Fight15: Peacemaker
The sun was setting behind some tall rock formations. The scattered clouds reflected the light of the dying sun. Only a few pine trees and tiny patches of grass persisted in this dry and rocky region. After much struggling, Sokka finally managed putting up the tent. As he emerged from the flap opening, Katara arrived, carrying an arm load of firewood. She asked if he were not forgetting the tarp. In response he picked up the rolled up tarp and threw it through the open flap and into the tent.
"Sokka, you're supposed to put the tarp on TOP of the tent. You know, so we don't get rained on." The girl crossly pointed out, as if she were talking to a retarded person.
"Ordinarily you'd be right, but seeing how it's the dry season, you're not. Besides, that tarp makes a pretty warm blanket." He informed her in a similar tone.
"But what if it DOES rain?" The waterbender reasoned.
"But what if it doesn't? Then I would have put the tarp up for nothing." Sokka argued back, spreading his arms in exasperation. Katara stomped the ground and through gritted teeth, screamed about how infuriating he was. "Katara, why don't you worry about gathering the firewood because that kindling's looking PRETTY sorry." The warrior took his revenge, talking about the thin twig-like branches his sister had gathered that were nowhere near enough in number and size to keep a proper campfire going. The girl looked sullen then exploded in anger. She threw the wood at her brother and told him to have it if he didn't like her firewood. Sokka raised his hands to shield himself, a shocked expression on his face. He stood in anger after the hail of sticks subsided and retorted it was fine by him. And since she was not going to do her job he yanked the rope securing the tent to one of its supports. It fell down in a heap. Aang and Chenlian approached, their hands full of food. Appa was resting further away. The glowering siblings sharply and instantly turned away from each other, their arms across their chests and scowling expressions on their faces.
"Okay, I got the grub if you guys got the..." Aang paused. "Hey, where's the campfire? And what happened to the tent?"
"Why don't you ask Miss Know It All? Queen of the Twigs!"
"Oh yeah?" Katara whipped around to yell at her brother's back, pointing an accusatory finger. "Well you're Mister Lazy Bum, King of the-" Sshe bent down quickly, picked up a twig, and threw it at Sokka. "...Tents!" The branch hit him the back of the head. He whipped around to face her too. Chenlian sighed. Siblings who did not fight simply did not exist. But at least, these two sincerely and deeply loved each other, and these fights were merely a healthy way of venting and exteriorizing their stress and anger. Aang laughed and spread his arms wide in a gesture of conciliation.
"Okay, listen guys. Harsh words won't solve problems, action will. Why don't you just switch jobs?" He suggested. The siblings agreed. Both began their new tasks, still fuming at the other. "You see that? Settling feuds and making peace. All in a days work for the Avatar." Aang smiled at Chenlian in a self satisfied way.
"Yes, yes. It's still far from world peace, but that's a beginning." The Fire Nation girl smiled back at him, slightly amused. She had recently understood that the little airbender monk was someone who could not live without his public and people's – and especially girls' – attention and appreciation. And so she had started acting accordingly. Aang's smile broke as he looked at a chittering Momo desperately trying to remove a melon that Appa was holding upright with one of the digits of his left forepaw. After much struggling, the lemur gave up and walked away, depressed. Appa groaned, opened his mouth, and his tongue scooped up the melon. And just as he did, Momo returned, grabbed the melon in a flash and ran away. He ran into Aang who took the melon, threw it in the air and sliced a small piece of it off with a jet of air. The large piece landed in front of Appa who ate it, and the small piece landed in front of Momo, who turned to Aang with a chirp of protest.
"Come on Momo, that's fair. Appa's got FIVE stomachs." The Avatar explained.
The next day, the group arrived at a gigantic canyon. Aang, Katara, Chenlian and Sokka were on the rim looking out over the breathtaking expanse. The monk presented it as the Great Divide. Katara voiced her amazement: she could just stare at it forever. Her brother was on the contrary completely unimpressed. Incredulous, she asked how he could not be fascinated by such scenery. They were standing before the largest canyon in the whole world! Sokka was standing next to Appa and holding his reigns, obviously ready to leave.
"Then I'm sure we'll be able to see it very clearly from the air while we fly away." His intention to depart quickly could not be any clearer.
Suddenly a man in an ornate white robe rushed past Sokka, rudely and roughly pushing him out of the way. He hailed them aggressively: if they were looking for the canyon guide, he was here first! Katara became interested at the mention of the canyon guide as it sounded informative.
