-Inside the Jasmine Dragon-
Inside the teashop, a great deal of conversation ceased. What started as a small group of Iroh and the children had now grown into an audience of 50 or more. Iroh smiled knowingly, partly due to the interest in the tale of Xi'an..and partly due to the amount of tea everyone was drinking, which was very good for business.
"So, why did Lo Pan go after the Avatars in the spirit world?" asked Kanna "Wouldn't make more sense to attack the avatar directly?"
"Many have tried to destroy the Avatar, with no success. The avatar draws his strength from the experiences from his past lives. If someone was to find out how to disrupt that..." Iroh explained
"..Then you could weaken him" Hui finished
"Exactly, however his battle with Kuruk made him realize one thing, that no matter how powerful he was, he was indeed just a mortal man. That left a chance, however small, that the avatar could still defeat him. To a man like Lo Pan with grand designs for power and conquest, this was unacceptable." said Iroh stopping to take a sip of tea.
"So I take it the third piece would make Lo Pan immortal then" stated Hahn crossing his arms "How convenient, I can't believe I'm hearing this...what an absurd ...
"Bosco?" sighed King Kuei "Would you please?"
The earth king's pet bear growled quite loudly at the small water tribe know-it-all, shutting him up much to the relief of everyone. The bear then quietly turned his attention back to Iroh.
"So where was this last piece, Iroh? "Kuei asked
"For the moment, in the hands of someone else..."
Chapter 6
-New Friends-
The sun was setting on as Xi'an hacked his way through the heavy underbrush. Unfortunately, after a few days Azula's trail had gone quite cold. Any hopes of getting answers out of her were fading fast as the light was. Though there was a small part of him wanted to see her again for other reasons. Sighing in defeat, he continued on his way.
"I don't think we're gonna find her" Xi'an said to his little companion. "We better set up camp soon"
From his time hunting the safer forests around the village, he knew that it was very dangerous to move around in the night. Normally it was attacks by nocturnal predators, however in the Bandits Woods he had to deal with unknown danger of murderous vagabonds. Much to his relief he hadn't ran into any but he came across the tell tale signs, a few rotting skeletons hanging from the trees, picked clean of anything of value.
A moan of pain echoed through the forest. Whatever it was it was big, loud and hurt very badly. Knowing how dangerous wounded animals were and how his moans would bring unwanted attention, Xi'an thought to find another place to camp. It seemed cruel but he couldn't take the risk of getting killed in this retched place. Kip however, had other ideas and ran full speed in the direction of the sound.
"You are going to be the death of both us" said Xi'an in frustration
Following as fast as he could, hopping over fallen trees and ducking low over hangs, they finally stopped at a small clearing.
"Kip! You know better than to run off like that! What the..."Xian trailed off
In an instant he laced an arrow, aiming his bow at the huge beast covered with a large amount of fallen branches. It was clear on closer inspection that it was a shoddy attempt to hide both him and the small camp he stumbled upon. As he lowered his bow and returned the arrow to his quiver, he noticed that it wasn't wild at all. The fact that it had a huge saddle on it was pretty much a dead giveaway it was domesticated. Unbelievable, it was a real in the flesh air bison. Taking a closer look he noticed that it had a that this animal was hurt badly. Pretty nasty looking burns on the lower leg and tail. But the huge gash on one of his legs worried him more. It was badly infected and obviously causing the animal a great deal of pain
Walking slowly, Xi'an approached the huge animal taking great care not to spook it. The bison growled menacingly the closer he got. He couldn't tell if it was just fear or delirium from the wounds, but if the animal decided to charge, Xi'an was good as dead. This would have to take a gentle touch
"Easy big guy, I want to help you okay? I'm not gonna hurt you" said Xian gently removing some of the branches "Don't worry, I hear air bison tastes terrible, anyway
The bison growled loudly, glaring at the boy.
"Okay that was a bad joke" said Xi'an "But let me help you, okay? I don't like using my bending but I'll make an exception because you need it. I promise I'm not going to hurt you okay?"
The bison nodded his head, almost if he could really understand him but glared just him just the same.
Grabbing his canteen, Xi'an bent a hand sized amount using gentle flowing movements, over the bison's burns. Blowing on it softly, cooling it down a bit to ease the pain and swelling. He concentrated as the water on his hands glowed softly, making the burns slowly heal and soft new patches of fur growing in their place.
