Playing With Fire

“Here it is guys, the Great Divide!” Aang cried impressively, raising his arms up in the air. Before them stretched a great canyon; red rock swirled beneath them, creating great cliffs and crevices. It seemed to go on forever, the other side being lost in a haze of low laying clouds. The forlorn cry of an unseen animal echoed up from the depths; this was an inhospitable place.
“Wow, I could just stare at it forever!” Katara exclaimed.
“Ok, I’ve seen enough.” Sokka said nonchalantly.
“How could you not be fascinated Sokka? This is the largest canyon in the entire world!” Katara asked incredulously.
“And I’m sure we’ll be able to see it very clearly from the air as we fly away.” Sokka pointed out. Aria agreed and swung up on Appa, ready to depart. The sooner Aang got to the North Pole the better.
“HEY! If you’re looking for the canyon guide I was here first!”
Aria turned around and watched a pompous looking young man hustling up, looking angry.
“Ooo. Canyon guide, sounds informative.” Katara answered.
“Believe me, he’s more than a tour guide; he’s an earth bender. And the only way in and out of the canyon is with his help and he’s taking my tribe across next!” The man cried angrily while Sokka mocked him in the background.
“Maybe you should take it easy and get your panties out of a knot.” Aria answered, swinging down from Appa.
“You wouldn’t calm down if the Fire Nation destroyed your home and forced you to flee! My whole tribe has to walk thousands of miles to the capital city of Ba Sing Se!” He retorted.
“You’re a refugee!” Katara exclaimed.
“Huh, tell me something I don’t know.” The man answered snottily. Aria rolled her eyes; what was this guy’s problem?
“Is that your tribe?” Katara asked, seeking to distract the man from his angry attitude. It was immediately apparent Katara had been horribly mistaken; the man’s face colored a deep, ugly puce color and clenched his fists.
“It most certainly is not! That’s the Zhang tribe! A bunch of low life thieves! They’ve been enemies of my tribe for a hundred years.” He answered, “Hey Zhangs! I’m saving a spot for my tribe so don’t even think about stealing it!”
“Oh yeah? Where are the rest of the Gan Jins?” A beast of a woman growled back. She stood at least six foot tall and muscles rippled on her arms emerging from fur clothing; everything about her screamed tough. “Still tidying up their campsite?”
Impressively, the Gan Jin man stood his ground and glowered back.
“Yes, but they sent me ahead of them to hold a spot!” He argued.
Aria listened to them argue for a moment before appealing to Katara.
“Don’t you think we should get going?” Aria suggested.
“Shhh. I’m listening!” Katara said, waving Aria away. Katara followed the argument raptly, not looking at Aria.
A sudden upheaval of rocks disrupted the argument and everyone turned, unsure of what to expect. A short, portly old man stood where the rocks had previously stood, smiling brightly.
“Sorry about the wait youngsters.” The old man said, “Who’s ready to cross this here canyon?”
“Um...one of them I think…” Katara pointed out.
“I’m first! My party is on their way!” The Gan Jin man shouted quickly.
“I can’t guide people who aren’t here…” The canyon guide pointed out.
“Guess you guys will have to make the trip tomorrow.”
Aria rubbed her hand across her face, growing impatient.
“Wait! Here they come!” The young man shouted in relief. A group of people approached at an orderly pace, looking serene. They seemed to be as opposite to the Zhang tribe as it was possible to be. Where the Zhangs were slovenly and dressed in crude furs, the Gan Jins were neat and trim in carefully pressed robes.
“You’re not seriously going to cave in to these spoiled Gan Jins, are you? I mean, we’re refugees too!” The giant woman cried in alarm. “And we’ve got sick people that need help.”
“We’ve got old people who are weary from traveling!” The young Gan Jin man argued back.
“Sick people get priority over old people!” The woman responded.
“You Zhangs wouldn’t have so many sick people if you weren’t such slobs.” An older Gan Jin man pointed out.
“If you Gan Jins weren’t so clean maybe you wouldn’t live to be so old!” The woman shot back.
