The beginning of part two! Thanks everyone who's read and left reviews. They're much appreciated :D
II. Abroad
1.
Yangchen,
You will not believe where I'm writing this from: the boat! I've just got on. Let me tell you all about it…
They day they came was exactly thirteen days after my twelfth birthday. It was the man from the Fire Nation, accompanied by two Air Nomads who had given him a ride on one of their bison. I did not get to see the bison though; I was sleeping at the time they arrived. I had always wanted to see one of the bison. Bansi and Bae told me about the huge groups of Air Nomads who would fly around the world with herds of hundreds of bison. I tried to imagine the monstrous beasts flying overhead like the biggest birds ever. The brothers promised me that maybe one day they would come on a bison to give me a ride. They never did, though.
Over breakfast Mother introduced Arin and me to the man from the Fire Nation. His name was Shil Hevat, and he was taller than I remembered. His heavy coat made him utterly huge and I was intimidated at first but he smiled a lot and was very nice. He seemed to enjoy our breakfast, and was excited for the trip to come. However, as soon as breakfast was finished, he had to leave with Uncle and Father to meet the crew of the ship we would be taking.
The nerves set in when I started packing.
With trembling hands, Mother helped me pick out the clothes I should bring. I did not have a very big wardrobe; I had outgrown many of my clothes (including my Earth Kingdom dress, which I was very saddened about, naturally), and nearly everything I had was going with me.
"You'll need some lighter clothes for traveling," she murmured as we went through it all. Her lips were pressed tightly together when she searched as if she was on the verge of tears. She probably was. "However, the North Pole will be just as cold as here, so you'll need your parka as well." I nodded and I realized that I was on the verge of tears, too. I managed to keep myself together long enough to put all the clothes I owned in a wooden trunk. Mother assured me that I could always get new clothes when I reached the north.
When Mother and I finished packing, we met Kaito and Father for some lunch. We rarely ate meals just the four of us. Normally I was either eating with just Arin, or with the entire family, but Auntie and Uncle wanted to spend some time with her, and my parents felt the same about me. The meal was as silent and bleak as the weather outside. Mother sniffled, and I was too nervous to eat. Father and Kaito had the same expression of forced apathy.
"I promise I'm going to write," I said halfway through the meal. My voice was high and strained, "just like I write to Yangchen. And maybe I'll even be able to send gifts back here for you guys." I smiled weakly.
"I'm sure you will," answered Father nodding.
"And I'm going to miss you so much," I added unnecessarily to fill up the sad silence.
"We'll miss you, too." Said Mother.
"Yeah," put in Kaito. "It'll be weird without my little sister around." I could feel tears brimming in my eyes. I closed them and nodded keeping my lips pressed in a tight line and tried not to sniffle.
After our lunch wee met Uncle, Auntie, and Arin in the little harbor where the ship would be leaving. Our trunks were loaded onto the boat by two of the waterbending members of the crew. Shil Hevat, the man from the Fire Nation greeted us when we boarded the boat. In contrasts to the bleakness of my family, he seemed all cheer. I hugged everyone multiple times. Mother and Auntie were completely crying, and I think even Father and Uncle were sniffling a bit. I refused to let them see me cry. Watching them on the shore was like being in a dream. Seeing them growing smaller and smaller on the distant bank felt so unreal. I held Arin's hand as we watched our only home disappear into the dark mists.
Not much has happened since. We both went into our cabins (tiny closet-like rooms underneath the deck) and I sobbed and sobbed. I finally pulled myself together to write this. However, I'm cheering up a bit. The prospect of being able to visit you at the Western Air Temple is extremely exciting to me. My sense of adventure is returning, too. I suppose I'll still be homesick, but not miserable about it. Anyway, I will be giving this to the next Air Nomads I see (hopefully I'll see some!). I would say to write back, but I don't know when I'll be able to get your letter.
--Rika.
When I finished writing my letter, I sat in my room for some time. I was feeling a little bit nauseous from the tides, and my head hurt from crying. I finally left after I grew hungry. I could hear that Arin was still in her room when I walked by. Shil Hevat was sitting on the deck just gazing out at the dark water. He turned when he heard me approach.
"Rika! Feeling better now?"
"Yes," I mumbled.
