"Mai," Suki said, "Toph is your sister. I will let you decide this."
Bitch. Mai would admit to herself - and maybe to Toph if it was possible - that she was conflicted
on what to do about Zuko. On the one hand, he was the boy who she'd liked since - perhaps before - he'd knocked her into a fountain trying to protect
her from burning fruit (long story). On the other hand he was the man who'd ridden across a sizeable chunk of the Earth Kingdom, punctuating the journey by
burning towns, to avenge her apparent death. Azula might have found that flattering, but Mai had to admit that it left her somewhat cold.
And then there was Toph. Who had seemed to quite like Zuko at Omashu, and had been electrocuted by
him at Chin Village. Oddly enough, Mai suspected that the young girl wouldn't have been as upset by the latter as Mai was. She couldn't imagine Toph
entering a fight without sublime confidence that she would triumph, however misplaced, or facing defeat with anything by a bloodthirsty enthusiasm to repay it
with interest.
Would Toph kill him?
Since leaving Omashu, Mai could recall weighing options on the arguements of 'What would Azula
do?' and 'What would Ty Lee do?' but this was the first time that Toph had entered into that line up. And there was something deeply unhealthy
about using your twelve year old sister as a moral compass, so she had better never mention this to anyone.
Toph would kill Zuko. But not like this. There would be fire, earthquakes and possibly
screaming. But not like this, with him grovelling in shame and apparently willing to die as long as some obscure point of honor was resolved to his
liking.
With a reluctant sigh, Mai walked over to Zuko and grabbed the loose locks of hair that had once
formed his topknot. "Stand up," she ordered abruptly, yanking him upwards. The clueless expression on his face wasn't half as cute as she had
thought when he was younger. "Just to make it official, I do not forgive you and I never will." She turned and started walking towards Kyoshi's
Shrine.
Bemused, Zuko looked after her. "What?"
Since Suki was too busy looking disappointed to answer, it was June who replied by prodding him
forwards. "Did you get dropped on the head when you were a child? Follow her."
He obeyed, trying to puzzle out what was happening. Zuko had expected either to be killed - because
he was damned if he was digging another spadeful now that he knew what those 'holes' were for, or to be allowed to send Toph to Agni properly by
cremation. He hadn't expected a... non-answer. Was he being taken to Toph's body or to a place of execution?
The door loomed large and he entered, the Kyoshi Warriors close behind him, then paused to let his
eyes adjust to the dimmer light inside. The single chamber was spartan, a handful of racks displaying items from the uniform of one of the warriors. The only
decoration was a large painting at the back, of what subject he could not tell at a glance.
Besides Mai the room had three occupants: an old man who seemed startled and concerned at his
presence, a white-haired woman who seemed surprised but not alarmed, kneeling over the pallet that held the last person.
"Toph?"
"You should not have brought him here," the old man declared angrily. He moved to block
Zuko as the prince strode towards the pallet only to find that an elderly man with no martial training isn't even an obstacle to a sixteen year old soldier
twice his side. Zuko brushed him aside without breaking stride and would have done the same with the woman, had she not moved aside to let him reach Toph.
Absently he noted that other than her hair she appeared to be little more than his old age, but the bulk of his attention was upon pink cheeks and half-lidded
eyes of milky jade.
"You've really let yourself go, Sifu Broody," Toph choked out. "I guess you need
me around to keep you on your toes."
"You crazy little fool," Zuko choked out and started hugging her against him in a most
embarassing fashion ignoring the affectionate way she was pummelling his ribcage and demanding to be released.
"Who is he?" Yue asked Mai, behind him.
She shrugged. "Her firebending teacher... and the one who nearly killed
her."
"He should not be here!" the old man said, apparently in the belief that no one had heard
him the first time. "What were you thinking, Suki?"
The Kyoshi Warrior looked down at Zuko and Toph for a minute before turning to him. "I'm
thinking that he's a man, not a monster, Oyaji. A man who's made his mistakes, perhaps, but also a man who was willing to face up to them out
there."
"Do you think that that matters? You know what he could bring down upon us."
"If he does so, then in a number of ways it would because we - because I have not acted justly
towards him," Suki told him. "I'm beginning to suspect that Kyoshi would not have approved of what I just did to him."
"I take it that it has something to do with the chains he's wearing?" asked Yue,
eyeing Zuko with new suspicion at learning he was a firebender.
Briefly, Suki outlined how she had tested Zuko, and his response. Yue's face tightened as she
listened and then she shook her head. "I know little of the Avatar Kyoshi," she admitted, "But I think that the Avatar Kanna would have been
furious at treating anyone like that." Only Toph noded Zuko's ears pricking at the use of the name.
"You knew her?" Suki asked. "You would have only been a little
girl?"
"She was close to my parents," Yue reminded her. "And she always had time for
children. Looking back, I think she regretted most that her duties had kept her from being a mother herself. Mother told me once that she had spoken at times
of a man in her past, a waterbender named Pakku, but that would have been before she learnt that she was the Avatar."
With a grunt, Toph finally managed to wriggle free of Zuko. "Well some Avatar's have
kids," she told them. "Roku did."