Aria and the others followed the argument like a tennis match, unsure of what to do. On one side was the rude, coarse slobs and the other the stuffy, pompous snobs; was there any reconciling these people?
“Well Aang, ready to put your peace making skills to the test?” Katara suggested.
“I don’t know…these people have been feuding for a hundred years…” Aang answered uncertainly.
“Everyone listen up!” Katara shouted, ignoring Aang’s protests. “This is the Avatar! And if you give him a chance I’m sure he’ll come up with a compromise that will make everyone happy.”
The tribes dropped their bickering and gave Aang their attention, listening attentively.
“Um…you could share the earth bender and travel together…?” Aang suggested hopefully.
“Absolutely not, we’d rather be taken by the Fire Nation then travel with those stinking thieves!” The elder of the Gan Jins protested loudly.
“We wouldn’t travel with those pompous fools anyway.” The tough woman retorted. The sharp words quickly escalated into a full scale fight between the tribes and the yelling voices echoed slightly against the rocky surroundings.
“So do you think every traveler runs into as many insane situations as we do or does it just come with being the Avatar?” Aria asked idly, pulling a loose thread out of her shirt sleeve. Sokka scratched his chin thoughtfully as if seriously considering her sarcastic question. Aang’s face clouded over and he jumped forward, separating the leaders of the tribes.
“All right here’s the deal, you’re going down together and Appa here will fly your sick and elderly across! Does that seem fair?” He yelled in frustration. Grudgingly the people of the two tribes nodded, grumbling under their breath.
Aria clutched the smooth leather reins tightly, fully aware and uncomfortable with the fact that she was about to try and steer a two ton flying bison with a mind of its own. After a brief discussion it was decided Aria would be the one to accompany the sick and elderly of the two tribes across the canyon. Much to the chagrin of Aria, the decision had been based purely on the fact that if they had to defend themselves it’d be better if Aria wasn’t there. Her firebending would completely alienate the tribes. Personally she’d rather alienate the tribes and be alive then risk being outmatched.
She was quickly getting tired of hiding what she could do and knew she wouldn’t consent to it much longer. By lying about her bending she was just making herself that much more untrustworthy when the truth did eventually come out.
“Now to get him to fly all you have to say is ‘yip yip’.” Aang stated brightly.
“Alright…nothing to it…” Aria mumbled nervously. Aang laughed and stepped back, clearing room for Appa to take off.
Taking a deep breath she slapped the reins sharply and called out to Appa.
“Yip yip!”
With a low growl, Appa slapped his tail against the ground and heaved himself into the air. Behind her, all the people seated on the saddle cried out in alarm and Aria tensed up, her shoulders level with her ears. When Appa leveled out high in the air Aria relaxed a little and patted him on the head; the gesture seemed to be more for her comfort than Appa’s. Though the canyon was huge, Appa’s speed carried them to the other side in less than three hours and Aria began scanning the ground for a suitable landing place.
Aria stood halfway down Appa’s tail and gave the people a hand in making their way to the ground. Her nose wrinkled in disgust when a particularly unclean Zhang man leaned heavily against her for support. The last of the passengers were about to disembark when angry voices rose in a heated argument. Resignedly Aria approached the people causing the commotion and looked askance of them.
“He tried to take my pack!” An elderly Gan Jin woman screeched, “I saw that rotten thief eying it the entire flight and now he’s made his move!”
“That’s a lie! I can’t help it if she leaves her stuff where I’m trying to pitch my tent! You Gan Jin’s think you can do whatever you want!” A whiney voiced man protested.
“Why does this matter? You’ve got your bag, you’ve got your space, just get away from each other and there won’t be any more arguments!” Aria said, employing extreme will power to keep from yelling. She spun on her heel and walked away to tend to Appa. She managed to get a total of ten steps away before another argument broke out. Clenching her jaw tight, she remained where she was and tried to collect herself before attempting to deal with the situation. Patience wasn’t in her genetic code and when the voices rose to an even higher decibel she stormed back to the group of people and listened angrily.
“This is where I’m pitching my tent and you can budge off!” A big, sick looking man growled. He had the look of someone who had previously been heavily muscled but slowly wasted away from sickness.
