"Maybe we should make camp?" Zuko asked after his Uncle fake-moaned for the fifth time that minute, while pretending to be in pain every step the ostrich-horse took.
"Please, no." Iroh said in a dramatic voice as he clasped his chest, "Don't stop just for me."
Zuko didn't reply, but pulled the reins of the ostrich-horse he shared with his Uncle as the moaning continued. Just behind them, Elyrie halted her own ostrich-horse. With load groans, Iroh lowered himself off the animal and sat down on a large rock while still clasping his chest.
"How are you feeling?" Elyrie asked as she dismounted.
"Wonderful." Iroh groaned while putting the back of his hand against his forehead.
"I see." Elyrie responded smoothly as she handed him the waterskin to let him drink. She knew better than to argue with the older man.
She handed the second waterskin to Zuko, but he evaded her look. Elyrie rolled her eyes, but said nothing. Last night, Zuko had returned to the old cabin and he took the pouring rain with him. He had been soaked to the bone and at his feet were small puddles were the water came dripping from his wet clothing.
She hadn't asked how his trip was, she hadn't asked about the lightening, she hadn't asked anything. And Zuko, in turn, hadn't said anything to her.
That had been enough to convince Elyrie he wouldn't be there in the morning, but just like the day before: he hadn't left. He had helped packing the ostrich-horses and offered to ride for his Uncle. Elyrie had observed the situation without making an effort to chime in. She still didn't understand what Zuko wanted from them, or what they planned to do next.
She shook her head but just as she was about to take a large sip from the water, a rumbling sound drew their attention. The ostrich-horses looked up in alarm in the direction of the impeding danger.
"What now?" Iroh sighed, sounding more annoyed than afraid. Zuko took a fighting stance and Elyrie flexed her own fingers in anticipation.
The sounds became louder and the trembling indicated that they were being surrounded. Then, suddenly five soldiers on Komodo-rhino's were visible through the thickets on both sides of the road. The largest man – obviously the leader with a nose ring and a rather unpleasant look in his eyes - pulled back the reins when he stopped in front of the trio.
"Colonel Mongke!" Iroh said as he recognised the leader, "What a pleasant surprise!"
"If you're surprised we're here, then the Dragon of the West has lost few steps." Colonel Mongke answered brashly. To strengthen his words, he lifted his arms and let sparks fly off his metal bracers. The other men whipped out their weapons simultaneously.
Elyrie was surprised to see that they all wielded a different weapon. She saw the bearded soldier draw a spear, while the heavily armoured soldier lifted something that looked like explosives. The soldier with the braided hair swung around a heavy looking metal chain with a ball, while the last soldier – a Yuyan archer, she recognised – drew his bow and arrow.
"You know these guys?" Zuko asked surprised as he let his gaze go over the soldiers.
"Sure," Iroh responded calmly, as if it was a pleasant reunion with old friends who hadn't just drawn their weapons, "Colonel Mongke and the Rough Rhinos are legendary. Each one is a different kind of weapon specialist. They are also a very capable singing group.
"Beg pardon?" Elyrie answered, since that wasn't what she expected.
"We're not here to give a concert!" Colonel Mongke exclaimed, "We're here to apprehend fugitives!"
"Would you like some tea first? I'd love some." Iroh responded, "How about you, Kahchi?" he turned to the bearded man, "I make you as a jasmine man, am I right?"
"Enough stalling!" Colonel Mongke yelled impatiently, "Round 'em up!"
The first to attack was the man with the braids, who swung his ball and chain in Iroh's direction. If the older man had been in unbearable pain a few seconds ago, there wasn't much left of it: with ease, he kicked the ball away. The ball redirected and wrapped its chain around the foot of the Komodo-rhino of the bearded soldier - Kahchi, as Uncle had called him.
Iroh rolled to dodge the fireblasts and swatted the rump of the Komodo-rhino that was now chained. Surprised, the animal immediately ran off, yanking both Kahchi and the soldier with the braid with him.
Elyrie had been too focussed on evading the flaming arrows of the Yuyan archer to pay attention to Uncle. Zuko and she stood back-to-back with their hands raised, just as the archer shot another flaming arrow.
"Duck!" Elyrie cried, but Zuko effortlessly turned around and broke the arrow in two. Elyrie took the opportunity to shoot a small but precise blast at the archer, which burned a hole in his bow. The blast passed through the bow and broke the string, effectively disabling the archer.
