Koreal's scan of her surroundings brought a very important fact to her attention. Her sister had not, in fact, followed her down the street. "That... could be problematic." If Kerrora wasn't around, going up to the rooftops wasn't in the cards, so that plan would have to be put off at least until the sisters could be re-united. Koreal turned around to go back to the street where she'd last had Kerrora's hand in her own, but before she reached the end, she heard the roaring of flames come to a stop. Turning her head, she saw the last twirling wisps of flame dying in the air, sending sparks flying down to smolder and disappear on the stones of the rooftops and streets. Koreal didn't pause for long to ponder what had caused the fiery cyclone to stop, but rather kept running back up the street.
She rounded the corner to see the street still with a small crowd of people in it, standing at a respectful distance from a burning stall. It seemed some of the flying embers had fallen from over the tops of the buildings and ignited one or two of the shop awnings lining the street. At first, Koreal didn't see her sister anywhere. After a moment, though, she spotted Kerrora as she burst out of a burning stall carrying a young boy. Koreal's heart skipped a beat, worried that her sister might have gotten hurt. She knew her sister could heal with her water bending, but running into a fire was reckless and dangerous. If Koreal had done something of the sort, Kerrora certainly would have scolded her thoroughly for it. (Perhaps that would be fair. After all, Koreal couldn't heal herself, or douse flames. But she could handle herself just fine, dang it!)
However, she couldn't help but feel a bit proud of her sister. Saving a child was certainly a good deed, and she couldn't blame her sister for doing so. Koreal was certain she'd try to do the same thing if she had been in the same position. So it was with mixed emotions of pride and worry that she saw her sister emerge from the flames. Before she could approach her sister to check on her, though, several guards ran down the street, and before she knew it, Kerrora was being apprehended.
"What in the world are they doing? Don't they see that she's rescuing people and minimizing damages? I should go over there and... no, I can't really stop them without getting us in actual trouble. But I can't just leave her to get arrested either! I-"
She took a step forward, but paused as the little boy Kerrora had carried out from the smoke ran forward and began to plead with the guards not to take his rescuer away. It was honestly rather adorable, but Koreal couldn't fully appreciate it in the heat of the moment. She saw Kerrora speak to the child, and watched as one of the guards shooed the child away and left the others to arrest her sister. She was about to step forward again when she felt a hand come to rest on her shoulder. She wrenched away and spun around, finding herself face to face with Cho and Wong.
"We meet again, miss," said Wong, "the fire's gone now. We got orders to take you in, so no more of your fancy dodging, if you please. Come with us quietly and it'll be easier on everyone." He looked grave, but he didn't seem inclined to fight unless she forced him to do so. Cho, on the other hand, didn't seem quite so friendly. "Would'n want yer purty lil' face to get all smushed up in a tussle, now, would'gee?"
Koreal's temper flared up at the man's snide tone. She would have loved to slam the butt of her spear up between his legs at that moment, but she had enough self control to restrain herself from this course of action. She couldn't refrain from lashing out verbally, though. "Ha! As if you could hit me at all. You couldn't hit the broad side of a sky bison, much less beat me in a fight." She scoffed, shooting Cho a nasty look before turning back to Wong, who had tensed up at her words. "But I've got nothing to be afraid of. Like I said earlier, I haven't done anything wrong. So I'll come with you, just so long as you let me stay with my little sister. I don't want to get separated from her so far from home."
She turned and pointed to where several other guards were escorting her sister away. "If I'm getting taken in anyways, I'm going to stay with my sister. I won't let anything happen to her." Although she couldn't see it, Wong nodded from behind her back and gave a brief sign. "Well, we'd better get going then. We'll have to cuff you, miss. That's just basic protocol in the city, and we'll have them off you once we're out of the streets. Now, please put your hands out so we can get caught up with your sister." Koreal sighed and nodded, handed her spear to Cho, and then stuck her wrists out. Wong pulled a what looked like a stone slab with holes punched in it off his belt, and with his other hand did a backhand strike into the air over his shoulder. The rock split into halves horizontally, which he quickly placed over her wrists. Then, with a motion like a slow clap, his hands came together and her hands were bound together by solid stone. It was a little cold against her bare skin, and not exactly smooth. Koreal was sure they'd chafe and leave her wrists raw if they sat on her arms for too long. They were heavy, too, it wasn't comfortable to simply let them hang down. She opted to keep them held against her chest, both so they would be a little closer to her center of gravity and wiggle around less as she walked.
