Chapter 17

Mai woke up in the night freezing. Even with her blanket and Jet's she just couldn't seem to get warm. She looked beside her in the darkness of the crowded hut. Though less than a foot away, it was so dark she could just barely make out Katara and Aang, their cots pushed together so that they could be close to each other. Aang's arm was draped around Katara's waist and she held his hand.

It was sweet.

But more than that, it looked warm.

Then she glanced over in the other direction toward Jet. There was barely twelve inches between their cots. He lay sound asleep, his back to her. Maybe if she scooted her cot just a little closer, she could back up to him and take advantage of his warmth. She'd just have to wake up early enough to scoot back so that he wouldn't know she'd done it.

Quietly Mai inched her cot over next to his, then lay down with her back at the edge so that she could feel the heat that radiated off his body. He was so warm. It felt wonderful. She basked in it for a moment, then drifted back into a more comfortable sleep.

If she'd actually reached out to touch him, she'd have realized he was more than warm. He was feverish.

Lian Shen lay on her side in her garden, this time in an arbor of rosedaisies. She enjoyed the scent of rosedaisies. She hoped her guest enjoyed them as well, though of course, he was considerably more asleep than awake as he lay there beside her on the softest bed of moss she could conjure.

She propped up on one elbow so she could better observe him, leaving one hand free to trace little patterns over Jet's oh-so-muscular chest and stomach.

She knew she'd better have him back by morning. The last thing she wanted was that annoying avatar back in her garden to preach to her again about her interest in these delightful young men.

But in the meantime, it was nice to enjoy his company, to listen to his thoughts and dreams.

She had overlooked him before in her interest in King Bumi's choice of monarch—that smart-mouthed little Toph. And of course, she'd had to spend time with the delectable Prince Zuko, out of courtesy to her beloved Iroh if nothing else.

But this young man—Jet. He was interesting in his own right. He had claimed three times during the day that he was no bender. But she knew that to be untrue.

"Jet, darling," she crooned to him as he lay next to her.

"Mmmm?" he answered, still nearly asleep.

"Why did you tell them you weren't a bender?" she asked, tracing one of those beautifully arched eyebrows.

"Because I'm not," he murmured, his eyes still firmly closed.

"Only because you don't really try, do you?" she replied knowingly. "Why don't you ever try?"

"No teacher," he whispered, then drifted away. She listened in as he began to dream—and to remember.

Jet dreamed of a time before the Fire Nation came to his village. He'd been six years old, very precocious and into everything. But his village had been small and there had been no bending teacher there for many years.

All the same, when Jet's father had found him carefully bending small rocks into a mound, he'd been very excited. He'd grabbed him up in his strong arms and swung him around, then carried him into their little house where Jet's mother had been making bread.

"We've got ourselves a little bender here!" his father had said, tossing him proudly into the air. "As soon as this year's harvest comes in, we'll take you to the city and find you a teacher."

"How in the world will we ever afford a teacher?" his mother had asked, wiping the flour from her hands with a clean, but worn towel.

"He can go to one of the public schools," his father had replied.

"Oh, I don't know," his mother had been reluctant. "He's too young to go away on his own like that."

"But this could be his chance, sweetheart. This could be his chance to have more than we can give him," his father had replied, ruffling Jet's hair proudly.

"I'll think about it," she'd said. Then she'd turned to Jet and knelt down in front of him. He could see love and pride in her beautiful emerald green eyes. "Jet, I'm very proud of you and what you can do. We'll do everything we can to help you develop your gift."

But they hadn't been able to go after the harvest because by that time, Fire Nation soldiers had overtaken their village. Their harvest had gone to feed the soldiers that year and every year following until the year Jet turned eight.

Though his parents had strictly forbidden him, Jet had impatiently begun to practice what little he knew about earthbending in hopes of soon being able to learn from a real teacher. After all, if he didn't get instruction soon, he'd never be really good at it.

You had to learn early if you wanted to be a great earthbender. And he wanted to be a great earthbender.

If he had to, he'd run away to Ba Sing Se or Omashu where the soldiers wouldn't be able to find him, where he could learn how to be a powerful earthbender instead of a poor farmer.

Unfortunately, he'd been spotted one day as he practiced. When the soldiers came to take him away, his father had sent him to the woods out back to hide. Terrified, he'd seen the soldiers drag his parents out of the house to stand before the leader of the current battalion.

"Where is the boy?" he asked harshly. But his parents refused to answer.

The man grew furious and attacked, and Jet could only watch helplessly as his parents crumpled to the ground, lifeless.

Then the leader turned slowly, scanning the surroundings. The man's image with its cruel smile and bright red Fire Nation uniform was burned into Jet's memory. "We'll find you, boy!" the man had cried almost triumphantly, then told his soldiers, "Burn him out!"

