The Earth Kingdom has very calm and peaceful waters. We always learned about them in school.
"Going out onto Earth Kingdom waters, nine times out of ten it will be completely peaceful." teachers would say. Then they would say something along the lines of, "Unlike the Fire Nation, the Earth Kingdom doesn't have blockades everywhere. We allow anyone who wants to live here, safe in the mighty Earth Kingdom, right onto our shores."
That's a fantastic lie to feed people. The Earth Kingdom would never allow a firebender onto their shores, citizen of the Fire Nation or not, if they knew that that person could bend fire. But the sad thing is the people here buy into it without checking facts and reason. So now so many innocent people suffer because of it.
We landed on Fire Nation soil early this morning. There were no rough storms, no blockades or soldiers waiting to arrest anyone who got to close. I knew there wouldn't be but a part of me still kind of expected it from everything school has ever taught me.
When we got to the shore of the palace city, of course we were stopped by soldiers there. Fenah pulled off the most innocent looking face and explained all sweet to the guards that the resistance in the Earth Kingdom sent us here. And she showed Bana's stamp of approval which I don't remember her receiving. Guess I'll ask her about that later. With those two claims, the guards let us into the palace city. I'm still surprised it was so easy but again, the Earth Kingdom fed me a lot of lies growing up so I shouldn't be too surprised.
We spent the remainder of the night alone and cold in an alleyway. Fenah didn't hesitate to start a fire from some trash and sit down right next to me.
"Wow. You've gotten good at firebending."
"Yeah well firebending was never encouraged at the palace but mastering the elements definitely was...like really was. So when Chu wasn't around I worked on it. And I received an abundance of pressure that put a strain on me physically and mentally. So now I can bend two elements yet that still wasn't good enough. It wasn't going to be good enough until I learned all four and took out the Fire Nation."
"I'm proud of you for pushing through all of that."
"Yeah you can't even imagine." Fenah mumbled. Wow uh...When I turned to look at her, her eyes were already closed and her arms were crossed over her chest. She leaned herself against Daisy for comfort. I wonder what happened to her in the palace because this isn't the same Fenah I remember growing up with. She's mostly the same and I'm not complaining to have her back but something is different.
**.**
You can always count on the cold hard ground to give you no sleep at all. And I meant what I said to Romi, he can't even imagine what happened in the palace...what I did. But I will never tell him. I'll never tell anyone. They don't need to know.
About a million years later the morning finally rolled around and Romi got up. The conversation was simple.
A cute smile from him. "Good morning Fenah."
An attempt at a smile from me, probably looked forced and unrealistic to be honest. "Good morning."
"Do you have any plans of what we're doing today?"
Well that's a lot of faith he's putting on me. Suppose I didn't. "Yeah I know what we need to do. But I have to talk to you first."
I motioned for Romi to sit and looked around to make sure no one was listening. This is going to be very difficult to explain to him and I need to make sure no one overhears it. I have no idea what the people here will do if they hear this.
"What's wrong Fenah?"
"Um...you want to know how I got my memory back right?"
"Yeah I was pretty curious."
"Okay. I went to the Spirit World in search of someone or something that could help me understand-uh...the dreams I was having. Before I went I read about a spirit that supposedly gives you all the answers you need. So I went there and found him and you know what he told me?"
Romi shook his head with such attentiveness I almost started laughing. He must be really enjoying this story.
"He told me he's the spirit of fears. Not that he gives them to people but he just knows what everyone's fears are. So naturally, me being me, I asked him if he could tell me all of mine. He repeated them all to me and then I started to argue with him about one of them. Because it didn't make any sense to me. And then he told me something that just snapped my memory back."
"What did he say?"
Oh boy here comes the tricky part. "Well...he said the uh...prince of my nation needs my help." I got quieter as I reached the end of my sentence but Romi still heard. He looked just as confused as I felt when I first heard it.
"I don't get it."
"Neither did I. Because the Earth King doesn't have a son. But then I remembered what happened back at the village and I realized I'm not from the Earth Kingdom. I'm from the Fire Nation."
"Uh...I'm still confused. I'm sorry, can you explain that again?"
Oh my goodness he's making this impossible for me. "He was talking about you!...Romi. When he told me the prince of my nation needs my help, he was talking about you. You are the prince of..."
Romi's fearful and shocked expression shut me right up. Now I wish I could take back everything I just said and keep it all to myself. He really doesn't deserve to feel this way.
"Uh...Romi."
He shook his head and looked around. "That isn't possible. You know that isn't possible. That spirit...well how do you know he's right? Did he tell you exactly?"
"Romi-"
"Did he tell you it was me?" Romi's pleading eyes made me want to make something up. Anything that'll calm him down. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything to him but it's too late now. Why do I keep messing up like this?
"No he didn't say your name."
"Then it can't be me. If he didn't even know for sure who it was then it isn't me."
I sighed and stared at Romi. It's clear in his eyes he knows it's him. He just doesn't want to accept it. I don't blame him since I wouldn't either. But for what we're doing today, I need him to accept it. "Romi this spirit knows what it's doing. It couldn't tell me your name because I had to figure it out myself. When I realized that, that's when I got my memory back."
