Between Fire and Water

Setting Sail

"ATTEN-TION!" someone yelled out. Zishi, along with every soldier within earshot, immediately stood at attention. A lieutenant general walked past, inspecting and critiquing. Zishi silently prayed that her blue and grey uniform was pristine. She was a captain, but not one of any actual importance, as displayed by her hopefully shiny black boots. Thankfully, when her superior officers paced past her, they found nothing worth commenting on. 

"At ease, soldiers," a familiar voice called out. Zishi tried to put a name to the familiar tones but came up blank. Not that something like that was out of character for her. It was, as her father put it, the terrible memory she had acquired from him. 

A man with hard features and black hair stood before them. He explained that the general had decided they would venture north for some routine training maneuvers and that everyone had better kiss solid ground goodbye for the next few weeks. Zishi squinted, trying to figure out the man's name. It sounded so familiar that she knew it had to be a name she actually knew, but for some reason, even with a voice and a face, she could not for the life of her come up with a name. 

The rest of her day passed by quickly as the greenies were shown about the ship. The lieutenant general made sure the fire and earth benders knew how the cannon system worked, and the water benders knew how to pull water from the pipes in the hall in case the engine ever caught fire. They were gifted the rest of the day to get themselves together. 

Which meant that Zishi didn't have anything to do. Her old friends from training had been placed on other crafts in the fleet, and she hadn't bothered to bring a book. For lack of a better idea, she decided to head up onto the poop deck and practice some old water bending moves.

The young woman never got that far. A fight had broken out in the cafeteria, and there were so many people involved that the whole area had become a swirling sea of chaos. Occasional plumes of fire burst out, searing the tops of heads, always followed by splashing sounds. No one made any headway. She tried to steer clear and sneak past the rowdy crowd, but it proved impossible. Someone elbowed her in the chest, and Zishi was nearly decked when the offender ducked beneath someone else's killer left hook. 

A hand shot out and captured the sleeve of the attacker before it could land, even as Zishi stumbled back a few steps. "What happened here?" her rescuer demanded, his voice cold and angry. She blinked as the familiar tones brought forth an image in her mind. 

Iroh glared at the earth bender, waiting not so patiently for an answer. The poor soldier cowered as he tried to offer up an explanation, but there was no escaping the enraged fire bender's grasp. 

"K-Kuvin and T-T-Telum were talking s-smack, and then one thing, it just kinda, I don't know."

Iroh let go of the man's arm, turning his burning gaze upon the woman he had saved. She glared right back at him, daring him to say something. Something akin to recognition flashed through his amber eyes, but his voice was colder than ice when he asked her what had started the fight. 

"Sorry, sir," she said rather venomously. "But I only just got here. And I didn't need you to step in there, Iroh."

True recognition lit up his face when she spit out his name. "You're the girl from the tea shop," he muttered thoughtfully. Her glare was chillier than ice, and upon noticing this, Iroh snapped back to business. "Well, if you have nothing to do with this, go back to your bunks and stay there."

"Yessir," she sourly replied before stalking back to her bunk. Alone with her thoughts, she allowed them to boil up briefly. 

How dare he step in and save me like that? she thought to herself. As if I'm some damsel in distress. Like I need some big strong man to rescue me; I can fight my own battles, or is joining the army not enough proof of that.

"Hey, bender," someone called. "Is there really a fight in the cafe?"

Zishi scowled and rolled over, completely ignoring the person. Her thoughts were preoccupied with rage against a certain fire bender and the hope that she could accomplish something significant before she switched gears and just became a water bending nurse.