Hey guys, I'm back with a new chapter. Thank you all for your support, and hopefully you'll find this chapter interesting.
Have you ever seen a Leviathan? No? I'm the only one? Well, let me give you a rundown on what one is like. They're huge, they're loud, and they smell like dead fish, wet leather, and burning ass. And by the Spirits are they annoyingly difficult to kill.
"JUST DIE YOU OVERGROWN SNAKE!" I yelled as I stabbed the Leviathan's flank over and over. I wasn't making a whole lot of progress either, given that the hide of one of these things is thick enough to stop most metals from penetrating it. So in reality, all I was really doing was just poking the thing with a stick.
The beast reared its head up before it unleashed a torrent of fire from it's maw. Korra was at the bow of the boat in a flash, throwing her hands upward. Instantly the wall of flames parted around the craft, showcasing her skills in firebending first hand.
"I SERIOUSLY DON'T THINK THAT'S HELPING!" she shouted over her shoulder back at me. I dislodged my sword from its hide and gave it a twirl.
"Fine then!" With that, I took off at a sprint and bounded off the railing right beside her with a yell. I plunged my sword into the creature's eye and held on for dear life. After a moment, I lost my grip and was thrown back to the deck. The Leviathan continued to thrash it's head about, roaring to the heavens above. But my little stunt had worked, and in all of it's twisting about the beast had uncoiled itself from around the boat, giving us an opening.
"Okay there it is, gun it, gun it, GUN IT!" I screamed. Smoke and fire belched from the smokestack as the Silverbird lurched forward. Waves broke across the bow as the craft sailed past the twisting serpent. For a moment, it looked like the monster would crash down on top of us. Thankfully it didn't, and broke free of it's grip and made a run for it.
According to the captain, there was a fishing port not far from here. Hopefully we'd find safety there. Assuming we could put enough distance between ourselves and the Leviathan before it realized that it's prey had escaped that is.
"Well, that was fun," Korra said as she braced against the rail. As if to answer her, an ear shattering roar filled the air. The Leviathan was chasing us.
"Oh come on!" I yelled in frustration. This overgrown snake was starting to piss me off. Just as it started to breathe another stream of fire at us, a fireball impacted the side of it's head. The wind shifted as a massive red body passed overhead. I smiled at the sight. Help, it seemed, had arrived.
"A dragon!" Korra said in awe. Clearly she had never seen one before, and honestly I wasn't surprised. These days, dragons were so rare that most people disregarded them as myth. The dragon circled about, and I could see a rider perched upon its long neck. In the water, the Leviathan roared up at its flying cousin, which answered with a call of it's own.
The Leviathan unleashed a stream of fire into the sky, which the dragon rolled and dived in order to avoid. As it did so, it spat another ball of fire, striking the sea creature in the side of the neck and cutting off its fire breath. In an instant, the dragon was upon the Leviathan, claws and fangs tearing into it.
"By the Spirits," the Captain breathed in awe. The whole crew had emerged upon the deck to watch this titanic battle unfold.
"How far is that safe harbor?" I asked.
"Not far, five miles tops," the Captain replied.
"We need to get there now, while he has that thing distracted," I said, nodding my head toward the two struggling forces.
"Where is this place we're going, anyway?" Korra asked. In the sea, the dragon dislodged from the Leviathan. It blasted it with another ball of fire to the face before striking its head with it's whip like tail. The sea beast was thrown back, splashing down into the sea.
"Hm? Oh, sorry lass, I didn't hear ya. Kyoshi Island is where we're headed," the Captain answered. The young Avatar and I shared a glance.
"Looks like I'm goin' home," I said.
Kyoshi Island has changed very little in the days since the Hundred Year War, or even since the days of Kyoshi herself. It's economy always has been and probably always will be based around fishing. Really the only changes has been the introduction of electric lighting, indoor plumbing, and a radio station installed on one of the higher points of the island.
We put into the largest port on the island, a fairly decent sized town called Shiroyama. Kyoshi Island didn't have an official capital, but the governor's residence, the radio station, the shrine to Kyoshi, the headquarters of the Kyoshi Warriors, and the largest settlement was here. so that made Shiroyama the unofficial capital.
It also happened to be my hometown, and the current residence of my descendents. We were greeted by a small detachment of Kyoshi Warriors as we pulled into the dock. It was a fairly standard operation. The detachment would search the ship for any sort of contraband while the Captain registered the craft.
Both Korra and I gathered our belongings and headed into town. Although I hadn't told her yet, this was as far as the Silverbird was taking us. From here, we could catch a ferry to the mainland, and then travel overland to Republic City. But for the moment, I just wanted to savor the feeling of being home again.
