Man with the Fire Tattoo, Part 1

"Man with the Fire Tattoo, Part 1" is the second episode of Book One: Fire for the first group, The Lotus Blossoms. This is where Rai Kana makes her debut appearance.

Previous episode: "The Festival" Next episode: "Man with the Fire Tattoo, Part 2"

Summary
''The teenagers who've escaped the village on the backs of Rulu and Tichi find themselves attacked by three men from the band that attacked at the festival, including the man that killed Lien. They manage to evade them and seek safety on an island and discuss what has happened. Eventually concluding that they ought to travel to the Southern Water Tribe and warn them of the imminent attack. They stop for supplies at Xian and Metti and are attacked again by the same three men and have to leave abruptly.''

''As they travel, they finally leave the men and their eel hounds behind at the edge of the Earth Kingdom as the begin to cross the expansive ocean towards the South Pole. On their way they odd black islands, and the Southern Air Temple, which Ailis, Sülo, Tara, and Xian take a moment for.''

''As they approach the Southern Water Tribe they see a fire nation ship approaching as well. From their vantage point on the sky bison they can see the warriors of the Southern Water Tribe coming out to attack, but, also, a small group of Fire Nation soldiers sneaking around them and heading towards agroup of women and children. There is much debate on the sky bisons as to what to do and they eventually agree to help the women and children, Tara jumps before they've come to a decision.''

''At the caves where the women and children is, Tara lands and warns them of the threat, only for the Fire Nation soldiers to appear just after. Luckily, Tichi and Rulu are not far behind. The bison land and a fight ensues. Leaving only one man standing, he has a fire tattoo on the palms of his hands.''

Synopsis
The teenagers are still trying to escape from the village, seated on the bison there is trouble as Ailis, Sülo, and Ayahsk. However, Ailis was in control of her bison, and Tichi starts to dive down towards land. Xian attempts to guide Tichi while Tara attempts to take the reins instead, failing she tries to wake Ailis up. With a splash of air to the face Ailis gasps awake and guides Tichi to rest on the lake they were heading into. Xian, as well, settles Rulu next to Tichi.

And then the frightened teenagers let out and concerns are raised about why the fire nation attacked the innocent village. Fu Zen has no idea why the fire nation has attacked as he has been travelling since he left the fire nation. However, Ayahsk, who has woken up, reveals that the village may not have been as innocent as they seem as he overheard talks about the White Lotus, a war being led by the fire nation and settlements within the earth kingdom by the fire nation. But, most importantly, Avatar Roku is dead. These rumours cause great worry. And, Tara pipes up that the new Avatar is, or at least was, an airbender from the Southern Air Temple and he was last seen near the Southern Water Tribe.

It is then that Xian realizes something important, if the new air bending avatar was killed the next people they would attack would be the water tribes. Considering Aang was last seen near the Southern Water Tribe that is our intended destination. Xian further explains that for such a trip they will need supplies and she and her mentor, Metti, had a home in the Wu Tang Forest nearby.

It is then that some people notice an oddity, there are no animal sounds. It is quiet, too quiet.

A fire blast erupts from the edge of the lake as three fire benders can be seen seated on hounds, among the benders is the one with the fire tattoo.

Fu Zen is so infuriated he calls them Cowards which in turn causes the one with the fire tattoo to be angered. As Tichi is able to launch away, it seems at first like the man is going to send more fire at them but then he jumps and propels himself with extra force from his companions over the lake and lands on to Rulu, well, almost as Ayahsk was able to unbalance him with some water bending. However, the man is impressive and manages to grip on to Rulu’s tail setting fire to it. As he pulls himself up Fu Zen swings a mace at him which soundly connects and the man falls off into the water. Ayahsk uses the water from his flask to extinguish the flame.

Meanwhile, on Tichi, they are having troubles of their own as the two remaining fire benders are sending blasts towards him. Sülo comes to consciousness to see Tara effortlessly and with childish glee deflecting the blasts away. As they fly away, Tara explains what they have learnt to Sülo.

