38: South Pole-style party.
"It seems that soon the world will be importing products from the South Pole and not the other way around," Zuko said, tasting the Fresh Peach, as the old woman who offered the fruit's seed had called it.
"We thank you for giving us this opportunity," Katara said, her mouth a little stained from the peach juice, but still bowing briefly to those who made this possible.
"As long as you are here, our people will treat you with the greatest of honors," Sokka said, kneeling in the mud regardless of the dirt, cutting a peach into several pieces to give to the young children.
"I'm going to order a lot of these. How will they taste in ice cream?" Shisui muttered, watching the children play under the peach tree, oblivious to the dirt of the wet ground.
This kind of pure happiness made Shisui feel that he had done the right thing. He liked to see how far he could go with the water element and how much he still had to learn to improve.
Seeing the happy smiles of the old people and the children and even the tears shed by the weathered men made Shisui understand a little more about the concept of life.
It wasn't enlightenment or anything like that, but the understanding of life he possessed had ironically branched out even further. It was no longer just a small bud. His chi, which had been agitated like under a perpetual full moon, had calmed down a bit, and his energy control had improved a bit more.
With this new perspective, he looked at the peach tree and noticed a small spiritual fluctuation, and a smile appeared on his face. It seems that this tree, like the Ba Sing Se wall, will become special in time.
"And as tribe leader, I accept your purchase." Hakoda approached Shisui, holding a nibbled peach in his hand.
The least Hakoda expected was simply land that could be harvested, he never expected that Sage Shisui would directly grow a peach tree in this season.
The coldness that this fruit brought was different from the coldness of the South Pole environment, and it was a feeling that every tribesman would probably cherish for the rest of his life, as it represented the first chance for prosperity for the South Water Tribe.
"It is truly a miracle, Sage Shisui. Not even the Avatar has done something so... wonderful!" said Zhao happily, hiding his emotions quite well, and even his words were specially chosen for this moment.
Zhao just wanted to be able to burn that damn tree! But since the war had subsided, he felt his hands were tied. He could no longer achieve as much as before; his path to the top had been 'cut off', or so he thought.
It was all Shisui's fault. The war had been a 'normal' part of everyone's life in the Fire Nation, where ambitious people like him could find a way to get what they craved so much: glory.
But no more! Not only that, but the Fire Nation has become increasingly 'mixed' with those uncivilized, uneducated savages who use their nation's progress and resources to better themselves.
Look at those brats who still wear stinking skins! Taking advantage of what the Fire Nation was capable of, and Sage Shisui just wanted to make ice cream out of those special peaches? Damn it!
Zhao considered himself a 'purist,' a person who wanted to return the Fire Nation to its former glory, before a half-breed Son of Misfortune ruined the 'perfect' environment he had grown up in.
As an ambitious person, he knew how to keep quiet, stay calm, wait, pretend, observe, and learn. By observing Shisui, whether he wanted to or not, he learned a few things, and many ideas came to his mind.
He was waiting for the perfect moment to act, like a snake hiding in the grass waiting to poison its prey. The unfinished ideas in his mind kept colliding with another plan, a plan he would carry out himself.
But he needed a good scapegoat, so Zhao glanced sideways at Hakoda, his golden eyes sparkling with excitement as the idea occurred to him. What better scapegoat than a 'former' enemy? So Zhao smiled like the others, although the motive was different.
"We can expand as much as we want, but that will be another day. We have a party to attend. I'm interested to see how the inhabitants of the South Pole celebrate," Azula commented, bringing the minds of those present back to their goals.
Yes, this was a diplomatic visit, and there was a party to be celebrated. So Hakoda ordered several people to protect this piece of land and especially the peach tree.
So the group continued on their way to the place that had been prepared to receive the Fire Nation's entourage, but not before taking several fresh peaches to show to people along the way who had not yet heard of them.
Soon, they arrived at what appeared to be a large yurt, and outside the yurt were two guards who, upon seeing the Hakoda leader, reasserted their positions. One of them touched the ground with the ice spear in his hand, making a distinct sound.
"The leader has returned with the visitors!" At the guard's warning, a woman walked through the entrance of the yurt and introduced herself to the group.
A woman with brown skin, blue eyes, and hair pulled back in a wide bun, she wore a necklace with a bluish shell with waves representing the water element on it.
Though her face seemed kind and her aura seemed to be gentle, her eyes seemed to glow with wisdom. In her arms, she held what appeared to be a small girl wrapped in furs, who, upon seeing her siblings, made strange noises as she waved her hands.
"Arnaaluk, look, it's Sage Shisui. You like hearing his stories. Come say hello," Kya pointed her baby's head in Shisui's direction, causing the baby to see the Sage and start giggling.
"What a sweetheart!" exclaimed Ty Lee, her heart melting at the sight of such tenderness.
"This is my last daughter. She seems to have taken a liking to Sage Shisui," Hakoda said before approaching his wife and daughter.
"How envious," Azula muttered, looking sideways at Shisui, who felt as if something wanted to 'devour' him.
