The Iron princess (Patreon)

Princess Yue, The Moon Palace, Agna Qel’a

Yue was seated in the central hall of Agna Qel'a's newly built palace, a comfortable chair had been provided in the center of the room, guarded by her personal guard, the princess was leading the meeting to determine which project to focus on, now that the palace was finished

As always, Lee and Dao couldn't agree on which project was more important, Yue sighed as the men continued their discussion

Lee spoke with a firm voice

"The palace is finished, but it's important that we fortify the city, the outer wall should be our priority," the earth benders muttered as they nodded, agreeing with the old man

Dao on the other hand, replied

"I understand that the outer wall is important, but I consider that the drainage system should be the priority, fish farms require a constant flow of water and dirty water must go somewhere, if we don't take these problems into consideration, we could have a health problem in the near future," in Dao's words, several fire benders nodded, showing their approval of the stance

Yue looked at Darik, who represented the water benders at this meeting, and asked

“Darik, what is your opinion on this matter?” The young watermaster sighed heavily, then looked at the princess

“Both tasks are important princess, all of us present know that Mr. Fire will attack sooner or later, so the outer wall is a priority, however, the drainage of the city is also important, is there a way to work on both projects at the same time?”

At that question, Yue shook his head, the construction of the wave district and farms consumed many of the city's available resources, the last thing they needed was to overconsume, they had to manage resources intelligently

Princess Yue was preparing to answer, when the palace doors opened, all the guards present were on their guard, after all, no visitors were expected at this meeting

Yue stifled a sigh when he saw the imbecile Hahn approaching, accompanied by guards from his family, walking around the place as if he were the owner of the salon

For the spirits, thought Yue, who didn't have time to deal with this jerk right now, there were more important things to do

"Princess Yue, I..." the impertinent young man began to speak, however, Yue was not in the mood to entertain this clown, so he simply interrupted him and replied in an acid voice

"You assume a lot Hahn, this is a private meeting to which you were not summoned, say what you have to and leave the room" at the tone of the princess, the guards who accompanied the young man took a step back, making their stance clear before the interruption, the aforementioned young man looked quite puzzled at the tone used by Yue, However, after regaining my composure, he speaks

"I come with news from the council, the council has assigned me as the person in charge of the city's projects, I brought my concerns about a woman directing the projects and they agree that..." Hahn did not finish speaking, when the princess interrupted him, with an icy voice with all the fury contained

"No, now leave" such an answer caused laughter among the members of the meeting and greatly puzzled Hahn, who did not seem to understand the princess's words

“Excuse me? These are orders from the council, it is not a question," Hahn spoke now with anger in his voice at the insolence of the princess

Yue just laughed acidly and responded coldly

"you speaks no-sense idiot, we both know that the council doesn't have that kind of authority, you and the rest of the vultures think that, since my husband is not in the city they can do as they please" the princess got up from the throne and walked towards the shocked young man, her blue eyes full of uncontrollable fury,  these projects were Jon's and hers, no one else had faith in them, and now that things were on track, the decrepit elders believed that she would step aside so that they could take over

Yue wouldn't allow it, so, keeping her eyes on Hahn's jerk, the princess spoke

"Dao, do you and your benders follow the council or my husband?"

Without hesitation, the man replied

"My loyalty is to the white wolf and his family, princess" as he had his gaze fixed on the impertinent young man

Without looking away, Yue spoke again

"Lee?" the old man looked down at Hahn and replied

"The white wolf, earth benders follow strength, and nothing shocks more than watching your king lift two fire nation nation ships like a sack of potatoes." When he finished speaking, Lee let out a huge laugh in a row, just like the rest of the earth benders

Yue Continuous

"Darik," Yue looked at with satisfaction as every word made Hahn shrink more and more

The young water bender replied

"The white wolf, Jon is my brother-in-arms, my commander and my friend, I would trust my life to him a hundred times before any member of the council, with the exception of Master Pakku and chief Arnook" the rest of the water benders nodded showing, agreeing with their comrade

Yue delivered the final blow and responded

"And my father, Chief Arnook, supports Jon, and his word is superior to that of the council, so do us all a huge favor and leave my home, your presence hinders our efforts."