The infected leg was a different matter altogether. Using bending would only close the wound over the infection, causing gangrene. Luckily there were some banana herbs and slippery elm tree bark nearby for a quick healing poultice. Searching through his bag, Xian pulled out some bandages but didn't have a mortar and pestle.
"Looks like I'll have to do this the old fashioned way." Xian explained "Gah! Kip, you know I probably hate doing this more than I do bending"
Kip yipped in agreement as Xian bit down in a handful of herbs and started chewing. The look of disgust on his face was priceless as the concoction started to numbed his tongue
It had been about a good week or two since Sokka's group crashed into the thick cold uninviting forest. Due to Appa's injuries, flying out wasn't an option nor was leaving him behind. Suki and Toph were out collecting fire wood. They worked as quickly as they didn't want to leave Appa for too long in his condition. Compounding the problem were the bandit attacks. They've already have been attacked twice by bandits since crash landing in this forest, so everyone was on edge
Making their way back to camp, they both felt themselves tackled to the ground. Grabbing the attacker Suki rolled on top of him, realizing it was her lovable but sometimes idiot boyfriend
"Sokka!" Suki said angrily "What is your problem?!"
"Yeah, there are other ways of warning us" complained Toph
Sokka raised a finger to his lips, shushing the girls.
"Someone's in our camp" Sokka whispered
Leading the girls to a small lookout, they observed an unusually dressed boy and a polar bear puppy with Appa. The boy's back was to them as he worked on Appa's leg.
"What is he doing?" whispered Toph
"I don't know, I can't see what he's doing" Suki whispered back
A loud wet -CRUNCH- was heard as the boy bit into something. From their vantage point all they couldn't see much other than the boys back.
"Blah" Xi'an complained "Tip, dis dates derrable dext dime, te get sauce ta made it dates detter.
"Oh no!" Sokka yelled "He's eating Appa! Don't worry buddy I'll save ya!
"Wow, who knew Sokka spoke moron!" Toph said
"We better stop him before he hurts himself" Suki sighed
Sokka dove out of the bushes tackling the surprised Xi'an. The two were sent rolling on the ground with fists flying everywhere. Sokka was no slouch getting the advantage and raining punches on Xi'an. However the unknown boy was just as good as he rolled on top and started raining punches of his own on Sokka. The boy then tried to grab Sokka in a choke hold, but Sokka escaped and proceeded to grab Xi'an's head and bonk it repeatedly into the ground. It was going back and forth neither gaining any sort of advantage
Toph was no help whatsoever. She instead sat on a log, snacking on nuts and berries, thoroughly enjoying the "dude fight."
"Go for the throat Sokka" cheered Toph
Xi'an finally kicked Sokka off of him, sending him crashing to the dirt. Both boys quickly scrambled to their feet drawing their weapons, Xi'an with his bow and arrow and Sokka with his war clubs
"That's quite enough guys" Suki said stepping between the two
"Dhy hid ou adack me?" Xi'an asked in a numb tongued voice
"Huh?" said Suki and Sokka in unison with weird looks on their faces
Grunting and holding up a finger, Xi'an grabbed his canteen, took a swig, swished his mouth and spat the water to side. Sticking his tongue out, he shook his head side to side until the numbness went away.
"I said, why did you attack me?" Xi'an said clearly irritated.
"I'll be the one asking the questions" Sokka said jabbing his finger into Xians chest "What are you doing in our camp? Why were you trying to eat Appa?"
"Eating him?" Xian explained with a curious eyebrow "No..."
"Hmmmmmmmmmm, herbs, berries, bandages..." Sokka said studying Appa while scratching his chin "AHA! I get it now, you were marinating him first!"
"It's an herbal poultice, stupid! It's to draw out the infection in his leg."said Xi'an sitting back down in front of Appa "I'll leave as soon as I finish,"
Jabbing his sword in to the ground, he used it to cut a few strips of bandage. Sokka noticing the sword for the first time, he quickly grabbed it out of the ground, cuddling it to his face like a child would a stuffed animal.
"Space sword! I thought I'd never see you again! My special widdle swordsy wordsy" cooed Sokka as everyone else shot him weird looks "What? What are you looking at"
"Is he always like this?" Xi'an asked the two girls
"Yeah..." replied Suki
"Usually he's worse" replied Toph
Xi'an washed off his hands as he finished up bandaging Appa's leg. Walking around, he gave Appa one more check over just to make sure. Crushing some herbs and roots and wrapping it into a leaf , he placed it under the animals tongue.
