The United Nation of Elements
Chapter Three
Harumi's head popped out of the bushes, leaves scattering around her or sticking in her dark hair. She scanned the area suspiciously, gray eyes narrowing on her target: the loading bank of the cargo ship. Box after box was lifted on to the boat in an endless stream of faceless laborers. The stockpiled cargo towered over them, an indomitable mountain casting a shadow over them and shielding them from the morning sun.
"What are you thinking, Chee?" Harumi whispered, not moving her gaze from the danger ahead. There was a chittering sound and her tunic rustled, producing the head of a small, red-furred creature moments later.
"Hmm," Harumi ducked behind the bush again, pulling the fire ferret out of her shirt and setting him down in front of her. Chee watched her with his small black eyes as she brought a hand up to her chin, considering her plan of action.
Getting on the ship wouldn't have been a issue if she hadn't encountered three problems: one, she didn't have enough money to pay for a ticket. Two, she needed a passport that didn't have the words "Western Air Temple" written under her picture in big, bold writing. Three, no animals were allowed on the ships. Those three restrictions were the deciding factor for this illegal escapade she found herself planning, the causes of her sweaty palms and racing heartbeat.
All she had to do was sneak into one of the several boxes in line for boarding, all of which had already cleared the inspection round before the ship had even docked. With her abilities in the field of stealth and sneaking and the like, how hard could it be?
Hopefully not as hard as her nerves were trying to convince her.
"Alright, Chee, back inside," Harumi sighed, pulling the hem of her shirt away from her body to make room for the rodent. He scurried up into the folds of the fabric, settling on her back somewhere. She pulled the hood of her colorless cloak up over her head and began to creep towards the boxes.
—
"Anyone wanna tell me how we're gonna cross this river?" Petra drawled, hands on her hips as they confronted the swirling waters.
They were about a day outside of Senlin village, the sun rising over the trees behind them. After restocking their supplies, they had left quickly, heading northeast. Yes, they were backtracking a little, but Senlin had been a necessary stop and a welcome reprieve from the brutal forces of nature. As it turned out, they needed to cross this stupid river just to get to the harbor town near it's mouth. Unfortunately, there hadn't been any transport boats near the end, so Petra, Kasai and Jarn-Shyr had needed to follow the river east for a day until the banks came closer together and the water was less frightful. Now, after packing up camp, they needed to find a way to cross the dang thing.
There were several problems here. One of the most prominent ones being that they had no form of boat to cross with. The river was a good fifty meters across at the narrowest point, and swimming would be difficult with the current, if not impossible, even if Kasai could. They had their newly-stocked supplies with them—Kasai had even picked up a backpack to share the burden (though Jarn-Shyr ended up carrying it for him most of the time). To top things off, Petra had taken her first watch the night previous and felt drained enough already. She didn't want to end up falling asleep during tonight's shift just because she'd exhausted herself trying to cross a freaking river. Kasai and Jarn-Shyr would never trust her again if that happened.
"Uh. . ." Kasai examined the dark water, probably not too excited about getting in either, if that was what it came to. "How about we just fly?" He suggested sarcastically, tilting his head back to show Petra his dull expression. She scrunched her nose at him mockingly.
"I'm thinking more along the lines of things we can actually do, Kasai." She sneered. "Got anything like that?"
Kasai shrugged and shook his head. "Can't say I do, ma'am." He brought a hand up to scratch the back of his head, placing the other on his hip as he sighed. "But I can say that this is probably one of the hardest challenges we've faced yet." He laughed shallowly and raised an eyebrow at Petra. "You wouldn't happen to know how to waterbend, would you?" He joked. He laughed and turned away, shaking his head.
Petra felt a shiver shoot down her spine at the off-handed comment. He hadn't meant it as anything more than a joke, but still. . . It hit closer to home than Petra would have liked.
"What about you, Jarn-Shyr?" Kasai dragged it along. "You sure you haven't got any secret bending powers we don't know abo—ow!" He cried out as Jarn-Shyr landed a punch to his shoulder, sending him stumbling backward a few steps. He whined at her like an injured puppy, eyes shining with mock-hurt. She shut her eyes and turned her nose up indifferently. "So mean!" Kasai despaired.
Petra returned her focus to the problem at hand, scratching at a spot on her cheek as she thought. Kasai's comment may have been a joke, but it had been helpful in that it put her focus on bending. She couldn't waterbend, but she did have the ability to earthbend, however little she had actually used this potential. Throwing rocks at her grumpy neighbor Shuu's back wall was way different than building a bridge or anything.
