Avatar d20: Opposing the Fire Nation

[Techwarrior]

Village of Yakone, Near the Edge of the Northern Water Tribe

The village of Yakone is the last stop on the old trade route from the Northern Water Tribe to the Earth Nation, and is where a small contingent of military has been sent to reinforce the Earth Nation's army. Asha and Kaya, for reasons of their own, have joined with this brigade instead of staying with the main army. Currently, the Fire Nation is attempting to crack the walls to the capital.

Today, Asha and Kaya have been called to the tent of the commander of the unit. This man is not a bender, nor are more than a handful of the soldiers, but he has great experience leading troops and in combat. The camp is tense today, much moreso than usual.

It is early in the morning, and a messenger has just delivered this news to you both. He stands nervously, waiting for your response.

[Glarx]

Kaya finished washing herself and cleaning out her hair, "wringing" the water of contaminants and putting it back in the fifth waterskin. She got dressed and looked over the notice. "You hear about this, Asha? First we start with Ba Sing Se under attack by the Fire Nation, and now we're off to see the leader of this little military delegation. What a world we live in, hmm?" She pulled the water from around her hair, drying it out. Wet hair was such a hassle.

"So the question is, do we acquiesce to his request, or tell him to shove it?" She skipped over to the other side of the tent, taking a piece of fruit and nomming on it. They were rarities, fruit. Without the land or sun or fresh water to grow crops, the Northern Water Tribe had survived on a meat-heavy diet as well as various sea-bound plants. Lacking the need for insects to be attracted between the plants, the taste was completely different. No rich flesh, no delicious colors. No. But these apples...

Kaya happily consumed the fruit, waiting for her friend to chime in. Asha was going to go where she went, regardless of her feelings on the matter -- Kaya's or Asha's. It was just their bond. Where there was one, there was the other. And with Asha's skills, there were few boundaries that anyone could erect to prevent her from getting to Kaya if Asha really wanted to. She was something of a bending prodigy, in addition to being what could be the last airbender. Not a fact she liked to flaunt about, certainly, but still -- a skill of considerable power.

She was also a talented martial artist, and was more than capable of killing people without the use of supernatural 'bending.' Kaya couldn't imagine not having her friend around. So she slid a layer of water in between the apple to separate bitten from unbitten, and offered the crisp fruit-half to Kaya.

[Jimmy_Whisper]

"Of course I heard, Princess," Asha said, flowing into the next fan-strike against the block of ice serving as her training dummy, both woman and object beginning to perspire in the halo of warmth emitted by their tent's little firepit. "I'm disinterested, not deaf!" The last word came out in part of her kiai, taking the corner she had been railing against off of the block.

As the chunk fell quietly to the ground, making a whumpf on the waterproof fur beneath their feet, Asha snapped the fans shut and tucked them into the front of her belt. She plucked the ice from the floor, rubbing it across her forehead and wrists to cool off before placing it atop the brick.

Folding her legs together, Asha sat beside their fire, taking the offered apple-half with a short nod of gratitude. "Both options, are excellent, Princess, but we should weigh the consequences." She rolled the apple between her hands, and ran it down the barely-exposed blade of one of her fans to split it in two. "If we go, we exercise respect for his authority as attaches of his brigade, but perhaps imply deference to him. Refuse, and we retain personal authority as a royal entourage, but at the risk of insulting him and undermining his authority."

She nipped the end off of one chunk of apple, chewed it exactly thirty-three times --paying no mind to the flavor, although it was infinitely preferable to her diet of sea prunes, ocean kumquat, and seaweed rolls-- and swallowed. "There is a chance, though, that what he has to say will end in our being dispatched to deal with occupation forces, or scouts, and not going means we continue to follow the leader, packing and unpacking, over and over and over until we get to Ba Sing Se." She looked at the messenger with hooded lids, radiating general discontentment, and then stared down into the fire.

Eyes widening, putting off intensity and instability more than anything, she hissed "And if I have to wait that long to butterfly some Fire Nation baby-killer's rib cage to find out, once and for all, if they have beating human hearts inside..." The airbender's teeth began to grind involuntarily, but she reined herself in with a long breath.

