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By YellowPandaBear | Genre | Rating | Reviews | Updates |
| More from YellowPandaBear | Adventure | PG-13 | None | No update page |
Nyui awakened the next morning with excitement. "Time for an adventure," she said for herself. As she got ready for the day, Nyui realized that her behavior was similar to how her parents had behaved just before they left, and died.
She remembered how it had happened.
"I'm sorry Nyui, but I have just received word that your parents have died," her guardian had told her.
"How?" Nyui asked.
"A witch hunt, they were captured and executed."
Nyui shook the bad memories from her head. "This time will be different," she told herself, "unlike my ancestors, I'm traveling with two other benders, who know multiple disciplines."
Nyui met Lien and Bo in the dining hall. "Good morning," Lien said to Nyui.
"Good morning," Nyui responded. "How are you?"
"We're fine," Bo said. "We're all ready, so when you're ready we can head out.
"That's sweet of you to wait up for me," Nyui told Lien and Bo with a smirk.
"Well, we can't leave without you, after all, you're providing the transportation," Lien said.
As soon as Nyui finished her breakfast, she went back upstairs to her room, grabbed all of her things that she had packed the night before and brought them down to the dining hall where Lien and Bo were waiting.
"Come, it's this way to the stables," Nyui said.
As she led them away from the dining hall and courtyard, Lien asked, "So what's a sky bison?"
Bo answered, "Sky bison are the animals that the Air Nomads learned airbending from, I've only seen pictures of them, but I've read that they can be really great friends."
"Quite right," Nyui said. "However, the pictures don't usually do them justice, what you're about to see is a real sky bison."
They entered the stables. "Bo, Lien, I present to you, Yani!" Nyui exclaimed as she threw open the doors.
Bo looked at the small sky bison sitting in the middle of the floor. "That's Yani?"
Nyui finally opened her eyes and looked. The exact same look of confusion spread across her face as well.
"How's that going to get us to Kyoshi Island?" Lien asked.
"That's not, because it's not Yani," Nyui said.
"Great," Bo said. "We haven't even left yet and we're already having problems."
"Hold on you worry wart," Nyui said. "I'm sure that Yani's around here somewhere."
"Well, while we look for Yani, we should look over our route again," Lien said.
"Yaaaaniiiii!" Nyui called. Within a few short moments, a large sky bison landed next to the door of the stables. "Yani! I'm so glad to see you, here are our new friends, meet Bo and Lien."
Yani gave a loud roar and gave both Bo and Lien a big lick.
"Okay, now that we're covered in bison spit, can we get on with the trip," Bo said, expressing aggravation.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Nyui asked, "You seem less cheerful than usual."
"Yeah, are you sure?" Lien asked expressing the same concern that Nyui was expressing.
"I'm fine, I just want to get this over with," Bo said angrily.
Unconvinced, Nyui and Lien just shrugged and loaded all of their things in shortly before they themselves jumped into Yani's saddle.
Nyui jumped onto Yani's neck grabbed the sky bison equivalent of reigns shook them and shouted, "Yani, yip yip."
As quickly as you could blink, Yani rose into the air and began to fly south away from the Northern Air Temple. Soon, it was out of sight, and as they flew farther and farther away from and closer to Kyoshi Island, they could see the sun rising in the East.
"Yani knows which way to go, so what do you want to do now guys?" Nyui asked.
"We should look over our route again, make sure that -" Lien got cut off by Nyui.
"We don't need a route, Yani can land anywhere, can't you Yani," Nyui said.
Yani responded with a loud roar.
"See," Nyui said as if Yani had affirmed her statement. "Do you want to play Pai Sho?" Nyui asked.
"You mean to say that you brought an entire set for that old people game on the trip?" Lien asked.
"Yep," Nyui replied.
"Sure, I'll play," Lien said.
"I'm going to go to sleep," Bo said, still grumpy.
Lien and Nyui passed the entire day playing multiple games of Pai Sho. When they landed, they decided to let Bo sleep in the saddle, while Nyui and Lien slept on the ground. "So, what do you think Bo's problem is?" Nyui asked Lien.
"I think it has to do with the kind of trouble the Avatar is in," Lien said.
"T'las said that he thought it was a plague," Nyui said.
"Yes, I think that Bo's afraid of it."
"You think that we should tell him that it's okay if he's afraid?" Nyui asked.
Bo listened to Nyui and Lien as he pretended to be asleep.
"No, I don't think so, he's the kind of person that needs to sort things out by himself," Lien answered.
"Okay, well, goodnight Lien."
"Goodnight Nyui."
Once Bo heard them fall asleep, he said under his breath, "No, you're wrong, it's not the plague that I'm afraid of."
The next day, they traveled in much the same way as they had the previous day, Lien and Nyui talking and having fun, Yani flying ever closer to Kyoshi Islannd, and Bo sitting in the back of the saddle being a recluse.
In late afternoon, Nyui landed Yani in a village half a day's travel from Kyoshi Island. "We should rest here for the night, we're running out of supplies for travel and Yani's tired," Nyui said.
