Chapter 2: At Your Doorstep
"Let's see how long you consider peace an option when it is your home that is burning."
-King of Taku Siyu's response when urged by Earth King Nuyo IV to not respond to Fire Nation transgressions.
"I'm sorry by the way." Noa spoke just after they sat down at their table.
Mina cocked her eyebrow as she looked over the menu. "Oh? What for exactly?"
He played with the edges of the tablecloth and looked every which way but at his wife. Finally, with a heavy sigh he spoke. "For Kiri showing up so unexpectedly and forcing us to delay our anniversary dinner."
Mina gave him a pointed look; for all the strides Noa had made since they began dating, he still needed a bit of prodding to open up. "Is that why you have been moping around the house for the past week?"
Slumping his shoulders in a conceding manner, he replied. "I'm not exactly proud of my past before I was banished. The stuff that Kiri brought up just reminded me of it, so thanks for not bringing it up again."
It was now Mina's turn to avoid her husband's gaze. Kirima had been staying with them for a week now and Mina had yet to find the opportunity to broach the subject of the Northern Water Tribe's position of Chief. An anniversary dinner was probably not the best place to suggest going back to the tribe that banished you, but it was the couple's first extended alone time in a while after Kirima had volunteered to watch Etain for the night.
Just as Mina had mentally prepared herself enough to speak, their waitress approached them with a jovial smile. "My two favorite customers, how are you doing on this fine evening?"
Mina was very glad to have the distraction as she returned the smile to the familiar waitress. "Lin-Su! So glad to see you. Is your son feeling better?"
"He grows stronger every day. That medicine you gave me cleared the rash almost immediately, I cannot thank you enough." Lin-Su rubbed Noa's shoulder in appreciation. Knowledge of the Water Tribesman's prowess as a talented herbalist was beginning to spread throughout the growing city of Gaoling.
"Always glad to help." Noa said softly with his head bowed, still unused to the community around him recognizing his talents.
After giving their orders, Lin-Su walked off back to the kitchen. The temporary distraction now over, Mina decided just spitting it out was the best way to approach it.
"Why won't you even consider going back to the Northern Water Tribe?" The words spilled from her mouth rapidly and she took a sip of water to hide her expression afterwards.
Noa furrowed his eyebrows. "Mina, I thought we wouldn't be talking about this."
"I know." Mina chewed at her bottom lip. "It's just… well it seems a little selfish for you to not even consider it?"
"Selfish?" Several people turned after his loud retort, reminding Noa he was in public. He continued on in a hushed tone, leaning in close above the table. "They banished me; I don't owe them anything."
"It's not about them." Mina did her best to keep her tone light. "I just feel like Kirima is right, with you as Chief the tides of the war could really shift."
Noa blinked rapidly, his hearing seemingly betraying him. "My sister has not thought this through at all. Mina, if I go back and attempt to win the tribe, you do realize you'll have to come with me, right? You and Etain."
Mina gave him a quizzical look. The thought hadn't really occurred to her, but she hardly felt like that should be a deal breaker. "So what? It's not like we haven't been on the road before."
"That's not my point." Noa looked to the ceiling as if it would hold all the answers. "All the others that are running for Chief, they're going to be married to some Northern Water Tribe girl with at least three boys already."
Mina scrunched her face up. "I don't see what-"
"They will tear you to shreds up there, Mina. One look at you and Etain and the entire tribe will be talking." Noa cut her off sharply.
"Talking about what?"
"My tribe thinks a woman should have three qualities: quiet, good birthing hips, and a good cook. They won't like you one bit."
Mina crossed her arms over her chest. "Gee if that's what you value in a woman, maybe you should just go yourself."
Noa sighed deeply. "Mina, I love you and Etain. I can't put you through the kind of ridicule you'll face just for not shutting your mouth. It has nothing to do with you, I promise."
Mina studied him for a moment before uncrossing her arms. "Fine, but I can handle myself. If I can handle being hunted by the Fire Nation, I think I could handle a few chatty gossips."
"Listen-"
"No." Mina raised her hand; her frustration having reached its boiling point. "We have been living in a bubble for the past few years, but that doesn't change the fact that the world is still a very unsafe place. I'm just glad that I met the more caring Noa five years ago, because it sounds like the Noa of today would not have stopped to help me at that tavern."
Her words stung, and she had meant them to. She realized just how harsh they were, but Noa was far too stubborn for his own good. The sentiment certainly had an effect on him, as he sat there with his mouth slightly opened just staring at Mina.