"We should do the fun one!" She said colorfully, looking up at Kaya with the same sparkle in her eye and small smile that always accompanied watching the Princess work. There was something about her assertion... Asha needed to witness it, and know she was the only citizen of the Northern Water Tribe that the rightful heir had no need to exercise the authority she was born to against. Asha followed Kaya's true and goodly path, for the good of the future: All others would be brought into line, in time.

[Glarx]

"You're always such a breath of fresh air, Asha! Yes, okay. The fun one it is." She moved over to get dressed in her armor, attaching a fresh waterskin to her belt and making sure her penguin-dog was fed. With that, Kaya started to move towards the Earth Commander's tent.

Airbenders were dangerous. Air was in the lungs, in the sinus cavities. All it would take is one bad mood and an airbender could easily expand all that trapped air. The results would be quite explosive. Or the opposite -- rapid compression. Kaya had experimented with water, of which humans were mostly comprised, but she didn't have nearly enough technical mastery to pull it off. She was a leader, a princess, not a bending prodigy. The aura of serene command she produced steadied the mind and quelled fears, allowing benders to be more prodigious, but Kaya knew Asha was the better bender between them. And she often shared a tent with the airbender. Having Asha angry, no matter how loyal she was, was a losing proposition.

So she followed the sage advice of the airbender, and with her dog and her friend, Kaya made her way to the commander's tent.

[Jimmy_Whisper]

Asha pulled on the thin, rawhide jacket that she usually wore under the thicker fur coats common to the north. She followed Kaya, always staying two steps behind the princess, and one step to her right. On a good day, the last airbender could keep up with a healthy ostrich-horse for a little while, and outpace the Water Tribe's fastest scouts jogging, but her place was right there: The princess's shoulder.

The position held a number of benefits: A clear line-of-sight to whatever was in front of them; a tactically smart position for intercepting surprise attacks from behind and against the waterbender's strong arm, with frontal and left-side defense a quick step away; knowledge of Kaya's well-being afforded by being able to see her; no chance of being mistaken as the face of the pair; and, of course, a nice view.

"I've always wanted to see Ba Sing Se." Asha murmured, doing little more than voice her thoughts on the short trek to the command tent.

[Techwarrior]

The Captain's tent was flanked by two guards, each carrying a spear and several javelins. They crossed spears for a moment as you began to close. As you approached close enough to recognize in the half light of daybreak, they retracted their spears and inclined their heads in deference.

"The Captain will see you now."

And thus, the two benders entered the Captain's tent. There was a disarray of maps, scrolls, inkwells, and other assorted writing materials on a small table in the center of the tent. The Captain, wearing reinforced leather under his uniform, nods to you both upon entering his tent.

"I have a request of the two of you; our original plan to head straight for Ba Sing Se is no longer viable. I received an encrypted message from the Chieftain that a group of Fire Nation longboats dodged the front line of ship battle and is expected to be here at noon. This brigade has been given orders to evacuate the civilians and hold this port for the Tribe. We are going to need to split the troops, because we can't assume they won't attack the civilians while they escape. They are confirmed to have at least three benders on board. I'd like the two of you to help us defend against this attack, or at least lead a smaller force to the caves north of here. We have to hold this port though, else our ships will have no way of resupplying and they'll be dead in the water."

[Glarx]

An interesting proposition. If there were going to be benders, it would probably be in Kaya and Asha's best interest to be there. Kaya didn't feel like a bending prodigy, but she certainly knew that the will to do what was necessary, mixed with her leadership skills and Asha's near-assassin level of physical mastery, would be a boon to the cause. And making sure the Northern Water Tribe didn't lose one of their trading ports would be relatively vital.

"What do you think, Asha?" She looked over her shoulder at the airbender, an eyebrow raised. "I think it'd be fun to help them out."

[Jimmy_Whisper]

"Every Fire Nation soldier who dares set foot on our soil will have that foot relocated to his throat, Commander." Asha says, quick as a whip. "And it's going to be fun." Turning to Kaya, her face splits with a slasher smile. "Princess, what could be more fun than testing ourselves against firebenders? I can't think of much."

Sorry for the short post and the long wait! I've been very busy, but now I should be back to normal speed.

[Techwarrior]

"Well, in that case, we'll need to make all the preparations we can. What can your bending skills do to help prepare. We'll probably have only a small amount of time to fortify, and any bending you can do to help would be greatly appreciated."