“We deserve the prime spot! We’re weary from such a long journey; our bodies can’t handle rough roads anymore!” An old man argued.
“Well we-” A Gan Jin man made to butt in but Aria cut him off.
“Stop! That’s enough arguing! Until the rest of your tribes make it across I don’t want any of the Gan Jins or the Zhangs talking to each other, got me?! Gan Jins, set your camp on this side of the road. Zhangs, you get the other side of the road. If anyone has a problem with that keep it to yourself!” Aria yelled angrily before stalking off. Behind her she could hear the tribes setting up their tents and she supposed she should be helping them but kept walking.
She stood at the edge of the canyon and studied it intently, wondering how far Aang and the others may have gotten. After a while she returned to the campsite, sure she had gotten her temper under control. The tribes had gotten their tents pitched and were settling down around fires, pulling food out of their knapsacks. Deciding not to join either of them, Aria climbed into Appa’s saddle and lay back; the stars speckled the sky without a cloud in sight.
Though she desperately wanted to sleep, she was unable to stop the thoughts jumbling in her head. She knew both Zhao and Zuko were pursuing and couldn’t help but wonder how close behind they were. At the moment she wasn’t sure if she wanted Zuko to catch up or not. It’d be another chance to talk to him but was it even worth trying? She sighed and pushed the discouraging thought away, tired of dwelling over it.
A gust of wind carried the smell of cooking food from the tribes’ fires over to Aria and her stomach grumbled loudly. She had food in her pack but felt too lazy to dig for it; the Earth Kingdom food didn’t sound appetizing anyways. What she wouldn’t give for some Fire Nation food; the thought of fire flakes in particular made her mouth water. Or the duck their cook prepared, it melted in your mouth. Earth Kingdom food was just so tasteless and bland to her; lacking the rich spices the Fire Nation used. Her musings over food was interrupted by a sharp crack in the nearby woods; she sat up quickly and scanned the trees, looking for movement. The soft rustle of the tree branches swaying in the slight breeze masked any further noises and Aria could spot nothing unusual moving about. All the same she felt tense and suspicious. It was as if subconsciously she had noticed something out of place but was unable to identify what it was.
Suddenly four birdhorses burst out of the woods at a sprint, their riders crouching low on their necks and hollering loudly. From the sound of people’s panicked cries, Aria guessed they had come out of the hiding on the other side of the road as well. She stood up in Appa’s saddle and took in the situation; there were seven of the riders total closing around the small camp. Aria athletically sprung from the saddle and sprinted toward the tribes, already behind the birdhorses; the riders had not noticed Aria in the saddle and had passed Appa without attacking.
“So this is how it’s going to go,” A rough looking man shouted out at the fearful tribe members, “You’re all going to hand over your bags without a fuss and we won’t have to get violent.”
“Excuse me, but I don’t think that’s yours.” Aria announced boldly. She had arrived at the campsite as the man who appeared to be the leader snatched a knapsack out of an elderly woman’s hands. The man spun around in alarm but in perceiving the threat burst out laughing.
“And who are you, girl?” He asked in amusement.
“Good question. Who are you and why do you think you can harass these people?” Aria asked, scowling at the man.
“I am Goro and these are my men. We’ve been making our profit off refugees for years now and if you have a lick of sense you’ll shut up and hand over whatever you have.” Goro growled.
Aria briefly contemplated her options and the various outcomes. There were seven men and, from observing them from Appa earlier, she knew three of them were earth benders. If she had to fight, she knew the tribes would turn against her. She also knew from talking with the tribes, that they had left all valuables behind. As much as everything inside her rebelled against it, her smartest option would be to let them search and go away without a fight, empty handed.
“I don’t have anything.” Aria answered resentfully, raising her hands in surrender and feeling incredibly lucky her money and bag were safe on Appa’s saddle.
“That’s likely.” Goro growled sarcastically. He grabbed her arm as she walked by to join the tribes and quickly patted her down, searching for a money bag. When he found nothing he threw her down on the ground and winked cheekily at her. It took all of her self-control not to get back up and teach him to keep his hands to himself.
