Huvanni and Koza were frozen. Completely and utterly frozen.
Ojin stared at the two girls with a cold, blank expression, willing for them to say something. Anything. Another moment of silence passed, and it became clear that Ojin would have to be the one to initiate.
"Anything to say?"
"Why were you listening to our conversation? What, were you just stationed outside my room, eavesdropping like a creep?" Koza spat at him, using fury to hide the absolute chilling fear that was coursing through her veins.
"It was an accident," Ojin muttered. "I was coming up to ask Huvanni something when I heard you all talking about the… Western Air Temple through the door. I was too shocked to move, and before I knew it, more just kept coming. You two were in love, you needed to get away from… from me and Father, and now you're planning on running away to Ba Sing Se tonight under the cover of darkness." More silence followed this revelation, which was clearly starting to irritate Ojin. "So?"
"So? What do you want me to say, Ojin? You caught us, alright? Huvanni doesn't love you. There's no Earth Kingdom trade relationship to be gained from marrying her. It was all a lie! A big, fat, dirty lie!" Koza shouted, fearing that her legs would soon give out from under her. "She's an Air Bender, our Nation's biggest enemy! And yes, we're in love! Wow, double the treason! Isn't this all just so perfect for you, now you get to turn us both in and finally get rid of me. Win the favor of Daddy dearest. Hell, win the favor of Sozin himself! So go ahead, go do what you've wanted to do ever since I was born." Koza stared daggers at her brother before her, their gazes locked on one another in a silent battle.
"...I'm not going to turn you in." Koza physically reeled from this sentence, almost not believing the words actually came out of her brother's mouth.
"You're… you're not?" Huvanni asked, looking at him suspiciously.
"This scenario literally could not be anymore perfect for you. Turn in the treacherous Air Bender and your good-for-nothing sister, and become the hero of the Fire Nation. You gain absolutely nothing from letting us go." Koza reminded him spitefully.
"You're right. But what could I truly gain from doing it anyway? Betraying my own flesh and blood, and… and the girl I love," Ojin said, going rather quiet for a split second. "I want to believe that it isn't true. That Huvanni isn't the result of National betrayal and war, that we can get married and be one big nuclear family. But it can never be like that, can it?" The girls both stared at him, awe-struck. "I want my perfect life. I want to go to the Capital and do great things for our great Nation. But what kind of man would I be if turning my back on my own sister is the only way to get there?"
"Ojin… are you actually just going to let us go free? You're not going to try and stop us?" Koza worded breathlessly.
"No, I won't. I refuse to let betrayal be my crutch to greatness." He stopped for a moment and took a short breath. "Though, I think what you're doing is sincerely wrong. I don't agree with your plan, nor do I agree with your relationship. However, I won't get involved one way or the other. I refuse to help you leave, but… I won't tell Mother and Father about any of this. When we all sit down for dinner tonight, this encounter never happened."
"Deal." Koza said, feeling a split spark of pride for her older brother. "Wow. To think it took you sixteen years to finally do something nice for me. It was definitely worth the wait." The three stood in rather awkward silence for a moment before Ojin cleared his throat.
"Yes, well… I have some important tasks that need to be attended to. Try to keep yourselves alive." He said gingerly, taking one last longing look at the girls before turning on his heels and swiftly leaving the room.
"'Keep yourselves alive.' What a touching goodbye." Huvanni scoffed once Ojin was gone.
"Coming from Ojin's that's like an 'I love you.'" Koza responded, her eyes remaining fixated in the spot where her brother had just been standing. She had to admit, never in a hundred years would she have guessed that Ojin would ever put down his own chances of success for the sake of Koza's happiness. Perhaps Huvanni's presence in the family's lives hadn't just changed Koza for the better.
"Koza?" Huvanni's voice broke through her thoughts, and Koza realized she had been talking this entire time.
"Hm? What?"
"I said, are you done packing? I want to get that map from Uvi so we can plot a course. Spirits, if we had a Sky Bison we could just fly directly to Ba Sing Se in less than a week…" Huvanni muttered under her breath, folding her arms.
"Almost, just one last pair of clothes." Koza replied, her fading adrenaline suddenly making her feel very tired.
"You sure are packing a lot of those." Huvanni noted, going closer to her and wrapping her hands around Koza's shoulders.
