Avatar: The Birth of a New World

"Yeah," Toph said as she stomped a foot onto the ground, causing the earth to shake slightly. "We're not letting you take her." Who was this man? And who was Mai? She hadn't been a slave, had she? But that thought simply strengthened Toph's resolve. She would not let a fellow runaway down.

"I do not know how things are done in the Fire Nation, but in the Earth Kingdom, we don't just let old men abduct young girls," Longshot to the man sternly. He aimed at his chest. He didn't want to kill him, but he would if he must.

Haru

"Fine. How does this sound, then?" Haru asked, and named a decent high price of gold for her service.

Umiel, Mai

Umiel gave a big, boisterous this time. "You children are quite amusing. You're willing to die for Mai, eh? Now that is rich. You'd die for this girl, who has the blood of hundreds stained on her hands? Heh. Well, I can't fault you all for your bravery. Nonetheless, Mai will be coming with me."

Umiel was about to drop into a fighting stance, when he cocked his head, as if listening to an unheard voice. The old man then chuckled, and bowed in submission.

"Very well. The Oracle has a point, Darling Mai. All roads lead back to the Fire Nation. Especially if your friend, the Avatar, wishes to master Firebending at some point. Why force you to come back when it is all but inevitable you'll do it voluntarily, one day? So enjoy your 'freedom' while it lasts, Mai. Because sooner or later, you will be mine again."

Before any of them could respond to Umiel's declarations, the old man used his bending to project a sphere of fire around him. When it dispersed, he was gone.

((Hey, if Jeong Jeong can do it, I imagine others can.))

June didn't even look at Haru, but her scoff was clear enough to indicate that his offer was a joke, "Are you kidding me?" she asked, taking a sip. Shrugging, "Alright, I'll take the job. Just give me something from them, and I'll hunt them down in no time." she said simply, slamming her empty glass down on the table.

"He... gone," Toph said. She concentrated hard, expanding her area of sight, but still there was no sign of him. He had been so quick, too quick for her to do anything, too quick to give her companions warning. He was just... gone.

But what had he said, about Mai? Her head turned towards the girl, though she was still scanning the area for the old man. This scared girl had killed hundreds?

---

Meng was a little put out, by June's acceptance of the offer, but she tried hard to hide it by offering the woman a smile. There wasn't supposed to be anyone else. Just her and Haru. Well, Aunt Wu was there, of course, but it wasn't like Aunt Wu was a threat at all.

"Welcome, June," Aunt Wu said, giving the young woman a polite nod.

June, shrugged off the old woman's politeness, "Look, I'm not interested in being pals, and acquaintances is out of the question. You don't know me, I don't know you; leave it. This is just business." she said, easing back into the chair.

Looking over at Haru, she sneered, "I'll be taking the gold up front, thanks."

Longshot's eyes widened. He had seen earthbenders disappear in the ground, but he had never heard of firebenders going out in a swirl of flames, but then, there weren't many firebenders in the Earth Kingdom.

He looked over at Mai. She killed hundreds? She certainly didn't hesitate to kill when her life was in danger, but she didn't seem like one to kill without reason.

"He'll make trouble for us in the future," he predicted with a frown.

Mai

"...." Mai did respond to Longshot, as she stared over at the space where Umiel was just a short time ago. Finally, the young woman sighed.

"It's best if we leave now, I think. We've got enough supplies to last us a few days, and no doubt Nanuk is getting restless waiting on us."

Haru

Haru looked around the current establishment they were in, giving all the lowlifes in it a glance before looking back at June.

"Perhaps I could pay you elsewhere? I think that if I gave you the gold here, they'd likely pounce on you to get it."

Katara breathed a sigh of relief when the man left, but a question sprang to her mind. "How did he know who I am," she asked. She couldn't be the only waterbender in the Earth Kingdom, was she somehow giving it away?

(Alright, I'm going to guess. I'll edit if this is wrong.)

"Many of the waterbenders I've ran into are bloodbenders. Your tribe doesn't often travel to the Earth Kingdom, does it?" Longshot asked thoughtfully.

