༉˚*ೃ ¹⁵. 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐄!

𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐁𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐘 even light out when Luli awoke with a start. Was something wrong? Why did it feel like something was wrong?

          She sat up in her makeshift bed on the ground, hands planted on either side of her, eyes wide and peering through the dark. They'd set up in the village's barn—Katara was to her left, and Sokka was on her left, and Aang was just past Luli's feet, and Appa's huge form was at the other side of the barn... Except that Aang and Appa weren't there anymore. She searched and searched, but there was no sky bison snores or shadow of huge fluff against the wall, and there was certainly no Avatar in the pile of hay where Aang had slept. The doors to the barn were shut.

         Crap.

          With the Earth Kingdom air warm around them in the confines of the small barn, she shook Katara's shoulder beside her and successfully roused the younger girl after a few rough jolts. Even as Luli's eyes searched the barn a fourth, a fifth time, they caught no sight of Aang, or the giant sky bison they'd arrived on. "Where's Aang?" she asked when Katara opened her eyes and sat up in confusion.

          Somehow, despite it still being mostly dark, Luli's words magicked the Water Tribe girl right awake. Katara's face went alert, back straightening, and her panicked gaze followed Luli's around the building at breakneck speed. "Oh no," the girl said. Luli was already scrambling up to her feet, tugging her shoes onto either foot in a wild and precarious hop. The thumping was enough to stir Momo, curled up at a sleeping Sokka's feet.

          Katara was quick to follow Luli's approach, throwing her Water Tribe pelt off of her and immediately going to stir her brother—who was snoring loudly. She grasped at his arms. "Sokka! Get your big butt up!" While she succeeded in dragging a confused, half-asleep and complaining Sokka up off the floor—with his arm held over her shoulders—, Luli sprinted towards the barn doors and threw them open. The cold air rushed in. Luli, still in the boxy lower-uniform of her regular clothes, shivered as her dark eyes frantically searched the village's dark streets.

          Two pairs of footsteps paused at Luli's side: wide-eyes Katara and tired Sokka. "What's going on?" grumbled Sokka as he was pulled out into the open air, his eyes lidded with sleep.

          "Aang's gone," replied Luli quickly, and then she was running down the porch steps two at a time, dirt crunching beneath her books. "So is Appa."

          It seemed to mostly do the trick at waking Sokka fully up too, his eyes went big and alarmed and he turned his face towards the two girls as he chased after them. "He's going to the Fire Nation without us!"

          "Thanks for catching up, Sokka." His sister was running ahead, and, despite her snide remark, had a worried strain to her voice. The same type of anxiety coursed through Luli's veins. If Aang had gone to the Fire Nation alone, that wouldn't bode well for him. He barely knew anything about the Fire Nation from the last hundred years! If he got captured, or tricked, or hurt... The others would never even be able to find him.

          The three kids rounded the edge of a large building until they spilled out into the village centre. The sound of a sky bison rumbling met Luli's ears—thank the spirits—just as she saw them. One young airbender pulling at his straining animal's reins, trying to get it to fly. For whatever reason, Appa wouldn't leave the ground. "Aang!" shouted Luli, catching the Avatar's attention, who had taken to sitting in the dirt in despair.

          "Please don't go, Aang," Katara pleaded, arms held out in front of her. "The world can't afford to lose you to the Fire Nation." She raised her balled hands close to her face. "Neither can we."

          Aang stood up straight, hopping up from the ground. "But I have to talk to Avatar Roku to find out what my vision means!" He walked towards them while gesturing with his hands. "I have to get to the Fire Temple before the sun sets on the solstice. That's today!" Whipping up a heap of air, Aang leapt up from the dirt and landed atop Appa's head. The young boy took a second to look worriedly back at them as he clutched the reins, and then Appa began to lumber forward.

          Luli was quick to dart in front of the titanic animal, sliding out to block its path. She looked right up at Aang. "We agreed to do this together." Her eyes were big, obsidian in the moonlight, and her soft face was pulled into one of stern desperation. Despite her body standing between Appa and freedom, when Aang pulled on the reins again the bison took another few steps forward. Frowning, Luli outstretched her arms on either side of her, and was joined immediately by Sokka and Katara.

          "We're not letting you go into the Fire Nation alone," Katara added from Luli's left.

          Aang sighed, "I can't let you guys go into the Fire Nation. It's too dangerous."

