Soldier's Boy
Two

The next few days were marked by arguing between Sokka and Katara on whether or not the tarp should go over the tent or under it. Jiro ignored these arguments for the most part; he'd developed quite the attachment to Appa and was perfectly happy to sleep on the air bison's tail. As the fighting escalated, however, he began to grow worried.

Lee just watched the arguments, with an odd, closed expression. Whenever they caught him at it, he would walk away to do some other important task. Usually Aang wound up settling the disputes while Lee was elsewhere and Jiro, forbidden from so much as moving during camp set-up, would try to become invisible.

At length, they reached a large canyon, and Katara insisted they stop. "The Great Divide," she sighed happily. "I could look at it all day."

"Seen enough," Sokka said, after about a minute. "Let's go."

Lee didn't say anything out loud, but, from the look on his face, he was agreeing with Sokka again.

An argument began to brew between them again, but before it could really get started, a man in pale yellow and gold pushed rudely past Sokka, exclaiming, "Hey, if you're looking for the canyon guide, I was here first!"

Lee hissed a little and fell back, glaring at the fussy-looking man. He'd gotten pushed too, in his still-not-quite-healed shoulder, and it had hurt.

"Ooh, Canyon guide?" Katara asked, perking up. "Sounds informative!"

"Believe me," the young man said self-importantly, "he's more than a tour guide. He's an earthbender—" Jiro's attention was caught now "— and the only way in and out of the canyon is with his help." In the background, Sokka snuck just behind him and began making the universal "yap yap yap" signal with his right hand while making faces. Jiro had to struggle not to laugh. "And he's taking my tribe across next!"

"Calm down, we know you're next," Sokka said, immediately stopping his mocking and coming around the fussy man.

It was the wrong thing to say. "You wouldn't be calm if the Fire Nation destroyed your home and forced you to flee!" Jiro and Lee both flinched as the stranger turned to the Great Divide. "My whole tribe has to walk thousands of miles to the capital city of Ba Sing Se!"

"You're a refugee!" Katara exclaimed, shooting a glance at the brothers.

"Huh!" he snorted. "Tell me something I don't know."

"How about this?" Jiro muttered. "You're a self-important twit." Only Lee and Sokka heard him.

Lee refused to look up from the ground; it would reveal the smirk. Sokka snorted a little, his sister shot him a glare.

Aang and Katara exchanged a look, then shrugged.

And then a tribe approached. "Is that your tribe?" Katara asked, watching them.

"It most certainly is not," the young man replied, offended. "That's the Zhang tribe, a bunch of low-life thieves. They've been enemies of my tribe for a hundred years!"

As he strode forward to yell at the fur-wearing people, Jiro muttered, "And if the rest of your tribe is like you, I can definitely see why."

"HEY ZHANGS!" yelled Mr Self-Important. "I'm savin' a spot for my tribe so don't even think about stealing it!"

Lee just settled back to watch, rubbing at his shoulder.

"Where are the rest of the Gan Jin?" a very large, heavily armed woman — probably the Zhangs' leader — said, getting right into Mr. Self-Important's face. "Still tidying up their campsite?"

"…Yes!" the man said, after a brief pause. "But they sent me ahead of them to hold a spot!"

"I didn't know canyon guide took reservations?" the woman said, smirking.

"Huh! Of course you didn't. That’s the kind of ignorance I'd expect from a messy Zhang…"

Jiro tuned them out. It was like watching Katara and Sokka, only with supposed adults. Lee, too, tuned them out, and went over to sit on the edge of the canyon and stare at nothing. Jiro was just moving to join him when the earth shook under his feet. "What—?" He turned his head to where a pile of rocks were shaking.

They moved aside, revealing a squat old man. "Sorry about the wait, youngsters," he said, brushing off his hands. "Who's ready to cross this here canyon?"

Jiro stared. "That's the earthbender," he whispered unnecessarily to Lee. There was a certain… longing in his tone and face. Lee nodded, and pushed himself to his feet again, sighing faintly.

"Uh… one of them, I think," Katara said, gesturing at Mr. Self-Important and the fur-clad tribe.

"I was here first!" said Mr Self-Important immediately. "My party's on their way!"

"I can't guide people who aren't here," the old man pointed out.

"Guess you guys'll have to take the trip tomorrow," the Zhang woman said, smirking.

Mr Self-Important's eye twitched, and then he suddenly turned. "Wait! Here they come!" Sure enough, another tribe was approaching them now, at a stately pace.

"You're not seriously going to cave into these spoiled Gan Jins?" the woman said, shoving her hand into the guide's chest. "I mean, we're refugees, too! And we've got sick people that need shelter."

"I — uh — well — "

"We've got old people who are weary from travel!" retorted Mr Self-Important.

"Sozin's beard," moaned Jiro softly, letting his head fall onto Lee's good shoulder. "They're going to start fighting."

