"Alright, kiddos. Quiz time."
It was how the geologist greeted the interns that morning, wiping dirt off of her hands unceremoniously onto her army-camouflaged cargo pants as she held a mug of strong chai tea. The complete set of eight faces looked up to her meekly inside their vast laboratory tent…all seven of them… and it almost took Andrea by surprise.
"Remington!" She mused at the dark-haired boy sitting the back, "We won't have to drag you out of bed today?"
The other seven interns chuckled over to their lab partner in the back, holding his own head up by a backwards cap and Redbull can on his hand. His stomach grumbled loud enough to almost echo against the hard plastic floor.
"First Cubs game of the season," the tall, strawberry blonde girl with the tightest French braid managed to explain. "It aired at 3 in the morning here."
"Nice," Andrea laughed as she noticed her small radio-television now screening static in the very corner of the lab. "So… did you win?"
"We got pulverized!" Remington almost fell off of his chair as he flailed his arms. "Those fricken' Yankees can't give us a break…"
As the kids erupted in laughter again, Andrea clapped their hands for attention. "Okay, let's not pick on the sleepy-head today – Ozzy, I'm looking at you -" her eyes narrowed at the curvy, olive-skinned girl wearing the appropriate Yankees t-shirt, "and let's get back to business. Quiz time!"
The interns promptly sat themselves on the appropriate chairs labeled for them along the laboratory table in their tent. Each station of theirs had cleaning tubs, brushes, turkey baisters, and – in Remington's case – a few tin cans of energy drinks. The boy tossed them off into the garbage can at the edge of his table before Andrea spoke again.
In her hand she held a sealed plastic bag containing what looked like gray, clumped sand.
"Who can tell me the Brykean Dynasty standard ingredients to making a stable, clay pot?"
The small group of college kids started to turn heads at each other, meekly, while Ozzy immediately started flipping through a little notepad on her hand.
A long-haired, lanky boy with an over-sized Metallica sweatshirt didn't even raise his hand as he mumbled. "Um... didn't it have a special kind of water? I think they had to get it from the volcanic baths to…um… bring the right moisture."
Andrea nodded, but after a brief pause, she gave the boy a less than amused face. "Mike, if you're going to attempt an answer, would you at least give me the whole thing?"
Mike kept to his comfort zone, his hair curtaining his cheekbones and his eyes returning to the floor. The geologist's eyes just darted away from the skinniest, most offbeat intern in the group, wondering how in the world he'd been the one to come here on scholarship.
"Come on, guys, really." She began to say, walking around with the same plastic bag of dried mud displayed on one hand. "I know we haven't covered these ceramic jewels in a week, but you're gonna have to jog your memory. This might give us the key as to why Zuk-"
"FOUND IT!" Ozzy's squeaking voice came in so high, Remington hunched. The girl was pointing to a page on her notepad. "You talked about it last Friday. 'steamed, purified water 1600 degrees Celcius, organic crystalline Earth with 40% nitrogen and 60% silicon – found in the southernmost coasts of China – and sub-zero glacier water for cooling process.'
Andrea smirked. "Nice save, Ozzy."
It seemed to wake the interns up with a little laughter, and the geologist continued on her impromptu lesson.
"Now the interesting thing here is that any regular clay pot would begin to deteriorate after the first few hundred years, overwhelmed by the outer Earth that's compressing it."
Andrea managed to place some transparent rubber gloves on her free hand, holding her ziplock bag of ancient clay in place as she opened it and pinched a sample. The students responded by passing along the glove box one to the other, promptly putting them on as the small clumps of clay were examined loosely.
"But our lovely Chinese couple, Oma and Shu, found a recipe for making pots that would later make the ancient Romans and traditional Mayans turn in their graves thousands of years later," the geologist continued. "How do you think Oma and Shu were ahead of their time?"
Two sleep-deprived boys exchanged brief glances, but finally a hand was raised.
"We think they had a secret ingredient," a girl tugged on her blonde braid as she spoke shyly, but with certainty.
