"So are they going to question us?" Mai continued evenly as the dragons continued to circle. Firebenders had killed creatures this
huge? She was actually a little impressed.
"Roku told me that dragons talk with their minds," advised Toph. "Maybe they already are. What are they
doing?"
"Circling."
"Is that good or bad?"
"I have no idea."
Toph shook her head. "Well I'm not going to just stand here. They already know I can do that. Come on, Spiky. Let's fire
bend."
"Aren't you forgetting something?"
"I know, I know. But even if you can't bend fire, they're perfectly good moves for kicking someone's ass. You do remember
how, don't you?"
"You're unbelievable," Mai sighed and shifted into the starting stance for the simplest of the forms that she knew, trusting
Toph to recognise it. "From the beginning?"
"Yeah, let's show them everything," Toph said and Mai anticipated by the shift of her breathing when to begin her own
movements. The two girls set out, mirroring each other as they began the first and simplest kata that the Fire Nation taught to fire benders. Neither hurried.
This wasn't battle were speed was second only to accuracy in importance. It was a demonstration: showing these two fire bending masters what the two of
them were capable of... and what they were not.
Ran and Shao continued to circle, watched distantly by the sun warriors below as the two fire maidens moved through the almost dancelike
forms of fire bending as the sun descended below the horizon.. The forms that the pair used had shifted over centuries from the traditions that had begun in
this very place but that were still rooted here. As darkness fell, the only light was that of the fire wheels held by the sunwarriors kneeling below -
sufficient for Mai to still make out the edges of the pillar.
"Feeling better?" Mai asked as they came to the end of one of the more advanced kata that she knew - which wasn't close to
reaching the limits of what Zuko had taught to Toph during her short apprenticeship.
"Yes." Toph said. "We should keep going, I think they like it."
Mai didn't turn aside but the next time her line of sight intersected with the poorly illuminated face of one of the dragons, she saw no
signs of it. "How can you tell?" she asked.
"We aren't dead."
"Yet," Mai told her as she jumped and kicked. A firebender would have hurled fire a dozen yards from the force behind the move. She
was hard-pressed to keep hold of the now uncomfortably warm cloak, little left to spare her hand from the fire. "I don't know much beyond
this."
"Then we'll improvise," Toph decided. "Remember the statues in the pyramid?"
"I don't know that form either." Mai sighed as she finished the form. The last, most advanced form that she had been taught.
"So we'll learn it together."
Toph laughed. "That's the spirit!" She had maneuvered to stand next to Mai as they completed their last form and both rose to
stand on one foot, the stance used by the first statues in the circular arrangement they had found the previous day.
When they finished, standing on the far side of the platform, fists almost touching, Mai was almost embarassed at how clumsy she had been.
The form was different from those that she was used to and she had almost stalled twice, hesitant over how to transition between the stances. Give her honest
steel any day. She looked up and froze. The face of one of the dragons - the red one - was only a few feet ahead of her own, eyes fixed upon her own. She could
feel its hot breath against her faith.
Behind Mai there was a soft thump of flesh on flesh and an affronted growl that could only be from the other dragon. "Little... did you
just attack the dragon?"
"Punched it in the nose," the younger girl said somewhat triumphantly.
In unison the two dragons landed upon the sides of the pillar, gripping it with their talons, heads just barely above the bridge. The sound
was shockingly loud. They drew back their heads, breathing in.
As if it would be any use, Mai dropped into a defensive stance against the fire that rushed out at her. It was not the orange flame she had
expected, or even the famous blue flames that Azula favoured. These flames were golden, with traces of other colours threaded through it in a rich, roaring
tapestry. Dragons' fire was clearly very different from that of human benders. And why should it be the same? she wondered.
Shouldn't I be dead?
Behind her she heard Toph slump to her knees as the flames came to an end and Mai whirled to catch her sister as the small girl keeled over
to the side, eyes wide... and somehow more empty than she had ever seen them before.
.oOo.
Ran and Shao coiled, serpent-like, and then each darted back inside the caves that they called home.
"Well that's it," Ham Ghao said with some degree of vindication as he saw that the two girls were no longer standing on the
pillar. "I'm surprised they weren't eaten. I guess the dragons thought that they might be poisonous."
The chief shot him an irritated look. "Maybe. Or maybe Ran and Shao spared them." He smiled. "Go up there and
check."
Ham Ghao pouted and then made his way up the stairway as behind him his fellow sun warriors extinguished the firewheels and prepared to
leave. Their mood was solemn - even if it was their duty to place intruders before the Masters for judgement, it seemed a shame for two such young women to
have been found unworthy.
