Chapter 104 – A Warrior's Humility

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar – The Last Airbender

King Bumi of Omashu. For a monarch who ruled a city as important and famous as Omashu, very little mention of King Bumi had made it outside. Lin certainly knew very little about him. He'd learnt the name when he was studying about Earth Kingdom for his cover, but about the only info Byakko library had about King Bumi was that he was, well, the king of Omashu.

That is not to say King Bumi was not a good ruler. Lin hadn't stayed long in Omashu but he could see the wisdom of the ways King Bumi ruled. As a king, he was certainly very… Dao. As a child, Lin had been taught various classical philosophies and ways of thinking, which included Daoism. There was a chapter in Dao De Ching, the bibleof Daoism regarding ruling: in accordance of the Way, a wise ruler governs unseen.

Basically, it meant a wise ruler rules to the best of his ability but he must make sure that he is not indispensable. The kingdom must be able to run itself in his absence, if need be. And from the way Omashu was run, the public service, the relationship between the law enforcer and the populace, and the general prosperity of the people, King Bumi certainly nailed it. So there was very little credits went to King Bumi for the greatness of Omashu? Big deal! As long as Omashu itself prospered…

Lin remembered of course that King Bumi was a member of the White Lotus and supposed to be his Earth Master. He also remembered that Master Piandao referred to the King as a 'bonker'. And yes, from time to time in the streets Lin overheard someone saying something along the line of 'Mad King Bumi'.

"There he is again", Lin pursed his lips, leaning on the window frame. Near him, Aya and Spear sat at a small round table, sipping tea.

"Leave him", Spear waved his hand nonchalantly. Such a peasant gesture while wearing such a rich brocade. And yet he pulled it off.

"He's an absolute darling", Aya smiled kindly. "Mmm, sure he's a little eccentric, but he's ultimately harmless."

Spear snickered. "Sure. He has an armed force at his beck and call. Totally harmless."

"Oh, pipe down, love of my heart", Aya playfully stuffed a cookie into Spear's mouth; for such a loving gesture from such a lovely lady, it only looked a little like a murder attempt. A little. "From time to time, King Bumi likes to wander the streets as a homeless person. It's a sort of test, maybe? He can see firsthand how people of Omashu treat others less fortunate than them. It's important to him."

Lin grunted and rejoined the table. "Kinda sounds like… who was it? That queen from a long time ago?" he knew the answer, of course, but this was part of maintaining cover.

"Queen Sindra" Spear replied. There were only a handful of ruling queens in Earth Kingdom history anyway and even fewer had done things more noteworthy than simply ruling. "The queen who cut off his son's leg, right?"

Yep. Queen Sindra was a pretty famous figure in Earth Kingdom history. Aside from being one of only six ruling queens ever in Earth Kingdom history (at that point), Queen Sindra was said to be extremely strict in her fervor regarding law enforcement. Her rule was marked by zero crime rate. According to legend, one day, the Queen decided to test his subjects' adherence to the Law. She sent her spies to pretend to be a passing merchant and drop a purse full of gold right in the middle of the main street. For weeks the purse just sat there; not a single person dared even glance at it, let alone move it or take it.

Until, the Crown Prince happened to be walking down the road and found the purse in his way. Now, some version said he actually tripped on it accidentally, but most other version said he kicked it to the side of the road. The spies reported the incident and the Queen ordered the removal of the Crown Prince's offending leg as punishment.

"King Bumi's a little strange, but he won't go as far as administering corporeal punishment for small offense, honest", Aya reassured Lin again, but her raised cup kind paused as she rethought her words. "Well, unless the crime involves cabbages."

"Or sweets and sugary treats", Spear added.

"Poor Mister Pong Bao."

"Used to run a sweetshop. One of the few people alive who still know how to process jennomite. Liked to overcharge tourists."

"He received a summon to the palace, supposedly to serve some of his famous sticky buns to the King. That was the last anyone heard of him."

