Burning Bridges in the Wind

Kano stood at the window of his study, staring out at the Northern Water Tribe beyond. Almost half a year had passed since the war began. For those who stood against the Fire Nation, it was still a difficult battle. Every day, he met with his generals and ministers to make the decisions that they hoped would gain them victory. Every day their losses and their successes mounted. But in that moment, he was just enjoying a brief time of peace in his own mind, undisturbed by anything.

It was... short lived.

"My Lord Kanoei." said a voice behind him, making him turn. One of the servants was framed in the doorway. She carried a small scroll. He could make out the brown wax sealing it from across the room. It was from the Earth Kingdom. He gestured at her to bring the letter to him. After she handed it to him, she backed away swiftly -- more swiftly than usual. Something was wrong. Looking from her to the letter.

Slowly, as if death itself was sealed within, he broke the seal and unfurled the scroll. His eyes scanned the letters so elegantly painted onto the parchment. And with every line, his eyes widened. The scroll slipped from his hands and drifted down onto the floor as he collapsed into his chair.

The Seawolf burst through the water's surface, it's silvery skin reflecting the light of the bright sun above. The chief's submarine cut through the water gracefully as it pulled into the Port of Gaoling. Needless to say, it grabbed quite a bit of attention.

The company that disembarked were no different. Kano led a group of Water Tribe soldiers down the boarding ramp onto the docks and then waved them off. He was doing this alone. His guard captain argued, but he silenced him. Kano headed straight into town. He walked through the streets with an utter determination. His only concern was for the destination. He had someon-- something to retrieve. He owed that much to his old friend. He had spent the entire journey regretting ever leaving her and the Avatar behind. Soon enough, he found his way to the Sheriff's office. It was here he would retrieve her body from the coroner.

"I've never seen anything quite like it." the coroner was explaining to him as she opened the coffin-like drawer that Hun-Hun's body was stored in. A mist of icy fog erupted from the chamber the moment she did. "I promise you, the Sheriff is doing everything he can to find her killer. We just need you to identify her body for the records.

Kano watched as the slab of stone slid out slowly and his gaze fell upon a young woman. She looked as though she was asleep. She was covered from the chest down with a blanket. However... she was not...

"This isn't her." Kano said, looking down at her face blankly.

"T-this is the right drawer..." the coroner said slowly, checking her records.

"Well, it's not her." Kano repeated.

"There must be some sort of mistake..." the coroner said. "I don't know. This is the right body. Are you sure it's not her?"

"Quite." Kano nodded. He had in the space of a few seconds gone from filled with immeasurable sorrow to being enraged and it didn't seem to be stopping.

"I-I don't know what to say..."

"I want to see her personal effects immediately." Kano demanded. The coroner nodded vigorously, gesturing for him to follow her in a certain direction.

"I don't understand." Sheriff Cao said, shaking his head slowly. "These are her belongings, but it isn't your friend in the morgue? Could you be mistaken?"

"No, of course not!" Kano said incredulously. "Whoever is behind this killed the girl in your morgue and made her up to look the part of my friend. I can only guess that she was then kidnapped. Now, I demand you do everything in your power to find her!"

"You demand?" Cao said, chuckling. "This isn't the Northern Water Tribe. I don't have to do anything you demand, Northern Chief."

"That girl, my friend, is a citizen of the Water Tribes. As the Chieftain of her tribe and a representatives of the Water Tribes as a whole, I demand the Earth Kingdom do anything and everything they can to rescue her! If not, I will be forced to take this matter to higher authorities!"

Cao and Kano became locked in a battle of wills, their eyes silently dueling one another...

Hun-Hun planted her feet firmly into the sodden earth, paying no mind to her shoes becoming caked with muck and stones. She grabbed a fistful of the man's tunic and twisted it before shoving him up against the wall.

"I-I I'm sorry! Look please don't hurt me I'll never pickpocket ever again!"
His blabbering was met with a piercing stare, which shut him up effectively. "People tend to promise a lot of things.....and those promises are nothing but lies...things that won't even keep." She gripped his tunic tighter and curled her lips into a snarl. A whimper escaped him as he was jerked against the wall again.

"Well I mean it! I'll never do it again, I swear!"
Hun-Hun clamped a hand over his mouth and flared her nostrils, "Chittering hogmonkey is begging for mercy now.....isn't that sweet." A contrail of air billowed from her nose and blew his hair back around his face. The man's eyes widened the size of dinner plates and he squirmed.

"You're an airbender right? Aren't you supposed to be peaceful and hate violence??"
Hun-Hun stopped blowing his hair around and regarded him,"You talk a lot, do you know that? Chittering hogmonkey is incapable of shutting his trap. Looks like I will have to fix that."" She placed her free-hand on his shoulder and closed her eyes; her hand maneuvered around his shoulder until it found it's place on the left side of his chest. The man stiffened below her touch and her lip twitched in response.

She was taking her time with him, and enjoying it.

"What-what are you doing?!"

Hun-Hun's eyes snapped open and searching his quivering brown ones, a mixture of fear and anger boiling beneath the surface. Her mouth parted slightly before clamping itself shut. Whatever she thought she was going to say...she'd decided against it. She sensed the air in the main valve and released his tunic.

She focused on the center of his torso and murmured under her breath,"One less hogmonkey to run rampant in the streets..."

"What?! Somebod-GAHRK!"

Her hands reeled back and the mugger went rigid. His eyes, once contrite with fright, were now bulging in sheer terror. Her lips contorted into a snarl and she forcefully clenched her flexed fingers into fists.....

A guttural gurgle escaped his throat before his knees gave way, sending him face-first into the dirt. Hun-Hun side-stepped him and reached for his sash, yanking her coin satchel from his grip. She cast him one last glance before propelling herself down a rally, giving herself distance from his corpse.

"Chittering monkey....is no more."

ooOOoo

It was happening again, she was losing her mind.

Stumbling forward, she groped through the fog and found the wet side of a wooden building. Wasting no time, Hun-Hun pulled herself forward and hid within the blanket of darkness, stormy eyes watching the populace shift by. She chanced a breath and nearly choked on the fog, her chest heaving in the humidity of the south. The airbender leaned against the side of the building and rested her head against it's wall, eyes shut tightly with her grimace toward the sky.

The storm of her thoughts seemed to die down once she rested, and she sighed in gratitude for the mental respite. Opening her eyes, she gazed down at her hands and flexed her fingers. For a split second, a familiar tinge of crimson adorned her palms, before seemingly vanishing in thin air.


Hun-Hun closed her eyes and began chewing on her lip feverishly. There was a familiar pounding in the back of her eyelids, but not a single tear ever came. Her thoughts flashed back to the week before, night's past, and to every single incident since her "death". Her own fingers weren't even enough to recount every stunt she'd pulled, and a part of her still wouldn't believe she'd done those things.

"But that's noise for the birds,"She snorted and pushed herself off of the wall, shrouding herself in the dark cloak she wore, "And that's old news." Hun-Hun stalked out of the alleyway and into the busier part of the city. She needed to put as much distance between herself and the forest as quickly as possible. The cape of her cloak swished malevolently in her unnerving wake, and her hood cast an eerie shadow over her piercing eyes. As she parted the sea of greens and browns Hun-Hun kept her fierce gaze on a building that overlooked the rest of the town.


