The History of Renko: Book 2 Voyager (Avatar, BoyxBoy)

Chapter 29: War Council

Renko sat on an old green sofa with glazed eyes. Kuzo was standing in front of him pointing at a standing cork board one of the palace staff provided. Newspaper clippings had been stuck onto the board of all the world leaders attending the summit that weekend. Kuzo had the air of a teacher lecturing his student.

"Ren?" he asked the unfocused Avatar.

"Huh?" was his response.

"Have you been paying attention?" Kuzo leaned back and crossed his arms.

"Yes," Renko said. "You said your mother is in love with Chief Zuzata and has ambitions of rejoining the Water Tribes."

"Uh no."

Kuzo sat down next to Renko and put his hand on his thigh. His blue eyes matched Renko's gray ones.

"I said the exact opposite...are you okay?"

"Yeah yeah," Renko stated a little absentmindedly. "Ahmad said something earlier today that's sticking to me. And with the summit happening, I guess I'm just a little out of it."

"Well get back into it," Kuzo stood back up and began gesturing at the board again. "We don't want a war on Whale Tail Island."

"I know," Renko sat back with his eyes focused. "Tell me again, who are the warmongers?"

"Chief Zuzata for one," Kuzo pulled a newspaper clipping of the fat face of the Southern Water Tribe Chief.

"Really? He seems too...lazy," Renko looked skeptical. "But that would explain the joint exercises between the Earth States and the Tribe. The war games held in the southern seas have been going on for a decade now."

"Exactly," Kuzo took a pin and placed the picture back on the board. "War makes money and Chief Zuzata cares more about the southern economy than anything else."

"And your mom?"

"Mother is, well," Kuzo struggled to find the words. "Zuzata wants his son to marry my sister. Both to create a military alliance between the tribes but also to enrich both families. My mother is considering it only because there is one other monarchy in the world and we're already related."

"Would Zuzata pressure your mom into a military conflict?"

"Hmmm," Kuzo thought for a moment. "I think mother would reserve her forces. At least she would in the beginning."

"Okay, so Zuzata is in the war camp and Soldotna is a tossup."

Kuzo placed a picture of Zuzata on the right side of the board and left Soldotna's picture in the middle.

"That leads us to President Yen of the United Republic," Kuzo pulled a picture of her off the wall next.

"There's no way she would engage in a military struggle," Renko said.

"I don't know about that," Kuzo replied.

"She's up for reelection this year," Renko said. "I can't imagine she would send United Forces into Earth State's territory."

"Do you remember? Republic City was hit pretty badly. You were forced into the Avatar state."

"I remember," Renko said. To this day, he could still remember how exhausted he was from the ordeal. He still had dreams of being in the Spirit World.