"So did Kiyoshi," confirmed Oyaji. "She was my great-great-great-great
grandmother."
"Really? I wonder if that make's you two relatives?" Toph asked, looking between the
old man and Zuko.
"Why would it make us relatives?" Zuko asked, while Oyaji spluttered at the very notion.
"I'm absolutely certain that I'm not descended from Kiyoshi. I'm sure it would be a very great honour," he added quickly, "Although
one I wouldn't want to advertise in the Fire Nation, but -"
"Not Avatar Kiyoshi," Toph told him smugly. "Avatar Roku. He told me himself
he was your great-great grandfather."
Zuko stared at her for a moment. "Uh, Toph, he's been dead for... about a hundred and
twelve years.How could he tell you anything?"
She waved her hand casually. "I was in the spirit world for -" She broke off as the sudden
alarm in four hearts caught her attention. "Ah... I hadn't had a chance to mention that yet."
"The... spirit world?" Zuko asked cautiously. "Toph are you sure that you weren't
dreaming? No offense, but I know one of my ancestors -" He paused, looked at Yue and shrugged resignedly. "I'm Sozin's
great-grandson and I'm reasonably sure he'd never have allowed a marriage between the royal family and the family of an Avatar."
Mai rolled her eyes. "Setting aside Toph basing her arguement on information received in the
Spirit World, Sozin died quite a long time ago. He probably had no say in the matter."
"He died after Lord Azulon was married," Zuko told her definitely.
"Well who would that leave as a possible connection?"
Zuko's face went red. "You're saying that my
mother...?"
"It isn't exactly an insult around here," Suki told him sharply. "The Avatar
Kyoshi created this island as a sanctuary for her people. You're standing in a shrine to her memory. You firebenders may object to the Avatars preventing
you from pillaging your way across the world, but the other nations appreciated it."
"And look where it left you," Zuko argued. "So weak that without the Avatar you were
helpless. At least the Fire Nation stands on its own two feet!"
"I'm sure that that really helps when you're beating up twelve year olds," Suki
told him irritably. "Do you want to go back outside and finish what we were doing? Mai seems to think you should have a second chance, but you're
right on the edge of using that up."
Zuko froze. Mai had given him a second chance?
The girl interpreted his expression correctly and her lips thinned. "Don't mistake it for forgiveness," she told him
harshly.
"I see." He lowered his gaze and then his eyes narrowed. "Wait, a twelve year old?" He turned to Toph. "It's
only been a few months since Omashu..."
"I guess," the little girl said cheerily. "I can't read a calendar."
"You lied?" Zuko demanded in disbelief. "You're twelve years old?" Reaching down, he grasped Toph by her upper arms.
"Toph, tell me that you aren't an earthbender," he pled, panic rising.
"Don't tell him!" Oyaji blurted.
There was a disbelieving silence as everyone stared at him.
"Great denial," Mai deadpanned.
.oOo.
"So what happens now, Spiky?" Toph asked, after Yue had shooed everyone out of the shrine
to let Toph rest. The waterbender had also tried to persuade Mai to leave but had finally found something colder and frostier than the centuries old ice of the
south pole and had eventually settled for Mai's agreement not to let Toph overexert herself.
The older girl sat crosslegged at the head of the pallet, her fingers meticulously untangling
Toph's hair from the knots that had managed to form since the girl awoke. "We can't stay here, little sister."
Toph grinned. "Getting bored already?"
"Yes," admitted Mai unabashedly. "But more importantly, there will be search parties
for Zuko, if they aren't here already. And now that he knows that you are the Avatar, we cannot allow him to be found."
"You think he'd try to kill me?" Toph asked thoughtfully, apparently
unconcerned.
"No," Mai answered. "But I believe that he would try to imprison you. To prevent you
from threatening the Fire Nation's agenda. He would probably tell the Fire Lord that killing you would simply result in the birth of a new Avatar, but that
holding you captive renders you harmless."
Toph hunched in on herself. "Keeping me in a box like Bumi," she said.
"'Protecting me' the way my parents did."
Mai continued to run her fingers through Toph's hair. "I said that he would try," she
said, emphasising the last word. "If we give him the chance to."
"You have some sort of devious plan," concluded Toph, slowly relaxing. "So what do we
do?"
"After your secret adventure in the Spirit World, maybe I should keep it to myself?"
suggest Mai, tugging lightly on a lock of hair.
"Look, it's not my fault that you weren't there when a huge sky bison carried me
off."
"No, but it was your idea to challenge Zuko to an Agni Kai," Mai said harshly, the words
slipping out. "Do you have any idea how close you came to dying?"
Toph crossed her arms across her chest. "I'm not a little girl," she warned. "I
knew what I was doing."
"Our orders were to investigate and to report," Mai reminded her. "Not to get into a
fight."
"I was investigating," Toph shot back. "I was investigating why Sifu was being a
colossal idiot."
"And I suppose throwing rocks at him helped with that?"
"Do you know a faster way into his head than cracking it open?"
Mai couldn't help but smirk at that. "He has a very thick skull," she said at last.
