Chapter 18
Panda Lilies
"You're all idiots." I grumbled as rain soaked through my hair, pasting my three stranded braid to my chest and the occasional loose strand to my forehead. "Run down a hill and climb a tree? Run in zig-zags? None of those work except making a loud noise to scar it away and then only with black bears which that bear wasn't." Katara sent me a scathing look from underneath the peach umbrella.
"And why would it be the same as in your world?" I felt myself bristle at the sarcastic tone. The relationship between Katara and I had plummeted since I had told them of my secret. At first I had been okay with it and given her space to figure it out. Now, four days later and I was getting sick of her attitude. Aang had completely accepted me and Sokka had never once wavered but Katara remained as cold as the day she found out. In fact I was beginning to think our relationship had gotten worse. I opened my mouth to say something when she butted in front of me.
"I'll let you under the umbrella if you admit you were wrong, Sokka." She told her brother. I huffed, indigent.
"Anyone could have guessed it was going to rain," Sokka insisted, "It's been cloudy all day. Look I'll tell the future now. It's going to keep drizzling." I chuckled. Sokka's hand movements were ridiculous the added bonus that the rain really did stop that moment was perfect.
"Not everyone has the gift Sokka." Aang teased gently. I desperately wanted to make a comment but restrained myself. I didn't want to completely destroy the already crumbling relationship between Katara and I.
We arrived at Aunt Wu's village a little while later and Katara insisted that we see her. I was careful to keep my mouth closed. We were escorted in by a man who welcomed us with the 'eerie' words "Welcome, Aunt Wu is expecting you."
Inside I was surprised with how beautiful everything was. Solid wood tables and boxes. Silk screens decorated with images of cherry blossoms and small birds. The entire two story building sang of wealth. Thinking back I realized that Aunt Wu's village was about the same size as Haru's (including the prisoners that is) and yet it looked like it was in the golden era. There were flower beds surrounding each house and the streets were cobbled with white stone and motor. The roofs were green and curved in the traditional style. For a village with maybe two hundred people for population it seemed as though it belonged to an entirely different world then Haru's. I wondered briefly if this wealth was all from Aunt Wu and how a woman who asked for no money was able to support an entire village. Shaking my head I put the question aside, deciding that I would ask Aunt Wu later. I took the opportunity to do some more reading. The writer of my fire nation scroll who I still didn't know the name of had just finished his training and had been assigned to a small group of soldiers guarding a new Fire Nation colony.
Day 1 of my time at the colony and already I have decided that city life is to complicated for me. Give me a plot of earth to toil over and leave me to do to it what I will. This assignment seems ridiculously easy for what we were led to expect in training. Still I stay alert. As innocent as this seems I don't wish to fall into a false sense of security. I still have scars from when I made that mistake back at the camp.
I was aware of Katara leaving with Aunt Wu and the thick haired girl who I couldn't remember the name of talk to Aang. I chose to ignore both and continue to read.
Day 2. Today we got to exercise our disciplinary ability. A small group of teenagers decided to protest the new nations occupancy of their home. I don't blame them. The more I see of this war the more I realize that it is not a good thing. It hurt everyone like a swarm of locus. Seven of the teens were caught and it was placed on our shoulders to carry out the discipline. I was given a whip and placed behind a fourteen year old girl. The sentence was five lashes. Easy for a seasoned soldier to handle but for a child, pure agony. It took everything I had to hit her and every time I did I wanted to scream with her. It was even worse when I realized that I was only two and a half years older than her. Somehow over my six month training period I lost my youth. War is a leech that steals away innocence and vitality leaving behind old, tortured souls.
"Your future will be full of pain, most of it self-inflicted." I jumped. I had been so absorbed in my reading that I hadn't even noticed Aunt Wu returning.
"You didn't even read my palm or anything!" Sokka yelped, glaring at the offending woman.
"I didn't have to, it's written all over your face." I looked at Sokka curiously. There was a rather interesting dark spot on his cheek where the fish had hit him earlier today. Then I turned and looked at Aunt Wu. She was a handsome woman and I could tell that she was intelligent. She knew what to look for to diagnose a personality. There was no doubt in my mind that she was simply ahead of her time and knew how to profile.
"Then I guess I'll go next." I stated, rolling up my scroll and tucking it away. I was going to enjoy this, while I was no profiler I had done exceptionally well in all my psychology courses. Aunt Wu lead me into a private area. She gestured at a pillow for me to sit in and then raised her eyebrows.