Their mood was lightened when several of the steps ceased to be steps, causing Ham Ghao - then standing upon them - to fall flat on his face
and then tumble back down the floor when his feet suddenly lost their purchase upon the stone.
"That was the right moment," an amused voice announced from above them and a light kindled at the top of the stairs (which promptly
resumed their usual shape), revealing Toph holding a palmful of flames. The small girl was leaning heavily against Mai, who half-carried her down the
steps.
"You don't say," the older girl drawled, steadying Toph as she reeled slightly, legs still not steady under her.
"I do!" Toph said brightly. "I showed that dragon a thing or two!" Then her chin dropped to her chest and Mai had to
support her full weight as the young Avatar went limp.
The Chief couldn't resist joining the rest of his tribe in laughter as Mai lifted the scrappy little earth bender in her arms. "You
have a remarkable little sister," he noted as Mai reached the bottom of the steps and made a point of stepping on Ham Ghao on her route towards the chief.
The sun warrior grunted in pain but sensibly did not actively protest.
"Yes, she's sure to regularly remind me of it," agreed Mai coolly. "So. What now?"
"Now that you have learned the secrets and you know about our tribe's existence... we have no choice but to -" He looked at her
face and decided against joking on the matter. "- trust that you won't tell anyone."
"Just like that?"
"If the Masters like you, who are we to argue," the Chief said expansively. "And since we aren't mourning your foolish and
pointless deaths, there will be a feast to honor the fact that you're alive. Although we might want to wait until your sister wakes up."
"Are you sure that you don't want us to be gone before she wakes up?"
"I do," Ham Ghao mumbled from behind them.
The Chief laughed and retreived his ornamental spear. "What sort of feast would it be without the guests of honour?"
.oOo.
"I didn't get a chance to say this earlier," Lu Ten said pleasently as he stood by the rail of the ferry. "Congratulations
on your conquest of Ba Sing Se."
Azula smiled pleasently. "Well there was nothing else for it, cousin. If it had taken any longer then I wouldn't have been able to
attend your wedding."
"It wouldn't have been the same without you," the Prince Admiral assured her. "Ty was ecstatic to hear you would make
it." Traditional Fire Nation weddings - and as a member of the royal family Lu Ten's wedding had had to be very traditional - had only the immediate
families in attendance for the ceremony itself, which was carried out by the bridegroom's immediate feudal lord - in this case the Fire Lord himself. As a
result, while Ty Lee's parents and sisters had filled the bride's side of the ceremony entirely, Azula's presence had doubled those on Lu Ten's
side.
"Since we're talking business," the princess added, "Between all the ceremonies, I wasn't able to catch up on your
reports from the south. Have any traces of my brother been found?"
Lu Ten shook his head. "There has not been a single sign of him. In fact, the entire Water Tribe appears to have disappeared. We combed
the entire coast of the South Pole and couldn't find a single village, not even that where Zhao claimed he had fought Zuko. The only clue we found were
traces of some temporary settlements on the islands around the Southern Air Temple."
Azula frowned. "The Water Tribe are much diminished, but I hardly think that they would be so accomodating as to simply disappear from
history."
"That's one reason that I won't be returning to the south immediately," her cousin explained, turning to lean his hips
against the wooden rail. "I established a garrison near the southern temple to alert us if the Water Tribe return there and the same must be done for the
other temples. I myself will take my fleet and search the coastline of the North Pole in case the Water Tribe have returned there. They will not stray far from
open water, wherever they have settled."
"I see." Azula tapped her chin. "With the fall of Ba Sing Se, the pressure upon our armies in the Earth Kingdom has been
reduced. It should be a simple matter to redirect them to search for signs of the Water Tribe, in case they have found refuge there somehow." So once the
honeymoon was over, Lu Ten was going to be surrounded by loyal sailors and officers. That would make it significantly more difficult to get an assassin close
to him.
Oh well, so much for Ty Lee enjoying the full two weeks of her honeymoon on Ember Island. Azula would have to send for the assassin
directly.
"Are you two talking business?" asked Ty Lee, emerging onto the ferry deck, barefoot and wrapped in a light robe. "This is
supposed to be our honeymoon, Azula. I'm not going to let you steal Lu Ten away to the war just yet."
The two cousins laughed. "I'm sorry sweetheart," Lu Ten apologised, sweeping her into his arms. "No more talk of the war.
Look, isn't that Ember Island up ahead?"
Ty Lee squirmed in her husband's arms, although Azula wasn't sure if she was looking for the famous resort or just rubbing against Lu
Ten. Wait a minute, yes she was sure. "I'll leave the two of you alone," she said, retreating towards the door, suddenly grateful for the fact
that she would be borrowing the relatively modest cabin used by her teachers Lo and Li, rather than sharing the royal residence with the newlyweds.