"But don't you ever do that again. I'd have smacked you around the head if you'd won, for being so reckless."
Toph reached up and caught hold of her sister's hands, stopping them from combing for a moment.
"I can't promise you that," she said seriously. "I'm the Avatar. I believe that now. And that means that I'm going to be doing
dangerous things."
"I didn't come with you because I thought it would be safe," Mai reminded her.
"Just remember to invite me along next time."
"That depends. Are you going to invite me along on this clever plan of
yours?"
Mai grinned. "Well, just remember, you're the one who wants to be part of
this."
"I don't like the way that you're saying that," said Toph
warily.
"Yue invited us to come and stay with her," Mai explained. "And if we take Zuko along
with us, then we can be sure that he isn't getting up to any mischief - he'd be hard pressed to bend all that much fire when he's surrounded by
mile after mile of ice, and there will be a whole tribe of suspicious waterbenders on hand to keep him under control."
"Mai, you are a brutal, nasty woman and I am so proud that you are my sister," Toph
smiled. Then her face scrunched up. "Wait, when you say ice, you mean covering the ground, right?"
Mai smirked. "The south pole is a huge mass of ice floating on the sea," she explained.
"There's no earth for hundreds of miles and it's so cold you'll have to wear furs and boots or you'll start freezing
yourself."
"I hate it already."
"Just think of it as an incentive to master waterbending," Mai told her.
.oOo.
"Is that a sky bison?" Zuko asked in astonishment.
"A sky... oh hell no! I'm walking," Toph protested, backing up.
Yue frowned. "I thought that you had ridden a sky bison in the Spirit World, Avatar Toph,"
she pointed out. "And the south pole is across the ocean, you cannot walk there."
"Firstly, yes I did: why do you think that I want to walk? Secondly, I can waterbend enough to
walk on water, I think."
"I thought that they were extinct," Zuko murmered, not paying any attention to the two
women's conversation.
"Yes, yes, sky bison and dragons, that makes two species your people have tried to
exterminate," Toph called to him. "If you guys go after the badgermoles then I'm going to go all Avatar on you." She could hear the way his
heart beat, the way his breathing altered in response to the fear that washed over him and frowned. "That was a joke. Well, sort of. I'd certainly do
something about it."
"You can't walk across the ocean to the south pole," Yue insisted. "It's too
far."
She's stubborn enough to try, Mai thought. "Toph, by the time you found the South Pole
we'd have all died of old age. There aren't any landmarks out there for you to navigate by."
Toph looked honestly surprised - proof of her growing skills as a liar. "There
aren't?"
"You've tried navigating in the water before," Mai reminded her. "It was amusing,
but this isn't the time. Get on the flying buffalo."
"Bison."
"Whatever."
Toph mumbled something and then walked over to the bison. "What's his name?" she
asked, touching his side and then walking along him, one hand running through his winter coat of hair.
Yue smiled angelicly. "He's called Kuku. He likes being rubbed under the jaw," she
added tolerantly.
"Thanks," said Toph and then grabbed hold of the corner of Kuku's mouth and pulled his
head around to face her. As the bison's head was significantly larger than her, she had to use both hands. "I know you understand me Kuku, so no
playing a dumb animal. The first time you dangle me from your horns will be the last? Got that?" Kuku mooed tolerantly and Toph nodded. "Great,
pleased to meet you," she said and gave him a good rub under the jaw.
"You have a unique way with animals," You told her in a strangled voice.
"It only works with those smarter than the Boulder," Toph confessed and then grinned.
"Fortunately, most mussels are smarter than he was."
Zuko looked intrigued. "Uh... was?" he asked cautiously.
"What?"
"You referred to the Boulder in the past tense," Mai explained. "He's asking if
the Boulder is dead."
Toph rubbed her face with the heel of her hand. "You couldn't have just said that?"
she asked the prince. "Yes, he's dead."
"You're sure?" Zuko asked brightly.
"Your highness," Mai said icily. "I'm sure that a man of your military experience
can work out that there are only two possible individuals in the world who would have made sure of that." She rested one hand on Toph's shoulder.
"And I didn't."
Zuko's face went red, then an unpleasent shade of green, and at that point he decided that he
had pressing business on the other side of Kuku and went off in pursuit of it. Of course, then he had to join Mai and Toph in the saddle, so it didn't help
him very much.
"Oh stop that," Mai said irritably. "If you're going to jump off and kill
yourself, we aren't high enough off the ground yet and we aren't going to let you run away, so stop looking like you're about to throw yourself off
the saddle."
"It's quite alright to be nervous, your highness," Yue said formally from where she
was sitting crosslegged on Kuku's neck. She snapped the reins lightly and with a mild "Yip, yip," prompted the sky bison to lumber forward a few
steps and then rise steadily into the sky.
Mai looked over the side of the saddle with detached interest at the bird's eye view of Kyoshi
Island. It was somewhat... not interesting, but novel. She noted that Zuko was very determinedly not looking down and on impulse asked Yue: "What would
happen if someone fell from here? Assuming they landed in the water, I mean."
