chapter 7 – Change of pace
Aang was walking to the earth kingdom palace, he was told by the royal council that it will take a couple of days to come to any conclusion, so he took his time with this walk. Both Tylee and Momo was accompanying him on his walk while Iroh and Appa stayed at the Jasmine dragon-
Iroh playing a game of Pi Sho before opening the Jasmine dragon
"you are a worthy opponent my friend but…"
he the pulled out the lotus tile
"but the power of the lotus tile is unmatched in the hands of a champion Pi Sho player"
and he placed it on the board with a sense of pride then Appa just moaned and left the table.
Tylee just hopping around the flee market that they were passing through, she was just looking at all the different knickknacks that it had to offer, while Aang was following her and just watching her as she bounced around, the name of her grandmother and the fact that she knew Air nomad recopies was starting to fill his mind more than what the royal earth council had to say, he knew he was going to have to ask her more details on her family but out side of a date he wasn't sure of how, and his heart was still on Katara.
it was then that he heard giggling, and he looked around but only saw the peddlers and their customers filling the street, but no one fitting that giggle and he continued on his way.
Tylee looked at Momo as she placed a small crown up to his head and smiled with big eyes
"oh you are sooooo cute!"
Aang stood there looking at Momo in his crown and smiled and asked
"oh Momo… King of the Lemurs. What be thy will"
Momo shook the crown off hi head then jumped on Aang's shoulder sandwiching himself between Aang and Tylee and Tylee just looked up to him with a smirk.
"your still adorable"
she said as she pets his head, causing Momo to purr as a result.
then the both of them heard the same giggling and they both looked to their left and found a girl in air nomad attire or what looked like a decent replica of an air nomad's outfit.
before either of them could say anything, the girl ran up to Aang and did only what could be described as "Fan-Girling" with unparalleled enthusiasm.
"oh my gosh! OH MY GOSH! It's really you! EEEEEEEEE, can't wait to tell the others!"
Aang and Tylee looked at each other in confusion Aang approached the girl with a smile
"yep, its really me, avatar Aang…"
he reached his hand out for a hand shake but then the girl grabbed his hand and shook it so fast and hard that Momo was shaken off and he flew off and landed on Tylee's shoulder to observe Aang being shaken around by arm by a ten year old girl.
She eventually let go of Aang's hand, but his arm kept shaking for a good 5 seconds until Tylee gently stopped it, then the girl still bouncing up and down.
"You should come our Avatar fan club!"
Aang still a little stunned gathered himself then had to ask
"fan club?"
then the girl instantly took a proper still stance that remined Tylee of Mai and she corrected
"Avatar Fan Club, we need to address things as they are…"
then she just as quickly went back to her fan girl persona
"OOOOOOOO I can't wait for you to see it!"
she then grabbed his hand and started to pull him to the direction that he assumed was where the Avatar Fan Club was, while Tylee and Momo just stood there, and Momo did an assortment of squeaks and squawks and Tylee in a chipper tone.
"yep… agreed. But this can be interesting"
and she skipped after them.
A small town was being attacked by an Eternal Earth Enclave group, some the tugs were corralling all the towns folk into the town square, while others were pillaging the town for any valuables. The EEE were now starting to separate what they supposed were Earth kingdom people from Fire Nation people, a small girl who looked kina fire nation was in the arms of a woman who looked earth kingdom and one of the thugs approached her shouted to the other people to get out of the way.
"you, let me see your child!"
but the woman only held her tighter, so the thug called a couple of others, and they forcefully separated them, the woman was screaming in agony trying to get her child back. The Thug looking down to this child told her
"look at me!"
but the child kept her eyes closed and looking away, and then he grabbed her by the chin and made her face him and yelled
"LOOK AT ME!"
the child slowly opened her eye lids revealing amber eyes with tears in them and the thug laughed and pointed to the woman
"bring the ash-bedder here"
and they picked her up and dropped her next to the child and the two of them embraced each other , and the thug signaled the others to gather and he pointed to the woman and her child.
"see, this is the problem! The People who should be embracing our liberation, would rather be subject to the boot fire nation!"
he looked down to the Woman embracing her daughter.