Lin snickered and poured himself another cup. "And you know the King personally?"

"Sure", Aya said. "He and grandfather are old friends since childhood", the corner of her eyes crinkled. "Now, if my grandfather's stories were true, the two of them were friends with the Avatar too."

"Avatar Roku?" Lin's interest was piqued.

"Nope, the one after Roku. The missing Airbender Avatar."

"Missing or dead", Spear muttered glumly.

Aya ignored him. "Apparently in his childhood, King Bumi liked to pretend to be a peasant child and play with kids in the city. That's how he met grandfather and the Avatar. And about six other kids who'd grown into famous people too, believe it or not. Grandfather always told me and my brother the stories. I can't seem to remember all of the names, though."

"But you do remember some?" Lin smirked.

"Hmm, a few", Aya took a slow sip of her tea to pause. "Most are no longer with us. Those who still remain… hmm, there's Abbot Li Fang-Mu who is an Elder in the Sohei Sect of Warrior Monks. And Master Sun."

"Which Master Sun?" Spear asked. "There're like three famous Master Suns."

"The strategist."

Lin's ear pricked.

"Oh, dang", Spear muttered into his cup.

-0-0-0-0-0-

The young man standing in front of Haorens' Mansion seemed to be in a relaxed meditative state, which made the guards feel a little uncomfortable because he was standing. They hoped he wasn't going to pass out or something. The man did look a little travel-weary. His thick fur-lined coat looked well-worn but also well-maintained. The way he tied his hair bun, the features of his handsome face, and his general demeanor spoke high breeding and sophistication. Yu Haoren might be a good master, but the guards sure didn't want to be anywhere nearby when a guest such as this suddenly plonked.

Then again, the young man was… smiling. Humming too.

"Is that… Korkean harvest song?" the guard on the left asked.

"Hmm?" the young man opened one eye. "Oh, yes. My village is at the foot of Korkean Mountain. In fall, we hear the song all the way from the mountain."

"No way", the guard cracked a smile. "I'm from Xin Shu Village!"

"Hey, neighbor! Xin Ya Village here", the young man beamed. Then he heard a whisper in the wind. His smile vanished. "I see…"

Any trace of his frailness disappeared as he bolted. Lin burst into the foyer and ran fast. He barely caught a glimpse of grayish robe fluttering at the door. "Stop that person!" he shouted at the alarmed guards, but it was too late. The guest was gone.

-0-0-0-0-0-

"I wasn't going to mug the king!" Lin snapped yet again at Spear's relentless accusation. "There was… I thought I saw those pickpockets from the other day loitering around outside."

("Fishy…" Bara narrowed her eyes.

"Suspicious", Yuu said.

Rocky shook his head slowly, eyes full of doubt.

"You're lying", Ning Ma said, relying on her nanniness. "I can tell."

Lin huffed. "Am not!")

No, he wasn't going to tell them that he'd heard faint screaming of a long dead Avatar in his head, warning him of impeding danger. Serra's voice had been… far and muffled. It sounded like she was shouting at Lin from the other side of a field with a pillow over her face. Outside, enemy, NOW!

Whoever Serra's warning was about seemed to know that he was in danger. From the brief interrogation of the gate guards, they were talking in a friendly enough manner about their home villages and then, out of the blue, the guy just bolted. The same interrogation also yielded very little information regarding the stranger's appearance; according to the guards, the young man was quite unremarkable in any way. He dressed nondescriptly, he had no unique feature, didn't even carry any unusual items with him.

The subsequent talk with Mr. Haoren yielded more result, though it wasn't much help. The man studied the copper emblem in his hand for the umpteenth time, smoking his pipe. When the mysterious man had arrived, he'd given the emblem to the guard to pass to the master of the house, saying that Mr. Haoren would understand the message and he was to wait for a reply. Then, while waiting, Lin happened.

"Well", Mr. Haoren put the emblem down and slid it towards Lin. "I have no idea what this is about."