Surviving the encounter the party continues on to the Wu Tang Forest. While there they begin to pack supplies onto the sky bison: food, blankets and so on. To increase efficiency, Ayahsk is able to create ice ramps to the backs of the bison and both Ailis and Tara are able to push the packages up on to the bison. However, there is again an unnatural silence and everyone races to get on the bison and leave. As they push off another jet of fire erupts from the wood but the fire benders and their steeds cannot be seen. Luckily for them, Inanna has studied maps and can direct them, even without the land.

Rising above the cloud cover for safety they begin the journey to the Southern Water Tribe. Just as the leave the Earth Kingdom behind they glance down and they can see the hounds at the edge of the sea.

Less than a day of travel out from the shore, they spot several large black islands. Inanna is very confused when they are pointed out to her as they don’t appear to be on her map. Fu Zen thinks that whatever they are they might be of fire nation design.

Several days of travel go by, during which Tara is the one who feeds the bison as she is able to leap off the bison to fly around and throw apples into their gaping jaws. Eventually, they pass by where the Southern Air Temple stands. This is a sobering reminder for Ailis, Sülo, Tara and Xian who take a moment to pause in remembrance. Finally they begin to sight the shores of the South Pole.

However, there is something wrong a great black hulk of a ship is slowly moving up to where the Southern Water Tribe is known to be. Fu Zen recognises it as a fire nation ship but it is much bigger than he expected. As they continue to look Sülo spots some objects moving through the water, coming from where the tribe would be, that look like icebergs. But, from the way they are moving, Sülo can tell that they are propelled by water benders. Moreover, as Sülo continues to look he realises that in the wake of the hulking fire nation boat, figures have leapt ashore and are heading along the ridge where they can see a collection of southern water tribe women and children.

Rai Kana is out with her siblings and the rest of the women and children to look at the zoo of animals. Well, zoo isn’t quite the word; it’s the cave system where the animals naturally make their homes.

As Xian, Fu Zen and the others debate on who to help out, someone suggests splitting them and one group helps the women and children while the other assist against the ship. Fu Zen remembers that splitting the group would not be good and they would be more useful against the dozen fire nation troops, helping the women and children than anything they might do against the ship. So deciding this they look up to see that Tara is gone as she has dropped off the side of Tichi to get to the women and children to warn them. Both Tichi and Rulu follow.

Rai Kana looks up to the sky and sees a bird of an unnatural colour of orange, she then realizes that it could be one of those Long Bo Staffs that the airbenders have but she hasn’t met one, let alone seen one before. As she watches, she makes out the features of a young girl just as she lands before and cries out that “There are fire nation troops coming in that direction,” pointing around the side of a cliff face. In terror, Rai Kana screams “Run!” unfortunately the way home is back via that route and several children try to run home, and towards the troops they cannot see. It is that point the troops come around the corner, Rai Kana runs in front while Tara jumps to place herself between the children and the fire nation troops.

Meanwhile as the sky bison arrive, the steep dive alerts the troops to their approach and half of them respond by shooting fire towards them. Rulu who has now achieved some fear of fire, immediately climbs back up and away from the fire. Tichi, however, despite Ailis’ attempts is not able to veer out until his natural instincts allow him to just nip out of the fiery path. However, he proceeds to land uncontrollably and the fire nation troops that turned to prevent them are forced to dive out of the way. Where Rulu escaped to, Xian is able to convince him to go around the troops and cliff and lands him off to the side of the women and children with a line of site to the other half of the troops.

Battle lines are drawn and a fight ensues. None of the air benders kill anyone but Tichi bites a man in two and Inanna struggles with the lack of readily available earth. However, Xian and  Fu Zen prove to be skilled combatants. When their is one man left standing, he realises he is without hope and puts up his hands in surrender. His gloves while normal have burnt holes where the fire came through and it reveals the man's fire tattoos.