Chapter Twelve: White Lotus

The sun began to set, bathing everything in a hazy, golden light. As we traveled closer to the North Pole, the days became shorter and shorter, and we had to set up camp much more often. We were walking through the forest, looking for the safest place to rest, until we came across a large message board in the center of the path.

Katara walked over to it and examined the poster plastered on the front. "This should give us a good idea of what's around here."

Sokka clutched his growling stomach. "See if you can find a menu. I'm starving."

"Or maybe a village, so we can restock on supplies," I said.

Aang pointed to a colorful flyer. "I bet we'll find something to eat here! The Fire Days Festival. Fire Nation cultural exhibits, jugglers, benders, and magicians. This'd be a great place for me to study some real fire-benders."

Sokka walked over to the other side of the message board and frowned. "You might wanna rethink that. Look at this."

We walked around to see what he was talking about and saw a flyer with Aang's picture on it.

Aang smiled. "Hey, a poster of me."

"A wanted poster. This is bad," Sokka said.

I examined the other wanted posters on the board. A few were of some men I didn't recognize, and then there was one for the Blue Spirit. I narrowed my eyes at the drawing. It was the same mask Zuko had worn when he saved Aang and me from Zhao.

Looks like someone's gotten himself into trouble. I bit my lip. Why do you have to be such a mystery?

I don't know why I was having this draw to the prince. Was it because he was kind of cute? No, I knew better than to be that foolish. Maybe it was because his actions continued to confuse me? Despite his persistence, Zuko had shown so much restraint. He hadn't harmed Sokka or Katara beyond paralyzing them with that creepy animal, and he even tried to be merciful towards me. If it had been Zhao or any other soldiers, I know we wouldn't have gotten off that easily.

Still, I couldn't let my guard down just because Zuko seemed nicer than the rest. My threat to him during our last fight was very real, and yet, a part of me hated that it might come to fruition. I kept myself to a strict code of only killing in the heat of battle with Zhao being my only exception. However, as much as I wasn't confident in Aang's ability to be our savior from this war, I also would never allow the Fire Nation to take him away. Aang was a beacon of hope for the rest of the world, and I would do whatever it took to make sure that hope stayed alive.

"I think we better keep moving," Katara said.

Aang looked at her. "But I have to learn fire-bending at some point, and this could be my only chance to watch some masters up close."

She shrugged. "I guess we could check it out."

"What? I can't believe you two. You wanna walk into a Fire Nation town where they're all fired up with all of their, you know, fire?" Sokka waved his arms in the air before looking at me. "Tashi, help me out here."

"I agree with Sokka. Colonial villages are too risky, and we shouldn't draw any unnecessary attention to ourselves." I folded my arms. "Besides, aren't you supposed to learn water-bending, then earth, and then fire, Aang?"

"Yeah, and who's supposed to teach me? The only way to learn is in secret," he said.

"I'm sure it'll be fine to observe from a safe distance." Katara smiled. "We'll wear disguises, and if it looks like trouble, we'll leave."

Sokka rolled his eyes. "Yeah, because we always leave before we get into trouble."

Aang nodded. "It's decided then."

"Excuse me? Nothing's decided." Sokka crossed his arms in a 'X' motion. "We have two votes for going and two for leaving. It's a tie."

"Then we'll break it with a coin toss." Aang pulled a copper piece from his pocket. "Heads, we go to the festival. Tails, we don't."

He tossed it up into the air, and the coin landed directly on Sokka's forehead. Aang checked it and grinned.

"Heads!" he said.

Sokka frowned as the coin slid off of his forehead and onto the ground. "Great."

We traveled to the end of the path, which stopped at a cliff that overlooked the Fire Nation colonial village.

Aang turned to Appa and Momo. "You guys stay out of sight while we go to the festival.

Momo hid behind one of the bushes. Appa did the same even though he was still visible.

He turned toward us. "Ready disguises."

Katara, Sokka, and I put on our cloaks. Aang pulled his tunic over his head and gave us an awkward smile.

Sokka rolled his eyes. "It's like you're a whole different person."

"Maybe this isn't a good idea. You can't go into the village like that," I said.

"It'll be fine." Aang headed down the hill. "Let's go."

….

Night fell by the time we reached the village, and I had to admit it definitely looked fun. Fireworks flew out toward the sky, there were performers of all types, and children were running around playing with sparklers. Unfortunately, we didn't fit in as much as we hoped. Aside from our clothes not matching the typical red and gold pattern of the Fire Nation, the adults were all wearing masks.

