You'll notice that some chapters are longer than others, and some are shorter. That's just because some of these chapters I couldn't justify splitting them up. Others fit between large, contiguous chapters, and should stand on their own.
And you will also notice that I'm bringing in Avatar Day in what should be the first season of Avatar. When I watched that show, I always felt like it was a first season story which didn't make it to the plate in time. Besides, it worked to bring Ty Lee into the story and start things off with the Gaang for when she returns in Book 2, but teamed up with Azula against them. Trust me. I know what I'm doing... Maybe.
One more thing you'll notice is that 'redshirts' like Mongke are using very high level techniques in Firebending. I figure, if you make it to the high level in the military, it's because you kicked a lot of heinie to get there. So it works if Mongke can imitate Azula's tricks, if on a smaller scale. After all: Mong Ke is no Azula.
Iroh scanned his gaze across the island, off in the distance. A pang of homesickness tugged at him; it was the closest he had come to returning to the land of his birth since he chose to join his nephew in his quest. A red-brown blob in the distance. The Fire Nation. Odd, how so many people seemed to equate the two in their minds.
"It's been a long time," Jeesaid. Iroh nodded, then turned, laying down the black soldier tile. His opponent scowled; Jia knew that it was, at this point, just a matter of time until Iroh destroyed him. Pai Sho was a game where a cunning mind could do very well. As long as one hid how cunning one was.
"Zuko will return."
"And if he doesn't, what does that mean for us?" Jee asked. Jee was hardly the highest ranking officer on this boat. That was Iroh himself, but Zuko laid the course. Jee was popular amongst the men, though. As a former Imperial firebender, Jee commanded a great deal of respect, and cut an impressive figure. But his place on this ship was borne of desperation. His discharge from the navy had not been clean nor pleasant.
"He will return," Iroh said again, moving the white lotus to its next intersection. At this point, he didn't even look at the board. "Zuko will not allow himself to fail, nor be captured. Not by the likes of Zhao. Even if he does not capture the Avatar, he will come back."
Jee shook his head. "I don't know why you bother with that boy. He has no respect, he has no discipline, and he has no focus,"
"Not yet. He is young. That will change," Iroh blindly made a move, prompting Jia to groan loudly. Iroh knew Pai Sho well.
"Why did you chose to join him?" Jee asked. Iroh raised an eyebrow. "You are not a general anymore, and I am not a sergeant. We are two men on the waves, unable to return home. Why? Why didn't you just return to your palace?"
Iroh sighed, then reached to one side and moved the white lotus one final time. Jia began to swear profusely in Yqanuac. If there were a Water Tribesman aboard, they would have blanched. "When I walked the Earth in my youth, it was my choice. I did what I wanted to, made myself into whoever I needed to be. Zuko does not have that choice, does not have the options I had. He does not have the resources. I'm just trying to help him find the path, just like I did four decades ago."
Something changed on the island. A spot moving against the background. Iroh smiled. Too small to be Zhao's ship, by a wide margin. Jee grunted. "Sounds like you're trying to be the boy's father."
"Funny you should say that," Iroh said, but then got distracted. The ship was approaching fast. It was indeed Zuko. He stood and leaned at the rail. The boy was rod-straight, his posture rigid. What had happened?
"Is that him?" Jee asked.
"It is," Iroh then turned away, facing the Pai Sho board, beginning to scoop up his winnings and tiles. "We will be pushing hard tonight to get out of Fire Nation waters, but don't despair. We will have plenty of time to rest when we... Where is my white lotus tile?"
The skiff steamed hard and docked with something of a crash. Iroh was a little alarmed, though. He couldn't see his white lotus. It was the cornerstone of his game! He checked the pouch, the board, the deck around it. Nothing. "I suppose we'll be going underway?"
"Yes. Make for the port city of Di Wan," Iroh said. He paused. "And don't tell Zuko. He's probably in a bad mood."
Jee chuckled grimly. "You don't need to tell me twice."
Confound it all, that tile was simply gone! What a way to ruin a wonderful evening. Prince Zuko made his way onto the deck, over to the bow. He raked his fingers along his shaved scalp, then cast out his arm with a roar of rage. A gout of flame as long as the ship arced away before fading into smoke. Iroh quietly moved to his nephew's side.
