Okay, I'm reaaalllllllly sorry for being so late, but I have a good reason. Exam revision. I have a couple of exams coming up so... apologies.
I hope you enjoy this chapter! :D
Please tell me what you think and review!
Chapter 5: Judicial BS
"Momo, what are you doing in my mouth?" Eira woke up groggily and that was the first thing she heard. As a rule, if something like that is what you first hear in the morning, your day isn't going to go very well.
"Sokka. Please shut up. Some of us are trying to sleep." She moaned, trying to pull her sleeping bag over her head to block the sound and the morning sunlight out.
Both Katara and Aang were starting to shuffle and were apparently waking up as well but apparently not fast enough as the ground was beginning to shake and rumble.
"What the heck?" Eira muttered but as she quickly threw her sleeping bag off her and saw three men on rhino-like creatures burst out of the bushes and start the circle them. They all wore Fire Nation clothing but it looked a lot more thug like with tattoos covering them as well as piercings and odd accessories.
"Give up!" The leader cried. "You're completely surrounded!" T
Thanks for the information, Captain Obvious. Eira thought bitterly as she quickly got up from her sleeping place and grabbed her scarf and staff, annoyed that her hair was blowing in her face as she tried to survey her surroundings for a way to get on Appa, fly out and make sure they had all of their things as well.
A man, who looked like some sort of yuyan archer, took three flaming arrows and as Sokka tried to get away, inch worming in sleeping bag, he shot them at him.
Eira span her staff forcefully at the arrows and with her airbending she sent them flying back at him, the air blowing them out.
The archer moved to avoid them and Eira ran over to Sokka, grabbing all of his things as he slipped out of his sleeping bag clumsily and got up.
"Thanks." He said quickly as he began to run towards Appa.
"Welcome." Eira responded as she also began to run to Appa.
"Come on! Come on! Come on!" Sokka commanded to Katara as he and Eira climbed up onto Appa's saddle where Aang was already at the reigns.
Katara began to make her way towards them but she stopped suddenly as she turned around to look at the area she was sleeping in.
"Katara! We need to go!" Eira shouted, trying to snap her out of her daze but she just ran over to the stump she was sleeping next to and where a man was swinging his sword and stabbed it into the stump menacingly.
"My scrolls!" Katara exclaimed, looking at the box next to the sword and Aang suddenly looked around in a panic, apparently realising he'd forgotten something.
"My staff!" He yelled, clearly shocked that he had forgotten it. Aang quickly jumped off Appa as Eira tried to reach out and stop him but it was too late.
Katara ran to the stump and charged at the man with the sword with a stream of water and shot it at the sword, completely freezing it. The man looked down at it in shock and as he stared down in confusion, Katara darted to the box and swiped it just before the man broke his sword free, shattering the ice but not in time as Katara was now jumping up onto Appa.
Sokka reached for his boomerang and threw it at the man's head, effectively knocking him out as Eira quickly sent a slash of air with her staff at the man about to throw heavy steel chains at Aang.
It struck him straight in the chest and managed to force him to drop the chains so it tangled him instead of Aang.
Aang sprinted around a tree to grab his staff and he went back to leap onto Aang's head.
"Appa! Yip yip!" He commanded as he flicked the reigns. Appa slammed his tail to the ground and jumped up into the sky, flying away but then Sokka looked around desperately.
"Wait, where's my boomerang?" He asked, looking over the side of the saddle as the ground got further and further away and then his eyes widened in horror.
Eira looked curiously over the side of the saddle as well and saw what Sokka was so horrified. His boomerang was lying by the man he had knocked out.
"We need to go back!" He insisted, turning to Aang hopefully but they all had to duck suddenly to avoid a great burst of orange flame.
"Ahh!" Eira covered her head and as the flames dissipated they all sat up again. "Sorry, Sokka, but I don't think there's time." She admitted sadly and he faced her, clearly annoyed.
"Oh, so we can wait for Katara to get her stupid scrolls or for Aang to get his staff but we can't turn around and get my boomerang?" He asked, irritated.
"Hey, I was the one who got your boomerang for you the first time. If it wasn't for me you would've just left it there." Eira said indignantly.
"That is true." Katara commented, rather unhelpfully.
Sokka glared at her.
"But, hey. Boomerangs always come back, right?" Eira said unsurely in a vain attempt to cheer him up. Sadly, it didn't work. He looked as miserable as usual.
Giving up on trying to make him feel better, Eira shuffled over to the side of the saddle and wrapped her scarf around her head as she looked around at the quickly moving ground below them. But as usual, it didn't feel quick enough.
o.O.o
"Sorry about your boomerang, Sokka." Aang said as he looked down at Sokka, who was moping on the floor, leaning against the side of the food stand Eira and Katara were buying food from.
One thing Eira hated about travelling across the world with roughly a third of it trying to kill you was that it really brought home how quickly four people can get through food. Oh, and the fact that a third of the world is trying to kill you. That was annoying as well.