Katara furrowed her brow. "I think we need some new disguises."

Sokka groaned. "Where are we gonna get masks like that?"

"Get your genuine Fire Festival Masks here!" A peddler called from our right.

"That was surprisingly easy," Sokka said.

We walked over to the peddler and picked out our masks. Katara picked a plain female mask, Aang took a sad jester, and Sokka took a cheerful spirit.

"I don't think those suit you two," I said.

Katara glanced between the boys before switching their masks. "She's right."

"And what about you, young lady?" the peddler said.

I glanced over the masks and noticed a light blue one that looked like a dragon. "I'll take this one."

"Good eye." The peddler handed me the mask. "You'd make a lovely dragon empress."

I raised an eyebrow. "Dragon empress?"

"Why from the play, Love Amongst the Dragons," he said.

"Oh." I put the mask on. "Sorry, but I'm not well versed in plays."

It only covered half of my face, which was fine with me, for I didn't stand out as much as the others anyway. We paid for the masks before Sokka went to search for some food.

"Hey, look at this." Aang wandered off toward a large crowd.

"Aang, hold on." Katara followed him. "Where are you going?"

"I don't know. But there's a big crowd, so it must be good," he said.

"Knowing the Fire Nation, it's probably an execution," Sokka grumbled.

"Then we shouldn't be too obvious about our aversion to this place. Lighten up a little." I nudged him before following Katara and Aang.

It turned out the crowd wasn't for an execution, but a magic show. With his fire-bending, the magician performed a bunch of tricks and turned his flames into a flock of birds.

"I've gotta learn that trick," Aang said.

The magician bowed. "Thank you. For my next trick, I need a volunteer from the audience."

Aang raised his hand to get the magician's attention, but I quickly pulled his arm down.

"Are you trying to get us caught?" I said through gritted teeth.

"I just want to get a closer look," Aang said.

Katara shook her head. "It's better if we don't draw any attention to ourselves."

Unfortunately, the magician noticed Katara, and with some encouragement from the crowd, coerced her to go up on stage. He tied her to a chair as a captured princess, and created a dragon with his fire. Everything was going fine until it looked like he was going to throw the fire at Katara. Aang jumped in the way before he could and dispersed the flames with a whirlwind of air, causing them to turn into confetti.

"Oh no," I said.

Aang's mask had fallen off and someone in the crowd called for the guards. Sokka jumped onto the stage to free Katara, and I took Aang by the hand as we fled from the stage.

"Follow me. I can get you out of here."

We saw a cloaked man hidden at the edge of the crowd, and with no other choice, we decided to follow him. We ran until we reached a dead end. Aang called for Appa with his bison whistle, and just as we were cornered, Appa swooped in to save us. The cloaked man set off a bomb into a batch of fireworks, setting them off, and we were able to escape without being followed.

"Well, that was close." I removed my mask and stuffed it into the pocket in my cloak.

Aang smiled at the cloaked man. "Thanks for helping us back there."

"You really seem to know your explosives," Sokka said.

The man turned to us, revealing his face. "I'm familiar."

My eyes widened a little. He looked like one of the men I saw on the wanted posters.

"You're a Fire Nation soldier," Sokka said.

"Was." The man turned to us, revealing his face. "My name's Chey."

….

Once we were a safe distance from the colonial village, we set up camp in the middle of the forest. We sat in a circle around the campfire.

"I serve a man. More than a man really, he's a myth, but he's real, a living legend, Jeong Jeong, the Deserter. He was a Fire Nation general, or wait, was he an admiral?" Chey said.

Sokka folded his arms. "He was very highly ranked. We get it."

"Yeah. Way up there. But he couldn't take the madness any more. He's the first person ever to leave the army and live. I'm the second, but you don't get to be a legend for that. That's okay though. Jeong Jeong's a fire-bending genius. Some say he's mad… but he's not. He's enlightened," Chey said.

Aang stood up. "You mean there's a fire-bender out here who's not with the Fire Lord? We've gotta go see him. He can train me."

Sokka shook his head. "We're not gonna go find some crazy fire-bender."

"He's not crazy. He's a genius. And he's the perfect person to train the Avatar. That's why I followed you into the festival," Chey said.

"Look, thanks for the help." Sokka shook his head. "But we're leaving for the North Pole in the morning."

