The group flew closer and closer to the South Pole, the days started to blend together. But instead of staying on Appa for another night, they decided to give him a longer rest and stop in a little settlement. While shopping that day, they heard about a little gathering to tell stories from long ago.

"So travelers, the next time you think you hear a strange large bird talking, take a closer look, it might not be a giant parrot, but a flying man! A member of a secret group of air walkers who laugh at gravity and laugh at those bound to the earth by it!"

"Aren't airbender stories the best?" Aang chirped from the groups perch in the back of the small gathering.

"Is that how it was then?" Masami asked, curiously.

"I laugh at gravity all the time. Haha! Gravity." Aang responded, happily. Masami snorted, and Sokka gave him a look. All eyes went to the storyteller as he came around to pander for money; which they didn't have.

"Jingle, jingle!" He said with a shake of his hat. Sokka reached in his pockets and managed to produce lint, and a nearly deceased beetle.

"Sorry!"

"Aww. Cheapskates!" As the man made away from them, Masami watched Aang run towards him and exchange words. When he returned to them, his face held much enthusiasm.

"These aren't old stories, guys! The old man saw the air walkers last week! We have to go!" Masami furrowed her brow, but followed Aang in his haste back to Appa.

The next morning, they found themselves approaching the Northern Air Temple. Masami hadn't ever seen anything like this. She heard stories about the Air Nomads and their society from her Grandfather, but by her time they were all gone. And it was nearly impossible to approach an airtemple on foot. It was certainly not something she would have ever tried, but she felt excited as she was approaching this one.

"Hey, we're almost at the Northern Air Temple! This is where they had the championships for sky bison polo." Aang gushed.

"Do you think we'll really find airbenders?" Masami asked whoever was listening,

"You want me to be like you, or totally honest?" Sokka whistled.

"Charming as always, Sokka." Masami assented.

"I'm just being honest." He said with a small smile. Masami rolled her eyes. The group's attention all came into focus as they found people flying, really flying, around the outside of the Air Temple.

"Huh! They really are airbenders!" Sokka cried. Masami was too stunned to speak, but Aang knew differently, falling back into a slouch.

"No, they're not." He affirmed, starting to pull the bison away.

"What do you mean they're not? Those guys are flying!" Sokka tried again.

"Gliding maybe, but not flying. You can tell by the way they move. They're not airbending. Those people have no spirit." Aang said in a flat tone.

Just then, one of the gliders made a beeline right for them, nearly taking out Masami who was kneeling out of the saddle trying to get a better look at the airwalkers. She screamed and pulled her head down as fast as her reflexes allowed.

"Excuse you, Asshole!" She yelled after the assailant, who from the sounds of his laughter was pretty young. Aang made a face as he heard the laughter too, and he flew off after the boy. Masami watched him fly off after the other, but before she can lean any farther to one side to look after where Aang's had gone, a large grouping of the airwalkers flew right in front of Appa, and startled him. Masami flew backwards with another squeal and Sokka made the decision to land the bison.

As they dismounted the bison, she was glad to have her feet on solid ground again. As she stood, catching her breath a kid brushed past her in a hurried manner to go cheer the rude boy who had nearly taken her head off on. Without thinking she reached out and stuck out her leg to trip the second one running passed her, and the kid lost their balance and took out their companion when they fell. She smiled lightly, and stepped over them towards the edge to go look out after Aang.

As she watched the boys try to out do each other she made a face, she shouldn't have been surprised. They were boys after all, and boys would be boys. As the group cheered over the smoky caricature of Aang, Masami crossed her arms. She looked up again as she saw him coming down to land and she stepped out of the way to give him more space. As the other boy skidded to a stop, Aang stepped beside her. Without thinking, she uncrossed her arms and reached for his hand. He twined their fingers together as he felt her hand on his. As the group was approached by the boy in the wheelchair and his friends, Masami folded herself into Aang's side in a defensive gesture, clearly not liking this situation at all. Sokka stood close behind them, but he was clearly a lot more relaxed about this situation.

"Hey! You're a REAL airbender!" The boy in the wheelchair stated with a sense of wonder.

"You don't say." Masami groused, her eyes narrowed. The boy was unfazed.

"You must be the Avatar! That's amazing! I, I, I've heard stories about you." He continued.

"Thanks." Aang responded awkwardly, smiling sort of. Masami felt him squeeze her hand, and she returned the pressure in a reassuring fashion. From behind them, Sokka walked towards the boy.