Eira loaded all of the food they chose into a small bag and Katara paid the man.
"I feel like I've lost a part of my identity." Sokka mumbled sadly. He got up and moved the conical hat Aang wore to hide his head arrow slightly so he could point to the blue tattoo.
"Imagine if you lost your arrow." He said, then he made swirling motions around his head as he gestured to Katara. "Or if Katara lost her hair loopies or if Eira…" He paused for a second to try and think of something to say but he must've given halfway as he just gestured to all of her. "Or if Eira wasn't Eira."
"Thanks Sokka. I can see just how much effort you put into that statement." Eira said sardonically as she shoved the bag of food into his arms. "Now we should get moving, ponytail guy."
Sokka looked glumly at the ground.
"I used to be boomerang guy."
"Nope, ponytail guy sounds funnier." Eira corrected.
"Hey, Water Tribe money!" They turned around to see the man inspecting the coins that Katara had handed him.
They did look odd, different shades of blue in circles and made of a strange metal Eira didn't recognise. It was weird to think that they were both so diverse and weren't at the same time that they could spend a different nation's money and still get it to work.
Eira remembered when her family visited France and the stress her parents went through to make sure they had enough euros.
"I hope that's okay." Katara said but the man smiled reassuringly and placed the coin in a leather pouch on his belt.
"So long as it's money." The merchant said, starting to close up his stall as Katara walked over to the group.
"Have a nice Avatar Day!" He said cheerfully and as he was about to leave, Aang stopped him, clearly interested at the thought of a day dedicated to him.
"Avatar Day?" He asked curiously.
"You guys are going to the festival, right?" The merchant replied as he walked away, waving.
Aang and Katara smiled at each other and they both looked at Sokka, then Eira, expectantly.
"No." Eira said bluntly. "We can't go to that festival." Katara started to speak but Eira held out a finger to silence her.
"And before you say it, no we can't just be careful. Every time we go to a festival, we always end up chased by some firebenders or required to do something that will end up distracting us." And if I remember correctly, both will happen. Eira thought grimly. For once since they came back from the North Pole, an episode was clear in her head.
Aang was going to get arrested by some stupid, corrupt town and they were going to spend the entire day doing nothing of real use.
Aang looked at her with his big pleading grey eyes and Eira trying to look away.
"For the last time, it's a bad idea." Eira insisted.
"Pleeeeease, Eira. It might help Sokka cheer up and as the Avatar, don't you think I should be at the Avatar day festival." He pleaded.
"Come on, Eira." Katara said. "It's important for Aang to learn more about these things."
"They might have some nice food as well." Sokka muttered. Eira was being outvoted.
"But announcing to an entire town that the Avatar is there is just going to get that town and us targeted considering the fact that we were attacked just this morning, causing Captain Sunshine over there to lose his boomerang."
"How about we settle this with a vote?" Katara asked. Dammit! She had to go the democratic way. Eira thought in frustration.
Usually, or at least back home, Eira could convince her friends out of bad situations but for some reason here they were a lot more stubborn and excitable. Not bad qualities, probably better than being easily swayable or dull and cynical but… still.
"All for?" Katara asked and the three of them raised their hands. Katara looked around with a smile.
"I guess we win, then." Aang said cheerfully.
"Can we try to be careful at the very least?"
o.O.o
So far the town seemed incredibly cheerful and certainly festive. They passed countless stalls for all sorts of different items and foods and, of course, Sokka needed to stop at all of the food stalls and it was amazingly difficult to stop Aang from spending all of their money on the nick-nacks.
It was exhausting to say the least.
"So there's a holiday for the Avatar. Who knew?" Aang said in amazement as they walked through the bustling crowd and almost into the road of sorts where the crowd stopped but they stopped as a giant Kyoshi figure rolled past.
"Look!" Katara said, pointing at the float. "They made a giant Kyoshi float!"
Sokka chomped down on his fried dough as he looked around the corner.
"And here comes Avatar Roku." He said, pointing with his food.
Eira also looked around the corner and was surprised at the quality of the floats, just to destroy them if memory served correctly.
The statues were being pulled into the centre of the town and Eira saw Aang trying to hide a smile.
"Having a huge festival in your honour is great, but frankly, it's nice to just be appreciated." Aang said proudly.
"It's also nice to appreciate their deep-fried festival food." He said, taking another large bite.
"And now we have you, Aang." Eira whispered, trying not to say it too loud so other people in the crowd could hear it but with the noise they were making, Eira doubted they would here it if she even spoke normally.
Aang smiled brightly as he looked at the massive statue of him roll by. He looked very happy with it but Eira couldn't help but think that the smile was a bit too weird or wide. Too much like the creepy Ba Sing Se people.
"Wow! That's the biggest me I've ever seen!" He exclaimed in delight.
"I would hope so." Eira joked, laughing as she looked around the corner again. This time a man carrying a torch, like an Olympic torch, was running off towards the figures which were now standing in a line in the centre of the town, the crowd forming a circle around them.
