Tea in Ba Sing Se

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/52456894.

Rating: Explicit
Archive Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Categories: F/F, F/M, Gen, Multi
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Relationships: Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar), Mai & OC, Mai & Zuko (Avatar), Azula & Mai
(Avatar), Toph Beifong & OC, Ty Lee & OC
Characters: Mai (Avatar), Toph Beifong, Ty Lee (Avatar), OC - Character, Zuko
(Avatar), ensemble OC cast, Ensemble, Dai Li (Avatar)
Additional Tags: Military, War, bandits, Death, Sexuality, M/F, f/f - Freeform, Threesome
- F/F/M, Slow Burn, Romance, Intrigue, Spy - Freeform, Slice of Life,
Porn With Plot
Language: English
Collections: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Stats: Published: 2023-12-23 Updated: 2024-01-24 Words: 9,486 Chapters: 2/?
 Tea in Ba Sing Se
by InfiniteDragon

Summary

A soldier of the Earth Kingdom, barely qualified as a Bender, low-ranking, from a village so
small it has no name, is assigned to assist in stopping bandit raiders. During the battle, he is
noticed by two Kyoshi Warriors of many, and singled-out for their attention. Attention he
does not want, for this soldier was perfectly content in his no-name life. Yet, he finds himself
inextricably drawn into the machinations of the two beautiful women-warriors, and as his
comfortable, relatively easy life near the bottom of the Earth Kingdom Mustered Soldiery's
pecking order ends, the soldier must adapt, or die.
Adapt, or his family will die.
Adapt... and prosper, or the entire Earth Kingdom may die. Because the bandits are no mere
bandits, but working for a mysterious organization feared all over the great Earth Kingdom.
Veritable bogeymen, people who do not exist, yet are feared by all: The Dai Li.
At least the women- one in particular- are beautiful. He'll get a nice view before he dies. It...
it might be worth it. Maybe.
LONG fic. Do not expect rapid advancement. Many chapters (10+) are written and posted
elsewhere. Commissioned work.
 Chapter 1

AN: I do not, in general, write kid stories. My adult ratings are for a reason. My stories
feature: violence (often graphic), Sexuality (almost always graphic), and worse. The villains
in my stories are typically very villainous. The heroes are not always heroic- even if most of
the time they are. Readers should expect a blanket trigger warning on everything I write.
Themes of dubious- or non-consenting sex, domination, violence, gore, and character death-
including major characters- exist in many of them. I do not condone such activities in real
life, but unfortunately they are real in our world, and I don't feel that I could write fiction
fairly without including them.

As a reminder, you can find MORE of this on my SubStar (dot adult slash KajaWilder), it's
posted up past chapter 10 there... And if you guys haven't seen an update in at least a month
or two, please let me know! I have a busy life, and I get distracted and forget things. This
story will be updated 'when I remember' (which is rarely). If you find you enjoy it, however,
follow the links from my Discord (at the bottom). There's 10+ chapters posted elsewhere as I
said, and a new one monthly.

And if you're just interested in discussing things with other readers, of course, you can go to
my DISCORD here: https://discord.gg/N9yDA8t6Cw

You can also read m y ORIGINAL FICTION on Kindle. If you've got Kindle Unlimited,
they're all free. Here's my author page, with links to everything published.

STORY NOTE: Yes, yes, this is actually an Avatar: The Last Airbender fic! Loosely, it is set
'sometime' after the first series ends. Toph (the youngest character eventually involved in
'situations' in this fic) will be 18. Extrapolate from there if you wish, I'm deliberately leaving
the ages and timeline vague because it's just not that important, and fits in many times
between Avatar and Korra. It is not related to Korra, and no character from that show will
appear. When I get around to watching it (eventually) I may write in that version of the
universe, but since I haven't yet... nope. Finally, while I'm quite happy to be writing in this
'verse again (please be aware my earlier works, the first fanfic I published well over a decade
and a half ago, are NOT up to my current standards, though they are smutty), this is
a commissioned piece. It will not deviate from what the person asking for it wants, unless that
would be illegal in some way (it hasn't been). It may explore kinks and fetishes you aren't
comfortable with. Topics of a mature nature. If that isn't your cup of tea, then... sorry. I'll
warn you now: In short, that fetish is 'scents'. Specifically, body / fluid scents. Sweat, sexual
fluids, etc. It isn't heavy, but it will be mentioned repeatedly as things heat up. Again, it isn't
changing. I am open to helpful suggestions / plot ideas, but the premise or requests
mentioned by the commissioner are and will remain the priority. Thank you for
understanding. And enjoy the story! Comment, I love those! Unless you're telling me I'm an
evil sinner. I already know, thanks. Quite self-aware. ;)

OH, and before I forget: I am using a map that I DID NOT CREATE for reference. This one:
https://www.reddit.com/r/mapmaking/comments/oorbtd/earth_kingdom_map_ver_12_with_a
dded_cities/ It was created by AbyssalMapper, and is AMAZING. All credit to them!
 Tea in Ba Sing Se

An ATLA Comission

OC x Mai-centric, other characters included

Chap. 1

The battle was... worse than he had ever feared. Lin, Dukashi Lin according to his military
identification papers, had never been in a battle before. He had seen them, been near them,
seen their aftermath up close, but he had never been in one himself until that day.

It had not been a pleasant experience, to say the least.

He had been filled, at first, with the righteous fury of youth. The fury that the training camps
of the Earth Kingdom 4th Regular Infantry Division had instilled in him. The absolute surety
that what they were doing, what the Earth Kingdom, the leadership, the army, and thus
himself, was right. Just, deserved, correct.

The first spray of blood across his face as one of his companions, a friend from the same
class at the camps, cut down the nearest bandit had done it.

The surety, the cocksure attitude, the confidence, had been washed away in a red sea as the
bandit, a pleading look on his eyes, fell to the ground with a long, unclean cut across his
neck. Lin watched him die, all... what, four, five minutes of it? They looked at each other as
the light slowly faded from his enemy's soft blue eyes. His own long, dark hair was back in a
ponytail, but across the bandit, blood rained down from his own arterial spray.

