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The fall breeze blew Kyoshi’s hair over her shoulders. It was a calm evening in the forest by Gaipan Village. She had answered a summons from the village that it was a target for daofei recently. Like Yokoya, Gaipan was a working class village, full of loggers and woodsmen rather than fishers and farmers.
Once a week for the past month, a group of daofei would sack the village, taking enough for themselves and then some, but leaving enough for the villagers to get by. When they came back a week later, the villagers had their supplies restocked and the process would start all over again. The governor had requested help from both Omashu and Ba Sing Se after the second attack, but hadn’t received any help. It irked Kyoshi that people relied so much on the goods of the working class but would look the other way when they were in need of help.
Kyoshi was baffled that the daofei groups still had the audacity to be active while she stubbornly continued to draw breath. Since her journey to the Fire Nation two years ago, Kyoshi had gone across the Earth Kingdom weeding out the remaining daofei groups and trying to uproot corrupt sages and leaders. It was slow going but with enough patience, Kyoshi hoped to make real progress.
“Dinner is ready!” Jinpa called from further down the river.
Kyoshi’s stomach growled, not realizing how hungry she was. Jinpa was a fantastic cook and everyone enjoyed his delicious meals. Rather than eating their normal travel rations, they had gathered supplies for a hardy dinner from Gaipan.
“Smells amazing.” Kyoshi said, taking her seat next to Rangi by the fire.
Jinpa had prepared a roast duck noodle soup with fried dough on the side and steaming lychee tea. Kyoshi’s mouth watered even as she ate, the heavy broth warming her insides. Kirima noisily slurped her noodles, Kyoshi almost forgetting that she was there at all. While Kirima was good friends with everyone in the group, she was closests to Wong who was back at the newly refurbished Avatar’s mansion in Yokoya with nothing but Kyoshi’s spirit guide fox and Aunt Mui to keep him company. After an encounter with a daofei group on the outskirts of the Si Wong desert, Wong had taken a sledgehammer to the knee, shattering it and leaving him out of commission.
“So, what’s our plan for tomorrow night?” Jinpa asked between bites of veggie dumplings.
Rangi, somehow gracefully, slurped the rest of her noodles before speaking up. “Based on what the governor told us, they cross the river from the south every time and walk through the front gates. After the first time, the villagers just stay in their houses which makes it easier for them and no one gets hurt.”
Kyoshi’s Team Avatar had decided to set up camp upstream of Gaipan rather than showing their faces in the town the day before the next attack in case the daofei had any scouts. They had sent Kirima into the village to announce their arrival to the governor in private and gather whatever information they had on their attackers. It had taken a lot of convincing to get Kirima to even associate herself with any type of governing authority because of her daofei oaths, but Kyoshi managed it. After all, Kirima was loyal not just to her oaths, but also the Avatar, the only person she truely allowed to order her around.
“As for our options,” Rangi continued, blowing on her cup of tea. “We can either go into the village before nightfall and wait for them inside, meet them right outside the village, or wait for them to cross the river and spring an attack on them before they even come close.”
“I’d rather avoid any unnecessary damage so I think we should just jump on them at the river.” Kyoshi said, swallowing her fried dough. They’d deal with these daofei like all the others, subdue and hold them until soldiers from the nearest outpost came to take them away. They could defy the governor, but Kyoshi would make sure they obeyed the Avatar.
The sun began to sink below the horizon, the sky matching the red of the forest around them. This was one of the few places in the Earth Kingdom where the hues of green and yellow didn’t dominate the land. She found it just as beautiful as her haughty Fire Nation girlfriend who sat beside her. The thought made her smile. True to her word, there wasn’t a single day Rangi hadn’t been at her side. While Kirima, Wong and Jinpa had been in and out, Rangi had been stuck to Kyoshi’s side like glue. If you asked her about it, she would just say she was doing her honor bound duty to the Avatar, but really it was because she was as head over heels for Kyoshi now as she was the first time they had kissed at the lake in Hujiang. Rangi had probably harbored feelings for her before that, but Kyoshi had never bothered to ask. Their love had come easily, continuing to grow, and it was one of the solid things in a world of uncertainty that she could always count on.
