The Origin of Roh-Shan

Dock

The siblings were tied up in a dimly-lit room, down in the bunks of a Fire Nation cargo ship. They'd been picked up by the passing ship after floating on a life ring and planks from the boat for several hours. The sailors assumed they were refugees, and although Iden showed them her Fire Navy uniform, they couldn't verify that she hadn't stolen it, and things only went south when she tried to command them.

So they got tied up and put in an empty bunk room in dry Fire Navy exercise clothes while waiting to reach the Fire Nation Capital and have someone there verify that they're Fire Nation citizens.

And, much like they had done to Roh, Haider, and Kota, they were unfortunately tied to the same pole.

"Pspspsps" Ara whispered to a small sparrowkeet that had been fluttering around the bunks.

The bird flew over and landed five paces away, untrusting.

"Who's a pretty birdie?" He cooed.

Iden smashed her head against the pole. "You should've let me drown."

"Let the record show that I made no attempts to save you, you did it all yourself. The fact that you are still alive is just a consequence we both have to deal with."

Iden didn't have a response to that.

Ara continued his conversation with the sparrowkeet. "You're a pretty little birdie, yes you are. Those are some pretty green stripes, mister birdie."

Iden rolled her eyes. "Those are yellow stripes."

"No, the green ones." Ara tried to point but forgot his hand was tied behind his back.

"The green parts aren't stripes, they're the base color. It's green, with yellow stripes."

"The stripes are green, the bird is yellow."

"No! The green part is the bird. Look, his face is green."

"He's got yellow around his eyes though. And his wings are yellow."

"You're such an idiot, Ara. The wings are the accent color. And why did you assume the bird is male?"

"Because male sparrowkeets are colorful to attract females."

"All sparrowkeets are colorful, though."

"Maybe they're all males."

"That's literally impossible--"

The rusted metal door screeched open, and a sailor stepped in. "We're docking. Let's go."

Iden and Ara stood up, ropes still tied around their wrists. "Green with yellow stripes." Iden whispered under her breath.

"Yellow with green." Ara whispered slightly louder.

The sailor led them through the halls of the boat, before reaching the deck. A set of stairs connected the boat to the long wooden dock, and people were milling about, pulling ropes, going this way and that, the whole place abuzz.

The sailor stopped them right before the stairs and cut their ropes. "Someone vouched for you guys. Verified that you're Fire Nation citizens. You're free to go."

A bit confused, they both headed down the stairs anyway. Standing on the dock was Suley, arms crossed. He motioned for them to step out of the way of oncoming foot traffic, closer to the end of the dock and out of earshot of the other sailors, where the shoddy wooden railings stood between them and the wide open sea.

He put a finger to his chin, as if thinking. "So let me get this straight... after losing the Avatar the first time, you got her back then lost her again. Then you lost the two others who know about her, then you lost a boat and, grand total: you lost literally everything besides the clothes on your backs."

Again, after a silence they realized they were supposed to respond to that. They glanced down at their borrowed clothes.

"Uh--" Ara started, but Suley cut him off.

"OH WAIT, YOU LOST THOSE TOO! I gave you the easiest job in the world! We need to deal with the Avatar before she learns the other elements, because it's only going to get more difficult from here!" Suley steamed for a moment, turned away, and looked like he was done. But he snapped again. "THEY'RE JUST CHILDREN! How do you keep fucking this up!?"

"She's a child too!" Ara defended, gesturing to their little sister.

Suley scoffed. "And what does that make you, a sack of potatoes? You're older than them, you should be able to best them with your eyes closed."

Ara pointed to Iden. "How old is she?"

Suley looked like he couldn't care less. "I don't know."

"Guess."

"Seventeen."

"She's FOURTEEN."

"First of all, I don't care. Second, if you're saying I can't trust you to get the Avatar, then I'd be more than happy to find someone else willing to do it, and put you two on my guard forces."

"Guard forces?" Iden asked.

Suley's back straightened, ready to give one of his speeches again. "The New Ren Haru will be free from oppressive rules and governmental restrictions. All my citizens want is a place to openly use the freedoms they were born with, to do whatever they can possibly dream of, without having to face punishments for just being themselves. Isn't it just my luck that my city happens to be the Avatar's hometown. I just want you to bring her in so I can speak to her. All she's seen so far is the destruction of her city, not the beautiful utopia that I'm pulling together." He looked out across the waves, pleased with himself.

"...so what's the guard forces?" Iden reminded.

"Obviously, in my new society, people have absolute freedom, which if they so desired, would involve the freedom to harm me or my advisors, or various other important figures. For that, I will need a constant guard force, for protection."

The other two seemed uneasy about that idea.

Suley crossed his arms. "I'm going to make this so easy, even you can't fuck it up. I'm giving you the most powerful mode of flying transportation known to man." He pointed to the shore, where a dragon lay calmly on the shore, maroon-red and striped with gold. It had two saddle bags slumped next to it.

Iden looked back at Suley, suppressing a childlike excitement. "For real?"

"Assuming you two can manage to not lose it somehow, yes. But mainly because I have a new job for you as well. Inside those saddle bags are hundreds of informational fliers about the new city. Each flier includes a map and a date that ships will be sent out to transport anybody interested in moving the my new city. Spread the word! Drop fliers in towns, on doorsteps, on boats, across the earth kingdom! Now get out of my sight!"

Iden and Ara bumped into each other trying to get past Suley on the dock, and made a run for it. Partly because they were excited about the dragon, and partly running from Suley. Normally they wouldn't be afraid of him. They used to get along, kinda. But he's different now that he has power. And bending black fire at Iden last time made them really realize he's changed.

There was a dragon trainer standing on the shore with the beast, stepping forward as they approached. He looked like he was forcing himself to be cheery. "Are you two Mayor Suley's brother and sister?"

"Unfortunately!" Ara replied in the same tone.

He surveyed the pair as they got closer, and looked more and more disappointed with each step. Iden's Fire Navy uniform had been torn and ruffled during the unagi attack, and Ara just generally looked like shit. The sailors had offered them dry clothes that they normally gave to refugees, but of course they were still pauper's clothing. Ara had accepted, but Iden staunchly refused to wear anything but a Fire Navy uniform, which of course they wouldn't give her.

"Well, here she is. Do either of you know how to ride and care for a dragon?"

"No."

"Great! This is going to be a long day."

~//~