"Now a torch, that's a nice prop." Sokka commented. "It's bright, dangerous…" He sniffed the air. "It smells manly. But I'm not sure I could carry it off." Eira also sniffed the air but she gagged slightly. Apparently being manly meant you smelt like grime and her friend's brother's room.
"I'm personally glad you don't carry it off." Eira mumbled under her breath, then she looked at the runner again. He was charging straight for the floats. "Oh no…"
"Hey, what's that guy doing?" Katara asked as the runner, with a loud over-the-top scream, he jumped straight through the Kyoshi effigy, the torch effectively began to spread through the figure and incredibly soon, it was completely ablaze.
"Down with the Avatar! Down with the Avatar! Down with the Avatar!" They all chanted as they all looked at the flaming figure of Kyoshi and it couldn't sound any more like some sort of demon summoning.
Seriously, what the heck?! Eira thought, incredibly shocked at the strange tradition.
The runner then began to set the torch next to Roku's effigy and the fire began to spread just as quickly as it did with Kyoshi's.
Katara and Sokka's eyes widened in surprise and Sokka's jaw dropped, unfortunately dropping some food out of it and Eira looked at it in disgust.
"In what society is this perfectly acceptable or celebrated?" Eira asked as she watched the figures slowly turn black and burnt.
The runner began to climb up on top of a roof and as the crowd's attention turned to, who Eira assumed was the leader of the town, and after a dramatic pause he singled to the torch-bearer.
The crowd cheered as the torch-bearer threw his torch at Aang's statue and as it hit his eye and the fire began to spread horrifyingly.
"Oh my gosh!" Eira exclaimed, turning her attention to Aang, to see if he was coping with this… and he clearly wasn't. He looked terrified and disgusted at the same time.
Katara ran forwards and used her waterbending to throw the water around her from two large barrels at the flaming effigies suddenly dousing them and stopping the fire.
"That part pooper's ruining Avatar Day!" A random villager accused, pointing at Katara and Eira clenched her fists angrily but before she could yell at them, Aang airbent himself on top of his half-burnt figure.
"That party pooper's my friend!" He shouted angrily, managing to make his voice heard around the entire crowd as he threw off his hat and clearly exposed his blue tattoos and there was a moment of silence in the crowd as they looked from his forehead to the half-burnt one of his effigy.
The mayor looked at Aang in terror and pointed a shaking finger at him.
"It's the Avatar himself!" He cried and the crowd immediately began to freak out, all screaming in fear.
"It's going to kill us with its awesome Avatar powers." Eira heard a villager scream and she was particularly irked at the use of the word 'it'. Aang was a bloody person, not a thing.
Eira stepped out of the crowd and glared at the mayor and where she thought the person screamed.
"Hey! Aang is a person. How dare you treat him like some… monster! He is just a person who's doing his best to help people like you!" She scolded in annoyance.
"Yeah, we're on your side." Katara insited.
The mayor scoffed.
"I find that hard to swallow." He said calmly before raising his voice for the rest of the town to hear. "Considering what you did to us in your past life!"
Aang looked shocked. Since Eira already knew about Aang's more… uh, violent past lives it wasn't such a surprise for her but she could imagine how Aang was feeling.
He was the sweetest, kindest person Eira knew and he was apparently so bad in a past life, he caused an entire town to hate him. Sure it turned out that the person died by his own stupidity and Kyoshi didn't murder him but still.
"It was Avatar Kyoshi; she murdered our glorious leader, Chin the Great." He announced and Eira scowled. She remembered Chin the Great, but also the fact that he was also known as Chin the Conqueror. Made sense; a corrupt leader for a corrupt town.
Aang looked sickened, his face turned pale and his eyes widened in shock.
"Y-You think I… killed someone?" He stuttered, completely and utterly shocked. No, Aang. They're accusing Kyoshi, they shouldn't be accusing you. Eira thought sadly. She never truly understood why people treated Aang like he was his past lives. Not a new person with the same fate.
Eira, Sokka and Katara looked around at the hateful faces in the crowd and Eira couldn't help but feel angry at them. To hate all Avatars just because one stopped their leader, a cruel leader who deserved to be stopped and Kyoshi didn't even kill him!
"We used to be a great society before you killed our leader." An old man said from the crowd, lisping and slurring his words as he pointed to his hideously wrinkled and out-of-shape face. "Not look at us!"
From up on his statue Aang let out a yelp of horror at the old man's face and he jumped off and used his airbending to land next to Katara.
Katara looked at Aang sadly then angrily at the crowd as she placed a protective, steadying hand on Aang's shoulders.
"Aang would never do something like that. No Avatar would." Katara shook her head incredulously then pointed accusingly at all of the townspeople. "And it's not fair for all of you to question his honour!"
One of the villagers scoffed disrespectfully and raised his arms to emphasise his equally disrespectful remark.