"Oh it wouldn't make any difference," Yue said calmly. "From this height,
they'd be falling so fast that hitting the water would be as bad as hitting a thousand yard deep iceberg." She looked back and added kindly,
"Don't worry, it would take so long to fall the distance that there would be plenty of time for Kuku to dive down and catch
you."
Neither Toph nor Zuko seemed greatly comforted.
.oOo.
The cold winds of the southern oceans were an unpleasent surprise to the three first time visitors.
Toph and Mai pulled on the robes of their Kyoshi Warrior uniforms over their everyday clothes and still shivered. Zuko, who simply had no other clothes with
him, made do with a thick blanket and almost constant meditation to keep his internal temperature up.
"This isn't cold," Yue said in bemusement. She hadn't even bothered to don the
heavy parka that was rolled up in a bundle at the back of the saddle and was behaving in general as if she was enjoying a balmly summers day. "It's
just getting comfortable again after that hothouse weather Kyoshi Island has."
The three 'northerners', not that they had previously grouped themselves that way, stared at
her. Kyoshi Island was pleasently temperate at best. "We're going to need warmer clothes," Mai told her. "Much
warmer."
Yue nodded. "There's a small village not that far onto the ice, I used it as a waypoint on
my journey north," she offered. "We can get you furs there. Until then I suggest that you huddle together and try to stay out of the
wind."
Mai looked at where Toph was already pressed against her side. It wasn't clear yet what the long
term effects of the spirit water had been, Yue had forbidden any active bending until the chakra had had time to stablise, so the smaller girl could not warm
herself the same way that Zuko could.
"I mean, all of you," Yue added, looking back towards Zuko, who was sat on the far side of
the saddle, which meant that his feet were within inches of Mai's. "When it comes to sharing body heat, you probably have more to offer than the rest
of us, Prince Zuko. Sit next to Toph."
"Don't have any sudden impulses towards martyrdom," Mai warned the young man as he
grudgingly crawled across Kuku's back and sat gingerly next to Toph. She hated the way that she could feel Toph relax slightly at the addition of another
warm body, although young earthbender remained loyally pressed against her.
"You tested that out of me back on Kyoshi," Zuko said tiredly.
"And you were willing to die if it meant doing what you thought was honorable," pointed
out Mai bleakly.
"Murdering someone in their sleep -"
"Oh yeah, like you could do thatt," gibed Toph from the middle of them. "Spiky, if
Broody gets even slightly aggressive back there, I'll know. Trust me. Broody, shut up and make with the heating. You're supposed to be warming me up
back there."
"Agni preserve me," Zuko muttered. "I never met the real you at
all."
"You met part of me," Toph allowed, still not turning to face him. Although there would
have been little point in doing so, from her perspective. "More of me than my parents cared to meet. Now you get to meet the rest of
me."
"I feel so lucky."
Yue laughed musically from Kuku's head.
.oOo.
"There it is," Yue called, pointing ahead where the horizon was beginning to show as a
line of white.
"Land?" Toph asked hopefully.
"Icebergs," the waterbender corrected. "What passes for the shore of the south polar
is mostly made up of icebergs. As we go further and further south they'll get larger and larger until they all merge into one."
"I don't think I've ever come across ice," Toph mused. "It's an odd idea,
solid water. What does it feel like?"
"There are lots of different forms of ice," Yue told her. "Much like earth, I
suppose. It's cold of course, and hard. Sometimes it's smooth, but it can also be rough. And then there's snow, which is soft and feathery, wet and
-"
"Cold?"
"Yes," Yue chuckled. She reached out with one hand and felt for moisture in the air.
"Here, I'll let you find out for yourself," she told Toph and condensed some of the moisture into water and then into ice. She passed the more or
less egg-sized chuck of ice back to Mai, who winced and dutifully handed it on to Toph.
The blind girl ran her hands over it enquiringly and then sat up, to rub it across the sole of one
foot. "Ouch, that is cold," she admitted. "It's turning back into water though. Is that normal?"
"When it warms up," Mai told her. "You're probably holding it too close to
Zuko," she added, indicating the sleeping firebender.
"So he's not just a bedwarmer, he's an ice melter?" Toph asked and was intrigued
by the way that both Mai and Yue choked. A thought crossed her mind. "Where did you get this from? Did it fall out of the sky or
something?"
"No, the air is damp enough that I was able to pull water out of it and freeze it," Yue
explained.
"And you can do that in reverse?" probed Toph.
"Of course. It's one of the most common used for waterbending - most of our construction
techniques revolve around it. Why do you ask?"
"And there was water in the air?" Toph said, ignoring the question.
"It's not rain or anything like that?"
Yue gave her a blank look, then remembered that Toph couldn't see her. "No. Is there a
problem, Avatar?"
"So water becomes solid when it's colder and stops being sold when it's warmed up? And
water can be in the air..." Toph mused. "No, no problem, just about half my ideas about how waterbending works are wrong but that," she decided,
"Is totally awesome. Because it's giving me whole new ideas about what I can do with it. Now I really want to learn it."
"You're thinking of mayhem, aren't you?" Mai said resignedly. Even the prospect of
being able to see in whatever icy hellhole they were heading for hadn't aroused this much enthusiasm in her sister.
