*pats* Just think about how good we are now! Yeah, I can't believe your romance a Good, and that we said Quan-Li and Kanea were showing off. I gave them an Excellent. -_-

The waves continued to rock their boat softly, a soothing motion that kept Sora from waking up. Her mother kept her close to her body, contributing her warmth toward trying to keep Sora asleep. Etsuko smiled uncontrollably, the same way she had been for so many months, even now. Sora was so beautiful, such a pretty baby. At the moment her hair was black on the top, just like hers, but the sides and back of her head were covered in a light brown fuzz that reminded Etsuko of Taed.

And of Goen. She looked at him, and once again received a nod of affirmative familial love. Etsuko and Sora were all Goen had for family now — not that they were a bad substitute for the real thing, but they both reminded him of his foster brother and foster mother, lost in some glorified battle half a world away that he might never hear the result of. In the meantime he kept the tiller of the boat steered straight, aiming slowly but directly toward the far side of Kyoshi Island, away from the prying eyes at the docks.

On the floor of their boat, four tattered flags were spread out, just in case any scouts on the top of the island cliffs above them could see them. One was a circle of waves, obscured partially by a crescent moon, etched in silver thread on a dark blue background. The second was a yellow square inside a circle, on a green backdrop. The third was a red droplet on a silver disc, centered on a square of sky blue fabric. The last one, half-covered by Goen's feet and Etsuko's cloak, was a pyramid arrangement of six arrowhead shapes, red on black.

"Etsuko," Goen said presently, soft enough not to wake the baby but clear enough to be heard over the increasing volume of waves against the approaching cliffs. "We're very close."

Etsuko looked up, a little startled, to see that the cliffs of the edge of the island were within a hundred meters. "Oh!" escaped her lips, before she set her face in a concentrated calmness and nodded. "Okay. Hold Sora for me until it's your turn." She twisted around at the waist and leaned back a bit, passing Sora off into Goen's stretching arms, and successfully not jostling her too much. Goen cradled Sora, perhaps not as motherly as Etsuko, but he was a guy, after all. And Sora wasn't waking up.

Etsuko closed her eyes and concentrated on her chi. This would not be too difficult, technically, and yet it was unlike anything she had done so far. She was fully aware that she was not an accomplished waterbender, but still, her skills had advanced pretty darn far from when she started out as a scared tourist in front of the Fire Lord's palace. Grasping her innermost calm and remember the push and pull motions, she began swinging her hands in the same wave pattern as the ocean around them, but in opposite directions. Slowly, slowly, the waves immediately around their boat lowered, and stopped, and then the water in a clean circle around them remained calm.

Etsuko gently pushed her hands forward, undulating her wrists ever so slightly to compensate for the ocean's desire to start rocking again. At last they arrived right up against the sheer cliff, without running into it, smoothly and calmly. Now came the hardest part, for a few brief seconds.

"Not until you're ready," Goen reminded her. The sounds of Sora waking up accompanied his voice, a necessary part of their process but not too pleasant for daughter or mother.

"We have to do it now or I'll think about it and freak out," Etsuko whispered through her teeth. She dropped her hands and turned again, leaning way back to grab Sora, who opened her eyes wide and giggled to see her mother so eager to hold her. The moment Goen was certain Etsuko had Sora in a firm but gentle grip, he slammed one hand down in the air and quickly turned it around, palm-up, while pulling the other hand horizontally toward his body. Then he very slowly raised the lower hand up.

Beneath their boat, a flat projection of the cliff stone lifted them out of the water so that the waves would not topple their small craft. The water immediately began crashing against the cliff again, but by this time they were on their way up the side of the island. Sora clapped her hands and stuck her tongue out against the rush of air as they elevated up toward the edge of the bluffs where, hopefully, the three of them would find another temporary sanctuary.

"Ah," Aunt Wu said, her eyes lighting up as Hana explained her multi-faceted question. "Tired of the rub-and-grind of familiarity of the farm, then? I intended to do the same, leave our family land and travel to the city. That changed when I got my reputation for omniscience, of course." She chuckled to show she wasn't really that full of herself, and then went on, "Well, Hana, you don't really need the cards to tell you that if you want to go, that is what you should do. But perhaps the reading can give you a bit of specific direction."

She paused while Hana finished her card layout, and then glanced over the somewhat familiar cards. Though she had obtained them two years prior, she did not often use them, as many of her clients were the elderly Earth Kingdom — or rather, Fire Nation Colonies — denizens that were used to her more traditional, tried-and-true methods of bones, clouds, and tea leaves. Still, she was acquainted with the stories of every character in the deck. If there had been more time, Aunt Wu could have told their sagas to Hana until well after the sun set.

"Let's see," she murmured, tapping a slender index finger across her chin and lips as she surveyed the spread. "This will go in the order you have laid the cards down, Hana. The first card represents you, or else the aspect of you that is asking the question." The card showed a man with dark grey ram horns, covered in blue-purple fur mottled with green, on a hilltop, holding a bottle of red liquid behind him. "Don't be fooled by his appearance or that of any other cards. Valuial is a scholar who chose to ignore the destiny his brothers were so eager to embrace, and became an herbologist instead of a warrior. The card fits you because you are an independent soul who refuses to be confined by the stereotypes of your heritage.