There was a lot of blood in a human body, it turned out. The man was gone, the light in his
eyes vanished, before the heart gave its last feeble, shuddering pump and the spray, faded to a
burble, became an ooze instead.

He still hadn't moved, as the battle had gone on around him.

A battle, they called it.

A slaughter.

Their scouts, a band of all-women soldiers from Kyoshi Island, had reported the numbers
fairly well according to Jo Gai, the Lieutenant in charge of their platoon of Birdfox Company.
The numbers were accurate, their placement and position, and even the pickets, scant though
they were, had all been reported well. They had even joined in the battle afterward, some
twenty women in uniforms of green robes and wielding battle-reinforced fans, of all things,
on top of a variety of other weapons.

Lin had started moving, fighting, about two minutes after the first bandit he had seen killed
died. It had been an arrow grazing his right shoulder armor that had jarred him into motion,
reminded his brain that, even if it still wanted to stall out, to linger on the dead man rather
than focus on the chaos and strife, he was a soldier, and in a battle.

No... no, a slaughter was definitely the right word.

There had been seventeen bandit fighters, four scouts, and five camp followers or civilians,
including two children. None survived, all twenty-eight were killed, either in the battle or
executed afterward.

It was efficient, the Lieutenant said. Easier to just mark them all down as enemy combatants
who had been brave and fought to the last, than escort civilians and children- who might be
hostile- back to safer territory, then find a way to keep them safe, healthy, and loyal when so
much of the massive kingdom was in turmoil.

The Earth King was, after all, still missing. Local kings, elected leaders, tribal chieftains, or
generals still held control over their local feifs, just as they did under the Earth King, but their
central leadership and the figurehead of the largest, most populous, and most diverse country
on the planet was missing. That sent ripples throughout the entire world.

Not killed, or kidnapped, but missing. No one knew where he was, because he had spirited
himself away shortly after being rescued from the Dai Li plot by the Avatar himself.

These bandits weren't exactly a major threat to the kingdom. They were a small-time band
held together by the threats and personal might of a local 'bandit lord' named Boshi. He was
huge, muscular, and scarred from combat. He, alone, had fought with the discipline and skill
of a trained soldier. Lin had seen that, at the end of the battle, for himself.

Lieutenant Jo Gai had ordered the men to surround him and burn the man's hut, the only
actual structure at the center of the tented camp, to the ground with him inside it. Of course,
Boshi had not taken that well, and had charged, flames running up and down his arms, sparks
and ash flying from his twin, curved broadswords. Seven of Lin's companions, including the
friend who had cut down the first bandit, died in seconds.

Jo Gai had been forced to fight himself, which was almost comical as, while the man was a
competent leader, he was very much not used to or well suited for physical combat himself.
He leaned more toward the... softer side, Lin supposed was a nice way to put it. Heavyset,
with an appetite for food and wine that would be utterly incongruous with his placement as
an officer in the Earth Kingdom's armies, if he were not skilled at actual leadership, and
strangely capable of great bursts of strength and speed... when he was pushed.

Even so he sported a new scar on his cheek, one Boshi had given him mere moments before
being cut down.

Lin, as he nursed his own minor wounds and finished his late evening meal, marveled at what
had happened next. He could hear other soldiers laughing at seeing women dressed in robes,
prepared for combat. Scouting seemed to be something they could do, but open battle?

If he were honest with himself, Lin could definitely see the skepticism, and why it had a
place. Most of the Kyoshi Warriors were just... smaller, weaker, than their male soldiers.
Obviously, that made them inferior as soldiers. At least, in the eyes of the soldiers
themselves.

Now, Lin thought very differently.

Boshi had been in a tremendous fury, cutting down fighters left and right. Even one of the
Kyoshi Warriors had been forced to retreat, struck by a blow across her arm that could still
end in its amputation if he surgeon wasn't able to help the nerves and arteries reattach in time.
Lieutenant Jo Gai had been struggling to even keep up, and Lin had been trying to fight his
way closer past the last remnants of bandits when it happened.

Jo Gai had tripped, and stumbled, and his own weight was too off-balance to maintain. He
fell, and Boshi had raised both hands, a triumphant look on his bloody, pock-marked face, the
flames still burning on him, not that he seemed to notice or care. The weapons came down...

And they were parried by two fans.

A blur of green, tall, statuesque, that reminded him of the mythical Avatar Kyoshi, for whom
both the island and the warriors took their name, dress, and fighting style.

The blur moved with elegance and grace that seemed astounding given just how tall she was.
Lin was a bit bigger than average, lean and muscular both, from a lifetime of farmwork,
exercise, and then soldiery. This woman, though she was definitely a woman, was only a few
centimeters shorter than he was, more slender, almost lithe in build. Her face was painted,
like all the Kyoshi Warriors' were. But unlike most he could still see in the smaller skirmishes
that remained, she was unmarred by blood or injury.

A bandolier of knives, mostly empty, hung across both shoulders, but it was the fans in her
hands that the woman wielded now. They struggled against Boshi's great might as the tall
beauty stood beneath him, over the lieutenant. Jo Gai yelped out a quick 'thank you!' as he
scrambled away and up to his feet, before ordering the men to help her.

Lin wanted to, but one of Boshi's own lieutenants was still fighting off both he and another
soldier, his large shield more than up to the task of blocking both their spears no matter what
they did, while his own sword held them off too.

While they circled, he lost sight briefly of the fight with Boshi, but when they were in view
again, things had changed drastically. Jo Gai had a weapon in hand again, three more soldiers
were dead, and the bandit's leader had five bleeding slashes down one arm, and three on the
other. All of them, he noticed, on the inside, as if the woman had somehow slipped beneath
Boshi's twin blades, cut him repeatedly, and then just stepped out of his grasp when he
yanked his arms away.

