They continued their path northwest, hoping to avoid confrontation with the Fire Nation at all costs. Meili found that she didn't quite care; ever since her conversation with Aang, the monk had been giving her some well needed space. However, not everyone was as good at reading social cues. In all actuality, Meili thought that Sokka was pretty inept.
"I'm just saying, a boomerang is much more reliable than just some dagger."
"I'm not arguing about this, Ponytail. I'm trying to sleep."
"We're all trying to sleep," Katara emphasized, rolling over in her cot to face her brother.
They had taken a break from their few days of flying in order for Appa to get some proper rest. They were camped out in a forest just outside of a small fishing village, all snuggled in their cots. They decided that the next morning they were heading to the village for provisions.
The conversation had started when Katara had asked Meili where she learned to use her daggers, which the scarred girl replied back simply with, "I taught myself."
This led Sokka to debate, very one-sidedly, about how boomerangs were a better weapon. Usually the Water Tribe boy was like that — stuck in his ways and immature. Meili was glad that Katara was at least somewhat tolerable, but her brother was absolutely infuriating. His constant sexist remarks got him in trouble more often than not, and Meili used everything in her power to stay away from him.
It was something about his abrasive, unrelenting personality that made Meili feel like she was going crazy. Parts of him reminded her of this boy named Tigerpaw back in the Freedom Fighters.
Tigerpaw was a taller boy, lanky and lithe, with a sharp tongue. His hair was dark, neatly trimmed on the sides but swept up into a high bun. He would constantly belittle the female fighters, saying that only men were supposed to do the fighting and women were supposed to do the menial chores of cooking and cleaning.
One time, he made such comments around Meili. After that, there was never a second time.
Unlike Tigerpaw, Sokka wasn't intentionally mean or rough, but that didn't make his remarks any less infuriating.
The Water Tribe boy somehow got the cue to shut up — courtesy of a blast of air from Aang — and went to bed, but Meili laid wide awake in her cot, staring up into the black skies littered with stars.
She was afraid to sleep. Ever since she showed Aang her scar, her past had been plaguing her dreams. Sometimes they were the same, sometimes they were different, sometimes they had no correlation with one another. But dreaming about her past meant that she was reliving it. She was thinking about it.
Meili tried focusing on the even breathing of Katara beside her, counting the girl's breaths coming out in short puffs beside her. And within a few minutes, Meili felt herself drifting off into sleep.
The town was how she remembered it.
It had its long, dirt pathways full of busy people, and it was warm and sunny as most days usually were. For some reason, though, Meili was sitting outside of the orphanage, adorned in white creamy bandages that wrapped around various parts of her body. She could see cuts, lesions, and blood adorning her arms, littering her pale skin from head to toe.
Meili looked at her injured body in confusion; her skin didn't hurt, but she knew something was wrong.
She looked up from her analyzing to see Jai, who was usually full of happiness and joy. Instead, tears were pouring from his brown eyes, dropping down to the dirt pathway with a loud boom. He wiped away the tears spilling down his cheek as he looked up at his sister.
"Why would you leave me? Why would you do that? I thought we were family!"
'We are family,' Meili tried to reply back, but she found herself unable to speak.
"Geun is dead, and it's all because of you. You just had to leave the Freedom Fighters!"
'I didn't know that would happen,' Meili attempted to speak, but the words stayed stuck in her throat.
"..If only you had rid this town of the Fire Nation," a voice said in disappointment, and Meili heard someone let out a sigh. "I told you that people from the Fire Nation are cold-blooded killers. If only you had understood, Whiteflash, you could have prevented this.."
Jet stood there tall and proud right in front of her, with thousands of dead Fire Nation soldiers and innocent villagers behind him. He wore a maniacal grin as he lifted up his hooked swords, both of which were covered in blood. The same blood Jet wore on his face.
"Now I just have to deal with you just like how I dealt with them.." he sighed, raising up his sword to her stomach. "…Traitor."
And then her vision was filled with white.
