The Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes are at war.
Neither side has the ability to directly invade the other, and so the water tribes have resorted to other methods. While their forces raid the south coast of the Earth Kingdom, a Water Tribe privateer attacks Earth Kingdom merchant shipping to the Fire Nation. To stop them, the Earth King orders the Kyoshi, a War-Junk of the Earth Navy, to find this water tribe ship and capture or destroy it.
As the ship glided along the surface of the water serenely, shouts echoed through the air. Men and women pulled on ropes and carried out a myriad of other tasks. The Kyoshi was currently bearing southeast, on the lookout for any sails on the horizon, or any sign of her quarry.
Her captain stood at the wheel, resplendent in white and red face paint, a golden headdress, and a heavy green armoured dress, and turned to one of her navigators. "Where are we?"
"We're currently fifteen miles off the south coast of the Fire Nation."
"Good. We'll maintain this course, and then swing back towards the Fire Nation in a few hours if we don't see anything."
"Very good, captain." The navigator bowed his head slightly and hurried away.
Suki turned her attention back to the deck, as she watched her crew hurry about attending to their tasks. This was her first command, and as soon as she had got it she had received orders from Ba Sing Se. So here she was, 16 years old and with the lives of 120 crew members depending on her.
It was enough to make anyone nervous, especially as she was being asked, no, ordered, to fight a naval war against the Water Tribes, but she couldn't let anyone know it. As long as she was the model of confidence and professionalism, the crew would respect her and they might stand a chance of returning to port alive.
She was interrupted in her thoughts by a shout from the top of the masts. Sails had apparently been spotted on the horizon.
Suki immediately left the wheel and hurried towards the front of the ship, the crew hastily jumping out of her way, pulling a telescope from her belt as she did so.
"Where is it?" she demanded from her deputy, who was already there with her own telescope.
"Just off the port bow, Captain. It looks to be a two masted trading junk, but only one sail is actually up. I think something's wrong."
"Adjust course. We'll intercept and see what happened."
As orders were barked and the Kyoshi altered its heading slightly to head towards the mystery ship, which gave no indication of having seen them at all, Suki worried silently. What if this was a trap? She would not put it past the water tribes to try and lure them in with an apparent ghost ship and then ambush them when their guard was down, but equally there could be someone on there that needed their help. As they got closer, Suki could make out the name of the vessel, painted in beautiful calligraphy along the stern; the Longma.
"Prepare to pull alongside and muster the crew to battle stations", Suki ordered, making up her mind. Drums were beaten to signal the crew, and the deck became a hive of activity. Archers climbed the masts, a boarding party armed with short swords assembled on deck, small boulders were piled up on deck for the earthbenders to use to punch holes in the sides of enemy ships. Suki pulled out her war-fans, the traditional weapon of the island she came from, and got ready to lead a boarding party.
As the Kyoshi pulled closer though, it became apparent that there was nobody to oppose them on the deck. A foul smell emanated from it; Suki could smell it from several hundred yards away, but there was no sign of life on deck. Even after Suki ordered signal flags flown from the mast, explaining who they were and the consequences of not complying, there was no response.
Clearly, something terrible had happened.
Eventually, after Suki's mind had ample time to run riot dreaming up various terrible things they could find on deck, the Kyoshi reached the ghost ship and pulled alongside. Grappling hooks were thrown and boarding bridges lowered, and Suki led a force onto the other ship.
What she found there was almost worse than what she had imagined.
What looked to be the entire crew littered the deck, dead. Their bodies showed signs of a violent end. Suki had difficulty finding her footing without accidentally standing on them.]
"Oh no," Suki muttered under her breath.
Several members of the crew ran to the side and stuck their heads over it, retching. Suki might have done the same, except she was supposed to be in charge here. And she heard a faint noise from below decks.
"Search the ship", she ordered. "I think I hear something. But be on your guard in case it's an ambush."
Her crew nodded, drew their own weapons, and slowly descended the stairs.
For a couple of minutes, nothing could be heard except the vague sounds of movement below, and then there was a shout. Suki immediately rushed down the stairs, allowed her eyes time to adjust themselves, and rushed down one of the corridors. There she found a crewman in the process of wrestling with what looked to be a little girl.
"Captain!" He managed. "This one ambushed me!"
"Shut up, Pirate!" the girl yelled angrily. "I'll make you pay. I'll make you all pay!"