          "That's exactly why we're coming," asserted Sokka. But the smile on his face was large, and he crossed his arms over his chest. "We're your friends, we've got your back."

          The Avatar didn't exactly look convinced. His brows were furrowed, and his hands were clutching Appa's reins tight between his fingers and palms. Luli took another step forward, so she was inches away from the great sky bison's nose. "Aang, I was born in the Fire Nation. I grew up there. It's a lot more dangerous for you than it is for me." Luli's eyes glanced on either side at the two siblings from the Southern Water Tribe, who were staring at her with big blue gazes and young expressions twisted with determination and concern. "We all come." The idea of flying right back into the Fire Nation was not a comforting one, but with the other three—plus Appa and Momo, of course—, at least she wouldn't be alone.

          "What happens if you guys get hurt?"

          Katara took a few steps forward, "We're all in this together, Aang." She shared a smile with both Luli and Sokka. "If you're going, we're going." Her expression was sweet and comforting, and a little stern, in a way. After a second, Aang smiled too. Somehow always sensing the right moment to intervene, Momo glided up and landed on Aang's shoulder. He got scratches from the young Avatar in return.

          "Okay," agreed Aang, as he rubbed a particularly good spot behind the lemur's ear. "But we have to get there by tonight—the Winter Solstice." That was a short time to make it all the way across the ocean into the Fire Nation, especially considering none of them knew the crescent island's exact location, but it was going to have to do. Luli sighed out in relief as she propped one of her feet up on Appa's side and gripped the edge of the saddle, pulling herself up. She'd gotten good at it now.

          Sokka and Katara had run back to get all their things, and when Sokka passed them up to Luli, she noticed he had an extra one. It was a cloth pack tied with a green ribbon. Her expression itself questioned it as she laid the rest of their bags and items down in the saddle—giving the Water Tribe boy a furrowed-browed look. "I managed to convince those village guys to give us a bunch of supplies for the trip," he filled her in. "I mean, we saved them, the last thing they could do is help us out a little, and, hey, free stuff." He shrugged, chucking the pack casually up to Luli.

          "Sokka!" admonished his sister, glaring at him.

          The young firebender just grinned as she hauled his extra bag of goods onto Appa's back, brow raised casually. "Maybe now we can have an actual meal." Sokka pulled himself up into the saddle as she peeked through the newly acquired possessions. A purse of Earth Kingdom money, which she chucked to the saddle—Sokka stole it when Luli pretended she wasn't looking, but she'd have to steal it back later—, and tons and tons of ingredients. "Yum. Looks like I'll be cooking!" Based on all the nuts and fish they'd been eating over the past few days, she imagined a good meal would go down well with everyone.

          Aang gripped Appa's reins and the sky bison flew up and up off the ground, all the while Luli's hands were shifting through the variety of ingredients. Rice, different dried fruits and meats, soy, flour, cabbage, chili, nori, salt, shiitake, and that was only what Luli could see at the top.

          "I'll be able to make onigiri with all this! Yum, umeboshi!" Luli plucked the small pouch out of dried fruit and hung it dangling from her fingers. The wind around her picked up as Appa soared through the night air. Stars stretched out a ceiling above them. Though the pickled plums were salty and sour on their own, when wrapped in layers of rice and with a touch of seaweed, they made for a delicious meal. "Looks like umeboshi onigiri it is!" Contently, Luli dropped the umeboshi pouch back into the pack and continued to rummage.

          "... What's that?" asked Katara curiously, watching Luli with wide eyes.

          The surprise on Luli's face when she turned to look at the younger girl was clear. "Haven't you all had onigiri before?" It was an extremely common Fire Nation meal: easy to make, relatively cheap, nutritious and incredibly tasty. The art of making onigiri and other rice dishes was passed down through families.

          "I have!" exclaimed Aang excitedly, throwing his hand up in the air like an enthusiastic schoolkid. Much to her horror, Katara and Sokka's faces were totally blank. Confused even.

         "Rice balls and dried seaweed, plus whatever other ingredients you want?" Luli elaborated, hopeful. More and more the horror was surfacing on her face. Never eaten onigiri? Never made it?! It had never too much occurred to Luli that not every child went through the experience of learning how to carefully prepare balls of rice and press them into shapes, tweaking the craft over years until you knew just exactly what fillings and flavours hit the spot just right.

          Clearly, the shock was present on her face, because Katara's expression went pinched and searching. Sokka just shrugged casually, "We don't eat stuff like that in the Southern Water Tribe."