"I failed, Uncle," Zuko said quietly. "I couldn't capture the Avatar."
"Today, you failed, but the day is ending," Iroh said. "Tomorrow is a new day, and anything is possible. The chase will resume, and you will find your true destiny. The Avatar will bring you to where you need to be. I just have that feeling."
Zuko turned to his uncle. "Sometimes, I have no idea what you're talking about."
Iroh brightened. "Do you know what we need on this ship?" Zuko scowled, and Iroh raised a finger. "A tsungi horn!"
"I'm going to sleep," Zuko said. "Take us to safe waters."
"Yes, Prince Zuko. And then, a tsungi horn."
"So this is Omashu," Mai asked. The firebender next to her nodded briskly behind his face-concealing blast mask. Mai had always considered how ridiculous it was for firebenders to armor themselves the way they did. The armor of a firebender protected them from other firebenders, but against steel, or against earthbenders, they might as well be wearing a silk bath robe.
"The site of our glorious victory," he said proudly. Mai scowled.
"The site of their ignominious surrender," Mai countered. She watched as the steel coffin was winched steadily upwards.
"The view from up here is terrific!" the insane king shouted gleefully.
"Is he going to do that the entire time we're here?" she asked.
"I can only hope not," her father said, staring up at Bumi's literal but not metaphorical ascent. "It upsets Tahm-Tahm. And it's a great distraction."
"I wouldn't call it great," Mai said.
"There's no reason to be so mopey, Mai," Fu Yin said, his expression happy and bright. It just made Mai want to find some dark spot and say nasty things in languages few people would understand. "We are the regents of this land. All that it possesses is ours for the taking!"
"For the Fire Lord's taking," Mai said. "We get the scraps."
Fu Yin faltered a bit, unable to deny his daughter's correction. "Well, still, there's much that we can gain while were here. Wealth, power, influence..."
"Which we didn't exactly lack for at home," Mai said.
"This is our home, now, Mai," he said.
"Really? Then where is the red and gold? Where is the scent of fire-flakes and snap-rice? Where is the heat? By Agni's blood, it's cold here," Mai shivered a bit. "This is not home, Father. This is your office. Thanks so much for taking me to work with you."
"There's no reason to be sarcastic," Fu Yin looked more than a little annoyed. But still, he didn't respond with nearly the vigor or oppressiveness that he usually did. Ordinarily, he would have dressed her down to within an inch of her life for talking back like that in front of the firebenders and workers. Now, though, he just took it with a shrug. Maybe he stopped caring. Maybe it was just because there was nobody here that mattered, and he knew it.
"I'm going some place warmer," she said, leaving her father to oversee Bumi's incarceration. The old king was quite insane, but possibly the most powerful earthbender alive. Steps had to be taken. If it were up to Mai, there would be no iron coffin. Just one long, iron nail, placed in exactly the right spot. If there was one thing mother taught her, it was doing things efficiently and properly, no matter the personal cost. Damn her.
Mai headed through the palace which stood fairly low on the structure, all things considered. In Sozin City, the Fire Palace was an island amongst its lesser brethren, overpowering and overwhelming the city. Here, the palace was a buttress. Just one of three which held up the highest parts of the city. How could these outlanders be so fundamentally and pervasively wrong? She had already explored much of the palace, knew a great deal of its supposedly hidden spots. It was her job. Her mother had raised her to understand that to her bones.
There were touches of civilization that had been brought into the palace. Proper braziers, steam engines and ovens. Tasteful decorations in red and gold. Here, Omashu was Fire Nation. The rest of the city? Just an overgrown village, full of rubes and yokels. That's what her parents wanted her to believe. She didn't know. But then again, she didn't care. They weren't Fire Nation. There were no doubt plots amongst them to spend their lives to assassinate the regents even now. If Mai found them, she would deal with them. Until then, she moved through the hallways like a drab, desaturated ghost. She quietly opened a room and slipped inside.
This place had been laid out in a trinity. Three beds in a well furnished and well appointed, if somewhat drab, room. It suited Mai's mood. Fu Yin, father, he didn't realize what this place was. This was not advancement. This was purgatory. Limbo, a dead-end. She lay back on one of the beds, confident that nobody would come this deep into the palace, and just stared at the roof.