It was the only explanation he could think of, the only way that could have happened in what
looked like such a one-sided fight.

Now the woman was circling, one fan broken but bloody on the ground, while her other was
held up in a defensive posture. Four throwing knives were held in the other hand, between the
gaps of each finger. Somehow, she had escaped apparent injury. At least, there was no blood
thick on her robes, which also seemed uncut or damaged.
Boshi, on the other hand, seemed even more furious. It was a stark counterpoint to the tall
woman's stoic, expressionless face that only seemed cold, uncaring, beneath the paint.

Her aloof demeanor captivated Lin, so much so that he was distracted as a sword-blade came
whistling through the air towards his stomach.

He yelped too late, jumped backward too late, but he was also not fighting alone. His
companion's spear swung upward, deflecting the blade away from his abdomen. It hurtled
toward his arm now, threatening to sever it, and he was still too slow, the panicked, frantic
chaos of the battle falling away into a split-second that seemed to stretch out for terrifying
hours as the blade came closer.
He would be maimed. Mutilated, or possibly just bleed out there on the battlefield, far from
any help.

Then another fan came from his left, opposite the blade. It spun in strange, off-weighted
circles as it moved, still in slow motion. There was a clang, and then the sword coming for
him was further up, and it whistled through just a few dark hairs as he ducked.

"Move faster, stupid," a too-cheerful, energetic voice called out, a single knuckle driving into
the soft muscle below his left shoulder pad, stinging but not causing any real damage. Before
he could react, dodge, attack, or do much of anything, he watched, dumbfounded, as the
newcomer- another Kyoshi Warrior, though this particular one's uniform had been modified
to reveal what seemed like as much skin as possible and still allow some protection from the
armor- performed a hand-stand mid-battle, wrapped two meaty, deliciously thick thighs
around the bandit's head, and drag herself upward to sit against his head. While the bandit
staggered, she delivered no fewer than nine- that he could count, he might have missed as
many as eight- lightning-fast taps to the poor man's undefended skin and head.

They weren't even hard, certainly not hard enough to do more than bruise. But on the last tap,
the bandit suddenly stopped trying to pull the crazy woman off him, and dropped like a stone
to the ground. The woman-warrior landed gracefully on her feet, seemingly uncaring that the
man was able to look up her very wide-open skirt.

Oh, that was because he was clearly unconscious. Huh.

"You should really move faster, don't let Mai distract you too much, handsome!"

Then she was gone, a flying, cartwheeling kick smashing down the second to last bandit,
before she pun and twirled, slapping two hands and a leg, the most brutal strikes she had
made so far, against the last.

Then there was only Boshi and the stately, emotionless warrior-woman left.

The fight only lasted a moment longer. Boshi charged, enraged, both swords coming from
opposite sides. High and low, cutting together to ruin her, destroy the woman utterly.

The woman who seemed completely disinterested, just as she had been for the entire battle.
Two steps before Boshi closed the distance, his swords already beginning to move, one of her
narrow, made-up eyelashes raised impressively, while the other stayed still.

"Boring," the woman, Mai he supposed, said with a clear sigh in her voice. "No challenge at
all."

It only served to make the man more angry, which Lin guessed was, possibly, her intent. If
she really wasn't just bored. Because the warrior made no sign that she was in any danger of
being sliced to pieces by the massive blows coming her way.

"Look ou-" he started to cry, reaching out a hand uselessly from twenty feet away. All around
him, the wounded were being put down or cared for, depending on which side they were on.
Death and fire was everywhere, the smell of smoke acrid and burning along with the copper-
iron of freshly spilled blood.

He would never be able to help, but his arm moved on its own.

The woman somehow rolled her eyes. The swords were two feet from her.

One... it seemed inevitable now, she would not move, and thus would die.

Six inches... and she ducked, just a little, lowering herself on her knees. He could not see her
tense beneath the robes of green. Four inches.

Three.

Boing.

Just a little, but like a spring her ankles, calves, and thighs flexed, and the woman sprung
straight into the air. Two feet up. Two inches to go.

Three and a half feet up. One inch to go- she was already clearing the lower blade.

Contact!

Except... it wasn't.

Somehow, the upper blade passed through where Mai's neck had been, then her torso, then
her leg, and... touched only air.

Boshi flinched, the blades held forward across each other like a horizontal X, his body fully
extended into the double-sweeping, lunging cut.

Sweat and blood and ash tinged off his burned arms, which still carried flickers of flame. Oh-
that was oil! He had let it burn on purpose!

Tap.

With the sound of, as far as Lin could tell, a fly landing on paper, Mai alighted on two toes on
the end of one sword.
Boshi's considerable strength barely wavered as he looked up at the green-clad goddess, who
stood on his weapon looking down at him without even disdain. Just... Boredom.

"Useless. I shouldn't even tell you to look up, you pathetic excuse for a warrior. Your mother
should've been drowned at birth before she even thought of conceiving you."

It was a terrible insult, and Boshi's rage grew further still- but he did look up, past the statue-
like visage.

Lin saw his eyes widen, but could not see through the smoke what he was looking at.

He did see, and hear, the groan of metal as the woman's weight started to bend the steel she
stood on.

The blade snapped an instant later as she bounded off, flipping gracefully backward through
the air to land in a casual position, one hand raised as if she were examining her artfully
painted fingernails. The blade hit the churned, bloody earth with a twin thump, at the exact
instant one of the woman's throwing knives speared down from the heavens as if the very
gods themselves had cast judgment on Boshi.

It buried itself handle-deep in his left eye, and the so called Bandit Lord fell to the earth in a
crumpled heap, only one and a half swords left.

"You can finish him off," she said to no one in particular, and turned around to start walking
away. "Are you coming, Ty Lee?"

"Sure!" the chipper girl who had saved Lin's life moments before called back, "This was
almost fun!"

"If you say so..."

