Kyoshi Warriors
Really super sorry about the wait for this chapter! Warning, the chapters on Kyoshi Island do not have much Zuko, except for the part when he arrives on Kyoshi. And I'm sorry, but this is not the whole episode. It's only half.
To the guest that reviewed this: First, it's alright that you couldn't come up with anything to say because you don't like writing one liners. Secondly, what do you mean by "Don't add anything too random."? It might seem obvious to the rest of you reading this, but I don't understand what you mean. So please tell me. Until you tell me what you mean by "don't add anything random" I will put a random thing in the story, if I haven't already.
So, about my last chapter (which wasn't a chapter, it was an update) I apologize if I sounded like "if you don't leave a review, DON'T READ THIS!" I didn't mean to sound that way. But I would like it if more people reviewed this. I want to be a writer, and this is kind of testing me to see if people would like my stories. (Honestly, it doesn't matter to me; I still want to be a writer.)
Disclaimer: Me: I own the whole series! MWAHAHAHA!
Lawyer guy: :(
ME: Sigh. Okay, I don't own anything but Tora. HAPPY?!
Lawyer guy: [Nods]
Me: Jerkbender.
Edit: New version! Changes in the chapter. Watch out for them. Some of them are kinda subtle, so you may not notice them, but they're there.
"You have no idea where we're going, do you?"
We were currently sitting on Appa, flying to wherever Aang was taking us. We were all bored out of our skulls. Katara was sewing a hole in Sokka's pants, I was firebending small flames into the sky to amuse myself, Sokka was looking at a map, and Aang was sitting on Appa's head.
"It's near water. That's something, isn't it?" Aang asked. I lifted my head of the saddle and peered over the side. We were surrounded by water.
"We must be getting close then." Sokka said sarcastically.
I rolled my eyes. I am so bored.
"Momo, marbles please!" Aang said. I looked over the front of the saddle see what the kid would do.
"Katara! Check out this neat trick!" Aang held a marble in his hand, and used airbending to swirl it around in a really fast circle in midair.
"That's nice, Aang." She said, not even looking up.
"But you weren't even looking!" Aang exclaimed. Katara looked up, and said it again. Except Aang wasn't even doing anything.
"Leave her alone, Airhead." Sokka said. "Girls need to pay attention to their sewing."
Both of us girls turned to glare at him.
"What does being a girl have to do with sewing?" Katara asked, obviously annoyed with her brothers statement. I put a hand on my hip, and raised an eyebrow.
"Girls are better with emotional stuff and fixing pants than guys are, and us guys are better at hunting and fighting and everything else – you know, physical stuff." Sokka explained, waving his hand in a 'dismissal' way. "It's just the way things are."
If looks could kill, Sokka would have been dead and buried ten times by now. Katara threw the pants (which still had a huge hole in the back) at him and they hit him in the face. I sniggered at Sokka's protests. "Don't worry Sokka! Where we're going you won't need to wear pants!" Aang chirped as we flew towards a large island.
"I would prefer he wear pants, if it's all the same to you." I said.
~~Water~~
"Shouldn't we get a little more flying done today?" Sokka said.
"Sokka's right, Aang. If we don't keep flying, we won't reach the North Pole until spring!" Katara agreed.
"Don't worry about it." I said, stretching my arms. I hated being stuck on the saddle. There wasn't much to do, and there wasn't much room for someone to spread out completely.
"Yeah, and besides, Appa's too tired to keep flying. Aren't ya, boy?" Aang said. Appa didn't make a sound. "I said, aren't ya, boy?" Aang said again, jabbing Appa's leg with his elbow. On cue, Appa opened his mouth and gave a fake yawn. He didn't even sound the least bit convincing.
"Wow. Real convincing." Sokka said sarcastically. "Still, I can't argue with a ten ton magical flying monster."
"Wow, Sokka. You can't even win an argument against something that can't even talk." I commented. He glared at me. "Oh, come on, you set me up for that."
"Look!" We both turned from our argument to look at Aang. He was pointing toward the water. A large orange-ish red koi fish jumped out of the water. And when I say big, I mean huge. Like not the size it's supposed to be.
