Wandering Prince
Avatar the Last Airbender, Zuko SI
12
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We set down on the shore just outside of Chenbao, within walking distance of the village but out of sight. Thankfully, night was coming on when we landed, so it was less likely for anyone to see us. Everyone in the second balloon quickly got their things and got out and, as soon as we were sure they had everything, I set fire to it. I could see the pain in Bo’s eyes at watching something he made with his own hands be destroyed, but everyone knew it was safer this way.
Yue insisted on seeing everyone to the inn, so I kept the engine running while she left with them. It wasn’t but a few minutes later before she came hurrying back and climbed in.
“How did it go?” I asked as I closed the vent and sent us up.
“I left them at the inn where we left Senna. The innkeeper recognized me. He said some things that worried me,” she explained, and I gestured for her to go on as I turned us for the south, following the line of the river. “Firstly, a Fire Nation cruiser came through, just after we left Senna here. Apparently, two women who were staying here left in a hurry when it did. He suspects they were passengers.”
“He say what they looked like?”
Yue shook her head. “I didn’t think to ask.”
“And the other thing?” I asked, curious.
Biting her lip, Yue murmured, “Several men of the water tribe came through, looking for us by description. He said they were very vocal about a ‘Fire Nation bastard’ kidnapping their princess.”
I had my suspicions on who that was. “Any idea which way they went?”
“Downriver, two days ago.”
I did some mental math, estimating their speed to put them an eighth of the way down the river to the West/East Lake, divided by Serpent’s pass, with the cruiser probably already three quarters of the way through. But that’s assuming they aren’t stopping at every major settlement to ask around.
Checking our fuel reserve and comparing it to how much we had already used, I frowned as I did some more estimates. Grabbing my journal from the pocket I kept it in, I opened it up and flipped to the map, unfolding the pages and studying it. My map wasn’t the most up to date, but I imagined the pirates I’d taken it from had been pretty damn meticulous about where all the Fire Nation bases they were aware of along their trade route were.
“We’ll need to make a stop for fuel at some point and I want to avoid those guys. So we’ll be cutting inland and heading to this old colonial village. Looks like it’s on the water and it’s near Pouhai Stronghold,” I pointed to where I remembered the place to be, despite it not being marked on this map. “I doubt the people looking for us are going to come that far inland to do it and getting there by water would mean going around and cutting back north. The lakes are heavily patrolled by Fire Nation cruisers blockading Ba Sing Se, so they’re definitely not going to cross it. They don’t know we can fly, so they’ll think we have the same limitations they do and would be just as cautious as we would, meaning they’ll stick to the west coast and head south. So, over land, hit the colonial village, then there’s an old coal mining town that looks to be within range almost directly south. Then it’s southeast, over the mountains, to Omashu. We should be weeks, if not a month or more ahead of them by the time we get there and we’ll have nothing to worry about.”
“Does that mean we have time to stop and see the sights?” Yue asked hopefully.
Chuckling, I nodded. “Yeah. And time to spend on your training.”
Yue cheered happily and pulled me into a side hug. I looked at the compass and adjusted course, turning southwest and inland. I didn’t take us very far inland before finding a nice, open grassland that looked well away from any villages to set down in. It was nothing but miles upon miles of tall, swaying grass and the occasional herd of animals we couldn’t identify at altitude and in the dark.
We landed and I pulled the lever to shunt the heat from the furnace to the pipe directly over it, so it would stop trying to fill the balloon, then I pulled another lever to cut off the vents for airflow into the furnace, smothering the coal inside to hopefully save a bit on fuel. Then, we deflated the balloon and rolled it and the net around it up and stowed them. Once that was done, Yue and I made our way inside the cabin to turn in for the night.
The interior of the now much larger cabin was arranged a bit differently, with the sleeping area all the way forward and storage towards the middle with everything large lashed down with nets, to better distribute the weight and keep anything from shifting. We each had a footlocker for our clothes and there were hooks on the wall for coats.
