The Kyoshi was in a bad way.
As the ship limped north, Suki stood roughly amidships in the crew's quarters, the wind blowing past her face as she looked out of an enormous hole that had been punched in the ship's flank. They had survived their first proper engagement with the Tui, but only just. Of the 120 crew, 46 had been wounded, and four men had ended up overboard; three earthbenders who had been knocked off the side by Katara the Waterbender and one archer who had been hit with Sokka's boomerang. All four had been fished out, but they were in a bad way. Much of the rigging had been cut in the fighting, inhibiting the Kyoshi's ability to sail normally, and, of course, the ship had an enormous gash in it. Suki was standing in front of it and her entire body could fit through it easily. Suki could only hope that no storms came rolling in before they made it to the Fire Nation for repairs, given that the Kyoshi was now less than seaworthy in those conditions.
"What's our speed?"
"What speed?" Mingzhu asked, standing next to her. "We have no speed. We're limping along. We can't rig the sails properly, and we don't want to risk accidentally capsizing the ship."
"So we just have to hope nothing happens."
"Pretty much."
Suki moved away from the hole, not wanting to end up in the southern sea herself, and made her way to the stairs. As she came up on deck, she was greeted by the sight of her crew frantically trying to fix the rigging. As well as the sailors, some marines, some archers, and a few women wearing the traditional uniforms of Kyoshi warriors such as Suki and Mingzhu wore helped them.
As Suki watched, the sail was hoisted up the second mast, the ropes that held it having been repaired. Previously, the Kyoshi had been moving under the power of only one sail, a major reason for the reduced speed. Suki could even feel the Kyoshi accelerate slightly as the wind caught the second sail.
"Now we're making progress!" Mingzhu said happily. "We'll be in the Fire Nation in no time!"
"I hope so," a voice came from behind them, and Suki turned to see Toph emerge from her cabin.
"I haven't properly used my seismic sense since the Longma left the Earth Kingdom, and that was weeks ago. I haven't been able to sense my surroundings for weeks!"
"Is that the thing that allows you to see with your feet?"
Toph nodded.
"We'll drop you off when we do get there. I don't think that water tribe ship did kill the crew of your ship, and so there's no point you coming along for revenge."
"Because their captain said so, and you believed him?" Toph asked, her eyebrow arching. "You know he would say that, right?"
Suki had to admit that yes, he would say that, but she found herself believing him anyway.
"He seemed to think we did it. He did come upon us standing among the bodies the first time."
"Again, he would say that. Anything to deflect the blame away from himself. But there's an easy way I can find out."
"Oh?" Suki asked, interested.
"My seismic sense doesn't just allow me to see with my feet. It also allows me to tell when someone's lying. But that also only works on land."
Suki laughed. "Neat trick. But, we do have to catch him first, and we're a long way off doing that. He nearly caught us."
"But he didn't, and we got his waterbender."
Suki remembered vividly the arrow thudding into the water tribe girl, Katara's back as she made her way towards where Sokka and Suki were duelling. She remembered Sokka's acute distress as he carried her back to the other ship. Sure, it was undoubtedly a very good thing for the Kyoshi- there was to be no more sneaking around in specially created fog banks for the Tui, at the very least not for a long time. But Suki had a hard time feeling good about it.
"Yes, we got her," Suki said, putting on a fake smile. "If you'll excuse me, I need to make plans for when we arrive in the Fire Nation."
Leaving Toph and Mingzhu on the deck together, she entered her cabin, closed the door after her, and sighed. She unclipped her sword from her belt and put it on the side, and took her headdress off as well, but kept her makeup on.
She sat down on her desk and looked over a list of papers she had asked the ship's quartermaster to draw up for her. Time would be of the essence to repair the ship and buy all the supplies they needed in the Fire Nation, and not just because they needed to get after the Tui. Under international law, drawn up by the leaders of the Four Nations long ago, ships of warring nations could dock in the ports of neutral nations, but only for 48 hours at a time. Overstay their welcome, and the Kyoshi and her crew would be interned. They would sit out the rest of the war in the Fire Nation, and while it would not be an imprisonment they wouldn't be able to return to the Earth Kingdom until the war was over. Suki didn't know when that would be.