"Wow! This glider chair is incredible!" He cooed, looking the thing over. It was rather impressive, Masami wouldn't deny that.

"If you think this is good, wait until you see the other stuff my Dad designed." The boy said with a smile, rolling towards the door into the air temple. Aang and Masami followed after the now chatting pair.

Garron's plan had, indeed, gone off without so much as a hitch. Kali was sometimes startled by just how effective his planned out pranks were. She'd watched him pull well over a dozen pranks on the prince alone during the months she'd been with them and not once had he been caught, though there was no doubt Uncle had his suspicions. She sometimes wondered why someone that clever was stuck with them rather than at a more advanced position. Or at least in the "real Fire Navy" as some of the crew called it.

She'd made sure to be near the front of the bow so that she could get a good look at Zuko's face as the catapult launched him over her. It had made her feel slightly better for a while, thinking of how ridiculous he'd looked, but now, days later, her thoughts dwelt on the nearness of the next port and the lack of sleep started to take its toll. This was her fourth night in a row with little to no sleep. Her tendency towards sleepless nights had always come and gone in spells. Sometimes she could go for over a month sleeping perfectly normally and other times that month would be spent sleeping one or two hours at a time at most, nightmares or general restlessness depriving her of more than that. When she'd been with Masami though, at least she'd been able to afford the occasional nap during the day without fear of punishment.

Now though, she despaired. The last she'd overheard, the Avatar was assumed to be heading for the Northern Water Tribe. To find a waterbending master to teach him. She wondered if that was part of why Masami was traveling with him. Maybe a master could help her too. In ways Kali couldn't.

She shook her head to dispel such thoughts and tried to concentrate on the problem. How was she, an insignificant and relatively poor girl with no real roots left anywhere going to get to the Northern Water Tribe? Even Zuko would have trouble getting there if the Avatar reached it before they caught up to him and he had a ship to take him there. She, on the other hand, would soon be Shoeboat-less. Thanks to him.

She looked up irritably as someone walked down the hall towards her.

"Ah, Kali."

Uncle.

"Unc-General Iroh, sir."

He gave her a curious look as he reached her.

"I have been looking for you. I…was wondering, has the schedule for morning tea changed?" She started and blinked. She'd forgotten all about the tea.

"I…I'm so sorry, sir. I completely…just, forgot about it…" she trailed off, ashamed and embarrassed.

He looked concerned.

"Are you alright?"

"Oh yes. I was just distracted, moping…I mean mopping. Mopping like I always do." She was doing a terrible job of playing this off and she knew it.

"I did not realize my nephew had asked you to mop AGAIN. At this rate, the ship will end up more polished than the Firelord's finest silver!" He laughed and she tried not to blush as she suddenly realized Zuko hadn't said a word to her about mopping today. Not a word since he'd fired her.

"I'm really sorry about the tea, General Iroh. I'll get on it right away. Where should I bring it to you, sir?"

"Err…in my room, if you would be so kind."

"Yes, sir." She hastened away, as he followed her with troubled eyes.

Masami couldn't decide where to leave her eyes as they entered the air temple. Everything was…dirty, though. It was not like she expected. She knew these were ancient and hadn't been used in a long time before these people..but this didn't seem right to her. The dirty looked new, and was probably because of the people living here now; which made her uncomfortable.

As they entered a large chamber at the end of the hall they were walking down, they were bombarded with steel pipes going every which way; some into the wall, others through the ceiling. Masami frowned, looking at Sokka as he spoke and ran ahead of the group.

"Wow!"

"Yeah, my Dad is the mastermind behind this whole place! Everything's powered by hot air. It even pumps hot air currents outside to give us a lift when we're gliding." Said the boy in the wheelchair. Masami turned her head as she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She saw a woman get into a lift and pull a rope to get herself up to the next level of the building. It was impressive, but it seemed to come at a pretty nasty cost to the history of this building.

"This place is unbelievable." Aang's voice broke her thoughts. Her cerise eyes flitted towards him with a sad look.

"Yeah, it's great isn't it?" Teo inquired.

"No, just unbelievable." Aang responded morosely, as he moved away from the group. Masami sighed,

"Before it was like this, Aang spent time here. I think he's…um. Shocked I guess." Masami tried to explain, though she didn't see why she needed to; should seem obvious that this wasn't alright with Aang.

"It's so much cooler now!" Sokka cried, moving from place to place; trying to get a look at everything. Meanwhile, Masami approached Aang from behind where he was looking at murals on the wall. Masami could make out some of the picture, it was the Nomads and they're Sky Bison. But now it was just a cracked, sooty shell with holes lining it.