A scratching sound brought her attention back to the waking world. She looked over, to see a silver pigeon-rat crawling through one of the air-holes. She didn't quite understand what it meant, until it hopped down onto the floor, its wings held tight to its back, and scampered to Mai's foot. It stared up at her, as though waiting.
Mai looked at it, and it looked back. It didn't have a message case. It couldn't be... She leaned down, and grabbed the little vermin. It didn't struggle very hard. She looked it over. It could be. She didn't know how, but... She looked at its leg. Tied around its back leg was a scrap of parchment. She pulled it off. It was tiny, only large enough to hold a few, cramped characters. When she read them, she found herself sitting on the edge of the bed once again. An uncharacteristic smile found its way onto her face. Suddenly, the day seemed a bit less drab.
She tucked the scrap into her sleeve, next to the arrow launchers and amongst the knives. She took a deep breath, and lay back once more, thinking of home as she slowly drifted into a nap. As she fell asleep, the last thing she thought of was that message.
"You're never alone – TLB"
"Why do you always do that?" Ty Lee asked, despairing when Suki laid the white lotus at the center of the board.
"It's within the rules," Suki said.
"Yeah, but it's not fun! Every time you start, within five lays its 'white lotus' and I know I'm going to lose," Ty Lee pouted a bit.
"I play to win," Suki said. She stared out over the waters again. Ty Lee didn't mind the change in scenery. Usually, when Suki played, it was inside her dojo, but today, she must have felt a need for something different. Today, they played on a horn of the shore, overlooking Unagi Bay. The wind was cold, but Ty Lee had gotten used to it in her travels. Besides, it was nice and sunny.
"Sometimes I think you're cheating," Ty Lee said.
"There are lessons to be learned. I play the white lotus because that is part of my strategy, not just in Pai Sho but in war. The white lotus has very little inherent power. It is limited to one intersection of movement. It does not threaten paths. It does not fortify, it cannot attack without reinforcement. It has the lowest earn if captured, and is the only piece which has no earn if destroyed. But it has its use, and very few players see it," Suki explained, moving soldiers down parallel paths. One, legal move, and the board shifted.
"So why do you always play it?" Ty Lee asked. She glanced at the ocean. A golden flash brought a smile to her face as one of the Elephant Koi leapt into the air, before crashing back down into the waves. The Unagi must have moved to its deeper lairs.
"White lotus can capture anything," Suki said. "It can restore anything, it can reinforce anything. More than that, white lotus represents something."
"Wow. That's all... meaningful and stuff," Ty Lee said. "Sounds like something an old friend used to talk about all the time."
"Really?" Suki asked. "And who was this?"
Ty Lee quietly cursed herself. She couldn't tell Suki, and lying would be risky. She forced a smile. "Just somebody my parents used to know. Family friend."
"Does this family friend have a name?"
"Lee," she said. There were a million 'Lee's out there.
"Hrm. I suppose you were named after him?" Suki moved again, but this time, moved back, shaking her head. She paused to ponder, a moment. Instead, she laid a Badgermole.
"What? No. There was theme naming. Everybody got a name which sounded like somebody else's. It made it easier for Mother to call us for dinner," Ty Lee said. It wasn't Mother who would have been doing the dinner calls. In truth, Mother was just as unable to identify her daughters from each other as everybody else in the Fire Nation was. Well, just about everybody. She felt a cold breeze against her back, and she turned. "Why are we out here, today?"
"Today is Kyoshi Day," Suki said. "And, several dozen miles north of here, it's Avatar Day in Chin."
"Avatar Day? I thought you'd be happier," Ty Lee said, moving her Ostrich horses to the back-board.
"Ordinarily, I'd let it pass without a second thought. But now, the Avatar has returned. They mock and revile the Avatar in Chin, burn them in effigy. That town is more Fire Nation than Earth, which is ironic, considering the Fire Nation actually came to Earth's aid to bring down his empire when he died," Suki frowned at Ty Lee's play. "What are you doing?"