Of course, the Firelord could provide special dispensation for a ship to stay longer, but this was rarely done because it would be viewed as taking a side.
She looked over her lists, mentally adding up the costs of the food she needed to purchase. The Kyoshi carried a decent amount of money to allow it to provision itself in neutral ports, but it was not limitless and so it was important not to overspend if Suki thought she would be staying away from the Earth Kingdom for any long period of time.
Suki was just getting to the list of medicines the ship's doctor had requested when the door burst open. She looked up to see Mingzhu standing there, a look of alarm on her face.
"Sails on the horizon, Suki! Directly astern, coming this way. It looks like we're being pursued."
Suki instantly put the paper down, and moved to put her headdress back on. "Is it the Tui again?"
"No," Mingzhu replied. "It's bigger."
"Are we sure it's hostile?"
"I wouldn't want to take the risk. It certainly doesn't look like it belongs to any navy I know of."
Suki put her sword back on, tucked her fans into her belt, and picked up her telescope. She then followed Mingzhu to the stern of the ship.
The first thing about the mystery ship that struck Suki as she observed it through her looking- glass was the colour of the sails- blood red.
"Fire Nation? We are nearby, it could be a Fire Navy vessel."
Mingzhu only shook her head. "Fire Navy ships have tight regulations on the colour of their sails, and they tend to be orange or yellow. Never that shade of red."
"It looks a lot like a Fire Navy design," Suki mused, looking at the ship's hull. "It's a properly large ship. Looks almost like it was designed for a line of battle."
"Whatever it is, I would say we don't want to be caught by it."
"I agree. Give her as much sail as we can!" Suki ordered. The sails were angled into the wind to give the Kyoshi as much speed as they could manage, but Suki did not order the crew to battle stations quite yet. The ship was pursuing them, and closing, but slowly. She didn't want to have the crew stand ready for what could be hours before any actual battle took place. Better to hold off until the ship was closer to them and then order the crew to battle stations.
She was also hoping that with all the speed they were piling on, no crosswind came and tipped the ship over, possibly forcing water through the enormous hole in the side and causing the ship to capsize. She didn't want to do the mystery ship's work for them before they had even arrived.
Hours passed in nervous anticipation, Suki watching their pursuers close in slowly and waiting for the fight that was sure to come. The mystery ship with the red sails was faster than the Kyoshi, but not by much. Suki supposed that had her ship been fully crewed and fully repaired, she would have blown the ship with the red sails into the weeds easily, but unfortunately the Kyoshi was neither fully crewed nor fully repaired, and their pursuer was closing steadily in. Suki heard apprehensive comments from the rigging, as sailors and archers noticed the ship.
"What do we do, captain?" Mingzhu hissed.
"If it comes to it, we'll fight, but this red ship is not our mission and I don't want to throw the Kyoshi and her crew away if I can possibly avoid it. We maintain our current course."
With that, Suki raised her telescope again and looked at the vessel. By now, she could make out some of the details about it, such as the beautiful ornate golden prow. She could see vague shapes of people in the rigging, but they were still too far away for her to see faces, even with the telescope.
Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, a shout from the top of the rigging signalled that the south coast of the Fire Nation had come into view.
The relief washed over Suki. At least, whatever happened, they had some kind of escape on to land. The Kyoshi changed her course so that she was running parallel to the coast, which allowed their pursuers to close up, but eventually it, too, must have spotted land, for it suddenly turned away. Suki watched it recede into the distance and vanish over the horizon, before allowing herself to breathe for the first time in a long few hours.
"That could be trouble," she told Mingzhu. "But we'll be facing it better prepared next time."
The Kyoshi maintained its course, making its way towards the Fire Nation port of Himiko.