3 - The uncertain future

Yun observed them from far away, he couldn't understand what they were saying, but he could read their body language at this distance. And judging by the way Rangi was gestured wildly she was ticked off at Kyoshi. As for Shozin, he had that hateful aura of someone ready to battle.

Of all the people he knew, the one he disliked the most was Shozin, he didn't seem to care about his identity as the Avatar and did as he pleased, going as far as playing pranks on him, challenging him to battles, besides some other things...

He would like to watch the girls for the rest of the day, but alas, that wouldn't be possible, he jumped down from the roof and fell right in front of Hei-Ran, she was the former headmistress of the Royal Fire Academy for girls, and also Rangi's mother. But right now, she is Yun's fire bending teacher.

...

"You can give it to me already, Shozin."

"Uh? Why? Let me help you carry the jar, it isn't a big deal anyway." Shozin shrugged as he walked towards the mansion while carrying the jar. Kyoshi could only sigh helplessly, whenever he decided to do something no one could stop him.

Rangi and Kyoshi followed him from behind.

Kyoshi matched her pace to the same of Rangi as they walked. If all that the Firebender cared about was household matters, things would have ended there, and nothing more would need to be said. Instead, she could feel Rangi's silence compact into a denser form inside her slender frame.

They were halfway to the gate once it became too much to bear.

"It's pathetic!" Rangi looked at her right to avoid looking at Kyoshi, this was her only way to manage her disgust with the girl. "You let them step on you like that. You serve the Avatar! Have some dignity!"

Kyoshi smiled. "I was trying to de-escalate the situation." she murmured.

"You were going to let them hit you! I saw it! And don't you dare try and claim you were doing neutral jing[1] or whatever Earthbending hooey."

Right on cue, Rangi had transformed from professional Guardian of the Avatar, ready to scorch the bones of interlopers without flinching, into the teenaged girl no older than Kyoshi who easily lost her temper at her friends and was kind of a raging mother hen to boot.

Shozin stopped walking and sighed. "Rangi, you know she has always been like this, you can't expect someone to change out of nowhere."

"And what are your qualifications to say that anyway? I thought the red demon would go as far as annihilating his enemies!" She pointed at him while trying to control her rage.

"You know things aren't so simple..." He lowered his head to avoid looking at both the girls. "I'm not proud of my actions. They were necessary..."

"And yet you did it."

Somehow Rangi had that annoying ability to touch someone's injury without even trying that hard, whenever they did something she deemed wrong, it wouldn't take long until she started reprimanding them.

"And speaking of doing things... what about your Earthbending?" She turned to Kyoshi. "You're shown up by a peasant! How have you not mastered the basics by now!? I've seen children in Yu Dao bend rocks bigger than that jar!"

Despite how Rangi treated them, they were all friends. Back when the mansion was still under construction, it took them weeks to figure it out that the imperious girl who acted like she was still in the junior corps of the fire army only yelled at the people she let inside her shell. Everyone else was scum who didn't warrant the effort.

Rangi started talking about her battle plans to humiliate Aoma and send a message to the other kids, Kyoshi, only listened to part of her words since she was distracted by the collar of Rangi's armor, which had been mussed in the fall and need to be straightened so it covered the delicate skin of her nape once more.

Shozin, on the other hand, had a lifelessly look on his face and didn't even bother to hear them, Rangi words brought back feelings he wanted to forget, and the memories of his actions, which brought nothing to him other than the nickname of 'Red demon', the disappointment of his master and the air monks, and a bad reputation for most of those of the fire nation who read the news.

He was brought back to the real world when Kyoshi said something that made him feel more ashamed unintentionally.

"Why resort to violence? I have strong heroes like you to protect me."

Rangi could only make a noise like she wanted to vomit.

Stepping through the gates of the mansion was like entering a portal to the spirit world, it was a transition from a set of rules to another, from a dull, mindless place where the only currencies you could spend were sweat and time, sowing your seeds and baiting your hooks in the hope of staving off hunger for another season, to a mystical universe where rituals and negotiations could make you supreme in a single day.

