PARADOX
Chapter Nineteen: The Deserter
The next time we landed we had to go for supplies.
We approached the nearest town stopping outside of it to look at the bulletin board. There was a poster about a fire nation festival and Aang immediately wanted to go. But on the other side of the board were wanted posters of Aang, the blue spirit (Only Aang and I knew who he really was), and even one of me as Artemis.
"We might have to put it off." Katara said pulling off Aang's wanted poster and holding it up. "There are wanted posters of you." She pulled off another poster. "And one of you too." She turned to me.
I nodded pocketing the offered poster. I had to fold it four times to get it to the correct size to fit in one of my pockets. Kovu whimpered curiously. I rubbed his ears gently, comforting him.
"This is the probably my only chance to see firebenders up close without them attacking me." Aang insisted.
"What you need is a disguise." Sokka added helpfully.
Aang pulled his shawl up over his head. Sokka and Katara pulled cloaks over themselves pulling up the hoods. I also wore a hood over my head to hide my identity.
Sokka looked at Aang. "Its like you're a completely different person." He said sarcasticly.
I chuckled. Kovu barked.
We walked into the busy streets of the town. Right as we went in was a stand of masks. "Get your genuine fire nation festival masks!" The owner of the stall called out.
We all looked at each other then hurried over to the stand.
Aang grabbed a frowning green mask with feathers sticking out all along the mask. Sokka grabbed a smiley yellow and orange one with feathers. Katara got a blue smiling one with feathers. I grabbed a smiling red mask to match Katara's. Katara looked at Sokka's mask and Aang's mask then grabbed them and switched them. I chuckled.
Kovu standing by my side tilted his head to the side questioningly.
"I don't think you need a mask." I told him.
His ears drooped disappointed.
"I'll get you a bandana or something." I promised hoping he would cheer up.
He did. His ears perked back up, and he wagged his tail happily giving me a wolfish grin.
The rest of the gaang was looking at me oddly, except Aang. He seemed to understand better.
Sokka immediately ran over to get food when one of the vendors called out.
"Whatcha got?" He asked.
"Fire Flakes." The man answered.
"Give me four." Sokka ordered putting his money on the counter.
The man passed over four bags of fire flakes to Sokka.
We walled a short distance away. He passed a bag to each of us before dumping half of his bag in his mouth. I winced slightly knowing that was going to hurt. Just as I expected Sokka shouted "hot!" his eyes watering and his mouth smoking slightly.
"Fire Flakes, hot. Who would've guessed?" Katara said sarcastically.
I took a pinch of fire flakes about three individual ones and put them in my mouth. I chewed them twice before swallowing. They were mildly spicy, they must've got worse the more of them there were. I sort of liked the taste though. I took another pinch, a few more than last time. Only a little hotter, so I took a whole hand full. I swallowed licking my lips. "They're good." I ate the rest of my bag. Katara and Aang took a pinch of fire flakes each, grimaced and handed their bags over to me. I shrugged. Guess it's an acquired taste. They weren't really that hot anyway, somewhere between Bar-B-Que chips and chili.
Sokka objected to me getting three bags while he only had one so I passed Katara's bag over to him. He quieted down too busy eating to complain.
Aang led us over to a puppet show which was rather violent. As one puppet used firebending on the other burning it to ashes.
I wandered a short distance away to a stand that was selling clothes.
I looked over the clothes thoroughly, they looked exactly like I expected fire nation clothes to look like. I quickly picked out three crimson tops with skirts and pants for me, Katara, and Toph later on. I also picked up a pair of men's clothes both in shades of red and brown for Aang and Sokka. The assistant gave me a bag to pack the clothes in and I handed over the necessary coin. She gave a small nod to me and I nodded back politely.
Then I went to the next stand over and got Kovu a bandana as I promised. It was a gorgeous gold color to match his eyes. I tied it around his neck snugly, but not constrictingly.
We made our way back over to the gaang who were starting to circle around a stage. I walked over to their side.
"For my next trick!" The man declared "I'll need a volunteer!" He scanned the crowd.
Aang started jumping up and down excitedly.
"How about... you?" He turned pointing, not to Katara as I expected, but to me.