"But-but...how did it know?"
"This spirit knows everything. It can see the story behind anyone's fears. All it had to do was look at your parents' fears that night, the kidnappers fears, and your own and it could tell. Trust me, Abo doesn't get anything wrong."
For a while I thought I was too harsh and forward with Romi. Maybe we should have just wandered the city for a while. So I was shocked when Romi started to smile at me.
"You're happy now?"
"No I'm pretty sure this smile is just a nervous reaction to what you said." Romi said. I could hear the shakiness in his voice. "So when you said you had a plan of what to do today but you needed to talk to me first...you aren't suggesting we're going to the palace?"
Oh no he isn't going to like this. "Uh...yeah that was my plan. I think Master Jasu is at the palace. But I wanted you to be aware of what Abo told me so that incase maybe you saw your parents and they recognized you you wouldn't be so shocked."
"That makes sense. But I don't want to meet my parents. At least not right now. I still need to process this."
"I understand that. Sorry for scaring you."
"Maybe you can get Master Jasu to come here?"
That actually sounds like a good idea. I left Romi and Daisy in the alley way, swearing three times I wouldn't tell anyone what I just told him. People were already filling the streets for this early in the morning. A lot of them stared at me as I walked by, probably because of my dirty but still lavish looking Earth Kingdom clothes. A few young kids made slightly disgusted looking faces and kept running. At this point I might as well perform a crazy dance and shout as loud as I can. It isn't like there are any more eyes on the street to still turn my way.
Finally I took a chance and walked up to someone. "Excuse me do-"
"Hello!" they answered enthusiastically. People certainly aren't that happy to answer you in the Earth Kingdom.
"...Hi. Do you know the way to the palace?"
"Yes I'd be happy to direct you there!" Again, super nice. It's weird to listen to. I almost wanted to tell her to hurry up and tell me where to go already. Almost but I didn't. "You go straight up this street until you reach the wall then take a right until you reach the gate."
"Okay, thank you."
"The pleasure is all mine."
"...Okay. See you."
"Goodbye! Have a nice day!"
This is quite awkward for me because I guess I've never encountered...what is it? Manners like this? Are they manners? I don't even know. Maybe I should catch up with the rest of these people and start being nice to everyone.
The palace gates had two guards standing outside. I've had my fair share of encounters with guards at the Earth Kingdom palace and comparing those guys to these two guys had me debating whether or not a gust of wind would blow them over. They are so non threatening that it almost looks like the Fire Lord picked two people off the streets...I mean no offense to them.
"State your business miss."
Isn't that supposed to be a serious demand? Yet they even managed to make that sound like an option.
"I need to see the Fire Lord. It is very important."
The two guards stared at me for a few seconds and then glanced at each other.
"Little girl you look like you don't even know the Fire Lord's name."
Maybe that gust of wind won't knock them down after all. "You're right I don't know his name. But I'm actually looking for someone more specific and I just figured the Fire Lord would know where he is."
"The Fire Lord doesn't allow many people into his palace. Who are you looking for? Maybe we can help you."
"Everyone called him Master Jasu back in the Earth-"
"How do you know about him?"
"He's the one that taught me firebending. Which by the way he never finished his lesson and I would like to talk to him about a few things."
"Where and when did he teach you firebending?"
"In some building in the middle of the woods in the Earth Kingdom. It was part of the resistance. This happened like 3 months ago, I don't know."
"Can you demonstrate some firebending to us?"
"Can you let me in!?" I've had enough of these guys. They need to stop wasting my time before I find my own way over the wall and break into the palace. I'll do it too.
"Well I'm sorry but we can't let you in without the Fire Lord's permission."
"Then can someone bring Master Jasu out? I know he's in there."
"Please go away little girl. You aren't allowed in."
"Oh yes I am." I mumbled. Both guards froze in shock as I flew off the ground and used their helmets as a boost, landing on the other side of the wall. Guards ran at me from both sides. So I chose the one on the left and took a dive through his legs. Before he could turn around I airbended him into the guard running from the right. They crashed to the floor and awkwardly flailed while trying to stand again. Finally I can look for Master Jasu now.
A spear swung close to my face as I turned. My first reaction was to grab it and firebend the handle away. The blade fell to the ground before touching me. Now all the guards were staring at me with completely shocked expressions. Oh that's right they don't know I'm the avatar. Duh! I'm so stupid sometimes. Why didn't I just say that outside the gate?
"So you went ahead and learned airbending when we still had a lesson to finish? Now it's clear what element you favor."
"Master Jasu!"
"I knew you'd find your way miss avatar."
I don't care that he just referred to me as the avatar. I don't care that everyone is still staring. I ran and gave master the biggest hug I could. I didn't realize until now how much I missed having him as my teacher. His patience and determination are inspiring and needed around this messy world right now.
**.**
Authors note: Finally chapter one to book 2 of my fanfiction. And yes I've named the chapter this time so I don't confuse myself. They'll probably all be really dumb names but it's whatever. I think 2 books is all I want for this fanfiction but replaying what the coming chapters are going to look like has me wondering if I can write that all in about 20 chapters like my last one. I guess we'll just wait and see. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and thanks for stopping by!