"Bingo, Shelley."
"I knew it! What'd we tell you…!" Ozzy gave Shelley a high-five, while Remington and the other boys grunted, and the girls began to chant something along the lines of "No such thing as miracles. No fricken' way!"
"Ladies, let's turn off the Girl-Power for a second and focus, please?" Andrea rolled her eyes and set the bag of clay down, sitting herself down on the stool. She noticed how Remington approached the dirt on his hand like a fascinatingly dead insect. "What's your take on the clay, Rem?"
The boy yelped as the intern behind him brought a little shove for attention, and he said, "It's…definitely dry… but it's granulated. And pure, like desert sand."
"Not your ordinary clay, right?" the geologist smirked, "The love birds obviously made their share of travelling to try and find this particular Earth-mending ingredient. What's impressive is that each sample we take of these pots leads us to believe that they had to travel further and further away to find the ingredient."
"That can only mean two things, Doc," Mike didn't bother raising his hand, while his other hand seemed to be preoccupied scratching his face. "Either this special ingredient was a natural phenomenon that had to be chased because of the weather… or it moved."
Ozzy just stared over at him, wondering if he was going to start laughing.
"Interesting theory, young Skywalker," Andrea placed her glasses on, picked up a pen and scribbled something on her moleskin notebook on the counter. "Now can you tell me what sort of ingredient was worth travelling for to make these time-defying clay pots."
Shelley and a handful of others said "lightning" while the same boy overthrew them by shouting out "DRAGON's SALIVA!"
"Mike, are you kidding me?" Ozzy smacked him. "Nobody needs to know about your latest World of Warcraft treasure salvage…"
"Actually, Oz, he's half-right," the geologist wavered a smirk that only her interns would see on the good days. Except this time, all the interns stared at her skeptically, as if in any moment she would say 'kidding!'
But she didn't.
"Wasn't it Dr. Emilio Suarez who theorized the existence of dragons in the Brykean Dynasty back in 1998?"
Shelley drew a small breath, while the rest of the group seemed to huddle themselves slightly together. It wasn't the fact that Andrea was all of a sudden taking a break from her usual matter-of-fact self behind those thin-rimmed glasses; it was because she had brought up Dr. Suarez's name.
The man who, for at least most young people of the West Coast archeological circle, was known as "Doctor Stupid" for leaving his internship with Dr. Kiely just before they had dug up the ruins of Pyronea.
Pyronea. Otherwise known as: the Fire Nation.
"Yeah, but Suarez was a dope!" Ozzy exclaimed, folding her arms over her Yankees shirt. "He may as well have said Zeus was the pseudonym for King Henry VIII!"
"Trust me, I know," the older woman's cargo pants muffled noise as she moved back towards the rear of the lab tables, the interns following almost her every word. "But Doctor Stupid wasn't completely far from the truth here; for decades geologists have wondered how in the world a cold, mountainous location like this could bring out such purified, brilliant minerals in their soil."
She gestured for the students to open up one of the tiny petri dishes situated in each of their stations and place a sample of clay onto it. Then she did it herself, placing a sample of clay under her giant microscope for investigation.
"In '69, my uncle scavenged this area, looking for dry fossils of young pteradactyls from the Cretaceous period, and he stumbled upon not just one… but seventeen separate egg remains of what looked like another flying dinosaur species. Only their wings were independent from their limbs… and according to my grandfather… were just a few million years too young to be related."
Andrea didn't hesitate to take out her dusty, worn leather wallet from one of her cargo pockets, managing to take out a single black-and-white photograph.
"Interestingly enough, everyone thought he was crazy too."
There was a small intake of breath by each intern as the photograph was passed around the lab table, Ozzy not hesitating to whip out her glasses for further insight on the image. It was uncanny… a skeletal, distorted creature laying on what looked like a dug-up crater of soil… its entire body spanning to the size of a suburban house. Its coiling body structure mimicked a snake, except it was gigantic… with the evidence of wings that sprouted a quarter of its length down the spine.