"Believe me, he's more than a tour guide, he's an earthbender. And the only way in and out of the canyon is with his help. And he's takin' MY tribe across next!" While he was yammering, Sokka silently started to mock him by opening and closing his hand like a duck in the "this guy talks too much" gesture. When the scout was finished, he looked at Sokk, who feigned innocence and walked to his comrades.
"Calm down, we know you're next." The male warrior dismissed the newcomer's concerns.
"You wouldn't be calm if the Fire Nation destroyed YOUR home and forced YOU to flee!" He gestured to the vast canyon system in front of them. "My whole tribe has to walk thousands of miles to the capital city of Ba Sing Se!" Katara understood that he was a refugee. "Humph. Tell me somethin' I don't know." The man shot back sarcastically. Aside from the fact that he was just another one who feared and hated the Fire Nation, he kind of reminded Chenlian of someone. Overly serious, constantly on edge, that one released the tension by his quick, aggressive way of talking and disagreeable remarks while the one in her mind did so by releasing jets of flames and cries of frustration. They were just like pressure-cookers. That could be tiring but also amusing. Then, on a path leading up to the canyon rim back through the surrounding forest, the group saw a mass of people approaching. The waterbender asked if that was his tribe.
"It most certainly is NOT." He looked at the people with distaste. They were dressed in crude animal skins and coarse robes, brown to red in color, and looked generally unkempt. "That's the Zhang tribe. A bunch of low-life thieves. They've been the enemies of my tribe for a hundred years." He whistled rudely. "Hey Zhangs! I'm savin' a spot for my tribe, so don't even THINK of stealing it!"
A huge Zhang woman – obviously the leader of the tribe – walked up to the scout menacingly. He leant back, somewhat intimidated. "Where are the rest of the Gan Jin? Still tidying up their campsite?" She asked disdainfully.
"Yes! But they sent me ahead of them to hold a spot." He leant back forward to puch his interlocutor back.
"I didn't know the canyon Guide took reservations." The large and strong woman taunted with a smirk, crossing her arms.
"Heh! Of course you didn't. That's the ignorance I'd expect from a messy Zhang! So unorganized and ill prepared for a journey." The smaller man retorted without restraint. At this, the entire Zhang tribe began to grumble loudly. An angry mob was about to form. Aang and Katara were disconcerted. Momo was behind them, sitting on a pile of rocks on the lip of the canyon. Suddenly, the sound of moving earth was heard and the rocks underneath him quivered. Momo jumped out of the way as the rocks were raised up and thrown out of the path by an old man, the earthbending canyon guide, in a straw hat and green clothing.
"Sorry about the wait, youngsters." The pot-bellied, white-mustached, smiling man grunted before gesturing to the majestic canyon below them. "Who's ready to cross this here canyon?"
"Um... one of them I think." Katara pointed at the man and the tribe at her right. The Gan Jin ran forward saying he was here first and his party was on their way. The earthbender raised an eyebrow: he could not guide people who were not here. The Zhang filed past the four teens and the fuming scout.
"Guess you guys'll have to make the trip tomorrow." The female leader teased again when the young man pointed in triumph at his tribe, arriving by another path. The Gan Jins were walking in stately order towards them. They were all dressed elegantly in fine white, cream, and yellow robes and wore formal expressions on their faces, very proper and refined – if not overly fastidious – in demeanor. The Zhang Leader sharply turned around to look at the newcomers. The two tribes were now facing each other. The female chief pointed a finger at the canyon guide's chest. He could not seriously cave into these spoiled Gan Jins! They were refugees too and had sick people that needed shelter! The plump earthbender did not know what to say or how to react. The Gan Jin scout replied that they had old people weary from travelling. To which the Zhang Leader retorted that sick people got priority over old people.
"Maybe you Zhang's wouldn't have so many sick people if you weren't such slobs." The head of the Gan Jin's, a fit old man with perfectly trimmed long white hair and beard, shot.
"If you Gan Jins weren't so clean, maybe you wouldn't live to be so old." The opposite chief snarled back. As the verbal warfare continued, Katara asked Aang whether he was ready to put his peace making skills to the test. But the airbender was not so confident: a fight over chores was one thing, but these people had been feuding for a hundred years. Ignoring his doubts, the waterbender walked forward and raised her voice to be heard by all.
