Chapter 12

Sokka was eager to explore the great capitol of the Fire Nation. He was so eager he had to force himself to walk beside Azula at a leisurely pace. He had only glimpsed the city before. The closest he had come lately was when the Fire Lord had taken him out to hunt with birds of prey. It was so enticing to know that there was a new world out there to explore and get to know, new smells, languages, people, tastes, songs and cultures. He looked over impatiently to Azula who didn't look impressed by her surroundings at all. She didn't appear bored, but she didn't look like she had a good time either.

People around them did take notice of them. Partly because of the two very imposing guards that followed them closely and regarded every man, woman and child as a potential assassin. And some of the animals too actually. They probably couldn't spell to the word "fun". Sokka had been rather annoyed when he understood that they would be a part of his amazing city experience. And then we had Azula. Her headpiece was a dead giveaway that she was the Princess Azula. Sokka had never heard so much "ohh" and "ahh" in his life and all the bowing was just too much. No wonder she had an inflated opinion of herself, really.

"You look like you have never been to great city before." Azula said with a smirk. "Oh, wait, you haven't, have you?" Azula purred maliciously.

Sokka couldn't be riled; he was too excited over everything new to say the least. "You are very correct, Azula." Sokka answered easily while contemplating various utensils in a store's open windows and doors. After a little while his attention was drawn to a store specialized on spices. "You know I have not been outside the South Pole before. So of course this is really exciting!" Sokka said cheerfully to Azula, determined not to let the princess get to him.

"Oh, a free sample!" he exclaimed before taking a generous dollop of some powdery substance. That turned out to be a mistake. It was the spice that the locals dipped the already spicy meat in. Sokka's face went all red before he displayed a remarkable knowledge of cursing. Azula just rolled her eyes at her companion's foolery.

A short while later after Sokka had recovered and was happily rummaging through a pile of some junk; Azula wondered why the spirits she had allowed herself to be dragged into the hot, smelly City. Well, the sight of Sokka nearly dying of too much emberspice did make her smile, of course. At least until the store owner had taken pity on the silly foreigner and given him a jug of milk to sooth the fire on his tongue. Then suddenly she heard a commotion further down the street.

In an instant Sokka was at her side. "Look Azula, air-nomads!" Sokka exclaimed with such excitement she actually jumped. Then she felt him take hold of her hand as he started off toward the air-nomads with her in tow. She should have been furious that he or anybody manhandled her in this way. She was angry, really, she was. But for some reason she found herself be drawn by Sokka deftly through the throng of people toward the commotion and the air-nomads. She heard some cursing and shouting behind her when her two guards suddenly understood that their charge was moving rapidly away from them.

Sokka stopped just down the street at a small square. A small procession of air-nomads walked slowly through the milling crowd. They were all bald and they all had saffron clothing. The leader was an elderly female monk that looked ancient. Sokka was really excited by now. He had never come across the fabled air-nomads before. His eyes glittered with keyed up happiness and he had totally forgotten that he still held the princess' hand. Azula had not. It was a peculiar feeling to be treated in this manner, as a friend perhaps? As an equal? While Azula was busy trying to figure out what she felt the procession of monks had come closer and Sokka finally let go of her hand.

When the monks perceived the fire princess they all stopped and regarded Azula. The ancient but spry leader said with a surprisingly strong and deep voice. "We are honored to meet the esteemed Princess Azula of the Fire Nation. We have come from a faraway land to seek the Song within the Song." The monk's voice carried over the noise of the city. "Have you heard its tone, beat and lyric?" the ancient monk continued. The people all around slowly turned all their attention toward the monks and their princess. A spectacle was always welcome.

While Azula contemplated on an adequate answer Sokka spoke up. "Greetings friend of the Air, we do not know of the Song within the Song and we have not heard it's tone, beat and lyric." Sokka bowed slightly to the monks after he finished his little talk. The monks regarded him in a new light, something not lost on Azula. Where had he learned to correctly answer air-nomads greetings? Determined not to be outdone by Sokka, whom was a foreigner in her country to boot, Azula drew herself up imperiously.

"But we always offer a place to rest, bread to eat and a fire to warm, to our friends from lands afar." Azula answered with the ancient rite of welcome in the Fire Nation. The monks seemed pleased with her answer and they bowed deeply to her.

"We thank you, children of Fire, may your fires always burn and never die out." The monks answered back before they walked away. Sokka's open admiration of her reply made her smirk proudly. Suddenly they both became aware of the hushed crowd that stared at them. Azula blinked and wondered what they wanted now? She was neither used to crowds nor common people and she got a bit uneasy. Sokka on the other hand knew first-hand from being the son of the high chief that the crowd wanted to be a part of what just had happened, to be part of the honor that was just received.

Sokka approached Azula, took her hand and raised it high. "All honor to the Fire Nation, all honor to its people!" Sokka proclaimed loudly. A slow cheer rose up from the crowd and then they all clapped strongly before slowly dispersing, milling around with a pleased mumbling.

