There are three benders, and now four nonbenders among them. Ty Lee said the benders' names to herself every night in prison, waiting for the day the war would end, and she would get to meet them. The girls in the tower with her whispered the names of their friends, and she whispered back the story of their escape from the Boiling Rock.
She pulls the fabric of her uniform smooth and remembers taking down five of their seven with Mai and Azula. It's almost like it stings. She has a shiny, scarred over burn mark where Ying got her when she didn't dodge fast enough. She touches it sometimes and thinks about who her enemies are. The makeup and the clothes feel different this time around, like they're seeping into her, and she's glad.
Sometimes, wearing that uniform feels like being back home with her sisters, but usually it feels like being back at the Royal Fire Nation Academy for Girls, either way she's invisible. When she holds the fans and wields them with the others, she feels like she's at the circus instead. She's still invisible, but the Kyoshi Warriors can see the invisible.
She tries hard not to think about Azula, and the hospital cell she's trapped within, but sometimes, she remembers the way Azula always needed to be the best, the way she couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, couldn't think unless she was. On the days she feels that way, she doesn't train. She walks in the mountains, by herself, or with one of the village boys, or with Ying, if she can get away. Ty Lee can always get away. Sometimes, she thinks Suki knows why.
Ty Lee on Kyoshi, Island of Fire
~*~
There are three benders, and now four nonbenders among them. Ty Lee said the benders' names to herself every night in prison, waiting for the day the war would end, and she would get to meet them. The girls in the tower with her whispered the names of their friends, and she whispered back the story of their escape from the Boiling Rock.
She pulls the fabric of her uniform smooth and remembers taking down five of their seven with Mai and Azula. It's almost like it stings. She has a shiny, scarred over burn mark where Ying got her when she didn't dodge fast enough. She touches it sometimes and thinks about who her enemies are. The makeup and the clothes feel different this time around, like they're seeping into her, and she's glad.
Sometimes, wearing that uniform feels like being back home with her sisters, but usually it feels like being back at the Royal Fire Nation Academy for Girls, either way she's invisible. When she holds the fans and wields them with the others, she feels like she's at the circus instead. She's still invisible, but the Kyoshi Warriors can see the invisible.
She tries hard not to think about Azula, and the hospital cell she's trapped within, but sometimes, she remembers the way Azula always needed to be the best, the way she couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, couldn't think unless she was. On the days she feels that way, she doesn't train. She walks in the mountains, by herself, or with one of the village boys, or with Ying, if she can get away. Ty Lee can always get away. Sometimes, she thinks Suki knows why.