"Everyone, listen up!" She pointed backward at Aang, a fierce look on her face. "This is the Avatar! And if you give him a chance, I'm sure he can come up with a compromise that will make everyone happy." She declared with conviction. Chenlian smiled in a very proud and satisfied manner. During important and difficult times, women always were much more reliable than men. You could always count on their instinct, strength, courage, and decisiveness. Men liked to say 'judge men by courage and women by charm.'... but it was always the contrary. The two tribes looked to Aang for a moment in silence.
"Uh...you could share the earthbender and travel together?" The Avatar timidly suggested the most obvious solution. Both tribes refused vehemently. The Gan Jin's preferred being taken by the Fire Nation than travel with "those stinking thieves". On the other side, the Zhang's were not overly eager to travel with those "pompous fools" either. To what the Gan Jin leader pompously retorted that he was not pompous. General pandemonium broke out as the tribes started yelling at each other until Aang snapped at them.
"Alright! Here's the deal! We're all going down together and Appa here will fly your sick and elderly across. Does that seem fair?" He vociferated, sick and tired of their meaningless verbal batterings. The two leaders grudgingly nodded their approval. The four teens smiled.
The sick and elderly were helped onto Appa's saddle. The separation was clear between the two groups who were eyeing each other suspiciously in the saddle. They were sitting as far away as possible from each other, while Chenlian was sitting on the driver's seat on the bison's head. She was to stop the fights, cook, treat the sick when she could, and help them in general. It was certainly going to be annoying but she was nonetheless well suited for the job since she had a thing to make people obey her and despite her sharp tongue, she took good care of people and never asked more than what they could handle. Anyway with both Chenlian and Appa, everything should be alright.
As the bison flew away, Sokka expressed his doubts: this feuding tribe stuff was serious business and he wasn't sure getting involved in this was a good idea. And to tell the truth, Aang wasn't either. But then again, he had never been sure of anything. Katara put a hand on the boy's shoulder and reassured his brother. Aang was the Avatar, and making peace between people was his job.
"His job's gonna make us cross this whole thing on foot, isn't it?" The warrior slumped in despair. Then the canyon guide had bad news for everyone. No food was allowed in the canyon as it attracted dangerous predators. A dissatisfied cacophony rose from both tribes. The plump old man mocked them, calling them babies who could not go a day without food, and asked them if they'd rather be hungry... or dead. At this he raised a pillar of stone underneath him, and ten feet or more over the rest, cupping his hands to his mouth to amplify his voice, he warned everyone that they would be heading down in ten minutes, and before then all food better be in their gut, or in the garbage. The Zhang took various bits of food out of their tunics and began to eat sloppily... Contrary to the Gan Jin, who used their chopsticks before elegantly dabbing their lips once they were done.
When the preparations were finished, Appa took off with Chenlian, the sick and the elderly while everyone else went down a steep, switchback canyon path. When, suddenly, the procession stopped. A large chunk of the road was missing. The drop was hundreds of feet deep. With a grunt of effort, the guide earthbended blocks of stone to push outward from the cliff to repair the path in front of them. Aang complimented him on his earthbending. To which he replied that the job was much more than bending. Folks wanted stopped again and the canyon guide turned to address the crowd.
"Many of you are probably wondering how canyons are formed." He began in a slightly bored voice. "Experts tell us this canyon was most likely carved into the ground by Earth Spirits who were angry at local farmers for not offering them a proper sacrifice." Katara and Sokka looked at each other, then gasp and looked up at the sound of rumbling. A rock slide was falling on them. They were bent away however, by the guide into the canyon below. "Guess the spirits are still angry! Hope you all brought sacrifices." The old man laughed. Once everyone was down on the canyon floor, he told them to stand clear of the wall and earthbended a nearby rock to destroy the bridge he had created earlier. When Aang asked why he had done that, he answered that these people were fleeing the Fire Nation, so he had to make sure we could not be followed. They were safe now. But just as the words fell from his lips, a massive insect shaped silhouette appeared in the dust behind him. A pincer emerged from the dust and picked up the guide who yelped in surprise. Aang airbended the dust away, revealing a huge, black insect like creature with four legs, red eyes, and a long thin mouth with teeth.
