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Marinette examined the inside of their supplies bag with a frown. “We’re starting to run low on food.”
It had been several days since their departure from Omashu and they had been trying to avoid towns as much as possible in the name of dodging the attention of the Fire Nation. But, since none of the three of them were especially great at finding food in the Earth Kingdom wilderness, they’d have to find somewhere to resupply soon.
Alya, who was seated beside her going over her chronicles of their adventures, unrolled the map and examined it with a thoughtful hum. “It looks like there’s a trading port northwest of here. Which is good, because I’m starting to run low on ink. We could probably reach it in an hour or two.”
“Sounds good,” Marinette nodded, leaning over the front to tell Nino. The water tribe boy, who had been chatting amiably to Lady as he held her reins, grinned and shot her a thumbs up, adjusting their course accordingly.
Alya’s estimates were good, and they arrived in the trading port within two hours, after leaving Lady hidden a short while downriver. As they wandered through the town, Marinette prickled uneasily under the gazes of the rough-looking people lining the streets. She was wearing a headband to hide the tattoo on her forehead but worried she’d be recognised anyway. Who knew what people might do in a place like this.
Alya and Nino didn’t seem to share her worries. Alya was quickly absorbed by a stall selling calligraphy supplies and Nino was sucked quickly into the nearby music store, cooing over a large, stringed instrument that looked like a larger version of the pipa that he’d left back with Lady.
Marinette glanced around, searching for somewhere they might buy food supplies. There didn’t seem to be anything in the immediate area; as far as she could tell, everything down here was for ornamentation or artistic use. Well, aside from the balding man in the outlandish costume attempting to sell a variety of owl animals. None of which looked particularly pleased by his frequent hooting. The owl-bats in particular looked especially disgruntled.
They’d have to move down the dock to find what they needed, she mused. As she scanned the storefronts for any place that might sell what they needed, a gleam in a nearby curios stall caught her eye. Pausing to investigate, she realised it was a small figurine of a cat carved entirely out of polished green stone veined with black.
She smiled, thinking of Chat Noir. The masked boy wielding mysterious green and black flames had appeared out of nowhere one night to help them save a small town from marauding bandits. Since then he had appeared several times to share in several of their misadventures, always vanishing again at the end. He’d become a good friend over the course of everything and she hadn’t seen him in a while. She had to admit, she missed the scruffy alley cat.
Maybe she could get him a gift for the next time she saw him, she thought, examining the table before her with renewed interest. She wondered what he was doing now.
***
Adrien sighed as he examined the map in front of him. It had been weeks since the last time he had seen Marinette, Nino and Alya. They had been heading to Omashu last he’d heard, a place that was rather hard to get to by boat. He had no idea where they would be now and attempting to predict their route was beginning to give him a headache.
Putting the map away with a sigh, he watched as the crew disembarked. They had just docked at a riverside trading port in the western Earth Kingdom at the request of Master Fu. According to the elderly firebender, a port like this was the best place to find rare ingredients for his potions.
Master Fu hummed contentedly as they waited for their entourage to organise themselves. “You can find the most interesting things in places like this.”
Adrien smiled. “Indeed, Master.”
He glanced out over the railing, talking in the people bustling along the waterfront, when something familiar caught his attention. There, further down the pier, a small group of people moving away from them. A figure in blue water tribe clothes with a conical hat perched on their head. Another with long brown hair, dressed in well-tailored, if mostly unadorned, green and gold clothes. And the third in simple garments of yellow and reddish-brown, their dark hair pulled back into pigtails.
Rushing over to the railing, he felt a grin break over his face. They were here! His friends and his lady were here!
Then his smile fell. They didn’t know he was the masked boy who had fought by their sides. As far as they knew, Adrien was the Fire Nation prince intent on capturing the avatar. He couldn’t bring himself to drop the pretence, not yet. Not with the thought of his father’s wrath hanging over his head.
He couldn’t go out to see them, not like this. And going out as Chat in daylight could be just as risky. The masked firebender with the black flames was wanted by the Fire Nation almost as badly as the avatar these days. Although, from the look of things, Adrien’s own men seemed to be the only Fire Nation soldiers in town at the moment, and they would be going off in the other direction with Master Fu.
Making a split-second decision, Adrien turned to his firebending master. “Master, if you don’t mind, I would like to stay behind. Suddenly I feel quite unwell.”
