The Metal Clan had been operational for some time now. A third dome was nearing completion, supervised by her husband who was assisted by her eldest son, now a grown man. There was food, fresh from the farms surrounding the main 'flowers' of the city. Her children had grown up strong and healthy and well cared for. Su had been determined they would not be abandoned as she followed her goals, remembering with sorrow the loneliness of her own childhood and the arguments with her sister who had been left to bring her up. Two of her children had not inherited bending abilities, but she did not let that discourage them. Indeed, among their growing clan now were many who could only earth bend, not to mention the water benders who had come to live there with them. She had yet to see a firebender but lived in hope that her city could be as diverse as the one she'd grown up in.
Her city seemed perfect but now there came reports of theft from the farms and soon after the city stores. Small though it was in quantity, it was too frequent to be a mistake. The city guard was made up of earth bending fighters who had been attracted by the Beifong name and hope of learning metal bending and had succeeded in doing so. Thus far they had been unsuccessful in catching the culprit and Su was on the verge of joining them, thinking that her seismic sense would grant them all more luck in doing so, particularly if the thief was using tunnels.
The very evening before she'd been planning to join them, she heard a ruckus approaching her study and bent the doors open to reveal the guard captain manhandling a foxcrow, who flapped madly in her grip as it was dangled unceremoniously by the scruff of the neck.
"I've found our thief!" The captain grimaced as the foxcrow succeeded in twisting its head far enough to bite her. She bent a piece of metal around the foxcrow's muzzle.
"A foxcrow?" Su's eyebrows shot up in shock. "But only a bender could have gotten into our stores! And a metalbender at… that…" her voice trailed away as she watched the foxcrow thrust its paws out from its chest, the metal falling away from its muzzle.
"Yeah? Well, this thing can metalbend!" The captain snapped, tearing the entire bottom half of her robe off to wrap around the foxcrow.
"Well. I suppose in that case it does belong with the Metal Clan." Su peered with interest as the bundle was deposited on her desk. She prodded it cautiously and it began to move violently as the creature inside tried to free itself.
"Don't!" The captain groaned as she watched Su gently lift the fabric open with a rod of metal. The foxcrow spat defiance and closed its jaws around Su's hand.
Su's face went taut with pain, but she kept back the instinct to jerk her hand away; the teeth were sharp, doing so would merely result in deeper wounds.
"Did it manage to steal any food before you caught it?" she asked through gritted teeth.
"Not this time." The captain made to grab the foxcrow.
"No." Su held up her other hand and then leaned towards the foxcrow. "You know, I think we can find you something tastier to eat than my hand. If you let it go."
"What?" The captain's jaw dropped. "This thing has been stealing our food and now you want to give it more?!" she stared in disbelief at her Matriarch.
"Well, if I want my hand back." Su shrugged. The foxcrow had loosened its bite but had kept Su's hand in its mouth and seemed to be scowling suspiciously at her. "I don't think it's trusting that it'll get food if it lets me go first. So yes! Some food please!" she smiled politely at the captain, who groaned again as she left.
A drop of blood fell from her hand onto her desk, but Su didn't move, not wanting to break the tentative truce between her and the foxcrow.