"Would you like me to read your palm or do a more advanced type?"
"How about some questions first." I proposed, crossing my legs. Aunt Wu nodded, a twinkle in her eyes.
"I didn't think you would be one convinced easily."
"You're right. I don't think you can tell the future. I think you know what to look for in people to guess at who they are and their history. From there you use the four logical fallacies to convince people that you're telling them their future." Aunt Wu's face didn't change.
"And what are these four Logical Fallacies?" She asked lightly. I sighed.
"The Barnum Effect, The fallacy of positive instances, the self-serving bias and the ad hoc explanations. Essentially you avoid anything specific, using vague terms and references that could fit a very wide variety of people. You will sometimes contradict yourself and our minds will cause us to remember what applied to us. We want to hear good things and are more likely to believe something positive and if we do catch you in a mistake you can explain it away." I crossed my arms with a smug smile.
"The only thing that confuses me is when you use bones. How do you know how certain bones will break? Or do you use the same techniques?" Aunt Wu stared at me for a moment before she broke out into a deep throaty laughter.
"Very clever girl. You know what you're looking for. You're right, of course though I am surprised you know, usually only other fortune tellers like I know this. The secrets have been passed down through the generations although I have never heard the names you gave them before. Were you trained as a fortune teller?" I shook my head.
"No, I was taught how to read people and as part of that I was taught the sort of things the average person falls for. I am curious though, how much can you tell from just looking at a person?" Aunt Wu smiled.
"I'll tell you everything I found out about you in this short time as long as you do not tell my secret to anyone else. It is how I make my living." I cocked my head at that thoughtfully.
"But you don't ask for any payment? How could you make your living off this if you don't accept money?" Aunt Wu smiled.
"I'll keep that as my secret for now. However do you wish to start?" I nodded. Curiosity was biting at me to find out everything I could.
"You recently got into a fight with the water tribe girl or the two of you are currently at odds with each other. You have recently undergone some major change and your way of life has changed dramatically. You are learned and intelligent so you came from a family with some money and lived a life of comfort until the change occurred. I couldn't tell you exactly what happened but I suspect that you met up with the water tribe siblings shortly after this event. You have been trained to fight with a bow and know at least one style of fighting where you can protect yourself without a weapon as well. You are not a bender and I suspect that you originally came from one of the fire nation colonies. Perhaps the anger your girl companion holds is because you kept your origin a secret from them?" I shivered. Quickly I drew my attention to the mistakes she had made, keeping them in my memory so I didn't fall into the same trap so many people did.
"You're close. My family wasn't well off, we always had money to get by but it was tight sometimes. Also I'm not from the fire colonies. Still, that was eerily accurate. How did you get all that?" Aunt Wu leaned back with a knowing expression on her face.
"Actually I got a good part of it off the water tribe girl, Katara. She is an open book, all to eager to believe which is always useful. You look like someone who has both earth kingdom and fire nation bloodlines but you travel with two water tribe and an airbender. I could tell you've been trained to fight with a bow because of the unique callous that only archers get, however it is very faint, so you recently began or don't practice a lot. You walk with the confidence of someone who feels safe so either you are a fool with a false sense of security which I already knew was not true or know hand to hand combat." Aunt Wu grinned wolfishly, "All that helps lead up to the change theory." I nodded.
"So how can you tell if a person is a bender? Can you tell how good of a bender they are as well?" Aunt Wu nodded.
"Earthbenders are harder on their feet and plant them firmly, their movements are powerful and purposeful. Waterbenders move smoothly, almost gliding as they walk, their movements are graceful like a dancers. Firebenders are firm in their movements but more versatile and flexible then earthbenders. As for the airbender in the other room, he barely touches the floor while he is walking, sliding more than walking."
I laughed gently as Aunt Wu stood and ushered me out to be with my companions.
"Well now you can see that fortune-telling is all a big hoax." Sokka exclaimed as we walked out of Aunt Wu's place.
"You're just saying that since you're going to make yourself miserable your whole life." Katara replied with a sneaky smile.
"That's not true, my life is going to be peaceful and happy-"
"Don't kick that rock." I warned while walking by. Sokka stopped, looked at the rock he had been about to kick and quickly moved away. Katara glared at me. What was her problem anyway? Katara and Aang wandered off talking about Aunt Wu's prediction while Sokka stayed behind with me.
"I'm sorry." I turned to Sokka incredulous.
"For what?"