When the photograph reached the last intern around the table, Andrea noticed how there were tears forming in his eyes, his hand shaking as it held the photograph. This intern - a plump, shaggy-haired boy named Charlie – had barely spoken since the start of their excavation term, but Andrea long concluded that he didn't have to say much to express how much he loved archaeology.
None of the kids had to ask why such a discovery like this hadn't made the cover of TIME or Newsweek that year, because it was clear. 1969. The world had averted their eyes up into space to figure out what was going in that glowing gray circle of soil.
"My point is," Andrea continued as she accepted the photograph from Charlie, "Suarez had dug deeper into Kiely's findings after they'd investigated Pyronea for flora and fauna. That kid wasn't an idiot all the time; he theorized the same thing about this purified soil, how it must've come from a source more powerful than lightning and had the animal-like agility to relocate whenever necessary. Kiely, being the sophisticated dick that he is, said he couldn't validate that without proof: a real dragon. So Suarez left the mission for Oakland."
The geologist replaced the photograph back into her wallet, and adjusted her microscope to study the clay. One by one, the interns followed suit.
"So you're saying Doctor Stupid claimed that, with the mixing of a dragon's saliva and its cosmopolitan temperature of fire," Remington spoke as if he were fighting a migraine, "it was possible to purify clay and keep it intact for centuries?"
"Centuries upon centuries." Mike jumped in before their boss could get a word. He parted some of the greasy dark hair from his eyes. "It's the perfect situation! The purest water from the North, the most organic Earth on this side of the Eastern Hemisphere, and you make pots that'll last forever."
"I still think it was lightning," Another one of the boy interns muttered, mainly to the other boy intern that resembled each other so well, they may as well have been brothers. Andrea just threw an annoyed glance at them – Motoki and Kaname – the two boys who were very easily becoming a two-person band in this group and were very happy to keep it that way.
It was getting to the geologist's last nerve.
"Either way," Andrea started in a snapping tone as she reached for a lemon-juice dropper, "Oma and Shu had to make quite the number of pots to find themselves back into the Cave. Legend says that during their civil war, the two villages had to pick up and relocate constantly. Oma and Shu decided to reunite every year in the same Cave through the following of clay pots. Think Hansel & Gretel.
"They each made one clay pot in the course of one year, and they would plant the clay pot and slowly trek their way back into the others' arms, no matter how far or how distant their villages moved them. The reunion would only last for a day or two, and then they would have to return to their village to continue with the war and not reunite until another year passed. Romantic, eh?"
Andrea finally set her microscope aside to proceed to her laptop for further research and documentation, while the interns proceeded investigate a whole tray of soil samples in petri dishes under the microscope, as was their standard procedure in the mornings. The lab grew to its usual quiet state, and after about an hour, Shelley noted the first signs of sunlight as it filtered through the pair of circular shutter windows situated on opposing sides of the lab trailer. Andrea proceeded to shut the windows so as to not disturb the special dimming lights of laboratory.
"So, why do you think Fire Lord Zuko choose to be buried inthis cave?" Shelley asked the geologist as she passed by.
"I think that's been the sixty four thousand dollar question all week, hon."
"If you ask me," Mike started, his eyes still under his microscope, "he might have learned about this place based off of that legend. Maybe he wanted his burial with that peasant girl to be sacred or something. Like nobody would be able to find them."
"…Until now," the quiet Charlie corrected, jotting a sample description softly in his notebook.
"Wait a minute… what about the Avatar?" Shelley almost squeaked in her voice.
"He found them."
"That doesn't count," Mike scoffed amusingly. "The Avatar isn't considered an actual human being. He's more like a demi-god who can seek his way into anything."