At the furthest end of the cabin, we had moved a low wooden bed frame in. The mattress wasn’t anything special, but it beat the hell out of laying on rugs laid out on the metal floor, especially with the new support struts creating regularly spaced two inch jutting pieces of metal it would be impossible to sleep on.
Yue looked over her shoulder at me as she undressed, biting her lip before pulling a light green night gown out of her locker—bought at a village not far from the northern air temple. I settled for my usual drawstring boxer shorts—a custom job I’d had made years back and had gotten new, appropriately sized versions of as I’d gotten older. The design was being sold in the markets in Hari Bulkan last I checked, but I had no idea if it had spread further, nor did I really care.
I climbed into bed and Yue hurried in after. A moment later, she was wrapping herself around my side and snuggling close, making a quiet, contented sound as she did. “This is nice,” she murmured, sighing against my chest.
Shifting a bit, I captured her chin and tilted her head up, before kissing her lips. Yue whimpered quietly as she kissed back, her arms squeezing me tightly. After a few moments, I broke the kiss with a smile. “Goodnight.”
“You,” Yue panted quietly. “You can’t tease me like that!”
“You enjoy it.”
“Yes~,” she moaned. “Nn, mean!”
“Mhmm,” I nodded, kissing her forehead. “Shh. Sleepy time now.”
Yue made a quiet noise of frustration but eventually relaxed. As for myself… At this rate, I’m going to push her down and make her squeal soon. I think she’s about ready to snap from all the teasing. When she does, I’ll make my move.
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Instead of flying straight to the town and risking having my balloon seen, I set us down the next morning on the river that ran down to the town. I was currently running with the sail out and powering the engine, setting a modest pace downriver as we took in the sights.
Sitting beside me and taking in the trees and the moss hanging off of them, Yue eventually wiped at her brow and began pulling her coat off. “Why is it so much warmer?”
“Lower elevation, for one. No cold wind coming down off the snowy mountains. We’re a bit further south, too. It’s actually still pretty damn cold,” I chuckled. This place wasn’t quite Florida in the summer warm, but it was definitely a lot warmer than it had been in Chenbao or the northern air temple. The north pole had been below freezing the entire time, save for indoors or in the oasis, and everywhere outside Agna Qel’a had been subject to freezing winds. The air temple had been below freezing, due to altitude. Chenbao was just barely above freezing. Where we were now, in what looked almost like a swamp, I’d say it was about forty Fahrenheit—still cold, but not terrible.
But then, Yue was this world’s equivalent to an Eskimo. She grew up in the cold and was used to it. Outside of the oasis, this was likely the warmest place she had been that wasn’t right beside a fire. I, on the other hand, had grown up in this world not just on the Fire Nation mainland, but in the capital. I was used to heat. Acclimated to it. Summers there frequently hit over 100F at a guess, with winters never getting below 50F. So while Yue was close to sweating, I was still comfy in my coat, since it meant not having to use the Breath of Fire to keep myself warm.
Eventually, we stopped for the day and set up camp—which was really just going out to gather wood for a cooking fire and then tracking down something edible. Once we had food cooking, a wild turkeyduck in this case, Yue and I got to training. First with basic stretches and exercises to get her warmed up. Then came movement practice—which I’d found the most fun way to do that was to play chase and, every time I caught her, tickle her mercilessly, then let her go to do it again. After that was hand to hand training.
Yue was coming along fairly well on that front. We hadn’t been at it long, but she was picking up the basics quickly. Learning how to move, dodge, parry, block, and strike when she saw an opening. How to roll with a blow. How to take a hit and get back up, to come back harder instead of curling up in pain. That last one was a particularly hard lesson I didn’t enjoy teaching, but we both knew it was necessary.
Finally, we tied in bending to the fighting style I was teaching her. Yue wasn’t entirely sure about this whole waterbending through the lens of fire thing, but I could already see where it would work. It was just getting her mentally in the right place. My answer to that was simple: the tide may be slow, but a raging river or a whirlpool is anything but.