There were a hundred soldiers that had come against this group of twenty-eight bandits. Six
were dead, five more wounded with more than a scratch. It was not a good showing... but it
wasn't terrible, either. Boshi, at least, had been a renowned and infamous threat, a killer of
men. Now he was dead. Or near enough, anyway. He still moved... but no other soldiers went
to finish him. As the tall, statuesque beauty and her curvy, gorgeous companion joined
several other green-clad women in celebration of a job well done, Lin looked to Jo Gai.
"Lieutenant?"

The portly officer was gasping for air, run ragged by the combat he was so unused to. "G- Go
ahead, Corporal. Sergeant Lin, I mean. You can- have- the honors."

Lin's eyes widened. "S- Sergeant, Sir?"

Jo Gai shrugged as he stood, gesturing off to the east. "Sergeant Dan Yu is dead. You're
Corporal Chonji's senior, so... I'll have to file paperwork as part of the battle report, but the
position is yours. Besides, you did alright, for your first battle."

It wasn't necessarily high praise, and Lin doubted it. He was... well, mortified, guilty, and a
hundred other emotions about how he had frozen at the start of the battle, and how it had
taken two men just to stall one of the last bandits. He wasn't embarrassed about having been
saved by a woman, though.

No... Those two, they were something else. War-priestesses, maybe, blessed by the Gods and
Ancestors, and maybe Kyoshi herself, for all he knew. The stories said that the current Avatar
was friends with some of them, at any rate, so maybe it was true.

He wasn't ashamed of that. Maybe that he had needed to be rescued in the first place, but it
was his first battle. He was a veteran, now. Sort of, at least. He'd even... killed two men. "S-
Sir, yes sir."

It was an automatic response. He didn't want to finish off Boshi. He hadn't earned the
recognition that would follow.

The Kyoshi Warriors had done so much, though. Scouting and recon, and then front-line
fighting, something none of them had expected. And those two! Ty Lee and Mai, they had
called each other, had... they had just destroyed several of the best fighters, including the
monstrous Boshi.
They deserved the credit. Not him.

"Go on, Sergeant," Jo Gai prompted after he had caught his breath a bit more, "It's politics.
The Council won't stand for a Kyoshi getting the credit, so it may as well be one of our boys,
and you did pretty well. If you don't want blood on your hands... well, it's a little late for
that."

"N- No," Lin muttered, looking down at his spear, which was still dripping, running crimson
with his first two kills. "I'll do it, sir. I... thank you for the honor."

"Thank you," Jo Gai shot back with a salute, "I didn't need the accolades."

Lin nodded once, then stepped forward, acutely aware that the eyes of more than thirty
soldiers, all those close enough to see it, were on him.

Boshi rolled onto his back as Lin approached, his one remaining eye staring wildly at his
tear- and blood-stained face. "A whelp... like you...? Fuck that..." The man's voice was
hoarse, ragged, and Lin only then saw another knife buried hilt-deep just below his clavicle
on the left side. Not a fatal wound, probably, but close enough to an artery that if he moved
wrong it could kill him.

Lin paused. He could step on the blade, claim that it was the tall warrior-woman's attack that
had killed the bandit leader.

Damned politics.

The spear came up, and before Boshi's struggling, scrabbling fingers could close around the
handle of his discarded sword, the spear came down into the center of the huge man's throat.

The body jerked once, then went still.

That had been... what... five hours ago, now?

The worst of the wounded had been triaged, cared for, or worked on by the platoon's
chirurgeon, or sent off to get better care in Qiquan City, the nearest population center. His
junior Corporal- his only Corporal now, he supposed, a young man named Chonji, had
reported that their unit had been particularly lucky. No dead, one severe casualty, and six
minor injuries were all they had. Two of those injuries were Lin's own. He, like most of the
walking wounded, had waited more or less patiently while the more important matters were
dealt with. In the end, he had poured some of the Lieutenant's whiskey over the gash on his
arm and the shallow cut on his left thigh, then bandaged them past the hiss of pain on his
own.

Then he, and three other Sergeants, one of which was just as newly promoted as he was, had
helped Lieutenant Jo Gai with his paperwork, the after-action report. It... was boring.
Tedious. Horrifying.
They had written down every death and casualty on the enemy side as a combatant, under
orders. Lin had done his duty, hating every moment of it.

But he understood morale, and the cost of war better than most. He had been poor from birth,
and had joined the military as a way out of that cycle of poverty. It helped that he could send
just a little money home to help his parents, but... it was more that he wasn't another mouth to
feed, even if he was young and healthy. His brothers could do the work without him, though.
These bandits had been preying on people like his family, who worked hard for next to
nothing.

True, there were probably innocents... but a message had to be sent. So he would do his duty,
and keep up the morale of his men.

His men. Ridiculous. He was no officer. He was a farmer.

Except now, apparently, he was, exactly that. True, an enlisted soldier, but an officer
nonetheless. In charge, with men under his direct command. More than just a squad here and
there, but an entire unit. Half of a platoon.

It was insane, and also real, though the reality of it seemed utterly surreal at the same time.

As surreal as the goddess who walked among them.

While his men, their men, celebrated the victory and bandaged their wounds with a bit too
much hearty field-beer and an extra ration from the food caravan, they had catcalled and tried
to embarrass the Kyoshi Warriors for 'playing soldier' and 'trying to be men'.

Of course, this disrespect came at the same time the soldiery were trying to woo the women,
who 'everyone knew' had all taken vows of chastity.

Then there were those who had actually seen one of the women fight. It was a small fraction
of the regulars, but they were silent, or actually said quiet things to shut the rest up. It didn't
do much, but Lin didn't care. He was one of those who supported them.

One had saved his life, and one had saved Lieutenant Jo Gai's.
They were amazing.

Above almost all of them was the curvy, gorgeous, flexible woman who had charged into
battle unarmed and taken down three soldiers in as many heartbeats, in a flurry of acrobatics
and precise strikes.

Then there was her.