She felt Wong's hand come down on her shoulder again, and he began steering her towards where the guards escorting her sister were. They were already a good half-block ahead, and the three had to keep up a brisk pace to join them. As they went down the streets, Koreal tried to ignore the staring faces of bystanders. Some were curious, others frightened, and some were even angry. But she tried to avoid their gazes. She hadn't realized how embarrassing it would be to walk down the roads cuffed and escorted by earth kingdom guards, and making eye contact only made it worse. It was best, she decided, to simply pretend they didn't exist until they got to, well... wherever it was they were going. Wong hadn't exactly said where, after all. But no matter the destination, one thing was certain. This was NOT how Koreal had imagined her first visit to Omashu.
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Koreal soon found herself in a room with her sister and what seemed like around a dozen other people. She rubbed at her wrists as if that would somehow take away the irritating soreness left by the cuffs, which had been removed just after they entered the building. To her surprise, her spear had also been returned to her. She wasn't sure what to make of that. (Or anything else that was happening, for that matter.) However, it was comforting to have with her. It could be truthfully said that her spear was her closest companion aside from Kerrora.
Koreal sighed and rolled her wrists one last time before deciding to ignore the ache as best she could. She needed to check up on her sister, after all, and her wrists didn't need nearly as much attention as her sister, in Koreal's eyes. "Hey, are you alright? You didn't get burned, did you? I'm seriously proud of you for saving that kid, sis, but if you got yourself hurt, I swear-" She smiled and bumped her sister with her shoulder.
She found herself feeling oddly happy despite the situation. Looking around, she found that those around her were from all four nations; a group with seemingly very little in common, except, it seemed, that they were all involved in whatever incident had been going on in that street. Koreal had to wonder if she was surrounded by criminals, or how many of them were like her sister and herself: simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Before long, the quiet babble in the room was hushed as an older-looking man entered. He was bald, and by the arrow tatoos on his skin and the robes he wore, it seemed apparent that he was an air bender. Koreal was a bit confused why he was there. After all, it was an earth kingdom city that they'd been arrested in, not an Air Nomad temple. However, the man soon stated that he was open to answering questions. Before Koreal could even begin to ask a question, an individual from one of the water tribes (male from the looks of their clothes, but there was something feminine about the face that made Koreal unsure) piped up and demanded to know what had happened to their snow leopard caribou. Shortly after, a girl wearing clothes that made Koreal fairly certain she was from the fire nation asked her own question. “I have a question. Why are we here? I’ve come to two potential conclusions— we’ve all inadvertently committed a dumb crime that none of us knew about because it was hidden in the fine print of the law, or this is some “let’s find the Avatar and save the world” cult. Please, correct my thinking.”
Koreal blinked in surprise when the 'Avatar cult' was mentioned. What did the Avatar have to do with any of this? It had been decades, generations even, since the Avatar had been seen. The 'we committed a crime without knowing it' option seemed far more likely to her. She puzzled about this as several others interjected with more questions and observations, and as a result missed most of what they said. Her attention was brought back to the moment when the old man began speaking again.
He addressed the water tribe person's question about their snow leopard caribou, then began explaining why they were all there. Apparently 'We', whoever 'we' was, had been spreading a rumor of the Avatar's return. Koreal didn't recall hearing any rumors about it, but she figured that wasn't important to what the man was saying. He went on to explain a measurement of 'worthiness' in those who sought to find the Avatar, and then to introduce another man who looked similar to himself. It was revealed that the two were working together to inspire hope that the Avatar was still around, and that everyone in the room was to keep these things a secret whether or not they joined the search for the Avatar. Koreal had to sit still for a moment to take all this in. It seemed that her day just kept on getting stranger and stranger...
She heard several of the people in the room volunteering to help find the Avatar, most of them seeming to have an attitude of 'I'm already here, even if I didn't expect to be, so why not?'. Koreal, though, wasn't sure what to think. The man hadn't offered any proof that the Avatar did still exist. He only gave evidence that they had been deceiving people, tricking them into believing in someone who wasn't actually there. Sure, it sounded like they were doing it for a good reason, and had noble intentions, but what if the Avatar couldn't be found? Wouldn't their actions just make things a bit worse?
She shook her head, realizing that if what they said was true, there was really only one choice. If the world was going to descend into chaos unless the Avatar was found, then there'd be no harm in trying to do so. She and her sister were already planning to travel around the world in Koreal's pursuit of her dreams, too, so they might simply tackle different places in a different order. And if they failed to find the Avatar, well, everything would probably be sucky anyways. But no matter whether the man was telling the truth or not, she wasn't going to drag Kerrora off on a wild Avatar chase unless she wanted to go, and certainly not without more information.
Touching her sister's arm, she leaned in, and spoke in a low tone. "What do you think, sis? It's a lot to take in, huh..."