Aang walked up to Sokka with a pleading face. "Sokka, this could be my only chance to meet a fire-bending master, who'd actually be willing to teach me."

Katara nodded. "It can't hurt just to talk to him."

"That's what you said about going to the festival." Throwing his hands up in the air, Sokka groaned. "Why doesn't anyone ever listen to me?"

"Maybe we should go. I remember seeing Jeong Jeong on the wanted posters, so this guy's story seems legit." Narrowing my eyes, I walked over to Chey and pointed a finger in his face. "But this better not be some kind of trap; otherwise, you and I will have a problem. And trust me. You don't want that."

The moment I turned away from him, we were ambushed by an army of men with spears. I wasn't sure what their association was, for they were dressed in straw hats and clothes. Maybe they were bounty hunters?

"Don't move," the leader of the group said.

I glared at Chey. "What's going on?"

Chey held his hands in the air. "It's okay. These guys are with me. With Jeong Jeong. It's cool."

"Doesn't sound cool to me." Sokka reluctantly held his hands in the air.

I shared a glance with Sokka, Katara, and Aang. Despite their shock, they were willing to trust this suspicious group, and I sighed. If they weren't going to fight, neither was I, but I hoped this situation didn't become worse. We were led to what seemed to be a hideout by the a river. There were a few huts nearby and even more men from this group.

"I don't like this," I said.

Sokka nodded. "Yeah, but we're pretty much stuck now."

Once we reached the end of the river the men forced us to stop walking, and one of them shoved Chey forward toward the last hut.

"Go on. He sees you only," one of the men said.

"Oh. That's okay." Chey smiled at us. "We can chat later."

"Is that where Jeong Jeong is?" Aang stepped forward. "I need to talk to him right away."

"No." One of the men stopped him.

Chey went on ahead while we were forced to wait outside. Thankfully, the men gave us some freedom, so we could sit down and relax. A few minutes later, Chey exited the hut and walked over to us.

"What happened? Can I see Jeong Jeong now?" Aang said.

Chey shook his head. "He won't see you. He's very angry that I brought you here. He wants you to leave immediately."

Sokka stood. "Finally! Let's hit the road."

Aang furrowed his brow. "Why won't he see me?"

"He says you're not ready. He could tell by the way you walked into camp that you haven't mastered water-bending or earth-bending yet," Chey said.

"I'm going in anyway." Aang pushed past Chey.

I stood and placed a hand on Aang's shoulder. "Wait, Aang. Just think this through."

He turned around. "What's there to think about? I need to learn fire-bending."

"If this Jeong Jeong guy doesn't wanna teach you yet, it's for a good reason." I placed my hands on my hips. "I'm sure these guys aren't going anywhere. Why don't we just arrange for Jeong Jeong to teach you later?"

"And what if we can't find him later? I need to learn now." He walked away.

I sighed and sat back down. "This won't end well."

….

The next morning, Sokka had occupied himself with fishing, Katara was practicing more water-bending moves from her scroll, and I decided to continue practicing the few moves Aang had shown me. Why were we doing these things instead of leaving? Well, I don't know how, but Aang was able to convince this Jeong Jeong guy to train him.

While that was great, it threw our plans completely off schedule. How long were we going to be here, and did Aang completely forget that we were being tracked by Zuko and Zhao? We would have to move on at some point, which would cut his training short anyway, but he was too impatient to understand that.

I finally saw Aang emerge from Jeong Jeong's hut with the master himself. He appeared to be in his sixties. His hair was white and unruly, and he had three, thin slash-like scars on his right cheek. Aang perched himself on a rock that rested in the shallow parts of the river and got into a basic stance.

Jeong Jeong watched him. "Widen your stance."

Aang did so.

"Wider." Jeong Jeong walked past with his hands behind his back. "Bend your knees. Now concentrate. Good."

"Wait? What do I do now?" Aang said.

"Silence!" Jeong Jeong turned around. "Talking is not concentrating. Look at your friends. Are they talking?"

From the corner of my eye, I saw Jeong Jeong gesture to Katara and then to me, but his eyes widened a little as he saw me air-bend. After living in one place for so long, I'd have to get used to everyone being surprised by that. I tried to keep my attention on holding my form, but it was hard to resist laughing as Aang was lectured by Jeong Jeong. I shook my head and returned to my stance. I needed to be light like the air itself, but it felt off. I liked being tethered to the ground. It was more comfortable.