It's not as heartwarming as you might think, coming back here. There are so many memories, reminders of those who were now long gone. In truth, its more of a bittersweet thing. You feel nostalgic, yet at the same time, sorrow.
"So this is Kyoshi Island," Korra commented as we walked through the market. People bustled about their business while vendors shouted out their products, creating a sense of chaos.
"This is nothing, you should have seen some of the markets back in the day. They put this place to shame," I said. As we walked, I couldn't help but notice that Korra was starting to stare at the people as we past. Eventually I called this to attention.
"It's just that after everything I've heard about the Earth Kingdom, I wasn't expecting this. These people dress and act like the ones back home," she said.
"Technically the people of Kyoshi Island are descended from the Water Tribe," I said.
"Really?"
"Yeah. How do you not know this, it had to have been covered in some of your studies," I said.
"I kinda blew that part off and focused on bending," Korra confessed. I sighed in annoyance. Not at her, mind you, but at her so called teachers. What good were you if the student didn't learn anything? So on that note, I proceeded to give her a brief history lesson.
A few thousand years ago, a splinter group from the Southern Water Tribe sailed north and encountered a tribe of firebenders living on one of the outer islands in the Fire Nation. The two banded together and began to raid the other nations along the coast. The other nations called them the Dragon People, due to the dragon heads they carved onto their ships. This kept up until the Avatar at the time, a young man named Ban, challenged the leader of the Dragon People to single combat.
Ban, who was sometimes called the Unwanted Avatar because he was a member of the Dragon People himself, was able to defeat the leader and claim leadership over the people. He then settled them on the Katso Peninsula, and reshaped their culture until it resembled what Kyoshi Island was today.
Kyoshi never liked the fact that her own story had grown to overshadow that of her predecessor. She knew that if it wasn't for her, Ban would still be remembered as the first savor of these people. But she also knew that she couldn't change people's minds, so she erected a shine to Ban, doing her part to ensure that his story wouldn't be forgotten.
Now before you go jumping to conclusions, let me assure you that I'm not a descendent of Avatar Ban. As far as I can tell, the title of Unwanted had stuck, and Ban had died alone and childless. Well, that's what my research turned up anyway. And trust me, I spent a long time looking.
"Here," I said, handing Korra a small handfull of silver coins, "there's an inn just up the street from here, go and get us a room for the night."
"But what about you?" she asked.
"I've got some place I'd like to visit alone," I said before setting out on my own. My path took me out of town and up the side of the hill to a lonely graveyard. My focus on a sole, lonely temple, placed a little ways away from the other headstones. Despite the fact that it had been well taken care of, hundreds of years of being exposed to elements had taken its toll.
The inside of the temple smelled musty, even despite the candles and sticks of incense that were burning. I walked up to the sole lone coffin contained inside and placed my hand on the lid. The marble white had long ago lost it's shine, and the writing that had been carved had faded some, but it was still there. A single name.
Kyoshi.
Every time I come back, I always make sure to stop and visit the tomb of my old lover. In her final days, Kyoshi had made me promise that she would be buried in the simplest of terms. People had wanted to build her a tomb or a temple fit for a king, but she had shut them down, stating that she wished to be near her people.
In the end, this was a compromise between the two. Kyoshi got her wish of simple and humble, and the people had gotten their temple. A long time ago, I had wanted to be buried here next to her. But as time past, and I went on and on without dying, those wishes had started to fade. For me, it wasn't a question of when, but if I would die. As far as I knew, I might still be around long after the elements had suck this island into the sea.
"I thought I might find you here," came a voice from behind me. I turned to find a middle aged woman with auburn colored hair standing in the doorway. She was wearing the armor of a Kyoshi Warrior and had a katana on her hip. However she was lacking the standard makeup, and had a much larger golden headband on her forehead. I smiled at the sight of her.
"Just paying my respects is all," I replied.
"Yet you didn't bring flowers."
"Kyoshi was never the flowery type." She smiled at that.
"It is good to see you, grandfather," she said with a small bow of her head. I returned the bow.
"And you as well, Akira. How have things been?" I asked. Akira turned and motioned for us to leave. I gave the coffin I final pat as a farewell before we both left the temple.
"There have been stirrings in the governor's office, whispers about the possibility of a rebellion against the Earth Queen," she said as we walked down the path back toward the town. I frowned at the mention of this. During my travels hunting for the people who had tried to kidnap Korra, I had often herd rumblings about some of the states and providences rebelling against Hou-Ting's government and declaring their own rule.
