Chapter 13:
Freya walked around the camp beginning to pack away a few things as Katara and Sokka slept on a few tree stumps that littered their clearing and Aang was curled up on Appa's leg. The girl climbed onto Appa to tuck away the supplies as Momo crawled over to Sokka interestingly.
Freya yawned as she shook her head, stretching slightly. She stood and made a bending stance before she practiced through her stances. Fire flared from her fist and caught a branch on fire but Freya moved her arms and the fire drew away from it and into her hands. She rounded the flames before clamping her hands together and extinguishing them.
Freya released a breath before Sokka suddenly started gasping and spitting behind her. She turned to see Momo was lying on his chest.
"What are you doing in my mouth!" Momo ate the bug he'd pulled from Sokka's mouth as he was sitting upside down on his head. "Momo, you need to be a little more sensitive to my boundaries." Sokka said to the animal as it sat up and looked off through the trees.
"You're the one who had a spider in his mouth." Freya admitted as she added something else to Appa's saddle. Freya slid back down as Momo came and scurried around her body chattering away.
"What's wrong Momo?" Freya asked as Katara sat up, having been awoken by the lemur.
In an answer to her question the ground began to rumble and Aang's snoring came to a halt as he jumped awake.
Suddenly from the trees a rhino jumped out with a man with a beard on it's back. Katara gasped as another, it's rider wearing a helmet, appeared opposite the first.
Two more appeared and the four looked around surprised as the rhinos were everywhere.
"Give up! You're completely surrounded!" One rhino sat up on a stone ledge as the rhinos began to circle the group. One of them had a bow and loaded it with flaming arrows as Sokka wriggled across the floor. Freya and Aang had already jumped onto Appa as Sokka crawled from his sleeping bag that caught fire when the flaming arrows hit it. Katara ran towards them in a hurry to climb the bison.
"Come on, come on, come on!" Sokka shouted before Katara stopped and turned back to a box she had on a stump.
"My scrolls!" One of the men stabbed his spear into the ground beside said stump as Aang looked up worried
"My staff!" Aang jumped off the bison as Sokka climbed on and Freya took the air bender's spot, taking the reins in her hands. Katara froze the spear to the stump and grabbed her scroll box before the man broke his spear from the ice. Aang jumped a giant tree as one of the men wrapped a chain around it and pulled it down, intending to flatten the avatar. One clicked a spark onto an explosive before throwing it over the tree towards Aang who reached for his staff.
"Aang!" Freya worried but the boy hit it off behind him to explode among the trees before he ran back and jumped onto Appa.
"Yip! Yip!" Freya flicked the reins and the bison launched into the air. The leader shot his fist and fire flared at the group causing Katara and Sokka to duck.
"Wait, my boomerang!" Sokka remembered. It was sitting by his burning sleeping bag on the floor.
"There's no time!" Katara decided
"Oh, I see. There's time to get your scrolls and time to get your staff, but no time for my boomerang?" he demanded
"That's correct!" Katara grinned
"Oh." Sokka slumped
"You should have remembered before we took off Sokka. We can't go back now." Freya called as they flew over the trees.
"No. Which means we're going to need to find some food somewhere." Katara realised
"Well luckily for you lot I packed most of our stuff before you woke up." Freya said "Including our money." the benders grinned as Sokka was still sulking.
The four landed the bison once the sun had fully risen near a small shop, where they moved to buy some more supplies to replace what was lost. Aang had his hat over his head to hide his arrow as Sokka was slumped on the ground, his head in his knees and his arms crossed around them while the two girls paid the merchant.
"Sorry about your boomerang, Sokka." Aang frowned
"I feel like I've lost part of my identity. Imagine if you lost your arrow," Sokka complained, getting to his feet and moving the boys hat to point at it "or if Katara lost her…" Sokka turned to Katara who was watching him confused "…hair loopies." he circled his finger beside his head. "Or if Freya lost…" he paused and the she rose an eyebrow. Sokka had nothing as he moved forwards and Katara gave him a hug as the merchant gave them a basket, smiling.
"Here's your produce, ponytail guy." he said
"I used to be boomerang guy…" Sokka frowned as he took the basket and walked back towards Appa as Momo sat on Aang's hat.