I turned to Aang quickly. "Remember its just a show. He's going to exaggerate and pretend that he doesn't know what he's doing to excite the crowd. I can always bend myself out if I get in too much trouble. Don't reveal yourself for anything." I ordered softly.
"It seems she's shy. Why don't we give her a hand up?" The man said taking my pause as reluctance. The rest of the crowd roared in encouragement as two guys grabbed me under my arms lifted me onto the stage. I stood on stage easily, 8 years worth of school talent shows making me completely comfortable in front of a crowd of people.
"Give a hand to our lovely volunteer." The crowd roared once more clapping wildly. "Now, the trick I'm going to do is called taming the dragon. Our volunteer here is going to be my lovely captured princess, and I'll be the dragon tamer." He announced leading me over to a chair that an assistant had brought up. I was sat down and tied to the chair firmly. Around my chest, stomach and waist ropes bound me to the chair with my arms pinned to my sides. I could force them to move if needed, the ropes weren't that tight.
Kovu was crouched at the foot of the stage growling lowly.
Aang rubbed his ears to calm him down. He's growl dropped another level but didn't stop.
The man created a large swirl of fire, breathing deeply in before he did so and breathing out as he created the fire. The fire began to morph and suddenly it was a dragon on a rope. The man used the rope of fire to direct the dragon around almost like someone would direct a puppet.
The man began his "oh no I'm losing control" speech but I wasn't paying attention to him. I was watching both Aang and Kovu carefully. I didn't know if what I told Aang would keep him from trying to rescue me or not.
And I was right, it didn't. Aang watched growing more and more anxious as the man's speech continued and he finally leaped to the stage using air bending to extinguish the flames. Kovu seemed a little too happy about this as he jumped onto the stage biting the ropes off while Aang made a fool of himself as a distraction.
"Come on, Aang." I yelled grabbing his hand and leaping away with an air enhanced jump. The jump carried us clear of the stage Sokka and Katara joined us an instant after. We slipped down a narrow alley avoiding the guards that were chasing us.
"You guy's go ahead." I told them as we turned another corner. "Kovu and I will lead them in another direction."
"But-" Aang protested.
Sokka and Katara looked at me seriously. "Only if you swear on your bending you will return." Katara bargained.
"I swear on my bending I will return." I promised obligingly.
"Good." Sokka said. Promising on your bending was one of the strictest ways to say you were going to do what you said you were. It was like someone swearing on their immortal soul or such.
I nodded. Pointed quietly to a little niche in the wall that was practically unnoticeable and jogged backwards a short distance to lead the soldiers on a wild goose chase. Kovu stood protectively by my side as the soldiers turned the corner.
"There's one of them!"
"Maybe she'll lead us to them."
"Or maybe we can use her as bait."
I stuck my tongue out at them and ran down the alley right past the rest of the gang's hiding place. Kovu was bounding at my heels with a wolfish grin on his face. He had always liked the chase, apparently he liked the reverse chase too.
I turned another corner and ran down the alley then when I reached the dead end I used a bit of earthbending to raise the ground beneath our feet lifting Kovu and I up onto the wall. I looked down at the alley as the soldiers poured in.
"Where did she go?"
"She's disappeared."
"A spirit, we were chasing a spirit."
I grinned at that one. Why not really give them reason to thing she was a spirit? She called up a wall of fog from the water in the air and lowered her voice to a husky, but carrying whisper.
"You can't catch me... I am Artemis, the hunter. I catch you." I added a deep laugh afterwards. I nudged Kovu and he tipped his head back and howled a hunting howl.
The group of soldiers below couldn't see me but I could see them. They were all shaking and trying to hide it but not succeeding.
I grinned satisfied my work was done and jumped down on the other side of the wall, Kovu following the jump easily. I let the fog dissipate and wandered over toward the direction I had motioned the gang to go to after the soldiers were gone. They were there alright, but they were with another fire nation man.
I hopped up onto the roof of a nearby building, Kovu stayed on the ground slinking through the shadows. When I reached overhead I crouched down to hear the conversation. Oh, right. He was that man that was supposed to save them and lead them to Jeong Jeong. I dropped down so I landed lightly behind the man.
