Elements Basket
Chapter 1
The streets were crowded in the market district of the Fire Nation capital. The colors of red, black, and everything in between decorated the many buildings and booths. The sun was high in the sky, watching its people from its far away place, but giving them warmth with its long reach. The townspeople went about their business, as always, but there were two newcomers who wandered aimlessly, each wearing the odd-looking color of blue within this mass.
"Sokka, you bought the wrong plane tickets!" Katara exclaimed at her older brother, blue eyes fiercely glaring.
"You told me it was plane 32!" Sokka defended himself, holding his hands up.
"No, I said it was plane 23," replied an annoyed Katara. She crossed her arms and looked around at their surroundings. Their quarrel went unnoticed by the people near them, but their clothes did get stares.
"Well, there's no point in arguing about it," Sokka finally said, trying to diffuse the argument. "What's done is done. Let's find a place to stay for now." Katara wasn't very happy with what her brother said, but wasn't going to argue any further. She could only check to see how much money they had left after buying their plane tickets. The silver coins shined a little in the sunlight from her palm, but she didn't see anything spectacular about them; it wasn't very much.
The Water Tribe siblings continued on through the busy street, each glancing around in search for a cheap place to stay. The sun's heat was more than either of them were used to, as they had lived their entire lives in the Southern Water Tribe, where it was always covered in ice.
It seemed mutual agreement when their eyes met that they needed some food. So they each checked out some of the booths that sold groceries. Sokka paid more attention to the freshly cooked meat, mouth watering at the sight of the heavily spiced food.
"Katara," Sokka pointed at his one weakness, almost begging. "Please?" Katara sighed, paying the man at the booth for two sticks with the thoroughly cooked meat skewered on them. "Yay!" Sokka quickly took his into his hands, almost bursting from his own excitement to try this new kind of meat. He took a large bite.
Katara rolled her cerulean eyes at her brother's antics before taking a small bite of her own. It was really spicy, but that was only to be expected in the Fire Nation; she didn't really like it, but it would have to do for now.
"HOT!" The older Water Tribe boy shouted, eyes watering. He frantically danced around in a circle, fanning his poor tongue with his hand.
"Fire Nation. Hot." Katara deadpanned at him. "Duh."
A young girl with a sweet smile watched Sokka do his little dance and giggled. Her hand covered her mouth and her long braid swayed from her laughter. It was when the boy gulped down Katara's water canteen that he finally sighed in relief.
When he finally noticed that he had a captive audience of one girl, he questioned her. "What's so funny?" He was on-guard even if this was a girl.
"You are!" Her silver eyes shined brightly. "You don't look like you're from here," she switched to standing on her hands and looking at the pair upside down.
"No, we aren't," Katara replied to the girl. "My brother was supposed to get us tickets to the North Pole," she added with an irritated glance to Sokka.
"My name's Ty Lee!" She introduced herself with a bright smile, already acting as though they're friends.
"I'm Katara," the waterbender smiled, but it fell when she motioned to her brooding brother. "And this is my brother, Sokka."
"Why don't you come have dinner with my family? They'd love to meet you!"
It all seemed so sudden, and Katara was unsure. She couldn't impose on this girl's family when she didn't even know her. She did seem like a sweet girl though, and maybe they could help them find a place to stay for the night.
"We'll pass," Sokka answered without a second thought, trying to be the responsible older brother. Katara pulled him aside and whispered.
"Sokka," she spoke in a hushed tone, "why not?"
"We don't even know this girl, she could be dangerous!" Sokka responded seriously.
"Do you really think that she could be dangerous, Sokka?" Katara raised an eyebrow. "She's really nice to offer this." Her brother crossed his arms and turned his head, telling her that he wasn't budging. "What else can we do? We don't even know our way around here."
Sokka sighed loudly. "Fine," he pointed a finger at her though, "but if I sense the slightest bit of danger, we are out of there."
Katara shook her head and smiled back at Ty Lee. "We'd love to have dinner with you and your family."
"Yay!" Ty Lee jumped back to her feet, grabbing both of their hands. "Let's go!" She went on to drag them down the street, not giving them the chance to keep up with her.
"I'm home!" Ty Lee called as she brought her new friends into the palace with her. Both of the siblings were looking at each other a little bewildered. They were inside the Fire Nation palace. This girl had never mentioned that she lived with the royal family. Did this mean she was a princess? She didn't look it at least, and certainly didn't act like it.
"About time," an extremely pale girl with black hair spoke with a dry voice as she walked over. She was rather tall and her hair was very straight and long even though it was mostly tied up, her short bangs resting on her forehead. Underneath her bangs, her dark eyes were squeezed into slits at the sight of two unfamiliar people. Her mouth was pulled into an even deeper frown. "Who are these people, Ty Lee?" She demanded more than inquired, which put the Water Tribe teens on edge.
