Wandering Firebender
Seventy Four: True Heart
Cindra made her way to the steering area of the airship where Elio was. When she came in, she found him standing by the door watching the crew fly the airship. He stood there with his back straight and his arms folded.
"Hey, Elio. We about to land?" She asked as she walked up and stood next to him.
"Yep." He answered shortly with a little nod of his head.
"Okay...what's the situation?" She asked, looking at him.
"Not sure, actually. A Fire Nation colony on the edge of the Earth Kingdom sent a black ribbon distress message, but it was extremely brief. All it said was 'send help', basically. So we're investigating." He explained.
"Oh wow. Okay...how are you doing?" She asked.
"I'm fine." He answered.
"Are you?" She asked, looking at him again. Elio glanced at her and looked forward again.
"I don't wanna talk about it right now. It's done and over with. I'd like to keep it that way." He said with a little sigh. Cindra nodded in understanding, reaching over and rubbing her hand on his arm.
"Okay. Well, you know I'm here for you either way." She said. She started to turn to leave, but Elio turned towards her and stopped her by sliding his hand down her arm and taking her hand for a moment.
"Cindra." He let go of her hand and let it fall back to her side.
"Y-Yes?"
"Thanks for being here for me...we'll be landing soon. Can you let the others know to be ready?" He requested. Cindra nodded and turned away to hide her blushing.
"Yep! I'll go tell them right now." She said before quickly leaving the room.
Elio closed the door behind her, letting out another little sigh before turning back towards the other members of the crew. Maybe later he would consider talking to Cindra about what he was thinking, but for now, he just wanted to stay focused on the mission...
As soon as Elio's airship came in for a landing by the Fire Nation colony, they could see people coming out of the town and running out to meet them. Elio put on his uniform and came out of the airship with his staff in hand and his friends in tow behind him.
"Please, are you the ones here to help us?" One of the men of the group asked. It appeared that a few families had come out to greet Elio and the others; there were women and children among them too.
"Yes. My name is Captain Elio. I was sent here by Fire Lord Zuko to hear about what's going on with you. Why did you send out a distress message?" He asked.
"Our town is being attacked by some crazy spirit," One of the women answered. "It comes every night and wrecks our homes and our shops! Please, you have to help us get it out of here!" She begged. Everyone in the crowd spoke up in agreement.
"Okay, okay. Everyone calm down. We will look into this. Please, allow me to discuss this with my team and we'll figure out what to do." He instructed them. Everyone in the crowd all looked at each other with much hesitation and doubt before dispersing and going back into town.
"If it truly is a creature of the Spirit World attacking this town, we may be out of our depth here, Elio." Alger pointed out.
"Yeah. Isn't dealing with the Spirit World, like, the Avatar's job?" Sri added.
"We don't even know if it's a spirit," Delun pointed out. "It could just be some bandits in disguise or something like that. We don't need the Avatar to deal with that."
"That's just speculation." Alger argued.
"You're right. We don't actually know what we're dealing with. So until we get a better sense of the threat, I'll write a message to Fire Lord Zuko about what the townsfolk are saying. When night comes, we'll face this thing ourselves and take it from there.
"Sound like a plan?" Elio asked. Everyone nodded in agreement.
"What do you want us to do then?" Cindra asked.
"For now, we'll survey the town. Delun, gather the foot soldiers and have them go around and ask everyone in town what they've seen. Get me detailed reports of what's been damaged. Cindra, Alger, Sri; you go with them and draw up a list that I can attach to the message."
"Got it." Sri nodded.
"Yes, sir." Delun did a quick salute before everyone started to disperse according to Elio's instructions. Elio folded his arms and turned towards the Fire Nation colony.
Elio's understanding of the Spirit World was still incredibly limited, even when taken into consideration the fact that he had spoken directly with the moon spirit once. If there truly was a spirit attacking this town, he could only hope that he'd be able to figure out what to do...
To Fire Lord Zuko,
We have arrived safely at the Fire Nation colony. You sent us here not knowing what complaints would be awaiting us, but what we're hearing now might perhaps be beyond our ability to assist. The people here are complaining of some kind of wild spirit that they can only describe as something looking like a fearsome monkey-fox. I don't remember ever hearing about a creature like that in school, but the majority of reports I've received have all said the same thing.
