Author's notes: Have I really not updated in three months? And am I still doing prompts for an event that ended in May? ^^; I'll try to be more attentive in the future.

When Yun woke up the next morning, he was surprised that it was almost noon. Wandering out of the tent, he found that the camp was abandoned, except for Mipung still sleeping off to the side.

The stone table that he had created for dinner the previous night was still there. There was a bowl of fruit left out for him, along with a note.

Distinguished Elegant Shout (?)

Dad said you were up late last night and that we should let you sleep in. Hope you're feeling alright.

Then, in a messier scrawl, Come find us when you wake up!

Then, back in Norbu's script: Only if you want.

Yun chuckled, then looked back to puzzle over the first line. Finally it occurred to him to sound the characters out. "Trishna." He rolled his eyes at his own stupidity.

"I can hear Master Amak now," he said, glancing at the sleeping bison. "'You chose a fake name and didn't even think how to spell it? Rooky mistake, Avatar.'"

Mipung ignored him.

Yun grabbed the bowl from the table, leaned against Mipung's furry side and began to peel one of his fruits. Then he hesitated, and, with his free hand, tried to levitate some of the nearby stones by his feet.

They rose easily, with none of the awkwardness that he had experienced the previous night. He had them float in complicated patterns, and then, thinking back at the letter, spell out each of the three characters of "Trishna" in turn. No problem.

He let them fall to the ground. "I was just tired," he said, taking another piece of fruit. "Dumb to let myself get so upset. By now, Truc must think I'm a lunatic."

He shook his head as the conversation played over in his mind. It was more information than he should have given. Or rather...it was more personal than he should have gotten. He felt his cheeks burn. He told himself that Truc would be nice enough not to bring it up. Then wondered how many times this sort of thing could happen before Truc did bring it up.

He finished eating, then said "So. Do I want to go into town and meet the others...or avoid any awkwardness by spending the day in your lovely company?"

He gave Mipung's leg a light smack with his hand. She shifted as though trying to shrug him off.

"Fine," he said, straightening up. "I know when I'm not wanted. But I'll charm you one of these days."

He pointed to Mipung as he walked off. She snorted and went back to sleep.

The three Airbending kids made their way through the town of Seonum. The older two were engaged in a bout of childish bickering, while the younger girl was clinging to her brother's robes.

A pair of bandits were watching them from across the street.

Zol clapped her hands together, a crooked grin on her face. "And the kiddies are off on their lonesome. No mama or papa around to protect them."

Yode made a face. "Wouldn't Mama and Papa be the ones carrying most of their money?"

"Shut up," Zol grunted, and moved after the Air Nomads without another word.

"Hey—"

Yode ran after her, but continued to grouse as they walked.

"I'm telling you, Zol, this isn't worth it. They're Air Nomads."

"Yeah. Easy pickings."

"But they'll have, like, a few copper pieces at most. And besides—" He faltered.

She waited a few seconds, still gazing across the crowded street to keep the kids' orange-and-red robes in sight. "Yes?"

"They're Air Nomads. Robbing them has to be, like...bad karma or something." In the back of his mind, Yode was thinking of the old folktales that he had heard as a kid. Several of them involved bandits attacking seemingly defenseless people who turned out to be powerful spirits in disguise. Air Nomad monks were a popular choice for that role.

Zol gave him a withering look, then turned back to their targets.

"HEY!"

Norbu felt something collide with his stomach so hard that he stumbled into an alley, knocking over Aparna and nearly falling to the ground himself. Dechen gave a shrill and somewhat overdramatic scream.

When Norbu looked up, he saw a man and a woman in front of him. And behind them, a seven-foot stone wall that one of them had earthbent in front of the alley's entrance.

Zol grinned, arms crossed over her chest, looking confident and menacing. Yode stood a bit to the side, holding a short club and trying to match his partner's bravado.

"Norbu—" Aparna said fearfully, but he ignored her, standing slowly and raising his arms.

"Uh—no need for any trouble," he said, his mouth suddenly dry. He reached carefully into his pocket. "This is all we have, but—"

"Don't give them our money!" said Dechen, despite her scream less than thirty seconds before. She struck a battle pose. "It's three against two! We can take 'em!"

Zol snorted as Norbu gaped at her. "Dechen! Ignore her," her added, turning back to the bandits.

"Yeah," said a voice from above them. "She can't even count."

Everyone turned. In Zol's case, just in time to have her nose broken by a fist-sized stone.

"AGH!"

"Zol!" Yode cried.

"It's four to two," Yun said, grinning cockily as he balanced on top of the thin wall.

"Trishna!" Dechen squealed, dropping her stance in order to clasp her hands together.