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.
Bitch. Mai would admit to herself - and maybe to Toph if it was possible - that she was conflicted
on what to do about Zuko. On the one hand, he was the boy who she'd liked since - perhaps before - he'd knocked her into a fountain trying to protect
her from burning fruit (long story). On the other hand he was the man who'd ridden across a sizeable chunk of the Earth Kingdom, punctuating the journey by
burning towns, to avenge her apparent death. Azula might have found that flattering, but Mai had to admit that it left her somewhat cold.
And then there was Toph. Who had seemed to quite like Zuko at Omashu, and had been electrocuted by
him at Chin Village. Oddly enough, Mai suspected that the young girl wouldn't have been as upset by the latter as Mai was. She couldn't imagine Toph
entering a fight without sublime confidence that she would triumph, however misplaced, or facing defeat with anything by a bloodthirsty enthusiasm to repay it
with interest.
Would Toph kill him?
Since leaving Omashu, Mai could recall weighing options on the arguements of 'What would Azula
do?' and 'What would Ty Lee do?' but this was the first time that Toph had entered into that line up. And there was something deeply unhealthy
about using your twelve year old sister as a moral compass, so she had better never mention this to anyone.
Toph would kill Zuko. But not like this. There would be fire, earthquakes and possibly
screaming. But not like this, with him grovelling in shame and apparently willing to die as long as some obscure point of honor was resolved to his
liking.
With a reluctant sigh, Mai walked over to Zuko and grabbed the loose locks of hair that had once
formed his topknot. "Stand up," she ordered abruptly, yanking him upwards. The clueless expression on his face wasn't half as cute as she had
thought when he was younger. "Just to make it official, I do not forgive you and I never will." She turned and started walking towards Kyoshi's
Shrine.
Bemused, Zuko looked after her. "What?"
Since Suki was too busy looking disappointed to answer, it was June who replied by prodding him
forwards. "Did you get dropped on the head when you were a child? Follow her."
He obeyed, trying to puzzle out what was happening. Zuko had expected either to be killed - because
he was damned if he was digging another spadeful now that he knew what those 'holes' were for, or to be allowed to send Toph to Agni properly by
cremation. He hadn't expected a... non-answer. Was he being taken to Toph's body or to a place of execution?
The door loomed large and he entered, the Kyoshi Warriors close behind him, then paused to let his
eyes adjust to the dimmer light inside. The single chamber was spartan, a handful of racks displaying items from the uniform of one of the warriors. The only
decoration was a large painting at the back, of what subject he could not tell at a glance.
Besides Mai the room had three occupants: an old man who seemed startled and concerned at his
presence, a white-haired woman who seemed surprised but not alarmed, kneeling over the pallet that held the last person.
"Toph?"
"You should not have brought him here," the old man declared angrily. He moved to block
Zuko as the prince strode towards the pallet only to find that an elderly man with no martial training isn't even an obstacle to a sixteen year old soldier
twice his side. Zuko brushed him aside without breaking stride and would have done the same with the woman, had she not moved aside to let him reach Toph.
Absently he noted that other than her hair she appeared to be little more than his old age, but the bulk of his attention was upon pink cheeks and half-lidded
eyes of milky jade.
"You've really let yourself go, Sifu Broody," Toph choked out. "I guess you need
me around to keep you on your toes."
"You crazy little fool," Zuko choked out and started hugging her against him in a most
embarassing fashion ignoring the affectionate way she was pummelling his ribcage and demanding to be released.
"Who is he?" Yue asked Mai, behind him.
She shrugged. "Her firebending teacher... and the one who nearly killed
her."
"He should not be here!" the old man said, apparently in the belief that no one had heard
him the first time. "What were you thinking, Suki?"
The Kyoshi Warrior looked down at Zuko and Toph for a minute before turning to him. "I'm
thinking that he's a man, not a monster, Oyaji. A man who's made his mistakes, perhaps, but also a man who was willing to face up to them out
there."
"Do you think that that matters? You know what he could bring down upon us."
"If he does so, then in a number of ways it would because we - because I have not acted justly
towards him," Suki told him. "I'm beginning to suspect that Kyoshi would not have approved of what I just did to him."
"I take it that it has something to do with the chains he's wearing?" asked Yue,
eyeing Zuko with new suspicion at learning he was a firebender.
Briefly, Suki outlined how she had tested Zuko, and his response. Yue's face tightened as she
listened and then she shook her head. "I know little of the Avatar Kyoshi," she admitted, "But I think that the Avatar Kanna would have been
furious at treating anyone like that." Only Toph noded Zuko's ears pricking at the use of the name.
"You knew her?" Suki asked. "You would have only been a little
girl?"
"She was close to my parents," Yue reminded her. "And she always had time for
children. Looking back, I think she regretted most that her duties had kept her from being a mother herself. Mother told me once that she had spoken at times
of a man in her past, a waterbender named Pakku, but that would have been before she learnt that she was the Avatar."
With a grunt, Toph finally managed to wriggle free of Zuko. "Well some Avatar's have
kids," she told them. "Roku did."
