Chapter 14: Gone Fishing

Things had been going a lot better than Miyani or Sen had been expecting. For a few days they had carefully danced around one another, but gradually they had become much more comfortable talking casually. Now they spent most of the day side by side, talking about whatever topic came to mind. Now they were eating breakfast, breaking into the meager supplies of stored food.

"Don't you ever want to eat something other than rice and fruit?"

"All the time," Miyani said. "But we don't have a shopping list, we take donations."

A wealthy former student in Gai Zhu supplied Hayao and the other monks with food, but their selection was restricted, as most food would mold or rot in the humid conditions of the volcanic island. They had a rather limited menu.

"What about fish? We are on an island."

"A volcanic island. The lava pours all kinds of things into the water, and that scares the fish away."

Sen nodded slowly. He had forgotten about the lava. The fog surrounding the island made it hard to see the lava streams sometimes.

"We could fish, but we'd have to go far away from the island," Miyani said.

She ate another spoonful of rice and found it unbearably bland and tasteless. This had been happening a lot lately. Things she had once been willing to accept were now appalling to her. She sighed.

Part of her didn't want to go fishing. "Remember what happened last time," she said to herself. Miyani pulled at the wraps on her hands. She had liked fishing once, though. Maybe she could like it again. Just because something bad had happened once, didn't mean it would happen again.

"Let's go fishing," She said. They had fishing tools in the supply room, unused for a long time. She and Sen grabbed fishing poles and started marching out away from the volcanic waters of Hayao's island.

Miyani seemed oddly nervous about a simple fishing trip. Sen kept up some idle chitchat to keep her mind off of whatever was affecting her nerves.

"So, if we need a place to fish, I think I saw a good one. There's a sandbar off shore that we can-"

"Not there," Miyani said hastily.

"Why not?"

"No fish," Miyani mumbled. She was lying. Sen didn't say anything. If she had a reason not to go there, that was her own business.

Eventually Miyani charted a course to a small island far from her hated sandbar, and they proceeded. The sea was filled with outcroppings of rocks that rose out of the water. Sen made a fool of himself trying to hop and crawl and clamber across the stones. Miyani was simply swimming.

"Fishing was your idea," Miyani said. "Why are you making it so difficult?"

"I don't really know how to swim," Sen said. He had made short slogs through shallow water before, but he'd never really swum across open water.

"Didn't you live on the coast? How do you not know how to swim?"

"You live under a mountain, why don't you know how to tunnel?"

It was a distraction, and hopefully it would work. Miyani was still under the impression that Sen had lived in Tunuk Bay. It was necessary to keep up that one lie. Getting Miyani involved in his life as the Avatar would only put her at risk. It was better if she didn't know.

"Fair enough," Miyani said. "Just jump in the water. I'll teach you."

"I don't really think I need to," Sen said. He was doing just fine hopping around on the rocks. Even if he fell over or hurt his feet on sharp stones quite frequently. He was doing just fine.

"Sen, you should know how to swim," Miyani said. She sounded concerned. "Come on, I'll teach you. Just let me."

Miyani demonstrated a few of the basic tricks to swimming, how to stay afloat and how to push yourself forward, and then told Sen to give it a try. They were nearly at the island anyway, so she pulled herself onto the shore of a nearby chunk of volcanic rock and watched Sen from across the water.

"Come on, Sen, give it a try," Miyani said. Sen hesitated, and Miyani jumped in the water to demonstrate again. Sen noticed this time that she always kept her head above water, never diving beneath the surface. She never held her breath. Miyani crawled out of the water again, and beckoned Sen to try it for himself.

"Don't worry, I'll save you if you start to sink," Miyani said. With that assurance, Sen stepped into the water.

"Maybe," She added sadistically.

Sen stared her down for a second before continuing on. He made a fool of himself, flopping around in the water like an idiot, but he managed to get across eventually. Miyani helped him out of the sea water, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and pulling him up.

"You didn't look like a total idiot," Miyani said. Even though they'd made amends, she still gave Sen a hard time now and then. Sen was willing to put up with a few playful insults if it meant being her friend.

"Where are we going next," Sen asked, trying to shift attention away from his foolish attempts at swimming. Miyani apparently had a destination in mind. She pointed to the east. A small circular island was visible in the distance, far away from any other stone outcrops. That meant swimming again, and much further this time.

"You did this on purpose!"

"I didn't, honest," Miyani said. She sounded genuine. "I assumed you could swim."

"Well, I can't swim that far," Sen said. "So what do we do now?"

