Drunkard's Walk Forums

Oh. I sort of thought it was Appa approaching.

But if its M. Bison, why is Ham's firebending wavering? (I'm assuming you meant M. Bison, and not Appa. But, what if it was Appa? Hmm...)
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Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber."  --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.

Hrm? Oh, I thought M. Bison WAS Appa. I mean, he's described as a bison with an arrow on his head. As for M. Bison flying over the sun, Ham's
firebending wavers when he hears gasps behind him. I'd figured it was because of him losing his concentration.

M.Bison is not Appa, but they are the same species. They may simply tend towards arrow markings the same way leopards do spots.
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin

Yeah. IIRC, there was a flashback to when Aang first met Appa. There were a few flying bison there, and they all had arrows.

Also, my impression was that the firebending wavering was at the same time as the others gasping, not caused by it. The way the sun vanishing was described
made me think of an eclipse, but odds are we'll just have to wait for the next bit to find out what's happening.

EDIT: I found a picture of the flying bison in the flashback on the avatar wiki. Its from the episode "Appa's Lost Days". Here's the
link.
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Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber."  --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.

"Very diplomatic," Mai noted as fire hurtled towards them from a half-dozen of the angrier looking firebenders. She watched
impassively as the flames guttered away before reaching them. "Good reaction."

"That wasn't me," Toph said bluntly. "There's something happening to their firebending." She paused. "And
mine, I think. Something bad."

Mai nodded and stepped forwards to look out of the door where more than twenty sun warriors were trying to force fire from their hands.
"So I see," she said, and then her composure cracked as she glanced up at the sky. "Oh Spirits."

"What?"

"The Day of the Black Sun," Mai whispered. "It's happening again!"

"That... doesn't explain anything," complained Toph, joining her sister at the doorway. "Although I guess by their abject
panic, we aren't going to be talking to you guys?" she asked the nearest of the sun warriors, the one who had shouted led the attack.

"Die, outsider!" he shouted, and tried to grab hold of her.

A pillar of rock smashed up from the ground and hurled him back. "No," Toph replied dismissively.

The blackness had consumed almost a fifth of the sun. Mai forced her attention away from it and reached into her dress, pulling out a whistle
that the bison herders of the Water Tribe had given to her. "Don't try anything," she warned the fire benders, holding the knife in her other
hand to remind them that without their fire bending she and Toph were the only ones armed. She blew into the whistle, creating no sound that she could detect
although annoyance flickered across Toph's face as her sharper ears picked up a sound right on the edge of her ability to hear it.

"It's a solar eclipse," Mai explained hurriedly. "For fire benders it's the worst possible omen. We'd better leave
and come back when it's all over and they've calmed down."

Above this conversation, the spot of light above the doorway faded as the sunlight being focused upon it was no longer sufficient and the
stone doors responded by closing up behind the two girls.

"Over?" Ham Ghao shouted as he scrambled to his feet. "Your meddling with the sunstone is destroying the sun,
outsider!"

"Not if this is the Black Sun," his Chief corrected him grimly, stepping forwards. "Such has happened before and the sun has
always recovered swiftly. Which does not explain why the two of you were inside the sanctuary. It's clear from your clothes that you are from the southern
cities."

Mai relaxed slightly as reason seemed to be breaking out. It seemed lighter as well, the sun not having shrunk any further.

"We came from there, anyway," Toph admitted. "As for being in there, it seemed as good a place as any to wait until your
ceremony was over. We didn't know -"

There was a mighty bellow from above and M Bison plunged down onto the little plaza, diving out of the sun in response to Mai's earlier
whistle. Unfortunately for all concerned, this resulted in him landing directly in front of Mai and Toph... more or less on top of the sun warrior's
chieftain, who was bowled over and left stunned on the ground.

In fairness to Ham Ghao, it wasn't him who screamed: "It's a monster!" In reflex however, he did try to bend fire at the
new arrival and to his delight sparks responded. Up in the sky, the darkness that had touched the sun was now moving away from it, never having covered more
than a quarter of the disc, and his fire bending was returning.