"These are my new friends, Katara and Sokka!" Ty Lee motioned to the pair with her hands in a friendly manner. "Katara, Sokka, this is Mai."
"Nice to meet you," Katara forced a smile as she said those words. Mai didn't seem impressed at all. Her cold eyes focused on the happy-go-lucky girl, who didn't seem to notice the thick tension.
Another girl entered the room, looking over with golden eyes. "What's going on?" She walked over, wearing a more official-looking outfit. "Ty Lee," she got the girl's attention with her promptness.
"Oh!" Ty Lee gave a bow to this girl before saying to us. "And this is our beautiful, wonderful Princess Azula!"
Azula put on a smile and brushed a strand of her brown hair from her face. "Hello," she simply greeted. "I'm sure you're honored." She acted so self-absorbed and confident.
Katara was taken aback by her remark, and introduced herself to avoid answering that. "My name's Katara, and this is Sokka."
Azula gave a fake smile before calling to the one whom invited them. "Ty Lee, would you come here?" Ty Lee went off with the two other girls, ensuring they were out of earshot of the Water Tribe duo.
"What were you thinking, Ty Lee?" Azula questioned straight to the point, eying her closely. "You can't just bring random people into our home!"
"I thought it'd be nice," she replied innocently. "I just wanted us to have some friends…"
"Do you want someone to find out?" The threat in Mai's voice only reiterated how serious this was to the girl, but Azula, the clear leader of the group, hushed her.
"We might as well make the best of this," Azula spoke. She looked at her fingernails, bored. "Let's humor Ty Lee." The most Azula expected out of this was something different from normal; things did get very boring around the palace, so why not allow these visitors to stay?
Ty Lee's smile brightened. "Thank you, Azula!" She twirled and bowed before the princess, making Mai roll her eyes.
"Let us go entertain our guests then," Azula clapped twice as if beckoning them as servants before striding back to where they left the confused siblings. Ty Lee followed obediently, while the gloomy girl followed with resentment.
Katara and Sokka looked back to the three of them when they returned. Sokka had been close to making Katara leave with him, but hadn't gotten the chance to do so. But Katara was almost having second thoughts as well; however, she told herself to think the best of these people. They were having them over for dinner.
"My apologies for that," Azula clasped her hands together, assuming the place as hostess now. "Why don't we move to the courtyard?" The siblings glanced warily at each other before going with them.
After spending time in the palace's expansive courtyard, everyone was sat down at the long table for dinner. Sokka glanced around at the beautiful décor of the dining room, wondering how big the palace really was. It appeared huge on the outside, but inside it seemed even bigger.
Katara did her best to be polite and engage in conversation with Azula's uncle, Iroh. He was quite wise and kind, which is not what she envisioned firebenders to be at all. She guessed she thought of more angry, intense personalities. Iroh was very mellow and really loved his tea.
The Fire Lord, whose presence was just at the end of the table, was a reason to be anxious though. He was very serious and gazed at the Water Tribe teenagers with a bit of confusion. What were these two doing in his palace? He supposed it didn't matter if the girls brought in visitors, as long as they were careful. The Fire Lord didn't have time to mess with anything.
Ty Lee spoke up, looking up from her plate. "Mai, where's Zuko?"
"How should I know?" Mai snapped.
"Another fight?" Azula glanced at the black-haired girl, bringing her chopsticks back to her mouth.
Katara watched Mai glare at the two other girls. Who was Zuko? Must have been Mai's boyfriend or something… Her blue eyes looked to her brother to see if he was paying attention, but was too busy stuffing his face greedily with food. He noticed her gaze and looked at her like a guilty squirrel-coon.
"What?" he asked with his mouth full. Katara shook her head and looked back over to the others when Iroh stood up.
"I will go get him." The ex-general walked out of the dining room. The sudden silence seemed to last forever, and Katara stood up.
"Um, thank you for having us." She gave a small bow to the Fire Lord, then the girls. She grabbed Sokka's elbow to make him stand up with her.
The Fire Lord gave a curt nod in reply, his gold eyes switching to elsewhere. He was pretty quiet, which seemed odd to the waterbender, but she knew it was probably weird having her and her brother there. He probably had other things on his mind.
In reality though, he was trying to figure them out. What were they? They appeared to be of some importance to the Southern Water Tribe, according to conversation between Iroh and the girls. Apparently they were going to visit family in the Northern Water Tribe, but somehow ended up there. How that happened was beyond him.
Katara had decided it was about time they get going, and turned towards the doorway. There was a bit of shouting down the hall, followed by the sound of someone stomping through the hall.
"Zuko, wait!" Iroh called, but was too late.
Something collided into Katara, but the weight of it disappeared when the area was engulfed with red smoke. She felt herself fall onto her back, but the shock of it all was what kept her down. When the smoke cleared, she sat up. Her eyes widened at the sight of what was on top of her, staring at her with annoyed eyes.
A red cat. Zuko?