"I've heard of similar things on the mainland. The people are unhappy," I said.
"As they should be. The Queen taxes us into poverty, and then threatens military action when we don't comply. Some people have proposed that if some of the larger states on the mainland break away, we should too," Akira said. My frown only deepened. This was not a good sign at all. If talks were like this here, in a place as remote as Kyoshi Island, I could only imagine what things must be like in larger places like Omashu.
"Would you really risk war with the Earth Queen?" I asked. Akria sighed.
"No. Not on our own, anyway. The Governor's council has voted to postpone the discussion until something happens on the mainland. They're wanting to wait and see if one of the bigger cites like Omashu or Zaofu will make a move."
"Is that why you have a Fire Nation official here?" I asked. Akria looked at me with puzzlement for a moment before it dawned on her what I was talking about.
"Oh you mean Lee Sung. He's apart of the trade agreement. One detachment of Kyoshi Warriors for the Fire Lady, and in return we get a single Dragon Rider."
"I wasn't aware that the Riders had become more associated with the government in the Fire Nation," I said. Let me give you a little bit of context. The Dragon Riders were an ancient order of master firebenders, like the Order of the White Lotus. You may have heard of the title of Dragon being granted to a firebender whom had conquered a dragon. Originally, this meant that the firebender had defeated the dragon in combat, and the two had formed a bond as a result.
The Riders were formed as a collection of these Masters. They were a secretive order that preserved the ancient, original forms of firebending, aided the Avatar in maintaining balance where possible, and didn't bow to any government. This changed during the reign of Fire Lord Sozin. Knowing that he couldn't wage a war against the rest of the world with a group of rouge masters standing against him, Sozin turned against the Riders and nearly wiped them out at the start of the war.
In the years after the war, the Riders have made a small come back. However their numbers, along with the dragons themselves have remained small. If I had to guess, their sudden shift to working with government was the fact that Zuko was a member. That was the only logical outcome I could think of.
As we passed back into town, I stopped by the inn where I had sent Korra in order to drop my things off. I found out which room she had gotten and went to it from the desk. The Avatar herself was in a room with two beds, lying on one of said beds staring at the ceiling.
"Come on," I said as I barged into the room and threw my pack down on the other bed. She sat up in surprise, a stunned look on her face.
"Where are we going?"
"We got people to meet," I said over my shoulder as I began to walk back out. Korra hopped to her feet and quickly followed. She was given another surprise when she saw Akira waiting on us.
"Korra this is Akira, the commander of the Kyoshi Warriors. Akria this is Korra, my...traveling companion," I said, introducing the two. I also took great care in avoiding the use of Korra's title. The less she learned to rely on it, the better off she'd be. Akria eyed Korra up and down, her hand resting passively on her sword.
"Isn't she a little young for you?" Korra's face turned beat red at that. I simply gave my granddaughter a look of annoyance.
"Not in that sense."
"He's training me in self defense," Korra defended.
"Is that what they're calling it now? Self defense training?" Okay, now this was starting to get out of hand.
"Don't we have a Rider to meet?" I asked, trying to get us back on topic. Akira looked from me and then back to Korra. She gave her a reassuring smile, showing that it was just a little harmless teasing. For this, I was actually grateful. Akira's mother had absolutely no sense of humor. I don't mean that she didn't find anything funny, I mean she couldn't tell a decent joke to save her life.
With that, she led us to the Headquarters of the Warriors, which was a long, low, single story building. It was defiantly one of the newer buildings, as it was built from brick and not wood. Perched on the roof of the building like a cat being lazy in the sun was the red dragon we had seen on board the Silverbird. It regarded us with large golden eyes, almost exactly like an uninterested cat would.
Standing before the doors was a middle aged man wearing a simple set of leather armor. He had salt and pepper colored hair, fair skin, and amber colored eyes. His posture indicated that he was a man of training and discipline, upright and wary with his arms folded across his chest. A lot of master firebenders and swordsmen carried themselves this way. Well, the older ones did anyway. Now days, to be considered a master all you had to do was survive longer then three matches in Pro Bending.
"Lee, I'd like you to meet two guests of ours. This is Ryou, and his companion, Korra," Akria introduced them. The man smiled and held out his hand to shake.
"Master Ryou needs no introductions. He is still well regarded within the ranks of our Order."
"Wait, you already know of him?" Korra asked.
"Of course. Ryou was once considered a Master in our ranks. He is one of the few relics left from the time before Sozin's Great Purge." The young Avatar turned her gaze to me, expecting an explanation.