But Jarn-Shyr seemed to be thinking along similar lines. She tugged on Petra's sleeve, pulling her out of her thoughts. After a moment of intense staring, Jarn-Shyr blinked and her face flushed with embarrassment. Petra wasn't sure what the staring was for, but Jarn-Shyr's reaction was like she realized she couldn't speak with Petra for the first time. She fumbled with sign language, but Petra didn't understand that either and could only respond with a blank stare. Jarn-Shyr's face was getting redder by the second.
Kasai seemed to notice his friend's distress and came over to see what was going on. "Problem, ladies?" he asked, leaning around to get a look at Jarn-Shyr's face. She bristled slightly and gave him a flustered look, adding a few hand signs to convey some important points of information. They were brief and vague, from what Petra could tell, so when Kasai seemed to understand perfectly, Petra felt very stupid and very out of the loop.
"Eh, sorry Petra," Kasai said, seeming to read her expression. "Jarn-Shyr's not used to commuting with the common folk." He boasted, straightening his collar and puffing out his chest. Jarn-Shyr smacked his arm lightly to get him to stop fooling around. "A joke, a joke!" He assured her.
Kasai dropped his humor for a minute, adopting an earnest expression. "What I mean is she's used to talking to me using mostly expressions and hand gestures. Actually speaking is something like a last resort, for instance, if she's telling me her name."
Petra gave Jarn-Shyr a confused look. "So. . . you can talk? You just don't want to?"
Jarn-Shyr didn't nod or shake her head. Her shoulders raised and she brought her hands up like she was about to go into a long explanation. Kasai translated. "'It's a bit more complicated than that,' she says."
Petra cocked her head slightly. "How so?"
Jarn-Shyr looked slightly uncomfortable at the interrogation. "She won't say," Kasai explained, giving his friend a sideways glance. "A story for another time, I guess."
Petra hummed. There was silence for a minute, before Kasai spoke up again. "Oh! What was it you were trying to say?" He asked Jarn-Shyr. She nodded and met his eyes, explaining with little use of hand gestures.
It was interesting to watch, Petra decided, almost hypnotic. Both of them held eye contact with equal but effortless intensity, Kasai registering even the slightest twitch of her lip or the most subtle flick of a wrist. In turn, Jarn-Shyr suddenly appeared much more expressive to Petra, and if she hadn't been paying attention Petra may have never noticed. It was a level of communication one might find between two childhood friends, almost like a one-sided secret code. It was the most focused Petra had ever seen Kasai. He nodded in understanding, looking so serious he almost wasn't Kasai anymore. He asked her to repeat something once and she back-tracked, but other than that they seemed to be one-hundred percent in-sync.
After almost a minute of this, Kasai turned back to Petra to explain. "I'll paraphrase, cause it was kinda long." He cleared his throat. "Basically, she's suggesting you raise a bridge from the river bottom and—oh, uh, but first, do you know how to do that?" He faltered mid-translation, giving Petra a doubtful look.
Petra pushed her awe to the back of her mind and shook her head. "No, actually, I've only ever thrown rocks on accident."
Kasai nodded. "Oh, yeah, you did mention that. Okay, so anyway, Jarn-Shyr says she can help explain the form if you need her to, and um, basically walk you through the motions, I guess. If you're up to it." Kasai's self-assurance ebbed as his translation came to an end and he returned to the awkward person she knew.
"Umm. . ." Petra's tongue suddenly felt heavy, but whatever haze her mind drifted through evaporated after she registered what he was saying. Then she backed up again. "Okay, wait, so Jarn-Shyr knows how to earthbend?"
Kasai held up his hands in denial. "Ehh, no, no she doesn't. Well, I mean, technically, I guess she does, but she can't actually bend anything. She's, like, trained in the basics—the forms, I mean, and she kinda works her fighting style around all of the elements. She says it wasn't uncommon where she's from."
Petra didn't really follow, but decided it didn't really matter. "Okay, I could give it a shot. But there's more to bending than just executing the movements." She argued.
