Chapter 4: Missing

As promised, Kiaree is released later that day. After begging Shang, who has business to attend to in the middle ring, she is given directions to the palace. Kiaree, Meg, and Kisu head there immediately. It's all of their first times seeing the huge palace. As they walked closer, two giant walls encased them, leaving only the options of facing the palace or walking out the way they came. The giant building is brown and green, with gold hinted in everywhere possible. It is one of the few places in Ba Sing Se, including the walls, that has been left unchanged for hundreds of years. Kisu was forced to stay outside by the palace guards, so he waited patiently by the front entrance. After getting lost a few times, the two finally find a door to the hallway leading to the king's bedchamber.

"Stop right there," a guard says as Kiaree begins to open the door to the hallway. "No one enters. Dai Lee's orders," he says, placing himself between the girls and the door.

"But I'm an exception," Kiaree says, again trying to walk past. The man puts him arm out to stop them. It is bigger than her thigh.

"No one enters," he repeats. Kiaree looks up at his face. He is two heads taller than her, and kind of intimidating.

"Look," she says, trying to sound nice, "I'm the avatar. And the White Lotus are in there. I need to speak with them." She waits for a response, but doesn't get one. "If you wont let me in, can't you ask maybe Jeong to come out?" Kiaree asks, fed up.

"Sorry miss, but you need to leave now."

"Just let me in!" Kiaree grunts in a feeble attempt to earth bend the guard out of the way. He easily redirects it to the other side of the room, as if her attempt was nothing.

"Do you know who you're talking to?" Meg exclaims in her occasionally annoying, yet intimidating high voice. The guard sighs and glares at Meg. "If you don't listen to her, you're gonna get your butt kicked AVATAR STYLE!"

At this, the guard throws his head back in laughter, making Meg madder. In this short moment of distraction, Kiaree takes advantage and knocks the big guard to his feet with earth bending. He makes a surprised grunt as he hits the floor and Kiaree jumps over him. She opens the door to the short hallway in time to see Jeong, Master Haru, and a woman talking. Before she can say anything, the guard is up on his feet and earth bends the floor to pull her back out of the hallway and closes the doors in front of her. In the same instant, the doors are reopened and Kiaree is earth bended back into the hallway she was pulled from.

The guard looks surprised until Haru says, "It's fine Ho Tu. She is welcome." The guard grumbles as Meg strides in after Kiaree, sticking her tongue out as she passes Ho Tun. Kiaree, slightly dizzy from being yanked back and forth, makes her way to her earth bending teacher.

"Sorry I missed training… again," she apologizes.

"You had a good reason this time," Haru says. He introduces Kiaree to Ming, one of the few non bending members of the White Lotus. The five walk together into the king's bedchambers and the first thing Kiaree notices is his bed. She feels it inappropriate to see the place where the mighty king sleeps, but she can't find it in her to look away. The way the sheets were bunched at the end of the bed, it looked as if he had gotten up willingly out of his bed at some point in the night. There is no sign of struggle anywhere in the room. It's as if he just got up and walked out with his kidnapper.

"How do they know he was kidnapped?" Kiaree asks, scanning the room for a sign. Police and investigators, along with the Dai Lee, are searching the room for clues and leads.

"They told us that a palace Sato Mobile was missing and in the place of the missing vehicle was the king's royal robe. After further investigation, the officers reasoned that he was lead from his room, or may even have walked out to get fresh air, and was taken, dressed in peasant clothes, and driven away in a stolen car," Jeong reports, staring at his folded hands the whole time. Master Haru unexpectedly leaves the room and Kiaree turns to Meg.

"Go find Kisu and I'll meet you outside, ok?"

"Yah sure," Meg says obediently, walking out towards the front entrance. "It's so great to have a friend like Meg," Kiaree thinks before following her earth bending teacher out of the room. She finds him in a sitting room, a hallway down from King Chan's chamber.

"Master Haru?" Kiaree asks, rounding a corner and facing her teacher in a very green room. There is a green carpet, green curtains, green walls embroidered with a gold color, and the couches are made of a green velvet. This must be the king's sitting room. It's obvious that his favorite color was green.

"So you followed me, did you?" Haru says, standing up from a chair and straitening his earth kingdom robes. Kiaree studies his face. His aged eyes have sadness to them, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

"Um, are you ok?" she asks, feeling awkward. She rubs the back of her head and thinks, "Maybe I shouldn't have come."

Haru sighs. "I don't think you no this, but I was Earth King Chan's mentor." This was the first thing he has ever told Kiaree about himself. He has only ever talked about earth bending. "I guess I'm just handling his disappearance on a little more personal level."