"This is supposed to be the history of my people." He looked at her for a moment but stepped away before she could say anything. She wasn't sure if she would have said anything regardless. What would she tell him? That it would get better? He was the only one left, and they were destroying sacred pieces of art being here. Gods only knew what else they had destroyed. Masami's eyes followed him as he approached a Bison fountain, though it certainly wasn't water that was flowing through it. As she walked closer, the statue emitted a black cloud of dust which caused Aang to make an angry sound.

"Are any parts of the temple the same?" Masami asked Teo over her shoulder. He nodded with a smile, and he led the way out of the center chamber. Sokka led the group, walking far ahead of them with Teo, Masami hung in the middle and Aang brought up the rear.

As they used a lift, and came through a doorway they were out on a narrow walkway between buildings. Aang seemed right at home, Sokka wasn't paying attention because he was too busy talking to Teo and Masami wasn't so sure she liked this path. She glanced over the side, and regretted it immediately. She brought her head back up very straight and forbid herself from looking over the side again.

As the group got off the path they were greeted with the high walls of a court yard area. Masami looked around as the doors that led to what she assumed might have been living quarters. Masami stood looking at a portrait of a monk, she turned her head to look behind her at whoever was approaching her, and she turned back when she heard,

"Look out!" But beyond that, she didn't remember much else.

Aang's grey eyes watched as a wrecking ball came through yet another sacred piece of his people and sent rocks flying, one of which knocked his friend in the head. As Masami hit the ground not far from where she'd been standing, he stood frozen in place as Sokka and Teo went to check on Masami. When Sokka lifted her head, Aang saw a small trickle of blood run down the side of her face and everything in his head became all the more hazy. He could see the scene before him, but more than anything he saw red; his hands vibrating with anger.

The arrow on his head started to glow, and he could feel that anger being amplified by the power that came to him naturally when he went into the Avatar State; the unnatural power of all the Avatars before him.

"Do you know what you've done?!" Aang's normally rather passive voice was joined by the echoes of the past. The group that came through the hole in the wall stood frozen in terror. Bringing his hands up, Aang shot a powerful gust of air out of his hands and sent their wrecker falling off the cliff side.

"Aang! Stop it!" Sokka cried, trying to get his friend under control. Aang's eyes fell on Sokka as he turned towards him, the anger fell away; and Aang pitched forward shakily as he came out of the Avatar State. He looked over his shoulder once more at the inventor as he moved back towards his group as he helped Sokka lift Masami. They followed Teo so they could take her somewhere else to get the small wound on her head under control.

Above her head, Masami could hear whispering, she blinked and the first thing she found when she opened her eyes was Momo looking down at her. She made a slightly startled noise, but didn't push herself back like her hammering heart told her to.

"Jeez Momo, why are you hovering? When did you find us?" She asked the lemur as she sat up slowly. He made one of his customary chitters and crawled onto her shoulder. She looked around to find herself in a dimly lit hallway; an elaborate set of doors before her, and Aang and Teo were talking in front of the doors.

"I'm sorry, this is the last part of temple that the same as it was. I want it to stay that way." Aang said as they looked at the doors.

"I completely understand. I just wanted you to know it was here." Teo answered respectfully.

"Thanks." Aang responded, dropping his chin to his chest. They didn't seem to notice she was awake yet. As she started to get up, she felt Momo make a leap off her shoulder and grab for something on the ground. He came back with a hairy crab thing. He was fighting with the creature, trying to get it in his mouth.

"No, Momo. Don't eat that!" Masami chided, taking the crab from him. It crawled across her fingers and she smiled, looking up as Aang and Teo approached her.

"How's your head?" Aang asked, dropping to his knees, tilting her head to the side to look at it.

"Achy, but alright." She said with a smile.

"My dad's sorry about that." Teo said with an apologetic smile.

"I've had worse." Masami answered, smiling back.

"If you're feeling up to moving, there's something else I want to show you guys." Teo tilted his head to the side as he spoke. Masami nodded, and got to her feet. She let the crab creature go onto a pipe as they walked down the hall.

Kali started as Kahn suddenly shouted behind her in the kitchen.

"Wake up!"

She yelped as her arm bumped into the hot handle of the pot she'd been supposed to be stirring. Kahn frowned down at her.

"Sorry. You were 'sleep. Okay?"

"Yeah…just almost got burnt."

