Book One – Chapter Two

Warriors of Kyoshi

Suki

The lesson with Sven didn't take too long to finish. It wasn't even long at all. That battle was literally the only thing that we had practiced. Thanks to Nomad and Syke being there, now I have to worry about practicing a good friend of mine and two other friends who…well didn't have courage in my honest opinion.

Right now, there's really no need to worry about anything else. Today is Sven's birthday and he is now fifteen. According to Kyoshi's history, it's the time where one is promoted to the highest level. Sadly though, the battle I had with him was just a test and he passed nearly everything, except for not letting his guard down. Other than that, it was simply a day to celebrate with our friend who had been born into this world.

We were laying down in one of our usual hangout spots on top of a valley. There was usually nothing up here, just the sound of crickets, birds, and other wildlife. This place was one of the untouched landscapes on the island that people didn't want taken away. It was the only place where the sea could be seen at a great angle with the island as well in the background. This was probably the only best place here on the island where not even tours come here.

Today, the sun was exactly on top of the water and when we looked, the water looked like it was glistening and it was the sun that the water had trapped. It was such an amazing view that never got old for a year now.

"Amazing", whispered Nomad. "The sun is in the correct directional angle for a great light show!"

"Still doesn't it hurt your eyes?", asked Syke.

"Yeah, but it's worth it", I declared. "There's a slight chance this may never happen again."

Such fascination and beauty this world brought. It's just hard to believe that any of this is possible.

The only one who didn't really speak was Sven. When I looked over, he was looking at the view too, but something was in his mind.

"Sven?", I asked " are you ok?"

He quickly got out of his thoughts and looked over at us. "Oh uh" he stuttered. "It's uh- nothing."

I know we weren't suppose to ask about this memory he had about "a night to remember" because it would've put him into an emotional state. That's what happened at least when we tried last month. We had a little hangout/sleepover with most of friends, Syke, and Sven at Yuri's place. Sven used to be one of those people who wanted to take chances for good memories since he never had good ones. Then, near midnight, while we were all almost asleep, he started murmuring things. Things that no one would have wanted to see in their life. The worst part was that he was asleep during this moment. It was happening so slowly that everyone heard what he said thinking he was possessed. His voice even changed at certain points that must've represented different people in his dream and that's what freaked out me more. Then, he was about to scream, asking someone to help a person left behind. When that started, my friend, Lil started crying, telling everyone to get rid of him. No one did who wanted to. Even others were crying as well as saying prayers. I myself had tears running down my eye not because I was scared. I was crying because this was a boy that I found with his friend alone in the snow. Suddenly, he woke up with a face of a scared child, panting hard, very hard. When he looked at us standing near him, he lowered his head in shame and stuttered, "I'm sorry." He left the next minute without a goodbye, not even a thank you. I even saw him crying as he passed me by the door, a waterfall literally planted there on his face. He never went to another party or exciting thing like that ever again since that night.

This was different though. He would always be excited the entire day of his birthday, trying to think of what he would want to do. This time, it was only the morning he planned and it was nearly noon with nothing else planned.

I couldn't stand it anymore. I needed to know.

"Please, Sven", I asked in the most desperate tone. "What happened? That day."

Silence. Of course. That's what always happened.

I turned back to the view and-

"You guys know about who I was before, right?", answered Sven.

We were fascinated by the fact that he was actually going to tell us that we turned over to him like a classroom full of preschoolers, excited. Well, Nomad and Syke were. I was just curious and unsure if everything that was coming was going to be good or not.

Sven sighed, trying to remember.

"When…when I", he said with hesitation.

I didn't want him to forget about it and go on like he was. I wanted to try to help. All of us did.

"I was born in a village far out from here or anywhere. There were no other siblings in my family after I was born. My mom couldn't have another baby due to a little stomach problem after my birth. So, pretty much, I was a loner. School was kinda the same. I was always happy in the morning, expecting good things to see and learn. But even that wouldn't stop me from being the capital point of bully central. Bruises everywhere, absences, these were things that had happened to me because of that!", Sven told us.

