quite a few of them.
So she chose to run. A whirling motion of her hands created a thick wall of ice between her little group and the men attacking them. It wouldn't keep them away for long, but she didn't need long. The boat had only begun to melt and it was the work of a moment to refreeze it and shift it to the water, chivy the children onto it, and then whirl them down the stream. For a moment she let the rapid current created by a slope and the waterfall carry them as she slammed her bending into the water to create a thick fog that rolled out over the area, then she turned to driving the ice boat as quickly forward as she could.
The children clung on and even kept Momo with them.
Whoever Katara was, the young royals agreed she was very nice and clearly had a pretty powerful Gift. They didn't quite know why she was using it the way she was, but she was evidently from somewhere pretty foreign. Maybe training in magecraft there was totally different than in Tortall and her allies.
"Liam? Do you have any idea where we're going?" Jasson asked.
Liam glanced around and said, "I think we might wind up on the Tellerun River if we keep going." He was hesitant. "I think. But I don't really know where we are except that we're sort of close to Port Legann. I mean, we were on those horses for so long, and after we went through the underground river I don't know which direction that was."
"Mama's going to be so worried," said Lianne. "I hope someone finds us soon. I like Katara, but we can't explain anything to her."
Liam looked around at the scenery flying past them and said, "Well, we're going faster than any horse could, I think. So, they're probably not going to be able to catch up with us."
"Maybe we should just follow the river all the way to Port Caynn," Jasson said. "I mean, if we're going to wind up on the Tellerun River, it may be worth it to just keep going until we get home."
They bumped and splashed along for a while, curving left and right with the flow of the water, the terrain around them rocky and forbidding. Suddenly Baron Hillebrand and his traitors appeared around a bend in the river. "Surrender!" he shouted. "You'll never survive the waterfall ahead. Did you think I couldn't figure out that you would be on the river?"
Eyes wide, the children saw the waterfall up ahead. Katara seemed to notice it, but instead of stopping she whirled her hands around and they sped forward. The children screamed, unable to help it, as they shot out over the water and Momo shrieked with them. But Katara somehow steadied the ice boat as they flew out over the water. And then her arms spun, the waterfall rearing up just enough to sweep all the men over the edge of the falls with them. But where they were in a controlled fall, surrounded by water that seemed to half glow with Katara's magic, the men were just screaming as they hurtled down the falls.
They landed with a splash, but they were okay. "Minos, Mynoss and Shakith," Liam said.
"Mama says you're not supposed to say that," Lianne said automatically.
Jasson just made a wordless sort of noise of shock.
It was to the children's great relief that they saw the colours of the Queen's Riders appear through the trees, followed by, "Mama!" Katara's eyes were wide and she was clearly getting ready to attack the new arrivals when Liam grabbed her arm and shook his head while Lianne just flung herself out of their little boat and into the water, rapidly paddling toward her mother.
"Lianne!" their mother raced toward the water and Katara turned to steering the boat, scooped Lianne back out of the water as they moved to the shore, and with a gesture had made Lianne dry again, even. They landed with the crunch of boat on sand, and then the three children flung themselves out of the boat at Queen Thayet.
"I was so worried," Thayet told her children. "Are you alright?"
"Uh-huh," Lianne mumbled into her mother's shoulder.
Liam spoke up. "Katara saved us. She was amazing!"
"She doesn't speak Common," Jasson put in. "Or anything else we know, but she did it anyhow."
Thayet looked at the young woman in red and stood up, the children clinging to her. "Thank you," she said.
The woman smiled at her and bowed in an unfamiliar and formal way, then swayed sharply. One of the Riders was at her side in a moment, supporting her. She smiled at the man and said something that had the sound to Thayet's ears of a 'thank you'. "It was Baron Hillebrand, Mama," Liam said.
"What was?" she asked the eldest child.
"The men who kidnapped us were working with Baron Hillebrand," Jasson elaborated. "He said a lot of mean stuff about you and father and Daine and T'Kaa-"
"You'll tell me all about it in order," Thayet said. "But first we'll set up a camp for a bit, get you all into fresh clothes and some hot food."