He indicated an empty chair next to him, "I've been waiting for some company out here. Would you like to sit?" I nodded and sat down. I stared out at the darkness for awhile without speaking. The boat glided quietly through the water. I could see the four men waterbending the water to power the boat. I watched their fluid, flawless movements. It was hypnotizing to watch them all move in synchronization.
"So, you travel a lot?" I finally said.
"Yes, but never really like this." He answered.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, the boats in the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom are different than this."
"How so?"
"They don't have waterbenders obviously," he chuckled, "so they have different methods. The Earth Kingdom method is probably the least efficient of the three; it takes more men and bigger ships. Even the smaller ships are bigger than this, and this ship is practically a little canoe compared to what I've traveled in!"
"Wow."
"Yeah. The Earth Kingdom ships are powered by rowers. A ship about this side would probably need twenty men. Each man has a heavy oar taller than me, and they sit in two long rows on wooden benches. One man, who's the leader, sits at the front of all of them beating a drum, so all the oarsmen row all together." I tried to imagine it. It seemed very crude and, as he had mentioned, inefficient. Twenty men? This ship only needed four, though we had eight who rotated in shifts.
"What about the Fire Nation?" I asked. He smiled.
"Fire Nation is much more technical with their methods." He sounded very proud, but not haughty. "It's something that I think the inventors picked up from the Air Nomads."
"But…they don't have ships, right?"
"No, but the concept involves the wind." I nodded and he continued. "We need about as many men as a Water Tribe ship, but less manpower. We let nature do the work. We capture the wind in giant cloths that are called 'sails.' Each ship has two or three different sails that can be manipulated based on where the wind is coming from. It's still fairly new, but I think in the future, the Earth Kingdom will be using it as well."
I nodded again. "Sounds complicated." My stomach grumbled. "Is there dinner yet?"
"Well, not only am I your chaperone, I'm also your chef." He grinned. "I hope you like Fire Nation food."
"I've never had it." I replied. "But I'm sure it's delicious."
"I'm a pretty good chef, if I do say so myself." I followed him down into to the interior of the boat. "Should we get her?" he asked as we walked by Arin's room. I shrugged.
"I don't think so. She was really upset." We proceeded.
"This," he pointed to another room, "is my little room, so if you ever need something, feel free to come in, but I'm a bit sensitive to small spaces so I'll probably be spending most of my time on the deck." I nodded. At the end of the hallway we entered through a door. "This, is the galley." He indicated a small icebox and fire-pit with a cooking pot. "There's nothing above this, so the smoke can go right out an opening at the top." He went over to the ice box and removed some meat that I did not recognize. He grabbed a knife from a compartment and began chopping the meat on a small table in the corner of the room.
"What kind of meat is that?" I asked.
"Cow-pig." He answered. "You probably don't get anything like that down in the South Pole." I shook my head. "It's a very common type of livestock in the Earth Kingdom. We're going to be stopping a couple Earth Kingdom ports along the way to replenish our food supply and to show you two some Earth Kingdom culture. We're also going to be going a little bit inland to visit Omashu. Now that's a great city; probably my favorite place of residence in the entire Earth Kingdom. It started out as a small town for hundreds of years, then has suddenly just started exploding with population; the fastest growing city in the Earth Kingdom.
"The other place I'd love to take you two is the Earth Kingdom capital, Ba Sing Se. It's probably safe to say that that's the biggest city in the world." He finished chopping the meat and turned to the little fire-pit. "Stand back." I obliged and watched amazed as flame seemed to burst from his fist lighting the tiny fire-pit. He dumped the meat in. "Where was I?"
"Umm…" I was still amazed by the firebending. I had never seen anyone firebend before and I could not believe how he was so nonchalant with it. "Ba Sing Se?"
"Yes, Ba Sing Se." he smiled and began peeling some strangely shaped vegetables. "I actually got to eat a meal with the Earth King himself. A very interesting dinner, I might add. He was quite an interesting fellow, I suppose. But to get there, we had to travel through the entire city because his palace is in the exact center of the city; it's a huge circle! Whenever they expand it, they make it bigger on practically all sides to keep it's shape."
"Why did you eat a meal with the Earth King?"
"I was representing the Fire Nation at the four-hundred year anniversary of the city." He dumped the vegetables into the mix with a sizzle. "That's what I do when I'm not chaperoning little girls," he chuckled, "I represent the Fire Nation in international relations. Most of my business is with the Earth Kingdom though, which is why I've never traveled down to the South Pole in the past; and of course the fact that I don't particularly love cold weather."