Kasai nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I know, but you'll probably just get that part. You're talking about the feeling part, right? Where you sense your element?" Petra nodded. "I mean, that part's not really hard if you know what has to be there. It can't really be explained either though, so I'm kind of just hoping we're on the same page? It's probably different for earth than fire though. . ." He must have noticed he was rambling. "Anyway, when Jarn-Shyr taught me some basic firebending forms, I was more like 'How the heck do you know this?' than 'Is that even possible?' so maybe I wasn't too concerned with the feeling part. I didn't need to focus that hard—it just kind of happened. W-what I'm saying is," Kasai tripped over his words, definitely aware that he was rambling at this point. "Is that the feeling part can't really be taught, even by a bender, so teaching the forms is pretty much the best we can do."
Petra's mind was stuck in that haze again. Kasai talked so much that it put her mind on informational overload. She shook her head to try and dismiss the fog, collecting her thoughts again and remembering the key points of his explanation. How was someone so terrible at talking so good at communication? That applied to both him and Jarn-Shyr, she supposed. She shook her head again because that was not the point.
"Uh-hum, okay." Wow, you sound really intelligent. She mentally berated herself. "So basically what needs to happen is Jarn-Shyr teaches me the move and I figure out the connection with the actual earth on my own?"
Kasai and Jarn-Shyr both nodded. "Yeah, that's the gist of it." Kasai replied, looking away and scratching at the back of his hand.
"Alright," Petra agreed. "That doesn't sound too hard." She smiled at Jarn-Shyr, excitement lighting up in her chest at the prospect of finally doing some bending. "It's better than nothing, anyway."
—
The term "captain" could be confusing sometimes, especially when he boarded a ship, which was more often than not. Lien knew this, but it was an easily explained issue.
When he told people he was a captain of a ship, he meant he was the captain of the military units boarding the ship, not the ship itself. Given, he was in a position over all of those under him and not just those under him on the ship, but his knack for sailing and naval activities typically found him assigned to a unit boarding a military ship.
Not that he minded. Lien loved the sea. He felt more in-his-element when he was out in the middle of the ocean than when he was working on land. He found the ocean air refreshing and the capricious weather patterns made sure there was never a dull moment. When he was out at sea, the word "captain" blurred its definitions in him and he spoke with a voice that even the higher-ups wouldn't second-guess. Even before his promotion, "Captain Lien" had been a nickname offered up by Kozu due to his savvy understanding of how a ship worked.
But the most confusing (and, admittedly, most embarrassing) part about being a military captain on a ship was when someone called out to the actual captain of the ship and he turned to answer. Kozu never let it go when he noticed.
So when someone called out "Captain!" as he was preparing to get off the ship, Lien hesitated to respond. Kozu was right next to him, so if he looked up and he wasn't the one being called, then he would be subject to another round of teasing and Lien really wasn't up for that kind of thing at the moment.
He regretted it not a minute later, when the title was called again and he looked up, certain that he was the one being called now. Ah, he had let his pride get in the way of his job. Okay, that was a melodramatic way of taking it, but it was more symbolic than anything, Lien decided. He didn't like to think he was a person who let his pride rule his choices, but he couldn't help the bitter bruising he felt at even the slightest doubt in himself.
The fact that it was Captain Hong, his respected senior, who had called out to him made the guilt even worse. He stopped, letting Kozu go on ahead as he fell back to talk with the retiring captain.
"Sorry, Captain Hong, I couldn't hear you over the crowd." Lien lied, smiling at the older man. "Is there something you need?" He had to suppress the instinctive reaction to snap to attention. He and Captain Hong were equals now. Lien could afford to be more lax around him, he assured himself.
"Captain Tosun!" Hong smiled at him, moving a hand to Lien's back to guide him off of the ship as he spoke. He smelled of tobacco just as Lien remembered. "I'm glad I caught you." People seemed to be saying that to him a lot lately. "I was afraid you had left already! I just wanted to say good luck for the future, Lien. I know how hard you work, and you really deserve this promotion!" He grinned. He was missing one or two teeth, probably a result of his addiction. His breath was rancid, but Lien couldn't say he disliked the old man. He had been good at his job, before his lung problems set in, and had taught Lien a lot of what he knew today. Lien was sorry to see him go.
"Thank you, Captain Hong. That's very considerate of you." Lien replied as they made it off of the ramp and on to solid ground. "I hope your retirement goes well. Do you have any plans?"
Hong's dark eyes shone as he laughed. "Oh, Lien, you're so formal! Yes, I'm returning to live with my daughter. I probably don't have many years left in this old sack of skin, so I want to stay close to home until I can be with my wife again."