.oOo.
Toph was firebending in the saddle. Mai could tell without even looking back from the saddle, the crackle of the flames something she was
hypersensitive to after the encounter with the dragons. Probably that would wear off around the same time as the dreams where the dragonfire had been
intended to kill them. She had to admit it though: between the dragons and a few days coaching from the sun warriors, Toph's firebending had come on by
leaps and bounds.
"So, are you a master firebender now?" she asked, not looking back. Having been burnt by the sun warriors, M Bison was
understandably a little concerned about having a fire bender on his back and Mai considered it prudent to keep a very close eye on his more aggressive
tendencies.
Toph snorted. "Not even close, Spiky. Ran and Shao pointed me in the right direction but it's going to take a while. Still - it is
better. If we can find somewhere I can train, somewhere remote where no one will spot us, I figure I should be passable with fire and water before Sozin's
Comet arrives."
"Passable," Mai said thoughtfully. "But only in three elements. How is air coming along?"
"Not well." Toph confessed. She was silent for a long moment and then snuffed out the fire with a click of her fingers. Mai
flinched. "It's kind of annoying and reassuring at the same time. I'm proud of how good I am at earth bending. Thinking that that was all being
the Avatar would be annoying. But comparing it to air bending... it's not the same. Being Avatar might make me strong... but skill? That takes
work."
Mai chuckled. "You're philosophical today."
"I must have hit my head when they decided to poke around it it."
There was a shuffling as Toph began to work on her air bending katas. Perhaps having evolved for that very purpose, it was actually possible
to perform them on the back of a flying sky bison. "Where are we going?"
"Somewhere we can pick up supplies. There aren't many places way out in the middle of nowhere in the Fire Nation," Mai
explained. "Most of the islands are too populated for your sort of training to go unnoticed. Volcanos are rather obvious after all."
"That was just the once. And you didn't need to tell the sun warriors about it." The chief had been very enthusiastic about
their need to move on after hearing that story from Mai. "Their island would have been fine for training."
"Not until they invent soap. Anyway, Ember Island isn't all that far."
"Never heard of it," Toph told her. "What's it like?"
Mai shrugged. "A resort town. Lots of brainless boys and girls looking to impress each other. They'll be too absorbed in each other
to notice if M Bison landed right on the main beach. My family has a summer house there that we can use while we stay. It's closed up while they're in
Omashu."
"Do you miss them?" Toph asked.
"Do you miss your parents?" Mai shot back and regretted it immediately.
"I miss them being my parents, not my jailors," answered Toph, breaking off from her form and climbing forward out of the saddle to
stand behind Mai, hands on the older girl's shoulders. "I miss when I didn't know that they never told anyone they had a daughter. When they
weren't ashamed of me."
Mai placed one of her hands over Toph's. "I'm sorry."
"Eh, I'm pretty much over it. I've got a sister, right. Who else do I need?"
"Same here. Why would I miss my parents when I've got you?"
M Bison grumphed beneath them.
"You don't count, fuzzball," the two girls told him in unison.
.oOo.
"Do you think anyone will recognise you?" Toph asked as M Bison flew over Ember Island late in the evening. Mai had timed the
approach carefully, to arrive when the sun was not in the sky and the thousands of lanterns illuminating the town for the revellers would make it almost
impossible for them to see anything in the sky above them. Fortunately, the moon was only a crescent, but even so, Mai had picked the route carefully to avoid
coming between it and the town as they flew towards her family's summer house.
"It's unlikely," she replied. "There might be a few of my former schoolmates on Ember Island but none of them have seen me
for years and I was only close to two of them."
Toph chuckled. "The famous Princess Azula being one of them?"
"I think she mostly enjoyed having me around to use against her brother," Mai noted. "But yes. I don't think she leaves
the capital often, and then only on missions for the Fire Lord. I can't think of any reason she'd come to Ember Island."
"That's almost a shame," Toph admitted. "You said she was some sort of fire bending prodigy, almost as good at that as I
am at earth bending. If we weren't enemies then it would be interesting to meet her."
"If only because the two of you would be enemies within minutes of you talking to her," agreed Mai drily. "If I'd known
you were interested, I would have got you one of the propaganda scrolls detailing her many virtues. Of course, then I'd have to read it to you, so perhaps
its best not."
"Your commentary alone would be worth it."