"I'm .. I'm not a traitor!" Meili spoke back, wincing from the pain in her abdomen. "It's not my fault I'm like this!"
"The Fire Nation knows no wrong. To them, this is all okay. Normal. Killing innocent lives doesn't faze them, don't you get that?"
"I do!" Meili shouted in anger. "But you're no different. What you wanted to do to that town — that was terrible, Jet!"
"Jet?" the man questioned, laughing maniacally before his face began remolding itself. "Who's Jet?"
Meili looked at the faceless man in shock. Had her eyes deceived her? Was this man really not Jet? She turned back at her brother in alarm, only to see a new man in his place. A Fire Nation soldier with a wicked grin on his face.
"You weren't there to protect Geun were you?" he laughed deeply, leaning onto his sword. "It's too bad that your sweet little brother went with him, isn't it?"
"Jai is not dead," Meili said bitterly. "I taught him how to protect himself. And Pipsqueak is a skilled fighter."
The faceless man walked over to Meili, grabbing her by the wrist before lifting her up off of the ground. The Fire Nation soldier followed the two along as the faceless man led Meili through the barren town. The cloaked-girl wondered where all of the dead Fire Nation soldiers had gone. And where was she being led to?
One step out of the town teleported Meili to the top of a cliff. The cliff where Jet had wanted to flood Gaipan. Said town was submerged and drowning underneath of the water. Meili could hear the screams and cries of those in the town. But this was all wrong. Sokka and she had saved those citizens. And the town was completely empty before they came up there.
"I can't believe you would do something like this," a voice whispered, and Meili turned her head to stare at the faceless man.
The Fire Nation soldier was gone, and the man with a morphing face was the only one on top of the cliff with her. Meili stared in disbelief as the man began melding into a different person once again. And after a few moments, she was gazing into the sapphire eyes of Sokka. "I never did trust you."
Meili was stunned by the sudden statement.
"We all know what you really are," Sokka muttered angrily, staring at the flooded town of Gaipan. "You try to hide it underneath of that cloak of yours.. but we can all see."
"I don't know what you're talking about.." Meili trailed off.
Katara suddenly stepped out next to her brother, "You know perfectly well what we're talking about. Why didn't you tell us at this clearing? Why didn't you ever let us know? .. Did you think we weren't going to find out?"
"Yeah," a voice suddenly added. Meili turned in her spot to see Aang. "Why can't you trust us? Why can't you trust anyone?"
"I.. I.." Meili mumbled, feeling cornered. "I don't have to explain myself. Not to you guys.. not to anyone."
"That's exactly what someone like you would say," Sokka scowled. "A liar like you doesn't deserve to be friends with people like us."
"Why couldn't you just trust us?" Aang questioned.
Katara frowned, "Why didn't you tell us?"
"Liar."
"Why can't you just trust us."
".. tell us .."
Meili woke with a start, jolting up in her spot. Her breathing was off kilter, a result from the intensity of her dream that she had trouble separating from reality. She knew that it wasn't real, but the emotions she felt — the fear, pain, sadness — it was all too overwhelmingly real.
Meili quietly got up from her spot, feeling goosebumps cover her skin once she left the warm embrace of the blanket. She made her way to the edge of the forest, toward the outskirts where the land met the sea. The forest ground was elevated, making it a small cliff overlooking the body of water. The moonlight shimmered on the water top, wavering with each push and pull of the tides.
She covered her arms around herself, hoping to add warmth to her chilled skin.
Meili felt lost.
When she was at the orphanage, she knew what she was — an outcast. When she was a part of the Freedom Fighters, she was Whiteflash. But now… she was Meili. The scarred girl who hid behind a cloak, unsure of who she even was. How was she supposed to act around these new people?
It was so easy when it was just Jai. With him, she was perfect just the way she was. Her past meant nothing to him. He didn't care about who she was or what she had done. They had each other, and they understood one another.
But these people didn't know her, and she didn't want them to. Better yet, she was scared to. Meili knew from experience that having friends never ended well. It only ended in fighting, grief, and regret.
