Chapter Text
Just my name
————
My eyes flutter open slightly from the stream of light that escapes from the shutters that cover the windows, below just next to my legs is kyoshi’s animal companion that we collectively named fox. On my right is Kyoshi still in a deep sleep, her hair is tussled and the blanket only covers half of her body so her back is exposed to me , she has me in a semi vice tight hug she almost looks like a koala otter hugging it’s mother.
I pry myself from her gently and slowly, i robe myself up to protect myself from the morning chill that Kyoshi island provides unfortunately almost every morning and make my way through our home to the kitchen to make myself and my lover some tea and breakfast. Green tea for kyoshi, ginger for myself and two bowls of savoury tofu soup. I feel large arms wrap around my waist and a chin rest on top of my head .
“ why are you up sooo early?” I hear Kyoshi moan and rub her head into mine clearly still sleepy. “You big baby, sit down it’s nearly ready “ I place everything on a tray and Kyoshi grabs it , we both sit on the floor cushions and eat in silence and watch as the sun rises higher but Kyoshi breaks the silence.
“you’re not as sneaky as you think in the morning yknow” i see her smiling while avoiding my confused look “oh?” I see her blush a little and the sunlight captures her freckles almost high lighting them “when you leave the bed I sense the heat leaving, that’s when I know you’re gone” we both look at each other and laugh “what so I’m just your personal heater?!” She chokes on her drink and covers her mouth to stop anymore tea from escaping “what! No , I’m a firebender too!” I sip on my drink and watch her struggle, I see that some of her tea splashed on the floor mats to her left side “ well you’re also a waterbender , so get the tea off the floor hmm?”
she groans and moves her arms to clean up the tea and with the flick of the wrist it evaporates into nothing. Our attention gets turned to a fire hawk with the Sei'naka clan symbol carved into a ring that is looped around its foot , it chirps and hops down from a branch to the window ledge , it has a few letters attached to its back, three in total, one for me and two addressed to the avatar.
i crouch towards the bird , take the letters and pet its head before it chirps again and flys away “ two letters for you , my love” I sit back down and unfold my letter to read it
To my daughter
I hope you and Kyoshi are well and safe, I’m coming to visit by ship so we can celebrate your father’s birthday together, if the weather is well it should only take a day or two. I shall see you soon
your mother
hei-ran
I look up from my letter and Kyoshi is on her second letter with a stern look of concentration. “Anything important?” She sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose “ first letter is just some official trading I need to sign “ she tosses the second letter to me and I pick it up to look “ the earth kingdom is having trouble with some violent bandits, they’ve asked for our help”
I nod and pass the letter back to her and she folds it “ well on better news my mother is visiting soon to celebrate my father’s birthday” she smiles but it doesn’t last long “ with this mess we might miss my father’s birthday” she stands and takes the cups and bowls to the sink and cleans them with her water bending.
“ I could go with jinpa and kirima while you stay here to wait for your mother “
“No, if you go I’m going with you and don’t even try to argue” she dries her hands and puts them up in surrender “ okay, okay, but we should probably leave now if we want to make it to the earth kingdom capital tonight”
I nod and walk towards the bedroom “ once Im finished I’ll head into the village to get the other”
————
we make it the the barn where we keep pengpeng, both Jinpa and kirima gear him up and walk over to us once finished “ right , he’s ready to go sooo let’s go “ Kyoshi clears her throat and raises her hand slightly, she’s in her battle gear with her face painted in her signature colours and her fans resting against her hip” you’ll be riding today “ she points at Jinpa “ and we need to discuss the situation, these bandits are unpredictable and extremely violent, they all come from different nations and like to target on others who cannot defend themselves” she points at the letter her finger landing on the leader’s name “ Zolek is the leader, we take him out and the others will scatter like elephant rats”
we all nod and head towards pengpeng, we sit on the saddle and with a yip yip from jinpa we take off to the capital. Kyoshi island gets smaller and smaller as we go higher, if I’m correct and I usually am, it should only take about 5 hours to get there but to make sure we’re going in the right direction I hand Kyoshi the map she mouths a thank you before spreading out the paper to get a rough idea on what direction we take.