Katara wasn't completely sure who everyone was, there was still no one who understood any of the languages she knew, but the undeniably beautiful woman hugging the children was clearly their mother, and several people had offered her clean clothes and food and a sort of tea she'd never had before to drink. Momo had cuddled into her arms and she'd offered him bits of what she was eating, a little amused whenever he made a face over it.
Sitting in the sun, surrounded by friendly if alien faces, Katara found herself falling asleep as she finished off her food and tea. Even when she was poked awake and helped onto one of the strange-looking ostrich-horse-like quadrupeds she just couldn't keep her eyes open anymore. She was sharing the animal with one of these strangers and the rocking motion of the not-ostrich-horse lulled her to sleep as she leaned against the woman.
Thayet had already sent a contingent of the Riders off to the fort at Port Legann to collect more people and see about tracking down and collecting Hillebrand's band of traitors. The children's story backed up the reports she'd heard about the goings-on in a few of the smaller estates of minor barons and lords in the southern parts of Tortall. It was a pity the children hadn't been able to identify the unknown knight better than that they'd seen him before at some point, but at least they knew the unrest had reached this point (she'd have to talk to George about his spy network), and the children were safe.
She looked up from her horse to see the young woman who the children credited with their rescue, and she appeared to have fallen asleep. Since she'd been picked up off a beach where she'd been lying unconscious, according to Liam, there was every possibility she'd undergone some sort of catastrophe. Meanwhile, she was going to take the children and their rescuer back to Port Legann, collect the servants and nurses that had been looking after the children and then head for Corus and home. The report to Jonathan was going to get there faster than they could, but as she didn't have anyone Gifted travelling with their train she would rather wait to give Jon a full report once she could be certain the message wouldn't be intercepted.
She'd had Gifted people with her, but they'd turned out to be Hillebrand's people, and without being able to check the credentials of anyone else, she'd just as soon send a trusted messenger with a warning and then get home. It was far less of a risk. The last thing they needed was Hillebrand and anyone else in sympathy with him getting wind of this too soon. She was rather grateful to Katara for her impressive and terrifying act of pulling all those men over the waterfall.
When they got back to Legann, Thayet immediately arranged a brief meeting with Lord Imrah before leaving. "I'm not accusing you or your lady wife of anything," she hastened to assure him once she'd told the tale of what happened. "But without knowing who might have been suborned in the region I want to get the children to the safety of Corus as quickly as possible."
Imrah nodded. "I do understand, Thayet. My people are already provisioning yours and preparing the horses." He shot her a smile, "My lady wife has also set about getting some clothes for that young lady you brought with you." He frowned, thoughtfully, adding, "I don't know much about foreign languages, mind, but what she says sounds like the few times I've heard the Yamanis speaking when one of their ships is in port. There aren't any now or I would've asked one to come up and give a shot at speaking her jargon."
"Yamani?" A squawk from the corner brought Thayet's attention to Katara's lemur which was eating its way through the fruit bowl in the corner. It looked up at her and scampered over, holding out an apple. "Thank you," she said to it. It squeaked, picked up some fruit in its feet and spread batlike wings, flying out the window, probably in search of its mistress.
"Strange little critter," Imrah said. He turned his attention back to Thayet. "I'll begin the process of working out who's been turned."
"I appreciate your efforts and please pass along my apologies to your lady wife if I don't see her before we set out," she told him. With that she left him to his efforts and collected the captain of the Rider unit which would be travelling with them. As they prepared, saddling fresh horses, resupplying and loading up packhorses, a glint of light caught their attention. In the courtyard Katara was dancing.
Her ragged red clothing had been exchanged for blue breeches, a long blue tunic over which was tied a white sash, and bracers graced her arms. As she moved her hands and legs water flew around her, flashing in the sunlight, the cause of the glint that had caught their attention. With a sudden and final motion of her arms the water hardened into darts of ice, thudding ominously into the currently unused archery targets.
