Chapter 4: Again into the City of dreams
People say that you should not uproot old trees, but much to my puzzlement I neither felt uprooted nor unhappy. I never before had worked on a mackerel trawler, or a ship in general and even if the unsteady decks had made me stumble and retch my guts out in the first two days on high sea, I got used to it pretty fast. And with the sickness also the disgust I held for anything that had to do with boats disappeared. Actually the wide sky, the strong winds and the green sea were beautiful. Captain Dee was a rough tar jacket, as were most of his crewmen. There were just two women on board, Sokka and the ship`s cook Aki, who also was Captain Dee´s wife. The sea-horse did what Fire Nations fishermen had done for centuries. They drove north, riding the fish rich Unagi -stream, smoking or salting the young mackerel, which were traveling north to grow into big, burly fishes. I always liked working with my hands, and so the gutting of fishes, repair of nets and such stuff came really easy to me.
I also was shocked about the talent Sokka showed at this. Most likely it was just me being blind – because daughters always stay clumsy four year olds that want to marry their father. Nope, actually I was rather proud that she was able to keep up with the guys, because a fisherman's work is a hard work – as my back sometimes noticed. Compared to the other men I had no backaches at all, Captain Dee walked on a cane and was groaning all the time, and he was almost ten years younger than me. The sun had tanned me, so I almost had reached the dark tone of a water tribe guy. Sokka was pulling on the nets, along with the other sailors, while I was sharpening the gutting knifes on a wetting stone. It was a cloudless day and a swarm of "gloweyes" followed our ship. As far as I knew gloweyes were some kind of dual creatures, such as dragons. Physical beings that were tied to the spirit planes, which lead to them defying the laws of physics through energy-mass shifts. How else would you explain the flying of two tons of teeth and claws that were NOT airbending!
Yeah – I ´ve been keeping my head in the sciences, even after councilman Sokka died and it was baffling to see what the people had discovered in the last twenty years. My daughter sadly had as much interest for physics as most nineteen-year olds, which meant none. "Ey Lee, you done – the net´s damn heavy this time." Six finger Han yelled with a voice as rough as an Ostrich horses. I dropped the whetstone and the knife and headed over there. My hands were calloused again so it did not hurt to grip the rough rope. My muscles bulged as we pulled on the net, while the trawlers railing was leaning towards the seaside more and more. "Pull on yer measly fuckers!" Dee yelled from the steering wheel. Somebody fell into a rhythmic sea song, how singing crude songs made you able to work harder was something I did not understand, while my daughter loved the singing. The net was rather heavy, sadly there was a large amount of gloweyes in there. Since the spirit portals had opened these little bastards seemed to have multiplied. They were rather small fishes, about as long as my forearm, with an eel like body and a large snout filled with needle like teeth.
Their eyes were glowing in a bright white light and some fishermen told that the gloweyes were like a storm that thrived though the seas, leaving nothing behind but clean picked bones. Indeed, the little rascals were slithering around and chewed at everything that came near their teeth. "Butchering time Pals." I yelled and put on my chainmail gloves. The nets content splattered on the wooden planks, the gloweyes slithering everywhere. We all were wearing thick leather boots and soon twelve people with bloodied knifes were gutting gloweyes as if they had hell to pay. Aki also had attended the deck, rolling empty barrels on deck and piling up the filets in salt was enough for her and Sokka to do. Aki alone was too weak to get the full barrels back under deck. Our travel was nearing its end, the shoreline was no stranger to me. Outside of Republic City not much seemed to have changed in the United Republic. The people still relied on farming and fishing to earn their living. There were no big mines or factories that near to the coast. By tonight we would reach Yue Bay, which somehow filled me with anticipation.