Zuko finally had enough when he saw Colonel Mongke aim another fireblast at his Uncle. He ran up to the back of Mongke's rhino and jumped on the saddle behind him. Mongke only had the time to shoot a small blast before Zuko spun around and send the Colonel flying with two fire kicks.
Amidst this battle, Elyrie had mounted her own ostrich-horse and pulled the other with her. Iroh jumped on the second one, while Elyrie extended her hand for Zuko to jump on the animal as she passed by the Komodo-rhino of Colonel Mongke.
Zuko grabbed her waist with one hand, while aiming a few fire shots at the last soldier: the one with the explosives.
"Faster!" Zuko said to her as she tried to steady the animal. Elyrie dug her heels in the flanks of the ostrich-horse, and it was just in time. A grenade flew just by them and exploded between the two running animals, but they all made it through the explosion's smoke.
Elyrie wiped her watery eyes from the smoke and looked over to see if Uncle was still beside them. To her surprise, she saw him smiling. "It's nice to see old friends." He said with a content smile.
"Too bad you don't have any old friends that don't want to attack you!" Zuko answered behind Elyrie as he looked over his shoulder to see if anyone was following them.
"Old friends that don't want to attack me..?" Iroh repeated in surprise, as if the whole concept was foreign to him.
"Where are we going now?" Elyrie asked Iroh, when he steered his animal in the direction of the desert.
"Misty Palms Oasis!" Iroh replied.
"You want to go to an oasis?" Zuko repeated in disbelief, "Like it is a vacation?"
"You asked me whether I had old friends that don't want to attack me," Iroh answered, "Well, I might have one in the Misty Palms Oasis."
"No one here is going to help us!" Zuko said as he let his gaze pass over the tavern, "These people just look like filthy wanderers."
"So do we." Iroh answered calmly. He might have had a point, but Elyrie felt far from comfortable in the shady tavern. She counted at least twelve different kinds of weapons and all of their carriers didn't seem hesitant to use them.
Subconsciously, she moved closer to Zuko, who in turn made sure she was safely between him and Uncle. Iroh repressed a smile at the natural bodylanguage. He had seen it during the battle with the Rough Rhino's and now as they were surrounded by these rough looking bounty hunters.
"Ah, this is interesting," Iroh said as he pointed over Zuko's shoulder, "I think I found our friend." Both Elyrie and Zuko turned around and saw an frail-looking, bald man sitting at a Pai Sho table.
"You brought is here to gamble on Pai Sho?" Zuko asked him in a tone that implied he thought his Uncle was joking.
"I don't think this is a gamble." Iroh replied cryptically as he walked towards the table. Elyrie followed him as she studied the man behind the table. The man sat slightly hunched over and he seemed at least as old as Uncle. He was completely bald, but still had greying eyebrows and a long moustache. How can this man help us? Elyrie wondered as they approached the table.
"May I have this game?" Iroh asked politely.
"The guest has the first move." The Pai Sho player replied in a surprisingly soft voice. Iroh sat down and placed the lotus tile in the middle of the board.
"I see you favour the white lotus gambit. No many still cling to the ancient ways." The player observed. To Elyrie's surprise, the man articulated every syllable instead of slouching together the words. She understood that this was not someone who played Pai Sho in a place like this without a good reason.
"Those who do can always find a friend." Iroh answered as he looked the man in the eye.
"Then let us play." The man answered as he placed another tile on the board while Iroh followed quickly.
Elyrie's eyes went over the board as she tried to find the strategy in the game. She had played at least a hundred games of Pai Sho, but she had never seen a game go as fast as this one. Or as random as this one.
None of the tiles were placed on their strategic places, or used for their purpose. Zuko sat down, but her eyes kept following the tiles. Both men placed their tiles with lightening speed, without even looking at what the other person was doing.
Just as the last tile was placed by both men, she finally saw that they had made a pattern on the board. From above, it looked like a flower. No, a lotus. The white lotus tile in the middle was the centre, surrounded by other pieces.
"Welcome brother." The man said as he spread his arms, "The White Lotus opens wide to those who know her secrets."
"What are you old gasbags talking about?" Zuko said angrily, but he quickly shut up when Elyrie lightly slapped him against the back of his head – a thing she had done often whenever he was being impolite.
"Don't be disrespectful!" she hissed at him when he shot her an annoyed look. Zuko grumbled something as he rubbed his head, not believing she had actually reprimanded him on his manners. He was a grown man, after all!