"Let's tell her what we think of the Avatar's "honour"!" He said before turning around to shake his rear at Aang as he blew a raspberry. The other villagers cheered in approval and Eira scowled even deeper. They were acting like children, no, scratch that. They were acting like infants as even Aang or Sokka wouldn't act so immature.
"Wow, how mature." Eira said sarcastically. "And you call yourselves adults? I doubt you have any evidence to accuse Avatar Kyoshi of her crime, and even less reason to blame my friend."
Sadly, though, the mayor seemed to take that as a challenge and Eira, once again, cursed her smart mouth.
"We have evidence. Evidence enough for the Avatar to stand trial." He announced confidently.
Aang looked at the mayor with steely determination.
"I'll gladly stand trial."
"You'll have to follow all of our rules and that includes paying bail." The mayor added but Aang smiled carefreely.
"No problem." He turned to Katara, then back to the mayor. "And… how much is bail, again?"
o.O.o
The answer: too much.
"How was I supposed to know they wouldn't take Water Tribe money?" Aang asked apologetically as he looked through the circular, barred window of his cell. He looked very uncomfortable as his head was in some sort of wooden stock and he was trying to stand up as straight as possible.
Katara held her hands over her face in shame and Sokka leant against the prison bars, arms crossed in irritation as he looked at Aang.
"If it makes you feel any better, Aang, we couldn't have afforded it even if they accepted Water Tribe money. Apparently, there's a special bail price for an Avatar who murde-" Eira stopped mid-sentence as she looked at Aang's face. She was clearly not making him feel better.
"Sorry." She quickly apologised as she looked around awkwardly. "Don't worry. We can prove your innocence and fill you in on the details since you're apparently not going anywhere if we don't."
Sokka rolled his eyes.
"That will take too much time." He complained before turning to Aang. "So what if some people don't like you, big deal! There's a whole nation of firebenders who hate you. Come on, let's bust you out of here and we can go." He said impatiently in a tone Eira suspected was supposed to be reassuring.
"I can't." Aang protested sadly from behind the bars.
"Sure you can!" Sokka said cheerfully. "A little" Sokka made swinging, swirly motions with his hands as he jumped back, making blowing noises to make it sound like airbending and Eira and Katara covered their faces in embarrassment. He made pew-ing noises as he slashed his arms through the air. "Airbending slice!" He yelled and looked expectantly at Aang. "Then we're on our way."
Katara sighed at her brother but looked at Aang with the same expectation.
"I think what "Master Swish" is trying to say is that you're supposed to be out saving the world. You can't exactly do that locked up in here." Katara said, switching from mocking Sokka to being serious.
"But I can't do that with people thinking I'm a murderer either." Aang said unhappily.
"Aang's right. If people think what these people think about him, no one will want to accept his help. Our best option is to prove him innocent as quickly as possible." Eira agreed.
Thank goodness I've played Phoenix Wright or I wouldn't know where to even start. Eira thought, thinking back to when she played the games. She loved the gameplay, even if it only vaguely resembled what murder cases were like.
"And our best chance is with me!" Sokka boasted. "I was the ace detective back home. I even managed to discover who was responsible for the missing seal jerky. Everyone wanted to blame it on the polar leopard, but I figured out it was-" Sokka began to rambled on so Eira held out a finger to silence him.
"Okay, Sokka. I think we get it." Eira said sharply but she was trying not to laugh at Katara and Aang's funny expressions, mocking Sokka.
Sokka slouched unhappily, but then stood up straighter, cheered up.
"Alright, I'm going to need some props." He announced, running off quickly, and only a couple of minutes later he was back… with a monocle and weird Sherlock-like green hat.
"I'm ready!" He said and Eira and Katara couldn't help but break down in laughing. He just looked so ridiculous.
"Nice hat, Sherlock." Eira commented sarcastically but she forgot that Sokka didn't get the reference.
"Who?" He asked, clearly puzzled but Eira waved it off.
"It's not important, just a detective from my world." She explained. "But now, let's check out the crime scene."
o.O.o
They'd contacted Mayor Tong and apparently he was delighted to show them around the crime scene. It was actually quite strange seeing as his explanation of events was full of holes that Tom-Tom could see through.
He led them all up to the small temple on the top of the small cliff which had a weird shape to it. Below it was a group of almost bubbly rocks that had been worn down by the ocean battering against it but it still looked like they had melted on the side of the cliff. Weird.
"This is the crime scene." Tong said, gesturing to the area as Sokka began inspecting everything from the floor to even the sky.
As Eira looked over the side of the cliff, feeling a bit nervous as the ground felt a bit unstable, she looked down at the ground she was slightly surprised to see that she was almost standing on an imprinted footprint. A tiny footprint.
Eira lined up her foot next to the footprint and saw that she was at least two sizes larger. She was a size 9 and it looked like a size 5 or 6 or that's what Eira guessed. She wasn't the best at judging size but it didn't matter. It was far too small to be Kyoshi and if Eira remembered correctly, it was an important piece of evidence for later.