Katara smiled and gestured at the water, which melted and returned in a stream to the large waterskin she had slung over a shoulder. It was an impressive display. The children had been watching and they applauded loudly. The young woman looked startled, then smiled and bowed. It was an interesting discipline this water magic of Katara's. When they set out Katara rode horseback with them, looking uncomfortable until she got the hang of her horse. It made Thayet wonder about what sorts of riding animals Katara was used to.
For several days, including the move from Port Caynn to the palace at Corus, all communications with the youngsters had to go through Zuko. It left him much in demand. At first the youngsters had mostly kept together, Zuko speaking on their behalf as they were outfitted with new clothing, new weapons for those who carried them and a tour of the palace to get them oriented to their surroundings. Once they were used to the place, however, they all went off on their own interests.
Part of Zuko's time was spent on Aang and Sokka's interpretation of maps in the hopes of finding Katara and the near-constant reminders that they couldn't just wander around on Appa because they were likely to be shot by a country still terrified in the wake of the Immortals War. Suki was often found training with the Queen's Riders, knights and anyone else who was interested, which meant Zuko could be found on the training grounds many times as well. Lastly there was Toph. She made a nuisance of herself at any available opportunity and Zuko was hard-pressed to keep her out of trouble.
Numair had set himself to working on a translation spell for them. It was, as he had explained to anyone who would listen, not too difficult a spell to work out when you thought about it and had the power to spare as he did. Most people needed translation when there was no one there to translate, and as such it was virtually impossible to do so. Rarely did people think of a translation spell when there was a translator available. The fact that there were people with a common tongue made this actually theoretically possible.
It would be more difficult as he was going to have to work through three languages, that of the visitors, Tortallan Common and the Tongue of the Ancients as spoken by Zuko and Ambassador Menitako. The spell had to take the languages and create, in stages, a lexicon in the mind. The first stage was matching words to words. The word for fire in Tortallan, then that same word in the Ancient Tongue and lastly in the common language of the visitors. Once the spell had created that ungrammatical collection of words it would use the references in Menitako's mind of how a sentence was constructed, word order, conjugation, pluralization, all the various parts of speech that made it more than pointing and grunting, "Chicken, want, eat." Man couldn't live on infinitives alone.
Still, he was having to lead the process through a secondary language, and while he couldn't imagine any possible objection to learning a second tongue on the part of those who did not yet know it, he had to be careful to separate the words and their meanings within each language or risk it all turning into a confused muddle.
King Jonathan was looking over the spell development notes. "If you succeed at this you may be inundated by people wanting to use this as a cheat in learning languages."
Numair snorted. "The only reason this is likely to work is that Menitako informs me that Zuko speaks the Tongue of the Ancients with such fluency that the two can speak in it as though they were both in their mother tongues. If there is any significant incapability in any language involved this spell will fail. Furthermore, I suspect it's going to cause quite the headache in all concerned."
"Ah," Jonathan said. "So, not very subtle at all."
Numair shook his head a little as he realised what the king had been thinking; a spell to get full knowledge of a language from an interpreter and pass it to another person in a room in order to ensure there was someone on both sides of a negotiation who was fluent in both languages in order to be sure the other side was being honest about the contents of any translation. There were always hitches in translated negotiations, pauses where an interpreter had to clarify a term that existed in one language but not the other, reorder words that worked quite well in the first language but had to be put another way in the other in order to make sense or be reasonably polite. Sometimes there were side comments, explanations of context, hunting for precise technical terminology, there were any number of things that could cause an interpreter to spend more time than expected passing along what seemed like simple statements at the outset.
By that same token, any interpreter could therefore have tactical discussions with a negotiator under the guise of simply explaining an idiom, and for those relying on the interpreter who were on the other side of the table there might be no way of knowing.
When Numair had finished the last touches on the construction of his spell, he called Zuko and Ambassador Menitako to his tower. "I'll be doing this spell in stages," he explained. "I thought about trying to do everything at once, but ultimately it made more sense to do this piece by piece in case of any difficulties." He paused while the translation was made to the young man. When it was clear Zuko was understanding, the sorcerer went on. "So, firstly, I will cast the spell in order to give Zuko the Yamani language and you, ambassador, the common tongue of our visitors."