          "What?" It felt like her mind had been blown. Of course, it should have made sense that there was probably nowhere to cultivate rice in the South Pole, and it was not as common to find onigiri around even the Earth Kingdom, but—never even tried it? How is that possible? Luli was quick to throw the ingredients back into the pack and clutch her hands excitedly together. "My onigiri is nowhere near as good as the one I used to have at home, but—never? Oh, you have to try it! I can't believe you've never had it before! Right, that's the first meal I'll make when we get to rest after the solstice!" She had her index finger pointed assuredly in the air, grinning. "I'll teach you all how to make it! Aang, you can learn too!"

          "Sounds fun!" agreed Katara. "Can we teach you how to make more stuff out of that seaweed? You know, Sokka can make a great bowl of seaweed noodles, though he'd never admit it." She poked her brother on the shoulder, who rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

          "Actually, I will admit it, because my seaweed noodles are great, Katara," Sokka returned with a heatless glare, shooting the look towards his sister. She stuck her tongue out at him. "If only you asked me to make them once in a while!"

          "I do ask! But you're Mr. Lazy Bum."

          Luli snorted while the two bickered softly, about who could cook better, and continued looking through the pack of things. They'd been spoiled. "So much umeboshi here—this could last us forever! We'll need more other ingredients, of course, more rice probably, maybe chicken," Luli thought aloud, index finger pressed thoughtfully against her right cheek, eyes turned upwards, "but it will keep things interesting for a while!" Here she was, becoming the adult of the group. She couldn't help it. No more stupid nuts or berries. If they were going to dismantle the Fire Nation's hold on the world, they needed to do it on full stomachs and a balanced meal.

          Her fingers searched deeper in the bag as dawn stretched across the sky. Dawn was always so beautiful. Streaks of fiery red chasing away the dark shadows. Painting into orange and purple and blue. Heavenly crane wings spread wide—the only good type of bird wings.

          "Tea!" exclaimed Luli at her find, an absolute breathless cry of reverence and joy, clutching the several small pouches of different tea leaves and petals and powder against her chest, "oh, Agni, tea!"

          "Tea?" asked Sokka from where he was playing with his small ponytail, eyebrow raised suspiciously. Here it comes, thought Luli, but she was much too happy holding the different pouches and peeking inside. A lot of good types. This could last for weeks. Sokka seemed unimpressed with the whole ordeal. "What's so good about tea? You sound like some old man."

          Luli pouted, "I do not sound like some old man."

          "She's right, you know, Sokka!" chirped Aang with his finger held up. "Tea is an important part of any meal. The monks used to say it helps with meditation, concentration, and spiritual enlightenment!" His peppy attitude was matched with a right grin. If Luli was honest, she drank tea for just the taste alone, but, sure, she could take spiritual enlightenment too.

          "Aang, your wisdom is endless," said Sokka dryly, blinking. Luli stuck out her tongue at the Water Tribe boy as she slipped the tea back into the pouch. The moment she got back down on solid ground she was boiling up something for herself. Maybe jasmine or sencha— no, sakuraya. No, jasmine. Hmmm... She was thinking with her finger pressed to her chin. Then she gave up. Too many choices. Whatever, she'd decide when the time came.

          Unphased by Sokka's comment, the Avatar peered over the lightened horizon. "Come on, boy," urged Aang, patting the sky bison's fluffy head. The sun had risen before they'd even realised it. "We've got a long way to go. Faster!"

          With the bag of food and ingredients safely tied up, Luli dropped them back in the saddle and leant back comfortably. The air was a bit thinner up here. It got stuck in your lungs like it might if you were at the top of a tall mountain. But the sharp coolness of the wind on her face always kept her alert and refreshed. Even as strands of her hair streamed out behind her.

          The Winter Solstice, thought Luli, as she stretched out her legs in the saddle. Cracked her ankles and then her fingers, stretched her arm towards the sky and loosened out her spine. So, it was when the spirit world and the mortal world were most aligned? When the barrier between stretched thin? The land below them had since turned into sea. Appa's reflection—and her own hanging over his side, just a tiny speck—stared back at her from its waves.