"I always tried to tell you that Pai Sho is more than just a game." Iroh said as he rolled a tiled over his knuckles with impressive ease.
"It's over!" a loud voice cried out, "You three fugitives are coming with me!"
Elyrie snapped her head into the direction of the voice. She saw a tanned man with long, black hair and a rough exterior stomp in their direction. Following behind him was a man with a lighter skin and dressed in fine silk. She was certain she had never seen any of these men, but it wasn't hard to understand that they knew who they were.
The wanted posters, of course. She groaned inwardly as she remembered that their faces were plastered all over the Earth Kingdom by now.
Zuko rose from his seat and turned around to face them, but to his surprise the Pai Sho player placed himself between him and the two men.
"I knew it!" the man exclaimed while pointing to them, "You three are wanted criminals with a giant bounty on your heads!"
"I thought you said he was helping us." Zuko hissed angrily at his Uncle as he tensed his muscles.
"He is." Iroh replied as he placed a hand on the shoulder of his nephew, "Just watch."
"You think you're going to capture them and collect all that gold?" the man added, his voice loud enough to make every man in the tavern look up.
"Gold?" a voice echoed. The word rolled over the men like a small wave, before a eery silence took over. All heads turned in their direction.
Elyrie sharply inhaled her breath when she saw the man closest to her draw his knife. Zuko saw the look of fear in her eyes and placed his arm in front of her as if to shield her when he saw the light reflect off the knife.
But to Zuko's surprise, none of the men attacked them. Instead, they attacked the two men who wanted to capture them.
The Pai Sho player subtly pushed the trio back when everyone started to attack each other in an effort to claim their prize, so much that the didn't notice the three fugitives making their way out of the tavern.
"Back here!" the man hissed as they ran after hem into the dark night. He led them to a large wooden building at the edge of the village and opened the door for them.
When he made sure nobody had followed them, the man shut the door. "It is an honour to welcome such a high-ranking member of the Order of the White Lotus." He said to Iroh with great respect, "Being a Grand Master, you must know so many secrets."
"Now that you played Pai Sho, are you going to do some flower arranging or is this club going to ofer some real help?" Zuko asked impatiently as he motioned to all the flowers around him. Elyrie wanted to reprimand him again, but she was confused as well. However, the cryptic words of the man were enough to convince her there was more to this than she had initially thought. Order of the White Lotus? Grand Master? She had no idea what all of this meant, but Uncle seemed to.
"You must forgive my nephew," Iroh said without paying no mind to Zuko's tone, "He is not an initiate and has little appreciation for the cryptic arts."
They walked further into the store and the Pai Sho player knocked at the wooden door in the back. A small window in the middle slit open and a man peeked through.
"Who knocks at the guarded gate?" the man behind the door asked.
"One who has eaten the fruit and tasted its mysteries." Iroh answered.
The door opened immediately to let the Pai Sho player and Uncle in, but the door shut as soon as Zuko tried to enter.
"I'm afraid it's members only." Iroh said through the small window, "Wait out here."
Elyrie sat down against a wooden box and folded her hands patiently as the window closed again.
"How can you sit here like this?" Zuko said.
"Because what else is there to do?" she shrugged as she picked up a beautiful lily and examined it.
"How do we even know if we can trust these lunatics?" Zuko said as he paced around.
"Uncle seems to. Didn't you listen to the cryptic messages?" She answered as motioned with her hands to the closed door, "I am sure he knows what he is doing."
Zuko scoffed at her and folded his arms as leaned against a wooden box with a sour face. He sniffed a large flower next to him, but turned his head away again.
Suit yourself then, Elyrie thought as she saw his face.
Zuko tried to listen in, but gave up. If there were men talking inside the room, neither of them heard it. It seemed the door was soundproof. He looked around the dimly lit flower store, but focussed his attention on Elyrie on the floor.
The faint flicker of the lantern lit up one side of Elyrie's face, the part where the thin scar covered her temple. Elyrie leaned back and folded her legs under her. As she did this, her shirt slightly shifted off her shoulder and Zuko noticed a blueish spot on her shoulders. Her shoulder seemed to be swollen a little and she tried to move it as little as possible.
"Lily?" he asked finally.
Ahh, we are back to that then. "Yes?" she answered, not looking up from her flower.
"What happened to your shoulder?"