Fast strikes that sent water out, only to pull it back to reuse. Parries and blocks using less water, to swat aside fire or other attacks. Shifting water between its different states unexpectedly, to strike with ice, water, or steam, then bring it back and do it again. There was much less windup to it than the usual waterbender fighting style, and I was slowly increasing her pace to force her to keep up with me. If she could, the advantages a physical medium gave her might allow her to outlast or even outpace most firebenders, as she’d have them completely on the back foot, not expecting her to come out of the gate at their own speed.
It was as we were really getting into our sparring, with me chasing her around the camp, carefully keeping my fire blasts pointed out at the water, and Yue doing her best to actually hit me that we were interrupted.
I leapt for her, a green fireball building in my hand as I got in close, only for Yue’s eyes to go wide. “Zuko!”
Reacting on instinct, I dodged, and just barely missed getting skewered by a spear. Our sparring practice came to an abrupt halt as we stood back to back, breathing heavily as we looked for our attackers. A torrent of water flowed up from the river, becoming several bands surrounding us, waiting for Yue to do something with them.
After a few moments, a group of men in straw hats, half cloaks, what looked like kilts, and leather armor on their arms and legs walked out of the trees. They carried spears identical to the one that had been thrown, and pointed them at us as they surrounded us.
“Who are you?” one of them demanded—an older man with a mustache.
“Travelers,” I answered simply and Yue nodded.
“We want no trouble. We’re just going to camp for the night and then leave.”
The men exchanged looks, before the apparent leader said, “You will come with us.”
“No.” The answer was simple but final, with the weight of a glacier behind it as Yue started turning water into very sharp and pointy lengths of ice. Once again, I was reminded just how sexy Yue could be when she got serious.
Shaking my head, I asked, “Why? You attacked us with no warning and no explanation. You’re not exactly instilling confidence that we won’t end up with our throats cut, laying in a ditch somewhere.”
Looking annoyed, the leader lowered his weapon and motioned for the others to do so as well. “You will not be harmed. Master Jeong Jeong will wish to speak with you.”
The name sounded familiar and, after a few moments, I remembered where I’d heard it from. “The Deserter?” I asked, and he nodded.
“Zuko?”
“It was before I was born. A Fire Navy admiral deserted and became kind of a legend, because he actually survived it. Just walked away and they couldn’t do anything about it, or so the story goes,” I explained. Looking to the leader, I said, “We’ll speak with him. Is he on the river or in the forest?”
“On the river. We’ll take you there.”
“Nah. We’ll take my boat,” I denied, and turned away. Yue sent her water back into the river and helped me start breaking camp, collecting the meat and the rack I’d made for it while I put out the fire. The leader of this little band of warriors looked put out, but seeing as we weren’t giving him much of a choice, he finally climbed onto the boat with us while the rest of them fled back into the forest.
The camp we were directed to was a bunch of wood, grass, and hide huts, built on the banks of the river. A few campfires provided light and I could see several people moving around the camp. I pulled the boat up along the shore and hopped out, tying off to a tree as people began standing up and heading our way to see what was going on.
“Stay here,” the hunter, or scout, or whatever he was instructed, before heading for the building closest to the shore.
“Should we finish the food?” Yue asked, and I nodded.
“Yeah. I’ll just do it with bending.”
We moved the meat onto the bank and sat down, and after setting up the rack again, I used fire to cook the meat evenly while heating a pot of tea. Yue occasionally turned the spit and added seasoning or some of the wine we’d brought from the north. Before too long, an old man wearing ratty clothes came and stood next to us. He watched Yue and I work together for a few moments before nodding.
“That smells wonderful. May I join you?”
“Sure. It looks like it’s pretty much done,” I nodded.
