I was very surprised when i wrote this part. It can as pop up in my head that sort of sprang into a really cool idea.

//////////////

Siam- airbender

Mizuhiro - firebender

Mrs. Cheng - nonbender

~~Siam has just finished reading the letter that explained why her parents died~~

///////////////

From the look on her face Mizuhiro could tell the letter had sunk in. He didn't know if he should leave or stay but his judgment told him leaving would be better. He started to open the door but paused. "Siam... I am truly sorry your parents died. I don't know if the fire nation is truly behind this but I will help you find out."

He walked out of the room only to be stopped prematurely by Mrs. Cheng. "Siam, the four priests have arrived and prepared the bodies. We are ready and waiting for you to begin the ceremony. Mizuhiro I want you to join me as a witness."

Still pondering about the letter Siam put her sandals on.

"I am ready," she replied with a heavy tone in her breath

The three traveled up a path away from the village, to a cliff edge overlooking the sea. On the edge was a formation of rock platforms. In the center was a circle linked together by two smaller circles. On these circles were the urns carrying her parent's ashes. Surround the circles stood four pillars shaped as arrows with each pointing north, south, east, and west. And standing on these pillars were the four priest in accordance with their respective temples. As they neared the formation Mrs. Cheng motioned silently for Mizuhiro to stop while Siam went on ahead.

"What you are about to see is the passing away ceremony of air benders."

Siam walked to the center of the formation. Stepping on to the center circle she sighed and readied her stance and with that the priest started the ceremony. Starting with the north and going clockwise each priest started to hum quietly and pushed the air around them in the same direction. As the wind got faster they started to hum louder until they created a giant wind funnel surrounding Siam. With her hair whipping in her face Siam started to spin counterclockwise. She spun faster and faster until she had air bended to wind spheres. Siam suddenly halted and plunged the spheres into each urn. The dust surged out of the urns and was sucked up into the wind funnel. The air became cloudier and murky until they could no longer see Siam in the middle of it. Inside the funnel Siam was reminiscing about the good life she lead under the house of her father and the wonderful knowledge she gained for her mother.

As she said her goodbyes a tear slipped from her face only to be consumed by the wind. As the wind funnel died the dust was compressed in a ring over the priest head. Siam then proceeded to take out her staff. She twirled it in the air then plunged it into the ground creating a shockwave of air that sent the ring flying to the four winds. The ring expanded and dissipated until it was no longer visible. Mizuhiro was about to ask but with tears in her eyes Mrs. Cheng had already prepared her answer.

"The ceremony you have just seen has several different meanings. The three linked circles represent the relationship between the person standing in the middle and the deceased. The reason why the remains are scattered in every direction... well nobody really knows these days. Some say the reason is because the sky is where the air tribe is the happiest but others say it is because in this way the deceased shall always be wherever their loved ones are."

Content with her answer Mizuhiro faced back toward Siam. Before each priest took his leave they bowed to Siam and she bowed back. She then made her way down the path to Mrs. Cheng and Mizuhiro. With moist eyes she approached them. "How did I do?"

"You did wonderfully my dear...," the red-eyed Mrs. Cheng replied. "Your parents would take pride in the fact of how grand their funeral was. Let's go home dear; you look tired."

/////////////////

Van (Qiang)
______________________________

Van discovers the mysterious girl's name as well as her intentions and subsequently has his life saved by the mostly silent Waterbender. Again. Van's feeling emasculated and still doesn't know anything about who she is. Where'd she come from? How old is she? Where'd she learn to bend so well? And exactly who is Indra?
______________________________

So, to reestablish my manliness, I made breakfast for a 6 year old.

Yeah.

So anyway, it was pretty good. Lyra, who I'm still not sure is actually called Lyra, gobbled it down without looking too much like a long haired, malnourished elephant-mouse. I guess she likes my cooking. That was enough coddling to her, I decided, and I packed up my mini camp and hit the road. The loose forest came into open stretches of grass and rolling hills. If I was a painter, I'd find a spot and go till my hearts content. I hadn't seen much green in my few months in the desert, so I guess that's why seeing it again like this felt so nice. Even the light breeze was welcoming in the mild heat. It was a good day to cover a lot of ground, so I picked up the pace after my brief bit of basking. I'm of medium height, but my stride is significantly longer than Lyra's. She had to take quick skipping steps every so often just to keep up. If Lyra didn't like the pacing, tough. it wasn't like she couldn't find me again.

It wasn't really like I was scared of her, but I can't imagine why a girl so capable of defending herself wants me to help her find her get to Ba Sing Se. I know I can do hefty damage with my spear. I've gone solo against 13 or so Firebenders at once. Sure, I had the advantage of a bamboo forest and some prior knowledge of the terrain in my favor at the time, but 13 against 1 is long odds in any circumstance. And I beat those odds. I'm no bender, but I can hold my own. But, see, that's right there is the problem. This girl is a bender. And from what I've seen a damn strong one. So, why is she following me? I kept asking her for a while, but all I've gotten is blinks and blank stares like I'm speaking the language the Ancients used. I just don't get anything about her. Why the hell is she following me?

Is it solely because she's a kid? Is it more than her just needing some escort? When we get there, will she really expect me to help her find this Indra? She's in no position to find anyone in a miniature nation like Ba Sing Se, but then again, neither am I. Even with the slight out-flux of people since the war ended, trying to find a single person in Ba Sing Se is like finding a needle with a flat tip in a stack of more needles. I'd have to go to a district station and put out a missing person's report. That would start the pipeline that might still turn up nothing. But having the few hundred people working for each station looking for a specific person is better than going from door to door with a girl with communication issues and ask for a person I don't even know what looks like.

