Chapter 20
Zhao was sitting on the back porch taking his morning tea and breakfast enjoying the early morning coolness before the ungodly heat descended on them. He scanned the Daily Earth Newspaper for anything interesting, like a new tea shop that might have opened up. The headline 'Earth King Holds a Ball' caught his attention, he scanned the article to see a list of the nobility that would be attending, under the 'H' section Hamasaki stood out with bold letters. Zhao crinkled the newspaper in irritation as he slammed it down on the table.
"Shima." Zhao bellowed in rage toward the house.
Jiro came to the porch instead of Shimam, several letters in hand. "Letters for you my Lord."
Zhao glanced at Jiro knowing he only used 'my lord' if someone was waiting in the receiving room or that damn nosy neighbor next door was watching them from her porch. With a slight nod of his head in that direction Zhao knew it was the latter.
"Get my damn brother out here." Zhao seethed at Jiro as he snatched the letters.
Sure enough the second to the last was a letter from the Earth King with the royal seal across the back. Scanning the letter it confirmed what Zhao already knew to be true, and invite for Shima, Kazuma and himself.
"Good morning to you brother." Shima greeted from the doorway.
Zhao glanced at Shima and glared. "Sit down."
Shima smiled as he sat down and poured himself a cup of tea. Zhao shoved the letter across the table at Shima, who carefully picked it up and read through the letter.
"Ah an invite to the Palace, this is good news indeed, what should I wear." Shima mussed thoughtfully.
"What should you wear, damn you Shima, you told me an invite from the Earth King would take months well it took less than a week." Zhao accused angrily.
"Take it easy, we can use this to our advantage, besides there will probably be hundreds there we will just blend in." Shima argued.
"Blend in, how about not going at all." Zhao snapped back.
"Really and what if he did call our name for a greeting and we don't show, then what?" Shima asked. "Refusing the Kings invitation is like a death sentence here, you know as well as I do that these citizens of this city are kept in the dark about everything outside these walls, and if one of the noble families snubs the King what do you think he will do? It will raise his suspicion and defeat our purpose."
Zhao sat back to think about what Shima had just said. Jiro was standing just beside their table on the lawn cutting the shrubbery with his scissors.
"What do you think Jiro." Zhao muttered lowly.
Jiro positioned his back to their next door neighbor and replied softly.
"I hate to agree with Shima, but he does have a point." Jiro muttered.
"Hey, I take offense to that." Shima snapped as he sat up straighter.
"You should it was meant as one." Jiro replied back.
"I ought to challenge you to an Agni Kai." Shima muttered. "But I won't because that would require a show and we don't need the attention."
"You're all talk and no action." Jiro snapped back.
"That's enough." Zhao snapped. "Jiro you better keep moving."
Jiro nodded his head and walked over to another shrub.
"Fine." Zhao muttered darkly. "We will attend this ball, make an appearance and leave."
"That's all that is necessary." Shima agreed.
A commotion in the house caught their attention, the sound of yelling followed by a loud banging noise echoed in the silence of the morning. A few seconds later a lemur flew out of the house followed by Seeker hot on the pursuit, a second later Kazuma came barging onto the porch stopping short when he realized there was no way he could possibly catch Seeker in time.
"Kazuma, whistle for him." Shima snapped. "I know you've been working on commanding Seeker with a whistle do it now."
Kazuma brought his fingers to his mouth took a breath letting out an ear splitting whistle that cut through the peace of the morning like a knife. Seeker stopped short in his tracks and turned his head toward Kazuma in question.
"Call him back." Shima ordered.
"Seeker, come." Kazuma ordered in a low voice.
The fox looked one last time at the Lemur that was getting farther away. Then with a quick turn it trotted back to Kazuma and sat at his feet.
"How the hell did that creature get in the house?" Zhao growled in annoyance.
"Shi..Dad did you see that?" Kazuma asked in excitement as he picked Seeker up.
"Yes I did, good job son." Shima praised his voice calm and mellow. "Are you not supposed to be doing lessons with your tutor?"
"Yes and I was until that lemur perched itself on the window and flew into the house."
Kazuma explained.