"You finally arrived. I heard what you did. Thank you for your efforts." Kya handed the baby to her husband before bowing to Shisui and the others.
"Don't worry, ma'am, it's the least we can do," Zuko said, making Kya smile.
"And our tribe will be eternally grateful," Kya replied before looking at Sokka and Katara.
"Go and get cleaned up! You can't attend the festival with so much mud on you. Wow, I never thought I would say those words at the South Pole, hahahahahaha". Kya burst out laughing with joy at this prospect.
"Come on, let's go inside. The feast has been prepared," Kya motioned, pulling the group into the yurt.
...
"I never thought the Southern Water Tribe's banquets would be so... liberal," Zhao said, his cheeks flushed as he watched the spectacle before him.
Some of the women of the tribe were dancing with only a few clothes on, even though it was very cold outside. The temperature inside the yurt was high enough to make anyone sweat, so this kind of dancing was not strange.
"Our culture is very open, you know, we're not as rigid as the northerners, they even forbid women to learn more complicated uses of waterbending than healing," Kya pointed out, not seeming to be uncomfortable or bothered by the festive atmosphere.
And what a party! People were dancing, drinking rather strong drinks, doing strength contests, and even hitting each other. Perhaps because they lived in such a cold environment, the people of the South Pole had more rustic and simple customs, and they had a lot of fun.
Unlike the banquets or parties in the Fire Nation, which were quieter and more reserved, even the music was less 'joyful' than at this party. Zhao looked sideways at everything in front of him with strangeness; he didn't understand anything, and he couldn't fit in.
That was why he sat at this table next to Kya, while the woman's husband seemed to be having fun with other men who were beating each other up elsewhere. Then he looked at Kya sharply, and perhaps out of drunkenness, his tongue loosened a little.
"You know, if I were the leader of the Northern Water Tribe, I would arm the women with the most insidious training possible, turning them into assassins with the facade of healers.
Then I would spread them all over the nobles of the world, no one will refuse the doctors, that way you can monitor your possible enemies and eliminate them with one command," Zhao said these words without thinking before taking another sip of the strong drink he was consuming.
"Interesting ideas you have, Vice Admiral Zhao." Kya looked at the glass Zhao was drinking from, and a subtle smile crossed her face as she realized that this 'big' man of the Fire Nation did not know as many insidious tricks as she thought.
...
"Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink!" the crowd shouted around a small table.
Sitting at the table were Shisui, Petra, and Sokka, who were steadily drinking large glasses of what appeared to be beer. Each time they finished, someone handed them another glass, encouraging them to consume more.
"I never thought Shisui would join in." Azula patted her face, mimicking her older brother's typical action.
"They dared him, Azula. A man doesn't back down from a dare," Ty Lee said before cheering Petra on.
"They told him, 'If you don't drink, you have no balls,' and so he accepted," Zuko punctuated, causing Azula to sigh in exasperation.
"And Petra, why did she join?" asked Azula, still not understanding why her friend had joined this strange competition.
"I challenged her!" said Ty Lee, happy that things had become more fun for her.
"You're too happy." Mai approached Ty Lee, causing the girl to hide behind Azula in mock fear.
"How about we join in? It looks fun," Ty Lee encouraged with a big smile on her face, wanting the chaos to continue.
"We can add our new friend, Kuzon, and our new friend, Katara," Ty Lee pulled over a young man who seemed to have his body covered, and unlike the rest of the men in the tribe, had little hair on his head, as well as a bandage on his forehead.
She also pulled Katara, who was a little wobbly from the amount of alcohol she had ingested, toward her. As a member of the Southern Water Tribe, how could she not drink with the others? Being a woman was no excuse!
...
The next morning, Katara woke up with a terrible headache, but she recovered quickly. She had been drinking alcohol with her father and brother since she was 14, so she was used to it.
But there was something strange: although she was dressed, it seemed that the party last night had been quite intense, so her memory was fuzzy. So she took off the sheet that covered her body before she froze.
Next to her, 'Kuzon' was asleep, dressed and all, but the bandage on his forehead had fallen off, revealing the blue arrowhead that marked him as an Airbender. Katara's face turned red, but when she realized that nothing 'special' had happened, she breathed a sigh of relief.
'It seems no one was surprised to see a stranger at the party,' Katara thought before slowly standing up, trying not to wake the sleeping Aang.
Then she watched him sleep, and her heart skipped a beat as she realized that she seemed to have fallen in love with this boy who had been listening to her alone for years.
'Sokka will be furious when he finds out, but who cares?' thought Katara before her face broke into a goofy grin.
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AN: Arnaaluk, an Inuit name. Zhao is a parody of the kind of people we all know. No, there was nothing sexy between Katara and Aang, in case it wasn't clear, sometimes people don't pay attention when they read...
Kya is the mastermind behind the Tribe. The party was so hardcore that no one noticed a 'Kuzon'. That was the name Aang used when he infiltrated the Fire Nation.
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