Truc waited until Yun was done crying, then gently tried to ask him some more questions. All Yun could do was shake his head. He had wowed world leaders, negotiated with the Fifth Nation and even managed to manipulate an ancient, man-eating spirit, but now he didn't even know how to tell people his name.

In the end, Truc gave him a weak smile, patted him on the shoulder and exited the tent. Yun was left alone.

He laid back down in his makeshift bed and tried to think.

The tent flap opened a while later. "Hello? Are you alright in here?"

Yun sat up. There was a boy crouching in the threshold of the tent, with a canteen hanging over his shoulder. He looked a little younger than Yun, with a round, earnest face and gray eyes. Again Yun was surprised by the presence of hair. Truc had been the first male Air Nomad that Yun had ever seen without a shaven head, and this kid had a ponytail.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Good." The boy smiled nervously, holding up the canteen. "My dad sent me to bring you more water. And my mom wants to know if you're hungry. She says you can join us for dinner, or if you're sick, you can—hey!"

Just then, a girl of about ten rushed under the boy's arm and took the place where Truc had sat before.

"Hi!" she said cheerfully. "I'm Dechen! I'm the one who found you, so you kind of owe me your life. What's your name?"

"Get out of here!" the boy said, coming inside and trying to pull her away.

Yun gave a short scoff. "It's okay," he said weakly. "She can stay."

The boy reluctantly released her. "You're gonna regret that," he murmured.

He was immediately proven right. "I heard our dad tell our mom that you started crying when he asked you your name," Dechen said. "What's that about?"

"Dechen!"

The boy's face went red, though Yun's was redder. He looked down and started buttoning his shirt, if only to distract himself from that line of conversation.

"What? I'm just saying—"

"He's our guest, you can't just—!"

"—start crying when people ask you your name, that's kinda weird, isn't it?"

"I'm so sorry," the boy said, trying to pull her out of the tent again. "She's just—"

"It's okay." Yun was smiling when he looked up. If there was one thing that he was good at, it was charming his way out of awkward situations. "You're right, Dechen—that was weird. I guess I was still a little delirious from the thirst, and it was making me act funny. And thank you for finding me." He clasped his hands together and bowed, as if the little girl was a sage whom he was meeting for his Avatar duties. "Without you, I would have been a goner."

The boy scowled at his sister's praise. Dechen beamed.

"So what is your name?"

Yun hesitated for just a second. Then he saw the canteen that the boy had put down. He picked it up, took a long swig, and swallowed it as loudly as he could, smacking his lips as he finished.

"Trishna," he said, grinning. "Do you know what that name means?"

"'Thirsty!'" she giggled.

"Yeah! Guess it was a good choice for me, wasn't it?"

Dechen's laughter was interrupted by a voice calling from outside the tent.

"Dechen! You could help me for a minute?"

She groaned, then yelled, "Coming, Mom!" She stood up, clasped her hands and bowed back at Yun. "I gotta go. See you, Thirsty!"

She ran past her brother and out of the tent. The boy cleared his throat and took her spot on the floor.

"I'm sorry. She's always being a pest." He glared after her, then turned to Yun. "I'm Norbu, by the way."

"Pleased to meet you, Norbu. I'm Trishna. As you've probably heard."

"Is that really your name?"

Yun flinched. Norbu hunched his shoulders, then cleared his throat and looked away.

"Anyway, do you want dinner? We'd be happy to have you."

Yun considered. While thirst had been the more immediate concern, he realized that he hadn't eaten anything in about a week. Well...except for one thing, and he didn't want to think about that.

"I would love to, as long as I wouldn't be imposing." Then he looked down at himself. He was covered with dirt and blood, with tatterdemalion clothes. "Though I'm not sure if I'm presentable."

"There's a stream not far from here if you want to wash up."

To Norbu's surprise, Yun groaned.

"Seriously? I almost die of thirst, and it's within walking distance of a stream?"