M Bison landed in one of the side yards of the house, one that had doubled as a stableyard at one point and was now more or less storage for
anything not likely to be damaged by the weather. Without any significant light to guide her, Mai misjudged the landing slightly and M Bison crushed a table
beneath one foot as he landed. She winced at the sound but there was no apparent reaction from the house.
"Well, if anyone is here, I think they would have heard that," Toph told her and slid down M Bison's side, landing on the
paving. She rubbed her feet against the ground and shrugged. "No, we're the only ones nearby. Nice place, by the way."
"It's terribly gaudy and my mother decorated it in the most extraordinary bad taste," Mai told her. "Somehow, I was sure
that you'd approve." She rose to her feet and walked back along M Bison to the saddle. "My usual rooms are upstairs, but there's a lounge in
the wing on the left with a tiled floor and some couches. The room with the fountain."
"Got it," Toph agreed. "Seems to be some pretty big furniture there - couches?"
Mai unstrapped the bags with their belongings from the saddle. "I'm not as fond of sleeping on bare earth as you are," she
explained and slung the bags carefully to the ground. "Take the bags there while I get the saddle off M Bison and then we can get some sleep. We've
got a lot to do tomorrow so we'll have to be up at the crack of noon."
"What, first thing in the afternoon?" Toph objected. "That's a bit early isn't it?" Neither of them were
particularly early risers by preference, although Mai had having restless mornings lately.
"Most visitors shop early and then enjoy the beaches during the day," explained Mai. "If we shop during the heat of the
afternoon, there won't be so much of a crowd and less chance of running into someone I've met before."
Toph picked up the bags - neither was huge, as the girls hadn't managed to hold onto all that many belongings between the two of them,
but in combination they were a hefty load for the twelve year old. "And if you do run into someone you know?"
"Then my name is Kotare, and your name is Ilah and we have no idea who Mai and Toph might be. And then we get off Ember Island fast and
I don't care how obvious it is."
.oOo.
Mai groaned and dragged her the cloak she was using as a blanket up over her face as the sun streamed through the gaps between the window
shutters. The sun had dragged her awake - why hadn't she remembered that this room faced east? - after only a few hours and since then the fire maiden had
been too restless to get back to sleep. She'd heard Toph wake - raised by the sun, as if she were any other fire bender - but the smaller girl had had no
difficulty curling up again on the floor in her nest of blankets. Probably because she couldn't see the sunlight.
Later on, Mai blamed lack of sleep on her part and an over-abundance of that on the part of Toph for what happened next.
Which was the sound of the door to the room being pushed open and two small feet pattering inside before closing the door. Mai was sleepily
shuffling blankets aside to look at who the feet belonged to before she had fully processed the situation and a shot of adrenaline yanked her awake at about
the same moment that she locked eyes with a surprised small child, the toddler's still thin black hair forming a familiar scalplock.
"Mai!" Tom-Tom declared in delight, beaming at her.
"'s called Kotare an' we're leavin'," Toph mumbled from her blankets and rolled over, without waking.
"Mai!" repeated the girl's infant brother, even louder.
"...wake up," Mai snapped harshly, hoping that her tone would get through to Toph. She was rewarded when the girl stretched,
rolled... and kipped to her feet.
Sensitive to the tone of voice, if not the meaning of Mai's words, Tom-Tom stared in confusion at his sister. His chubby cheeks began to
redden with emotion and he toddled towards her, tears forming at the corners of his eyes.
Another familiar voice spoke from outside the door. "Tom-Tom! Tom-Tom! Where are you?"
"Are we still sticking with the Ilah and Kotare plan?" Toph asked very quietly, grabbing up her bag.
Before Mai could say anything in response, the door swung open and an immaculately made up Fire Nation noblewoman wearing mourning colours
entered, followed by two harried looking servants. The woman's eyes settled first upon Tom-Tom and then, inevitably, upon the focus of the toddler's
attention. Her skin, already fashionably creamy, paled further and she visibly swayed, one of servants seizing her elbow to support her. The other pushed past
the stricken woman and snatched up a startled Tom-Tom, who objected with a loud wail.
"No," Mai decided regretfully. "...I'm guessing there are a lot more people around us than when we went to
bed."
Toph grimaced. "Lots and lots of them. Some of them are heading for where M Bison is sleeping. And now some of them are heading
here."
"M-Mai?" asked the woman. "Little Toph? You're alive?"
Mai looked resigned. "Yes mother," she admitted.
Her mother stepped forwards, actually breaking out of the dignified shuffle expected of a highborn woman and threw her arms firmly around her
daughter. "Oh thank Agni! You're alive!"
The girl's eyebrows rose and she slowly - reluctantly - returned the embrace, patting her mother gently on the back. That wasn't
exactly the reaction that she had anticipated, still less the tears that the woman was shedding.