"I'm hungry." Sokka stated to the world in general and Azula in particular. Azula was confused over the reaction of the crowd. She had been cheered before but always from a great distance and never because of something she had done directly. This day was slowly turning into a very interesting day to say the least.

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Mai and Zuko had thought to enjoy a quiet day for themselves in Mai's mansion. Mai's parents and her mother in particular did not approve of "dating" or of Mai bringing home boys for the world to gossip about. And with the world they meant the nobles of the Fire Nation of course. Needless to say, Mai never brought home boys to the mansion; she was their most dutiful daughter after all. But when the first boy she did bring home was the Prince of the Fire Nation their attitudes changed rather spectacularly in Mai's humble opinion.

Her life had changed dramatically for the better lately. She had more…fun. Spending time with her friends was more rewarding these days. But what made the biggest difference to her life at the moment was sitting beside her. Zuko looked a bit out of his depth but his upbringing in the royal palace had made him adept in managing all kind of situations. Like being on a second date with a girl and having her parents sitting on the other side of the table… This was a disaster! Mai really liked this young man and why couldn't her parents just go away? Silently Mai prayed for a miracle to happen.

"My lord, my lady." The polite voice of her father's butler interrupted the stifling awkwardness of Mai's second and most likely last date in her lifetime. Every eye turned to the butler who didn't seem at all disturbed by the various looks he received. A poisonous one from her mother who didn't want this meeting interrupted for anything in the world, Zuko's slightly wild look and Mai's, at this moment, rather desperate one.

"A young man is calling on Lady Mai, he presented himself as the Lord of the White Lands." All eyes swirled to Mai that raised an eyebrow at the presentation. Her mother's look told Mai that there would be hell to pay for this interruption, breach of etiquette and propriety. Then he continued and made it all worse. "He wants you to join him and his lady friend to go out and eat at, and I quote, 'a swell place with the common people'. He also said he would not take no for an answer." The butler finished and you could hear the faint disapproval in his tone of voice. The silence was deafening. Before her mother could explode Mai decided to go for it. What could possibly be worse than this botched date anyway and she did have a strong suspicion on who this Lord of the White Lands might be. "Send him and his friend in." Mai stated firmly.

The servant took Sokka through Mai's palace, his demeanor had changed from disapproving to rather alarmed when the lady friend turned out to be Princess Azula. It was an impressive building and it was clear to all that whoever lived here had power to wield. But it did not unnerve Sokka at all. He was after all a guest at the royal palace and had seen more impressive rooms and hallways. Besides, it didn't impress him – it was your actions that were important.

They were ushered into a beautiful room that had large open windows filling the room with light. Around a small table sat Mai and to his surprise Zuko. Now, this was very interesting indeed. The other two people had to be Mai's parents. They both looked very disapproving over the interruption. But that turned into amazement when they recognized Azula. Zuko had a rather wild look in his eye and Mai's raised eyebrow and stiff posture told him that she was rather desperate but over what he could not tell.

All but Zuko rose to greet Azula with perfectly performed bows. Azula graciously acknowledged them; she was not pleased to see her brother. And the feeling was mutual - that much was evident by the strain in their greetings. But all eyes fell on Sokka when he spoke up.

"A great pleasure to meet you Lord Tian, my Lady." Sokka said cheerfully and bowed low to Mai's father and her mother. "I'm Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe, Lord of the White Lands and I have the honor to call your daughter my friend." By Azula's reaction, just a glance in Sokka's direction, told Mai that she had not been present when Sokka introduced himself or her to the household staff. Sokka had now turned to Mai and sketched a bow toward her, his eyes glittering with mischief.

"It's always a pleasure to meet you, Lady Mai." Sokka said politely and couldn't resist adding. "The Fire Lord has asked me about you and of course I told him that you are full of life as always."

Once more the room fell silent. Everyone in the room was surprised by this revelation and wondered over it. When did that occur?

But Mai and Sokka were unfazed by the sudden silence. He was mocking her! She fought down the urge to stab her friend then and there. Wretched water tribe buffoon! "I will show you life Sokka!" Mai growled at him, her eyes flashing. No wonder Azula wanted to blast him to kingdom come on a regular basis, his teasing was unbearable! "Why are you here?" Her eyes told him that he better have a good purpose…

"Princess Azula and me are about to find someplace to eat and we of course wondered if you and Prince Zuko could be enticed to join us?" Sokka said easily with a wide gesture. Annoyed as she was, Mai was tempted to tag along, just to get away from her parents. She hesitated a bit. That gave her mother the opportunity to chime in.

"We would be most honored if you wished to dine at our house, my Princess?" Lady Giya said with a small smile. Zuko warily eyed the woman and Mai decided then and there to go out with Sokka and Azula, nothing could be worse than a dinner with her parents right now.