The other man looked intrigued. "I am curious as to why, Master Salmalin," he said. "I would think this would be the sort of complication you would wish to avoid."
"It is true," Numair replied, "But based on what we've learned, that your people originate with theirs, it seemed possible your people would particularly wish to make diplomatic contact, and being able to communicate yourselves would be useful."
Zuko inquired what they had been saying, and his dry response made Numair laugh. "And allow someone else to make diplomatic overtures on behalf of all the peoples here, make all the initial mistakes of first contact and bring back information on how best to approach people."
"That too," Numair acknowledged. He finished his explanation. "Once there is only the one language that Zuko needs to receive, I'll take Common and give it to him as well. Once Zuko has Common, I can use him to give it to the rest of them." He looked at them both, "This is going to be very taxing, and most likely you will both have migraines to end all migraines. If you need me to stop, I can always do only one step per day."
Ambassador Menitako inclined his head in acknowledgment, relayed Numair's words to Zuko and then Zuko's back again. "Then we might as well see how far we can get today. I, for one, would like to only have to be in one place at a time."
Given how stretched the young man's resources were, much as the Ambassador's were, it was quite understandable. "Very well," Numair said, and began the delicate process of casting his spell. Just outside the room Alanna and Duke Baird were waiting, but Numair hadn't wanted to risk any distractions. When he finished, the pair were looking somewhat pale. Zuko's face had settled into an impassive mask with a crinkle at the corner of his eyes giving away the pain while Menitako had his hands pressed to his head, massaging lightly. Zuko eyed the man a moment, then gently placed a hand at the back of the man's neck. He asked a question and the ambassador murmured something back. On a suspicion, Numair brought up his mage sight, and as he'd suspected, Zuko's hand was now glowing with the ruby light of his strange elemental wild magic. He was using his hand as a warming pack for the ambassador.
Numair had seen the others use their powers, but Zuko had done so much more rarely. It was as though he felt his power with fire was something to be treated with caution, fear or shame. It was hard to tell, but his ability to use his power to gently warm as much as to create genuine fire spoke of great control.
After a few moments, the elder of the pair lifted his head and spoke. Zuko responded, and the pair conversed a moment. Numair let them, and in a short while, Menitako turned back to him. "Zuko appears to now have a full grasp of Yamani," he said. "And I, the Common Tongue among his people, but I am afraid I do not have it in me to continue today."
"Understandable," Numair said. "Go talk to Alanna and Duke Baird outside, see what they can do, get some rest and we can continue tomorrow."
As the pair stepped out of the room they were greeted by the clamour of Zuko's friends. Sharp words from Zuko quieted them. As they were leaving, Aang fixed a look on Numair, one that was becoming quite familiar, and Numair wondered what strange obsession the boy had with him. There was something that the bald youngster wanted to ask him, wanted to say to him, and Numair couldn't figure out what.
With his spell a success, the mage was finally able to turn his thoughts to something else and suddenly realised he had another potential source of information. He went in search of Daine. He found her in the stables, talking to Cloud, her pony, and Spots and Mangle, the horses who travelled with them the most.
"Numair!" Daine greeted him. Spots and Mangle whiskered amicably while Cloud gave him that dark look she always did. Once again he regretted discovering the animalian nickname for him of, 'Stork-Man'. It was almost worse in some ways than walking the halls of the University in Carthak, aware of soft mutterings behind the back of Arram Draper. Mostly because there was nothing to do about it, not even in contemplation. At least when he'd been there he could indulge in silly fantasies of revenge or teaching them object lessons. With the animals it wasn't even done with ill intent, so any thoughts of teaching object lessons just made him feel guilty. Except with Cloud.
"Hello Daine," he turned to the pony, "I cannot know what you intend to do, but whatever it is, do not contemplate it." Then he back well out of biting range. Cloud looked contemplative a moment, then settled, making Numair feel all the warier. Spots and Mangle, meanwhile, nosed at him in the hope of treats. He obligingly produced apples for them, tossing another to Daine from a safe distance. How he knew the pony was smug, Numair didn't know.