"How are you feeling, big guy?" asked Xi'an petting Appa on the nose "I know it tastes bad but it'll kill the pain"
Appa just yawned, finally being able to sleep for a night with no pain. Gathering up his gear and whistling for kip, Xi'an proceeded to head north only to be stopped by Suki and Toph.
"I think we got off on the wrong foot" said Suki warmly "I'm Suki , this is Toph and that's Sokka"
"Xi'an and this little bundle of fur is Kip" smiled Xi'an
"Is Appa gonna be okay?" asked Toph
"He'll be fine. The burns and his leg should be better by tomorrow. He just has a bit of fever but nothing a night rest wont cure. It was nice meeting you but I had better get going"
"Wait!" said Suki "How about you make camp here tonight? Its the least we could do for you helping Appa"
"Hold on just a second" said Sokka "We don't know anything about you. Exactly why are you here anyway? How do we know you're not a bandit?"
"Don't you think he'd try to rob us already?" said Toph "Besides, what kind of bandit patches up wounded animals"
"Still... Hey what's with your weird eyes?" Sokka blurted out "They're sinister looking"
"Sokka!" said Suki "Don't be rude!"
"I was born with them like this, Sokka" growled Xi'an taking back the "space sword"
"Hey, that's was mine!" Sokka complained "I forged it myself!"
"Was being the key word. I guess you should have kept better track of it" said Xi'an "It's mine now, finders keepers"
Sokka pouted in anger as the girls giggled. Suki noticed that Xi'an's hair style was similar to Sokka's though he wasn't dressed in traditional water tribe clothing. Toph noticed that he walked more like an earth bender but not quite. Xi'an noticed them staring out the corner of his eye as he made camp.
"Before you ask, my dad was water tribe and my mom was an earth bender. Now that we got that out of the way, let me ask a question. What are you guys doing here? asked Xi'an "The Bandit's Woods isn't exactly an ideal vacation spot.
"It wasn't by choice" stated Sokka "We crashed here after the fire nation was invaded. With Appa hurt, we couldn't fly out of here"
"Invaded by whom?" said Xi'an
"We don't know" said Suki "One minute were the honored guests of Fire Lord Zuko, the next were being being attacked by these soldiers in black armor
"No matter what we did, they wouldn't go down" said Toph "So we had no choice but to run"
"Black armored soldiers?!" said Xi'an "They didn't howl did they?"
"Yeah they did" said Suki
"Did they have a symbol on their like this?" asked Xian pulling out a symbol from his pocket
"Where did you get this?" asked Sokka
"They attacked my village a few days ago" said Xi'an "A captain with a whole troop of them arrived in my village. They announced they were claiming it in the honor of Firelord LoPan's glorious Phoenix Empire"
"Lo Pan? Are you sure?" asked Sokka "Where is this captain now?"
"I'm positive." said Xi'an "As for the captain; he's gone, burnt to ashes. After he was gone his solders just..stopped"
"How did you manage that?" asked Toph "We a tough time fighting those things"
"Luck" said Xi'an simply
"Who is this Lo Pan?" asked Toph
"I don't know? Maybe Zuko, Katara, or Aang would know, too bad they're..." Suki started
"You don't know that! There's still a chance they could be alive. As soon as Appa's better we're gonna fly out and look" Sokka snapped
"I'll help out anyway can " offered Xi'an "Granted I get a favor in return"
"What kind of favor?" asked Sokka cocking a suspicious eyebrow
"You said Appa could fly" said Xi'an "I'll help you guys find your friends and you guys fly me to Ba Sing Se.
"Deal" said Toph
"Wait a minute, if you're not a bandit, why are you here" said Sokka
"I'm exiled" Xi'an sighed "I was banished from my village after the attack. The new elder hopes I'll die out here"
"Why?"asked Suki "What did you do that was so bad?"
"I brought an injured fire bender to the village" said Xi'an "During the attack they killed the village elder. Afterwords they blamed her for it and me for bringing her to the village"
"What makes you think she wasn't involved in the attack in the first place?" asked Sokka
"I can't exactly explain it, but I don't think she was" said Xi'an "It was just a feeling I had in my gut. She was injured and scared when I found her. When the attack happened she helped defend the place...and my family"
"Where is she now ?" asked Toph
"I don't know" said Xi'an "They ran her off , I wish I could find her though.
