Chapter 8: More Mysteries Afoot
As the group once again gathered around the campfire later that evening, Haru threw Zuko a sympathetic grin as he eased into a sitting position next to the Earthbender, his ribs still tender from his earlier mishap with Aang.
Momo was already busy trying to steal food from anyone not paying enough attention. The massive bison lay nearby, making an excellent and rather comfortable piece of furniture for Katara and The Duke to lean against, while they listened to Teo and Aang swap flying adventure stories.
Sokka sat down on the other side of Haru. "So how ya feeling, buddy?" He asked, slapping the Earthbender on the shoulder.
Haru cringed.
"Oh…uh…sorry," Sokka apologized, but the tone in his voice and the smile on his face suggested he'd found Haru's earlier rumble session with Toph hilarious and insisted on getting the details.
"I'm not one to complain much, but I think Toph rattled every bone in my body loose today. Even my hair hurts!"
Sokka laughed. "Yeah, she just has that warm fuzzy loveable way about her," he replied with a touch of friendly sarcasm. "But don't worry, she grows on you like a wart after a while."
"I heard that!" Toph said from across the campfire.
"Not to mention the fact that she's got the hearing of a wolf-bat," Sokka whispered under his breath, smiling.
"Heard that too!"
"So, you guys never did tell me how Aang met Toph," Haru said.
Sokka grinned. "Well, my friend, that's an interesting story all by itself."
He proceeded to tell them the whole story of how Aang, in search of an Earthbending teacher, had discovered Toph at an Earth Rumble Tournament where she had been better known as "The Blind Bandit".
Haru laughed over Sokka's account of Aang's rather rocky start trying to convince Toph to teach him when he'd inadvertently stolen Toph's championship title with an airbending trick in the main arena full of hundreds of onlookers.
Later, when Aang discovered her true identity, as the daughter of a rich and noble Earth Kingdom family, and used his status as the Avatar to weasel an invitation from her parents to be a guest, a food fight ensued over the dinner table.
But Aang had been persistent and eventually learned Toph's secret existence as the Blind Bandit was just her way of getting around her very over-protective parents.
"My parents never understood me. Still don't. It's complicated," was all Toph added.
"But man, you shouldn't have seen her taking on the Rumblers single-handedly after they kidnapped Aang and threatened to turn him over to the Fire Nation for the bounty!" Sokka gripped his face and then flung his arms about as he animated the tale, almost hitting Haru upside the head in the process of remembered excitement. "Bang! POW! Bodies flying everywhere! It was magnificent" He laughed so hard he started crying.
Katara just shook her head and rolled her eyes at her brother's antics, while Toph smiled smugly. "I have to admit, that was pretty fun!".
Sokka flug an arm around Haru's shoulder, jesting. "And since then, well, she pretty much goes around kicking our butts now!" He joked and then yelped as he was jerked upward about a foot by a rock in his derrière. He rubbed his backside and glanced over at Toph who sat with her arms crossed and a wicked smile on her face.
Zuko grinned and found he was actually starting to like the odd little Earthbender.
The evening progressed and conversations swapped from one person to the next. For the most part Zuko remained silent.
He eventually took the lotus tile he'd found in the dirt earlier that day and absently started flipping it in his hand.
As he played with it, thoughts of his uncle returned. Unlike Zuko, who usually found social gatherings and idle chit chat either awkward or just plain annoying, his uncle was the complete opposite. Iroh could have a conversation with his worst enemy and still somehow come out with a belly full of good food, rare tea and another tale of wisdomly advice to pass onto his nephew.
Deep in thought, he was startled when the tile was snatched from his fingers. "Hey! Where'd you get that?" Sokka demanded, the teasing tone of earlier now replaced with accusation.
Zuko looked at him oddly and shrugged. "I found it on the ground today."
"What is it?" Haru asked.
"It's a lotus tile. And it belongs to me!" Sokka said, raising his voice as he stood and towered over Zuko.
Conversation around the campfire stopped.
Zuko leaned back and crossed his arms stiffly as Aang, Katara and Toph got up and walked over.
"Hey guys, what's the problem, here?" Aang asked.
"I believe Sokka is implying I stole something from him," Zuko replied.
"Well, how else would you have gotten this? I keep it right here in my bag, safely rolled up in my spare pair of socks."
Sokka grabbed his carrying pouch and reached inside and pulled out a…peach?
"Huh?" Sokka stuck his head in the bag and then started pulling out several more pieces of fruit, a handful of litchi nuts and…a half eaten grasshopper?
"Ewww!" Katara said in disgust.
"MOMO!" Sokka shouted.
The lemur looked up innocently, and then ran over and grabbed the litchi nuts before scampering away.
Aang laughed. "Well, at least we know what Momo's been up to lately." He looked at Sokka. "And, I guess you owe Zuko an apology."
"Yeah, well…" Sokka began.
"It's okay," Zuko replied. "Let's just forget it."
"No, um. I'm sorry. It's just, well, this is kinda important to me."
"I didn't know you liked to play Pai Sho," Haru said.
"I don't. I mean, I've never played it before. This was given to me by someone who turned out to be a good friend," Sokka replied.
Zuko frowned. "Seems like an odd gift to give a friend who doesn't even know the game."
"Well, he kinda has a strange way about him. He's sorta the artsy type. Likes to paint a lot."
"Mind if I ask who it was?" Zuko inquired.
"Not that it's any of your business but he's a sword master I studied with for a short time."
"The one you got that fancy black sword from?"
"As a matter of fact, yes."
"I saw the insignia on the handle the first day I arrived here and you shoved it in my face," Zuko said. "It's from the famous Fire Nation Sword Master Piandao."