"What's this footprint?" Katara asked, looking curiously at what Eira was looking at.
"That is the footprint of the killer, Kyoshi. It was at sunset, 370 years ago today, that she emerged from the temple, and struck down Chin the Great and after that tragic day, we built this statue to immortalise our great leader." He raised his arms towards the giant stone statue opposite the temple.
Eira looked closely at the statue and despite the fact she wasn't the best at proportions when she was drawing, mainly opting to draw cartoons so she could move over that, she could easily tell that Chin wasn't a very tall man. He looked too short even in his massive statue.
"Chin wasn't very tall, was he?" Eira asked and after an indignant look from Tong, he finally spluttered out an answer.
"Yes, well, uh, he was just below average but he was a mighty man." Eira nodded.
"Yeah, I thought as such." Eira looked back at the footprint. You've helped us again. Eira thought, a sly smile creeping up on her face.
Mayor Tong began to leave, seeing as his work was done, explaining what happened and Sokka got out his monocle/magnifying glass and got to work examining everything.
He looked intently at the base of the statue and then back at the temple, back and forth as Eira peaked inside the temple.
There was nothing that important in it, just a couple of paintings of Chin and a few artefacts that didn't look like they'd be able to help Aang's case, even though having a full outfit noted as what he wore the day Avatar Kyoshi killed him was a bit strange. There was no evidence of wounds or a fight, only age.
Eira didn't understand how they managed to get it in their minds that Kyoshi killed him with all of the weird pieces of evidence that made their timeline of events simply look wrong.
"The temple and the statue were cut from the same stone." Eira heard Sokka say from outside the small temple. Eira looked out of the temple and saw Katara and Sokka looking back up at the statue.
"And we know that the statue was built after Chin died." Sokka added and they all seemed to come to the same conclusion, piecing it all together.
"That means Avatar Kyoshi couldn't-" Katara began but she was cut off by a shhh-ing Sokka.
"Shhh! I wanna solve it!" Sokka said raising his voice and Eira couldn't help but roll he eyes.
"Sokka, you're being childi-" Eira began but Sokka shushed her before she could finish. He was really determined to be the detective.
"If the temple and statue were built at the same time, that means Kyoshi never set foot in this temple!" He concluded, turning to Katara and Eira expectantly, probably for a compliment of his genius but he was only met with unimpressed faces.
"It's a hole in the mayor's testimony for sure and it definitely casts doubt on the rest of what he said," Eira said, but then she saw Katara beginning to realise it.
"But it's not enough to prove Aang's innocence." She finished in disappointment. Eira nodded.
"You're right. We need to find more evidence and I doubt we're going to get it here." Eira said, looking around at the temple absent-mindedly but when she looked back at Sokka, he was holding a dragon-shaped pipe of sorts.
He blew on it and several bubbles flew out of the dragon's mouth.
"We need to go to Kyoshi Island." He said ominously but Eira was still focussing on the pipe.
"Where did you get that?" She asked in surprise. Back in the show it was cartoon logic, but now… what? Eira sighed in confusion and rubbed her temples. She was never going to fully get used to living in a cartoon world in real life. Ever.
o.O.o
They had all gone back to Appa and flew over to Kyoshi Island without any hassle but Eira was not looking forward to seeing the small island again. Her memories of the place were generally connected to fire, Zhao and it all being her fault. It was true that Zuko was there and throwing fire as well but I doubt adding Zhao helped.
It was weird thinking that Zhao was dead and even weirder to think about how long it had been since they last saw Zuko. They hadn't seen him since the North Pole and it was kind of unnerving. Usually his chasing them was an almost reassuring constant.
As they flew closer to the island, they heard a loud gong to announce their arrival. As Eira looked over the side of the saddle she saw almost every single villager burst out of their houses or markets or whatever to await their landing.
Hero worship was defiantly something to get used to even if it was all for Aang.
Sokka began to wave to them and as Appa landed, everyone who had walked out to greet them began to gather near Appa and one of the men in the crowd began to squeal and even foam at the mouth as he collapse to the ground. Okay… foaming mouth guy was a bit weird in real life.
Several little children pushed past an old man who looked like the leader of the village and a particular little girl looked expectantly at them, arms raised high in excitement but when she saw just the three of them, she angrily stomped her foot.
"Where's Aangy?" He demanded forcefully.
"He's in prison." Eira said bluntly as she, Katara and Sokka got off Appa.
A wave of worried, quick murmurs burst out from the crowd and the foaming mouth guy who had fallen to the floor woozily got up and as he looked around in disappointment, he wiped his mouth and pulled his tunic over his head in embarrassment and slinked out of the crowd.
Many people where asking questions but seeing as Aang wasn't there, they decided to leave and talk among themselves.
"I wanted to see Aangy." Eira heard the little girl mumble angrily and Eira couldn't help but feel annoyed. Thanks for the warm welcome.She thought, slightly bitterly.
In a matter of seconds, the crowd had completely dispersed with the expection of the old man.