"Well yeah, I have to pack enough for the both of us. It's not like you have any of your own." This sentence suddenly sparked a revelation in Koza, and she froze with an outfit still grasped in her fingers.
"Is something the matter?"
"I just remembered the… Stay here, I have to go do something." Koza said quickly, practically throwing the neatly-folded outfit onto her bed and darting out of her room.
"Koza? Hey, where are you going! Wait up!" Huvanni called after her, the frantic footsteps behind Koza indicating that she was following anyway. Koza paid no mind to her, instead launching herself down the staircase and out the back door into the garden. Huvanni raced after her, continuing to call her name with increasing bewilderment.
Koza didn't dare turn around or stop, not even as she left the safety of her family's garden and ran into the vaguely familiar dense forest. It was definitely less ominous now in broad daylight, and yet something about the hanging trees shading the ground was still off putting. Neither girl had traversed these grounds since Huvanni first arrived in Ki Lo, Koza realized. Though, that revelation would've probably been more significant if it was a normal occurrence for people to go stand out in the woods.
It was here that Koza finally slowed her pace, coming to a rather sharp stop while she looked about at the trees. From the sounds of skidding dirt behind her, she guessed that Huvanni must've come to a stop as well.
"Koza? What in the Spirits was that about?" She asked, half-laughing, half out of breath. Koza kept her attention forwards, analyzing the myriad of trees before them. She could see a large black burn scar on the tree ahead of her, the pain of her anger upon learning the truth about her home returning in a momentary flash. Those memories were such a short time ago, and yet it seemed like centuries had passed since that night. There was no way of knowing that a simple request to gather fruits from a bush would've changed her life so drastically.
"Hello? Earth to Koza, are you there?" Huvanni called again. Koza finally spun around.
"Where did you put it?" She asked.
"Put what?"
"Your Air Bender robes. When you first moved in you told me you hid them inside a hollowed tree. Could you show me where?" Huvanni looked rather taken aback by the question, but decidedly didn't question Koza's request. Huvanni stepped ahead and led them further into the forest, pushing past low-hanging branches and cautiously stepping over snaking brambles. Koza followed her, the only sounds to break through the crippling silence coming from the occasional calls of faraway birds. Huvanni, Koza noticed, would occasionally stop and survey the surroundings before carrying on. She seemed to know where she was going, if at least somewhat.
"You remember where they are, right?" Koza decided to ask.
"I believe so. The tree had all these cut marks in the trunk, I remember that much," Huvanni replied. "I slept under it on my first night, I'm just trying to retrace my steps. It's not super easy, since it was dark the last time."
"Why don't you just fly into the air? Get a bird's eye view?" Koza suggested helpfully. This suggestion was met by a cackle of laughter.
"Fly? Koza, Air Benders can't fly without our gliders."
"Why not?" There was a beat of silence before Huvanni could answer this question.
"Because… Okay, I don't really know, but that's just not how it works. I think the very first Air Benders had some sort of trick where they could manipulate like… the air under their feet to hover or something like that, but that's a technique lost to time. Gliders work because they already have the ability to move air currents to their will, the Bender just manipulates that further to lift themselves. Humans can't fly free-form without some kind of contraption to help them, as far as I know." said Huvanni. Koza nodded deeply like she understood completely, even though she secretly had no clue what any of that meant. "Oh look, there's the tree!"
The conversation about flight was brought to a halt as Huvanni somehow noticed the right tree among the thousands of others. It looked as ordinary as anything, though Huvanni had been right in that the trunk was positively covered in deep cuts, most likely from some kind of metallic weapon. Koza silently wondered who, or what, had made them.
"Here. They're in here." Huvanni said, reaching her arm into a hollowed hole in the tree's center and pulling out some very familiar orange and yellow robes. Huvanni stared longingly at them, running her fingers across the fabric. Even bunched together like this, Koza could see that the robes were in just as bad of a condition as they were the night Huvanni first arrived. Singed, blackened, and now dirt coated most of them, covering out most of the bright colors.
Koza remained quiet, allowing Huvanni to take in whatever memories she needed to as she clutched the robes. The Air Bender held tightly onto them for only a few moments until she suddenly straightened up, her eyes hollow, and she practically shoved them into Koza's arms.