Miyani looked Sen over and placed her hands on her hips. Something about the way she stared him down made Sen feel uncomfortable. Her expression gradually shifted from concern to certainty. She nodded.

"I'll just pull you along," Miyani said. "You hold on to my shoulders and I'll do all the swimming."

Now it was Sen's turn to look Miyani over. He noticed a problem with her plan.

"I'm going to have to jump up to grab your shoulders, you know," Sen observed. Miyani was much taller than Sen. It wouldn't be easy to grab on to her shoulders.

"No you aren't."

Miyani carefully removed Sen's glasses, tucked them safely into her pocket, and then pushed Sen into the ocean. After a brief moment of incoherent flailing in the ocean, Sen noticed that Miyani had jumped into the water as well, and quickly grabbed her shoulders. As his arms wrapped around her neck, he barely resisted the urge to squeeze tightly. Miyani chuckled slightly.

Miyani started swimming towards the far-off island. Sen mumbled to himself as he suffered the indignity of being carried on her back. Miyani finally clawed her way onto the coast of the island, climbing up with much difficulty. Her hand slipped slightly and jammed against a sharp stone. Sen was relieved to finally be back on the land. Sen laid on his back on the rocky island and started to dry himself off. Miyani sat down next to him, and noticed the indignation on his face. She gingerly replaced his glasses.

"Uh, sorry about that," She mumbled. "I guess I'm working out some anger."

"It's fine," Sen grumbled. "Let's kill some fish, that'll get your anger out."

Sen handed Miyani a fishing pole, and they split up to separate sides of the island to fish. Even on opposite sides, they were still only about five feet apart. It was a very small outcropping of rock.

"So, since you can't swim, I'm assuming you don't fish either," Miyani said.

"Not once," Sen said. There were some skills that had just never come up in his journey. Fishing, tax filing, marriage counseling: there were lots of things he never had to do and likely never would. But right now he wanted to eat something other than rice, and fishing was the only way to do that. Miyani gave him a short lesson in fishing. Fishing, unlike bending, was simple enough to learn in a few minutes, so he mastered it quickly.

It wasn't long before Miyani caught the first fish of the day. The eel-trout of the area were large, muscular beasts, but Miyani managed to wrestle one ashore. As soon as it was on the ground, Miyani blasted it in the face with a burst of fire, very weak, but enough to end its panicked wriggling.

"I do feel better," Miyani said. She grabbed a small knife out of her belt and began eagerly preparing the eel-trout for cooking. Sen found the process a little disturbing.

At some point in the process, Sen had to dodge a chunk of meat being thrown at him, and it splashed into the water behind him. Miyani glared at him.

"You were supposed to catch it, Sen," Miyani said. The slab of meat sank into the depths. Miyani carefully handed him another one. "You can cook it yourself. Firebending practice."

Sen tried to carefully heat the eel-trout meat before him, and managed to do a decent job. Miyani cooked her own dinner much quicker, despite being the worse firebender of the two, and joined Sen in eating. She picked the bones out of the meat and placed them carefully in a pile at her side, while Sen tossed the bones into the ocean water.

"So, you seem to like fishing," Sen observed.

"I used to do it a lot when I was younger," Miyani said. "I just stopped."

Miyani never finished that sentence. Sen saw the look on her face and assumed it was connected to some bad memory. He changed the subject just vaguely enough that Miyani wouldn't notice.

"So, did you want to be a fisherman when you were a kid?"

Miyani looked confused. Sen elaborated.

"You liked to fish. Did you ever dream of going on a boat, fishing for a living?"

Miyani shook her head.

"No, of course not. Who'd want to be a fisherman? It's kind of a lame dream."

Sen had a sudden spark of memory.

"Hey, that's not a lame dream. My dream was way worse."

"Well now I'm interested," Miyani said wryly. Sen recalled his conversation with Hanjo, long ago, and all the jokes he'd made at Sen's expense.

"I wanted to be a construction worker," Sen said. Miyani did seem amused by that.

"Seriously? That's dumb in the first place," She chuckled. "Not to mention you aren't even an earthbender."

"Yeah, someone like me could never be a construction worker," Sen sighed. He still sort of regretted that he could never follow through on that dream. It was a childish dream, but he still felt robbed of potential. The only thing he could ever be was the Avatar. He didn't have any choice.

Miyani sat silently for a while. She seemed to have something on her mind. She was biting her lip.

"Well, but, how much do you know about construction, Sen? A lot, a little, how much?"

"Why, you suddenly share my lame dream?"

"Sort of," Miyani mumbled. "Well, what I really wanted to be…I wanted to make toys. I had an idea."