"Well," Ty Lee forced a casual tone, "I guess the Fire Nation can't be all bad."
"That was almost four centuries ago. That Fire Nation is gone," Suki said. "That can't be..."
"By your own admission, the Fire Nation once saved the Earth from subjugation under a tyrant. They rendered a service to civilization itself. And where did those people go? Capture, and then capture, then rout."
Suki stared at the board as Ty Lee took control of Suki's white lotus, then proceeded to take over most of Suki's pieces. Suki smiled a bit, but then looked up at Ty Lee.
"What you're saying makes you sound like a Fire Nation apologist," she said.
"I just like to see the good in people," she replied.
"You really do, don't you?" Suki smiled, then began to scan the Pai Sho board. She shook her head. "I can see I can't recover from that."
"So I win?"
"You try to see the good in people who don't have much good in them," Suki said, shifting her soldiers back into a safer position. That probably meant no.
"Excuse me? The people don't have good in them?" she asked, not even trying to modulate her voice. "People are people. They have their own wants, their own needs, their own desires. It doesn't matter whether you speak Yqanuac, Tianxia, or Huojian, whether your eyes are grey, blue, or green. People are people. You look at the Fire Nation and you see Sozin and Ozai? Well, maybe they look at you, and they see Chin."
Suki nodded. "You're not from Great Whales, are you?"
Ty Lee instantly regretted her outburst.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said. Suki stood up, plucking her pieces from the Pai Sho board.
"You don't have the eyes of Great Whales. Theirs are blue, green, or a mixture of the two. Yours are grey-brown. And you're not Hichiman; they've got their own look, and it's not yours. Now, if you'd claimed descent from southeastern Earth Kingdom, south of Si Wong, I might have believed it. You don't have a Whalesh accent. I've never heard you speak Whalesh, even to yourself."
"Well, that's because..." Ty Lee scrambled to find some explanation that Suki would accept. None came to mind.
"Your outlook is diametrically opposed to every Whalesh person I've ever met. They tend toward the dour. You are anything but. However, that's circumstantial. You don't have an accent at all, I might say. Not North Earth, not Si Wong, not Omashu, not Slow Waters. But what damns you... What gives you away completely? Rice. You eat rice with every meal. Not bread, not bannock. Rice."
Ty Lee was silent, still. There might still be a way out of this. She really didn't want to have to fight her friend. She knew how to, but she doubted she could pull it off. Or even if she could bring herself to. Suki leaned down at the acrobat.
"You're Fire Nation," Suki said. "You're from the colonies."
If Ty Lee could have gotten away with it, she would have breathed a sigh of relief, instead, she spoke with an inflection of feigned shame, "Yes. Yes I am. I'm from Colony 28 in the North Sea."
Suki nodded. "Fire Nation are people?" she asked. She sat back down on the ground. "You are right about that. So. How do you like the Earth Kingdom?"
"This place is almost more Water Tribe than Earth Kingdom. Wait, why are you so calm about this? I'm from the homeland of your enemy."
"Yes, but you are not my enemy," Suki said. "And besides, if you were going to assassinate me, you had more than enough chances to before now. That would make you either an incompetent assassin, the most subtle one ever, or else, not one at all. And I tend to believe the stance which requires the least mental acrobatics."
Ty Lee giggled at the pun. Suki looked across the sea one last time. "I assume something unpleasant happened? To make you want to leave your people?"
"Oh, it's nothing serious," Ty Lee said. "I just wanted a change of pace."
"Sure you did," Suki began to walk toward her home. "People don't talk about things for three reasons. One, because they fear others will use the knowledge against them. You don't seem the type to have skeletons in your wardrobe. Two, because something from their past is deeply, but personally embarrassing. Since you don't seem to know the meaning of embarrassment, that's unlikely. Three, because they have something in their past which is deeply upsetting. Now, you won't talk about it, and I won't pry."
"Thank you," Ty Lee said. A smile came back to her face. "Want to hear a Fire Nation joke?"
"Better now than when we get back to the town," Suki said, a smirk on her face.
"An Embiar, an Azuli and a Sozu walk into a bar. The Embiar lays down and cries, the Azuli blames the Sozu, and the Sozu orders the execution of everybody involved," Ty Lee laughed at the end. Suki just stared at her. "...'cause they all hit their head. On the bar. Then..."
