Chapter 7: The Waters of Life

Ariak and Tlun had not spent much time together since Tlun had left the Shorewatchers. There was still a hesitance between the two of them, an uncertainty about whether their previous bond could be repaired. Ariak sometimes worried that things were irreparable; Tlun, for his part, knew that even if they did repair the rift between them, things would not simply go back to the way they had been before.

"How did you end up at the Hospital anyway," Ariak asked. "You always were a good healer, but the hospital is quite exclusive, from what I hear."

"Their reputation is exaggerated," Tlun said. "They won't allow just anyone to be a doctor, obviously, but as long as you're relatively competent you'll have a job."

"Really? Well, I'll keep it in mind if I ever need a change of career," Ariak said.

"Heh. Not likely."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean you're a warrior, Ariak," Tlun said. "You are not doctor material."

"People can change what they are," Ariak said quietly. "You're proof enough of that, Tlun."

"That is not-" Tlun considered giving a longer rebuttal, but decided against it. "I meant that you're happy doing what you do. You're strong, and you want to use that strength to defend people."

"Well, given what happened with the Shorewatchers, I think you might be wrong," Ariak sighed.

"The Shorewatchers weren't right for you, Ariak, we've talked about this already," Tlun sighed. "You haven't lost everything just because you've lost your spear. You're with the Avatar now, he's better than the Shorewatchers could ever be."

Ariak was about to say something, but they were quite loudly interrupted. In his typical dramatic fashion, Master Yakkul kicked the door open, and looked around the room frantically before realizing that Tlun was right in front of him.

"Tlun! There's been an accident."

"One of your students accidentally stabbed another, I assume?"

"I have a pithy remark to make about that but this is actually serious," Yakkul said. "There was an incident at the factory across town. Lots of injuries, you're needed at the hospital."

Tlun immediately stood up and fetched his coat. He didn't even put it on completely before he was on his way out the door.

"Get Sen and Suda as well," Tlun said to Yakkul as he left. "They know what they're doing. They can help."

"I'll find Sen," Ariak said. The Avatar was out and about, doing whatever it was that he did during the day. Sen had yet to inform Ariak, or anyone, about his daily tutoring. He simply vanished for hours every day, claiming he was doing something important.

Ariak and Tlun parted ways without so much as a goodbye. Tlun made a beeline for the hospital, while Ariak plunged into the depths of the city to track the Avatar. Yakkul fetched Suda, and he soon followed in Tlun's footsteps. Even Ada came along; she was no waterbender, but she knew about conventional medicine, and that could be of use in an emergency like this.

The city streets were mostly empty, and Ariak found it easy to patrol the city looking for the Avatar. He encountered Sen through luck, on the road between Yakkul's compound and the library. The Avatar had a book in his hand and a confused expression on his face.

"Ariak," He said, glad to see a familiar face. "What's going on? Where is everyone?"

"There was a factory accident," Ariak explained. "You're needed at the hospital."

Sen nodded and handed his book over to Ariak.

"Take that back to Yakkul's for me, would you?"

"But I'm coming with you," Ariak protested.

"Do you know anything about healing?"

"No, I-"

"Then what are you going to do, Ariak?"

Ariak's eyes drifted downwards. Sen shook his head. That had not been his intention. He'd have time to explain himself later. Right now there was an emergency that required his attention. Sen turned his back on Ariak and headed for Yoguda Hospital. Ariak was left clutching a chemistry textbook, standing in the middle of an empty street.

Sen was quick to arrive on the scene. With the main hospital building having been suddenly overrun with patients, the staff had set up a triage area outside the main building. Multiple small shelters had been built to house the less severely injured while the worst victims of the accident were shuffled into intensive care. Everyone Sen knew had already found a niche; Suda was using his prodigious strength to help transport supplies and patients too wounded to move on their own, Tlun was organizing doctors and healing in equal measure, and Ada was using her meager medical knowledge to provide temporary bandages and stitches to those waiting for a real doctor. Sen found his way to Tlun's side. The doctor did not wait for Sen to announce that he was ready to help.