"So did Kiyoshi," confirmed Oyaji. "She was my great-great-great-great
grandmother."
"Really? I wonder if that make's you two relatives?" Toph asked, looking between the
old man and Zuko.
"Why would it make us relatives?" Zuko asked, while Oyaji spluttered at the very notion.
"I'm absolutely certain that I'm not descended from Kiyoshi. I'm sure it would be a very great honour," he added quickly, "Although
one I wouldn't want to advertise in the Fire Nation, but -"
"Not Avatar Kiyoshi," Toph told him smugly. "Avatar Roku. He told me himself
he was your great-great grandfather."
Zuko stared at her for a moment. "Uh, Toph, he's been dead for... about a hundred and
twelve years.How could he tell you anything?"
She waved her hand casually. "I was in the spirit world for -" She broke off as the sudden
alarm in four hearts caught her attention. "Ah... I hadn't had a chance to mention that yet."
"The... spirit world?" Zuko asked cautiously. "Toph are you sure that you weren't
dreaming? No offense, but I know one of my ancestors -" He paused, looked at Yue and shrugged resignedly. "I'm Sozin's
great-grandson and I'm reasonably sure he'd never have allowed a marriage between the royal family and the family of an Avatar."
Mai rolled her eyes. "Setting aside Toph basing her arguement on information received in the
Spirit World, Sozin died quite a long time ago. He probably had no say in the matter."
"He died after Lord Azulon was married," Zuko told her definitely.
"Well who would that leave as a possible connection?"
Zuko's face went red. "You're saying that my
mother...?"
"It isn't exactly an insult around here," Suki told him sharply. "The Avatar
Kyoshi created this island as a sanctuary for her people. You're standing in a shrine to her memory. You firebenders may object to the Avatars preventing
you from pillaging your way across the world, but the other nations appreciated it."
"And look where it left you," Zuko argued. "So weak that without the Avatar you were
helpless. At least the Fire Nation stands on its own two feet!"
"I'm sure that that really helps when you're beating up twelve year olds," Suki
told him irritably. "Do you want to go back outside and finish what we were doing? Mai seems to think you should have a second chance, but you're
right on the edge of using that up."
Zuko froze. Mai had given him a second chance?
The girl interpreted his expression correctly and her lips thinned. "Don't mistake it for forgiveness," she told him
harshly.
"I see." He lowered his gaze and then his eyes narrowed. "Wait, a twelve year old?" He turned to Toph. "It's
only been a few months since Omashu..."
"I guess," the little girl said cheerily. "I can't read a calendar."
"You lied?" Zuko demanded in disbelief. "You're twelve years old?" Reaching down, he grasped Toph by her upper arms.
"Toph, tell me that you aren't an earthbender," he pled, panic rising.
"Don't tell him!" Oyaji blurted.
There was a disbelieving silence as everyone stared at him.
"Great denial," Mai deadpanned.
.oOo.
"So what happens now, Spiky?" Toph asked, after Yue had shooed everyone out of the shrine
to let Toph rest. The waterbender had also tried to persuade Mai to leave but had finally found something colder and frostier than the centuries old ice of the
south pole and had eventually settled for Mai's agreement not to let Toph overexert herself.
The older girl sat crosslegged at the head of the pallet, her fingers meticulously untangling
Toph's hair from the knots that had managed to form since the girl awoke. "We can't stay here, little sister."
Toph grinned. "Getting bored already?"
"Yes," admitted Mai unabashedly. "But more importantly, there will be search parties
for Zuko, if they aren't here already. And now that he knows that you are the Avatar, we cannot allow him to be found."
"You think he'd try to kill me?" Toph asked thoughtfully, apparently
unconcerned.
"No," Mai answered. "But I believe that he would try to imprison you. To prevent you
from threatening the Fire Nation's agenda. He would probably tell the Fire Lord that killing you would simply result in the birth of a new Avatar, but that
holding you captive renders you harmless."
Toph hunched in on herself. "Keeping me in a box like Bumi," she said.
"'Protecting me' the way my parents did."
Mai continued to run her fingers through Toph's hair. "I said that he would try," she
said, emphasising the last word. "If we give him the chance to."
"You have some sort of devious plan," concluded Toph, slowly relaxing. "So what do we
do?"
"After your secret adventure in the Spirit World, maybe I should keep it to myself?"
suggest Mai, tugging lightly on a lock of hair.
"Look, it's not my fault that you weren't there when a huge sky bison carried me
off."
"No, but it was your idea to challenge Zuko to an Agni Kai," Mai said harshly, the words
slipping out. "Do you have any idea how close you came to dying?"
Toph crossed her arms across her chest. "I'm not a little girl," she warned. "I
knew what I was doing."
"Our orders were to investigate and to report," Mai reminded her. "Not to get into a
fight."
"I was investigating," Toph shot back. "I was investigating why Sifu was being a
colossal idiot."
"And I suppose throwing rocks at him helped with that?"
"Do you know a faster way into his head than cracking it open?"
Mai couldn't help but smirk at that. "He has a very thick skull," she said at last.
"But don't you ever do that again. I'd have smacked you around the head if you'd won, for being so reckless."
