The travel was quiet initially, and Meili found herself reclusive in the farthest corner of the bison's saddle. She was careful to keep her cowl down, making sure that her face was kept concealed. With everyone sitting down on equal levels, one gust of wind could've been the difference between her appearance remaining a mystery or revealing her mar.
Sokka was the main talker she noticed. He took the initiative to fill Meili in on everything that had happened before they discovered the town of Gaipan. She learned that Aang and his pet bison had been trapped in an iceberg for the last hundred years, and the siblings found him on the outskirts of the Southern Water Tribe.
After that, they returned to Aang's old home, the Southern Air Temple, where they concluded that the only survivor in the vicinity was a tiny lemur the group named Momo. From there, they traveled north and began their journey into the Earth Kingdom, stopping between small towns where they helped Earth Kingdom villagers in need.
They were en route to the Northern Air Temple, hoping to check on the condition of the shrine before flying to the Northern Water Tribe where Aang was to learn waterbending. Meili assumed it made sense, though she felt as if the group made too many pit stops.
Their next stop was a canyon called the Great Divide, which was the only route the group could take to prevent a collision with the Fire Nation. The Fire Nation army occupied either side of the divide. Flying over the canyon was the fastest, safest course to take, so they set their sights on backtracking inland to take a safer route towards their next stop: Mt. Makapu.
Meili didn't talk much to her new comrades and instead set her gaze to look out over the waters and forests they passed on their way. Thankfully, the other three let her be.
They occasionally stopped for supplies like food and water, though Katara helped save money by bending drinkable water into small containers for them to drink from. Meili helped Sokka hunt animals, though the Water Tribe boy usually yelled at her to stay out of his way.
She wondered how these people could trust each other so easily. They were unreserved with their companionship, so quick to help each other when something was wrong. It made Meili feel uneasy, maybe even a little bit out of place.
It made her miss Jai and his innocent face — someone who was so kind to her in times of need; she desperately wished that she was with him again. But Meili knew that her path led her to the Avatar.
Maybe it was some prank by the spirits … or perhaps it was just her inevitable fate. She didn't know what she did to deserve being surrounded by these strangers. However, whatever it was, Meili did not deserve the unnecessary and distracting squabbling between the two Water Tribe Siblings.
Meili forgot how much siblings fought until she met Sokka and Katara.
Even though Meili and Jai didn't fight — granted that they weren't actually related —she was still able to see the sibling-rivalry-dynamic that would emerge when siblings lived together in the orphanage. She remembered this one set of twins that would fight all the time: They would argue over their food, over where they slept, over who got to take a shower first, and over who got to play with the toys.
Now, when a one-track-minded, abrasive, immature brother and his equally as abrasive, emotionally-driven, over-reacting sister were cloistered together in a small camp just a few miles away from the largest canyon in the world — well, the sight wasn't pretty.
Meili was off gathering firewood to create the campfire for the night, Sokka was pitching their tent, Aang ran off to go collect food, and Katara was grooming Appa.
Meili returned from the forest with an armful of twigs and branches to see Sokka fumbling around inside the tent. Surprisingly, the tent was pitched quite nicely, and Meili had to admit the clumsy Water Tribe boy did a pretty excellent job. After Meili had put the twigs inside the fire pit, Sokka emerged from the cloth tent, stretching his limbs as he sighed heavily.
"All done," he said proudly, wiping off some dust onto his blue attire.
"Aren't you forgetting about the tarp?" Katara questioned, turning around from where Appa was lying down to face her bother.
Sokka nodded as he picked up the white tarp. "Oh yeah. How could I forget?" he stated, tossing the sheet inside of the tent.
"What are you doing?" his sister complained. "You're supposed to put the tarp over the tent. You know.. so we don't get rained on?"
"Normally you would be right. But seeing as how it is the dry season, you're not," Sokka stated, bending down to fix one of the pegs securing the tent to the ground. "Besides, that tarp makes for a pretty warm blanket."
"What if it does rain?" Katara questioned.
"And what if it doesn't?" Sokka argued back evenly. "Then I would have put it up for nothing."
