Chapter One
"Please, I need your help!" An old man yelled while rushing into the office, nearly breaking down the door to my fathers inn.
Without question I nodded my head, and began to follow the man. The plump old man led me outside to another man who was laying on an ostrich horse, sweat glistened on his forehead.
"How long has he been ill?" I turned to the man.
"Few days, I thought it might've been a common flu but he hasn't improved."
"Hey," I hollered at a few men passing by. "Can you get him into the office."
They looked at me for a moment before nodding their head, grabbing the man off the ostrich horse. They carried him with ease and placed him onto the table where I usually check in and out people who stay.
I pushed all the paperwork and decorations onto the floor, not caring if they broke or were unorganized.
"Oh dear," the older man mumbled.
I reached into my pocket and took out four silver coins and handed them to the two men that helped me. They thanked me and were off.
"Let's see what I can do," I said to the old man. I began by taking a rag and putting it into the bucket of cool water beside me. I rung out the rag and placed onto the mans forehead. Next, I removed his shirt and pants, leaving him in his underwear.
I looked for any wounds or bruises.
"Your son?"
"No, nephew."
"Travelers?"
"Yes, to Ba Sing Se,"
"What did you eat before he got sick?" I looked at him.
"Stew, from a small shop a few days travel from here."
"Hm," I thought for a moment. Then I took the cool water bucket and dumped it onto him. I walked bent down to one of the cabinets and grabbed a jar of medicine. I tilted the mans head up and poured a little bit into his mouth.
"His fever will drop. Here," I handed the man a jar of herbs. "Give him this twice a day until his symptoms go away and then reduce it to once a day until it's gone. It should heal him. If you're travelers he probably got the springtime flu, everyone around here gets it once when we're kids, he has it because he's not from around here."
"So, my nephew will be okay?"
"Yes he will be perfectly fine," I smiled at the man. "Although, I guess I should've thought about it before having the men place him on my table. Oh well, his fever should go down any minute and he should wake up. Give him things that'll be soft on the stomach, soups, bread, things like that."
The man nodded his head, "thank you so much, there must be something I can do to repay you."
"Oh no, we're at war, I understand that people don't have money so I don't ask any for when they're sick. Besides, these herbs are all over the land around here, I'm not spending money on anything." I said while walking over to a small table, the man following behind me.
We sat down and I watched as he looked around the room.
"Are you sure?"
"Positive." I smiled at him. "Um, would you like some tea while we wait for your, uh, nephew you said, right?" I said, already preparing to walk to the small kitchen beside my makeshift office.
"Yes he is my nephew. Please," he smiled. "I love tea."
I smiled back at him and grabbed the tea pot, "you look familiar."
"Oh, yes, I get told that quite a lot."
"You're nephew looks familiar too." I pursed my lips together, trying to think of where I saw them as I poured the tea into the cups.
"Do you own this inn?"
"My father does, he's in town right now. This used to be our home, but since my mother died we decided to open up the inn. We have many rooms to do it."
"That is smart, many travelers come through here and it's a decent price from what I can tell. You could make more money if you were to charge for your medical services."
"I don't want any money, just people to be healthy and safe." I said, and then took a sip of my tea. "Besides, my mother didn't charge for her services, I'm not gonna charge for mine."
"Uncle," the mans voice interrupted our conversation.
"Lee," the old man exclaimed as he rushed to his side.
"Why am I all wet?"
"Well, you had a high fever and the best way to cool you down was by dumping water on you." I smiled at him. "I'm sure you're cold now, let me get you a blanket and some new clothes."
I rushed down the small hallway to the linen closet and grabbed a blanket and some old clothes of my fathers. I walked back but could hear them speaking in low whispers. I didn't want to be nosy but I could hear the old man call the younger one Zuko a few times. Why does that name seem familiar? I shrugged my shoulders and walked back into the main room, walking over to the younger man and handing him the blanket. He was standing now, and walked over to one of the chairs and sat down.
"This nice young lady gave me some herbs that'll help you get better." The man said.
The younger man didn't say anything, he just sent a nod in my direction as if he was saying thank you. I studied him for a minute. The scar on his face stood out to me, as I'm sure it does to everyone. My heart went out to the poor guy.
"Well," the older man said as he was helping the younger one put the blanket on him "we better—
"—You can stay here," I interrupted. "I know you two travel a lot and since he's sick still it would be a lot better to sleep in a nice bed in our inn."
"Thank you, but we don't have any money."
"Well, that's okay. You'll be doing me a favor, trust me." I said, realizing that it was slowly getting dark, which meant my father would be home soon.
"Well, if you insist." The older man said.
I smiled warmly at them and ushered them upstairs to the bedrooms. "We usually get a lot of business on colder days, since it's been so warm people haven't been really finding a need to stay in an inn, but we do manage to do pretty well."