The stunning, stoic figure that Lin was sure would haunt his dreams for the remainder of his
days. The Avatar Herself, maybe, returned from the dead. Hadn't Kyoshi been abnormally tall
for a woman, taller than most men? This... Mai, she wasn't that tall, but she towered above
most of the other women, and even several of the city-bred soldiers.

The sight of her graceful movements, unhurried and unrushed even though she faced the
most dangerous foe by herself, captivated him even hours later.

Her cool gaze in his direction, just once, at the end of the battle... "You can finish him off,"
she had said. To no one in particular... but she had looked at him. Had Jo Gai seen the same
look? Was that why he was being given the accolades, undeserved?

Had the woman saved his life, and so he felt he owed her?

Or... was there something else going on?

He did not have much more time to ponder, because at that moment, a pair of very soft
breasts- the softest he had ever felt in his young life- wrapped themselves around the back of
his neck. Then his half-finished dinner was pulled from his hand and set aside while he tried
to figure out if he was under attack or not.

Before he could, the same breasts slid around his neck, only separating at the front as the
curvy brunette who had saved his life melted into his lap, now in very much the opposite of a
dress uniform. All around him, conversation and laughter fell away as the soldiers looked in
his direction. She was, at least, dressed... if a chest-wrap and loincloth could be called
'dressed'. The essential bits were covered, anyway.

But the woman, Ty Lee he thought, no longer had her makeup on. She's pretty, he had just
enough time to realize, before the woman asked a question that dragged all the rest of his
thought to a screeching halt. "So, handsome, what are you doing tonight? Want to join us in
our tents?"
 Chapter 2

As a reminder, you can find MORE of this on my Sub * Star (dot adult slash
KajaWilder), it's posted up past chapter 10 there... And if you guys haven't seen an
update in at least a month or two, please let me know! I have a busy life, and I get
distracted and forget things. This story will be updated 'when I remember' (which is
rarely). If you find you enjoy it, however, follow the links from my Discord (at the
bottom). There's 10+ chapters posted elsewhere as I said, and a new one monthly.

And if you're just interested in discussing things with other readers, of course, you can go to
my DISCORD here: https://discord.gg/N9yDA8t6Cw

You can also read my ORIGINAL FICTION on Kindle. If you've got Kindle Unlimited,
they're all free. Here's my author page, with links to everything published.

Chap. 2

Silence had not just fallen over Lin's thoughts, but the ring of soldiers that he was sharing a
campfire with. His eyes strayed from the buxom, delicious-looking, half-naked warrior-
woman on his lap (somehow), to rove around. Dozens of eyes looked back at him from at
least two dozen faces. Most of the men he had joined, like most people in the Earth Kingdom
Army, were dark haired and dark eyed with tan skin, like his own. But 'most' only meant a
little over half. The Earth Kingdom was a large place, after all, easily the largest nation on the
planet, with more than fifty smaller kingdoms within its over-arching umbrella. Some were
little more than wealthy city-states, like Omashu, which was still ruled by the eccentric King
Bumi, said to be a close friend of the Avatar when he was a young boy. Some were simple
tribes, like the Water-Benders that lived hundreds and hundreds of li to the south-west, in the
vast swamps. Some kingdoms were hundreds and hundreds of li across, with many large
cities in their borders. All fell under the rule of the Earth King.

At least, they would if anyone knew where the Earth King was. As things stood now, Lin had
heard that the Earth Kingdom was largely being run by a council of advisors the King had
appointed before his disappeareance. Not that he was close to the politics of it all, but that
was the rumor. Lin, as the son of farmers, was shocked that he had been awarded the position
of Sergeant. He barely qualified as a Bender, able to move only small stones with far more
effort than it would take him to simply pick it up and throw it.
Some of that- maybe most of it- was due to a lack of formal training, but that only spoke to
the circumstances of his birth and upbringing even more. His family would never have been
able to afford tutors and trainers, like many Earth Benders would. The Army had given him
only the most rudimentary training, just enough for him to qualify as an Earth Bender at all.
It wasn't that he lacked power (though, according to those who had the skill to judge such
things), it was that Lin simply didn't have enough training at a young age. He was a child
when it came to Bending.
He wasn't even particularly skilled as a fighter, though he could hold his own now. Strength
wasn't something he lacked, even if his frame was a bit wiry and lanky compared to most of
the men he now commanded, and leverage and speed mattered too.

So why had he been singled out again?

Twenty five, thirty men looked at him in awe, eyes and mouths gaping wide. Black hair,
brown, yellow, red. Dark eyes, blue, green, gray, and hazel, though in the firelight it was hard
to make out anything other than shadows as they stared back at him. Why?

The woman. It had to be.

Not the beauty who twitched her hips against his lap in an entire un-subtle gesture even
though the movement was miniscule. No, the other one.

The one who had defeated Boshi, then handed him the actual kill.

Mai.

Was that her name? Lin still didn't know for sure, because in the midst of combat he could
have misheard. Mei, Mie, Mea, My, there were any number of variants. Ty Lee, he had heard
clearly: that was this woman's name, or at least what the taller warrior had called her.

But why had she singled him out in the first place? This woman was, no doubt, doing the
same because of what her taller compatriate had done.

True, Ty Lee had saved his life during the battle as well, or at least saved him from a serious
injury that would likely have left him scarred for life if he survived it. He certainly owed her
for that, but she had saved a dozen men or more that battle. For all that the army's soldiers
ragged on the Kyoshi Warriors for being women and trying to play at battle, no one that had
been there in the center of things was doing so. Their skill, as far as Lin was concerned, was
incontrovertible. Ty Lee and Mai stood above all of them that he had seen, an entire tier- or
more- over the others in skill.

For the soldiers, it was life or death, a struggle simply to stay alive against the bandits who
should have been more lacking in training but were clearly not. For the Kyoshi Warriors,
things were easier. They apparently practiced far more often than even the regular army's
men did.