"Ordinarily, I would say that it's better to be safe than sorry, but I have to agree with Ponytail," Meili spoke quietly, her voice almost mumbling. "It's been pretty cold the past three days, and it's normally colder at night in deserts like these anyway. Besides, this desert doesn't get rain."
"You guys are so infuriating!" Katara barked, stomping her foot heatedly as she threw down the brush used on Appa to the ground. "How can you both ignore the proper way to pitch a tent? The instructions were created for a reason, you know!"
Sokka sighed facetiously. "Katara, how about you talk less and worry about brushing Appa more. Because his fur is looking pretty sorry."
Appa opened his mouth to let out an upset rumble as Katara scowled in anger. Meili rubbed a temple from inside of her cloak with an irritated sigh as the two siblings continued arguing; this resulted in a tore down tent and tuffs of Appa fur floating around the camp.
"Okay, guys, I've got the food if you guys have finished the…" Aang trailed off as he entered the camp with a handful of nuts. "What happened to the tent.. and why's Appa's fur flying around everywhere?"
Meili shrugged as Aang's eyes looked to her for answers.
Thankfully, like the mother hen he was, Aang ended up settling the dispute by having the two siblings exchange chores. Meili breathed a sigh of relief as she walked to the camp center to start the fire. Of course, the spirits had to give her a con when joining the Avatar's team: too much arguing.
The following day, the Water Tribe siblings continued with their bickering — whether it was over what direction the group should go, where they stopped to eat, or who had to carry the bags. It finally ended once they arrived at the Great Divide, the world's largest canyon.
"There it is, guys," Aang said in amazement. "The Great Divide!"
Katara stared at the large canyon in awe. "Wow.. I could just stare at it forever!"
Meili had to agree. She enjoyed nature, and the beautiful, orange valley took her breath away. The gorges and cliffs were more outstanding than she remembered from her book back at the orphanage. She remembered the book like the back of her hand; It was an old book written about the world's wonders and landmarks. Meili loved looking at the pictures and seeing the world's beauty outside of her small orphanage walls.
She always wondered why the other kids wanted to read books about the adventures of an earthbending monkey.
According to the book, many locals theorized that the formation of the beautiful chasm was purely scientific: erosion carved out the land to form the canyon. But others believed that earth spirits formed the canyon. These earth spirits, who were angry at local farmers for not offering them a proper sacrifice, took their anger out on the earth.
So with all the beauty of the natural landscape and the fantastic view it gave, Meili was surprised when Sokka merely brushed it off.
"Okay, I've seen enough."
"How can you not be fascinated, Sokka?" Katara questioned, irritated at her brother's insensitive behavior. "This is the largest canyon in the entire world!"
"She's right," Meili agreed. "It stretches out for over a thousand miles."
Sokka turned around, "Then I'm sure we'll be able to see it very clearly from the air while we fly away—"
"—Hey!" a sudden man's voice interrupted. Everyone turned to see a man come sprinting toward the canyon with an outstretched hand. His arm hit Sokka and sent him spiraling to the ground. "If you're looking for the canyon guide, I was here first!"
"A canyon guide?" Katara questioned in surprise. "Hm.. Sounds informative."
"Believe me, he's more than a tour guide, he's an earthbender," the man stated proudly, oblivious to the fact that Sokka was mocking him from behind. "And the only way in and out of the canyon is with his help, and he's taking my tribe across next."
Sokka scoffed, throwing his bag into Appa's saddle, "Calm down, we know you're next."
The angry man scowled, "You wouldn't be so calm if the Fire Nation destroyed your home and forced you to flee! My whole tribe has to walk thousands of miles to the capital city of Ba Sing Se just to be safe."
Meili rose an eyebrow thoughtfully, "So you're a refugee?"
"Obviously, you creepy girl!" the man shouted back. "Tell me something I don't know."
Not even a minute later, a group of dirty and primitive-looking tribe members came toward the clearing, dressed in garments made from animal skins. They had a certain outdoor feel to them, and if Meili didn't know any better, she would've guessed that they were hunters of some sort.
"Is that your tribe?" Aang questioned, peering his head out from behind Katara.
"That most certainly is not! That's the.." a pause as the man grimaced, "Zhang tribe. They've been the enemies of my tribe for a hundred years now… they're a bunch of low-life thieves."
