The sky over Kyoshi Island was a washed-out blue, streaked thin with clouds. Wind came in off the sea with a salt bite instead of the knife-cold of the south; waves shouldered themselves against the cliffs in slow, heavy breaths. Raven also shouldered herself against the cliffs with heavy breaths as she mildly regretted the precarious but well hidden point Lo Pei had found to tuck the frigate out of sight from approaching vessels.
"Careful of the thorns!" Lo Pei called up to Raven, squinting at the sight of her scaling the jagged rocks faster than he expected but directly towards a patch of nasty looking milkroot; the black thorns were gleaming on ghostly pale thin vines that crawled down the ocean cliff for a taste of the salty air.
Raven glanced up, took a breath, and jutted her palm upwards, giving a wide bursting cone of flashing flames that reduced the painful plant to delicate twigs that scatter on touch. "My thanks, captain," she called back, possibly loud enough to be heard over the water hitting the rocks.
There was something undignified and embarrassing about scaling a cliff while a bunch of slackjawed sailors watched, but she was focused and past the really slippery part where she was likely to make a fool of herself anyway.
Lo Pei called again as she reached the top. "You're really going inland? I don't think the locals like the color red!"
"They can shut their eyes then!" Raven shouted back, but with no heat at Lo Pei himself. Her attention was already turned inward, cataloguing further cliffs, sight-lines, possible approaches from her high vantage point, although she could only tell where the village was by the pillars of smoke over the misty hills. "Stay out of sight!" she gave as her final command before moving out of sight herself.
The forest atop the cliffs smelled of damp soil and salt and something sweet underneath—flowers hidden in the undergrowth. With a burgundy cloak wrapped tightly around her noble garb not quite fit for such a journey, Raven still moved through it like a knife point slipping between ribs, steps light, barely disturbing the ferns. Sun broke through the drifting clouds and fog in scattered shafts, painting stripes across her path.
It should have been peaceful.
Instead her mind played and replayed that first encounter: Zuko's shocked face, the way he'd said her name, like he was astonished she didn't just stay at home and get over it. Life had been so easy, so pleasant; she regretted not appreciating it more before he ruined everything. Banishment was too good for him though, she was more than certain of that. The thought of him laughing with his soldiers like none of it mattered made her teeth grind.
"Coward," she muttered under her breath, ducking under a low branch.
A faint whisper carried on the wind. Raven froze, dropping instinctively into a crouch, hand already twitching toward blazing.
Voices. Two of them. Shrill, feminine and definitely trying not to be heard, but something about the shape of the land was carrying their not quite recognizable words to her. She wasn't more than a single hill away from the village now, so running across someone was little surprise, but it sounded like they were already looking for her.
Raven slid sideways, using the slope of the hill as cover, and crept toward the sound. The whispers resolved into words as she eased around a stunted pine.
"…I'm telling you, I saw red, probably Fire Nation—" a mildly whiny girl's voice came through the curling mist.
After a quiet snort came another deeper but still feminine tone. "Yeah, well, you 'saw' a fox antelope walking on its hind legs last week, too."
"It was real! It winked at me! You're just still mad I ate your—" the first girl rapidly hissed.
"Shh! I heard something!" came the second again, and Raven heard the rustle of clothing and armor just barely around the rocks she was plastered to.
Simple as tossing a loose bit of shattered stone over their heads, Raven got them both to dart their gazes away, and she hurried a quick glance. In arm's reach were two young women in heavy garb—the green of a hunter's cloak—with layered skirts and armor for ease of movement under heavy protection, and she marked the glint of sharp, metal fans clenched in their gloved hands. The girl in front held her fan low and ready, half-open in a normal guard. But Raven narrowed her gaze at the girl behind who had hers tilted almost straight up, the polished surface angled wrong for fighting—but perfect for catching a reflection.
Raven's own cloak flashed back at her in that mirror-bright curve: a smear of burgundy and gold against the trees. Her heart skipped a beat. They'd already seen her. Everyone moved at once.
Raven shoved off the rock, abandoning subtlety; the nearer Kyoshi warrior spun, fan whipping up toward Raven's wrist in a move meant to lock and twist. The other dropped her "mirror" into a proper grip and lunged in low, aiming to sweep Raven's legs.
The young warriors were quick, in peak fitness, but Kyoshi Island was remote and had nothing for them to cut their teeth on. Raven hopped over the sweep, directly at the smaller of the two warriors to close too quickly for the fan to strike and sprain her wrist, but it still cut a neat line through Raven's mute burgundy tone cloak, exposing bright red clothes underneath, but couldn't quite draw blood. Other than that, it all went exactly as Raven intended. She stepped off the stronger warrior, who stumbled. Raven's elbow cracked hard against the lesser one's jaw, who cried out. Both failed to counter as Raven slipped past and shoved the one still standing into the one trying to stand, and they both collapsed again.
The Kyoshi warriors were delighted to have time to roll onto their feet again after being so dangerously prone, but less so when a bright orange flash blinded them. With two shrieks of pain, their white painted faces were scored black, just under their red shadowed eyes. Raven pulled her fiery whip back out of existence as quickly as she bent it, leaving the two covering their eyes and backing away in a panic.
"I can't see, Naeko! I can't see!" the younger of the two freaked out, shakily tapping her fingers to her face. "Ow! Ow! Ow!"
"Curse you, invader!" apparently Naeko spat as she did her best to take a combat stance again.
It was obvious she wasn't even lined up with Raven properly, who enjoyed a good imperious laugh at their plight. "Oh, please, I scarcely touched you. I'd say walk it off on the way home to your little village, but I can't just let you go, can I?"