"Great now I have to order screens for all the windows." Zhao muttered into his tea cup.
"Finish your lesson Kazuma." Shima said as he turned back to the invitation.
Kazuma went back into the house with Seeker in hand.
"The ball is tomorrow evening, that doesn't give me much time to get a wardrobe together." Shima commented, as he fingered the parchment paper between his finger tips. "I have the family crest stamped on paper, but I don't have the family crest hard copy. That could be a problem."
"Did you search the rooms?" Zhao asked. "I mean this place is huge and other than the Kitchen, living room, dining room and our rooms I haven't explored much else."
"No I haven't." Shima said leaning forward in his seat. "I think exploring the house might be something Kazuma might like to do."
"Well go, get him and search for the family crest I'll have Kano, look at the clothes we have and decide what might suit." Zhao ordered as he set his tea cup down and got up.
……………………
"I mean it Kazuma, you keep that fox under control at all times." Shima lectured as they waited patiently outside the Palace in the receiving line.
"I said I would the first time." Kazuma growled under his breath.
"I think it would be best if we just stayed together." Zhao replied. "When I want to leave I want to leave, I don't want to search for you."
"That's fine with me." Shima said.
The line moved a little, and the occupants were growing irritated by the slow procession. At long last they made it to the front and Shima handed the Family crest that they had found yesterday afternoon in the attic in a chest. The guard glanced at the crest then at the invite his eyes widened slightly and he smiled.
"The Earth King will be pleased to see you both." The guard said with excitement, he waved a hand at an attendant. "Please show the Hamasaki family right to the front of the Kings receiving line, cousins of the King should never be kept waiting."
Zhao's face grew guarded at the word cousin, Kazumas' mouth dropped and Shima like always jumped into a poetic explanation.
"Yes we are cousins twice removed." Shima explained quickly. "Just arrived in the city less than a week ago, traveling nomads really."
"That doesn't mean a thing to the King for his immediate family is dead, he will be pleased to know a distant relative still lives." The attendant said, and then he smiled down at Kazuma. "Indeed you must be family for you both share the same love for animals."
Kazuma took that comment as an opening to distract the attendant with a discussion on the life of a fox giving Zhao and Shima time to come up with a plan.
"If we weren't in public Shima I'd ring that scrawny neck of yours." Zhao seethed in anger.
"I deserve that but how was I supposed to know the Hamasaki name was linked with royalty?" Shima snapped back in defense his voice low.
"You're the foreign expert I assumed you would know the royal family's history." Zhao argued back.
"In my defense I was mostly trained on the foreign aspects of the Water tribes not the Earth Kingdom." Shima argued in defense.
"Enough arguing how are you going to explain this." Zhao snapped impatiently than as an afterthought he sighed. "I should have known something was up when that town house was in such good repair.
"Let me do the talking." Shima finally said as they grew closer to the Earth King.
The attendant bade them to wait and walked up to the Earth King and whispered in his ear. Zhao took that moment to look at the man; this was never going to work. The Earth King was three inches taller than Zhao, with a tall lanky look to his form, he work round spectacles that he pushed up his long nose repeatedly, his hair was long coming out from beneath his crown in brownish red curls that looked unruly and unevenly cut. Besides the King sat a huge bear sitting in a similar throne as if they were co-rulers. This couldn't be the Earth King, and if it was then they didn't have anything to worry about the man, more like boy didn't look too bright.
"Cousins." The Earth King said jumping from his throne in excitement. "Welcome home."
"Merciful King it is good to hear we have family." Shima began only to be cut off by the Kings excited hug of enthusiasm.
Zhao smirked at how Shima was enveloped in a hug of green and gold silken robes that practically engulfed him.
"Let us not stand on ceremony call me Kuei." The Earth King insisted
"I should warn you before you accept us as family that we are from the other side of the tracks." Shima said dropping his voice.
Kuei looked at Shima in confusion and Zhao couldn't help but smile, the King was utterly clueless. Shima noticed the king's confusion and tried to phrase it differently.
"Our part of the family came through the side door." Shima tried a different phrase.