"Drive the beast away!" the sun warrior shouted, "Capture the intruders!" And absent any other idea of what to do, the
rest of the celebrants obeyed, hurling what little flame they could manage at the bison, setting fire to his fur. Annoyed, but not yet hurt M Bison whirled
upon them, not waiting for the girls to climb aboard him and threw himself into a short climb that scattered the greatest bulk of his tormenters, flinging
several of them down to the next level of the pyramid with bonecracking force.

Mai groaned. "They made him angry," she complained, fanning throwing knives between her fingers.

"Let's just try not to kill anyone," Toph suggested. "Maybe we can still sort this out."

Her sister looked at the sun warriors, now hurling fire with abandon as the sun resumed it's full strength, and then at M Bison, who was
roaring down on another cluster of the sun warriors. "Sometimes I really wish you could see what you're talking about," she said, putting her
knives away and producing her war fans in time to deflect a punch which was thrown at her by one of the more muscular sun warriors. Bringing up the other fan
she managed to sweep the man off balance and hurl him face first into the wall beside her.

The sun warrior rebounded off, blood spilling from his face. Not killing anyone still left her with a considerable scope for
mayhem.

Toph raised up a wall to deflect fire being directed at her. "I don't think I want them getting reinforcements up here," she
decided and gestured towards the steps. With a crunch, the stairs tilted to form a steep slope and there were startled cries and yells of pain as a half-dozen
men trying to make their way up it tumbled back to the next level.

Ham Ghao gestured for two of the other sun warriors to flank him as he forced his flames to concentrate to greater heat. "Ha!" he
shouted, driving his hands forward and sending a fiery column up at the rampaging mass of M Bison. Unlike the previous attacks, between the sun being uncovered
and Ham Ghao's concentration, this was enough to cause more than incidental scorching to the sky bison and he roared in pain... and even more
anger.

"Wow. I didn't realise that he could actually get angrier," Toph said calmly as she sank a pair of sun warriors almost knee
deep in the stone slabs.

"Just get out of the way!" snapped Mai and pressed herself back against the wall as M Bison barrel-rolled across the plaza still on
fire. Ham Ghao and his companions were swept aside easily and then the aggressive sky bison turned around for another pass. The fire benders seemed to be
somewhat at a loss as to what to do about this: he was already on fire, what more could they do?

The sun warrior Chief, spared because he was already on the ground, crawled towards the wall, not far from Mai and Toph. "If that is
your creature, then call him off!" he demanded.

"He'll calm down in a while," Toph said and reached out with both hands for a moment before drawing them suddenly backwards,
the flames leaping away from M Bison's fur - which was now noticeably darker and thinner than before - and coalescing into a globe between her hands.
"I'd suggest having your people play dead until he does." She hurled the fire out over the city, causing it to burst like fireworks.

"You're a fire bender?" he gasped. "But..." His eyes looked at where two of his warriors were lying on their backs,
unable to flee due to their feet and calves being embedded in the paving. "The Avatar!"

Toph smirked. "Yep. I didn't come here to fight you guys." There was a howl from the level below and M Bison swooped up above
the lip of the plaza with a triumphant bellow. "...although I guess that he did."

The Chief glared at her and then raised his voice. "Everyone lay on the floor and play dead until the beast has calmed!" he
shouted, his words laced with such authority that not even Ham Ghao, then clinging desperately to the lip of the plaza, a long if not sheer drop to the level
below all that awaited him if he released his grip, was inclined to argue. "Even if you are the Avatar, you have no right to interfere in our
customs," the man told Toph.

"That was never our intention," Mai told him. "Toph and I came here seeking a fire bending teacher. Her previous instructor
proved unsuitable, so we were seeking remnants of the ancient sun warriors. With the extinction of the dragons, their knowledge of fire bending would be the
purest remaining source of the art."

He stared at her for a moment, then around at M Bison, currently floating in the air and looking around angrily for prey. "Do you have
this effect everywhere you travel?"

Mai shook her head, not in disagreement but in sympathy. "You have no idea."

.oOo.

In the end it took most of the day to settlee M Bison and he was still hufffing irritably towards any sun warriors who came into view when
the sun set over the jungle. Most of said men and women found this a reasonable justification to stay clear of where Toph and Mai had relocated their campsite
to: a space between two buildings across one of the ruined highways of the city from the buildings occupied by the sun warriors during their residence in the
home of their ancestors. It was clear, however, that the distance would have been maintained regardless.

