Triple Threat

Gen shifted papers around on his desk, looking for one in particular, a map of the Argenau Basin, a very minor location in the eastern regions of the Earth Kingdom which nonetheless carried significant strategic value, as it was an easy passage through otherwise impassable mountain ranges into the heart of the Earth Kingdom, Ba Sing Se itself. Any army headed through the Basin would still have to deal with Ba Sing Se's great walls, but at least they wouldn't be quite as road-weary as if they had traveled from the western shores or through the Si Wong Desert, the only two other options giving the perilous nature of the water passes to the Earth Kingdom capitol. At the moment, he seemed to have outright misplaced the damn thing...

"Now where did that get off too...?" he muttered, standing up and beginning to scrounge through the documents, maps, and scrolls stacked all around the place. After a few minutes, he slumped back into his chair. "That's... odd..."

There came a sudden knock on the door.

"Enter!" he said, gesturing at the door out of habit. When he still had his office in Caldera City, there was no door. He used to wave people in all the time. Old habits...

Yumi Ai Yamato was feeling something she could not remember feeling for a very long time: hesitation. She was dressed in her normal outfit, the leather-and-bronze armor of the Pheonix Core, her hair pinned behind her with a thin red ribbon, tied in a simple bow. She had her trusty bow, strung, slung over her shoulder, as well as her three quivers: the one on her back and the two hanging around her thigh. Her curiously red eyes were half-closed, as if in meditation. Her breath was long and slow, coming easily. Then her eyes flew open and she rapped smartly, twice, on the door, the bronze knuckles of the red cloth on her hands creating a distinctive knocking sound.

"Enter!" The voice said, the all too familiar voice. She felt her heart skip a beat at the voice of her old mentor. She took a steadying breath ... and opened the door, only slightly shaking. She gathered herself and stepped out of the shadows of the doorway, her head up and strong. At this angle, the wicked scar carving across her face was thrown into relief, the dark shadows from the lanterns giving it the definition of a mountain.

Her eyes fell on Gen, and tears leaped, unbidden, to her eyes. "Gen ... it ... it is you ..." A smile crested her face, her even white teeth gleaming dully in the light. Not much had changed about her in the intervening years. She had gotten taller, sure, and curvier, but her same air of confidence and defiance, her curious red eyes, and the slash across her face would all be familiar. She cleared her throat, gathering herself. She stood straighter, her eyes casual, defiant. She spoke, her plush lips parting. "I have finally found you, Gen!" Her voice broke slightly at his name, but otherwise she was completely composed.

"You haven't seen a map of the Argenau Basin around anywhere, have you?" Gen asked, not looking around at the newcomer. He really needed that map. He began rummaging again.

He hadn't been paying much attention to whoever it was, otherwise he might have recognized the voice immediately. But as it stood, he was far too preoccupied. Yumi's declaration fell on mostly deaf ears.

"Yes, I am Gen Zhou." he muttered, tugging at the rusty latch of a chest he'd maybe used once since he arrived at the Western Air Temple. It was rusted shut. "Can I help you with something, Miss...?"

He at least had gathered that the visitor was a young woman.