Fire poured from their hands as the Fire Nation soldiers set his house ablaze, then began to burn the entire village.

Jet had run into the woods and never looked back. He'd also never tried to earthbend again.

How sad, Lian Shen thought to herself as she wiped away a little tear that had risen from his eye to lie trapped in his eyelashes.

How sad. But how interesting.

"Go back to them, Jet darling," she said. "Come and find me again when you know who you are." Then she leaned over to give him a little kiss and sent him home.

Jet never even woke up as his spirit returned to the little hut where everyone slept peacefully. He rolled over, his hand brushing Mai's back as he turned. Reflexively, he reached out for her, pulling her close as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Mai awoke at daybreak, even though the clouds were still so thick overhead and the rain pounded down so heavily it still seemed like night. Her front was still cold, but her back was warm where she lay pressed against Jet's body. One strong arm encircled her, his warm fingers wrapped around her wrist.

She tried to wiggle her hand gently out of his grip, but instead he pulled her more tightly against him.

She hoped Aang and Katara were still fast asleep. Looking over, she could see that Katara still lay quietly, but Aang was apparently already up. Maybe it was so dark when he'd left that he didn't notice them.

She pulled carefully again at Jet's hand and he suddenly snapped to wakefulness.

"How did you get over here?" he asked sleepily as he let go of her.

"I didn't. You dreamed it," she answered, then stood up and quietly pulled her cot away from his.

"What time is it?" Katara asked with a yawn as she sat up.

"Time to go," Mai answered as she slipped on her shoes and pulled her pack out from under her cot.

Jet stretched behind her. "Man, I had weird dreams," he said with a yawn of his own, then watched as Mai folded her cot and pushed it up toward its storage space in the rafters. She wasn't quite tall enough to reach, though, so he stood up behind her and pushed it into place, his body brushing hers. She turned in surprise, bumping into him, then backing away.

"Sorry," she said nervously. "Didn't know you were back there."

Then she walked to the door and opened it to exit, only to find a drenching downpour ahead of her. She really didn't want to get wet. So she just stood there in the doorway watching it rain as Katara and Jet finished putting up the cots behind her. She shivered a little.

"I have a jacket if you're cold," Jet offered.

"I'm okay," she answered.

But Jet pulled the jacket out of his pack. "Here," he said firmly, holding it out to her.

With a grateful nod, she took it and slipped it on. It was brown leather, soft and worn. The sleeves hung down over her fingertips. She wrapped her arms around herself and tried not to shiver any more.

Katara walked to the door with her pack. "Let's go," she said, reaching out to bend a rainfree bubble in the air ahead of them.

She'd even bended some of the wetness out of the ground, Mai noticed as she walked. It wasn't nearly as mushy as she thought it would be as they walked to the healer's hut. Dei Zi came out to meet them.

"Avatar Aang has gone after that big furry animal of his," she said. "I've got a stretcher here ready and I've packed up some food and water to last you a couple of days."

Katara gave her a deep bow and thank you, then walked into the hut, careful to continue bending the rain away from Jet and Mai outside where they stood with Dei Zi.

"What can we do to repay you?" Mai asked with a very grateful, very polite bow. "Your kindness and hospitality have been overwhelming."

Dei Zi smiled with a twinkle in her eye. "Oh, swamp folk don't take payment for hospitality. Just take care of the next person to come along that needs your help. That's payment enough."

"All the same," Mai added with a twinkle in her own eye, "I bet a gift of some cooking spices and fabrics wouldn't go unappreciated."

"Now a gift is a gift," Dei Zi answered with a merry laugh. "It would be ungrateful not to take it."

Mai bowed again.

Jet was impressed by the interchange. Mai certainly had a way with diplomacy. He'd have just said thanks and walked off.

"Spices and fabrics?" he asked her as Dei Zi walked back toward the firepit, holding a large leafy umbrella over her head.

"Didn't you taste the food we've been eating?" Mai asked.

"I thought it was pretty good," Jet said. "Simple but good."

"It was delicious. They use a number of seasonings to add variety," Mai replied patiently. "And all the men may wear leaves, but the women sure like their pretty floral print sarongs."

Jet nodded in understanding as Katara opened the door of the hut. "Jet, will you come give me a hand for a minute?" she asked.

Mai waited and watched the rain fall around the bubble that still surrounded her. She wondered how much concentration it took for Katara to keep it up when she wasn't physically in it. Suddenly the bubble grew much, much larger as Appa and Aang settled down into the little clearing.

Within minutes, they had Zuko on the stretcher, out the door of the hut, and onto Appa's back.

"I'll be right back," Jet said as the rest of the group began to climb aboard.

Mai watched as he walked toward a man who came limping out of one of the huts. He had hair the color of dirty straw and eyes of clear aquamarine. They stood at a distance together in the rain and talked.