It was also clear that the buildings were effectively a campsite, albeit a regular one. There were no children in the little settlement, and
very few married women. Wherever the true home of the sun warriors was, it was not something that any of them would share and while some of the tribe were
relatively affable, Mai knew without Toph telling her that this was a veneer over deeper suspicion.

"I'd say we made a bad first impression," Toph observed quietly as she helped to groom M Bison, carefully removing damaged hair
that would otherwise tangle unpleasently as it grew out.

"Your powers of deduction are growing," said Mai, deliberately not softening the sting of her words by adding 'little
sister'. "I suppose we should have realised that the room would be considered important. Then again, I'm not sure if they wouldn't have
reacted as badly to our presence outside the pyramid, given the eclipse."

"Yes, and what was that?" asked Toph. "They seemed to think that the sun was dying."

Mai swallowed. The sun was important to the Fire Nation, even to those who did not bend fire. "It looked very much like that," she
explained. "A blackness, somewhat like a shadow, crossed over the sun, blocking part of its light."

Toph nodded her head, sending her bangs sflapping over her eyes. "Okay, so that's why I couldn't say anything. And because it
affects firebending it's considered unfortunate?"

"Unfortunate doesn't cover it," her sister told her. "This was merely a partial eclipse, lasting a moment or two. On the
Day of the Black Sun the eclipse was total and lasted several minutes longer, covering might of the Fire Nation. Long enough to turn the tides of empire if
those moments were as fatefully timed as they were then."

The younger girl did not pause in her grooming but her lips pursed as she combed through her memory of history lessons, limited somewhat by
the fact that she could not study scrolls herself but only work by what was read to her. "How long ago was it?"

"A little over six and a half centuries," Mai told her and let the girl work out the timing for herself.

It only took a moment: "The fall of the Dragon Princes."

"Precisely," agreed Mai. "No one remembers now if the timing was deliberate, opportunism or sheer mischance that the uprisings
began that day, but at least a dozen of the princely strongholds were under attack when the sun failed. Thousands of firebenders were killed, unable to defend
their princes, and the resultant power struggles almost tore the Fire Nation apart. It took the combined efforts of the Avatar Xatlan and the Order of the Fire
Sages to end the wars and most of a hundred years for my people to recover. According to some of my teachers, there are parts of the ancient firebending lore
that were lost forever."

"Although..." Toph said thoughtfully. "The sun warriors predate that, so maybe they can fill some of those gaps. Surely
someone came looking for you before now," she added, turning to look at the Chief as he crossed the street towards them.

"They did," he agreed coolly. "The Masters read their hearts, their souls... Those they judged as being unworthy - likely, for
example, to advertise our survival here - were destroyed. Those who they spared either kept our secrets, or simply remained here. By all accounts as happily as
they would have anywhere else."

Mai tilted her head to one side. "The Masters?"

He nodded confirmation. "In the morning, we will take you both before them. If you are worthy, then they will teach you that which you
will need. If not..." He shrugged. "In any event, it's rather too late for you to turn back at this point."

.oOo.

Somewhat before the crack of dawn the next day, a rather sleepy Toph - who had stayed up entirely too late trying to figure out where the
Masters were - followed Mai towards a shrine on top of one of the smaller pyramids scattered around the ruined city. The two of them were surrounded by dozens
of sun warriors, under the direction of Ham Ghao. Pragmatically speaking, Mai was fairly sure that they could have hopped onto M Bison at any point and just
left...

But what would that have accomplished?

An archway at the centre of the shrine was occupied almost entirely by a smokeless fire. Mai had noticed that one of the buildings near the
foot of the pyramid showed more sign of habitation than the camp - presumably for attendant to the shrine.

"This is the eternal flame," the Chief instructed them - as much for the benefit of the warriors around the two girls as for them.
"The first fire given to man by the dragons, we have kept it alight for thousands of years."

He beckoned to the girls, who stepped forward. "All who go to meet the Masters carry with them a part of it, to show their commitment to
the sacred art of firebending."

Mai cleared her throat. "I'm not a firebender," she pointed out. "I don't suppose that you have a lantern or something
I can use to carry it?"

"No."

"Oh."

