This is my final submission for the Pro-Bending Circuit. My prompts for this treasure hunt is a bouquet of flowers, large animal, and getting stuck in a tree. It has been fun to be a part of the Pro-Bending Circuit, it has been a good way to improve my writing even if only marginally. Go Eel Hounds! Word count - 1197
Azula's Hard Lesson pt. 2
"This'll show Azula." Mai mutters walking out of the Royal Palace with a sack of Azula's clothing strung over her shoulder. "Yeah!" Ty Lee cheers beside Mai with her own sack of clothing over her shoulder, the dried tear marks on her cheek giving Mai a renewed sense of purpose. "So we're just going to hide all her clothes and force her to walk around nude trying to find them?" Ty Lee asks her usual chipper attitude coming back after her incident with Azula.
"Yep, that's the general idea. Revenge is so very sweet." Mai smirks heading over to a nearby vendor. They had left a clue for Azula to find her first item of clothing near the entrance of the palace with this note placed on her pillow. "Fire flowers are red, water lilies blue, sucks to be as naked as you, too bad you don't have a bralette or two." They stop in front of the man selling bouquets of fire flowers and water lilies.
"What can I do for you ladies this fine day?" He asks them with a warm smile. "Oh, we're just looking at this wonderful selection of flowers you have. They are so beautiful!" Ty Lee smiles happily and takes a deep breath. "And they smell so good!"
"Why thank you ma'am." The florist smiles brightly in response to Ty Lee's words. "Here take a fire flower for a pretty Fire Nation lady like yourself." He hands Ty Lee a single fire flower making her whole face light up. "Why thank you!" She smiles and glances over at Mai who nods. "Have a good day, sir!" She waves then skips over to Mai. "This is so nice of him." Mai just rolls her eyes and walks.
"Nice distraction Ty Lee. I was able to hide a few of her bras in his stash of flowers. Let's just hope Azula finds them before he closes up shop for the day." Mai snickers and heads to their next stop. "This is going to be so great." Mai smirks looking up at the tall tree that towers over the pond in the back of the palace.
"What are we doing here?" Ty Lee asks laying out across the grass with a soft sigh. "I'm going to tie a pair of pants up at the top of the tree. She's going to have to climb all the way up there to get them." Ty Lee tilts her head back to look up the tree. "That's one tall tree." Mai starts to climb up the tree quickly ascending up the branches. "Aren't you afraid of heights?" Ty Lee calls. "Pfft, no!" She hollers back as she ties the pants to the highest limb of the tree making it billow in the wind. Mai starts descending but stops half way down. "Ty Lee!" She yells her voice shaking. "I-I can't get down." She whimpers holding to the trunk. "I-It's too high."
"I knew this was going to happen." Ty Lee mutters softly then jumps up and quickly makes it to where Mai is, all but frozen against the tree trunk in fear. "It's okay, Mai. It's not that high up and I'll help you down. Just let your body follow the contours and the bend of the tree and we'll be down in no time!"
"N-no, i-it's too high." She bemoans. "Come on Mai. We have to go hide the rest of Azula's clothing before she finds us!" Mai opens her eyes and focuses on Ty Lee. "Right. We have a mission to complete." She slowly follows Ty Lee down the tree and all but kisses the ground when she's on solid ground. "Should not have done that." Mai murmurs. "Well that's obvious." Ty Lee drawls. It takes every ounce of self restraint Mai has not to do something that would hurt Ty Lee's feelings.
"Whatever, we got it done. Let's move on to the stables." Mai says standing and shaking the dust off her pristine black clothing. "With a bra and pants Azula will have to fend off some ornery buffalo-horses if she wants a shirt. Which shouldn't be hard for our perfectionist of a princess." Mai sneers.
"That wasn't very nice Mai, you're a bit of a perfectionist too." Mai ignores that comment and keeps walking.
"What clue did you give Azula to find her pants?" Ty Lee questions.
"Find me, find me, flying high, I'm the flag way up high." Mai tells her as she turns the corner to the Royal Stables. "And on the pants I put 'One bit, two bits to cover you, but wouldn't it be so nice to cover the rest of you? Look for me where things unbroken reside in solitude.'"
"You are so clever Mai! I'm terrible with rhymes." Ty Lee does a cartwheel and a flip. "So where are we going to hide her shirts?" Mai points to the buffalo-horse that was still being broke in the solitude pen. "There." Ty Lee gasps.
"In there? With that?! She'll never get it!"
"One can hope, Ty Lee. One can hope." Mai smirks. "Now I know that he loves apples so you go stand on the other side of the pen and hold an apple and I'll hide the shirts."
"How do you know it likes apples Mai?" Ty Lee asks as she takes an apple out of a bucket near by. Mai shrugs. "I've been watching them try to break it unsuccessfully. He's a stubborn one and goes berserk when someone enters his pen. Now go hold the apple on the other side of the pen, oh by the way his name is Krono." This particular animal had a fairly large pen so it could expend some energy that it usually takes out on its trainers. "Okay, I'm going." Ty Lee walks to the other side and holds out the apple. The buffalo-horse immediately runs over to Ty Lee, it's powerful front letting it cross the space quickly. Ty Lee shakes a little as she holds the apple out like Mai had shown her, flat hand with the apple on top.
"T-there's a good Krono." Ty Lee's voice wavers slightly as he sniffs her hand and the apple. "J-just take it and d-don't take my fingers." Ty Lee whimpers as he reaches for the apple and takes it off of Ty Lee's hand. In the background Ty Lee could see Mai tying the shirt to a post then quickly jumping out of the pen. As soon as Mai is over the fence Ty Lee scrambles back to safety. Mai joins her and smiles triumphantly. "Good luck Azula." She smirks and heads to the castle with Ty Lee, her work finished.
A.N. To read the next part go find Azula's Hard Lesson pt. 3