"Here, do it quickly. Just get it over with, please." Huvanni said breathlessly. Koza fumbled with the robes and furrowed her eyebrows.
"Do what?"
"Burn them. Turn them into ash." Huvanni's voice was shaking. "So nobody will ever know I was here. So we can both move on from the past. Isn't… isn't that why you wanted to find them?"
"What? Of course not!" Koza cried. "I don't want to destroy them, I want to bring them with us!"
"...Huh?"
"Vanni, I wanted to find your robes because I want to bring them with us to Ba Sing Se. I know how to sew a little bit, and maybe someone in the Earth Kingdom can teach me how to get rid of burn marks. So hopefully one day I can fix these for you." She said earnestly. Huvanni's eyes softened.
"You.. You'd do that for me?"
"Duh," Koza replied, failing to hide a crooked smile. "This is one of the last things you have to remind you of your people. I'd never want to leave a part of you behind." She didn't even have any time to react before Huvanni had her wrapped in a tight, trembling hug.
"Thank you." She whispered. Koza gently stroked her hair, soothing the girl's shaking arms.
By the time the girls had returned to the house and fully finished packing their bags- as well as discussing the possibilities of a human flying some more- it was already late in the evening. Returning to Koza's room, they discovered an ancient-looking map, a small leather bag filled with silver pieces, and a parasol filled with fire flakes and dried seaweed.
"Guess she meant it when she said she couldn't see us off." Koza mumbled. Though she completely understood why Uvi was emotionally unable to do so, it still hurt to not say a proper goodbye to the woman.
"Well… We'll just send her a great letter when we arrive in the Earth Kingdom, won't we?" Huvanni said in an attempt to cheer her up.
"Right, a letter… Oh shoot, the letter! I almost forgot!" Koza beelined to her vanity, scrambling for something. She pulled out a sheet of parchment and a short-tipped quill and began to write. Huvanni observed from over her shoulder, watching the quill scribble against the parchment; though Koza was writing rather quickly, her penmanship was astoundingly neat.
Once Koza had finished writing a very lengthy and detailed paragraph, she folded the parchment into a letter and wrote the words "Mother and Father" on the backside.
"That's for your parents?" asked Huvanni. Koza nodded and placed the letter in her pocket. "What's it say?"
"You were breathing down my neck the whole time I was writing and you didn't even read it?" Koza teased.
"I don't know how to read Western Fire Dialect. You're lucky I even speak it." Huvanni teased right back.
"I basically just said you and I are in love, I'm cutting off all ties with the family, and I'm running away to finally be free and accepted," Koza answered. "Don't worry, I didn't mention where we were going or anything about you being an Air Bender."
"You don't think Shio would try to find us, would he? He has a lot of power, I don't doubt he could at least narrow down where we went and send somebody after us."
"Not a chance. I openly admitted that I'm in love with another girl in the letter, he would never dare. Because then that would be admitting that his only daughter is "unclean and sinful," and there's no way in the Spirit's High that he would disgrace our family name like that." Koza said, smiling rather victoriously. Huvanni patted her on the shoulder.
"Then I guess it's all ready."
"I guess it is." They both gazed around the room, taking it in for the last time. As she did so, familiar smells began wafting from downstairs into Koza's nose. Pepper stew, her favorite…
"Let's eat, I'm starving." Huvanni said, clearly taking note of the delicious scents as well. Koza agreed and the two girls headed downstairs. There was a very melancholy feeling as Koza did so; though she was more than excited to finally be free of her family, this was still the place she had known for her entire life. After today, she would never see it again.
Fulay and Ojin were already seated at the table when they came down. Ojin was tapping his fingers on the table, the speed increasing as soon as he saw the girls take their seats. The three tried their best to avoid eye contact with one another.
"There you two are. You've both been locked up in your rooms the whole day," Fulay noted, oblivious to the tension between the children. "Your Father isn't thrilled that you skipped school today, Koza. Luckily for you, though, something came up and he had to step out for the night. He'll probably talk about it with you tomorrow." This was the first time Fulay had even spoken to Koza since the argument a couple of nights ago, and Koza was rather surprised to hear how neutral her voice sounded. It wasn't over the top gushing or a condescending tone. It was just… a normal voice to talk to a normal person. Honestly, Koza preferred it this way.