The enraged man whistled to the approaching tribe, scowling as he stood up proudly. "Hey, Zhangs! I'm saving a spot for my tribe, so don't even think about stealing it!"
The Zhang leader scoffed, letting out a low chuckle as she glanced around the canyon entrance. "Where are the rest of the Gan Jin? Still tidying up their camp?"
"Yes!" the man said. "But they sent me ahead to hold our spot!"
The Zhang leader chuckled again. "I didn't know that the tour guide took reservations."
Meili rubbed her temple again as she listened to more arguing. Yet again.
Thankfully, the tour guide, a man named Guozhi, came busting through a wall of rocks to where everyone was standing. He asked who was next in line, which resulted in another argument between the man and the rugged tribe. Moments later, a group of clean, white-robed refugees came gracefully walking into the clearing. Apparently, they were the Gan Jin.
Aang ended up giving away Appa to the sick and elderly of the two tribes and flew them across, much to Meili's disappointment. Unfortunately for her, she was now stuck crossing the canyon with two sets of arguing people.
Meili wasn't inherently selfish, but all her life, she only focused on what was in her best interest. So when it came to choosing between flying her group over the canyon versus random tribes she didn't even know, she would pick herself in a heartbeat. Maybe her moral code was nonexistent, or perhaps she was just unempathetic, but whatever it was, she could only think one thing: the Avatar was way too kind.
Now she was trapped in a hot canyon, with people she didn't like, and nowhere to go.
After a brief conversation about how eating food in the canyon was forbidden, the two tribes, Meili, Aang, Sokka, Katara, and the tour guide finally began their way down the Great Divide.
Instead of focusing on her anger, Meili focused on the landscape of the great canyon. Although the terrain was rocky and uneven, the weathered cliffs and walls of rock were a fascinating sight. Meili mostly tuned out the arguing people around her in favor of looking at the scenery.
To think that the spirits had crafted the cliffs and valleys… She wondered how the spirits could've made something so beautiful.
Meili walked in silence behind the group, her gaze focused on where Aang, Katara, and Sokka were leading the way, trailing behind the tour guide. She wondered how Jai was handling things, how he experienced the mobility and freedom of being a traveler. Meili hoped there had been no storms — Jai was deathly afraid of lightning. With each step forward down the rocky terrain she took, Meili couldn't help but feel lonely.
The Avatar had the siblings, the siblings had each other, and she had no one — except for the lemur that liked to sit on her head. Leaving the Freedom Fighters and deciding to travel with her group might have been the worst decision she had ever made. Why hadn't she just went to travel with Geun and Jai?
Her mind and consciousness felt heavy with regret, perhaps even anger, as she continued scaling down the path. Maybe she made a mistake choosing to accompany these three kids… Maybe this wasn't supposed to be her fate at all.
It took about thirty minutes to scale down the canyon pathways, with the Canyon Guide destroying the paths he had created afterward. He said it prevented the Fire Nation in the neighboring valleys from following.
Momo, who had made himself comfortable on the top of Meili's cowl as he usually did, screeched in alarm as an arachnoid creature suddenly walked out from the dust of the destruction and grabbed the Canyon guide. Quickly everyone went into action.
Aang whipped out his glider and sent out a force of air towards the colossal creature. Sokka threw out his boomerang while Katara water-whipped the arachnoid. A foot of the beast slammed Katara to the side, and Meili ran out to flick a few daggers toward the beast. It was then sucked up in a funnel of air, courtesy of Aang, before it scurried back off into the depths of the canyon.
Katara moved toward the man, immediately cradling his body lying stiff on the rocky ground below. His arm was a bright lilac, bruised for the harsh collision of the creature. He winced in pain as the Water Tribe girl touched him gently, and the girl shook her head.
"Your arms are broken," Katara stated, turning her head to look up at the Avatar.
".. What was that?" Aang questioned.
Guozhi winced as he sat himself up with his only working appendage, "It was a canyon crawler… the only thing in these parts that can actually cause damage. And it seems like they did because now my arms are broken."
"Well, if your arms are broken…" Katara trailed off.