We had lived on the sea for three full months. We just ran on small islands to refill the water tanks and take up some pickled cabbage. The trawler was deep in the water and I highly doubted that Captain Dee would sink the nets another time. It was a lucky coincidence that Captain Dee had lost two of his men to the united forces recruiting squads and such was searching hands in Lau An. I managed to talk him into taking two greenhorns like me and Sokka on board, because I charged no payment for our services. My daughter of course had been rambling about it, but Sokka simply loved rambling about anything. Indeed, we reached the mouth of Yue Bay in the light of the setting sun. It was a beautiful sight. Avatar Aang's Statue was towering into the heavens, shortly followed by a new statue of Avatar Korra. She looked less gentle and otherworldly, which might also be due to the crimson light that bathed the statue. Air Temple Island still looked like I remembered it. The Avatars house was as big and beautiful as ever, also there seemed to be many small shrines on the island. Somehow I felt a bit of melancholy settling in as I laid eyes on this city again.
Republic´s skyline had grown excessively. I had to admit that the buildings were impressing – far taller than anything I had seen before. Sokka was staring wide-eyed at the gigantic jungle of bricks and concrete that stretched around the hills around Yue Bay as far as one could see. And then there was a giant pillar of light that illuminated the whole city and made every light fire purposeless. The new Spirit portal. It was not just impressive, its wavering light was captivating and just by looking at it I felt the need to kneel down and speak a prayer. Sokka's mouth opened and closed as she looked at the sight in front of her. Even the sailors looked at the portal in awe. "Che… That wasn´t ere last time right bro?" six finger Han responded, his voice full of humility. "That my friend is nature – and we mere mortals think we´re ruling this place huh… Nah I say we´ve still gotta go the old ways n pray to the gods." Captain Dee answered. The guy actually had tears welling in his eyes and also my heart was swelling with joy. I could not imagine what kind of sight this was for people whose whole lives depended on the things they tore out of the seas deep belly. The old steam engine huffed steadily and drove the ship forward.
The docks had grown into a network of peer, quays and warehouse districts. "Holy Shit – t- that- that!" Sokka was blinking. "Republic did grow quite a bit." I responded chuckling. "You know – when your mom and I were living here the whole right side of the harbor was nothing but forests." I stated, but Sokka did not listen to me. She was too overwhelmed by the city. "And what is stinking so badly." She responded with a wrinkled nose. "Oh – beautiful waters of Yue Bay, how have I missed you." I hummed in satisfaction as I looked at the brown soup that now was freckled with massive dots of oil. Sokka just stared at Yue bay. "Not´s all that´s shiny is gold – are these people shitting in the rivers or what!" she grumbled with a wrinkled nose. I chuckled, of course my sweet Sokka would not know about things like river pollution. In a farming town like Lau An, the people collected their feces to use them as fertilizers. "Exactly, these fatsos can´t do anything besides guzzling n crapping!" Captain Dee responded disgusted. "Nevertheless we´ve to get ourselves a place to threw anchor, get some water and sell some damn good fish! Won´t go down south without some gramophones!" he responded. Sokka gulped, of course she had to be afraid of this city, mostly because she had proclaimed to get her own flat – her own life. While I trusted my kid to be able to handle this, I supposed she herself wasn´t so sure anymore. Even if I had loved to step in and clear her a path, I knew that Sokka herself would be furious at me once she had realized she dependent on me.
And of course I had people to meet that might not be very friendly towards me, it was not necessary to involve her in my complicated family businesses. Actually I still was not sure if I should contact my siblings, or Lin – actually contacting Lin was the thing that stuck in my stomach like a pentapus. I knew that I had let us drift apart after Uncle Sokka's death, because it was the easy way out. Lin had wrapped onto Tenzin like a second skin in that time, which mostly made me worry because it was Tenzin. Actually Yumi had prevented me from threatening Tenzin, or giving Lin a rather rough pep talk more than once. But since I´ve gotten no messages that contained a break up everything should be fine. In retrospect, I had to give my younger brother one thing. He was the one who held his people together – maybe not without arguments and hassles, but he did it. So I supposed that Lin finally was leading a live she wanted – nobody could be so retarded and follow the shadow of an almighty mother figure for half a decade! Captain Dee had already gotten a guide on the ship. The man stood behind the Steering wheel and circled the heavy trawler through the muddy waters as if he had grown up on this ship. "Dad – are you thinking about things? You know, I´ve been thinking about fighting real matches." She stated calmly. I grumbled in agreement.
