Water Burns Too
Chapter 2
A/N: Okay so here we are, chapter 2, an accomplishment on my part, hope you enjoy! So please r&r! :)
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Yep, I was right, and now I hate myself. This palace is huge! Lord Ozai made us stay in the lobby for a while as he goes to run a short speech, "won't be long," he says, leaving us in the beautifully-designed-with-nicely-done-portraits-gorgoues-vases-and-tables-with-the-same-flowers-as-outside-lobby. I had to admit, the red carpet that lead straight down the hall to an unseen end looked amazing over the white marble floor.
Moments later, Ozai's personal assistant came through the door on the left, "The Lord is returning to his chambers," great! He wasn't coming back, "-you will be escorted by a servant to your dorm," his old, pale and wrinkly face betrayed years of hard working, probably to reach where he is now, and the way his bored eyes pierced down on us as if we were nothing more than mere rats, frightened me, and those same yellow eyes rolled as he turned to leave, for a skinny guy, he sure had a lot of attitude, but everyone knew where he stood in authority, and they couldn't compare, but still, turn down the cockiness will you. While I was over thinking, a servant came suddenly, a female one; she looked pleasant, but depressed, with a forced smile, her yellow eyes betrayed loneliness and sorrow, with darks circles under them, and her black hair was pulled up in a messy bun, she must have been busy all day, with the rags and holes that patterned her clothes that were all too visible.
As she looked us over, the guard on the right nodded, and with that, she asked us to follow her, not seeing any other option, we did. We were lead along a strange path, the grey walls looked as if they hadn't been dusted in a few years, with dark markings, some even resembled hand prints, and it was creepy. This hallway didn't have any decorations; no tables, no lights, no plants or vases, no pictures, there was literally nothing but the wooden floor that creaked with every step each of us took. As we were coming in close contact with a single door a few ways down, I noticed in the corner of my eye an object, but whatever it was, it was being covered by a dirty cream cloth. What was that? It was unorthodox in comparison to the atmosphere that was created by the dull and blank hall.
Finally we arrived at the door, then the guards cut our bounds, it was about time, and I could feel all the blood rush back into my hands, and I rubbed my wrists on the red marks that were left from the rope that had been tightly wrapped in that place, it felt so good to have some semblance of freedom again.
The guards have gone now, and as we enter through the lone door, my eyes need to adjust to the sudden bright light. When I get accustom to the lighting of the room, I'm both amazed and disappointed; the walls and floor were made of earth, probably made by the earth benders, while the craftsmanship was fascinating, it was also very bland, with lit torches on the walls the illuminate the narrow walkway. We walked for a while, small steps leading down, and with every turn, it felt as though I was getting further away from the top of the earth, like I was drowning, but not suffocating, like I was being buried, but this time, there was no dirt in my eye covering the light.
Soon enough, we reached an opening, well, more like a market; there were dozens, if not thousands of people running up and about, one minute they were here then the next; nowhere to be found! My blue eyes scanned the area as best as possible with all the activity going on, from what I can gather, there was a kitchen in the far left corner, and endless doorways on the right side of the whole room.
As we all tried to understand what exactly was going on, the woman who we had been following turned around, then she started doing what I believed was explaining, "This is the main room," our eyes quickly looked at everything again, "In here we work, chat, and in there," she pointed to the multiple holes in the right wall, "is where we sleep, you will have room buddies, because there aren't that many dorms for each of us to have our own. You are only allowed in your rooms for the morning, then you will work all day," her face looked drained of life as she said this, "if you are sick, your purpose will be minimal, but heed this, if your health does not resume to its regular functioning within a month, you will be," pause, "put down forever," gasping could be heard from all around, my mouth opened as well, but nothing came out, it was like my voice had confined by some unknown force, and as I watch the people who were now trapped in this hell hole with me, everything seemed to fade away for a while, but that world vanished as I heard a noise. I looked around and saw some pots and pans on the floor, and there was a boy picking them up quickly with an old woman walking towards us. She had white hair and dirty skin, but her yellow eyes were a dead giveaway of her heritage, I just didn't get it, who was the Fire Nation really loyal to? I mean, they have their own people serving as slaves, and the civilians just settled for this as normal, what on God's green earth were they thinking!
