Book One: Spirits

With the others off to take baths, and Pong asleep after guarding the caravan for the night, Kari stayed behind to entertain their peculiar guest.

“So,” she struggled to find something to talk about. “Where are you headed off to now?”

“Nowhere in particular.” Yoshiro shrugged.

“Do you mind my asking why it is you want nothing to do with Ba Sing Se?”

“Yes, actually, I do.” The two fell into silence. Kari raised a brow at the abrupt and somewhat rude response.

“I, myself, am very happy to get back to Ba Sing Se!” Shamar, the chemist, chimed in. Neither had noticed he was even in the car. “Ba Sing Se University will be hosting an exhibit on air nomad artifacts. It’s the only collection of its type in the world!” Although somewhat annoyed by Shamar’s eavesdropping, Kari was distracted by the look on Yoshiro’s face. He was clearly interested in the topic.

“You sure you don’t want to come with us?” she smirked.

“Actually,” he hid his excitement poorly. “I have never been outside of Ba Sing Se, so I wanted to take this chance to travel, but I probably won’t get any chance to see something like this again.” Kari smiled, nodding, but recognized that his answer wasn’t entirely truthful.

“So what’s the Fire Nation like?” he asked, changing the subject. The firebender’s eyes lit up. She rushed into an incredibly detailed recount of the history of the Fire Nation, happy to divulge every last detail. Rika returned at some point, rolling her eyes at the conversation topic, and sitting down to read a book titled, “The Joys of Cooking.”

“You’re a cook?” Yoshiro asked a little too suspiciously.

“Of course.” Rika replied cooly. “All Water Tribe women are.” Kari’s eyes darted between the two quickly.

“Oh, silly me!” She pulled Yoshiro’s attention back to herself. “I haven’t even begun to cover Fire Lord Azulon...” Rika continued to glare at Yoshiro, clearly unhappy. She couldn’t risk him finding out about her bloodbending - not when he clearly had so many secrets of his own.

The door to their car slid open, the caravan master looking in.

“Hey!” he seemed angry. “Unless he’s paying, the boy needs to leave. We’re about to start moving.” Rika shrugged, throwing more than enough money at the man. “A-Alright...” he began picking up the money from the floor and exited, bowing.

“Welcome aboard.” Kari grinned.

As the caravan moved, the group recognized that the altitude was slowly but surely increasing. Per usual, they stopped around noon for lunch.

“What are you reading about?” Yoshiro asked, noticing Rika’s nose was buried back in the book.

“Soups.” She sent a glare in his direction.

“Hey!” Kari came from nowhere, grabbing his hand. “Come with me! I want to eat lunch outside today.” This was half true. While on their way in, she had noticed a cluster of statues she wanted to check out. Some were carved from boulders, others within the side of the mountain. All depicted the same creature, but were too worn to tell exactly what they were.

“I think it’s some sort of Earth Nation spirit,” Yoshiro scrunched his eyes. “But I can’t tell.”

“You’re right.” Kari agreed “I think it’s Kong Ran Shan.” Noticing that one toward the back was wrapped in colorful prayer flags, she moved in that direction. It was clear that there were words once written on them, but they, too, were weathered. “I remember reading about him, but I don’t remember any specifics. Sorry.”

“I wonder what they’re doing out here?” Yoshiro mused aloud. Kari only shrugged, sitting beside one to begin eating her lunch. It was a beautiful day, and she was happy she had decided to come out here. However, it wasn’t long before something disrupted their peace. In a swift motion, Kari suddenly hopped to her feet and rounded on the statue. She began examining it carefully. Clearly confused, Yoshiro stood and began to examine the statue as well. After a while, the firebender sighed.

“You didn’t see it move, did you?” she asked.

“No.” the Earth Nation boy seemed concerned.

“I-I think I should go get some sleep.” Kari picked up her scraps and began walking back to the caravan, not making eye contact. Yoshiro trailed closely behind.
When the caravan began moving again, and with Kari studying a scroll of some sort, the Earth Nation boy decided to try and make peace with Rikkako.

“What’s the Water Tribe like?” he asked. The others in the car decided to listen with mild interest as well. Somewhere in the middle of the conversation, Pong woke up.

“Is there food?” were the first words out of his mouth.

“I ate it.” Shu smiled sweetly. The calm was broken.

The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful, save for a short stop to clear the road from some jumping llamas, a task more difficult than one might expect. Rika received a black eye after being kicked in the face, but was able to bend nearby trees and bushes into entangling most of the animals - an amusing sight for the passengers.