"We're trapped in this canyon," Aang finished slowly, a look of realization overtaking his childish expression.
"Can't you use your feet to do your fancy rock moving instead," Sokka said grumpily. "Like seriously, aren't you supposed to be able to bend with every part of your body?"
Guozhi shook his head. "I'm afraid with my old age, I'm not longer able to do that anymore."
The air seemed to grow colder.
"Well, hey, we're not actually trapped down here," Meili stated in a monotone voice. "We just have to find a new way out."
"So the mystery girl talks," the Zhang leader stated with her hands on her waist. "Newsflash honey, these pampered Gan Jins can't go a day without food. They're the reason that we're trapped down here."
The Gan Jin leader looked offended, "If anyone can't go a day without food, it's you barbaric Zhangs!"
"Enough!" Aang shouted angrily, blasting a force of wind between the two tribes. "I thought I could help you guys get along, but I guess that's not gonna happen!" The airbending monk jumped onto a nearby rock which split the canyon into two paths. "We should split up, Gan Jins on the left and Zhangs on the right. We'll travel in two separate lines."
The two leaders nodded at each other before turning to their respective sides and began to walk. Aang jumped back down to his friends, facing Sokka and Katara. "Sokka, you go with the Zhangs and Katara, you go with the Gan Jins. See if you can find out why they hate each other so much.. Meili, stay with me; we'll watch over them."
As the two Water Tribe siblings split up to follow after their assigned tribe, Aang grabbed ahold of Meili's hand and airbended them back on top of the rock to follow down the mutual middle.
After carefully bringing Guozhi up behind them, Meili made it her goal to walk on her own.
She took the time to look around at the canyon before settling her gaze upon the setting sun. It burned brightly behind the scarlet clouds, the golden-red hues overtaking the pale blue sky. She took in a deep breath, feeling the last few moments of desert heat, before letting out a small breath.
They walked for a bit longer until Aang decided to call it a night. He called over Katara and Sokka to the edge of the tall cliff, asking them to figure out the Gan Jin's and Zhang's stories. Because as Monk Gyatso always told him, when two people were feuding, the truth always lay somewhere in the middle.
Meili yawned softly that night as she stretched out her limbs, sitting herself down on a rather comfy rock. Aang was leaning against one of the rocks on the cliffside overlooking the Gan Jin and Zhang camps. Momo was lying on Meili's lap and was purring slightly to her touch.
"Sure would be nice to be sitting around one of those campfires," Aang spoke quietly. "Telling stories and laughing… warm and cozy…"
The young monk received no acknowledgment as he continued staring out at the camps below him. He sat like that for a minute later, feeling the crisp wind blow against his skin. His gaze was fidgeting between the two groups and Meili, making sure he didn't keep his gaze on the girl for too long. He could sense that she was uncomfortable or maybe just standoffish. But she had been keeping her distance from them ever since she joined.
"You don't have to wear your cloak anymore you know," Aang interrupted the silence, turning around from his observing to look at Meili.
".. I suppose," Meili said after a small pause, answering the monk for the first time that night. "I've just had it for so long. It would be weird not to wear it."
"Or you don't want us to see your scar," Aang said pointedly, earning a surprised glance from Meili.
"How did you.."
"I can see your face from under the hood," Aang replied openly. "I'm guessing it's because I'm shorter than you."
There was silence, a silence Aang thought was almost suffocating. He seemed to notice that about Meili's presence; she always seemed to draw the air away. It was a spiritual sense instead of physical, like her essence was missing something and tried to pull it from Aang.
He realized it on other nights, when the sun was gone and the moon was out, he always felt a pull of his energy toward her. He attributed it to his recent encounter with Avatar Roku during the Winter Solstice, but he couldn't explain the weird feeling of breathlessness when around her.
Aang stared at her from underneath of her cowl, and at his angle, he could only see the pursed line of her lips. Aang knew she didn't speak much, careful to keep herself concealed and hidden — he realized that her aloofness was a facade.
Meili continued petting the lemur in her lap as she impatiently let out a breath. ".. Well?"
Aang blinked both eyes. ".. Well, what?"