If this turns out to truly be the case, I will send another message tomorrow requesting that Avatar Aang be dispatched here to take over the matter for me. However, we have yet to see this 'fox-monkey' for ourselves, so I will remain here with my men until we can confirm one way or the other.
Whether this turns out to be a hoax or not, one thing is for certain: the people here do need help rebuilding the damage that has been done. A number of homes have had holes seemingly punched in them, and several families have lost out on their businesses – restaurants and shops. Unfortunately, we do not have the materials onboard to help them rebuild, so I ask that you send relief supplies ahead of my follow-up message, in case we are able to take care of this on our own.
I must admit, I have my concerns about sending my men to fight against a mysterious spirit. If that proves to be what the issue truly is, I doubt that my men will be able to do much against it. I myself have only recently become acquainted with the very existence of that otherworldly plane, so I cannot imagine what effect this creature might have on the soldiers here who are far less believing – I have already heard talk amongst the crew doubting the nature of what we're dealing with here.
Nevertheless, I will carry out the matter with discretion as you have entrusted me to. Expect to hear from me again soon with further updates.
~ Elio
Elio sat back in his chair, sighing to himself as he set down his pen. He read over the message two more times before rolling it up and tying it with a ribbon. He sent it out via messenger hawk, watching it fly out the window. Then he shut the window again and drew the curtains.
Even after writing down all of his thoughts and sending them away, he wasn't feeling anymore reassured. Elio found himself standing alone in his room with his arms folder, staring down at the floor as he contemplated what his next move could or should be.
There was a knock on his door, "Captain? It's Mila. May I come in?" She requested.
"Yeah, of course," He answered, opening the door for her. "It looks like the sun's about to go down. Is everyone ready?" He asked.
"Yes, sir, we're preparing. But before you come down, I wanted to speak with you privately, if I may."
"Regarding?"
"...well, I wanted to apologize for my actions a couple days ago when Admiral Ming fought with you on the airstrip." She said.
"Your actions?" He raised his eyebrow at her, not sure what she was referring to.
"Yeah, um...I thought a lot about what you said about not fighting when you want to or fighting when you don't want to. It made me realize that some of things I had said leading up to that whole thing came off as disrespectful.
"Regardless of whatever happened and how I feel about it, you're the captain here, and it's my job to follow your orders. And from what I can tell, you haven't steered us wrong yet. Honestly, you made the right call then – we were the ones that needed to catch up with you." She stated.
"Well, I appreciate you saying that. It's been on my mind these past couple days. But I was never upset with you. I apologize if I made you feel that way at all."
"You didn't," Mila shook her head. "But I thought it was important to make sure we were all good, considering you seem to trust me with assignments a lot."
"I do. Thank you for showing me why that was a good decision," Elio smiled appreciatively and shook her hand. "Come on. We should take our posts now before the sun fully sets."
"Yes, sir." Mila smiled and followed behind him...
The people of the town had all told Elio and his men that the spirit comes from the nearby forest, so Elio staged his men at the edge of town to create a protective half-circle in front of it. Elio set himself at the front, with his friends choosing to stand by him.
With both hands on his staff, Elio stood patiently outside the town, staring into the trees. With the sun setting and the evening breeze blowing, Elio felt like he was in the calm before the storm that was about to come. Even with the warm wind, he couldn't shake an uneasy chill.
"I don't know what I'm more worried about: that this thing won't come or that it will." Sri said, wringing her hands together nervously.
"Just remember what I showed you about handling that sword." Alger reminded her.
"Right." Sri nodded, resting one of her hands on the hilt of the sword just to remind herself that it was there.
"Are you nervous, Elio?" Cindra asked, looking at him. Elio took in a breath and let it go.
"Extremely." He admitted.
The last rays of the sun disappeared behind the trees, giving way to the cloudy darkness of the night. From that point on, it was only a matter of seconds before they started to hear something big charging towards them. Elio swallowed, lifting his staff and spinning it once.
"Here we go." He said to himself, lifting his hand up to signal to his men to be on their guard. Elio, his friends, and his soldiers all got into fighting stances as the rumbling got closer and louder.
Suddenly, a large ape-like creature with bushy white fur and narrow eyes popped out of the trees, huffing angrily as it charged towards them. Elio's eyes widened in shock. As it got closer, several of his soldiers shot fire at it.
The creature weaved between the fire blasts, charging right at the soldiers. "Oh boy." Elio said worriedly. He ran in the creature's way and sent out a widespread blast of fire to try and wall it off.
