I steered my kayak up the currents of the Su Oku River. Already, the landscape was different. Instead of thick floes of ice with barely any bushes, now I saw nothing but trees and bushes. It was hard to see through the thick growth, but I knew I couldn't paddle upstream forever. My arms were beginning to ache, and there was only one spot on land that I could see which was safe enough to dock.

The mud squelched beneath the kayak as I coasted it to a stop. I exhaled and stayed still, letting my tired arms rest for a moment. Once I felt a sense of relaxation, I hopped out of the kayak and tugged it inwards. It rested comfortably on the grass. I pulled out the map Pakku gave me and studied it. From where I was standing, there was a resort town not too far from where I was. If I walked, I could make it to the Bamboo Seeds in about a day.

I grabbed my kayak and hoisted it free. As I finally got it away from the shore line, I glanced down the path. No one was coming. I also looked at my clothes. My chupa, repaired by my own hand in sewing, had grown worn from so many months traveling by boat, bison, and other animals. Not to mention, it was the outfit that gave away I was one of the Fire Nation's most wanted.

Reluctantly, I grabbed the twine I used to pull my hair back. In one tug, it came loose. I let my black hair flow free before it fell down in soft, jagged layers just af the tips of my shoulders. Hastily, I combed it to one side using my fingers, hoping the curtain of hair would obscure my face to the most eagle eyed of travelers.

I trudged through the forest quietly. With each step, my mind wandered. There would be a flitting bird which would remind me of the lemurs or animals back in the Air Temples. An occasional whisper in the branches would remind me of going to the shores with Aang during the summers. One time, I stopped to rest under a tree and the way the wood twisted on itself made me think of seeing various forms that Sister Wei would teach me. I didn't see any other travelers. At one point, I crossed by a grove that looked as if it had grown from the remains of a forest fire. One blackened stump, broken in and filled with wood chips, had given me an indication that it could have been part of a Fire Nation fight a hundred years ago.

Up ahead, I made out a vague shape of a gate. It was carved from two trees which tangled over each other. Inside, I saw several shadows milling around. A small town, maybe the size of Gaipan, was stretched out. I approached slowly.

The first person to greet me was a young girl about my age, who was reading a scroll. "Oh!" She closed the scroll as I approached. "You're new here, aren't you?"

"I'm just passing through," I answered. "Do you know anywhere where I can get a meal and bedding, maybe some new clothes?"

The girl pointed to several buildings. "I think there might be some decently priced clothes in that little shop."

I pressed one hand over my closed fist and lowered my head. "Thank you." After giving her the Earth Kingdom greeting, she returned the gesture and went back to her scroll. I decided to buy the clothes first. Sitting inside the shop was an older woman, waving around a pipe which made the room smell of whatever herbs were in the bowl.

"Do you have anything that's easy to move in?" I asked.

The lady nodded to several racks close by. 'Are you one of Sayuri's newest students?"

I looked back. "Pardon?"

The old lady pointed her pipe to a poster before putting it back in her mouth to puff. On the poster was a painting of a woman in a dance costume so elaborate, that it couldn't have been real. Gossamer hung from her arms like swoops of wind. Her pose was strong, yet also elegant. Sister Wei had taken me to see dancers perform when she was helping me perfect my staff skills, saying I should use them as an example.

"She and her students always come here, looking for clothes for their performances. What you just described is exactly her criteria," the lady swatted the air nonchalantly. "She's one of the greatest dancers in the Earth Kingdom. Possibly in all the four nations."

"Does she live here?" I asked.

The lady puffed her pipe and made a spitting noise. "Her studio is close to a resort not too far from here. Unfortunately, it's right near Fire Nation territory. She's probably sold her skills to them."

I looked down, guilt gnawing slightly in my stomach. With all the time I had spent fraternizing with foot soldiers after the Gapian incident, I could have been seen as a traitor. Heck, I saved the banished prince from freezing in the tundra. I was already on a wanted poster. I pawed through the racks, but found nothing that seemed to fit. Everything looked too gauzy or not fit for fighting. I looked over at Sayuri's poster once again. Talking to her would be helpful. Like her, I knew some of the Fire Nation's intel, and perhaps, since I had the money, I could train with her. It was easier than finding June.