Toph reached up and caught hold of her sister's hands, stopping them from combing for a moment.
"I can't promise you that," she said seriously. "I'm the Avatar. I believe that now. And that means that I'm going to be doing
dangerous things."
"I didn't come with you because I thought it would be safe," Mai reminded her.
"Just remember to invite me along next time."
"That depends. Are you going to invite me along on this clever plan of
yours?"
Mai grinned. "Well, just remember, you're the one who wants to be part of
this."
"I don't like the way that you're saying that," said Toph
warily.
"Yue invited us to come and stay with her," Mai explained. "And if we take Zuko along
with us, then we can be sure that he isn't getting up to any mischief - he'd be hard pressed to bend all that much fire when he's surrounded by
mile after mile of ice, and there will be a whole tribe of suspicious waterbenders on hand to keep him under control."
"Mai, you are a brutal, nasty woman and I am so proud that you are my sister," Toph
smiled. Then her face scrunched up. "Wait, when you say ice, you mean covering the ground, right?"
Mai smirked. "The south pole is a huge mass of ice floating on the sea," she explained.
"There's no earth for hundreds of miles and it's so cold you'll have to wear furs and boots or you'll start freezing
yourself."
"I hate it already."
"Just think of it as an incentive to master waterbending," Mai told her.
.oOo.
"Is that a sky bison?" Zuko asked in astonishment.
"A sky... oh hell no! I'm walking," Toph protested, backing up.
Yue frowned. "I thought that you had ridden a sky bison in the Spirit World, Avatar Toph,"
she pointed out. "And the south pole is across the ocean, you cannot walk there."
"Firstly, yes I did: why do you think that I want to walk? Secondly, I can waterbend enough to
walk on water, I think."
"I thought that they were extinct," Zuko murmered, not paying any attention to the two
women's conversation.
"Yes, yes, sky bison and dragons, that makes two species your people have tried to
exterminate," Toph called to him. "If you guys go after the badgermoles then I'm going to go all Avatar on you." She could hear the way his
heart beat, the way his breathing altered in response to the fear that washed over him and frowned. "That was a joke. Well, sort of. I'd certainly do
something about it."
"You can't walk across the ocean to the south pole," Yue insisted. "It's too
far."
She's stubborn enough to try, Mai thought. "Toph, by the time you found the South Pole
we'd have all died of old age. There aren't any landmarks out there for you to navigate by."
Toph looked honestly surprised - proof of her growing skills as a liar. "There
aren't?"
"You've tried navigating in the water before," Mai reminded her. "It was amusing,
but this isn't the time. Get on the flying buffalo."
"Bison."
"Whatever."
Toph mumbled something and then walked over to the bison. "What's his name?" she
asked, touching his side and then walking along him, one hand running through his winter coat of hair.
Yue smiled angelicly. "He's called Kuku. He likes being rubbed under the jaw," she
added tolerantly.
"Thanks," said Toph and then grabbed hold of the corner of Kuku's mouth and pulled his
head around to face her. As the bison's head was significantly larger than her, she had to use both hands. "I know you understand me Kuku, so no
playing a dumb animal. The first time you dangle me from your horns will be the last? Got that?" Kuku mooed tolerantly and Toph nodded. "Great,
pleased to meet you," she said and gave him a good rub under the jaw.
"You have a unique way with animals," You told her in a strangled voice.
"It only works with those smarter than the Boulder," Toph confessed and then grinned.
"Fortunately, most mussels are smarter than he was."
Zuko looked intrigued. "Uh... was?" he asked cautiously.
"What?"
"You referred to the Boulder in the past tense," Mai explained. "He's asking if
the Boulder is dead."
Toph rubbed her face with the heel of her hand. "You couldn't have just said that?"
she asked the prince. "Yes, he's dead."
"You're sure?" Zuko asked brightly.
"Your highness," Mai said icily. "I'm sure that a man of your military experience
can work out that there are only two possible individuals in the world who would have made sure of that." She rested one hand on Toph's shoulder.
"And I didn't."
Zuko's face went red, then an unpleasent shade of green, and at that point he decided that he
had pressing business on the other side of Kuku and went off in pursuit of it. Of course, then he had to join Mai and Toph in the saddle, so it didn't help
him very much.
"Oh stop that," Mai said irritably. "If you're going to jump off and kill
yourself, we aren't high enough off the ground yet and we aren't going to let you run away, so stop looking like you're about to throw yourself off
the saddle."
"It's quite alright to be nervous, your highness," Yue said formally from where she
was sitting crosslegged on Kuku's neck. She snapped the reins lightly and with a mild "Yip, yip," prompted the sky bison to lumber forward a few
steps and then rise steadily into the sky.
Mai looked over the side of the saddle with detached interest at the bird's eye view of Kyoshi
Island. It was somewhat... not interesting, but novel. She noted that Zuko was very determinedly not looking down and on impulse asked Yue: "What would
happen if someone fell from here? Assuming they landed in the water, I mean."