"It's not a very big stream," Norbu said quickly. "And it's not too close. About a quarter-mile, maybe?"

Yun nodded vaguely, then began to stand. Norbu climbed to his feet as well, looking like he expected Yun to faint from the effort.

"I'm alright," he assured. "Really."

"If you're sure..."

They exited the tent. Yun blinked in the afternoon sun. There were two other tents set up, each a little smaller than the one he had just exited; Yun could see the product of his earthbending on his left, forming a sort of wall on the border of the campground. On the other side, outside the circle of tents, Truc was brushing a sky bison, which was lying on the ground and seemed to be asleep.

In the center of the camp was a tall, thin woman with long, braided hair; she wore Air Nomad colors like the rest of her family, as well as a necklace of wooden beads. She was stirring a pot over a fire while Dechen sat next to her, babbling endlessly. Another girl, who was about five, saw Yun emerge from the tent and hid herself on the woman's other side.

The woman looked up and smiled. Yun's first thought was that she had a very nice smile.

"Well, looks like our guest is up and about. Aparna? Say hello to our new friend."

The youngest girl peeked out, hesitated, and then wiggled her fingers in Yun's direction.

He bent down and smiled. "Hi, Aparna."

Aparna hid behind her mother's robe again.

"Mom, this is Trishna," Norbu said, motioning to him. "Trishna, this is our mother, Jamyang."

"I already told her that his name is Trishna," Dechen announced. Norbu rolled his eyes.

"Pleased to meet you, Trishna," Jamyang said. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine. And please, let me thank you." He put his hands together again and bowed. "I would have died without your assistance." He thought back to the mining town, to those people's awful, indifferent mockery and added, "I needed it more than you could ever know."

"He also wants to stay for dinner," Norbu added.

"Well, we'll be happy to have you." Then Jamyang frowned, looking Yun up and down. "Although..."

"I was just planning to go wash up in the river."

She smiled again. "You read my mind."

"It's not much of a river, to be honest," Truc said. He used a cloth to wipe fur off his hands as he approached. "Though there should be enough to take a bath. Do you want me or Norbu to fly you there on Mipung?"

"No, thanks." Remembering his earlier breakdown, Yun chose to look past Truc toward the sleeping bison. "I'm good to walk."

He pointed up the mountain, advising Yun to turn west at a certain tree. Unlike his daughter, Truc seemed to be pretending that the crying incident hadn't happened. Yun was willing to go along with that.

Norbu offered Yun some clothes to change into after his bath, and Jamyang let him borrow an earthenware pot. He walked off with it floating behind him, which Dechen found hilarious. She followed him as he left the camp, with him lowering and raising it as she tried to snatch it out of the air.

Jamyang went back to her cooking as he left. "So. The thirsty boy is named 'Thirsty.' That's an interesting coincidence."

"Yeah," said Norbu, in a tone that made his skepticism perfectly clear.

"What happened to your hand?" Dechen asked. "Is it just dirty, or are you hurt?"

He glanced at it. "No, more like...accidentally tattooed. It's a long story."

"I like long stories."

He stopped and turned to her, arms crossed over his chest. "Well, no offense, but I was kind of hoping to take my bath in private. Maybe another time."

She looked up at his smirking face, smirked back, then turned and ran back to the camp.

Yun exhaled, finally able to drop his fake smile. The rest of his walk was taken in an almost eerie silence.

As Truc had said, the stream wasn't very broad or deep; it barely rose higher than Yun's knees. Still, he washed his dirty clothes as best he could, laid them out to dry, and then sat cross-legged in the water, scrubbing himself clean as the pot repeatedly emptied itself over him.

This wasn't the first time that he had done this stuff since being declared the Avatar—he had gone on long excursions with his teachers, which sometimes required camping. But he was used to servants at the mansion doing his laundry, and getting to relax in a bathroom of his own—with hot water, as Kyoshi had recently quipped. Now that he was no longer the Avatar—or never had been, he reminded himself—bathing in a river no longer seemed like a fun way to rough it when he was out and about. It reminded him of his days in Makapu, when a shower meant standing under the eaves during a storm.