          "Did you all celebrate the Winter Solstice in your homes?" asked Luli, still peering over the edge of Appa's saddle. She turned her head back to grin at them. "In the Fire Nation, the festival lasted all day, from dawn till dusk. There were shops and games and competitions, and theatre troupes that would come to act out Agni's retreat from, and then victory against, Tui. It was my favourite event of the year. Even though the Summer Solstice was much bigger." She could see it now. The mamori stalls and toys lining the streets of Caldera City, the steaming hot springs with healing citrus fruits, the never-ending delicious food that Luli used to stuff her face with. Kabocha and itokoni, ren-kon, udon, tangyuan, ginnan, nin-jin, touji-gaya... Luli hadn't celebrated Winter Solstice in years, but even just thinking of the meals now she could feel her mouth water. What she wouldn't do for some nabeyaki udon or spending all her money on an ichiyoraifuku charm from some overpriced capital shop.

          Luli must have forgotten herself for a bit, thinking of how the streets would be lined with banners right now, because then Katara was talking excitedly. The Water Tribe girl's eyes were rounded and blue. "Winter Solstice in the Water Tribe is also my favourite time of year!" exclaimed Katara, putting a hand to her heart with a grin.

          "Mine too," added Sokka, grinning wide with his teeth.

          "There's one part of the festival where the whole village plays a giant game of tug-of-war," breathed Katara excitedly. "Anyone who was born in the summer stands on one side of the rope, and anyone born in the winter holds the other side. If the summer wins then there's expected to be good weather throughout the next winter."

          Sokka, interrupting, pressed a flattering hand against his chest with a grin. "The summer kids always win."

          "No," argued Katara with her arms crossed, making it clear which season the two were born in, "the axigirn are way stronger."

          Sokka spoke with his hands making big movements, "Then there's this big performance where the men fight evil spirits, to which the spirits are then born into a new life and get to answer all kinds of questions about the following year and hunting and fortune and life, and all that." He was grinning, fingers outstretched.

          "But the 'spirits' are really just men layered in clothes to make them look gigantic and scary," Katara elaborated, leaning forward towards Luli in her excitement.

          Sokka flicked his own ponytail casually, "Then there are more games and feasts, and food— so. Much. Food." He was grinning just at the thought. Luli would have to take note of what kind of food they made in the Water Tribe and see if she could whip together something of her own.

          "That sounds so fun!" exclaimed Luli, eyes big. "I'd love to go see it some day."

          Both siblings' faces slipped a little. "It's not really been the same since all the men left, and apparently there used to be waterbending performances," said Sokka.

          "But it's still really fun," Katara added. "If you do come along, I'm sure Gran Gran would be happy telling you everything about the tradition. She loves it." Her eyes sparkled.

          Comfortably, Luli leant back further in the saddle, resting her back up against the tall edge. "I know it's not really in the cards right now, but I'd recommend Winter Solstice in the Fire Nation too. You guys would love the Fire Nation hot springs. Natural hot water pumped up through the earth at just the perfect temperature. And if you found just the perfect spot in the rock, under some trees, and threw in some yuzu... the best." She sighed just imagining it. The fresh steam and hot water.

          Aang had been listening from where he was sat on the sky bison's head, turned towards them with a smile. Now, as he gripped Appa's rein loosely with one hand, he said, "In the Air Temples, the Winter Solstice is important for the monks, too." He smiled. "They say that on eclipses and solstices we become weaker to evil or corrupt forces, because the energy of those planets are blocked. But the effect of spiritual actions on these days are made stronger, so we should participate in lots of spiritual practice. There's a prayer that the monks taught us to say: Everything—appearance and existence, samsara and nirvana, has a single ground, yet two paths and two fruitions, and magically displays as awareness or unawareness. That way, we remember that awareness is our most important element of life, and that all our decisions, relationships, and experience with the world are based on that awareness. It helps us become more alert to our emotions and perception of the world." His hands were folded neatly together in his lap. The smile on his face pressed his round cheeks up.

          "Wow, that sounds amazing, Aang," said Luli earnestly, eyes big and wondrous.

          "We don't really have celebrations though," he explained, rubbing the back of his tattooed head with his hand.

          As Aang spoke, Luli turned to glance back at Sokka and Katara. They were watching and listening to the airbender's words raptly. But Luli's gaze slid past them, and past Momo, who was perched on her pack licking the back of his paw, and was caught by something below. Down towards the shining ocean her eyes cut. Gaze hardened. "They're going to be a problem."