"Let's not bring up that old story again," I said, trying to shift the focus away from me.
"Master Ryou was a high ranking member of the Order during the final days of the Old Order. He was also the only member to ever have conquered a black dragon. And, as if that wasn't enough, he was the only one that the surviving records indicate was not a firebender," Lee said.
"Is that so?" Akira asked, cocking her eyebrow at me. Her tone of voice sounded like a parent finding out something that their child had done.
"Wait, you had a dragon? An actual dragon?" Korra asked. I sighed as I took a few steps away from them. More ghosts dragged to the surface.
"Suiren. Her name was Suiren," I finally answered.
Island of Agni, Northern Fire Nation, One Hundred and Seventy Years earlier...
"I'm telling you we must act now! The Fire Lord has already disrupted balance in the world and exterminated the Air Nomads, how much longer will you sit here and let his atrocities go unanswered!" Ryou screamed at the small council that was sitting before him. He was wearing a simple piece of leather armor with a katana strapped to his side. Before him were six people, three men and three women seated in a half circle, all of them wearing formal robes.
"Master Ryou, you would do well to remember your place. You have no dragon, and therefore are an honorary member of this Order only," one of the men said.
"Ryou has outlived all of us, including you Master Zhang. Even if his dragon is dead, he is still a member of this Order. It is YOU, who would do well to remember your place," one of the women chastised before turning her gaze to Ryou.
"These are very serious charges you are leveling against the Fire Lord. According to the reports released by the Fire Nation, his armies were provoked into conflict against the armies of the Air Nation."
"Masters, you all know that the Air Nomads have never had a standing army, or even something that came close to an organized militia. Sozin attacked a group of peaceful pacifists, and exterminated them without mercy. He will come for us next if we do not act now," Ryou said. The group looked at each other with concern.
"How can you be sure of this?"
"The Fire Lord has made it abundantly clear. Anyone whom does not side with him is a traitor, to be killed on the spot." At that moment, a sentry burst into the room. He gave a quick hurried bow before the council, panting as he tried to catch his breath.
"Sorry to interrupt Masters. But a fleet of ships has been spotted off the coast."
"How many ships?" one of the women asked.
"Too many, too many to count," the sentry wheezed. At the center of the group, the Grandmaster stood from his chair and rose to his full height. From underneath his robe, he drew a sword hilt.
"If Sozin wishes to challenge us, then we shall answer his challenge," he said as a blade extended from the hilt.
"Master, if what he says is true, we could be facing an armada!" one of the others exclaimed.
"If this shall end in fire, then we shall all burn together," the Grandmaster said before focusing his attention on Ryou, "What say you, ageless one?" Ryou looked at each of the Masters before drawing his own sword.
"One final stand. Together," he said.
Present.
"What happened to them?" Korra asked.
"They all died," I answered, "The Order was purged, and the island burned until it was but a scorched, ash filled waste. What few survivors there were fled and went into hiding, or joined Sozin."
"Ryou has been instrumental in helping us rebuild. For that, we are forever grateful to him," Lee said.
"Wait, you never said what happened to Suiren," Korra pointed out.
"She had died of old age along before the events of that day. I was there to try and convince them to take action against Sozin, to stop his genocidal rampage. But I was too late, and I was just in time to watch them fall," I said.
"But how did..."
"Korra, if it's all the same to you, that's enough questions for now," I said, a little harsher then intended. Rather then wait for any of them to speak, I started walking, headed back toward the inn. I couldn't let them see how much the questions and recounting what had happened effected me.
Even after all these years, I still got a knot in my chest when I thought about Suiren. The black dragon had been my only companion for many years, and it had greatly pained me when she died. Yet another effect of this curse of mine, I was forever forsaken to wander alone, or else the pain of loss would be shoved upon me again.
I entered our room and flopped down on my bed. Speaking of companions, my current one was doing well to prove herself. She hadn't panicked when the Leviathan had attacked, and kept a cool head on her shoulders. Not to mention she wasn't half bad to look at either.
Hey, I might be old, even for old people, but I'm still human. And I have the body of a physically fit twenty year old so there's that bonus. That's not to say I don't have my morals. My relationship with Korra was strictly one of teacher and student. Perhaps, with time, it would grow into friendship, but that's where it was right now.
That's also not to say that I've had slip ups in the past where students became lovers. I am, like I said, still human. But the fact remained that I intended to keep my relationship with her a professional one. Now if things were to be reversed and she made the first move on me? Well, then maybe my morals would slip. But that's a huge if. As far as I was aware, Korra still viewed me as something of a pain in the ass wrapped in an enigma.
