Man with the Fire Tattoo, Part 2

"Man with the Fire Tattoo, Part 2" is the third episode of Book One: Fire for the first group, The Lotus Blossoms.

Previous episode: "Man with the Fire Tattoo, Part 1" Next episode: "The Chase"

Summary
''The teenagers tie up the fire nation soldiers that survived the fight, including the very annoying man with the fire tattoo, and go back to the Southern Water Tribe village with the other water tribe members. Before reaching the village they are stopped by the powerful water bending master Uran who is Rai Kana's grandfather. He assesses them before taking them and their prisoners into the village.''

''The teenagers stay the night in the village where they meet Kili and Reelan. In the morning they are lead to the one prisoner that is still alive as the other prisoners have been executed. The man with the fire tattoo is very mouthy and aware he is going to die. After finding out he was a part of the soldiers that killed the air nomads he is tortured by Xian before being left alone for a few days. When they come back, he is exhausted and tells them he is part of a group called the Flame whose goal is to kill the Air Nomads and the Order of the White Lotus.''

''He attempts to kill them by exploding himself but fails, despite Ailis, Tara, and Sulo being trapped in the wreckage. When they get out Uran tells the party that they need to go find the Order of the White Lotus in the Earth Kingdom so that they can help.''

Synopsis
The man with the fire tattoo on his hand who surrendered stands there among the party and the frightened children. Xian approaches him and commands him to put his hands behind his back so that she can tie them up and he gives in. But Fu Zen reminds her that he is a bender, and tells the man to put his hands in the air, the man with some lip questions who is in charge, neglecting to put his hands in the air. Xian sees the wisdom and this and with the pole arm that Fu Zen passes her, she ties his hand to either end. The man comes off as quite annoying, and purports that they were trying to sneak attack the village while the water tribe warriors were distracted, you weren't meant to be, indicating the water tribes people who were there and neither was the party meant to be there, and even does some small fire into the air, which Rulu backs away from, with some frustration on Fu Zen's part (he wanted to smash the man), Xian chi bends him into unconsciousness.

Meanwhile the children around the party are in varying stages of horror, most of them are quite terrified, one in particular is rocking on the ground. Several are hugging Rai Kana and several also are hugging the other woman there. A small group, however, are beginning to build a fort and create snowballs.

Xian, Fu Zen, and Sülo continue to discuss what they want to do, the time it takes exasperates Fu Zen's wound and he stumbles as he takes more damage from sustained blood loss. Rai Kana offers to help and he allows her to heal the wound. It takes a while and she realises that this is an old wound. When she finishes it appears to be only a fresh scar.

Tichi who has blood around his mouth begins to chomp the snow in effort to clean his mouth. Ailis walks over and helps her bison by rubbing it with snow to get the blood off.

One small boy comments that he's never seen red snow before.

The children who were idly making their fort throw a snowball at the surrendered and tied up man, waking him up, the man continues to be annoying. But the children turn their efforts to Fu Zen and begin to throwing snow balls at him, the boy who is wearing fire nation armour and killed people in front of them. With some cajoling the children cease their snowballs at Fu Zen. Tara attempts to distract the children and encourages them into a game of Follow the Leader. The elder party members consider the surrendered man before sending him back to sleep and continue discussing their plan.

Eventually Tara breaks away from the games and launches herself into the air, surveying the ship where the smoke has come from she sees that it has been caught high in the ice and the figures moving on board are dressed in blue, as she looks along the route they would have to take to return to the village she sees no hazards there either. She touches down into the group and informs the party.

Decisions are made and the fire nation soldiers that are still alive are tied up with shackles that Inanna creates and put on Rulu's back. Xian attempts to be nice to Rulu with his fear of fire but the bison is indignant that she would think he couldn't handle the fire nation soldiers and indicates he would roll over if they try anything.

Sülo helps out Fu Zen who is still covered in blood, at first he attempts to manipulate the blood, all the while openly discussing what he's doing with Fu Zen, as blood is a liquid, but he can't quite convince his mind of this. Instead he drenches Fu Zen with water who becomes freezing cold and to help, Tara gives him a blow dry. Sülo also helps out Ailis by helping to clean Tichi.

