Eclipse (Avatar the Last Airbender)

Chapter 12: Distant Horizon

Miyuki raised her arm and waited for her messenger bird, who had been circling overhead for a handful of minutes, to land. In a few moments, claws meant for hunting prey dug into the arm chap she'd strapped onto her forearm and she collected the scroll attached to its back. She fed it as she skimmed through the contents of the letter.

Master Pakku glanced at the papers from behind her shoulder. "This is complete gibberish! Some of these are just squiggles!"

"That's the point." She tried not to roll her eyes at the man as she sighed and produced a fresh sheet of paper to send her response. "Each of my informants were provided a different code to use in their correspondence with me, making it nearly impossible to gain any intel should my messages fall into someone else's hands," she explained as she transferred the bird onto a perch and started to write. When she was done, she rolled the paper up, slid it into the holder, and sent the bird back on his way.

Miyuki glanced at the waterbending master. "Furthermore, there's no signature. I identify them through the code being used." 

She tore up the message regarding Zuko and his uncle's whereabouts before tossing it into the cooking fire. She hoped that they were okay drifting about on the sea as they were. Then again, there wasn't much she could do at the moment even if they weren't doing okay.

The elderly man sighed. "The more I interact with you, the more I feel that I've underestimated you all this time."

She shrugged. "Better late than never, I suppose."

Something about her blasé attitude in response to what she normally would have considered to be a jab must have tipped him off because he sighed and asked, "What's troubling you, Miyuki?"

She smiled wryly. "I know that we're working together now, but it doesn't make it any less off-putting being on the receiving end of your concern for a change." He cast her a stern look and she added, "It's nothing that you can help me with, and therefore, nothing that you should concern yourself with."

"I am old, but not so old that I no longer have my hearing. At the very least, I can listen to your worries."

"I'm alright." She sighed when she realized how one-sided their newfound level of courtesy was. She added quietly, "But thank you. Really. I...appreciate it."

·:*¨༺ ★ ༻¨*:·.

After a day filled with too many tasks and then not enough tasks, Miyuki found herself with far more free time on her hands than she would prefer. She needed a moment to relax and unwind, and the most calming thing she could think of in the moment was going up to the lookout's post and watch as their ship was lulled by the ocean's waves, so she did just that.

Scaling up to the lookout's post was no walk in the park, but it was well worth it once she settled herself into the crow's nest. Miyuki squinted at the horizon as she tried to enjoy the breeze. After her parents passed away, she had stared out into the distance of this ocean, hoping to one day travel through it again in a safe world and learn about all the things that she was unfamiliar with. All things considered, she supposed that she was halfway there. She was indeed traveling and learning a variety of things, but it was by no means safe. Nor was it as pure as she would have imagined it to be even just a handful of years ago. She sighed deeply. The world was far more complicated than she had ever imagined as a child too.

"Oh..." a vaguely familiar voice began.

She turned around to find the Avatar's head peeking out just over the confines of the post.

His tone was far more timid than she had expected from the child that so many had described as 'bursting with youthful energy' as he asked, "Did you come here to be alone?"