"Ovaii!" Katara said as she ran up to him. "As Eira said, Aang's in jail. The town of Chin says hhe murdered their leader in a past life." She quickly explained. Ovaii looked horribly shocked.
"They say it was Kyoshi, but I don't understand why they're using that to charge Aang. Can you even use the actions of a past life against someone?" Eira asked as that was really bugging her. It just didn't make sense.
"It's crazy." Ovaii said in indignation. "I'll take you to her shrine. Maybe you can find something to clear her name."
Ovaii turned around and led them through the village to a large hill. Eira was looking around curiously as he did. She was curious to see what living in a village founded by Kyoshi was like.
Everywhere she looked, she saw things to do with Kyoshi, but the main one was the colourful statue standing near the entrance. Katara and Sokka weren't as taken in by the surroundings as Eira seeing as they spent a good time here before.
Eira really wanted to meet the Kyoshi warriors, though.
"So, uh… What's Suki up to? Is she around?" Sokka asked, clearly feigning casualness. Eira kind of felt sad that she inadvertently caused his feelings about Suki to be more… complicated. Eira knew that Sokka still really liked Yue, but he still clearly liked Suki.
But as he wasn't bringing it up, Eira chose to ignore it for the time being.
Sokka looked around awkwardly and as he looked back at Katara, Katara gave him a loving smile.
"Actually, she and the other warriors left to fight in the war." Ovaii informed. "You kids had a big impact on Suki. She said you inspired her and she wanted to help change the world."
"Oh, well… that's great." Sokka said, slanting his eyes in disappointment. The walked under a large gate and towards a temple on top of a hill that resembled the one at the crime scene.
"This temple was converted into a shrine to Kyoshi. These clerics tell us these relics are still connected to her spirit." Ovaii said as they walked inside and it was definitely better kept than the once in the town of Chin.
The walls were covered in artefacts and her clothes were placed on stands.
"That's her kimono." He said, gesturing to the kimono and Katara walked up to it and inspected the fabric.
"She had exquisite taste." She noted but she quickly dropped the fabric when Ovaii's expression turned panicked.
"Please don't touch!"
Sokka was looking around the other side of the room and holding a fan that had been placed on a pedestal.
"These fans…" He started as he waved them around. "These were her weapons, no?" He asked as Eira looked around for some actual clues, not just admiring Kyoshi's taste.
"Please refrain from touching the fans as well, please."
She looked at the set of clothes and compared her foot next to her boots and Eira's predictions were confirmed. Her boots were a lot larger than Eira's and seeing as the footprint was tiny, Eira now had enough evidence to brush away the mayor's accusation.
"Hey, guys. I found something." Eira announced and Sokka and Katara began to walk over to her.
"Her boots are really big." Katara noted.
Eira nodded. "But the footprint back at the scene was tiny. That means that-"
Sokka quickly coughed sharply to cut her off.
"Special outfit? Hat and pipe? These things mean nothing to you two?" He asked, annoyed.
Eira reached for the brim of his hat and pulled it down over his face, smirking at his indignation.
"Nope." She said before turning back to Katara. "That means all evidence linking Kyoshi to the crime scene is now gone."
"So, she's innocent." Katara concluded happily but Eira sadly shook her head.
"True, she is innocent. But the mayor could still say that she just didn't leave a footprint and still attacked him. She doesn't have an alibi."
Sokka tugged the hat off his face and looked around irritated before stopping as his eyes landed on the picture hanging on the back of the room.
"Wait." He muttered as he walked up to it. "What's this painting?" He asked and Ovaii smiled as he looked at it.
"Ah, yes. This painting is called "The Birth of Kyoshi". It was painted at sunrise the day this island was founded. Why, it was painted today, in fact, 370 years ago."
Sokka spun around in surprise and grabbed Ovaii by the collar.
"Wait, it was painted 370 years ago, today?!" he asked. "Are you sure it was today?!"
Ovaii jerked himself free from Sokka's grip and pushed him back slightly.
"Seeing as it's Kyoshi day, yes, I'm sure." He said, a bit irritatedly.
Sokka stared at the painting intensely and Eira and Katara ran over to see what he was he was focussing on.
"This ceremony didn't take place at sunrise. It took place at sunset. Look at the shadows." Sokka said, pointing to the shadows under the several figures. They were pointing east.
"They point east, so the sun must've been in the west." Katara noticed.
"So what?" Ovaii asked but as Katara was about to speak, she was pushed away by Sokka.
"If Kyoshi was in the ceremony at sunset, she couldn't have been in Chin committing the crime." Sokka explained, ignoring his sister who was now on the floor.
Eira jabbed him with her elbow as she walked past to help Katara get up and he yelped in pain, rubbing his arm.
"So, now she had an alibi. She is now 100% innocent." Eira finished as she pulled Katara up. "And our work is done here." She said, brushing off her hands in satisfaction. No way Mayor Tong could ignore this.
o.O.o
"Honourable Mayor, we've prepared a solid defence for the Avatar. We did an investigation and found some very strong evidence." Katara said respectfully but Eira thought 'honourable Mayor' was a bit much.