"I guess thats just one of those things which doesn't cross cultural barriers very well," Suki said. She looked back, then squinted. Ty Lee looked up as well. Something white and poofy was approaching. It was like a cloud, but it was moving against the wind. "Well. Looks like some old friends have come to pay us a visit once more. Come on. They'll be headed for the town square."
"Who?" Ty Lee could barely make out the shape.
"The Avatar. Now hurry up, and don't tell the village. One can be wise, but the many are stupid."
"That sound's like something Lee once said."
"Then he must have been quite wise," Suki said. Then, the two women began to run down the hills and along the rocky bay. Ty Lee knew that if she were paired off with anybody but Suki, they would have been left behind long ago. Years of acrobatics, both with the circus and in her training with Piandao, had left her with what some called a superhuman level of endurance. So much so, that she rarely needed to sleep more than two or three hours a night. It was less than a sliver-wane of Agni by the time they reached the town square. And right on schedule, the enormous white thing gently swooped down, and landed on its six legs. She had never seen anything quite like it. Dian pushed his way to the front of the crowd, and immediately went into a mouth-frothing frenzy. He was always that excitable.
Suki looked up at the beast. "I don't see him," she said.
"Who?" Ty Lee asked. She could already see Sokka, that lovely boy she 'danced' with a few months ago. A girl, dressed similarly and sharing his eyes, came down after him. Oh, drat. He'd picked himself up a girlfriend. She scrutinized him a bit closer, and realized her mistake. Their auras were too similar. They had to be blood related. Sister? "I recognize him. Isn't he who you were expecting?"
"I saw Appa, I expected the Avatar," Suki said.
"Where's Aangy?" a young girl asked. She stamped her foot in annoyance as it became obvious that these two were the only ones here. Disappointed murmurs swept through the crowd. Dian pulled himself off the ground, wiped the foam from his mouth, and quietly slunk away.
"Aang couldn't come, Koko," Sokka's sister said gently. The crowd dispersed. Ty Lee didn't see why. There was still a massive magical bison thing standing here. Sokka took a step forward, and his eyes widened when he beheld Suki and Ty Lee.
"Care for another dance lesson?" Sokka asked, entirely too smug for his own good. Ty Lee grinned, then kicked him in the side of the ankle, dropping him to the ground. She then gave her most innocent smile to the Tribesman's sister as she gave a look which went first to surprise, then annoyance, before she began to scan the departing crowd. "Alright. I probably deserved that."
Suki chuckled as she lifted him back onto his feet. "You definitely did. It's been a while, hasn't it," she paused. "What is that ridiculous thing on your head?"
"It's my hat! It's detective-y. I use it to detect things," Sokka said, sounding a bit defensive.
"Elder Oyaji," Sokka's sister said. "Aang is in jail. The town of Chin thinks he murdered their founder in a past life."
Suki's eyes averted for a moment, and she breathed a heavy breath. She turned toward her dojo and blew three short, shrill whistles.
"They say it was Kyoshi," Sokka said, playing with a Fire Nation dragon-pipe. Where in Agni's name did he get his hands on one of those in the Earth Kingdoms?
Oyaji shook his head, sending his mass of grey hair swaying. "That's crazy-talk. Suki, show them to her shrine. Perhaps something there would help you clear her name," he said.
"Sokka, Katara," Suki beckoned. "This way."
"So," Ty Lee said, falling in with them. "What happened to that thing you always carry around with you?"
"It'll come back, okay! It always comes back!" Sokka shouted.
"Easy there, pony-tail boy," Katara soothed sarcastically. Sokka seethed but bit his tongue. Suki led them all to her dojo, but then past it, down a path which wound into the woods. The girl frowned. "Where are you taking us?"
"My sister's house," Suki said. "She was the Hand of the Avatar for more than a decade after our mother died. That meant it was her duty to safeguard and oversee her ancestor's relics. Zhuang went out with a handful of her elite warriors several years ago, trying to see if they could bring down some of the higher-ranking leadership of the Fire Nation. She hasn't been heard from since. We've had to assume the worst. Which left me as Hand of the Avatar, the last descendant of Kyoshi."