"We're going to have to deal with this all day, aren't we?" Freya grumbled with a sigh. The Merchant left his store to round the corner and approach Katara who then smiled and handed over some coins.
"Hey, Water Tribe money." the merchant noticed as he held it up.
"I hope that's okay." Katara looked worried for a second
"So long as it's money." He turned to close the opening to his shop as the three moved off after Sokka. "Have a nice Avatar Day!"
The three stopped as Sokka was slumped over on the road.
"Avatar Day?" Aang asked as Sokka looked up, weeping.
"You guys are going to the festival, right?" the Merchant asked as he turned to them. He continued to walk without waiting for an answer.
"Well I don't think the Avatar can miss his own festival." Freya believed as she, Katara and Aang shared a smile.
On the edge of the cliff there was a rather circular town, the houses were all focused around a square and right on the edge of the cliff there was a small shrine. The four moved through the town and around the crowds. Hanging over the town were green lanterns and banners as everyone wore the pale green Earth Kingdom outfits.
"There's a holiday for the Avatar. Who knew?" Aang said as they looked around. Behind them a float suddenly rolled past down the centre of the town. It was a giant statue of Kiyoshi.
"Look! They made a giant Kiyoshi float." Katara pointed. The four ran around to get a closer look, reaching a square in which everyone was gathered around.
"And here comes Avatar Roku." Sokka pointed as they joined the spectators.
"Having a huge festival in your honour is great, but frankly, it's just nice to be appreciated." Aang smiled
"And it's nice to appreciate their deep-fried festival food." Sokka beamed as he took a bite out of a roll.
"You'd think he'd forgotten all about his boomerang." Freya muttered and Katara chuckled.
"Aang, look!" Katara caught their attentions as a Giant Aang rolled down after Avatar Roku and passed by them.
"That's the biggest me I've ever seen." Aang smiled
"Well you'd want to hope you haven't seen more of you." Freya mumbled as the three avatars were lined up beside one another.
Through the town came a man, wearing rather little, and carrying a flaming torch in his hand, holding it in the air like it was ceremonial.
"Now a torch; that's a nice prop. It's bright, dangerous…" Sokka breathing in deeply "... smells manly. But I'm not sure I could carry it off." he took another bite of his bun.
"You and fire?" Freya asked with a raised eyebrow "I'd rather not be cleaning up that mess." Aang laughed as Katara watched the guy with the flaming torch.
"Hey, what's that guy doing?" Katara asked pointing as the kids in front of them were cheering.
The guy with the torch ran straight at the Kiyoshi float and suddenly jumped straight through it with a shout, the fire caught on the float and the entire of Kiyoshi's statue went up in flames.
"Down with the Avatar! Down with the Avatar! Down with the Avatar!"
"Uh… they're not celebrating you…" Freya realised as the man next moved over to Roku and lit his statue on fire as well. Aang looked at them sadly, as Freya looked surprised.
They watched as the man climbed onto the roof opposite the two flaming floats and the large Aang before a man waved his hand and he grinned, raising his hand to throw the flaming torch. It flew through the air and landed straight on Aang right eye, catching the giant avatar on fire like it's predecessors.
"How rude!" Freya complained angrily as Aang turned away and the people cheered around them.
"Freya!" Katara ran forwards and the older girl followed before they both jumped and water leapt out of jugs sitting around the square, three separate splashes flying up and splashing all over the three flaming floats. The fires were put out instantly and smoke rose from the three as the cheering all stopped.
"Hey! Those party-poopers are ruining Avatar Day!" A man next to Aang and Sokka pointed at the two girls.
"You're not celebrating the Avatar so what gives you the right to have a holiday for him!?" Freya shouted back.
Aang looked annoyed before he jumped up and landed on the shoulder of his own statue.
"That party-pooper's my friend!" he shouted down before removing his hat to expose the arrow on his head.
"It's the Avatar himself!" A man wearing deep green stood behind Freya and Katara and pointed at Aang worried.
"It's going to kill us with its awesome Avatar powers!" one guy worried
"No, I'm not, I…" Aang began, raising one of his hands. Everyone suddenly ducked and began to cower, the man who'd spoken diving into the crowd. Aang looked at his hand before lowing it.