For those two women... it had been easy. Spectacularly easy. Boshi, the most fearsome fighter
Lin had ever set eyes on until that moment, had been so outclassed by Mai that she had
looked truly bored for the entire ten or twenty seconds of their battle. Ty Lee had giggled-
actually giggled- as she laid waste to a half-dozen men in just a few moments.

So why was he, Lin, a simple farmer's son- a fifth son, no less- suddenly being called
Sergeant Lin, and saluted by men who were his equal just hours earlier?

Why was the Kyoshi Warrior the vast majority of the soldiery ogled the most during their
march straddling his lap, squirming most specifically against an erection he could not have
hoped to prevent? Why was she giving him a look, one whose meaning he could not decipher
with reason but which he knew instinctively, as she did so in clear view of people who should
have been drinking and carousing in celebration?

Why, oh in the name of all the ancestors, why, did he feel her soft, linen-wrapped chest
against his as she leaned close, the hot, moist breath tickling his ear as she whispered, "Say
yes. We need to talk. It's- vital to the mission."

Suddenly, everything made more sense.

She wasn't hitting on him, or offering him sex.

Why she had to talk in private for the mission, he didn't know, but Lin was at least quick on
his feet. He nodded, "Yes, alright."

Before he could finish the second word, Ty Lee had hopped upward, her large breasts
bouncing in his face- even touching him briefly- and stood smoothly, one hand outstretched
to help pull him up. She was so soft to his eyes that it was a bit incongruous- not that Lin
knew that word- to know how skilled she was. Touching her hand, though, told him exactly
how many hours Ty Lee had put into her training. They were easily as calloused as his own,
though her skin was still supple.

Not the wear of a farmer, either, but that of a warrior. Her hands were clearly used to holding
weapons, even if it seemed she preferred fighting without them.

Ty Lee hauled him to his feet with only a small shift of her weight backward as well,
surprising not just him but several of the more observant men with her sheer strength. Of
course, they could see her musculature, as on-display as the acrobat's body was, but seeing
her lift a man who probably outweighed her by twenty jin or more.

He almost yelped, which would have been very embarrassing in front of the men he was now
supposed to lead, but Lin kept it down as he, red-faced and amid sudden, raucous jeers and
cat-calls, he allowed the woman to pull him by the hand away from his fire and command.

Lin expected the woman to let go of his hand the moment they cleared the ring of soldiers.
Instead, Ty Lee only sped up as they broke into more open areas of the bivouac, until she was
almost jogging with her long, silky brown tail flapping back and forth against his arm as she
tugged him onward.

She really does have a nice body, Lin caught himself thinking as Ty Lee's unerring guidance
took him around one campfire full of roudy soldiers after another, then past the command
tents, the armory tents, the mess tents, and farther still until they had passed even the long
lines of the latrines.

They were almost to the pickets when he spotted their destination: A single fire, kept low,
with just eight tents around it. They were not the large, six- to ten-man tents that the Army
carried. Instead, these were small, two-person affairs. The Army's were yellow, green,
orange, which helped signify units, with letters and symbols painted onto each side of them
for more specific groups. His own tent, Lin well knew- or his old tent, at least, since as a
Sergeant he would now have one to himself carried by other men, which would definitely
take some getting used to- held the symbol of the Birdfox for the Company, a Sandseal for its
Platoon, then 20-16 for Squad Twenty, Tent Sixteen.
Now he would have the same Company and Sandseal, but 20-Jūnshì, because he was the
Sergeant in charge of the squad.

Which was still patently ridiculous, but Lieutenant Jo Gai had been clear: He was the only
one suitable.

He had, after all, done the killing blow, and the previous Sergeant was dead.

Ty Lee did not slow until she stepped into the ring of tents and announced, "I've got him, you
can relax."

Six shadows melted out of the darkness around them, mostly behind the pair, and Lin
shuddered as he realized: they had walked, almost jogged, straight past this secondary line of
warriors and he hadn't even noticed. Sure, it was night, but still!

Any one of the Kyoshi Warriors standing watch on him, now, could put a weapon into his
back. Could have, at any time probably for the last several seconds, and he would never have
noticed until it was too late.

Considering each and every one of the shadows was now revealed to be wearing the same
armor, robes, and even face-paint the women had worn into battle earlier that day, it was
really saying something.

"Come on, stud, have a seat," Ty Lee told him, still tugging him on. She pushed him toward
one of the many stones and logs that lined the small, carefully-kept cooking fire, then waited
until he was seated before she took a place next to him.

Once again, Lin felt all eyes on him. Just like it was with the soldiers, he found it extremely
uncomfortable. Only now, with twelve or fourteen women- he suspected two were either
sleeping or still keeping a watch against soldiers who might get ideas about taking liberties-
staring instead of his own men, it was somehow worse.

A lot worse.

He sat there. He squirmed. He had once been forced to watch a military Tribunal when a
soldier in another Company, Horse-wing in this case, had been caught stealing food and
weapons.

That soldier had squirmed uncomfortably in his seat for the entire proceeding in the same
way Lin imagined he was now.

But he hadn't done anything wrong. Had he...?

Had that woman, Mai, not been talking to him when she told the other warriors to finish
Boshi off?

Had he somehow offended the Kyoshi Warriors, or the tall, stoic beauty in particular?

He felt...
Weird. Strange. Like a piece of boar-snake meat being eyed up for quality at a local butcher's
market. Yet, at the same time, as if he were under the eyes of a harsh Tribunal himself.

The closest thing he could equate it to was... no, there was nothing in his experience like it.
The Tribunal was close, but then with a healthy dose of... of... the matchmakers, six in all that
lived in his small village's area, who had come with offers for his oldest brother. They had
eyed him in the same way, too.

Then, unceremoniously, six scrolls were dropped in Lin's lap.

He did yelp then, the weight hadn't just startled him (though it did that), but one of the heavy
wooden scroll-ends had struck him in the testicles. He winced, but the tall woman behind him
did not apologize, or even make any sign that she had noticed. Instead, through watering
eyes, Lin turned to watch as she, Mai, dressed in long green robes but now without her armor,
walked away and stooped to enter a tent as gracefully as she had moved while circling Boshi.