"Bo," Jet said, giving him a bow, "I wish this trip had turned out better for you."

"Weren't no problem for me," Bo replied. "I just hate that I let you down. I'll make it up to you next trip."

"There may not be a next trip," Jet admitted. "I think I got my fill of the swamp this time."

"Shucks, naw," Bo laughed, "you just got a good enough taste of it that you'll want to come back."

"I don't think so," Jet replied. Then he looked over toward the treegecko paddock where his remaining gecko stood in the rain, circling and sniffing the air. "I'd appreciate it if you'd just take my gecko as payment for the trip."

"That's mighty generous," Bo answered. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. Keep both the saddles too. I don't think I'll be using them again," Jet said quietly. Then he looked back again at where the gecko circled and looked around, then circled again.

"What's he doing?" Jet asked. "I've never seen him do that before yesterday."

Bo looked over and watched for a moment, then replied, "He's looking for his lost mate." Bo must have noticed Jet's look of regret because he clapped him on the arm and said encouragingly, "Don't you worry. I'll take care of him."

Jet bowed again in gratitude, then the two men clasped forearms. Then he ran back through the rain to where Aang and Katara's rainshield began. He started to climb up into the saddle when Katara said, "Hold on there!"

For a desperate second Jet's heart sank with a sudden fear that they were going to leave him there.

Then Katara bended the rainwater out of his clothes and hair, leaving him completely dry. He climbed up into the saddle with relief evident on his face. "We couldn't have you dripping all over us," she said with a laugh.

Then Aang called out, "Yip yip," and Appa rose easily into the air. Jet thought it was the sweetest sound he'd ever heard.

As they left the ground, Toph grimly thought to herself that she'd exchanged one state of blindness for another. Maybe this one wouldn't last long though, she hoped. Jet had said the cave wasn't far by air. So she took deep breaths and kept her calm by focusing her vision on Zuko.

He'd been restless during the night, but too weak to toss and turn like he normally would. Sometimes if he had something pressing on his mind that was bothering him bad enough, he'd just get up and go down to his office to work. Doing something about it always seemed to help him.

But right at the moment, he couldn't do much. That alone would cause her husband to be restless. King Bumi had him pegged right with positive jing. Zuko was a doer. And when he ran across something he couldn't just burn his way through so to speak, it had a tendency to throw him.

For that reason, Zuko was not at his best when he was sick. Toph sincerely hoped Jet's theory about the sun was right. Her husband needed to get better soon.

After several minutes of flying, she could tell that they'd broken free of the cloud cover by the feel of the sun on her own face. "Sparky," she whispered to him, "can you feel that? It's the sun. It's your element, baby."

At her side, she could hear Mai actually sigh with pleasure. "Sunlight! I have never been so glad to see the sun before," she exclaimed.

But Zuko didn't stir. "Wake up, baby," Toph said, running her hand over his shoulder. But he just slept on.

"Give him time, Toph," Katara said gently in her ear. "This will be good for him. It just might take a little while."

Toph could hear voices coming from up front on Appa's head, a discussion between Aang and Jet.

"I've never looked for it from the sky before," Jet was saying. "All my landmarks are at ground level."

"Tell me what they look like," Aang said. "I'm pretty good at translating back and forth from sky to ground."

As Jet began to describe the various mountain formations he used to guide him to the cave hideout, Aang guided Appa, sometimes asking questions about heights and shapes.

"Take us down here," Jet stated after several more minutes. "This looks very close." Then before Appa's feet even touched the ground, Jet exclaimed, "Yeah, this is it."

Toph listened as Mai, Jet, and Aang slid off Appa's back. Then Mai said sharply, "I thought you said there was a large cave here. I don't see a cave."

Jet replied with a laugh, "I said the cave was large. I didn't say the entrance was large."

After another look over at Zuko, Toph slid off Appa's back to make room for the guys to get the stretcher down. As soon as her feet touched the earth—the blessed earth—the wonderful earth--she could see what they were talking about as her earthbending vision came back to her full throttle.

"I thought you said the cave was large enough for Appa to come inside," Mai continued, a distinct hint of nervousness in her voice.

"It is," Jet said, putting a friendly arm around Mai's shoulders. "If he could get through the door."

In the mountain up ahead of her Toph could see a very large, very beautiful cave complex complete with several rooms and a nicely fed bubbling spring that ran into a deep pool. The entrance, however, was only about a foot or so wide for at least eight feet. It was indeed the perfect hideout.

Mai continued to protest, "I can't go in there. That is not a large cave."

Toph was officially out of patience.

"Step aside, people," she ordered briskly.

With a rush of renewed strength and power, she bended that narrow opening into a wide portico, complete with columns and a carved welcome mat.

"Man, that felt good," she said with a deep sigh of satisfaction as the rest of the group just looked at her in amazement.