"I suggest you leave. You're not welcome here, Avatar." The green man declared as he got up from where he'd collapsed in fear on the floor.
"Why?" Freya demanded
"Why not? Aang helps people." Katara admitted.
"It's true." Aang airbended himself down beside Katara and Freya to look at the man confused. "I'm on your side."
"I find that hard to swallow considering what you did to us in your past life. It was Avatar Kiyoshi; she murdered our glorious leader, Chin the Great." the man pointed at Kiyoshi's float
"You think that I... murdered someone…" Aang asked surprised
"We used to be a great society before you killed our leader." A man pointed at himself, he had hair growing from his chin into a beard, forming sideburns, he had one lazy eye, very bushy eyebrows and hair growing out of his ears as he was hunched over. "Now look at us!"
Aang cringed back gasping.
"Aang would never do something like that. No Avatar would." Katara believed pointing at the crowd.
"And even if Kiyoshi did, what right have you to blame Aang for it. Each Avatar is completely different and cannot be accountable for what they did in a past life!" Freya believed annoyed.
"And it's not fair for you all to question his honour!" Katara thought
"Let's tell her what we think of the Avatar's "honour."" A guy spun around and shook his butt at them while blowing a raspberry.
"How childish are you?" Freya demanded. But the crowd began to shake their fists and complain at the group.
Aang stepped forwards regardless.
"Give me a chance to clear my name." he shouted
"The only way to prove your innocence is to stand trial." The mayor declared
"I'll gladly stand trial." Aang promised confidently
"You'll have to follow all our rules. That includes paying bail." he held his hand out expectantly.
"No problem."
It was a problem. Aang ended up in a pillory and locked into an outside cell.
Katara had her head in her hands as Sokka leaned on the barred round window ledge while Freya looked a the airbender with a raised eyebrow.
"How was I supposed to know they wouldn't take Water Tribe money?"
"You're supposed to ask, not just declare it fine." Freya sighed exasperated.
"But now what?" Aang asked "How do I clear my name?"
"So some people don't like you. Big deal! There's a whole nation of firebenders who hate you. Now let's bust you out of here." Sokka decided
"I can't." Aang decided
"Sure you can! A little… swish, swish, swish! Airbending slice!… and we're on our way." Sokka decided as he waved his arms around and danced around the room. Aang rose an eyebrow at him.
Katara and Freya rose an eyebrow at the man before sharing a look.
"I think what "Master Swish" is trying to say is that you're supposed to be out saving the world. You can't do that locked up in here." Katara reminded Aang.
"We also don't have heaps of time to spend delegating with these people." Freya admitted.
"I can't do that with people thinking I'm a murderer, either. I need you guys to help prove my innocence." Aang decided. Freya groaned
"Why do you have to care?" she mumbled
"How're we gonna do that? The crime happened over three hundred years ago." Sokka reminded the boy
"That's okay, Sokka." Aang said shrewdly "For some reason, I thought you were an expert detective."
"Well, I guess I could be classified as such." Sokka said looking very important and Freya had to cover her mouth to stop her from laughing.
"Yeah! Back home he was famous for solving the mystery of the missing seal jerky." Katara added, playing along with Aang.
"Everyone wanted to blame it on a polar leopard, but I figured out that it was Old Man Jarco wearing polar leopard boots. See, a real eight hundred pound polar leopard would have left much deeper tracks. Okay, I guess I am pretty good." Sokka bragged.
Katara sighed shaking her head. Freya just watched him almost as if she was amazed. Aang started making faces and waving his arms as he imitated and mocked Sokka and the two girls had to stop themselves from laughing until the boy was done bragging.
"So you'll help me with my case?" Aang asked when Sokka was done.
"Fine. But I'm gonna need some new props." Sokka decided.
Sokka ended up with a strange blue hat on his head, flaps hanging out to either side and pointing up off the top.
Freya and Katara stared at him.
"I'm ready." the boy pulled a magnifying glass out from the hat, and extended it as Katara started laughing. "What?" he demanded.
Freya looked at Aang and the boy was chuckling as well.