"That's why we're here." Aang said, and began taking off his clothes until he was only in his underwear. "The Elephant Koi. I'm gonna ride it, then we can leave. Airbender's honor! Katara, watch me!" And with that, he dove into the water. A second later, he jumped above the water with a shocked expression. "COLD!"
Sokka and I exchanged looks. He made the "he's crazy" sign at me, which I agreed with wholeheartedly. We turned back to Aang, and saw him diving under the water, only to pop back out on the back of the koi fish. He was standing on it, and holding the dorsal fin. The fish then dove back underwater, and the only thing showing was the fin and Aang.
"GO, AANG!" I yelled, punching my fist in the air.
"He looks pretty good out there." Katara commented when she stopped cheering.
"Are you kidding? The fish is doing all the work!" Sokka argued.
"You only say that because you can't do it." I said, smiling at Sokka's annoyed expression.
"I could totally do that!" He snapped. "I just don't want to do it… right now."
"Of course." I said sarcastically.
"No, Appa, don't eat that!" Katara yelled, running over to Appa, who was eating mud… which I don't think was mud.
All of a sudden, out in the water, the koi fish, except the one Aang was riding, disappeared under the water. I narrowed my eyes, and saw a shadow behind Aang.
"AANG, GET OUT!" I screamed at him. Sokka saw the shadow and understood. "There's something in the water!"
"What's wrong?" Katara asked running over to us.
"Aang's in trouble! AANG!"
"Get out of there!"
"Hurry!"
Aang looked at us, and waved, misunderstanding what our gestures meant. All of a sudden, the koi fish bucked and sent him flying into the water. He came up a second later, and spit out a stream of water, gasping for air. All of our mouths dropped open in shock when a huge serrated fin came out of the water behind him. Aang slowly turned around, and when he saw the fin, he screamed and shot toward us. The fin followed him at top speed. Aang was actually almost running on top of the water. Aang shot out of the water, and slammed head first into Sokka, sending them both flying into a tree.
"What was that?" Katara asked, grabbing Aang's hand and pulling him up.
"Probably something that isn't friendly." Sokka said. "It's time to get going."
Suddenly, five blurs of green jumped down on us from the trees. One grabbed Sokka under his arms, another pulled Katara's hood over her face, another just grabbed Aang by his shirt, and the fifth one grabbed my arms, twisted them behind me, and tied up my wrists. Then we were all thrown on the ground with blindfolds over our eyes.
"Ow…" I groaned.
"Or, we could stay a while." Sokka said, obviously a little scared.
~~Water~~
In about half an hour, or maybe twenty minutes, we were all tied together against a pole. We all had blindfolds over our eyes, so we couldn't see where we were or who had captured us.
"You four owe us an explanation." A man's voice said sternly.
"And if you refuse to answer, we're throwing you back into the water for lunch for the Unagi." A female voice snapped.
"SHOW YOURSELVES, COWARDS!" Sokka yelled.
"Hey, Sokka? I know you can't see this, but I'm rolling my eyes at you." I said.
Our blindfolds were suddenly ripped off, and I blinked at the exposure to the sun. Once my eyesight returned to normal, I saw our kidnappers. They were five young girls, probably about Sokka or my age, all dressed in heavy green dresses with armour over it, and fans tucked into their waste-bands. Their faces were covered with white and red face paint.
"Who are you? Where are the men that captured us?" Sokka demanded.
"Sokka, I'd hate to burst your bubble, but I think they captured us." I said, gesturing with my head toward the girls.
"Tora, don't joke around. There's no way a bunch of girls could sneak up on us." Sokka scoffed, making it sound humorous. The leader of the warriors came forward and grabbed Sokka's collar.
"A bunch of girls, huh? The Unagi's going to eat well tonight." She snarled, her eyes blazing.
"Wait, don't hurt him! My brother's just an idiot sometimes." Katara said quickly.
"Sometimes?" I muttered under my breath, and the leaders shot me a small smile.
"It's my fault." Aang said apologetically. "I just wanted to ride the Elephant Koi. That's all, I swear!"
"How do we know you're not Fire Nation spies?" The man said. "Kyoshi Island has managed to keep out of the way of the war for a hundred years, and we intend to keep it that way."