Sokka nodded but looked startled. "How do you know that?"
Zuko rolled his eyes. "I am Fire Nation, Sokka. And I actually do know what a professionally crafted weapon looks like. You could say it's a hobby of mine."
"You actually have a hobby besides hunting the Avatar?" Sokka asked.
Katara giggled.
Zuko chose to ignore the comment. "So why would a Fire Nation Sword Master train a nobody from the Southern Water Tribe?"
Sokka glared at him from the implied insult. "Well, I sorta didn't tell him at first. But he was smart enough to figure it out anyway." Sokka frowned. "And he somehow even knew Aang was the Avatar, even though we were all in disguise. But he told me the ways of the sword are not unique to any nation. They were for everyone. When we were leaving, he sent his butler out to give me this to remember him by."
"Yeah, and remember, Sokka, he also had that same lotus design on his front door," Aang remarked.
Zuko frowned deeply as events from a few months earlier traveling with Uncle came back to him. "I see."
"See what?" Sokka asked.
Zuko pointed to the tile. "I think you were just handed an engraved invitation to the Order of the White Lotus."
"The Order of the what?" Sokka asked.
"The Order of the White Lotus. It's a secret order my Uncle Iroh is a part of."
"Sounds more like a flower arranging club for old geezers," Toph joked.
"Well, there are a few of those in there too," Zuko remarked dryly, recalling the strange flower shop owner he met in the desert.
He went on to explain that while he and his uncle were fugitives on the run in the Earth Kingdom, they had been chased by a group of bounty hunters. His Uncle Iroh had used a lotus tile, just like this one, to contact an old friend within this order through a weird game of Pai Sho. After a secret meeting, that Zuko had not been invited to participate, the flower shop owner had smuggled them out of town. He had also provided them with forged documents that allowed them to enter Ba Sing Se undetected.
Sokka looked at the tile resting in his palm. "So you mean Master Piandao is part of this secret order?"
Zuko shrugged. "Possibly."
"But what does that mean to us?" Sokka asked.
"I'm not sure. Maybe nothing…maybe everything. But you said he knew Aang was the Avatar?"
Sokka nodded.
"Then I suggest you keep that tile very close to you, Sokka," Zuko advised. "It just may save the Avatar and your friend's lives one day."
Sokka, Katara and Aang all stared down at the simply carved tile with nothing short of amazement.
…
Much later that night, when everyone had finally settled down for some much needed sleep and the fire had died down, Zuko was awakened by low growling sounds.
He sprang to a squatting position to see the Avatar's bison pacing agitatedly back and forth.
Aang was also awake, rubbing his eyes. "What is it boy?" he said sleepily. The six legged bison snorted and threw its head back.
Zuko stood up and looked around. But there wasn't much of a moon and the sky was nearly pitch black. He bended a ball of fire to illuminate the darkness around them.
Appa stamped his foot agitatedly and once again snorted. Aang got up and went over to the bison trying to calm him.
"What's up with him?" Zuko asked.
"I'm not sure. But he usually doesn't act this way unless something's wrong."
"Aang, what's going on?" Katara asked, stirred from her sleep.
"I think Appa's sensing something bad."
Katara shook Toph and Sokka awake as Appa continued to pace.
Toph groaned sleepily. "There better be a good reason for waking me up!"
"Toph, what do you feel?" Aang asked without preamble.
The blind Earthbender put her hands to the ground and concentrated. "I get nothing."
Appa snorted again.
"Are you sure?"
She yawned sleepily. "Whatever is bothering the big fur ball, it's not coming from the ground, unless you want to count the pack of skunk-rats in a burrow fifty paces away! Can I go back to sleep now?" Toph said irritably.
The bison suddenly threw his head up and growled into the sky. Zuko looked up and thought he saw a dark object pass by.
Sokka had apparently seen it too. "What is it?"
"I'm not sure," Aang replied.
Katara stood up and stared at the sky and then turned her head suspiciously towards Zuko. "Maybe it's the Fire Nation…in those big balloons?"
"I don't think so, Katara," Aang replied. "It would be pretty risky for the Fire Nation to try and fly those things through these mountain ranges, especially at night."
"How can you be sure, Aang? Zuko managed to find us!"
Sokka looked over at Zuko and frowned.
They then heard an eerie almost screeching noise way above them, followed by another some distance away.
"That doesn't sound like the Fire Nation to me," Toph remarked.
Aang grabbed his staff and popped it open. "I better go check it out!"
But before he could take flight, Zuko grabbed him by the forearm. "I don't think that's such a good idea."
Katara stepped over to Zuko. "Why not?" she demanded. "What are you trying to hide?"
Zuko threw her an exasperated look. "I'm not trying to hide anything," he insisted, raking a hand through his hair. "But it's almost pitch black out there tonight. There's no moon to see with. Aang won't be able to tell what he's even up against until it's practically on top of him."
Sokka rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "As much as I hate to agree with him, I think Zuko is right." He said. "It's much too dangerous to go out there alone right now."
They heard the odd noises again, but this time, they sounded farther away.
"Then what should we do?" Aang asked.
"Our best bet is to just stick together and keep vigil." Sokka looked at Teo, The Duke and Haru who were still fast asleep. "No use waking the rest of them up. Whatever they are, they sound like they're moving away."
"Okay." Aang agreed, flicking his wrist and making the glider retract back into his staff.
"I'll take the first watch." Sokka volunteered. "The rest of you get some sleep."
"Are you sure?" Aang asked.
Sokka nodded. From his knapsack, he took out his trusted boomerang as the others settled back down for a restless sleep.
Katara laid down, but not before throwing Zuko a suspicious glance.