"I fell on it when I was paralysed by Ty Lee." She answered as she pulled the fabric over her shoulder again. She had rolled of Mai's lizard-creature in her effort to wake Appa. It had worked, but she hadn't been able to break her fall properly and landed hard on the earth. And now, her shoulder was sore but aside from some black spots, it seemed fine.
Now that she looked at him straight, Zuko saw the slight swelling. He balled his hands into fists and his anger resurfaced when he thought of Azula's taunting look when she told him how she had captured her.
But for some reason, Elyrie didn't seemed to be fazed in the slightest. She tilted her head with a half smile but nothing more. No anger in her voice, no fear when she said it. Even when facing Azula head on had she smiled at him: a fearless smile.
She is never fazed by anything, he thought but at that same moment he recounted the flash of fear in her voice when she talked about the North Pole after Uncle's attack. The same fear he saw only a moment ago when the man drew the knife at her. She only seemed genuinely scared whenever someone brought up something connected to Zhao.
With a shock, the conflicting thoughts came rushing back. The night on Song's porch and how she refused to talk about her troubles. Why is she afraid of Zhao and not of Azula? A wiser person was more afraid of Azula. Hell, even Zhao would probably have been afraid of Azula. Zhao was a brute, but he had been vain, conceited and a coward. Even Zuko himself beat the former Admiral in an Agni Kai when he wasn't at his strongest.
"Why are you afraid?" Zuko suddenly blurted out.
Elyrie shot him a puzzled look. "I am not afraid? It was an accident because I fell-,"
"I don't mean that." Zuko interrupted her, "You aren't afraid of Ty Lee or Azula, I know that."
She gave him a cheeky smile. "That's the nicest thing you ever said to me."
Zuko didn't return her smile. "Why are you afraid of Zhao?"
As soon as he uttered his name, her smile faltered and her eyes widened as she drew in a sharp breath. Zuko saw her long fingers tightening around the flower she was holding. Such an extreme reaction was unnatural for her, but he couldn't help but wonder what made it so severe.
"What makes you think I want to talk about it now?" her voice was suddenly sharp. Everything inside her squirmed when she thought about Zhao.
"I thought that-," Zuko began, taken aback by her tone. They hadn't exchanged many words the past day, but they had remained civil with each other – save for the slap on the back of his head.
"You thought that because Zhao was only half the threat Azula is, I shouldn't be this concerned? That because he is gone, I should be fine?" she asked sarcastically with a cold stare in her eyes.
Zuko felt his temper flare at her condescending tone, but he had to admit that it was indeed what he thought.
"Lily, I just-,"
"Don't bother."
"You are always the one who says you need to talk about your problems." Zuko shot back at her, annoyed by the fact that she was putting up her walls again. He had spent weeks wondering what she was thinking and now he would finally put it to action.
"I am also the one who never forced you to, because I know you'll only talk when you are ready." She answered immediately as she stood up to level his stare.
"And I know you will never talk about it if I don't try." Zuko shot back as he stood up straight, "Don't you think I know by now how stubborn you are? Even Uncle said you needed to be more open if you want to solve the turm-."
"Fine." She interrupted him as she stood up, "We are solving turmoil? Then answer me this: why did you leave us?" Her frustrations and stress from the past day finally made her boil over.
"What?" Zuko said dumbfounded, "That is not what I-,"
"I know, but if you want to hear my story, you need to answer one thing first." She crossed her arms, "How could you leave us?" She knew that might not have been the best way to let Zuko know she cared for him, but the soft approach wasn't working so what did it matter?
"What?" Zuko's jaw dropped when she said that.
"Why did you leave?" she said again as she took a step closer to him, her voice now softer, "Why didn't you want us around?" Why didn't you want me around? She knew that Uncle was right, that Zuko never had the luxury to take love for granted, but it still hurt when he had left. She tried to deny it for his sake, but it had wounded her that he pushed her aside so easily.
Zuko looked at her with mixed feelings as he let her words sink in. Her eyes, large and blue, were no longer angry slits. Instead, they were open and vulnerable. She missed me? He thought as he watched her clasp her hands together.
"I didn't think you would need me." Zuko answered honestly.
Elyrie didn't miss that he now referred to her specifically. So he knows Uncle would never abandon him, but he wasn't certain of me? The thought hit her like a punch in the stomach.
"Is that why you kept pushing me away?" she asked matter-of-factly. Zuko wanted to protest, but he stopped to think about what she just said to him.