"Okay?"

"Yeah, I just said I'm fine," she glanced back at him irritably. Kahn, because of the blow dealt him by an earthbender a few years prior to joining Zuko's crew, sometimes needed a little repetition in order for things to sink in. He was in the kitchen at the moment because Zuko hadn't found anything else for him to do. Jee had sent him to "help Kali in the kitchen" in order to keep him occupied.

"No. Really. Y'okay?"

"Yes, I'm just fine," she scowled and took the pot off the stove quickly, then opened the oven, hoping that slightly singed smell was from the oven itself and not the roast skunk geese below. Why they were eating skunk goose today was beyond her. She didn't remember buying them but they had appeared in their stocked supplies all the same so she'd cooked them. Skunk goose was fine so long as you cut the right parts out but there was always the risk that the butcher had missed something small and then…well…Kali had had the misfortune of eating that before and it was even less pleasant coming back up than it was going down.

"No, you're not."

"Yes I am."

"No."

"Yes."

"NO."

"YES!"

She turned around.

"I am…flamin', Kahn! JUST F-FLAMIN'! SHHHHII…!"

Her protests were cut off and dissolved into a repressed hiss as she hit the pot again in her enthusiasm over explaining how flamin' she was. Kahn backed up a step then quietly turned (the kitchen was so small it allowed for him to do little more than that) and got her a wet towel, which she hastily pressed against her arm after yanking off the long thin glove that had done little to prevent the heat from scorching her. At least my gloves are black so they won't show any scorching, she thought glibly. After a few minutes, she took the towel off long enough to take another look at the red skin. It still hurt, but, she realized to her relief, that it hadn't been as bad as it had felt.

"You are not flamin'," Kahn said after a moment. His expression changed as he looked down at her arm. Aside from the current irritated red spot, the arm was striped by a series of older red marks running almost horizontally across it. Kali wrapped the towel further around it, conscious of what he was staring at,

"No…I guess I'm not. Can you strain the sprouts for me please? I need to see how much of the skunk goose is…edible." He gazed at her for a moment then started straining the sprouts. Thankfully, she found that the birds had not been much burnt by her brief negligence. She hoped to herself that whatever little burnt parts she missed (or gross parts the butcher had missed) would end up on Zuko's plate. She cautiously carved them, trying to ensure no one who wasn't Zuko would have to suffer from either issue. Silence settled between the temporary cook and her temporary assistant as they worked.

"Okay," she finally said, wiping her face on her still gloved arm, "Think we're ready for lunch."

"Your arm?" Kahn gestured at it uneasily.

"It'll be okay….the burn wasn't as bad as I thought it was," she smiled weakly and slipped the glove back on, trying not to wince as it slid over the new burn. Kahn looked unconvinced.

"Why aren't you flamin', Kali?" She sighed as they walked up the stairs, carrying the food.

"I'm not flamin' because I'm fired, Kahn. I'm leaving once we reach port."

The sound of the ship's main horn sounded as they reached the top of the stairs. Most of the rest of the crew was on deck with Uncle, gazing into the harbor. At the small port town. Uncle inhaled deeply, then turned around.

"Ahhhh. Looks like our goose is cooked!"

The group emerged back where they had started, on the landing where people on gliders were flying over head. If someone else dive-bombed Masami she was going to sit on Appa and not leaving again. She looked as Teo pointed to some of the gliders and explained how it worked.

"The wind will carry you. It supports something inside you – something even lighter than air, and that something takes over when you fly." Teo informed her, seemingly trying to entice her to try flying like the rest of his people.

"No thanks." She said with a small smile, crossing her left arm over to grab the elbow of her right as she tried to make herself smaller.

"It'll be fun! Where's your sense of adventure?" He asked with a smile, she ducked her head before answering,

"I left it back in Kyoshi." She implored, wanting to be left alone.

"You're from the Earth Kingdom?" He asked curiously.

"Yeah, pretty much." She answered dismissively, ending the conversation. She glanced as he and Aang started speaking, and Teo rolled away to have someone help him hook his glider up. She assumed he and Aang were going to go flying again. She would just go spend time with Appa. As she turned to go, Aang caught her elbow.

"Come on." He said simply, holding her arm gently. She took a few steps towards him, the question still written on her face. He smiled, "Do you trust me?" He asked her and waited patiently for an answer. She nodded. He opened his glider, and turned it towards her. "Grab the top part and hold on." She did so, and closed her eyes. With ease, he pushed himself up, lifted the glider with her added weight and ran towards the edge of the platform.