"You could be right; technically, the Avatar has every recollection of human soul buried in his very being. His mind, his body, his essence." Andrea was opening up a file on her laptop labeled [Avatar Aang, Brykean] to back up her claim. "Inside, he had the ability to track any person in the human world, living or dead, according to how his emotional level was set. By the way he was resting near her tomb, I have a feeling Avatar Aang had a big soft spot for this water peasant girl. He just couldn't let her go."
"Yeah, trust me." Mike smiled and looked up from his microscope, directly to Shelley. "I've read pleeenty of old scrolls documenting their relationship… how he made her a necklace, how she constantly saved his life, and how they were witnessed kissing at this grand tea shop at the Earth Kingdom's capital city. That must've been right after the war ended."
"But how is it that both Zuko and Aang were able to track this Cave down?" Remington suddenly seemed to have found his second wind of energy that morning, challenging Mike to a knowledge boost.
"This is going to sound really crazy, but according to Suarez –shut up—" Mike noted the funny look that Remington was giving him and elbowed him for good measure. "-only a select few people were capable of taming dragons as their guides, and only dragons were the ones who could smell the saliva in the soil and track down any artifact that was made from them… including clay pots!"
"Man, if only Dragon were able to sniff saliva…" Ozzy joked, making the two-man band of Motoki and Kaname laugh almost to themselves.
"Hey, the two dragons," beamed Mike, skimming over his notes and comparing them to Remington's on his left. "Didn't Matsko mention something to Dr. Chen about Zuko and Aang being the last people to witness them?"
"Yeah, what's your point?" Remington was too enveloped in dissecting the bits of clay on his petri dish to even look over at Mike in the face.
"The war was over!" Mike pulled the greasy hair out of his face and looked over to Ozzy and Shelley to see if they would back him up. "The dragons were free to realm and procreate and have life-long tamers!"
Ozzy immediately knew where this was going, clamping a hand to Shelley in an excited way, "Who do you think might've gone back to be their guides?"
And that was when Andrea stopped her typing and just stared, perplexed at her laptop screen.
Instantly, Ozzy and Mike exchanged wide eyes and scrambled their way out their lab seats like five-year-olds, racing to the rear where Andrea was seated to see who would win the opportunity to ask that question to Dr. Vincent Matsko in person… and be published for it.
"I should head back home."
All heads turned towards the smallest girl, whose long black bangs hid her foggy green eyes from the world. Nobody had expected Toph to speak first, from amongst the round table in Iroh's tea shop, and it seemed to have taken the old man by surprise most of all.
From the short pause, Toph decided to explain herself further.
"Hey, you guys can do what you want, but I'd like to try staying in one place for a decent amount of time," the girl kept staring at the same particular space on the table.
Katara exchanged a glance with Aang, holding his hand tightly under the table as she wondered about the runaway's newfound plan. "But… are you sure you want to go back, now? I mean, you heard Aang; we need to go search for the Earth King."
"We were thinking you could accompany Sokka and Suki to find him somewhere on the northern desert," the young fire lord took the liberty of explaining the plan further to Toph, but the look of her grimaced face, the plan did not seem to make her feel any better. "You'd be helping in the reform of the Earth Kingdom."
"Hmm, sounds like fun," Toph just muttered, laughing a little on the inside. Clearly, Zuko didn't understand what this little girl thought as her definition of 'fun,' and she felt even more emptiness, then, as she felt the presence of Mai clinging tightly to the Fire Lord's arm. "But seriously, thanks but no thanks."
Sokka just raised an eyebrow, wondering what in the world was up with her, now. He felt Suki begin to caress a comforting hand on his back. "Come on Toph, you're the best Earth-tracker we got!"
"Sure, but the Earth Kingdom is free again, and Haru even said he'd help. You guys can do without me." She gave the smallest hint of a smile to show she meant well. "Besides, I think my parents'll think I'm dead, or disown me if I don't show up soon. And I don't want TwinkleToes here to get the blame because of me."
"Toph, are you really sure you want to do this?" Katara gave her motherly voice another try, as if speaking for both Aang and herself.