"Boo." I deadpanned. He jumped startled flame coming onto his hand as he turned around. I doused the flame with a little bit of water gathered from the atmosphere.
"Jumpy, isn't he?" I asked turning to the gang. Sokka and Aang smiled at that while Katara forced a look of disapproval on her face.
"There's the Avatar!" A shout drew their attention.
"Time to go." I scolded quickly whipping Sokka and Katara up onto Kovu's back. I motioned for the last man to get on. He scrabbled onto Kovu's back clumsily.
"YAH!" I shouted at Kovu. He leaped forward and soared over the low wall that seperated the alley from the outside of the city. I grabbed Aang's hand and ran towards the wall using a burst of air bending to send myself, and by extension, him over the wall.
We ran beside Kovu using our bending to keep up. As soon as we got back to where Appa and Momo were we quickly got on Appa's back and set out to put some space between ourselves and the fire nation soldiers.
"You're a fire nation soldier." Sokka suddenly accused when the mystery man pulled his hood down.
"Was." He corrected almost absently. "My name's Chey."
There was silence as we landed and set up camp. Chey setting up the fire for us, in seconds. We all sat down to listen to Chey's story. I was set slightly farther back leaning against Kovu lightly. My eyes sliding closed while I continued listening.
I serve a man. But he's not just a man. He's a myth. Except real. A living legend. Jeong Jeong the Deserter." He said. "He was a fire nation General... or was it an admiral?" He wondered out loud scratching the back of his head.
"He was very highly ranked we get it." Sokka interrupted impatiently.
"Yeah, way up there. But he couldn't take the madness anymore. He's the first person to ever leave the army and live. I was the second but you don't become a legend for that. That's okay though. Jeong Jeong is a fire bending genius. Some say he's mad, but he's not. He's enlightened."
"You mean there's a fire bender out here who's not with the Fire Lord? We've got to go see him." Aang said excitedly standing up. "He can train me."
"We're not going to find some crazy fire bender." Sokka declared bluntly.
I opened one eye lazily. "I don't know Sokka. Crazy people seem to be the strongest benders. Look at King Bumi, and the fire lord, and Aang." I threw in the last one teasingly.
"Hey!" Aang yelped startled at getting included in the crazy group.
"You ride giant animals, who would rather eat you than allow you to ride them, for fun. If that's not crazy I don't know what is." I said lazily opening my other eye to stare at the group.
"He's not crazy. He's a genius." Chey protested.
"There is a very fine line between crazy and genius. And judging by a lot of strong benders they use said line as a jump rope." I said smirking in amusement.
"What's a jump rope?" Katara interjected confused.
"It's a game where I'm from. It takes anywhere from one to three people. You can either turn the rope yourself or let two other people turn it for you. You just turn the rope in a large circle around your body as you jump over it when it's close to hitting your feet." I tried to explain the rather simple kids game.
"What's the point?" Sokka interjected confused. Most games in this world had a point. Like warriors vs enemies or hide and hunt.
"Fun." I answered bluntly.
"Jeong Jeong is the perfect person to teach the avatar fire bending." Chey finally interjected trying to get us back to the original topic of discussion.
"Look, thanks for the help, but we're leaving for the North Pole in the morning." Sokka said standing to his feet.
"But Sokka..." Aang turned and gave the older boy a look that made you feel like he was a puppy you'd just kicked for no reason. "This might be my only chance to meet a fire bending master who would actually be willing to teach me." He pouted.
Katara immediately took Aang's side. Ugh. They were completely love sick for each other even if neither of them would admit it. I felt like I was going to have a diabetes attack anytime I was around them and I didn't even have diabetes. I'd hate to see what would happen to my gram if they acted like that around her. They were way too sweet. And even thinking they were sweet left a nasty taste in my mouth. Too much sugar.
"That's what you said about going to the festival." Sokka suddenly burst out drawing my attention back to the argument. "Why doesn't anyone ever listen to me?" He demanded exasperatedly.
"Your voice cracks, a lot of your instincts are wrong, you are completely and utterly paranoid..." I listed absently.
"It was a rhetorical question!" He snapped at me irritably.