He dipped his head into the shallow water to try and shake all the dirt out of his hair. No wonder Truc guessed that he had been in a fight—he was covered all over with bruises and cuts, and his reflection showed that he had a black eye. Worst of all, when he cleaned his back, he felt a cluster of raised scars and instantly remembered where they came from.

Father Glowworm's teeth.

He shuddered, and his stomach clenched. He felt the dull ache of hunger. It wasn't nearly as bad as it should have been, though, given how long it had been since he'd eaten anything but...that. He wondered again about the side effects of that meal.

Yun was just about to climb out when he paused. He sat back down, closed his eyes, and took several deep breaths.

From his reading and a few conversations with Master Amak, Yun knew the most basic aspects of waterbending. The techniques were different, but fundamentally, all bending was the same. Extend yourself and feel the water, the same way that you would feel the earth.

He raised his hands slowly, silently begging the water to rise, to prove that Father Glowworm had been lying all along.

He opened his eyes.

Nothing had happened, because of course it hadn't.

Miserably, Yun climbed onto the bank and pulled on his borrowed Air Nomad clothes.

When it was time to eat, Yun casually raised a table-sized slab of stone and six smaller pillars to use as chairs. His hosts were more impressed by this than he had expected, and Dechen in particular insisted on taking the seat closest to Yun's.

"I hope you don't mind vegetarian food," Jamyang said as she poured some soup into his bowl.

"No problem." Yun had gotten used to that during his stay at the Southern Air Temple—though he had always sneaked a bit of gemsbok-bull jerky in with him, just to be rebellious. He picked up his chopsticks and began fishing out the vegetables. It tasted good, and it sated his aching stomach, though with his poor mood he didn't really enjoy it as much as he should have.

The six of them ate in silence for a moment. Eventually Truc said, "So, Trishna..."

Yun looked up. He was consciously keeping an ear open for that name, worried that he would slip up at some point.

"Are you from around here?"

Yun tensed up. In Earth Kingdom terms he could say yeah—Yokoya was only a short bison ride away, and he was used to longer trips. But it was Avatar Yun who lived there. He was homeless.

"Not really."

"Where are you from?" Dechen asked.

He considered his words carefully. He wondered how much this particular family knew about the Avatar's backstory.

"North of here."

"What brings you down here, then?"

"It's a long story," Yun said, his eyes on his food. He didn't have to look at Truc to feel the way he was watching him. Even Dechen seemed to notice how closed-off he was acting.

"Are you headed anywhere in particular?" Jamyang asked. "We'd be happy to give you a ride."

Yun shrugged, still not meeting their eyes. He had thought about it long and hard, as he lay alone in that tent, and had only come up with places he couldn't go. There was no place for him in Yokoya now that Kyoshi was the Avatar. If he showed up on the doorstep, it would be as a beggar. What was he gonna do, ask if he could take a job as the butler for his former maid?

And of course, it wasn't Kyoshi that he would have to ask. It was Sifu. Jianzhu.

CRACK!

The Air Nomads jumped. Yun's hand had balled into a fist, sending a thin fracture down the length of the makeshift table. The parents and Norbu looked at him in surprise, while Aparna spilled her lychee juice.

"Sorry." Yun unclenched his fist, forcing an awkward laugh. "I just—got distracted there for a minute."

"Don't worry. Norbu messes up his bending a lot too," Dechen said. "Once he sneezed in his sleep so badly that it blew down his whole tent!"

Norbu growled and glared at her.

"Anyway...I'm not sure where I'm going. I guess you could say that I'm a nomad too."

"But you sound so sad about it."

Yun, who had been trying to inject a wry tone in his voice, blinked. Norbu was giving Dechen another indignant look, while her parents simply looked uncomfortable, trading glances between her and Yun.