"Oh no, we can't, I'm afraid." Sokka said politely. "We need to eat at an establishment within the city. It's vital for the royals to have the feel of the common people as you well know." Sokka said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. It wasn't. You could tell by the confused looks from her parents and Zuko and the annoyed look from Azula.

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After they had fetched Ty Lee, who had been gushing with joy over this adventure, the five young friends found themselves sitting around a simple round table at an inn that had been recommended to Sokka by some random citizen for serving great meals. Surprisingly it did. Azula enjoyed herself and that was surprising in itself, too. Right now on her right Ty Lee was busy talking to Zuko about where to find and purchase certain pink outfits and Sokka on her left Sokka spoke softly with Mai. Sokka appeared to tease Mai again, she seemed a bit annoyed with him.

Finding Zuko at Mai's house had been interesting indeed. She had to find out more about it at another time. Ty Lee ought to know. Suddenly Sokka heard what Ty Lee had said about where to buy clothes and happily joined in on the conversation. Zuko took the chance to tactically disengage and turn to Mai with a small smile. They talked softly with each other and Mai's smile to Zuko was radiant.

After a short while when Ty Lee had managed to force Zuko to tell her about his date with Mai, to Mai's slight annoyance, Sokka turned to Azula and smirked at her.

"This is fun, I'm glad you tagged along, Azula." Sokka said with that honest smile of his. His eyes were light blue and mesmerizing. Of course, she couldn't know that her own eyes sparkled like molten gold and the sight of her genuine smile made Sokka have millions of butterflies fluttering in his stomach. "We should hang out more, you know. There is so much more to explore, to reveal." Sokka continued, not knowing if he talked about the world or about Azula.

"Why, I have to agree with you for the first time ever." Azula told him, still with that genuine smile on her lips. She had had a very entertaining day so far and dinner had been very pleasant indeed. For the first time in forever she had felt content and at peace during a meal. Sokka had been fun to hang around with. Still there were some questions. "What is this Lord of the White Lands nonsense that you presented yourself with before?" Azula drawled and looked Sokka in the eye, wondering how eyes could be so blue.

Sokka smiled broadly before answering her. "The correct title is actually Master and Watcher over the White Lands." Sokka's eyes took on a new intensity when he started to explain to Azula about his homeland. And for the first time she felt curious and truly wondered about how his life had been before he came here. How did he live in the frozen white lands of the South?

"It's an ancient title that the first-born son of the high chief always has, it's like a hereditary title in a way." Sokka explained and continued. "The White Lands are a great glacier that can be very dangerous to be near. Great storms and large icebergs plague the area and it is easy to get lost and perish if you are not careful. It's the watcher's job to make sure people are safe while traveling in the area." Sokka suddenly seemed far away, probably home and on the ice plains of the glacier with a storm soon to arrive. "Nowadays we don't need to cross it when we travel. We go by boat now. So it's a title most people have forgotten about."

Azula couldn't help but smirk a bit. "So you are Lord over a completely useless land, that is what you are saying, is it not?" Azula teased Sokka and made him bristle a little. "Really, the correct title should be Lord of Nothing." She continued, enjoying the moment. Sokka grimaced at her but after that he just smiled at her and answered simply "Yeah, and it is enough for me." They turned back to their friends and smiled a bit at how Ty Lee managed to turn everything Zuko told her to something extremely romantic, much to Sokka's and Azula's amusement and to Mai's and Zuko's embarrassment.

"I have to leave for the palace soon." Azula said to Sokka while still watching her friends. "I need to prepare for my firebending practice with the Fire Lord." She finished, feeling her good mood slowly turning sour. She hadn't decided yet on how to proceed with her father's command to spy on the Fire Lord. She had managed not to think about it during her excursion into the city but now it slowly came back to her again.

"Can I come and watch? " Sokka asked out of the blue. Azula whipped her head around to regard him. He looked sincere and his eyes held nothing but curiosity. She felt her own curiosity match his.

"Why?" Azula asked simply but a bit warily. What game did he play now?

Sokka once more bestowed on her that honest smile that captivated her so. "I have heard a lot about firebending and how awesome it is. I believe it is time I actually see if it is as beautiful as you all say." Suddenly Sokka's smile turned all mysterious. "And I really want to see your blue fire, Princess Azula."

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Author Note:

I wanted to give the Air-nomads a reason to actually travel and being nomads. A lost reason to find something obscure? Why not! I found inspiration for this from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time and his travelling folk.

How to reign differs a bit between the South Pole with their tens of thousands of habitants and the Fire Nation with their millions in my mind. I believe ruling in the South Pole is more hands on, so to speak.

I have to say this once more, Sokka's and Mai's interaction is really fun to write. Both characters work very well together and I have some plans for a future story with them in a romantically way. If you would like to read some great stories with them as main characters you should check out authors Lopy777 and Menamebephil. They have written some truly enjoyable fiction about Mai and Sokka and other stories too, of course.

Up next are some blue fire, a moon and an invitation to a birthday party.