Daine rolled her eyes. "He's bein' nice," she said to Cloud, "And the fact that you've made folks wary of getting close to you ain't somethin' to be proud of." She turned to Numair. "How'd the spell go?"
"As well as might be expected," Numair answered, "But it will still progress slowly as the process gives the participants a headache."
"Mm," Daine nodded. "Getting the whole language dropped in your head in one go? I can see that. I got enough of a headache when I was learning animal anatomy bit by bit. Just thinkin' about a whole language that way's fair boggling. So, Zuko and Menitako get each other's languages, then Zuko gets our Common, and then the others get our Common from Zuko?"
"Exactly," Numair replied. "Hopefully it shouldn't take more than a few days. Meanwhile, though, I wanted to ask you a question."
She turned to fully face him, eyes narrowing slightly. "Somethin' up?"
"I don't quite know," Numair admitted. "You see, one of our visitors, Aang, he keeps stopping to look at me, and I can't quite determine what it's about." At Daine's look of concern he hastened to add, "It's not that he looks threatening in any way, just . . . I don't know, longing perhaps?"
Ever quick on the uptake, Daine sighed. "I don't know what to tell you, Numair. I mean, Aang's had a fair rough go of it, losin' the monk who was like his pa, gettin' knocked out in a storm and wakin' up to find it's a hundred years later; and these past couple years, what with training and their war and all, it ain't been easy, but I don't know why he wants somethin' to do with you in particular."
"Not a hint from his . . . from Appa?"
The Wildmage shook her head. "Then again, there were times they was separated, once for several weeks, and Appa doesn't know what happened to Aang durin' those weeks." When he gave her his practised hangdog expression, Daine rolled her eyes. "Come on, then. Let's go talk to the beaver-bison."
When they arrived, however, Aang was there, brushing the animal and murmuring unhappily to a very twitchy beaver-bison. Appa brightened at the sight of Daine and thundered over, licking her and leaving her covered in spittle. Numair stepped back immediately, running into Sokka. The younger man made a face at the very damp Daine, then looked remarkably resigned after the bison licked him as well. He said something to Numair which, from the look on his face, was probably something like, 'You lucky bastard.'
"Numair, Appa says that Aang wants to go flyin' to see if they can find Sokka's sister. Do you think it'd be okay? I think the rumours've been goin' around a fair bit at this point. It's not like they could keep Appa a secret." It probably was a foolish thing to do, but Numair had been dying of curiosity about the animal, and to see it fly.
So, to be a responsible adult, he left to find Alanna. She was in conference with the King and a tired-looking Zuko, who was accompanied by one of the few people in the palace who also spoke Yamani. "He should be resting," Numair informed them, without ceremony. Alanna made a face while Jon tried not to let his humanity and his kingship interfere with each other.
"I said that," Alanna pointed out, "But his Majesty there wanted some idea about the sorts of things we'd face if some of Zuko's people arrived here and the tactician in me can't really argue the point. What are you doing here, anyhow?"
"Aang and Sokka want to take the beaver-bison flying to see if they can find Sokka's sister." Numair watched as the interpreter muttered in Zuko's ear and saw the young man wince.
A moment later the interpreter said on his behalf, "While Katara is most likely dead, if you don't give Aang and Sokka permission to do this, they'll do it without permission. At this point you'd be better off warning your archers not to shoot them and just give them some sort of rules to follow, like places they shouldn't fly over, a radius they shouldn't exceed or a curfew."
"We can't just let them-" Alanna began.
Numair interrupted her. "It's Sokka's sister and Aang's very close friend. What would you do if it were you, Alanna?"
Her mouth opened a moment, then she sighed. "Alright, Numair. But don't think I don't know you just want to see that thing fly."
"So do you, and don't deny it," Numair told her.
His Majesty finally spoke up. "I won't put a limit on how far they fly," he said, "But I expect you and Daine to be sensible about this because I know you're both going along. They're to be back by sunset and if anyone says anything about them causing trouble, the bison is grounded."