She sat next to the tribe members and watched the marauders like a hawk, ready to interfere at any sign of roughness. Gritting her teeth to stop herself from any smart comments, she continuously clenched and unclenched her fists; though the decision was logical, she hated that she wasn’t fighting back. It took the men only a few minutes to thoroughly search everyone and they all came away disappointed.
“I am not leaving with nothing.” Goro growled, hauling Aria to her feet by her hair.
Aria reacted instantly and without thought; bright blue flames enveloping her fist, she punched him square in the chest, knocking him down to the ground. Immediately the other two earth benders attacked. Spreading out to take advantage of their higher numbers, the two stomped the ground and raised their arms above their heads. Two great boulders heaved up from the ground and hurtled toward Aria. Instead of dodging out of the way she sprinted straight at one of the boulders and jumped. Taking two steps on the boulder, she used it to spring at one of her attackers, sending a stream of fire at the man. He was too slow to avoid it and he dropped to the ground, screaming in pain and clutching at his arm and side where she had hit him.
Without pausing, she turned to face the other man and received a surprise; he had mounted the closest birdhorse and was beating a hasty retreat with the other nonbenders. At the first sign of resistance they had folded. The breath whooshed out of Aria’s lungs and she dropped to one knee; Goro had regained his feet and had hit her with a good sized boulder. Hearing another rock whistling through the air at her, Aria spread her legs into a split and leaned forward, flattening herself against the ground. The rock flew harmlessly over her head and she jumped up. She sent another stream of fire at him but he protected himself by pulling a slab of stone up from the ground.
From behind the slab, Goro shot pillars of rock straight up from the ground, hoping to send Aria flying. Nimbly she weaved and dodged her way through pillars, making her way to the great slab of stone Goro was hiding behind. Wanting to end this quickly, Aria side stepped the slab of stone and before Goro could respond, enveloped him in pillar of fire. The twisting, undulating pillar cast a bluish light on Aria’s face and beads of sweat appeared on her forehead from the radiating heat. After only a few seconds of the intense attack she dropped her arms to her side and stepped back. Goro had collapsed on the ground, looking decidedly worse for wear. His clothes had huge, singed holes and most of his hair was gone. Cautiously Aria approached and bent over him; he was still breathing but unconscious. Angry red burns covered any exposed skin and Aria felt a pang of guilt, remembering how painful her own burns had been. Goro would be disfigured with scars the rest of his life. Aria grabbed the nearest birdhorse and led it over to Goro; using all her strength, she heaved him onto the back of the beast. Exhausted, she leaned up against the birdhorse and gained her breath before grabbing the lead and walking it over to the other injured earth bender.
“Get up.” She said, kicking him in the side. Flinching, he got to his feet and regarded Aria warily. “Get on and get out of here. If I ever hear of you guys harassing refugees again I’ll be back. I promise you’ll regret it.”
Aria stepped back and watched as the man climbed on with difficulty and booked it towards the woods. She felt horrible about the amount of damage she had done but couldn’t bring herself to completely regret it. When he had grabbed her by the hair, she had once again been reminded of Zhao and almost panicked. I’m never going to get him out of my head, she thought angrily. Hearing the murmuring of the tribe members behind her, she sighed and turned to face them.
“You’re a fire bender.” A sick man coughed out.
“Yes.” Aria answered simply. She searched their faces and strangely enough, though there was much whispering and murmuring, found no fear or distrust in any of them.
“You saved us from those thugs.” An elderly lady came forward and pressed her hand warmly.
“You don’t hate me?” Aria asked incredulously, resisting the urge to remove her hand. “I thought you hated everything to do with the Fire Nation.”
“The eyes tell everything.” The old lady answered, “Sad, yet kind. You too have suffered at the hands of the Fire Nation. You are different.”
Aria stared down at the wrinkled old woman, unsure of what to say. They didn’t hate her. She was completely stunned.
“Thank you.” Aria whispered. Together she and the tribe members tidied up the mess the thugs had left; clothes and food were strewn everywhere and a few of the tents were now just a pile of canvas and poles. That night they sat at the fire and passed around what little food remained unspoiled. For the first time since she had met these people there was no arguing among them. For the first time in a long time Aria felt hopeful, the future seemed a little less bleak. Though her problems still existed, right here and right now everything was ok.