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.
huge? She was actually a little impressed.
"Roku told me that dragons talk with their minds," advised Toph. "Maybe they already are. What are they
doing?"
"Circling."
"Is that good or bad?"
"I have no idea."
Toph shook her head. "Well I'm not going to just stand here. They already know I can do that. Come on, Spiky. Let's fire
bend."
"Aren't you forgetting something?"
"I know, I know. But even if you can't bend fire, they're perfectly good moves for kicking someone's ass. You do remember
how, don't you?"
"You're unbelievable," Mai sighed and shifted into the starting stance for the simplest of the forms that she knew, trusting
Toph to recognise it. "From the beginning?"
"Yeah, let's show them everything," Toph said and Mai anticipated by the shift of her breathing when to begin her own
movements. The two girls set out, mirroring each other as they began the first and simplest kata that the Fire Nation taught to fire benders. Neither hurried.
This wasn't battle were speed was second only to accuracy in importance. It was a demonstration: showing these two fire bending masters what the two of
them were capable of... and what they were not.
Ran and Shao continued to circle, watched distantly by the sun warriors below as the two fire maidens moved through the almost dancelike
forms of fire bending as the sun descended below the horizon.. The forms that the pair used had shifted over centuries from the traditions that had begun in
this very place but that were still rooted here. As darkness fell, the only light was that of the fire wheels held by the sunwarriors kneeling below -
sufficient for Mai to still make out the edges of the pillar.
"Feeling better?" Mai asked as they came to the end of one of the more advanced kata that she knew - which wasn't close to
reaching the limits of what Zuko had taught to Toph during her short apprenticeship.
"Yes." Toph said. "We should keep going, I think they like it."
Mai didn't turn aside but the next time her line of sight intersected with the poorly illuminated face of one of the dragons, she saw no
signs of it. "How can you tell?" she asked.
"We aren't dead."
"Yet," Mai told her as she jumped and kicked. A firebender would have hurled fire a dozen yards from the force behind the move. She
was hard-pressed to keep hold of the now uncomfortably warm cloak, little left to spare her hand from the fire. "I don't know much beyond
this."
"Then we'll improvise," Toph decided. "Remember the statues in the pyramid?"
"I don't know that form either." Mai sighed as she finished the form. The last, most advanced form that she had been taught.
"So we'll learn it together."
Toph laughed. "That's the spirit!" She had maneuvered to stand next to Mai as they completed their last form and both rose to
stand on one foot, the stance used by the first statues in the circular arrangement they had found the previous day.
When they finished, standing on the far side of the platform, fists almost touching, Mai was almost embarassed at how clumsy she had been.
The form was different from those that she was used to and she had almost stalled twice, hesitant over how to transition between the stances. Give her honest
steel any day. She looked up and froze. The face of one of the dragons - the red one - was only a few feet ahead of her own, eyes fixed upon her own. She could
feel its hot breath against her faith.
Behind Mai there was a soft thump of flesh on flesh and an affronted growl that could only be from the other dragon. "Little... did you
just attack the dragon?"
"Punched it in the nose," the younger girl said somewhat triumphantly.
In unison the two dragons landed upon the sides of the pillar, gripping it with their talons, heads just barely above the bridge. The sound
was shockingly loud. They drew back their heads, breathing in.
As if it would be any use, Mai dropped into a defensive stance against the fire that rushed out at her. It was not the orange flame she had
expected, or even the famous blue flames that Azula favoured. These flames were golden, with traces of other colours threaded through it in a rich, roaring
tapestry. Dragons' fire was clearly very different from that of human benders. And why should it be the same? she wondered.
Shouldn't I be dead?
Behind her she heard Toph slump to her knees as the flames came to an end and Mai whirled to catch her sister as the small girl keeled over
to the side, eyes wide... and somehow more empty than she had ever seen them before.
.oOo.
Ran and Shao coiled, serpent-like, and then each darted back inside the caves that they called home.
"Well that's it," Ham Ghao said with some degree of vindication as he saw that the two girls were no longer standing on the
pillar. "I'm surprised they weren't eaten. I guess the dragons thought that they might be poisonous."
The chief shot him an irritated look. "Maybe. Or maybe Ran and Shao spared them." He smiled. "Go up there and
check."
Ham Ghao pouted and then made his way up the stairway as behind him his fellow sun warriors extinguished the firewheels and prepared to
leave. Their mood was solemn - even if it was their duty to place intruders before the Masters for judgement, it seemed a shame for two such young women to
have been found unworthy.