I looked up when the same old woman from before had reached us, her wrinkled face screamed years, and years of endless work, and her fairly large body was hunched over slightly, not good for the back if you ask me, "I am Tsunad," she started suddenly, voice light but womanly, "This is Ako," our attention was brought back to the young female adult who had been talking previously, "I am the head of all that you see happening here," somebody just fell, " pay no attention that. I organize any and everything, but I spend most of my time in the kitchen making meals, if you are good at cooking, we will need you, more chefs, as you can clearly see," she pointed to the kitchen where smoke was now emanating, "uhh fools," I heard her whisper under her breath with a bored, or maybe accustom expression plastered over her facial features, and I giggled, slightly amused by the havoc being caused by the 'fools'. "If you are willing to learn how to cook, then that will also be greatly be appreciated," we nodded, obviously understanding, I mean, what was there not to understand. Ako, as I now knew her, took us to our apparently assigned rooms, I studied mine, five other mats on the floor besides my own. Ako told me that since it was my first, I would be allowed to rest, what a relief!
Finding nothing better to do, I just decided to sleep, not like I had any baggage or anything, there was nothing but my body, oh well, time to count sheep.
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Trying to count sheep is actually a lot harder when there is practically a war going on outside your room, those servants were either taking their work very seriously, or not at all, with the amount of noise they were making you'd think Lord Ozai would by complaining about a lack of sleep, then again, I was right next to it, and he must have been a thousand floors up. I had to admit, even with all the noise, nobody yelled at anyone, one would think with all the bustling and moving that there would be some semblance of conflict, but to my surprise, none of that existed here.
I walked out into the endless movement, it had only been half an hour since I arrived, and 'settling in' wasn't working for me, so, I decided some exploring would me some good, after all, getting accustom to my 'new home' as Ozai put it, was definitely a necessity, but, as soon as I saw to various different pathways, discouragement flooded my mind, I sighed.
"Hey what's wrong?" scared, right now, I was scared, as my head turned slightly and cautious, my eyes caught sight of a young boy, about the same age as myself, he had big green pupils, not doubt, and I saw hope in them, his tan skin and dark brown messy hair made it all too obvious that his heritage was Earth Kingdom. He walked over to me, smile on his face and a skip in his step, he was taller than me, so I had to tilt my head just a bit to watch him properly, "I'm sorry, didn't mean to scare you," he said sheepishly. Now I was turned completely in his direction, still a little frightened, I answered slowly with my eyes to the floor, "it's okay," after I had said this, a hand was extended toward me, did he want to hand shake? I responded by doing the same, and we shook hands, as we did so, he spoke up again, smiling all the while, "my name is Hiko," interesting name, "Katara," dull reply, ugh! What is wrong with me, he's being nice and I'm being so, blah! "Nice to meet you," I added and put on a small smile myself. We let go, and then it just turned into an awkward silence, until Hiko broke it, thank God, "So, what were you doing, if you don't mind me asking."
"I was kind of exploring, well, some version of it," I chuckled a bit, as did he.
"Your new," this was more of a statement than a question, so I just nodded in response.
"Yeah, can't say I've seen you before, but if you want to look around, I can show you," the offer was a genuine one, and I was obliged to accept it with a simple smile.
"Alright, I'll go ask Ms. Tsunad," and he was off, running in the direction that he used to get here. Standing there was actually boring, not that I anticipated any excitement, but I figured that maybe it would be relaxing, the silence and all, just a moment to myself, but it did feel good to use my voice and talk to another soul, as it was, my throat had been dry from lack of use.
"She said okay!" I jumped at the sudden voice that boomed through the quite hall that I stood in, fortunately for me, it was just Hiko running towards me with a big smile on his face. Boy was he hyperactive.
"She said okay," he repeated as he reached near me.
"I actually heard you the first time," my reply came out colder than I wanted it to, but Hiko didn't seem bothered by it at all, as a matter of fact, he didn't seem like he could be bothered by anything, weird.
"You ready to see what wonders us servants have?" to that I just nodded, not amused by the joke.
He lead me along a hall way that seemed endless, "this is the first door," he started explaining, "and it leads to the main hall."
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Okay so chapter two yay! I hope that you enjoyed it, but oh! What is up with that redundancy though? I really want to avoid that in the near future, I really hope I have satisfied in some way the suspense you have been suffering M.J, you know who you are, I can't promise another update so soon, but I will like to, a bit of a cliff hanger, so please R&R, by the way, this chapter is 2,014 words, yay!
God Bless,
~Poodie