"Head for the area with the green banner," Tlun said, pointing to the far side of the courtyard with one hand and waterbending with another. "That's where the least critical patients are. Free up a doctor to help the worse cases."

Sen nodded in affirmation, which Tlun did not even see, focused as he was on his healing. The Hospital courtyard had been completely consumed by the wounded and the doctors rushing to help them. Sen tried to weave his way through the crowd without getting in anyone's way. He failed. There were simply too many people for him not to be in the way. Sen eventually barged through the crowd, found the area Tlun had told him of, and offered his help. A beleaguered doctor immediately gave up his position to Sen and took off. Sen did not waste any time getting to work.

Suda dropped off a recently-vacated gurney at the front gate, readying it to transport another patient. His attention was quickly called away from this task by the sound of a frail old voice.

"Suda! Oh Suda! We need your help!"

He dropped what he was doing and headed for the sound of the voice. Even amidst all the chaos, even with her diminutive figure, Granny Loqo found a way to make herself heard. The tiny old woman quickly flagged Suda down and led him to an emergency care room.

"Now, mister metalbender, this patient has some shrapnel in his leg."

Suda, quite reluctantly, took a look at the victim. It was not a pretty sight, but it was at least easy to guess what Granny wanted him to do.

"Now, be sure that you-"

Suda flexed his hands to compress the metal shards. Rounding off any sharp edges and shrinking the metal shards made sure they didn't cause any more damage on their way out. Suda removed the shrapnel and disposed of it as the doctors immediately went to work healing the now-cleaned wound.

"Well, aren't you a natural," Granny hummed. Suda had known exactly what she was going to say before she'd said it. "If you were a waterbender I'd hire you in a minute."

"If only, if only," Suda sighed. He probably would have liked being a healer. He did the best he could to help, but earthbending wasn't often good for aiding people.

"I know that look," Granny said sympathetically. "Don't you worry about a thing, dear, you're perfectly helpful."

Granny Loqo then slapped him forcefully on the elbow.

"But there are people hurting right now, so stop moping and move your tuckus!"

"Yes Ma'am," Suda said, running off back to work. Granny smiled as he ran away.

"What a nice boy."

Those without any useful skills were left to sit around and watch as the dramatic events unfolded. Ariak planted himself firmly in front of the televarrick and watched the news. The collapse at the factory was, naturally, occupying the full attention of the broadcast. Much like any major event at the North Pole, the Shorewatchers were there to oversee it.

They'd chosen Letho to be their spokesman when it came to the factory accident. He was one of the more sympathetic faces in their ranks. At a time like this people needed comfort, not the promise of justice.

"So, everything we've heard says that the eastern wall of the factory collapsed during the peak operating hours," The newscaster said. "Your Shorewatchers have been at the site of the collapse, what have you seen?"

"At the moment we have no reason to believe this is anything other than a structural failure," Letho assured the audience. "We're investigating the exact cause as we speak."

"You don't expect to find any evidence of foul play?"

"No, we do not," Letho said forcefully. There was an expectation among certain people that whenever the Shorewatchers were involved, someone was going to be punished. Though hunting violent criminals was, without a doubt, the Shorewatchers specialty, they did tend to other matters of security in the North.

Ariak crossed his arms and tried to keep his mind focused on the factory incident. Seeing Letho on the screen almost made him nostalgic. He and Letho had been friends once. It had been weeks since they had spoken. Ariak shook those thoughts off. He was with the Avatar now. He would not waste his time with the Shorewatchers anymore.

A torrent of quiet murmuring and general unpleasantness signaled the arrival of Whistler. Ariak did not enjoy her company. She reminded him too much of people he had once hunted. Unaware of this opinion, or perhaps all too aware, she wandered in front of the televarrick and slumped down.

"Where'd everybody go," She mumbled.

"To the hospital," Ariak said curtly. "There was an incident."

Whistler seemed to spring to alertness suddenly, entirely against her will.

"Why? What? Who got hurt?"

"Nobody we know," Ariak said. Whistler then visibly slumped downwards and slipped back into her sleepy state.

"I'm glad you're so concerned for your fellow man," Ariak grumbled.