Her breath held in her throat as she expected the feeling of falling to take over soon, and panic that came with that terrible feeling. But there was none, that feeling never came. This wasn't falling, this was really and truly flying. After just enjoying the breeze hitting her face, she had the guts to open her eyes, and it was breath taking. Yes, it was scary, and she wasn't sure she would be willing to just use one of those gliders alone; but with this? Knowing she wasn't going to fall? She felt like this was true freedom, she could see why they spent all their time out here.

"It's beautiful." She breathed, and she heard Aang laugh, then he proceeded to flip them over so she was looking straight up at the sky. After the intial screech that left her mouth, she found the sky just as breath taking as the ground.

"Still think so?" He asked with a cheerful tone.

"I think it's even more gorgeous this way; NO DON'T-!" He flipped them again with another bought of cheerful laughter. On second thought, maybe a glider wouldn't be such a horrible idea.

"Prince Zuko, what is the meaning of this?" Uncle didn't normally question his nephew. A young man needed to make his own decisions after all. But a certain temporary cooking assistant had let slip what Uncle felt certain was the reason nearly the entire crew had seemed unusually reluctant to land at the port. And the reason for the lateness of his morning tea.

At the moment, they were anchored not far from the port under what Uncle felt was a rather blatantly false pretense of the docks being too crowded. Lieutenant Jee was a fine man and a loyal soldier. As such, his lying skills needed some work.

"I told you before, Uncle, the lieutenant said there's nowhere close to the actual port for us to land. If you really want to go ashore that badly to look for some woodwinds, I suggest you consider swimming or get someone else to do it for you." Zuko glowered at his meditation candles.

"This isn't about Music Night, Prince Zuko. This is about the Avatar."

"What?!" It didn't take much to get his nephew's attention. Uncle stroked his beard, choosing his words with care.

"Yes. I am surprised, my nephew. Surprised that you would be willing to wait for even a few hours when we could be gaining those hours on the Avatar."

"You know I hate waiting, Uncle. But we can't move on without supplies. Besides, that catapult needs fixing."

"I agree that the importance of proper supplies and working machinery easily are worth a few hours' wait. They demand it even. But, while you were meditating earlier, I had the crew look over the catapult again. It seems that just the smallest piece in the triggering mechanism had quite unfortunately and accidentally slid out of place. They have fixed the problem."

"We still need more supplies. It's been a couple of weeks since our last port."

"That is another thing I wanted to tell you. You see, only just now I became engrossed in conversation with our dear cook and house, or rather ship, keeper, Kali-" Zuko grunted and looked away. "-and learned that the last time we stopped, she stocked us up very well with supplies because she knew how likely it was we would not wish to stop at this port on the way up north. So well in fact that we have more than enough salted terracuda and prepared skunk goose and turtle duck to last us to the last Fire Nation stronghold before the North Pole! Now, it is true that I am very anxious to find my woodwinds so that I can begin teaching the crew to play something more than Lieutenant Jee's pipe, but even so-" Zuko brushed past him abruptly.

"It'll wait, Uncle. We're leaving. Lieutenant Jee!" he shouted. He hurried down the hallway and out of sight before Uncle could say another word. Uncle smiled softly to himself then breathed a sigh of relief. Abruptly Zuko's face reappeared around the corner. He'd remembered something.

"Uncle, the next time you speak with Kali, tell her to make me duck instead the next time she makes skunk goose for the crew. There's something…just not right about that skunk goose." Uncle smiled innocently.

"I will be sure to tell her, my nephew." And then Zuko was gone again, still shouting for the lieutenant.

Having landed the glider after nearly successfully scaring Masami no less then 3 other times, Aang agreed to open that door for Teo.

"I can't believe I'm finally going to see what's inside." Teo exclaimed as they stood before the doors again. Masami watched Aang as he brought his arms up to send air through the pipes on the doors. Though, she couldn't actually see anything she could see the force that it took to get it through all those pipes as she saw the pipes rattle.

What the kids found was not what they had expected; and even before any of them had time to process anything because foot steps got their attention. Aang turned his attention to the approaching footsteps.

"You're making weapons for the Fire Nation!" Aang accused, pointing at the professor.

Sokka appeared behind him, "You make weapons for the Fire Nation!?"

Teo looked at his father, "Explain all this! Now!"