"I had an idea", was not a phrase you heard often nowadays. People had just stopped inventing several decades ago. Sen was surprised to hear it from anyone, much less Miyani. Everything he'd learned about Miyani up to now, he'd learned from other people. She'd never shared something personal on her own. Sen was not going to waste this opportunity.

"I know my fair share. What's your idea?"

"Well, when I was younger, I played with blocks occasionally. They were the only toy I had."

Sen remembered playing with blocks when he was younger as well. Maybe that had sparked his interest in construction. He kept that fact to himself, though. Miyani was still talking.

"I remember getting frustrated that they could only build so high before they fell down. I wanted to make a brick that would stick to the other ones, but still disassemble easily. So, I thought maybe you could build something with little pegs on the top, and some holes in the bottom, so they could mesh together. Maybe make them out of plastic, so they'd be light. Would that work?"

Sen thought about it. His knowledge of construction was fairly limited, in reality, but the idea sounded like it would work. It would be a lot of fun, actually. They'd be able to build much more complex structures than ordinary wooden blocks.

"That sounds like a really good idea," Sen said. "If you did it right they'd be way better than normal blocks."

"Yeah, I thought so," Miyani said. She sounded very excited to finally be sharing her idea. There was a light-hearted tone in her voice that Sen had never heard before. "Since they'd stick together really well, you could even make blocks that had wheels on them, or doors for houses."

"Well, if you have those, you'd need people too," Sen added.

"Yes, of course," Miyani said. "And they'd have the pegs and holes on them too, so you can make them stand or sit on the other bricks."

"They should have hands too," Sen suggested. "The little people could hold things like tools or weapons, so kids could play any game they wanted with them."

"I didn't think of that," Miyani said. There was a broad smile on her face. "Maybe, maybe, they wouldn't all just be brown blocks, like the wooden ones are. You could sell grey ones that make a castle, or colored ones to build normal houses, and, and then…"

She suddenly seemed to be at a loss for ideas. The smile on her face said she was still thinking of them, though. Her fingertips tapped the stone island rapidly. Sen added in his ideas.

"Then you have the people get themed too. Little swords and helmets for the castle people, and things like telephones and hats for the house people."

"Perfect!"

When Sen and Miyani went back to fishing, they sat side by side, sharing ideas about Miyani's hypothetical toy bricks. Sen finally snagged a fish of his own just as Miyani finally started thinking about names.

"Would it be selfish to name them after myself? Miyani's blocks? No, that's not catchy. Something shorter."

Sen had a suggestion, but he was too busy wrangling with his fish to deal with it. Eel-trout were surprisingly hard to reel in.

"Something shorter, like Mi-Blo's, except…less stupid than that."

Sen planted his heels in the ground and pulled heavily on his fishing rod. This was a particularly tricky fish. It hadn't been nearly this hard when Miyani had been the one reeling it in. He felt he was getting closer. He could see the shadow of his fish in the water.

"Come on," Sen grunted. "Either get caught or let go."

"Let go," Miyani said excitedly. "That's it! We'll call them Leg-"

Her excited revelation was cut short by a loud scream. Sen's catch had finally breached the water. It was quite decidedly not an eel-trout. Eel-trout weren't seven feet long with teeth the size of Sen's fingers. Sen released the fishing pole in a panic and backed away from the water in a frantic hurry, with Miyani following closely behind. They stood side by side at the very middle of the island, clinging to one another in fear. After their moment of mutual panic was over, Sen had questions.

"What was that?"

"Saltwater iguanadile," Miyani said. She was talking normally, but her eyes were still wide with fear, and she still had her hands tightly gripped on Sen's shoulder.

The iguanadile briefly floated on the water's surface before vanishing into the waves. Sen's fishing rod, still hooked to the creatures mouth, was dragged into the water as well. Sen watched it ominously vanish from sight.

"Is it gone?"

"I would say no," Miyani said. She released Sen's shoulder and carefully grabbed a bone from the pile she had stacked up earlier and tossed it into the water. A shadow rushed by the sinking bone and then vanished into the depths again.

"Well. That's something," Sen mumbled.

"This is all because of that meat you let fall in the water," Miyani scolded. She punched Sen lightly in the shoulder. "The iguanadiles never come this far, unless someone gives them a free meal."

"So they can smell blood from far away?"

Sen was looking at his shoulder now, for some reason.

"Yes, they can, which is why-"

Sen shut her up by displaying the shoulder she had been gripping. There was a red smear across his skin. Miyani held up one of her hands to examine it. The bandages on her left hand had been torn and stained red. She must have cut her hand when she'd slipped climbing out of the water earlier. Strange that she hadn't noticed that.