His attention was pulled off of the goddess-made-flesh by a snicker of amusement. With
water still in his eyes, Lin looked back toward Ty Lee, who was the one mocking him. He
could just make out her own arm gesturing toward his lap, "Documents we found in Boshi's
lair. Read them."

He hesitated, using the chance to wipe the tears from his eyes- at least they were scant- as an
excuse to buy time.

If he read these, he might be privy to military secrets. It could be treason.

... It could also be seen as him delving into matters above his pay-grade, above his station,
which would in many ways be worse according to most of the higher-ups in the Earth
Kingdom Army.

"You can read, right? I saw you doing reports earlier."

"Of- Of course," Lin murmured, glad his voice wasn't high-pitched or squeaky despite the
aching, burning, cold pain between his legs. "I'm- I was the one who, er, did the books for-
for my family."

"Merchant family? Cool," Ty Lee chirped, then leaned back with her hands on the ground
behind her own log seat so that she could stare up at the stars through the break in the canopy
the Kyoshi Warriors- this group of them, at least- had selected for their camp. "Read them."

This time, despite being casual in appearance and tone- and he could not help but watch the
way her smooth abdomen flexed and moved as she moved back without so much as a twitch
in her feet to balance her- the command was clear. These warriors looked to Ty Lee and Mai
for leadership.

She was at least equal to a Lieutenant in rank, and he suspected both were far more
dangerous than Jo Gai could hope to be in a million years of training.
He would, in other words, live a longer, healthier, happier life if he obeyed. So Lin did,
picking up one scroll after the other.

The penmanship was exquisite, easily equal to the best he had ever seen.

The figures in many were pristine, he could find no error in the logistics or accounting or
dates.

But what the scrolls, six in all, told him was not something Lin ever wanted to know. He most
certainly could be tried for treason if he knew this.

No one- no one- who knew about the workings of the Dai Li would escape unscathed. Just
knowing this...

Lin imagined his neck stretching as he felt the noose tighten around it.

Then Ty Lee sat up straight again with just as effort as she had leaned back, then brushed her
hands cassual of the forest loam and pointed once more. "Those scrolls are six of twelve. The
others are copies- exact copies, according to Mai, and her eyes are better at that sort of thing
than mine are- of the six you have. She's keeping the rest."

"I see," he replied quietly, not sure how he dared speak. He was doomed.

Treason was not looked at kindly in the Earth Kingdom, not after what the Dai Li had done to
its King.

He was lucky to be hanged after no less than five years of 'interrogation'.

"What do you think it means?"

A giggle and a soft moan from one of the tents suggested to Lin suddenly that no, the other
two he couldn't see weren't on watch- they weren't sleeping, either. Instead, he now suspected
the two warrior-women were engaged in a little battlefield stress relief of a kind camp
followers would occasionally give, only kept to each other.

He had never, in his entire life, imagined two women doing that together, and for several
seconds he found himself distracted as he imagined two soft sets of lips dancing together,
hands touching, caressing, in places he had never done himself...

Ty Lee's finger flicked his forehead, and he blinked to find himself staring into her
impressive cleavage as she looked at him with worried blue eyes. "You in there, kid?"
"I'm not a kid," Lin protested, feeling his face heat as several of the women around them
tittered at his expense. Some, at least, had the grace to hide their laughter behind their ever-
present fans. Most did not.

Ty Lee only shrugged and stood up again, so he was staring at her loincloth-covered groin,
instead, before she moved away casually.

She had a spectacular ass, and for a moment he caught just a hint of... something. Not her
rear, he was sure, because all the Kyoshi Warriors were fastidious about cleaning.
Something... else. Something he'd never smelled before. Whatever it was, it was fascinating.

"Tell me what it means," she repeated as she sat down, giving the scrolls, now more neatly
organized on his thighs, a significant look.

This time, Lin at least carried through. After several seconds, he looked up at her. "The Dai
Li are the ones behind the bandits."

"That's what we think, too," Ty Lee informed him, a casual thumb aimed toward the tent Mai
had gone into. "But we aren't sure if we can trust the other officers on this mission."

"Lieutenant Jo Gai wouldn't-" he started to protest.

Then he stopped. How well did he know the Lieutenant, really?

Not well at all.

For that matter, Lin didn't know any of the other members of the Company that well. He was
probably the least social one among them, and rarely spent time with the men outside of
missions- and this was his first real mission.

If anyone was going to be a suspect of Dai Li spying, it was him.

The knowledge made his blood run cold. He would definitely be tried for treason now.

Unless the Dai Li got to him first, of course.

That fate would be even worse.

Ty Lee's hands moved, and once again Lin found himself surprised by the silent movements
of the Kyoshi Warriors as she accepted a satchel with an intricate lock on it from one of the
others, who gave her a wink before she turned away and entered another tent. Her bunk-mate
joined her a minute later, and soon both of them were whispering excitedly to each other just
quietly enough he couldn't make out what they were saying over the night breeze in the trees
and the occasional crackle of the fire.

The sounds of passion in the tent nearby was distracting, but it did nothing to help the
tingling numbness in his cheeks, in his limbs.

Somehow, though, the voice of Ty Lee pierced through the haze of confusion and fear that
Lin felt bubbling within him. "Jo Gai seems alright, we checked him out a couple of hours
ago. I don't think he's one of their agents."

"I don't mean any offense," Lin asked, wondering once more how he dared have the sheer
temerity, the grit, to ask this woman anything after what he had seen her do, and after what
her and her people had casually dropped into his lap, "but who are you that you'd know
anything about the Dai Li?"

"I know they're the Earth Kingdom's bogeymen," Ty Lee shrugged, the motion doing
wonderful things to her body that, this time, did not have even a chance to captivate him
though Lin promised himself that- if he survived to go to sleep- he would remember it in his
dreams. "I know you're all terrified of them, and not without reason. We- Mai and I- have
fought them before. This was before we joined the Warriors of Kyoshi Island, of course, but
we've had our fair share. It's... a little worrisome that they're on the move again."