"This one's Fire Nation." One of the warriors said, pointing at me in an accusatory way. "I can tell from the color of her eyes." I glared at her, and she glared back.
"Half." I corrected.
"This island is named for Kyoshi? I know Kyoshi!" Aang suddenly exclaimed.
"Avatar Kyoshi was born and raised here four hundred years ago. How could you possibly know her?" The old man snapped. Wow, these people are rude.
"I know her because I'm the Avatar." Aang said. The old man looked shocked, but the leader of the warriors obviously didn't believe him.
"That's impossible!" She snapped. "The last Avatar was an airbender who disappeared a century ago."
"That's me!" Aang said cheerfully.
"Throw the imposters to the Unagi." The old man said. The girls unfolded their fans, (which I think were made of metal) and advanced on us threateningly.
"Aang! Airbending would be helpful." I hissed out of the corner of my mouth.
Aang suddenly broke his ropes and used airbending to shoot himself into the air, flipping over the top of the statue on top of the pole we were tied to. He then descended gracefully, with the whole crowd watching in amazement.
"It's true! You really are the Avatar!" The old man exclaimed.
"Now, check this out!" Aang yelled, pulling out a marble and doing the same airbending trick he did earlier to impress Katara. I couldn't help but laugh a little when the crowd started screaming with joy, and I laughed even harder when one of them had foam coming out his mouth, and he fainted.
"Hey, mind untying us?" Sokka said, sounding a little annoyed. The warriors walked forward and untied the Water Tribe siblings ropes, but not mine. I glared at them, before heating up and my skin and burning off the bindings.
"And who are you?" The girl who had glared at me earlier snapped.
"I'm Tora." I said, crossing my arms. "And I'm a firebender, and a waterbender." The girl went to attack me with her fans, but the leader put out an arm, stopping her.
"How can you be both?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Not any of your business." I said heatedly.
"If you're Fire Nation, why are you with the Avatar?" The leader asked. It was just a question, she didn't sound hostile about it.
"Because not all firebenders are on the Fire Lord's side." I said calmly.
"Yeah, Tora's our friend!" Aang said, coming over and standing next to me.
The old man stepped forward. "Well, if she's with the Avatar, I don't see any reason she can't be here. But we'll be keeping an eye on you!" He added coldly.
I blew my bangs out of my eyes in exasperation. The warrior who obviously didn't like me made an "I'm watching you" gesture with her hands. I mocked her gesture, and we had a glaring fest until the leader pulled her away. I sighed.
This was going to be a loooong couple of days.
~~Water~~
"Okay, I officially hate it here." I said, walking into the living room of the house we were staying in. I dropped my coat onto the floor and fell backwards with a thud onto the mattress on the ground. Katara and Aang were sitting in front of a widespread of dessert treats. Sokka was sitting in the corner, looking miffed about something. Momo was searching for food from where he was sitting on the floor.
"Why? We're being treated like kings!" Aang said, sounding shocked.
"No, you are. Everyone hates me just because I'm Fire Nation." I said, covering my eyes with my arm.
"Haven't you dealt with that before?" Aang asked.
"Nah, the only time I've had someone hate me for being Fire Nation was Sokka. And a few of the villagers, but they came around eventually." I explained. "Before that, in the Fire Nation, if you hated the Fire Nation you basically hated yourself. So the answer to your question would be, no."
"Well, have some breakfast." Katara said, handing me a sticky bun. I took it, and began chewing.
"What's up with Ponytail?" I asked, glancing at Sokka.
Katara rolled her eyes. "He's just mad because a bunch of girls kicked his butt yesterday."
"They did not kick my butt! They snuck up on me!" Sokka protested.
"Right, and then they kicked your butt." I finished. Serves him right for making that sexist comment earlier. Sokka stood up and stomped over to us.
"Sneak attacks don't count!" He snapped. Sokka started pacing angrily around the room, waving his hands in the air. "Tie me up with ropes. I'll show them a thing or two. I'm not scared of any girls." He stomped over to us, and snagged several desserts from the table before walking outside the room, still muttering. "Who do they think they are anyway? Mmm… this is tasty." He slammed the door shut behind him.