"That's a comforting thought," Lien agreed. "Thank you, Captain, for your service, and also for teaching me all you did. I'm thankful I could learn from you."
Hong just waved his hand in dismissal. "No, no, Lien, it's nothing! It was only my job. You're a good kid, it was no trouble. Honestly, I'm just happy I knew someone whose hair's whiter than mine!" He guffawed, clasping Lien on his shoulder. Lien politely shared the laugh. Hong collected himself and grinned at Lien again. "I'm glad you learned from me, Captain, and I hope you'll contact me before I give up the ghost. I'll keep at least one foot out of the grave until you need a favor. Feel free to ask anytime."
"Captain Hong," Lien answered, "I'm honored, but you don't have to do anything like that! You should enjoy your retirement."
Hong shook his head. "Ah, but I owe you one, Lien! Need I mention that one time—?"
Lien rose his hands defensively and shook his head quickly. "No, no, there's no need for that!"
"Then remember that, Lien. I'll see you again sometime!" Captain Hong called, waving as he merged with the faceless crowd.
Lien waved back. "Goodbye, Captain."
When Captain Hong had properly vanished among the faces of mingling crew members and strangers, Lien released a heavy sigh. He didn't dislike Captain Hong, but the man had a tendency to carry on meaningless conversation that Lien simply couldn't get behind. Even when they were on duty, Hong preferred to strike up a conversation than let the crew drift in silence. Simply put, they never took him on stealth missions.
Lien turned to confront the towering mass of cargo waiting to be unloaded from the ship. That would have to be confronted after break. Lien needed at least an hour to refresh his mind before he tackled that task. He sought out Kozu in the crowd and made his way toward him.
—
Earthbending was harder than Petra would have liked to admit. Kasai had made it sound so easy, but what did he know? It wasn't even his element. The guy might as well have been a nonbender for all the help he offered.
Her spite was mostly a product of her shame and frustration. She couldn't exactly blame her friends for her inexperience, but it wasn't necessarily her fault either. What was she supposed to do, throw bigger rocks at Shuu's windows until the UNE showed up to take her away?
But she knew the feeling Kasai had been talking about. It was a tugging at her insides, a weight in her arms; it pressed down on her like an invisible mountain. She needed to summon that feeling and control it. Earth wasn't like the other three elements. One had to establish dominance. She couldn't move with it but she couldn't go against it either. She needed to come to an agreement with the earth, but that was easier said than done.
"Ugh!" Petra stomped her foot in exasperation. "Stupid rocks. You're, like, the worst element ever!"
Jarn-Shyr fretted over to her, shaking her hands up and down to try and distract Petra from her irritation. "Hey, now," Kasai said with a sheepish smile. Petra couldn't tell if he was translating or using his own words.
"How about going through the motions again?" He suggested, or maybe it was Jarn-Shyr. Petra was losing her focus.
"We've been at it for at least an hour now," Petra argued. Jarn-Shyr shook her head and pointed up at the sun.
"'Actually, it's only been twenty minutes,' she says." Kasai announced, looking up at the sky. "Or maybe that's fifteen?" He thought aloud.
Petra groaned and plopped down onto the bank of the river. "Well, it feels like it's been forever." She sighed, staring out at the unchanged river. She hadn't managed to raise even a pebble, but somehow she felt like she'd been lifting boulders for the past several hours. If this was what it took to earthbend, she wasn't sure it was even worth it.
"M-maybe it's time for a break, then." Kasai suggested. He and Jarn-Shyr took a seat around Petra, digging out their water canteens. Petra already had hers sitting on a fallen log behind her.
They sat around for several minutes, silently drinking from their canisters. Kasai looked uncomfortable with the way no one said anything. Petra was too irritable to care. What wasn't she doing right? She knew she had the movement down, so why couldn't she get that feeling to come back? Was she messing up her stance? She would have to check next time.
Petra sighed. There would be a next time, because they didn't have another option and the others wouldn't let her quit. She thought back to the first time she had earthbent, fooling around in the backyard. She had been playing UNE versus the benders, viewing the story from both sides and not holding a bias either way; she had been younger then, without any grudge to hold against the world, so it was easy.
She remembered playing a UNE soldier, telling off an earthbender for breaking the law. But the bender had stood up against the soldier, and Petra fought in his place as well. Her mother watched on fondly as she reenacted the story she had heard a million times. The bender would stand in a steady stance, boast about feeling the earth, about understanding the world better than anyone because he could touch its soul.