Cherry blossoms fluttered like pink snow as I approached the red and white gates of the resort. The lady had been kind enough to give me directions to the resort closest to Sayuri's dance studio. I looked up at it in awe. The style was clearly Earth Kingdom architecture, but I could see why the Fire Nation wanted something so grandiose and wide. On the banks of the Su Oku River, they would be in between Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe territory. Tiny cottages dotted the shoreline, which I didn't find particularly smart war strategy, but I supposed the point was not to create a fortress. It was to create an escape.

As I passed through the cottages, I stopped when I heard applause from a nearby crowd. I peered through to see a lithe figure sweeping up coins into her long sleeves, which had been tossed at her feet. Her brown hair was styled into a bun, hidden behind countless jewels. But as she took a pose with one leg held high. I immediately recognized her. This was Sayuri. The crowd dispersed, leaving me alone with her counting the money. I took a step forward, but she didn't look up.

"Sorry," she said without even looking up. "You'll have to come by in a few days to see me dance again."

"That's…not what I wanted to ask," I said.

After securing her money in a part of her dress that I couldn't see, he finally met my gaze. "Hey, you look familiar," she studied my face. Then, her green eyes lit up and she snapped her fingers. "Wait! I've seen your face! And your clothes!" She lowered her voice down to a whisper. "It's on some of the propaganda posters! You're the Avatar's sister!"

I avoided her gaze. "Yes," I murmured quietly. "I am. I'm the Avatar's sister. A sister that's done what for this war? Been captured and imprisoned."

"But you got away. That's all that matters."

I shook my head. "You don't understand. Yes, I got away, but I did it just out of luck or someone coming in to save me!" I realized I was yelling, and I lowered my head. "Can we continue this discussion privately, please?"

Sayuri nodded. "I'll take you to my studio. Maybe we can talk about this over some cherry blossom tea."

Sayuri's studio was a small cottage just outside the resort's walls. As I stepped in, I looked at the layout. It was almost bare, save for a small table framed by silk draperies and doors that led to other rooms. The walls were lined with mirrors. Some of them were starting to show signs of tarnish. On the wall, I made out various costumes in different fabrics. Sayuri made me sit on one of the pillows by the table, retreating to one of the rooms. When she returned, her makeup and the long sleeved costume were gone. She instead stood before me in a silky cheongsam dress, carrying a tea tray. A fruity and floral smell was wafted on the steam as she set it down.

"The spa employees in the resort often brew this tea for their finest customers," she said. I noticed how even with pouring tea, her hands were constantly flowing. Every finger lift, the way her wrist curled. It was all elegant and poised. As she poured the cherry blossom tea and scooted it towards me, she asked, "And I must say, you, the Avatar's sister, are more than a fine guest."

I took the tea. "Thank you. I must say, it's nice to…actually feel that way, not have people tell me I'm a guest."

Sayuri's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

I set the cup down after a sip. The fruity flavors were sweet but not cloying. "Really. I've been standing alongside benders for so long, that it's nice to just be noticed for…well, being me. I promised my brother I would protect him, and what did I do? I just flitted from place to place, usually in Fire Nation custody. And I'm so sick of it. I don't want to be known as the non bending girl who is related to the Avatar and is constantly being rescued. I want to make a difference as a nonbender! But all I can do is twirl a staff! And even that got me nowhere; Aang was still hunted. There were times where I was just…sitting on the sidelines, doing nothing, letting benders tell me what to do. I've had it happen my whole life. I had it from my first teacher Sister Wei, and then my little brother, and the Firebenders who held me hostage…" I smacked the table hard, rattling the china, "and I hate that I can't defend myself! Or blend in anywhere…I'm just a nonbender that was trained by Air Nomads, constantly in her brother's shadow."

