With the clang of the resounding gong, the coronation ceremony officially began. Palace guards marched near the footsteps of the palace and royal eunuchs came out from inside the palace doors. Following after them was the Earth King’s big, covered palanquin. Two eunuchs opened up the palanquin’s curtains, and behold, the Earth King stepped out in the most magnificent golden silk robe with long green sleeves. The Great Earth King stood proud and tall on the high footsteps of the palace entrance. A great roar of applause immediately followed his grand entrance. A few seconds later, two smaller palanquins appeared from the palace doors. The Crown Prince and Crown Princess have arrived.

          “Oh, here comes Hyoyeon!” Sunny exclaimed. Everyone craned their necks. Things are getting more and more exciting.

          The Crown Prince and the Crown Princess came out of their palanquins. A roar of cheers immediately followed. Sunny and Fany even screamed out and jumped up from their seats. The loudest cheerer was Yuri, who has been waiting for this moment all her life. She just ignored Junsu, Amber, and Soo-Young. She wasn’t there for them after all. When all the cheers died down, the Earth King began to speak.

          “Dear guests of high honor, I invited all of you today for a very special event that would be remembered all throughout history,” the Earth King began, “I will be passing the throne to my dearly beloved son, Prince Eunhyuk, who has proven himself worthy over the course of time. He has studied hard, trained hard, and gave wise suggestions on politics, keeping the nation and the people close to his heart. Although he is young, I believe that he is highly capable and full of great potential to be one of the greatest Earth Kingdom rulers of all time. As shocking as an abdication may seem, I believe that this is for the best of the nation. I am not ill or dying; I am just passing the crown to someone who I believe will be able to lead the Earth Kingdom better than I do. Of course, as father and previous King, I will be by my son’s side until the day I die. Please be on my son’s side too as he does his best to lead the nation.”

           More cheers roared from the crowd. Prince Eunhyuk and Princess Hyoyeon stood up front and bowed to everyone. Then they turned to the abdicating King and bowed down to him too. With the last few seconds of the King’s reign, he took off his golden headpiece and placed it on Prince Eunhyuk’s head. A eunuch handed the late Queen’s head piece and he then placed it on Princess Hyoyeon’s head. After the gongs were struck, it became official. The reign of King Eunhyuk and Queen Hyoyeon begins now. Everyone bowed down to the new rulers. “All hail the new King and Queen!”

            Later at the after-party, Hyoyeon herself went over to Sunny, Fany, and Sica to talk to them. It has been such a long time since she talked to them. In fact, the last time she saw them, she wasn’t even a princess yet. She was just commoner who worked in the Xiah Dragon Noodles family business. Sunny, Fany, and Sica became her close friends when they visited a long time ago.

            “Hey everyone!” Queen Hyoyeon greeted with a bright cheerful smile. “Can you believe I’m a Queen now?”

            Sunny jumped up and hugged her so tightly that Hyoyeon can’t help but just hug her back. Then as the usual capricious Sunny that she is, she let go of Hyoyeon and bowed down to her. Squeezing isn’t the most deferential way of treating a Queen after all.

            “All hail Queen Hyo!” Sunny said as she bowed to her respectfully. Then she suddenly stood up straight and said, “Just wait and later I’ll become Firelord too!”

            Hyoyeon laughed. “I’m sure you will, soon-to-be-Firelord Sunny!”

            Fany stood up and bowed to Hyoyeon too. Then she gave her a warm hug to make up for all the time that they haven’t seen each other. She had tears of joy running down her cheeks.

            “Look at you… I always knew you were destined for great things!” Fany said with a sweet smile.

            “Aww thanks, Fany!” Hyoyeon said with a pat on Fany’s back.

            Sica cleared and stood up from her chair. “Congratulations,” she greeted coolly.

            “You’re still such an ice princess,” Hyoyeon chuckled. “And whoa, your sister has grown a lot! Hello, Krystal!" Krystal bowed down to the Queen too.

            “Oh yeah, Fany, you said in your letter than you have a new sister. Where is she? Is she here? I’d love to meet her,” said Hyoyeon.