The sun chief refrained from smirking as he turned towards the flame and drew a modest globe of fire forth, dividing it between his two
hands. "This ritual illustrates the essence of sun warrior philosophy. You must maintain a constant heat. The flame will go out if you make it too small
but make it too big and you might lose control." The firebender held out his hands towards the two of them.

Toph extended her own hand unerringly and the chief placed one flame into the girl's small hands. Almost immediately she giggled.
"It tickles," she said in a surprised voice. "Almost like... like it's alive."

"Fire is life," asserted the man. "Not just destruction." He turned his gaze towards Mai, who warily extended
her own hands towards the flame, bracing herself to be scorched when the Chief released his control over it.

To her surprise the fire did not explode when the firebender removed his hand, nor even fall upon her fingers. Instead it simply remained
hovering above her hands, fading slowly until it had reduced itself to nothing.

"That," said a caustic voice from behind them - Ham Ghao's, Mai recognised - "Was a bad start."

"Those are keen powers of observation that you have, Ham Ghao," she said, not looking back. "And also a very large
mouth."

There was a ripple of amusement from the other sun warriors and even the Chief's expression softened slightly. "You must now take
the fire to the cave of the Masters, beneath that rock." He pointed at where a hill reared up outside the city, capped by two mis-matched fangs of
stone.

"Come on Spiky," Toph said, turning towards the stair down the pyramid. "I'll share my fire when we get
there."

The Chief and Ham Ghao exchanged looks as the two girls descended.

"A very bad start," Ham Ghao conluded. His chief shrugged noncomittally.

.oOo.

"Are you alright?" Mai asked as Toph paused at one of the tougher patches of the hill to climb. The younger girl was frowning at
nothing in particular - her blindness giving her little reason to point her face in the direction of whatever was irritating her.

Toph didn't reply at first, instead shifting her feet in a awkward rendition of her usual earthbending. The ground shuddered and then
shifted grudgingly into a stair over the obstacle. At the same time, the flame in her hand flickered alarmingly. "Earth bending while I'm fire bending
is harder than I expected," she admitted once the fire in her had had steadied.

"Well its impossible for the anyone else, little sister," Mai pointed out. "We're going to have to add that to your
training. It's all very well being able to bend all four elements, but if you can't use them all at once then you'd be no better than a mixed squad
of benders."

"Hey!"

Mai smiled slightly. "Which would be unacceptable, of course."

"Of course," Toph agreed, perfectly aware of Mai manuevering the situation and playing along. "I'm sure that fitting it in
between the firebending lessons from these Masters, practising water bending on liquid water, trying to learn air bending from scrolls I can't read and
keeping my earth bending up to scratch... all that will be easy!"

"That's a great idea," Mai agreed drily. "Where do you want to begin?"

"Earth bending while fire bending, of course," declared Toph and started to force a path into existence up the hill, the fire
crackling in her hand as she wound the path back and forth up the slope, creating a slow and easy route. It wasn't as if they were in a hurry, after
all.

As a result of the slow and sometimes circuitous route that the two took, the sun was low in the sky by the time that they came around a low
hillock between them and the twin peaks and found that most of the sun warriors had beaten them there.

"Finally," muttered Ham Ghao, probably louder than he intended, from behind the Chief. Now unmasked by the terrain, Mai could see a
high bridge connecting the two peaks to a broad pillar. A broad, steep stair of stone descended from the top of the pillar to an elaborately paved court where
the sun warriors were standing. The sun was just descending behind the bridge, casting long shadows towards them.

"Facing the judgement of the fire bending masters will be dangerous for you," the Chief warned Mai. "It is very rare for
anyone not a fire bender to come this far. Also, the decline of the dragons is the work of the Fire Nation, and anyone can see that you are of their
ancestry." He turned towards Toph. "That your predecessors did not protect the dragons may also displease them."

Toph shrugged. "I met a dragon in the spirit world," she told him. "He gave me a headache."

The Chief seemed unsure what to say about that. Instead he raised his ceremonial spear (which was capped by an ornamental golden flame motif
that would probably be of little use doing anything more that herding leopard goats... baby leopard goats at that) and brought the butt down sharpy, jamming it
into a small hole in the paving. Reaching out he took part of the flame from Toph and used his own chi to strength it before dividing it in two. Ham Ghao and
the other sun warrior flanking the chief reached out and took the flames from his outstretched hands.