Their mood was lightened when several of the steps ceased to be steps, causing Ham Ghao - then standing upon them - to fall flat on his face
and then tumble back down the floor when his feet suddenly lost their purchase upon the stone.
"That was the right moment," an amused voice announced from above them and a light kindled at the top of the stairs (which promptly
resumed their usual shape), revealing Toph holding a palmful of flames. The small girl was leaning heavily against Mai, who half-carried her down the
steps.
"You don't say," the older girl drawled, steadying Toph as she reeled slightly, legs still not steady under her.
"I do!" Toph said brightly. "I showed that dragon a thing or two!" Then her chin dropped to her chest and Mai had to
support her full weight as the young Avatar went limp.
The Chief couldn't resist joining the rest of his tribe in laughter as Mai lifted the scrappy little earth bender in her arms. "You
have a remarkable little sister," he noted as Mai reached the bottom of the steps and made a point of stepping on Ham Ghao on her route towards the chief.
The sun warrior grunted in pain but sensibly did not actively protest.
"Yes, she's sure to regularly remind me of it," agreed Mai coolly. "So. What now?"
"Now that you have learned the secrets and you know about our tribe's existence... we have no choice but to -" He looked at her
face and decided against joking on the matter. "- trust that you won't tell anyone."
"Just like that?"
"If the Masters like you, who are we to argue," the Chief said expansively. "And since we aren't mourning your foolish and
pointless deaths, there will be a feast to honor the fact that you're alive. Although we might want to wait until your sister wakes up."
"Are you sure that you don't want us to be gone before she wakes up?"
"I do," Ham Ghao mumbled from behind them.
The Chief laughed and retreived his ornamental spear. "What sort of feast would it be without the guests of honour?"
.oOo.
"I didn't get a chance to say this earlier," Lu Ten said pleasently as he stood by the rail of the ferry. "Congratulations
on your conquest of Ba Sing Se."
Azula smiled pleasently. "Well there was nothing else for it, cousin. If it had taken any longer then I wouldn't have been able to
attend your wedding."
"It wouldn't have been the same without you," the Prince Admiral assured her. "Ty was ecstatic to hear you would make
it." Traditional Fire Nation weddings - and as a member of the royal family Lu Ten's wedding had had to be very traditional - had only the immediate
families in attendance for the ceremony itself, which was carried out by the bridegroom's immediate feudal lord - in this case the Fire Lord himself. As a
result, while Ty Lee's parents and sisters had filled the bride's side of the ceremony entirely, Azula's presence had doubled those on Lu Ten's
side.
"Since we're talking business," the princess added, "Between all the ceremonies, I wasn't able to catch up on your
reports from the south. Have any traces of my brother been found?"
Lu Ten shook his head. "There has not been a single sign of him. In fact, the entire Water Tribe appears to have disappeared. We combed
the entire coast of the South Pole and couldn't find a single village, not even that where Zhao claimed he had fought Zuko. The only clue we found were
traces of some temporary settlements on the islands around the Southern Air Temple."
Azula frowned. "The Water Tribe are much diminished, but I hardly think that they would be so accomodating as to simply disappear from
history."
"That's one reason that I won't be returning to the south immediately," her cousin explained, turning to lean his hips
against the wooden rail. "I established a garrison near the southern temple to alert us if the Water Tribe return there and the same must be done for the
other temples. I myself will take my fleet and search the coastline of the North Pole in case the Water Tribe have returned there. They will not stray far from
open water, wherever they have settled."
"I see." Azula tapped her chin. "With the fall of Ba Sing Se, the pressure upon our armies in the Earth Kingdom has been
reduced. It should be a simple matter to redirect them to search for signs of the Water Tribe, in case they have found refuge there somehow." So once the
honeymoon was over, Lu Ten was going to be surrounded by loyal sailors and officers. That would make it significantly more difficult to get an assassin close
to him.
Oh well, so much for Ty Lee enjoying the full two weeks of her honeymoon on Ember Island. Azula would have to send for the assassin
directly.
"Are you two talking business?" asked Ty Lee, emerging onto the ferry deck, barefoot and wrapped in a light robe. "This is
supposed to be our honeymoon, Azula. I'm not going to let you steal Lu Ten away to the war just yet."
The two cousins laughed. "I'm sorry sweetheart," Lu Ten apologised, sweeping her into his arms. "No more talk of the war.
Look, isn't that Ember Island up ahead?"
Ty Lee squirmed in her husband's arms, although Azula wasn't sure if she was looking for the famous resort or just rubbing against Lu
Ten. Wait a minute, yes she was sure. "I'll leave the two of you alone," she said, retreating towards the door, suddenly grateful for the fact
that she would be borrowing the relatively modest cabin used by her teachers Lo and Li, rather than sharing the royal residence with the newlyweds.