Before they leave they talk to the little girl who was rocking back and forth, without getting to close, Tara asks if she is okay, while Fu Zen says inappropriate things. The girl who looks to be about 3 looks up and says she wants to kill the fire nation. The other woman bends down comforts the girl, calling her Hama, and says that it is not her fight yet.

The party then begin the journey back to the village with Rai Kana in the lead. Tara continues in her game of Follow the Leader which most of the children are enjoying. As they come around the corner they come into sight of the ship they can see the blue persons who are moving things off and one fire where they appear to be burning anything red, including really good blankets. The persons on the ship wave as they see Rai Kana but as they see the other people and the two sky bison. Everyone but Rai Kana finds that they can't move as the ice has rooted them to the spot. Xian is easily able to move out and bows to the Water Master before them, likewise Ailis and Tara are able to bow. Fu Zen just bashes his way out by brute strength, bows and then apologises for what his people have done. Both Ailis and Tara attempt to slap him before he says my people, but fail.

The Water Master talks directly to Rai Kana. She explains that these people came down to warn them of the approaching fire nation soldiers and saved them. The Water Master considers Rai Kana and tells her that she obviously wasn't enough to help defend the children, in the process revealing that he is Rai Kana's grandfather. Both Ailis and Tara pipe up that she helped them heaps and Rai Kana explains how there were 12 soldiers to her. Rai Kana is so enraged some ice from above almost falls down on to her grandfather, Uran, who stops it before it falls on to him and then moves the ice over Rai Kana and comments that she needs to work on her control. And then leaves the party to continue. Rai Kana continues to stare at the ice block above her head, it begins to melt so she bends it away from her.

As they approach the water tribe village they see the walls that are built up around it. Fu Zen is both impressed at the walls, but worried about the size of the population it represents. Sülo is able to see the walls are not made from bending. Rai Kana knows that this is the way as it is traditional for the village to carefully build the wall up by hand so it is a joint procedure and then in a time of attack, the water benders can compress it into an ice wall.

Fu Zen questions Rai Kana about how far away the closest village is. He explains that if reinforcements can't come a single fire nation warship arrives- Uran cuts him off. "Young man," he interrupts then indicates the ship, "Look, it is the only ship.”

“Yet,” intercedes Xian.

“All are dead.” Continues Uran.

“All?” questions Fu Zen.

“Yes.”

Tara is shocked at such a blunt answer. “All of them are dead and half of mine.” Rai Kana questions about her father, who Uran consoles her saying he is fine.

Fu Zen continuing to question their military wonders how much that is and Uran says 20, which is too much considering how many were on the ship. Fu Zen counters that the fire nation can afford to fling even more men at them. Uran considers the thought with contempt that the fire nation would send their men as fodder. Uran wouldn't.

Fu Zen asks if they could fall back anywhere safer, his reasoning being the fire nation can only sale the ships so far and walking over land is harder. Uran replies that he will not retreat because he will not allow his people to go where they cannot get food, they cannot drink, they cannot live. They will stay. He then proceeds to tell Fu Zen if he does not desist in talking he will rescind his hospitality.

At this, Uran opens the blanket to an igloo. It's not a posh one, but it's nice. Xian goes to check if the fire nation soldiers are unconscious, Uran assures them that they are. As he ushers everyone inside he takes a moment longer to look at Sülo and then turns to Rai Kana.

At this point there are men and women entering the village carrying stuff, one man in particular shouts out to Uran, look we have enough meat for two winters! Uran notes this and says they ought to get them out to the surrounding villages quickly. He then directs the man to make sure the five captives are securely tied up and warns him that some are fire benders. On hearing this Tara questions if the man with fire tattoo on his hand, has similar tattoos all the way up to his neck? While the others are quick to reassure her that it is not the same man from the village, Tara persists. Xian checks and he does not have any tattoos.