Rangi nodded at the two watchmen, grizzled veterans of the Earth King's army who stiffened their necks and bowed back to her in deference.

Lured by better pay into Jianzhu's service, they'd kept their dished, wide-brimmed helmets but painted them over with the sage's personal shades of green. Kyoshi always wondered whether that was against the law or not.

Inside the vast garden filled with conversations, sages, and dignitaries from far-off lands constantly flowed in and out of the estate. Most of them enjoyed conducting their business among the flowers and sweet-smelling fruit trees.

Usually, they wouldn't attract too much attention when walking inside the mansion, but when those who came from the fire nation, stopped their business to look at the direction of the group who just entered, the others followed the same action and directed their eyes towards them.

Shozin definitely wasn't a bad person and those who knew him could confirm this affirmation, however, for the fire nation people he was a murder that killed various innocents from a little countryside city at their homeland.

After all, he unknowingly destroyed the only evidence that could prove he was only dealing with criminals, when the news spread... it was impossible to stop them from having this kind of opinion or reaction when seeing him. Even more so because of his red hair, this felt like some sort of offense to the people of the fire nation.

Fortunately, they didn't do anything besides look at him with enraged faces, this was the Avatar mansion, no fights could happen inside this ground. One could even imagine how much chaos this would cause since the vast majority was most surely a bender of the highest order.

Kyoshi would always feel a thrill every time she walked through the garden, the feeling of power in the air was almost palpable when the estate was full of visitors.

They went through the side and took the service entrance to avoid the uncomfortable stares they were getting. They climbed a set of stairs and passed through a hall for drying and splitting the immense amount of firewood needed to fuel the stoves.

They entered the steamy, cavernous kitchen. The clash of metal pans and roaring flame could have been mistaken for a siege operation. Shozin placed the jar in one of the chairs and smiled at Kyoshi who was stretching a little after walking around all morning.

"Don't forget you have gift duties tonight." Rangi's voice resounded on their ears, but the message was only meant for Kyoshi. "Don't waste too much time here, you're not a scullery maid."

The nearby kitchen staff, some of whom were scullery maid, looked at them and scowled. Shozin laughed seeing Kyoshi wince, most people outside the mansion tend to think that she was stuck up for living in the mansion, the other servants thought she was stuck up for her closeness to Yun, and Rangi with her attitude only made it worse.

She could only sigh as Rangi left the kitchen.

Shozin was about to ask her about Kelsang when he spotted an Air bender with his orange robes rolled up to his blocky shoulders. His massive hands were covered in flour, and he'd tucked his forest of a beard into his tunic to keep it from shedding. It was like the Kitchen had been invaded by a mountain ogre.

Kelsang should have been aboveground, watching the Avatar. Or at least greeting a visiting sage. Not cutting out dumplings wrappers among the cooks.

He looked up and grinned after seeing Shozin and Kyoshi approaching. Kelsang was more or less like a father figure for Kyoshi, after that day he met her, Kelsang started taking care of her whenever he could, even going as far as trying any possible methods to ensure that he could stay in Yokoya port for as long as possible.

Every time he was called back to the southern air temple, he would beg to the locals to take care of her, or give her some food from time to time. When Jianzhu came back from Makapu together with the Avatar and decided to make the Avatar mansion in Yokoya port, one of the best places to visit nearly any place with ease. Kelsang begged his friend to hire Kyoshi and give her a place to live.

All of this happened more or less two years ago, and since then she had been living inside the mansion. For Kyoshi, the two most dear people in her life were Kelsang and Shozin, the first for taking care of her like a father and helping them for so much time, and the later for being her first best friend, a person she could trust with anything, and that she even considered like her brother.

Even when she thought that she was falling in love with Yun, and Shozin discovered her secret unintentionally, he still kept his promise and never told anyone about it, which was difficult to believe considering his personality. Like when he pointed out Rangi's weird behavior after Kyoshi tried to save her from the plummeting jar.