"You're descended from Kyoshi?" Katara asked.
"Of course. Avatars aren't expected to be celibate. She was already a mother when she founded this island. Why else would she take so extreme a stance to protect a piece of land?" Suki paused a moment as the path opened up into a clearing. In the clearing was a small house, and smoke curled up from the chimney. She knocked on the door. A young man, probably a year or two younger than Sokka, opened the door. "Yi, may I come in?"
"Of course, Aunt Suki," the boy said, waving them in. "Who are these?"
"Friends of the Avatar," she paused. "And Ty Lee."
Ty Lee frowned at that. She was an afterthought! Still, she was allowed in to a place she'd never even known existed. Which was a bit shameful, considering she'd been all over this island. Inside was the boy, and and two even younger girls. "Who are these children?" she asked.
"These are my nieces and nephew. Zhuang's children," Suki said.
"Why isn't their father here?" Katara asked, an odd edge in her voice.
"He went with her. Like I said, we haven't heard from them."
"They'll come back," Yi said with a certainty only youth could bestow. "They'll come back one day, you'll see."
"I'm sure they will," Suki said with a smile. False smile. Ty Lee could always tell. Her aura didn't match her face.
"Who's raising these children?" Katara asked. There was definitely something unsettled in her about that. Suki cast her a look.
"My father. He works out in the Koi boats, fishing and slaughtering. Your people do the same with whales, I hear," She moved past Katara and swept aside a curtain. Suki nodded toward the back room.
"This altar was converted into a shrine for Kyoshi after she died," Suki said, pulling open a door into a darkened room. "Some say these relics are still connected to her spirit," Suki pointed to one side. "That was her robe."
"She had exquisite taste," Katara said, running her hand along its silks.
"Don't touch that!" Suki chastised. "It's almost four hundred years old!"
"Sorry," she said, with a contrite expression.
"These fans, they were her weapons, no?" Sokka asked, messing around with Kyoshi's weaponry.
"Also refrain from touching the fans," Suki said. Ty Lee giggled, but then she moved to another corner of the room.
"These were her boots?" Ty Lee asked. "Her feet must have been HUGE!"
"Largest of any Avatar for whom a visual representation still exists," Suki stood beside the footwear. "See a resemblance?"
Sokka stroked an imaginary beard for a long moment, like something hadn't quite fallen into place, but was dangerously close.
"Wait a minute," Katara said. "Big feet, little footprints... There's no way...!"
"Ahem," Sokka said, looking downright sour, the pipe hanging from his mouth. "Special outfit? Hat and pipe? These mean anything to you?"
"You're right. I'm sorry, please," Katara said in the most condescending way imaginable.
"Aaa-HA! There's no way Kyoshi could have made that footprint. It was smaller than mine! Therefore, there is nothing linking her to the crime-scene."
"Brilliant, Sokka," Katara said, rolling her eyes.
"Wow. That's neat. What footprints?" Ty Lee asked. But they had already turned to shine a light on a mural painted on the back wall of the shrine. Something wilted inside Ty Lee.
"This painting was to depict the sunrise that Kyoshi founded the island. They call it 'The Birth of Kyoshi'. It was today, actually. Around three hundred and seventy years ago."
"Three hundred seventy years... Are you sure it was today?" Sokka asked.
"Seeing how it's Kyoshi Day, yes."
Sokka scrutinized the map again. "This ceremony didn't take place at sunrise. It took place at sunset. There's no sun. The path leading to this house, and the sea beyond, is almost a straight line to the east."
"Are you certain of that, mister instincts?" Katara asked.
"I know east," Sokka said defensively. "And besides. Where are the shadows? If it were morning, even if the sun was high enough, there'd still be shadows down the front of the building."
"And what does that mean?" Suki asked. Ty Lee heard an odd tone in her voice. Suki wasn't really asking. She already knew the answer. Katara opened her mouth to answer, but Sokka cut her off with a hip check away from the mural.
"If Kyoshi was in the ceremony at sunset, she couldn't have been in Chin committing the crime," Sokka made a dramatic swing of the pipe, "She has an alibi."