The sky bison are then to be lead away. Ailis pats Tichi and says that it's going to be okay. Though neither bison seem too worried about the water benders, Tichi, of course, is familiar with Sülo. Tichi looks as if she is about to lick one, the man looks slightly perturbed, but Tichi pokes out her tongue, groans, to which the man responds by patting her on the nose. She licks him anyway, he water bends himself dry and licks her. He looks sort of cute, about 17, Ailis looks at the boy with a bit of respect and some interest.

Just before Rai Kana goes in, a man with a bundle of pole arms appears, it's her father, Reelan, who drops them to run over to Rai Kana, “I love you too” she says. And hugs him, trying to ignore the party behind her, and clings to him like a seven year old. He asks where her new friends are and she indicates the igloo. Both Uran and Reelan share a look, Uran stills blames Reelan for his daughter's (Rai Kana's mother) death by childbirth.

Everyone goes to sit inside the igloo, Rai Kana asks for Sülo's name again, referring to him as the water bending fellow, Uran takes this in, “I thought so. He walks like an air bender...” Much to Ailis' confusion, “We walk funny?” which Rai Kana quickly replies with “Yeah, you do.” Ailis contemplates her feet.

A lot of the women also fight, we see them cleaning their weapons. Fu Zen is curious as it is not what happens in the fire nation.

Uran rests his head on his crossed hands and stares at the group quiet and thoughtful. Both Tara and Ailis do not sit still well. The party detail how the Avatar has died and the air temples are destroyed to Uran.

“We were at the village, there were a lot of other nations, we were all at the festival.” Xian explains. Uran reacts as soon as he hears the word festival. He encourages the party to explain what occurred. And they relate the events and how the firebenders caused an explosion. Though Uran sounds unfamiliar with the term explosion and their attempts to describe it don't quite catch the meaning until Fu Zen describes it like a fire ball. This makes the man remember that it is a long time since he has seen fire bending and now he is being attacked rather than being alongside the person, he is put out by this thought.

“Who did this?” There is an almost unanimous response of the fire nation and Fu Zen relates how it was a man with the fire tattoo on his neck that led the attack. Explaining why they were curious about the man with the fire tattoo on his hand. There could've been some association.

They mention that they lost them as the eel hounds couldn't cross the ocean. Uran knows what eel hounds are and developed a bending related to them. He asks how they survived. “Luck,” from Fu Zen. “My mother defended us,” from Ailis. “They told us to run,” from Tara.

“What did the tattoo look like?” He provides a sheet of ice, putting his tea in an ink well, Xian draws the tattoo. “Interesting.” goes Uran, as he considers the drawing. “Before we execute the captives we will probably talk to them about this.” Tara is, again, noticeably discomforted by the idea of execution.

But Uran directs them to beds. Most of the party is confused as to why they are going to bed when it is still light out. The water benders explain that it is light almost all the time, and then it is dark the whole time in winter. It's not very pleasant. At the moment it is midnight.

“Tomorrow morning you will join us before breakfast,” commands Uran to Sülo.

Fu Zen is as Fu Zen and asks if he can help with the hunters of the village, Rai Kana informs him he can sleep with the hunters and they could see about something in the morning. Though, Fu Zen is led out by Xian to help check on Rulu. Meanwhile Rai Kana points out a few of the igloos that the team can sleep in for the “night”, though there will be two to an igloo as there isn't much room.

Ailis takes Tara along to check on Tichi, when they arrive they can tell he is now very clean and he is lying on his back getting a belly rub by the cute boy from earlier. Ailis compliment him on his ability to interact with sky bison despite the lack of them in the village.

“What can I say, animals like me.” The boy responds as Ailis climbs up onto the bison.

As Ailis settles down for the night she offers to the boy to join them, Tara and the boy are both like minded that he shouldn't. Ailis thinks to herself that he seems good with animals but is terrible with girls. Before he leaves, Ailis asks his name, “It's Kili.”

Meanwhile Rulu appears to be well fed and tired, her giant yawn a clear indicator and reminds Xian that it would be a good idea to get some sleep too. Xian settles down with her bison for the night.

Everyone sleeps.

