Book One: Spirits

Once again, Karizibi found herself waking bright and early. Pong and Rikkako looked like they would be sleeping for quite some time, so she decided to head out without them. Grabbing a quick breakfast, she also received direction to the city library and decided to pay it a visit.

The atrium was spacious and the building was several levels high. Opposite from the entrance was a massive mosaic that covered the wall, floor to ceiling, and was roughly 20 feet wide. It depicted a massive black owl descending from the heavens, rays of light cascading down around it. Hundreds of books and scrolls were falling from the owl’s wings and a few dozen human shaped figures across the bottom of the mosaic were reaching up to grab the falling knowledge. A long reception desk stood at the foot of the mosaic. A single librarian sat behind it, her nose in a large tome.

“I’m looking for a section on firebending.” Kari requested of the librarian.

“Floor four, section nine, shelf B.” she rattled off without looking up. Kari followed her directions and plucked scrolls off the shelf, searching for the kick Shiro had shown her. Locating the information she sought, she pulled out parchment and a fountain pen to take notes.
Pong and Rikkako rolled out of bed at roughly the same time. Once ready for the day and at the Fire Festival, they split paths. Rika searched for breakfast while Pong found himself in a jewelry store.

“Is there something I can help you with?” the shopkeeper asked kindly. “Looking for a gift for someone special?”

“Uh...yeah...I think.” Pong shuffled his feet.

“Well, we have a nice assortment of necklaces over here.” The man pulled Pong’s attention toward a small rack of necklaces, each bearing a water tribe insignia. Pong poked through before finally picking the cheapest one out, not caring too much what it looked like. He paid and set off, nearly skipping, making the decision to go to the park and practice what he would say later when he admitted his attraction to Rikkako. With a small piece of parchment and a quill, he drew a crude picture of Rikkako’s face and attached it to a nearby tree.

“Hi Rika!” he rehearsed to the picture. “No, no, no, that’s all wrong. Uh...Hello Rika! No, that’s wrong too. Hey Rika, come here often?...” The rehearsal went on for at least an hour before he felt that he was ready and headed back into town. He found Rikkako fairly quickly.

“Hey...” he nodded to her, leaning against a nearby wall. “You come here-”

“No time!” she grabbed his arm. “There’s an earthbending show starting soon. Come on!” The show wasn’t bad, but Pong couldn’t focus on anything other than his nerves and what he would say later.

Karizibi tucked the parchment into her backpack to be practiced later and headed for the front door. She paused before exiting as though remembering something, then turned back to the librarian.

“Do you have a section on spirits?” she asked.

“Floor two, section seven, shelves A through H.” Once again, the librarian couldn’t be bothered with looking up. Kari was up the stairs in a matter of seconds and excitedly digging through the books. She quickly located what appeared to be an introduction on the topic. Pouring over it, she was quickly able to locate two spirits that caught her interest.

“Huo Long:” she read, briefing through the description. “The spirit thought to have given the power of firebending to the dragons. He is a sentient flame that can take the form of any being, human or animal, but often chooses to appear as a dragon. It is also thought that he can reside in any source of fire at any given time, the Eternal Flame being his more permanent home, so to speak.” She nodded to herself. He certainly sounded familiar. She flipped through a few more pages. “Huo Long finds humans to be entertaining and has been known to appear in his dragon form to offer aid, to join in merrymaking, or simply to observe.” Discovering that this was all the section had to say, with a deep breath, she continued on to the second spirit.

“Huwei:” she read next, not sure if she should go on or not. “Not much is known about this spirit who has been tasked with removing souls from their mortal bodies. For those who have led good lives, she appears as a beautiful, pale woman with long, black hair. It is said that she carries a lantern that guides the soul from the body, much like a moth to a flame. For those who have led an evil life, she appears in a more demonic form similar to a large, black spider. The spider and the woman share the same head, but its legs are long enough that her body hangs several feet from the ground limply. Those taken by the demon form of Huwei are said to be kept by her to be tortured for the rest of eternity.” Somewhat disturbed by what she had read, Kari shivered, quickly rolling up the scroll. However, as she was about to stand, she froze. It appeared as though a shadow in the corner of the room had just moved. Kari whipped her head around to face the motion, but saw nothing out of place. She shivered again. The air suddenly seemed colder than it had been. As quickly as she could, Kari replaced the scroll and exited the library.

Pong and Rikkako found Kari with ease after their show. She was moving against the wall of a building, almost as though she were pressing herself as far away from the crowd as possible. What they didn’t know was that, as Kari was on her way through earlier, she could have sworn she saw a woman with long dark hair and a lantern staring at her from the crowd. At that moment, her decision was made to avoid large groups of people.