"Wow", Syke said. "I thought a girlfriend dumped you, but-"

"Ew! No!" shouted Sven, "not in a million years would a girl want to go with me! Do you remember that attempt last week?"

Nomad laughed suddenly remembering that funny day. "You tried to ask her out through a letter!", he chuckled. "You don't do that at all."

"Well how do you know, 'Mr. Know-It-All'?", Sven replied.

That got me, Syke, and even Sven laughing. Nomad however was not interested and was blushing.

After a little bit of laughter, I asked, "so what happened after that?"

"Oh" he started, "I met my family."

"But I thought you said-"

"Not that kind…like a brotherhood I mean." He paused, closing his eyes, trying to remember whoever these people were. They must have been extraordinary. He breathed for a second trying to think about everything he knew.

"I was around 7 when I met them. It was another day at school and I was just getting my lunch. In the line, I saw these two bullies were always such a big pain around me. They were these brothers, Troy and Stev. Many people were friends with them just by being bad like those two boys were. I couldn't understand why people liked them. In front of me that day was another kid who was afraid like me and a majority of others and he didn't notice who it was in front of him. When he got his food, he accidentally tripped and spilled all his food on the brothers. That's when he knew he was in the worst situation possible. 'Are you trying to make me mad?', asked Troy. 'I-it wasn't me. It was that kid' he claimed, pointing at me with my lunch in hand. Stev walked up to me, fist ready. He punched me in the good eye and didn't even think second. 'Stupid kid' he said, 'you haven't learned, have you?'

"He got ready for another punch until a kid a year older than me walked up to him. 'Leave him alone, Stev' he said, 'he ain't done nothing wrong.' 'Get out of my face, scumbag. This is my private lesson', replied Stev. 'Come on man! Don't be like this! At least let me finish it for you! You need those hands for your game tomorrow, right?', the kid asked. 'Fine', replied Troy. The kid picked me up, being all serious. When we left the area, we went to a little secret area I had never known of where there were eight other kids.

"'Guys, help me get this kid fixed up. Look at him!', he stated. 'Jeez' one of the boys said, 'another Stev incident happened?' 'Apparently', said the boy who must've been the leader. 'Come onnn. We have to help him', said the kid who got me out of the situation. They all stopped doing their thing and helped me out. It was painful, but afterwards, I looked a bit better, with just a scar.

"The kid who helped me out earlier came up to me near the end of lunch time asking, 'you feeling better?' 'Yeah', I responded. 'Thanks'. 'No problem. By the way, my name's Liam -'"

"Wait. Is Liam that same kid that we found with you in the snow?", asked Nomad.

Sven was kinda surprised that he was interrupted by Nomad of all people. "Umm, yes", he answered.

"Ohh, so that's how you guys got along", I said. "I thought he was like a random person."

Sven chuckled a bit. "No" he stated, "no he wasn't. He was my best friend. Probably the one I could look up to as a brother."

"I'm still kinda like a brother, right?" asked Syke.

"Yeah, you still are. I think of you guys as my family, too. Just…Liam was the first to feel like a brother to me." He looked at us. "Nomad would be a brother I could have for help, Syke would be my lazy bro when I needed comedy –"

"Who I would be? A sister?", I asked. When he looked at me, he grew a little smirk that Nomad and Syke didn't notice somehow. He must have been thinking something because he quickly snapped out of it. "Y-you would be a sister", he said in a really sad tone. I didn't understand why he said that way though.

"When I came back to them the next day, the boy's leader, Ash, introduced me to the rest. I knew Liam, but he introduced to a variety of names that I would still remember to this day, even if we didn't call each other that way. There was Sam, Christian, Mino, Luke, Ajay, Mike, and Harol.

"'We knew our names were never going to be remembered because of how people made fun of us. We didn't want to be made fun of so we made our own names', said Ash. He told me that everyone was called by a number. Christian was one, Luke was 2, Ajay was 3, Liam was 4, Mike was 5, Ash was 6, Harol was 8, Mino was 9, and Sam was 10.

