Chapter Four: Fear

I'm happy that you and Lusa settled in alright. Good luck with your lessons and don't hesitate to send a letter with Takai if you need anything. I'm helping the warriors with expanding the village thanks to the supplies sent to us by the Fire Lord. I'll still be nearby though.

Dad

P.S for Lusa: Your father asked me to tell you something along the lines of you never seeing the light of day ever again when you return.

"So what happens if I don't go home ever again?" Lusa asked while getting two small bowls out of the cupboards. Then she used a ladle to pour some soup she had made into the bowls and gave one to Akari as they both sat down at the small table.

"You will. Who else will teach the younger kids how to bend?" Akari asked.

"Uhhh…they can come to the Fire Nation for their lessons," she exclaimed.

"Or they can just learn from someone else who's already there," Akari suggested.

"Then….dang it! But I would do it again if I had to. We're official members of the water tribe, and we get to go on our first adventure by ourselves!" Lusa exclaimed.

"You mean our only?" Akari said with a big smile.

"Yeah, most likely our only. So let's not screw this one up!"

"Okay. So how can I not screw it up?" Akari asked.

"For starters, you and I are going out shopping," Lusa said.

"What for?" Akari asked, starting to eat.

"Because we've been here for two weeks now, and it's time to start exploring this place and finding you a master" Lusa explained.

"Oh," Akari said, shifting in her seat.

"Isn't that the whole reason you came here? This was your idea after all," Lusa reminded.

"I know," Akari said, looking at her hands. "Okay fine. Today we'll go out and find a master, but no shopping."

"Aw come on. We're going to stand out as bad as Nova will with our clothes. And we should probably get you some bending clothes too," Lusa said.

"I've got bending clothes. I'm not wearing anything that makes me look like I'm from the Fire Nation and disrespecting my home nation!" Akari stated.

"Whoa. I never said that we're disrespecting our nation. It's just…never mind. I'll just go by myself," Lusa said. She slowly started to eat her soup in silence. Akari looked back at her with guilt.

"I'm sorry. I'm didn't mean to snap. I'll go shopping with you, but I'm not buying anything," she said.

"You don't have to. Look, I'm sorry too. You know I love our nation more than anyone. Not many of us give a fish back to the spirits as repayment anymore. I guess I was just so excited that I get to learn about something new for once," Lusa explained. This made Akari smirk.

"Which is why you have a book you wrote about the history of our people stored under your pillow and a scroll of advanced water bending," Akari said.

"You can never forget the basics," Lusa said.

Break*Break*Break*Break*Break*Break*Break

Later that day

Lusa and Akari walked into town with money and walked into a shop. Inside had various clothing for all sorts of occasions such as casual, bending practice, and formal; most of which were red.

"What can I do for you young ladies today? Travelers?" the shop owner asked.

"How could you tell?" Lusa asked, looking down at her light blue tunic, making the elderly man chuckle.

"You'll get used to it; especially now after a good decade after the end of the war. Trust me. I got 'the looks' the first time I came here too," he explained.

"You're a traveler too?" Lusa asked as she started looking around.

"Yes. I was originally from the colonies but decided to try and sell my work for more money on the mainland. I can't bend, but I'm very good with my hands. All the clothes you see here I've made with my own hands. Everything else is things that have been traded for. Have to make use of my talent somehow," he explained.

"Why did you leave your homeland to come to a strange country? The colonies were all Earth Kingdom territory," Akari said.

"That's somewhat true, but to be honest, it was because of the Fire Nation that we survived at all. The village I grew up in was very poor and even though we had to pay taxes to the Fire Nation, they still took care of us. They gave us many jobs to do and we even got paid for it. It is difficult to understand, but even though the war was started with the Fire Nation, they still took care of the poor Earth Kingdom villages. I can't vouch for all of them, but they did in my experience," the man explained. Akari crossed her arms and broke eye contact with the man.

"If that's how you want to think about it. I think I'll take this one, these pants, and shoes," Lusa said. In her hand, she had a red tank-top shirt with golden designs on the bottom, baggy pants, and golden sandals. She then handed the elderly man some of her money.

"Thank you, young lady," he said. "If you need anything else, stop by, and if I don't have it, I can tell you where to find it," the man said.

"Thank you, sir. Actually, do you know of any good Fire Bending Masters?" Lusa asked, looking over at Akari.

"Most of the fire Masters are…" suddenly, there was screaming and the sounds of people running outside the shop.

