Fire on the Water <Open Sea, The Sea>

[Teiú]

Teiú covered his nose and turned back to the pirate who brought the strange liquid. As the sailor took the vial from the rebel's hand Teiú's eyes met Fargus. A smile was printed in the captain's face. It seemed he was enjoying this single situation. Changing his attention from the captain came to be a hard task to accomplish, as if Teiú's eyes wouldn't want to move until inspecting the soul of the Green Scepter commander. His body was paralyzed. That was the man he was going to trust to take him to the Earth Kingdom... Upon thinking in such fact a bad sensation filled Teiú's stomach. Was Fargus one to be trusted? And the worst of all is that the firebender had no choice, at all.

As a wave broke against the ship's hull Teiú's body regained self control. Teiú used this control to avoid Fargus and turn back to Xin, whom he hoped was in better . It was for his surprise though that Xin was falling down, apparently fading. The deserter moved quickly and grabbed Xin while she was halfway from the floor.

“Seriously Fargus, what was in that bottle?” Teiú, with a small desperate touch in his voice. “Eh, don't worry landlubber, she'll be fine. Now take the noble nose and the tiny from here, they are taking the attention o' my mates and they can't work. Take them to the room I showed you last night and make sure they will not get into trouble.” Fargus answered.

Setsuko, which Teiú clearly reached the conclusion to be the “tiny”, fell to the floor as well, but that one was still awake. “Let's go Setsuko.” the rebel said before starting carrying Xin to near a stairway going to the lower decks, where the habitations were. The room Fargus had chosen from him was one in the final of a long and dark corridor, the last door of the many rooms of the sailors. Though most of the habitations were collective the one Fargus reserved for his three clandestines was private. One for the three... Xin would not react in a good way to this, Teiú considered. On the upper deck Teiú was struggling to carry the noble lady. Standing on his foot on the moving craft was alright while he was on his own, but carrying someone as tall as Xin, that was almost of his own size, in a moving ground was no joking matter.

He passed the corridor to reach the old wood made door. Inside, a poor furnished room with two beds made directly on the floor, a chair and a table. Apparently, it was one of the most furnished rooms of the ship. In there Teiú left Xin in the bed of the corner of the room. He was sweating and panting, it was not a gentle walk.

Starting to feel hungry Teiú said: “Setsuko... I will get off for a minute to get some food and more blankets. I will be back in a minute, do you need something?”

As teiú closed the door of the room he took a deep inhale. If the whole trip would go as that morning was going on then it would be a very complicated trip, indeed.

[set]

Setsuko made a scowl at the old captain, her cheeks somewhat puffing in reaction to him nicknaming her the "tiny". But obeying Teiú's command, she followed behind him, keeping her arms stiffly at her sides to be alert in case she lost balance yet again. On her way down the stairs, she stumbled a bit and hit against the wall, but she didn't go tumbling down the stairs like she feared that she would. At the same time, she saw how Teiú struggled to carry the noble, wishing she could assistance. However, she thought it wouldn't be of any help, considering that she was the small and frail little girl she was.

Setsuko entered the room, inspecting it a bit with her eyes. It was better than the floor of the cargo room, she thought to herself.

When asked by Teiú what she needed, she turned and shook her head. "No thank you," she responded, almost sweetly, and that's when he left the room.

[Teiú]

What a terrible blow of fate. If his quest was going to be one dangerous it became much more difficulty to accomplish now that Xin and Setsuko were in that ship alongside him. Both placed under his care Teiú knew they would refuse to take orders and advices from him. At least Xin would.

The boy walked half the the length of the corridor from which he brought Xin and stopped, letting his body fall sitted on the floor. Once he reached the Earth Kingdom what would he do? Let them go by themselves or search for someone that could help the girls? Besides, Setsuko had no one in the Earth Kingdom to care about her. He did not know about Xin. Being a noble she could have someone related to her family in the colonies or such. But then, once she was there with the ones that would help her what would she do about Teiú? Send orders for the local guard to arrest him, for sure, he thought. And still, Teiú considered that he was heading to a place he never saw in his entire life. What he knew about the war and about the Earth Kingdom was what was told to him by his master, Kangiro. Sitted, his knees raised and each shoulder over each knee, Teiú lowered his head and curled on the dark and smelly corridor of the ship's lower deck. He stood in that position for a while before showing any signals of strength. He looked at the ceiling and and sighed. “Yes, yes... and the worst part of never giving up is that sitting and crying is not an option.” He said to himself. Rosing up Teiú started walking to the end of the corridor heading to the direction of the strong sunlight. “I guess I will wait to see... and yes, I will see.”