"I told you to give Katara a chance. I thought she would believe you. After everything that has happened to us. Normally I'm the one who has to have everything proved to him time and time again."
"That and the guy with the boomerang." I teased with a smile, purposefully avoiding the subject he was trying to bring up. It worked. Sokka's face became dreamy as he agreed.
"Yeah, that too." I chuckled. One of the things about Sokka was that it was easy to stroke his ego and yet he never seemed to become ridiculously full of himself. Then again he always seemed to be the but of many a joke. That might have had something to do with it.
We walked into the main square, following Katara and Aang only to discover Aunt Wu reading the clouds. I sighed and turned away as Sokka began arguing with a man about how ridiculous he sounded. I decided to ignore everything and find somewhere that I could meditate. Although I had failed to meditate correctly every single time I still had been able to contact the spirits. Maybe it was because they always seemed to come to me, not the other way around.
I must have fallen asleep because I woke up to a painfully loud bang. I shot upright and stuck my head out of the window. A pillar of smoke spewed from the open mouth of the volcano. I didn't even stop to think I took off and ran down to the square where Katara, Sokka and Aang were debating with the people.
"And I heard Aunt Wu's prediction with my own ears." The man who had been attacked by the platypus-bear retorted. I wasn't going to waste any time. Things were looking bad.
"Katara, Aang come here, Sokka get Aunt Wu." I snapped. I remembered this part of the episode very well because my family and I had always laughed at how ridiculous the sign for volcanic doom was. Sokka took off and Katara and Aang approached me.
"We have to make the cloud sign for volcanic doom." I told them quickly, "climb on Appa and bend the clouds, they're made of air and water so you should be fine. You need to make a cloud that is shaped like a skull." I told them quickly and quietly so that the villagers couldn't hear us. Aang and Katara both nodded, neither was going to argue when there was a village on the line.
"That's that the legend of your world says?" I nodded sharply and Aang took off, followed a little more slowly by Katara.
I stood waiting and watching as the clouds changed before my eyes. What had once been a big fluffy cloud with no distinctive shape was changing, becoming more sinister.
"Aunt Wu, look." I heard aunt Wu's cry of surprise and smirked. This was going great. Another explosion from the volcano wracked the town and I realized that I shouldn't count my blessings yet. There was still a lot that could happen and there was a lot that could go wrong. I joined the people as Sokka organized us, Earthbenders joining in with non-benders to build a trench around the town.
Heat was building and small tremors shook the ground as we furiously began digging and bending. The benders were clearing significantly more than us with shovels. Still I furiously toiled on.
Half an hour later it felt like night had fallen. Thick clouds of smoke filled the sky and gentle flakes of ash fell down like snow. A promise of silent death. I didn't stop my work despite the fact my hands were breaking out into blisters from the rough wood of the shovel's handle and I was drenched in sweat. Another explosion wracked the area, strong enough to knock me and many other villagers off their feet. Sokka shouted an order again, demanding that everyone get out of there as fast as they could. No one even waited to hear the end of his cries. We all scrambled into town. I stopped as soon as Sokka did, breathing hard I leaned against the side of a building. Sokka and Katara were likewise effected. Only Aang didn't seem bothered by the work we had put out. I had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with his airbending though I had little proof. One day I would have to ask him the full extent of his abilities.
"That isn't good." Sokka muttered as lava poured down the mountainside in rivulets and then waves. It seemed like the entire mountain was being drenched with molten rock and ash. I didn't even have time to fully take in the lava overflowing the trench we had made before Aang was changing it, turning it into solid stone. I gaped in awe. There were no words to describe the wave of ice-cold air that hit the tsunami of lava and turned it into rock. One second the lava was raw and burning, ready to consume the entire town, the next it was a giant barrier, protecting the very place it had been about to attack itself. I couldn't help but build the analogy in my head, it was an incredible sight.
For the next few hours, ash rained from the sky along with the occasional pumice stone, light airy rocks that would actually float on water. I pocketed a few of them, thinking they might be useful sometime in the future before joining the rest of the village in cleaning the streets.
By the time the volcano had calmed and the streets had been clean it was nearly night, the stars were unable to be seen as the heavy layer of smoke covered them like a veil. Aunt Wu offered us a place to stay in her house and we accepted in an instant. I was feeling filthy and gross, as was everyone else.
"I have made up a bath for you," Aunt Wu told us with a small smile, "I believe Maddi will have some questions for me." Katara left quickly, looking both tired and excited at the idea of a bath. As was I but Aunt Wu was right, some questions had occurred to me and I wanted to know the answers. As soon as Aang and Sokka had left I turned to the elderly woman.