June threw back her head and laughed, "Oh, you're right; these lowlifes would try something like that...but they'd think twice with me here." she said, a moment later she added, "But whatever, you're paying, so where to?"

Mai

"It was probably something like that," Mai added, nodding slightly at Longshot's theory. "Now can we leave, please? I'm anxious to get out of this place."

Haru

"The outskirts of town would be best. Then we can travel to my estate, and gather up my able men and get ready to leave to find the Avatar." Haru replied.

That's still rather presumptuous, I don't think that's the whole case. It's not like my people never travel beyond our borders, he couldn't just have deduced it, Katara thought in her head, but there was little point in arguing it now. "All right, let's get Nanuk and then head to the next town."

"Agreed. I am sorry if I seemed a bit impudent with my question. It is just a theory. I do not know how else the man could figure out your identity," Longshot apologized, heading outside.

Toph reached out a hand for Longshot, and grasped onto his arm as she followed him out. She didn't add anything to the conversation, but instead mulled things over in her head.

This guy sounded like a dangerous enemy, but he also sounded as if he was content to wait for the time. As for how he knew Katara was the Avatar... That still troubled her. She couldn't see with her eyes, true, but she could sense things better, see more clearly the way a person held themselves, sense when somebody spoke an untruth. But there was nothing to tell her that Katara was, indeed, the Avatar.

---

Meng's spirits sank even lower. More people were going to travel with them? She already had a hard enough time getting together with Haru as it was...

"Let us be going, then," Aunt Wu said as she climbed to her feet. "The longer it takes us to be on our way, the further away the Avatar can slip."

General Narrative

It did not take the gang long to leave the town, and regroup with Nanuk. The giant Wolf eagerly greeted them, especially Katara, and soon enough they all clamored onto the beast's back and set out to journey to the next town. After half an hour Katara decided to let Nanuk rest for a time, and made temporary camp with her friends in the ever-spawning wilderness.

"So," Mai began, after a moment of awkward silence between the group as they finished eating a quick lunch. "I imagine you're all wondering about what exactly Umiel was talking about, yes?"

"You could say that," Katara replied. She was sitting against Nanuk, patting him while he nibbled his dinner. "Who was he, and what did he want with you?"

"We all have our secrets, but it looks like yours is pursuing you," Longshot admitted reasonably. He didn't mean to pry as he had his own past to put behind him, but this man seemed like he could give them trouble.

"Whatever it is, we won't abandon you," he promised. He wasn't sure what made him make this promise, but it seemed like the right thing to do.

(I live!)

Toph nodded from where she sat beside Longshot. Her legs were criss-crossed, and she was stretching out each of her toes with her hands, relieving them of any tension from the day. When it was through her feet that she 'saw' most of the time, it was wise to take care of them.

But the task didn't require any concentration, and so she turned her slightest eyes to Mai. People seemed to like it better when she was looking in their general direction.

"Longshot's right," she said (he was nearly always right). "We won't abandon you."

((For those who care, I edited the opening post of the RP slightly, so it had a timeline that made a bit more sense.))

Mai

Mai managed to give a small smile and nodded at them all. "Thank you. I appreciate it. Well....it's a long story, I guess. And....not a happy one either."

Mai took a deep breath, and let it out. She grabbed a knife out of one of her pouches, and casually twirled it, staring at the gray steel as she spoke again.

"I mentioned I'm from the Fire Nation before, yes? I don't know if you guys know anything about it, but in a way it's similar to the Earth Kingdom....yet different. To make a long story short, things went to hell for the Fire Nation two-hundred and twelve years ago, when the Comet struck our world. Of course, everything went to hell then, but this event affected our nation the most. Well, mostly. One could make the argument that the Air Nomads suffered more. Regardless....where was I?

"Yes, the Fire Nation. The central government of the Fire Nation collapsed a hundred and twelve years ago after the deaths of Avatar Roku and Fire Lord Sozin. Shortly thereafter the Fire Nation descended into Warlordism, as many prominent individuals of the day seized territory and began to battle each other for the right to reign. There have been brief periods of reunion amongst our people, as a lucky few Warlords managed to conquer all of the Fire Nation. But their reigns lasted no more than twenty years before things descended again. As of right now, the Fire Nation is still controlled by power-hungry Warlords. And I....used to work for one of them."