"Even if you do this....do you think you'll find her?"

Hun-Hun nearly stumbled over a rock in the street and straightened herself with a puff of air. She stiffened and curled her fists, her voice was sharp,"What?"

There was a pause before her tormentor replied, "Have you found her?"

She forced her way through a group of people, harshly bumping into one man in particular, and continued going, not even bothering to spare a glance behind. The sun had already set, and the stars had long since claimed the sky. Her feet dipped into another alleyway and tucked herself into a crook of its shadows. Her eyes glinted against the stars and cut through the darkness of her hood, every other indication of emotion abandoned. The question that had boggled her for years came to a stop and danced in front of her in bold characters. Hun-Hun blinked to quell the illusion, only to have them appear behind her eyelids instead.


"There's no need to find her......because I already ended her."

The wind ran through Kano's hair as he stood atop the conning tower of the Seawolf. She was running on the surface, headed for the port of a nearby report regarding another victim of the so-called Spectral Killer. For nigh on six months at the height of a war, Kano had been hunting the lunatic, whoever he was. Once again, the chase had carried him into the Earth Kingdom. Three new victims, or so the report had told. He was already in these waters on business about the war, otherwise his duties would have kept him far away.

"My Lord." said a voice. He recognized it as that of Captain Klargith, the commander of the Seawolf. Though she belonged to Kano, she needed an officer to care for her day to day affairs. In his position, Kano didn't have the time.

"What is it, Captain?" he asked, not bothering to turn. He had his eyes closed, the better to concentrate on the task ahead.

"My Chief, I just... don't know what you are hoping to find with these new victims that the others didn't tell you." Klargith said. "Perhaps we should leave this investigation to the proper authorities? Surely we don't have enough to find this person."

Kano turned slowly.

"Captain..." he said. "I cling to the hope that a very dear friend is still alive and in that murderer's possession. But even if she is not, I owe her my efforts to find her at least."

"Port is dead ahead!" called a voice up through the hatch.

Kano turned. After months, he was here again. Gaoling. It all started here. Spirit's willing, it would all end here too.

"Chief Kanoei." said the Sheriff, a man named Lu Cao. He had been waiting for Kano on the docks. The Seawolf had sent a transmission ahead to the Water Tribe embassy and they, in turn, had notified the Sheriff of Kano's immanent arrival. But Sheriff Cao had been very useful these few months, sending Kano all the information they had on the murders. Since the airbender girl, who he later discovered was named Xileinia, the murders had expanded and were reported in Omashu, Ba Sing Se, even some remote cities in the Fire Nation reported such murders. However, if it weren't for the Water Tribe spies in the Fire Nation, Kano would never have heard of them.

"Sheriff." Kano said, grasping his hand briefly before walking with him into the city. It was quite a moment of deja vu.

"I had my men preserve the crime scene since you were so close." Cao explained, guiding him toward the site. "I figured you'd like to have a look at it."

"Of course!" Kano said. This was quite something. It had taken him so long to arrive at the other sites that there was hardly anything in the way of preservation at the crime scenes. It was a surprise to Kano. Maybe this was more significant a stop than the good Captain had thought.

Down this avenue and that street, he walked with the Sheriff. Eventually, they came to a rather unusual sight -- a series of bamboo screens blocking off an alleyway, flanked by a pair of deputies armed with swords. At the approach of the Sheriff, they nodded and opened the screens, allowing Kano and Cao to enter.

It was a rather grizzly sight. A crumpled figure of a man laying in the middle of the alley, a look of mortal shock on his face. A pool of blood encircled his head. Kano approached and crouched down, examining the body.

"This blood..." he said, looking for wounds. "It's coming from inside his mouth."

"Yes," said Cao. "The coroner was by earlier. She said that he was killed in similar fashion to the others. The lungs and heart were destroyed from the inside out."

"But not the brain?" Kano asked, looking up at him.

"No. Should it have?" Cao asked, looking puzzled.

"Well, I have a few reports from agents in the Fire Nation Isles that said similar murders were committed. However, those involved the destruction of the brain as well."

"Strange. We haven't had one like that here."

Kano straightened up as Cao began informing him about the different witness statements he'd taken. Kano listened carefully, but most of it was useless. He was far more interested in the surroundings. It was a curious sort of thing. All the dust and dirt, dry as bone save for that which was mixed in with the man's blood, had been displaced from the alley's cobbles. It was rather like the snow displaced when... when an airbender flew past.

"Sheriff." he said slowly. "Any reports of a tattooed man or woman in the area?"

"Tattooed?" Cao asked, confused.

"Yes. Airbender tattoos." Kano nodded, looking back at him.

"N... no. Not that I'm aware of." Cao said slowly.

"What about, uh... anyone wearing Air Nomad clothing or with known Air Nomad traits. Silver eyes, pale skin, that sort of thing."

Cao chuckled a little incredulously.

"I'm afraid that's not exactly the sort of thing that people take the time to report, Chief Kanoei." he said. "I'm sorry. Do you think an airbender was responsible for this?"

"Hard as it is to believe." Kano said, turning and indicating the dust. "I think so."

Cao moved around the body and looked down at the dust as Kano was.

"But... this many murders, the work of an airbender?" Cao said, sounding as though he couldn't quite believe the implication.

"At the very least, there was one here at or around the time of the murder. Much before and the wind and pedestrians would have moved the dust around again. And any time after, the person would have had to be a witness... Where does this alley lead?"

"Er... to East End." Cao said. "Tens of thousands live there. There's no way much evidence survived down that way."

"We don't know until we look, do we?" Kano said, looking around at Cao. The Sheriff just looked between the body, dust, and Kano himself and shrugged.

Hun-Hun nudged the woman's head with the tip of her boot gently. The head of the woman, who's name was Luli at the time, lolled to the side and stared up at her assailant. Hun-Hun clicked the tip of her boot against Luli's head so that it was face down on the ground, and out of her sight.

"Fear doesn't really suit you well darling. Best to keep that face from the public you know?" She removed the hood of her cloak and bent down to get a better look at the victim. This woman had in fact been someone that she'd been watching for some time. Luli was from a noble family in eastern Gaoling and frequented the tea shop she worked at routinely. She was a lovely woman, with her emeraled green eyes and brown hair....

But her attitude was absolutely disgusting.

"Perhaps in your next life you'll learn to deal with people accordingly. I could've let you live while permanently disfigured, so consider this a grace from me."

She pulled the hood over her head reached into the sash of her tunic. Her hands found a short hunting knife and she twiddled it in her palm. She knelt before Luli's lifeless corpse and lifted her chin so that she was facing her.

Hun-Hun smiled, "Now, how about we talk shop while I remodel your face? You'd make......a beautiful airbender." She dug the tip of the blade into Luli's forehead and set about giving her an arrow, humming an old water tribe tune all the while. It was a ritual really; whenever there was a female Hun-Hun would always carve an arrow in the center of their foreheads, no matter what nation.

'In honor of Xileina......

In honor of me......'

The tattooing was nearly complete when she heard a rustling at the end of the street. Hun-Hun leaped to her feet in an instant and sheathed her hunter's dagger. She secured her hood over her head and chanced a look behind her.