The next day Aria and the others roamed about the campsite restlessly, waiting for the arrival of the rest of the tribe. Though they had accepted her, Aria found herself the subject of many stares and whispered conversations. Dusk was approaching, softening the harsh sunlight into faint wisps of bright pink when a strange, scrabbling sound came from the depths of the canyon 100 yards away. The activity around the camp halted as everyone watched warily, wondering what new trouble was headed their way. Several cries of amazement were heard when great, spiderlike beasts came swarming over the edge of the canyon bearing the other tribe members.
As the last of the monsters disappeared back over the edge of the canyon the sick and elderly shuffled and limped as best they could to greet their fellow tribe members. Aria skipped brightly ahead and put her arms around Sokka and Katara.
“Someday you’re going to have to explain that.” Aria stated. When the hubbub finally died down, the voices of the tribe leaders could be heard drifting across the crowd.
“I never thought a Gan Jin would get his hands dirty like that!” The woman leader of the Zhangs exclaimed in surprise.
“And I never thought you Zhangs were so reliable in a pinch!” The old Gan Jin man answered.
“Perhaps we’re not so different after all.” The woman suggested.
“Too bad we can’t rewrite history!” The old man growled. With a flourish he drew his sword and pointed it at the woman. Aria’s jaw dropped; were they really taking it to the point of killing? “You thieves stole our sacred orb from Jin Wei.”
“They’re finishing this from in the canyon.” Katara whispered.
“What happened?” Aria asked, flummoxed.
“You tyrants unjustly imprisoned Wei Jin for twenty long years!” The woman cried, also drawing her sword.
“Wait a second! Wei Jin, Jin Wei? I know those guys!” Aang exclaimed.
“Yes, yes. We’re all aware of the story.” The old man answered impatiently.
“No, I mean I really knew them!” Aang persisted. “I might not look it but I’m a hundred and twelve years old. I was there, one hundred years ago, on the day you’re talking about.”
Aria was completely lost as Aang told a narrative about Wei Jin and Jin Wei. Apparently they were brothers playing a game; Aria scrunched her eyebrows, what was he talking about? While with the sick and elderly tribes she had heard the names Wei Jin and Jin Wei but honestly hadn’t cared enough to inquire further.
“So there was no stealing and no putting anyone in prison; just a game.” Aang finished.
“You’re saying the sacred orb was just a sacred ball?” The woman asked in confusion.
“Nope just a regular ball.” Aang answered.
“What about our tribe’s redemption ritual?” A man shouted out.
“That was the name of the game, redemption!” Aang said, “As soon as the ball made it from one goal to the other everyone would shout redemption! Don’t get me wrong, Wei Jin was kinda a slob and Jin Wei was kinda stuffy; that much is true. But they respected each other’s differences enough to share the same playing field.”
“I suppose it’s time we forget the past.” The woman said slowly.
“And look to the future.” The old man said bowing. Together the tribes departed for the capital, taking the earth bender guide with them. Left alone, the Aria and the others relaxed slightly; it was stressful being around such quarrelsome people.
“It’s some luck you knew Jin Wei and Wei Jin.” Sokka stated.
“You could call it luck…or you could call it lying.” Aang answered slyly. Aria’s jaw almost dropped; did innocent little Aang just admit to lying to a huge group of people about their history?
“What?!” Sokka exclaimed.
“I made the whole thing up.” Aang answered.
“You did not!” Katara said in disbelief. “That is so wrong.”
“Well Aang, I do believe I misjudged you.” Aria said laughing.
“How’d everything go with you?” Katara asked Aria.
“Eh, you guys tell me what happened first; your story sounds more exciting.” Aria answered.
Together they grabbed their packs off Appa and pulled the remaining food out. Over a quick lunch they swapped stories before loading up and flying off. Within an hour of flying Aang was the only one left awake; none of them had gotten much sleep the previous night. Aria smiled faintly in her sleep, dreaming hopefully of the future.