The shinning light blinded him for a few seconds. While in the upper deck and before heading to the captain to ask what he would indeed ask, food and blankets, Teiú remembered that his backpack, brought by Xin was still lying in the cargo compartment. Once inside the room he found his belongings, almost everything was wet and the biggest part of what was not was smelly due drying in the shade. However, his most important belonging, the painting featuring him, Seung-Ha – his now dead girlfriend – and Kai – his now missing biggest friend – was safe. Instead of gathering his things and leaving Teiú spent several minutes looking at his beloved friends on his precious painting.

[set]

The little girl sat down on one of the beds, pulling her hair out of its braid and brushing it straight by threading the groups of strands through her fingers. She turned herself on the bed, kicking her feet up and landing the back of her head on the pillow. Her hands slid under her head as her dully-colored eyes stared up at the ceiling of the room. She took a deep breath, then sighed with a hint of weeriness. She began to twiddle her key in between her fingers, playing with the string and letting it wrap around the piece of brass.

Setsuko lost herself in a trait of thought. She began to think over what was happening to her now, and how she was stuck on this ship making its way to the Earth Kingdom. What was she going to do once they reached their destination? How was she supposed to return home? Who was she supposed to depend on? Could she maybe stay around Xin? Or did she have anyone in the Earth Kingdom, being the noble she was?
She began to get worried. She was only a small child, after all: frail, naive, highly dependant... well, at least she knew she was. Just the thought of what would happen if she was all alone made her frown and water in the eyes.

[Teiú]

Teiú had just dried the tears of his eyes, hanging over his left shoulder was his backpack which, the rebel did not know why, was brought by Xin alongside her. He judged that, perhaps, soldiers caught a tip of his location and came to her house. In its way to leave and judging that the one to blame for that confusion was Teiú the own Xin brought his things along in hopes to find him and fix all the mess. Probably not all the truth but it would be enough to give Teiú the reasons for meeting her here. His left hand was holding a plate of rice and fish, without bread as it was given to the girls. His right arm was carrying a bunch of dry blankets.

The wooden door closed before the rebel letting a strange rumor fill the small room. Xin was still laying over her bed, lost in her dreams... or, perhaps more precisely at the moment, her nightmares. He left the blankets and the plate over the table while saying to Setsuko, in a friendly tune: “There is more food here and I got a spoon and a knife so if you are still hungr...” He stopped, when his eyes met Setsuko coiled in the room's corner. Teiú rushed to her and knelt near the child, trying to dry a small tear that rolled from the girl's big watery eyes.

“What is wrong? Are you well?” He asked with the same friendly voice inflicted earlier but now with an accent of preoccupation on his question.

[xin]

Laying in the corner of the room Xin stirred now and then, the contents of the bottle was too much for her rather frail refined tastes, it all but stole the strength from her body landing her where she was. The gentle rocking of the boat did little to settle her unconscious mind, rather it gave her nightmares. Lost in the blank expanse of her mind Xin sat watching the darkness, it was chilling. The floor gave away beneath her dropping her into the sea, there was no way to swim, it was difficult to push to the surface, her lungs were about to explode with the lack of oxygen. As the noble woman groped for the surface she saw spots in her eyes. Finally her head broke and her lungs filled with air, she was drifting at sea. Her eyes widened to see her home on the shore bursting into flames, it was a frightening scene. Logic would have told her that her home wouldn't be seen from the waters but in a night mare little could be rationalized.

Desperately Xin attempted to swim for the shore her arms and legs though long didn't bring her any closer, rather she was drifting away from the home, the flames of her burning home were getting further and further away with each passing second. She didn't give up though, her brown eyes widened in fear, she'd never reach it, never. Along her side Xue, her hamster kitty floated by on a small boat sipping jasmine tea, looking at her and shaking his head. " You should go with the flow, it would take you one way or another...." The boat with her human sized pet continued floating along leisurely and the animal closed his eyes taking another sip from the china cup.

