#feishan

“But my lady Avatar,” Earth King Feishan’s smile dripped with honey, enough to fool all but the best pai sho players. “I must beg your aid, for my throne and my nation. Without your help, it may be civil war.”

Yangchen cursed the man’s false solicitude, as she felt the gaze of his entire royal entourage, crowding the largest chamber of the Caller’s Dormitory. Surely the avatar couldn’t think to refuse such a request; either she would join whatever scheme Feishan had, or word of her indifference to the plight of the Earth Kingdom would quickly spread throughout the world.

His agents would make sure of it.

The airbender did agree that it was critical to solve the power struggle that was once more threatening to plunge the world into conflict. But she had her own plan to deal with the matter; one that did not involve whatever bloody purge that the Earth King had in mind.

But how to hedge-weasel her way out of his game?

“My heart goes out to the plight of the Earth Kingdom,” she began, as the germ of an idea formed. But did she dare? “But it will be some months before I can leave the grounds of the temple.”

“What?” Feishan’s tone was perfect surprise, but Yangchen could see the barest hint of knowing smugness in his face; he had expected a feint. “What circumstance could require your sequestration? Surely you have not committed some transgression, or incurred spiritual disfavor?”

“Nothing of the sort,” the avatar felt the eyes of the other air nomads in the room on her back, as she prayed that none of them would feel compelled to expose her deception. She was asking a lot of her fellow monks.

But she looked the Earth King straight in the eye, and put a hand on her stomach as she lied through her teeth.

“I am with child.”

She was confident that she could get away with this. Air nomads had always been taciturn about the private traditions that governed the conception and delivery of their children. The other nations came up with no end of tall tales and wild theories (most of them indecent enough to make a dockworker blush). Feishan would not be fooled, but he would not be able to call her bluff.

For all the moral transgressions she was committing with this lie, the first concern she had, was what her companions would think.

One companion in particular.

______________________________________________________________

Kavik pushed the door open, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he stepped into the ships small galley.

The whole team had been on the ship for several days; doing nothing but keeping their heads down as they sat in the harbor of Ember Island, waiting for Yangchen to get in touch with them. They would all have rather been enjoying the island’s famous beaches, but their instructions had been clear. She was working on some scheme to deal with the growing chaos in the Earth Kingdom, and they had to be ready to set sail as soon as she arrived.

He had been the last to wake up, and found the rest of the gang already hunched together around the little table. Tayagum and Akuudan sat together as usual, with Jujinta and Yingsu sitting across from them.

They were having an intense sounding conversation in whispers, that ended as he walked in.

“Morning,” he mumbled, picking up a bowl and spooning rice and fish into it. After a moment, he realized no one had answered him.

They all just sat there, staring at him. Tayagum and Akuudan were trying not to look worried; and doing a bad job. Jujinta gave him a glare that was, well, angrier than usual. But Yingsu was the one who got his attention. The tattooed firebender was grinning from ear to ear.

“Any word from Yangchen?” he tried again.

The silence dragged on for enough seconds that he was starting to get worried, when Tayagum finally answered. “Not a direct message, no. But there’s a, uh, a rumor that came in with a boat from the Western Air Temple yesterday.”

“It’s not anything bad, is it?” Kavik took a seat at the table. Something was wrong here. They were all used to taking bad news in stride, from an unfortunate amount of practice. But this was different.

“Not exactly,” Tayagum rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s not, well, it could be a complication.”

Yingsu put a hand over her mouth, to stifle a laugh. “That’s one way of putting it!”

“Is someone going to let me in on the secret,” Kavik asked irritably?

“Yangchen has announced that she’s pregnant,” Jujinta said, almost harshly. He could always be relied upon to cut to the chase.

“Pregnant?” Kavik’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion. He turned to the water tribe couple, who had been the last to speak with the avatar, and had a vague idea of her intentions. “Why was that part of the plan?”

“It,” Akuudan looked to the side, and then forced himself to look the younger man in the eye. “It wasn’t”

Kavik sat still for a long moment, the realization of what he was saying slowly spreading across his face. “You, you mean . . .”

“I suppose congratulations are in order,” Yingsu grinned at him.

“Yes,” Tayagum was trying to sound comforting, but not quite pulling it off. “T-this will be a wonderful thing. We’re all very happy for you.” As an afterthought, he turned to the others. “Of course we are!” He tried to make it sound like a declaration, but it came off more as a question.

After a beat, the was a round of halfhearted agreement from the table

“She couldn’t have picked a better man to sire her children,” Jujinta spoke in his normal deadpan tone; one that could make any compliment sound like an insult.

Kavik only half heard them, as his mind was getting farther and farther away.

A baby.

Yangchen was pregnant. Yangchen was pregnant with a baby. Yangchen was pregnant with his baby!

He had Knocked Up the Avatar!

He didn’t know if his parents would be ashamed or thrilled?

______________________________________________________________

Yangchen felt the sickly smell flood her senses, as she wretched into the healers pot.

“And you said this is the third day in a row?” The old waterbender was running her hands over the avatar’s belly, eyes closed as she paid attention to whatever clues her senses were giving her.

Yangchen had taken the long way to ember island, sailing from the Western Air Temple as a common traveler, aboard the most nondescript ship she could find. It had been a peaceful trip, on calm seas. But it hadn’t taken long for her current sickness to take hold, bad enough that she’d thought it wise to see a healer first thing when she arrived on ember island, before getting in touch with her team.

The spirits are punishing me for my lies!

“You said you came here by ship today?” The healer’s fingers poked her a little harder

“Yes, I just told you that!” There weren’t many waterbenders living in the fire nation, and she had been lucky that a healer of any skill happened to live on Ember Island. But Yangchen wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be properly grateful at the moment.

The older woman finally opened her eyes, giving her an annoyed look. “It was foolish to go to sea while you were with child,” she retorted

Yangchen took a moment remember all the details of her ruse, just in case someone’s agent would come around asking questions of this woman. But . . . her response died in her throat, as she remembered that she was not here in the guise of Avatar Yangchen, and this healer was not being influenced by rumors. “While, while . . . WHAT?”

“It did no harm to the baby,” the healer assured her. “But you had better keep your feet on solid ground for the next eight months; you’re well along in the first.”

The avatar could only lean over the pot, and wretch again.