He turns to walk away from us only to almost walk into a pointy spear held by a warrior completely hidden by the brown and tan outfit they wore.
Kovu snarled angrily as I was herded back towards the fire with the rest of the group. "Don't move." One of the men growled demandingly.
We were prodded in single file down a narrow path. The lead spear man had prodded Chey in front of us while we followed behind. Another spearsmen was behind us to stop any thought of retreat.
"Jeong Jeong told you not to look for avatar." The lead spearsmen growled at Chey.
"Wait you know these people?" Sokka asked.
"Oh yeah. Lin Ye's an old buddy. Right, Lin Ye?" He turned to the spearsmen for confirmation.
"Shut up. Keep moving." Lin Ye growled prodding Chey in the back with the point of his spear once more.
We walked in silence the rest of the way.
Chey was shoved forward and ordered to go see Jeong Jeong himself.
I was exhausted and immediately drifted off to sleep using Kovu's stomach as a pillow. I could feel the rest of the groups incredulous gaze on her before she slipped into another dream about her family.
This one was a meeting, but a memory.
We were all standing in the kitchen, Jay and Bob were covered in flour and throwing more at each other. I was rolling the cookie dough into small bottle cap sized balls. Dad was mixxing more batter and mom was handing him the ingredients as he listed them off.
We suddenly laughed at a joke someone had said but for some reason there was no sound in the dream. I continued rolling balls of dough, relishing the normalcy of the feeling. My dad suddenly came over and gave me an unexpected hug handing over the spoon he had used to mix the batter. I laughed again and ate what was left on the spoon.
Both of my brothers suddenly started a flour war and I shouted as I was hit with a fist full of flour in the face closing my eyes instinctively to protect them. I was just about to retaliate when I felt my shoulder being shaken. I looked around but no one in my dream was touching me.
"Kiara, wake up." I suddenly bolted awake at the unexpected order.
Katara and Sokka were standing over me.
"Wha?" I asked drowsily forcing my eyes to stay open. It was a difficult task, they kept sliding shut on me.
"It's morning. I'm going fishing. And Katara's going to practice water bending and wants your help." Sokka answered holding his hand out for me to grab. I did so tiredly and he pulled me to my feet.
I yawned widely and nodded. I let Katara lead me to the water. I bended some up quickly and took a drink then washed my face of all signs of sleep.
Sokka found a large boulder and cast his line out into the gently flowing river.
Katara stood back and started to practice the water whip. I followed her example for a while before getting board with the slow pace and started practicing my "created" techniques. I managed to make a variation of the water wall, then turned it into ice. That would hold longer. I melted the barrier and quickly formed a small blizzard around me, it obscured me from view until I let it drop.
Aang appeared with Jeong Jeong. He stood on a rock while Jeong Jeong ordered him around.
"Widen your stance. Wider! Bend your knees. Now concentrate." He paced away from Aang. "Good, good."
"Wait! What do I do now?"
"Silence! Talking is not concentrating. Look at your friends, are they talking? Even that oaf knows to concentrate on what he's doing."
"Hey!" Sokka protested.
"But what am I concentrating on?" Aang asked.
"Feel the heat of the sun. It is the greatest source of fire, yet it is in complete balance with nature."
"So when do I get to make some fire?" Aang demanded eagerly.
"Concentrate!" He snapped before walking away.
Katara and Sokka laughed at him. I frowned at them.
"Aang, think of it like meditation. You meditate, right? When you meditate you don't talk. You have to concentrate on the feeling of the sun instead of your breaths." I instructed.
He groaned in annoyance. He was much to excitable to fire bend properly.
A while later Jeong Jeong came back and took Aang off somewhere.
I sighed as I sank into an Indian style sitting position. My eyes closed instictively and I breathed deeply, in the nose out the mouth. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, in, out, in, out. Soon I felt like I was floating, there was nothing to bother me. A nice gentle breeze blew my hair, the sun shone down on me making my hair hot, and every sound but my own breath vanished.
I began to feel what Jeong Jeong described. The sun warmed my very blood, I felt completely at ease. The warmth pulsed pleasantly with my pulse. I exhaled lightly trying not to break the peace that had fallen over me. I had only tried meditation once or twice but it felt so much easier than it had been when I was a teenager. Maybe because I was mentally older? Either way I enjoyed it.