Sokka always had a weakness for giving a performance and so entering a real dojo was the logic conclusion. Combat sports were extremely en vogue, and thanks to the overexploitation of probending in the last decades the good old hand to hand combats had a comeback. Surely Sokka had gone probending, if there were not the measly fact that airbenders weren´t allowed in. One reason more to take no interest in that sport, if you ask me my dear readers. "Good kid, I guess I´ve got to think of some advices till then. Just to make this clear Sokka… I´ll not hinder you doing what you want, but please let me find a place for myself before you go off in the city and search yourself a place. I want you to know where you can find me and that thing CAN swallow people." I hassled of my chest, while pointing on the colossus of Republic City. Sokka's head softly bumped against mine, I could vividly remember a time when she did not even reach my torso. I ruffled her hair and returned to work. Actually we had a deck to clean and a ship to unload. It was hard work to roll the heavy barrels over just four span broad planks, but luckily I could correct the tumbling barrels with airbending. If Sokka had to respond to the same unfair methods I did not find out. "Hah old man you´re busted, that´s the fifteenth!" Sokka yelled in triumph as she was rolling a barrel towards the delivery trucks that were already arranged.
Captain Dee seemed to have deeper connections in Republic than the average fisherman, which made me think twice about the true nature of his business. Most likely the guy was smuggling things, but that was luckily no concern of mine. Actually smugglers had never been criminals in my eyes, they did not hurt innocent people, did not steal from the poor…they just made money. "Ah shaddap ya lil brat." Six finger Han laughed, while he actually lifted one of the barrels onto a delivery truck. "That´s a man´s work girly. Twenny four." He huffed his chest, while eying my daughter rather chrm… obvious. Sokka responded playfully "In your dreams old man Han." I breathed in deeply and rolled another barrel onto the truck. Meanwhile there weren´t any new vehicles arriving and so it was no wonder that Captain Dee cracked his whip and yelled. "Enough yer measly sea-rats. Work´s done for today. Lee come to my office!" he stated. While Sokka furrowed her brows and mumbled. "That fucking old geezer should hand my money to me." I obeyed the Captain. I was rather sure that this was about some extra cash for good work, nothing more and nothing less. We weren´t hired hands and such I was rather curious.
Of course and old tar jacket like Dee would not hand money to a woman – not if he wasn´t in a brothel or an inn. Sokka nevertheless was silently griping about this. The hands just laughed at her, which actually drove my daughter even more into a fit. I joined the Captain, who was standing on the bridge. "You´ve called for me sir?" I asked politely. Captain Dee was a fair boss, but he insisted on being respected, actually Sokka barely managed to escape being lashed for disrespectful behavior. I guessed that was just the case because she was a woman, and such whipping was not considered…proper. She had to clean the latrines and take night watches though. "Yes Lee, here´s something extra for ya. Spend it wisely on soju an bitches." He responded twinkling. I just laughed heartily and gripped the two yuan he was handing me in silver coins. "Thank you Sir – may the winds be with you on your way home." I answered and bowed shortly.
The weathered sailor just nodded "ya too Lee." With that I was a free man again, I already had decided to hand the money to Sokka, but of course I would wait with it until the final farewell. Sokka already was talking with the hands, who had lined up in front of the bride, obviously eager to receive their payment. "Yeah I guess I´ll drop by in this tiger´s den guys." Sokka answered Han and some of his buddies. "Awesome countin on ya Sokka ya know the drinks are on me." He reassured her. Actually I was feeling slightly unwell about this, but Sokka was old enough! "Well- gotta go, say farewell to the old man and such. I guess I know where I´ll find ya." She waved, earned a few hugs and then caught up to me. "Ah, so you have a thing for older guys." I dryly remarked. My daughter let out a gargling sound. "You´re the WORST dad – guys like HAN just -yuck!" she shook her shoulders. "Hey I´m just worrying about my unborn grandchildren…" I quipped and earned myself a rather rough slap on the head. "So you´re not entering one of the most famous brothels of Rep City tonight?" I also added, of course I knew what the tiger´s den was.