"We gotta help him!" Sokka yelled, throwing his boomerang. It struck the beast on the head making it drop its prey and rush at Sokka. The earthbender crashed with a thump in the underbrush while his savior ran for his life, the monster close behind. "Okay...now you gotta help me!" The courageous but not foolhardy warrior yelled, his tone having faded from strong and decisive to fearful. He ran over a rock outcropping. The creature followed over the outcropping as Sokka doubled back. Katara arrived and hit the monster with a water whip to little effect. It tried to bite her, but she lunged out of the way as Aang dropped onto the place she had been and shot a blast at the thing. It was blown backward, but charged again. With enough lead time before the creature reached him, the Avatar was able to create a tornado from the tip of his staff that caught the creature and threw it far up the cliff. Able to walk on the walls, the beast quickly hid in one of many crevices.
"What was that?!" Aang asked, terrified. Katara was kneeling over the distressed guide who was laid out flat on the ground.
"Canyon crawler. And there's sure to be more." The man managed despite the pain. As the waterbender remarked, his arms were broken, and without his arms, he got no bending, in other words...
"...we're trapped in this canyon." Aang finished, realizing, just like everyone, the horror of the situation they were in.
"I thought the whole point of ditching our food was so we wouldn't have to deal with things like... canyon crawlers..." Sokka demanded as his sister finished binding the makeshift splints on their guide's broken limbs. The leader of the Gan Jins did not miss this chance to accuse the Zhangs of having brought food even after the guide told them not to. The opposing leader replied in kind as if anyone could not go without food for a day, it was the pampered Gan Jins. This pleasant conversation continued until the Avatar tried to tell them to work together. It failed, however, as he was rudely interrupted by the Zhang leader who refused to walk another step with the likes of the Gan Jins. Something the head of the Gan Jins agreed with. The boy turned to the guide for any idea.
"No bending. We need to get out of this canyon. I won't die down here! I won't become part of the food chain!" His eyes widened like a madman as hysteria took over his mind.
"See? We're going to become part of the food chain because of YOU!" The Gan Jin leader accused again.
"Sure. Unjustly blame the Zhangs like you ALWAYS do!" His counterpart retorted.
"Gladly!" The proper old man failed to comment on the 'unjustly' part. A blast of wind surprised everyone. The airbender was commanding attention.
"ENOUGH! I thought I could help you guys get along, but I guess that's not going to happen." The young monk affirmed angrily. He airbended himself on top of a steep promontory. "We should split up. Gan Jins on this side...and Zhangs on that side. We'll travel in two separate lines." The two tribes obeyed. Then, as his two friends approached, he told Sokka to go with the Zhangs and Katara to go with the Gan Jins to see if they could figure out why they hated each other so much. The siblings agreed and split up to follow their assigned tribe.
Everyone walked until dusk, when it was time to set up the camps. Sokka asked the Zhang leader whether they were going to put up their tarps, his previous argument with his sister weighing on his mind more than he would let on.
"What for? It's the dry season." The imposing woman replied as if stating the obvious.
"Exactly!" The boy agreed, releasing his pent-up frustration and glad that someone was finally on his side.
"Besides, we like to use the tarp as a blanket." She smiled at him.
"Finally, someone gets it!"
In the perfectly ordered Gan Jin camp, the refugees just finished setting the tarps over their pristine white tents. Katara asked the leader if he really thought it was going to rain. Her brother's arguments had also gotten to her more than she would admit.
"No, but you can never be too careful, right?"
The waterbender smiled at the old man, pleased with his response.
Later that night, around the campfire, the Gan Jin leader looked around and then produced some bread from underneath his robe and offered it to the girl. Katara gasped. Soon all the Gan Jins were eating food with their chopsticks. It was clear they had all violated the ban.
"Oh come now. You really think that tribe of thieves isn't smuggling food? Why should MY people go hungry when the sneaky Zhangs are stuffing their faces?"
"Well, I guess it's okay if everyone's doing it." The waterbender hesitated then accepted and ate a few bites. After all, they had not been attacked once after the guide had been injured. Had Chenlian been there she would have said it was not because others were doing it that they could too. If they really thought themselves better than the Zhangs, they really should not have brought food, thus they would have a clear conscience. Otherwise they would really be just pampered fools and just as sneaky and untrustworthy as the Zhangs. It was not that Chenlian had never been sneaky, far from that. With the world the way it was, sneakiness was a necessary skill in order to survive. But at least she had never knowingly and willingly put people other than herself in danger. Her upbringing had always been rigorous and all traces of pamperedness had vanished from her a long time ago. But she was not there. Katara turned toward the old leader and asked why his tribe hated the Zhangs so much.