"Stop it from getting in town!" He ordered his soldiers.
Following his lead, Elio's men all created a wall of fire to keep the spirit creature on the outskirts of the city. The monkey-fox creature ran around the fire before swatting several soldiers out of the way. As it set foot in the city, a pillar of earth launched it up into the air and sent it flying back.
"Nice one, Alger!" Sri said, smacking him several times on the arm.
"It won't buy us much time. I'll try to keep it fenced in. Just hold it back." Alger said, hurrying forward.
"Everyone! Keep the creature back until we can fence it in!" Elio yelled, following behind Alger.
Elio's men all rallied behind him with a battle cry. Once the creature had hit the ground again, it rolled on its back and got right back on all fours. It roared at them before charging forward again. As they met in the middle, Elio's soldiers started shooting fireballs at it again.
The monkey-fox started swinging its arms, knocking several more of Elio's men away. Elio and some of the other soldiers ducked under it. Elio was able to get in close and hit it in the leg with its staff, but it seemed to do nothing at all. It just roared at him.
Cindra stepped forward and used her waterbending to hit the monkey-fox in the back of the head with a water whip move. As it turned, it was hit with more fireballs. This allowed Elio to slip away from it, shooting his own continuous blast of fire.
"Alger, now's your shot, buddy!" Elio yelled back to him.
"Right!"
Alger caused a piece of earth to rise underneath him, launching him towards the monkey-fox creature. He landed in front of it and created a wall between it and the town. The monkey-fox roared at him and swung at his head.
Alger ducked underneath it, creating another wall on the other side of it. He launched himself into the air with another piece of earth, flying over another attack. He landed on top of one of the walls and created two more, boxing the spirit creature in.
For added security, Alger aimed the back of his hand towards the creature, pushing the earth underneath it further down. Once it was below the earth, he jumped into the air and pressed all 4 walls together, essentially burying it under the pillars.
"Yo, he didn't even need our help!" Sri exclaimed.
"Nice work, Alger!" Elio called to him. Alger nodded and slid down the side of the rock wall, landing on the ground and walking towards them.
"Now we just gotta figure out what to do with this creature!" He said to Elio. Elio walked forward to meet him.
"I'll need to send a message to Fire Lord Zuko, let him know we're gonna need Aang after all."
The conversation was interrupted by rumbling within the ground. Elio and Alger turned to see the pillars of earth beginning to shake. They bounced in the air and toppled over, allowing for the monkey-fox to jump back up to the surface.
"Ah boy." Elio grumbled.
"Fools! Fools! Nothing contains the spirit! You know nothing of it all!" The spirit creature snarled. Elio's eyebrows furrowed strangely.
"Hey!" He shouted back to it, stepping forward. "Why are you attacking this town?! What have they done to bother you?" He questioned it.
The monkey-fox got into an aggressive stance, but then it stopped when it looked down at Elio. It studied him for a few moments in strange silence before answering him.
"You've been touched by the moon spirit. If you are of a spiritual mind, why do you defend these people who know nothing of this world?" It asked him.
"If they know nothing of the spirit world, why attack them at all? Have they done something to offend you or hurt you?" Elio asked again.
"They are hypocrites...like so many others in this world. The state of balance has been shifting." It pointed out.
"Well you're not wrong, but let's talk things out, alright? If you're willing to speak to me, maybe we can come to some kind of understanding...?" Elio tried.
The monkey-fox huffed and looked at Elio's small squadron waiting at the edge of the town. It closed its eyes and began to glow. Within the brilliant white light it was emitting, it changed form, shrinking into an appearance much more like a white fox.
"We will speak in the forest, away from anyone else." The spirit stated.
"Fine by me," Elio agreed. He turned back towards the others and held his hand up. "It's alright! Hold your post here." He ordered.
"What is your name, boy?" The fox spirit asked.
"I'm Elio. Elio Chinen of the Fire Nation. And yours?"
"I am called Mi. Follow." Mi began scampering towards the thick forest it had emerged from. Elio swallowed nervously and followed the spirit fox until the others couldn't see him anymore.
"Where are you taking me?" Elio asked.
"You wished to speak. I know a private place." Mi answered, continuing to lead the way.
"Very well." Elio agreed hesitantly, glancing around him.