Her lips twisted into a frown.

Without wasting time she jumped over Luli's fallen corpse and propelled herself upward with a blast of air. Unbeknownst to her a tiny tin slipped out of her sash and hit the ground, rolling to a stop near Luli's foot. Hun-hun hoisted latched onto the nearest building's edge and allowed herself to be engulfed in the darkness. Curiously, she peered over the edge discreetly and waited.

In the back of her mind, the question still rolled in the unending silence....

'Have you found her?'

"THIS WAY!" shouted Cao to his men. Kano was with the Sheriff, one of the sabers Nakkoa had gifted him hanging from his belt. He hadn't bothered bringing both because he doubted he'd need either in this situation.

"A muffled scream." Kano muttered to himself as they moved forward. It had to have been at least a half hour. He only hoped they were in time to save whoever it was. As they turned the corner into the side street the report had indicated, Kano saw Cao stop dead, cursing under his breath out of the corner of his eye. Kano, however, wasn't giving up so easily. He charged along the road and skidded to a halt beside the woman, grabbing her and turning her over.

His eyes snapped shut in disgust the moment he saw her disfigured face. It took him a moment to recover from it. He looked down into her face. Her eyes were wide in shock and terror. It was just like the others. Even the arrow on the forehead. Always the women.

But there was something different. It wasn't complete. Dawning comprehension stole over Kano and he looked around at Cao.

"CAO!" he yelled. "THE KILLER! THEY WERE JUST HERE!"

Cao's eyes widened.

"Spread out!" he barked at his deputies. There were dozens of them. "Find him!"

Kano placed the body gently on the ground and straightened up. It was a new moon. The entire city was in almost complete darkness save for the torches lighting the roads and the candles illuminating the many windows lining them. He scanned the street up and down with his gaze but there was no sign of the killer anywhere.

"Where does an airbender hide?" he muttered to himself. He didn't bother drawing his sword. If he was attacked by a bender, it wouldn't serve him very well. He needed his hands free to bend. "... The sky!"

He looked up. He scanned the skies. There were white clouds overhead, gunmetal gray and faint in the darkness. Yet against them, the figure perched on the rooftops high above the stepped road was clear, a dark shape against the sky.

"There!" Kano shouted. Without hesitation, he bent water from a nearby channel and sent it at the figure in a stream, hoping to bind whoever it was and pull them down. He would fail...

Hun-Hun's hand flew to the staff resting against her back and she snatched it from it's holster. She cursed under her breath as the officers gathered around to inspect the body of Luli, utterly upset that her makeover was incomplete. Before she could snap open her glider and fly away, one of the men's head snapped up towards the sky and scanned the rooftops. Instinctively she retracted further into the shadows and watched him with a predatory glare. She wasn't able to make out his features, but she could see his movements clear enough.

"THERE!"

The man below conjured a stream of water from a nearby river and sent it spiraling towards her. Hun-Hun doubled-back and clenched her jaw, 'How the Tui were they able to see me?!' Her eyes darted from the rapidly approaching stream to the scrambling officers below. If this were a different time and place, she would have honestly laughed at their ridiculous appearance. They looked so much like sparrowkeets with their heads cut off that it was gut-bustingly hilarious.

And despite herself, she actually let out a snort and laughed.

"I've dealt with waterbenders all of my life, nothing I can't handle." Hun-Hun twirled her glider staff in a quick circular motion before slamming it down on the roof's edge. A razor-thin slice of wind sawed through the water stream and minced it to pieces. The moment her wind-slice made contact with the whip she popped open her glider and took off. The harsh winds blew her hood off of her forehead as she zigzagged before zipping off in a random direction. She merely shrugged it off and put as much distance between the party and herself as much as possible. It was under a new moon, no one would recognize her.

Kano ran after the figure disappearing into the night but slowed quickly to a jog. It was pointless. She was gone. And it was a she. From the sound of her voice, a young she at that. As he slowed to a stop, looking after her, he realized his foot was propped up atop something. He looked down, moving his booted foot. There, slightly crushed, was a small tin. A few leaves peeked out from within.

Stooping, he picked up the tin and opened it, using an index finger to move the contents around inside. He picked out one of the leaves and felt it. They were dried and smelled of a light sort of aroma that was quite familiar to him. He touched his pinkie to his tongue and then to the dregs, bringing a few tiny leaves up to his mouth. He tasted them carefully.

"What is it?" asked Cao. He had approached when he saw Kano stoop. He was looking over his shoulder.

"These leaves." Kano said slowly, his expression changing from curious to disgusted. "They're from the Spirit Oasis. They come from a tree there that makes for a highly coveted tea. They're hard to come by. Impossible if you don't have some connection to the Northern Water Tribe."

"Well, then you might know who the killer is!" Cao said, the excitement at the prospect of a suspect quite audible in his voice.

"Aye." Kano said slowly, looking up at the empty sky. "I think I might know exactly who she is."

Hun-Hun wiped the fog away from her tiny mirror and blew a cool stream of air from her nose. She slid open a window and let the steam from the bath out into the air. Her hair, now dyed a chocolate brown, clung to her wet skin as she peered in the mirror further. She noticed that the rinse was beginning to fade and she made a mental note to peruse the marketplace for more. Opting to dry normally, Hun-hun reached a tentative hand for the folding towels when-

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Ehhhh Jiaojie are you up?!"

Hun-Hun fumbled with the towel she managed to snag and hastily wrapped it around herself."Eh?! One second Noona!" She slipped her feet into a pair of geta sandals and stumbled out of the small bathhouse area. The cold air stung against her tanned skin and she hissed at the contact, wishing she was a firebender for the instant body heat.

"Maa, come come let me look at you!" A pair of hands clasped the younger girl by the shoulders and elicited a yelp as she was forcefully spun around. The woman in question, Noona, forced the latter onto a cushion and began the fierce process of braiding her ridiculously long hair.

"Maa Jiaojie, when are you ever going to cut this?"
Hun-Hun, or rather Jiaojie, absentmindedly stroked a strand and rolled her eyes, "Never." The process was over before she knew it and, as always she opted to leave out any hair ties. Instead she settled for a simple bang on the left side of her face, much like the fabled acrobat from a time long past.

"Why are you day-dreaming little duck? To the teashop opens in 10!" Noona thrust the tin of white powder into her hands and exited the room in a flurry of robes, most likely in a hurry to awaken the other girls. Hun-Hun sighed and dabbed a brush into the powder before applying it to her face.

In a matter of minutes she could have passed as any one from the Earth kingdom or the fire nation colonies.


"Welcome to the Golden Dragon, we hope you enjoy your stay!" The group of girls chorused before heading for their different sections. Hun-Hun waltzed from the kitchens, the tail of her jade green haenbok sweeping the teashop's floors. She danced through the bustling crowds of people while balancing a tray of tea and almond cookies, determined to reach her destination.

"You see that table over there? You are to give this tray to them, understand?"
Hun-Hun nodded and set off for the table. However before she could even reach the other end of the little tavern the entrance swung open. Hun-Hun and a few other girls halted in their work and glanced at the doorway, a bit weirded out by the scene.

HunHun's eyes widened a touch and she nearly knocked over another girl. "Ouch Jiaojie watch it will ya?!"