“Kari!” Pong called her name, causing her to jump.

“Oh!” she relaxed, noticing who was speaking. “H-hey.” She was visibly perturbed.

“You okay?” Rikkako questioned.

“Yeah, fine. Hey, is the crowd bothering anyone else? Let’s go somewhere quiet to practice.” she started walking off in the direction of the park. Pong and Rika exchanged glances, but decided against pressing the issue further. On their way through, Rikkako forced the group to pause. She happened to notice a paper attached to a tree with some sort of scribble on it.

“What do you suppose this is?” she asked the group. “Looks like a cross between a mooselion and a canyon crawler.” Rika laughed. Pong quickly averted his gaze, pulling the picture from the tree and pocketing it when no one was looking. The group decided to take their break here. While Kari and Pong worked on their new forms, Rikkako decided to read over her healing scrolls and take a nap until it was time for the ceremony.

With about an hour to go, the three finally headed to the center of the Fire Festival where the stage was located. As they were instructed, they kept to the front of the crowd. When the ceremony began, a man stepped onto the stage and introduced himself as councilman Peng to much applause. In search of anything more interesting than this man’s speech, Kari located Shiro not so far away and made her way over.

“This is awful.” she commented. “Will he ever shut up?”

“Last year his speech was two hours long.” Shiro whispered back. Kari groaned.

However, it wasn’t long before something distracted the crowd from councilman Peng: a woman jumped up on stage. She had a ragged appearance and choppy haircut, but she was covered in heavy armor. As she spoke, Rika began to sense that something was very wrong. She glanced around noticing three people dressed similarly to the woman. Two of these allies erected walls in attempt to confine crowd.

“Citizens of Republic City!” she yelled, quieting everyone a bit. “For thousands of years Earthbenders occupied this land. They raised their families and built their homes here. 100 years ago, the Fire Nation attacked, taking this land for their own and forcing out the Earthbenders who have rightful ownership! It is a disgrace that-”

“Hey!” Kari called attention to herself. “Who exactly are you? And why are you interrupting this man’s speech?”

“I’m the leader of the Freedom Fighters.” the woman snapped. “We are here to tell the people of Republic City that Fire Nation citizens have no right to live on land owned by earthbenders! It’s time we all take a stand and tell the firebenders enough is enough!” As the leader took a step toward the councilman, Kari turned to Shiro.

“Are you with us?” she asked. The other firebender nodded in return. In one swift movement, Kari hopped on stage and hurled a fireball at the woman. It didn’t do much damage, but it certainly caught her attention. On cue, Pong pushed one of the already erected earth walls at an enemy earthbender. It was dodged, but this broke him off from the rest of the group. Shiro jumped onto the stage but was distracted from his target when he was hit in the shoulder with an arrow. He sent a fireball in the direction of the archer responsible and nearly managed to knock him off the roof, but the archer simply moved back to his starting position. Meanwhile, Rikkako attacked anyone within range of her water tentacles, glistening in the light of the full moon. Tonight, her bending would be more powerful than any other time of the month. Unfortunately, it appeared that she was still having difficulties landing a hit. Her frustrations were clear to everyone. The leader of the attackers suddenly grabbed the councilman, realizing this would be a tough match. She placed one of her blades to his throat. Karizibi made the quick decision to ignore her just in case she made good on her threat. She turned just in time to watch an arrow imbed itself in her shoulder. Angered, Shiro let loose another massive fireball in the archer’s direction, but it was easily dodged. Kari’s two quick fire blasts did the trick, however, and knocked the attacker from the roof.

It was about this time that the police arrived, binding one earthbender mid-attack and catching another completely off guard. Another metalbender moved in to bind the earthbender Pong defeated. Noticing the police had arrived, the woman on stage began back away, keeping the councilman in front of her as a shield. When she reached the edge of the stage, she pushed Peng away and made a run for it. In a last attempt to stop her, Pong tried the rubble technique he learned, but still she made her escape. Growling, Kari whipped around to face the officers.

“Where were you?” She demanded.

“I apologize.” he managed to say with some reluctance. “The officers we had on duty were subdued. Had you not taken action, the situation could have been much worse. We thank you for-”

“Yeah, yeah.” she rolled her eyes before turning to another metalbender. “Hey! We knocked an archer off that roof over there. You should probably go check on him.” the officer raised a brow at the firebender, but nonetheless waved a few lower ranking policemen over to check it out. It was then that Kari remembered Shiro had been injured. Turning, she found Rikkako was removing the arrow from his shoulder and healing the wound, apparently having mastered the technique in the scroll she obtained from the healers at the hospital. She glanced up at Kari.