"I've been banished." He said. "Jianzhu thinks my presence is causing Yun to prematurely dream about airbending, so we're trying to keep him focused on one element at a time. I needed to feel useful, so here I am."

Shozin could only smile wryly after hearing his words. With the recent rumors about the old team avatar's relationship deteriorating, this is like adding salt to a wound.

Kyoshi was probably unaware of this matter, but him, having living basically all his life inside the air temple, knew that Kelsang's situation was currently really bad, it could even be said, that only him and Gyatsaa still had some real respect towards him, but for different reasons.

His master due to his decades of friendship and an open mind, Shozin because of his friendship with Kelsang and his own way of thinking that differ greatly from the air monk's way.

"That blockhead learning air bending? Ha! Never." Shozin took an apple from the table and started eating. "Don't worry about them, master Kelsang, I'm pretty sure things get boring when you aren't around."

"Hoho, this I can't deny." Kelsang laughed and shook his head, it wasn't surprising that Shozin would badmouth Yun, the two never had a good relationship.

Kyoshi sighed at Shozin's words. She sidled her way over to Kelsang through the crowded space and gave the monk a kiss on the cheek. "Let me help." She washed her hands in a nearby sink, grabbed a ball of dough to knead, and fell into work beside him.

But this girl wasn't stupid, she also could tell that his cheering mood was a facade. Unlike Shozin who only came to visit her from time to time, she spends all of her time within the mansion and knew why things between the old team avatar developed that way.

With Jianzhu using the Avatar to gain political power and advantages it would be expected that someone like Kelsang would start having issues about how the avatar was being trained and developed. After all, how dared Jianzhu to use the avatar to amass wealth and influence through the pretense of being a sage solely focused on guiding Kuruk's reincarnation.

The bending masters came to the mansion to pay obeisance to him, not the Avatar, and decrees that were normally made by the Earth Kings instead bore Jianzhu's seal. Kelsang disapproved of such power-hungry actions and was at risk of being completely shunted to the side.

As both Shozin and Kyoshi were distracted by their thoughts, they didn't notice when a little puff of flour flew up from the table and hit them in the forehead. White dust clouded their vision. Kyoshi squinted her eyes at Kelsang who wasn't trying to hide the second shot that spun around above his palm chambered in a pocket-sized whirlwind he'd summoned.

"It wasn't me," he said. "It was another air bender."

Achu!

Kyoshi and Kelsang turned to look at Shozin who sneezed with his face completely white from the flour. "That wasn't fair! I wasn't prepared."

Kelsang and Kyoshi laughed at his reaction when he wasn't the one doing the antics he complains.

"Now you had a taste of your own medicine, hehe." Kyoshi laughed, but her face soon turned serious as she grabbed the flour bead out of the air. It burst between her fingers. "Quit it before Auntie Mui throws us out of here."

"Then you two quit looking troubled on my behalf," Kelsang said, having read their minds. "It's not so bad if I take a break from Avatar business."

He turned to Kyoshi before continuing.

"I'll get to spend more time with you. We should go on a vacation, maybe the three of us," He glanced at Shozin with a smile on his face. "Perhaps to see the Air Nomads sacred sites."

(A/N: Air nomad: basically a different way to refer to Air monks.)

"Um, that would be great, this could even help me find a new home..." Shozin muttered to himself, but it was still loud enough for the other two to hear him.

"Eh? What are you talking about, Shozin?" Kyoshi gave him a questioning look.

Kelsang could only sigh at Shozin's predicament. He wasn't an Air nomad, after all, all these years he was trained, taught, given food and a place to call home, but it was always temporary, Shozin's place wasn't with the air monks. The question that remains is... what path will he take when the moment arrives? One of vengeance? Or one of peace?

"I'll soon have to leave the southern air temple, my time there is ending, after that, I'll have to search for a new place to call home." He smiled at her, there was no point in getting sad over this matter, changes are inevitable in one's life, he's better of accepting it and trying to adapt to his new situation.