Yue pulled water from the river and, after a moment of some particularly dark green water dripping away from it as she strained it, created a set of clear plates made of ice. I used my knife to part out the bird for everyone while Yue used waterbending to fill cups with tea. The old man took his plate and cup and made an appreciative noise as he dug in.
“Mm. Excellent.”
“Thank you,” Yue smiled.
“So,” I began, taking a sip to clear my throat. “You’re Jeong Jeong.”
“I am.” Looking between myself and Yue, he hummed. “A firebender traveling with a waterbender. It makes for an odd sight.” His eyed trailed down to Yue’s neck, before he raised an eyebrow. “Is that not…?”
“A betrothal necklace,” Yue beamed, nodding as she leaned close enough to bump me with her shoulder, making the implication clear.
The old man chuckled, shaking his head. “Strange bedfellows indeed. I wish you two luck. You’re going to need it.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Yue nodded. “We’ll make our own, but thank you.”
“Mm.” The old master spent a few minutes eating his turkeyduck, before looking to me. “Kim told me the fire you used was green. I told him it was probably just a trick of the light. After all, rare is the firebender who advances even to blue flames. I’ve never heard of green, except when burning certain metals.”
Holding out a hand, I produced a ball of green fire in my palm. “He wasn’t wrong. There are even more colors,” I shifted the flames to purple, then blue, before letting them dissipate. “But those are the ones I can do right now. I’ve seen dark red, pink, white—but I haven’t quite grasped their meaning yet.”
Jeong Jeong’s mouth fell open as he stared. “Where did you learn this?”
“From the firebending masters, Ran and Shaw,” I grinned.
“Ran and—” the old man snorted quietly. “The last person to tell me that tall tale was Iroh, and that was after he was well into his cups.”
I hummed at that, nodding. “You met uncle Iroh? What am I saying? Of course you did. You were colleagues.”
Jeong Jeong raised an eyebrow, before leaning in and studying my face closely. “…You really are his kin. Just who are you, boy?”
“Just Zuko,” I waved the question off, earning a knowing look in return. “I found the firebending masters by chance. You should go see them, if you have time. There’s an island north of the mainland, between it and the land where the western air temple is located.”
The old master sighed, before shaking his head. “My days of learning better ways to kill people are long done.”
Setting down my plate, I pulled my knife out. Before the old man could react, I ran the blade over the back of my arm, drawing a long, bloody line. Jeong Jeong dropped his plate and tried to knock the knife from my hands. “Are you insane?!” Looking to Yue, he asked, “Girl, can you heal?”
Yue nodded, even as she sent me an exasperated look. “I can, but why don’t you watch?”
“What?” the master asked, turning back to me in time to see me conjure green fire and send it rolling over my arm. Blood flaked away as the cut closed before his eyes. “That… How? Fire’s nature is to consume! It spreads to destroy everything in its path! So how is this possible?”
“Fire is also the spark of life. It burns away the old to make way for the new. The sun can give life just as easily as it takes it. Think of a forest fire, and how some plants need fire to grow and continue their life cycle, and how it clears out underbrush and clutter.”
Jeong Jeong collapsed back onto his ass, stunned. When he said nothing, I picked my plate up and continued eating. Seeing that, he picked up his own plate and cut off a fresh slice of turkeyduck. “And you learned this from the masters?”
“One of many things, yes,” I confirmed.
The old man sighed and nodded. “Then I shall have to visit them for myself.”
“Just… keep an open mind,” I warned.
“I suppose I must,” Jeong Jeong nodded, sounding like he had aged thirty years in that moment. Taking up his tea, he took a sip and asked, “You are Iroh’s nephew. Tell me, did he teach you to play Pai Sho by any chance?”
“A little bit here and there,” I smiled.
“Don’t fall for that,” Yue warned. “I watched Zuko beat every Pai Sho master in the northern water tribe.”
“Yue! You’re not supposed to warn them!”
The girl grinned, sticking her tongue out. “It’s more fun for me if I do.”