"You seem like a smart girl, Katara. I bet you would enjoy hearing some history." The Gan Jin explained that the patriarch of their tribe, Jin Wei, had been an earthbender warrior assigned an important duty: transporting our sacred orb from the Great Eastern Gate to the Great Western Gate. Taking the orb from the east to the west represented the sun's rising and setting. It was their tribe's ancient redemption ritual... but as he has been approaching the gate, Jin Wei had been attacked by one of the Zhang! An envious vermin, named Wei Jin, a coward who had knocked Jin Wei to the ground and stolen their sacred orb. "Our people have never forgotten. You can never trust a Zhang." He finished, his tone and expression grim and unforgiving. The waterbender looked towards the Zhang camp, the features of her pretty sunkissed face now hard and suspicious.
In the Zhang camp, the female chief offered a leg of meat to Sokka who accepted without a second thought and began eating hungrily and happily.
"I know what you must be thinking. We're horrible for endangering everybody by bringing food down here." The portly woman acknowledged, looking sorry, but the boy was too busy stuffing himself to pay attention and merely grumbled a munching noise. "The Gan Jins think so badly of us they probably assumed we brought food in and decided to bring food in themselves. That's why we brought food in." There was still no proper response from Sokka. Chenlian would have said they were just as pampered as the Gan Jins. And they complained they were not trusted and always blamed unjustly? There should be a limit to foolishness and absurdity. To let that chance pass to actually prove themselves better and show the Gan Jins how wrong they were... that was really stupid indeed. But again, she was not here. "Our conflict with the Gan Jin goes back over a hundred years..." She narrated how their forefather, Wei Jin, had been leaving the western gate of their village when he had seen a man of the Gan Jin tribe, Jin Wei, collapsed on the ground. "Noble Wei Jin" had stopped to help him and the fallen man had told him that he was transporting a sacred orb, a very powerful relic used in his tribe's redemption ritual. Wei Jin had tried to tend to the man's wounds, but Jin Wei had insisted the orb was more important and asked him to take it back to his tribe. "Kind Wei Jin" had promised to send help for the man as soon as he could, but as Wei Jin had crossed the border to return the orb into Gan Jin territory he had been arrested and sentenced to twenty long years in prison instead of being thanked for his "kind and selfless deed". "We Zhang's will never forget that injustice." She finished, harsh and determined.
"That's just terrible." Sokka commented, having finished his leg. "You gonna finish that?" He asked, pointed at the meat in his interlocutor's hand. She took a bite in response and he slumped a bit, depressed.
Aang and Momo were looking down at the camps below, longing to be around one of those campfires, telling stories and laughing. The lemur chattered forlornly. The Avatar reassured him: they would be out of here soon enough and then they could eat our weight in leechy nuts. Momo caught a flying bug, hesitated, then offered it to Aang who turned him down, saying he would rather wait for the leechy nuts.
"If you want leechy nuts I have some here, although not enough to make your weight." A voice surprised him. He turned around to see Chenlian holding a box warped in a cloth. "And since I thought such a thing would happen, I have also brought some leftovers from our dinner for you, Momo, and your guide."
"What? But what about the canyon crawlers? And what about Appa and the Zhangs and Gan Jins you had taken across?" He was really glad to see her and have a little food but was still unsure.
"Don't worry, it should be alright as long as you eat it all now and don't leave anything. Carrying supplies for more would have been impractical and I doubt they need it anyway." She looked aside with obvious displeasure and slight scorn tinted with disappointment.
"What do you mean?"
"You should understand soon enough. Anyway, Appa left me off around here and went back to the others. We wanted to try leaving them alone for a time to see what would happen."
"How did things go? Did you find out why they hated each other?"
"Well... I left that part to Sokka and Katara and tried to make them get along. If I had focused on the reason of their hate, they would have too and that was what I wanted the least. It was not simple but I believe we've made ourselves clear... at least we managed to make them sit around the same campfire... and not be constantly at each other's throat." The young girl trailed off with a smile. She did not reveal she was a firebender as everyone would have refused the care they needed. No, the main problem had been their stubbornness. She had to divide chores like Aang had done. And though at first she had put up with everyone's whims and tried to do things gently for a few hours but she had ended up snapping and speaking her mind...