Hun-Hun waved her off and trained her eyes on the group of men before turning away,"Sorry Fan...didn't see you because you're so short."

Kano paced around the Sheriff's office, his mind racing furiously.

"So you think it's this, uh... Hu-Hun--"

"Hun-Hun!" Kano corrected Cao.

"Hun-Hun, right." Cao nodded, leaning back in his seat at his desk. "You think the murderer is this Hun-Hun girl?"

"Based on what I've seen, I think it's the best explanation." Kano said shortly. "I mean, we've been hunting down an airbender of some skill. I'm here to tell you, she's nothing short of prodigious. We finally get a real clue," he brandished the tin of leaves. "and there's only one way she could have gotten them!"

He threw the tin against the wall angrily. It burst open, the leaves going everywhere. He was furious with himself. How did he not see this coming?! It was so obvious!

"Look," Cao said slowly. "We don't know anything except that it's a young woman. That was based off her voice. Now, you say she's an old friend of yours. Did you recognize her voice at all?"

"Y-- no, well... maybe. I don't know." Kano said, racking his brain for the solid truth of an answer. "I never heard Hun-Hun sound that cold. It might have been her voice, it..."

"Well then all we know is what we thought we knew before." Cao said, nodding slowly. "We know that somehow the killer got your friend's personal effects when she kidnapped her and we know she used them to attempt to make Hun-Hun disappear by killing that poor girl six months ago. We know she's an airbender, a female, and that she's crafty enough to evade notice for long periods of time."

"Hun-Hun fits the information we have." Kano said. He loathed every word.

"So do thousands of other people if we try hard enough, Young Chief." Cao said. "I've been doing this for almost forty years. I'm telling you now, the chances that your childhood friend is behind these attacks... they're phenomenal. Astronomical even."

Kano sighed. He hoped he was wrong.

The following morning Kano rose early and disembarked the Seawolf, still docked in the harbor. He met up with Cao and his deputies, who, together with the local Kyoshi Legion (a group Kano was still a bit uncomfortable around) were canvasing several areas of the city near the latest murder scene for any witnesses who could shed light on their shadowy culprit.

"There's a few busy establishments in the area." Cao was explaining as they marched along one of the more bustling merchant roads. "I think we four should start there. Might be that someone there saw something."

Kano nodded his agreement with the plan. Before long, they were ducking into a fine little teashop called the Golden Dragon. Many eyes turned toward them but few lingered as they entered. Kano, Cao, and two of Cao's most senior deputies, Tao Lai and Bei Liang took seats at the most remote empty table in the place. As soon as they sat down, they began conversing in low tones.

"We'll have breakfast first." Cao said. "Then we'll ask around."

"Fine." Kano said flatly. He was still upset about the prospect of his old friend being a suspect, if only in his mind. He couldn't believe he could think she was behind something so gruesome.

Hun-Hun loomed over the piping hot earthenware oven, wooden spoon poised. She plopped the utensil down into the dark green liquid and sloshed it around for a bit before moving the pot from the oven and setting it on the counter. Immediately another worker popped up behind her and whisked the pot away to the china sets to be poured.

'We're having an unusually busy day today,' She mused, setting the spoon down, 'Wonder what all of the fuss is about?'

"JIAOJIE!"
"Eh?!"
Foumei snickered behind her sleeve as Hun-Hun had a spasm and jumped nearly ten feet in the air. Her braid whipped around and smacked her in the face when she doubled over to clutch her chest and catch her breath. At this point Foumei didn't even bother to hide her mirth anymore and let the cackles fly.

"Maa Foumei you idiot what gives?!" Hun-Hun barked. She regained her composure and tossed her braid behind her shoulder, narrowing her eyes in annoyance. Foumei promptly ignored this and continued on until her chortles tapered off into mere snorts. A shining wetness prickled the corners of her eyes and she dabbed them away with the sleeve of her own purple haenbok, still grinning.

"Oh Jiao, I'm telling you that never gets old."
Hun-Hun cut the girl a dark look, "To the point Fou. I was kind of in the middle of something here." She gestured to the earthenware oven that was set with boiling pots of tea and pursed her lips, "So just spit it out before they steep too long!"

"Alright, alright yeesh. I need help with my section, I'm the only one covering it today."

"Then ask Peizhi," Hun-Hun supplied, turning her attention to the teas once more, "Doesn't she usually take half of your section?"

Foumei wrapped her hand around Hun-Hun's braid and gave it a slight tug, "Don't you think if Peizhi was here that I would've asked her? She's off today!" The older girl recoiled her hand as Hun-Hun rounded on her, only offering up a cheeky smile. The two of them locked eyes and the conversation grew to a standstill. Eventually, Hun-Hun rolled her eyes toward the ceiling and mumbled something of a yes under her breath.

"You will?! GREAT LET'S GO!" Foumei grabbed her by the sleeve of her haenbok and raced out of the kitchens. Startled, Hun-Hun accidentally dropped the spoon in one of the pots and almost lost one of her geta sandals.

"Ack Foumei! Satoshi! Cover for meeeeeee!"


"THIS is your section?"

"Yep, bit of a crowd isn't it?"
Both girls balanced the heavily laden food trays and fluttered around the tables. It was like a dance of sorts really: The two of them entered together, would separate to tend to the tables and then twirl around to meet up with each other once more. This was technically their fourth round and they were taking care of the secluded booths and far off tables at this point. The place was congested with business, and she knew her feet would kill her at the end of the day, but at least she was making her payroll.

"And Noona only has two of you working this huge area?" Hun-Hun asked after they returned from the kitchens again. The duo separated to tend to their respective customers and then met up in the center. Foumei gave her a nod.

"Yea, it's usually at least three of us though. But-Oh! Jiao, that table back there...can you handle them for me please? I need to jet upstairs for a second and get that new blend of tea, you know the one right?"

"Yea yea,"Hun-Hun dispatched her empty tray to another servant,"It's in the storage room, under the spring blends. Just hurry back alright?"
Foumei flashed her a smile before vanishing up a flight of stairs, "Knew I could count on you Jiaojie!"

Once Fou was out of sight, Hun-Hun's lips became set in a thin line. 'Well, come on Jiao, lets get this over with.' She squared her shoulders and turned to the face the targeted table and, as she approached she carefully crafted her expression in to one of a genuine smile.

"Welcome to the Golden Dragon!" She piped and looked at them pleasantly,"My name is-"

Bluish-grey eyes met pure cerulean....

And her heart almost dropped into the pit of her stomach.
Almost.

"My name is Jiaojie," She continued, words smoothed over in honey, "I'm your server for today."

"Ah!" Cao said, smiling up at the waitress. He was obviously giving a great deal more interest to his breakfast than to his case and it really chapped Kano's hide. "Yes, I want a few steam buns and a cup of the strongest black tea you have available."

"Mint." Tao Lai said flatly. "And a few almond cookies."

"Matcha." said Bei Liang. "And I'll have some steam buns too."

Kano's eyes darted from one speaker to the next, each time he felt a slight pang of frustration that didn't really have a conscious center for him. All he knew was that he found their apparent disregards for the situation at hand a little annoying and just a bit enraging. He was so busy going over the information in his head that he didn't even bother looking up at the waitress save for a quick glance.

