Carron

Both of them arrived at the cafeteria. It was full of soldiers, and Kain heard them talking about some recent events.

"Did you hear? Apparently the southern tribe doesn't have a single waterbender left."

"Really? That's awful. Hopefully we'll go over to help them after we've stabilized the situation here."

"Hahaha, don't worry about that, the fire nation has practically retreated already. It'll only take eight no, seven months for us to have completely defeated the fire nation navy."

Kain saw that the soldiers were eating on plates, without any utensils. On the side of the cafeteria was a buffet with mostly fish and other sea creatures serving as the main dish. He walked up to a buffet and added various types of creatures onto a plate he picked up from the side of the buffet.

Looking back he saw that Unaq was holding two plates full of food. Exasperated he thought, 'How much can this guy eat? He already ate five fish skewers and now he's taken two plates of food. I fear the day that he gets a wife and she has to cook for him.'

Looking around, they could find no empty table to sit down on. So, they just chose a table with one other occupant.

He couldn't see much of the person while he was standing, but as he sat down opposite to him he froze, "... Maroq?"

The person looked at him, surprised, "Ah no, I'm sorry but you've got the wrong person. I'm Carron, Maroq's son."

Kain looked at Carron more carefully. Now he could see that while his face looked very similar to Maroq, he had more fair skin, and was lacking any scars whatsoever. He was wearing a casual set of water tribe robes.

'So this is the brother that Tamara was talking about. One of my goals for even coming here was to prevent him from getting killed. Now, how do I keep him from dying then? Forcefully send him home?'

Seeing Kain's thoughtful expression, Carron asked, "Do you know my father?"

Kain nodded, "Yes, I do know him. He saved me once and helped me in training waterbending."

Carron asked curiously, "Oh? How did he save you exactly?"

Kain smiled. They continued talking for a while, with Unaq enjoying his food as he too listened. Kain told him about his amnesia, about the audience with the chief, about him being a waterbender and that he's a friend of Tamara's.

"You're a friend of Tamara? Is she doing fine?" He asked, with a hint of hurriedness in his voice. That was expected. He was her brother after all, and he hadn't seen her for how many years.

He replied, "She's doing fine. She's still trying to learn waterbending from observing other people waterbending. You know, she's quite worried for you actually. She's a bit panicked about a sudden fire nation attack." He didn't tell him about him teaching her waterbending. He still didn't know about Carron's stance on women warriors.

But it seemed that something he said made Carron very worried. He asked, "She thinks there will be a fire nation attack in the future?"

Kain, looking a bit confused, replied, "Yeah, she believes that the fire nation will randomly attack the frontlines, after having gathered their strength for a long time. Isn't that a silly idea?" He chuckled.

Internally however, he thought to himself, 'So Carron also believes that the fire nation will attack the water nation soon. But if he does, why doesn't he just go back home. Is it because of his pride? No, no even if it was his pride he would've at least told someone. Still, there seems to be no evidence of anyone here suspecting that the tribe could ever be attacked.' he narrowed his eyes.

Meanwhile, Carron's face paled before he faked a smile, "Yeah it's a silly idea hahaha." He stood up, "Uh.. I have to do something now, sorry we couldn't talk longer." He left the cafeteria, leaving his plate of half finished food behind as he left.

Kain watched him leave before standing up as well. If he needed to pay back Maroq by helping Carron survive the possible invasion, he would need to figure out what was up with him and what he knew about the invasion.

He also left the cafeteria, but not before telling Unaq, "I'm already full, I'll go walk around the town. We can meet up later at the barracks." He rushed in the direction Carron had went.

Unaq was about to call out to Kain, but he gave up once he realized that Kain was too far away, 'It doesn't matter anyway, he'll be fine.' He continued eating his food cluelessly.

Meanwhile, Kain asked people walking around if they had seen anyone wearing water tribe robes with black hair running to somewhere. He was eventually pointed to a building. It was a sort of water tribe post office, that soldiers used to contact their families.

Inside, he saw Carron standing, writing down on a piece of paper that was on a desk. Adjacent to the desk was a post office worker. He waited for Carron to finish writing. 

Carron put down his quill, before sighing in relief and giving the letter to the man. He then gave him 5 Yu before turning to leave. He was stopped in his tracks as he saw Kain leaning on the doorframe. He spoke, "Let's talk while walking."

He followed him as he said, "So, you believe that the water nation is going to be under attack soon as well?"

As soon as he finished his sentence, Carron's face paled as he dragged Kain to a nearby alleyway. Making sure that no one was in hearing range, he told him, "Don't say such things in public. You don't want any... unsavory people to hear you."

Kain raised his eyebrows, "What unsavory people are you talking about? Who were you writing a letter to?"

Carron looked a bit dejected before telling him, "Look, I can't tell you everything. Just know that some people are very much aware about the precarious situation we're in. You shouldn't just be telling random people about this."

He sighed, "I was writing to my sister. I'm afraid that she'll do something stupid. As for you, I suggest being prepared. We're trying to figure out what's going on here, but I know that it's far more grim than it seems."

"We?" Kain asked a bit surprised, 'So is this some sort of secret group dedicated to figure out the plans of the fire nation? Interesting.'

Carron realized the mistake in his wording. He looked at Kain again. This was a man his father trusted. He was also friends with his sister. Of course, he could be lying, but he knew how his sister and father behaved. Everything he said about them checked out with their personalities. He decided to take a gamble.

"Ask the bartender of the White Wolves bar at midnight for a one and a half shot of sunset moon and follow him if you truly wish to know." He paused for a second before giving him a warning, "Remember that you won't be able to go back after this." 

Carron then left, before he could say anything to him. His last words left an impact on Kain. Did he really want to risk joining whatever this was. He would put himself in far more danger if he were to join.

He thought back to why he had joined the frontlines in the first place. He had came here to pay back Maroq by helping Carron. But Carron had already joined whatever this group was. He wouldn't go back home without having resolved the problem. He could just leave now and survive another day.

But could he truly sacrifice all these people around him so that he could survive? He looked at the people walking around the street. They were happy. And yet, their home, and their lives would be destroyed by the fire nation eventually. 

Then again, how could he even save them? He imagined that the group had already informed the chief about this. But even with this, there was no sign of Na'Ok Thu in the 99th AG. One extra waterbender could not do anything.

The essence of life was to survive. If he were to die here, he wouldn't be able to go back to his previous life. He wouldn't be able to see his family again. The system had given him a second chance at life. Was he really ready to take this big of a risk just to help people.

But these people were no longer just fictional characters. They truly existed in this world. He thought about his friends, Tamara, Unaq and the rest. They could be in danger here. He thought to the people on the street again. All of these people, who wouldn't even realize that they were going to get attacked.

He made a choice. He would go to the meeting. He wanted to protect his friends, and the tribe as a whole. Not because he was just paying back a favor, but because he genuinely felt like one of them.

And so he waited.