"That is lovely to hear, by the way I never asked your name."
"Oh, its Sayuri." I smiled at them. "And you two are?"
"Oh, I'm Mushi and my nephew here is Lee."
"Well, I hope you enjoy your stay." I said opening the door to the small, but comfortable bedroom. It had two mats for sleeping and a small desk for writing. A small collection of books and other things that guests could find useful or relaxing.
He said thank you and I headed downstairs to fix up the desk at the front. It was late and a few other people checked in, mostly women brining their clients to the rooms that their clients paid for. This happened often and my father said it was good for business, if they pay we don't complain. It was always an awkward encounter when I was the one checking them in. But, it put food on the table and the men had money to spare.
It was late, around midnight when my father finally arrived back home—drunker than drunk. He could barely walk, but he and his buddy decided that it would be best to leave the bar (since they got kicked out of it) and head back home to see who could drink the most out of the bottles of sake we had.
"Eh, this your daughter?" The man hiccuped as he smiled a nearly toothless grin at me.
"Yup, that's the little slut I told you about."
My heart tightened as he said this. I loved my father dearly, but drunk him and sober him were like day and night. It was a constant back and forth of verbal abuse and apologies. His heart was broken, and it couldn't be fixed.
"She's real pretty," he said licking his lips. His eyes on me for far too long. He walked down the hall and into the room my father was in.
"Yeah, she's gonna bring in some money." I overheard him say in a very loud whisper.
"Whaddya mean?" The other man whispered back.
"I thought I'd sell her."
"Sell her?" The man laughed. "How much? When?"
"I have someone from the Fire Nation coming to pick her up early in the mornin'," my father hiccuped. "He's gonna pay me a hefty price for her. Can't stand lookin' at her."
I froze completely. Sell me? My own father was going to sell me? I left the desk and ran to my room. I contemplated on the things I should do. Should I run? Should I hide? What could I do? My heart was shattered, I never thought that he would do something think this to me. All because I looked just like my mother. I had the same brown hair as her, the same pale skin, the same green eyes. I was just like her and my father loved her to pieces.
It was so unexpected when she never came back from her usual errands. She usually would go out and collect herbs and go to the market before coming home and making breakfast. But, on this one particular day the birds weren't chirping. The wind wasn't blowing. There were no sounds. It was quiet.
The next thing I knew a few men in Fire Nation solider uniforms knocked on our door. They informed us my mother had died along with a few other men and women. My father had a break down and I was left devastated.
Morning came faster than I expected it to. I walked into the main entry way and was greeted by Mushi and a much healthier looking Lee who were ready to go on their way. My father was awake, pacing the floor. Thinking of how he's going to tell me that he plan's on selling me probably.
Before I could say goodbye to Mushi and Lee a fire nation solider walked into the room. He scanned the room and I watched as Mushi and Lee hurriedly walked back up to their room, claiming to have forgotten something.
"This her?" The man asked while pointing a finger at me.
My father didn't have the chance to answer before two other men walked in. One grabbed me instantly and I began to try to kick my feet and get away, but his grip was too tight. My father began to protest, begging them to let me go. That he changed his mind. That he was drunk. That he made a mistake, but they just laughed.
I began to scream as loud as I could for anyone to help me. That they were trying to take me, to sell me, maybe even take me and rape me.
The soldier in charge threw a box of money onto the floor that spilled and revealed a whole chest full of gold pieces. Almost a fortune.
The man holding me smacked me across the face and I shut up instantly.
"Hey, don't hurt her too bad." He said.
"Sorry," the man holding me yelled. "She was fucking hurting my ears."
I looked back at my father who was too busy with the money he just got for me and the the third man stood beside him, just incase he decided to run after me. He didn't. He made no move to rescue me as soon as he saw the money. He made no effort to even say goodbye or that he was sorry. There were only two things that meant anything to him after my mom died: booze and money.
Fire unexpectedly stopped the men in their tracks. I turned back and saw Mushi and Lee begin to fight the men. The man holding me tried to usher me outside while the man in charge and the one beside my father began engaging in battle.
Lee swiftly and gracefully knocked one man on his feet, and pulled out a pair of dao swords off his back. He took him down almost immediately and took the second one down in a matter of seconds. Fire nation soldiers who couldn't bend were almost useless, and probably the reason why they became slave traders.
"Disgraceful." I heard Mushi say to my father. "Letting your own daughter be sold to the lowest men to crawl among the earth."
The third man, the one holding me, let me go immediately and ran for his life. I began to cry and instead of running to my father and hugging him like I used to when I was afraid, I ran to Mushi and thanked him for saving me.
I turned to Lee and thanked him.
"You saved my life." He replied.
After a few moments they began to leave, and I knew I didn't have to ask permission. I hastily followed behind them. Not looking back at my father once.