Sayuri said nothing for a time. She sipped her tea and very slowly set her cup down. I noticed her hands, her fingernails painted a pearly color, reaching over to hold my hands in her own. "You know that parts of that statement aren't true. There are things we can't control. You are a powerful woman, Gitan. Your gait is naturally light, but you could easily leap over your foes. Your posture is incredibly healthy. You may not be an Airbender, but clearly aspects of their forms have been passed on to you." A smile quirked on her lips. "Those are also signs of a dancer." I blinked at her. She let my hands go. "Dance can be a martial art in itself."

"I know," I said. "Sister Wei tried to implement dance into my staff training."

"Then let's build on that foundation," Sayuri stood up. "With my training, you'll become a powerful dancer. A dancer that doesn't just captivate an audience, but can use her weapons in her elegance."

With that, she marched over to the costumes on the wall. After a few careful selections, she pulled out a pearly qipao dress with pale lantern sleeves. With it, she found a pair of pants and a pair of plain slippers. "This will fit you. And frankly, you deserve a look that will help you blend into Earth Kingdom territories. We don't want the Fire Nation to find you again so easily. Yes, you have your hair down, but your Air Nomad clothes are just as much of a giveaway as your brother's tattoos."

I took the clothes and went to the small kitchenette area to change. When I emerged into the main studio, I paused. I had never truly looked at myself in a mirror, and the image caught me off guard. No longer was a mousy Air Nomad servant girl staring back at me. Instead, I could have passed as a traveler from any nation.

"You look beautiful," Sayuri said. She was standing in the center of the room. "In the wild, a dancer should always blend in. It's only when you have to perform should you let the spangles shine through." She crouched low and slid one foot forward, pointing her toes towards her reflection. Her foot practically hummed. "Try following my movements. Find a spot in the room and point your toe towards it, as if you're pointing with your hand."

I exhaled and did as she asked. My slide was stiff and scraped the ground. When I pointed my toe, the muscles in my foot seemed to scream. I scanned the room, trying to find anything to lock my eyes on. But my eyes just drifted from one corner, to a billowing sleeve on a costume, to a blossom petal. I tried to right myself but I slipped, wobbling and crashing onto the matted floor.

Sayuri helped me stand. "You're thinking about too many things. Focus on one thing. That focus will keep you on your toes, both in a performance and in a fight."

I righted myself. I adjusted my position. She corrected my stance, so that my feet were more evenly spaced and not as low as a traditional Airbending stance. Immediately, I felt lighter. I exhaled, and went back to the pointed toe position. This time, I kept my eyes on a small shape in the wood. As I looked at it, I began seeing it looking like two symbols merging into one; Aang's arrow pointing towards Zuko's scarred eye. I held it strong and steady.

"Good!"

I had completely forgotten Sayuri was there. She approached me with a smile. "Much better. You were practically glowing." I lowered my stance and she grinned. "And that's just one position. Let's go over the others."

The rest of the day, Sayuri drilled me with various warm up exercises and poses that she would use as a dancer. With each move she taught me, I could feel muscles that I hadn't used start to ache. Yet with each practice, something began to stir within. A familiarity. Better yet, something I hadn't felt in a long time. Confidence.

For the next few days, I stayed in Sayuri's studio. She taught me everything that she had learned. My balance improved from finding focus on small things. My hands, which I had never noticed were going too fast, fell into smooth rhythms under her guidance. The two of us decided to find a way to implement my staff into my routines. A move that we dubbed the Red Gale became a moveset I enjoyed best; I held my staff horizontally, spun on the ball of my foot with my outer arm and foot extended, and followed through by tucking the staff under my armpit a d striking or blocking, depending on how I could use it in combat. I had asked if I should find a way to use the knife, but she said that knife dancing was a skill she had never learned, and it was best to use for survival. I would be dripping with sweat after each practice, my heart pumping with adrenaline, but Sayuri told me it was normal to be fatigued.

"Dancing is perhaps just as exerting as any martial art," she said.

