IX Forgotten Temple
She knew as soon as those words had left her lips Tiao had dropped a bombshell. At first, their reaction made her smile. Only because, being a female in the fire nation army usually brought that reaction from people. However, by the way they avoided her gaze afterwards, Tiao realised that she had just distanced herself from them, and that made her somewhat scared.
The group silently agreed to take a break from flying and they landed on a small island. From the air they could see only a few houses, while most of the land was covered in flora, so it was decided that it would be a good place to get some peace.
Once Appa's toes touched the earth in a large clearing, they all disembarked, Katara being the first. The waterbender stormed off and disappeared amongst the trees, and Aang was quick to follow her. Sokka jumped off onto the grass and stretched his arms above his head.
"I think its time for a toilet break." he announced before wandering off in the opposite direction his sister took.
That only left Suki and Tiao on the saddle. Tiao had closed herself off by hugging her knees close to her body. Suki, having taken in one of Azula's friends as a Kyoshi warrior, wasn't quick to judge. She decided to keep her company, even if it was silent until the others came back. However, it wasn't.
"What do they have against the fire nation army?' Tiao asked as she played innocently with her fingers in front of her.
Suki sighed and rubbed the back of her head. "We've run into some problems with fire nation soldiers in the past. Specifically Sokka, Katara and Aang. They don't like to talk about it."
Tiao took in the answer and was quick to defend herself, jumping up from her huddled position and almost falling over in her haste. "I wasn't a soldier! They wouldn't let me be one because of my hair!" she exclaimed, pulling at one of her locks and pointing to it angrily.
Suki cocked her head in puzzlement. Tiao took a deep breath and sat down again. Keeping her voice calm, she explained. "The army agreed that due to my hair colour, it was too easy to pick me out of a crowd. So instead, they trained me to work with potions. I was in charge of sedating prisoners and setting up weapons for....ahem...special uses."
"You mean, to kill?"
Tiao nodded. "But I wasn't the one that used them. Of course I did carry some when they put me on patrol in the village, but they were only for emergencies."
She spoke the last part of confession very fast and Suki had to listen keenly to catch all of it. But once she was done, and playing with her long hair shamefully, Suki crawled forward and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"You have to tell everyone. To them, the fire nation army are just a group of thugs...or at least, they were."
It was Tiao's turn to look puzzled, but Suki quickly corrected herself. "Listen, if you don't tell them, they might not talk to you again."
The blonde haired girl let out a breath of air she had been holding in and nodded. Suki slapped her on the back and stood up, stretching her legs.
"Come one, lets go get a drink before we have to take off again."
- - - -
- - - -
Katara stomped through the undergrowth, not looking back. Aang quickly caught up to her and put a hand on each of her shoulders to stop her. He was almost expecting her to be crying from memories brought on by the bombshell that was just dropped on them.
In fact, the expression plastered on her face scared him a little and he felt the need to let go of her.
"Katara, calm down. Its not like she hurt anyone we know. Heck ,we don't know if she's hurt anyone."
"Aang, you know as well as I do that the fire nation army only recruit people who have the will to fight. Who's to say that Tiao won't turn on us while we're sleeping? Or worse, she could be a spy."
Aang put both hands behind his head and bit his lower lip. He knew that Katara now seeing Tiao as one of the southern raiders who took her mother. He knew that she was probably going to take her frustration out on Tiao just like she had with Zuko. Aang had to think fairly quickly before Katara stormed back to Appa and punched the girl in the face.
"Katara, she wasn't around when the fire nation raided your village. She wasn't even around when the airbenders...." he stopped and waited for her understanding of where he was going. "The point I'm trying to make is that you can't profile someone just based on what they do, or did, for a living. Tiao could of just been trying to make ends meet."
Katara recalled the conversation she had had with the firebender about her father and nodded silently. Her face softened slightly and Aang relaxed, dropping his arms by his side.
"But how do you know this? Do you remember her from a hundred years ago or something?"
"Close. Avatar Roku remembers seeing a baby with blue eyes and white hair when he was training with his waterbending master up at the north pole."
Katara looked somewhat shocked at this. "So...she was born in the northern water tribe? But she's a firebender!"
"I know. I'm not even sure if the baby Roku saw was Tiao, but how many baby's do you see that are born with white hair?" Aang watched her expression change as she went through the possibilities. When she opened her mouth to talk Aang quickly cut her off. "No, I asked Roku. He thinks that because Tiao doesn't have pure white hair, she hasn't been touched by Tui."
Katara shut her mouth and screwed it up in thought. "So...this is why you want to take her to Toph? To double check your information?" Aang didn't get the chance to answer before Katara nodded understandingly, so he just smiled.
"Right, that's settled. Now I have to ask, why did you whip me this morning?" Aang said as they started back towards Appa.
"Aang that's a horrible thing to say, I would never whip you!" Aang shot an accusing (but amused) look at her and she smiled "Not on purpose anyway."
The airbender looked forward again and smiled "Then your waterbending pupils are getting really good."
Katara laughed out loud and Aang had to stop and look at her before she even thought about controlling herself.
"They can do a water whip right?"
"Aang, my pupils can't make a water whip to save their life. Mind you, they are still reasonably knew at it, so its reasonable. Why do you ask?"
Aang was positive that the one who whipped him was Katara, after all, she did turn at the calling of her name. But the person was hooded, so it could have been any one of the waterbenders in the village. "No reason." he said smiling, a lot more relaxed that Katara hadn't hurt him out of spite.
- - - -
They got back to Appa to find only Sokka, leaning up against Appa's fur and eating a piece of fruit he had obviously found on his trip into the woods.