"Nope – firstly the dancers will have saggy tits and shitty makeup, there surely are no nice guys and finally - I´m no hooker dad? SO FUCK NO!" Sokka was rambling, while I grinned broadly. Teasing Sokka - one of the things I´d miss most in the days to come, so I had to make the most of today. "But why do YOU know about this tiger´s den…" she squinted her eyes at me. "Because I was a cop – and your mother loved the bar there, really made some damn good Cactus Sunset back the day and…" I responded while Sokka let out a horrified shriek. "What, the drinks are good and insanely cheap kid – always drink in brothels if ya can, it´s like the cake and the cactus juice stores." I defended myself, while raising my hands. "TOO MUCH DETAILS!" she whimpered overdramatic. "You´re traumatizing your INNOCENT and SWEET daughter with your brothel stories! You even sully my DEAD MOTHERS NAME!" She bickered. I just looked right and left. "Where? Just tell me, where is this innoce..." now I got Sokka really mad and she launched herself in a string of curses even her mother would have been proud of. "Where are we even heading dad?" Sokka asked me. "Towards the foreign office, get ourselves registered as citizens? That´ll cost four hundred yuan each – or we have to prove jobs, relatives that vow for us…things we don´t have." I stated. "Erm…we could ask one of your brothers, who are like – filthy rich?" Sokka mentioned.
"I mean, this Bumi guy owes you his pinkie… that should be worth some yuans." She trailed off. I chuckled, Yumi had told my kid a lot of stories that weren´t meant for the ears of a six year old, I noticed – again. "If he were in town I would consider it, but the guy has joined the Forces as you also know. He just was on vacation, when the pinkie story took place." I explained. "But you can join Ten-Ten´s monastery club if you want…" Sokka snorted, rolling her eyes. "Please dad – that´s just a bunch of crazed vegetarian baldies, have you ever read one of their "Call to the nomads" flyers?" Sokka asked me. I shrugged, of course I had not! I was surprised to find mostly water tribe people in line for the foreign office. Almost all of them actually were young women around Sokka´s age. I then remembered that, with the return of the spirits, the South Pole was strongly influenced by northern immigrants and also experienced a sudden economic growth that was just comparable to republic city. Such the young men stayed, but the young women from northern families had sniffed the scent of self-esteem and such some of them first went south with their brothers, got papers – and then emigrated towards the United Republic. Non water tribe people mostly crossed the green borders of the United Republic and simply stayed. Nobody here was asking for papers unless you went for a leading position. You did not necessarily NEED to be a citizen of the united republic to lead a live here, also there were a lot of people with forged papers. The rest already were citizens of the earth kingdoms, and such valid citizens of the United Rep. "Whoa, is there some sort of ink paste giveaway or why are all that gals here?" Sokka wondered and just stumbled into a group of water tribe girls. "Hey, what´s up with just you girls hanging out here?" she simply asked the first girl that was standing in her way. The girl was clad in a worn blue robe and was leaning onto a friend. She obviously was exhausted. I also found her rather plain faced. "We´re here for…work." She choked out, her voice thickly accentuated. Not everybody was born a native Guang Zhu speaker, not that I could speak many of the countless dialects of the earthen kingdoms. BUT I did speak the Ba Sing Se dialect, which meant – the most important language on this planet. "My old man just said you can buy a citizenship, that´s nothing to do with work." Sokka responded. "Oh…you…take care of a … maiden?" the young girl asked me helpless. I just pinched my nose – really? "She Sarrla not loves impolite being Lord." A friend of hers interjected with an equally meek voice. Sokka just laughed. "So your name is Sarrla, and what´s yours Mrs. Loopies?" she asked the other girl, who was wearing a traditional southern haircut. "Korra…like…Avatar." She giggled. Gods damn it, I had to get my Inuktitut together – the councilman had tortured me with it for some years. Sokka of course had no clue of Inuktitut, which was the most difficult thing I ever tried to learn. "That´s cool, I´m Sokka Adachi." My daughter responded.