Meili chuckled sarcastically, "Aren't you going to ask how I got it, Avatar? You know.. pry into my past?"
"I don't need to," Aang said, looking down into his lap. "You wouldn't hide it unless you didn't like it."
Meili let out a small noise. Aang couldn't tell if it was a snort of indolence or irritation.
So the monk turned back out to look at the camps, his eyes focusing on the pitched tents and burning fires. "They wouldn't care you know."
".. What?" Meili questioned.
"Katara and Sokka," Aang clarified. "They wouldn't care if you had it or not."
"It's not about vanity, Avatar. I don't care what they think," Meili spoke, turning her head to look over at the camps, her voice hard as stone. She glanced up at the sky full of stars before speaking again. "It's a reminder of my past."
Red. Fire. Blood. Screams.
Aang didn't speak for a moment. ".. Did I ever tell you about the guy who's chasing us?"
A pause.
"Ponytail said something about a cranky Fire Nation prince," Meili said. "I guessed that was all I needed to know."
Aang nodded. "His name is Zuko.. and Sokka is right — he is a cranky Fire Nation prince. But, he has a scar. Just like you. I didn't notice it until he was yelling in my face when he had captured me."
"If that's supposed to make me feel better, it doesn't. If anything, that makes me hate it even more… knowing that I remind you of someone who wants to capture you."
"No, I didn't mean it like that!" Aang defended. "I was trying to tell you that it doesn't look bad."
Meili seemed to let out a breath of frustration before turning her head toward Aang. "Avatar, can you think back to a time where you felt like your world was failing apart?"
Aang paused, not expecting her sudden question. However, a scene from the Southern Air Temple played in his mind — it was the day he was told that he was leaving Monk Gyatso. At that moment, he felt his world was crashing down, and it was ultimately the factor that made him leave the temple.
"Yes, I do."
"Well, imagine that moment, a moment so painful that you just want to erase it from your mind forever…"
Meili paused her hand on the curve of Momo's back, and the lemur's ears perked up.
"Imagine looking at yourself every day and having to relive that moment over and over again —every time you see your reflection."
Aang closed his eyes and envisioned it. What if his tattoos constantly reminded him of Monk Gyatso's corpse laying decayed in the piles of snow outside of the air temple — the old monk's bones cracked and broken, his necklace laying limp against his exposed ribcage. He finally understood the girl's pain and the reason behind her cloak. She didn't hate the scar, she hated the memory behind it.
Meili stood up calmly, knocking the sleeping lemur on her lap to the ground. She walked purposefully over to Aang's sitting form and pulled down her hood, causing her black locks to spill out of the cowl and onto her shoulders. The monk was surprised at her sudden reveal.
Etched in faded pink, a puckered line trailed down the left side of Meili's face, running straight through her eye. Aang stared at the scar, which seemed to pop out against the female's pale skin, in awe.
Unlike Zuko's rough, scaly-looking scar, Meili's looked delicate. Frighteningly beautiful. It reminded the young airbender of the intricate arrows that painted his body. Like the scar was a tattoo engraved into her skin.
"Imagine being reminded every day that you are a monster."
Aang stared into her eyes. Her seafoam-colored orbs revealed so much vulnerability and fragility, but it was all hidden behind her stony expression. She was letting him know this information so that he would leave her alone, not because she wanted to confide in him.
"Scars are stories — marks of history engraved onto our bodies, each with a memory of their own," a voice interrupted, making the two kids turn around in their spot. It was Guozhi, hobbling over to them. He paused as he sat beside the two kids. "We all have our scars; some may be physical, others may be emotional, but they all tell a story of what we were able to overcome."
"It doesn't matter now," Meili replied angrily, pulling her hood back over her head, tucking her hair back inside. "You can't change the past."
"But you can use your past to better your future," Aang commented. "Pushing yourself away from everyone will just make you lonely."
Meili briskly turned away from the two and began walking down the rock path leading to their cliff. "Sometimes, it's better to be alone — that way, you don't hurt anyone."
She ignored Aang's cries for her to stay and Guozhi's continuing words of wisdom as she walked away. They knew nothing.