The old man laughed, before pushing himself to his feet. “Come, let us see how well you fare. And you, young lady. After I finish with your fiance, I’ll test your own skill.”
“Oh no, I’m just a humble beginner—”
“Don’t fall for that,” I warned, earning a pout from Yue. “My score against her lately is tied.”
“Even better!” Jeong Jeong nodded.
Given that he was a friend of Iroh’s, I opened with the white lotus tile. To my absolute lack of surprise, he followed step for step as together, we laid tiles to create a lotus in bloom.
“I see,” the old man murmured. Glancing at Yue, he asked, “If you came from the north, you must have played against Pakku at some point.”
“No, it never came up,” I shook my head as we began resetting the board. “Most of the time I was playing Pai Sho was to teach Yue.”
“You should have,” he clicked his tongue.
Humming, I asked, “Is he a member?”
Jeong Jeong raised an eyebrow as he laid down a tile and we started on a new game. “Iroh didn’t tell you? Where do you think he learned his fancy counter for lightning bending?”
I considered it for a moment, before nodding, putting down my own piece. “That sounds like uncle.”
“So tell me, girl,” he murmured, glancing at Yue, “just who are you, really?”
Yue smiled. “Yue, daughter of Arnook, chieftain of the northern water tribe.”
Jeong Jeong snorted. “So, a princess then.” Looking between the two of us, he chuckled. “Ozai isn’t going to like that…”
“What he likes or dislikes will hopefully not be relevant for much longer.” My tile clicked down with a little more force than I had intended.
Raising a bushy eyebrow, the old man asked, “What’s your plan, then? Usurp your father, marry an enemy princess, and hope that fixes everything?”
“That’s part of the plan,” Yue nodded.
“The other part is finding the Avatar.”
Jeong Jeong snorted quietly. “The entire world has been hunting for him for the last hundred years. If they haven’t found the Avatar by now, what makes you think you can?”
“I’m aware that the possibility for failure is high. I’m going to try, regardless. I only need to succeed once. And if I don’t? Well, as I go, I’ll be meeting new and interesting people, making friends, establishing connections… I’ve already got an in with the north,” I gestured to Yue, who nodded. “Why not do the same with the Earth kingdom?”
“Mm. Not a horrible strategy,” Jeong Jeong murmured. “Naive, if you think it will be at all easy.”
“Nothing truly worth it is ever easy.”
The old man nodded. “Then are you willing to take on a political marriage with some Earth Kingdom princess as well?”
I frowned and Yue turned a smug look on me. It was a conversation we’d had in the past and I didn’t like it for the same reason I didn’t like the idea of marrying her for politics. “I’m trying to convince him, but it’s…”
“Like talking to a brick wall sometimes?” Jeong Jeong supplied with a bark of laughter.
Yue smiled. “Yes. It’s fine though. Even stone eventually gives way to water.”
“That’s not going to be enough. What will you say, when the other nations demand reparations? If you seek peace, they will take it as a sign of weakness. That you, and thus the rest of the nation, lack the stomach to finish the war. They would try to cripple the Fire Nation to remove the possibility of another war. Financially, militarily, technologically. They would demand you ruin the nation to assuage their fears over a second Hundred Year War.”
“That’s not going to happen,” I shook my head. “I’m not interested in destroying our industry or going bankrupt. We’ll find other ways to heal the damage done, but destroying ourselves to do it isn’t the way.”
“And how do you feel about that, princess?”
Yue bit her lip and looked away. After a few moments of thought, she nodded. “Zuko is right. If… if your buffalo yak gets loose and crashes through the market, you don’t slaughter the beast, you punish the owner. You don’t have to take his livelihood or destroy his means of making money to make up the cost of the goods that were destroyed. You can have him pay over time, or work the debt off. In the north, if he didn’t want to do either of those, we would exile him. I suppose in this case, between nations, that would mean cutting off trade?”