Katara, no doubt fed up with his constant interruptions, snatched the pipe and brained Sokka with it. Suki nodded, her expression resolute. "Then we should head for Chin immediately. Go on, I'll be with you, shortly."
The group filed out of the house, pausing long enough for Suki to say goodbye to her sister's children, ostensibly. She didn't say a word as she led them back to the town square. "So," Ty Lee said. "You know the Avatar, do you?"
Sokka got a proud look. "Of course. I was the one who dug him out of his iceburg."
"No you weren't!" Katara said, quite annoyed. "I did. All you did was complain and act paranoid, and claim every five seconds that he was some sort of Fire Nation trap."
"Well, he did bring the Fire Nation to our village," Sokka said, defensively.
"That wasn't his... well, actually, it kinda was his fault," Katara admitted. "But it was an accident. And besides. Everything worked out. Now I get to find a Waterbending master, you get to... eat strange and foreign meats, and Aang gets to... oh, I don't know... SAVE THE WORLD!"
Ty Lee raised an eyebrow. "Why would the Fire Nation want the Avatar so bad? Isn't he a good guy? Like, the universe putting all its goodness into one guy, guy?"
Katara stopped walking for a moment. "Because once that summer ends, and the Comet arrives, Aang will be the only hope the world has of stopping the Fire Lord. The only hope."
Ty Lee didn't like the sound of that. She understood why Sozin attacked the Airbenders. They were readying to attack the capitol from their base in the Western Air Temple, to bring the Fire Nation to its knees. They would have decapitated the strongest force for the advancement of the nation's people, and sent the nation back a thousand years into starvation and poverty. But the Avatar wasn't just an airbender, or an Air Nomad. He was... well... the Avatar. It just didn't make sense.
"What's going on, here?" Sokka asked as the group reached the square. The entire cadre of Kyoshi Warriors was waiting for them.
"How many can Appa carry?" Suki asked. Katara glanced around.
"I don't know. Appa's strong, but I don't think even a Sky Bison could carry that many people. Why?"
"You're going to Chin. They don't like people from Kyoshi, people who consort with people from Kyoshi, people who sound like people from Kyoshi, the list goes on. I don't intend to go there defenseless."
"Who said you're going?" Sokka asked, trying to loom. Suki just stood in front of him, and let it be known that one cannot loom over somebody taller than oneself. He backed down.
"Are you going to stop me? He is the Avatar. This is part of my duty."
"Five. Maybe six," Katara said.
"Katara!"
"Maybe I don't like the idea of losing Aang because of his own high-mindedness? Maybe I don't want to be powerless for a change? If they want to come, let them," Katara said. "Everybody who's coming, get aboard, and hold on."
Suki pointed out five of her warriors. Ty Lee recognized them all. They were not all of her best students, but each had a very different array of skills and abilities, outside that of fighting. Ty Lee understood. These girls... these warriors, they weren't planning to come back.
"Do you want to come?" Sokka asked.
"Are we just inviting everybody, now?" Katara asked as she mounted the thing's head.
"She's a great fighter!" Sokka complained. "She'd be useful!"
"I think you just have a crush," Katara said without turning back. Sokka blushed, but didn't turn away.
"I get to ride on a huge, fuzzy, flying thing?" Ty Lee asked, her face lit up as bright as it would ever get. She let out a loud cry of joy, then leaped onto its back in a single bound, sitting lightly on the horn of the saddle.
"I'll take that as a 'yes, I'd love to come'," Sokka said, scrambling up after them. Appa let out a groan, but he didn't seem too inconvenienced by the weight of seven women more than usual. Katara looked briefly back at Ty Lee.
"You might want to hold on a bit tighter," she said.
"Why?"
"Yip yip," she said, and Appa bounded into the sky, rising far higher than any leap should have allowed. All of the Kyoshi Warriors, except Suki, let out a cry of alarm and clutched hard to their spot on the saddle. Even Suki looked a little unsettled by the liftoff. Ty Lee didn't budge one single cun. She laughed as Appa bore them skyward, and as the wind raced by her head. She experienced a joy of flight, like no Fire Nation noble in this age ever had before. As no Fire Nation noble in this age would likely ever again.