Who were they to tell her that her scar didn't define her? The only thing that her mark had brought her was loneliness and pain. The kids at the orphanage hated her. Parents that came in to adopt hated her. People feared her — thought that she was a monster.
Meili shook her head as she made her way down the canyon path. Now was not a time for a pity party. She hated feeling weak.
She was never going to be weak again.
The next morning, Meili was the first one up. The sun was beginning to peak over the orange canyon walls, shining its rays over the gorges and elevations.
She stayed clear of Aang and the Travel Guide as they walked to reunite with the two groups, her gaze calculating and unwavering.
Aang was a nice kid, sometimes too nice. It was because of his niceness that they were in the canyon in the first place. So with Aang being overwhelmingly compassionate, he wasn't going to leave Meili alone unless she proved a point — a point saying to stay away.
Meili had no idea who her parents were, she had no idea what her purpose was in life, and she had no idea what she was even doing. Hopefully, showing Aang her face would get him off her back, if only for a little bit.
He was gravely mistaken if he thought that they were going to grow close and become friends.
"All clear! We're almost to the other side!" Guozhi announced, tilting his head up to look at the two tribes walking into view. Meili yawned as she shuffled over to where Aang was standing, stopping beside him as Momo sat on her head.
Aang glanced down at the approaching tribes and motioned to Katara and Sokka, who were both following closely behind their respective tribes. The two Water Tribe siblings slowed down, and they finally stopped next to the monk and cloaked-girl.
"Katara, Sokka, will these people cooperate long enough to get out of the canyon?" Aang questioned, turning to face the siblings with hope in his eyes.
Katara shifted her weight into her left hip. "I don't think so, Aang," Katara sighed, flipping her braid over her shoulder. "The Zhangs really wronged the Gan Jins. They ambushed Jin Wei and stole the sacred orb."
"Sacred orb?" Aang repeated in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"Yeah, Katara, what are you talking about?" Sokka questioned, crossing his arms irately. "Wei Jin didn't steal the orb, he was returning it to their village gate and was wrongfully punished by the Gan Jin!"
"Okay, woah," Aang spoke, attempting to calm down the two siblings. "Sacred Orb? Stealing? What are the both of you talking about?"
"These two tribes have been feuding for over a hundred years, Aang," Katara stated solemnly. "I don't think they'll ever be able to get along."
"Well, we can figure out how to help them after we get out of this canyon," Meili said evenly, turning around on her spot on the rock. "We can't help them if we're dead."
"That's very true," Sokka said, rubbing his chin.
"We'll go to the base of the canyon," Aang said, opening up his glider as he offered a hand out to Meili.
"No thanks; I'll get down on my own."
The monk shrugged his shoulders before grasping his glider in both hands and flying down.
By the time Meili had made her way down the rock, the Gan Jin and Zhang leaders were both attacking each other. The cloaked-girl guessed that she missed something rather important. Or maybe not at all. She couldn't really tell with these two idiotic leaders.
It wasn't until Aang blew the two apart with a huge gush of wind that Meili actually cared about what was going on. Both tribes had smuggled food! Into the canyon — after they were explicitly told not to. Those dumb people endangered her life without even a second thought!
The black-haired girl walked over to the scene with irritated eyes as Aang yelled at them. Those irritated eyes soon turned into startled ones as a herd of canyon crawlers suddenly came into view. And they were after one thing. The food.
"Everyone, watch me and do what I do!" Aang announced, grabbing a bag of food off the ground. He reached inside the tattered pouch and grabbed out a loaf of bread. With the food in one hand, he distracted a crawler as he leaped on its back. Finally, he grabbed the bag with both hands and threw it over the muzzle of the crawler.
"Seems simple enough," Meili stated, bending down to pick up a bag before jumping into action.
Her seafoam-colored eyes analyzed the situation with ease, and the girl soon found herself on top of a Canyon Crawler and heading out of the canyon. The rest of the refugees followed suit, with Aang leading the way. Once up, the Avatar threw down the rest of the food back toward the canyon, and the crawlers followed closely behind.
"I never thought a Gan Jin could get his hands dirty like that," the Zhang leader said surprisingly, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
The Gan Jin leader nodded respectfully, "And I never knew you Zhangs were so reliable in a pinch."