Morning comes and Sülo and Rai Kana receive water bending lessons from the Water Bending Master. Tara and Ailis also practice their air bending between themselves. Fu Zen is the exception and as he goes to practice with a bow that is lent to him, he arm twinges and he realises he needs to find a healer to heal the old wound, afraid that it might damage him further if he ignores it.

After the party have eaten dinner that night, Uran indicates Xian, Sülo, and Fu Zen and tells them to come with him. Rai Kana, Ailis, and Tara follow, but Uran doesn't seem to mind.

Fu Zen asks about the water tribe warriors and Uran reveals that they lost half of the men who fought, a blow that was felt. At this Uran recalls that Kili tells him that they have a couple of healthy sky bison and would they mind lending them to send the supplies to the nearby villages. Xian is more than happy to give Rulu's help.

As they walk somewhere, Uran explains that of the men who were captured, four of them didn't really talk. However, he has remembered where he knows the fire tattoo from, though the man who had should be dead as he would be 200 now. He himself met the man when the man was 100. The fire tattoo this man sported was across his eye and it was because he was proud of being a fire bender. He was a good fire bender and a decent person, Uran doesn't believe he would do anything like this. The man's name was Kora.

As they walk, Uran leads them to a recently constructed tent that has clearly been built with water bending. He explains that he thinks we should talk with the man we have with the fire tattoo and why he has a tattoo like Kora's. Fu Zen question the phrasing and Uran replies “Well they can't now,” to Tara's shock. Uran remarks that at least they are not hungry enough to resort to cannibalism, not that such a thing has happened in his life time.

As they step into the tent they can see the man is in chains, his arms stretched out to either side to prevent him fire bending. At the sight of the teenagers he grins, till he glances at Uran and the expression drops, then he looks back at the teenagers and resumes his easy smile. The soldier has been stripped of his armour and the tattoo on his hand is more obvious now. Most of the party can't help but look at it.

The party attempts to have a conversation with the man, but he continues to rib them. When they question why he has tattoos the man responds crassly and Rai Kana tries to respond with the same swear but is cut off as she stumbles backwards as a torrent of water hits her in the mouth. Uran has not remained still this time as he overtly bended the water to be faster.

The man is well aware that no matter what he says he will die and takes a fair amount of joy out of giving poor answers to the party. He easily picks up that Fu Zen is from the fire nation. The topic turns to family as he comments on Uran raising Rai Kana to not swear, and when they try to evoke empathy from him about his parents he tells them about how his father got killed by "some air nomad skank” and then relates what happened at the air temple. “Yeah, you know it was funny though, we ransacked the temple, killed her, and then I killed her friends and then I killed her bison.” He cuts himself off as he realises Xian moving near him and seems to be attempting to something but coughs out a little smoke. His legs fall out from under him as Xian jabs him in the side, causing him to struggle to breath.

The teenagers are so focused on the man, they do not realise that Uran steps back from the scene and mutters to himself, “The other members of the order wouldn't approve of this.”

Xian waits until she can tell he's struggling to breathe and then she reverses it, stepping away again till she's more than a body's length away, despite this he is impressed with Xian 's skill. Eventually they eke out more, how the woman had been defending her home, unlike other air nomads who didn't fight. The woman killed her father but in turn was killed by this man. He tells them the Fire Lord Sozin told him to kill the air nomads, he thought they'd done a good job too.

But again, he points out after Uran freezes his mouth shut, they're going to kill him anyway. Tara swears on the life of her mother that she'll free him, she would even drop him off, but no one will let her keep her promise. Instead the older party members consider leaving him to starve, before Fu Zen encourages Xian into torturing the man with chi bending with Uran's permission.

Sülo takes this time to leave.

Uran gags the man with a block of ice and reminds Rai Kana that her father will no appreciate her staying.

Xian goes up to the guy and murmurs softly in his ear:

“I watched my mentor die. I'm currently feeling incredibly vengeful. You might want to ruminate on that a bit. And decide, if you really want to draw this out or if you want to tell us what I want to know. So we can finish this quickly instead of letting you linger for weeks, upon weeks, upon weeks.”