Sokka smiled broadly and confidently as his eyes shifted to see Aang and he pointed eagerly to himself as if to say that he was the one who discovered all of the strong evidence. Thankfully Aang didn't seem to buy it but he still smiled widely in return. He was probably just glad they found evidence to clear his name. Or at least, Kyoshi's.
"Evidence?" Tong said, puzzled. "Hmph! That's not how our court system works." He said dismissively.
Eira was stunned.
"Then what kind of court system is it?!" She yelled angrily. Tong didn't look the least bit fazed.
"It's simple. I say what happened." He said slowly, pointing to himself and them to Aang. "Then he says what happened. Then I decide who's right." Everyone could do nothing but gasp. What. The. Hell.
"That's why it's called justice. Because it's "just us"." He mocked, laughing manically as he began to walk of but Eira wasn't going to have that. She just couldn't believe it. How could something so corrupt exist?
She grabbed his tunic and pulled him away from the exit, managing to slam him into the cell wall with surprising ease.
"No! It's called justice because it's supposed to be "just" and fair. I will not just sit by as you're using a corrupt system to charge my friend!" Eira shouted angrily. "It's as corrupt and evil as your leader was." She spat and he quickly ran off, terrified.
There was just silence as they all looked shocked at Eira.
"Do you think that's going to come back and bite us?" Sokka asked and Eira looked apologetically at them all, embarrassed at her lack of control.
"Sorry… but I'm not going to let them convict you, Aang. You're innocent and they're going to know it."
o.O.o
When the bailiff of sorts came to tell them that the trial was starting, he took Aang from his cell and directed them to the large amphitheatre in the centre of the town.
Eira, Sokka and Katara sat with the rest of the townspeople in the seats and they watched as Mayor Tong paced around in front of Aang as he gave his testimony,
"Everyone loved Chin the Great because he was so great. Then the Avatar showed up and killed him, and that's how it happened." He said emotionally, finishing with a flick of his sleeves as he put his hands in them, walking away with a large smile on his face.
"The accused will now present its argument." The guard who took Aang said in his incredibly deep, monotonous voice. Again with the "it". Aang is a person! Eira thought and as Aang stepped forwards to present his argument, Eira stood up and walked over to him.
"The defence's argument is that there is no evidence to place Kyoshi on the crime scene." Eira said, projecting her voice across the amphitheatre.
"Wait, but you're not all-" Tong began but Eira continued going on, he wasn't going to stop her now.
"The prosecution says that Avatar Kyoshi stepped out of that temple and killed Chin at sunset, leaving an incriminating footprint behind." Eira said, pointing to the temple area behind Aang.
"First of all, your temple and your statue were built at the same time and the statue was built after the death of Chin. This means that she couldn't have been in the temple."
"But-" The mayor began, trying to but in but Eira was getting used to ignoring him now.
"Then, the other evidence linking Kyoshi to the scene is the footprint." Eira said. "The footprint in question is far too small to be Kyoshi's as it is even too small to be mine, and Kyoshi was a fully grown woman who was also much taller than me. Also, if this isn't enough evidence, Kyoshi was also posing for a painting at sunset. This creates an alibi for her and there is absolutely no evidence to convict her."
The mayor looked absolutely dumbstruck and Eira loved it. There was no way they could prove Aang or Kyoshi guilty now!
Katara and Sokka looked happily from the stands and as Eira looked back at Aang, he gave her a smiled.
Eira turned back to the Mayor for his verdict and after a pause… she got it, unfortunately.
"Guards! Arrest her!" Tong ordered and before Eira could properly react, two guards came up behind her and grabbed her arms. "This is a mockery of Chin law!"
"Wait, what!?" Eira exclaimed. She hadn't been expecting that.
"You are charged with interfering with court business and because of the illegality of the Avatar's defence, I hereby declare him guilty."
There was complete and utter silence in the crowd. Even the villagers didn't know what was supposed to be going on.
Katara and Sokka looked absolutely horrified and Eira just didn't know what to do. She was being arrested… cachu!
The guards began to "escort" her towards the cells and as Eira looked back apologetically at her friends, she couldn't help but feel cheated. They but her in handcuffs and shoved her into a cell.
"Just great." She muttered angrily under her breath.
Eira sat in the corner of the cell bitterly and rested her chin and her fist as she looked out of the cell window.
She laughed dryly. Just my luck to get both the defendant declared guilty and get myself arrested at the same time. It's the Eira special!
As Eira watched the mice- well, not mice as they had elephant ears and trunks of some kind- skitter around, she heard some rapid footsteps getting closer to the cell. Eira looked out curiously and saw Sokka running up.
"Oh, hey, Sokka." Eira said half-heartedly. "Sorry 'bout that." He looked condescendingly at her, raising an eyebrow.
