"Ti's Story"
CHAPTER IIII
"So to make it hotter put the coal in here," Ti patted an iron hatch built into the wall. "It burns underneath the bath and heats up the water. Clever, huh?" She chuckled lightly before pushing the bucket of coal closer to the hatch with the toe of her boot with a gentle clank.
"Thanks a lot for letting us stay here, Ti.. We really appreciate it, even if some of the others don't show it."
"Seriously, Aang. The only time I ever get to meet others my age is when I go to school. When I went to school."
"You don't go to school?"
"We can't afford it anymore. The Fire Nation had a raid at the local town, Toyoshi, a couple of months back, pillaging and raping, they destroyed so many places. Many people were killed, some of them being teachers. Its harder work to keep the schools going, they need more money. Money which we can never provide." She dropped her gaze, her face solemn.
"I'm really sorry, Ti. That sounds awful…" He spoke quietly. He knew how it felt to lose others close to him.
"So the Fire Nation missed this place?'
"Quite the contrary. They thought it was destroyed. Many years ago, when my grandparents were newly married, my grandmother gave birth to triplets. She loved them so much and everything was perfect. Together, they bred and trained ostrich-horses, her children helping as they got older. This place became famous for the quality of the ostrich-horses, they even supplied for Royalty Earth Kingdom. When the Fire Nation turned against the world, they began to start raids in this once wealthy area. The place was torn apart." She paused to catch her breath. Anger drove her on.
"One of the triplets, went on to meet a beautiful woman, my mother. She became pregnant with me, but I never did meet my father. Near my birth, he was taken captive by the Fire Nation along with his two brothers and practically all the ostrich-horses. They were needed by the Fire Nation, not only to fight but to become slaves and workers. The only reason my grandfather remained here was due to the fact that he was down at the beach fishing; the Fire Nation didn't see him. My mother had to be held back by my grandmother, she knew that if she protested not only would her daughter-in-law be killed, but the baby inside of her, me. Once I was born, my mother marched straight to a nearby Fire Nation camp and demanded to know where her husband was. She was murdered where she stood. The Fire Nation came back to the farm and killed the rest of the select line of ostrich-horses that we had spent so long breeding. They then went on to burn down the cottage. If it wasn't for my grandfather, we wouldn't have survived. He took me and my grandmother down to his fishing storage cave, a place he had created from his earth-bending and sealed us in. The Fire Nation troops figured we must be dead after searching the ruins and the beach. When we got out of our cave, they were long gone but our cottage was merely ashes. My grandfather slowly rebuilt the place with his earth-bending skills. By grandmother was no use, she was in the state that she is today. He gradually restored our ostrich-horse population and created a less successful version of what the place used to be. He couldn't advertise his ostrich-horses in fear that the Fire Nation would discover that he was still around." she shrugged, her eyes still on the ground as she reached over and shut the lid supplying the bath-water.
"We think we will be safe now. After that last pillage, there is practically nothing left in Toyoshi Village worth taking. The Fire Nation has no idea about this place any more, we're well hidden. They won't be back for a long time, but we're still left in a state of poor economy." Dipping a graceful hand into the water of the bath, she looked back to Aang before speaking again, this time a complete change of topic.
"I think that the water temperature will be okay. Feel free to change it about using the coal."
"It looks great, I'm not picky after all my months of travelling!" He chuckled before nodding in thanks to the generous teenager.
"Herbs and lotions are in these containers, you can add bubbles." She flashed a perfect smile before tapping a row of ceramic pots. "I'll go and prepare a meal, take your time in the bath." With that, she left the room, sliding the door closed behind her.
Author Notes: Yes, I realize I am seriously bad at dividing up chapters! This chapter was especially hard to divide considering Ti takes up a lot of it telling her story. I thought it was important to know a bit of background on her. Then again, I could have merged this chapter and the following one to create a single large chapter, but I know how hard it is to keep your attention when reading from a screen.
Once again, thanks for reading :D Your loyalty will be paid off eventually with lots of twists and action.
Daise x