I came out of my meditation when I heard Sokka yelling. I rushed towards the source only to find Katara running towards me. I quickly grabbed her hands examining them. I led her toward the pond which was a little while off. I gently set her hands in the water.
"Relax." I coaxed gently. "Feel the water, gently coax it around the burns. Sooth it away." I ordered softly. Katara panted in pain but finally sighed in relief as the healing started to work.
"You have healing abilities. The great benders of the water tribe sometimes have this ability." Jeong Jeong said approaching us. "I've always wished I were blessed like you." He sighed sitting beside Katara with me on the other side of her. "Free from this burning curse." He said sadly.
"But you're a great master. You'll have powers I'll never know." Katara said.
"Water brings healing and life. But fire brings only destruction and pain." He said bluntly.
"And water also brings ice that chokes you with cold so harsh you wish for fire. Fire brings warmth, and light, and rebirth." I countered. "Every element comes with good and bad points.
"What would you know. You're but a child." He said bluntly.
"I know of cold. Weather so cold I've needed six or seven caribou-goat pelts to stay warm. I know that fire is how I cook my food, and how I ward away the dark during the night. I know of legends where a great bird upon its death will burst into flames and be reborn from the ashes. I also know of the darkest technique water bending possesses." I ended darkly. "The body is made up of approximately 75% water. And with a full moon a powerful water bender can use that to his or her advantage. Absolute control over the blood in a person's body. The darkest technique and burden a person will ever have to bear. Fire may kill, may burn. But water, water adapts. It changes things around it just as much as it changes itself." I said feeling familiar despair creep up on me.
I wished I had never learned of said power but I had. Twice. The first time when I watched the Bloodbending episode. And the second when I was forced to use the technique to save Kovu from a carribou-goat attack. I shook the memory away. I couldn't afford to get lost in thought.
Both Katara and Jeong Jeong looked horrified at the admittance.
"Fire doesn't seem so bad anymore does it?" I asked ruefully.
We were silent for a second before several burst of fire flew towards us. Jeong Jeong quickly blocked the closest one with his own bending. Three fire nation ships were sailing down the river towards us.
"Go get your friends and flee." Jeong Jeong ordered. Katara quickly followed his orders. I hesitated for a second then followed. "Do not come back here or you all will be destroyed. Hurry!"
We ran into camp and Sokka stopped packing to see if Katara was okay.
"Kovu!" I shouted. Said wolf bounded out of the forest a bloody dead rabbit clasped between his jaws. "Eat that or leave it here. We're leaving." I ordered as I helped Sokka finish packing. Katara ran to get Aang and he quickly disappeared after Jeong Jeong. Kovu gave me a look like a kicked puppy and quickly chomped down eating the whole rabbit in three bites.
"Ugh. That's gross." I told him bending a little water over to clean his muzzle off.
We all quickly scrambled onto Appa's back Kovu quickly curled up at the back of the saddle and went to sleep.
We picked Aang up along the way and saw that he had made Zhao destroy his own ships.
Katara healed Aang's burn with her new found healing and Sokka immediately demanded "When did you learn how to do that?"
"I guess I always could."
"Well thanks for all the first aid over the years. Like when I fell into the gooseberry bramble. Or the time I had two fish hooks in my thumb."
"Two?" Aang asked incredulously.
"He tried to get the first fishhook out with another fishhook." Katara explained embarrassed on behalf of her brother.
"Oh and the time that mink snake bit me. Thanks for healing that up. Really helpful." Sokka continued to ramble about miscellaneous injures to his person that Katara hadn't healed.
A/N: Whoo! I posted another chapter. This one gave me a hard time. I got my internet back too even though my computer is still being stupid. So I'm thinking of changing the title of this to Paradox: Book One and having two more books. What do you think? I'm sorry for taking so long, but it's a long chapter this time. I still have a lot of things to do too. College applications, the musical, chorus, battle of the books, school work. I haven't given in to Seniortitis yet, but it's wearing me down. PLEASE REVIEW!