"Happy birthday Suki!" The group of girls called out. Yuri grinned as she watched her best friend blush under all the attention.
They all sat outside around a large table brought out just for this occasion. Hanna had just brought out the dinner, and Yuri helped her aunt serve the food, starting with Suki.
"Thank you again for letting us have the party here Hanna." Suki said.
The old woman just smiled and replied. "It's not a problem Suki, it's not like there's enough room for all of your friends in any place in the village."
"Except the Training building." One of the girls piped up. "Now that you're sixteen Suki, you can finally be a Kyoshi Warrior leader."
Suki smiled, but said calmly. "I don't know if I'm the best for the role of leader, but I will try not to let you down." The rest of the girls cheered, except for Yuri, who sat down silently and began to eat.
Suki turned to the girl and whispered. "I know you didn't want to train, but it's not to late Yuri, you can become a Kyoshi Warrior too." Her eyes were hopeful, but the brunette shook her head.
"I'm sorry Suki, but I will not fight. I can't," Then she said louder to her aunt; "May I be excused for a moment Aunt Hanna?"
When the old woman nodded, Yuri stood and walked quickly to the house. Once inside, she ran to the kitchen, to the bucket of water they used for washing dishes. She sat in front of it and tried to bend it, to move it at all without touching it. It stayed as still as ever, not even a ripple breaking the surface. A mouse suddenly ran across the kitchen floor, startling Yuri. She turned quickly to see it, and when her arm pointed towards it, the mouse stopped, as if frozen in place.
With tears welling up in Yuri's eyes, she moved her hand slightly, and the mouse stood on his back paws. Lifting her hand, the small creature followed lead and began to float an inch off the ground. Suddenly Yuri couldn't stop the tears anymore, and clenched her fist and eyes tightly. She heard a loud squeak and a pop as the mouse was forced into a tight ball that broke almost every bone in its body. She slammed her fist into the ground and flinched as she heard the dead body drop.
Yuri wiped her tears quickly, and grabbed a broom. After sweeping the mouse out the back door of the kitchen, the girl washed her hands and checking on Suki's surprise on the counter. It was a special cake that Hanna only made on special occasions, and it was Suki and Yuri's favourite. It sat in a large bowl with a flat bottom, in another bowl filled with ice. The cake was made mostly from cream blended with crushed strawberries, with a crunchy sweet layer on the top—which became the bottom once the cake froze and was flipped over to be cut and served.
"Yuri? Where are you?" Hanna called from the back door. She stopped in the doorway. "Oh," The woman said as she bent over and picked up the dead mouse.
"No matter what I try, I can't bend water. And then it turns out I have this power, this curse. What kind of monster has such a power that can only hurt others? I can't even make ice, but I can make the muscles move and tighten until they pop and break bones." Yuri's eyes were overflowing with tears. "What's wrong with me?" She buried her face in her hands, falling to her knees in despair.
"I'll be right back, why don't you set up a game?" The two heard Suki say from the back. Yuri wiped her eyes quickly and started to stand, but Suki got there first.
"Oh Yuri," the girl threw her arms around her best friend. "I'm here, I'm so sorry I brought up fighting, I didn't want you to be hurt."
Yuri Hugged her friend back, her tears disappearing in the comfort of her only friend, the only girl who knew the secret of her cursed power. "No, I'm sorry for being so selfish on your birthday. Today's about you Suki, and tomorrow, you'll be the Kyoshi Warrior's leader, I know you'll be great."
The girls stood up, and then hugged again. When they let go, Suki saw the cake on the counter. Her eyes went wide. "Is that…?" She asked
Yuri blushed. "Umm, surprise?" She said. "Hanna made it, but I picked the strawberries and milked the kanga-cow for the cream myself.
Suki smiled big. "You two are the sweetest in the world."
"It's just about ready too." Hanna said. "I'll be out in a minute, you girls go and enjoy the party."
The girls nodded and left. Yuri didn't really get along with the other girls in the village, especially Suki's friends, who were all Kyoshi Warriors like her. They'd dug a shallow trench in the ground to form a circle, and were using it as a training ring, taking turns trying to knock each other out of the boundary. Suki joined in, while Yuri sat on a log, watching quietly.
"Why don't you join us?" One of the girls asked Yuri. She was a new member of the Kyoshi warriors, younger than Suki and Yuri. She didn't know why the girl wasn't a member herself, she assumed the other girls shunned her because of her heritage.
"I don't fight." Yuri said simply. And if you knew why, you wouldn't let me join. You'd all hate me, instead of just ignoring me, you'd chase me out.
She was used to being alone when Suki was training with her other friends. She missed the days when they were little, and the whole world seemed to be made up of only these two girls, whose birthdays were only two days apart. Best friends since they were newborns, best friends till the end, they always said. Yuri watched as Suki knocked down a girl a year her senior and as everybody laughed—even the girl who got knocked down—she wondered if that could still be true. Suki belonged to a different world now, and Yuri was stuck here, helping her Aunt take care of the vegetable garden and the chicken-ducks and the kanga-cow.
After the cake was served and the other girls left, saying thank you to Hanna for hosting and awkwardly saying good-bye to Yuri, Suki stayed behind to help tidy up.
"Don't worry about it," Hanna insisted. "You shouldn't have to clean on your birthday Suki. Why don't you and Yuri go inside and play a card game?"
Yuri smiled secretly. "Come on Suki, I have something for you!" She pulled her best friend by the hand into the house, and up the stairs to the attic where she slept. When Suki's father and the other men of the village helped build this house, they made it with two levels, the main level for the kitchen, the main room and a bedroom for Hanna and baby Yuri. When Yuri got old enough to want her own room, Hanna cleared out a space in the attic for a futon on the floor. The old woman still used the space for storage however, and Yuki often brought Suki up to show her some strange old treasure she'd found that Hanna had brought with her from their homeland.
Her favourite was an old necklace made of cloth and a smooth stone with a pattern carved into it. Hanna said that it was made by the man she was supposed to marry when she was very young, but he died soon after the marriage was arranged. Hanna never spoke much of their homeland, just that they had to leave because Hanna had used blood bending to help Yuri's mother give birth, and that was probably why Yuri could only blood bend. That form of bending was forbidden in the Northern Water tribe for causing bad reactions and was seen as a cursed power.
But this time was different. Yuri wasn't bringing Suki up to see one of her aunt's things. "It took me a week to make it and get the carvings right, I hope you like it." She pulled out a small cloth bag from a box beside her futon and held her hand out to Suki.
When Suki put her hand in Yuri's, and the girl dumped the contents of the bag into her hand. Suki pulled the thick chord to her eyes to look at it closely.
"What is it?" Suki asked, entranced. "It's so pretty."
Yuri blushed. "I used the pattern carved on Aunt's necklace to put onto the wooden beads. Then I just braided them into the string so that it'll stay strong and won't fall apart even when you're fighting. It's a bracelet that's been charmed for good luck. I would have bought you something, but I couldn't afford anything nice."
Suki smiled. "This is the best present ever. Thank you Yuri."
They hugged and then talked for another hour, but when Suki said good bye, Yuri felt a kind of finality in it. Like this might be the last time she ever saw Suki. She shook her head, tossing the thought aside. There's no way she wouldn't see Suki again, they were best friends. And tomorrow Yuri was going to the Training building so that she could watch her best friend go through the ceremony that would make her a leader for the village's guardians, the Kyoshi Warriors.