"Do you want to come?" Numair inquired of Zuko.
The young man eyed the green-looking interpreter and said something, interrupted by a hitch or two in his speech, no doubt brought on by grief, that they all politely ignored. "Katara is unlikely to be found, and I have both flown on and seen the bison flying. More, I believe his Majesty wished to hear more of the armies of the Fire Nation."
Numair left Alanna behind to her conference, refusing to get pulled in to any discussions. He wasn't particularly valuable in a strategic or tactical discussion generally, and for magical specifics Jonathan and Alanna were both perfectly well-informed as to the capabilities of the Gifted. "Where are you going?" Raoul asked as Numair passed him. "You seem in a hurry."
"Jonathan just gave permission for Sokka and Aang to go look for Sokka's sister on the beaver-bison," Numair said.
Raoul easily kept pace. Numair always did enjoy walking with people who were as long-legged as he was. He didn't have to watch himself to be sure he wasn't outpacing them, and Raoul was a giant of a man. "You mean, we're going to watch that thing fly?" Raoul shook his head. "Everything we've seen and I still have trouble with that one."
They passed the doors, heading into the courtyard. "The one trouble we're going to have is that while Daine can communicate with Appa, he can't properly translate."
"You'll figure it out," Raoul said confidently.
Sokka clearly spotted them first, as he gestured to bring Aang and Daine's attention to the two tall men arriving at the courtyard. "Well?" Daine asked.
"Our gracious king has agreed that the search can happen, but there's a sunset curfew and if anyone causes any trouble, Appa's grounded," Numair told her.
While Daine was explaining to Appa, Numair and Raoul began the somewhat laborious process of clarifying to Sokka and Aang that they had to be back by sunset and were not to cause any trouble. It took some gesturing and some wastage of paper and ink as they drew various pictures to clarify, but once they had, Sokka seemed to settle instantly, calming and acting with a commanding sort of presence that made both Raoul and Numair exchange intrigued looks. "Well, given their mission I suppose he had to be more competent than he first appeared," Raoul said.
Finally, after much fussing over the straps and connections of the enormous bison-beaver saddle, they took off. Immediately Aang tugged on the reins, turning Appa towards the coastline. Once there, they flew much lower, presumably to look for any trace of this Katara.
Numair switched over to his mage sight, unsurprised but still impressed by the skillful use of this elemental magic by the flying bison-beaver. He took a few moments to admire it, making a mental note to see about magics that might be used to make things fly, before turning his thoughts to searching for a missing woman. It was a very good thing he did then, because he caught the glint of light off a metal buckle and saw the archer just in time. He snapped a word, the glittering black shield immediately appearing and stopping the arrow. "Daine! Tell him to land!" he said over the wind. "We'll need to talk to them!"
"Right!" Daine turned her attention to Appa, who obligingly landed. Numair vaulted off the animal, because as he'd expected, it was a man from a village, still worried about Immortals attacking, and acting out of fear for his home, not out of malice.
"Easy there," he said, one hand extended, his shield carefully thinned into near-invisibility. "I'm Numair Salmalin, and up there is Daine, the Wildmage. You may have heard of us?"
The man's eyes went wide and he dropped the bow. "M'Lord! I . . . I didn't know 'twas . . . I was afeared it were more of them Immortals. There's naught particular natural about that creature," he said, half babbling in worry he'd offended what, to him, was a noble.
"It's no problem," Daine said, soothingly, as she joined them. She knelt and picked up the bow. "This is nice work," she told him, looking over the curved wood appreciatively. "If'n me da hadn't made mine, I'd be fair interested in one of these. Did you make it?"
Numair stepped back, ready to defend her if the man suddenly went irrational, but he knew his height and dark-skinned clear foreignness would work against him in this. Aang and Sokka arrived then, and Numair worked through the usual careful pantomimes to communicate, using the few words that Sokka and Aang had begun to pick up. Sokka seemed to understand almost the moment Numair had pointed at the villager (Hender, Daine had discovered) and the bow, but Aang looked confused, something that had made Sokka seem quite exasperated.