The girls giggled and spoke something in their mother tongue. "She doesn´t speak Inuktitut gals, her mother just liked the name." I choked out the guttural words I remembered barely. After months of travel the girls obviously liked the sound of her mother tongue. "You speak very well for an outlander." Sarrla responded courtly, her Inuktitut had the nasal tone of the north. "Thank you. So you already have family in Republic City, female friends?" I asked them. A lot of these girls had no idea what they were facing, also a lot of them would wind up in brothels, kitchens and other places that exploited them. They both were eying me, flushing a bright pink, while Sokka was staring at me. "You SPEAK this tongue skewering nonsense dad?" she quipped in surprise. "A bit Sokka, your namesake clubbed it into me. But I still sound like a toddler." I responded. The girls giggled. "So you just came here from – like the other end of the world Sarrla, without knowing anyone here?" Sokka asked disturbed. "I´ll not offend you, but you don´t seem very kickass, if you read me?" she blurted out. I had to stifle a laughter at that.
"Kickass…manly….as…you?" Sarrla asked sweetly as Sokka just opened her mouth like a koi fish. "You…hair." Korra added. "That´s fashionable…and furthermore this long mops just get dirty all the time!" she pouted as adorable as my late wife. "You…knew…housing?" Korra asked with a pleading look that actually got to me. These kids were helpless, and most likely there was no way back for them. They had broken with their families, had no father to return to if Republic City did not work out. "Uh…nope – guess we´ll search ourselves an inn somewhere and look tomorrow." Sokka spoke determined. "Sounds like a plan." I added. "You can accompany us if you want." I added shrugging. Korra and Sarrla blushed deeply, I just remembered something the councilman had told me about the water tribes. "Not like that – we´re not family." I responded and the girls let out deep sighs. "So what kind of jobs will you be applying for- erm searching." I corrected my choice of words.
"Cooking…cleaning…woman´s work." Sarrla responded. "What are you and your cousin striving for?" Korra asked me. I simply lost my face. Cousin, was this kid seriously thinking Sokka was my COUSIN! "Are you disturbed Sir?" Sarrla again switched to her mother tongue. "Isn´t Sokka your cousin?" she added. "More like – my daughter…." I blurted rather loudly, some of the other people turned their heads briefly. The girls stared at me wide-eyed. "But you look young…like a man who has small children!" Korra responded blushing deeply. I chuckled "I already hit the half century mark Miss Korra." I shook my head and let the shocking news sink in. Sokka was feeling left out because she just was able to follow half the conversion, mostly my part. "Dad – we can catch up." Sokka stated loudly and moved forward, since the queue had shortened drastically. I was wondering if we would make it today, or if we had to wait for another day. The harbor district wall undoubtedly would be finished up till know, they had started building it as me and Yumi were about to leave republic city. So the government at least limited the smuggling to acceptable amounts – as was told the public. When we had almost reached the foreign office desks in the big brick building, they finally closed. A fur clad middle-aged man rose and yelled in Inuktitut, not even bothering to look if there were non water tribe immigrants. "For today the office is closed. Ladies and Gentlemen, please leave and enjoy your stay in the harbor district of the United Republic until our officials can check your papers. Please leave and don´t cause any trouble." He yelled.