Lin picked up the copper object. It was round, the size of a small saucer, and it had a weight to it. It had gray tassel tied on the small loop on the top and it bore a rather intricate engraving on one side: the pattern of nine dragons. On the side, several words were etched but the thing must be very old because the engraving on the back was no longer legible.

"And he asked for you, Father?" Aya frowned. "By name?"

"Not by name, no", Mr. Haoren refilled his pipe with fresh tobacco. "'Master of the house', the guards said. Didn't really say Yu Haoren. Or Mr. Haoren. Or… the Merchant King of Western Earth Kingdom!"

"Nobody ever called you that.'"

"Please, dad… you're embarrassing me."

Spear's next frown was directed at Lin. "What do you think, Lieutenant?"

Lin stopped rubbing the overly smooth back part of the emblem. "I think… I need to visit either a temple or a cemetery."

Aya blinked in surprise. "I beg your pardon, what was that last one?"

Lin sighed and stood up, the emblem still in his hands. "Can I hold on to this?"

-0-0-0-0-0-

"So, you were serious", Spear muttered.

"Yep", Lin offered a prayer out of courtesy to whatever deity worshipped in this quaint temple. The idol was that of a long-bearded middle-aged man, clad in a flowing robe; so he could be one of the many many oh-so-many Earth Kingdom deities. Earth Kingdom deities, in general, had fondness for flowing robes, beards, and being males.

Next to him, Aya took longer in her prayer, holding the joss sticks up to her forehead. Whoever knew she was so religious ("She's too good for you, Spear", Trik decided). Lin handed his joss sticks to the apprentice monk who approached the altar and set them in the big ash pot in front of the deity statue.

"I'll go look around for a bit", Lin whispered to Spear. As he walked away, he instinctively touched his waist where Scarlet should have been. For this trip, he had to leave his swords at home because, well, temple. He had his flute with him and he hoped he didn't have to clock anyone on the skulls today. Perhaps he should invest time learning how to wield a short stick or a truncheon intensively. He added the mental note on the list to ask Bara and Rocky the next time they met.

The small temple had an aura of tranquility. Lin had been a little on edge since the incident with the strange guest, and his tension began to melt as he took in the scenery of the humble temple; a wide courtyard, empty of anything but snow, the main building that consisted of only one room where the deity was hosted, the kitchen building to the left, and the monks dormitories to the right.

There was no one outside, so Lin circled around to the back of the main building.

The temple was good and all, but Lin didn't feel anything spiritual from it. Plus he suspected his tension melting had more to do with heady scent of burnt incense in the air.

As expected, at the back of the main building he found an old oak tree. Below the tree was a smooth flat stone. Next to it was a tombstone. The writing on the tombstone was covered by snow but Lin didn't need it to know that the old master of this temple had often meditated on this very spot, on that stone there, and was buried here.

He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. Half the air entering his nose carried the scent of summer grass.

The old master was there, a small frail looking man who was nearly engulfed by his monk robe. His ear lobes were elongated, his beard smooth and long, reaching his abdomen. Six burnt dots on his forehead stood out, so did the absence of his left arm. His right hand was held up in front of his chest in a prayer position.

Lin bowed politely - no hand gesture, Earth Kingdom style. Then, he settled down in front of the sitting stone, in front of the spirit of the master monk, and began his own meditation.

He felt a yank at the back of his collar and the scent of incense and summer grass disappeared, replaced by the scent of saffron and sweet apple that always lingered around Serra.

"Thank the spirits, you can get through", he heard Serra sigh.

Lin couldn't help himself. He opened his eyes. "Thanking yourself then?"

"Nuh-uh, no. Serious mode here", Serra started.

"Okay", Lin assumed his game face.

Sitting across from him in the limbo of cloud and sunlight, Serra sighed again. "You're in danger."

"I got your warning. Sort of", Lin frowned. "Who?"

"All I know is this is someone who is… like you."

Lin blinked. "Oh, crickey… you spirits and your riddles."