"What's going on?" the shop owner asked. All three ran outside the shop and saw a crowd surrounding something. "Pardon me good sir, but what is going on here?" the man asked a teenager standing nearby. He was a little heavy but had arms that were in shape. He wore a traditional light green earth kingdom (Chinese) Tang upper outer suit with a mandarin collar. He had on dark grey baggy pants and high brown boots.

"Another attack," he said. That's when a group of soldiers came running and making people move out of the way. After enough people were out of the way, the four saw a middle-aged man on the ground lying in a puddle of blood covered in cuts and bruises. A young child sat next to the person crying into an older boy's arms.

"Who could have done this?" someone in the crowd asked.

"I know who that is! He heavily believed in Fire Lord Zuko's vision. It must have been the New Ozai Society," another said.

"I thought they were all arrested!"

"The Fire Lord lied to us!" someone shouted. Everyone stopped and backed away from a young woman who said that. "The Fire Lord promised an era of peace, yet our people are still being slaughtered. Will we be forced to remain awake at night fearing for our lives and the lives of our children?! Here is all the proof you need! A Fire Nation citizen was murdered right in front of his children. Not once did we have to fear for our lives during the 100 years war. What does that say about our leader who insists we take care of other nations before ourselves?" That's when the crowd started to murmur amongst themselves.

"Here we go again," the teen boy muttered to himself. Then he started to walk away. "I'd get out of here before that woman gets the crowd fired up against you. She's a plant."

"A plant?" Lusa said, but the teen kept walking away. "Wait! Come on, Akari," she said, chasing the teen. His pace became faster as the crowd noise got louder. "What's going on here?"

"Zhen!" someone yelled nearby. The teen looked over and saw a man in his late thirties early forties running at them.

"Ryuta?" the teen named Zhen said.

"Are you alright? You're late for your shift and we heard there was a commotion up here. Your mom sent me to check on you," the older man said.

"I'm fine, Ryuta; but not for long," Zhen said as the crowd's voices started to get even louder as the woman continued to talk. Suddenly, the soldiers attempted to take the woman away, but she started screaming at the crowd again.

"We won't be slaves! Keep the Nations Four!"

"We won't be slaves! Keep the Nations Four!" other people started to shout.

"Everyone, please exit this area and return to your homes immediately," the soldiers said, but the chanting got louder.

"Look, can we just get out of here?" Zhen asked.

"Sure, Z. Let's go," the man said, putting his hand on the teen's shoulders. The two then started walking away from the crowd.

"Like I said, I'd get out of here before you get blamed," Zhen told the girls.

"Blamed for what? We didn't do anything," Akari said.

"People like to blame others when there's trouble. An easy target would be any outsiders; no offense," the man explained.

"Yeah. H-hey, do you happen to know of any good Fire Masters?" Akari asked.

"Fire Masters? You girls are Fire Nation?" Zhen asked.

"Zhen, don't be rude," the man said.

"Right. Sorry," Zhen said.

"The only one we know who is teaching around here is Master Wi," Ryuta said.

"Who?" Lusa asked.

"Master Wi's; a Fire Academy not far from our shop. You can come with us if you want," the man offered. The two girls exchanged glances. Akari pulled her lips together, and Lusa made her eyes go wide motioning towards the direction the man and teen were planning on walking. Akari closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Okay. Let's go," she said.

"Follow us!" Ryuta said.

Break*Break*Break*Break*Break*Break*Break*Break*Break

"I don't think I've seen you ladies around the shop. I'm Ryuta if you didn't already hear, and this is my stepson, Zhen. He and I help run a general store with his mom."

"Yes! Thank the Gods. Now I know where we'll be going shopping for our food while we're in town. Also, do you have a place in your store where I can change my clothes? I would have changed at the place where I got them, but then all that happened," Lusa said.

"You can stop in our store and change in our bathroom. Which tribe are you from if you don't mind me asking?" Ryuta asked.

"Southern tribe; but I just got some clothes so I don't stand out like Nova does out here," Lusa said. On cue, Nova popped out of Lusa's backpack.

"What on earth is that thing?" Zhen asked.

"Just an average Arctic Racoon-Fox."

"Average? Is that a normal pet in the South Pole?" Zhen asked.

"Kinda. Funny thing is that Nova and I were meant for each other," Lusa explained, petting and scratching the Racoon-Fox's neck.