Finally, the two of them arrived at a small pond. The fox stopped at the edge of the water, trotting in a little circle before sitting. Elio walked up next to it and sat down cross-legged in the grass. He rested his hands in his lap, making sure not to come across as threatening in any way.
"Well, where do we begin?" Mi asked.
"Um, that's really up to you...you said something about the balance of the world shifting?" He brought up.
"Yes. These are very confusing times. Things were simple before, but they aren't now. When the war ended, I thought that would bring peace, but the Fire Nation still stands." Mi explained.
"I see...I mean, the war is over. The Fire Nation is under new leadership, and we're doing our best to change things for the better now." Elio pointed out.
"But then what was the point of any of it? Why did you start these fires just to put them out? Why hurt others just to try and help them?"
"Are you asking me or are you just speaking generally?" Elio asked.
"Generally. You are from the Fire Nation, but you carry a mark of the moon spirit. Therefore, you must be different. You have a true heart, and you are true to your nature, unlike so many." Mi concluded, turning its head to look at Elio.
"I appreciate you saying that. But it took me a long time to get to this point." Elio admitted.
"Of course. You had to learn and you had to grow."
"I did. More than you may think. I had to be taught the courage to stand and fight for what I believe in." Elio said. Mi looked at him again.
"But your beliefs never changed. I look at those Fire Nation soldiers and the people of this town – they are much like other people around the world forgetting themselves and the things they stood for, fought for, died for." Mi said.
"Well...sometimes people fight for the wrong things. But that doesn't make them bad people. It just means they had bad guidance. In the case of the Fire Nation, we had a lot of bad leaders with selfish motives."
"Do you really think that a world overfilled with fickle, stubborn people can learn to change and become unified?" Mi asked doubtfully.
"I mean, not everyone will fall in line, obviously. But you'd be surprised how many people just want to do the right thing. I believe that all it takes is someone to point them in the right direction."
"You refer to yourself." Mi assumed.
"No," Elio shook his head and smiled a little. "I'm not really cut out for leadership. But I can tell you this; the ones in charge of this new shift in balance? They're good people. They've seen all the bad things you've seen, but they've also seen a lot of good in the people they're trying to save."
"The Avatar?" Mi asked.
"Yeah, he's one of those guys. The new Fire Lord is another one. I've been doing my best to help them out. Would you like to speak to Aang? I can have him come here and tell you himself." Elio offered.
"No, that's alright. I will find him in my own time." Mi said, looking down at the pond and sighing.
"Ok...are you alright?" Elio asked, resting his hand on the back of the fox's neck.
"I have some thinking to do...perhaps my view of this world and its inhabitants is too limited. I think that I have become...jaded." Mi admitted.
"It happens to everyone. Things have been difficult for a long time. And change is complicated and messy and scary." Elio acknowledged.
"I know that all too well. I think it is time for me to be more honest with myself. When my heart is true...then I can see the world through the proper lens." Mi decided.
"I wish you the best on that journey," Elio said sincerely before standing up. "Does this mean I can let the people back there know that they won't have to worry about any more attacks?" He asked.
"Yes," Mi nodded. "May your quest to heal the world go well, Elio of the Fire Nation. We will meet again."
"I look forward to it." Elio said in reply. He did a formal Fire Nation bow to show his respect. The fox bowed its head in reply before disappearing before Elio's eyes...
Elio could see the relief on everyone's faces when he emerged from the trees again. Cindra, Sri, and Alger ran up to greet him first. Cindra gave him a quick hug.
"You're finally back! Are you alright? That thing didn't attack you again, did it?" Cindra asked.
"It didn't," Elio shook his head and smiled. "We actually had a nice little talk; second time ever talking to a spirit." He added with a chuckle.
"Really? So we're all good? We don't have to worry about it coming back? 'Cause we were pretty outclassed in that fight." Sri pointed out.
"He's given me his word that he won't be attacking the colony again." Elio informed them. Everyone let out another relieved exhale.
"Good. So does that mean we're all good here?" Sri asked.
"Not quite yet. The people here still need help rebuilding. I'll send another message to the Fire Lord tonight and inform him that the threat is gone. If we all pitch in, we can have things back to the way they were here in a couple days, I think." Elio speculated.
"Sounds like a plan, captain." Alger nodded.
"Heheh...alright. Let's spread the word." Elio smiled to himself as he started walking back towards his men...