Ugh. Why do my nationalities have to be so opposite in their element? Okay. Focus. Circular motion. I moved my arms in a rotating motion while slowly bending the air around me. Be flexible.

"Excuse me, Miss?" Jeong Jeong said.

I jumped a little as he jolted me from my thoughts and turned to face him. "Yes?"

"Come with me." With a sharp turn, he walked in the direction of his hut.

I looked at the others for reassurance, and they simply shrugged. Sighing, I followed Jeong Jeong into his hut. He sat down in the center of a bunch of candles, and I furrowed my brow, unsure of what to do.

"Please. Sit." He gestured to the spot in front of him. "Your friends called you Tashi?"

"Yeah–" I did as he asked. "Uh, what did you want to see me for, uh Jeong Jeong… sir?"

He glanced me over. "You are Kalsang's granddaughter, aren't you?"

I blinked. "You knew my grandfather?"

"Yes." He nodded. "He was an old friend. His death was indeed a great loss, but an even greater loss was your assumed demise."

I folded my arms. "No offense, but why does my well being interest you?"

Jeong Jeong was silent for a moment before giving me a serious look. "What I am about to tell you is for your ears only. You will not share this with your friends, especially the Avatar."

"Why? What's…?" I said.

He narrowed his eyes and repeated in a stern tone, "Do you understand?"

I hesitated to answer, for he was starting to scare me. Why would my grandfather be friends with someone from the Fire Nation? They were the enemy. Even if this guy was a defect, it didn't make him any less dangerous. He could turn Aang and the rest of us over at any moment if he wanted.

However, my curiosity got the better of me, and I slowly nodded. "I… I understand. I won't say a word."

"You don't seem so sure." He sighed. "I can tell that you're much more hardened than your friends, and I understand that you would reasonably have reservations about trusting someone from the Fire Nation. However, I assure you that all of you are safe here."

My gaze drifted toward the ground. "You're right, but if you have something important to tell me concerning my family, just tell me. I give you my word that I will not share what you say to the others."

I bowed my head a little in hopes that I would appear more convincing.

"Very well." Jeong Jeong pulled something from his pocket and tossed it over to me.

I caught it and raised an eyebrow. "A Pai Sho tile?"

"Your grandfather was not only a friend of mine, but many others throughout the world. His last request before his death was to ensure that you, the only air-bender, would be protected. However, none of us where able to find you, and you presumed dead," he said.

"And what now? Do you want me to join you and these other friends of yours?" I said.

He shook his head. "No. You need to remain with the Avatar in order to master air-bending, but I want you to keep that tile with you at all times. If you are ever in need, the Order of the White Lotus will help you."

I examined the tile again. It had a white lotus imprinted on it. I recalled my grandparents always playing the game, but I was never really any good at it.

"Yes. But how will I know who's a part of this order?" I said.

"They will know you." He stood. "You are free to go."

"Thank you, Master Jeong Jeong." I bowed again before I left the hut.

Seeing me step outside, Aang immediately broke his stance and rushed over to me. "So what did Jeong Jeong say to you?"

"I did not tell you to stop, boy! Return to your stance and concentrate on your breathing!" Jeong Jeong's voice rang from inside of the hut.

Aang groaned. "He's not even out here. How did he…?"

"He's a master, Aang." I chuckled. "Besides, this is what you wanted. Stop being so stubborn and try listening to him."

He frowned. "Okay, but what…?"

"I said return to your stance!" Jeong Jeong's voice called out again.

Aang pouted and returned to the rock he had been perched on.

I walked over to the spot I had been training in and began stretching.

"So what did Jeong Jeong want?" Katara said.

"Don't worry about it." I waved my hand in dismissal. "So how long are we planning to stay here?"

"Not long if I have any say in it." Sokka brought over the fish he managed to catch. "We should be on our way to the North Pole, not playing around with fire. This is dangerous, and we can't trust these people."

"Good luck convincing Aang." I bent down and touched my toes. "He has his heart set on learning fire-bending despite how impatient he is."

Sokka grumbled and continued with his task while Katara shook her head.

"Everything will be fine." She smiled. "Once Aang gets this out of his system, we'll leave."

"If you say so." I took a deep breath and stretched my hands high above my head.

Whatever happened, it was nice to know that we had some allies now. I wondered what this Order of the White Lotus was about and who else was a part of it.

I sat down and began my meditation. I'm sure I'll find out.