They chatted and laughed around the campfire. It was moments like these that Kyoshi held on to, the endless times with friends where she could be herself instead of the Avatar. She’d broken her habit of holding onto the past more than the present with the help of Rangi, and no longer worried herself about the things that could have been. She was here now with her friends, her found family, and that was all that mattered.
As the fire died down and the stars graced the sky, the team spread out on their own bedrolls. Yingyon was Jinpa’s personal bedroll, just as Kyoshi was Rangi’s pillow more nights than not. The Firebender halfway lay on her, playing with her hand and tracing the lightning scars, while Kyoshi would idlying play with Rangi’s hair. They would usually make small talk while trying to fall asleep, voicing nonsense or talking about their favorite things, but Rangi had been strangely quiet since they arrived in Gaipan. It wasn’t the first time she’d randomly go quiet on their travels, but when she did it was usually small concerns. Worrying about her mother's health, the condition of a village they didn’t have time to stop and help (but promising to come back to later), or just being so absorbed in making a plan that she forgot she hadn’t voiced any ideas aloud with the others. Kyoshi wasn’t too concerned, Rangi always expressed her thoughts in time, but just in case, she made a note to ask about it before they left Gaipan. With the sounds of quiet snoring, she allowed herself to drift off.
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The next day had been spent doing basic bending exercises. While Kyoshi had already mastered the four elements, there was still room to improve. After shuffling the Avatar into a 20 minute horse stance, Rangi moved further up the river to practice breath control alone.
Kyoshi spent time with Jinpa going through basic airbending defenses, and even more time working on healing with Kirima. The waterbender had been upset for a while about her lack of skill in healing and so she came under Kyoshi’s tutelage, a teacher learning from her own student. The Avatar had learned a lot in her time with Atuat, however, she would never teach another person how to lower someone's body temperature the way she had from the doctor. She had used it as a weapon once and vowed to never do it again. Using the technique the way it was meant to be was also too high of a risk. She would rather Kirima try her best to heal someone on the team the normal way than accidentally panic and turn one of their friends into a human popsicle.
Nightfall came faster than they expected. Team Avatar sat southwest of Gaipan, Kirima and Kyoshi on one side of the river, Rangi and Jinpa on the other. Sure enough, about 25 daofei had come from the exact spot the governor said they would, although they didn’t get very far. Some had been sucked into the earth up to the waist, others frozen to the ground. Jinpa had blown a couple daofei together, knocking them out cold. Kyoshi later told him it wasn't very negative jing of him as an airbender and the man merely smiled in response. The rest had run away from Rangi from the sheer intimidation she gave off.
“You see this village?” Kyoshi asked, holding the daofei leader by the collar with one hand off the ground. “It’s under my protection. Do you understand? If I find out that the rest of your men who ran off are attacking this village or any others I will come for you. You’re the leader, so you take the responsibility for their actions. Oh, if and when you get out of prison, do something better with your life than hurting others. Do you understand me?”
The man nodded, sweat rolling down his forehead. Kyoshi frowned, “I want to hear you say it, ‘Yes Avatar Kyoshi.’”
“Yes Avatar Kyoshi!” the man squealed.
Satisfied, Kyoshi dropped him down, bending him into the earth. It only took two hours for soldiers from the Omashu outpost to arrive, Rangi having sent a letter with her messenger hawk earlier in the day. They watched as the remainder of the bandits were put in the carriages and took off south to Omashu.
“Another job well done!” Jinpa said, clapping Kyoshi on the back.
“I just don’t understand why the daofei keep trying.” Kyoshi shook her head.
“They were a pretty fresh gang,” Kirima said, healing a scratch on her arm where she got hit just barely by a spear. “Kids like them don’t think the Avatar, or lawmen in general, are actually gonna come after them. They think there won’t be any consequences for their actions.”
“Well unfortunately for them, I’m the consequence.” Kyoshi smiled, grabbing Rangi’s hand as they headed up the river into Gaipan.
Rangi squeezed her hand in return and they shared a smile, but the firebender otherwise remained silent. After talking with the governor and making sure there were no more remaining threats to the villagers, Team Avatar headed further back up the river to retrieve Yingyon before heading to a diplomatic meeting in Ba Sing Se. Kyoshi absolutely loathed them, but she was happy she had her friends by her side to do so.
