alesana4ever: That's alright! Best of luck to you at work and in your personal life!
Azula is definitely has trouble letting people in. She's kind of at a place where she doesn't want help. At the very least, she doesn't realize that she wants help. And this chapter will be the volcano chapter.
There is a relief that comes with the knowledge that her journey is almost through and what a painful and hellish journey right to the very end. She hurts all over, in and out. But it doesn't matter because the pain can't follow her where she is going.
She certainly hopes that it can't.
Seicho blabbers on and on behind her but she is far past listening or caring. The stories had been nice, those little gestures and soft words…
They aren't enough.
They aren't enough and they sting as much as they help. It should be TyLee speaking them. And even if it had been, she wouldn't have deserved them. She doesn't deserve help now and so she won't take it.
"Seriously. Slow down."
She hastens her pace if for no other reason than to push a message through.
Her belly rumbles and her throat begs for something to alleviate the dryness. She doesn't have time to attend these needs. They are trivial anyhow. Null and pointless. The volcano is so close that she can taste sulphur and retribution on her tongue. She thinks that the two might share a taste.
She isn't sure that the lava will be enough to cleanse her spirit and the demons that plague her emotions. She is lost, lost beyond finding. Beyond salvation.
She is scared.
Scared and alone.
Scared and determined.
.oOo.
Tuya passes her a bowl of tentacle soup. TyLee doesn't mean to be rude but she crinkles her nose. "Can I get something less...uh…" she jabs at the little suction cups, "tentacle-y?"
Tuya laughs. "Arctic hen or sea prune stew?"
"Oh either one of those would be great." She smiles. "Arctic hen sounds good though." Mostly she just wants to smell the fire that it will be cooked over. She can't help but miss the Fire Nation at least a little especially on the nights when the wind whips merciless flurries at the walls and the arctic fox-wolves howl. Fire smells cozy. It smells like home. Not that Tuya hasn't made her feel like she is at home still.
It has been more than wonderful to learn about domestic life in the tribes. It is as cozy and mundane as the glacier was chilling and grand. She thinks that she likes the simplicity of bundling herself up in heavy furs-so long as she doesn't think of the hunting it took to get them. Though she has come to respect the hunters and their rituals.
She tries to imagine herself snuggled up with a new lover by the fire but she can only picture Azula and Mai. Despite it all, she misses them too. But she doesn't miss the way that they made her feel when it got bad…
"I said, do you want some seasoning on your arctic hen?"
"Oh!" TyLee exclaims, "yeah, that sounds nice, just a little though. Too much seasoning tickles my nose."
Tuya laughs, "you remind me of my twin."
"You have a twin?"
"Yatu." She smiles. "He went out with the last hunting party, they should be back soon."
"Do you think that he could teach me about hunting?"
"You want to hunt?"
TyLee shakes her head vigorously. "Oh no, I could never bring myself to actually do it. I just wanted to learn about some of the hunting rituals."
"I'm sure that he'd like to do that, he loves talking about his hunts." She hands TyLee a platter of arctic hen. "Now enjoy your meal and I can tell you some of my favorite folktales."
TyLee grins. "I have a few from the Fire Nation!"
She takes a bite. The arctic fox-wolves howl into the storm, one long and drawn out call after the next. And, later on, when she lays her head back and really listens, she swears that she can hear the arctic lights singing.
.oOo.
It is so close now and her feet are so sore. The woman hasn't paused once since leaving the ruins, not to sleep, not to eat. Seicho has had walk and eat at the same time, nearly stumbling several times.
And now their trek is almost finished. The volcano looms overhead jagged, burnt black, and sinister. A hateful mound with a simmering core. Seicho's stomach flutters with anxious anticipation.
"Can we slow down?" Seicho asks again, huffing and panting. She is drenched in sweat and ready to topple. She doesn't know how the woman can manage, especially since she hasn't eaten or drank a thing. Either the woman is used to this sort of thing or she just doesn't care at all.
Or maybe she is just so frighteningly distraught that she doesn't feel anything but whatever torments her.
Seicho has a fear of her own, a distress of her own. A yelling, yowling demon and the woman is rousing it awake. She is digging up dark treasures that she isn't aware of at all. She is carrying the skeletons to the surface without even realizing that there are bones in her hands.
The shadow of the volcano falls over them. It sends a chill through her entire being. She very nearly laughs. She has to, afterall, the whole endeavor has been one big joke. She has a feeling that the woman thinks so too. She has a feeling that the woman has a lot of unsavory opinions despite everything. They reach the foot of the volcano and Seicho reaches her breaking point.
"You think that I don't know what this is?!" Seicho damn near shrieks. "You think that I don't know what this whole quest has been about?"
The woman stares almost blankly at her. There is a glimmer of resentment or annoyance.
"I know that you think I am, but I'm not clueless." She bunches her fists. "It was all...it was all bullshit! The ruins, the spirit, of course you didn't even want to check them out! You've never even been in this jungle before."
The woman turns around to continue her stride. But Seicho has reached her limit, she has reached several of them. She grabs her by the shoulder and turns her around. "You just played along to appease me so that you can…" she gestures to the volcano. "Chara, my sister, she did the same thing. She didn't 'just not come home' one day. I saw her swim out into the ocean…" Her voice breaks, falters. She is shaking. "I told my parents that I had no idea what happened to her because I knew how they would feel."
For a moment, she thinks that the woman will change her mind. She shakes Seicho off of her and makes the final few steps to the base of the volcano with a renewed vigor. She watches the woman take the first few steps onto it and resents the earthbending ancients who had carved a convenient little staircase into the volcano's rim.
"Go ahead!" She shouts. "Stairs or not, it's a long climb. You won't even be able to make it to the top."
She isn't deterred. Seicho hadn't expected her to be, she has been nothing but persistent and stubborn. But it doesn't matter, when a body is spent, it is spent. Especially if the mind that inhibits it is twice as exhausted.
She follows the woman up the stairs, she has to give her credit, she makes it a little more than halfway up. She topples and Seicho nearly goes with her. She braces herself against the rocks and heaves her back up. She removes her pack and has herself a real meal before lifting the woman up and beginning the daunting trip back down.
With luck, they will be a good distance from the volcano by the time she wakes up.
With luck, Seicho will be able to handle whatever fit she will throw upon doing so.