She began taking me with her to her performances at the resort grounds. We would take turns spinning and holding poses that, with a spin of the foot of a sharp kick, would adjust into something else. My staff felt less like a weapon and more like a prop during these performances. Much like with my old clothing, I had to disguise it to avoid Fire Nation soldiers recognizing me when Sayuri and I performed. I had wrapped the Water Tribe knife with a series of gossamer around it, making it look more like a spear than a staff. Both of us were shrouded in mystery, a mystery that was making its rounds in this tiny corner of the Earth Kingdom.

One thing I was not a fan of was Sayuri's suggestion that I use a cover name. For a while, she was simply using "The Red Gale" as my performer name. I even had the luxury of getting my own poster pinned at the resort's bulletin board, where I was painted in red and white robes, balancing my staff over my head while standing on my toes, a hand elegantly outstretched.

"Everyone knows your name," she had pointed out. "You need a cover to avoid being seen."

"Is Sayuri a cover name?" I had asked.

Her green eyes darkened slightly. She had set down her cup of cherry blossom tea and looked at me. "No. I wear my name with pride because it's my own. Dance is not mine. Fighting is not mine. But your case is different, Gitan. By learning with me, you're putting yourself in danger. If the Fire Nation knew I was teaching the Avatar's sister how to dance…they'd not only take you away, but they'd destroy my studio."

She walked over to a painted wardrobe. She opened it and began rummaging through the drawers. Finally, she pulled out a small painting. In it, I recognized her as a little girl. Next to her stood an older child with a much more jaded expression.

"Ume was my best friend," she said softly. "We weren't sisters by blood, but with how close we were, we might as well have been. We grew up in a village close to here. before it was taken over by the Fire Nation. We built this studio together, she and I. She wanted to teach little girls how to fight, I wanted to keep my mother's dance traditions alive. But then our parents were conscripted to the Earth Kingdom army. Ume and I planned to run away…but she was caught by soldiers when the Fire Nation started taking towns." Her hand gently ran over the picture, her eyes watering. "I never saw her again."

I looked at the childhood picture of them. They both looked so happy side by side. Something about it stirred a small sense of longing. I looked at the woman sitting across from me, and in her place, I saw myself if I had gone to the Eastern Air Temple. Full of regret for not being able to save her family, instead passing on her lessons to her bright eyed students. It was a stark reminder that the war wasn't just politics and long winded battles; there were families being torn apart.

"Sayuri…" I said softly. "I'm sorry. I…"

Suddenly, I paused. There was a faint noise in the air, along with a strange feeling like something in the atmosphere had shifted slightly. Usually, this feeling often came when a storm was coming in. Airbenders could feel what kind of weather was on the wind. Yet I sensed nothing. Of course I wouldn't. And besides, the sky was clear. But why did I sense that oh so subtle shift? Like an electric tingle…?

"Gitan?" Sayuri tilted her head back to me, "Is something wrong?"

I shook my head. "Nothing." I went back to sipping the cherry blossom tea.

Our performance at the resort grounds was cancelled the next day. When Sayuri and I asked the resort staff why, all they said was that a very important guest was coming. Our presence would distract guests from her message. He also had unfortunate news for her, that if this guest saw her, then there would be no renewal of her contract with them.

Sayuri's brow deepened in a mixture of annoyance and anger. "After bending down to you, giving you my home…this is how you repay me?!"

I pulled out my staff and took a fighting stance. "You've made a serious mistake shutting her down, after everything she's done for you."

The resort manager stood. He waved in several young girls. When Sayrui saw them, her face fell several inches. When I saw the girls, I realized they were getting to stances that resembled some of the dance poses. I stood in front of her, readying my staff. "Don't worry. I'll be sure to let them know why fighting and dancing shouldn't be separated."

The sunlight caught the tip of the knife tied within the folds of my decorations on the staff. A girl came spinning towards me. I parried her spin, noticing that with how she carried herself, she hadn't been distributing her weight evenly. Another dancer swung her long sleeves towards me. I swung my staff in a series of looping figure eights, her sleeves being cut to ribbons by the concealed blade. . By the time her hands were exposed, she had nothing left to use as a weapon, so she ran back further back sobbing. One girl approached us, and that was when I noticed her nostrils flare and a tiny flame blossomed in her fingertips.