The little girl just shrugged, but already sensing an emptiness in her stomach begin to eat her from the inside. The fact that Suki's hand was still comforting Sokka's back didn't seem to be helping it, either.
"Guys, I'll be fine," her eyes were beginning to glimmer under her bangs. "I just need some time with my folks, okay? I can meet up with you later in the year, if you really miss me that badly..."
Aang's gray eyes just looked at Toph curiously, and then he glanced up at Katara who stood at his side, wondering if she could read the little girl any better. They both seemed clueless, as well as everyone else who looked over at her with so much weight in their concerned eyes. The young Avatar knew he had to take this pressure away from Toph now, before she'd start to feel even more sentimental – it's one of those things he knew she hated to show in public.
"Okay, well if you want… I can drop you off on the way to the Eastern Air Temple?"
"Sounds good."
"Alright, so then it's settled!" Sokka seemed to declare the laundry list of plans for the entire group. "Suki and I can head out to the desert to find the Earth King, Aang will go to the Eastern Air Temple to reconcile with the Guru, Katara will stay here to help clean up the Fire Nation mess, Zuko will head back to the Fire Nation to find the Council of Five and put those fire sages in their place, and Toph will go… home…"
"Yay, home," she said, and only Aang managed a laugh in response.
The conversations seemed to blur together after that, with Zuko and Iroh explaining the underground corruption of the Fire Sages they'll need to break in order to free the Council of Five, Sokka then asserting his collaboration with the Mechanist to make underground bunkers for refugees who may need safety from the former Fire Lord's anarchy, and Katara telling how the recent letters from their grandparents have made her believe the Water Tribes will soon be ready to help rebuild the Earth Kingdoms' villages.
Aang was the last to speak before Iroh, saying how now that he's a fully-realized Avatar, he would need the Eastern Air Temple Guru to teach him how to commune with this world and the Spirit World thoroughly. Safely. Perhaps it would better help him serve this newly reformed world if he now had the Guru as his permanent teacher, and Katara was the first to fully support that idea.
Everything seemed to be in its place, as Iroh overlooked the handful of people sitting around the table at his teashop. He was amazed at how articulate these young kids had become only from a year's journey through the world, and part of him was sad that his age could not partake in these dangerous new adventures that were written for them.
Instead, Iroh proclaimed to them that his tea shop would become the 'watering hole' of sorts, located in the Earth Kingdom capital city, for those men and women who would meet to follow the Avatar and the Fire Lords' cause. He stated that his leadership to the White Lotus would keep him occupied in arresting Earth Kingdom rebels throughout the villages… and tracking the unknown whereabouts of Long Feng and the recently-banished Dai Li.
And then something occurred to him, from within the web of chatter and laughter these kids were making. He noticed how that little girl he had met in the Earth forest just seemed to keep her comments and feelings to herself… staring at the same cup of tea that had long become lukewarm. Iroh regarded the closeness he could feel between Sokka and the female warrior at his side, the attachment seen from the dark, pale girl to his nephew… and the emotional, almost spiritual bond he could already feel forming with that brave water tribe girl to the Avatar.
The boy.
Iroh saw this, suddenly with the realization as to why that tough little Earth girl chose to stay quiet among her new family. The sadness in her eyes was intense, and yet she carried almost a permanent grin that told the world that for what it was worth, that boy had given her the friends she had always wanted.
But why did she look so lonely?
The old man held a soft sigh for the little girl. One that seemed as old as life itself as he remembered what it was like, once upon a time.
Inside that vast labyrinth of humor, trouble, and frankness… Toph was finally becoming a teenager.
A/N - Sorry guys. I know it's been a while, but I'm officially in art school now and it's kicking my butt along with work commitments. I do plan to keep this story going, and hopefully it won't take that long for the next one. Trust me, it can only get more interesting. I DO plan to participate in NaNoWriMo this year, so I can't promise when the next chapter will pop up. I already have some great ideas in mind (especially with the original characters) and I greatly appreciate you reviews so far. It's motivating me to keep going.