"Quit acting like spoiled brats! It's because you're so divided that the Fire Nation can sweep you out so easily! It's obvious that working together is much more efficient than being on your own. You'll never make it if you keep being stubborn and holding onto your vain pride. Are you wild dogs constantly at each other's throat!? Or are you civilized humans capable of showing intelligence by putting aside your differences and working together?! It's because people can't do everything alone that they form communities and ask for help. It's by acknoweledging and sharing the good sides that people grow." Such speech naturally led to complaints about her disrespectful attitude toward elders. "Respect? And what have you done, what have you said that would deserve respect? All you did was whine and yammer to no end. If they deserved it, I would treat a criminal or a homeless with more deference than a king, and if a king acted like the worst kind of trash, I would also treat it as such. But let me tell you one thing. There's no way people's opinions on you would change if you don't start by changing yourself." She had traced a line on the ground with her sheathed sword. "Now, if you're going to stay as you are and keep fighting like cats and dogs, go to this side and fight to the end of the world. Those of you who are capable of evolving and working together, come to this side. But if you do, I don't want to hear any whining or fighting. It's where you should all show what you're really made of!"Arms apart, hands on the pommel of her sword she had firmly planted on the ground in front of her, she had spoken with all the strength and authority her life of adversity had given her, like an adult chastising children.
But when she had helped and treated those people she was truly gentle. She saw even the ailments they tried to hide and had everyone organised according to their strength and abilities she would ask and/or deduce from the shape and state of their bodies. However, what she had done had only been a temporary measure. As long as the root of their hatred did not disappear they would end up fighting again. That was why all they could do was to leave things to Sokka and Katara. "Aang, don't forget that even if we are not always at your side, we will always support you and be with you. You are not alone. And even if you feel unsure about yourself you can see things like this: you trust us, we trust you, so you can trust yourself. Believe in your own power and in your own heart, as the Avatar, and as Aang, the last airbender. Don't worry, everything will be alright. I told you there can be light in the most unexpected places." She produced a flame she kept over her palm. How difficult it could be for people to think of a firebender as a friend and ally. And yet... "Also, don't try to think things out, you're not made for that. Your greatest weapon is that ingenuity and spontaneity of yours." Chenlian took a stick lying around, and lit it into a torch she gave to the airbender who accepted it. She smiled, giving him a 'light' tap on the back that still made him slouch forward. "Brighten up and be yourself."And with that she left to go back to her own camp.
"It's lonely, isn't it? Being impartial." A voice said. The Avatar jolted like a thief caught red-handed and turned to the canyon guide who had also come up from behind.
"I wish I could help these people get along, but it just seems impossible."
"You will not try to do as your friend said just now?"
"You saw her!?" Aang exclaimed, ready for anything.
"I must say you have the most peculiar but also the most reliable and trustworthy friends" The old man replied kindly, taking his share of the food she had brought. "And I must say she's also an excellent cook."
"She is, isn't she?" The airbender had expected anything but that, and indeed he had brightened up all the more. He didn't know whether it was the light and heat of the torch in this darkness or that firebender's words but he felt full of hope, energy, and determination again. "Anyhow, I guess our biggest problem is getting out of here."
"I'm not so sure the two problems are unrelated." The earthbender lied down next to the child, nodding off to sleep, as Aang looked away, sad, yet hopeful and determined to do his best.
The next morning, Aang and the guide were as usual standing on the ridge between the crevices, the two tribes continuing their trek on either side. The old earthbender informed them they were almost to the other side. The Avatar jumped down, although he was still on the rock separator. The people walked past him. He stopped Katara and Sokka who were at the rear of their respective tribe. He questioned them about whether those people could cooperate long enough to get out of the canyon.
"I don't think so, Aang, the Zhang's really wronged the Gan Jins. They ambushed Jin We and stole the sacred orb." Katara answered, somewhat harshly.
"What are you talking about?" The airbender asked her.
"Yeah, Katara, what are you talking about?" Her brother agreed. "Wei Jin didn't steal the orb, he was returning it to their village gate and was wrongfully punished by the Gan Jin."
"Not punished enough if you ask me!" The waterbender crossed her arms over her chest, which made her sibling utter angry, frustrated noises.
"Okay! Okay! I get it! Now I need your help. Let's get everyone together at the base of the canyon wall." Aang opened his glider and flew off to the end of the canyon where the two tribes were once again facing each other. He landed between them. They were arguing once again. He folded his glider up and addressed the crowd. "Please everyone! As soon as we get out of here we can eat, and then go our separate ways, but I need you all to put your heads together and figure out a way up this cliff."