Lee flinched a little at the epithet. "Yeah, probably."

"Sick people get priority over old people!" the Zhang woman shot back.

"Maybe you Zhangs wouldn't have so many sick people if you weren't such slobs," said an old man then.

"If you Gan Jins weren't so clean, maybe you wouldn't live to be so old."

"Is it just me," Lee said, in an undertone, "or is this the silliest argument you've ever heard, too?"

"It isn't you," Jiro replied. "Let's just get on the bison and go already." He rose to ask Aang if they could.

"Well, Aang?" Katara was saying to the Avatar in an undertone. "Ready to put your peacemaking skills to the test?"

"I don't know… I mean, a fight over chores is one thing, but these people have been feuding for a hundred years."

Katara sighed, and walked forward, shouting, "Everyone listen up! This is the Avatar, and if you give him a chance, I'm sure he can come up with a compromise that can make everyone happy."

"Bet you five coppers this won't work," Lee, having followed Jiro, muttered to Sokka.

"No bet," Sokka replied.

"These people will never be happy," Jiro agreed.

Aang, oblivious to this banter, suggested that the two tribes travel together.

"Absolutely not!" said the old man, apparently the leader of the Gan Jin. "We'd rather be taken by the Fire Nation—" Jiro and Lee both flinched. "— than travel with those stinking thieves!"

"We wouldn't travel with you pompous fools anyway," the Zhang leader snapped back. After that, no one could really tell what the two tribes were saying, they were all talking very loud and very fast and on top of each other.

Lee rubbed at his temples, and muttered to Sokka and Jiro, "Can we push them off the cliff? Please? It might shut them up..."

"Katara and Aang would sadface at us, and then I'd have to catch them," Jiro replied.

Aang, meanwhile, had had enough of the shouting. "ALL RIGHT. HERE'S THE DEAL. WE'RE ALL GOING TOGETHER, AND APPA HERE WILL FLY YOUR SICK AND ELDERLY ACROSS. DOES THAT SEEM FAIR?"

There was a brief silence, then the two tribal leaders nodded.

"Oh, no," moaned Jiro. "We'll be stuck with their arguing for hours. It'll be like… like… like neverending Sokka and Katara!"

Lee groaned as well. "This is going to be a very long day."

Jiro nodded as Aang began loading the sick and elderly onto the bison. "Too bad we can't go with them," he mused. "You are wounded."

"I'm fine," Lee insisted. "And you might learn something, watching the canyon guide."

"True!" Jiro said, lighting up.

At length, Katara, Sokka, and Aang got the sick and elderly loaded up and sent off.

"Okay," the canyon guide said, addressing the assembled groups. "Here's the bad news. No food allowed in the canyon. It attracts dangerous predators." He accompanied this warning with somewhat ridiculous hand gestures he clearly though made his point clearer.

Predictably, the two tribes started shouting all at once again.

"…definitely should have gone on the bison," Jiro muttered. "No food? He's kidding, right?"

"It's only one day. You can go two before you even get really dizzy," Lee pointed out, as the canyon guide said much the same thing, albeit in a highly patronizing way.

The guide shot himself up onto a pillar, cupped his hands around his mouth, and shouted. "Now, we're heading down in ten minutes. All food better be in your gut or in the garbage!"

"Maybe you can, Lee," Jiro replied doubtfully.

"I'll help you if you need it," the older boy promised, as the two tribes dug into the food they were carrying with them.

"Thanks, Lee," the younger said, smiling up at him as Appa took off.

Ten minutes later, the group had got moving. The Avatar and his allies were in the front with the guide, though Jiro hung to the rear, just in front of the Gan Jin. He was careful to stay out of sniping range; between his bare feet and his overlarge clothing, he was certain to get no few lectures from them.

Lee, for once, wasn't sticking with him. He seemed to have decided that, if there were dangerous predators in the canyon, even if the group had no food to attract them, someone should hang to the rear to fight them off if they came anyway.

It escaped nobody's notice that, as their guide performed any bending move, Jiro imitated that move until he was perfect with the motion, though he never actually bent.

The guide chattered on about the canyon, describing how it was made, and various interesting features in the rocks. He also periodically smashed parts of their path as they passed it. When Aang asked why, he pointed out that the two tribes were fleeing the Fire Nation — Lee and Jiro flinched again — and the harder it was for their pursuers to follow, the better.

Just as he was saying that they'd be safe now, the dust cleared behind him, revealing a large, spiderlike monster, which picked him up from behind.

"LEE!" screamed Jiro, leaping back. His landing dislodged a number of small boulders; as Aang cleared away the rest of the dust, the boy thrust his arms forward, throwing the boulders at the thing.

Lee shot forward to join them in the fight, his swords out, just as Sokka threw his boomerang at the monster's head, making it drop the guide. The five children fought the thing off, barely managing to avoid being wounded in the process.