"Why did you tell the villagers those ridiculous fortunes?" Aunt Wu raised an eyebrow at me in curiosity.
"I'm afraid you're going to have to be more specific Madison."
"Okay, why did you tell one guy that he was going to find his true love when he wore red shoes? Why did you tell someone that they should never have a bath? Why did you tell Meng that she would marry a guy with big ears? And why a rare flower? How did you know he was going to give her a panda lily?" Aunt Wu laughed and raised her hands.
"You know it is a good thing I know my customers," she told me with a smile, "otherwise I wouldn't know anyone but Meng. As it is, the man with the red shoes... His name is Chang, he believed that he would never find someone who would love him. He had never had any luck with the ladies, he was to tactless. He came to me, asking when and where he would meet his true love. As you know I don't know the future so I told him that he would meet his true love on a day where he wore red shoes." I nodded, it made sense it kept with being a fortune-teller and at the same time it helped the man out.
"The man who never takes a bath... he is an interesting case. He believed that he was going to die, murdered in fact. He didn't trust anybody. He was paranoid."
"What does that have to do with never taking a bath."
"I told him he would die by drowning in his bathing tub." I blinked, not understanding why she would say that. Noticing my confusion Aunt Wu explained.
"By saying he would die in his bathing tub he lost much of his fear of being attacked. Although I'm not surprised that he has refused to take a bath. This is much better then the alternative. He was a danger to himself and others."
"So by telling him he was going to die in water he lost his paranoia?" Aunt Wu nodded.
"To an extent, all his fear is now focused on water rather than people. I was worried that he was going to kill someone one day out of perceived self-defence." I nodded, this was starting to make sense.
"And Meng?"
"She wanted to believe one day she would have a husband and she wanted to know what to look for. As for the last girl, that was Jin, I knew she was going to get a Panda lily from that wonderful young man because he told me. The two have been in love for months and it was about high time they became serious." I chuckled at the last one. Aunt Wu might not have always done the best thing but she meant well. She wanted to take care of her village.
"Maddi if you want a bath go now before Sokka tries to steal it." I turned to see Katara peering down from the stairs. I nodded and quickly scurried up.
The water was warm still when I sunk into the bathwater Katara had used previously. It seemed like it was a long time ago that I had been able to just turn on a tap and have hot water. The amount of effort it took to get a single metal tub filled with hot water meant that to have to refill the tub for each bath was a dream. Back at the south pole I had shared a single tub with at least ten other women. Each of us was expected to get washed and out in about five minutes so that the next person could go. The washing was organized by age, the youngest always had to go first and the eldest last. This meant that there was only about three people who went before Katara and I went after her. Here though, with only four of us I got to use water that had only been used by one person before. It was almost a luxury. Still I was quick. I used the soap which was scented with lavender (now that was a luxury) and scrubbed my body thoroughly with an old rag. The soap I used for my body was also used on my hair and face. Afterwards I felt raw but clean, a feeling I had come to expect. It was refreshing. I dried myself as best I could in the fabric I had been given then changed into my water tribe clothing which was clean and shouted for Aang. For some reason Aang insisted that Katara and I both go before him for the bathing routine, once again it was something that the monks did that Aang was reliving. I didn't question it, still it was on the list of questions I wanted to ask Aang about. Somehow though, I doubted that I would ever learn the answers.
That night I lay in my sleeping bag and stared up at the wooden ceiling and mentally counted off the episodes until what I knew of the first season was complete. There was Bato, The Northern Airtemple and then we would be in the North pole. Two weeks were left before we were expected to be there. Two weeks until I faced the season finale. Things had seemed so slow at the beginning, I would have never known that it would be this soon that I would face such a huge decision. A decision I wasn't sure I was ready for. I still had so many questions that were going unanswered, I still had so much I wanted to learn and I only had two weeks left. The clock was ticking and I was trying in vain to imagine that it had stopped.
A fairly light, fluffy chapter. Some theories about how their world worked and some real-world psychology terms. I actually had been planning on skipping this chapter but with how serious things were about to become I decided a light chapter might be nice before I start throwing everything I have planned at you. Anyway thank you to the guests who reviewed I really appreciate it. Actually I'm just going to say thank you once again to anyone who reviewed, I love reading what you think or suggestions about this story. Anyway thank you and I hope you have a nice day.
Princess Kassie Out.