"Huh."

"I guess we both screwed this one up."

Miyani stared at her hand.

"Let me deal with this," She said.

Miyani turned her back on Sen and huddled over her own arm. Sen heard the sound of cloth bandages being unwound and retied. When Miyani finally stopped fiddling with her bandages, she held up her hand to reveal that the red spot was gone. She had a half-hearted smile on her face.

"What's one more, right?"

She was trying to laugh about it, but it was clear she didn't really mean it. Sen looked at the faint scars on her arms. He couldn't help but wonder what she was hiding under those bandages. More scarring, perhaps, or something worse. Miyani noticed Sen's curious stare.

"You want to know how I got them?"

"Only if you want to tell me," Sen replied.

Miyani leaned back and relaxed a little. She seemed surprisingly cavalier about the injuries she'd received.

"It's really not as bad as you'd think," Miyani said. "I mean, I guess it was bad…But I don't really remember it, I only know because other people told me. It's like it happened to someone else, except I still get the scars."

She wrung her hands together, brushing bandage against bandage.

"Apparently, when I was really young, I was a prisoner during the Seventh Kingdom war," Miyani said. Sen remembered Zorotl mentioning Miyani being orphaned during the conflict. "The bad guys were really harsh on their captives. I was just one of a lot of people who got treated badly during a war. These things happen."

As she proceeded further into her story, Sen started to believe her less and less. She was no longer looking Sen in the eyes.

"Nobody needs to pity me. No one singled me out to get hurt, I was just another random casualty of war. I'm not special."

"It still hurts," Sen said. He knew that Miyani wasn't telling him the truth, or at least not the whole truth, but he decided to leave it be. Over the past few weeks, it had become increasingly apparent that there was a lot more to Miyani than he had first believed. There was something very important about her that he was not being told, but Miyani's secrets were hero own business. Sen was not going to force her to say anything.

"I heal pretty well," Miyani said. It was true that her scars were remarkably hard to notice, given how large they were. "Now, if you don't mind, how did you get yours?"

Sen was confused for a moment. Miyani pointed to Sen's right wrist. He looked down. The circular scar from his struggle against Suda's restraint were still visible. He had almost forgotten about it.

"It was when we left Hanjo behind," Sen explained. "I didn't want to. Ada had to force me to escape, and then Suda bound me to the side of the ship. I kept pulling and pulling…"

Sen looked at the ring of scar tissue. Miyani scratched at her own scars and decided to change the subject.

"So, does the salt ever bother it?"

"Salt?"

"Salt," Miyani repeated. "Back on the island, the air is full of that fog, and the salt in the air makes the scars sting."

"No, I never had that problem," Sen said.

"Oh well, I do," Miyani said. "That's why I wear the bandages. The scars underneath are much worse than the rest, so the salt bothers them."

Miyani gestured hesitantly to the bandages on her hands and shoulder. Sen got the feeling she was lying again. He couldn't understand why, though. Wearing bandages wasn't as sensitive of an issue as the source of her scars.

"Miyani, you'll probably get mad at me for asking…Do you want to leave the island?"

The iguanadile resurfaced for a moment, hissing loudly as it breached the water, temporarily delaying Miyani's answer as she and Sen panicked together. They would be safe on land, as they could firebend, but the water was not safe by any means.

"Well, in the short term, I can't, thanks to that," Miyani said, staring at the hostile predator. "And, to answer your real question: No. Not yet. I was afraid. I still am. But I'm less afraid now."

The Fire chakra in Miyani's body seemed to shine a little brighter as she overcame the shame of her cowardice in the past. Her entire chakra network seemed to be healthier, to Sen's perspective, but the Light chakra was still a mysterious source of trouble. It was so twisted in on itself it warped the chi flow of her entire body. None of Miyani's progress had changed that. Some kind of illusion was still warping her spirit.

"So, I think I will leave. But not yet. Probably not any time soon. Maybe some short visits away now and then, but nothing permanent. Hayao's island is still the only home I've got, I guess."

A genuine smile slipped onto her face as she looked at Sen. Sen was looking out at the ocean and didn't see her grin. Miyani looked out at the water briefly and crossed her legs. The iguanadile would likely be lurking these waters for the next few hours, making swimming away impossible. They might as well have a heart to heart while they were here.

"So, when do you think you're going to leave?"

Sen was surprised to hear that. Miyani had been the last person he'd been expecting to hear this from. Ada had been raising concerns about having stayed in one place so long, but she hadn't pressed the issue yet.