5 hours later and Ba sing se , the capital comes into view we fly over each wall and distract until we make it to the palace pengpeng lands softly on the grass , Kyoshi slides off first and offers her hand to me and I take it “ always the gentlewoman” she winks and back up on the saddle I hear kirima fake gag before hopping down with Jinpa. The palace guards approach us, last time me and Kyoshi were here it didn’t go all to well with hospitality as they demanded we sleep separately for ‘political reasons’ in the end Kyoshi threatened each and everyone about respecting guest
the guards bow before us “ avatar Kyoshi , lieutenant Rangi of the Sei'naka clan” they then turn and bow to the others “master Jinpa, master kirima, please if you may follow us to the palace, the king as set up a feast in your honour” they step aside and we walk infront of them Kyoshi leading the way while we follow behind her.
after the intense workout they call the stairs we make it to the large doors and are invited inside, we take our shoes off and then guided to the large open room where the king hosts his meetings with special guests, the room is full of different foods and smells , each dish different from the rest and neatly placed on the long table, we take our seats , kyoshi sitting directly across from the king while me , Jinpa and kirima sit on the side.
The king pats his leg “ avatar kyoshi , thank you for coming to the earth kingdoms aid I hope this matter can finally come to a end” he raises his cup and so does Kyoshi “ tell me more about these bandits and their leader Zolek” they both lower their cups and that’s our signal that we can finally start eating while they talk. Earth kingdom rules slightly differ then other cultures when it comes to official meetings or negotiations, once the cup is raised then lowered that means the deal has been accepted.
“Right , Zolek has been on the hunt for a few months now , he and his men have been targeting the farm lands and its disrupting merchants and sales in ba sing se and it needs to stop” Kyoshi glances at me then takes a sip of her tea and nods away and the king continues “ his last known location according to my guards is south of here , about 2 hours on bison”
Kyoshi finishes her drink “ and what about the people who live there, what have they reported about him?” She cocks her eyebrow when he slightly stammers out “ well um, we haven’t gotten much from them”
Kyoshi rolls her eyes and wipes her mouth with a napkin “ we will set out to his last known location and look for anything that might be useful to us and then we shall go from there. “ she stands and we all stand with her except the king and we all bow apart from kyoshi who just walks away.
We make it back to pengpeng and fly off into the direction of Zolek’s last location, Kyoshi sits besides me her hands rubbing her temple “ you okay?” She turns her head and smiles softly” yeah, I just hate having all these formal meetings, gives me a headache” I move to play with her hair and hear her groan into my touch “better?” And she nods into my touch. Kirima is up infront of us distracted by the map guiding jinpa who steers pengpeng into the farmlands.
With clear weather we should have a smooth time getting there.
————
I see the smoke first before anything else. The fire is not too big but the black smoke stands out against the blue sky . Each little farm house is completely ruined, burnt down to the ground while its owners stand by and watch , this must of been recent a few hours at least “ Jinpa! Land near to the villagers” he signals a ok and turns pengpeng reins , we make a soft landing and we make our way to the villagers.
Kirima waterbends to extinguish the fire with a well near by but it’s no use , there is nothing to save “ who did this , was it Zolek?!” Kyoshi asks the villagers and they cower slightly, she also comes off as scary due to her height and avatar voice even if she doesn’t mean it. She huffs and tries a softer approach “ the man who did this , what did he look like?” One woman comes from out the huddled ground of scared villagers. A older earth bending woman worn from her days of being in the sun “ it was that Zolek, he stole all our food and livestock! Then burnt our house to the ground!” Jinpa comes over with a map and hands it to the woman “ do you know which way he went?”
the woman grabs the map , unfolds it and scowers around until she finds what she’s looking for “ he went in this direction but after that I don’t know” she hands the map back to Jinpa “ has he hurt anyone “ I ask looking around the “ no no but he has taken our family and friends who can bend , avatar please get the back!” Kyoshi takes the map from Jinpa and slides it into her waist belt” I will find your family and friends and I will take down this Zolek and his men I give you my word” she gives a bow.