'But what about 7? Who's he?', I asked Ash. He looked at me with a smile. 'You are', he announced. When I had heard that, I had thought they were joking. Then, they started clapping and rooting for me. These kids back then were around the age group I was in, most of us being 7, a few were 8, and Mino was the only one who was six and a half. I couldn't believe that actually happened that day. I had found people who actually wanted me and who thought I could be good to them. I hugged Ash- I mean 6, thanking him for letting me join.

"He didn't know it then, but what he did helped me feel better in school about who I was. I was never that scared of Troy and Stev as much as I was before. Since that day, we were all a group. A never ending brotherhood that had love, friendship, and fun."

"Then, how did you learn to fight?" I questioned, "like a warrior? Don't tell me you lied about that!"

"No no no! I didn't! That's true!", Sven responded quickly. "I was still too young to learn! Seriously, how could a seven year-old learn at such an age?"

"Take private classes like you", said Syke.

That did it for Sven and me. I smiled at what Syke said, but Sven literally laid down and laughed his lungs.

"Fine" Sven said, "that's a good one."

Syke shrugged sarcastically, smiling.

"When I did learn how to fight 'like a warrior' was when I was 8 a year later. We would always after school do work and then do the best part", Sven said.

"What? You tried doing things you shouldn't have done?", Nomad asked sarcastically.

"Actually, that's what we did."

I think Syke and Nomad had the same reaction as me. Sven did bad stuff? He actually was once a trouble-maker?

"We actually ran on the rooftops after school where I learned what people call 'parkour' and-"

"Wait, you knew how to parkour?", I asked.

"Yeah, it's not that hard" Sven answered, "you just need to build up upper body strength, stamina, and kick power."

"'Kick power?'", I asked.

"The strength to kick off the ground", he answered.

"You mean, lower body strength, right?", asked Nomad.

"There's two names for both upper and lower? I thought it was just one name!", he said.

Nomad was having his share of happiness now. He was chuckling on this fact that Sven didn't even know the fact between body strength. Of all people, Sven not knowing this was really stupid in my opinion.

"Well, other than that" Sven confirmed, "I was probably the fastest out of all of them. They always told me to wait for them so I wouldn't go too far. One day, I didn't listen to them and I saw –"

He paused. He was trying so hard to remember something. Probably what happened in that dream of his on that night of the sleepover. He shook his head looking at us.

"I don't remember that much anymore" he said, "not like I used to."

I was disappointed by this. He had everything on his childhood and then when he was trying to tell us about what led to that night, he couldn't remember. I remember when the village first found him and he knew more than what he knows today.

It was two years ago, three months before his birthday at that time. It was snowing that day when I was practicing outside with the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors. The one in command back then was a lady much more fierce than me and not even nearly friendly at all. Thank goodness I was selected as the next leader. If not, people would've left. That day, we were doing a lesson on how to survive or hide in the winter time. We were all to separate in groups of two to different places in the woods and try to hide from the leader. I was with a girl younger than me named Karla. We were out near the area full of thick trees and we were making sure the leader wouldn't find us.

After a little while of hiding, we started to look out for the leader. "Suki?", Kara started to ask. I turned around to see what she wanted. She was looking down at the ground below.

"What is it?" I had asked her.

"We're safe from others, right? Like the other nations?", she asked.

"Of course. Why? What's wrong?"

I hurried up toward her, seeing fear in her eyes. She pointed downward, shaking dramatically. I held her arm to calm her down until-

When I looked down, I saw a boy who was no older than 12 trying to walk another boy who seemed to be knocked out. They were wearing big coats of blue material that seemed to have been very thick. They had sword cases on their pants, but no weapons were there. The boy carrying his friend or ally seemed to have been growing weak with every step and breathe. Behind them was a long never-ending trail of footsteps, hard to tell when those steps had begun. Kara and I had no idea what to do. The boys were nearly our age so we didn't think that they were a possible threat to us. That was until the boy finally fell face first and the back of his coat revealed who they were: Fire Nation people! They were the enemy! Right at this moment, even now, they were the ones who caused the big war that has been happening for 100 years now. One that was far away from us. We didn't want this war to reach us. All we wanted was peace.