          At her voice, all faces turned to her. Then their eyes followed her gaze behind them, down below, to where balanced on the waves of the roiling ocean and trailing them fast was a black Fire Nation warship. Ashened air was pluming from its smokestack and painting the sky. "Zuko," said Sokka and Katara at the same time.

          The cruiser was cutting through the water at alarming speed. Everything it had put into powering ahead as fast as possible. No voice came from Luli's lips, even as Sokka exclaimed to Aang, "It's gaining on us fast!" Zuko had hunted them all the way out here? Had he been on their trail this whole time—village to village, land to land? Chasing them? Luli's fingers tightened around the rail of the saddle. Was he really that determined?

          As Aang urged Appa on faster with a, "Yip yip!", a great trapdoor on the deck of the warship opened and up rose a mechanical catapult-like machine.

          "Trebuchets!" exclaimed Luli, knowing very well what kind of destruction those weapons could cause. And on a live animal? "They're going to shoot us down!" Did Zuko know she was up here? Surely he wouldn't shoot at her. If they fell from this height and hit the ocean they'd for sure all be dead—unless Aang or Katara caught them in air or water by some miracle. Just as she spoke, Zuko punched his fist forward and lit the projectile on fire. It bloomed up like a lily.

          In a sudden act of desperation, Luli got up. Katara grabbed her calf as Luli stood high and straight in the unstable saddle, air rushing at her form and threatening to knock her over. At the speed Appa was going, the firebender's hair was whipping around her face, loose strands unfurling from the neat braids her friend had woven. She couldn't see Zuko's face from all the way up there—but imagined the way his golden eyes widened and narrowed. I'm here, she thought defiantly. Knock me down. She dared it.

          Then, as a speck on the deck below, she saw Zuko raise his arm. It lowered sharply and someone cut the trebuchet rope.

          Okay, so he really was.

          Luli grimaced as the giant flaming projectile launched in an arc—with dangerous speed—right towards them, her eyes widening. "Fireball!" shouted Katara in warning, gripping at Luli now with both hands. In a brief second of panic, the young firebender breathed out and sent both hands rapidly pushing forward with a burst of flame shooting from her palms. It was an impressive shot. Unfortunately, the quickly closing in fireball didn't seem to think so, since Luli's orange flame just managed to light it more on fire.

          Embers sparked out as it was close enough to feel the heat, Luli shouted an "Ah!" and then Appa was diving to the right in a wild pattern, forcing Luli to fall to her knees and grasp the edge of his saddle so she wouldn't go toppling off his back. The flaming projectile missed and hurled back down towards the sea. Stupid, what had she expected? Fire couldn't destroy fire. Well—... Unless...

          Sokka didn't seem to be a fan of possibly dying a falling death into the water below either, because he shouted to Aang, "Can't you make Appa go any faster?!", as Katara adamantly checked over Luli to make sure she was okay.

          "Yeah," said Aang as he briefly glanced back at the others in the saddle, "but there's just one little problem..." His words made Luli glance up and past him, same with Katara—the Water Tribe girl's hands steady on both of Luli's shoulders. Luli's amber eyes went wide. "A blockade."

          The blockade of Fire Nation ships was, frankly, impressive. Two lanes of ships, one line heading North and the other heading South, stretched out towards either side of the horizon, cutting off the ocean in a sharp black line. Clearly, no one outside of the Fire Nation were permitted within its waters. Each giant warship, easily three-times as large as the one Zuko captained, moved at alarming speed. The smoke from each plumed in heavy black waves up towards the clouds. Each warship was equipped with at least three trebuchets, their copper metal glinting in the sunlight. There had to be hundreds of ships in the vicinity.

          Luli, voice quiet in awe and concern, murmured with a rounded gaze, "There's no way Zuko'll get through that." Her mouth was parted.

          "Why are you worried about Zuko?!" shouted Sokka. "Worry about us!"

          "If we fly North, we can go around the Fire Nation ships and avoid the blockade," Aang voiced from at Appa's reins. He looked back at them with big eyes and stitched-together brows. "It's the only way." The desperation laced in his tone made it clear just how worried they were.

          Craning forward over their packs of things, Katara's fingers reached towards him. "The blockade probably stretches on for hundreds of miles, and we have to be at the island before tonight. There's no time, Aang."

           While Luli's hair blew chaotic in the wind, Aang glared sternly. "This is exactly why I didn't want you to come! It's too dangerous!" His fingers gripped the reins so tightly that the material went taught. His knuckles were pale.

          "And that's exactly why we're here," countered Katara from Luli's left.