” Do you have anywhere you can sleep tonight,it's not safe to stay out after dark” Kirima points out and it’s true, the farmlands get many predators who come looking for a meal and that includes people. Especially people who cannot bend “ we can travel, the nearest town is only a 3 hour walk from here” the elder women bows and ushers the group to follow her.
“ kyoshi ? What’s the plan ?” I turn to her and see she’s looking in a different direction just staring at the sun going down “kyoshi?” I say softly and grab her shoulder, she turns her head and walk away and back to pengpeng “ let’s ride for a while and then make camp”
We hop onto pengpeng again and take off into the direction the older woman told us to go , as with make distance I see the farmhouses that have been burned down and abandoned because of Zolek and his men. Zolek now that I think about it is a familiar name. “ kyoshi ?” I scoot over to her as she continues to look at the map “hm?” She doesn’t look away from the map “ Zolek is a Firenation name” that gets her attention “ it was a popular name when my mom was young so we’re looking for a middle aged fire nation man ?” Kyoshi chews on her lip. “ or he was named after someone who was fire nation?”
Jinpa lands pengpeng next to a small cave and we unpack and make a small camp, kirima goes off to fill up our water skins while Kyoshi goes into the small patch of forest to collect some dry wood. With the kindling that we had on us I click my fingers and a small flame appears” want me to manage the fire Rangi?” I turn and see Jinpa walk up with four bedrolls “ the fire looks good for now but thanks” we both turn around to see Kyoshi with a big stack of logs while Kirima has each of our water skins filled with fresh water.
we sit around the campfire, me and kyoshi cuddled up together while Jinpa and Kirima sit on the opposite side. We all eat are rations while making a plan “ I think we should carrying on following the burnt farmhouse’s” Kirima takes a bite out of her ration and turns to Jinpa as he nods “ we could keep asking the locals, we’re bound to find him” Kirima then turns to Kyoshi “ so is this a capture mission or a send him to afterlife mission?”
we all turn to kyoshi who has been awfully quiet this conversation , she cleans the crumbs of the side of her lip” we’re capturing him the king can do whatever he wants with him afterwards”
“what!?” I snap my head and she turns her head to look at me “ kyoshi, he’s too dangerous to keep alive! If it wasn’t for the king’s orders I’d battle him in a Agni Kai!”
I hear her huff “ well IT is kings orders, once we get Zolek he’ll rot in prison!” I clench my fists and then unclench them as I feel the heat pool into my palms “ kyoshi, when have you ever followed the rules! Zolek is too dangerous!” “when the stakes are too high Rangi! Why are you so against this aren’t you the one who is nitpicking me about rules and how things should be!”
“Oh I’m sorry that’s right you’re the avatar it doesn’t matter how you do it as long as it gets done!”
“Rangi what are you on about!”
“Zolek is too dangerous to keep alive , how is this any different from when juanzhu killed kelsang, you went on a manhunt for him! Zolek is terrorising the farm lands!”
“do NOT bring up my father-“
Kirima snaps at us “ GUYS, stop!” We both turn are heads towards Kirima while Jinpa pretends to see what is happening before him “ let’s just find the guy first yeah?” She takes another bite of her food “ we’re all tired let’s just take a break” Kyoshi sits back down “ fine” I growl out of frustration and toss my food into the fire “ FINE!” i stomp away into the forest to get more firewood.
I grab random plants as I walk and burnt them to a crisp while walking in a straight line , I mutter to myself “ unbelievable as if she cares about the rules now SHES was literally apart of a travelling criminal company for like a good few months” I kick a small tree stump and hiss out from the pain
I feel an odd prick on my neck and slap away the sensation “ stupid bugs!” I sit on the stump and breath. Wiping away the sweat that trickles from my forehead with my sleeve . When did i start feeling hot? And why does my body feel fuzzy? Everything around feels fast while I feel slow. I hear a tree branch crack behind me.
“kyoshi?” I stand up
and I fall down, unable to move and my eyes flutter shut.