"Ginseng tea, please." he said when finally it was his turn to order. In all likelihood, the tea, which he was certain would be quite nice, would go untouched. He was just ordering to round out the order and get her away from the table so they could return to the business at hand. "Nothing to eat."

She nodded wordlessly and retreated from the table post-haste, disappearing in the flurry of servers of the tavern. Hun-Hun cut through a set of double doors and marched down a short hallway, her fists clenched in the long sleeves of her hanbok. She stepped over a pile of boxes and slipped into the kitchen unannounced; handing the shorthand list to the cooks without so much as a back glance before vanishing up a staircase.

The minute she rounded a corner to the storage room her knees buckled and she doubled over. "How is this happening?" The words scratched the back of her throat and fell thick like tumbling blocks, "He's not supposed to be here."

Her vision suddenly began to swirl and twist in front of her, distorting itself until numerous shadowy shapes clouded her eye sight. Some were tall, some were short, and by the sound of their jarbled voices some were men and women. Had been. They crowded around her, invading her personal space until she could barely breathe. Hun-Hun's hand flew to her mouth and she fell against one of the walls for support, vomit building up in the back of her throat.

"The Wind Maiden came to me tonight....
Stayed with me until Agni's light....."
"No!" Hun-Hun's fingers dug into the soft flesh of her cheeks and smeared her face powder, "Shutup! SHUT UP!"
"As darkness fell under the shadowed moon....
The maiden waltzed into my room....."
The shadows began to circle around her this time, the room swimming until she saw nothing but blurs and heard distorted screams. Whether they came from her own mouth or theirs' she didn't know, the only thing she could do was grip the wall to keep her from falling to the floor.

"Leave me alone!"
"Rest your arrowed bones beside my bed...
And laid her arrowed hands upon my head....
Cast your spell of slumber deep....
And stay beside me as I sleep....
With her I died before I could wake....
WHY WAS MY SOUL THE ONE YOU'D TAKE?!"

"NO!" She screamed, yanking her hair until it was jostled from it's braid, "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! YOU'RE NOT REAL AND YOU'RE NOT HERE!"

"Who's not supposed to be here?"

Hun-Hun's heart jumped into her throat and she instinctively ducked her head down, hiding behind her single bang. The shadowed tormentors shattered and her vision became less cloudly, but still predominantly blurry. Soft foot-falls across the floors alerted her to the fact that whoever it was wasn't going to be leaving anytime soon. In fact, after ten seconds of her meditative counting, the entity stopped and clapped a gentle hand on her shoulder.

Hun-Hun shrieked and dropped to the floor.

"Jiao! Jiao it's just me, Fou!" Foumei dropped a set of packages she'd been holding and fell to the floor. She scrambled over to Hun-Hun and wrapped a tentative arm around her, trying to steady the girl as her trembles went from subtle to violent. Foumei ran her fingers through Hun-Hun's thick brown hair and rocked her slowly with her free arm, humming one of her favorite earth kingdom lullabies. The airbender clung to the elder girl and fisted the
dongjeong on the girl's dress. Foumei did nothing but lean against the wall and shift so that both of her arms were wrapped around her once more. Silence permeated the empty hallway and left behind a wedge of eerie tension so thick it could've been sliced with a water tribe knife; the only noises were Foumei's consistent humming and Hun-Hun's strangled sobs.

"It's okay Jie-Jie....."
"I know....it was those people again, wasn't it?"
Strangled snort.
"It's okay Jiao, they won't hurt you, it's alright, they're not real."
Foumei took Hun-Hun by the chin and tilted her head back so that they were looking in each other's eyes, "You're make-ups running Jiao, and your braid is loose. Better go and fix it up before Noona catches you. Tell you what? I'll go fix you some of that tea you fancy alot, was gonna get it anyway because Cook says he needs it. Come on." She rose to a stand and extended her hand; Hun-Hun took it gratefully and stood up, wobbling a little.

"I'll take over for you until you're ready, fifteen minutes at best okay?" She placed her hands on the shaken airbender's shoulders and steered her towards their common room. Foumei slid open the paper door and plopped the girl down on a cushion, hugging her one last time.

"I'll have cook make that special blend for you, you know the one for your nightmares, kay? Be back in a jiffy!" She slipped through another door and entered another room. Rifling through the cabinets, Foumei procured a few special tins of tea leaves and bolted down the stairs to the kitchens. She opened the tins and emptied them into a pot that was already boiling. After waiting for a few minutes she poured some into an individual cup and added a small plate of moon cakes for good measure. A few servers entered the kitchens and collected the finished trays of food and teas for the customers.

Satoshi waved his hand in the air, "Fou, where's that pot with that Dragon Eye tea, you know the strongest in the house?"
"It's over there by the steam buns Toshi," She waved him off, not even looking, "Just pour that, the mint and the ginseng and I'll take everything to 'em."

Satoshi shrugged and reached for the pot, his eyes caught sight of the empty tiny tins and he paused. "Fou I don't see that pot you meant, eh whatever." He collected them and pitched them in the trash. Dusting his hands, Satoshi poured the different teas and stacked the various entrees near their prospective drinks. His brown eyes looked into one of the cups and he quirked a brow, 'Since when was Dragon Eye tea a dark blue color?'

"Fou I've got the tray set."
"Thanks. Here you take this up to the girls' quarters and leave it outside the door. I'll be right back."

The two servers swapped trays and Foumei waltzed back into the busier part of the tavern. She came to the table of inconspicuous men and placed a hand on her hip.

"Hey hey, Foumei and I'm your second server for the day!" Her hands procured the different plates and she organized them on the table quickly, talking all the while.

"One matcha, one mint, a set of almond cookies, one ginseng, a plate of steam buns and our strongest tea in the house, the Dragon Eye. Hope you enjoy!"

As each person in turn was given their order, Kano wondered, more out of general curiosity than anything, where the other waitress had gone. But it didn't really matter. When he was handed his ginseng tea, he took a quick sip just to make the expense worthy in part. As he had guessed, it was quite good. But he wasn't really in the mood for anything at the moment. He set his cup down just as Cao was taking the first sip of his tea.

"O-oh!" Cao said, his interest apparently piqued by the tea. "That is incredible! What did you say this stuff was?"

"Dragon's Eye." the waitress said slowly, surprised by his reaction.

"Oh, it's great!" Cao said, nodding with a grin. "I love that light sweetness! I must remember to order this again some time..."

"S-sweet?" the waitress said, bewildered.

"Let me see that." Kano said, reaching over and taking the cup from Cao, who barked indignation at him unsurprisingly. Not that he cared. He looked into the cup carefully and sniffed the tea's fumes. He then took a sip.

"Hey!" Cao said angrily.

"Shh!" Kano hissed. One last test was all it would take -- he dipped a pair of chopsticks from the cup sitting against the wall at the far end of the table into the liquid and then let a drop drip off onto the pale, light wood of the table's surface. With a thumb, he spread the liquid out into a thin film. It was bright blue.

"Damn!" he cursed, jumping up and marching around the waitress, Spirit Tea in hand, and into the kitchens. Several of the waitresses argued his presence there, but he didn't care. He wanted an explanation for how and why Cao had just been served tea made from the leaves of the Spirit Tree. "Who's in charge of this kitchen?!" he demanded, barging in. He gained one or two incredulous looks from those in the place. "Who?!"

