Avatar:Folk tale of an earthbender{Book One:Earth}

Chapter 13: The black lotus

Somewhere, in the middle of the Si Wong desert lay a large, heavily guarded building. This building, was the main headquarters of the black lotus. A group that seemingly appeared out of nowhere just before Avatar Korra's death.

"The white lotus. A group dedicated to sharing ancient knowledge across national and political divides. Or in short. They're age old fossils." A man stood infront of a large table, with a map of the 4 nations laying out before him. In total, there were 8 people at that table. "Take this seriously. We're planning an assassination. We can't just storm in there with no plan and expect to win." said a girl, roughly 17 or 18 sitting across from him at the table. She was tall with well toned arms and strong legs, and extremely athletic. Her skin was a deep russet brown, with warm under tones, and she'd neatly placed her hair in two buns at either side of her head.

"Y'know sometimes it's good to be spontaneous, we took out the si wong sandbender tribes with pretty much no plans. Just a goal." Said a male sitting at the table, with shaggy black hair, and a ciggerate in his mouth. "Well, Sasori, the earth nation government was in pieces at that point. And this is a much larger scale attack. You're not conquering a small tribal area. You're performing a large scale assassination. One on extremely powerful benders. Very different." She said, looking around at the people at the table. "You weren't even around when we shut down the sandbender tribes. So you can't say anything." Said the man sitting next to Tenka, he was tall, stocky, and well into middle age, with gray hair and wrinkles covering his face. Tenka opened her mouty once again to speak, but she was cut off by the male sitting opposite to her. "Mhm, I agree, Ujiko. But of course, Tenka has to butt into everything. With her high and mighty talk. That's exactly why..nobody likes you." He said, with a cold, empty smile. He was roughly 18 or 19 years of age, he was extremely thin, and of average height, just a bit taller than Tenka, he was pale, with black hair which he dyed red. "Shut your mouth Sora. You weren't there either so you can't say anything. And, I'm not disliked by people." Tenka said sharply. "I like you, Tenka!" said a frail voice from across the room. Fuyumi straightened out her goggles, and smiled, showing off her braces. "I think you're neat! Not as neat as me, or my amazing creations! But neat!" She said, going back to tinkering on a small, circular object which lay in her lap.

"Fuyumi, what's that weird gadget laying in your lap?" Sora said, looking over to her. "Oh...nothing but a TRACKING DEVICE!" She shouted, jumping onto the table. "It's still in the works but I am very close to perfecting it!" She said, smiling. "Don't stand on the table." Ujiko said, pulling her down. "You guys really are no fun! I make all of your support items free of charge! And you guys always tell me I'm coming on too strong!" She said, sitting back down in her corner, continuing to tinker with the tracking device.

Sora spoke again, smiling. "The way I see it. The fire lord's the real problem. He wouldn't cooperate with us. The faster we get rid of him, the faster we gain control over the fire nation. The crown princess went missing a couple weeks ago..so we might as well take him out. What's his other daughter gonna do? Become fire lord at 14? I don't think so." He said, sitting back. "We'd really better stray away from people in the public eye. His sudden death woud be suspicious. And with all the rumours..people could catch on!" Ujiko said quickly. "I agree. Much too risky. And he always has guards around him!" Tenka said. "That's obvious, stupid. Our armies are trained, aren't they? We could ambush him. All of us." Sora said, flicking Tenka's forehead "Are you trying to start a fight?" Tenka shouted, rising from her seat and waterbended the water out of her cup, forming a protective ring around herself. Sora tutted, shaking his head, with a cold, unfeeling smile. "Tut tut tut. You're so aggressive! That isn't very ladylike? Is it-" The man with the long hair banged his fists on the table, scowling. "Shut up! Both of you! Stupid kids.." He said. Tenka sat down, bowing her head. "Sorry Tsuchigomori."

"You should be. We're getting rid of the white lotus and that's final. Master has planned out something...special...for the fire lord." He said, smirking. "You've been awfully quiet, Konan." Sora said. "I'm meditating." Konan responded. Konan was thin, and she always wore a black hooded cloak, which usually covered her eyes, she had shoulder length brown hair, and sharp features. "Same thing with you, Haru" Sora said, looking over at a male, roughly 25 years old who was sitting in the corner. "Just listening in." He said bluntly. "Mhm.." Sora muttered, looking back at Tenka, who'd been scowling at him this whole time.

"Hey, Ugly." Sora said, smiling at her. "I swear one day I'm gonna snap and it won't be pretty!" Tenka said, gritting her teeth. "Damn right it won't be pretty." Sora said, crossing his arms and leaning back. "I'm gonna kill you!" Tenka shouted, as Ujiko and Fuyumi held her back.

Meanwhile, at the fire nation palace...
Anzu made her way down the hall, approaching the guard that was stood outside of Kaori's bedroom. "Tell me. Do you always guard that room?" She asked, with a fake, wide eyed smile. "Well...yes." The guard responded. "Come with me.." Anzu said, grabbing him by the wrist and taking him into the storage closet. "Princess, is there something you need? If so I can get the-" Anzu interrupted him, covering his mouth. "What did you hear?" She said. "I'm afraid I don't under-" Anzu cut him off once again. "2 days before my sister's disappearance. What did you hear? You must've heard something! A conversation? Perhaps?" Despite the nature of what she was doing, Anzu kept up her fake smiling as she did this. "O-oh...well..uh...something about the avatar...uh...bending...the earth nation..and Omashu" Anzu nodded, letting go of his wrist, bowing. "Thank you for your time."

Anzu's smile dropped as the guard left, she walked back to her room calmly and began jotting things down in a bullet point list.
•Missing money.
•Missing clothes.
•Acting strange the previous night.
•Alleged conversation about omashu.
•The avatar??
With all of this information, Anzu had concluded, Kaori had infact run away.

"But why?"

Meanwhile, In Omashu..
Kaori blinked, still just staring up at him. "What?" Daiki shook his head. "Oh! Right!" He tried to remember what he'd planned to say, but his ind had seemingly gone blank. "I...didn't...well..I..was...." He let out a long sigh. "I...don't know what to say.." He said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Let me..get straight to the point..I was too harsh on you...I didn't realize that whether you were the crown princess or not, you were still.....my friend! Or...something like that..my mom talked some sense into me.." He muttered. "What I'm trying to say is...uh...would you mind if I tagged along?" He said. Kaori blinked  tilting her head. "Of course- I understand, if you don't want me around you anymore-" He said quickly, covering his face which was now bright red. "Oh. I'd actually like that!" Kaori said eagerly, rubbing her eyes. "Really?" Daiki lifted his head, looking up at her. "Yeah? It'd be pretty lonely for me to just travel alone..." She said, drying her eyes.

"Pound it?" Daiki said, making a fist. "Mhm!" Kaori nodded, fistbumping him.