            “She went off to the buffet table to get some food for herself,” said Sunny. “Just wait for her. She’ll come back.”

***

            Taeyeon feasted her eyes on the wide array of cuisines. She has never seen this much food served in one event in her entire life. Just when she thought the Fire Nation Royal Palace has everything, she thought wrong. There was meat from many different animals that she has never even thought to be edible before—like bear meat, turtle meat, spider meat, shark meat… Then on one particular area of the table were different kinds of noodles, dumplings, and soup.

            “Xi…ah Dragon Noodles?” she read the inscription by the trays. “Oh, it’s the same restaurant we had dinner at a few days ago. Oh, right! The owner is the Queen’s brother. No wonder he’s providing catering here too.”

            “Oh dear, where did Amber go? Plus, why in the world are Soo-Young and Yuri here wearing Hyoyeon’s clothes? Aigoo those kids… I’m the Queen’s brother but my employees still ditch me. Maybe I’m being too kind to them,” Junsu groaned as he laid a fresh batch of fried dumplings at the buffet table. Taeyeon recognized him so she decided to greet him while he was there.

            “Hello Sir,” Taeyeon gladly greeted.

            “Oh, Taeyeon! It’s nice meeting you again! Oh look at you in that pretty Earth Kingdom dress! You look so nice!” he sweetly complimented her as if he forgot all of his worries. “Don’t call me Sir, I’m not that old. I’m Kim Junsu so just call me that.”

            “Wow, we have the same surname,” Taeyeon exclaimed.

            “Is that so? It’s a very common name,” Junsu replied, continuing the small talk. After he set the fresh batch of fried dumplings, he grabbed an empty tray. “Well, I’ll leave you to enjoy the catering for now. I still need to prepare some food. “It’s nice talking you Miss Taeyeon!” And so, Junsu left.

            Just then, Soo-Young came to grab pounds of food from the buffet table. She was already munching on some cake and holding a wine glass on her hand. It is still a wonder how she could have such a great appetite for just about everything. After she filled her plate of all sorts of food, she went to the Xiah Dragon Noodles area of the buffet table to pile some more food on her already-full plate. Meanwhile, Taeyeon also finished getting food. When she turned around to leave, she accidentally bumped into Soo-Young, causing all their food to be spilled on the ground.

            “YAAA!!! You short kid!!!” Soo-Young exclaimed in anger. “I took all my time to gather all of those!”

            “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Taeyeon said as she bent down to clean up the mess. She did not even look at Soo-Young because she was too ashamed.

            From the sound of Soo-Young’s loud voice, Taeyeon remembered her town bully and how she used be screamed at by the tall, scary kids. When she looked up to see who it was that she wronged this time, she recognized who it was.

            “Wait, weren’t you that waitress lady in the noodles restaurant?” Taeyeon said bluntly.

            Soo-Young, who also recognized Taeyeon when she got a closer look of her face, stood petrified at the sight of the Fire Nation Princess. She remembered the whole scene of stealing the invitations. Could it be possible that the Fire Nation Royals found out about what she had done? She can’t tell her the truth. She doesn’t want to burn in Fire Nation hell. She still has to grow older, get married, and have grandchildren. She can’t die as a fifteen year old. No, absolutely not. Fifteen is too early for death.

            “Hey, you little brat,” Soo-Young spoke harshly. “How dare you call me a dirty waitress? I am of high nobility and will not be trifled with!”

            Taeyeon raised an eyebrow at Soo-Young. Taeyeon is a royal princess, which means she is more respectable than nobles, even though she was merely adopted by the Firelord. If anyone was not to be trifled with, it should be her, not this noble waitress—if such a thing even existed. However, Taeyeon was not the kind of person to be provoked to anger about things like this. She preferred to be passive when it came to fights so she just sneered.

            “Well I said I’m sorry, dear lady ‘of high nobility’ or whatever,” Taeyeon replied. “I’m a princess and I have more power than you do but I’ll let you go off the hook this time.” She then left to grab food again and headed back to the table.