Zol roared, blood dripping from her fingers as she held her nose. "You little—"

Yun didn't wait for her to finish. He stomped down, and the wall collapsed beneath him.

Yode covered his face at the avalanche of dust and stone. Norbu, on instinct, summoned up a blast of air to protect him and his sisters, but he needn't have bothered—Yun pulled on the debris with his earthbending, keeping the majority of it around their attackers. Meanwhile, he was moving the bigger chunks of rock to make a stairwell, stepping from one to another until he reached the ground. He managed to look remarkably casual about this.

Zol was trying to bend the dust away from her face, but it was too slight and insubstantial for most earthbenders to deal with. Yun used one hand to keep the cloud swirling around her head, and with the other, summoned a collection of smaller pebbles around his arm, making a rocky gauntlet halfway to his elbow.

With Zol still blinded, he pulled his arm back and slammed a stony fist into her stomach.

He heard a gasp from inside the dirty fog, and the bandit fell to her knees. Yun grinned—just in time to get knocked in the back of the head with a club.

"YAAGGHH!"

"UGH!" He staggered, almost slammed into the female bandit, and spun around to snarl at her companion. Right—Yun had been so focused on her that Yode had managed to escape his own cloud. He raised the club again—

"Trishna!" Dechen cried, at the same moment that Yun shot the rocks on his arm into his attacker's chest. Yode let out a muffled gasp and slammed into the wall of the alley. The rocks flew back to Yun, reforming his earthbent armor.

He spun back around. Zol was stumbling and trying to summon her own ammunition from the broken pile of wall. But Yun was faster, even with his head still spinning from Yode's attack.

POW!

He punched his rock fist into the swirls of dust around her face, knocking her to the ground.

Before she could recover again, Yun was kneeling on her chest and punched again.

And again.

"Trishna! I—I think she's unconscious?"

Norbu's voice started loud, then sort of petered off into uncertainty. Yun paused with his fist raised again.

Zol was indeed knocked out. And her face was a real mess. Yun glanced at his fist, mildly surprised to see blood on the stones.

He let the rocks fall off and stood up. Part of him wanted to kick the unconscious bandit, but he shook the feeling away. Then his eyes shot to the alley wall, where Yode was still standing, now rather green in the face.

"I'd grab your girlfriend and run, if I were you."

He moved aside. Yode swallowed, and his club clattered to the ground. He grabbed Zol under the arms and began to drag her out of the alley. By this point he was pretty sure that the tall Earthbender in the Air Nomad robes was actually a dangerous spirit.

Yun and the others watched in silence as Yode dragged Zol over the pile of debris, threw her over his shoulder with difficulty, and ran off. Yun exhaled, then turned to his friends.

Norbu stepped back. He wanted to say something, but all that came out was "What's wrong with your eyes?"

"Huh? I dunno, what?" Yun felt around them, searching for injuries.

Norbu tilted his head. "Never mind," he murmured, still looking unnerved. "Just a trick of the light."

"That was scary," Aparna interrupted, close to tears as she clung to Norbu's robe. He put a hand on her head protectively.

"Trishna was scary!" Dechen said. It was clearly a compliment. "Did you bend the dust? It was like you were Airbending!"

Yun smiled, twinkled his fingers, and casually brought together some of the particles still hanging in the air, making a little cloud above his hand. "Yeah—not many earthbenders can do this. You just have to think of each grain as a tiny piece of earth." He had a sudden, stupid idea and said, "Watch."

With a bit of effort, he tried to mold the dust into a character. It was harder than with pebbles, and a bit fuzzy, but then he asked, "Can you read that?"

"'Cloud!' It's a cloud that says 'cloud!'" Dechen giggled.

Yun grinned, waving it away. It was also the character that spelled "Yun," but none of them caught Distinguished Elegant Shout's little joke.

Aparna was still shaken, and wanted to spend the rest of the day at the family stall. Norbu held her hand as they made their way back to the market, with Dechen and Trishna walking in front.

Norbu felt jumpy, and not just because of the bandits.

He stared at Trishna. Dechen was jabbering up at him, and he was showing her all of his usual attentiveness.

He was such a nice guy. He had just saved them from getting mugged, after all.

But still. As he smiled at Dechen, Norbu remembered the snarl of rage on his face as he beat that unconscious bandit into the ground. It was a difficult contrast to reconcile.

A/N: "Trishna" is a Sanskrit name that I tried to spell with Chinese characters. I did my best.

Also, "Yun" can be translated into a bunch of different characters, but I imagine F.C. Yee intended for it to mean "cloud," since people in Makapu wear cloud patterns on their clothing. (It also sort of fits for something coming up later in this story.)