Before he could even think of a coherent response, their food was brought to the table. The meal was eaten in almost complete silence.
"I'm going to make sure Etain is asleep." Mina made the excuse as soon as they walked through the front door of their shop.
After their argument at the restaurant they wordlessly agreed to get through the rest of the night quickly, so it was barely a few hours past dusk by the time they arrived back home. Just as Mina went for the back door leading to their living quarters, a frantic series of knocks stopped her in her tracks.
"Noa! Mina!" A man's voice called out from the other side of their shop's door. "You have to help me!"
The couple shared a quick look before they both made for the door and Noa swung it open. On the threshold of their door stood a very panicked regular customer of theirs, Hue. Hue was supporting another man against with his arm and even with only the pale moonlight illuminating them, it was clear how seriously hurt this man was.
"I found him just outside of town." Hue offered as explanation. "I tried going to the town healer or the barber surgeon, but both were away. Please, you have to help him!"
"Come on, let's get him inside." Mina gestured them inside and Hue helped the barely conscious man walk over.
In one swift motion Noa picked the injured man up and placed him delicately on the shop's counter. The man gave a weak groan of pain but said nothing.
"What happened to him?" Noa questioned Hue as studied the man's chest.
"I don't know." Hue glanced back and forth between Mina and Noa nervously. "But look at his clothing, he's a soldier. I think there was a battle nearby."
"A battle?" Mina's voice came out as a choked whisper. "So close to Gaoling…"
Ignoring the other two, Noa produced a knife and cut through the soldier's shirt to expose his chest. Hue grew pale at the sight and had to steady himself before he could fall over.
Across the soldier's stomach was a blackened mess of burnt skin, there was no doubt now what had caused that wound. Equally as worrying was the gash in his left shoulder where a broken arrow shaft was protruding from. Blood was pouring from that wound at an alarmingly fast pace.
Mina laid a hand on Noa's forearm. Regardless of their fight, she had to let him know she was there for him. He placed his own hand over hers briefly before getting to work.
"Hue." Noa spared a glance at the man, who still looked close to vomiting. "Try to find the healer and barber surgeon. Do not come back without them, I don't care if you wake the whole town to find them."
Hue nodded and was out the door in seconds, happy to serve in whatever way he could.
Mina ran to the greenhouse and began working the water pump. As soon as the bucket was full, she hurried back into the shop's front room and set the bucket next to Noa. He in turn wasted no time before bending a small amount into his hands and pressing it against the soldier's burnt skin.
The entire shop lit up with that brilliant glow that made Mina stare in wonder no matter how many times she had seen it done before. Noa still chose to keep his bending a secret to everyone else, not wanting any attention to be drawn to them and only using it when he had no other choice. After a few seconds of Noa running the water across the wound, the burned areas already began losing the harsh blackness to them. There would be a scar no doubt, but the wound already looked weeks old by the time Noa released the water.
"I don't what to do about this." Noa leaned in closer to the arrow shaft. "If I remove it the bleeding will only get worse and I'm not sure if I can seal up a gash that big. I have some medicine that helps stop the bleeding, but I think the wound is too far gone for that."
Mina pondered the situation for a few seconds before looking out the window, hoping in vain that someone was coming running to help. The empty streets lit up only by the moon did give her another idea though.
"It is a full moon." She said tentatively.
"Mina.." Noa's expression was blank, they both knew exactly what she was suggesting. "It just… I hate that feeling when I use that."
"I don't think we have much of a choice." Mina reached for the arrow shaft and wrapped her fingers around it. "Ready?"
Noa nodded once and before he could second guess the choice Mina ripped the arrow free with all her strength. The man would have screamed had he not lost consciousness. Just as more blood threatened to spill from the now bigger wound, Noa placed both his hands to hover just above it. To the outside observer it would appear he was doing nothing, yet the wound bled no more.
Noa's eyes were stitched tight as he muttered repeatedly under his breath. Mina could only watch in complete awe as the wound literally sealed itself back up. A thin red scar was the only evidence left by the time Noa finished.
She saw the exhaustion written plainly on his face and before anything could happen, Mina hurried over to her husband to keep him steady. "It's ok, you did it."
"Yeah…" Noa wheezed out, completely out of breath. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the edge of the counter tightly. "He's a soldier, Mina."
"I know." She leaned into his arm and kissed his cheek. "The war is getting closer."