Master Fu smiled in a way that told Adrien that he knew exactly what Adrien was up to. “Of course, Prince Adrien,” he said, raising his voice slightly for the benefit of the nearby guards, who would be remaining on the ship. “You should retire to your chambers and rest, and it would be best if you were not disturbed.”
Adrien smiled and bowed. “Yes, Master.” He made his way towards the stairwell, careful to keep his pace sedate until he was out of sight. Then he rushed down to his cabin to change. After slipping into his black Chat Noir clothes, complete with the wooden mask over his upper face, he added a dark, hooded cloak to the ensemble.
After a moment’s hesitation, he left his bo staff in its hiding place under his bunk. It would be far too noticeable. If something went wrong, his firebending would be more than enough to defend himself with.
Now came the hard part; sneaking off the ship in broad daylight.
Creeping down the hallways quietly, he thanked his lucky stars that the majority of his crew had gone to help Master Fu. There were only two remaining, both of whom were up on the deck on guard duty. Sneaking past guards at night was one thing. But daytime? This was a challenge.
Pausing on the stairs to the upper deck, he waited until both guards had moved out of sight on their rounds and then darted out towards the mooring rope. Hopping over the railing quickly, he swung himself down the rope hand over hand until he could hoist himself onto the dock.
He began to brush himself off, then thought better of it. Almost everyone here was scruffy or scarred or rough around the edges. The dirt might actually help.
With that in mind, he tugged his cloak closer and skulked off in the direction of his friends.
***
Marinette thanked the merchant and handed over the money, taking the wrapped package containing her purchases. As she slipped the package into her bag, a familiar voice said, “Purr-rusing the wares, my lady? Some of these artefacts are the cat’s meow, if I do say so myself.”
She spun around to see a figure in a dark cloak shift his hood back just enough to reveal a very familiar mask and an equally familiar grin. “Chat Noir!”
He flicked his fingers in a quick salute. “At your service, as always. Although,” he tugged his hood forward again, “some discretion would purr-haps be a good idea here.” He gestured at her headband. “I see you’re keeping things under wraps as well.”
She chuckled. “Point taken. I have to admit, though, I’m surprised to see you out in broad daylight. I was starting to think you were allergic to sunlight.”
Chat chuckled. “Fear not, my lady, it takes more than a little sunshine to ruffle my fur,” he said, leaning over to examine the owl-merchant’s stall and scratch one of the cat-owls under the chin.
“Hoo, hoo!” the oddly-dressed merchant exclaimed. “I am the Owl and I have every owl-creature under the sun! And under the moon! If you need an owl, I am here! Would you be interested in buying one of those cat-owls? Or perhaps an owlkey?”
“Ah, no thank you,” Chat said, waving him off gently. “I can’t really buy any pets right now.”
“Yes, thank you, but we have other errands to run,” Marinette smiled. “Come on, Chaton, you can help me restock our food supplies.”
Several minutes and three stores later, Marinette was satisfied that they had everything they needed. As she put the last of their new purchases away, Alya and Nino wandered up, the latter looking wistfully over his shoulder.
“I managed to talk him out of trying to buy every instrument in that shop,” Alya laughed.
Nino sighed forlornly. “But there were instruments I’ve never played, ones we don’t have in the Southern Water Tribe.”
“I don’t think we’d be able to carry a tsungi horn with us, Nino.”
He sighed. “You’re right. At least I got this,” he said, brightening up and holding up what looked like a recorder carved out of bone. Then, noticing that Marinette wasn’t alone, he did a double take. Chat raised his hood slightly and winked.
Alya gasped. “Chat Noir, you’re here?!”
“Dude!” Nino grinned, clapping him on the shoulder. “It’s good to see you!”
“It’s been a while,” Chat grinned. “Though if you could be a whisker less loud with my name, I’d appreciate it. These places tend to be crawling with people who would happily seize a humble stray.”
“Ah,” Alya nodded. “That’s right, they have a bounty out on you too now, don’t they?”
Chat sighed theatrically and nodded. “It’s paws-itively tiresome.”
Alya laughed. “Poor kitty cat. Looks like you’ll have to keep your whiskers clean for a while.”
“I’ll have you know, my whiskers have never been dirty a day in their life.” Chat turned up his nose pompously, a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth.
Marinette snorted in amusement. “If that’s what lets you sleep at night, Chaton.”
