Chapter 4 First Day In The Earth Kingdom
It was early morning as the war balloon approached the westernmost shore of the Earth Kingdom. Azula let the flames die down and let some of the heat escape out the top as she eased the balloon in to a slow descent to touch down on the sandy beach. She said "Ty Lee get up now." The other girl in the balloon opened her eyes and said "What's up Azula?" Azula responded "We're in the Earth Kingdom, I'm gonna burn this balloon and then we'll head towards the closest town." The two girls unpacked everything and once they were finished Azula shot a flame blast into it. They walked away as it burned.
Ty Lee was moving along happily next to Azula as she asked "So Princess what do we do now?" Azula said "Well Ty Lee we stick out pretty obviously as Fire Nation so I think we should by some earth Kingdom disguises and just keep on the move for a while till hopefully the search for us dies down some." The two girls followed along the path till they came to a small village. They walked up to what appeared to be a restaurant. They both went in and got a table for themselves, Azula's eyes were darting around taking in her surroundings. The waiter came up and gave them there menus.
Ty Lee looked at the menu and said "Yuk I hate Earth Kingdom food." Azula laughed and said "Anything cooked should be better than the jerky we've been surviving on." Ty Lee replied "Oh well at least they have HippoCow steaks, though it's the most expensive thing on the menu." Azula sighed and said "Just order whatever you want Ty Lee we have more than enough gold." Ty Lee clapped and said "Thank you princess, you're the best." Azula sighed again and said in a mildly agitated but soft voice "Ty Lee remember we are on the run, don't call me princess when we're in public in fact we should probably come up with some fake names to use from now on." Ty Lee said "Oh yea, that's right. Can I please come up with the names?" Azula shrugged her shoulders and said "Whatever just make sure they aren't too stupid or noticeable."
The waiter came up and Azula ordered two Hippocow steaks cooked well done, and then sat in silence as Ty Lee seemed lost in thought. Azula was sure she was trying to come up with names that she thought were cute or clever or whatever, Azula could care less. Ty Lee smiled and said "I think I'll be Lily and you can be Ryoko." Azula smiled and said "Those are excellent choices Lily." Ty Lee smiled back and said "Why thank you Ryoko."
Ty Lee continued to talk about some silly nonsense while Azula barely paid attention, as her attention was focused on two Earth Kingdom soldiers who were in the corner and appeared to be looking at them. Azula was trying to determine if they were suspicious of them being wanted criminals or if the soldiers were just checking out the two girls for their looks. Ty Lee said "Ryoko are you even listening?" and Azula snapped back and said "Oh sorry I was lost in my own train of thought." Ty Lee smiled and said "No problem, so I was saying how Mai and your brother are supposed to be getting married in three months." Azula said "Is that right?" she supposed she was mildly interested in this. Ty Lee said "Yea, I was supposed to be the maid of honor, but I guess that may not be happening now since we're on the run." She seemed to get a little sad as she finished. Azula said "Well I promise if I ever get married I'll let you be maid of honor."
Ty Lee smiled wide as she heard this "Wow thanks, maid of honor to a princess that would be so much fun." Azula laughed and said "I think that's a long way away." Ty Lee laughed back and said "I feel sorry for whoever the groom's going to be." Azula laughed even harder and said "I should probably take that as an insult, but I'll choose to take it as a compliment." Ty lee laughed back and said "You know I think your the most beautiful smartest and perfect girl in the world, I just meant.." Azula cut her off and said "I know, I thought it was funny."
The waiter brought there meal over and the two of them ate it with little talking as they were both starved from being on the run for the past few days. Azula eyed the two soldiers as they left and saw that they stopped and talked to the waiter who had waited on Azula and Ty Lee. The two of them looked at her as they exited. Azula said quietly "Eat up quickly I think we may have been spotted." Ty Lee said "Of course." Both girls finished eating quickly and Azula waved the waiter over and gave him 6 gold pieces and said "Keep the change" as the two girls hurried out of the restaurant.
Once they stepped outside Azula's suspicions were confirmed as those two guards had been joined by four more and they were in a semi-circle around the entrance to the restaurant. The one who appeared to be the leader stepped forward and said "If you come quietly we won't hurt you." Azula just laughed and said "Just six of you, if you are here to arrest me then surely you know who I am, and then you must know it will take much more than six peons to capture me." He said "This is your last chance." and she smiled an evil grin and said "Why thank you but I think I'll take my chances fighting you."
With that she put one hand behind her back and rocketboosted up into the sky. The leader who was an earthbender chucked two rocks at her which she easily dodged. She landed on the roof of the building and shot several flame blasts towards the soldiers. She watched as Ty Lee had somersaulted into three of the non-bending guards and had dropped each with one well struck blow. Two were running towards the roof that Azula was standing on and she jumped over their heads and shot a huge fireball into the ground between them as she flew over. The fireball exploded between them and they were both blown ten feet in the air and were unconscious as they hit the ground. Only the leader was left and he created a rock wall in front of himself and started to punch boulders in the direction of Azula. She kicked two aside and fired a blast towards the wall. But then she saw the earthbender fall over as Ty Lee had gotten in behind him and took him down with a few chi strikes.
Ty Lee walked up to Azula and said "Gee Azula why are earthbenders always so weak?" Azula just laughed and said "I think it's just that we are so tough Ty Lee." Azula walked into the center of the town and shouted "If you don't want me to burn this pathetic excuse for a village to the ground you will bring me two ostrich horses and several changes of Earth Kingdom woman's clothing. I will stand here for five minutes and then the flames begin." She stood patiently in the same spot Ty Lee next to her as the village scrambled about. Ty Lee looked over and laughed "Geez Azula look at them all running around you're just so scary." In about three minutes about five ostrich horses and several bags of clothing were brought to them.
The girls picked the two most powerful looking ostrichhorses and grabbed several bags of clothes and threw them on the back of the ostriches. Azula started to ride out of town but then stopped at a building on the edge of the village. She shouted "I will spare the entire village, but this is for the foolishness of the soldiers who did try to arrest me." She then shot a prolonged blast into the building and watched as it quickly went up in flames. She shouted back at the village one last time as they rode off "Let everyone know the next village to oppose me will not be as lucky as you were, I will leave no building standing." The two girls rode down the rode and Ty Lee turned to Azula and said "I'm really glad I'm on your side Azula." Azula just smiled and laughed.