"Well then master detective where should we start?" Freya asked
"With the crime scene!" Sokka declared
"Which is?" Freya continued
"Let's ask the Mayor." Katara offered and Sokka nodded in agreement before he turned to leave.
"Sit tight Aang." Freya said and he nodded, giving the thumbs up before the two girls followed the older boy.
They found the mayor and he escorted them through the village. There was an amphitheater at the end by the very edge of the cliff, several stands faced the shrine that stood at the edge and a statue of a man.
"This is the crime scene." he indicated and Sokka instantly moved forwards to look around. He moved to the temple and extended the magnifying glass over his eye to look at the stone it was made from. Katara and Freya watched the boy as he ran up the stairs and got a closer look. The Mayor however moved past the shrine to the very tip of the cliff were the pathway ended, as though it had once continued and the earth had dropped away, cutting it off.
"This is the footprint of the killer, Kiyoshi." There was a foot print in the dirt and Freya didn't understand how they'd managed to keep a footprint around for almost four hundred years without the rain washing it away. It was a small print and Sokka got down onto his knees to push his eye glass into the dirt and examine the foot print. "It was at sunset three hundred and seventy years ago today that she emerged from the temple and struck down," he moved from Sokka, Katara and Freya who'd looked at the footprint and pointed to the temple and then indicated to the statue of an Earth Kingdom soldier. "Chin the Great. After that tragic day, we built this statue to immortalise our great leader. Feel free to appreciate it." They approached the statue which was made of what looked like pink stone. It was very similar to the stone the temple was made from. When he'd finished telling the story the Mayor turned and walked away, leaving the three.
Sokka ran towards the statue. He peeked at it from several angles before standing to eye the man's feet.
The girls watched as he suddenly ran past them and back to the temple.
"This temple and this statue were cut from the same stone." he declared as he kneeled down to look at the stone of the temple. "And we know that the statue was built after Chin died."
"So if they were built at the same time, that means…" Katara began excitedly.
Sokka cut her off.
"Shhh! I wanna solve it!" he demanded as he sprang up in front of her. "That means Kiyoshi never set foot in this temple." Sokka said pointing at it.
"That's a big hole in the mayor's story, but it's not enough to prove Aang's innocence." Katara believed.
"It's also not very important to the story. It doesn't matter if Kiyoshi was in the temple or not, she still could have murdered Chin." Freya admitted.
"You're right." Sokka agreed. He suddenly rose a bubble blower pipe with a dragon head at the end which wove it's tail around the pipe. Freya rose an eyebrow as the boy blew bubbles out of it. "We need to go to Kiyoshi Island." he decided
"Where'd you get that?" Katara wondered
"Why do you have that?" Freya asked.
"It is important to my props." Sokka decided
"It's not, but fine." Freya agreed. "Let's go get Appa. Kiyoshi Island isn't far from here." She pointed towards the water before the two siblings nodded in agreement.
They found the bison and Sokka took the reins, demanding he was in charge and the girls climbed into the saddle before they took off and soared over the ocean. As Freya had said Kiyoshi Island came into view rather quickly. A bell was rang as the bison was spotted and people began to run out of the houses and crowd together in excitement for their landing.
They landed near Kiyoshi's statue as the people called and shouted. One guy pushed his way to the front and with a giant gasp he turned to those around him and started to point and speak, though no words managed to make it through. He quickly started cheering and screaming until foam built up in his mouth and he collapsed to the floor.
Katara, Freya and Sokka waved from the bison before the little girl Koko realised Aang was missing
"Where's Aangy?" she demanded, stomping her foot.
"He couldn't be here, Koko." Katara admitted as the three climbed down.
There was a collective sigh of disappointment around the towns people and the foamed mouth guy got to his feet, and wiped his mouth embarrassingly before he pulled his kimono over his head to hide himself.
"I wanted to see Aangy…" The crowd began to disperse and walk away as Oyagi moved towards them.
"Oyagi! Aang is in jail. The town of Chin says he murdered their leader in a past life." Katara explained
"They say it was Kiyoshi." Sokka admitted suspiciously, looking silly with his hat and pipe.
"Kiyoshi? That's crazy talk!" Oyagi believed "I'll take you to her shrine. Maybe something there will help you clear her name."
