Unknown Travelers; A Series of Drabbles
plasticphoenix
(IV: Dizzy Ditz Ditty)
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She was terribly dizzy but luckily the kind stranger was nice enough to support her staggering form. He all but carried her along the long maze of uneven halls and unnecessary corridors hidden underneath the dank Fire Nation fortress. She never asked who he was because the only thing she really needed to know about him was he was a firebender...
That and she really wasn't capable of forming rational or intelligent thoughts. Mostly she just thought about her headache and the stench of her current location. She also thought the place could use some paint and nice tapestries (surely the greedy Fire Nation could afford it) and had tried to discuss this with her new friend but every time she tried to start a conversation he made a gesture for her to be silent. She thought this was rather rude but declined to press the matter. Instead she held a private imaginary conversation as he dragged her along:
"My, the interior is dreadful," she said to imaginary him.
"Yes," imaginary him said "you'd think as rich as the Fire Nation is they could afford to brighten the place up. A nice coat of paint would do marvels."
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If he had been polite enough to ask (maybe he was just shy) she would have shared her many woes with him. She would have told him today had not been a good day for her; Momo had nearly drowned, her map was stolen, Aang had caught a cold, a bear tried to eat her brother, and then she lost a duel to another royal member of the Fire Nation. Truthfully, the only thing that had actually happened was the last bit and that had actually happened yesterday. She had been unconscious and dreamed up the rest.
She watched the flame flickering so brilliantly in his right palm with interest. She was a waterbender and water was naturally her element but as she watched the flame in her dazed state she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to control fire. It was so pretty, after all.
Most of her experience with firebending had been her many encounters with the soldiers of the Fire Nation. She had even dueled with their Prince at the North Pole and nearly won until the Sun, the glorious friend of the flames, rose. She hardly thought it fair. Of course she had also duel his sister and lost but decided not to dwell on it incase it lead to an unbreakable chain of defeats.
The only other encounter had been when Aang had tried to rush his bending skills and burnt her. It had hurt like hell but she discovered she had the ability to heal with water and so no real harm was done. They were still friends. But still she wished she were a firebender.
Then she could teach Aang and they wouldn't have to ambush another crazy hermit.
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She made a fuzzy note (once, again) that her rescuer wore a mask, that is if he was really her rescuer. He could be lending her to another member of the Fire Nation army that was so not friends with the mean princess; freeing her from one cage to lock her up in another.
"That's not very nice," She thought unhappily.
She was about to say such but when she nearly tripped he kept her from falling so she decided to give him a fair chance.
Maybe he was cute under that mask.
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"Wonder why he wears a mask," she wondered.
What kind of hero hides his face? She wondered if wore a mask because he was ugly and ashamed of his large nose. She hoped not. Maybe his ears were lopsided and his eyes too close together. Perhaps he had misplaced all his teeth instead. She could certainly understand why he wore a mask now. "I would too. No one would take a toothless hero with lopsided ears seriously;" she thought but was quickly feed another idea by her wandering mind.
"Maybe he has to keep his identity a secret."
That seemed reasonable and cool. Secret identities were fun. He was a firebender saving the prisoner of the Fire Nation's princess. Yup, perfect sense. He was probably a wanted criminal because he wasn't a criminal. Gasp. Could her rescuer be the Blue Spirit that all the Fire Nation folk were going on about? She thought this until she noticed his mask wasn't blue. Damn. It was dark blue. The Wanted poster never mentioned a reward for information or the capture of the Dark Blue Spirit.
He was just ugly.
This disappointed her so. Although she didn't consider herself a shallow person she didn't much care for the idea that her hero was not properly dashing and swoon worthy. After all, she was taught that a handsome prince always saves damsels in distress and that a reward kiss was a highly known requirement in being rescued. It was part of the whole package. She wasn't shallow but she didn't want to kiss a prince so ugly that he hides behind a mask in shame. No, she would not kiss an ugly prince. If he wouldn't play by the rules then neither would she. "Stupid ugly prince," she thought bitterly. First the bear and now this.
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Prince...
Hmm, prince...
How many princes did she know anyway? Four, five, twenty maybe? Nope, too many. Just one. Just Zuko.
Zuko had beat her at the North Pole when the sun rose because firebenders are more powerful in the sun...
Firebender...
Prince...
Gasp!
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Zuko wondered if he should have just let his sister use the water peasant for Avatar bait. He was practically carrying her sluggish body and he was growing tired of it and her constant random questions and nonsensical muttering. She had asked him about a pastel color scheme for the fortress and when he didn't answer she carried on a conversation about it by herself. She had babbled on and on about her companions and bears eating her brother (this he did find slightly amusing). Then she started asking about his mask:
Why are you wearing a mask... Are you ugly...Do you look like a toothless lizard... Are you a fugitive... The Blue Spirit...No...You're just ugly... Don't lie...Tell me, the truth... I'm so sorry...We can't all be pretty...If we were all pretty then no one would be pretty because there wouldn't be any ugly people for comparison because everyone was pretty.
The only thing that kept him front turning around and delivering her back to Zula was it was too damn far and too much like work coming up with an apologize. He decided to mentally count as loudly as possible in an effort of drowning her out as he walked them to freedom, so for the most part he missed her obsessive ramble about handsome princes and kisses. Lucky him.
He had only reached two hundred when she poked him rather cruelly in the gut and stated in an air that his sister would almost envy, that she didn't care if he was the un-ugly prince of the whole damn Fire Nation. He was mean and he would not be getting a kiss from her today. Well, maybe just one and only on his cheek.
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Author Notes: Welcome to my half-assed attempt at humor. I know it's not funny. People only laugh at me not with me. I apologize in advance for the disappointed customer but I swear on my dead hamster's grave that I tried several attempts at a serious fourth chapter. I even present evidence A to the kangaroo court, a drib of an intended fourth drabble in my livejournal. I had fun writing this even if you didn't have fun reading. No, flames necessary, all the snow is almost gone.
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Disclaimer: Nick owns but no one cares.