Book One: Water 水善

Chapter Two

A couple of weeks after the glowing tower, Lai found her life in a sort of pregnant pause. It was quite comical to her how little had happened, like the spirits were ready to pop up from the ground and yell 'SURPRISE' before wrecking her life. She concluded that it probably could be worse. She could be training sunup to sun down like her brother (it was times like these where she considered herself lucky that she wasn't a waterbender), or engaged to Hahn like Yue (not that she would mind that, though, Hahn wasn't awful looking). Regardless, Lai felt her life to be very...

...Boring.

She had some things to occupy her time, like the scrolls for firebending techniques one of the local merchants smuggled in for her or the secret hand-to-hand combat sessions she and Hahn sporadically engaged in.

Things got more interesting when the Avatar and his friends came into town. Instead of welcoming the change, Lai hated it. That day is the day she swore changed everything for her life, the day that somehow they weren't safe anymore. To make things worse, Lee collapsed before a presentation with Pakku to welcome the guests. Hahn and Surro had to drag her barely coherent brother back to their home.

That same night when she had finally settled down once the excitement of the avatar's arrival mellowed(as well as the worry of her brother's recent fainting spell, which he claimed as no biggie), Lai finally felt herself beginning to drift to sleep. Uneasiness and anxiety for her brother were the most prominent things on her mind, but she let them slip away as she glanced at the focus of her worries. He was set up in his makeshift bed, snuggly tucked in to the furs that littered his area. The lump of furs moved up and down ever so slightly, rising and falling with the sleeping Lee.

She rolled up the scroll she was reading, something to do with pirates and a Prince, before moving the furs on top of her. With a flick of her wrist the candle that illuminated the room was out. The small house was cast into darkness and the firebender believed she could finally get some well deserved rest. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she was out.

Lee, on the other hand, wasn't as blissfully asleep as his sister thought. He began to toss and turn, relaxed face turning downwards at the dream. All that he saw was the moon shining brightly down on him, until it turned read and cloaked the sky black.

He shot up panting with desperate eyes. Throwing the furs off of his body, Lee hurried towards the door of their home and ripped it open. He looked around, notching the dark blue hue of the night before looking up into the sky. The moon was almost full, possibly another three days before it shone gloriously in the sky, and wasn't bathed in red. The water bender sighed in relief before heading back into his home.

"Lee? What happened?"

"Nothing Lai. Go back to sleep."

His sister mumbled a few words before rolling over and falling back asleep.

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The next morning Lai woke up with the sun like usual. As the fiery star began it's ascent into the sky Lai began her day, shucking on her fur parka before trudging outside, making sure to grab her weapons before leaving the small house. She quietly navigated through alleyways and side streets, smiling at the few people she passed by. It was still early, and the water tribe members usually weren't up until a couple of hours from now. This gave her the couple of hours to sharpen her skills before having to go about her daily duties.

She arrived her makeshift training area that she and her brother made. The targets were icy and stiff, makeshift fire nation solider heads carved out of ice to the best of their memory, some having fake blasts of fire and some having pikes pointed at her. She set her stuff down before beginning to stretch her stiff muscles. Leaning down by her waist she brought her arms to the left side of her body, stretching out the right. Her head dangled in between her legs, eyes closed with a sort of bliss. She opened them lazily, only to find the boy who was hitting on Yue the previous night staring at her. She sighed before coming out of her stretch.

"Can I help you?" She asked as she walked over to her clump of weapons. She began to sort through, trying to decide which one to use.

"Umm-yeah. I'm Sokka, by the way." The boy sighed. His voice was tenor-like, a few octaves high than Hahn's. She realized he really wasn't a boy, more someone her own age. "Look, I saw you sparing with the Artook wannabe yesterday and you pretty much kicked his butt. I was-uh-wondering if you'd teach me a couple of things. About, yah know, fighting."

"Sure. I'm not supposed to know this stuff anyways, but we're both outsiders in this place. As long as you get here early I'm all for teaching you."

"THANK YOU SO MUCH! YOU DON-"

"-but don't flirt with me like you did with Yue. I won't hesitate to hurt you."