A Firebender.

Unfortunately for her, my time sparring with Zuko had taught me how to dodge several Firebending attacks. She kept her distance to snap her fire in my direction, but I closed the distance a literal staff's length away. I performed the Red Gale trick, with my staff connecting smartly with the side of her head. She staggered before righting herself, narrowing her eyes at me. I glanced over to see Sayuri engaged in her own dance battle with her former students turned spa workers. She nodded at me in approval that she was fine, and I turned my focus back on the Firebender. She crafted small whips of fire. I spun carefully to literally dance around her blows, but she was fast. I ducked to avoid a Firebending punch and came back with a jab to her stomach. She was pushed back. I pulled the knife out from the cloth and started weaving my way through her fire blasts, literally slicing them aside. As I drew closer, I resheathed the knife and began to strike using a combination of Sayuri's dance training and my own Airbending knowledge; Sister Wei would have been proud.

The Firebender fell back against several crates with her hands raised in surrender. I smiled and pulled my staff away, sliding it into the sash I had tied around my waist to replace. I looked over at Sayuri, who had also defeated her opponents. We shared a smile, two nonbenders that had just won a fight against a powerful opponent.

The resort owner just stared at the aftermath in shock. I jabbed my staff at him. "Now, are you going to keep her contract? From what I've seen from her, she's not just a dancer. She'd be much better security than…that."

The manager nodded helplessly. The young girls all gathered and stared up at Sayuri with their eyes full of wide-eyed fear and apologies. The Firebender girl, rubbing her head where my staff had connected, glared at me with a mixture of anger and grudging respect. Sayuri looked them over and nodded softly before saying, "I may not have been a warrior like Ume, but I think she would be happy to see that you were trying to put my dancing skills into practice as well."

Sayuri placed a hand on my shoulder, her green eyes shining with gratitude. "You know, didn't have to do that."

"Yes, I did," I replied, meeting her gaze. "You took me in, taught me, and gave me a safe place. I wasn't going to let them disrespect you like that."

A small crowd of onlookers, resort guests and staff alike, had gathered during our fight. They murmured amongst themselves, their expressions ranging from shock to admiration. Our blend of dance and combat had certainly made an impression.

"Well," Sayuri said, a mischievous glint in her eyes, "it seems 'The Red Gale' has gained a bit more notoriety than we anticipated."

I blushed red. No doubt that this would go beyond the walls of this resort and this corner of the Earth Kingdom.

The "important guest" arrived later that day when the chaos had died down, and the reason for that strange feeling I had felt yesterday became chillingly clear. Fire Nation banners, crimson against the clear blue sky, were unfurled as soldiers in familiar red and black armor marched in, their faces grim and their movements precise. Several individuals in red robes that were simple in design were carrying a large, ornate palanquin on their shoulders, which was draped in gossamer curtains.

A hush fell over the resort as a figure emerged from the ship. Clad in ornate Fire Nation robes, her black hair pulled back with an ornate clip with black hair framing her face, was a young girl with an aura of cold command. Her golden brown gaze swept over the gathered onlookers, sharp and assessing.

"Princess Azula," someone close by whispered. When I heard that name, my blood ran cold. So, this was the famed Firebending prodigy sister that Zuko had brought up one time when we were sharing secrets one day in his quarters aboard his ship.

Sayuri's hand tightened on my arm. "We need to stay out of sight."

The princess marched up to the highest platform, one where Sayuri and I usually performed, and unfurled a scroll in her hand, the nails manicured so finely that they resembled claws. "Anyone who harbors these traitors will face the wrath of the Fire Lord!" Azula barked at the crowd, who cowered.

I stared at the scroll, staring widely at the contents. I couldn't read the description from far away, but I recognized the faces painted onto them.

Zuko and Iroh.