Suki tried to sound kind. "No, we're not Pirates, we're the Earth Navy. We're here to help. What happened?"
"We were attacked", the girl said slowly. "They, they killed everyone."
"Not everyone. You're still here."
"I hid. I would have fought, but… my skillset doesn't really work on a boat."
"Your skillset?" Suki asked, intrigued.
"I have skills."
"I don't doubt it. What's your name?
"Toph. Toph Beifong."
"Beifong?" Suki asked in surprise.
"Yes, as in the rich family."
"What happened to your parents?"
"My parents are fine, as far as I know. I ran away."
Her face darkened as the significance of who she was talking to sunk in.
"Don't take me back, please. They don't appreciate me. They don't let me live my life."
Suki considered for a moment. She couldn't risk even the short trip to a neutral Fire Nation port to drop Toph off, because that privateer could strike again and do this to another ship while they were away. She did sympathise with Toph enough that she didn't want to turn her in to the Earth Kingdom, which left only one course of action open to her.
"Well, Toph of the Beifong family, I'm Suki, captain of His Majesty's Ship Kyoshi. I'm not going to take you back, because it sounds like you don't want to go back. So how do you fancy a career in the navy?"
"Can't you just drop me off somewhere in the Fire Nation or something? I'll be no trouble."
"We're hunting a Water Tribe privateer, and we have reason to believe that they were the ones who did this to your ship. We don't have time to take you to the Fire Nation."
"They did this?" Toph's attitude suddenly changed. "Let me come with you. I want revenge."
"I warn you, it will be very dangerous," Suki warned her. "But you are about the right age to start…"
"Oh, by the way, I'm blind. On land I can see with my feet, but it doesn't really work at sea unless I concentrate."
That did complicate things somewhat. Suki didn't understand what seeing with your feet was meant to mean, but having a blind girl on the mission might prove problematic. Still, what else was there to do?
"Alright," she sighed. "I'm sure we'll work something out."
Just then, one of her crewmen came flying around the corner.
"Sudden fog, captain. We're engulfed in it."
"Very good, I'll be up presently."
Suki put her hand on Toph's shoulders and guided her towards the exit. As they made their way onto the deck, Suki confirmed that it was indeed incredibly foggy all of a sudden. She had difficulty making out her own hand in front of her face. That was odd, it had been fine a minute ago. It had been a beautiful day, with the sun beating down and not a cloud in the sky. She knew that weather could turn quickly out on the open sea- but this quickly?"
Then, something even stranger happened. As quickly as it had come, the fog dissipated with an unnatural speed, revealing a third ship maybe fifty metres away.
This one was flying water tribe colours.
"Quickly, Toph, get on the ship." Suki signalled one of her crewmen to take Toph on to the Kyoshi. She took her telescope out and pointed it towards the enemy vessel. She could make out a number of figures dashing about on the deck, many of them wielding long spears and wearing wolf-shaped helmets. Two figures stood at the rear of the vessel, on the poop deck, a man and a woman. No, they were a boy and a girl, they were as young or maybe younger as Suki herself was. The boy was holding a strange black sword, and had his hair tied back into a ponytail, while the girl was unarmed. Then, the girl moved her arms and sent a wave towards them, and Suki realised that they were dealing with a waterbender.
"Prepare for action!" she shouted, and her crew scrambled to their positions once again. The first volley of rocks soared over her head and towards the enemy ship. The hull of the ghost ship was between the Kyoshi and the Water tribe vessel, and so it absorbed most of the force of the wave the waterbender sent towards them.
Suki saw the boy pull out a telescope of his own and aim it at them. A look that might have been of shock crossed his features, replaced by one of anger. She saw him slam down the telescope. The waterbender put her hand on his arm comfortingly, trying to calm him down. She succeeded. The boy looked again, and a part of Suki's mind couldn't help but notice that he was handsome… but the rest swiftly shut that down. As far as Suki was concerned, he was the enemy, handsome or otherwise, and so he needed to be dealt with. Plus, he had probably also orchestrated the massacre that she had come upon. Or had he? If that had been shock, then why would the Water Tribe captain be shocked about an atrocity he himself had committed? That didn't make sense.
She saw the water tribe vessel turn away from them, revealing its name painted on the stern; the Tui. Then the waterbender raised her arms again, and fog embraced them, hiding the ship from view.
Suki stared into the endless whiteness for a while, her mind filled with questions to which she had no answers.