Speaking of Korra, the door opened and she herself walked into the room. The look on her face said that she was being cautious, trying to avoid upsetting me again.
"Akira is your granddaughter times seven right?" she asked, closing the door behind her.
"Something like that," I replied.
"That's weird, she looks like she could be your mother," she commented as she sat on her own bed.
"There's not much resemblance. Koko looked like a carbon copy of Kyoshi, it's not surprising that she passed that down to the others," I said. I glanced at Korra out of the corner of my eye. She was chewing on her bottom lip and glancing about nerviously. It wasn't that hard to see that she wanted to ask me a question she thought might be personal.
"You might as well ask whatever is bothering you," I said. A few moments of silence fell as she gathered her words in her head.
"It's just that this Order that Lee is apart of is for master firebenders. And you're a non bender. How did you get in?" she asked. I stared up at the ceiling as I thought back to how it had all happened.
"I bested a dragon in combat, and for that feat I was granted membership," I finally answered.
"You fought a dragon? With no bending. Did you have a death wish?"
"Yes." Korra sat back, visably startled.
"Wait, what?"
"I was genuinely trying to die. So I fought a dragon," I said.
"But...why...why would you..."
"Korra. My wife had just died and I had no purpose in the world. I figured death by dragon would be an honorable way to die. But instead I bested the dragon, and became inducted into a group of master firebenders as a result."
"I can't imagine something like that," Korra said.
"The soldiers in the Earth Kingdom Army during the war had a term for it; 'going wolf'," I said.
"I don't understand."
"There were a lot of times when you'd have someone who had lost absolutely everything. Came home from the market one day to find their house and family as little more then a smoldering foundation in the ground. More often then not, they'd hurl themselves into the fight, trying to kill as many soldiers as possible for revenge, or just simply wanting to die. But because they no longer clung to life, death would avoid them, as if to prolong their torment by forcing them to live. They'd stop caring about anything, and shut down all emotion until they were finally killed or managed to snap themselves out of it," I explained.
"You've done that before, and not just with the dragon either," she noted. I had to give the girl credit where it was due, she had excellent deduction skills.
"Yes, I've had this happen to me a time or two," I said.
"When was..."
"Korra, I'd like to stop talking about the past now," I interrupted.
"Oh, um okay. So what are we gonna do now?" she asked.
"Now we'll take the ferry to the mainland and then travel up the coast to Republic City," I answered.
"You don't want to stay a little longer?"
"Not any longer then we have to. Besides, we still got to get you to Tenzin," I said. I could tell by the way she was sitting that she was conflicted. Part of her wasn't very excited about the prospect of leaving so soon. She wanted to see the sights, get to know the feel of a new place so unlike her home.
"You..you're right. Getting to Republic City needs to be our focus," she finally said. I flashed her a quick smile.
"You did well on the boat," I said, "you kept your head on your shoulders and did what needed to be done." She blushed a little at the complement when she was sure I wasn't looking.
"Thanks."
"Right. Now, I'm gonna get some shut eye. We got a long stretch tomorrow."
"It's a shame you couldn't stay longer, grandfather," Akira said. We were standing on the dock of the ferry, waiting to board the craft.
"I would have loved to stay longer, we have important matters to attend to in Republic City," I replied, giving her a short respectful bow which she returned.
"Lord Zuko instructed me to give you this, Master," Lee said as he handed me what appeared to be a sword hilt. It was a simple wooden and metal staff about two feet in length, with two metal arms coming off of it on one end. Pressing a button on the side, a blade telescoped out from the end with the metal arms.
"The blade of a Rider," I said with a hint of being impressed as I tested the feel of the sword.
"He said that he had a feeling you might need it," Lee said. I smirked at that. Zuko in his later years always seemed to know something beforehand.
"This will make a fine replacement for the one I lost. Give my thanks and regards to Lord Zuko," I instructed. Lee bowed and I returned it. With that, I collapsed the blade and attached the hilt to my belt. This would be a lot easier to conceal in the city then my old blade. With that, Korra and I boarded the ferry, and soon we at sea again.
"On the road again," Korra noted. I smiled as I looked out toward the horizon.
"It's a wide world out there, Avatar Korra," I said, "we have much to see."
And that's a wrap. More of Ryou's past has been reveled as they get closer to Republic City. What do you guys think about it all? What about the possibility of a relationship between Ryou and Korra? I'd love to hear from you guys, so with that I ask that you leave a review, drop a PM, state what you like or didn't like, or even what you'd like to see. And with that, I'll see you all in the next one.