Since the most people here were docile, young gals from the northern tribes the mass of people started flowing outside chattering in a cacophony of voices that made me almost deaf. "Sokka." I yelled as the tall girls from the water tribes shoved me around as if I was a pipsqueak. It was a bustling and when I finally made it out of here I was searching for my daughter. She had to be here somewhere. This was the hour the leopard sharks had waited for, as soon as the officials had left the foreign office locked up, carts with grilled fish and drinks started popping up on the street. Also more and more suspicious looking men arrived and started talking to the girls. The most of them were wets of course, you could see from their blue, bear dog fur adorned vests, their scars and tattoos. They were men of the monsoons, or some other triads. Soon I found Sokka, who was munching some kebabs. "You´ve bought them themselves, did you?" I asked my daughter slightly worried, who knew what these guys mixed into their kebabs. The men were mingling amongst the girls, leading some of them to the stalls or into side alleys. Most likely to make them sign fake contracts or drug them.
"Eh – of course. Some scary looking wet wanted to invite me for a drink. Was really fumbly, so I gave him a little uppercut. He actually looked rather stunned as I responded that my muff was not saggy enough for old farts." Sokka stated casually while shaking her right hand. I had to stifle a laugh as I imagine a deadpanning Sokka saying THIS to a triad man. "That´s really strange with these guys, do they try to sack in these girls or what?" Sokka mused, while I sighed. "You´re a smart one. That´s exactly what is going on – no way I´m going up against twenty guys though." I responded angered. Sokka was grinding her teeth. "Bastards." She spit on the floor in disgust. Interestingly the sound of two Satomobiles drove all of the men off. They ran into alleys, and shortly afterwards you heard the roar of engines. Some of the young girls were staring in the night, wondering how their benefactor had vanished so fast. The stalls and carts of course remained where they were. The traders had not done anything illegal after all. The arriving Aatomobiles belonged to the republic police force. Interestingly the four officers were metalbenders, they wore their characteristic armors and cables. The men were walking up and down the street, one of them whizzed his cable out in the darkness.
A crashing sound and he dragged a cursing and yelling man back in the light of the gas lanterns. It was one of the dudes that had been hanging around here. Sokka smirked. "That bud´s going behind bars tonight." She smiled devilish. My daughter walked up to the officer, who was restraining the man who loudly was yelling about police violence and the misuse of power. The officers seemed to be prepared for a long night, two of them were bending tables and benches out of the ground. She spoke with the officer. "That crazy bitch is lying!" the man yelled out of the top of his lungs. "Oh yeah – you didn´t say you wanted a piece of these heh – shitty scoundrel!" my daughter was screaming. "You wanted to rape me, I still feel dizzy because of two sips of melon juice!" Sokka raged, while the officer whipped the triad man with his second cable. For a moment I thought about involving myself in the affair than I decided. I would let the kid handle it, I had to reserve a resting place as close to the foreign office as possible. I spread out my blankets directly in front of the heavy wooden doors of the office and used my rucksack as a pillow. Tomorrow I undoubtedly I would be stiff from the hard, uneven cobblestones but that could not be helped. Sokka was talking with the officer for some time, which led to some of the water tribe girls flocking around her. Obviously a lot of reports were made this evening, because even the colleagues of the guy rose from their seats and joined him.
The arrested man in the meanwhile was bound to a police car, the girls passed him one by one and spit on the floor, some even smacked him in the face. The only one who did not partake in this punishment was Sokka who returned to me humming. "Was that the guy you hit?" I asked her. "Huh – no, of course not. But he´s the same so – serves him right!" she quipped. I was not sure if I should scold my daughter for lying or be proud of her compassionate streak. "You know that you committed a crime that could bring you behind bars for twelve years." I stated dryly. My daughter's eyes went wide. "What – I was just helping out the law dad! You can´t be pissed about that – who taught me that you can´t just look away when people harassed." Sokka rambled. I gripped my head. "Yeah – It´s not about me, I´m just pointing out facts kid." I responded, still troubled. "Good night Sokka." I turned on my Rucksack. My daughter snorted and muttered something, while preparing her own sleeping space. I definitely identified the words "old geezer". Most likely my daughter was right, but could a good father animate his daughter to commit crimes, hell no!