Now panicked the girl just treaded water, her home was now out of sight, she was wet, alone, lost at Sea. The moon shone over the water displaying bright white caps on th waves. In an instant the water level on the sea began to drop. Perplexed Xin looked around her in the water only to see nothing but black expanses. Off in the distance a white cap was moving towards her, unlike the others it didn't break, rather it continued towards her. Fear struck in the young womans heart and she began to swim away but she was caught in the current of the wave and pulled back. Desperately she screamed for help but her voice didn't come to her, the wave swallowed her whole. As she floundered under the water trying to find up from down or anyway to get out of this she felt ropes around her dragging to the surface.

Before she knew what was going on She was in a fishing net starring wide eyed at a giant sized captain Fargus. He laughed and shook his head tossing the net onto the boat with Xin still trapt inside of it. He pulled a knife out of thin air seemingly and walked toward the net in slow staggering steps. Xin could feel her heart almost stop. " You don't look so noble now do you?" He cackled raising the knife above his head, He let loose a downward thrust and Xin's world went black.

----

Through a small crack in the door a small white puff, better known as Xue, Xin's hamster kitty trotted into the room looking around at the group. Spotting Xin the creature chirped and happily bounded over to her, it didn't seem like she was about to get up depressing the animal somewhat. With small cat like ears tilting towards the other occupants of the room the rodent sat up on it's hind leg peering at them curiously. Would they be able to wake the girl?

[set]

Setsuko nodded her head, wiping her tears with the back of her palm. "I'm okay," she softly muttered. She didn't want to worry him, with all the trouble he seems to be going through now, after all.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the fluffy little creature trot over to the sleeping noble. The small girl watched the animal's expression as it looked at them, seeming to wonder about its mistress's condition. Setsuko gingerly approached the hamster kitty, bringing out a frail hand to touch the puff of fur. However, she brought it back in a realization that the creature may bite her. Instead, Setsuko put her face somewhat forward, her expression gentle to make herself friendly to the cute little rodent. "Something wrong, little guy?" she asked in a soft voice, her large dull-golden eyes gleaming at it. Setsuko sat back on her heels, her hands folded in her lap as she bent forward with her face head-level with the hamster kitty.

[Teiú]

Teiú watched in amusement as Setsuko turned her back to him and headed to Xin's little pet. He smiled a bit. “This girl... she is way stronger than Xin... Perhaps, stronger than me... Still, I don't know if she realizes she is one tough girl.” The rebel thought. He rose and started to put the blankets he brought on the chair. Before turning his attention to his bowl of food Teiú took a look at Setsuko as she intercepted the hamster-kitty.

He leaded his hand to his thigh were a small though deep cut, work of the animal, was under a piece of bandage. “You, Setsuko, watch out for it to not bite you alright? It must be a strange sight to it, this ship, so it may be a bit stressed after all.” Teiú to Setsuko. His eyes locked on Xin, it took a while for Teiú to move. Like his will taken away from him. His body was fine but his mind and soul were so tired that any action seemed to be not worth the effort of making the brain work. Finally, Teiú decided to approach the sleeping lady to see if it was still breathing after taking a bit of Fargus' “medicine”. He stopped two steps before Setsuko, which was trying to get to the rodent, how was his name? Xui? Xue? Teiú could not remember at all. He knelt and came closer to Xin. It wouldn't be necessary any other measure to see she was still alive, she seemed to be breathing deeply, as common of sleeping people. Judging that she wouldn't be pleased seeing him so near her if she woke up Teiú got up, picked his bowl of food from the table and sited near the door, his back touching the wall.

Again, his body, working fine, was asking for the food. His mind though was reluctantly ordering his hand to bring the spoon, filled with rice, to his mouth. For a few instants his face seemed to be the one of an old man, tired from living a torturous life of someone who had got through lots of things.

“What is that now, han? You have never been like that... You always behaved like having everything in control, you never cried for anything that was missing, nor when you was alone... what is it that was taken from you that is making you act like a frail kid now?”

Teiú stopped... Lost in his thoughts he didn't knew if the last speech was a thought or if he was speaking to himself. He looked at the other occupants of the room. Then he faced his food again.

“What was it?” He thought...

[xin]

Xue chirped at the little girl questioningly, it seemed she didn't know much about the state of his sleeping owner. As Setsuko's hand came near him the hamster kitty sat up on it's hind legs twitching his whiskers towards her hands trying to get a scent, curious if it was something he should bite or not. That was decided on the fact that the person may or may not pose a threat to him and her owner. The girl pulled her hands away and with a few bounding steps Xue drew closer to her.