Sokka gulped visible before nodding. The words from the soft, delicate looking teen in front of him came out gruff, almost like a growl. He noticed her tight features "Right. No flirting. Sounds good?"

Lai nodded and grabbed the closest weapon to her, her sword, before turning to Sokka.

"By the way, my name is Lai. Now, draw your club."

Sokka did as he was told and pulled his club into his hand. He looked rather awkward, standing there with his feet too close together and the club weighing heavily in his hand. Lai sighed and walked the short distance over to him, pulling his legs apart aggressively. Sokka yelped, partially due to the fact that some girl was pulling his legs apart and partially because her hands-uncovered hands-were extremely warm. Once she stood to examine her work, Sokka decided to glance down. He noticed his legs were evenly spaced to his shoulders which gave him a strong base to stand.

"I know you can't bend, but you can learn a lot from different bending techniques. This stance is for a firebender. Strong and rooted, yet easily flipped from offensive to defensive." Lai brought her sword to Sokka's club to try and get a reaction.

He did exactly as she excepted and attacked. She easily countered the attack and flipped him. Sokka let out a loud Oof! before turning his gaze to the teen standing above him. Her gaze was cold.

"Apparently we have a lot of work to do to make you a possible opponent."

Lai held her hand out to him to help him up, which the young warrior took gratefully.

"Alright. Try not to fail this time."

A couple of hours later, Sokka found himself limping back to the home he shared with his sister and Aang. He didn't expect the girl to be that good when they passed over her sparring with that one guy, but he was pleasantly surprised and slightly baffled at how good she actually was. He meant to ask, but he was kind of distracted by almost break his back on his club. He rubbed his back at the memory, mumbling something about moody teenage girls as he walked into the house.

"Morning Sokka! You're sure up early!"

Add a headache to the growing list of things of things that hurt/ached/stung on Sokka's body. He simply patted the airbender's head before flopping into the nearest seat. He groaned and threw his arm over his face. Aang just shrugged before waving to Katara. He whistled as he walked out into the frozen air, almost screaming his greetings at the water tribe people who walked by. \

Katara turned to face her brother, back to the stove. Not that Sokka could see, but Katara's face was washed with worry. "Sokka, you okay?"

"Yeah, just great Katara."

"Where were you all morning?"

Sokka threw his arm down and let out a long groan. "Katara, too many questions. Just shush!"

Katara glared over at her brother. She stomped over to him and threw the bowl of breakfast, what it was he didn't know, and put her face in his.

"I will not shush! You were gone all morning! I was worried when I didn't find you in your bed and I thought that-"

"-that what, Katara? The Fire Nation isn't here." Sokka sighed. "If you really want to know, I was training with a girl named Lai. I saw her beating up some dude yesterday and I thought she could give me an edge in warrior training. Happy?"

She just huffed in reply before grabbing her own bowl of food and sitting down at the table. Shoving the food into her mouth as delicately, and angrily, as possible, Katara kept her gaze on her brother.

Wait. She thought. Did he say Lai?

"Sokka, do you remember what dad said about our cousins?"

"Yeah, some kids born from some Fire Navy guy. They had typical Fire Nation names."

"And...those were?"

"Lee and Lai-oh. OH! You think this is them?"

Katara shrugged. "Dad did say he got a message saying they ran away. Who know's where they went?"

"Maybwe it's jwst aw couwincidewce?" He replied with a mouthful. Sokka swallowed his food before continuing. "Look, just let it go. It's not like we're going to find family all the way out here, especially during a war."

Katara sighed. "You're probably right, Sokka. I have to go to training, I'll see you later."

As she left, Sokka began to let his thoughts wander. Sokka didn't notice anything noteworthy about Lai. She was your typical water tribe person, minus the raven-like hair that rivaled Prince Zuko's. Maybe one of her parents was just naturally darker toned, he mused, or maybe she darkens it with ash? He didn't know, but didn't think much of it as he prepared himself for warrior training. As he walked out of the small house with club in hand, one thing Lai said that morning lingered in his head.

We're both outsiders here.