"And Aang's." the three followed the man through the town and on their way they passed the dojo where Suki and the other warriors had trained.
"So, uh... what's Suki up to? Is she around?" Sokka asked as he eyed the dojo before looking around, Katara and Freya smirked slightly.
"Actually, she and the other warriors left to fight in the war." Oyagi admitted "You kids had a big impact on Suki. She said you inspired her and she wanted to help change the world."
"Oh, well... that's great." Sokka said, but he frowned as they walked up the hill towards a temple, walking under a Tori gate as the temple sat on the edge of a cliff.
"Don't worry, with her travelling and us travelling it's only likely that we'll bump into her soon." Freya believed as she glanced out across the ocean, her mind on a different possibility. Katara looked at the girl curiously before Oyagi started talking and caught they attentions' again.
"This temple was converted into a shrine to Kiyoshi." They entered the shrine to find a head statue of Kiyoshi in the centre of the room. Several artefacts covered the walls, including a set of fans the Kiyoshi warriors had used and an outfit and boots very similar as well, a few jugs and other ornaments joined them as on the back wall was a painting.
"The clerics tell us these relics are still connected to her spirit. That's her kimono." Oyagi pointed as Katara moved over to it.
"She had exquisite taste." Katara believed as she touched the fabric.
"Please don't touch." Oyagi stammered out quickly at Katara.
"Bit heavy for me, looks hard to move in. But Earth Benders are strong so." Freya shrugged before she walked over to the painting on the back wall.
"These fans… they were her weapons, no?" Sokka asked as he eyed them closely, picking one up.
"Also refrain from touching the fans." Oyagi said wearily.
"These were her boots? Her feet must have been enormous!" Katara's shoes were half the size of the old avatar's boots. Momo suddenly popped out of one of the boots before the girl.
"The biggest of any Avatar." Oyagi exclaimed proudly.
"Wait a minute... big feet?" Katara asked in realisation "Little footprints?" she gasped "There's no way—!" Katara turned to see Sokka looking annoyed at her as he interrupted.
"Ahem. Special outfit. Hat and pipe. These things mean anything to you?" he questioned
"Well then solve the mystery sooner." Freya mumbled as she crossed her arms.
"You're right. I'm sorry. Please." Katara said mockingly.
"Aha!" Sokka continued dramatically. "There's no way Kiyoshi could have made that footprint and therefore there is nothing linking her to the crime scene!"
"Brilliant, Sokka." Katara said unimpressed.
"Oyagi, what's this tapestry for?" Freya asked after she rolled her eyes and turned back to it. It had the shrine they were currently standing in as well as several people and Kiyoshi painted upon it.
"This piece is called "The Birth of Kiyoshi."," Sokka, Katara and Oyagi joined the duo bender to look at the piece. "It was painted at sunrise on the day this island was founded. Why, it was today, in fact, three hundred and seventy years ago."
Sokka suddenly spat out his pipe in surprise before turning to Oyagi.
"Three hundred and seventy years... wait," he grabbed the front of Oyagi's lapels "are you sure it was today?"
"Seeing how it's Kiyoshi Day, yes," he threw Sokka backwards annoyed. "I'm sure."
"Well I don't blame him for being suspicious, you're stories slightly wrong according to this painting." Freya admitted and Sokka coughed and looked annoyed. "Well hurry up!" she demanded
"This ceremony didn't take place at sunrise; it took place at sunset. Look at the shadows." he indicated.
"They point east. So the sun must have been in the west." Katara noticed
"So what?" Oyagi asked
"So it was painted at Sunset not sunrise, might want to fix that part of your history." Freya added as Katara spoke up to explain. Sokka however pushed Katara out of the way to speak himself.
"If Kiyoshi was in the ceremony at sunset, she couldn't have been in Chin committing the crime." he spun to point his pipe at Freya and the sudden movement caused his magnifying glass to spin around his hat. "She has an alibi!"
"Which means she's innocent and therefore so is Aang." Freya grinned "Great, let's go tell him!"
Katara suddenly grabbed her brother's pipe and bashed him on the head with it, causing Freya to blink in surprise.
"Yeah you deserved that." she decided before the two girls followed Oyagi from the shrine.
"Wait!" Sokka called before getting up to follow them.