The Avatar didn't understand that her scar was more than just an ugly mark, it was a symbol of her pain. She had no family, no friends, no place in this world. She could care less about her looks; such things were trivial anyways. But she knew that every time someone saw the scar, their faces would contort into shock and disgust. The two very faces Meili grew to hate.
She sighed heavily as she turned away from the blue water, making her way back to camp. Peeling back the covers of her cot, the girl climbed inside, wrapping her cloak around her tightly. Her cloak was her security blanket. It was the first thing that she got on her own after the orphanage. It was her first establishment of secrecy.
Since she couldn't change the past, all she could do now was hide it. And that was her last thought before darkness overtook her vision into a dreamless sleep.
When they awoke in the morning, they packed up their stuff and began walking for about half an hour. Usually, Sokka was leading the way, map poised in his hands like they were connected with glue. Seriously… what was it with men and maps? But instead, Aang and Katara stopped the gang at a stream of water. Apparently they were going to practice some waterbending before they all entered the village.
Sokka had decided to yawn and sit down on a rock — right next to Meili. She fought the urge to clench her jaw, but found it rather difficult with his presence so close.
"You know, even though you're kind of rude sometimes, I'm glad to have another nonbender around," Sokka spoke lazily, buffing his boomerang on his blue shirt. "They're always splashing their magical water everywhere."
"I think it's slightly beautiful," Meili said lowly, keeping her voice steady.
"Psh, that's not beautiful. Its messy!"
Meili tsked underneath of her breath, her gaze lingering on Katara and Aang, who were practicing freezing the water wadding at their hips. She watched as the liquid crystalized almost instantly, turning from a murky blue to a milky white. Then, they made frozen spikes rise up from out of the river.
"Stop trying to look underneath of my cloak."
Sokka fell in his spot from where he was craning his neck. He landed harshly on his head with his legs comically in the air. The boy immediately got up and rubbed his head, hoping to soothe the pain bubbling in the lower region of his neck.
"I was just curious."
"Curiosity is wondering why a pigeon dog is digging at the ground. Curiosity is wanting to know why the sky is blue. Trying to peer underneath of someone's cowl is not being curious — it's being nosey."
"You must be fun at parties…" Sokka whispered with a scowl, unappreciative of the attitude he was getting from the girl. "You could at least try to be more sociable, you know. Not everyone wants to hang out around a cranky girl all the time."
"Who told you to hang out with me?" she countered, moving forward once she saw Aang and Katara begin to climb out of the water.
Sokka watched her retreating figure with a dull face, watching the white cloak bounce with each step. "I really don't like you."
"Sounds like a personal problem."
Once Aang and Katara packed up all of the belongings, they continued forward down the dirt path toward the village. The town was small, composed of a few vender stations and a few houses littered around the Earth Kingdom lands. Several docks trailed out into the water, leading to ships and boats anchored at the shore.
Katara immediately made her way to one of the vendors, an older woman with dark gray hair and a nasty grin. The waterbender sifted through the small array of fruit. But from the looks of them, the selection wasn't all that great. Katara decided on grabbing a melon from one of the sections, holding it firmly in her hand.
"There's no point in being here," Meili yawned out smoothly, using her pinky finger to itch her ear nonchalantly.
"We need food," Katara bit out, shaking the melon in her hand some more. "We've been out for a few days now, and I'm tired of eating stuff Sokka brings back for us."
"Hey, those nuts were delicious and full of nutrients!"
"I'm pretty sure they were rocks," Meili deadpanned.
"Tasteless, bland rocks," Katara added on.
"Can you hurry up and buy the melon?" the merchant lady said angrily, waving a fist in the air.
Katara shook the melon again, "I don't know if I like the sound of the swooshing. And there are bruises all over this thing."
"That means it's ripe!" the lady defended. "It's the ripe juices swishing around, making the outside soft and delectable. Doesn't that sound nice?"
Katara sighed, "How much?"
The lady opened up her mouth to answer, but Aang cut in first. "Katara, we don't have any money."