Noa rested his head against hers. "We can talk about the Northern Water Tribe with Kiri. But just talk, ok?"
Mina nodded her head against him.
They arrived at the palace shortly after midnight, but that didn't stop King Siyu from requesting an audience with both of them immediately. It never stopped him.
Tuyen and Owyn had gotten used to it by now and followed the guard to Siyu's antechamber without any protest. Siyu was sat at a small table, overlooking some documents set in front of him. He was dressed in a very simple green robe and had ditched his crown in favor of letting his shoulder length hair go free. This did little to hide his imposing figure, even in loose fitting clothes one could easily spy the well-toned muscles that told anyone him being called a warrior king was not just for a show. Of course, the ancient sword resting against his chair helped that image quite a bit as well.
It was with that ancient sword, since named Unity, that his ancestors forged the Kingdom of Taku through generations of bloodshed and conquest. Even though the fighting concluded nearly five hundred years ago, it was difficult to imagine the city Kingdom of Taku, now the world's largest trade port, was once the sight to some of the bloodiest battles ever recorded.
Siyu had descended from a long line of nonbenders, but that made them no less formidable in battle. The first ever King of Taku won the throne, not to mention the respect and admiration of all, thanks to his gifted militaristic strategy.
"Owyn and Tuyen, always a pleasure." Siyu stood up and offered them both the traditional Earth Kingdom bow, which they returned with the Air Nomad's bow. All three of them took a seat around the table and Siyu was all business once more. "The news isn't good, my friends. Two small farming villages west of here have agreed to become Fire Nation colonies. Their crops shall be missed, but more importantly the flat land these villages sit on provide the Fire Nation a nearly direct shot at us by land."
"Do you think they'd risk a direct assault again?" Tuyen asked he spied a new patch of gray hair atop Siyu's head, the stress was beginning to get to the man.
"I believe that is exactly what they are planning. There have been more Fire Nation ships spied near Spire Rock as well. While their troops attack us from the west, they'll use the river to siege us from the east. Taku's ports were set up for trade, not defense. There is little I can do to stave off an attack by water." Out of habit, Siyu reached for the hilt of his sword to bring it closer to him.
"What do you want us to do? We could help with the defense." Owyn asked eagerly, always willing to drop everything to help Siyu. He had grown to greatly admire the King in the short few years they had known each other.
The trio had met under less than ideal circumstance a little over two years back. Owyn had found an airbender surviving in the swamps not far from Taku and while he and Tuyen tracked down the airbender to help him, Siyu was looking for him for a much different reason. The airbender had joined a gang of bandits who were praying on merchants on the road to Taku. Siyu always took threats to his kingdom personally, so personally that he set out to deal with the bandits with himself at the head of the vanguard. It was pure chance that they all found each other at the same time.
After a lengthy and very tense negotiation period that threatened to spill into chaos at any moment, peaceful terms were agreed upon. Owyn spoke at length about the character of the airbender in question, having seen their past in his visions. Siyu was moved by Owyn's conviction to defend another and agreed to let the bandits live under a few conditions. The first being the bandits join his army and the second was that Owyn and Tuyen share a meal with him. During that meal and many more like it Siyu grew more sympathetic to Owyn and Tuyen's noble mission.
"I would not ask you to sacrifice your pacifist ideals to fight for me, Owyn." Siyu smiled at the teenager. "But there is something else that you can do. Something you Air Nomads are quite famous for."
"Anything." Owyn said in a tone that gave Tuyen some worry. His young friend could be a little too willing to help at times.
"A peace must be brokered with Omashu. King Pranto, that fool of a ruler, has finally decided that fighting for my rightful land is less important than fighting the Fire Nation. I want to send both of you as my envoy."
"You really believe sending us would be wise?" Tuyen voiced his objections. He knew that Siyu was a brilliant tactician, but some of the man's plans seemed completely insane to him.
Siyu flashed a wide smile befitting a man his rank. "Why not? Air Nomads have been famously used as peace negotiators for foreign affairs before."
"Between two warring villages maybe, but never between two of the most powerful kingdoms in the world." Tuyen warned, afraid that Siyu was romanticizing the Air Nation's previous role in the world as he often did. "King Pranto will consider it an insult, you should send your top diplomat."
"You and Owyn are my top diplomats." Siyu countered.
"We'll do it." Owyn responded before Tuyen could rebuttal.
