The Forgotten Folk
Ba Sing Se was a riot of activity. Hundreds of people from all backgrounds walked the streets. Water Tribe merchants selling tortoiseseal jerky and elepantwhale blubber by the kilo. Swamp dwellers head and shoulders above others and looking all the more awkward. Earth Kingdom folk were the most prevalent; Soldiers given a wide berth but there weren't many of them; there was no war in Ba Sing Se. Dai Li given an even wider berth and moving like leopardeels among the crowd. The well-to-do rubbing shoulders with the common people and making a show of hating it. The commoners passing by the beggars and turning their eyes away. The beggars sitting next to squirrelrats, wondering if they could throw a hand out fast enough to catch them.
There were other folk in the streets, too. They were harder to spot but if you knew what to look for you could find them. Men and women with dark hair and golden eyes who didn't suit the style of clothes they wore. They moved too casually and glanced too often at anyone hinting at authority. One such person was a woman carefully examining the fruit at a stand. Her hair was long and once better cared for than it was now. Her face was worn and tired but did nothing to hide her natural beauty. The light in her eyes had faded to a dull glow through heartache and pain. The hand that reached out for a melon was stained from work with dyes and callused from work altogether.
"Buy, lady, or get lost," the grocer groused. "Stop handling all my fruit."
She bought a breadfruit and carried it in her arms like a baby. It would be dinner that night.
She walked the crowded streets back to her home, close to the great walls. Her path took her through some of the more well-off areas of Ba Sing Se and she passed restaurants and tea shops. Others of her status and situation might have avoided those areas, but for her it was a chance to remember a life before this one. Besides, today she had a little money left over and she felt a need to spoil herself, at least just this once. And she would do it in the shop she loved the most.
The Jasmine Dragon was stately tea shop; not as extravagant as others on the street, but more noble and refined. That and the name made her think of home; her real home, not the one she now shared with three other women. Those recalled memories weren't painful like she thought they'd be. It felt more like a happy heartache. She had never been inside the Jasmine Dragon but since the shop had opened she had felt attracted to it. And today she would finally visit it.
Except as she approached the shop she saw no lights on and its door firmly closed. She edged closer and stared through the windows. There was no sign of life.
"It's closed for the night."
She turned her head to see a young woman standing by her side. The woman smiled gently. Her eyes coloured with curiousness and her hair was a wild mess tied in a tail that strangely suited her.
"Mushi and Lee have been invited to serve tea to the Earth King," the girl continued. "What an honour, huh? Anyway, you just missed them. If you came an hour ago I'm sure they'd have been happy to serve you tea."
The woman with the breadfruit sighed and looked back through the windows. So much for spoiling herself today. She hunched her shoulders a little, held her load a little tighter and made to leave.
The girl put a hand on her arm. "Hang on a sec, don't feel bad. I'm sure they'll open tomorrow." She smiled suddenly. "I can show you another place that serves great tea – not as good as Mushi's mind you – but still fantastic."
The woman hesitated. The Jasmine Dragon was a place that made her want to relive the past. But maybe…maybe it was time to find the strength to move on. Let the past be just that – the past. She nodded her assent.
The girl's smile widened. "Great. I'm Jin, by the way."
The woman opened her mouth, halted and stuttered out a reply. She had almost said her old name then, the name before the life she now had. But she was no longer that person. 'Ursa' was from her past and, therefore, forgotten.