"I am." said a man who looked well into his fifties. "And if you have complaints about the food, you'll have to talk to Noona."

"It's not the food I want to know about." Kano said sharply, marching around the large table in the middle of the kitchen that so many things were sitting on, being prepared and slamming the cup on the corner next to the man. "It's the tea that's got me bothered..."

The man's eyebrows raised.

"Now," Kano said slowly, his off hand tightening around the hilt of his saber visibly. "You're going to tell me exactly where you got this from."

Hideyasu crossed his arms around his chest and looked Kanoei squarely in the eye, "I'm going to need you to remove your hand from that blade of yours young man, before I have to throw your tanned hide out of my tavern." He frowned severely, lips pressed into a hard grimace that did not go missed under his grand mustache. Hideyasu simply stood staring at Kanoei while everyone else stared at the two of them. Noona bounded into the kitchen carrying two trays of dirty dishes while whistling a made up tune. She caught sight of Kanoei with his hand gripping the cutlass blade and choked on a note before bellowing,

"What in the Shu is going on here?!"

Hideyasu grunted and inclined his head, "The rascal here just barged into my kitchens, demanding to know where in the badgermoles do we get our tea from."

Noona's round golden eyes slid from the seething young man to Hideyasu and she quirked a brow, "Is there something wrong with the tea?"

At that moment, Jiaojie came sauntering into the kitchens the same time that Foumei did, everyone stopping and staring curiously and awkwardly.

Jiaojie was the first one to break the silence, "Fou, where's the Elixir of Yue?"
"It's over ther-Well it was.....What's up?"
Jiaojie gave her a withering glare before wincing," That idiot Satoshi gave me that nasty Dragon's Eye, where's the tea? I really need it."

Foumei went over to the table she had been using earlier and ghosted her hands over the surface, looking for any traces of the leaves left. Finding none, she grumbled under her breath and faced Jiaojie, who was edging towards the exit of the kitchen.

"I don't know where the tins went Jiaojie, they may have got thrown away...I'm sorry."

Jiaojie nodded in her direction and turned away, avoiding Kanoei's eyes, "It's alright, I'll just...I'll just go without it then."

Hideyasu watched Jiaojie head for the door and furrowed his brows, "Jiao! Where are you going?"

However the airbender didn't respond, for she was already out of the door and vanishing into the cover of the tavern's darkness.

Kano turned on his heel when the owner made his demands, not so much as a drop of the ferocity in his features draining away.

"I'll handle my weapons however I deem necessary." Kano said shortly. "And you will not hinder my investigation. You have any idea what kind of tea this is? Or where it comes from? Eh?"

"What in the Shu is going on here?!"

"The rascal here just barged into my kitchens, demanding to know where in the badgermoles do we get our tea from."

"No, what's going on here is I've been tracking a serial killer for six months and last night I managed to catch up with them." Kano said, advancing on the owner, brandishing a warning finger. "Can you guess what they dropped? A TIN OF THIS TEA, DAMN IT!"

At that moment, two waitresses entered the kitchen, looking around for something. It didn't draw much of his attention away from the owner, with whom he was having something of a glaring contest, the stubborn old bastard, until one of them mentioned the 'Elixer of Yue'. It was an old name for the Spirit Tea.

Kano looked around so fast he nearly put a crick in his neck. One was their waitress, Foumei or whatever she called herself. The other was the one who had asked about it. The moment she saw Kano, she started avoiding his eye. She was headed for the door. Kano slowly moved around the end of the table, putting himself in a position to run after her if she tried to slip away. There was something not quite right about this girl, Jiaojie.

"You." he said as she continued toward the door, the owner asking his own questions of her. "You were the girl who first waited on us. Where'd you go? Turn around!"

"Leave her alone!" the older woman who had entered demanded of Kano. He ignored her. When the girl slipped out the door again, he made after her. He was almost to the door when a large arm shot out and slammed against the wall, barring his path.

"You're not chasing after one of my girls, Mister." the owner growled, narrowing his eyes at Kano. "I'm not letting you harra--AAH AH!"

Kano had seized his hand and bent it back forcefully, making the man shrink to the ground in pain. This was half a physical act, half bloodbending. He just would rather them assume he was stronger than he looked than assume he was capable of bloodbending without a full moon. Until that moment, he hadn't used that ability at all. His distaste for the art was still strong. But the scrolls from Pa Lahkti had been very useful indeed and he had managed to become skilled enough to summon simple techniques into effect. Once he was sure the man would no longer stand in his way, he released him, pushing him back onto the floor.

"... Forgive me." he said shortly with a sigh, looking down at the man. And with that, he rushed out the door.

Out in the hall, he looked this way and that. There was no sign of her out the back door, but then that looked like it led out into a courtyard. He headed into the restaurant proper and peered around. He spotted a brown-haired girl heading toward the front door.

"Cao!" he shouted, silencing half the restaurant instantly. Cao and the deputies had... returned to their breakfasts?! At the sound of his voice, though, they all looked around. Kano pointed at the girl. "Stop that girl!"

"Oh sure," Cao grumbled as he and his deputies jumped up, heading for her swiftly. "Steal my tea then order me around. Real fine leadership skills..."

She was within fingertip's reach of the sliding panel when she heard a shout. "Spirits!" She growled; chairs scraped across the floor and she hooked her fingers into the latch of the sliding door, ripping it open. The cool air stung her eyes as she took off into a run, bending around a corner and propelling herself over a low-cut wall. Hun-Hun collapsed to her knees and stuck her hands inside of a hole under one of the walls of the tavern. Her fingers grappled through the loose dirt until they found the familiar smooth steel of her water tribe knife. Yanking it out, Hun-Hun brandished the weapon and spun around, her braid slapping her in the face.

The fencing wall shattered, chunks of rock ricocheted from the surrounding buildings and clipped the fabric of Hun-Hun's hanbok, the white under-dress contrasting against the dark jade of her outer garments. As the shadowy figures of her pursuers advanced in the modest space of the courtyard, Hun-Hun backed away from them defensively.

"STOP!"

Hun-Hun's eyes darted from one man to the next, visibly scared as her muscles stiffened. She brought the blade up to her front protectively and shouted, voice trembling, "Leave me alone! Who are you people?!" Her head whipped around the advancing group like a nervous sparrowkeet, blue-gray eyes wild and lip quivering in panic.

"Get away from me!"

A lump rose in her throat and she swallowed, hard. The water tribe knife twitched in her grip, palms slick with cold sweat. Her nostrils flared and she snorted as she forced herself to breathe. Her muscles were tightening, and sweat collected on her forehead as fear wrapped it's gnarled fingers around her rapidly pumping heart. She could feel the bleariness clouding her vision once again and she shook her head ferociously. 'No....no......NO!'

Kano raced out the doors after them, rounding the corner in time to see the cloud of dust from the shattered wall hanging in the air. He summoned water from the aquifer running down the center of the street and sent it out through the air in particles, absorbing the dust from the air. As soon as it did so, he let it drizzle to the ground, moving forward. Cao and his deputies were already prepared to fight the girl. They had their weapons drawn and were squaring off against her in the courtyard.