“Which leads back to war, when the nation you’re trying to sanction or embargo can’t get the things they need,” I shook my head. “Do you know why Sozin started the war in the first place?”
Yue shook her head. “I don’t. Everyone thought he went mad, or just took advantage of the power of the comet to advance the Fire Nation.”
“That’s wrong,” Jeong Jeong shook his head. “It was industry. Being able to use fire to automate labor and advance science. He saw a bright future for everyone and wanted to share that dream with the rest of the world.”
“Personally, I’m of the opinion that he wanted to see it done before he died, and that’s why he rushed. Because Roku, like most Avatars, wanted to keep the four nations separate and felt like this would be a step too far. That’s the problem with giving one person so much power.”
Yue frowned. “He didn’t start the war because he craved power and territory?”
“No,” the old man denied. “Certainly, there was some expansion to secure resources that the fire nation didn’t have and the other nations didn’t want to trade, or do the work required to produce them. The Fire Nation colonies on the Earth Kingdom mainland were for this. But they were colonies. We did not come and occupy villages and towns that were already populated. We built them new from the ground up and those colonies lived in relative peace with their Earth Kingdom neighbors. After all, they had to live there and the entire goal was trade with the locals. There is history behind this, however.”
Shifting a bit where he sat, the old man made himself more comfortable as he looked up at me. “You know this, don’t you, Zuko? The folly of your great grandfather.”
“Volcanic activity. Crescent Island went up because Avatar Roku, in his efforts to master the Avatar State, triggered that state using the winter solstice. The volcano erupted and half the temple was destroyed—either because of Roku or the volcano, history is unsure which. The eruption triggered seismic instability in the eastern Fire Islands, leading to more quakes and a few minor eruptions. Several villages were damaged or destroyed. Roku helped rebuild, but,” I shook my head.
“The damage was done. People were scared. They wanted to move to safer ground. The main island doesn’t actually have that much land suitable for living. Not without extensive modification from earthbending to turn the rocky terrain into arable farmland. And the jungle is no good for most people, because it requires too much effort to clear, make into farmland, then keep clear—and that’s not to mention the issue of dealing with spirits who don’t like having their homes destroyed. The Earth Kingdom offered no aid or shelter and, when they petitioned Earth King… Was it Jialun?” I asked, and Jeong Jeong nodded.
“When they petitioned him to send their people to Natsuo Island, which he claimed at the time despite being part of the Fire Islands chain, he refused. So they did it anyway and Sozin encouraged it. Roku tried to stop it, but he thankfully didn’t actually go around smiting normal people just trying to make a new, safer home for themselves. Instead, he went to Sozin and told him to knock it off. So official efforts at founding colonies were put to a halt. Those people were abandoned in the Earth Kingdom to fend for themselves for the latter part of Roku’s life. And they still succeeded. They carved out several colonies for themselves and established trade across the Earth Kingdom and back home, achieving Sozin’s goal there even without military aid. All of it done peacefully.”
Jeong Jeong sighed as he placed a final tile down and I looked over the board, before nodding and acknowledging my loss. I swapped positions with Yue, who took my place and began resetting the board. “Of course, even if the colonies themselves were peaceful, their very presence was an act of war. The Earth Kingdom were rightfully angry at the Fire Nation for making colonies in their territory. And yet, no one speaks of the Earth Kingdom atrocities committed against these colonies. About the constant attacks by Earth Kingdom forces that the residents, who at the time were a mixture of both firebenders and earthbenders, were forced to defend against and entire settlements wiped off the map by landslides, or falling into sinkholes, or simply falling into the ocean. And all of that before the Hundred Year War. Why is that, do you think?”
“I,” Yue frowned as she hesitated, thinking it over as she began laying out pieces. They were several moves in before she sighed. “Because it was more convenient to paint all of the Fire Nation as the enemy.”
