Okay, so the second part of the song is mostly from a song called "Gypsy Dreams" on youtube and I take no credit for it. I did alter it slightly to make it work for this, but it's not mine! I imagine the song she dances to first sounds like "Koi Fish" from the ATLA soundtrack. The second song is a mix of my own lyrics and "Gypsy Bard"
Into the Open Air
Part II: Dancing in the Square
"I'm telling you, Zuko," Sokka said around a mouthful of spiced jerky. "You can always find swords at fairs like these; but, the best are always-"
"Listen," Toph interrupted him. In the square beyond the jerky vendor's stall, a small band of musicians were warming up on the edge of a fountain. An old bearded man with an ehru tapped his foot three times and the other instruments joined in his folksy jig. "Come on!" Toph grabbed Sokka by the shirtsleeve and ran toward the fountain. The others followed.
A crowd had gathered around the musicians, matching the rhythm with the clapping of their hands. Zuko watched and shook his head as Aang and Katara joined the cheering.
"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen," a man in gypsy robes emerged from the other side of the fountain. He removed his head wrap and bowed to the crowd. "I am Boshko and we," he motioned to the band, "are the Shinjiru troubadours. We travel across each of the nations mastering our arts and performing for you." He paused for the band to flaunt their musical talents.
"But tonight," he sidled up to Sokka, "is a special occasion. We are humble people, but we do have one treasure."
From a smoke screen of a small violet explosion, a dancer appeared. The gathered onlookers erupted into applause, Zuko, even, put his hands together for the showmanship.
"THE BEAUTIFUL NANAMI!" cried Boshko as the dancer girl circled him. She wore a long translucent skirt, the same violet as the fire trick, that draped over her legs, leaving little to the imagination. As she shook her hips, the fabric moved like water over her skin. Her stomach was bare and she draped a scarf over her shoulders. Zuko narrowed his eyes at such a display.
Boshko began to sing.
"No one knows where she comes from. Noone knows who she is; but when she leaves them, they remember those hips." The dancer, the girl called Nanami, raised her arms and threw her hips about. It seemed to Zuko that she was able to move them in such a way that they appeared more connected to the beat of the drum than to the rest of her body.
"Dance with us on a gypsy path, lull us to sleep with your gypsy laugh, tell us a tale and ride on the wind! Twirling skirts and a dev'lish grin, come and dance as the pan flute sings!" Boshko then surrendered the impromptu stage to the dancer. She swayed and skipped around the ring created by the onlookers. Zuko grew dizzy trying to watch her feet, so he focused his eyes on her hips. He found little relief there. She would leapt into the air, then would fall back down, her legs split. She would move her arms over her head like some enchantress and bend her back so far over, the crowd gasped, sure she would fall. But she never did fall. After each feat, she would flash her rogue's smile and the crowd would clap. She even used fire bending, small brightly-colored flames cradled in her palms, to lure in the crowd.
Then, she noticed the guests of honor.
Nanami approached them, she hooked her arm around Toph who clung to Sokka, but the gypsy managed to pull the earthbender away. Crossing his arms, Zuko nearly laughed as the deft dancer managed to swing a wide-eyed and panicked Toph around and deposit her safely back in her spot.
"I think I'm going to throw up," Toph grumbled to Zuko. This time, he did laugh.
His eyes were then caught by a flash of yellow as Aang and Katara joined the dancer in the center. The two laughed as they danced with her. She smiled and Katara giggled. Aang, as the airbender he was, was able to match Nanami's light steps and Katara, like water, was able to move right along with her. They waved for Sokka to come with them.
"No, no," he held up his hands and Aang and Katara returned.
Zuko's eyes, however, never left the dancer. She was stepping in his direction and the music had fallen into a dark and exotic, sultry beat. Aang elbowed him. The Fire Lord opened his mouth to protest, but before any words could leave his lips, she was there. It was his turn.
As she approached him, he tried to keep his gaze glued to her dark blue-green eyes, but her roguish smile set him off balance and his eyes ended up following the curves of her body and resting on her navel . He swallowed hard, scowling as she twisted her body around him. In a desperate attempt to escape, he took a step back, but she was ahead of him. She draped her scarf around his shoulders and pulled her to him. Once, her hip bumped his.
Sokka and Aang led the crowd in whooping applause as Nanami pulled Zuko to the center of the square with her scarf. Like a snake, she circled him, trapping him in her steps. He spun to avoid her, but each time she moved into his path. She was so close to him, Zuko could smell the floral perfume of her long hair.
The music picked up and, with a wild whirl of her skirts, she began to spin in a circle. Her spin amazed him. She was as fluid as a top and seemed to be able to go on forever. Unconsciously, his fingers reached for the soft fabric of one of her skirts. Just as it grazed the back of his hand, another burst of fire surrounded him in hazy purple smoke.