"Was it necessary to make it rain on us?" Cao muttered as Kano moved past him. Kano's saber was still sheathed, his hand gripping the hilt as he walked. He muttered a brief apology to Cao as he passed, but he kept his eyes fixed on the girl, now brandishing a knife. He moved in front of Cao a few feet so that he was directly in front of the girl.

"What's your name?" Kano asked, starting off easy. Now that she'd stopped running, he didn't want to push her. He wasn't worried about the knife so much.

"Get away from me!"

Kano's head tilted ever so slightly at the sound of her voice. It wasn't so much a conscious thing as he heard something in her voice that he recognized. He found himself examining her features very carefully, taking in every line defining her face, every mark. The tone of her skin, the color of her eyes... those eyes.

Impossible! Kano thought, his brow furrowing as his fingers loosened around the hilt of his sword. He stepped toward her slightly. Behind him, he could practically sense the surprise on Cao and the deputies' faces.

"S-Sparrow?" Kano said slowly, his voice shallow with disbelief.

Crunch.

She flinched at the sudden sound and snapped her head downwards, searching for the source of the noise. A broken twig lay under her sandal and she kicked it aside in a jerky fashion. At the sound of the first one, the awefully familiar one, she looked up. Her bluish-grey eyes scanned him feverishly and she flared her nostrils, eyes darting from one officer to another.

'I know you!' She wanted to scream, but her mouth was clamped tight in an invisible vice. The more she stared at him, the more familiar he became and the more those haunting shadows poured into her line of vision. She shook her head and blinked rapidly, unaware whether she looked terribly disturbed or not. The shadows kept coming, and one was standing right infront of him.

No it was him!

"I said leave me alone, I don't know you!" She threw the knife in no particular direction and sprinted for the wall. Hun-Hun kicked up dust in her sprint and dodged the closest officer,pivoting until she was behind him. The airbender was halfway to the wall when the shadow boy called for her.

"S-Sparrow?"

Every single muscle and tendon froze.

"Hi, I'm Kanoei what's your name?'

I'm Hun-Hun!

Hun-Hun huh, that's cool! You know, you're like a....a Sparrow!
Really? Cool! I'm a bird! And you're a Kano!

Sparrow, race you to the west wall!

Sparrow, look at this cool trick, come on I wanna show you!

I'll teach you how to ice fish Sparrow, that way you can deflate Mikka's big head. You'll be the best ice-fisher in the world!

What? They,....they can't do that! When are you leaving??

Hun....we have to split up, if we don't not only will the Shadows kill me but they'll get you too.

I promise we'll find eachother again Sparrow, you've got my word.

SparrowSPARROWHunHunSPARROWHun.....HUN-HUN!'

She stumbled and collapsed against the wall of the tavern. Her fingers ghosted over the smooth wood and her breathing became heavy again. She felt as if her brain were being cleaved in two, and she clutched the left side of her head with her left hand. The sleeve of her hanbok slid down and revealed her powdery white hand, as well as the border where the makeup finished. In other words, it revealed lightly tanned skin.

"Too much, too much...." Hun-Hun murmured, rocking back and forth, "No....lies....you're not real...they're not real.....he is real....I know him! No....lies....lies....LIES!"

Hun-Hun slammed her hand on the ground and a powerful gust of wind ricocheted from the ground, blowing a dust storm around the courtyard. Rising to her feet, she snatched her glider spear from among a set of unassuming planks and snapped it open. As the dust began to settle, her bluish-grey eyes settled on the familiar man. Her expression, for a sliver of a second, was soft and pleading....

Before darkening into a glare of a demonic caliber.

The glider snapped open and she took off into the sky, zig-zagging low to the ground at first before rising over the rooftops.....

And over to her secluded island.

Kano, Cao, and the deputies shielded their faces with their arms against the furious torrent of wind. It was an incredible force of airbending, unlike any Kano knew Hun-Hun to be capable of. Kano alone dropped his arm before the wind had ended. His gaze softened at the look in her eye, a pleading look as though she was begging for help. But then the look turned cold and hard and he couldn't stop a sudden pang of fear from shooting through him. He had never seen her look so cruel. There was something wrong here, something very wrong.

As she took off, he watched her go, not letting his eyes leave her for a moment. He darted down the street, fast as his legs would carry him, looking skyward all the while. He wasn't going to let her get away this time. He followed her as fast as he could, weaving through the crowds. Before long, his progress carried him to the docks.

"Chief Kanoei...?"

Captain Klargith was overseeing the loading of supplies when he saw Kano run out onto the docks. He followed Kano's gaze and spotted Hun-Hun flying overhead. Before Kano could shout the order, he answered with a plan--

"We'll follow as soon as we can!" he shouted, allowing Kano to follow Hun-Hun without any further delay. When he reached the water's edge, he jumped in without delay. He bent a boat of ice beneath himself, landing in it with an agile step, and then proceeded to make the vessel speed across the surface of the ocean. Now they were in territory he could more easily negotiate. As he went, he left buoys of ice behind, marking the path for the Seawolf to follow. His own little trail of breadcrumbs. It didn't take long at all for Kano to spot the small island on the horizon. This had to be where she was going. Maybe now he would get some answers...

She had no idea where she was running. All she knew was that once she landed she never stopped moving. This place was new to her, though it felt vaguely familiar. Had she been here before? Everything seemed strange in the daylight, without shadows and the absence of that somewhat metallic stench she'd grown used to. Hun-Hun ducked below an incoming branch and swiftly looped over an uprooted tree-root, crunching fallen leaves and kicking pebbles with her sandals. Despite her increasing speed, her movements were languid and felt heavy, as if she were wading through an ocean instead of dashing through a random forest like a hog-monkey.


Her eyes were dry, her blinks were slow, and her was beginning to throb for reasons she couldn't even fathom. Try as she might, Hun-Hun had given up willing her legs to stop running the minute she touched down on the island. She couldn't deny that she felt as if some unstoppable force was leading her around, chained by the neck and bound like a slave. The horrifying thought terrified her, and it wasn't the first time these "nightmares" occurred to her.


Thickets passed her up in blinding colors of greens and browns; wild flowers mixed together and took on shapes of their own. Hun-Hun dodged them mechanically, forcibly taking a back seat as her body seemed to have a mind of its own. She continued on for what felt like an eternity before coming to a cliff's edge. Her knees buckled and she was forced to the ground, doubling over and vomiting sickness over the cliff-side. The glider-spear toppled over the side and fell over the edge, plummeted into the unknown below. Her hands dug deep within the loose earth and she moved to scrub off the remaining makeup with her sleeve. The faint ballad still rang in her ears, over and over like a broken record.

"Argh!" Hun-Hun scrambled away from the cliff's edge and gathered her knees to her chest, arms huddled around her legs. Her braid had long since come undone, now fanning around her like a curtain of darkness, her only protection against her increasing madness. Her teeth chattered together while she shivered and her tanned skin was hot to the touch. She couldn't stay here, that was for certain. Yet every time she tried to get up and run she was met with restraint. A familiar face, with eyes like hers, skin and hair the same, flashed before her subconscious; the girl's eyes were bereft of their usual kindness, and her face was devoid of a smile, instead wearing a deep frown.