"What do you have to say for your self Ash-Bedder?"
she then looked up with tears in her eyes
"do what you want with me, but please let my daughter live"
the Thug just swung his hammer around to show off then looked at her again
'the problem is that is it's a paradox, I want to liberate my people, you, From the fire nation, her… we cant have both"
the woman then glared at the thug while holding her tighter
"I'll rather die than have her taken from me"
the thug laughed
"then you shall be a great example"
he then bellowed to everyone in ear shot
"to all Ash-Makers, Bedders, and Spawn! this is the only fate fitting for the like of you on this continent"
and he raised his hammer and the woman and girl closed their eyes as they embraced to the end… then the sound of something spinning in the air came and it hit the man in the head, then the man dropped to the ground. The Woman looked up and saw the flying stick spinning in the air until it was caught by a man in what looked like fire nation armor, but all the red is replaced with navy blue, the helmet has much smaller spikes and the face plate is replaced with a blue Spirit mask.
the thugs and people looked at him as he drew his sword then pointed it at them, and seemingly out of nowhere many warriors started to appear, some from under ground, others from the forest, and they started to fight the EEE thugs.
The blue spirit threw his boomerang, used his sword to disarm a thug, then caught it after it stunned another. The warriors were a mix of earth-benders, fire-benders, and even some no-benders. Sukie fought off the thugs that were near the town's folk with the aid of a fire-bender and an earth-bender.
after the EEE thugs were routed the blue spirit told some of the warriors to pursue and capture as many as possible.
soon the battle was done, and the blue spirit was overlooking the thugs they rounded up, one of the warriors went up to him.
"we caught as many as we could find, only a few had escaped"
the Blue spirit spoke with a echoey voice
"good job, lieutenant now take a dozen men and escort these people to Yu Dao, the Fire nation army will take care of them"
the Soldier then Saluted him and did as he was asked. before that girl left, she approached the Blue Spirit tugged his startling him. He then turned to her and bent down to eye level.
"hello there"
the Girl then hugged him, and he picked her up and found her mother and took the girl to her. Upon receiving she thanked him.
"it's my pleasure to help…"
but then he was interrupted by one of the thugs shouting.
"your pleasure to what, be a lap dog of the Fire Lord?"
the woman and girl left with the group and the blue spirit went up to the thug who spoke to him, the same that was about to kill that woman and girl.
"you serve the Fire nation, when only a year ago you freed the avatar from the fire nation"
the blue spirit pointed his sword to the man's cheek
"I serve neither the fire nation, earth kingdom, or any other political entity including the avatar. My goal is to save the people here, from the likes of you"
the man laughed at him
"the Ash-Makers, you really consider them as something worth saving?"
the blue spirit then made two cuts on his left cheek, startling the man
"I leave you with two cuts, should I find you here harassing these good people again, I wont be so merciful"
one of the soldiers walked up to the blue spirit
"what should we do with them?"
the blue spirit the looked around and found a wagon with an Ostridge-horse harnessed on already.
"strip them down to their underwear, load them on the wagon, and we'll bring them to the Yu Dao regiment, they will stand trial for their actions"
and they all left.
After returning to the hideout Sokka took the mask off and placed it on the table, and everyone gathered around him cheering him on, singing praises
"here's to our leader, Sokka the Great!"
and everyone shouted "ha'za!"
then Suki came in and hugged and kissed him and she looked at him with a warm smile
"you are an amazing leader"
Sokka blushed a little and rubbed the back of his head
"armor you made really helped, along with the mask I looked quite scary to them"
then Miyagi then came in
"don't undersell yourself Sokka… you and your division stopped 3 EEE raids in two days, our other 2 divisions were only able to stop 4. However, we do need to make our next move… tell me what you think is the best choice?"
Sokka then thought for a moment looked at the map, then pointed.
"these three EEE hubs, they are the center most point of EEE's operations in these colonies"
Miyagi looked it over and nodded
"agreed, Sokka you take your division and destroy the one near Yu Dao, I will take mine to the one in the north east, and Lee will crush the one at the south west coast"
then Miyagi went up to Sokka
"oh, with how successful you have been with this division of yours, you should name it"
Sokka thinking things over "ok, so the sneaking Dragons, and raging Badger moles, are already taken by the other two divisions"
he then looked at Suki then he thought of the most appropriate name and told Miyagi
he was a little confused at first but then rolled along with it.
Zuko attending his council on what to do about the crises in the colonies, many reports show the Earth Kingdom is advancing their military near the boarders of the colonies, nothing definitive but should be noted. The real crises are these militia groups, some like the EEE are clearly for riding the colonies of colonials and any fire nation influence, there was a relatively new militia group that has yet to be named that were intervening with the EEE wherever they could. there were the freedom fighters and other groups but the problem they all caused was instability for the colonies, and now refugees started to arrive and there was only a few hundred of them, but his people didn't know how to retrieve or house them, this was further evidence that the Harmony Restoration Movement was a bad plan from the start.
Zuko did manage to use the old POW camps to house them, the biggest one was near the capital. It was a good temporary solution, but something was going to have to eventually be done.
in the end of the meeting, they did agree to have more of the navy patrolling the coastlines of the colonies and expansion of the now refugee camps for later use.