Norbu turned back to Yun and said, "If you're not headed anywhere in particular, you could just travel with us for a while."

"No," Yun said quickly. "Thank you, but you've all done enough already."

"No we haven't," Dechen said brightly. "We like traveling companions!"

Truc exchanged a silent look with his wife, then turned to Yun. "We'd be happy to have you, if you want to come. Right now we're headed to meet some people on Qidong Island—it's part of the Fire Nation, technically, but not far off from the Earth Kingdom coast. We could drop you off anywhere between here or there. We don't keep on too tight of a schedule, either, so it's no problem if you need us to fly you a day or two out of of our way."

Yun looked up and gave him a weak, noncommittal smile. It sounded too good to be true, the experienced swindler in him thought, though he had never known an Air Nomad to pull a con.

Jamyang gave Yun a long, thoughtful look, as though she could see the thoughts fighting in his mind. He turned away as casually as he could.

After dinner, Dechen grabbed Yun's hand and dragged him off so that she could show him her airbending skills. Part of this involved accidentally-on-purpose sending a huge gust at Norbu as he was trying to write a letter, which led to him chasing her around the camp, punching blasts of air as he went.

Despite his mood, Yun didn't have to fake laughing this time, even as Truc came out of the biggest tent and started calling at them to play nicer.

As Yun watched all this, smiling to himself, he felt something pull on the hem of his tunic. He looked down and saw Aparna, who smiled shyly.

"Can I show you my airbending, Trissa?" she asked, speaking to him for the first time.

"It's Trish-na. And sure."

Unsurprisingly, Aparna only knew the most basic moves, and could only send out mild gusts from her hands. Still, Yun made a big show of being impressed, and the older kids finally stopped their fighting to join the audience.

"Now show us some of your earthbending!" Dechen demanded.

"Don't be rude. He doesn't have to perform for us."

"Yeah," Yun yawned, stretching his arms out. "I'm kind of tired. I'm not sure if I—"

He flicked his wrists, and all three siblings shot into the air, each standing on a small platform of earth. Aparna screamed in fear, so Yun lowered hers until she was whizzing a few inches above the campground; Dechen, however, howled with delight as she rose ten feet up, and Norbu, who had fallen to his knees in surprise, chuckled nervously as Yun put them all back down.

"Wow. Are you, like...an earthbending master already?"

Yun shrugged, his smile a bit sheepish. He probably shouldn't be showing off this much, but he had been flaunting his earthbending long before anyone claimed he was the Avatar.

After that, Truc called his children over to meditate before bed. Yun was surprised, in a way, precisely because it was something that he recognized from his time with Kelsang and the other monks. This whole day had been a new experience for him. Somehow he had never thought much about Air Nomad families, even though he had realized, dimly, that a race couldn't perpetuate itself if all of its members were sworn to celibacy.

"Would you like to join us?" Truc asked, as the four of them took their places in a circle. "It calms the mind and helps you sleep."

"No, thanks," Yun said. A dull chill crept over him as he remembered the last time that he had tried to meditate. Anyway, he wasn't going to find inner peace tonight.

He wandered off toward the edge of camp, staring up at the darkening sky. It had been decided, without anyone actually saying it, that Yun was going to spend the night with them. And in the morning? They would leave on their bison, and Yun...wasn't sure what he would do. Where he could go. Who he even was anymore.

It was funny, really. He had spent the last two years traveling all over the world, meeting people from every nation. He could have rattled off the names of the fifty most important people in the Earth Kingdom, and had met at least half of them. He was on first-name basis with Fire Lord Zoryu. And now...

Now he had nothing.

He felt tears come to his eyes again. He took a slow, ragged breath.

"Trishna?"

He turned, hoping that his eyes weren't wet enough to be noticeable in the dim light. Jamyang stood at the entrance to the biggest tent, the one where Yun had been resting earlier in the day. He realized that that was probably where she and Truc slept.

"If you're not busy with anything, you could help me for a minute?"