"We should help them", convinced Kara.

"Are you kidding?" I said, "do you know what that will do to us? The many lives at risk?"

"Yeah, but even if they are the enemy, they're still young to be out here with no help. If you didn't know me and I was in that situation, would you still do the same for me?"

"Yes. I would, but –"

"But what?", Kara asked.

I sighed, not knowing what to do. I looked at the two boys in the snow, not evening moving a muscle. Then, surprisingly, the strong boy moved his head up just a bit to try and do something. Even far away, I could tell how he was trying to call for help by calling out, but even he knew he couldn't do that. Suddenly, his head plopped back in the snow and he didn't show any sign of life.

Dammit! I jumped from the tree to get down and help those two. I picked up the boy who showed his last bits of strength left. Kara picked up the other boy who seemed knockout and then blew a whistle that we used to indicate emergencies. A few more whistles were heard to respond to the whistle before and we knew then that the girls were coming. We were continuing walking until I looked at the coats again, seeing the Fire Nation symbol. What if the girls found out? They would then put them to jail or probably have them executed! I couldn't let it happen to these boys!

"Kara", I said.

"What?", she asked, turning around.

"Hide the coats."

"What if they find them?"

"No worries. I know a good hiding spot."

When the girls came, the coats were off of them and any other valuables that would help revealing who these men were. The leader was kinda surprised and unsure at the same time. She told all of us to get the boys to the little medical tent in the corner of the town while she looked around the area for anything unusual or dangerous. She didn't even notice the clothing that we were hiding behind our backs. To make sure they would never find it, we threw the clothing into the sea when we passed by a shore. It would be unlikely for anyone to find it in a long time.

After a long walk, we finally made it to medical tent where the rest of the girls left, leaving me and Kara last to stay. The people in control of the little tent were actually well trained and had done many recoveries in the past during a little fight that happened on our island. 20 people were injured. Two days later, they were fully recovered. I knew they were going to do the same with these boys. I didn't even know that the boy with the brunette hair was going to be my friend in the future. The rest is kinda obvious.

"Look, I'm sorry about that", Sven said, triggering me out of my memories. "I just don't really remember that much, only meeting my friends is the only thing I know."

I noticed that they were actually leaving without me. I was remembering for too long apparently. I stood up and ran to catch up with them.

Nomad and Syke were ahead of us talking about their own thing. They must have sound excited about it because they were looking back at me and Sven almost the whole time. What the heck were they even talking about? I looked at Sven and noticed that he too was reacting in a weird way. He was looking at me too, but not in the weirdest way possible.

"Umm, Suki?", Sven asked.

"What? What is it?" I asked fiercely, "what is it that you guys are hiding from me?"

"I actually was going to do what they were talking about."

"Oh."

I didn't know what it was, but it must've have meant a lot to Sven. He was sweating non-stop! It wasn't even that hot!

"Suki…" he started, "ever since I met you in the medical tent, I always thought that you were… you were going to be a good friend to remember."

"Ahh. That's nice", I replied.

"Although… I've… I've got to tell you something."

"What?"

"I…I…"

He looked up to face me, ready to say something that –

"DUCK!", he yelled!

He pushed me down to the ground where then a big white fluff of hair flew over us. It followed with a low groan that I had never heard before. Nothing that had ever existed in the world. A few seconds later, the big flying fluff seemed to be gone. Sven moved his head up slowly to make sure nothing else was coming. When he looked back down to me and noticed the position he was in, he jumped up and blushed. I don't know why, but I couldn't keep my laughter! I had never seen Sven so gullible before!

"Are you guys okay?", Nomad said running back to us.

"Yeah" I answered, "we're fine."

Syke helped me back up while Nomad looked at the flying abomination.

"My god."

"What?", I asked.

"Get your warriors." He turned to face us. "We got ourselves an extinct species."