"We don't?" Sokka questioned. "Didn't we just have some two days ago?"
"Don't you remember buying that stupid straw hat two days ago?" Meili questioned the Water Tribe boy.
"Hey! That hat wasn't stupid!"
"We need to figure something out," Aang spoke, handing the melon back to the lady before walking away. "We haven't had a proper meal in days, and Appa can't keep flying us around on an empty stomach."
"We could always get jobs," Katara suggested, following after the monk. "I mean, I'm sure Meili and I could find work somewhere."
"Leave it to the men, Katara," Sokka stated, stretching out a hand. "We'll handle this."
"We will?" Aang repeating, earning a jab from Sokka. "I .. uh, I mean.. erm.. We will!"
"This is hopeless," Meili sighed shaking her head. "What do you think is going to happen? Someone's going to quit their job right now, and their boss is going to conveniently offer you their job for double the pay?"
"—We shouldn't go out there! Please, the fish can wait," a voice stated from behind the kids. "My joints say there's going to be a storm! A bad one."
"Well, it's your joints against my brain," a male voice replied back. The kids turned around in their spot to see two older fishermen arguing by their boat.
The woman fishermen scowled, "Then I hope your brain can find someone else to haul in that fish, 'cause I ain't comin'!"
"Then I'll find a new fish hauler and pay him double what you get!" the man replied before turning towards the kids. "Like that young man right there!"
Meili deadpanned at the scene in front of her. She really shouldn't have said anything.
Sokka nodded his head proudly, "Yeah, I'll go."
"You're hired!" the male fisherman said triumphantly.
Sokka shot a cocky grin towards Meili as she jerked her hood down. He was lucky she didn't wipe that grin off of his face.
They followed Sokka to where the boat was docked. It was a small fishing boat that wouldn't stand a chance against any of the Fire Nation ships stationed along the sea gulf's borders. The man went ahead and paid Sokka ahead of time so that way the other three could buy lunch. The man said he didn't want someone working on an empty stomach. Apparently the fish can tell if a fisherman is good or bad — well-fed or hungry.
"Sokka, maybe this isn't such a good idea. Look at the sky," Aang said worriedly, holding a melon and a few oranges in his hands.
"I said I was going to do this job. I can't back out just because of some bad weather," Sokka replied back, throwing a bag of fishing bait into the boat. He grabbed an orange from the monk and began peeling it open.
"You can if that bad weather will kill you," Katara spoke crossing her arms at her brother. "Seriously, Sokka. Meili and I can go find a job easily. We don't need you to put yourself in danger."
"See, Sokka?" Aang smiled. "And look, the sky is getting darker by the minute!"
"Eh, maybe we should just let him go," Meili said, gripping on tighter to the bag of food in her hand. "He seems very eager to die."
The Water Tribe boy merely shook his head, plopping a piece of orange in his mouth as he took a box of supplies underneath of the ship.
"Those girls and the boy with the tattoos is right," the female fisherman scowled. "You should listen to him!"
"Boy with tattoos?" the male fisherman questioned, turning around to look at Aang. "And those are Airbender tattoos... Heh. Well, I'll be a hog monkey's uncle. You're the Avatar, ain't ya?"
"Took you long enough," Meili said.
"Took me?" the fisherman questioned. "It took him long enough. The Avatar disappeared for a hundred years! He turned his back on the world! — Left all of us to fend for ourselves."
"Aang would never turn his back on anyone! He has done nothing but save people," Katara bit back angrily. "Aang is the bravest person I know. It's not his fault he disappeared, right, Aang?"
The Airbender stared at his friends with a sad face as he slowly began walking away. He gazed at them with a look of shock and guilt on his face, before opening his glider and springing into the air, flying off quickly into the distance.
"That's right, keep flying!" the fisherman yelled, waving a fist as he watched Aang's glider disappear behind the trees.
"You're a horrible old man!" Katara shouted, running over angrily to Appa before climbing on top of him.