"I hadn't really decided," Sen said. "I guess it should be soon, though. Suda's been talking about a birthday party, so we'll probably wait until that's over, at least."

Miyani had come to the conclusion that Sen had something important to do, though she wasn't sure what. Whenever they talked about him leaving, or events that were happening in the outside world, there was a strange melancholy in his voice.

"Why wouldn't you go home for the birthday party?"

"Suda doesn't really have any family," Sen explained. "So everyone he cares about is here with him. He's made some friends with the locals, too, so he wants to invite them, I think. We haven't really made plans- Oh."

"What?"

Sen sighed and bowed his head.

"I forgot to go back into town," Sen said, ashamed. "Ada and Suda saw me leave with a Sun Warrior more than a week ago, and they haven't seen me since. They're probably really worried."

"Oh, well, you can, you know, go back any time," Miyani said. "I'm not going to stop you."

Sen had figured as much. They were both done letting other people control them. Miyani was not so stuck in Hayao's ways anymore. The only reason she stayed on the island now was because she had nowhere else to go.

"That thing, however, will stop you," Miyani joked.

Miyani pointed at the iguanadile floating in the water just off shore. Two massive, spiny ridges of scales were visible above the waters surface. The beast had to be about seven or eight feet long, judging by the spines. Sen clenched his jaw as he watched the predator drift along the tides.

"Yeah, is there anything we can do about that? We've only got an hour or two until sunset, and I don't want to sleep out here."

"Well, it'll have to leave the water to sleep tonight, and it can't come up here," Miyani said.

"And what if it decides to go sleep on our way home," Sen said. He gestured to the far-off outcropping of rock that was part of their route home. It was not a large landmass; if the iguanadile decided to rest on it, their route would be completely blocked. Swimming was theoretically possible, but Sen doubted that Miyani could go that far with Sen on her back.

Miyani put her chin in her hands. She had never run afoul of a predator before. Sen slouched down, feeling the warmth of the sun on his back.

"What if it came up here, by the way," Sen asked.

"We've got bending," Miyani said. "We can handle it on land, but firebending isn't possible underwater."

The spark of inspiration struck. Sen stood up, stretched his arms, and grabbed the pile of fish bones Miyani had set aside earlier, dumping them in the shallow water at the edge of their island. Miyani stood up and backed away from the coast quickly.

"You better know what you're doing, Sen," She cautioned.

"I do," Sen replied. Miyani believed him.

Tempted by the scent of flesh and blood, the iguanadile began to move slowly through the water, towards the bone pile. As it slipped into the shallows, Sen got a clear look at it for the first time. It had long, thick jaws, filled with massive fangs. It was covered in thick, heavy scales, and its body was stocky and muscular. This was not something that Sen was really eager to tangle with, but he knew that he and Miyani together could handle a simple animal.

Sen felt the heat of the sun on his back and focused on that energy. He drew it into himself and then directed it outwards. Rather than a burst of fire, he channeled the heat through the air and into the water directly behind the iguanadile. Rapidly, the water began to reach the boiling point, bubbling and steaming. The iguanadile, startled by the sudden burst of heat, lunged out of the water in a panic.

Miyani was frightened to see the creature lunge out of the water, but it was blinded by panic and not in the mood to attack anything. Quickly, Miyani hit the predator with a burst of flame. Her firebending was still weak, too weak to do any real damage, but it made the creature hesitate for a second. Miyani wasn't eager to have it near her. Miyani didn't really get along with animals of any kind, much less large predators.

Sen swept his hand in a low curve, and sent an arc of fire streaming below the iguanadiles stomach. Its back was heavily armored, but its underbelly was soft and vulnerable. The rapid burst of flame put a quick end to the scaly predator.

Miyani and Sen stared down at the deceased beast in shocked silence for a moment. Miyani put her hands on her hips and lightly kicked the immobile iguanadile, confirming for herself that it really was dead.

"Well look at that," She said. "You did it."

"We did it," Sen said.

"Don't get sappy with me," Miyani snapped. "Not everything has to be a bonding experience, Sen. This was all your idea."

"Alright, I'll take all the credit then."

"Was that so hard?"

Sen looked up at the sun. They still had a while before it got dark. Sen looked down at the iguanadile and was suddenly overcome with curiosity.

"You know…We did come here to get something to eat."

Miyani looked down at the iguanadile and then up towards Sen. She had a skeptical look in her eyes.

"You really think we could?"

"I don't see why not," Sen said. Miyani took a moment to consider it.

"Let's do it."