That was when she had felt it the first time, the sensation of an element responding to a bender. She remembered the expression of horror on her mother's face—it was blurry, but she could still see it. Surely it hadn't been so long that Petra would forget her own mother's face?
Kasai coughed awkwardly, wrenching Petra from her thoughts. "Oh," she said, standing up suddenly and startling the other two. "I think I know what to do now," she continued, "so, uh, I'll give it another go."
"Ah—um, okay," Kasai replied slowly. "Go ahead, then. Was I being weird?" He added in a whisper to Jarn-Shyr as Petra went back to her position. Jarn-Shyr shrugged at him and they turned their attention back to the other.
Petra lowered herself into her stance. She knew the motion now, but like Kasai said that wasn't the main point of bending. If she could feel the earth, the movement would just come to her, like it had that summer evening behind her house. If she could feel the earth, she could touch it, move it, just like the man in the story.
So this time, she focused less on her actions and more on the earth around her. She listened to the river and searched beneath it. It was a little deeper than she had anticipated, she discovered, but that she could sense this at all was an improvement. She tried not to let that distract her. She pictured the scene without water, without the trees or the sky or either of the people behind her. It was just her and the earth. She felt the weight of it suck the air from her lungs. The world was very heavy. She held her ground against it, not pushing back but not crumpling beneath the pressure either. It was a standoff, and as she refused to lose. She held on to that feeling as she executed the movements Jarn-Shyr had taught her, altering them slightly to better suit her instinct. The earth backed down. The weight lessened, but didn't vanish. The only way she could describe it was acknowledgment. She felt like the earth had recognized her and only moved because of that. Rock was a stubborn substance to work with, but it yielded the sturdiest results.
When Petra snapped back to reality, her senses were assaulted. The water flooded back in and Kasai was cheering behind her, Jarn-Shyr clapping along. The forest appeared and she felt air return to her lungs. She would have to learn to breathe while she did that.
"Nice job, Petra!" Kasai exclaimed, coming up behind her and giving her a heavy clap on the back. Petra stumbled forward, her knees almost giving way. She felt absolutely drained. So much for not exhausting herself just to cross a river. Kasai caught her arm and helped steady her before she fell.
"Don't die yet!" He and Jarn-Shyr went to gather their things. "That's a pretty impressive bridge. I couldn't do anything that fancy with fire," he admitted in a quieter voice. "I think Jarn-Shyr's holdin' out on me. She thinks I'm too weak to handle anything cool."
Jarn-Shyr shot him a glare, making him jump behind Petra for protection. "Ahh, you're so mean to me, Jarn-Shyr!" He wailed. "I am-too responsible enough to not burn down the camp!"
Jarn-Shyr scoffed and Petra laughed. "Is that really what she said?" Petra asked. "It's so true, though."
Jarn-Shyr gave her an easy look to read. I know, right? it said. Petra laughed again. "You guys kill me."
—
Harumi's head appeared again, this time among several boxes of cargo. "Is the coast clear?" She asked Chee, whose head popped out of her shirt moments later. He chittered a response. "Good," Harumi said, scanning the area a final time.
She took a breath, bracing herself for the next thirty seconds. She didn't have any other choice. Everything she had done to get here was illegal anyway, so doing this wouldn't be much worse. It was her only option. It was her only choice. She just had to keep telling herself these things.
Making sure her cloak was secure around her shoulders, she jumped over a box and darted out into the open.
—
Petra, Kasai and Jarn-Shyr gathered their belongings and set off across the bridge at noon, watching their steps on the shakier parts. Water rose up to meet them, soaking Petra's boots and the edges of Jarn-Shyr's skirt. She lifted the fabric above her ankles to try and keep it from getting any worse.
"Oh my gosh, you guys, oh my gosh, oh my—! Oh spirits," Kasai fretted about breathlessly behind them, clinging to Jarn-Shyr and making a pathetic whimpering noise when the water splash up his leg. Petra rolled her eyes so hard it hurt.
"Kasai!" She called back as he yelped again. "It's just water! It's not going to kill you! You drink it all the time!"
"It's not the water that scares me!" Kasai shouted back indignantly, sounding flustered. "I just don't want to get pulled in if a freak wave comes along! You could have made your bridge a little wider!"