Jeong Jeong nodded, his face grim as he did. “Correct. It is easier to hate your enemy when he is a monster, not a man. Yes, Sozin killed the airbenders, when he sought to disrupt the Avatar cycle. However, the Fire Nation did not immediately wage violent war against either the Water Tribes or the Earth Kingdom, even when Sozin had cause to retaliate against the Earth Kingdom. The war was cold for the first few years. A bloodless war of territorial expansion into areas previously unoccupied by the Earth Kingdom and a colony each in the North and South to facilitate trade, much the same way. And then those peaceful colonies in the north and south somehow mysteriously fell off the ice shelf, all souls lost to the freezing water. How did that happen, I wonder?”
Yue’s mouth fell open. “I’ve never heard…”
I sighed. “Of course not. Why would they? It’d be admitting that, while Sozin did technically start it by expanding and establishing colonies, your people chose murder first. That’s bad for morale. A war of Fire Nation aggression and expansion is a lot easier to justify than a legitimate war because the Water Tribes wiped out peaceful Fire Nation settlers.” Turning an amused look on Jeong Jeong, I asked, “Were they actually settlers?”
The old man chuckled. “Certainly. It doesn’t matter if, before that, they were criminals. Sozin pardoned and freed them, on the condition that they settled and established colonies in the North and South, and supplied them with everything they needed to build their homes. They were Fire Nation citizens in good standing at that point in time and it was not a military expansion. There were no troops sent with them.”
Yue blinked as she looked between us. “Sozin… used them as bait?”
I nodded and Jeong Jeong sighed. “If it meant being able to justify retaliation when, not if, the Water Tribes acted against them and gave the people what they felt was just cause to go to war? To drive up recruitment numbers for the army and navy? Yes. Better to sacrifice criminals to the cause than honest citizens. It was practical, pragmatic, and brutal. But none of it would have happened, had the Water Tribes not cut off the ice shelf and sent them into the ocean.”
“So then…” The girl sighed, considering the board before her. “So it’s all a lie. A series of lies.”
“That is the nature of war. Of life. And of dealings between nations. History is learning to sort the lies from the truth of things.”
Leaning back against the tent wall, I sent Yue a rueful grin. “Despite the propaganda, there is no real good guy or bad guy in this war. Everyone tries to point the finger at the Fire Nation, while ignoring or hiding the blood staining their own hands. The Fire Nation isn’t innocent in this, sure. But neither are the others. The only ones who are are dead, or scattered to the wind.”
“It’s awful.”
Jeong Jeong nodded, reaching over and grabbing a tea pot and a packet of leaves, before offering the pot to Yue, who took the hint and refilled it. The old man heated the tea and refilled our cups. “If it’s so awful princess, what do you intend to do about it? I’ve lived a very long life. I’ve seen much conflict. If there is one lesson I’ve taken away from that, it’s that nothing will stop until everyone, on all sides, agrees to stop. I can choose to live peacefully, but if my neighbor attacks me, I must defend myself if I want to survive. You cannot sleep next to a rabid dog. However, in doing so, my neighbor can claim I attacked him and go to ask his friends for help. I must call upon my friends, and so on, and so forth, until the fires of war spread to consume entire nations. Both sides must agree to lay down their arms, otherwise one side will always live at the mercy of the other.”
“Traditionally, that’s been the job of the Avatar,” I supplied.
Jeong Jeong nodded. “But when the Avatar is a fool who can’t see that his or her actions can do more harm than good in the long term, or when they get so wrapped up in earthly affairs that they forget the spiritual, the world becomes unbalanced. At the same time, expecting so much of one person is unfair. Giving one person the ability to decide national policy on a whim is also unfair to the people of those nations who don’t agree with the Avatar. This is why the Avatar should, ideally, not be involved in earthly affairs at all and only focus on their duties as the bridge between the spiritual world and the physical.”
“And yet, you can’t expect someone to divorce themselves entirely from earthly affairs and turn a blind eye to monstrous acts happening in the physical world,” I pointed out, and the old man sighed.