.oOo.
Toph was firebending in the saddle. Mai could tell without even looking back from the saddle, the crackle of the flames something she was
hypersensitive to after the encounter with the dragons. Probably that would wear off around the same time as the dreams where the dragonfire had been
intended to kill them. She had to admit it though: between the dragons and a few days coaching from the sun warriors, Toph's firebending had come on by
leaps and bounds.
"So, are you a master firebender now?" she asked, not looking back. Having been burnt by the sun warriors, M Bison was
understandably a little concerned about having a fire bender on his back and Mai considered it prudent to keep a very close eye on his more aggressive
tendencies.
Toph snorted. "Not even close, Spiky. Ran and Shao pointed me in the right direction but it's going to take a while. Still - it is
better. If we can find somewhere I can train, somewhere remote where no one will spot us, I figure I should be passable with fire and water before Sozin's
Comet arrives."
"Passable," Mai said thoughtfully. "But only in three elements. How is air coming along?"
"Not well." Toph confessed. She was silent for a long moment and then snuffed out the fire with a click of her fingers. Mai
flinched. "It's kind of annoying and reassuring at the same time. I'm proud of how good I am at earth bending. Thinking that that was all being
the Avatar would be annoying. But comparing it to air bending... it's not the same. Being Avatar might make me strong... but skill? That takes
work."
Mai chuckled. "You're philosophical today."
"I must have hit my head when they decided to poke around it it."
There was a shuffling as Toph began to work on her air bending katas. Perhaps having evolved for that very purpose, it was actually possible
to perform them on the back of a flying sky bison. "Where are we going?"
"Somewhere we can pick up supplies. There aren't many places way out in the middle of nowhere in the Fire Nation," Mai
explained. "Most of the islands are too populated for your sort of training to go unnoticed. Volcanos are rather obvious after all."
"That was just the once. And you didn't need to tell the sun warriors about it." The chief had been very enthusiastic about
their need to move on after hearing that story from Mai. "Their island would have been fine for training."
"Not until they invent soap. Anyway, Ember Island isn't all that far."
"Never heard of it," Toph told her. "What's it like?"
Mai shrugged. "A resort town. Lots of brainless boys and girls looking to impress each other. They'll be too absorbed in each other
to notice if M Bison landed right on the main beach. My family has a summer house there that we can use while we stay. It's closed up while they're in
Omashu."
"Do you miss them?" Toph asked.
"Do you miss your parents?" Mai shot back and regretted it immediately.
"I miss them being my parents, not my jailors," answered Toph, breaking off from her form and climbing forward out of the saddle to
stand behind Mai, hands on the older girl's shoulders. "I miss when I didn't know that they never told anyone they had a daughter. When they
weren't ashamed of me."
Mai placed one of her hands over Toph's. "I'm sorry."
"Eh, I'm pretty much over it. I've got a sister, right. Who else do I need?"
"Same here. Why would I miss my parents when I've got you?"
M Bison grumphed beneath them.
"You don't count, fuzzball," the two girls told him in unison.
.oOo.
"Do you think anyone will recognise you?" Toph asked as M Bison flew over Ember Island late in the evening. Mai had timed the
approach carefully, to arrive when the sun was not in the sky and the thousands of lanterns illuminating the town for the revellers would make it almost
impossible for them to see anything in the sky above them. Fortunately, the moon was only a crescent, but even so, Mai had picked the route carefully to avoid
coming between it and the town as they flew towards her family's summer house.
"It's unlikely," she replied. "There might be a few of my former schoolmates on Ember Island but none of them have seen me
for years and I was only close to two of them."
Toph chuckled. "The famous Princess Azula being one of them?"
"I think she mostly enjoyed having me around to use against her brother," Mai noted. "But yes. I don't think she leaves
the capital often, and then only on missions for the Fire Lord. I can't think of any reason she'd come to Ember Island."
"That's almost a shame," Toph admitted. "You said she was some sort of fire bending prodigy, almost as good at that as I
am at earth bending. If we weren't enemies then it would be interesting to meet her."
"If only because the two of you would be enemies within minutes of you talking to her," agreed Mai drily. "If I'd known
you were interested, I would have got you one of the propaganda scrolls detailing her many virtues. Of course, then I'd have to read it to you, so perhaps
its best not."
"Your commentary alone would be worth it."
M Bison landed in one of the side yards of the house, one that had doubled as a stableyard at one point and was now more or less storage for
anything not likely to be damaged by the weather. Without any significant light to guide her, Mai misjudged the landing slightly and M Bison crushed a table
beneath one foot as he landed. She winced at the sound but there was no apparent reaction from the house.