Around the paving, the sun warriors spread out into a circle, passing the fire one to another. Alternate members of the tribe retained enough
to spark fiery circles that they held in front of them, while those between them knelt and began to beat upon drums, sending up a simple but evocative beat as
the three sun warriors before Mai and Toph led them to the bottom of the stair.

"Are you afraid, little one?" Ham Ghao asked under his breath as Toph walked past him. Mai winced internally at the thought of Toph
breaking up such a clearly important ceremony to take sudden revenge for the insulting query, but instead of breaking into a destructive earth bending move,
the younger girl seemed to ignore him completely and started to walking up the stairs beside her sister. After months of travel, the taller Mai didn't have
to think about adjusting her pace to Toph's shorter legs.

"That was very mature of you," she said quietly once they were above easy earshot of the sun warriors.

Toph smiled broadly. "Earth benders know all about waiting for the right moment," she said just as quietly. "And that
wasn't the right moment." Unspoken: that moment would come and be damned to any threat at the top of the steps.

Someone less disciplined than Mai would have grinned. This was getting interesting.

As the two stepped from the stair onto the top of the pillar, the drums stopped suddenly. The platform that the pillar created was somewhat
wider than the bridge extending in either direction. Speaking through a huge curved horn - the size of a sungi horn, Mai thought - a booming voice from the
circle of sun warriors announced: "Those who wish to meet the Masters Ran and Shao shall now present their fire."

Toph touched the flames she carried to the cloak she was wearing and the front of the material lit immediately. Mai's eyes went wide and
she snatched the garment off Toph's shoulders, almost tearing it as she yanked it out of the young Avatar's belt.

"I was going to give you it anyway," Toph told her drily and turned to her left, facing along the bridge and holding out what
remained of the fire, drawing upon her chi to restore it to its previous size. She could feel a cave at each end. Presumably the Masters would emerge from the
openings. Mai sighed heavily and held out the bundled garment, fire rising from it, in the opposite direction.

"Sound the call!" roared the chief, clearly audible even without a speaking horn.

Some short distance from the court, a lone sun warrior placed his mouth to a twisted horn, so long that it had to be rested upon the floor,
and sounded it, a deep sound that shook stones from the surfaces of the two peaks either side of the bridge.

"I felt that," Toph growled. Then her eyes went wide. "Oma..." she whispered as she felt something truly massive moving
beneath the two peaks.

"Do I want to know?"

"Whether you want to or not, you're about to find out," Toph told her.

Toph couldn't see the yellow eyes gleamed in warning before one of the Masters emerged but she could easily hear the hissing snarl as a
gigantic red dragon shot out of the cave in front of her, only bending off at the last minute to start circling about the two girls. The dragon was so huge
that even circling so widely that it almost brushed both peaks, it was quite literally chasing its own tail.

There was a second rush of air as another dragon, this one blue, emerged from the other peak and began circling.

"Oh. Dragons."

Toph was momentarily more impressed with her big sister's sang froid than she was by the dragons.
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

"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.

Oh my. Things are about to become very, very complicated, aren't they?

What followed couldn't be called an awkward silence, given Tom-Tom's cries and his mother's grateful sobbing, but the servants looked unsure of what to do and Toph didn't want to say anything in case she got targeted for a similar hug to the one that Mai was enduring. The impasse was broken when two guards looked cautiously into the room.

"My lady," the older in appearance of the two guards spoke. "There is some great beast within the old stable yard. The servants are afraid to enter the area."

"Just leave him alone and he won't disturb anyone," Toph told the man. "On second thoughts, put a guard there to prevent any children from wandering in. I don't think he eats meat, but he might stand on someone by mistake."

Lady Seung drew back in slight concern as the younger guard left, obedient to his superior's nod. "You brought a monster here?"

"He isn't a monster, mother," Mai explained somewhat wearily, even though she'd barely said anything to the woman yet. "He's just... rather large and inconsiderate."

"You almost sound fond of him, Spiky."

"He's the most dangerous animal I've ever seen, little sister - which is quite impressive. Of course I like him." Mai tried to subtly break her mother's grip, with no success.