His front paws came out and then the back legs hopped after, all the while Xue's tail was twitching back and forth. The girl lowered her face near the rodent and once more it sat up on it's hind legs blinking curiously at her, whiskers twitching it was still unsure what the little girl was either way it had a very big head... Glancing back at Xin he scampered back to her, curling up in his masters black tresses. There was no cage on the ship so he'd make himself comfortable where ever he pleased.

[set]

Setsuko blinked as she watched the little creature make himself comfortable next to his owner. She sat up, straightening her back as she stared at Xue for a second before giving a small shrug. "It might be wondering how Xin is," she said in assumption. She watched the hamster-kitty as it reminded her of when her family used to own a pet. She remembered the big fight she had with her brother, which included the incident of their cat being unfed.
Then her brother came into mind.
---
"Alright, Sets, I'm gonna show you how to catch a rabbit." He rubbed his hands together, crawling slowly through the tall grass. Setsuko was crouched down, watching her brother as he approached the rock which the rodent sat upon.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Shichiro!" she whispered loudly. Her brother whipped his head back around at her and smacked a finger to his lip, his eyes wide. He turned his head back around, focusing on the rabbit. He came closer, but when he did, it turned its head: it spotted him. Both human and animal stared eye to eye for a minute, before both moved at that instant: Shichiro leapt at the rabbit, while the rabbit leapt away.

"Shichiro, wait! The stream--" SPLASH!
Setsuko winced and stood up to see her brother drenched with water after tripping over the rock. He picked himself up and stood in the stream, his clothes dripping. Setsuko giggled. "I told you it wasn't a good idea."
---
Setsuko found herself straightening a portion of her long hair with her hands, tugging at it as if it were a rope. She was still blankly staring at the hamster-kitty with a small frown, but shivered back into reality. She blinked her wide eyes a few times before turning her head to Teiú and placing her hands in her lap.

"Teiú, when will we be arriving at the Earth Kingdom?" she asked curiosly.

[Teiú]

Teiú peered at Setsuko between airs of curiosity. A few seconds passed before Teiú could process Setsuko's question.

“Eh, know what? I don't know. perhaps I should go ask to the captain. Will you excuse-me?” Teiú said, answering to a sudden will to leave the room. He left aside his bowl of food, still untouched, rose from the ground and headed to the door. Before leaving he stopped, halfway out of the place. “Eh, again Setsuko, watch out with the animal alright? Try to not get hurt.”.

Outside the dark corridor of the habitations, by the upper deck, Teiú took a look at all the sailors working exactly as they were commanded by Fargus. It was rough work beneath a merciless sun. The heat in the air and the sun, blazing upon Teiú's head, held by invisible pillars in the clear blue sky, left Teiú with the will of practicing firebend. However, being prohibited of doing so aboard the ship by Fargus, Teiú walked to the prow, instead of searching for the captain to ask about the length of the trip. The waves crushing against the boat as it majestically was opening his path through the green blanket.

His mind was lost again in sad thoughts about his life. However, right there, it was only for a short instant. “Be a man Teiú and stop crying like a girl...” He said to himself, as he lifted his head up to watch the immensity of the firmament. “Seung-Ha... Kai... my master... my friends... my parents... I will not give up on all of you... Your suffering... It wasn't worthless... It saved me... and I will do everything in my power to stop the pain you suffered of reaching the others. I will save my country from... from you... Ozai!”

Teiú was already shouting to himself. A sailor, near him, stopped by. “Are you nuts brat? Stop shouting like that, we are working here!”

“Eh, I... I'm sorry, please, forgive me.” Teiú to the sailor, that as soon as leaving the rebel alone by the prowl, missed seeing the firebender smiling to the sun.

“That is the meaning of my life. Isn't it what was preparing myself to during all these years? Yes, it was. And now... my future is mine, to course it the way I want to. Not only for all I love... but for me.” Now thinking, Teiú left after concluding his monologue. It was time to face Fargus, the girls and anyone else. It was time to take the lead of his own destiny.

(Saving everyone in this thread from boredom for being upon a boat, Teiú leaves too: Setting Foot Into the Unknown)