Cadence sat back to relax in the sun as the ship knifed its way through the waters. Ozai hadn't been kidding when he said it was the fastest warship in the fleet. While they weren't pushing either the ship or the crew at this point, she could still feel her mane waving in the sea breeze and could hear the surge of their wake around them. She had to admit, she was impressed.
She'd overseen the packing of the supplies personally, ostensibly wanting to be sure that they had everything they would need for the trip. In actuality, however, she'd used overseeing the packing to hide in the storage the things she'd gathered during her journey with Iroh: the water tribe boat, her Earth kingdom training garb, her Earth Kingdom passport which would grant her free entrance to even the outer rings of Ba Sing Se, and the books Wan Shi Tong had let her borrow from his library to study from. She hoped their journey would take them back there at some point, so she could return them.
She couldn't help but smile as she watched Zuko racing about the deck, using a telescope here, asking questions about the controls there, watching the sea over there. He was plainly still in pain from his scar, as he hadn't fully gotten used to it yet, but he also wasn't letting it keep him down. She was glad to see that.
However, she noticed that the crew seemed uneasy around him. Noticing a gathering of some of the crew, she decided to find out why. Getting to her hooves, she stretched herself out, flexing her wings before folding them to her sides. Turning, she approached the crew. "Excuse me," she spoke up.
The gathered crew immediately turned to her. "Yes, Cadence?" the first asked. While she didn't actually have any official rank aboard the ship or within the Fire Nation hierarchy, the crew still paid her a good deal of respect as Iroh's daughter.
"I noticed that some of you act...a trifle odd around my cousin," she commented. "I was wondering why. It's not about him being the Prince, is it? I'm pretty sure he'd rather you treat him as any other commander on this journey."
"It's not that," a second crew member contradicted her. "Definitely not that."
Cadence tilted her head in confusion. "Then what is it?"
"It's..." The third crew member finally managed to get his words out. "Well, we were all told about how he got that scar and what it means, but...well, we've seen some things that make us think...it might have damaged his brain."
Cadence frowned in worry. She didn't know enough about anatomy - or the workings of the mind - to know if that were possible, and if it did happen it was very concerning. "W-what makes you think that?" she asked in concern.
"He keeps burning things for no reason!" one of the men pointed out. "Like a flower, or bits of paper..."
"I saw him spend hours working on a beautifully penned poem, perfect calligraphy," another indicated. "Soon as he finished, he dropped it in fire before anyone could read it."
"He did the same to that portrait he asked me to paint of the three of you!" yet another crewman proclaimed. "It just doesn't make..."
The agitation of the crew gave way to confusion as they saw Cadence's reaction...was laughter. "Did he use the fire in the pouch around his neck?" she gasped out as she calmed down.
"Uh...yeah..." one of the crew admitted.
Cadence started to open her mouth to explain, then smiled as she felt a quiver in the elements. She turned to Zuko. "Watch," she instructed.
As the crew turned, Zuko noticed the pouch around his neck quivering. Opening it up, a gout of pink flame shot upward briefly, an envelope sealed in wax appearing out of the smoke as the flames subsided.
Cadence smiled at the amazed expressions on the crew's faces. "In the Cave of Two Lovers north of Omashu, there is a particular type of crystal that grows only in the central chamber. It has a peculiar property, in that if a naturally formed crystal is broken exactly in twain, the two halves will resonate with each other. Striking one half will cause the other to vibrate, no matter how far apart they are. The colloquial name for this crystal is Heart Stone." She gestured to Zuko's pouch. "While journeying with Father, we passed through the caverns, reaching the central chamber. I brought one of these crystals with me when we left. After doing some research, I infused the crystal with flames before breaking it in twain. The crystal still holds the flames...and anything burned in the flames of one crystal will take shape in the flames of the other."
She turned up to the crew with a smile for their stupefied expressions. "Mai holds the other half of the crystal. They've been using it to stay in contact, writing sweet nothings to each other, and sending other things back and forth."
Cadence decided not to mention that Zuko's letters tended to be on the flowery side, talking of things he'd seen and how much he missed home and Mai...whereas Mai's letters back tended to be short and blunt. Still, "Don't get yourself killed" was oddly sweet and compassionate from Mai.
She turned back to Zuko to see what this latest letter from home might contain, only to notice him blushing brightly before clutching one of the pieces of parchment to him and running to his quarters. Curious, she caught the other piece in her magic and decided to examine it.
Ty Lee drew this picture of me for you. She's surprisingly good.
If anyone else sees it, your testicles will sit in a jar on my mantel when I find out.
Enjoy.
Mai
Confused, Cadence sought out her father, who was also staring after Zuko in confusion. When she showed him the letter from Mai, however, he burst into belly laughs, clutching the ship rail to keep his balance.
Great chapter!
Awww, Mai gets all mushy, it´s downright heartwarming.
Well that answers my question from chapter four.
That Mai letter was perfect.
Space between scar and as, and no space between the a and the s.
How so?
Hm...
What the...
... Neato.
I'd make a sarcastic comment, but, it is.
Not gonna lie, I'd find that hilarious too.
So how naughty is that picture? So at least this time Zuko got a nice ship instead of the hunk of junk he had in the series proper.