"What are you doing?? Why am I here?"
"I'm getting out of here, what does it look like I'm doing?"
She frowned,"I believe you've overstayed your welcome, Jiao-jie."
Chuckle."Oh really? I beg to differ! What can you do to me anyway?"
The kind girl who mirrored her face continued to frown, however this time her eyes had become soft. Soft with what "Hun-Hun" only deduced to be sadness. Snort. Had she given up already? The two of stared at eachother in silence, locked in some sort of battle of wills. However before either girl could say anything more, a twig snapped from a far off and both girls jumped. The one with the saddened eyes turned her head slowly and looked on before turning back to face "Hun-Hun". Her demand hung in the air between them and remained unanswered.

While the other was distracted, "Hun-Hun" struck her across the face and watched with satisfaction as the illusion disappeared. She trained her attention on the trees rooted yards away from her with lazy interest, her lips pulled into a lopsided grin.

"Chittering monkeys, do you not know how much ruckus you make? Come out little chatterers, if you're there."

Upon the beach, Kano found his feet on the island. The icy boat he'd created dissolved into the water once more behind him as he continued on. He was watchful for signs of her. He'd seen the faraway speck in the sky vanish, brought down to earth for some reason. He found her trail quickly and pushed his legs and their agility to the limits chasing after it. He didn't know how he managed it, but he kept to the trail no matter how faint it became. It wasn't the hardest thing he'd ever done. Whatever was going on with Hun, she certainly wasn't herself. If she'd wanted to disappear under any other circumstances, she would have...

Through the woodland for hours. Night began to fall. Before long, he found himself in a clearing, one which left no clue for him. He looked around wildly, peering at the ground through narrowed eyes for the faintest sign of her movements. There was none to be found. And then he heard a voice speaking. It was little more than a whisper on the wind. But it was enough. His gaze fell on a small break in the trees where, far ahead, the moon's light twinkled in the distance.

Slowly, he pushed through the underbrush. It was curiously thick here, as though the forest itself conspired against him. Then, with a crisp snapping sound, his foot flattened a gnarled twig. With a quick look down at the broken slip of wood, he turned his gaze forward again and continued on. He needed to catch her. He needed to know why. As he passed through the trees at last, he found himself on a natural terrace overlooking a great island valley. And near the cliff's edge sat a very tiny looking figure, as though some great trouble had reduced her in size. She was looking at him...

"Hun?" he said slowly, moving away from the trees at a slow pace. His arms hung limply at his sides as he spoke. He couldn't bring himself to use that name -- Sparrow. Whoever this was, it wasn't Sparrow...

"For the last time," Hun-Hun growled, "My name is Jiao-jie. Why do you keep following me?! Who ARE you?!" She slapped her hand on her knees and stood up. Her hair fell around her shoulders, shielding half of her face from him. She looked directly at Kanoei and snarled, irritated that the little monkey was still following her.

"Pity, I was sure that you were in fact a monkey. Are you a monkey? You certainly don't look like one.......and you do not sound like one. But your pursuing me is quite irritating. So what say you stop before I'm forced to do something drastic?" She retrieved a carving knife from the folds of her sleeves and turned it this way and that, glinting against the eerie moonlight. Her eyes, now widened to the size of saucers and tired from emotional strain, swept him from head to toe and remained unblinking.

"A misbehaving monkey gets his just desserts with the removal of his tail."

"What are you talking about?!" Kano said, feeling a great deal of confusion and frustration welling up inside of him. He had no idea what was happening. "What's happened to you, Hun? You disappear and all of a sudden you're Jiao-jie? I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!"

He threw his arms out expectantly, looking around as he spoke. This didn't make any sense. What was going on here?

"I spent six months hunting down your killer!" he said, brandishing a finger at her. "And now," he laughed wryly, not a single ounce of any emotion but sorrow and pain in his voice. "Now you're here and... You don't even recognize me? Tell me something... What did I ever do to deserve this? What did I do to you to make you hate me this much?"

He could see it in her eyes. She was practically murderous. He'd seen it in the faces of many warriors before. His hand fell to the hilt of his saber hanging at his side and grasped it firmly. It wasn't a move of aggression. He just didn't think he'd be able to keep it together if he didn't do something to steady himself.

"What are YOU talking about?!" Hun-Hun hollered, equally frustrated and just as confused. Her hands balled into fists and she glowered. Her face contorted into a furious snarl and she flared her nostrils. Pebbles and loose earth stirred around her feet into a slow turn, picking up speed gradually with every gesture she made.

"I don't know you!" She jabbed a finger in his direction, inadvertently shooting a gust of wind right past him. "I'm sorry that you're looking for some girl who died years ago, but I'm not her! HOW many times do I have to tell you before you get it?! LEAVE. ME. ALONE!" The churning winds around her feet compressed before expanding, creating an ear-splitting bang once they expanded. Her brown hair whipped around violently, slapping her face and moving in tandem with the volatile winds.

"And if you want me to be honest,"Hun-Hun supplied wryly, chuckling dryly, "Maybe it's what you didn't do? Or maybe something you should've done? I can't answer for her....because she's dead."

His hand darted to his hilt and rested on the sword on his person. The airbender followed his movements sharply and double-back. "W-What are you doing??"

"Easy Bun-Bun. I'm just going out for a walk with my favorite sister, that's all. Is that a crime?"
"Yea right, Kipa's your favorite, not me-ACHK!?"
"Listen here you little wench, you getting the last word stopped being cute when we were 5 years old. When I talk you listen, got it?"

"-claws at his strong grip and asphyxiates- Guh.....achk....lerk...!!"
"Oh. What;s this? Chittering little monkey can't talk anymore? -smirks and tightens his grip- Now let's see how far I can go before your neck snaps."
-digs nails into his flesh- Mi......kka!....Ka.....Nuh......Eh....chk!.."
"Eh? What;s that little wench? Kanoei? Yes...always Kanoei. I see. Well the little bastard isn't here to help you!" Mikka dug his fingers into his sister's small neck and lifted her in the air. Hun-Hun squirmed and flailed her tiny legs, stormy eyes widening into murderous dark greys. The last thing she saw was her brother's demonic sneer.....before she kicked him square in the face and hit the ground.

Suddenly, and without thinking, Hun-Hun turned her palms flat and made a swiping motion with her hands, sending a blast of wind Kanoei's way. "If you think you're going to try and kill me again this time you've got another think coming!"

Kano's hand flew out toward a nearby tree instinctively. With a twist of his wrist, the water was drained from the tree entirely. The leaves turned brown, the wood splintered and shattered into dust as the water drew itself around him at his dancing, fluid motions and solidified into an icy shield which weathered the force of the powerful gust with ease. A moment later, the water splashed to the ground.

"What are you talking about?" he said, looking at her, stunned. "I never tried to kill you! Why would I try to kill you? I'm Kano, Hun! Why are you doing this? Why did you kill all those people? WHAT'S HAPPENED TO YOU?!"

Maybe it was out of sheer desperation or just utter confusion, but he took a step forward, his hand slipping from his weapon as he went. What was all this about? Surely the Sparrow he knew couldn't go this badly... There had to be... more. There just had to.

"What..." he muttered, more to himself than to her. "What's happened to you?"