           Meanwhile, Yuri and Minho were closely watching Hyoyeon chat with foreign princesses. There was the Queen, close enough for them to reach out to. After practicing their lines a few more times, they finally mustered all their courage to ask Queen Hyoyeon for apprenticeship. Little did they know that Amber also made up her mind to do the same thing.

            “Queen Hyoyeon,” Minho and Yuri greeted with a low, respectful bow. “Sorry to bother you but we have a big request.”

            Hyoyeon turned to acknowledge them. Sunny, Fany, Sica, and even Krystal paid attention too.

           “What is it, loyal subjects?” Hyoyeon spoke with much authority. She winked at Sunny, feeling a bit embarrassed by acting like a real Queen. Honestly, Hyoyeon was just as childish as the rest of the princesses. They were all just sixteen after all.

           “I am your humble servant Minho, and this is Yuri Noona. We know that you are accepting apprentices and training a select few in advanced earth-bending. You are considered the best earth-bending prodigy even at a young age, and we would like to train under you if you will allow us,” Minho said with great deference.

           “Well, what you said is true. I am accepting a select few. However, you have to prove yourself to be worthy first,” Hyoyeon said thoughtfully.

           “Oh, we will do anything you ask us to!” Yuri exclaimed.

           “Hmm, I like that passion! But you have to show more than that. How about sparring with each other? That way I can see what you both can do,” Hyoyeon suggested.

           “Oh, that’s a great idea!” said Sunny. “It’s fun to see some action!”

            As a request by the new Earth Queen, the challengers moved to the wide empty space between the place of the party and the palace gates. The other guests watched from afar for safety. Hyoyeon watched closely. She always liked watching stuff like this.

           First match was Yuri versus Minho. Yuri was totally inept at earth-bending, but she was not nervous at all. She already has her mind set on winning, and her overflowing competitive passion will not allow her to lose even to this charismatic boy. Minho, on the other hand, had been training by himself ever since he was young. He practiced daily, hoping to become a high general in the Earth Kingdom army. Both wanted this so badly. The fire in their eyes burned so passionately that they almost looked like fire benders on the verge of fighting an Agni Kai.

            With a clang of the resounding gong, the battle began. Yuri stomped the ground and pulled out a huge rock to be thrown at Minho. With a fiery push, she sent the rock flying at a blinding speed toward Minho who raised a protective wall just in time to stop Yuri’s attack from making contact. The protective wall crashed into pieces that flew in all directions. Hyoyeon and her friends were getting really excited.

            “Is that all you got, Noona?” Minho provoked Yuri.

            “I’m just getting started!” Yuri yelled back with a pugnacious pose. She then stomped the ground to raise a giant thorn on the ground to attack Minho. He did not expect her to know that move, so he barely dodged it and fell off balance. With a wave of his arms, he sunk Yuri down the ground like quicksand. Half of her body was buried in the earth.

            “Oh no, how do I get out of here?!” Yuri exclaimed in frustration.

            “You’re an earth bender; you should be able to earth-bend your way out,” Hyoyeon coached Yuri.

            Just the fact that Hyoyeon was talking to her gave her new strength. However, Minho was too quick and more skilled. When Yuri finally figured out how to twist herself out, Minho already had rocks coming from all directions flying toward her. Suddenly her mind went blank, and she closed her eyes and screamed at the top of her lungs. This is the end for her—at least she thought. Before the rocks hit her, Hyoyeon raised her arms and turned the rocks into harmless dust to save her. The match was over.

            “Wow that was a great fight. Short, but sweet,” Hyoyeon said as she clapped. Sunny and the rest thought so too.

            Suddenly, Amber rose from the crowd and spoke up, “I want to take the challenge too. But this time, I want to fight with both of them—two against one.”  

            Yuri and Minho looked dumbfounded at Amber’s request. They had no idea that Amber was an earth bender.

            “Well, someone’s too confident,” Sunny mumbled. Then she said to Amber, “Go ahead and try. We’re all watching.”

            Meanwhile, Soo-Young and Taeyeon were both looking for their respective company. They just took some food and now everyone’s gone.