She... how did she hide an entire boat within another boat? I can only see that working if it was a tiny rowboat or something, but if memory serves she and Iroh crossed the ocean on that thing.
So Mai and Ty Lee have developed an early version of texting naughty pics???? Nice. Teens will be teens, no matter the world. I love the magic Heart Fire (Name pending Tats approval) mail system, Cadence would make a fortune just from that to enable easy communication across the world. At the very least, I think doing a fire works type mixture for the flame on the stones would allow for color coding and make it possible for each nation's rulers to easily communicate with the others. I can see each ruler having a set of three crystals for the other rulers so they can pass treaties and such back and forth easily.
That letter though
Hahahaha! Nice man, nice!
Perfect job on this dude.
RIP Zuko's future kids
6501568
What is so problematic? If any nations grow beyond their corner of world, Avatar kicks them. If any nation improves greatly, they get ambitions and try to expand. And then Avatar kicks them. So no progress else nearly unbeatable and resurrecting Avatar will kick and ruin everything.
6505968
That would be Heart Mail, good sir!
cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/5/5b/Heart_Mail.png
6505929 I can honestly say I have never seen a more perfect use of that meme And I hopefully Never will.
Moving on, Since Zuko appears a whole lot more Stable then in the televised Canon, I wonder how the meeting will work.
That was a good chapter.
Another enjoyable chapter. Great job.
6506073
Happy to entertain. As for the meeting,
GG Mai, you sent the first nude in the world of AVATAR Legend of The Last Air Bender.
That actually makes somewhat sense with how 'romantic' they tended to be in older times when it came to Asian culture... or at least that's how I understood it from what I've read.
It's actually spelt "Ty Lee". But oh my, Mai; naughty, aren't we?
6506116 Well, it is an Asian-based culture, so using the Asian phonetic spelling doesn't seem that far stretched to me.
Mai to Tai Li: "Paint me like one of your french girls"
TL: "What's french?"
Did you read the comics?
6506116 Bit... voyeuristic.
Wow, Mai sure is a sweet one, talking about keeping his testicles in a jar!!
This is amazing i can hardly wait till Aang shows up lol
6506251 Aaaahh the fires of young love. Oh to feel the drive to mutilate my significant other for the simple reason of a nude photo
6506233 Because that face of yours (display picture) must be shared!
OMG! It's the very 1st sexting!
Tsundere Mai, lol.
6505949
The Water Nation vessels are wooden long boats, propelled across the ocean via water bending.
Fire Nation vessels are metal constructs resembling modern ships.
6506234
No, I did not, and for the most part they aren't canon to this story.
6505968 Gotta make it an acronym for Spike somehow. Hmm
Special
Package
fIre
Kwick
Express
Was a little bit confused when Cadance mentioned Zuko using fire from a certain place. Unlike Earth or Water bending, Fire can be done without an existing resource. I suppose you would still need oxygen to fuel the fire, and humidity could affect performance.
6506411 that works to!
6506233 no offense, but I looked at your stories. Mostly just a bunch of Romance and Sex fics with a few attempts at writing a parody or a Dark fic.
Tatsurou had a plan right from the start and he is sticking to it. You have been all over the place since 2012, and you have several incomplete fics that you seem to have abandoned.
If you are still interested in writing then good for you, and more power to you. But that comment was an uncalled for hostile attack that can't even be called trolling.
So in answer to your question. Your are either still here because you want to write, or because you have decided to take out your frustration on random writers.
6506233 idk why are you?
So Zuko has his own personal spike basically.... Well done.
Oh and that joke at the end was hilarious.
The testicles comment is just the best ever.
That was fun, may I have another? Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
... Happy mushy Mai actually scares me more than canon tsundere Mai. Because, sure, she can't fire bend, she doesn't need to. Now if her boy toy up and vanishes, people will die. Especially if all that's found is his heart stone fire pouch. None are safe from the wrath of a scorned Mai. Not even Aang.
6506411
Miiiiiight be stretching it a bit, but:
6506607 Ah, ok. Your one of those. Well I'm going to stop this here because otherwise it's just going to waste Tatsurou's time by having to look through each and every comment.
And good job calling me a retard by using a cuss word. I'm sure that makes you look so much more intelligent than me.
6506626 I assume it's a "Draw me like one of your French girls" type of picture.
6506388 Uhh... This story?
Hah, I sea that Zuko is quite excited there.
I guess Zuko is... Getting flamed by Mai.
Now that the crew understand about the crystal guess they're on the same boat as Iroh eh?
Be careful there Zuko, Mai seems to be... Balls to the wall serious.
6506724
I assume you're asking about the Avatar comics.
I haven't read them, and thus am not making use of them when it comes to writing this story.
if cadinc meats toph after she teams up with team aviator what will hapin ...
6506618 alright, you could just stop then...... Maybe? But what do you mean by horse words?
Well...I just blocked someone. I honestly have never run into someone on here that I wanted to do that to, and I have encountered some really obnoxious people on here.
Anyway Tat I'm sorry for even responding to his first post as it just clogged the comments with junk.
Good chapter as always.
6506411
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Incendiary
Keen
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6506873 Oh don't worry, I know
6506833 indeed indeed
6507003 think of it this way she jonis them to and thay go to the
libray and well u can ges from thaer