"Hey Sokka...where's Suki?" Katara asked, looking up at the saddle and the pair of fans sitting on it.
"Not sure, came back and she and Tiao were gone."
Aang grabbed his staff and waved himself onto Appa's head. "Aren't you worried?"
But the water tribe shook his head calmly and took another bite of his fruit." Of course I am. But if Suki can fight Azula and live, than she can handle anyone."
Aang was just about to glide off when two voices came from the trees. Pretty soon, out of the darkness caused by the thick foliage of the trees, came Suki and Tiao. They were talking and each girl held an armful of fruit like the one that Sokka was eating.
Katara tapped her foot impatiently as Sokka clambered back onto Appa.
"Oh hey sorry Katara, we found a fruit tree and thought it would be good to get everyone a snack." Suki's eyes wandered to where Sokka was sitting on the saddle and she sighed. "But it looks like Sokka has already helped himself."
Tiao let out a small giggle before looking down at the stern waterbender. "Listen, Katara, I'm sorry about how you see fire nation soldiers, but you have to understand that we're not all evil."
Suki bit her lip as Katara just turned around and climbed onto Appa. "Maybe you should explain the way you did to me once we get going."
Tiao nodded, still watching the waterbender with a worried look.
- - - -
- - - -
Once the small island was out of sight, the friends turned their attention to the small pile of fruit waiting for them. Despite having eaten already, Sokka was one of the first to grab a piece.
Tiao thought that it would've been hard to bring up the topic of the army again, but it wasn't. The air around the group had lightened up since their break, and it was Katara who let curiosity get the better of her.
"So Tiao, what did you do in the army?"
After that question was out in the air, her muscles relaxed and she felt like she could breath again. There was something about the waterbender that was almost...parent-like in her judgement. So once everyone was attentive to Tiao, she explained to them her duties, just like she had with Suki. When she had finished, they all seemed a little more keen on sharing Appa's saddle with her. Though Katara still seemed a little sceptical, Tiao just dismissed it as her nature.
It wasn't long after her story was finished that they started flying past familiar buildings atop the mountains. Tiao pretty much flung herself overboard as she watched them sail by.
"Hey Aang, the southern air temple! Why didn't we stop here for a break?"
But the group fell silent, especially Aang. He just snapped Appa's reigns and they continued to fly past the blue roofed buildings. Tiao sunk back to a sitting position as the clouds slowly covered the forgotten temple.
"Hey, is this one of those things that you don't talk about?" she asked out of curiosity. They all slowly nodded, but Tiao couldn't seem to let it go.
"Come on, you can tell me. Its not like I'm a spy or anything." she said feigning a fake smile as Katara shot Aang a glance.
Aang pat the sky bison on the head and practically floated over to Tiao on a gust of wind. They now sat face to face, their legs crossed and expressions blank. She knew when something was serious, and the way that the others were excluding themselves from the conversation told her enough.
'Tiao, I don't know how to say this but...you're not from around here."
The blonde haired girl smiled and looked back at the direction of the southern air temple. "Yea I know, I'm a from the fire nation capital."
Aang sighed as Sokka and Suki leaned closer to hear. "No, I mean, you're not from this time."
Tiao didn't seem to understand and her smile quickly disappeared as the tone of the conversation got sharper. "You know we found you frozen in ice right?" Tiao nodded at this. "Well, we're just not sure how long you've been in there. You know who I am right?"
"Sure, you're Aang of the southern air temple who doesn't visit his friends." she replied, trying to lighten up the mood with little success.
"No Tiao. I'm the...I'm the Avatar."
She seemed to hold in a laugh as her hand shot right over her mouth. "Silly Aang." she said, her words muffled by her hand. "Roku is the Avatar, he is from the fire nation."
However, her laughs died down but her hand remained as she saw no reaction from the others.
"How long have I been in the ice?" she said, a scared tone replacing her ridiculing one.
Aang slowly explained how Roku was long passed and he had been frozen for one hundred years. He talked of the war and Sozin's comet, and managed to explain the fall of the airbenders. Katara soon cut in and explained of their adventures to the north pole and how the fire nation almost destroyed the village and the moon.
Sokka then exaggerated the fall of Omashu and the siege on Ba Sing Se and how they thought they had stopped the fire nation. Then he got to the part about Aang almost being killed by Azula and the airbender confirmed it by showing the large scar on his back.
Finally, Suki talked about Toph and Zuko and how they all worked together to stop Fire Lord Ozai from taking over the entire earth kingdom.
Tiao just sat silently through it all. It was a good few hours before the Gaang finished and waited for her to take it all in. At first it seemed like she had just ignored them all, refusing to accept where she was. But she finally looked up from the depressed slump she had fallen into, and looked over the side of the saddle.
"One hundred year war..." she started, crossing her arms underneath her chin.
For the duration of the rest of the day, she didn't speak or even turn around until they finally landed on the mainland of the earth kingdom. Even then, she silently wandered over to a patch of grass, folded her parka and slept. The others stayed close to one another and watched her sadly.
"You know, when I you think about it, she kind of has it rougher than I did."
Everyone looked at Aang waiting for an explanation to his theory. "I mean, I only lived for 12 years when I got frozen. Technically, she left 19 years behind. I've known people that were 19 that were already starting a family. Who knows what she had."
The others pondered this before laying their heads down to rest.
Phew...
Tried to go for a longer chapter, try and shake things up a bit lol
I wanna know, would you rather longer chapters that cover more or shorter chapters that get to one thing at a time? Coz if you like longer, I'll strive for longer :D
Please Review ^_^