"Well, if anyone is here, I think they would have heard that," Toph told her and slid down M Bison's side, landing on the
paving. She rubbed her feet against the ground and shrugged. "No, we're the only ones nearby. Nice place, by the way."
"It's terribly gaudy and my mother decorated it in the most extraordinary bad taste," Mai told her. "Somehow, I was sure
that you'd approve." She rose to her feet and walked back along M Bison to the saddle. "My usual rooms are upstairs, but there's a lounge in
the wing on the left with a tiled floor and some couches. The room with the fountain."
"Got it," Toph agreed. "Seems to be some pretty big furniture there - couches?"
Mai unstrapped the bags with their belongings from the saddle. "I'm not as fond of sleeping on bare earth as you are," she
explained and slung the bags carefully to the ground. "Take the bags there while I get the saddle off M Bison and then we can get some sleep. We've
got a lot to do tomorrow so we'll have to be up at the crack of noon."
"What, first thing in the afternoon?" Toph objected. "That's a bit early isn't it?" Neither of them were
particularly early risers by preference, although Mai had having restless mornings lately.
"Most visitors shop early and then enjoy the beaches during the day," explained Mai. "If we shop during the heat of the
afternoon, there won't be so much of a crowd and less chance of running into someone I've met before."
Toph picked up the bags - neither was huge, as the girls hadn't managed to hold onto all that many belongings between the two of them,
but in combination they were a hefty load for the twelve year old. "And if you do run into someone you know?"
"Then my name is Kotare, and your name is Ilah and we have no idea who Mai and Toph might be. And then we get off Ember Island fast and
I don't care how obvious it is."
.oOo.
Mai groaned and dragged her the cloak she was using as a blanket up over her face as the sun streamed through the gaps between the window
shutters. The sun had dragged her awake - why hadn't she remembered that this room faced east? - after only a few hours and since then the fire maiden had
been too restless to get back to sleep. She'd heard Toph wake - raised by the sun, as if she were any other fire bender - but the smaller girl had had no
difficulty curling up again on the floor in her nest of blankets. Probably because she couldn't see the sunlight.
Later on, Mai blamed lack of sleep on her part and an over-abundance of that on the part of Toph for what happened next.
Which was the sound of the door to the room being pushed open and two small feet pattering inside before closing the door. Mai was sleepily
shuffling blankets aside to look at who the feet belonged to before she had fully processed the situation and a shot of adrenaline yanked her awake at about
the same moment that she locked eyes with a surprised small child, the toddler's still thin black hair forming a familiar scalplock.
"Mai!" Tom-Tom declared in delight, beaming at her.
"'s called Kotare an' we're leavin'," Toph mumbled from her blankets and rolled over, without waking.
"Mai!" repeated the girl's infant brother, even louder.
"...wake up," Mai snapped harshly, hoping that her tone would get through to Toph. She was rewarded when the girl stretched,
rolled... and kipped to her feet.
Sensitive to the tone of voice, if not the meaning of Mai's words, Tom-Tom stared in confusion at his sister. His chubby cheeks began to
redden with emotion and he toddled towards her, tears forming at the corners of his eyes.
Another familiar voice spoke from outside the door. "Tom-Tom! Tom-Tom! Where are you?"
"Are we still sticking with the Ilah and Kotare plan?" Toph asked very quietly, grabbing up her bag.
Before Mai could say anything in response, the door swung open and an immaculately made up Fire Nation noblewoman wearing mourning colours
entered, followed by two harried looking servants. The woman's eyes settled first upon Tom-Tom and then, inevitably, upon the focus of the toddler's
attention. Her skin, already fashionably creamy, paled further and she visibly swayed, one of servants seizing her elbow to support her. The other pushed past
the stricken woman and snatched up a startled Tom-Tom, who objected with a loud wail.
"No," Mai decided regretfully. "...I'm guessing there are a lot more people around us than when we went to
bed."
Toph grimaced. "Lots and lots of them. Some of them are heading for where M Bison is sleeping. And now some of them are heading
here."
"M-Mai?" asked the woman. "Little Toph? You're alive?"
Mai looked resigned. "Yes mother," she admitted.
Her mother stepped forwards, actually breaking out of the dignified shuffle expected of a highborn woman and threw her arms firmly around her
daughter. "Oh thank Agni! You're alive!"
The girl's eyebrows rose and she slowly - reluctantly - returned the embrace, patting her mother gently on the back. That wasn't
exactly the reaction that she had anticipated, still less the tears that the woman was shedding.
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.