"Does that means..." Kyoshi's memories of him coming to visit her every week or month depending on how busy he was, played on her mind, but that was only possible because they lived nearby each other, it only took him some minutes to arrive, but if he was to settle in a faraway place, this might never happen again.

Shozin read her mood and sighed. A complicated expression on his face. "Kyoshi, I'm really sorry... if it truly comes to that, all I can promise is that I'll still visit you whenever I'm free. In the end, I wouldn't be able to abandon my little sister, haha."

Kyoshi place both her hands in her heart and avoided his gaze, suddenly a feeling of sadness overcome her out of nowhere, she felt pressured and didn't know how to react, it felt like her world was crumbling apart and that an important part of her life was about to be thrown into the abyss called "the past".

First Kelsang's situation and now this, just why was this happening on the same day, could this get any worse?

"Please, don't be like that," Kelsang hugged her, trying to calm her down. "As he said, you are like his sister, and a brother never abandons his siblings. I'm sure he will still be capable of visiting us from time to time. Instead of being depressed, we should wish him good luck, and help with anything we can."

Kyoshi breathed a mouthful of air and calmed down. Kelsang was right, there was no need to feel like that... It is difficult to accept but she had to do it sooner or later. It was just that she wasn't prepared for this.

After some time, Kyoshi spoke.

"Kelsang, you know I can't go on a vacation, I have work."

He rolled his eyes. "Bah. I've never seen someone so averse to fun since old Abbot 'No-Fruit pies' Dorje." He was about to throw another bead of flour at her but before he could do it, another one flew into his face, making him drop the one he just made.

He turned to look at Shozin and saw him grinning mischievously. "Nobody plays pranks on me and gets out unscathed."

"And the spell turns against the sorcerer." Kyoshi laughed slightly, making Kelsang sigh with a smile on his face. "See? I know how to have fun, hehe."

Before they could continue, a large woman in her early forties entered the kitchen dressed in the normal cook suit. She was Auntie Mui. She gave a tongue curled whistle, interrupting their healthy conversation. "Poetry time!" She said.

Everyone groaned, she was always trying to enforce high culture on her workers, or at least her idea of it. "Lee!" she said, signaling out an unfortunate work handler. "You start us off."

The poor line cook stumbled as he tried to compose on the spot while keeping count of his syllables...

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This chapter has 3 thousand words.

[1]: Neutral jing | Neutral jing is stated to be the key to earthbending. Fundamentally, neutral jing involves listening, though seemingly doing nothing, and waiting for the right moment to strike. When in combat, earthbenders are more stationary combatants, usually waiting for their opponent to come to them, while standing their ground and meeting their opponents' attacks head-on, before delivering a deadly strike of their own. Neutral jing forms the basis of true earthbending, and it is the concept used by the first earthbenders, the badgermoles. The idea is also fundamental in a seismic sense, a perceptive fighting style used by select benders, one of whom was Toph.

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Hello my dear readers, how was your weekend? I hope it was good and filled with lovely moments, be it with your parents, friends, coworkers, or anyone you met during this time. Have you noticed a pattern here? Maybe you did... Maybe you didn't... This fanfic is not just a normal story, as I've said before this isn't a wish-fulfillment story, I want to touch on many subjects during this long journey that we will spend together.

Family, friends, love, sacrifice, spiritualism, peace, and many other things will be present in the story, each character with their own motivations, ideals, objectives, flawns, and dreams. I wanted them to feel like a real person at least most of the times, I want you to relate to some of them, maybe hate others, so long as you have any feeling about them.

I find myself in a difficult time, struggling to find my own destine, identity, and objective for the future, I'm pretty sure most of you must have gone through something similar before, if not, it will happen one day, it is inevitable to think about life in general and how things have developed for you and those close to you during the years.

It's is fine to have such thoughts, who can be sure of everything after all. I like to question my existence, religion, society, and politics, even though I usually find myself in a labyrinth without any real answer.

Anyway, sorry for wasting your time with this little text of mine, I had to vent out some of my feelings, I hope we can grow together as this story progresses, both as humans and as writers (maybe) :)