“You wound me, my lady. Truly, I am hurt.”
Alya chuckled, turning to Marinette. “Where to next?”
Marinette shrugged. “I have everything we needed for supplies, and we still have some money left. If you want, we could find somewhere to eat or something.”
“Why don’t we look around a bit first?” Chat suggested. “This is an interesting place. I’d like to see more of it.”
***
All in agreement, they began to wander down the pier. Chat was very careful to steer them in the opposite direction to his ship. It really would be better to stay away from his men.
The other three, for their part, seemed even more intrigued by this place than he was. He at least had seen somewhat similar ports a time or two in his travels, but each one brought along something new.
Like the ship sitting docked just up ahead. Adrien gaped in awe at the magnificent vessel. He was used to great metal ships belching coal-smoke, but this elegant, dragon-helmed sailing ship was something else entirely.
He was so entranced with the ship that he didn’t even notice the man standing out in front of it until said man was slinging his arm around Nino’s shoulders. “Come on in and take a look at what we’ve got,” he was saying. “We have goods, artefacts and curios from all over the world, and at excellent bargain prices too!”
“Sounds cool, man,” Nino grinned. “But, uh, what’s a curio?”
“Curio is another word for a trinket or an ornament, Nino,” Alya supplied, looking interested.
“What the lovely young lady said,” The man grinned, leading Nino towards the ship. “Come on in and I’ll show you.”
Glancing at Marinette, the two shared a shrug before following along with Alya. Chat was careful to keep his head bent and mask hidden.
The interior of the ship was full of assorted artefacts and knick-knacks of all sorts. Nino immediately began to examine the collection of unusually shaped shields, while Marinette and Alya had gravitated towards the shelf of scrolls.
“Where did you get these?” asked Nino, examining a vaguely u-shaped shield with interest.
“Oh you know,” the salesman breezed, “here and there.”
“Minou,” Marinette called, waving Chat over. “Come and look at this.”
Alya held out a wooden box. She tilted the lid so that he could read the inscription and he gasped. “On The Blessing of Destruction?!”
He took the box from her gingerly, opening it to see a trio of tightly bound scrolls nestled side by side. According to Fire Nation legend, green and black flames were a sign that one had been blessed by the spirit of destruction. All his life, those same legends had been all he’d had to tell him about his powers, and they didn’t have an awful lot to say. This could be the key to finally understanding what they meant.
“Those scrolls are quite valuable,” said a new voice from behind him. “Very rare knowledge.”
Chat whipped around to see a broad-shouldered man in a feathered hat standing behind him, an iguana-parrot perched on his shoulder. The man’s expression shifted into something like surprise as he met Chat’s eyes.
Realising he had made the mistake of looking directly into the man’s face, Chat bowed his head, pretending to examine the scroll box again. “How much?”
“I already have a buyer for those,” the man, who Chat assumed was the captain, said. “Unless you can offer me two thousand gold pieces right now.”
Chat blanched. Even back on his ship he doubted he had that much to spare.
“Two thousand?!” Nino, who had migrated over to their corner, exclaimed.
“That’s huge!” Marinette added.
“I don’t think anyone carries that much around with them,” Alya frowned.
“Like I said,” the captain shrugged, taking the box from Chat and placing it on a shelf behind him, “It’s very rare information.”
“Although,” he continued, flicking his fingers in a subtle signal. Catching the subtle movement, Chat tensed, metaphorical hackles beginning to rise. The captain rested his fingers on the hilt of his sword. “I can see why you would want that information, Chat Noir.” Then he turned his gaze on Marinette. “And the avatar too.”
***
The sound of blades being drawn behind her had Marinette cursing internally. This was bad. “How did you know who we are?”
The captain smiled and reached into his jacket, pulling out two wanted posters; one of Chat and one of her. “The Fire Nation is offering a pretty penny for each of you. And now I have both. This must be my lucky day.”
“You guys are pirates,” Nino realised.
“We prefer to think of ourselves as ‘high risk traders’,” grinned the man who had brought them in here.
“Guess the cat’s out of the bag,” Chat quipped, dropping into a fighting stance.
Beside him Nino unfurled his shield, a gift from the Kiyoshi Warriors. It unfolded from its place along his forearm, forming into a perfect circle. Alya, who Marinette could sense was uneasy with having to fight away from land, had also dropped into a fighting stance.