"D-dangerous animals?" Seung asked tremulously tremulously. "Oh Mai! What have you been doing? And how could you worry us so? We all thought..." She sobbed slightly and drew Mai closer with one arm before letting go with the other to try to pull Toph into her embrace. "Thought you had both been killed."

Toph backed up. "No hugging," she warned.

Seung gave her a motherly look. "It's alright Toph. I know you must have had a frightening time but you're safe now. Your parents will be so proud of you. They were beside themselves with grief when they came to Omashu."

The girl's lips parted but no noise came out at first, her distraction testified to by the fact that she was firmly entrapped in the hug before she could gather her wits. "They went to Omashu?" she gasped out as Mai's mother squeezed her.

"Of course," Mai's mother confirmed. "Your father wanted to know everything about your time living with us. He couldn't believe at first that you had been - are - a fire bender. The two of you must be very close. He'll probably come all the way here when I tell him you're alive."

Toph's eyes went wide in absolute terror and Mai quickly locked her own free arm around the younger girl and lifted her off the ground before she could start earth bending. "Let's all sit down," she suggested firmly and pulled deliberately back from her mother, forcing Toph to take a seat next to her. "We can have tea and you can tell me all about what you've been doing since I last saw you."

"What a wonderful idea," Seung agreed decorously and beckoned imperiously for the servant to hand over Tom-Tom. She seated him in her lap as she settled onto the opposite couch, cooing over her 'brave little soldier boy' until he stopped crying. "After you..." she paused and dabbed gently at her eyes with a handkerchief, "...after you vanished, your father decided that Tom-Tom and I should live somewhere safer than Omashu."

"And you came here, rather than the capital?"

Seung lowered her face. "I persuaded your father than Ember Island would be safer. Prince Zuko's disappearance left our family open to criticism within the court." She sighed. "I only returned to visit the capital a few days ago, for the royal wedding."

Mai raised her eyebrows. "The royal wedding? Don't tell me that Azula found a man who could put up with her?"

"Not Princess Azula, dear. Prince Lu Ten and your old friend Ty Lee. She was such an adorable bride and he looked so handsome." Seung sighed. "Just think, if Prince Zuko hadn't vanished, you could also be joining the royal family."

"I didn't feel that way about Zuko," Mai said straightfacedly. She wasn't even lying any more. "Is he dead do you think or just missing?"

Seung shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry Mai, I know that you're very fond of him but as he hasn't reappeared by now the consensus is that he's dead. It's only to spare Lady Ursa's feelings that no funeral has been held yet. The poor woman is a wreck, only Princess Azula was able to bring her out of her shell when she returned home for the wedding. Goodness knows how she's doing now that Azula has come here."

Mai's heart almost stopped beating. "Azula's here?"

"Why yes, dear. She was travelling with the happy couple when they set out on the honeymoon so she'll have been here for a few days now. The Fire Lord sent her here to rest after having to spend so long in Ba Sing Se, she must be exhausted." Mai's mother brightened. "We can invite them all to a dinner! Your friends will be so glad to find that you're alive, and its years since you've seen Prince Lu Ten. We can write the invitations as soon as I've written to your father and to Toph's parents." She turned to Toph. "You'll adore Azula, everyone does."

Toph lowered her face demurely. "I'm sure that the Princess and I could be great friends." Butter would not have melted in her mouth. "But would it not be insensitive to celebrate our return when her own brother remains missing?"

Oh, that was a good try, Mai noted. Although knowing her mother...

With a wave of her hand, Seung dismissed the objection. "Nonsense, Toph. Good news like this will surely lift her mood. Now, you'll have to tell me where you've been and what possessed you to let your hair down like that. It's a terribly daring style."

She didn't ask why we left, Mai noted in surprise. Why not? "It makes us less likely to be identified," she said. "What Toph is trying to avoid discussing is that we are facing a political problem."

Seung paled. "Oh Mai, I thought I taught you better than that. Politics is for men, dear. We shouldn't get involved in that sort of thing."

"We haven't been given the choice in that," said Mai bluntly. "If we're found, we will be killed. If it is learned that you know that we are alive then you -" she looked at the servants and the remaining guard "- all of you will probably be killed. Including Tom-Tom."

Her mother gasped and drew the little boy closer. "Mai!"