"Not riddles", Serra narrowed her eyes. "I mean that really. Someone spiritually powerful. You've actually crossed path with him before."

"I have?" Lin didn't expect that.

"Yes. From what I've heard, you were on the palm of his hand the whole time. He could've killed you; he would've killed you. He… well, maybe not really needed to, but he was leaning towards wanting to kill you, if only to prevent you from becoming a bigger threat to him in the future."

The strategist in Lin wondered about only one thing: "Why didn't he?"

"Because you had someone protecting you", Serra answered curtly. "A close friend of your grandmother, also a spiritually strong person. Your grandmother found a way to get in touch with this person and ask for the favor."

Lin's mouth was suddenly dry. "I'm outside right now, meditating behind a temple. Public place. Am I in danger?"

-0-0-0-0-0-

"Very much so, Deep Forest", the young man muttered to himself, smiling faintly at the boy who was sitting in front of the grave of the old temple master.

Adjusting the hood of his fur-lined robe, he snapped his wrists as he lowered his hands. Two long and thin metal spikes materialized in each of his hands. Oh, so easy to end him now. So very easy indeed. For all his training, his warrior upbringing, the young man knew that the only thing that had been keeping the Dragon of the Deep Forest from the pointy tip of his weapons was sheer luck. Nothing but luck.

The young man smirked and withdrew his weapons back into his sleeves. He stepped back and disappeared around the corner the same time Aya and Spear came from the other side of the building.

"There he is", Spear said. "Told you he'd be meditating. It's like his hobby or something."

Lin jerked backward, leapt a few feet actually, which was some feat considering he was sitting lotus position. He also managed to surprise Spear and Aya.

"Hey, what was that?" Spear helped the boy up. "You look like you've just seen a ghost."

Lin stopped looking around and loosened the grip on his flute strapped to his back. "Umm…" he stole an awkward glance at the spirit of the old temple master who cracked open an annoyed eye at Spear's last remark.

-0-0-0-0-0-

("Let me guess", Colonel Tao-Ci grunted. "He was playing bait? Trying to draw out the guy?"

"Got it in one", Spear said glumly. "We didn't tell Aya cause… well, she's bonded with Lin by then. If she knew Lin was putting himself in danger to draw out the enemy, ooooh, she'd tear down the whole city to capture that guy and there is nothing the guards could do to stop her. That's why my dad didn't make a big fuss out of it too. He didn't want to look too concerned."

Trik placed a firm hand on Spear's shoulder, looking him dead in the eye. "Spear, brother, don't you mess up with that girl and you make sure to marry her, you hear? Father Shu will agree when I say that Great Mother created that girl just for you."

"Oh, indeed, I do agree", Father Shu concurred.)

-0-0-0-0-0-

"Geez, meditating in a temple just to think. You sound like grandpa."

Aya paid for that remark with a palm strike to the gut. More a tap than a strike, cause Lin wouldn't hit a lady. Actually, that's not true; Lin supported gender equality, he would so hit a lady if needed be. But he wouldn't hit Aya for real.

("Bully", Yuu grinned, earning a flying cookie crumb on his forehead.)

"I do weird things, okay", Lin replied. "You think too much about your moves. Think less, feel more."

"More guts, less brain", Aya finished the wise saying that, for the past couple of days, had beginning to be her life motto.

It started a couple of days ago, the evening of the near encounter with the Copper Stranger, as Spear coined the mysterious visitor they almost had that day. Just when Lin thought he'd had a gander of Aya Zhongyan as a martial artist, Aya surprised him once more by asking for his assessment of her skills. Now this wasn't something master martial artists like Aya would ask of fellow martial artist they deemed inferior.

