I woke up on a very cold and cloudy day. The wind was blowing from the far east and the leaves were falling from the trees. I got out of bed and walked on the cold wooden floor to my closet, and pulled on my tunic. I left my room and headed down the hallway that was dimly lit by the torches hanging on the wall. There were soldiers scurrying about with worried faces. I stopped one of them.
“Hello there, Kia-lo, where are you going so fast?”
“I am going to the fields to collect food for the battle, Rin-po.”
“What battle Kia-lo?”
“Haven’t you heard!?! The water tribe are attacking. That is why there are so many clouds. They are making them so we have a hard time seeing.”
“May I come with you Kia-lo?”
“Go ahead! The more the merrier.”
I arrived at the field with Kia-lo and we saw people quickly carrying baskets of food to wooden carts pulled by tired and weary donkeys. We went to Rufe-o who was in charge of the harvesting.
“Hello, Rufe-o, we have come to help.”
“Rin-po, Kia-lo, I am glad you have come. We need help making these lazy donkeys move. They move fine usually, but if you are in a hurry they can be quite a pain.”
“Don’t worry Rufe-o, Rin-po and I will do it.”
“Thank you Kia-lo and Rin-po. I am glad.”
We left Rufe-o and headed down the small hill to the road were the donkeys were. We saw people trying to push them, but they would not budge. We finally got the donkeys to cooperate and headed back to Hamishogi, Pavilion of the Wind.
When we got to Hamishogi, we saw soldiers putting on bamboo armor and grabbing swords and shields and getting into their positions. Kia-lo was told to grab to a sword and shield and head to the front line to help fight there. I went to join all the other masters in the center tower. We looked upon the rising fog that was coming from the east blocking the view of the forest and the river.
The fog seemed to have stopped at the edge of the forest. We were all expecting that the fog would move close but it stayed at the edge of the forest waiting to strike. It stayed there for what seemed forever even though it was just an hour. Then the fog moved closer and closer like wolves on the prowl. The masters and I used the wind blast that our masters before us taught us. The wind blast removed the frog to show thousands of men ready for war. Then a single arrow flew through the air, the battle had started.
The arrow landed on the center tower not hurting anyone but started a battle in which many men will die. The water people charged and arrows flew from either side. The two sides clashed and the sound of clanging of swords and the screaming of war cries rose from the field. The water master raised the river to a huge wave. It rushed at us, growing by the second. If it reached Hamishogi, it would destroy it. The force of the water would tear the very stones of the foundation apart. The masters and I looked at each. We knewwhat we had to do. We gathered our energy, summoning the winds. We used our wind power to halt the wave, and slowly, to push the wave back. The wave washed over part of the water tribe’s army. The other part was in confusion and was running into each other. The water tribe quickly called a retreat and ran away to fight another day.
We scouted the battle field and carried the dead bodies to the cemetery. The other group scouted the temple and made any necessary repairs to the temple, especially the roof. My job was to bring the bodies to the burial site. I scanned the people who were dead to see if Kia-lo had been killed in the battle. I did not see him among the bodies, but I asked Tre-po if he had seen Kia-lo. He said that Kia-lo had gone to help with the repairs on the building. I finished my job and went to see Kia-lo. We both went down and ate dinner. We taught the water people that if they want to attack our temple, we will be there to defend it until the end of the world.