"I see. Thank you, Mother." Koza replied. That was the last thing to be said that night at the table. Uvi placed the food down hurriedly, not daring to look anywhere near Koza and Huvanni. The silence as they ate was expected, yet somehow it was reassuring to Koza. Like she was truly making the right choice; that there was so much more to life than this.
"Thank you for the food. I'm going to head to my room now." Ojin, surprisingly, was the first one to finish. Before anyone even had the chance to react he was gone. Koza guessed he could barely take the pressure of holding in such a big secret anymore.
"Yes, Uvi, the food was delicious tonight!" Fulay called into the kitchen. There was no response. "Odd. Well, I think I'm going to turn in as well. I have some errands to take care of tomorrow, and I want to be well-rested. Goodnight, girls." She said simply, nodding to the girls, then following her son's path up the stairs.
"You don't think she suspects anything, do you?" Huvanni asked as soon as she was out of sight.
"Doubt it. Mother isn't exactly… the most observational person. She seems way more relaxed than I've ever seen her, though. I wonder why…" Koza said, though she didn't dwell on it for very long.
She waited on the staircase until Uvi had cleared the table and placed the letter on it. Koza wanted to make sure her Father was the first one to see it. The two girls lingered in the common area until the sun had fully set, too full of nerves to even talk to one another. All they could do was silently hold hands, counting down the minutes until it was time.
Once it had gotten dark outside, Koza and Huvanni crept silently back into her room to grab the bags and the map, doing everything they could to avoid alerting Fulay. Once they had grabbed everything, they returned back to the common room of the house, taking one last look at the place that was no longer a home to either of them.
"This is it." Huvanni said softly.
"It is."
"You ready?"
"No. Are you?"
"Absolutely not." The girls shared a nervous smile.
"Let's get out of here, then."
Koza had made the suggestion to go through the backdoor, since the front door had a tendency to creak. They crept through the garden, moving amongst the shadows to make their way to the front of the house. According to the map, following the main road Southwards would bring them to the port town of Kay'un. From there, it was a leap into the unknown.
Koza walked slowly in order to take one last look at her home; her city. The place she became who she was today. The place full of memories, both good and bad. I'll never step foot in this place again, she said to herself. The thought made her smile, and she took hold of Huvanni's hand. They were about to step out onto the main road, when:
"KOZA!" A shrieking voice echoed through the night. A voice she knew all too well. A voice that was about to ruin everything they had worked so hard for: Fulay.
Koza could see the woman standing in the front doorway of the house, wearing a long silken night robe. She looked wild and frantic, grasping a letter so hard in her hands that it was crumpling. Koza hadn't counted on her mother going downstairs at any point. A fatal mistake.
"Koza!" Fulay screamed again, hitching up her robe and rocketing across the front garden towards the girls.
"Mother, don't come any closer!" Koza called. Fulay stopped in her tracks. "I know what you're about to say, and I don't want to hear any of it. This is the choice that we're making together. Go back to bed and leave us alone." Fulay didn't react to Koza's brutality.
"Koza, you need to listen to me right now. We can forget this letter, forget that this ever happened. Your Father doesn't need to know about this. Just come back inside."
"No." Koza spat. This finally caused the woman to crack.
"No?" Fulay demanded.
"No! Huvanni and I are leaving. You can tell me off all you want, I don't give a damn!" Koza barked. "I want to live the rest of my life happy and loved. This girl is one of the only people that has ever shown that to me. You wanna know the only other person? Uvi. The woman who is more of a mother to me than you've ever been!"
"You're right." Fulay said.
"I'm- wait, what?"
"You're right. I haven't been a mother to you. Because I'm not." Fulay's entire face fell, the facade of a wealthy and upper class woman melting away before their very eyes. In her place was a woman who carried the weight of centuries on her shoulders.
"You're not? You're not what?" Koza asked, glancing sideways at Huvanni, who looked just as confused as the Fire Bender did.
"Shio has… he forced me to never tell you. To never speak of what he did. He thought we could all just sweep it under the rug, pretend like none of it ever happened. But if it means stopping you from doing this, you deserve to know the truth."
"Truth? What truth? Is this the same thing you were talking about the other night?" Koza's legs felt like jelly. Fulay nodded slowly, her eyes heavy.
"Koza… I'm not your mother."