Naeko was squeezing her eyes shut and opening them again, still just getting blurry tears for her trouble. "Run! Warn Suki! Go!"
Raven genuinely chuckled at the hopeless sight of the still panicking younger warrior getting tangled up in branches and not even going the right way, but was genuinely stumped. She didn't really bring any method of subduing and restraining anyone, and it seemed more than a little unseemly and excessive to seriously injure or spirits-forbid kill those two, who Raven fully realized were just doing their jobs.
Thankfully she didn't have to awkwardly stand there any longer, because a determined voice came from the most camouflaging patch of leafless, winter-stricken bushes. "Don't worry, I'm already here," Suki, apparently, offered her comrades. Making the best of bad cover, she was in plain sight despite her efforts, and not happy about it. Raven sighed at the sight of another warrior in green, but with an adorable little crown that Raven felt a sudden invasive urge to just... take. But it was dispelled when more leafless rustling gave away four more such women roughly approximating a circle surrounding Raven. She grimaced at her sour luck of having run afoul of so many so soon.
"Saw smoke over the hill. You're a bit obvious for a spy, aren't you?" Suki taunted as she adopted that same stance and cautiously approached, the others not-yet-blinded following suit as seething breaths of pain came from the damp forest floor.
Raven was genuinely taken aback. "A spy?!" she scoffed. "I am Lady Raven Arza! Spying is beneath me." And she made no effort to conceal a wide low spinning kick that bent fire in an arena-like circle around her, encompassing her and Suki, but keeping the others at least briefly at bay. Most importantly it cleared the space for her more advanced techniques.
She brought them to bear immediately. A quick jumping double kick that sent arcs of flame up under Suki's feet. As Suki toppled back, forcing to press hard with her fans to keep the flames at bay, Raven made to slam her heel down in one white hot crack of sparks to knock her out of the fight immediately, but she was robbed at the last second. Her heel cooked moss while Suki rolled, swept flames back in Raven's direction she was forced to disperse, and she was genuinely impressed—and a little startled—when an elbow struck hard on her side right out of that roll. The sharp pain forced her attention on Suki, and Raven clenched her teeth knowing the other four were bearing down, so she spun in a graceful pirouette, her flaming whip springing from her upward stretched hand and spiraling around her thrice over before the end of frayed flames swept hotly near white faces.
All the warriors in green were forced to back off several paces, not knowing the whip was less-than-lethal, and Raven sharply frowned. This was a distraction. That elbow really, really hurt! These annoying peasant girls from a dump of a village were getting in her way, and they had no business even speaking to her as equals, much less pretending they could fight her. Fans in guarded stances, Raven clenched her hands with puffs of flame, and prepared to fight like she didn't give a damn if some of them didn't get back up again.
"WA-A-A-A-A-I-T!" the collection of teetering on edge girls heard bellowing over them in dramatic tone. A taller, awkward, clumsy Kyoshi warrior hopped on one foot and yanked at branches while trying to approach. "I can help!" Sokka eagerly and oh-so-genuinely offered, to many raised eyebrows. "Katara, you were right! It really is that girl again!" he shouted behind him, where blue clothes and triumph approached fast.
"Lucky guess," Katara modestly said as she hurried up to Sokka, but her smile blanketed the honestly already put upon forest in 'I told you so'.
Raven stopped her stance for a moment to uncertainly point to and fro. "Who ARE all you weirdos? I'm here to put that filthy barge rat Prince Zuko on a spit, would you kindly all fuck off?"
"Yikes, there's that mouth again," Sokka reeled back to say.
"Do you know her!?" Suki demanded, almost jealous, glancing between him and Raven. "She's blinded two of my warriors!"
"Huh? Nope. Total stranger," Sokka said with a shrug.
"And, they're fi-i-ine," Raven sighed like Suki was a moron and rolled her eyes—crossed arms, not bothering to keep a ready posture. "Looks like their clown paint took the worst of it."
"See? They can sleep it off. Right?" Sokka encouraged.
Raven gave him the most curious glance as he got nearer than she liked. "Perhaps you can sleep off that cold," she muttered as she stepped away from him. "And... whatever else is wrong with you," she went on, looking Sokka up and down and failing to make sense of him.
Sokka pointed to himself and just pouted, "aw man, you're the cold one..." giving a dejected kick to a loose pebble, that Aang caught under his foot as he touched down with his glider.
"What'd I miss? Are we fighting?" Aang quickly asked, sounding genuinely curious and not quite excited.
Suki looked ready to start fighting again, but Katara quickly said, "hold on, Aang!" She looked to Raven. "My brother's an idiot." And Raven gave a nod of recognition that Sokka was not, in fact, a sick girl, but a weird boy. "She really did attack the Fire Nation raiders that came after us. She... helped us? I think?" And she clasped her hand together with a darling smile, clearly hoping Raven would just go along without a fuss, especially after Raven's decisive bullying of Katara's most annoying sibling.
"That was Prince Zuko," Raven said as she shifted her weight. "Bastard, sub-human, backstabbing torch-bait," she growled, progressively more animalistic. "I will have his head roasting on a spear atop a pyre, and YOU all... are welcome to watch," she excitedly and then coldly declared. "But do not interfere." She singled out Suki entirely, who noticed.
"I, uh, don't really wanna watch that," Aang raised his hands to nervously admit. "Have you tried just talking to him about it?"
"Aang," Katara said, disappointed.
Aang just shrugged.
"I think I can see again!" Naeko's subordinate happily declared as she sat up after several minutes of eye rubs.
Katara rapidly nodded, "so... cease fire? No need to fight?"
"Fine," some combination of Suki and Raven sighed.