          A sudden determination fell over Sokka's facial features. He outstretched his arm and pointed an assured index finger towards the Fire Nation horizon. "Let's run this blockade!"

          Aang's expression was worried for a moment, lips parted and eyes wide, but then it grew determined and he turned back to face ahead of him. "Appa, yip yip!" The sky bison gave a great rumble as he kicked his legs and lurched forward, picking up speed. On the water in front of them, the hulking black ships grew closer and closer.

          Luli watched in horror as the lights of flames flickered up on the warships, from one to the next to the next, until there were a dozen ships each with three orange flames blooming on the decks. The trebuchets. They gleamed like fireflies through the crowds. Then, on one command, each treubchet launched. A fiery rain shooting up towards them. Luli shouted an indignant, "Are you kidding me?!" as about fifty odd fireballs arced their way. The others all cried out and ducked down low as Appa ducked and weaved. It threw their bodies back and forth in the saddle. Luli just watched as the small comets of fire soared past them, each a narrow miss, flames grazing the sky. They whizzed overhead with trails of smoke left behind. Luli coughed through it.

          By the time they'd made it through the first wave of fiery projectiles, Appa was groaning. Small patches of fire had taken to his fur, and Luli—despite the giant cough of smoke she'd inhaled—leaned over his saddle with the others to pat it out. His fur was ashy. "Appa, are you okay?" Aang's voice came worriedly. In response, the bison opened his mouth and growled. Luli wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. Nevertheless, Aang pulled on the reins and Appa changed his trajectory, soared up and up, into the cover of the clouds above—right as the fireballs that had launched past them landed on the water and Zuko's ship below.

          Up in the clouds, the air was damp and cool. A nice change from the waves of heat that had been passing them just moments earlier. Luli clutched desperately at the side of Appa's saddle. There was no way they were getting past this blockade. Just as the thought occurred to her, the next wave of fireballs came. This time, like an invisible ambush through the clouds. They weren't there, and then they were, shooting up through the fluffy white material and speckling the air in front of the bison and its riders.

          Luli shouted out as the sky bison lurched and dove to the side, really wishing for some way to be strapped down to this damn thing as a giant ball of fire soared just to the animal's left. It was much, much harder to see with a smokescreen of clouds. Now, the missiles hurled up blindly. "Aang!" shouted Luli as Appa dove back and forth and the others were just forced to grip on. "We need to go down!" In the half a second moment that Aang was distracted with her words, two fireballs collided right in front of them. The result was an explosion of munition and smoke that burst in Appa's face.

          Roaring, the bison dove wildly, many limbs flailing, sending everyone in the saddle flinging back. Luli grasped at the rail for dear life. Sokka's fingers slipped. The firebender girl barely had any time at all to process what was happening before he lost his grip on the saddle entirely and went flying off. "Sokka!" she shouted, head twisting wildly back as he yelled and disappeared into the clouds. Katara's scream was something similar.

         At breakneck speed, Aang yanked on Appa's reins and the lot of them went plummeting downwards, the sky bison face-first. They broke through the layer of clouds, Katara's fingers gripping the front of the saddle tight and Luli's back thrown right against the far rail, forced to close her eyes through the wild torrent of wind. As they sharply steadied out, her body was thrown forward—her stomach hit the saddle next to Katara. When she snapped her head up, Luli saw that they were now soaring beneath Sokka, having overtaken his fall. His sister's arm shot up to pull him down. Katara's hand enclosed on his own, and Luli grasped his wrapped wrist.

         "Ugh!" shouted Luli as his body collided with hers and Katara's simultaneously, throwing the both of them down twisted in Appa's saddle. His knee jarred sharply against her shin and his elbow drove straight into her fragile ribs, as her shoulder subsequently struck the hard material floor. Katara probably had it worse, considering she got the rest of Sokka's weight straight to her gut. She made a winded sound. Well, at least they weren't dead.

         Appa roared again as Luli pushed herself back to her knees, functioning through the sharp pain in her body that would surely form into bruises. The bison's legs were hovering just above the ocean, splashed once through the water as he ducked wildly. Zuko's warship was a way behind them now—it was smoking, must have been hit by one of the munitions. There was little time to worry about that, though, because the trebuchets had been reloaded and now there were more flaming spheres soaring through the air down towards them.