“That is the burden the Avatar must bear. That he or she must regain the wisdom, time and time again, to know when their power is needed and when it is not. To know what actions to take, so as to not unbalance the world fifty years in the future, leaving a mess for a future Avatar to clean up. Which is where we are in the cycle, thanks to the actions of Yangchen, Kuruk, Kyoshi, Roku, and whoever the current one is.”
“Then,” Yue murmured, considering the board as she placed her last piece and Jeong Jeong immediately capitalized, ending in her defeat. “The Avatar may not be the best person to end this war after all?”
“People will only change if they want to change, or if they are forced to. But if they are forced to, resentment builds and eventually, they return to their old ways. True change must come from within.”
“That sounds like uncle talking,” I chuckled.
“Where do you think I heard it?” Jeong Jeong asked, raising an eyebrow as he sipped his tea. “Now. Tell me. Where do you intend to go after this?”
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The door to the bar opened and conversation stopped. Seven men wearing the blue and white garments of the water tribe stomped their way inside as the tables and bar began to empty, leaving only one person sitting at the bar.
Hahn crossed his arms as he took in the woman still seated with her back to them. Controlling his anger at the disrespect, he said, “Word around town is that you’re a bounty hunter. That you can track anyone, for a price.”
That got the woman’s attention. She sat up a bit straighter and slowly spun on her stool. Leather creaked as she leaned back against the bar and crossed her legs. Dark eyes surrounded by kohl swept over them and dark red painted lips curled into a grin. “Well, well. What do we have here?” the woman’s voice purred.
“We’re searching for one of our tribe. Princess Yue was kidnapped by a Fire Nation bastard,” Hahn explained, as he took in the woman’s curves under her armor. She could warm my bed any night.
“And you want someone to find your princess,” the woman surmised, and Hahn nodded. “I don’t work for free.”
Frowning, Hahn pulled a pouch off of his belt. “We don’t have gold, but I’ve heard this is better.”
The woman caught the bag tossed to her and opened it, peeking inside. One fine eyebrow went up at the contents as beads of blue jade clicked against each other. “Yep. That’ll do,” she nodded, cinching up the pouch and tucking it into her pocket. “You have anything that belonged to either of them?”
Hahn looked to one of the warriors with him, who opened a bag and pulled out a shirt. The woman nodded and waved for him to put it away. “That’s good. It’s late. We’ll set out at first light.”
“Great,” Hahn chuckled, before turning his attention briefly to the man standing behind the bar, who had relaxed as it seemed they weren’t about to throw down. “Bartender, a round of drinks for us.” The bartender began taking out cups and filling them and Hahn turned a grin on the woman. “So, you got a name, beautiful?”
“June,” the mercenary answered with a smirk, before turning back around in her seat and holding out her cup for a refill. “Now, tell me more about the targets. This ‘Fire Nation bastard.’ Is he just Fire Nation, or is he a bender? Is this princess going to come along quietly, or did she maybe run off with the handsome bad boy and will she put up a fight?”
Hahn settled into the seat beside her. “He’s a firebender. A coward who likes to talk a lot. As for princess Yue, leave her to me. We don’t need you to fight them, just get us to them.”
“Tell me more.”
Hahn grunted, slugging back his first drink and demanding another. “The princess is a waterbender. She may fight back. Zuko,” he practically spat the name, “is a coward, so they will likely run at the first sign of trouble…”
June sipped on her drink as she listened. As she did, her mind wandered.
Yeah, sounds about like I thought. Fire Nation bad boy rolls into town, seduces the local princess, and makes off with her. Gotta be pretty good looking to make a girl run away from home. The princess sounds like she’s going to be trouble herself. I’d prefer not to fuck with a firebender and risk Nyla getting hurt, so not taking this head on. Find the target, lead baldie here to them, and go our separate ways. Not being paid to fight and he even said to let them handle it. Simple jobs where I get paid and don’t have to fight are best.