Petra grumbled irritably. He was pointing out something she had noted as soon as she had bent the earth. But it was too late now—she didn't have it in her to widen the bridge and she was too proud to admit she had messed up. They were halfway across, he could hang on until they reached the other side. "If you wanted something better, maybe you shouldn't've set your expectations so high for an inexperienced beginner, Kasai."
"I know, I'm sorry!" Kasai agonized. "I'm just really concerned about drowning, is all! You know I sink like a—AH!"
Petra snapped her head around so fast she almost got whiplash. Focused on his worrying, Kasai's foot had slipped on a particularly slick section of the bridge. He pitched to the left, his leg plunging into the cool river water.
Petra lurched forward to help him, but Jarn-Shyr was both faster and closer. She steadied herself on the bridge and shot her hands forward, one grabbing his right wrist and the other hooking under his left armpit.
His momentum pulled her with him, so Petra jumped in to steady them completely. Kasai's foot scrabbled for a hold as Petra and Jarn-Shyr pulled him back to safety. His face was white with terror. He looked like he was going to be sick.
"You alright?!" Petra gasped, her knees shaking as the adrenaline that had thrown her into action wore off.
"Y-yeah," Kasai stuttered, mumbling his thanks. Petra suddenly wasn't so annoyed with him anymore.
"Let's keep going," she suggested, calmer now. They inched along more carefully, and for once Kasai didn't try to speak up. Petra glanced back at him to make sure it wasn't because he actually had drowned. He stared determinedly at his feet, probably to hide his flaming face as much as to make sure he didn't slip up again. He clutched at one of Jarn-Shyr's hand with his own. She didn't seem to mind. Petra made a mental note to widen the bridge next time.
—
Lien pretended not to notice the crinkling in his pocket. He ignored it during break and he ignored it while instructing the laborers to move the cargo. He didn't want to deal with that problem yet, but eventually he couldn't put it off any longer.
He agreed to the drink with Kozu, not because he was actually going to drink (He was an underaged government official, after all. What kind of example would that set?), but because he wanted another distraction. But sooner than later he left, disgusted by his friend's drunken antics.
It was evening now, and Lien was dismissed to his quarters aboard the ship for the night. He entered his newly-inherited private cabin, one of the perks of his promotion. It smelled like Captain Hong's tobacco, much to his chagrin. Now it would soak into his clothes and people would smell it on him. He hoped the smell alone wasn't enough to affect his lungs.
Changing out of his uniform, Lien almost didn't notice the scroll that fell to the floor, neatly tied with a black ribbon. He froze halfway through removing his trousers. Leaning down, he picked the scroll up, set it on the cot and finished preparing for bed. He came back to it with a sigh, running his hand through his too-white hair and undoing the ribbon reluctantly.
This was a problem. It was also an opportunity. Lien wasn't sure whether he was supposed to feel dread or excitement, but a mixture of both settled in the pit of his stomach as he reviewed the letter once more.
Captain Lien Tosun, the note read.
Congratulations on your promotion. I'm sure you'll work hard to live up to the title. Fortunately, opportunity knocks at unexpected moments. As you know, the government has been taking in several people suspected of housing benders.
Recently, a woman was arrested for hiding her daughter, a suspected bender, from the government for several years. Eventually, we were able to work some surprising information from her. It's amazing how loud a bird will sing with enough incentive.
Lien suppressed a shiver. That was hardly subtle. He knew the lengths the government would go to for information and just thinking about it made him scowl with distaste.
The Avatar is heading your way, Captain. We don't know what she looks like—the witch wouldn't tell us that much. We've discarded her since getting what we could. The Avatar should be there by the time you dock in the Central Kingdom. We know she's headed to the Western Archipelago, so chances are she'll board your ship. I want you to find her and arrest her. I'm securing an heirloom with this message. See if you can use it to expose her. It should provoke a reaction—it was her mother's, after all.
It was signed simply with the UNE crest, but Lien knew this handwriting. This letter came directly from the ringleader himself.
As promised, a necklace had been attached to the message. It was a simple leather string linking four clay beads colored yellow, blue, green and red. Lien scoffed softly. How could any ally of the benders be so blatantly obvious? It was only a matter of time for that woman, he admitted grimly.
Rolling the scroll up again and setting the necklace beside it, he sighed and tucked himself into his cot. Tomorrow was shaping up to be a long day.
—
{I made this chapter a bit longer, to my own surprise. I had planned to stop writing right after Petra built the bridge, but my hands decided to keep typing. Suggestions are appreciated. Thanks for reading! ^u^}