"Oh it wouldn't make any difference," Yue said calmly. "From this height,
they'd be falling so fast that hitting the water would be as bad as hitting a thousand yard deep iceberg." She looked back and added kindly,
"Don't worry, it would take so long to fall the distance that there would be plenty of time for Kuku to dive down and catch
you."
Neither Toph nor Zuko seemed greatly comforted.
.oOo.
The cold winds of the southern oceans were an unpleasent surprise to the three first time visitors.
Toph and Mai pulled on the robes of their Kyoshi Warrior uniforms over their everyday clothes and still shivered. Zuko, who simply had no other clothes with
him, made do with a thick blanket and almost constant meditation to keep his internal temperature up.
"This isn't cold," Yue said in bemusement. She hadn't even bothered to don the
heavy parka that was rolled up in a bundle at the back of the saddle and was behaving in general as if she was enjoying a balmly summers day. "It's
just getting comfortable again after that hothouse weather Kyoshi Island has."
The three 'northerners', not that they had previously grouped themselves that way, stared at
her. Kyoshi Island was pleasently temperate at best. "We're going to need warmer clothes," Mai told her. "Much
warmer."
Yue nodded. "There's a small village not that far onto the ice, I used it as a waypoint on
my journey north," she offered. "We can get you furs there. Until then I suggest that you huddle together and try to stay out of the
wind."
Mai looked at where Toph was already pressed against her side. It wasn't clear yet what the long
term effects of the spirit water had been, Yue had forbidden any active bending until the chakra had had time to stablise, so the smaller girl could not warm
herself the same way that Zuko could.
"I mean, all of you," Yue added, looking back towards Zuko, who was sat on the far side of
the saddle, which meant that his feet were within inches of Mai's. "When it comes to sharing body heat, you probably have more to offer than the rest
of us, Prince Zuko. Sit next to Toph."
"Don't have any sudden impulses towards martyrdom," Mai warned the young man as he
grudgingly crawled across Kuku's back and sat gingerly next to Toph. She hated the way that she could feel Toph relax slightly at the addition of another
warm body, although young earthbender remained loyally pressed against her.
"You tested that out of me back on Kyoshi," Zuko said tiredly.
"And you were willing to die if it meant doing what you thought was honorable," pointed
out Mai bleakly.
"Murdering someone in their sleep -"
"Oh yeah, like you could do thatt," gibed Toph from the middle of them. "Spiky, if
Broody gets even slightly aggressive back there, I'll know. Trust me. Broody, shut up and make with the heating. You're supposed to be warming me up
back there."
"Agni preserve me," Zuko muttered. "I never met the real you at
all."
"You met part of me," Toph allowed, still not turning to face him. Although there would
have been little point in doing so, from her perspective. "More of me than my parents cared to meet. Now you get to meet the rest of
me."
"I feel so lucky."
Yue laughed musically from Kuku's head.
.oOo.
"There it is," Yue called, pointing ahead where the horizon was beginning to show as a
line of white.
"Land?" Toph asked hopefully.
"Icebergs," the waterbender corrected. "What passes for the shore of the south polar
is mostly made up of icebergs. As we go further and further south they'll get larger and larger until they all merge into one."
"I don't think I've ever come across ice," Toph mused. "It's an odd idea,
solid water. What does it feel like?"
"There are lots of different forms of ice," Yue told her. "Much like earth, I
suppose. It's cold of course, and hard. Sometimes it's smooth, but it can also be rough. And then there's snow, which is soft and feathery, wet and
-"
"Cold?"
"Yes," Yue chuckled. She reached out with one hand and felt for moisture in the air.
"Here, I'll let you find out for yourself," she told Toph and condensed some of the moisture into water and then into ice. She passed the more or
less egg-sized chuck of ice back to Mai, who winced and dutifully handed it on to Toph.
The blind girl ran her hands over it enquiringly and then sat up, to rub it across the sole of one
foot. "Ouch, that is cold," she admitted. "It's turning back into water though. Is that normal?"
"When it warms up," Mai told her. "You're probably holding it too close to
Zuko," she added, indicating the sleeping firebender.
"So he's not just a bedwarmer, he's an ice melter?" Toph asked and was intrigued
by the way that both Mai and Yue choked. A thought crossed her mind. "Where did you get this from? Did it fall out of the sky or
something?"
"No, the air is damp enough that I was able to pull water out of it and freeze it," Yue
explained.
"And you can do that in reverse?" probed Toph.
"Of course. It's one of the most common used for waterbending - most of our construction
techniques revolve around it. Why do you ask?"
"And there was water in the air?" Toph said, ignoring the question.
"It's not rain or anything like that?"
Yue gave her a blank look, then remembered that Toph couldn't see her. "No. Is there a
problem, Avatar?"
"So water becomes solid when it's colder and stops being sold when it's warmed up? And
water can be in the air..." Toph mused. "No, no problem, just about half my ideas about how waterbending works are wrong but that," she decided,
"Is totally awesome. Because it's giving me whole new ideas about what I can do with it. Now I really want to learn it."
"You're thinking of mayhem, aren't you?" Mai said resignedly. Even the prospect of
being able to see in whatever icy hellhole they were heading for hadn't aroused this much enthusiasm in her sister.
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.