“Where’s Rangi?” Kyoshi asked, slinging her bag on top of Yingyon.
“I think she headed upstream. We leave in ten minutes.” Kirima frowned.
Kyoshi sighed and trudged up the path. Sure enough, Rangi was standing next to the river, frowning so deeply at it she appeared to by trying to waterbend it with her mind. Kyoshi wrapped her arms around the firebender’s shoulders, kissing the top of her head. She felt her girlfriend immediately melt into her with a sigh. Rangi wondered if this is what it felt like to get hugged by a gopher-bear.
“Have you ever heard of the tale of two lovers, Kyoshi?” Rangi asked.
“I didn’t know they had already written a tale about us.” Kyoshi smiled.
Rangi smacked one of her arms. “There’s a legend about two lovers. The woman was named Oma and the man Shu. They were from two towns that were at war with each other but kept meeting at the top of a mountain and fell in love. Eventually, it became too dangerous for them to keep meeting. They watched badgermoles, learned how to earthbend, and created a giant ever moving labyrinth so they could keep meeting in secrecy. Shu died in the war between the villages and Oma declared the war over with a terrifying display of earthbending. Those two towns came together to create Omashu. The caves are southwest of here.”
Kyoshi frowned, turning Rangi around in her arms and grasping her hands. She wasn’t sure why she was telling her this story. Maybe she’s just being a hopeless romantic, Kyoshi thought but internally shook her head. There was something deeper bothering her.
“Kyoshi...if we were to ever get separated, would we find our way back to each other no matter what?” Rangi whispered, keeping her eyes on the ground.
If it was possible, Kyoshi’s frown became even deeper. They had been separated before and she had fought tooth and nail to get her back every time. Although once, she did abandon her in the Fire Nation herself, but that was because there were some places she couldn’t take Rangi, some things she wouldn’t do, and Kyoshi wanted to protect her from the harsher choices she had to make in her life to bring justice as the Avatar. Even then, they had still found their way back to each other. There were a thousand thoughts going through Kyoshi’s head, but then it dawned on her; Rangi was having some sort of crisis.
“Rangi, you know the only thing that will ever separate us again is death right?” Kyoshi asked, putting her hand beneath Rangi’s chin and tilting it up so their eyes met.
Rangi looked to the side and nervously kicked her foot against the dirt. “What happens after we die? Do we go to the Spirit World? Would we even be in the same place? Would you be bound by Avatar duties even in the afterlife?”
Kyoshi put her hands on Rangi’s cheeks and pulled her into a long, slow and passionate kiss. Rangi gasped against her, surprised at first, before moving her hands to Kyoshi back, trying to pull her impossibly closer. They broke apart, eyes closed and foreheads pressed together.
“Rangi, you know I will always be there for you. Even when we aren’t a part of this world anymore, and while we are, I would move mountains for you. I would split the oceans, and search the skies for you if we were separated. There is just as much uncertainty in life as there is in death, but I just want you to know that you mean everything to me. I couldn’t live in this world without you.”
Rangi stepped back and smiled at Kyoshi. She didn’t say anything as they started back down the river, but they really didn’t have to use words to express how they felt. They needed it every once in a while, like just then, but otherwise were close enough now that there were no doubts in the back of their minds. Although, Rangi did have one thought.
“Do you think they would ever write a story about our love? Do you think people wonder about an Avatar’s ‘legendary’ love story?” Rangi asked, swinging Kyoshi’s hand back and forth between them as they walked.
“I didn’t realize our love was so legendary,” Kyoshi smiled. “But would they tell it? Absolutely not. In Earth Kingdom history, we would go down as the most ‘legendary of friends.’ I can see it now: ‘Yeah that Kyoshi and Rangi girl were such good friends that they kissed on the lips and shared a bed every night. Wish I had a friendship like that!’”
Rangi threw her head back in laughter. She didn’t think Kyoshi would have been so humored about the idea. Keeping their love story between them was probably better, she enjoyed their private moments together. It’s what made it so special.
Kyoshi let out a joyful sigh, “I love you, Rangi.”
“I love you too.” She replied, squeezing Kyoshi’s hand.