The Master's Arrival <Shai City, North Pole>

[sol]

"Better, a great improvement. Again." Meloku instructed the small class of young men. This particular class was halfway through completeing their training, each a model soldier. He had molded them into disciplined fighters, strong and skillfull. Soon they would make a fine addition to the Water Tribe's forces. Meloku was fairly confident that each would achieve some kind of higher ranking. He could not very well see their faces or what they looked like, but he could see their outlines, the motions of hteir bodies and could hear their breathing, feel the vibrations they made on the icy floor.

The dawn was leaving and the sun rose to its high point, shedding the only warmth that the North Pole ever gave.
"Sensei!" a little boy came running up the snow cased stairs.
"A man from the wall told me to tell you that Master Sukai is here. He said you'd probably want to know."

Meloku patted the boy on the head, "Thank you young one, you may go now."
So, the waterbending master returns. I wonder if he has any important news on the war...

"Stop." Meloku ordered the students after realizing they were still practicing. "Very good, I think that's enough for today. Dismissed." he said with a wave of his hand.

Meloku made his way down to the river streets and stopped a fisherman's boat, "Excuse me, may I ask for a ride toward the wall please." he asked in polite melodic tones.
The fisherman and his son bowed and motioned for him to step aboard. Coming closer to the wall, he noticed that the city people were crowding the streets. News concerning the wall being opened for someone other than a scouter always spread fast in Shai.

Another boat came towards the fisherman's going the opposit direction. A bearded old man with the star and moon tattoed on his forehead stood toward the front of the little rowboat. Although he and Sukai had never met face to face, Meloku knew that was undoubtedly him.

As the two boats came to a rest near eachother, Meloku made a deep bow with his palm to fist. "It is an honor to finally meet you Master Sukai." he said meekly, "I request permission to join your boat."

[sukai]

"....was very tiring. After a while a started to just stay out of the battles, and just healed. Many of the older men did that, mostly for the Earth soldiers."
"Very interesting...were there any women healing?"
"Oh, of course! I even learned a lot of healing from them."
Su was having a conversation with his boat rower, which was about his journeys. It died off into a faint silence.
-~-~-~-~-

After a few minutes, Sukai saw a younger-looking man than himself somewhat close by. "Of course you can."
"Please stop the boat," he asked the rower.
"Who might you be? I'm guessing a master. I see that your scar. It shows like you have been fighting."
"Continue moving please," he asked the 'rower.'
"Yes, sir."
They reached a final halt and Sukai got off and handed a copper piece to the boat rower.

[sol]

Meloku climbed out of the boat and also tipped the rower.
"Yes, I am considered a master to most. Perhaps you've heard of the name, 'The Clouded Mirror'. Yep, that's me. I know, a lot who haven't seen me assume that I'm older. The name's Meloku and I teach the warriors-in-training here...for now at least."

He traced the outline of his scar along his arm.
"This scar, though, is a reminder of what happens to foolish young men who think they're invincible. The foolish youth that think there is something grand about war. Surely you know as well as I do that there is nothing grand about war, nothing poetic or fanciful. All it does is inflict us with the curse of taking life. Our only gift becomes the ability to kill." he sighed. His half blind gaze facing off into space. Looking at nothing in particular.

"But that's enough of my rant. Sometimes people who know me think of me as an insane old man trapped in a young man's body." he said smiling. "Let's hurry to the palace. The King and the other leaders will want to hear what you have to say on your return."

[sukai]

"Alright. I've heard of the name, and I've heard that you do well," said Su as he walked along. "About what you said about war, not being poetic: I agree, but you CAN make war poetic, but not peaceful. If you fight and accept you wins and loses with grace, then that is what is considered poetic by me. I, of course, looked at it in a different way."

"What I am going to tell about the war may or may not be exciting or suprising." Sukai took out 3 small items from his pocket: a head of a spear, a shiny gem, and a vile of slime. "These three objects are things that will help me remember my friends from different Nations. Could you guess what they represent?"

[sol]

Meloku walked along with the elder, silent, only having ears for the wisdom he had to bestow. After giving his outlook on war, he revealed three items and asked if Meloku could guess what they represented.

Meloku was considered a genius tactician, but that was usually restricted to war and his streaks of smart moves usually happened sparatically under pressure. He was never really one for riddles or intelectual puzzeling.

