Homeward Bound <Earth Kingdom>

[nattoku]

A quick breeze blew over a long, winding country road. It made some of the few trees around bend a little bit and their leaves rustled. The patches of grass on either sides of the path blew with the wind. A couple of little rodents skittered here and there. The smell of the river flowing nearby came with the breeze, its smell refreshing and cool to any passing travelers. A bird or two flew over now and then, making its call to the ground below as it passed over.

A couple of voices could be heard coming down the path. "It's hot and I'm tired,"came the voice of a little boy. "Just a little further and we'll stop and rest and drink a little bit of water,"said the calm voice of a woman. "Yeah, come on Tian Tian, you can't be tired already,"came the voice of thirteen year old Nattoku.

The truth was, Nattoku felt quite tired himself. His mother, Lei Ming and his brothers Kyo and Tian Tian and him had been traveling back from Kei Lan for a few days. They had stopped at numerous small villages on their trek back home and had seen many different people, most friendly. Any questionable people, the family had just avoided. Now they were shuffling down the dirt road. As he walked, Nattoku made the dirt go up in clouds on the ground. His younger brother was trying to kick the dirt around as he walked

When they had first left the village of Kei Lan, where they had decided to make their last stop in a little bit of traveling to get away from the monotony of everyday life at their home, the family had traveled south for awhile and then started to head west, following a river that flowed to the sea and would lead them home. The whole family had agreed that they were ready to be back home in the fishing village and ready to get back to normal life. They also missed Yhan Lo and all their friends.

Nattoku had seen a lot of things for the first time while on this adventure with his family, including seeing real life Fire Nation soldiers for the first time. That was enough adventure for one lifetime in his opinion and he couldn't wait to get back into the norm of everyday life.

[lyra]

"Come back here!"

The high-pitched voice of a young brunette carried through the trees of the forest on the outskirts of the Earth Kingdom. As Lyra ran through the trees chasing after a stoat that had taken one of her shoes. The young girl had been wandering about the Earth Kingdom, informing houses of families that there would be an attack on Ba Sing Se soon, and that they should leave immediately. Well, that hadn't worked very well, for no one believed a fourteen year old girl with only one shoe. Lyra Fa Lee had given up and began to leave herself, when she stopped at a small stream to get some water. The stoat was of a dark tint and wasn't usually found in the Earth Kingdom. So, when it had taken her slipper Lyra had sat back and watched it with awe. Now, she ran after it with only one shoe and one bare foot.

Finally she caught up with the creature. Leaping upon the small fuzzy mammal, she wrenched the slipper out of it's mouth and replaced it on her foot. Staring back at the creature she couldn't help but smile. It was actually quite cute. Raising her hand, the fourteen year old girl pet it's head and it crawled toward her. "Hi, um..." Lyra paused, searching for a name "Aditi." Grinning down at the creature, she scooped it up into her arms and decided that it was going to be her new friend.

Standing up, she continued on her way through the forest with the stoat wrapping itself around her neck like a collar. "I haven't seen you around here lately," Lyra spoke as she continued walking, "I was just part of a grand adventure. I met these two boys at a festival in Kei Lan, there was an attack and before I knew it I was in charge of getting citizans of Kei Lan and Ba Sing Se out and to safety." As she walked, the hem of her robe danced around her bare feet. Her long brown hair was pulled back in a long braid down her back to keep it out of her eyes.

"Well," Lyra continued, "That didn't work to well, you see." The girl continued as she pet the small animal on its head. "Since you stole my shoe, the citizans thought I was a loon and just slammed their doors in my face. No one wants to believe there's going to be a war. They say Ba Sing Se is protected from anyone who wishes to cause it harm. Well, I beg to differ. There was an attack from men on rhinos in Kei Lan and they caught the whole city on fire."

A sudden noise startled Lyra, causing her to jump and Aditi to bare his fangs. Looking around, Lyra saw nothing in the dimness the forest created. Straining to see between trees, her emerald eyes finally landed upon a group of three or four people. Sighing, she strode toward them. As she got closer, she recognized them - Nattoku and his family. Grinning broadly, the young girl sped up with the stoat still around her neck. Coming to a halt beside her friend she smiled and said, "Nat! Nat's family! Have you managed to get anyone out of the cities?" It was false hope, for Lyra knew it was going to be near impossible to get anyone out of their homes, especially when the news was coming from mere children.

[nattoku]

Nattoku tried to think of water as his mouth started to get dry again. He did not like places that were this dry. He was used to there being a marvelous sea near his home, that he could dive into anytime he got too hot. It was that sea that separated his small village from the might of the Fire Nation.

From what his family had told he and his brothers, the Fire Nation had taken over their village near the beginning of the war, as the fishing village was on the west coast of the Earth Kingdom, an easy target for the Fire Nation. Since that was at the beginning of the war, and there was no resources they could use for battle, they mostly just left the village alone.

It was only about three years earlier that the men of Nattoku's village had decided they needed to help in the war effort. This had come to their minds when a small battalion of weary soldiers had sought rest in their village had told them how the war was going and how the Earth Kingdom needed more loyal soldiers. This had been enough to convince many men to join, and they had left soon afterward.