"Well if we're gonna get out of here it best we get some rest" said Toph yawning "Welcome to the group, Xi'an"
"Thanks" said Xi'an
Kip yawned and curled up with his new buddy, Appa. Taking the lead, everyone else decided to turn in for the night.
A few hours later Sokka was the first to wake. A mischievous grin formed on his face as he silently eased his way out of his sleeping bag; slowly tip toeing his was toward new boy's rucksack. Sokka didn't know how this guy got the sword but he was going to take it back. As he gently removed the sword, Xi'an's eyes snapped open.
"And just what do you think you're doing?" Xi'an said coldly
"Taking back whats mine" said Sokka grabbing the handle of the sword
"I don't think so" said Xi'an also grabbing the handle
A small tug a war ensued over the sword, neither getting an advantage over the other. Xi'an and Sokka started yanking each other all over the camp, both refusing to let go of the sword. They stepped one of Toph's feet and tripped over Suki, ticking off both girls.
"Enough you two!" said Suki, very cranky from being woke up in such a fashion
"You two mind telling me who stepped on my foot?" yelled an angry Toph
"He was trying to steal from me!" said Xi'an snatching back the sword
"It not stealing if its mine in the first place" said Sokka
"Uh Guys? Sorry to interrupt this wonderful conversation" said Toph feeling the ground "But we got visitors, lots of them all around"
"No chance they're friendly?" asked Suki arming herself with her sword
A chorus of unholy howls echoed through the woods, they all knew no animal made a sound like that
"I don't think so" said Sokka
"Fine then, here" Xi'an said tossing Sokka back his sword "If you did forge it then hopefully you know how to use it. "
"No worries there. Just try to keep up!" Sokka taunted
Xi'an smirked as he drew back his bow, Sokka was cocky but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. And the two girls weren't exactly delicate flowers either. With any luck they'd survive the night...
Azula stood her ground on the beach, the fire in her hands primed and ready. Whatever came through those woods would be utterly destroyed; she would make sure of that. What she didn't expect was who would be coming out...
Zuko, Katara, and Aang had spent the past days since their separation from the others evading the howling soldiers sent to track them. So far, even with Aang's fading energy they had been partly successful. Racing though the forest, they heard the sound of waves crashing.
"There's a beach nearby. Quick this way!" Zuko said racing out of the woods
Azula's eyes widened in pure unmitigated hatred and rage. It was her traitorous brother and that water peasant. Because of HIM she was like this. He took everything from her, her friends, her honor, her crown, her very sanity. Now it would be time for some payback...
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Zuzu, the great fire lord. I guess finally you decided to face me yourself!" Azula spat
"Azula?!" Zuko said with a look of confusion and shock "How did you get loose?"
"It wasn't hard, brother. Those soldiers you sent to kill me were quite terrible at their job, as was that moose lion that you obviously got Ty lee to train to hunt me down" Azula laughed manically
Zuko looked at his sister with concern and a bit of pity. This wasn't the same perfectionist, cold hearted sister he knew. Not that was exactly a good thing, but it was a lot better than what he saw now. She was a pathetic dirty mess of a girl full of hatred and driven by paranoid delusions.
"DONT YOU DARE LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT, ZUKO" Azula yelled
With a loud yell she fired a blast at her brother, who dispersed it with a blast of his own. Gnashing her teeth in frustration, she formed two small daggers of condensed blue flame. If she had been her normal self, she could have easily bested her brother but instead she slashed wildly allowing Zuko to dodge and parry them with relative ease. However she was able to get a wild kick to the groin dropping Zuko into the sand.
Her chance of finishing him off was cut short by a whip of water as Katara, jumped into the fight. Using small bursts of water she blocked every blast, keeping her distance. Whipping water at Azula's legs she succeeded in knocking the fire princess off her feet. Using the water from the incoming tide she froze Azula and just for good measure she knocked her out with a well placed punch to the jaw.
Aang raced out of the woods as fast as his legs would carry him. Spinning on his heel as he reached the beach, he swung his staff sending a mass of soldiers smacking into the trees. But more kept coming.