"Eat it, stickler," Whistler grumbled. "What am I going to do, blow wind on 'em? You and me are the same flavor of useless."

"Do not compare yourself to me."

"Believe me, I ain't happy about it," Whistler scoffed. "But right now you and I are in the same boat, drifting on the sidelines while our buddies do all the work. The difference is I'm fine where I am, but you're going to drown trying to swim over to the other side."

"You have no idea what you are talking about," Ariak growled.

"Keep telling yourself that," Whistler said. She stood up and sleepily walked back to her room. "Avatar Four-Eyes will beat the truth out of you eventually. He has a way of doing that."

Whistler went back to her perpetual nap, and Ariak was left alone again, sitting on the sidelines.

After hours and hours of labor on the part of the hospital staff, they finally began to stem the tide of the injured factory workers. As a torrent became a trickle, many of the workers were finally allowed to go home, or at least take a break. Suda and Ada, being the least critical to the operation, were the first to leave. Tlun and Sen were allowed to take a break at a later time, and they sat by side, basking in their mutual exhaustion.

"I hear you handled yourself pretty well today," Tlun sighed.

"I had a good teacher," Sen replied. That got a smile out of Tlun.

Sen stretched his aching arms and sighed heavily. It was surprising how much bending wore you down. When using it in short bursts for fighting, it seemed to take no energy at all, but constantly waterbending for an entire day was exhausting.

"You know, you'll be a familiar face at the hospital after this," Tlun said. "I could get you an internship. We could make a real doctor out of you."

Now that was something to consider. Sen rested his palms in his lap and considered his options. It would, perhaps, be rewarding, but also time consuming. What he knew about healing now was probably enough to carry him for a while.

"Thanks, but no thanks," Sen said. "I wouldn't mind a few more lessons, but I think I'm going to focus on training with Ariak for now."

And getting tutored by Taina, but Sen kept that to himself. His friends knowing about the tutoring wouldn't bother him all too much, but he didn't want Taina or Alrok having any contact with his team. The further they were separated from Sen being the Avatar, the better off they would be. He didn't want to repeat the Nura situation by allowing Taina or Alrok to know too much about him. Better to leave both sides of his life in ignorance of each other than to risk contact.

Tlun nodded, but there was a certain hesitation in the gesture.

"Ariak can be difficult," Tlun said. "I hope you keep that in mind as you deal with him."

"He's actually been very easy to deal with," Sen said.

"Too much so, in my experience," Tlun said sadly. "Ariak is a…follower. He seeks authority to answer to. It was our father once. Now he follows you, without question. If you commanded him to jump off a cliff he would do so."

"You really think that?"

"I know it," Tlun said. "This'll hardly be a problem for you, of course. Ariak is dedicated, and a good soldier. When he has someone to lead him he is perfectly happy."

"But when he loses that, he'll be completely lost," Sen said quietly.

"You say that as if you've been there before."

"It's a long story," Sen said. Sen had been the same way once; reliant on others to lead him on his path, not brave enough to make decisions for himself. It had taken a master in a mask and a combustion bender to snap him out of that. Hopefully Ariak's road would be easier.

"I won't ask," Tlun said, wisely allowing the story of Sen's personal journey to be left unspoken.

"I'll tell you some other time," Sen said. "Maybe we can deal with Ariak together. Maybe we can even get your sister involved."

Sen felt Tlun's heart skip a beat. His face became flushed red for a moment, but it quickly faded.

"Did Ariak tell you about that," Tlun said, with obvious stress in his voice.

"No, it was your father," Sen said. Tlun visibly relaxed. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought Tsunatak up. Ariak did say it was a complex situation."

"It's alright," Tlun said. "I was just- We'll talk about this some other time. I should go. Now."

"I'm sorry if I-"

"It's alright," Tlun snapped back. His famous impatience had taken over now. Sen wouldn't be getting anything else out of him. Sen sighed as Tlun walked away. This was getting more and more troublesome every day. Tlun, Ariak, Tinaaki, Tsunatak- the entire family was a mess. Sen shook his head and tried to rest. There would be more work to do soon. There was always more work.