So, a little flattered, Lin gave it a serious thought. He slept on it and the next morning, he'd ask Aya to spar with him bare-handed. In Four Nations, there existed an ancient barehanded martial art called Xing Yi Fist, characterized by its simple but powerful straight punches and… pretty much nothing else. The inventor of the style was said to be an army general (legend has it, it was General Fei, nationality ambiguous, either Earth Kingdom or Fire Nation) who took inspiration from the movement in spear technique and created a simple set of martial art style he taught to his men. The techniques were kept simple because it was supposed to be implemented as formal military training, so simple techniques resulted in speedy training time and not much loss in effectiveness. Over the generations, Xing Yi was taught to countless numbers of martial artists and many of those were spear users who incorporated their spear styles into the original Xing Yi and created a unique and new system of Xing Yi of their own.

Zhongyan Family Xing Yi Fist was powerful, or at least it was supposed to be powerful. Aya's techniques were as polished as her skill with spears, but sadly so were her beautifully manicured nails. Simply put, Aya punched like a girl because she didn't want to ruin her nails (Bara scoffed, "Girls."). After he was finished making fun of Aya, Lin taught her the moves of Eight Directions Palm. Oh, Aya loved it.

"I'm sure I've seen this before", said the lady as she danced the Eight Directions Palm. "I don't know why, but it makes me think of my grandmother."

When Lin deemed her execution of the techniques flawless, all sixty four forms of it, they got down to the sparring. And, oh my, oh my! It felt oh-so-very-good to finally land a hit on Aya.

"There are limitless combinations of the sixty four forms. You can use any of them on the fly instinctively and come up with any combination of the sixty four that suits your needs. You don't plan them beforehand and then train them till you got'em all. Well, actually you can if you want to, it's the matter of preference. But, I don't know. To me, it feels like you'd be limiting the true strength of this style: freedom. Fluidity. Flexibility. Unpredictability."

Aya blew out a breath. The philosophy of Eight Directions Palm was the polar opposite of her nature as a martial artist. For the first time, she realized that she had been winning against Lin only because she had more experience, better training, and so so much more well-practiced and –polished techniques in her repertoire. In terms of raw potential, mindset, and other more intrinsic features that made one an excellent warrior, Lin far surpassed her. If Aya was a well-tempered blade that can slice through the wind, Lin was raw metal yet to be shaped; he could still be anything he wanted, anything he needed to be.

Lin knew that too. More than that, he knew that Aya was the way she was because she was a woman. An Earth Kingdom woman raised as an Earth Kingdom woman, taught to think like an Earth Kingdom woman. If only she had been born a man…

"Come on", Lin resumed his Eight Directions Palm stance; a high stance with natural footing and relaxed palms placement that could be mistaken for any number of other martial art styles. "Just like learning how to walk", he grinned and was quite relief to see Aya's strained but genuine smile as reply. He didn't want to accidentally crush Aya's spirit but it seemed like it was never an issue.

"Like learning how to walk", Aya repeated in a mutter. It was a common saying in the martial art community. Walking was hard at first, but as one grows it ends up being part of the natural state of being. A student must train their techniques until they become just as natural.

This time, before resuming her stance, Aya bowed.

-0-0-0-0-0-

"He's here again. Doesn't he have a kingdom to run?"

The next morning saw the young ones having light breakfast in the tea corner on the second floor. Mr. Haoren had gotten up earlier than usual for a breakfast out with his friends.

Bob ripped a fried dough in two, frowning at Lin's unusual agitation regarding their royal stalker. Surely it wasn't because he was a king. For a soldier, Lin never struck Song as particularly respectful of the traditionally-established social strata. If anything, Bob was more worried that Lin would get annoyed enough to, eh… accidentally assault the King. After all, King Bumi was wearing a veeeery convincing hobo disguise.

Lin settled down on his seat. Spear refilled his cup for him. "So, you two are going to play together again today?" he asked Lin and Aya with a barely concealed hopeful tone.

"Lonely, are we? Would you like to join us?" Aya smirked. Mreeeow!

"I'mmmm gonna pass, thank you very much for the offer", Spear cleared his throat. "I have some errand to run today, regarding the Copper Stranger."

Lin nearly chocked on his tea.