They arrived at the edge of a giant canyon that evening, which is where they would be stopping for the night. The town was mostly empty, save for a small military outpost which immediately drew Karizibi out of the car without a word to her friends. Shu decided to follow closely behind. Just then, a man rode up to the outpost on an ostrich horse, handing something to the man in charge.
“Something wrong?” Kari called, speeding up. The man stared at her skeptically. “My name is Karizibi Shinu. Perhaps you’ve heard of me?”

“Actually, you’re just the person we’re looking for.”

“They escaped, didn’t they?” Kari accused the men more than questioned them.

“I don’t know that escape is the correct word.” The man frowned. “The guards were found subdued. All prisoners on the car were killed, including the two you were concerned with.”

“You know what the worst part is about living with a bunch of women?” Pong leaned back in the earth couch he had erected. Yoshiro sat beside him. “They’re all on their periods at the same time! The girls are so bitchy!” Yoshiro chuckled, but both hushed immediately as Rikkako entered.

“Hey Rika.” Pong smiled. Rika hardly glanced his way, her full attention on the book within her hands.

“I see what you meant about their periods.” Yoshiro leaned over to whisper, but was a bit louder than he intended.

“What was that?” Rikkako snapped the book shut, turning to glare at the two boys. For a moment, they thought that her hair might have begun to elevate in the illumination of the pale moonlight. In a flash, they took off. Pong began to dig underground while Yoshiro simply ran. However, as Rikkako watched them go, her eyes grew wide.

“Kaaarrrriiiiiiii...” She immediately turned to find her friend.

“How dead are they?” Kari demanded. “Did you see their bodies? I want to see them!”

“I assure you, they are very dead.” The man turned to the lower ranking individual and produced an item for Karizibi. “This was found in Naoto’s chest.” As she took the dagger from him, she froze.

“That’s an interesting design on the hilt.” She commented, keeping her expression as straight as possible. Carved into the hilt was an intricate raven eagle design - one that she had seen only one other time. “Shu, does this look familiar to you?” she passed the dagger along. Shu got the message loud and clear, but she couldn’t let the military men know this.

“Never in my life.” she lied. “Do you think it’s important?” They both looked at the guards.

“We have no clue what it represents.” The man confessed. “We were hoping you knew.” Kari shook her head in denial.

“And you say that the guards were left alive?” She questioned. The man nodded in affirmation. “Then they were silenced. Someone didn’t want them interrogated and left the dagger behind as a message.” Kari sighed deeply. Their trip had taken a difficult, and dangerous, twist.

“Thank you.” Kari gave a faint smile. “And, I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

“I’m Lutenant Champo.” the two shook hands.

“I have an item I’d like you to take a look at. Will you be around for a while?” Champo nodded affirmatively. “I’ll be back shortly.” Kari promised, starting off toward the post office.

“On a scale from one to ten,” Kari spoke quiet enough that only Shu could here. “How fucked are we?”

“Pretty fucked.” The 11 year old confirmed.

“Do you think they know about us?”

“No way to tell.” Shu shrugged. “But these are the people who killed my master. I don’t think I need to tell you that they’re dangerous.

“Wait here.” Kari told Shu once they reached their destination. “I need to talk to some people, and I’d prefer you not see this.” The young earthbender shrugged, leaning against the building and crossing her arms.

Waiting at the post office were a letter and two scrolls. She read through it quickly, but found no information she hadn’t discovered in her reading. She was, however, grateful for the two firebending scrolls she received. Both were techniques: one on the ability to firebend with one’s feet, the other the ability to firebend in the cold. As she started her response, she was startled to see Rikkako walk into the building. The new letter, as well as the old one, burst into flame.

“Rika! What are you doing here?” Although she smiled, Kari was clearly both surprised and angry. Noticing she had caught one of her scrolls on fire, she frantically began patting it to try and snuff out the flame. Although Rika noticed the firebender’s strange antics, she had more important things to discuss. Getting as close as she could, she whispered into her friend’s ear,

“Yoshiro is an airbender.” After a few moments of intense silence, Kari laughed at the waterbender.

“You know that can’t be true.” She snorted.

“He’s fast, Kari. The only person who’s ever gotten away from me that quickly was Tenzin. I know what it looks like, and that’s what I saw.” Karizibi looked at her friend a little more seriously.

“I’ll deal with it when I get back to the caravan.” she seemed lost in thought. “Don’t let on that you told anyone. I’ll be there in a few minutes. I have some interesting information for everyone.” Rika nodded, exiting the post office, but almost immediately pressing herself up against the glass of the window. Kari noticed, shooting her a glare. A look of realization seemed to dawn on her friend’s face. She suddenly grinned, winking at Kari. Completely lost, the firebender gave the other woman a confused look. Rika just laughed, walking away.

“Shiro and Kari sitting in a tree...” Shu could hear her saying beneath her breath. With a shrug, Kari restarted her letter.

