Avatar: The Last Airbender: Reawakening

15

"So where are your friends?" she asked curiously, beginning to eat.

"That must still be out searching," Tau told her.

"Still no luck?" she questioned.

"No," Tau shook his head slowly, taking a bite of his food. He had told her a short version of what they were doing in Ba Sing Se, looking for important information for a research project they were doing. Of course that wasn't the complete truth; Tau knew he could never tell her everything and after all the kindness she had shown him and his two companions, he felt a little guilty manipulating her like he was. After all, she was the one that directed them to all of the libraries, telling them where to go, where to look, what university professors they could talk to for help. Tau promised himself that he would find some way to repay her, even if it was just giving her extra money.

After a few moments, Zi ran into the room, taking his own seat in between the two older people around him and began eating and Tau laughed a little at his energy.

"Someone's in a hurry," he said, causing the boy to look up at him.

"I'm hungry and foods good," the young boy said, "Don't you think mom cooks good food Tau?"

"Yes she does," Tau answered, looking over at the woman across from him, "You mother makes very good food."

Ming blushed slightly and laughed, "It comes from years of practice. Zi needs to grow up nice and healthy so he can live a better life then I was able to. I want what's best for him."

Zi smiled and turned looked at Tau excitedly, "Mom say that when I grow up, I could change the world. Dad was some big boss guy in the army. She says I can become just like him."

"Set your mind to it and you will," Tau assured him.

"You really think so?" the boy said, eyes brightening.

"Sure," Tau shrugged, just look how far I have gotten in my quest, "You just need to work at it and be persistent."

Zi smiled and quickly finished his dinner before once again getting up and running off, probably somewhere outside to play with his friends.

"He finished fast," Tau said, watching him go.

"He's young," Ming smiled affectionately at her son as he disappeared from her gaze, "He can't sit still for too long."

"He reminds me of a lot of the young kids I would meet in my travels in the Earth Kingdom during the war," Tau said, thinking back to all those years ago.

"Did you interact with them often?" Ming asked curiously, he had told her about his Earth Kingdom travels but he never went into details about it.

"Sure," Tau smiled at the memories, "Even during war kids needed to have fun and I was only about nineteen at the time. I played with them and watched over them until my group had to move on. Sometimes we wouldn't go anywhere for weeks and I grew attached to some of the kids."

Ming saw Tau's smile fade and turn into a frown while his eyes seemed to ghost over and it concerned her, "What is it?"

"Not everything was all flowers and sunshine though," Tau said sadly, "During the war, you would always her about the terrors that the Fire Nation inflicted on people but you would never hear of what the Earth Kingdom would do."

"What are you talking about," Ming tilted her head, pushing her plate away as she finished eating, "What did the Earth Kingdom do?"

"Soldiers" Tau started, "They would always abuse their power when they could. They did what they wanted as long as there wasn't any Fire Nation to fight and nobody could stop them."