“You know,” Chat continued, “You shouldn’t count your kittens just yet. Don’t you know stumbling across a black cat is bad luck for you?”
“Count your kittens?” Alya snickered, tension eased some by Chat’s banter.
Chat grinned sheepishly. “A stretch?”
“Just a little, man,” Nino grinned.
The captain laughed. “I think my luck will hold just fine.” He waved a hand. “Take them all.”
Marinette let loose a sweeping blast of air, knocking back the armed men behind her. One, more nimble than the rest, managed to dodge, and went charging at Alya with his sword raised. With a quick jerk of her arms, Alya sent a stone statuette from a nearby shelf cannoning into his stomach. He keeled over instantly, clutching his gut.
The captain drew his sword and swung at Chat in one smooth motion. Chat dodged aside, forming small, intensely hot black flames over his fingertips like claws.
As more pirates appeared in the doorways, Marinette scanned the room for a way out. The only one seemed to be the stairs to the deck, which was blocked by heavily armed people. There was no other way, short of…blowing a hole in the ship.
“Chaton, I need you over here!”
“All well and good, my lady, but my paws are full at the moment!” Chat ducked another swing of the Captain’s sword, throwing his flaming claws up to rake across the blade. The searing heat at his fingertips sliced through the tempered steel like butter and the front half of the blade clattered to the floor. Growling in annoyance, the captain threw the ruined weapon aside.
“There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” he growled, drawing a wicked-looking knife.
“You know, I’ve never liked that saying,” Chat tutted, readying to slash out again.
Cursing internally, Marinette ducked a flailing chain and slammed the wielder into the far wall with a burst of air. A loud clang from behind made her start and turn to see Nino knock a pirate’s spear away with his shield.
“Thanks,” she said, her back against his as she threw out another gust.
“I’ve got your back,” Nino replied.
Falling back beside them, the stone statuette whipping back and forth from her hands, Alya asked, “Do you have a plan?”
“Sort of,” she replied. “We have to get to Chat.”
Nino surged in Chat’s direction, shoving his assailants backwards. Then, in the moment they were off-balance, he ducked aside, allowing Marinette to throw them off their feet with a gust of wind. Alya’s statue spun rapid circles around them, catching weapons, limbs and heads in its path.
“Hey, Captain!” Marinette called, hurling a gust in his direction.
With surprising agility, the captain managed to dodge aside. Then Alya’s statue slammed into his stomach and he doubled over in pain.
“Chat, the wall!” Marinette called.
Understanding immediately, Chat Noir threw a massive bolt of black flame at the dockside wall.
It worked a little too well. The resulting hole was more than big enough for them to escape through, but the blast had scattered embers all over the place. Most relevantly onto the scroll shelves, the contents of which quickly caught alight.
Oops.
“Let’s get out of here,” Nino yelled as the flames began to lick further along the wall.
He snapped his shield shut and Marinette wrapped both arms around him. Then she jumped, using her airbending to propel them up out of the hole in the hull and onto the dock.
As she leapt back down to get Alya, she saw Chat dart across the room, towards the rapidly spreading fire.
***
Chat made it to the box of scrolls just barely before the fire did. Snatching them up, he turned tail and sprinted back towards their improvised exit.
As Marinette airbent herself and Alya up, Chat leapt out of the hole and used his fire to boost himself upwards. He flailed, just barely managing to grab the edge of the dock. For a single heartstopping instant, he thought he might fall. Cats didn’t do well in water.
Then there were three pairs of hands on his, hoisting him up onto solid ground.
“This way,” Alya cried, leading them into town at a run.
They’d made it maybe halfway to the other side when their path was blocked by a platoon of soldiers carrying an assortment of ingredients and equipment.
Oh no. Chat cringed.
One of the soldiers glanced their way and stopped dead at the sight of chat noir, whose hood had been blown off in the fighting earlier. “It’s Chat Noir!”
“Get him!” Another cried. “Prince Adrien will be pleased!”
Prince Adrien was very much not pleased, but he couldn’t tell them that.
“Be careful with my supplies!” came an elderly voice from behind the soldiers. Master Fu. Chat grinned gratefully as the solders scrambled to set their cargo down gently while he and his friends turned around and raced off in another direction.
“Prince Adrien is here?” Marinette exclaimed.
“Just what we need right now, more people chasing us,” Alya panted.