"Only you could manage to get yourself arrested on top of everything else." Eira looked at the floor shamefully.
"Guess I messed up, didn't I?" Eira said quietly. After a slight pause, he nodded.
"Yeah. That's why I'm here. We're just planning to break you out now. Tried the legal route once, time to try the other one." He said and Eira smiled.
"To be honest, in a place like this, who cares?" She laughed as she got up and walked over to the bars.
Eira looked down at her handcuffs and easily slipped them off. They just didn't have any smaller, thankfully.
They fell the the floor with a metal clink and Eira took a steadying breath before she slashed her hand at the stone surrounding the bars and with a large slash of air, the rocks shattered and dust billowed up into the air.
Eira and Sokka both coughed as the dust flew up but as it settled and Eira could see better, she saw that the bars had fallen to the floor and that there was a sizable hole in the wall.
"Perfect." Eira said cheerfully, clapping her hands together as she stepped out of the hole with ease.
Eira brushed the dust off of her clothes then looked up at Sokka.
"So, let's go get Aang now." She said, walking away happily. Thank goodness we can still save Aang, even after how badly I messed it up. He didn't even have to "confess" to get declared guilty this time. Eira thought, grimacing slightly at her thoughts.
Sokka and Eira were about to run over to the town centre to collect Aang but Eira heard some rumbling and stopped.
She held out her hand to stop Sokka as well and pulled him away into cover.
"Eira, what the heck?" Sokka hissed but she raised a finger to her mouth to silence him as she looked around.
The rumbling was beginning to get louder and just as Sokka was getting impatient and was about to leave their hiding place, the Fire Nation thugs on the weird rhinos stormed past them. Sokka gasped but Eira narrowed her eyes knowingly.
"We need to get Aang and Katara." Eira said and Sokka nodded in agreement.
Once they made sure that they hadn't been seen by them, they quickly ran across the street to the amphitheatre where the rhino riders were threatening all of the townspeople.
"We've come to claim this village for the Fire Lord!" The leader announced as Eira and Sokka crept around the side to find Katara and Aang.
"Now show me your leader so I may…" he swung his sword at the statue and it was sliced into large pieces.
"Dethrone him." Well, bugger. Eira thought irritatedly as she walked around to see Katara looking up at the thugs, poised and ready to water whip them in the faces at the drop of a hat.
"Hey, Katara." Eira said quietly.
She turned around sharply but when she saw it was just Eira and Sokka, she visibly relaxed.
"Thank La, you're okay." She said in relief but when she looked up to see the rhinos beginning to attack everyone.
"We need to get rid of these rhinos." Eira said determinedly and Katara smiled. Behind them, Aang began to charge at one of the men, fans in hand and he sent him flying off with his fans and as one of them tried to go and attack Mayor Tong, Aang turned to attack the leader.
"Rhinos! To the town!" He commanded and the yuyan archer guy began to notch four flaming arrows into his bow and shot them at the houses.
Eira quickly sent a shot of air at him and the arrows were sent flying into a post, all put out but he and the others continued to send more and more fire at the houses as they let lose all havoc.
Eira, Katara and Sokka chased after all of them but as they did explosions burst out every minute or so.
Buildings were being shattered around them but as a man was going to smash down a house, Katara began water whip him and as he threw his ball and chain at her, she threw it back at him and chained him up.
She water whipped his mount and it wildly ran off, dragging its rider around as Sokka ran off to distract the yuyan archer.
Eira saw a man with a sword about to attack some villagers and she quickly threw him off and as the sword fell out of his hand, she sent it skittering across the floor, far away from him.
Eira struck the rhino and sent it charging across the street, the man's foot still lodged in the foot hold of the saddle and he was forcefully dragged away, his head bouncing across the floor.
Eira winced slightly as she saw his head slamming into the ground but a massive explosion distracted her.
She covered her face and the burning scent of gunpowder filled the air. Eira gagged slightly but then she saw Sokka happily hugging his boomerang next to the explosion, about to be shot at by the archer.
"Sokka! Look out!" She shouted and he quickly turned his head to see the archer aiming a flaming arrow at him. Sokka reacted quickly, sending the closest thing to him at the archer and in this case it was his dragon pipe.
The archer looked at his dragon pipe covered arrow in confusion as Sokka ran across to the other side of the street and Katara water whipped the saddle strap, sending him falling to the ground and with one more whip, the rhino was sent storming off.
They all looked around for more of the assailants but thankfully, it looked like they'd all gone.
"I think they're all gone." Sokka said, looking around and as the trio walked over to look for Aang, they managed to see him standing in front of the leader, who was smashed through a splintered wooden box. Yikes!
"Well, we should leave before I get told off for breaking out of prison." Eira said, turning around and walking off to find Appa. "Come on, the sooner we leave this town, the better."
Aang, Sokka and Katara all mumbled in agreement and began to walk off in the same direction and they all silently agreed to never return. EVER!
Next chapter: Eira meets Toph, what hi jinks will ensue?
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