“Have a seat.” she ordered. “You’re next.” Kari smiled a little and gratefully sat, not wanting to argue with Rika who was apparently still beating herself up from the fight earlier.
As Rika began work on Kari, the councilman approached.

“Thank you all for stepping in.” he spoke in earnest. “What you did was incredibly brave and I quite possibly owe you my life.” Kari and Rika just stared at him. The councilman hadn’t so much as lifted a finger during the fight.

“Sure.” Karizibi said dismissively, trying to hold still for Rikkako. “So, anyway, about the trophy...”

“Oh!” councilman Peng waved at an assistant who began to carry out the large object. “Of course! It’s on its way. I know you kids aren’t getting much of a ceremony, but congratulations to you.”

“So, is there anything else you’ll need from us?” Kari snapped, anxious to get back to the hotel at this point. Rika stood and walked away from her, finished with her work.

“I believe the police would like you to stay around for a few days?” the politician seemed taken aback. “Just in case they need you for questioning...”

“Great.” Kari grumbled, grabbing the trophy in one hand and Shiro’s arm in the other. “Pig-brained, stupid, good for nothing” she grumbled as she pulled the other firebender away from the police.

“What’s wrong?” Pong began to pester Rikkako the moment they started to move.

“Nothing.” Rika dismissed his concerns.

“It doesn’t seem like nothing.” Pong persisted.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“But you’ll feel better if you just-”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Just explain-”

Rika threw herself into the fountain in the center of the square. Although she could breathe just fine with the air bubble around her head, Pong was in a panic, continually attempting to pull her out of the water while Rikkako kept using her bending to push him away. Eventually she decided to walk back to the hotel alone; however, Pong followed her.

“Why won’t you talk to me?” Pong pleaded. Her distant and cold stares down the alley gave no tell of her true inner sadness. For the first time in her life she had friends, and instead of being able to save them from anything, she watched them take blow after blow. Pong began erecting earth walls to block her path, which she easily tore down with her heightened bending. Pong eventually yelled,

“STOP!” Rika lowered her head and ceased moving. “I bought this for you!” She turned to see that he had purchased a betrothal necklace. She stifled a giggle at his ignorance.

“I’m not marrying you.” she said with a small smile.

“...What?”

“That’s a water tribe betrothal necklace. You give it to a water tribe woman you want to marry.”

“..I..I practiced all day!” His eyes began to glaze over with confusion and tears. She took the necklace from her and cleanly split it in half, giving a piece to Pong.

“I won’t marry you, but now we’ll have these to remember each other by.” Pong was hurt by Rika’s reaction, so much so that he felt he might be heartbroken.

Rika’s determination was set from that moment on: she would learn to bloodbend.

“This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen...” He mumbled softly enough Rika wouldn’t hear.
After spewing insults for several minutes, Karizibi had finally cooled off. She and Shiro took a walk toward the hotel to separate her from the metalbenders before she said something loud enough and stupid enough to cause problems.

“Sorry.” she finally mumbled after a few seconds of silence.

“All out of insults?” he chuckled.

“Pretty much.” she cracked a smile. They had reached the entrance of the hotel.

“You going to be sticking around?” Shiro inquired.

“The police told us we’re not allowed to leave the city for a few days, so I guess so.” Kari rolled her eyes. “I guess I’ll be seeing you around”?

“Sure.” Shiro grinned. Kari waved him off, ducking inside the hotel before things could become awkward. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for in Shiro, but she certainly didn’t want this taking a serious turn just yet.

Realizing her teammates were nowhere in sight, she looked around the inn for a sign of them. She realized she would have to pay for the room if she wanted to get to bed soon, but then she noticed that there was a very young boy sitting behind the counter.

“Perhaps I won’t have to pay quite so much...” she thought to herself, a smirk forming.

“Kari!” Rika yelled from the doorway, startling the firebender into a sitting position. It looked like she had been attempting to sleep for some time. “We can pay for the room, too. We’re not poor.”

“Oh.” Karizibi laid back down. “It was only a yuan for the three of us.” she waved them off.

“Only a yuan for the three of us?” Rikkako raised a brow, her tone lowering a bit.

“Yep.” Kari grinned before rolling over. “But I’m not supposed to tell anyone else. One time discount or some such nonsense.” Rika laughed, suddenly recalling how embarrassed the desk attendant had looked, before also sliding into bed.

“What did you do to that poor boy?” she asked, but it appeared that Kari was already asleep again.