"Or you could say that she wouldn't leave her alone because she had a fish in her pocket that Nova wanted," Akari said.

Once the group arrived at the general store, they saw a woman sitting down near the back.

"There you are! I've been worried sick!" the woman said. It was then that she rolled out in front of everyone for everyone to see a big wheelchair. She had long dark brown hair, wore a green skirt that stopped at her ankles, wore a cream and lime gi with wide sleeves, and long dark hair tied up.

"Sorry, mom. Something came up," Zhen said, and Ryuta introduced the girls.

"Very nice to meet you girls. I am Liena; the owner of this store. If there is anything you need, feel free to stop by," she stated.

"Go ahead and change in the back, Lusa. Akari, you can change in there too," said Ryuta.

"I'm not changing into anything," Akari snapped.

"Oh, okay. No problem," he answered back. Lusa then went back to change with her new clothes. Zhen meanwhile took a broom and started sweeping outside the shop even though his attention was on the pathway leading to the store.

"Zhen, we have guests. That can wait," Liena said.

"What? I'm just doing my chores," he said. Liena glared at him.

"As I said, we have guests" she hissed. Zhen looked around the area in front of the shop one more time before coming back inside.

A few minutes later, Lusa came back out wearing her red shirt, black baggie pants, and golden sandals.

"Ok, you got your clothes on. Let's go already," Akari said.

"It was lovely to meet you girls. I hope we'll see each other soon," Liena said.

"Absolutely. Thanks, Ryuta," Lusa said.

"Goodbye," Akari said.

"Goodbye girls," Ryuta finished, and the girls were off.

Break*Break*Break*Break*Break*Break*Break*Break*Break

After walking for a few blocks, Akari and Lusa heard a shout from behind them.

"Hey!"

The girls turned around and saw an older fire nation (Korean) teen male running up to them. He had dark black hair in a two block haircut style. His long bangs looked like they were combed up while the sides of his hair were cut a little shorter and not as thick. He wore a dark grey undershirt with a bright red kimono cardigan with black pants with gold sandals.

"Yeah," Akari snapped back at him.

"You two got something you wanna share with me about what happened with the killed woman down the road?" he asked. "I saw you two down there. Then as soon as the soldiers show up, you run off; kinda suspicious if you ask me. And don't bother denying it either. A simple change of clothes doesn't hide your face too well, does it? Why were you running off from the scene of the crime?

"What are you talking about?" Lusa asked.

"Not to mention that fight you started a few weeks ago with a harmless old man. Did you come back to kill this time?" the older teen continued.

"Look. I don't know who you are nor do I care. You can either keep walking, or we'll have a problem," Akari snapped.

"Don't you have enough resources already?! Why do you have to keep causing more trouble for us? We get enough of it from our own quest for redemption," he said.

"You're really starting to piss me off!" Akari hissed.

"Kari, deep breaths! T-think of home! Flow down the river and just let…" Lusa said, but her words suddenly sounded like she was underwater. Someone touched Akari's shoulders, but she violently pushed their hands off. Someone continued to talk, but Akari's attention was fully focused on studying the Fire Nation teen in front of her.

"If I find out you had any little thing to do with this, I'll personally make it my business to introduce you to the Fire Na…" Suddenly, Akari shot a big fireball at him who caught it with her own bending and held it in place.

"All right! Now the real party can start," he said.

"Hey! TIME. OUT!" Lusa said, and slammed some of her bending water from her pouch on Akari. In response, Akari took a stance and slammed her fist at Lusa with a big gust of fire heading right for her.

"Whoa!" Lusa said. Quickly, she got bent out the remaining of her water and created a water shield around the front of her body as she dived out of the way. She landed on her bottom which caused her water shield to immediately fall to the ground. Akari meanwhile turned back to face her opponent. The boy shot out several flames at her, and Akari used graceful moves to dodge out of the way. Then, when she saw an opening, she created a fire whip and shot it at the boy's feet. He jumped up but countered as she used his fists to shoot fire and project herself slightly in the air as the fire bounced against the ground.

"Hey! There's an innocent pet trying not to get burned over here!" Lusa screamed. Nova made a noise and stuck her head out of Lusa's knapsack. As a small flame nearly missed burning Lusa's face, Nova immediately dove back into the sack.