"I... I thought the Avatar had wiped them out," one of the other Kyoshi Warriors spoke up, the
first time he'd heard them speak clearly except for Mai and Ty Lee.

The leader shrugged, "I thought so, too, until we saw these. Maybe it's someone trying to take
their place, fill the void they left. Maybe it really is them. Maybe it's just a splinter cell- or a
single cell- w- the Avatar missed."
"It doesn't really matter," Lin said quietly, gesturing at the scrolls himself now, "If this is real,
if it's true, then... then we're all in grave danger, no matter what the truth is. Just using the
name- claiming to know anything about it and not reporting it- is treason. We'll all be
tortured, interrogated, and then hanged. Or worse."

Ty Lee just snorted. "I'd like to see them try. They'd have to catch us, first. Besides, we're
Kyoshi Warriors. We aren't Dai Li."

"You might be," Lin protested quietly, "but I'm just... just a farm-boy who was unlucky
enough to get promoted too much."

"Unlucky? Mai saw you, you know," Ty Lee told him, frowning for the first time.

Even frowning, he thought she was cute, but it still seemed to darken the world somehow that
the normally cheerful girl would- or could- even make that expression. "She saw you save
that other guy's life. You did fine."

"Others... others did more," Lin protested weakly, "I... I froze."

He didn't know why he said it.

He did not want to admit that to anyone. Especially not to these fierce, amazing, talented,
devoted women.

Not to Ty Lee.

Especially not to Mai, who he was certain could hear every word from her own tent.

The acrobat actually laughed, "We all do, at first. It's part of getting used to combat."

"Not everyone did."

"Eh, maybe," the woman shrugged again, nonchalant, and looked up at the dark sky
thoughtfully, "I did, though. I was twelve... I was perfect, I thought I couldn't do anything
wrong. Then the battle started, and I hesitated. Almost killed me."

"You- you've been fighting since you were twelve?"

Earth Nation soldiers could not even enlist until they were sixteen.
No wonder she was so talented!

It might have begged the question of where she was from, if Lin had a mind to question
anything she said, but Ty Lee's story was not done and soon he found himself enraptured
along with most of the rest of the listening Warriors.

"Yeah. Well, really I was six, but that was my first battle. I forget the name of the Village we
were at. Small, though, like a hundred houses."

"Sounds like home," he murmured.

Several of the Kyoshi Warriors nodded along with him. He knew their Island had a village
too, but didn't know how large or small it might be.

"Anyway, there was a raid. Not bandits, it was actual soldiers. They wore clothes we'd never
seen before, and their skin was dark like the night sky or mud. Handsome, a couple of them.
They roared as they charged, and my father was killed. But I was already training- I wasn't in
the army, or anything, but I was trained to defend myself- and one of our guards was, too."

"You had guards?"

She nodded casually. Only nobles, in his experience, or wealthy merchants had guards. That
would explain why she'd made the assumption that was why he could read or write before
he'd all-but told her his parents were farmers. "Yep. Anyway, they were fighting right away.
My brothers, too. Mom hid, tried to drag my dad with her, but I just... froze. Stopped.
He- my dad- was staring at me as he died. I remember his eyes going... empty."

Lin shuddered as images of just hours before came to his own mind. That had happened to
him, too.

"Anyway, then someone hit me. One of the guards, I think, brushed by me as he was fighting.
Then I was moving. Next thing I remember, the soldiers were all dead, our guards gone, and
the men in blue with the dark skin went past. They left me and my mother, but killed my
brothers and father and all the guards. Said something about not hurting innocents, no matter
what we had done to them. After that, I joined the circus for a while, until I met Mai and our
other friend. She's... not with us anymore."

"What happened to your mother, Ty?" one of the women asked quietly.

Lin nodded.

Ty Lee opened her mouth, closed it, then shrugged, "I don't know. I never saw her again. I
heard she went crazy- that's why I joined the circus. She wasn't... the same, I think. But the
circus took care of me. Took my training, and made me even better. Then the Kyoshi
Warriors perfected it into me!"

The last part was said with the same good cheer and enthusiasm she seemed to approach most
of life with, and Lin found himself smiling softly along with the women.
Ty Lee looked at him seriously through the smile though, "The Dai Li may be behind this,
but we don't know for sure. For now, keep those copies safe. Until the mission is finished, no
one knows about it, not even your General if he comes asking. Do you understand?"

Lin paled, but he nodded seriously. "We don't know who to trust."

"Exactly. It's not likely they've infiltrated Kyoshi Island, we're just too remote. But anyone
from the mainland might be suspect. We're taking a risk trusting you, but since you just got
promoted, it's not likely they'd be after you yet, either- farm boy."

It might have been meant as a teasing insult, but Lin felt his face heat anyway and he looked
down at the satchel he held once more.

"Anyway, girls, we should give the good Sergeant a reward for his promotion, and a cover
story. What say we break out the lip-paint and give him a visual record of our celebration?"

When Lin staggered back into his own camp more than two hours later, long after most of his
men had gone to sleep, it was to even more jeers and cat-calls than he had left it in. This time,
he knew exactly why: his face, his neck, his arms, everywhere one might see, he was covered
in lip-shaped marks.

They had been delivered one at a time or in pairs, and twice three at a time, as the different
Kyoshi Warriors, Ty Lee included, had taken a chance to press their lips to him... somewhere.
Only Ty Lee herself had kissed him on the mouth, and Lin's lips still tingled from the
memory of the contact. How sweet her breath had been, full of berries and mint!

How delightful her body against his!

Even if the men thought he was now 'a man' (he wasn't), they were at least congratulating
him for being with such good-looking, capable warriors.
He could live with that particular lie, at least.

Thankfully, no one questioned him about the ornate, locked satchel he carried that he most
certainly had not left the camp with.
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