After Ren awoke they walked back to the ship. Jun Lin looked up a bronze cheek pattered with oil.
"We'll need to spend the night here," he said.
"The woman that owns this land said that we could stay in her barn for a few yuan." Tetsu said swatting away a large insect.
Jinora looked into the dipping sun a hand a had on her hip. "That's fine."
The four carved through the field. Jinora was dressed in plain tan shirt with a hood. The barn had a wide sliding door cut into a level and a half, both constructed of polished wood. The upper deck in line with the door held several stacked crates. The lower was lined with woven grass mats and had an empty through pressed into the corner. On the upper level, there were three sliding doors, each containing a small room where they set their things. A few minutes later, a knock came at the door.
"There's dinner if you would like some," Dalai said.
The four of them followed her to a house near the barn obscured by an arch of gnarled trees like two old men deep in discussion. They sat cross-legged at a low table fashioned with a few simple dishes.
"It's very good," Ren said after eating a steaming bowl.
"Fresh ingredients make a difference. I once had to go to the city. Food was awful."
Her brother stood up and brought another over boiling ceramic pot placed it on the table.
"You figured out what's the matter with your ship?" she asked, picking up a wilted green with a chopstick.
Jun Lin spoke. "What I found seems slightly unusual."
Her eyes flicked over his neat leather jacket and discarded gloves. "What would that be?"
"Do you grow your own rice as well?" Jinora said.
Dalai's eyes shifted to her. "No. That we buy." She waved her hand. "Though the price had been going up since fancy pants has decided to restrict growing areas."
"Fancy pants?" said Tetsu.
"The president hon," Dalai said. "How old are you two?"
"Seventeen," the brothers said.
"Turning eighteen in half a lunar calendar," Tetsu said.
"Your sons?" Dalai asked Jinora.
"I'm their guardian." She looked at the broth in the soup. "This broth, is it free of animal bones?"
Dalai looked at her. "Look, I know we farmers aren't the wealthiest, but to complain about—"
Jinora held up her hand. "No, it's the opposite. I'm allergic to meat."
Dalai blinked for a moment and cleared her throat. "Sorry to hear that. No, it's not made with any bones. The price on those is also going up."
"Is is due to limited space?" Tetsu asked.
Dalai looked at him. "No. Something is killing the woolly pigs making them sick," she said, eating a spoonful of rice with a clump of greens on top.
"Is that new?" Jinora asked.
"No, but it's been getting worse."
After dinner, the four excused themselves walking back to the barn. Tetsu and Ren trailed behind, legs brushing the tall grass. Crickets chirped nearby, and the horizon was a slit of pale light. Ren ran a hand through the grass that came up to his hand.
"Ren," Tetsu said quietly.
"Yes?"
"Earlier—"
Ren held up a hand. "Don't put yourself in danger right?"
Tetsu nodded.
"I don't know if that can be avoided."
Tetsu frowned.
"We're the Avatars."
"Yes, but still..."
"I'll try to be more careful."
Ren woke up to a sliver of morning light streaming onto his face. Jinora and Jun Lin's bedrolls were empty. He went outside and stretched in the light. Birds were ensconced in a ridge of trees lining the property like a guardian fence.
He stretched his hands over his head. "I wonder how Hira is."
He exhaled, rustling a small tuft of fresh grass at his feet then raised his arms blasting the grass until it bent the other way. He jumped around at the rustle of cloth.
"Morning," Dalai said just behind the treeline.
Ren pulled his hands down.
"There aren't many air benders around here. Are you original?" She shook her head. "Never mind, you don't look like one of them. Let me guess one of your grandparents got air bending out of thin air?"
Ren blinked rapidly. "It was the wind."
Dali crossed her arm. "It's rude to assume my intellect," she said, detaching from a tree and coming closer. "I could actually use a bender. Airbender."
"Actually—"
She waved her hand. "I already know, so it's fine. Why so nervous it's not a bad thing."
He put his hands up, "It's not that. I'm not very good. I don't think I can be of much use."
"Aren't you seventeen? You're probably good enough."
Jinora came up behind Ren. "What seems to be the problem?"
"No problem. I saw him bending and said I could use a bender for something. I would cut all costs to the field and the barn."
Jinora sighed. "What do you need help with?"
They stood in front of a wetland. Debris and beams of rusted metal rose from the water weaving between bright green water reeds. Tetsu and Ren hung back on the verdant bank that curved over and sunk into the water. Jinora stood next to Dalai a few paces away.
"It's a good area to grow rice in if it's drained a little. But it's impossible because of the beams. Years ago, my father tried to have them removed. But he died before he tried. I want to remove them if I can."
"I'll see what I can do," Jinora said.
Dalai turned to her. "Isn't he the bender?"
Jinora smiled, sending a probing lash of wind into the dark recesses of the watery area far enough to disturb the large trees on the other side. Dalai watched her mouth open.
"You're an airbender as well?"
Jinora nodded. Willow trees hung into the water on the other side of the bank obscuring a good view of anything. She sent another lash into the murky water. Then she parted the vine-like boughs of the willows and squinted. A pair of eyes stared back. Both Ren and Tetsu took sharp breaths. Dalai's eyes widened. Jinora let the curtain fall and turned to Dalai.