Turning to Lin, Spear reiterated, "Dad's been sending me to ask around town about this character, mostly around inns and lodgings, ya know. Cause this guy claimed to be not local."

That made Lin turn to Aya. "You were supposed to keep me busy and away from the investigation?"

"Uh-huh", Aya confirmed brightly. "And I'm not sorry. I've got to learn new stuff."

Spear snickered. "Anyway, found some possible lead. Might take a bit of slumming. Bad area, bad people."

"Then, I definitely should go with", Lin decided. "I'm your bodyguard."

"Uh, yeah… no", Spear and Aya exchanged a knowing glance. "Well, hmm… how should I put this without sounding like a racist pig…?"

"Lin", Aya took over. "The slums of Omashu are mostly populated by former soldiers who were discharged due to permanent injuries. It's not the sort of place that would welcome someone whose look reminds them of the war."

"Oh…" the best reply Lin could come up with.

To mollify Lin (Aya's words), a sparring session was put in order.

"Ah… my world makes sense again", the young lady sighed contentedly, her naginata in her hand, her fallen foe at her feet.

"My life just flashed before my eyes. Twice", wheezed Lin as he dragged his carcass towards Song who was watching from the sidelines with Big. "I have not lived long enough."

"You have time yet, young man" Big, a surprisingly friendly personage, grinned. The man's muscles had muscles and he had a scar marring his bearded chin. His scariness was oppositely proportional to his friendliness.

"Tag… tag!"

Big laughed and stood up. Cracking his knuckles, he approached Aya. To her credit, Aya didn't look perturbed. She daintily propped her weapon on the nearby wall and faced Big with confidence. They bowed and the hand-to-hand bout began.

It went very one-sidedly. Big, an earthbender with earthbender physique, was clearly too tough an opponent for Aya to face unarmed even without his bending. Even so, and very understandably, Big wasn't trying very hard to win. More often than not, he put himself on the defensive, which was something Lin had taken into account when he invited Big to join today's training.

Aya had trained enough to perform the moves of Eight Directions Palm well, but her natural instinct was on the defensive and counter-attack; or, in other words, very Earth Kingdom. Well, Eight Directions Palm was originally an airbending style, so there. Facing an opponent who'd force Aya to be on the offensive, totally against her nature, Lin was hoping this would help Aya grow. This sort of opponent would force Aya to be flexible.

Aya didn't do much growing that day though she did improve. She landed two rather aggressive hits, one of them was a rather vicious blow to the neck that she, of course, didn't actually land because she was a proper lady.

A short break was called next, during which Big was released back into the wild. Bob begun her own training, with Lin and Aya watching. Then the two got back to training. They paired up for a cooperative practice in Eight Directions Palm regimen that Serra had called 'Pushing Hands, Flowing Steps', or at least it was the rough translation of the original name, said Serra, and the actual name was a lot shorter in older dialect of the long dead Air Nomads' tongue.

With both Lin and Aya performing the flowing footwork of Eight Directions Palm, their arms up in stance, the back of their forward hands were touching and ever so slightly pushing each other in circular motion, tossing and riding each other's energy. The purpose of this training, Lin had explained to Aya, was to allow the practitioners to feel each other's energy. It helped calibrate their instinct to the flow of incoming energy, incoming blows, and… rode it. If they were able to do it, defense, counter, or evasion would be easy to perform.

In the middle of their practice, the door to the dojo slid open loudly. Mr. Haoren stood there, eyes scanning the room occupants severely. Then, he sighed and uttered something in a language Lin recognized as the one native to the Si Wong Region. Rha-Mi had been teaching Lin some and Lin's still limited vocabulary was like eighty percent swear words. Considering that he understood perfectly what Mr. Haoren had just muttered under his breath, plus the abrupt manner of his appearance, Lin guessed something was wrong.

"I was hoping Spear would be here with you kids", Mr. Haoren said, wiping his forehead. "It seems like my son is really under arrest for assaulting King Bumi."