Sakuyo

Chapter Three

Encounters

It really was very easy to get into the good graces of Suki's mother, as Sakuyo later found. All she had had to do was tell her about what had "happened" to her family and the woman became teary-eyed. She insisted that she had to stay with Suki and her, and wouldn't take no for an answer, not that Sakuyo objected. The village accepted her quickly after that, and she seemed to be well off in their hands.

Her days consisted of watching Suki and the rest of Kyoshi's warriors train themselves and occasionally being trained by them. The children of the village soon had her playing with them, during which she discovered she had missed human contact while in her unconscious state. She kept herself from Bending any element, though, because it would attract attention. To the inhabitants of Kyoshi, she would just appear to be a shipwrecked Water Tribe girl, alone in the world and cut off from the rest of her tribe.

But it was not what she had awoken for, and she began to grow uncomfortable with having nothing to do. Suki noticed her discomfort and sent her with a few other girls to explore the island, thinking that she was merely homesick. When they returned, someone had entered Kyoshi. Someone important.

Lost in her own thoughts, Sakuyo walked the streets of Kyoshi alone, having left her companions at their respective houses. She didn't hear anything or see anything out of the ordinary, but she was forced to notice it when something orange ran into her, knocking the girl and himself to the ground.

"Ouch," she mumbled, picking herself up. The person who had run into her did the same in a hurried fashion, apologizing profusely for the accident.

"I'm so sorry, miss!" he babbled, rushing to help her up. "I didn't see you there. Are you all right?" She noticed that he was wearing the clothes of an Airbender and smiled at him with recognition of his nation.

"I'm fine, but thank you for your concern-" she was interrupted by a din of loud squeals that seemed to be coming from a group of small girls at the other end of the street. The boy smiled at the sound and quickly waved goodbye to her as he dashed away from the group of girls, who immediately took off in pursuit of him.

Too late did Sakuyo realize that her arms underneath the Waterbender sleeves were uncomfortably warm, particularly in four places, two on each arm. She quickly dodged into an alley and pushed up her sleeves.

Long ago, when she had truly been sixteen years old, four marks had appeared on her forearms. Those marks were the symbols of each nation, and there were two on each arm. On her right arm were the symbols of the Air and Water Nation. On her left arm were the symbols of the Fire and Earth Nation. Now, they were all glowing blue, but the one that glowed the strongest was that of the Air Nation. The only time that they ever glowed was when she had met the Avatar of that time.

That boy was the Avatar.

The glow faded and she pushed her sleeves back down. She had to find that boy again. He would know why she had been awakened from her sleep. If the reason was that she was to be his teacher, then she would teach him to the best of her ability.

Then the screaming began.

Sakuyo smelt the smoke before she saw it, and, coughing from the acrid smell, she rushed back into the street to look for its source. Had a fire gotten out of control? Not daring to blow the smoke away from her face for fear of revealing herself, she ran towards the village entrance, since that was where the screaming was loudest. When she broke free of the smoke, she finally saw what was happening.

The girl didn't need to have been born in that time to recognize that there were people shooting fireballs at the houses. The statue of Avatar Kyoshi was on fire, and even as she watched, parts of it crumbled to the ground. She felt horrified, as if it were her own statue that was being desecrated. Technically, she was the same as Kyoshi, and she would have to help protect her namesake.

A load of fallen poles was lying on the ground near her, abandoned by its owner. She snatched one up and ran towards the Firebenders. They were wearing some strange kind of armor, helmets and all, and they were mercilessly torching all of the houses without any regard for the people inside. Sakuyo felt rage burning in her heart, demanding that she burn them in the same way, but she stuffed that rage into the darkest, deepest corner of her heart. It wouldn't do if she lost control over herself at such an early time.

They must be renegades, she decided. The Fire Nation is too honorable to engage in such nefarious deeds.

Sakuyo brought her staff down on one Firebender's head with all of her strength and then tripping him with it while he was still stunned. Her attack seemed to signal the rest of the Kyoshi warriors to attack, for suddenly the roads were alive with them. Together, they fought with the Firebenders, diverting their attention so that they wouldn't torch the houses anymore.