"It was about a year after we moved here. Fire Nation soldiers found our settlement. You were too young to remember this tale. They were going to destroy everything, burn it to the ground. I pleaded with them, I begged them to spare us. They asked what I had to offer. I offered... my services. You must understand, I did this for you!" The old man tried to explain, though Teo wasn't hearing it. He turned away.

Before they were truly able to see the old man's point, the group was interrupted by the tinkling of the bell.

"Hide! Quickly!"

As the group hide, they discussed what Sokka had learned, and how he thought that he could fix this. But, before anything concrete was set; Aang had other plans.

"The deal's off!"

"The Avatar!" The Fire Nation Man cried,

"Aang, don't get involved!" But it was too late; the man vowed to burn the air temple. Sokka had other plans though and they involved some sort of War Balloon.

As the enemy departed, the gang set to regroup; all gathering with Teo and his people atop the tower, they readied themselves for a fight.

While Sokka gathered the war balloons and materials for the flight, Masami stood with a group who was fighting off some rather impressive tank machines, it crossed her mind that maybe Teo's father had created those too. Her footing was off slightly as she moved to avoid a rock; and for a second time that day she found herself fading to black.

Having slept through the entire fight, Masami was kicking herself mentally when she came to. She felt like she hadn't held her weight at all this fight, and was rather ashamed of that fact. As the group said their goodbyes to the people of air temple, Masami kept quiet. Once on top of Appa again, she was still quiet.

"Is your head okay?" Sokka asked, lounging on a pile of their stuff.

"It's fine." She answered quietly, looking away and ending the conversation.

Kali stared at the small, sturdy knife made of bone with its delicately carved handle. This had been a present from Masami's grandfather, Pappi, to Masami before he'd passed away. The day the two sisters had been separated, Kali had been carrying the majority of their belongings. It was unusual for Masami to part with her knife but that day, for whatever reason, she'd left it by the morning's campfire while breaking camp and Kali had casually dropped it into their pack to make sure they didn't leave it behind. Now she looked at it, wondering once more if she'd ever see her sister again.

She lifted her small bundle of belongings and walked out of the sleeping quarters. She remembered how frightened she'd felt the first few weeks she'd spent trying to sleep there. Between the crew's snoring, Hadji's habit of telling stories in his sleep, and her nervousness over sleeping in a room full of strange men, she'd slept very little. Now, though, she prepared to leave it behind knowing it might very well have been the safest and most comfortable place to sleep she'd have had in the coming months. She could feel the ship shifting under her and knew they must be heading into port. Space at the docks had finally opened up (that or Jee's lie had ceased to be enough to delay the impatient prince).

She had barely gotten down the hallway from the crew's quarters when Uncle came towards her.

"Kali!" he beamed, "I was just looking for you."

"Sir?" she looked up miserably. Did he still not know? She was pretty sure most if not all of the crew had heard from Garron or even Kahn by now that she was done.

"Yes! You see, it seems my nephew has had a change of heart."

She blinked.

"We are not going to wait any longer at this port for the docks to clear. Since we have SO MANY provisions already which you were kind enough to pack for us and the catapult is, incredibly enough, working properly again, he has decided we should move on until we reach the last Fire Nation port before we are forced to sail to the freezing regions of the North Pole."

He shivered in anticipation of the north and smiled at her.

"Consequently, since we have already spent a few hours here, it would seem that it is nearly dinnertime and I think," he paused to look at her meaningfully, "that we will be needing our cook for that."

She stared at him as he winked at her and turned to walk back the way he had come.

"If you would be kind enough to place your belongings back in the crew's quarters, I am sure we would all be glad for another helping of the skunk goose I found for a great price at the last port tonight before settling down for a delightful Music Night."

He stopped and stroked his beard.

"Except for my nephew actually. He is neither interested in music nor in skunk goose. If you would please prepare for him a separate meal of duck, I think that would suit him quite well."

Kali stared after him in shock for a moment then called out.

"Sir?"

"Hmmm…?"

"Do you know where all of that skunk goose came from even? I didn't buy it…"

"Of course! Skunk goose is my favorite…well, one of my favorites anyway," he laughed and patted his belly, "Anything properly prepared is up there with me. I saw it for a good price in the last port and I could not resist!"

"Oh. Thank you, sir."

He beamed and walked off, leaving her alone to contemplate the benefits of having a general on your side.

A/N: So! I'm very, very sorry this update took SO LONG! It's all my fault, it's been a rough month or two. And, I have no excuse other than lack of muse for how poorly my last Masami part is written; but it's filler so I felt better here then in the important part later. So until next time, stay flamin!