          The projectiles struck the water in giant geysers, sending cold water splashing down onto the group. Appa weaved and weaved, panting with each dodge. Katara and Sokka were ducked down low with their heads bowed—trying to avoid any of the debris that sprayed up from the munitions' impact with the water. Luli, on the other hand, had sat up on her knees and craned forward, leaned up beside Aang to watch the quickly approaching warships. So close to clearing the blockade.

          They were so, so close now, in fact, that Luli could see the Fire Nation soldiers on board the ship that they were headed straight for. Red and black uniforms, faces swimming into view.

          Their trebuchet was loaded and pointed directly at them, but that wasn't what Luli's eyes caught. No. Because just there was a spectre of seeming impossibility, someone who she'd thought—and hoped—she'd never see again in her lifetime. Her father, at the prow of his ship with his arms tucked behind his back, face stern.

          "Oh for the fucking love of fucking Agni—!" Luli shouted through gritted teeth. Of course. Of course it would be her father commanding this fleet. What other luck would she have?

          Luli of the Fire Nation could never catch a break, and maybe others would say it was some great spiritual challenge set by Agni to prove her worth, but it turned out that Luli was just extremely, annoyingly, frustratingly unlucky, as Sokka craned over the saddle's edge right next to her, looking across, and shouted frantically, "What? What? What?"

          As they rocketed closer, Luli's face grew very stern. It was about time she saw him again. She saw when his hand slammed down, signalling for the trebuchet. He doesn't know, she realised, that it's me with the Avatar. At his hand, the trebuchet swung, and a ball of fire launched straight over the ocean. Right towards them.

          Luli did something incredibly stupid, and incredibly brave. Maybe it was the fact that her father was there to see her, maybe it was defiance, maybe her body was just running on pure adrenaline, or maybe she was just trying to prove herself—but she sprung forward and up, planted her sprinting foot on Appa's fluffy head, and Luli leapt.

          She knew with the trajectory of her jump and the way Appa was flying, that she'd likely land right back on him, and, well, she was much more focused on deflecting the gigantic fireball launched their way. As she left solid ground, her legs arced up in front of her body, hands positioning out in front of her. Fingertips of each hand pressed together, thumbs spread slightly. For a second, the fact that she was airborne over a foreign ocean and trying to break into the Fire Nation all slipped away, and it was just her concentration. Focus. This was the part of firebending she needed to hone in one. The feel of the flames even from a distance away, the way that they flickered in the wind, how they bloomed even inside the projectile in cracks of orange. She felt those fires. Felt her own bending gripping them.

          Luli's fingers snapped closed and all at once as her momentum began to slow, she pulled her hands apart like she was tearing open stone. The flames rocketed apart from the inside out, spraying bits of munition debris and ash, and completely obliterating the projectile into harmless fragments. A burst of soot struck her figure in the wind. Then the time came when gravity took total hold and as she fell back down, Appa was right there hovering at the same speed. She miraculously landed back down on him with a thud. Katara and Sokka's hands flew up—gripping her by the ankle and calves—to make sure she wouldn't go flying off, but Luli was mostly steady. Her feet were planted sturdily on Appa's back, just behind Aang. Then the bison drew up and soared over Luli's father's ship.

          He was watching them.

          Luli's eyes connected with his, amber and unyielding, and his connected with hers, and they saw each other—both of their expressions unyielding as she stood precariously upon the back of the Avatar's flying bison, and he stood commanding at the head of a Fire Nation ship. She was aware when she set her shoulders back and set her chin firm, that wave of solid, assured defiance overcome her frame, that she looked older than the last time she'd seen him, at age thirteen. Somewhere along the way, she'd grown up. Maybe she looked a bit like her mother—looping braids flying in the wind. She could only hope.

          He glared back at her—fire between their gazes—and then they were past his ships, and...

          And then... they were in the Fire Nation.

          "We made it!" exclaimed Aang, pumping his fist into the air as they soared away and away from the blockade and Luli's father, until the obstacles were just specks in the distance. Luli, on the other hand, just remained steadily standing on the bison's back, motionless. Her stern expression had slipped. She wasn't exactly sure what string of conflicting emotions she was feeling in that moment, but it was... a lot. Her chest was very heavy.

          "We got into the Fire Nation..." said Sokka with his teeth in a grimace, "great."

          Suddenly, all of Luli's feeling of fire and determination left her. A great weight of dread set over her heart. Crushed on top of her ribs. Sure, they'd only gotten through the blockade—the water was no different here from the other side—, but the air already felt hotter. And just hundreds of miles in front of them and to the South was the capital, Caldera City itself. Suddenly it all felt much too close to home.