"I guess I'm just used to it."
"And I'm used to the heat. Where I live it's never snowed; my kids hardly even know what it is."
"Wow…" The idea of not knowing snow seemed utterly mind blowing to me. "So you have kids?"
"Yes, four. My oldest is about your age I think."
"It must be tough to leave them for so long."
"Yeah, it is." He stirred the concoction thoughtfully. "But I've worked out a system, six months away six months at home doing nothing. I'm actually supposed to be home now, but since I volunteered to take you and Arin I'm going to be away an extra month or so. No regrets though, it's an important job and somebody's got to do it. I've also got a bit of an adventurous spirit, so I can't really stay home doing nothing. You know?"
"Yeah…" I had never traveled before, yet I felt that I could relate. "What are you making?" His mixture smelled delicious. He shrugged.
"A recipe I picked up from some sandbenders in the desert."
"Sandbenders?"
"Yes, they're a special form of nomadic earthbenders…" he continued talking even as he finished making the meal. He talked as he served us both, and talked even more as we both ate. His stories were fascinating; he seemed to know everything! After we dined he showed me all sorts of firebending moves under the stars and like so many other people I have met, I began to envy him.
Arin was out of her room the next day. I knew that she, like me, came out for food, but naturally she denied this. During breakfast, Shil Hevat showed us where we would be going on the map.
"Down here," he pointed to the southernmost piece of land on the map, "is where we started. In fact, this is where your city is." He indicated a dot on the map. With full mouths, Arin and I nodded. "See all these islands? Well, we're going to cut right through that little channel in the middle." He traced his finger along the body of water. "Then we set due course until we practically run ashore of the Earth Kingdom. From there, we head right along the southwest coast stopping every few days at the little towns along the coast for more supplies. We keep going until we reach this river here." He gesticulated to a river in between a mountain range and a larger river. "This river may be shorter, but it receives nearly double the boating traffic. We're going to take this river all the way to a harbor outside of Omashu. However, we're going to leave the boat in the town and the three of us are going to travel by carriage to Omashu.
"We're going to stay there for a night or two while the boat gets touched up. Then we head back to the boat, and back out into the open ocean. From there we head northwest until we reach my home in the Fire Nation. Now, the Fire Nation may look like just two or three big islands, but it's actually comprised of many tinier islands that don't show up on the map. My home is on one of those, towards the northern part of the nation. We're going to stay there for a few days with my family. You'll like them." He smiled.
"After that, we proceed north to the Western Air Temple. It's difficult to get up there, so we're going to be met by an Air Nomad escort; maybe even your friend Yangchen. There's a harbor for the boat so no worries." The boat was the last thing on my mind. I was filled with trepidation at finally being able to see Yangchen's magnificent home in the mountains for myself. Shil Hevat continued, "We're going to spend a few days there as well until we travel our final stretch to the North Pole, though we're going to be making a few over night stops in the Earth Kingdom to make sure we have supplies and such, but nothing major. The whole journey should take about a month and a half to two months, so we'll be arriving right at the end of winter." Arin and I chewed our breakfast quietly taking it all in.
Arin soon discovered that she could practice her waterbending with the waterbending members of the crew that were on their break. Sometimes I would watch her. She was improving greatly, sparring with the other waterbenders and creating giant waves. I watched as the scenery around the boat started to change from the grey, icy waters and dark skies, so bluer skies and even a few birds.
After a week of traveling, we passed between the islands that, according to Shil Hevat, were home to the Air Nomads of the Southern Air Temple. Apparently, he had stayed there for a few months several years ago, observing the habits of the monks. He was full of interesting stories and when I tired of looking at Arin's waterbending, I was happy to listen to them for hours and hours. I became more and more excited for the places we would visit.
After ten days we reached our first Earth Kingdom town. Arin and I watched from the deck as Shil Hevat traded with men in the port. Every time he peered over his shoulder at us, we hid. The men were different than the Earth Kingdom soldier that had visited us in the South Pole. These men were laid back and smiling, exchanging stories and supplies with Chit Sang. I could not hear their actual conversation, but seemed to know him from past visits. Our chaperone was in an extra good mood when he finally returned.
During this time, I stopped writing letters. I figured that I would reach the Air Temple and see her in person before any letters reached her. However, I did start keeping a log of my adventures on the ship helping me to remember them so vividly.