Chat grimaced and said nothing, hoping he could keep away from his men long enough to make it back to the ship.
They turned a sharp corner and were met with the sight of the owl merchant pushing his cart across the street in front of them. Chat winced. They didn’t have time to double back or slow down.
Marinette, apparently of the same mind, called out, “Sorry,” and sent a gust of wind down the street, knocking the cart out of the way and sending the animals’ cages flying. Several of them sprang open and the creatures within seized their freedom immediately.
“My owls!” The merchant cried.
“Sorry, man!” Nino called back as they pelted down the street.
They turned another corner and were met with the scorched, unhappy faces of the pirates whose ship they had just set on fire.
“Oh boy,” Nino said nervously.
“Turn around, turn around, turn around!” Marinette cried frantically.
Alya stomped hard, sending a wave of earth rippling towards the charging pirates and throwing them off their feet as the group of teens turned and shot back the way they had come. They managed to narrowly avoiding a second collision with the owl man, only to come face to face with the Fire Nation soldiers a turn later.
“Oh, man,” Nino gulped.
***
Marinette’s eyes flickered across their surroundings, searching for a way out. From behind them there was another shout of “My owls!”, signalling that the pirates were closing in.
They seemed to be close to the edge of town. If only they could just get over the next few houses…
Over.
“Alya,” she said urgently, “Throw us out of here.”
“Huh?”
“Use your earthbending! Fling us out. Towards the trees!”
Alya’s face brightened with comprehension. “Everybody brace yourselves!”
She stomped down and then heaved up with her entire body. In response, a huge column of earth shot up, flinging them all into the air.
They cleared the edge of town, flailing towards the empty stretch between the town and the forest. At the last moment, Marinette swept her arms into a circle, summoning a cushion of spinning air to slow their descent right down. They touched down gently, Chat and Nino on their stomachs and looking harrowed by their near-crash landing. Alya, who had been braced to land in typical earthbender style, looked pleasantly surprised by the soft touchdown.
“Come on,” Marinette said. “We need to get going before they make it out here.”
Once they were under the cover of the trees, Chat stopped. “I have to leave you guys here. My transportation is back the other way.”
“Chaton, wait,” Marinette said, fishing in her bag for the parcel. “Here. I got you a gift. Something to remind you of us until we see you again.”
Touched, he hugged the gift close. “I’m sure I’ll love whatever it is, my lady. Thank you.” He paused. “Where are you going next?”
“We don’t know,” she said. “We’re still heading to the northern water tribe but beyond that we don’t know where we’re going to be stopping.”
“I see,” he mused. “I suppose I’ll have to let fate decide when and where we meet again.”
Marinette chuckled. “Let’s hope fate is kind and we see you soon.”
“Take care, dude,” Nino said, holding out his hand for a fist bump.
Chat smiled, returning the bump. “You too. Don’t miss me too much,” he grinned at Alya.
She laughed. “Sure thing, kitty cat.”
He chuckled and, with one last wave, ran off into the trees.
They turned and hurried back to Lady, who lowed gently when she saw them. Hurriedly packing their supplies away, Alya and Nino climbed into the saddle and Marinette took the reins. “Yip yip, girl.”
As the bison leapt into the air, Marinette glanced back, silently wishing Chat luck.
***
Sneaking back onto the ship took some doing, but it was easier to do alone, while both groups hunting him were distracted. Once he was safely back in his cabin, he placed the scrolls carefully in the compartment under his bunk. Those would be invaluable, and he was eager to begin reading them. But before that…
He opened the parcel from ladybug, tearing the sides open neatly. Inside were four animals carved from different coloured stone. A cat in green and black, a turtle in different shades of blue and turquoise, a fox in orange-gold and emerald green and a ladybug in reddish-brown dappled with yellow, with spots of smooth black.
He smiled, laying them out on his small shelf. They were perfect. He ran his thumb over the cat contemplatively before setting it down alongside the others. His smile widened, threatening to split his face in two. His friends were truly the most amazing people in the world.
Changing clothes, he headed back up to the deck to await the return of Master Fu.
“Oh, Prince Adrien,” said one of the guards in surprise. “Are you feeling better?”
“Ah, yes, much,” he smiled, going over to lean against the railing.
He glanced downriver and was just able to make out the shape of a sky bison rising above the trees. He smiled and silently wished his friends luck.