            “Your Highness,” Taeyeon greeted with a bow to Firelord Soon-Jae who was busy talking with the King of the Water Tribe at their table.

            “Oh Taeyeon,” he also greeted with a smile. “Soonkyu, Mi-Young, and the others went off to watch the earth bending match in the outer-half of the courtyard.”

            “Thank you,” Taeyeon bowed again and ran off.

            When she reached the place, she found everyone so intensely immersed in the fight. Soo-Young also arrived at about the same time. When she saw the three Fire Nation princesses, she wanted to get out of there as soon as she could but something else stopped her.

            “Omo, is that Minho and Yuri…fighting with…Amber?!” Soo-Young exclaimed. “Omomomomo…what the heck is going on here?!”

            She looked around and saw Queen Hyoyeon watching and cheering along with the Fire Nation princesses and others. Then right at that moment, she saw her brother and her best friend getting totally wiped out by Amber single-handedly. With another strike, Amber sent the two of them flying into the air. Thankfully Hyoyeon cushioned their landing by softening the hard ground. Everyone was safe.

            “Wow, your earth-bending skills are amazing!” Hyoyeon complimented Amber. “You definitely have great potential.”

            “Thank you, Your Highness,” said Amber with a bow. Both Yuri and Minho gritted their teeth in anger. Now their chances of being chosen were crushed.

            Hyoyeon then turned to Yuri and Minho and said with a kind smile, “Both of you need more work. I’m afraid that you both will fall behind if you start the intense training. I really enjoyed watching both of you though. Both of you have great potential too. Maybe someday if you get better, you can come to me and show your skills again.”

            “Thank you, Your Highness,” they both said dejectedly.

            Then Yuri went down on her knees and began to beg, “Please, I really want to learn earth bending from you! Please accept me! I’ll work hard! I’ll do anything!”

            All of a sudden, someone called out to Amber. They all knew who that was.

            “There you are! And you too!” Junsu said to Amber and to Soo-Young. He was out of breath. He probably ran all the way to the battlefield. “Goodness, how could you shirk work like this? You work for me so please do what I say!”

            “Junsu Oppa!” Queen Hyoyeon cried as she ran toward her brother. “Look at my headpiece! Isn’t it pretty?”

            “Oh my little sister, you grow up so fast!” Junsu said with his “cute” voice.

            “So you know these guys?” Hyoyeon pointed to Amber, Minho, and Yuri.

            “Amber works for me at the restaurant, Yuri used to work for me, and Minho’s sister works for me too. But now it looks like they all ditched me just so they can train with you. Such disloyal fools.”

            “Well, Amber does have great potential…,” Hyoyeon said thoughtfully.

            “If you’re going to steal my employees from me, then go ahead!” Junsu said angrily.

            “Oppa, I’ll think about it carefully before I accept her. I’ll consider your employee needs. For now, since I’m all fired up, why don’t we have another match?” Hyoyeon suggested. "Why don't you sit and watch with us? You've work hard already."

            When Junsu realized that even his brother Key and dishwasher Kwangsoo were already watching the match, he gave up and just sat with them to watch the show.

            "Okay, who wants to play along?" Hyoyeon asked.

            “I want to fight!” Sunny stood proudly. “I’m sick of just defeating Taeyeon over and over during our training. It’s getting boring.”

            Taeyeon grimaced. “Well, if I that bad, you could have said so.”

            “Don’t worry. You’ll crush her someday, I know it.” Fany gave Taeyeon an encouraging hug and winked with a smile.

            “Sica, I challenge you!” Sunny said with an adorable giggle. Sica just rolled her eyes.

            “Sure, whatever,” Sica said as she stood up to get ready.

            Third match: Sunny versus Sica. The Royal Palace guards placed huge barrels of water for Sica to waterbend. She just calmy stood there and glared at Sunny, who was stretching and bouncing and all fired up for a fight. It has been so long since they last had a match like this. Both felt nostalgic as they stood there. They remembered how they endlessly froze and melted ice with their water and fire bending skills back at the North Pole. Surely their skills have gotten so much better over these years. This will be a battle that will keep everyone at the edge of their seats.

            “Is Princess Sica a good waterbender?” asked Taeyeon. She has never seen anyone waterbend before. Nobody actually waterbends in the Fire Nation.

            “Yup, she’s a pretty skilled bender. Her style of waterbending is very distinguished from others. She often uses a lot of ice and freezing techniques while others pretty much just make waves—which is the norm,” Fany explained to Taeyeon.

            “Well don’t just stand there, start!” Hyoyeon yelled out.

            “Hello Sica-chu!” Sunny said with a cute wink and put her hands up on her head like bunny ears. That was Sunny’s signature taunt. She even raised the octave of her voice to a really high and annoying level and talked like a baby who can’t articulate words properly. She usually starts off acting cute and insulting her opponent before she actually does anything. “You thweenk you can dwee-fweet mwee?”

            Sica slammed a palm to her face. Her forehead burned at the sight of Sunny’s ludicrous, irritating cuteness. “Shut up, Soonkyu!” Sica yelled. She then raised her arms and gathered a huge amount of water from the barrels. Then she froze and shaped them into long pointed spears overhead and let it all rain over Sunny’s head. Taeyeon gasped. At that point, she really thought that Sunny would be killed by the giant icicles, but she thought wrong. Sunny also has bunch of tricks up her sleeve. She shielded herself with a huge dome of fire that immediately melted the icicles as they fell overhead. The icicles were reduced to harmless water.

            “Is that all you’ve got, honey?” Sunny taunted again with a high-pitched giggle. She then shot er flames directed at Sica’s feet to confuse her. Sica jumped and skipped to avoid them. Sunny just whimsically laughed at the sight of Sica bouncing to avoid her little trick.

            “Ugh, I hate it when she does that to me,” Taeyeon said to Fany. Fany just chuckled. That clever little trick is pretty funny when used on opponents.

            “Quit playing around!” Sica yelled. “If you’re going to fight, show some real skill and stop being irritating!”

            Meanwhile, Minho and Yuri sat dejectedly with the rest of the audience with Soo-Young between them as they watched the Fire Nation Princess and the Water Tribe Princess fight with each other. Compared to their totally short and lame match, the Fire and Ice match looked so much more impressive and exciting.

            “Wow, you guys got crushed real bad. Who knew Amber was that insanely strong of an earth bender?” Soo-Young said as she patted Yuri and Minho on the back.

            “Is that supposed to make us feel better?!” Yuri yelled.

            “Here, eat some fried dumplings,” Soo-Young stuffed Yuri and Minho’s mouths with the dumplings against their will. “Food always brightens up the day.”

            Unexpectedly, Hyoyeon went up to them and sat beside Yuri. Yuri was totally surprised that she immediately fell down on to her knees to show respect.

            “It’s okay. Stand up,” Hyoyeon said. “You’re Yuri, right?”

            “Oh my gosh, you know my name!” Yuri exclaimed.

            “You introduced yourself just a few minutes ago,” Minho said.

            “Oh right…,” Yuri remembered.

            “Listen, I heard from my brother that you used to work for him. Can you please come back and work at the Xiah Dragon Noodles restaurant again? Please? He really needs all the help that he can get as he adjusts to the life in the Upper Ring. And since you have impressed me with your great passion I will grant all three of you a good place to live in at the Upper Ring. When you get better at earth bending and help my brothers settle in, I will gladly welcome you as an official apprentice. However, for now, I need all of you to help my brother. Please?”

            Yuri was dumbfounded. The Great Queen Hyoyeon herself is asking her for a favor! This is just unbelievable.

            “Why yes! Yes! Of course!” Yuri said immediately.

            “Thank you, Yuri. Also, thank you Minho’s sister for being a loyal employee to the Xiah Dragon Noodles. I really appreciate it. Now let’s continue watching the exciting match!”

            “Hey Yuri, when I begged you to come back to the restaurant, you said you didn’t want to and now…,” Soo-Young said as she ate more dumplings.