As they dealt with the Firebenders, Suki fought nearby with what appeared to be their leader. Fans, however, wouldn't be much use against fireballs, even if they were made of metal. Suki dodged all of his fireballs, but she failed to notice that the tail of his animal was a weapon, too, and was hit by it. The leader dismounted and stood in the middle of the road.

"Come out, Avatar!" he shouted. "A bunch of girls can't stop me!"

"Then this won't hurt," Sakuyo said, whacking him across the head with her staff from behind. He pitched forward from the blow, then, catching himself, whirled around and shot a fireball at her. She threw herself to the side and held her staff pointed at him.

He's only a teenager, she realized. He was a strange-looking one, though. The left side of his face was scarred, and he had almost no hair except for some which he had pulled into a ponytail. From his stance, she could tell that he was an experienced Firebender, despite his age. What captured her gaze the most, though, were his eyes. Golden in color, they were not evil eyes. They were intelligent and honorable.

"What is it you want?" she shouted at him, holding her weapon at the ready. "Gold? You won't find it here. Fame? Kyoshi is not the most well-known of Earth Kingdom towns." He lunged at her, but she neatly side-stepped him, solidly thwacking him between the shoulder blades, although she doubted he could feel it under his armor. He faced her again with a frustrated face.

"How could you want to destroy this town? They haven't done anything to you. How could you all be so dishonorable?" That seemed to annoy him the most. Without warning, he threw a fireball at her, which she swatted away on reflex with her hand. His eyes followed her unburned hand, and she used that moment to rush in and knock him to the ground.

"But you're just Water Nation," he whispered to himself. She regretted having to Firebend now, even more so when she seemed to be dressed as a Water Tribe girl.

"I'll ask you nicely. Please tell me what you hope to gain by attacking Kyoshi," she said, hoping to distract his attention. His gaze seemed caught by something then, and when she turned around, she saw what it was.

"Avatar," she whispered, aware that he heard her. There was a flying bison in the sky, and she could see three people on its back. They were already flying away, but she needed to talk to them. A blur of red rushed by her, and she realized that it was the Firebender. He jumped back up to his mount and hurried towards the sea with the rest of his group.

Sakuyo was torn between staying to help Kyoshi put out its fires and chasing after the Firebender who did such things. The other Avatar decided for her, as a wave of water came from the direction of the lake, dousing the flames. She blew herself dry, hoping that no one noticed, and ran after the Firebenders.

"I'm not finished with you yet!" She yelled at them, but they didn't even look back. Sakuyo caught a brief glimpse of Suki's face and she waved goodbye to her before setting her sight back on the men.

She slowed to a halt as the sea came into view with awe. A huge iron ship was sitting on the water as if it were made of wood, but it was floating just fine. Time had certainly made its mark on the earth. When she had gone to sleep in the abandoned outpost, the Fire Nation had been trying to experiment with iron boats, but it was unsuccessful. Now, they had managed to create a huge iron ship. Who were those men that they could afford such a thing?

The ship began to pull away from the shore, and she realized that she would have to either stay on Kyoshi or stow away in their ship.

"I'll eventually have to find the Avatar," she said to herself. "And they seem to be following him. If I go with them, they'll lead me to the boy." Convincing herself with this logic, she walked onto the surface of the water, turning it to ice to support her weight. When she had reached the ship's side, she made the ice push upwards so that she could step into one of the ship's portholes. It apparently opened into one of its storerooms, so she sat down on one of the wooden boxes and quietly listened to the muffled shouting of the men above, who would never guess that here was a stowaway on their ship.

Wait for me, my brother. I'm coming.

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I'm so sorry for the long delay! School is taking too much of my day, but isn't that how it always goes? I'll try to update more often, but no guarantees!

What will happen next in this story? Well…that's for me to know and for you to find out!

Thanks to:

Khazia

Plutobaby494

Oblivavation