"Maybe the Zhang can climb the walls with their long, disgusting fingernails."
"Oh, sorry! I forgot that to the Gan Jin, unclipped fingernails is a crime punishable by twenty years in jail!"
"Why you dirty thief!"
"You pompous fool!" The clans started taunting and arguing with each other again, this time joined by Katara and Sokka who had become partisans of their respective tribes.
"Guys! Focus! How many times do I have to say it? Harsh words won't solve problems, action will!" Aang reiterated what he had said to his friends earlier.
"Perhaps the Avatar is right." The Zhang leader began.
"Yes, perhaps he is." Her counterpart agreed. The Avatar smiled ear to ear, his eyes shining with hope and pride.
"Harsh words will never solve our problems..."
"...action will!" Both leaders drew their blades – a jian sword for the Gan Jin and a large and heavily curved sword for the Zhang – and approached each other. They crossed swords in front of Aang who recoiled with a cry of surprise and fear.
"To the death! And let this be the end of this rivalry!"
"You know, I take it back! Harsh words aren't so bad!" Aang nervously contradicted himself. The chiefs ignored him and began the fight in earnest, both being surprisingly nimble, agile and deft for their age or corpulence. After several feints and thrusts, they pushed each other apart. The Gan Jin's lower beard fell off, and so did one of the Zhang's short twin tails. They rushed at each other again, but as they met Aang brought his staff down, blowing the two sides backwards. He was breathing heavily, an unusual and savage expression on his face. He looked over to the Gan Jins on his left and his jaw dropped after seeing an open blanket whose content – food – had been spilt. One kicked the blanket cover back over some of the food. But it was already far too late. "Is that... food?" He exclaimed in disbelief. "Everyone smuggled food down here!?" He turned back to the Zhangs whose leader was bent and busy picking up their own spilt food. "UNBELIEVABLE! You guys put our lives in danger because you couldn't go without a snack for a day!? You are all...AWFUL!" He conveniently left aside the fact that – someone – had already expected all that and, taking pity upon him, had also brought him something to eat that he had not turned down.
And as if on cue, many canyon crawlers emerged simultaneously from the cliff wall, attracted by the scent of food. The monsters are soon upon them and the people fled. Katara and Sokka got behind the nearest rock. The girl fearfully complained that it was a lot of canyon crawlers. Her brother drew out his boomerang and just as fearfully commented they had barely survived one.
"They're coming back for me! They've had a taste, and they're coming back for me!" The guide walked backward in terror, his paranoia getting the best of him. Sokka moved to leave the shelter of the rock and attack, an expression of determination on his face, but he was grabbed by his sister.
"Sokka, wait! I don't care about this stupid feud! I just want us to get out of here alive."
"Me too. I only took their side because they fed me." He agreed, looking chagrined at having let his love for food take precedence over his love for his family. They both ran from behind the rock. Aang landed and airbended a gale at a wall of the insects to no effect. They charged, and leapt onto the boy like a cat onto a mouse. The monk jumped into the air just as they reached and blasted them away from each other as he fell back down. This stunned them momentarily, but they get back up. It was then that Chenlian suddenly landed at his side. She created a wall of flames to corner the beasts against the cliff, singeing them, scaring them, and made them hide back into their holes. But the others had dispersed. A general melee had started as the creatures were now attacking the clans. The Zhang leader forced one back with her curved sword until it caught the blade between its teeth and yanked it back. Katara water whipped another that was threatening two Gan Jins. A monster broke her whip, however, and she lost the water. Sokka was chased by a crawler, but he hit it with his boomerang. Chenlian protected another group of people by unleashing jets of fire at the monsters and like this she danced through the battlefield, releasing streams, balls and arches of fire at the canyon crawlers. Although they were all appalled to have a firebender here, nobody contested her presence. She was protecting them.