"So.. do you guys think you can make up?" Aang said hopefully.
The Zhang leader looked at the monk incredulously, "Are you kidding? We can't rewrite history! These pampered Gan Jins imprisoned Wei Jin for twenty long years with no proof of him committing any crime."
"No," the Gan Jin leader spoke back. "You thieves stole our sacred orb."
"Will you guys just stop fighting?" Meili groaned, rubbing her temple slowly. "You're both adults — both refugees trying to care for your own and make it to Ba Sing Se. Wouldn't it be easier to put the past behind you and come together as one? That's the most logical thing to do in a case like this. Seriously, where are your guys' heads?"
"I know where the Gan Jin's heads are," the Zhang leader snorted. "Up their ass!"
"Why you— filthy thief!" the Gan Jin leader exclaimed.
"Enough!" Aang yelled angrily. "You guys are fighting over something silly. I bet neither of you know the actual story of what happened."
The Zhang leader laughed, "And you think you do?"
"I might not look it, but I'm a hundred and twelve years old. I was there one hundred years ago on the day you're talking about! It started off like this…"
And then Aang went on to explain what really happened that day. Wei Jin and Jin Wei, eight-year-old twin brothers, were actually playing a mere game. The sacred orb was a ball and Wei Jin accidentally stepped out of bounds with it in his hands. There was no stealing or putting someone in jail. Meili thought it was pretty lucky that Aang was there that day. She bet he didn't know it would come in handy then.
The Zhang leader smiled weakly at the Gan Jin leader, "I suppose it's time we forget the past."
He bowed at the brute woman, "And look to the future."
The Zhang leader bowed back and the two tribes began their descent out of the canyon and toward Ba Sing Se together, with a dazed tour guide hobbling quickly behind. Once the refugees were out of sight, Meili let out a deep sigh and sunk down to the ground.
"Hopefully you two learned something from this," Meili said lowly as she turned to look at the two Water Tribe siblings. "Because if I have to keep listening to you two argue, I actually think I'll throw myself in front of a lion bear and let it maul me."
"Yeah, I have," Katara smiled softly before enveloping her brother in a hug. "I'm sorry, Sokka. You're just so infuriating sometimes.."
Sokka chuckled as he pushed him sister off of him. "Yeah, yeah. But hey, what are brothers for? — Speaking of brothers.. that's some luck that you knew Jin Wei and Wei Jin, Aang."
"You could call it luck," Aang smiled. Then the smile turned into a devilish grin unfitting to the young monk. "Or you could call it lying."
Katara opened her eyes up wide, "What?"
Aang shrugged, "I just made the whole thing up."
"You did not!" Sokka stated incredulously.
"Honestly, who cares," Meili stated, climbing on top of Appa's saddle. "No more arguing. I'm pretty happy."
"You're right!" Aang said excitedly as he airbended himself on top of his flying bison. "We can finally go find the wild hog monkeys! We never did get to ride them."
Katara smiled softly as Sokka hit himself in the forehead.
As they loaded up onto Appa and got ready to take off once again, Meili's gaze moved down to the ground below. Her sight was focused on the grand canyon as the bison lurched into the air.
"Alright, guys, Fire Nation soldiers could be anywhere. We'll have to be extra cautious not to make our presence known," Sokka spoke, opening up his map and rolling it out onto the floor of Appa's saddle. "We're flying over this mountain range here before we reach Mt. Makapu."
"But what about the hog monkeys?" Aang questioned.
"We're kind of on a schedule," Sokka said, raising an eyebrow. "We can either take a three-day detour to go ride some weird monkeys, or we can spend that time flying north."
"Sokka has a point," Katara said with a frown. "As much as I'd like to ride the monkeys, I just don't think we have time right now."
Aang comically slumped in his spot. "Alright."
Meili drowned out her companions' conversation as the canyon began to fade into the white, hazy clouds above. Her mind buzzed with memories of screams — they tore through her thoughts, echoing in her mind like a demonic symphony. Just remembering her past made her scar throb painfully, and her hand unintentionally moved to touch her eye.
She was never going to let herself grow close to anyone ever again. She would make sure of it.