AnitaGrace: Awww... you guys... Okay. I can't help it. I love you so much that I'll post after only three reviews! They just made me so happy...

The story so far: Ozai is totally crunching (ugh) on Katara, Sokka and Elsie are in the Fire Nation capital and are staying with an older couple, Plijak and Mimsha. They pretended to be brother and sister lost on a island, tricked by some boys. Plijak suggests it was probably Moelij, such a troublemaker! Aang is re-telling his story to a little firebending boy (slave) who feeds him while Aang is stuck in jail.

Things are starting to pick up, but there's still some story I need to set down before I continue. If I don't, certain people's behaviors (everyone's) won't make a lick of sense. But it really is starting to reach its climax.

"So your name's Elsie, eh?"

Elsie nodded. The large matronly, woman standing in the run down kitchen regarded her distastefully.

"A bit thin, aren't you?"

That was a bit of an understatement.

"Could be a boy if you weren't."

Why… yes. Yes, that is true. If onlyshe wasn't a girl.

Sigh. "Well, I guess you'll work. I need some help around here and you'll do it for free."

Elsie didn't say anything. Mimsha started putting baskets of fish from the ice house on a hand-pulled cart. Elsie joined her and soon they were off to one of the market places in the city and a somewhat clean stall where Mimsha apparently sold her fish everyday.

It was a bright and sunny day. It was warmer in the Fire Nation than anywhere Elsie had been before, but seeing as how she had lived in a coastal village in the North Pole her whole life, that statement was almost irrelevant.

People bustled and shopped and hawked and there were pickpockets and poor people and merchants and even some wealthier folk. They were all trying to sell or buy, even this early in the morning. Of course, Sokka and Plijak had already left to go fishing, but it was still only an hour after dawn.

Sometime in the middle of the morning, when the bustle was less bustle-y, a boy Elsie had noticed walking around before approached the stall.

Elsie was scaling fish, just like Mimsha had taught her, and Mimsha was doing some tallying things in a scroungy notebook she kept.

"Well, hey there, Mimsha." The boy leaned against the stall. His clothes were torn and weathered, but they seemed like they had been nice at one point. He wore no shoes and his long, black hair fell into a handsome, lean face with dark eyes. He was tall and thin and about sixteen.

"That's Mrs. Mimsha to you, laddie." Mimsha ignored him completely, but for the slight smile at the corner of her mouth.

The boy winked at Elsie. "Well then, why don't you talk to me, beautiful?" he asked her.

Elsie blushed and the dull knife slipped out of her hands.

When she stood back up with it held tightly in her right hand, the boy was leaning over the edge of the counter, watching her with a look of genuine concern. "You all right?" he asked.

Elsie jumped and the knife jumped out of her hands. She tried to catch it but it kept bumping around until a hand, fast as lightening, snatched it out of the air. Elsie looked to see the boy twirling it dexterously, a grin on his face.

"What's your name, beautiful?" He nodded his head at her, flipping the knife between his knuckles.

"Elsie," she managed.

"Mine's Moelij. It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Elsie." With that, he flipped the knife in the air, bowed and caught the knife blade first, holding the handle out to her.

Elsie took it as Mimsha frowned at him.

"Don't go scaring my help, boy," she warned him. "Her brother and her are staying with us and I want them to earn their keep."

"Don't be too tough on 'em, Mimmy," the boy smiled at her. "You know how you get."

"Just because you couldn't handle it," she retorted, "doesn't mean a healthy young girl like that can't."

Moelij snorted. "Healthy my foot. Have you fed her yet?"

"Yes. Twice."

"Great." Moelij rolled his eyes. He turned back to Elsie and eyed her, making her blush again. "Where are you and this brother of your from?" he asked. "You're not from here."

"We're from the North," Elsie murmured. Moelij leaned in closer to hear her. Elsie felt more unsettled."Our parents work, um, in the Earth Kingdom."

Moelij raised his eyebrow. "Are you even from the Fire Nation?"

"Yes!" Elsie said too quickly. Moelij's eyebrow stayed raised. "We are," she said defensively. "See?"

Elsie raised a palm and a ball of fire appeared. Mimsha turned from what she was doing with interest.

"I didn't know you could do that," Mimsha accused. "You should have told me first."

"What she means," Moelij leaned in conspiratorially. "is that she wants to exploit you. No one who firebends works scaling fish. You could be in the Army, or a performer, or a master, once you've trained."

"Who would train me?" Elsie asked bitterly, scraping the side of a fish.