          "Are you okay, Luli?" asked Katara suddenly, perhaps at the way Luli's face had turned into a frown.

          Luli made her way back into the back of the saddle, where she immediately sat with her knees drawn towards her chest and her face turned out towards the South. The edges of the girl's lips were tilted down. There had been a change. Her soft voice was a bit jarring when she forced out, "I never thought I'd be back here." Luli's grip on the edge of the saddle turned her knuckles white. Some of the sweat that had begun to bead off her forehead from the heat of her firebending dropped off her nose. "Not like this, at least." It was almost nauseating—she felt sick to her stomach.

          The last time she'd been here—... Well, the last time—...

          Luli might be sick. She sunk back down into the saddle, resting her forehead against her knees. It had all happened so fast. The fire and the screams, seeing him, and then those days after and then the leaving. And her—... She was sure, even though three years had passed by, that she could hear the screams now. Their ghosts haunted her. Slowly, Luli's scrunched face released, she exhaled a long breath.

          Her fingers loosened their grip in her hair. Luli was aware that the other three were watching her with varying levels of concern, but she couldn't find it within herself to care. If she didn't concentrate, she was sure she was going to be ill. He had screamed and she— she'd just watched with her mouth frozen open in horror and her father's hand gripping her shoulder—.

          "Luli, are you sure you're alright?" Maybe she'd stopped breathing, she couldn't be sure. Uneasily, she nodded, raising her eyes up to meet Katara's.

          "It's just been a while." She'd bitten her lip so hard that she tasted blood, wiped the gleam of red away with her thumb. "A lot has changed." She had changed. So had Zuko. The only consistent was her dad. Luli wrapped her arms tightly around her knees, securing them tight against her chest, like a little girl. "And I... well, I never really wanted to come back."

          "Not so tight, Mama," protested Luli, as her mother's slim fingers wove the braids together.

          The tug on her scalp was instantly gone. It was replaced by a gentle kiss and soft touch. "Sorry, love." Jie placed her hands comfortingly against the top of Luli's head, braid still entwined gently around her fingers. The little firebender had always had such thick hair. "Almost done."

          There was a mirror in front of Luli, in which she could see her own reflection. Young, face rounded and amber eyes large, she was just five and sitting in a chair much too big for her. Behind her, as contrast, Luli's mother's face was slim and sharp in the right ways, skin as pale as Luli's own and hair just as obsidian dark. Her eyes were a beautiful deep shade of brown, her cheeks rosy pink from makeup. Despite the braids in her hair that depicted she was just a housewife and nothing more, there were a couple of freckles scattered across her face. Her smile here was different than it was when she was out with her husband. Now, her eyes crinkled at the edges, and it was genuine and drew the edges of her lips out into sweet dimples, as Jie began singing Songs of Picking Safflowers.

           Despite the lack of instruments, her talented voice carried around the room. From the red Fire Nation walls to the vanity layered with perfumes and hairbrushes and makeup, bouncing off the closed door behind them and out the open window into the Caldera City streets. She'd been a singer and farmgirl before Luli's father had found her. Sometimes those from outside could hear the woman singing out the open window, working songs from her distant home. Now, Jie's deft hands finished securing the last braid atop her young daughter's head, fastening the style with golden jewellery like her own.

          The accessories glinted like sunlight in the mirror. With a smile, she smoothed some of Luli's baby hair back from her forehead, "See how pretty you look?" It was true—she'd gotten all of her mom's beauty, even at such a young age. From behind, Jie's arms wrapped around Luli and her mother pressed her chin against the top of the younger girl's head. "Look at you."

༉*ೃ༄

i just want to say that when luli meets toph they will be unstoppable

!! originally this chapter and the next one were connected but i thought i need to make a break for ~dramatic~ effect so, you know, everything that happened in this chapter can sink in. particularly luli seeing her father again for the first time because i had that scene planned for forever and i want it to punch! next chapter sees more angst 👀👀

also, since i don't think i've clarified it in the story: when paragraphs are in italics in my fics it generally means that what's being portrayed is a memory or a dream. however, whenever it's a dream i state as such within the paragraph so it's not confusing. in this case, luli's mom braiding her hair was a memory. hope that helps!

word count: 7,177

18.01.2021.