"Sure. Just a second."

She turned and went back in. He took a quick moment to wipe his eyes before following.

"I just need to get some sewing done," she said as he took a seat across from her on the floor. "Could you hold this thread?"

"Um, okay."

He took it, and she got to work. A few moments of silence passed. Yun was very conscious of the fact that he wasn't actually needed for this task, which clearly meant that Jamyang had another motive for calling him.

In the distance, Dechen burst into laughter and Norbu screamed in frustration.

"I don't think they're meditating right," Yun said.

Jamyang nodded calmly. "You see why I don't join them. It's very dangerous to my sense of serenity." She looked up, meeting his eyes. "I don't mean to pry, and I hope that you don't take offense at this. But you're not some kind of criminal, are you?"

Yun blinked. "No!" Even as he said it, though, it occurred to him that he had assaulted six people and destroyed half a town earlier that morning.

"I'm sorry to ask that. I just have to be sure that I'm not putting my family in danger." She kept her eyes on her sewing and said, "But if you don't have anywhere else to go, then we really would be happy if you came with us. I would hate to leave and think that you were stuck wandering around the mountains by yourself."

Yun took a deep breath. He felt a dull ache, like his whole body had been hurting for a while and he only now noticed it.

"Thanks, but you really don't have to worry about me. I'll be alright." He forced more cheer into his voice. "I've been on my own before."

"That doesn't mean you have to be."

Yun took a deep breath. Yeah, he wanted to say. I started to think that, too. Now I know better.

As he was lost in thought, Jamyang put down her work, reached behind her and pulled out a blanket, rolled up and tied together with some vines. She handled it to Yun.

"You can sleep in Norbu's tent tonight. Just think about it, would you?"

Yun took the bedding without another word. He just nodded, stood, and left.

He made himself a bed in Norbu's tent, curled up under the covers and closed his eyes. Norbu came in a few minutes later and whispered "Trishna? Are you awake?" Yun didn't answer, just listened as the younger boy got into his own blankets and went to sleep.

Yun stayed awake for a long time, thinking about his options—or rather, his lack of them. He couldn't go back to Yokoya. He couldn't stay with anyone who knew "Avatar Yun." Two years of his life had been wasted. He was back to being a street kid from Makapu, except that he didn't even have the streets of Makapu anymore.

Every time his mind wandered back to Jianzhu—his sifu, his savior, his—his killer—he had to restrain himself from shattering the entire mountain to rubble. He panted as he lay in bed, frightened by his own rage. Even now, Jianzhu was probably parading his new Avatar to all his associates, while Yun was what? A blemish on his record? Ha ha, I sure am embarrassed that I got the wrong kid for two years. Anyway, look! It's only been a week, and unlike that reject, Kyoshi has already learned to bend fire!

Kyoshi...

Yun turned over onto his side, a sick, twisted feeling in his stomach.

He wasn't ready to think about Kyoshi yet. Or Rangi. Or—

His eyes watered. Stop it, Yun. Don't get distracted. Think about your next move.

But still, he closed his eyes and thought about his friend, and knew, in some way that he couldn't explain, that she was in the Taihua Mountains. Jianzhu was probably taking her to Ba Sing Se. Maybe she was going to see the Earth King—the most important person in the world whom Yun had never met.

He did consider the family's offer. It seemed like his only good option, but it made him uneasy for other reasons.

Yun didn't want to be a charity case. On the streets of Makapu, he had swindled and performed for every copper piece that he got, and he had put his sweat, tears and yes, even his blood into being the Avatar. Sure, maybe that forty-fifth Pai Sho board had been excessive, but nobody could claim that Yun hadn't worked for the luxuries that came with that lifestyle. Accepting some water and a meal was fine, but he wasn't planning to make a habit of that. He'd wander off and starve rather than live on their pity.

There was also his breakdown in front of Truc. That affected his decision more than he wanted to admit. He didn't want to be around anyone who had seen him like that.