"It's the law," Moelij stated, like it was the most obvious thing in the world and only an idiot didn't know it. "You have to be trained. If you go to a master and tell him you want to learn from him, he can't turn you away. He has to feed you and clothe you if you can't afford it yourself." Moelij grinned. "Could you imagine what would happen if that wasn't a law? This place would be burning around our ears." He frowned. "Actually, I'm surprised you haven't found a master yet. How old are you?"

"Twelve."

Moelij nodded. "Yeah. You'd have had a master for a while. What? Your parents didn't care enough to get you a teacher?"

Elsie frowned and turned her head to the side. "I don't want to talk about them."

Moelij leaned back, clearly realizing he'd insulted her. "Oh, hey. I didn't mean it like that. I know what that's like – your family not caring." Elsie looked up at him. Moelij smiled ironically. "My dad was an expert with knives. I'm pretty good, but not as good as my older brother. So I ran away a couple years ago to prove myself." Moelij laughed. "Well, I'm still pretty good at knives, anyway."

Elsie looked at him blankly because she didn't know what to say.

Moelij laughed harder and for real. "You're a strange kid," he said, rubbing the crown of her head. "You know that?"

Mimsha looked up from her notebook and glared at him. "Go away, Moelij, you're scaring off customers."

"Aww, Mimmy!" Moelij pouted. "And you'd rather miss what I got to tell you? How cruel you can be."

"Don't flirt with me, boy. I'm three times your age."

Moelij laughed. "Well," he started, resting his forearms on the counter. Mimsha continued working in her book, but was obviously actively listening.

"You know how the prince returned?"

Elsie's hand jerked.

"And he brought the Avatar?"

Elsie thought she was going to faint from a heart attack.

"He also brought a Water Tribe lady."

"So?" Mimsha asked. "Who cares what the prince keeps in his bed?"

Moelij shook his head. "It's not just that," he disagreed. "She's a friend of the Avatar. And it's not that he likes her, it's more like he loves her."

"And just how do you know that?" Mimsha demanded. "You don't live in the palace. Did His Royal Highness tell you that himself?" Elsie's hand was frozen around her knife.

"He's gotten into fights with his sister and father about her, apparently."

No way, Elsie thought.

Mimsha shook her head. "If he insults the Fire Lord again, he'll get exiled again. And there's no Avatar running around for him to capture, now."

Moelij shrugged. "Yeah, but you know what they're saying are the rumors of why Price Zuko pissed off the Fire Lord the first time, right?"

Mimsha thought. "No," she said slowly. "Actually… they have kept that rather hush-hush, haven't they?"

"Very hush-hush," Moelij nodded. "Because apparently," he leaned in closer. Elsie and Mimsha couldn't help it, but they did, too. "Apparently, it's because Prince Zuko had sat in on a war council meeting or something, and objected to a suggestion by the Fire Lord."

"So?" Mimsha rolled her eyes. "You don't get exiled for that."

Moelij rolled his eyes. "Yes, you do, Mimsha. It's, like, the greatest insult in the world, to tell the Fire Lord you think it's morally repugnant to send a group of green army troops to their slaughter to lose a battle on purpose in front of his entire war council."

"No," Mimsha breathed. Her eyes were wide and her notebook forgotten. "The Fire Lord was going to do that?" Moelij nodded sagely. "What battles did we lose three years ago?"

"The Battle of Tao Shei."

Mimsha gasped.

"What?" Elsie looked from Mimsha's surprised face, to Moelij's nodding, serious one. "What happened at the Battle of Tao Shei?"

Moelij looked her at curiously. "The Battle of Tao Shei was about three years ago. The entire forty-first infantry was massacred by the Earth Kingdom. They were just newly trained, with no battle experience. It was horrible."

"Three thousand men," Mimsha said quietly. "Dead."

There was a silence as the weight of those lives sunk on their souls.

"And it was on purpose," Mimsha said.

"Yes," Moelij snapped to attention. His eyes were fierce and glittering. "I believe it. A hundred years of this war and soldiers become numbers, not people. Our leaders are hardening towards us. They don't care about the little people anymore; they just want land and gold."

"Zuko cared," Mimsha murmured. "At least he did three years ago."

"You think he doesn't now?" Elsie wondered.

Mimsha shrugged. "People change."

"Not really," Moelij said. "We like to think they do, but they don't really. I think that three years in exile hasn't made Zuko care less. If anything, I bet he cares more."

"That's a big maybe, Moelij." Mimsha looked Moelij in the eye. "A big maybe to promise people."

Moelij gritted his teeth. "I just wish there was some way of proving it!" Moelij smacked his fist into his palm. "Somebody who traveled with him, to say he's a good guy."