"Guys they found us! What do we do now?" yelled the avatar between heavy breaths
Zuko scanned the beach looking for anything that they could use. Spotting an overturned skiff, he kicked it over, quickly dragging it into the water.
"Katara, Aang come on!" Zuko yelled firing cover shots to give them time to run to the boat
Katara was the first to hop in, also using the sea water to give Aang cover against the soldiers, blasting chunks of ice at the large group of soldiers emerging from the trees. Aang ran toward the boat but stopped. Looking over his shoulder he saw the unconscious and helpless Azula. Closing his eyes, he sighed and ran back to get her.
"Aang what are you doing?!" yelled Katara still giving cover
Aang unfroze Azula, but made sure to quickly bend some sand into some sturdy full arm hand cuffs just in case she woke up. Slinging her over his shoulder, Aang made a quick dash to the waiting boat and hopping in. Laying her down in the boat, Aang took a deep breath, let loose a huge breath of wind kicking a massive amount of sand. When the sand cleared the small boat was nowhere to be seen...
"Why did you go back for her?" Katara demanded angrily
"If we had left her there she would have died!" Aang replied
"Do you think she would have done the same for you?" Zuko said
"It doesn't matter guys, I didn't leave you to die Zuko and I'm not gonna leave her to die either" Aang said slumping down in the skiff, very very tired...
Sokka sliced through five soldiers, as did Suki. Toph crushed a bunch with a vicious display of earth bending. Xi'an shot as many as he could but again he was running out of arrows. He moved until he was back to back with Sokka
"We need to find the leader, or else these guys are gonna keep on coming. Look for one with glowing red eyes and a clay medallion" Xi'an explained as he was firing the last of his arrows. "We have to break the medallion"
"Red eyes, medallion, got it! said Sokka slicing through more soldiers
Appa and Kip were working well together. Kip distracting the soldiers as Appa smacked them over the tree line with his powerful tail. Suddenly the crack of a fire whip echoed in the air. Appa growled in fear as the leader attempted to whip Appa mercilessly. Kip dove on him, sinking his teeth into the leaders arm.
"You vile little mutt!" the leader said in disgust "How about playing dead!"
Grabbing Kip with his other hand, he drove the poor puppy into the hard ground with all of his might. Kip yelped loudly as he landed with a sickening crunch.
"KIP!" yelled Xi'an
The crystal on his necklace as well as his eyes, flashed momentarily with a blue white glow as Xi'an filled with pure unmatched rage. Using water from a drinking skin and a nearby boulder, Xi'an combined the two to form a primitive swinging hammer knocking a mass of soldiers far over the tree line clearing a path between him and the leader. Making his way to the leader, Xi'an unloaded a flurry of punches and kicks knocking him into a nearby tree. Using his water bending he froze his legs and arms to the tree.
"Just what do you plan to do little boy?" The leader mocked
"Making YOU play dead!" Xi'an said darkly
Xi'an ripped the leader's medallion off his chest and shoved it in his mouth. With all the strength he could muster, Xi'an drove his fist in a furious uppercut breaking both the clay medallion and the leader's jaw.
Like before the soldiers started to wind down before finally just dropping into a clattering heap. The leader screamed in total agony as his body engulfed in white hot flames, quickly reducing him to a mere pile of ashes. Xi'an didn't even bother to look back, instead he raced to Kip. The poor little pup softly whimpered as he closed his eyes.
"It doesn't look good" Toph whispered to Suki as she felt the puppy's heart start to slow down
Sokka gently squeezed Xi'an's shoulder in sympathy..
"Come on Xi'an, we got to get out of here okay? We'll get kip to the next town or something" lied Sokka, knowing Kips injuries didn't look good
Nodding his head, Xi'an scooped Kip up and got into Appa's saddle. Using the last of his drinking water, Xi'an attempted to heal kip with his bending. He wasn't sure he could, he never healed that many broken bones and internal injuries before. Tears streamed down his face as he worked. Kip whimpered softly as Suki and Toph fought tears of their own
"Stay with me little buddy okay? Don't die on me okay?" Xi'an begged as the water in his hands and eyes started to glow
Suki was a bit taken back when she saw his eyes start to glow if only for a brief moment. But said nothing.
"Okay, Appa Yip Yip" said Sokka
As Appa flew off into the night, from deep in the forest second pair of glowing red eyes watched them go.