Benders

[the healer]

intro chapter

     Yu-Jin gathered her skirts beneath her and settled her basket into the springy grass as she crouched. Tilting her face upwards, she took in the midday sun and sighed with pleasure. Nothing pleased her more than a good foraging day - the birds sang and the trees chatted, their voices soft as rustling leaves. The apprentice healer was gathering yarrow flowers for poultices, and dropped the last few blossoms into her basket.

     She tarried a moment longer before heading back into Ba Sing Se. The huge city had no such forests as the one she was in, and she'd had to take a train out of the city and would board one again to get back to the apothecary. After long minutes of walking, the stone walls of Ba Sing Se loomed above her, its top bathed in the yellow daylight. Earth benders in soldiers' uniforms stood guard by a section of wall, ready to lower it for entry to the train platform.

     She smiled at the two stocky benders, not even needing her ID after months of trips beyond the wall.

     "Ston, Ric, how are you today?" She curtseyed in greeting as they stomped the wall down with a loud crack. "As well as ever, Miss Yu-Jin," they replied simultaneously. The young girl stepped through into the station, feeling the wall snap back up behind her.

     Beifong Station was a hub of tourists and families, holding up signs welcoming loved ones. The tan rock that comprised most of the city's architecture was also present here, lined with metal train tracks and electric lights that changed color to signify the time of day. At midday, the lights were lemon yellow. People rushed around Yu-Jin like water around a rock as she made her way to platform four to catch the train into the lower rings of the city. Other trains would take you to the farms or the wealthier districts.

     Soon her train came screeching down the track, where it softly stopped at the depot. The doors opened, flooding the platform with its passengers as more hurried to take their place. Yu-Jin pressed a dollar coin into the doorman's hand and he let her onto the car. She stood in the aisle, grasping onto an overhead handle as countless bodies pressed around her. The doctor positioned herself so her flowers wouldn't get crushed as the train started back toward the heart of the city.

     The train rails were high above the buildings of Ba Sing Se, and the view was really the only good thing about it to Yu-Jin. A governor's tower was visible to the right, and another in the far distance on the left. The palace loomed above everything at the very heart of the mountain-shaped city. 

     Soon the train clashed to a soft stop at Trade Station. Yu-Jin hopped off, hoofing the few large blocks to the apothecary. 

     The White Lotus was a humble storefront among many others, the shop on the first floor while Yu-Jin and her master lived on the second. Its slanted clay shingles cast friendly shadows on the girl as she rubbed the metal open sign with the hem of her skirt.

     "Master Fushu?" Yu-Jin called, "I've got more yarrow; is Mister Binh still here?" She headed to the back of the clean shop where they kept their stores of herbs. The fragrances were strong, but not conflicting. She headed the flowers in her basket, mulling them into a paste with the pestle and storing it in a jar next to the lavender when she was finished. 

     Yu-Jin padded across the maple floors back into the ground floor of the shop. It was deserted despite the open sign. Deciding he must be upstairs, she headed up the sturdy stairs, opening the hatch to the second floor. Before her head had even cleared the floor, her eyes widened in shock and she gasped. 

     "Master!" she cried, flinging open the hatch. It thudded densely against the floor, but she didn't even hear it as she rushed towards her teacher's prone figure on the floor. She knealt by his side and immediately took his pulse, confused when he suddenly laughed at her. His eyes opened, watery with laughter, and he sat up with her help. "Oh, Yu-Jin I'm fine. I was just resting," the old man groaned as he stood. His apprentice, however, was still concerned. He had been growing weaker with age, and though he wasn't ancient, he was sick and his faculties were going fast. 

     "Why were you resting on the floor, master? Why not in bed? I worry about you," the student fussed as she fixed him his favorite tea. Fushu was rooting around the room searching for something. "Where is my logbook?" he muttered, hoping Yu-Jin wouldn't hear.

     "It's in the night table, master. Where you always put it." Her brow furrowed in worry as he found it and dusted the cover off. It was his journal of the past few months; his effort to retain his memory. But even that wasn't working. Soon his medical knowledge would start to go, and then even Yu-Jin would seem like a stranger. Sometimes he asked her about the pictures on the walls, and when he had taken them. He sighed as his student handed him a cup of steaming tea. Yu-Jin looked him in the face, her mossy green eyes met by his wizened grey ones. He laid a hand atop hers and she felt her stomach drop in dread. She knew what he was going to say.

     "Yu-Jin, it's time for you to take over for me." She tried to protest but he continued, "better now when I can still help you than when it's too late. Besides, you're ready - I've trained you your whole life for this, and you're more naturally suited for healing than I ever was. You couldn't have made me more proud of you." He cupped her plump cheek in his hand as a tear rolled down it. "It's time I told you of your responsibilities. The shop is yours, as are its contents. All my patients will come to you; I'll introduce you as their physician when they come next." He took a breath and a sip of tea, clearing his throat.

     "Do you remember that trip I took to the Fire Nation five years ago?" Yu-Jin nodded. 

     "Well, when I was there, there was an assassination attempt on the fire lord. I was in the right place at the right time and I ended up saving his life. After that, I was the only doctor he would see, as his own hires had failed him." Yu-Jin's eyes widened in shock, her tears stopping as she anticipated his words. 

     "My responsibility is now yours, Yu-Jin. So before I forget everything, it's time you met the Fire Lord. You're going to the Fire Nation."