The man can only make vague noises through the gag, seeing no sign of redemption she takes his legs out from underneath him. The noises become a bit more disgruntled in response and Xian can tell again that he is having trouble breathing, she waits a little longer to put his legs back and he remains hanging. He has lost consciousness, but using her small air bending she nudges him awake and steps back.

Xian attempts to get some answers out of him but the man merely tries to burn her with a gout of fire that Uran helpfully intercedes. Uran frowns as he thought that it had been made cold enough and tries to fix this by bringing down extra ice shackles. They continue to question him. The party might be getting through to him, he's got bravado, bravado, bravado but his body is looking pretty shattered. His body will give up in a few days. But he's obviously deliberately trying to goad you into killing him before he says anything. It looks like he's really amused by the fact that Xian's an air nomad, by her clothes, and she's torturing him.

The party who remained inside the hut eventually leave. Outside the hut already are Sülo, Ailis, and Tara and the party can then see Reelan approaching. Uran says goodbye as he skates away. Tara explains that she swore on her mother because her mother is dead.

So, the party waits a few days, those that visit him get torment talk from him, but each day you go back the tormenting is less, smile less intelligent and less loud and his body looks like it's about to give out.

Fu Zen spends the days out hunting practicing to fight with the non-bending warriors in an attempt to miss out on the pelting of snow balls from the children. He spends time with the village and as each day passes Fu Zen realises that the person who hates him the most in the village is himself. Most of the people don't care and they heard what he did for the kids. The kids stalk Fu Zen with snowballs the whole time and they batter the crap out of him with snowballs but they expect him to start defending. This is a water tribe, snow is love. Because it's the lets pelt the fire nation guy with snowballs game, because it's a game. Despite this realisation, Fu Zen continues to feel guilty that his nation attacked them.

Xian and Ailis ferry stuff to the other villages on their bison, everyone that sees them is just wow awesome. There are some inland, some along the coast, some that are a long way away along the coast, there's even a water tribe village way way out, it takes a day to get back. They both travel with a water tribe they know. Ailis gets to travel with Kili who wants to fly with them as soon as the idea is proposed.

Eventually the party return to the prisoner and he is pretty much not there, he's there but he's gone. He doesn't attempt to attack anyone that gets too close and he looks like he is about to die. It could be said that it's a miracle he's still alive since he's trying to kill himself there are healers coming in occasionally just to help him live but you aren't sure who.

When the go back to question the man they find him exhausted. The manage to get out that he is part of the flame, he doesn't know how many, and their mission is to "

Kill…Nip the lotus bud.” Most of the party seem confused but Tara recalls that Ayahsk mentioned the White Lotus on the lake all those days ago, and says the man means their parents. The man promises that  “We're going to get you… I'm not going to… My friends will…”   At this point he breathes very deeply and  Xian  cries to get out.

As the party tries to leave, both Xian and Fu Zen make it out, but Sülo, Ailis, and Tara are inside when the prisoner explodes. The prisoner breathed in, usually to make fire it is expelled as you breathe out, instead he held it in his stomach so it explodes in fire. The building collapses down on them and  Ailis  and  Tara  have enough time to gather air around themselves and  Sülo. When the world has stopped collapsing,  Sülo  melts the water above them and they climb out.

As they do see they can see Rai Kana and Uran skating over on ice Uran has created, Uran appears to recognise what an explosion is now. When they mention the man talking about the White Lotus, Uran asks how many times they have been to the festival. Most have been a few times and Rai Kana was due to go next year. Uran moves his scarf and reveals his necklace. It's a white lotus.


 * “It looks like war has come to those who don't fight wars.”

Uran explains to them that has a war has come and it is now up to them whether they choose to walk the path of the white lotus. After all, they were meant to do this, just not this way. The party agree and Uran explains how they need to head to village in the Earth Kingdom near Omashu and show them this white lotus tile, they will recognise it. And they need to find out everything they can about the flame. While the party is not members of the order yet, they can choose to be. Fu Zen interrupts:


 * “But if this is the path of justice and the path on which I can redeem myself . I will take it.”

The party plan to head out in the morning, Rai Kana gets her maps.

Fu Zen gets a boomerang.