"I'll do my best not to tell stories about all the rest of the cards, my dear. Now this next one, Aetinh," she tapped the card of a white-haired boy with dragonfly wings, smaller than the ferns that towered around him, "is your question: a sense of wonder in experiencing new things and an urgent wish to assist new friends. The card next to him represents the largest obstacle to your question." Jaelodar's card showed a warrior nomad with his spear aimed forward but his head inclined back toward smoking ruins. "It is, quite obviously, a deep connection to the roots you have laid down in your old home. Such feelings both inspire and hinder.

"These next four cards are your past, present, immediate future, and distant future. The Twins represent emerging into the unknown. They were sealed away in the past so that they might bring hope and change to the future," and indeed the card showed a pair of teenage warrior women emerging from a tree trunk in the middle of an overgrown monastery. "For your present, Himdómë & Galwen represent true love--" she gave Hana a pointed look as she paused over the picture of two young people dressed in scant white cloths and copious green ivies and leaves, the male with wild orange-ish hair, the female with shoulder-length blonde hair-- "or deep devotion. Not necessarily to a person, but possibly to an object or an ideal. Your near future is represented by Glinia," a spirit in the form of a small innocent-looking girl with six large wings, semi-transparent, holding a large book and turning the ground beneath her feet to ash, "the patron of memories and parting, who indicates that your choices affect the paths of those around you, and what you do has a direct effect on their fates." Aunt Wu could not see that the other meaning of Glinia's card, the death or salvation of a dear one resulting directly from the choices one made, as being pertinent to Hana's situation, and she didn't want to frighten the girl unnecessarily, so she avoided adding this tidbit. "And your more distant future is indicated by Kenna. He is what we call an Elder card, a face card rather than a numbered one, and in the case of Elders they indicate both an important decision that you will make and also a real person — a logical and very calm person from whom great lessons can be learned."

Taking a deep breath, Aunt Wu moved away from Kenna's card — a tanned man with pointed ears, looking dreamily up into the heavily-leaved branches of the tree he is leaning against — and rested her fingers on the first card of the next row up. It showed a young man sitting on a rock deep in concentration as he created a small breeze in one hand, and a ring of flame in the other. "Tasarin is the mental aspect of your question, and while his story would take too long to tell, the lesson he learned was that his consequences and outcomes depended entirely on the control he had over himself, the power to shape his own destiny if he had the willpower and strength to do so. In other words," she looked directly at Hana until she met her eyes, "what you are really asking, the question behind the question, is whether you believe you can accomplish something on your own, outside of the small world you have grown up in."

She lowered her eyes softly again and moved on to the card next to Tasarin, a giant creature made of earth and grass, except that it was clearly a spirit by the translucency of the figure and the energy that glowed off of it. It was dressed in rust-colored plate mail and held a mighty hammer of solid marble. "Paurris represents that which will aid you. In the stories Paurris is a spirit, a powerful man, old and wise with years, who is the patron of the warriors, but despises pointless bloodshed and unreasonable war. The burning white fire of his eyes sees through to the truth of the matter, and the runes on his armor and hammer make others see the power that he holds within. So too will reason, logic, and justification help you find the inner strength you possess." She moved her hand yet again to the last card in the row, a pale-skinned, pointed-ears warrior standing just inside the gate of an underground city. "Your hopes and fears are indicated by Kaeldras. He is a Sage, another face card in the deck. As a divination the card represents the same thing we have been talking about, inner strength; as a possible real person in your life, the card represents a vigorous young man who taps into the reserves of power that had formerly been hidden away in the shadow of tradition and security.

"Lastly we come to this, the final outcome," Aunt Wu intoned solemnly, running a fingertip along the side of Valron's card. It showed an insubstantial almost human creature with a flaming skull instead of a head, four powerful arms, and legs obscured by the darkness that rolled off of him like a flood, standing in front of an upside-down castle underground. "Again, don't be fooled or frightened by the appearance of the card. Valron merely represents duality and incompleteness — not in the sense of feeling unaccomplished, but in the sense of always aspiring to something more. It is an indication that you will continue to grow as a person, and discover who you really are, if you follow the path that your question is taking you on.

"From this reading, I can certainly say that you are meant to leave the farm and find your own path," Aunt Wu smiled sweetly at her grand-niece. "Beyond that it's difficult to nail down the specifics, although we can piece together a few tidbits. The progression of past to present and then to future shows a series of discoveries — an emerging into the unknown, a discovery of something you are passionate about, an exercise in choice and consequences. I could say something grand and mystical," her smile reached to her ears in a mischievous sort of manner, "or I could say that it's a straight line, and that whatever direction you walked from the farm to here, you should keep going in that direction. Perhaps you already met one of the people from your tarot reading as you came into town today. There are many people who seek to find their destinies, who begin here in Makapu Village."