Red Lotus: Origin Stories

Chapter 4: The Tall Girl With a Third Eye

From the hills, he saw her. Even from far away he could tell she was tall, like a goddess. Her golden eyes furrowed in concentration before she produced another explosion shooting from her third eye. Even without knowing her Zaheer knew two things; she was beautiful and he had to save her.

He went back to camp and woke Ghazan and Ming Hua up. He explained what he saw and about the girl.

"Is this what you guys do? Save people through the Fire Nation?"

"We could have her on our side," Zaheer aid disregarding her questions.

"Are you building an army?" Ming Hua asked.

"No, but she's there against her will," he answered.

"What then?" Ghazan asked.

"I don't know, but we have to save her," Zaheer answered. "I'm going with you or without you."

"You won't have to," Ghazan said giving in. "I'll go with you."

Ming Hua sighed before agreeing to go with the boys. "It will be nice having another girl in the group."

As they planned their attack from the hill top, a war lord came from his house and hit the girl with the third eye with a metal rod. "Get it right this time," he yelled.

"See, she needs help," Zaheer urged his friends.

"Fine, how should we start?" Ghazan asked.

"You should create a big earthquake, big enough to scare them. When she creates the combustions, that man stands back, you should create a rift big enough to separate them," Zaheer instructed.

"What if there's an earthbender and closes the rift?" Ming Hua asked.

"Before we find out, we go in and tell her we're here to help her. Hopefully, she'll believe us and come with us," he finished saying.

"Your whole plan is relying on hope?" Ming Hua asked doubting the entire plan.

"Well do you have a better plan?" he asked agitated.

A moment later when they each had a role in the rescue plan, they started their attack. Ghazan stepped out and caused a powerful earthquake that scared everyone down in the valley. Before, they could spot them he made rift separating the tall girl from the man who hit her. Immediately Ming Hua, Ghazan, and Zaheer ran down to the valley reaching the girl.

The girl who was at least 6 and a half feet tall stood still in confusion.

"Come with us," Zaheer asked her. "We're here to save you!"

"But I don't know you!"

"P'Li ATTACK THEM!" The man yelled several feet away on the other side of the rift. Meanwhile, Ghazan and Ming Hua got in their fighting stances ready to attack the men on the other side if necessary.

"If you come with us we promise he won't hurt you," Zaheer told her.

"How do I know you won't hurt me?"

"If you don't like our little group, we won't force you to stay. You'll be free," at the mention of the word free the young girl turned around and blasted the men on the other side. The ground blew up beneath them and they all flew into the air and landed several feet away. Ming Hua and Ghazan blasted them with balls of water and rock making it difficult for them to get up. Zaheer grabbed the girl's hand and ran towards the hills, Ming Hua and Ghazan followed them. Every few steps, P'Li would turn around blast them again destroying everything in their camp.

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Safe inside the woods P'Li sat down by a river to clean her face. Zaheer approached cautiously to not scare her off.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

She looked up with a half clean face. She nodded silently. "Thank you," she whispered.

"Like I said before, you don't have to stay with us if you don't want to," he reminded her.

"If it's fine with your group I would like to stay with you for a while," she said.

"It's fine if that's what you want."

She started crying suddenly. "I'm sorry for crying. But it's the first time anyone cares about me, and it's a complete stranger," she said realizing the irony.

"What about your parents?"

"They sold me to that war lord to pay off their debts to him. I never had a choice until today," she confided.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he said. She finished cleaning her face and got up. "C'mon, Ming Hua catched some fish today, and I can smell Ghazan cooking them," he smiled offering his hand to her. She reached for it and the two of them walked hand in hand back to their campsite.

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A couple of days passed when P'Li and Zaheer decided to climb a tree to pick some fruit. He balanced himself on a higher branch while P'Li clumsily stood on a lower branch than him, even then he was still shorter than her, but at least he was at level with her face. It didn't bother him, he actually liked having to look up, it made her look more like a goddess.

He picking an ash banana from the nearest twig. "Are you Fire Nation?" P'Li asked. He didn't answer quickly. "It's okay you don't have to tell me. It's just you never seem to talk about it."

"It's not worth talking about it. I didn't have the happiest childhood," he confessed.

"Me neither, but you knew that already," she said recalling the day he saved her.

Suddenly, he wanted to tell her. "I grew up with 8 older brothers and sisters. My father died and my mom was left with us all, it was too many kids to take care of on her own. We were poor too so that didn't help either," the words were tumbling out of him and it was too late to take any of it back. He wanted to tell her. "Meanwhile, she worked hard scrubbing floors for the Khans and their huge mansion. She worked years for so little money and those people saw her struggling and didn't do anything about it. So when I was 11 I started stealing bread, fruit, anything I could to help her, but I was caught. The truth is I was preparing myself to steal from the Khans. She tried to discipline me and told me not to keep doing it. Of course, I didn't even listen, so I kept stealing and when I was caught red handed coming out of the Khan's mansion she said there's no room in my room for thieves. She kicked me out and you know the rest."

A moment passed between them before either of them spoke again. As they resumed picking the fruit P'Li said, "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"Don't be," he said automatically. "I met you." Her cheeks became enflamed and he smiled. He held her hand in his and planted a kiss. "It was worth it."

In one moment of courage and bravery, P'Li leaned in and kissed him.