Zuko left the meeting, he went looking for Katara but couldn't find her in the Palace, in neither the training grounds, or gardens where she usually practiced her water bending so he asked the servants and guards if they knew where she was, they said she was at that refugee camp near the capital.
After making his way to the Refuge camp with his personal guards he found Katara attending the refugees, she had a food stand set up and Zuko went up to her and spoke to her.
"I thought this is something you would be doing"
Katara just poured a ladle of Stew into a bowl that a child was holding up to her and smiled
"that obvious huh?"
Zuko looking at the line of people waiting for food and the people who were enjoying the food, it was just a bowl of sea Prune stew with a bun, it wasn't much but Zuko could tell it made their day. he smiled then approached her with the table between them.
"it's a good obvious… can I help?"
Katara blushed a little and then kissed his cheek while his guards looked at each other in confusion that their Fire Lord just asked this peasant girl permission to do something and Katara nodded and pointed to another large pot of stew and handed him an apron.
"there is another table over there, take that stew and basket of buns and start serving"
and Zuko put the apron over his Fire Lord robes and did what Katara said to do.
After a couple of hours had passed, Katara carrying a basket of buns and Zuko pulling a barrel (full of sea prune stew) with wheels walked in the camp to check on the injured refugees and war vets there and see if any hadn't got any food yet, she would ask how they are, if any of them had injuries that needed immediate attention, or just simply comforting them in what ever way she could as well as distributing food.
even his personal guards were starting to do the same.
One moment stood out in particular to Zuko, Katara went up to a war vet whose legs were missing altogether, after tending to any minor wounds he had she filed his bowl and took a bun and gave it to him. After he was done, she spoke with him, just about simple things but it seemed to get this broken man to smile then she put a hand on his shoulder and said
"you will never be unwanted or unneeded, you just need to know where to look"
this seemed to get the soldier to tear up and thanked her and Katara just embraced him like one would a sibling. The love this woman had for people was astonishing, all of Aang's, and Sokka's descriptions fall short.
It evening and Toph was doing some advanced earth bending forms with her students, even the Fire bending students joined them, Yasuaki went to the docks to do a few Arends and told them that even though they are not earth benders, there is much they can learn from Toph and her teaching methods.
it was funny to Toph that she was teaching fire benders, it turned out that she got more than she initially wanted, and she was starting to feel protective of them. She figured that is something that comes with being a teacher, feeling like a mama bear despite that most of these students were older than her. She couldn't help but smile.
Toph sensed Yasuaki approaching so she told Hon Ton to take instruct for a bit, and she went to Yasuaki who was now sitting on a bench.
"what's up Yasuaki, what news do have for us?"
Yasuaki then looked at Toph
"the school is yours"
Toph startled at first then asked
"What are you talking about?"
Yasuaki handed her some papers
"I'm singing my share of the school to you, I won't interfere"
Toph took a serious face
"your interference has resulted in my students being able to metal bend, your interference has give my school accrual structure and learning discipline, but why are you…"
Yasuaki interrupted her before she could finish
"have noticed how dangerous it is, my students are in perpetual danger for simply existing here"
he sighed
"I arranged for my students to go to the fire nation, there they will be safe…"
Toph a little angered
"so that's it, despite all the progress? You abandon…"
then Yasuaki shouted
"I WILL NOT BURY ANOTHER STUDENT!"
all the students looked at him then Hon Ton told them to stop and take a break.
Toph not knowing how to react she then put a hand on his shoulder. Yasuaki looked at her, despite being blind she was looking for him in the eye, as if to ask what happened?
"I was in the Fire Nation army, I was in charge of the youth correction cadet program. I was given kids who were too troublesome for school, orphaned, or just taken from the juvenile correction facilities. I did my best with them, not only teaching them how to do battle but also to have life skills like cooking, repairing machines, mend their own cloths, ext."
Toph sensing her students who were talking with each other asked
"did you succeed?"
Yasuaki was quiet then said
"they were good students once they smartened up, they were eager to learn despite their messy lives, we were a family they even called me their step dad, because I stepped in when their dads abandoned them… one day, the army was running low on soldiers and my youth correctional program was straining the budget so my students and I were transferred to a new division, the 42"
Toph remembered what Zuko and Iroh told her about how Zuko got his scare, and she remembered that Davion's name and knew where this was going.