"Really?" Kiaree asks, happy to be forming some sort of bond with her teacher. "I didn't know he was an earth bender."

"He's not," Haru responds, which confuses Kiaree. "I was his mentor on how to act like the perfect prince. I was with him everyday…" Haru trails off, and looks like he is thinking back on an old memory.

"That's amazing, how you got chosen to be his mentor and all," Kiaree says. She sits on one of the couches and Haru does the same.

"Well, the main reason King Usung, may he rest in peace," Haru interjects and Kiaree bows her head in respect, " chose me was because I was his cousin." Kiaree stares wide mouthed at Master Haru.

"So, this means your royalty?" questions and Master Haru shrugs a yes. She knew her teacher was special but not royalty. "Wait, if the king is missing and he doesn't have any other immediate family, doesn't that mean you are in line to take his place as king while he is gone?" It's unfortunate that King Chan never had kids or a wife of his own, but he is one of the most beloved Earth Kings.

"No, I wont be taking over King Chan's place."

"But… why not?"

Haru sighs. "I made a request to Usung than Chan never know I am related to him, technically his first cousin once removed." He sees Kiaree's confused look and adds, "I don't want the responsibility of ruling a palace. The next person to take the throne is Lee, Chan's grand general and he will do just fine. He has always been a born leader, oh so I've heard. I haven't had the pleasure of meeting him personally."

Kiaree thinks about it for a second. "Yah," she agrees, "I wouldn't want a responsibility that big either."

Haru laughs. "Avatar Kiaree," he smirks, "you already have one."

Soon Kiaree finds Meg in the palace courtyard, playing with Kisu.

"There you are!" Meg exclaims. "Have a good heart to heart with good ole pal Haru?"

"Haha very funny," Kiaree sneers and tells her she has the day to do whatever. "While its still light out, I'm going to get some earth bending practice in with him."

"I have a feeling I'm going to need to find an exploring buddy while you are always off earth bending," Meg mumbles. Kiaree looks at the floor. "Oh well!" Meg rebounds. "You know, one of the cleaning servant boys at our place was kind of cute. I think I'll go see what he's up to," Meg winks. "Go knock some rocks together!" Kiaree laughs as her friend runs and does a front handspring through the gate out of the courtyard. Just for fun, Kiaree tries one too. She loves the feeling of dancing and doing tricks again. Kiaree then heads to a specially laid out training yard with Kisu gliding behind her. She could tell Kisu may start breathing fire soon because recently he has started to involuntarily coughed puffs of smoke. This would definitely become a problem.

In no time at all Kiaree has found her way to the training yard. "Maybe those water benders improved my sense of direction," Kiaree jokes to herself as Master Haru enters the yard.

"I'm finally here for my training," Kiaree smiles. Haru begins the lesson immediately. They start with basic earth bending forms and move into more difficult styles as the afternoon fades into night.

After accomplishing more than expected, Kiaree is escorted home and given a map to the city. "In case you get lost again," Song, their city guide, giggles, handing it to her.

"Thanks," Kiaree says in a sort of drawn out kind of way, then, not knowing what to do, bows and walks inside with Kisu. Meg is seated at a small floor table in the center of the main room. She is kneeling on a green mat and pouring tea from a steaming kettle into two china cups.

"I didn't know you could make tea," Kiaree comments, taking a small piece of meat out of the house's cold closet and dropping it on a plate for Kisu to eat. He coughs up a small puff of smoke, and then starts tearing into the meat.

"I can't," Meg laughs. "I didn't find the cleaning boy so I went on a "tour" with Song and she showed me around Ba Sing Se. One of our last stops was the Jasmine Dragon, so I picked up some tea."

"Oh, yeah, I've heard of that place," Kiaree mentions, joining Meg at the floor table. She takes a sip of her tea and sighs. Ginseng. Her mother's favorite tea. Mai loved experimenting with new teas and it makes Kiaree home sick.

"Thanks Meg, this is just what I need," Kiaree says. "It's been a pretty stressful day."

Meg laughs. "Yah, it's not every day that you get attacked by muggers, go into the avatar state, find out the king has been kidnapped, and have earth bending training. But who knows, this may be ordinary in the daily life of Avatar Kiaree."

Kiaree laughs too. "Yep, totally normal." The girls finish their tea and prepare for sleep. Meg shows Kiaree a few of the authentic Ba Sing Se souvenirs she bought sight seeing with Song. As Meg turns off their automatic candle lights, Kiaree sees the tiniest bit of fire escape Kisu mouth as he growls at an invisible creature.

"Please don't burn the house down," Kiaree thinks as she drifts into a deep slumber.