She was gone and Zuko was left standing, dumb-founded and red-faced in the middle of the square. He looked over his shoulder, searching for another glimpse of the gypsy dancer
As the crowd dispersed, he heard Sokka guffaw as The Water Tribe Chief dropped twenty yuans into a bowl held out by a gypsy boy. "Just for the look on the Fire Lord's face."
The second day of the festival, Nanami walked down the street to the fountain. Thankfully, the turn out at the previous night's performance had been large enough that she was free to dance as she wished tonight. When she reached the band, they were waiting.
"Nanami," Ginji greeted her from beneath his beard. "What are we doing tonight?"
Nanami looked around gauging the crowd. She closed her eyes and listened to the streets. From a distance, sharp and clear she heard the laughter of children.
"Let's do The Ballad of the Gypsy Child," She took her place beside the band as Ginji told them their first song.
"Nami!"
"Kito!" She knelt as the small boy rushed her. "What are you doing? It's late."
"I wanted to see the festival, but father wouldn't take me." She ran her hair through his rambunctious hair and he smiled up at her. He had Ilya's smile. Nanami's best friend had been the boy's mother, but she had taken ill and died two years before. Since then, she kept her eye on him, refusing to let any harm come to him.
"Alright," she said, "but stay close." Ginji patted the wall of the fountain beside him and Nanami made sure Kito was sitting before she began her song.
Zuko strolled down the rows of craftsman's carts as he made his way to the square. There were potters and tanners, bakers and bird-keepers. As he perused a selection of hand-blown glass, he noticed a familiar item. Could it be? Across the bazaar was a woodworker. Zuko went over to his stall.
"Good evening, Fire Lord," grinned the pot-bellied man from beneath smiling eyelids as he whittled away at a miniature koalasheep. "Does anything catch your eye?"
"Actually, yes. That mask."
"Ah," the woodworker stood from his stool and gingerly handed the Fire Lord a blue mask. "The Blue Spirit."
Zuko turned it over in his hands. It was an exact replica of the one he had worn as a teenager determined to hunt down the Avatar. How appropriate that it should show up here and now, at the anniversary of peace.
"Are you familiar with the legend?" asked the woodworker.
"Very," said Zuko, grinning at the irony. "How much for the mask?"
"Thirty yuans, sir."
As Zuko pulled out the money, he heard the voice of a woman sing sweetly over the hum of the market. He handed the craftsman the yuans and turned to find the source.
"Fire Lord, this is too much," the woodworker tried to give back the extra but Zuko had already started to follow the singing.
"Keep it."
Zuko found the owner of the voice, in a wild assortment of skirts and colors, perched delicately on the fountain wall. All around her, small children listened to her song. It was the dancer from this square. Her hair had been done up in intricate braids and her voice was like a lullaby. Zuko leaned against a wall and listened in.
"Sweet gypsy child who cries in the night, oh, where has your mother gone?" A tiny boy scampered up onto her lap and the fleeting image of him as a child entered his mind, along with the idea of Zuko being a father. "Do you know what the road holds for you? Do you know the path you walk? Without roots do your feet yearn to wander? Follow me and the earth we will roam. You are a gypsy child now," the woman sat the boy on the ground and stood. "an orphan gypsy child." From within her skirts she pulled a fan and raised one of her hands. "Forget your past, but never forget this song." Their eyes met and Zuko could tell she smirked beneath the cover of her fan.
The gypsy bard abandoned the solemn lullaby and picked up a joyful pace.
"When your luck seems to be tangled, simply bundle all your bangles and listen to the jingle-jangle of my gypsy tambourine." The dancer skipped about and the children joined her. She shook her wrists, turning her many bracelets into a tiny instrument.
"Sweet child in your chest, lies the heart of a gypsy, hear its tambourine beat and you will never be lost." She waved her fan as the musicians picked up the lead and with a child on each side laughed and spun in circles. Occasionally, she would look up at him and they acknowledged each other's presence, but Zuko did not move to approach her.
"Forget your past, but never forget the words to this song." She seemed to sing directly to him now, as if he were one of her tiny gypsies, but he was not a child and he was the Fire Lord. The Fire Lord had no place in his heart for the songs of a gypsy, no matter how hard they tugged at his heart.
"When your luck seems to be tangled, simply bundle all your bangles and listen to the jingle-jangle of my gypsy tambourine."
She finished the song and the children's mothers carted them away. Smiling, Zuko stayed and watched a few more songs. As the girl, whose name he remembered was Nanami sang of fishermen lost at sea, of maidens becoming the moon, his thoughts drifted back to the previous day's council meeting. What was he doing, lingering over this gypsy girl when he would soon be married? When the festival had waned, however, and the night grown old, Zuko watched Nanami lift the sleeping boy in her arms and follow the musicians out of the square and knew he had to see her again.
How did this chapter go. I'm kind of on the fence. I think it could have been better, but I really didn't know how else to communicate what I wanted to say, then again, I could just be picky.
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