In the face of so much humiliation, Hahn became more and more writhing in anger, to the point that he screamed and tried to approach the princess in a fit of anger

However, their path was quickly blocked by Yue's personal guard, experienced warriors assigned by Jon himself, with the sole aim of protecting the princess, wearing white steel armor with silver details and a blue cape adorning their shoulders

Seeing the two warriors on his way, Hahn stopped in his tracks and his countenance changed to one of caution, feeling that he was in a dangerous situation

Yue, observing the young man's intentions, spoke in an icy voice, looking at the soldiers accompanying Hahn

"Soldiers, remove Hahn from these walls, he is no longer welcome in the palace," the four men nodded and proceeded to take Hahn by the shoulders, dragging him towards the exit

The young man in question simply shouted

"This will not stay like this, I will return with the council and we will put you in your place, we will not let madness continue to spread through my city!"

After a few seconds, the room fell into complete silence, until Lee's loud laughter was heard

"HAHAHA for the spirits that was amazing" everyone present laughed the same way, with the exception of Yue, Dakko and Dao

The fire bender spoke sensibly

"It is possible that there will be problems with some members of the council, princess, it would be prudent for us to prepare, in case of an uprising" such words made the laughter stop

Dakko, one of Yue's guards replied

"I agree princess, without the presence of the white wolf, many cowards will get courage, they might try something against you or chief Arnook"

Lee roared with fury

"HA, let them try, if they get even a little close to the little girl, I'll take care of blowing all their teeth out with my own fists!" 

Yue quickly intervened

"My father is investigating one of the islands that Jon mentioned, without him and without Jon, the members of the council think we are vulnerable, we must take care of proving them wrong"

Looking at Dakko and Darik, Yue spoke

"Inform the loyal troops about the situation, I don't think the situation will get out of control, but we must be forewarned," both nodded, understanding the princess's orders

A moment later, Yue spoke again

“we will focus the largest number of earth benders on the wall, it is the most important project, however, I want five earth benders to be assigned to Dao and Darik, who will be in charge of building a preliminary drainage, which will last long enough for the wall to be finished, then Dao will focus his available fire benders in the garden of the moon,  We have seen that the greenhouses are a success, they will be implemented in the city garden”

Everyone nodded, pleased with the princess's commitment and plan of action

Seeing that there were no more objections, the princess simply said

"You have your orders, Dismissed," they all stood up and walked out of the room

Yue stood up from the throne, when nausea set in again, by the spirits, Yue thought, it was the third time this week

Seeing her, Dakko asked with concern

"Princess, are you all right? Do we take her to the healing wing?” The concern was evident in the guard's tone

Yue just shook his head and replied

"No need Dakko, we have things to do, I'll visit Akana after dinner." 

The man, still worried, simply nodded, knowing that the princess was quite stubborn and would not change his mind

The princess forgot about the matter for the moment and concentrated on her activities, quite motivated to see the changes in her beloved city

Yue longed to see her husband, several weeks had passed, and she missed him madly

Turning her gaze north, she wondered what her wolf was doing, if he was eating and sleeping well, and if he missed her as much as she missed him

In a soft whisper, Yue spoke into the air, her gaze fixed on the north

"Come back soon, my love," exclaimed the princess

Then, on the way to the city, the progress of the projects had to be inspected, after all

Jon Eddardson, The cave of empathy

Jon had been chatting with the spirit woman, the lady of the winds was her name

A spirit trapped in the human world, tied to this island for thousands of years, taking care of her children, that is, the sky bisons

The woman shared her experience with the deep one, a spiritual being of colossal power who lived in the depths of the sea of whispers, he, like the ladies, did not belong to this world

Violent and destructive in nature, the lady spoke, and Jon listened

“He attacked my children, he took the little babies with his dirty tentacles and dragged them into the depths, he did not eat them, that being does not need to be fed, he simply enjoyed the fear and terror of the little ones, when they died, he threw the bodies in the air, the being enjoys inflicting pain and you cannot reason with him”

Jon horrified by the story, understood the woman, the spirit considered all bison as his children, Jon thought it was heartbreaking to watch as a being killed them simply for the pleasure of killing

However, this fog wasn't the solution, so Jon spoke up

"I understand your pain and I can understand the reason for your actions; however, this is not the solution, bison were born to sail the skies, without any limit, in your eagerness to protect them, you are taking away a part of themselves"

Those words did not sit well with the spirit, which simply spoke forcefully

"I protect them, here they are safe, with my power they will live forever, away from the dangers and pain of the world."

Jon looked sadly at the woman and replied

"This is not living my lady, they are prisoners, you are denying them the opportunity to live and experience the outside world."

The spirit became enraged, the clouds on the woman's body darkened and small rays were visible all over her body, a second later, she spoke furiously

"They were free! Just like my nomads, and Agni's offspring hunted them like plagues, struck them down from the heavens, desecrated their bodies, and used their skins as trophies, all because the useless Raava didn't intervene when she should have!”