Aang airbended four more creatures out of his way and looked around to see that the crawlers have cornered small bands of people all over the place. Even though her firebending friend was doing her best, there were just too many of them and they were just too scattered and she was also scared of hitting people! The Avatar looked over to see a few crawlers chewing food, their heads inside the bags and suddenly shouted at everybody to watch him and imitate him. He raised a food bag, leapt toward the nearest bunch of crawlers and threw a piece at them. One of the monsters caught the aliment and ate it. The crawler ran to him, but he puts the bag over its snout and then catapulted himself onto its neck and used the bag straps as reigns. The two scattered tribes worked together, repeating the process to turn the beasts into riding mounts. Soon all the people had a canyon crawler mount. The Avatar yelled at everyone to follow him, they were riding out of this hole! Grinning evilly, Aang tied a bag at the end of his folded glider and waved it before its crawler, which turned around and started climbing. He was soon joined by the rest. As soon as he reached the top, he dismounted and told everyone to get off. They all obeyed. The canyon guide fell off his mount. The airbender threw the bag of food over the cliff and the crawlers chased after it. Everyone rejoiced. They had all overcome the ordeal and were now safe.
"I never thought a Gan Jin could get his hands dirty like that." The Zhang leader complimented her counterpart.
"And I never knew you Zhang's were so reliable in a pinch." The Gan Jin praised back.
"Perhaps we're not so different after all."
"Too bad we can't rewrite history." He drew his sword and pointed it at the Zhang head. "You thieves stole our sacred orb from Jin Wei!"
"You tyrants unjustly imprisoned Wei Jin for twenty long years!" The woman unsheathed her own blade. Aang cried out and grabbed the side of his face in frustration before an idea lit it up.
"Wait a second! Jin Wei? Wei Jin? I know those guys!" The boy exclaimed. Naturally they did not believe him but he persisted. "No! I mean I really knew them. I may not look it, but I'm 112 years old. I was there a hundred years ago on the day you're talking about..." At this the leaders lowered their weapons as the Avatar told them what 'really' happened... that Jin Wei and Wei Jin weren't enemies but brothers, twins in fact, and they were eight, and most importantly, they were just playing a game! The sacred orb from the legend was the ball, and the eastern and western gates were the goal posts. Jin Wei had the ball and was running toward the goal when he fell and fumbled it. Win Jei didn't steal the ball but picked it up and started running it back toward the other goal. But he stepped out of bounds so the official put him in the penalty box, not for twenty long years, but for two short minutes. "There was no stealing and no putting anyone in prison. Just a game."
"You're saying the sacred orb was actually a sacred ball?"
"Nope, just a regular ball."
"What about our tribe's redemption ritual?"
"That's what the game was called, Redemption. As soon as someone got the ball from one goal to the other everyone would yell, "redemption!" Don't get me wrong, Wei Jin was kind of a slob and Jin Wei was a little stuffy, that much is true, but they respected each others' differences enough to share the same playing field."
"I suppose it's time we forget the past..." The head of the Zhangs began.
"...and look to the future." The head of the Gan Jins finished, bowing to his counterpart who bowed in turn. Aang was smiling, just like Chenlian, who had her arms crossed, and the Water Tribe siblings.
Then the firebender went to fetch Appa and the elderly and sick. Aang immediately hugged his furry friend, asking if he had missed him. The bison generously licked him from knee to head, making him laugh.
"I cannot thank you enough, Avatar." The chief of the Gan Jins approached.
"Well, you know, I try." The airbender turned to him, drenched in Appa's saliva. The man shrank in horror from Aang's slobbery body. When he asked him about his friend Chenlian being a firebender, the Avatar smiled. Her presence at his side was another sign that things had begun to change. The Gan Jin then joined the Zhang leader who declared they would travel to the Earth Kingdom capital as one tribe. The crowd cheered and followed the leaders down the path.
"I'm goin' too! I'm sick of this place!" The canyon guide resigned and ran after them.
"That's some luck you knew Jin Wei and Wei Jin." Sokka commented. Aang smiled.
"You could call it luck." He then grinned evilly. "Or, you could call it... lying!"
Katara was shocked, and her brother angry. The child sheepishly told them he had made the whole thing up.
"You did not!" The waterbender began in disbelief before her expression turned to devilish admiration. "That is sooo wrong."
"That is sooo stupid... and those guys were the stupidest ones for having actually believed it. If they'd just stop to think, they'd see the loopholes in your bluff." She had spoken with her usual contempt and aloofness but there was something in her expression that made her friends smile.
"But everything ended well, right?"
"Well... yeah." She wasn't fond of lies but it was ok. Aang had found the best way to solve this issue quickly and peacefully. Thanks to him these tribes would together build a brighter future. She believed that if it was him, he could unite this world's nations under a single banner and bring peace not to a few dozens of people but hundreds of thousands.