A banner rises

Skiwa and his men waited in the forests to the north of the southern air temple. They waited patiently but they were also eager. His right hand, Kai, approached him saying, "Master, i know you said to be patient but it has been nearly a week, when shall the naoru be here. We will follow you to the death but if we need to search for new allies, the search must begin soon" Skiwa chose his words carefull to adress him, rolling them about in his head like one would roll a candy about one's mouth. He responded very simply "The Naoru have been subjegated to many years of inhospitality and discrimination, i know a people who desire freedom when i see one. They will come and they will fight, for a man will fight without heart for a conquerer who seeks only more land and that man will die without much having been gained. Yet a man who fights for his freedom will bring mountains crumbling and nations fleeing if it means that his family may live in peace, prosperity and happiness. They will come not only because they want to, but because they must." Skiwa turned his eyes once again to the skies as Kai wordlessly bowed and walked away. The flare will come soon, he could feel it in the wind, sense it in the faint breezes.

The fleet joined with the Outlanders near the southern edge of the fire nation. And from there, they continued on to the air temple. It was a hassle for Kaero to keep the warband quiet, surprise was of the essence here. And any large noise could give them away. as he assembled his band in a clearing nearby, he sent his lieutenant to get the flares. He returned shortly, but before Kaero could launch one, he was approached by Kagira. She spoke in a low tone, serious but cautious. "Kaero, what do we do if this goes wrong? Surely a success here could mean extended support from more of the Naoru bands. But if we fail, we will be marked as pariahs. They will never allow us home for breaking the Naoru codes of neutrality." Kaero looked down at the ground. He knew that the neutrality laws were the only thing holding back more warriors. Failure was not an option. Kaero shot a quick, sideways glance at Kagira. "The solution is simple. We don't fail." With that he struck the spark rocks in his hands and launched the flare. Signaling Skiwa's small force to begin the assault.

The bright red flare had barely flashed across the skies before skiwa and his men had began running. Using their airbending, they launched themselves onto the trees and began to go from treetop to treetop intheir silent stampede. Skiwa was at the lead of the assault and felt the moon on his face and the calming presence that accompanied it. He felt peaceful and began to slowly think more and more about the assault. As They came to the ridge that they would climb skiwa stopped abruptly. He came under a stark realization, an epiphany of sorts. The entire band stopped with him, their confusion was blatant as Kai approahced the master saying, "Skiwa, why do you stop when we are so close to combat? The plan is fool proof and the air temple shall be ours, what is holding you back?" Skiwa slowly turned towards Kai as the realization and the new, sudden plan formed in his head. He spoke softly but surely as he said "no blood shall be spilled on this day. I have made the decision that we shall not attack with force, go to the camp of the naoru and inform Kaero that i wish for him to meet me at the mouth of the road to the temple, where the forest meets the mountain. Kai i want you to tell this to the warlord directly, do not let some simple minded guard meddle this message. I trust you Kai, do not fail me." Kai was still confused, a very blatant thing to see, but his loyalty overcame this emotion. Kai and the other benders sprinted towards the origin of the flare as Skiwa stayed.

Skiwa knew that the warlord might find this perplexing to change so much from the plan, but he would understand, he must understand. For the gravity of this decision was the future of the order. Skiwa jumped into the air and glided to the location on the fore front of the gentle breezes.

Kaero was crouched in the grass near base of the mountain leading up to the Southern air temple. He was preparing himself for the coming attack when Skiwa's messenger arrived. The poor warrior had been stopped by Kaero's guards. Kaero glanced over at them, hearing something about the message needing to be delivered to him directly. "Let him through. He comes directly from Skiwa, we have nothing to fear from him." Kaero listened to the message and nodded, telling the messenger to return to Skiwa and tell him that the message was recieved, and that Kaero would hold his men back unless ordered otherwise. The man nodded and launched himself back up into the trees.