Mai paused in her tale, the knife falling still in her hands as she glanced over at her newfound friends, wondering what they might think of that.

"Umiel was right. I've killed hundreds of people, all under the orders of Warlord Iroh. When I was six, I was taken with nineteen other girls to train in a 'Royal Fire Academy For Girls'. Though it wasn't so much of an academy, as a....indoctrination center. Instead of learning math, or science, or history, they trained us girls to be killers. Cold, hardened killers. We were allowed to specialize in one of four weapons: dagger, sword, arrow, or fist. Once our training was complete, we were to be the elite of Warlord Iroh's soldiers. We were to be a....surgical strikeforce, used to utterly annihilate the enemy in any given situation."

Mai closed her eyes, clutching her knife in the palm of her hand. She didn't noticed when a trickle of blood seeped through her clenched hand.

"Let me tell you, learning how to kill a man when you're six years old, and actually doing it when you're eight....slicing through a person's jugular for the first time, and watching the life flow out of them as they gurgle on their own blood....It wasn't a happy childhood."

Toph didn't say anything as Mai's story came to a close. Her sightless eyes had moved from Mai to just below the young woman, and her hands rested at her side, having fallen there during the course of the story.

This girl before her had blood on her hands--well, literally, yes, but also figuratively. But Mai would not be able to tell this tale in the way that she had if she had not forsaken such a life, right? There was no advantage in explaining such a past.

Toph pushed herself to her feet and walked the few steps to Mai. She then placed her hand over Mai's, gently pressuring for the girl to open her hand up. "You're bleeding," she said.

She had killed before. That explained her ease with killing in the battle beforehand. She didn't have any choice, though. It was that Warlord's fault. Longshot could empathize. He took out a few bandages and began to dress her wound.

"You'll need to be careful with that hand," he told her.

Mai

"So I am," Mai noted in a disinterested tone as Longshot bandaged her cut palm. She gave a brief nod of thanks, before settling her gaze back at her knife, which she had since switched to her uninjured hand. After a moment, she decided to stow it away, and hid it back in her clothes.

"As you can tell, I no longer live that life I described." Mai began again. "Five months ago, my partner and I....a girl by the name of Ty Lee.....were sent in to break up a secret meeting between dissidents, and....well, my parents there. I hadn't seen them since I was six, but I still recognized them. Their presence there surprised me, and I....I froze. By the time I regained my senses, Ty Lee had killed them all. And so....that started the chain of events leading me to escape, and come to the Earth Kingdom."

General Narrative/Haru

Some time later, Haru and the others had arrived back at the estate. Very quickly, orders were given, and a hunting party was on the way to being set up. June had already been paid her due, and so was forced to wait around while Haru and his men rounded up necessary supplies before they could head out. While this was going on, Aunt Wu and Meng were allowed to pack up their things, since they were to be apart of the journey as well (though Haru had been reluctant to let Meng come). Haru himself was helping them, since he'd already packed what little personal supplies he needed.

"....Is it necessary to take all this, Aunt Wu?" Haru asked, raising an eyebrow as the bag Aunt Wu would use to store her personal items grew larger and larger.

Katara stared at Mai for a long time, running the girl's story through her head. "I'm so sorry," she finally said. What else could she say? This girl had been through trauma she couldn't even begin to imagine. Wasn't it her job to try to stop things like this? And yet she had been stuck in the Southern Water Tribe, ignoring the rest of the world while she trained to be a Waterbending Master.

June frowned, very much bored and disappointed; when she had signed up for the job, figuratively speaking, she was under the impression that she would be doing her job alone, as she always had. Unless she was jumping to conclusions about the situation, she was certain she would have to enlighten the Earth Kingdom boy on the way things worked.

He might like to have hind hands on the situation, but she and Nyla didn't play well with others. As it were, for the time being she was to stand and watch as Haru's cronies packed up their things, and as the old woman stored away a ridiculously large amount of things in her travel bag.