"We did what we told to be a recon mission near Ba Sing Se, I was leading over 50 freshly appointed soldiers in my regiment…"
he started sob
"they weren't even 16 years of age… the battle was a massacre, after the battel the real Fire nation army came and routed the Earth kingdom army but they were too late. I buried all 50 of them. 3 years to build… destroyed in an afternoon…"
he started to cry. Toph not knowing what to do just stood up and tried to think of what to say.
then she sensed one of her students approaching Yasuaki, it was Pinga
she went up to him and held his hands and stopped crying he looked at her, her eyes were filled with tears, then the Dark one and Hon Ton approached him and helped him to his feet, they led him to the makeshift training area then Pinga looked up to Yasuaki and told him
"you are my teacher too"
then Hon Ton and the Dark one said the same thing, then they stood in front of a pile of metal each and took a fire bending stance then Toph decided to join them and did the same thing, then Toph told the fire bending students to join them.
Yasuaki looking at all these students and fellow teacher waiting for him, he took a breath wiped his eyes and took the stance and they practiced. the metal and fire flew in the air in a rugged harmony like some sort of dance Toph realized they probably made a new discipline of bending, but she kept it to herself, this was more important.
Aang and Tylee were escorted to some sort of shack and inside there were at least 7 other people apart from who brought them there, they were in air nomad attire though it did look home made using materials from the local market. Some of the boys even had blue or grey arrows painted on them like him. The inside looked like a miniature air temple, though on a very tight budget, the girl who brought them introduced them"
"hey Avatar fan club, we have a very special guest… the avatar, Aang himself!"
and everyone looked up like a pack of meerkat-skunks and he just waved
"hi?"
then the girls swarmed him and bombarded him with questions, praises, and all-round fangirling.
Tylee came in a little later to see Aang he looked to her as if to ask for help.
Tylee placed herself between the fans and Aang and told them to give him a little space and calm down, they eventually did and then formally introduced themselves to the two of them.
Aang was now that personal boundaries have been established, he was amazed at what these people had made, they made very good replicas of air nomad statues, shrines, cloths, even very authentic glider staffs.
they were enjoying a plate of dumplings similar to the Dumplings Tylee made earlier that morning, then one asked Tylee.
"what is your name? you seem to be with the Avatar a lot"
Tylee, feeling a little nervous and considering her part in the fall of Ba Sing Se a little over a year earlier
"Yana, my name is Yana"
she said holding her arm nervously but they got all excited while Aang looked confused but decided to play along.
the one girl who led them there squealed
"oooooooohhhhhhhh… that's an Air nomad name!"
and the girls were all over her while Aang and the boys just watched
"oh are you a real air-bender?"
Tylee was about to answer
"do you have air-benders in your family?"
Tylee was backed into a corner and feeling very crowded, Momo was on her shoulder hugging her head also feeing crowded in. then Aang had an Idea
"hey Ladies…"
then the girls turned around and Aang was standing on a table and he grabbed some grapes from the fruit plate.
"look at this…"
and he does that marble spinning thing with the grapes and the fans approached him astonished at this simple trick, and giving Tylee enough time to get out of the corner and standing behind Aang and petting Momo who looked at these fans with weary eyes. Aang decided to up his trick by making the loop go around him and he grabs a few more grapes as well and made them spin around the fans.
"help yourselves"
looking at the grapes they initially reached for them, but they were moving too fast for them to grab, except for Tylee, she snatched them up pretty quickly. They then put their mouths in the path of the grapes, and each got a couple grapes each.
after eating the grapes the group got more excited and asked him if there is more amazing things he could do, he could do.
"well here is a trick I've been working on"
and he does his air-scooter ball technique but it was much larger, and he did some sort of wave motion and the air-ball was now several and all the fans were now ridding them on their back, though they had little to no control of them selves on top them. Aang led the group outside and let them ride around for a few minutes. Tylee then came out looking at all this, Momo the leaped-on top of Aang's shoulder and squawked a couple of times and Aang looked at him.
"oh sorry Momo, almost missed yea"
and he made a ball for Momo to ride on, then he saw Tylee looking at the fans riding around so he made one for her as well and it caught her off guard causing her to let out a "EEP!" and she was floating around like the others.
Tylee was shocked at first and looking around the fans were having fun, but they were only on their backs, bums, or bellies. She then did some acrobatics and got herself up right squatting on the Air-scooter. Everyone else was astonished at her doing this so easily, she then imitated the way Aang typically sits o his air-scooter, with one foot on the tip of the toes , the other leg folded under her bum as some sort of chair, but her arms were out as if she was balancing on a suspension wire.
Aang gently dropped the fans and Momo from the air-scooters, but he kept Tylee on hers as she was figuring out how to balance on it the Aang does and eventually brought her hands together and they all watched in astonishment.