He thought long into the night. He would go with them. He wouldn't. He would. He wouldn't.

He wouldn't.

It was just about dawn when he rose from his bed, dressed in his tattered Earth Kingdom clothes, and crept away from the camp.

The sky slowly brightened as Yun stumbled along the mountain path. He still wasn't sure where he was going, and he struggled to keep his eyes open after a sleepless night. He would find somewhere to rest where the family couldn't find him, then figure out plan once they had flown off.

"Hey, kid."

He looked up and blinked. Two men in uniforms were walking toward him. Their outfits reminded him of the man guarding the well in town, as did the clubs that they carried.

Yun froze. He suddenly realized that, as he half-sleepwalked down the mountain, he had unconsciously been following the raised ground of his own earthbending—meaning that he had been heading back toward the mining town. The one that he had heavily damaged after assaulting six people.

He looked down at himself. It had seemed wrong, sneaking away with Norbu's borrowed clothes, but he suddenly wished that he was dressed as an Air Nomad.

"We need to ask you some—agh!"

Yun struck! Both men suddenly found themselves waist-deep in the ground. He turned and began to run away, only to trip as his own ankle suddenly disappeared into the earth. He pulled it out just in time to see one of the guards rise out of the hole that Yun had created, his lower half hidden in a pillar of dirt.

The guard scowled down at Yun before striking.

Still, Yun had knocked out three guards the previous day without any problem. The fight didn't last more than ten seconds.

The second guard, who was apparently not a bender, was still struggling and growling as Yun deposited his unconscious companion beside him.

"When I get out of here, brat, you'll be—"

"Long gone. But don't worry. I didn't hurt your friend too badly. He should be up soon." Despite himself, Yun tittered, feeling woozy. "I'm surprised it took you guys so long to find me. I didn't do a good job covering my tracks. You're probably not stationed in town, right? They had to call you from somewhere else?"

The guard just glared at him. Yun sighed, blinking the tiredness from his eyes.

"Anyway...sorry to leave you like this, but I gotta go. Hope you don't get fired."

"Hey! Come back here, you—daofei trash!"

Yun winced at that one, but kept walking, then started to jog.

"Hey!"

Norbu, who had been taking down the tents, looked up in surprise as he saw Yun round the earthbent wall. Truc paused in the act of loading Mipung, standing on the saddle with a hand blocking the sun from his eyes.

"Trishna!" He jumped down from the sky bison, using airbending to flutter safely to the ground. "We weren't expecting to see you again."

"Yeah. I woke up and you were just gone." Norbu's tone was wounded.

Yun had tried to come up with a good excuse as he ran back to the camp; failing that, he put his arms to his side and gave a deep bow toward Truc. "I'm sorry. It was rude of me to leave without saying anything, or to thank you again for everything that you've done for me." He hesitated for a half-second before adding, "But if the offer is still open, I would be honored if you would let me travel with your family."

He kept his waist bent and his eyes on the ground as he spoke, so he was surprised when Truc scoffed and gave him a painless knock on the head.

"No need to sound so formal, son. We'd be happy to have you, as long as you're not afraid of heights." As Yun straightened up, Truc glanced away and called "Hey! Look who came back after all!"

The girls were coming back from the direction of the stream, Jamyang with a large bowl full of plants that she had collected, while Dechen and Aparna were carrying an assortment of canteens and water skins. The former let out a squeal of delight when she saw Yun, dropping them and racing over to tackle him in the stomach.

"Thirsty! Does this mean you're coming with us?"

Without thinking, Yun put a hand on top of her head. "Yeah. If that's alright with everyone."

"As long as you don't make it a habit of wandering off without saying goodbye," Jamyang chided.

All this attention was making Yun's face heat up, so he was happy when Norbu called him over to help pack up the tent.

Author's notes: "Trishna" is a Sanskrit name. I'm pretty sure that it's supposed to refer to a metaphorical, spiritual "thirst," but for Yun it works both ways.