Once Meili was safely onto the sky bison, the big creature quickly flew away after a shout of 'yip yip.'
The two females of the group had searched all around for a good twenty minutes before the anticipated storm kicked in, and they still had seen no sign of Aang. The storm became so bad that the two girls had to stop at a small cave just off of the coast of the town to be safe and dry off. It was just their luck that Aang happened to be in there.
"I'm sorry I ran away," he muttered when the two girls entered, wrapping his arms around himself.
Meili grabbed onto Appa's reigns and led the giant bison's inside as Katara walked to Aang to console him. The cave was small, cold, and damp, a dark abyss that got darker the farther Meili traveled inside. Aang was sitting in the darkness, curled up into himself, his gaze pointed downward. He was so different than how he was four days ago in the Great Divide. He looked solemn and weak now, enhanced by the darkness of the gray-toned, raining skies.
"It's okay, Aang," Katara said truthfully, rubbing a hand down the monk's back.
Meili nodded her head as she pet Appa's chin, "She's right. The fisherman was way out of line."
Aang shook his head, "He actually.. wasn't.."
"That can't be true, Aang," Katara said in shock. The young waterbender paused for a moment as she studied Aang's face. ".. It has something to do with your dreams doesn't it?"
Aang nodded his head solemnly. "It's a long story."
"You guys go ahead," Meili stated, turning around in her spot as Katara comforted Aang. Momo flew over and situated himself on her head as she began walking away. "I'll try to get a fire going."
Meili kept her distance as Aang told his story, and she used a pair of nearby rocks to spark up a fire in the middle of them. All three of them had wet clothes that desperately needed to be dried. It would do them no good if they were all sick.
"You ran away."
"And then the Fire Nation attacked our temple. My people needed me, and I wasn't there to help!"
Katara shook her head. "You don't know what would have happened—"
"The world needed me, and I wasn't there to help."
"Aang ..."
"The fisherman was right! I did turn my back on the world!"
"You're being too hard on yourself, Avatar," Meili said, shaking her head. "Stop throwing yourself a pity party and think about it. If you had stayed at your temple, you would have been killed along with the rest of the airbenders."
"You don't know that," Aang said shaking his head.
Katara sighed, placing a hand on Aang's shoulder. "I know that it was meant to be this way. The world needs you now. You give people hope."
"I don't know.." Aang said, looking down into his lap.
"Who would've saved my village from the Fire Nation that day?" Katara questioned.
"And who would've helped those feuding tribes?" Meili added. "Or who would've stopped Jet?"
Aang shrugged, "I guess you guys are right.. I just.. I feel like I abandoned my people, you know?"
"You didn't abandon anyone, Avatar. You were scared. People sometimes do things out of fear," Meili spoke quietly, staring hard into the fire. Katara noticed that her jaw tightened. "You did what you thought was right. And you're here now to end this war… to save lives. Think about that."
Aang nodded his head, glancing down to look at the dancing embers of the fire. He thought about Monk Gyatso and his people. Were they playing a game when the Fire Nation attacked? Did they notice he was gone or did nothing change? He was drawn from his thoughts when Katara placed a hand on his shoulder, and his doubts washed away as he stared into her captivating blue eyes.
"—Help! Oh .. Please, you have to help me!" a voice interrupted, and the three kids turned toward the opening of the cave. A shadowy figure contrasted against the stormy sky outside, and a flash of lightning revealed the figure to be the woman fisherman from earlier.
"What's wrong?" Aang questioned, airbending himself up from his spot.
"It's my husband! He should be back by now.. him and your friend! I'm afraid that they're lost at sea!"
"We have to go look for him!" Katara shouted, jumping up from her spot as well. Meili, Aang, and Katara all made their way to Appa and climbed on top of the fuzzy beast. With a short goodbye to the fisherman's wife, the three left in the midst of the storm to look for the fishing boat.
"Hey.. I have a question," Meili spoke up, staring straight into the storm. The cold wind blew pellets of rain at her face, but the orphan didn't seem to mind.