"What was that thing?" Aang asked, after they were done, as Katara and Lee went over to the guide.

"Canyon crawler," the old man explained. "And there's sure to be more!"

"Your arms… they're broken," Katara said. Lee didn't add anything, just started looking around for something to use as splints.

"Without my arms, I got no bending," the old man said, sadly. "In other words..."

"We're trapped in this canyon," Aang said.

"LIKE HELL!" Jiro screamed without warning. All eyes shot to him, and he made a small meep noise and hid behind Sokka.

"Jiro's an earthbender," Lee pointed out quietly, dumping the splints and their supply of bandages on Katara, so she could clean the guide up a bit, then pacing around the assembled company, eyes darting around, searching for more canyon crawlers. "Maybe he can get us out."

The small boy nodded fervently, then meeped again when the leader of the Gan Jin gave him a piercing look. "Him? He doesn't look like he could bend sand." Never mind that he had seen Jiro fighting the canyon crawler. "This is the Zhang's fault!" he continued, pointing to their leader. "They took food down here, even though the guide told them not to!"

"What?" the Zhang leader snapped back. "If there's anyone who can't go without food for a day, it's you pampered Gan Jins!"

"I hope you're happy," snapped Gan Jin Leader. "We're stuck in this canyon with no way out!"

"We have a way out," Lee snapped, before the woman could retaliate. "Jiro. You guys saw him fight, what more proof do you need?"

Gan Jin Leader opened his mouth, and Jiro gave in to his frustration, circling his hand quickly above his head and then pointing at the old man. He was thusly treated to a mouthful of dust. Angry, the boy turned to both tribes. "Lee's right. I'm an earthbender too. And I refuse to stay trapped down here! I may be young, but we've still got him!" He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the guide. "He can tell me what to do."

"I'm not walking another step with the likes of th — " the Zhang leader started, but Lee punched her to shut her up.

"Yes, you are," he said, evenly. "And you're going to stop complaining, too. And we are going to get moving as soon as Katara finishes setting the guide's arms so we're not still here if more spider-thingies show up."

Startled, the two warring tribes subsided, and Jiro sighed in relief. "Thanks, Lee…"

"No problem," he said. Katara quickly got the guide back on his feet, and they started moving again, Lee ranging around them, not staying in any one place, scanning the canyon so fast his eyes had to be hurting. Jiro was at the front with Aang and the guide, letting the old man tell him when to make a bridge and when to smash one. The first time the youngest of the group stumbled, Katara suggested they stop and rest for the night; Jiro refused, snapping that he was not staying the night in any canyon with tribes of children.

Sokka didn't seem to care, though Aang seemed to think Katara was right. Lee, at that point, was in the back of the group and hadn't seen, or he would've backed the waterbender up. "I can do it," Jiro insisted, his eyes blazing.

"Okay...," Katara said doubtfully, dropping the subject.

They were almost to the other side — all that remained was to climb up the last wall out of the canyon to where Appa and those sent on him were waiting, when more canyon crawlers showed up.

Lee was, again, at the back of the group, and had sent the stragglers among the two refugee tribes forward, so Jiro could get them out as quickly as possible. He didn't follow, seemingly having designs on guarding their retreat. Thusly, the first indication Aang, Sokka, Katara, and Jiro had of trouble was when the back half of the party suddenly got a hell of a lot closer to the front half.

"What's going on?" Jiro asked, turning around.

"More of those bug-things," a particularly panicked-looking Gan Jin said.

Jiro's eyes widened. "Lee." He spun quickly and finished the final part of the path, then started to push his way through the two tribes, trying to get to his brother.

Aang grabbed him before he'd gone more than ten feet. "Don't be stupid, you're already tired. Go up with the two tribes, the rest of us'll go help him out."

"But—" the younger boy started to argue, then sighed. "All right." He turned back to aiding the evacuation. Sokka, Katara, and Aang all ran back to help Lee fight off the canyon crawlers — there were more of them this time, nearly half a dozen.

Jiro was trailing behind the last of the Gan Jin when his strength finally gave out, and he collapsed in a heap. The Zhang leader, right behind him, picked him up and slung him over her shoulder and carried him the rest of the way.

The boy was dimly aware of that, and of being settled against a rock some minutes later. He didn't react until meat was shoved under his nose; without a second thought he grabbed and began wolfing it down.

When the others caught up (Katara half-supporting Lee and lecturing him about the stupidity of rear-guarding when he still hadn't recovered from earlier injuries), Sokka got Jiro up onto the newly-unloaded Appa, and Aang called to the bison to take off.

Weary, Jiro dragged himself over to his brother and curled up next to him. "C'n we skip th' next canyon?" he asked.

"Mm..." the older boy replied, half-out himself.

"I'm with Jiro," Sokka said. "Canyons suck."

"Good. Night." And Jiro passed into a deep, dreamless sleep.

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