"Owyn!" Tuyen admonished him for speaking out of turn. "This matter is out of our hands; we must keep the future of our people at the forefront of our minds."
"We can't let Taku fall. The future of our people won't matter if the Fire Nation takes over the rest of the world."
"There are-"
"If you won't come, then I will go alone." Owyn cut Tuyen off, finalizing the matter.
Tuyen lowered his head, feeling both Siyu and Owyn staring hole into him. He knew he could not let Owyn go through such an ordeal on his own. Tuyen gave a deep sigh before nodding. "I will go as well."
"Perfect." Siyu clapped his hands together loudly. "You'll leave at first light tomorrow. Get plenty of rest."
"Can we please not talk about this?" Nara pleaded with the rest of them as her cheeks burned red.
Her discomfort only brought more laughter from her three travelling companions. To pass the time on their often long journeys they would talk about all sorts of topics. They could always count on Kal to push the conversation towards embarrassing topics. He was seemingly immune to feeling embarrassment, so he reveled at the opportunity. The current discussion that had Nara squirming in the saddle of her buffalo yak was the first time she had progressed beyond just kissing a romantic partner.
"Come on, it ain't that bad. I don't think I even kissed my second wife after our wedding night." Kal laughed with a smile so wide you could cross the Great Divide on it.
"Was she the dancer from Ba Sing Se?" Jay prodded with a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows.
"She was a ballet instructor!" Kal objected with fake indignation. "And also the world's biggest… never mind. Nara, you aren't getting off without telling us. You know how persistent I can be."
"I think you mean annoying." Nara grumbled out. "I don't have to tell you anything."
"I saw the way you used to look at Dez. You two spent an awful lot of time together back in Little Caldera." Kal teased her with a slight pitch in his tone.
"Nothing happened." Nara denied a little too quickly.
"Or maybe you don't have anything to say because nothing has happened yet." Kal offered as he jabbed at Jay with an elbow.
"Maybe we should just drop it." Yura cut in, looking almost as uncomfortable as Nara with the back of his neck stained crimson.
"Oh, I see now." Kal spoke as if he found the solution to world peace. "Yura doesn't have anything to speak of either. Maybe we should leave you two kids alone for a few minutes and let nature run its course. Yura, you've been eyeing Nara awfully bad at times."
"I have not!" Yura denied, earning more laughter from Jay and Kal. "And I… I have so-"
Whatever he was thinking would never form into words, as an arrow fired by an unseen assailant struck Yura in his chest and he fell out his saddle. Nara dove to the ground just before she met with a similar fate as the arrow came close enough that she could hear it whizzing by her.
She was at Yura's side in an instant, the boy's face had already drained of color and he was looking at her with an expression that said he knew how bad it was. The arrow must have hit his heart, there was nothing she could do. Nara held his hand as she protected them with an air shield around them, arrows and fire blasts deflecting off of it harmlessly.
"Nara! We gotta go!" Kal screamed from the cover of a nearby tree just off the side of the road with Jay close by.
She swallowed the hard lump in her throat before reaching around Yura's neck and ripping his Wolf Pack's medallion free. Nara dropped the air shield and sprinted to take cover next to Kal, the flames getting so close to her she could feel the heat nearly singing her.
"Yura?" Jay asked her as he studied the ridgeline where the projectiles were coming from.
Nara shook her head and Jay cursed.
"Are we trying to flank them?" Nara asked, doing her best not to dwell on the boy she had spent the last ten months getting to know.
"Impossible, I spotted two covering their rear flank. This was a planned ambush." Kal explained as he looked towards the trees leading off the main road. "We move through this valley, there's enough tree cover to protect us. Then we'll reconnect with that riverbed we passed over a few miles back. With any luck we'll have lost them by then."
No more words needed to be exchanged nor did they even check to make sure everyone was clear on the plan. Five years spent fighting along one another had done quite a bit a good for the trio's communication.
They took off into the thick underbrush in a dead sprint.
AN: Sorry about this one taking 3 weeks to come out, I'm going to try to keep to my once per week update schedule, but I'll let y'all know if anything changes. Thanks as always for reading.
I also started a new story called "Ink Stained Walls", check it out if you'd like.
To guest reviewer Glenny: Thanks for the review on both this chapter and the last chapter on the prequel. Glad you enjoyed Kiron's reappearance. He went away just due to a lack of involvement but should be appearing here and there once more. And the bit about Sozin is something new I'm trying by starting each chapter with a quote, let me know what you think.