That didn't seem to work either for the King pulled back and looked at them as if they were crazy. "The attendant said you came through the front door, that he escorted you himself."
"No, I mean born on the wrong side of the blanket." Shima continued.
Even Kazuma was catching on to the conversation and smiling at the Kings confusion.
"I'm not following you." The King said in confusion.
"I can see that." Shima commented under his breath. "I'm going to come right out and say it." Taking a breath Shima said it. "Our grandfather was a bastard."
The Earth King looked shell shocked as if he had never heard of such a thing.
"Born out of wed lock." The Earth King asked in surprise.
"Afraid so, illegitimate, base born, not legal." Shima replied.
"Then the attack on that town." The Earth King began.
"Our Grandfather was not raised in that town, our grandmother was a traveling…" Shima gave a cough to cover the word. "Show girl."
"I see." The King said with a sigh. "An off shoot of the royal name."
"Exactly and trust me we had no idea the name was even connected to the royal name in any way." Shima continued. "Else we would have not taken shelter here so as not to offend you."
"I am not offended in any way." The Earth King said quickly. "In fact I hope you will use the town house and that you will join me for tea at my favorite tea house."
That caught Zhao's attention and he listened with interest to the discussion.
"I do enjoy a cup of good tea." Zhao broke in. "We accept your invitation."
"Excellent." Kuei said then with excitement when he spotted Seeker perched on
Kazuma's shoulder he exclaimed in a high pitched voice. "A boy after my own heart, do you love the companionship of an animal as much as I do?'
Kazuma looked a little surprised by the enthusiasm. So Shima answered for him.
"I gave the Fox kit to my son a few months ago and surprisingly the two are as thick as thieves." Shima said then when he saw the bemused expression on the Kings face he tried again. "They are always together."
"Just like me and my bear." The King said. "It's done then I will have my secretary contact you on a time and place. You must be family even if you are from 'the wrong side of the track'." The King said with a wink as he said his goodbyes and left to greet the other guests.
After they walked further into the crowd and away from the King Zhao finally was able to talk.
"That was good Shima, you handled that very well."
"I need a drink." Shima responded with a heavy sigh.
Zhao laughed. "You deserve it, one drink."
"Oh,oh." Kazuma said softly.
Shima turned around drink in hand and stared at Kazuma. "What do you mean Oh, oh."
"Remember when you said to keep an eye on Seeker...well." Kazuma trailed off.
"Thats just great." Shima snapped. "Where is that damn animal."
"You find the animal and met me outside." Zhao ordered as he set his drink down and made his way to the front entrance.
"Is this yours." a harsh voice asked thrusting the fox in Kazuma's face.
"Seeker." Kazuma said quickly grabbing the fox.
"He was nose deep in the potatoe salad." The short young girl said.
Kazuma stared at the young girl who was several inches shorter than him with creamy white eyes that told him she was blind.
"Your blind." Kazuma stated with shock as he placed Seeker on his shoulder.
"Good job mister obvious." The young girl said with sarcasm.
"Kazuma." Shima snapped in horror. "Were are your manners."
"What!" Kazuma asked in obvious confusion. "If she's blind how did she know Seeker was eating potato salad."
"My eyes may be blind but my feet aren't." The girl snapped back. "Like I know your not from here, and your Father he really is your Father was lying to the King."
Shima was silent and quickly placed a hand on Kazuma's shoulder, a silent warning to be silent.
"Silence is probably the only thing that will keep your secrets safe with me." The young girl said with a smirk.
"What a cleaver girl you are." Shima said pleasantly although his eyes spoke otherwise. "We are merely refugees fleeing the Fire Nation."
The girl was silent for a moment. "Now that I believe and because of that I suggest you keep moving."
Shima smiled coldly and with Kazuma in tow turned and walked away. As soon as they were out of the palace Kazuma spoke.
"Sorry."
"Don't worry about it we are bound to be uncovered if we stay here to long." Shima said softly.
"But hey she's not as good as she thinks she is, you lied and she belevied you." Kazuma said with a smirk.
"That's something you will learn to do with practice, now lets get out of here." Shima said as he lead the way to the carriage.