"Well, that was interesting." I said, before grabbing another sticky bun. "Hey, just out of curiosity, when are we going to be leaving?"
"Soon." Katara promised.
"What?" Aang exclaimed, looking distressed.
"It's too risky for us to stay in one place for too long." Katara said.
"But look how happy I'm making this town!" He turned his head so he could see the statue of Kyoshi, which was currently being worked on. "They even cleaned up the statue in my honor!"
"Well, I'm glad you're happy about being the Avatar." Katara said. "I just hope it doesn't go to your head."
"Hey, you know me, I'm just a simple monk." Aang promised the Water Tribe girl, before leaning over the window railing. A bunch of squealing sounded from the ground below him, and the airbender looked down to see a group of young girls watching him and waving. Aang blushed and grinned, while Katara blew a raspberry and I rolled my eyes.
"We'll see how long the 'simple monk' thing lasts." I sighed, before walking to my room. "I need a nap."
"Have fun." Katara said to me, sighing.
I fell face first onto my mattress in my room. "This is the worst place on earth." I said into my pillow. (Obviously she hasn't been to Ba Sing Se yet.) "I hate it so much. I hate it more than…" I tried to think of something I hated a lot. "Jeong-Jeong." I finally decided on one of the firebenders from the White Lotus. He was the one who had insisted I be sent away. "God, I hate him so much. I hope I can see him again just so I can punch him… maybe give him another scar." At the word scar, I started thinking of Zuko. Honestly, what was that guy's deal? He needs to loosen up. He spent the last two years hunting down Aang. I had heard about what happened to him, how he was burned in training accident, and left the Fire Nation or something like that.
I rolled over onto my side. Whatever, not like it matters.
~~Water~~
Mom was in my dream. She almost always is. Sometimes she's just holding me, telling me she loves me, and other times her, dad, and me are together, acting like nothing's wrong. And then something always went wrong. Usually she just vanished, leaving me alone in the dark. Other times a dark red stain would spread across her chest.
But I don't think this was a dream. It was more like a flashback, really. Something I couldn't remember.
I was sitting with my legs crossed on my bed, my purple and red sheets underneath me. Mom was combing my hair, running a whale bone brush through it carefully. Even then, I understood that the few things my father had brought from the Southern Water Tribe were precious, and I was never to touch any of them without permission.
While Mom brushed my hair, she sang.
Painted Lady, hear my voice
I'm beside you, O maiden fair
Our young Lady, grow and see
Your land, your own faithful land
Tui and La, guide us
To the hour of our glory and honour
Painted Lady, our young Lady
Noble maiden fair
(A/N This is the English version of "Noble Maiden Fair" from Brave, with a few changes in it. I don't own the song [but I wish I did.])
"Mummy, why does Daddy look so sad today?" I asked her. Mom stopped combing my hair, sighed, and set the comb down. The dreams never showed her face. Never. Not even once.
"Tora, you know how Daddy and I are from different Nations, right?" She asked. I nodded.
"Well, today is the anniversary of the day he had to leave his home. And it makes him sad to remember it."
"Oh." We were quiet for a few seconds, before I asked, "Why does Daddy wear red, and why do you wear blue?"
It was true; my mother always wore blue. Her robes were always light blue, dark blue, medium blue, or some other shade of blue. And she wore her hair the way Water Tribe women did: With a long braid reaching her waist, and braided hair loopies.
"Because when Daddy came to the Fire Nation, I told him he had to wear red so he would look Fire Nation. In return, I told him I would dress like a Water Tribe woman every day, and that I would always wear blue." She smiled, and kissed my forehead. "Goodnight, My Painted Lady." She picked me up, placed me under my sheets, tucked the sheets over my shoulders and under my chin, and left the room. I rolled over onto my side and stared out the window at the full moon.
The Painted Lady was my favourite story when I was growing up. I read it so much that mom started calling me that.
Even when I was five, I wondered how my parents had managed to fall in love despite the war between their people. But now, when I'm sixteen, I think I understand.
When Love is true it finds a way. It always does.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
-1 Corinthians.