"I am not sure what it is," she said. She turned to Ren and Tetsu. "I may need some help."
She backed up a little and settled down crisscrossed, and closed her eyes. Ren and Tetsu stood near her.
"What is she doing?" Dalai asked coming up next to them her voice pitched low.
"Meditating I think," Tetsu said.
"Why?"
"I'm not sure."
Jinora sat there for a few minutes. A bird call echoed far away. Dalai started pacing her eyes anxiously flickering to the trees on the other side of the bog. A toad splashed out of the water, making all three jump. Jinora opened her eyes and looked up.
"Whatever it was it's gone."
"You need to take care of whatever that was," Dalai said.
"I will," Jinora said. "It might just take some patience."
"What do you mean?" Dalai questioned placing a flat plate on the table. Fresh vegetables sat on it like women waiting to be painted.
Jinora studied the plate. "I need bait."
Dalai's brother looked at them from across the room his eyes dark.
The next day all four pushed a tiny wooden raft out of the bank. It passed under the shadow of one of the metal beams that protruded from the water. It reached the middle of the swampy area and spun near the center as if in a lull. Jinora raised a hand and a small gust pushed it further until it bumped the other side, sending a small amount of water sloshing over onto the wood and dampening the buns placed on the construction.
"I don't think this will work," Dalai crossed her arms. They waited for what felt like ours the sun drenching the water and surrounding vegetation in the humid heat.
Ren leaned against a nearby tree with a hand fanning his face. By the time they returned to the house, it was late afternoon.
Dalai slammed a teapot down on the table. "You said you would take care of it," Dalai spoke.
Jinora looked up at the younger woman. "Don't let the heat work you up."
"Hahoo-hahoo."
The water glittered in the early morning light, as a mist rose from the surface.
"What are we look—"
Jinora pulled a finger to her lips.
Tetsu crouched a few feet away, a tubed glass magnifier pressed to his eye. He shifted on his feet, crushing the ground cover underneath his boots.
"Hahoo-hahoo."
Once again they filled the small raft with food and sent it out onto the water. It thunked on the other bank tangling between voluptuous fortifications of grass and reeds.
Ren leaned back looking up at the sky. A cloud floated over the ambient canvas, not quite lit by the rising sun. "How much longer do you think?"
tut-tut-tut. The slapping of grass came from far away. They braced themselves.
tut-tut-tut.
Then it stopped.
Ren and Tetsu turned to one another, brows dusted in sweat.
Ren shifted and crouched forward. "There!" he whispered.
"Where?" Tetsu crammed his head over his brother's shoulder.
Ren pointed "I saw the plants shift...I think."
They stood up slowly and approached a densely overgrown area. To the left of it was a thin path that led back to the house. The raft bobbed on the water stripped of the food. Jinora's mouth sat in a straight line. A scream burst from the left. They sprang into a run tearing down the path, ripping branches as they went. They exploded through the trees that lined the back of the property, dirt, and twigs kicking up. The back door sat off its hinge. They shoved into the house. It sat empty the table toppled over in the middle of the room. Another scream with a distinctly different sound came from the left. Jinora rushed through a door in the side of the kitchen. They pushed past and stumbled through, emerging into a garden, plants knocked over and the ground displaced by several small potholes. Near a small well that fed a small pond Dalai's brother hung over something that wriggled on the ground. He had something in his hands holding it over the figure. Jinora jumped over a ruined bed of leeks and put her arms out blasting the two away from each other. The brother stumbled back and shot a glare their way while the form was blasted into a wooden planter. A grimy face peeked through a curtain of dark, wavy hair. Hands covered in grime up to the elbows. The figure shot up and sprung back onto the brother even as Jinora shot another blast at the space it had just occupied. Jinora pushed another gust of wind slamming the long-haired girl back into the water as she made an unpleasant hissing sound. The brother stumbled back holding his throat painted red. His eyes were wide a metal object gripped in his hand. Jinora rushed to him an ugly bruise accompanying the leaking blood. Jinora used another shattering gust to push the girl back into the water and she made another ugly cry. Dalai emerged from the house eyes wide. She held something shakily in both hands. It was a large metal harness. She looked around, at her bleeding brother and the girl in the pool. She walked over her ankles, splattered with mud, and clamped the metal onto the girl as she screamed.
Dalai's eyes were wide and flat as she floated over to her brother. "He—."
"Let's get him to a bed," Jinora said. "Go get Jun Lin," she said to Tetsu.
"Ren, stay with her." She pointed toward the pond.
Tetsu tore out of the garden while Dalai and Jinora pulled the brother into the house, Jinora slamming the door open with a whip of air. Ren was left with the girl struggling against the corded metal bind. His eyes flicked to her as she thrashed in the water her hands and arms stained with a buildup of sediment and dirt. He approached slowly, skirting the outside of the pond. Her dark eyes flicked up at him and she lunged at him her teeth bared. They were yellow and discolored and she fell back into the pool her hair hanging like seaweed.
Ren took a step closer crouching by the water and swallowed. "Hey."
She hissed at him.
He reached out a hand and she drew back. He leaned forward and touched her filthy forehead and she scrambled back keening.
"Sorry," he said, drawing back accidentally stepping in the remains of a fallen vegetable oozing a deep red pulp.
The girl turned her face toward the house.