The spirit was really upset, Jon started hearing thunder all over the cave, no doubt the spirit had unleashed a storm on the island

Jon knew there would be no words to calm the spirit, so he simply replied

"I can't understand the pain of losing a son my lady, but I am able to understand the pain, I lost my father, I lost my brother, good and honest men, concerned about governing fairly, killed for meddling in the interests of cruel people, in the past, I wanted to go back to my childhood, to live those beautiful moments where my family was complete and healthy."

Such words caught the attention of the spirit, who looked at Jon with sad eyes, moved by such a story, and asked

“How do you overcome it? How do you overcome the pain of losing a loved one?” the despair in the spirit's voice broke something inside Jon, who just smiled sadly and responded

"We don't, we learn to live with the loss, and we must learn to accept that death is the price we pay for living, the only thing we can do is live a dignified life and we both know that this is not that." At the end, Jon pointed to the bison herd

The young wolf's words shook the spirit, who began to cry softly, Jon didn't say anything else, words weren't necessary, he just placed his hand on the spirit's shoulder and gave it all the time it needed

After a while, the spirit spoke again, in a resigned voice

"You'll send me to the spiritual world, won't you? Just like you did with my sister”

Jon simply nodded at those words, the spiritual imbalance of this island was serious, the spirits had to return to their world, all of them

The woman was silent for a moment, and then spoke firmly

"He will come back, he will want to hurt them, promise me that you will protect my children, promise me that you will take them out of this island and that they will fly through all the skies of this world, that they will dance among the clouds and that their presence will fill the hearts of the people with joy" the despair in the voice of the spirit moved Jon, who nodded solemnly and swore

"I swear that I will do everything in my power to protect these beautiful beings, they will cross the skies and dance with freedom and joy, and if the deep one wants to hurt them, Longclaw and I will face him." When he finished speaking, Jon drew his sword which shone brightly at the words of its wielder

Sensing the immense power of the weapon, as well as the spiritual power it possessed, the spirit simply nodded in relief, and responded

“Then do it son of La, I appoint you guardian of the winds and I give you my blessing, the winds will be your ally when you move in the heavens, helping you in your travels, send me to my sister and protect my children” 

Jon nodded and replied

"I am honored by such a blessing my lady, and don't worry, I will make them bloom again in the four nations" Then, Jon channeled water from the air, now such a technique was much easier to perform, thanks to the blessing of the spirit, he wrapped the lady in a blanket of water and used his spirit to help her transcend to the other world, Taking the fog with it

When he finished, Jon exhaled air and whispered

"Go in peace, ancient one," the young wolf was still overwhelmed by the situation, and took a moment to focus his thoughts

However, such a break was interrupted by a powerful sound coming behind him

Jon turned and watched with a smile as little by little the bison began to wake up and walk awkwardly everywhere

One of the bison, a large male with large horns, approached Jon calmly, and proceeded to lick him from head to toe

Jon just laughed and caressed the being, then spoke

“It's time, the skies are yours, fly and take your home”

However, the bison refused to come out, they were all waiting for the leader, who was staring at Jon

Jon quickly understood, the bison wanted him to fly with them, as a sign of gratitude, consequently, Jon nodded with a smile and spoke

"I feel honored" and proceeded to climb on the bison's back

A second later, all of the bison growled loudly and proceeded to fly out of the cave

Towards a new future

Master Alanna, the isle of mist

After meditating for hours, Alanna felt a change in the air on the island, the feeling of constant pressure subsided again and the old lady watched with a huge smile as the pink mist completely disappeared

And the island shook again, now for a still longer time, the awakening was coming, thought the old woman with a huge smile

However, his thoughts were interrupted when he heard something resembling a roar coming out of the cave

And a few seconds later, Alanna almost fainted from a heart attack

Sky Bisons! A huge herd of them came out of the cave and flew at will throughout the sky, small offspring, females and powerful males

The heavens of the world saw the majestic creatures again, the old woman thought

And on the back of the largest and most powerful of the bison, was his student

Her granddaughter's future husband

The future king of the north, thought the woman proudly, who could not clear her gaze from Jon, who moved in the skies with great ease, as if he belonged up there, with the bison and dragons

The second cave was purified, two more and the ancient one awakening could begin, the woman thought happily

The poor woman did not imagine that more than one thing would awaken in these dangerous and mysterious waters