Sokka turned groaning and sighing, as I noticed the many times I woke up in the night. It was rather chilly without a blanket. The water tribe gals mostly were even unluckier than me and Sokka, because they had no blankets at all, which meant they huddled together in the staircases of the neighboring houses, like flocks of blue white penguins. I was almost entering dreamland again as a panicked voice woke me. Sokka already was snoring soundly. "Have you seen my friend Sarrla." It was one of the young girls we had met before. Korra was the name if I recalled it right. "No – have your searched the street already?" I asked rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. Sokka did not open her eyes, grumbled "shut up dad" and turned on the other side. Korra´s hands were trembling, the girl was short of breaking into hysteric sobs, and I felt pity for her. "Y-yes I´ve looked ev- everywhere... She´s she..." She sniffled with her shoulders trembling like leaves. "Well, let´s look together again. Just to make sure – if you want I can also talk with the officers." I offered here. "No…No police." She stammered frightened and cried even harder.
"S-Should never have listened….w-we should jus…married … like we …should." Her face was just inches away from mine, I sighed and patted her shoulder. She was so beyond herself that she did not even notice that I made her sit down on my blankets. The girl was balling up and cried silently. I just patted her back, rubbing in small circles as I had done with Sokka. It took a felt eternity until she finally stopped, her eyes without a doubt were puffy and her nose running, too. I sadly had no handkerchief ready. "Thank you…I´m cold." She responded with a small voice. "Sarrla would´ve never gone with these men." She spit out. She sniffed "I´m just a silly girl, what should I do? The world is not made for women. Had I just listened to my parents! But now I´ll never get a reliable man, only thing I can do is going to the whores." She whimpered. "Nonsense!" I interrupted harshly. The night had long fallen, just the torches of the policemen and the signal fires of the ships did give the harbor district some light. The girl turned her head and eyed me.
"You don´t need to pity me Sir…I´ve brought this fate over myself." She stated battered. "There is no such thing as fate kid, if there were I´d have never left Ba Sing Se, gods kid I´m a son of a whore myself and I got a company up and running as I was thirty. There are women like Katara daughter of Kya, Toph Bei Fong…you think they had it any inch easier than you?" I responded barely managing to whisper. "B-but they were awesome, talented and beautiful." I started chuckling. "See – you´re laughing at me now." She responded bitter, clenched her fists and got up. "Until Sokka was born my wife worked a man's job, kid. My daughter learned the way of the sword since she was three. The world is not the Northern Water Tribe Korra – this is Republic city, a place where you define yourself. The law says you are equal to men – so if you have more wits and hit harder then them, you´ll sit amongst them." I stated the truth. Korra turned. "You taught your daughter – fighting?" she asked amazed. "Of course, it´s important to be strong, most important thing of all." I spoke, not noticing that Sokka was awake and listening.
"And her fiancé, how does he deal with that – I mean, your daughter is rather feisty." She gulped "She has one hasn´t she, she´s a beautiful girl!" I blinked. "Not that I knew. That´s her business – it´s her husband and not mine, if it ever comes to that." I responded. "It´s a fathers duty to teach his kids what´s good and what isn´t Korra – the rest is up to them." The young woman looked at me in silence. The silence stretched and became uncomfortable. "Your daughter is lucky sir." She responded silent, while I simply laid back. I was sleepy, and if I wanted to wake up before dawn. A young woman was staring into the star laden sky. "You´re the first one to believe that I can do anything." She chuckled "A total stranger does understand me better than my own family. What a sick joke." The water tribe girl sat there in silence as I drifted off into sleep. My hands closed around my purse, like in the days of my youth. While I was almost away I heard Sokka talking to somebody, but I could not drive myself to understand her words. The hard labor had drained my strength for today.
Authors note: And my dear readers, what am I doing wrong, or maybe I´m just doing it right...please tell me. Greetings from InTheHood, and *read the avatar´s mistake in the ATLA section* I´m totally not above advertising my own stuff.
Beta note: This story will make sense if you don't/didn't read The Avatar's Mistake, but if you do it will be a lot better. There is a large time skip, but some plot musings are directly from the previous story and won't make sense unless you read it. -BnaditCorps