Nattoku's father, Nuan Li, had promised he would write and for the most part, he had kept that promise. But they had heard from him in a couple of months, so they figured he was too busy.

The family began to slow some, needing to conserve their strength. Eight year old Tian Tian continued to whine, until finally Kyo lifted his little brother up onto his shoulders to carry him piggyback. The younger boy stopped complaining and just gave a yawn and enjoyed the ride. Nattoku wiped some more sweat from his brow and tried to keep his bangs out of his sweaty face. It was too hot in his opinion,especially for the time of year it was and he couldn't wait to sit down and drink from that cool,refreshing river.

Lei Ming did the same as her middle child, and wiped some sweat from her brow as well. She was especially hot with her long hair starting to stick to the back of her neck. She didn't know why the weather was so hot,but maybe they just weren't used to walking so much. As they walked a little more, Lei Ming heard a voice calling out. She stopped and turned around. She saw an odd girl running towards them, some rodent in tow around her neck. The girl called out her son's name.

"Nattoku, I think you have a visitor,"said his mother. Nattoku turned around and saw as a girl came running towards his family. He didn't know who it was for a moment, but then he remembered meeting this girl in Kei Lan. Lyra had been her name. "Hi there Miz Lyra,"he greeted. "What brings you over this way?"

[lyra]

"Nattoku, I think you have a visitor," The words floated to Lyra's ears on a cloud of a woman's voice. Looking up at the woman, she recognized her immediately as Nattoku's mother. Just the image of the woman brought sadness upon Lyra, for she did not miss her own mother, but she did care for her. Her mother and father lived in Ba Sing Se, which was, no doubt, about to be attacked. Still, her father would be able to protect her mother, but she wasn't sure about the rest of the citizens.

Turning her attention back to Nattoku, she listened intently as he spoke, smiling at the sound of his southern accent. "What brings you over this way?" Looking around the forest she shrugged her shoulders and grinned, "Ah, nothing really. I just wanted to see the forest, is all. Not a very nice place, is it?" As she laughed at her own joke, the stoat around her neck jumped down into her arms and looked from Nattoku to the rest of his family , and finally back up at Lyra. "If I hadn't of come here, I wouldn't of met Aditi here." Grinning down at the creature she returned her focus to her friend and continued.

"I was actually trying to get some people out of the nearest city, but since Aditi had taken my slipper they thought I was a wack job and didn't believe a thing I said. But it's good to see you and the rest of your family safe and headed in the right direction." Pausing, the fourteen year old girl looked in the direction the family was heading. Lowering her eyebrows she turned back around to face them. "Uh, where exactly where you guys heading? And have you seen Jin and Ayumi heading in this general di-reck-shun?" It was just like Lyra to try to lighten the mood when things seemed so down. Actually, kidding, Lyra was never one to lighten any type of mood, she just felt terrible for the little boy on his brother's back that she took to be Nattoku's brothers.

[nattoku]

The young teenager listened to what Lyra was talking about. He just nodded as she talked, a habit of his that had started when he had to listen to girls in his village talk to him. Apparently he was a guy the girls loved to tell everything, creepy or not, to, so most of the time he just stood there and nodded, not listening at all. Nattoku was listening this time, but the habit had caught up with him. He hadn't really done it while on this little road trip, but now that they were getting close to home, he had to get used to doing it again.

"Yeah, I guess this ain't much of a forest,"Nattoku replied. "It's just some trees and a bunch of dust. But, there is a river flowing nearby, so that makes up for it." It was then that Nattoku noticed the animal that had made its home around Lyra's neck. He decided it had to be the weirdest looking cat he had ever seen.

"Nice little animal you got there,"he said, not knowing whether he wanted to try and pet the thing. If Lyra had found it, it might have been wild. Tian Tian seemed to think the opposite. "I wanna pet the cat!"he exclaimed. Kyo shook his head. "Tian Tian, that ain't no cat!"he corrected. "It's prolly some sort of fox-dog!" Nattoku scoffed. "How would you know Kyo?"he asked sarcastically. "When we were at that pond that time, you kept calling the geese turtle-ducks!" Kyo held his head up and scoffed back at his little brother. "Well I know fer sure this time,"he said. Lei Ming just sighed at her three sons. She had never seen an animal like that before, and thought it must be some type of weasel.

Nattoku just ignored his brothers and turned his attention back to Lyra. "Well, we're headin' back home,"he said, answering her question. "We live in the fishing village that hopefully ain't too much further from here. It's not too big, but luckily in the last village we stopped at, they knew where we were talking about. But first we're gonna stop at the river to drink and rest." The boy then thought to all the people he and his family had seen in the past few days while journeying home. "Nope, haven't seen 'em,"he said, answering Lyra's question about Jin and Ayumi. "Though they're probably heading towards a safe place.

Now it was Nattoku's turn for a couple of questions. "What do you plan to do now?"he asked. "If you want, you can come with us and take a rest at the river."