“SW -” it was addressed. “Thank you for the scrolls. These should prove useful. I will be sure to send them back to you as soon as possible.” She chewed on her lip, debating how much detail to go into.
“I’d like some information on meditating. In my dreams with Huwei, I see the Avatar meditating. If he isn’t trying to send me a message, it still might be a useful tool. My dreams aren’t making any more sense than they usually do. If you don’t know anything, who should I talk to?” Deciding to end the letter there, she handed it off to the postmaster, explaining what town to have it forwarded to, and left with Shu for the base camp.

When Yoshiro finally returned, he found Rikkako sitting on the earth couch, sipping on a fruity beverage.

“Have a seat.” She offered keeping a completely straight face. Hesitantly, he sat beside her. “So, how long have you known you were an airbender?” He froze. He had thought for certain she hadn’t seen.

“It’s okay.” she calmed him. “I know what it looks like.”

“Well,” Yoshiro’s voice wavered. “I’ve known since I was about ten. I was being trained as an earthbender...It did not go well...”

“Were you ever planning on telling us?” Rika sounded more amused than upset now.

“Probably not.” He admitted in a mumble.

Their conversation was cut short when they noticed Karizibi and Shu approaching. However, her statement confused the two.

“Pong, out!” she yelled, stopping to cross her arms and tap her foot. The two benders on the couch looked to each other, confused. “I can see you under the caravan!” Yoshiro stiffened again.

“You heard everything?” Rika demanded, turning to find the young earthbender peering out of a hole underneath one of the caravan cars.”

“More or less...” He squeaked.

“I need your belt.” Kari demanded as Pong emerged.

“Why?” he grabbed the medallion tied there defensively.

“Because the people who planted that item on us are dead.” In an instant, Pong had the belt untied and had flung it at the ground.

“DEAD?!”

“Every last one of them. Throats slit.” She slung the medallion over her shoulder. “And yet the guards were kept alive. I’m trying not to make much out of it, but I assume you all know just how bad this could be.” The group nodded. “I’m taking the medallion to the outpost here to see if they know anything about it. You’re welcome to come along and ask any questions you might have about our chances of survival.”

As a group, they returned to the Lieutenant. When Kari handed him the medallion, he immediately threw it at the ground, shrieking.

“What is it?” Pong hid behind Rika. “Is it cursed? Am I gonna die?” Champo dropped his act, laughing to himself.

“Nah, it’s nothing.” He shrugged. “Just an ornate symbol from the Earth Nation. Should be fine.”

“I was thinking,” Kari returned to the Lieutentant. “Is there any way you can give us extra guards to take on the trip? The ones we have are barely any protection. Our main line of defense has been a group of children and, as capable as we are...I’d feel a little better with some backup the next time we’re attacked.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” the man seemed hesitant. “We don’t have enough men here to send spares, but I’ll try to do something for you.” Everyone thanked him and, without any further questions, returned to the caravan to sleep. As they sat, chatting, Kari pulled the medallion from their bag.

“I forgot to return your medallion!” she tossed it in the direction of Yoshiro’s face. Pong was able to grab it before it could hit his face. “Oh! I’m so sorry!” she lied. “It must have slipped!” A few more minutes into the conversation, she quickly removed the box from her bag. “You forgot this too!” she didn’t attempt to disguise the fact that she was attempting to hit the potential airbender with this throw. Unfortunately, he was able to dodge the box with ease.

“I think I’m going to go take first watch...” he stood, eyeing the firebender suspiciously.

Karizibi sat, tapping her foot impatiently.

“Rika!” she eventually whispered loudly. “You can control plants, right?”

“...Right?” the waterbender didn’t see where this was going.

“Think you could make one attack our friend? I’d love to see him try to dodge a fireball...”

“You can’t just attack people like that!” Pong stood, yelling. “I won’t let you-” Kari’s hand slapped over his mouth.

“Shut up!” she growled. In retaliation, he licked her hand, but she was able to catch his tongue. “I swear to you, I’ll burn it off!”

“What’s going on in here?” Yoshiro stuck his head inside the door. Kari quickly pushed Pong away, falling into her seat. Although she attempted to look relaxed, the position appeared to be horribly uncomfortable.

“Theyweregoingtoattackyoutotryandprovethatyou’rean-” Pong’s sentence was abruptly cut off by Rikkako suddenly shoving his face into her cleavage, looking back to see if Shamar was listening. Her friend had failed to notice the chemist’s presence. He glanced up from his book for only a moment before shaking his head and returning to his reading.

“Nothing at all.” Kari smiled. With a shrug, Yoshiro walked outside. The firebender decided to follow.

“Look,” her voice was low. “Just answer me - are you an airbender?” Yoshiro nodded in response.

“Oh. Good. I can stop throwing things at your face now.” With a smile, Kari returned to the car.