"I must be honest, master. I have only vague guesses. The spearhead could represent those allies that would fight for you. It looks as if it might have come from an Earth Kingdom guard. It's shaped into a fine point, possibley from Bai Seng Sei."
Meloku then looked at the shining gem, "That could symbolize friends that would give you valuables, it looks like a fine saphire piece of jewelery, Southern Water Tribe most likely."

Finally, he came to the vile containing a strange slimy substance. "I must be honest again, master. I have no clue what that is from just looking at it. Perhaps it's blasting jelly from the Fire Nation? Do you have allies in rebel Fire Nation groups?" he asked hopefully.
"If you had friends among the inside of the Fire Nation, that might help us a lot."

[sukai]

"You were wrong with the first two, the spear and the gem. The spear is from my proud Water Tribe Warriors, they ones who I have faught with all my life, and my loyal brothers. The Gem represents King Bumi's candy gem type substance, not sure the name. We used that againsts the Fire Nation soldiers, who could not figured out that you could eat you way through it." Su could see their destination approaching. A few more minutes He was a bit nervous, because he couldn't get a clear memory of what happened exactly.

"The vile. You are right, it is full of blasting jelly, but not the Fire Nation. It is from the inventor of the Northern Air Temple. My warrior group and I were offered some of the spare jelly, so we took it. Some of our warriors could bend, including me. We added some more water to the jelly and bended something more heavier to the Fire Nation. We had some wins and loses, almost half and half." If it weren't for our new friends, The Earth Kindom and mechanics of the Northern Air Temple, we would have never excelled. We would just...have lost. I wanted to tell everyone that the only way to win, is to unite."

[sol]

Meloku was sort of embarrassed. If he wasn't half blind he might have been able to see that the spear was made from ivory or perhaps whale bone, and he would have definitely been able to have noticed the gem was candy if he had gotten a better look. He may have been able to smell it as well if there weren't so many other scents coming from the houses, though it had been years since he had been in Earth Kingdom territory.

"Hmm, the idea of uniting has always been there, but the Earth Kingdom itself is not totally united. They're just a large confederation, each leader working against the Fire Nation, but having their own adjendas within the Earth kingdom as well. The people from the Northern Air Temple may not be so quick to act in war. They are refugees. And us?" Meloku took in a deep breath, "We've always been strong allies with the Earth Kingdom. Between the North and South tribes, we've always had our differences, but we should be easily able to some together in order to fight the threat of the Fire Nation."

His unseeing gaze fell upward towards the sky.
"One thing I am very interested about is the Avatar." his words seemed to capture the old man's ears.
"It seems that true and ultimate victory lay with the Avatar and his successful return to his duties. I believe that it doesn't really matter what we do; If the Avatar does not stand up to the Fire Lord, then there is nothing we can do to change the outcome of this war."

He shifted to look back at Master Sukai, "But I do believe that what we do, can help the Avatar make the right decisions and actions."

[sol]

The palace's icy walls were directly in front of them now. Their majesty was more than pleasing to the eye, the most beautiful and magnificant thing Meloku would ever see in his lifetime, he was sure.

"Here we are, master. It'll take a while to assemble the chief's, meanwhile you can relax in the palace, or do whatever you please. Servants are there to direct you. For now, I must attend to other matters."

He placed his fist to palm again and bowed. "Until next time, Master Sukai."
-------------:Meloku has left the thread:----------------------

[sukai]

"Alright," Su replied and bowed. We felt like wandering around because it has been long since he was here. But as he was alone, memories began entering his mind...

"No! I will continue to teach him!"
"Master Sukai, Sai has committed crimes that are not imaginable to our culture!"
"Sometimes our culture isn't always right!"
"So you think that crossing the borders of our cultures is right? Do you, Sukai?"
"...of course not. I'm saying is that something needs to be changed..."
"But it has not changed yet. As of now, Sai is banished from the Northern Water Tribe!"
"No. If you banish him, then I'm leaving as well. I will go and teach him out of the tribe. I don't care if I'm banished or not, but I'm leaving."
"Su, how can I banish you? You are a good master, and students need you. I will not banish you."
"It is the time of war, and I think I must be off to fight then. Our sister tribe will probably do the same."
"...very well then, but you are welcome back anytime, and...if you think that Sai has proved himself worthy of being part of our tribe....you can bring him back also..."
"Thank you."