"His uncle, the Fire Lord's brother," Mimsha suggested.

"Yeah. I'm going to get an audience with the Fire Lord's brother." Moelij rolled his eyes. "Great plan, Mimsha."

"Fine then, the soldiers. The sailors. The men on his ship," Mimsha snapped. "Any of them would do."

"What about the Water Lady?" Moelij asked. "I mean, she's our enemy. Do you think she'd just hang out with him if he wasn't a good person?"

"She's a Water Tribe girl," Mimsha shook her head. "What's she know?"

"Still…" Moelij stroked his chin. "Damn." He snapped his fingers. "I just wish there was some way of proving he's better than… things…"

"Well, there isn't, so stop scaring away my customers." Mimsha turned back to her notebook and started scribbling.

Moelij sighed and pushed himself of the counter of the fish stall. "Okay. Bye, Mimsha. Bye, Elsie. It was nice meeting you." He strolled away, waving to Elsie over his shoulder. Elsie waved back, the knife still in her hand, but he'd already turned around and disappeared into the crowds.

Mimsha watched him leave, her brow furrowed. "That's going to be spread all over the city by sunset, if he has his way."

"It's only one boy," Elsie tried to console.

Mimsha turned to her and shook her finger. "That boy's got a bunch of rascals working for him. He's a thief and a flirt and a trouble-maker. You better stay away from him, or I'll have something to say about it."

Elsie nodded and wondered if it was true what he had said – if firebenders had to teach other firebenders.

When Sokka came back that evening, exhausted, Elsie related all that had happened, except for the firebending thing and the stuff about Zuko maybe liking Katara.

"What!" Sokka squawked. "They wouldn't be saying that if they ever met Zuko! That guy's a cold-blooded jerk!"

"Maybe," Elsie said softly. "But is he worse than the Fire Lord? At least Zuko wouldn't send three thousand men to their deaths."

"But he's spent a year chasing after us, trying to kill us and capture Aang," Sokka argued. "He's not a nice guy, Elsie. You don't know him. We've been fighting him since this whole thing started. In fact, he's the reason Katara and me are following Aang around."

Elsie didn't know what to say. That was true, but something seemed to ring true in Moelij's theory.

"Wasn't the whole reason he was trying to capture Aang because he was trying to get back here? Maybe if he's Fire Lord, he probably won't care if Aang comes or goes."

Sokka held up a finger and opened his mouth. "Uh…"

"This whole war's the reason Zuko's suffered all these years. He probably doesn't like it as much as the Fire Lord anymore."

Sokka opened his mouth to speak again and then shut it very quickly. "Hmph," he crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm starting to like you better when you didn't speak."

Elsie covered her mouth as she giggled. Sokka sighed and rubbed her head. "Go to sleep, you little freak."

MEOW… MEOW!

"Ugh! When he said she wailed like a cat I thought he meant she was just loud. I didn't realize he meant she actually meowed!" Sokka covered his ears with his hands as he curled up on the bare floor.

Elsie agreed furiously but didn't feel like adding to the noise. She tried rolling up into a ball on the reed mat, but it really didn't shut out any of the noise.

AnitaGrace: Just to let you know, Moelij got some of the facts wrong because I wanted him to. How creepy would it be for a sixteen-year-old boy to know every little detail about what goes on in the Fire Council? Come on, peoples.

I also would like to reply to a thing Rakshana said: Elsie's name... Usually I spend a lot of time coming up with names for people, like what they're meanings are, how they sound, how they look on paper, etc. but Elsie's name just came to me and wouldn't leave me alone. I had actually named her like three times, more "Avatar-like" names but the name Elsie just sounded right. And, actually I've heard some more western names in Avatar, but they were such minor characters it probably didn't matter.

And then, just yesterday, I was like, hey! Maybe I named her Elsie because I was having a premonition or something and her name means something cool.

But it doesn't. It just means "Consecrated of God", which is actually and kind of sucky thing to be named (I think, no offense) but it is short for Elizabeth, really, which is kind of cool. Like Elizabeth I, and ... other Elizabeths in history... yeah...

Does anyone know why the name Moelij sounds so familiar to me? Is there a character out there (from anything) with a similar name? It's pronounced (Moe - ih - leej) Mo, as in Momo, ih as in "it", and leej as in my leige without the soft g.

Plijak: (Plee-jack)

Mimsha: (Mim-sha) That one's pretty phonetic.

(These three names, and Shomlen (Shawm-lin) are made up by me. They mean nothing... so sad...)

Review, you meanies!