"So you see, it would be best not to invite old friends - old friends who are highly connected and would draw all sorts of attention."

"But surely they would help you," offered Seung hopefully. "You know Princess Azula has her father's ear and the Prince Admiral is also highly influential. Whoever your enemies are..."

Mai thought quickly. "I don't think that you understand how highly placed these enemies are, mother. The entire incident at Omashu was a trap for Prince Zuko, arranged by elements inside the Fire Nation who wanted to remove him from the succession," she lied. "There are two obvious people who could benefit from that, and whichever of them it is, they must be aware that the Fire Lord would never tolerate that level of infighting within the royal family." Another lie, this one so ridiculous that only someone so determinedly averse to politics as her mother would believe the facade of unity within the royal family that Ozai went to pains to present.

"You -" Seung almost squeaked. "You can't possibly be saying that Princess Azula or Prince Lu Ten would conspire to murder Prince Zuko?"

"What's not to believe?" Toph asked bluntly. "When Sozin's Comet comes back, the Fire Nation will win the war. Whoever rules the Fire Nation at that point will be the most powerful person alive. In political terms, that's about the highest prize that exists. You think people wouldn't fight for it?"

Seung sighed and looked away, wrapping her hands around her son's small fingers. "That's not something that's ever spoken of," she said after a moment and then turned to the servants, both pale-faced, and the guard, who was staring into the middle distance, apparently pretending that he had heard none of the conversation. "It is not something that has been spoken of today," she told them in a commanding tone that Mai had virtually never heard her use. "Because my daughter... my daughters are not here and this conversation did not happen. Please ensure that my son and I are not disturbed in this wing."

The functionaries mumbled understanding and retreated gratefully from the room, leaving near silence that Tom-Tom filled with cooing towards his sister.

"He missed you," Seung said sadly. "So did I. And we're going to miss you again, aren't we. Since you aren't staying?"

"We'll be quiet about leaving," Mai said, somewhat caustically. She wasn't quite as surprised by the flood of tears this time.

.oOo.

"What do you think of this?" Ty Lee asked, picking up an ornamental tea pot from a market stall and showing it to her husband. It was bronze and heavier than it looked, but the extensive ornamentation suggested that it wasn't intended for its ostensible purpose anyway.

Lu Ten ran one callused hand across the ornamentation. "It's excellent workmanship," he approved, "And from what you have said, Lady Seung would be pleased with it. But you said that she has a young son?"

"Yes, he must be two years old by now. I bet he's adorable," confirmed Ty Lee.

"No doubt. But the ornamentation on this is sharp edged," the prince warned. "If he got his hands on this, he might hurt himself." Lu Ten replaced the tea pot on the stall and lifted another, this one with less prominent ornamentation and some brass fittings. "How about this one?"

His bride clapped her hands together. "It's perfect!" Then her eyes narrowed. "But we should get a present for the little boy as well! How could I have forgotten? What do little boys like?"

Lu Ten grinned and swept her up in a hug. "Much the same as larger boys," he told her giving her a discreet squeeze.

She squealed but did not resist instead teasing her husband. "Well perhaps I should let him have a play then."

"Ah no," he said hastily. "I'm going to have to exert my jealous husband privileges. Perhaps give him a stuffed toy - a rabbit monkey or the like perhaps."

"That would be so adorable!"

Yes, Lu Ten noted to himself, he was a tactical genius. Ty Lee would buy a cute stuffed rabbit monkey - perhaps two, one for herself and one for her dead friend's baby brother - and then the shopping would be over and they could go back to the mansion to freshen up before visiting Lady Seung. And before they freshened up, they might get a little sweatier. I love this girl, he admitted. She makes me feel sixteen again.

They were examining a stall of stuffed rabbit monkeys and Ty Lee was apparently intent on testing each and every one of them for cuddliness when a shadow passed across her eyes. If Lu Ten hadn't been studying her face affectionately then he would have missed it, but he was and he had to force down instinctive reaction to what it meant.

Danger.

Instead of sweeping her up and throwing her to safety behind the stall before turning to confront whatever threat was behind his back, the Prince Admiral took a measured step forwards and rested one hand upon his wife's shoulder. With his other hand he scooped up the stuffed toy that to his eye had received the most positive response from Ty Lee. "I think this one is the best," he suggested firmly and then lowered his lips to her ear, whispering: "What's the matter?" so softly that even the shopkeeper wouldn't be able to overhear.