But, she's a pretty kid. Someone would help her if she stood in the middle of the monorail station and cried a little. I've seen it happen in marketplaces. Kid gets lost. Kid wanders in the middle of a big pile of finagling buyers. Kid cries crocigator tears, wailing "I want my mommy!" Kid gets people to help. Kid finds mommy. Kid smiles. Kid goes home. Kid gets shouted at by drunk dad or something. Standard fair really.

Lyra is a Waterbender, so she shouldn't have any problems crying or at least faking it.

All right then, that settles it. I get to the station and lose her in the crowd. I don't know how many times I can say it, but I'm not a babysitter. And even though she can Waterbend like a koi fish, she doesn't need to be anywhere near the men I'm certain are going to be hunting me down.

Oh, man. All this craziness made me nearly forget why I'm headed to Ba Sing Se in the first place. And it might not even be the first time I've done that. I chuckled a little and Lyra looked up at me, tiling her head slightly.

"Just making myself laugh, kid. Pay no attention to the idiot with the spear," I said shaking my head.

"Okay, Van."

Apparently something can happen that catches you so off guard your brain forgets how to do what it was doing. Like walking or breathing.

I stumbled and managed to get my lungs to do their jobs again. "Damnit, girl! Do you or don't you talk? Will you pick one already?!" I gasped. Then something struck me about just what she said. "How do you know my name? I never told you." I tightened my grip on my spear. A small part of me felt silly for getting a little threatened by a kid. Another part of me told that part of me to shut up because I still don't know anything about this girl. It may be the most elaborate and tedious plot to set me up in existence. As long as I'm not stabbing at shadows, a little paranoia is fine. Paranoia saved my life a few times.

Her scrap of clothing had a pocket on it that I didn't notice until now. She reached into it and pulled out a folded up piece of parchment. She held out for me. I hesitated a little, but took it from her. I opened it up and saw a crude sketch of me. I felt the blood drain from my face. I didn't even remember when I stopped walking or when I dropped my spear.

It was a wanted poster.

Wanted: Dead or Alive

Van the Bandit (possible alias)

5'10", estimated 180lbs

Wanted for the murder of 10 people including landowner Xin Mao. Last whereabouts the Wan Shi Tong Desert. Is considered armed and dangerous. Wields a spear. Any information leading to his capture carries a cash reward of 25,000 gold pieces. Reward is 50,000 if he is captures alive.

Well...damn.

News travels fast from the desert. Even false news. Xin Mao is really dead? That should fill me with joy, and it would, if it weren't me who was believed to have killed him. And that bounty. That's over three times the normal rate, even for a ten times over murder.

And again there's the fact that news had traveled from the desert. There just shouldn't be possible. The Wan Shi Tong is immense, nothing gets out that fast. If someone was slaughtered in the middle of the desert it would be months before someone found the body, if ever. Sandstorms and just being off trade routes make hiding bodies very easy in the desert. So much was wrong about this. Never mind the obviously wrong information about me killing Xin Mao instead of fleeing like a coward, there was the issue of timing and accuracy of other information.

I'd been on the run not even a handful of days. No one who had arrived after I left would be able to get ahead of me to deliver this information. And even if they somehow could, how could they have an accurate description of me, complete with my damn name-which I barely gave out to anyone, mind you-if I wasn't even there to be identified? They'd just see a bunch of bodies with no way to figure out who killed them.

There's only one person who could know I was even there to begin with. The person could easily get ahead of me and tell people I killed Xin Mao, because that person left before I did. Had better transportation. It was the same person who was the real reason I was on the run in the first place.

Siyo.

I let out a cry of anger, tore the wanted poster apart, and flung it into the wind. I wanted to do a lot of things in that moment. Most of them involved me shoving my spear through various parts of Siyo's body, and not in a good way. She tricked me, used me, and now she's framed me. I don't know how, but I'm going to find that bit-

"It wasn't you." She wasn't asking. She was stating a fact, like she knew it.

"You can't know that. I've done some bad things in my life, kid,"I snorted bitterly.

"I do know," she said with some conviction, but still somehow sounding frail. It was also louder than I'd heard her speak. With a voice like that, I can't tell if she's as old as me or really 6.

I laughed at her. "You're right. Okay. You do know, and yet you still think I can help you find your sister, Indra? You must be soft in the head. I can't even help myself. You saw that bounty on my head. Some ruthless people are going to be after me for that money. Hell, I'd be after me for that money. You're going to get caught up in it if you're on my heels. You're sister couldn't possibly want you in that danger."

Lyra shook her head and looked away, her blue eyes remorseful. "No, she wouldn't."

I frumpled my brow. "Why the hell wouldn't a girl not worry about her own sister?"

She paused for a while and I wondered if she'd gone back to being mute. In fact, it just dawned on me then that this was the first time she's ever spoken in a complete-sort of- sentences. Then she walked past me, just as the road started down another hill. The wind picked up, blowing up some of her loose semblance of clothes. I got an eyeful of pale skin. I couldn't help but stare.

No, I'm not some kid loving sycophant. What I saw was anything but arousing. It was kind of...saddening.

There were scars. A lot of them.

Scars on her little shins. Scars on her tiny thighs. Scars on her thin hips. Scars up her slender back. Like something cut, scratched, burned, and tormented her physically in ways a girl should never feel. This was only what I saw from her back. I didn't want to see what her front looked like. I had never actually looked at her close enough to notice them before. I couldn't find any words in my throat. I just felt a deep pit in my chest. A sudden blackness. Like something inside of me just died. She finally said, "Because she doesn't know I'm alive. No one does." She turned her head, facing me. Her face didn't have a scratch on it. Whatever happened to her, it didn't get to her face. It looked luminous as it contrasted against her battered body. Or maybe that was just the way the Sun was reflecting off her.

She added, "Except you."