Yani roared behind them as they turned to face the village entrance. "Shouldn't we leave Yani out here so they can't see him?" Bo asked.
"Yani is not a him, she's a her, and why should we not want them to see her?" Nyui asked.
"Because, we don't know if this village has the same taboos against bending that most other villages have, and if they do, Yani will be a dead giveaway that you're and airbender," Bo explained.
"He's right, if they know that you're an airbender, then they'll kill you, and then us as well," Lien said.
"Okay, I'm sorry Yani, but you've got to go hide on that hill over there," Nyui pointed to a large hill in the distance.
Yani roared in protest.
"I know that you don't like it, but you've got to, otherwise the mean people in the village might kill us, don't worry, we'll see each other in the morning," Nyui told Yani. "Now go."
Yani flew away in the direction of the hill while the three friends began to walk toward the entrance to the village. When they got there, they noticed that there seemed to be a lot of people trying to get in.
"I wonder why there are all these people here," Lien said.
"Why don't we ask," Nyui said as she turned to ask an old man standing right next to her.
"Wait, Nyui," Lien said reaching out to stop her, but it was too late.
"Hello, my name's Nyui, why is everyone trying to get in?"
"Talkative little booger aint ya?" the old man said. "Well eryone's tryin' to get in here 'cause o the sickness."
"Sickness?" Lien asked.
"Ya, gruesome little thin', it starts with an itching in your skin, then three days later, your pink and black and pushin' up daisies," the old man said. "It's been gettin' all them villerges near Kyoshi, eryone knows that's where it started. It's a witcher's curse I tell ya, thems that live on Kyoshi gave them witches too much freederm, erven power, now it's bit them in the rear. Well I hope they suffer for it," the old man finished as he moved forward to get into the village.
"What did he say?" Bo asked. "He had a pretty thick accent, if you could call it that."
"What he said was they're running away from a bad sickness that turns you pink and black, starts with itchy skin, kills you in three days, started on Kyoshi Island, has been spreading out from there, and was caused by a witch," Nyui said, clearing up some of the old man's mispronunciations of common words.
"So, T'las was right," Lien said. "The Avatar is in trouble, from a plague."
"That means that we should get there as soon as we can," Bo said, turning to leave the village back to where they sent Yani off. "We need to go now!"
Lien and Nyui ran after him. The old man turned back to them, "I wouldn't go to Kyoshi if I was you!" he yelled to them as they ran off. When he saw the sky bison flying towards the three kids, he nearly passed out.
They flew off to Kyoshi Island in the setting sun,
It was dark when they arrived, once they landed, they were met by white Lotus Guards. "Stop right there," one demanded. "Announce your identity."
"I'm Bo, this is Lien, and this is Nyui, we were sent here from the Northern Air Temple by Grand Lotus T'las," Bo explained.
"Do you have proof of this?" the lead guard asked.
"No," Lien said.
"But if you allow us to speak with Grand Lotus Wong, I'm sure he'll verify it," Nyui pointed out.
"I'm afraid that the Grand Lotus is no longer with us," someone said from the shadows.
"Doctor, what are you doing here, you're supposed to be seeing to your patients," the guard said.
"I'm afraid I can no longer do anything for them, they've all passed on," the doctor spoke to the guard as he left the shadows. "Hello children, my name is Doctor Long, I'm a resident of Kyoshi Island and have been trying to treat the disease that I'm sure you have heard about by now."
"Yes, is it true then, that someone cursed the island?" Nyui asked.
"No, this is just another one of those pesky biological agents that see humans as nothing more than a host, which is all fine and dandy except that they have a tendency to kill us at the same time," the doctor said.
"That's enough Doctor," the guard said. "Now you kids need to go back to where you came from."
"I'm sorry," the Doctor said. "but they cannot leave, quarantine is in effect, and anyone who has entered the city, must stay in the city."
"Yes, that, and we have a mission to complete," Lien told Doctor Long.
"Well then, I suppose that you can complete your mission while you're quarantined," Doctor Long said as he turned away to go back into the shadows.
"Very well," the guard said. "But while we find you lodgings, I suggest you stay close to me and away from the corpses, we already have enough dead here as it is, they're all going to be cremated tomorrow morning to prevent the spread of the disease."
As the guard was speaking, Bo turned to his left and saw the piles of bodies against the walls of the large buildings in the city. Apparently noticing them as well, Nyui commented, "I didn't realize that there were so many people in Kyoshi, I thought it was just a village."
"More like a big city than a village," the guard said. "Well, here's your lodgings, I would recommend coming in contact with as few people as possible tomorrow if you don't want to die."
"Surely this thing doesn't kill everyone," Lien said.
The guard just looked at her and then said, "Goodnight," and walked away.
The three turned and looked at where they would be sleeping. It was a large barn, large enough that Yani could also fit. So, they went in and Nyui called Yani in as well, and they all went to bed.
That night, Bo had the vision again, except this time, there was no white void, and no Yoshi. There were only corpses, and the little boy crying out to Bo as he sank into the pile.
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