The girl clutched the toy with ostensible agreement and reached for her coin bag, her face innocent of anything but pleasure at her husband's attention. "The man with a tattoo on his forehead," she whispered.

Lu Ten’s lowered face would make it hard for anyone to see that his eyes flicked around to check the area in front of him. No such tattoos were in evidence, so whoever the man was, he was behind the prince. Between them and the royal holiday home.

"He’s an assassin," Ty Lee whispered, very careful not to let the shopkeeper hear her.

Lu Ten stepped back from her and half turned, apparently casually looking around. "We should clean up before dinner," he suggested. There – a bald, broad-shouldered man with a stylized eye marked above his nose. For a moment the young Admiral wished that his training had entailed avoiding assassins, it would make it easier to keep Ty Lee safe. But his uncle’s teachings were straightforward: the best way to handle an assassin was to eliminate him, ensuring that others would fear to attack you.

Ty Lee nodded enthusiastically and rubbed her face against the toy rabbit monkey before tucking it into her satchel and seizing Lu Ten’s elbow. Her face betrayed no trace of fear and he reflected for a moment on his good fortune. But that was a distraction and he set that thought aside as they wove through the crowded street towards their temporary home and the man in their path.

He watched the assassin only out of the corner of his eye. Timing would be everything here. Giving the man advance warning would almost certainly lead to his death.

The two were still outside optimal range for a sudden firebending strike when Lu Ten saw the assassin's real eyes lock onto his. Damn. He knows that I know he's...

There was a crack like thunder as ki ripped across the street towards the Prince Admiral.

.oOo.

To Azula's annoyance the crowd responded to the sudden display of firebending, albeit the unusual form used by this assassin, by feeling like panicked sheep. For once the concern was less national pride (the Fire Nation were a nation of warriors, by Agni!) and more to do with the fact that she was jostled and her view of her cousin blocked at the critical moment.

By the time that she had managed to discreetly convince the fleeing shoppers that she should not be jostled - and three of them were limping as reminders to be more courteous to incognito princesses in the future - Lu Ten lay on the floor, Ty Lee apparently pinned to the ground by her husband's body across her legs. It was ridiculous to think that someone as agile would have been caught like that unless she had deliberately been tangling her feet with Lu Ten's, which meant...

Either Lu Ten had avoided the attack and Ty Lee had loyally tripped him to leave Azula's rival open to a second attack or Ty Lee had pre-emptively tripped Lu Ten to move him out of the path of the attack. Either way, Lu Ten was not dead yet. Azula's lips curled. Was she going to have to take care of this personally? No, wait, the assassin was moving in for a certain kill.

Of course, by doing so, the man was abandoning his advantage of greater range and the instant that he was inside Lu Ten's range Azula's cousin sprang to his feet, his dynamism such that Azula could almost feel his ki. He was impressive, she admitted. If he hadn't been close kin, hadn't been as ambitious as she... The smirk on her lips could have been for the irony of the thought or more probably at the startled expression that crossed his face as flames failed to rush at the assassin, or to manifest at all. It would seem that Ty Lee had come through after all.

Turning away, the princess ran for the nearest side street. It simply wouldn't do to be spotted on the scene of her cousin's oh-so-tragic demise. While dramatically appearing to strike down the assassin would clean up several loose ends, it would also arouse suspicion. No, better to tidy matters up out of sight and to leave no sign that she was ever anywhere near the scene of the crime.

She was at the corner before she registered that there had not been the sizzling report of the killing attack upon her defenseless cousin. Half-turning she saw Lu Ten slam a kick into the assassin, the larger man blocking with his forearms and then striking down at the shorter prince with one metal-clad fist. What was that idiot doing!? Why wasn't he... Why was it suddenly so dark? Worse than having a cloud pass in front of the sun.

Glancing skyward, Azula saw a dark disc across the face of the sun.

When she looked down again, mind furiously calculating the consequences and likely outcome, she was looking straight into Ty Lee's eyes.
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

Oh boy. Oh boyohboyohboy...

Nice to see more of this.
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin