Ursa wrapped her cloak around her tightly against the chill of the night. She walked slowly, as she usually did, down the center of the well-trodden road, looking around her at the soft light in the houses. Ten years she'd been married to the Firelords second son, and between national politics and her two children, the only time she got any peace was under the stars. She wouldn't trade that for anything, she knew, but sometimes, in the dead of the night, she wondered what it would be like to be an average citizen.

She leaned against the rail of the bridge and sighed, looking out at the shimmering reflection of the moon on the water. She helt inexplicably restless this particular night, as if something were moving just out of her line of sight. The feeling had been building all day, and it was making her exceedingly jittery. She leaned over and scooped up a handful of rocks, flicking them all out onto the water at once. There was noise, seemingly from below her, that sounded human in origin.

Curiously, she lit a torch and hopped off the bridge onto the semi-firm bank of the stream. Holding the torch in front of her, she began to walk, making her footsteps as light as possible.

"Hello?" She called softly. "Is someone there?"

There was no response, but something told her to continue of, so she did. Eventually, she found herself under the bridge, completely out of view of the sky or any of the houses above. There was a sort of cavern dug into the side of the land, like a lean-to without a ceiling. In plain sight was what appeared to be the remains of a small cooking-fire. Without bothering to question why it was there, Ursa tossed her torch on top of it and lit the cavern up.

It didn't take her long to find the source of the sound she had heard, a small form huddled into a corner of the cavern.

"Are you. . .are you alive?" She managed to ask.

There was a muffled reply that she took as an affirmation. That was all she needed to regain her composure.

"Come on out of there." She coaxed.

The figure lifted its face up. Light brown eyes stared at her for a moment from behind tangled brown hair, then the face lowered again and the figure went immobile. Ursa sighed.

"Alright, don't come out." She moved to sit next to the figure, which she had identified as female by the shape of the face. "Are you alright?"

The figure made no attempt to reply to the question.

"Should I take that as a no?"

The figure made a sound.

"Have you eaten yet?" Ursa asked.

"No." The figure said hoarsely, face raised just enough to leave the mouth unhindered for speech.

Ursa met her eyes, and slowly pulled a bit of bread out of her cloak, smiling at the sudden look of interest in those eyes. She held the bit out toward the figure.

"Its alright." She said. "You can have it."

Tenatively, a hand reached out from the figure, the arm and fingers so thin and wirey that Ursa could have counted the veins in them had she wanted to, and closed around the bread. The arm and face disappeared back into the shadows, and the quiet sounds of chewing floated out.

"Thank you." The hoarse voice said shortly after.

Ursa nodded. "Of course."

The face reappeared, the eyes seeming slightly less glazed. "I don't mean to be rude, mistress, but why?"

"Why what?" Ursa asked curiously.

"You. You are Ursa, wife of Ozai?"

"You know me." Ursa stated, slightly surprised.

"Yes. Of course. Why would you help me?"

"Should I not?" Ursa asked, tilting her head to get a better view of the face. "Have you done something wrong?"

"No, mistress. I mean no disrespect, but. . .I am only a commoner."

Ursa smiled. "Ah. I was a commoner before I married Ozai," She said, "And where would the royal family be if not for the commoners?"

"I don't understand."

"Don't worry about it. Do you have a name?"

"Yes." The figure said softly. "Marah."

"Marah." Ursa repeated. "Well, Marah, will you still be here tomorrow?"

Marah laughed cynically. "I wasn't planning on it, but what the heck."

Ursa pursed her lip, feeling slightly disturbed by the insinuations of that particular sentance, and rose to her feet. "I'll bring you more food tomorrow." She promised.

Marah nodded and retreated back into the shadows.