            “Whatever. It’s different when the Queen asks,” Yuri shrugged.

***

            Sica shot a huge wave of water at Sunny and froze her right on the spot to stop her from throwing er attacks. Sunny immediately freed herself with a huge blast of fire from her palms, feet, and mouth. The battle raged on—neither side giving up. Sunny kept on taunting Sica while Sica attacked as hard as she could to free her burning anger. In the end, Hyoyeon called it a draw since both ended up looking like a huge mess after a long fight. Both panting for air, they gave each other a big hug. It was a great fight.

            “I want to fight too!” Krystal stood up.

            “Taeyeon will fight you,” Fany spoke up.

            “What?” Taeyeon was caught off-guard. “I can’t fight a kid. Are you crazy?”

            “What’s wrong, Eonni? Are you scared?” Krystal teased playfully.

            “Yeah, Taeyeon, are you scared?” Fany also teased as she poked Taeyeon’s arms.

            “No, I’m not scared,” Taeyeon finally stood up. She had a really terrible feeling about battling a little kid, but she just went with it anyway. It’s about time that she put all that training to the test.

            Hyoyeon went up to Taeyeon and shook her hands. “Taeyeon, it’s nice to finally meet you. From what I’ve heard, you trained with Sunny and are a pretty decent fire bender yourself. This will be very interesting. Let’s start!”

            Last and most unexpected fight: Little Krystal versus Short Taeyeon. Krystal had a huge smirk on her face, as if she was ready to kill someone. She looked very different from the sweet little girl that Taeyeon just met a few days ago. Taeyeon, on the other hand, does not even know what to expect. She has never fought a water bender before. Her heartbeat pounded faster. This is the time that she gets to show off her skills.

            “Warning, Eonni,” Krystal spoke up. “I won’t go easy on you!”

            “Tch… Go ahead!” Taeyeon yelled back.

            With quick arm movements, Krystal immediately started off with a huge powerful wave aimed at the unprepared Taeyeon. As the large wave of water headed straight to Taeyeon, she suddenly went blank. She had no idea what to do. In a split second, she closed her eyes shut and her subconscious reflex took control. At that moment, the Firelord, the King of the Water Tribe, the abdicated Earth King, King Eunhyuk, and other high officials and nobles came to watch the fight too. Almost everyone in the party witnessed it. With a quick wave of her hands as a reflex to protect herself, Taeyeon split the humongous wave in half. She was left unharmed.

            “Oh. My. Gosh,” Fany mumbled with eyes fixed on Taeyeon. Sunny’s jaw dropped. Sica’s lazy eyes suddenly dilated. Krystal stood there in shock. Soo-Young spit out all the food in . Hyoyeon suddenly stood up from her seat. Firelord was very surprised too.

            “Did-d-did T-Taeyeon just water bend?” Sunny stuttered. The entire crowd was too stunned to react.

            “Soo-Young, didn’t you say that she’s one of the Fire Nation Princesses you stole from? Fire Nation can’t water bend…right?” Yuri asked with a blank expression on her face.

            “I think I shouldn’t have stolen the invitations from her…I shouldn’t have yelled at her either…” Soo-Young thought.

            When Taeyeon opened her eyes to see that she was still alive, she saw water scattered everywhere, except for where she stood. She saw her opponent pale in shock. Everyone else had a stunned expression on their faces.

            “What happened?” Taeyeon thought. She had no idea that she just water bended. Her eyes were closed the whole time.

            Some of the eunuchs who witnessed the event with Queen Hyoyeon realized what it was. A Fire Nation child was suddenly able to water bend—it could only mean one thing. They went up to Taeyeon and then bowed down at her feet. Taeyeon had no idea why these eunuchs were suddenly bowing to her.

            “It seems that we have found the new Avatar!”

            “Avatar? What? Me?” Taeyeon stood in surprise.

            One by one, everyone at the coronation party bowed down to her in reverence. She stood there awkwardly as she saw everyone, even the Kings and rulers, pay her with great respect.

            “All hail Avatar Taeyeon!”

ALL HAIL AVATAENG!