"Now's not the time, Meili!" Katara shouted, holding on tightly to Appa's saddle. However, her grip was beginning to slip.
"It's serious!" Meili shouted over the rain.
Aang turned around, his eyes dancing over to where the girl was sitting, her hood barely staying on to cover her face. He couldn't see her expression. "What is it?"
"Do you guys think that I .." she trailed off, her voice disappearing into the crackle of thunder. "..that I don't deserve to be friends with you?"
"Why in spirits name would you think that?" Katara questioned, holding a hand up to her face to block the rain.
"You guys don't trust me.."
"Who said that?" Aang questioned.
Katara glanced out into the storm, "Even though you were with Jet and he did bad things.. We know you're not like that. You helped Sokka back then. And you're with us now."
"But.."
"There's no time for talking guys!" Aang shouted, suddenly lifting Appa over a huge wave. "Help me look for Sokka! The storm is getting worse and fast!"
After a few more tense moments of silence and desperation, the boat suddenly came into view, dwarfed by the size of a giant, cresting wave.
"There's the boat!" Katara shouted, pointing to her left. Aang yanked the reins to the side and dove towards the boat.
As Appa stayed suspended in the air, Katara and Aang jumped down from the sky bison and quickly got to work. Luckily, Sokka and the fisherman were standing on the front deck. The sail of the boat suddenly came crashing down, and Aang quickly held up his hands and cut it in half with a jet of water.
As Katara and Aang were standing around their friends veering away the crashing waves of water threatening to sink the ship, Meili fumbled around the bottom of Appa's saddle for something that could help.
Luckily, she found a rope, which was probably used as an extra rein for Appa. She quickly threw the rope down towards the boat inhabitants and waited for them to grab on. As everyone began climbing up, Meili scooted herself up towards Appa's head and grabbed ahold of the reins, yelling out 'yip yip' into the depths of the great storm. Once Aang was situated on top of his bison, he quickly flicked the rope up and brought everyone to safety on the saddle.
Unfortunately, a huge wave began forming itself in front of them and was developing quicker than Meili could steer away from. It crashed into them with a devastating loud crack, like a whip smacking against flesh.
The freezing water was the first thing Meili felt. It nipped at the bottom of her toes and stung her ears. Her breath, knocked out of her on impact, failed to return, and so she choked on the water beginning to fill her lungs.
She tried to stay calm and closed her eyes, thinking of the dreams she had been having recently and what they meant. Was Jai safe with Geun? Did she put his life in danger? Could she trust these people that she knew so little about? Could they trust her?
A bright, blue light brought the half-conscious girl from her thoughts and back to reality, though she could already feel her consciousness leaving her. Her vision grew dark, her head light from the lack of air, and found her world turning black.
When Meili opened her eyes again, she was back inside the cave with the fisherman's wife. She choked on some water lingering in her throat violently, looking out of the crinkle of her eye to see Aang bending water in front of her.
"You were unconscious longer than any of us," Aang said lowly, flicking the water away from him onto the cave ground below. "I got most of the water out, but be careful breathing for the next few hours."
Meili nodded her head, mumbling out a small thanks. It seemed as if Aang removed the water logging her lungs before Katara had the chance, meaning that her face was kept hidden from the Water Tribe girl. She was thankful that the monk, in that moment, was as kind as he was.
Once up and moving again, Meili realized that she had been knocked unconscious during the storm, but Aang had activated his 'Avatar state' and taken them all to safety. Meili moved from the cave and over to Appa, climbing in the sky bison's saddle as Sokka was given a free fish from the fishermen. Katara and Aang talked in hushed tones on the side. Meili looked gloomily towards the top of her head where she knew Momo would be sitting.
"Do you trust me, buddy?" she questioned the lemur, earning a small chatter back as an answer. Meili sighed heavily, collapsing her chin into the palm of her hand. "You're right.. I need to start trusting myself first.."
She glanced out toward the open sea, which was being shined down upon by new rays of sunlight. The storm was finally over. And the light of hope was beginning to peak through the clouds of despair.