Ch2

Suki

"No, no and no!"

"But why not?" asked Suki for the umpteenth time.

"It's too dangerous, for you and the village! Who will defend the village if it is attacked again? The journey is treacherous as well." Answered Oyaji firmly.

"We could come out of retirement to protect the village!" Suki's mother protested. "I think the girls should be allowed to go help out Earth Kingdom resistances."

"And only those who want to go could go." Added Suki. "We won't force anyone who is uncomfortable with leaving." At that, Suki shot a glance at Lia who had accompanied her and her mother to talk to Oyaji. She knew that Lia was definitely unsure about leaving the island, but she had to come! Lia was a good, capable warrior and she should help the Earth Kingdom.

"Yeah," said Lia meekly, obviously trying to put as much meaning in it as possible. Oyaji sighed.

"The Avatar must have really inspired you." He commented.

"Um…yeah I guess." Replied Suki. The truth was, Sokka had inspired her more…despite everything, he really was an extremely brave warrior.

"Well, you can do your protecting here! And that's final!" he said at the look on Suki's and her mother's faces. "Good night."

"I guess that's that!" said Lia briskly as they left.

"Oh, we're still going." Said Suki confidently. "Just now we have to sneak away from Kyoshi Island." Lia groaned. "We'll arrange a meeting with all the girls to decide who is going to go and who is going to stay." Decided Suki. She turned to Lia. "and you're coming!"

"See you tomorrow," mumbled Lia, slightly annoyed, as she went to her hut.

"You'll help us leave, right Mom?" asked Suki to her mother, after Lia had left.

"Yes, of course." She answered. "Oyaji will just have to deal with it." Suki smiled, glad that her mom still had some of her warrior spirit after more than fifteen years in retirement.

The meeting the next day was arranged to be at twilight in secret. All warriors were required to attend. Suki was the first there, she watched as all the girls came in looking curious. All wondering what the meeting was about.

"Girls," began Suki. Waiting until the entire room quieted, she continued, "Two days ago, the Avatar was here. He came here and he brought with him the troubles of the outside world. They citizens of the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribe need us. We can't stay here in our little island bubble while people are being killed and hurt in the outside world.

"What I want to do is to leave Kyoshi island and help battle the massive Fire Nation army. Lia, my mother and I spoke with Oyaji last night. He does not approve of us leaving for fear that we will be attacked in our absence. Of course, we are not going to force anyone to come to the Earth Kingdom or not but we hope that at least five or so others will want to go…" she trailed off at the expressions on some of the girls' faces.

"Wait, how can we go if Oyaji doesn't approve? He's head of the island." Asked a girl in the front.

"Well, we'd have to sort of sneak away. But, my mother supports us and is willing to help." Answered Suki. "Any other questions?"

"What are we going to do once we get to the Earth Kingdom?" asked another girl. "We didn't do much good against the couple firebenders who came to the island. How are we supposed to fight a whole army?"

"For one thing, we did fine against the firebenders who came here." Responded Suki defensively. "and we'd be assisted by earthbenders when we're fighting." She paused to allow more questions, but there were none. "So, who's in?" No one raised their hands until Lia tentatively raised hers. After that, several others followed. "Those who want to fight come up here so I can take down your names." Lia and four other girls stood up. Suki wrote their names down: Lia, Sima, Tashi, Keya, and Mian. Sima and Mian were experienced warriors, but Tashi and Keya were quite young.

"Remember! This meeting was a secret, so don't tell anyone, okay?" Suki reminded the warriors as they left. For the first time since she had thought of her plan, she felt a genuine feeling of nerves seeming to creep through her entire body.

Jet

Jet went around the treetop hideout, observing the preparations that the kids were doing.

"How's that packing going?" he asked Longshot. The silent archer grinned and showed a thumbs up.

"Jet!" yelled Smellerbee, swinging across one of the many zip lines that connected the hideout. "There's a kid coming." Jet and Longshot turned to face her.

"What do you mean?" asked Jet.

"I mean a boy, about your age, coming to the hideout. I think he's from the village we destroyed and is homeless now."

"Oh," said Jet. "Well, I should probably go meet him." He followed Smellerbee to meet the boy. He dropped out of the tree and landed directly in front of the boy. The boy jumped in surprise and withdrew two swords, similar to the ones Jet used.

"Whoa!" he said. "Are you Fire Nation."

"No." responded Jet. "Are you Fire Nation?"

"Nope." Answered the boy coolly putting his swords back in the sheath on his back. "But I can't be too careful after those firebenders flooded my village."

"Yeah, you can never be too careful around here." Said Jet as guiltless about flooding the village as he could be. "This forest is practically crawling with them."

"I'd love to fight some firebenders." Commented the boy. "I used to fight them in the village, but now that it's flooded, most of them have left. Good riddance."

"Yes, good riddance. I'm Jet." Said Jet. The boy was silent for a moment before saying,

"I'm Mutiny." The boy said smirking slightly. "They used to call me that at the village because I was the only one who stood up to those soldiers."

"And I'm Smellerbee." Piped up Smellerbee from up in the tree where she had been listening. "We were Freedom Fighters, but we're going to Ba-Sing-Se to live soon."

"Do you people live in trees?" asked Mutiny.

"Yeah," said Jet. "I'll take you to the hideout."