The two continued shooting fireballs at each other until someone stepped in front of Akari and held the boy's fingertips as she was about to strike. It was an elderly man with white hair tied in a neat bun and a long, pointed mustache. He also wore a kimono robe and a neckpiece that reach the bottom of his chest. He managed to sweep one of the older teen's legs off the ground causing him to fall. Akari then ran forward, got into a stance, and was about to strike when suddenly, Akari's wrist was blocked and her arm was pinned upwards. "Get out of here, Ezumi!" the older man ordered. The teen hesitated, but one look into the older man's face caused him to get up, and ran away while Lusa ran forward.

"Let her go!" Lusa ordered as she bent out some water from her pouch.

"Put that away, girl," the man said.

"Not until you let her go!" she said. Lusa shot some water towards him, but the man kicked his foot at Lusa that caused fire to shoot out. It completely engulfed the water, and Lusa had to dodge out of the way once again before it hit her. Steam suddenly started to shoot out of Akari's nostrils, but she still could hardly move.

"Calm yourself before you make the situation worse than it already is," the man said. Akari's vision returned, and she saw the scene before her. Small fires were burning on the ground and Lusa was getting back up.

"What?" Akari mumbled.

"You see what anger does unchecked? It blocks your mind and you eventually will become blind by it. Fire is also like anger. If it ever spirals out of control, the consequences could be deadly," he explained. He then released Akari who stood up straight and examined the horrific scene. "If one wishes to master either of these, they must have control and discipline." The man then took a stance and started to bend the little fires towards him. After taking a deep breath, he exhaled and the fire disappeared into thin air. "Don't allow your lack of control to consume you," he said. With that, he put his hands into his sleeves and started to walk away.

The two girls watched him leave and then awkwardly looked at each other.

"Lusa…I…."

"Don't worry about it. Let's just head over to the academy," Lusa said.

"No," she blurts out. "I'm going for a walk; alone. I'll meet you back at the house," Akari said and ran off.

"Akari…!" Lusa called, but Akari paid her no mind. Lusa just sighed while Nova squirmed around in the sack. She jumped out and looked in the direction of where Akari had ran off. "Don't you get any ideas," she said, grabbing her pet. "You know how she likes to be alone." With that, the two slowly walked back into town.

Break*Break*Break*Break*Break*Break*Break*Break

Lusa walked back to the house the way she came ignoring the confused looks at Nova.

"What do you mean you're leaving?" a familiar voice said. Lusa turned and saw Zhen talking to someone whose family was loading things into a cart.

"Just as I said. Father's worried, and frankly so am I," a boy said, loading a sack into the cart.

"But won't you be safer because you're Fire Nation? If anything, mom and I are the ones who should be worried. The Fire Warriors seem to be only targeting those who aren't Fire Nation," Zhen said.

"I thought that too until one of our own was killed right when a group of water tribe girls showed up. Zhen, I'm scared. And you can't deny that the Fire Warriors are right in their argument. What if we really were meant to stay as four separate nations? How can we defend ourselves if we're just sharing every weapon and defense strategy that we have?"

"We'll be fine! As long as the Avatar and Fire Lord remain on good terms with each other, we'll never have to worry about going to war ever again," Zhen insisted.

"It's not just about if we're at war with each other. I'll always be looked at as another dangerous person who started the 100 years war and killed all the air nomads. To be honest, I'm almost ashamed to be a Fire Native," the other boy said.

"Stop talking like that, Jin! That's like saying I'm ashamed of being from the Earth Kingdom! It's the place of my element! Yours is the Fire Nation!"

"At least the Earth Kingdom doesn't have to worry about the stereotype and guilt. The Fire Nation started the war! The Fire Nation killed all the Air Nomads! What does that make me if I'm Fire Nation?! " Jin screamed. Zhen remained quiet at that. That's when Jin's family called out to him who slowly started to climb onto the cart. The two looked at each other and Zhen nodded his head.

"Good luck out there, Jin," Zhen said, bowing to his friend.

"You too," Jin said, bowing back. With that, Jin got into the cart with his family, and they all rode off towards the harbor leaving Zhen behind. He then turned around and came face-to-face with Lusa who was staring wide-eyed.

"It's spreading," he said.

"What is?" Lusa asked, holding Nova tighter.

"Fear."

FINALLY GOT THIS DONE! This has been a pain in the butt because just like always, I was figuring out just how to introduce some of these characters that we will see multiple times. Some of whom we haven't been formally introduced to yet. Don't be shy in telling me what you think. Like it? Think this is a terrible idea? Let me know! See you all next time where we'll reconnect with Akari.

Until then,

LaurenHardy13