He had been pushing her away. He had been pushing her away and pulling her back since she had visited them in the Resort. When she was Zhao's fiancée, she didn't seem so sure as she now did. He had felt protective of her: she didn't complain but he could see in her eyes how unhappy she was. And then, she pulled herself free and took charge of her own destiny. She wore it beautifully: a woman who knew who she was. And it had been so hard for him to accept this, he understood that now. She had succeeded in everything he had failed.
She had warned him for Azula's intentions, but he had ignored her and pushed her away. When she needed his help when she couldn't walk, he pulled her back to protect her. She had slept in his arms and he had felt so happy, but then she eclipsed him again by adapting to their situation with such ease. He wanted to protect her from the robber, but she took care of it herself and made the money to support them for a time.
He had pushed her away every time she had managed to be independent and now he understood why: he had been afraid to lose her. By pushing her away, he justified that he didn't need her around because she didn't need him around either.
"Yes." He answered, not brave enough to look at her. ""And I thought that I could spare myself the pain of seeing you leave. I am sorry."
"Don't be." she said as she finally smiled at him, "It means I need to work harder on showing my affection." Something inside him sparked when she said it like that. Affection.
"Then sorry because I was such a worthless idiot?" He finally looked at her and he saw the warmth in her blue eyes. The little spark didn't seem to go away as she smiled at him. Then, she surprised him as she closed her arms around his shoulders. He immediately placed his own arms around her waist.
"Don't call yourself a worthless." She said with her face in his shirt.
"What about an idiot?" Zuko quipped, knowing it would made her laugh. And indeed, he felt her smile against him as she let out a small chuckle.
Her short curls tickled his face is a pleasant way as he gently straightened them. He felt her relax against his touch.
"Do you want to tell me about it?" he asked softly when the familiar scent reached his nostrils and made him shiver.
"It is complicated." She answered after a few moments as she pulled back slightly, without letting go of him. Zuko didn't anything as she tried to form her feelings into words.
"I am afraid of him – the memory of him – because what he could do was far worse than what Azula ever could do to me." She finally said after a few moments. "Azula could obliterate me, but that is all she could ever do to hurt me."
"With Zhao," she forced herself to say his name, "The hurt was all my own doing on top of the grief I had after the passing of my father. When he asked me to marry him, I accepted without truly thinking what it meant to be his wife. I had the feeling that the bottom of my existence was knocked out from under me, and I followed what others told me was a wise decision. And it seemed like a reasonable decision for a while."
Her unbearable blue eyes focussed on his face. "Until I met you again. When you and Uncle came to the harbour, for the first time in the months since my father's death I smiled. I actually smiled."
Zuko remembered that smile. The smile that hadn't changed since she was six years old and seemed to be a part of her face as much as her small nose, her arched brows and her soft cheeks. How could she not have smiled? Again, he repressed the fluttering feeling in his chest that kept peaking up.
"As you remember, that was quite an eventful day." She pursed her lips, "But it did make me reminiscent the days before I lost both my parents and when we were younger. At first, I didn't realise I could doubt my decision – remember when you asked me? – and instead focussed on the potential future."
"But then I stayed with you and Uncle. You two welcomed me, made me feel at home." A warm feeling spread through Zuko's chest when she said it. "And when I returned, I felt like a different person. Zhao noticed it too, but wasn't too happy about it." Her face twisted as she thought about her time in the Stronghold. "He tried to push me back in the obedient fiancée he had come to know."
"I tried to adjust, but it wasn't enough apparently. So he tried and forced me witness the destruction of a town; he planned to burn all the villagers as retribution for stolen goods." The desperate screams and the crying children kept ringing in her ears. The sounds of fist banging on walls in a desperate attempt to break out of the burning Temple.
"He, he-," she began as her voice started to tremble, trying to describe the horrors of that day, "He did horrible things. That was the moment I decided that enough was enough. But as punishment, I was imprisoned in a cell below deck and he removed me from everything I held dear. And when he told me you had died in the …" Her voice finally broke before she could continue. Her blue eyes were rimmed with tears and she made a great effort to hold them back.
Without thinking, Zuko took her hands into his. The cold hands immediately grasped his as if she held onto him like a lifeline. With his thumbs, he gently rubbed the back of her hands. It seemed to calm her as she continued her story.
"I knew I needed to get out, but how I didn't know. And when I finally did, Zhao wanted to kill me. He wanted to slit my throat with a knife, he wanted to kill me in the most painful way." She said with a slight quiver in her voice, "He was a brute who relished the pain he could inflict upon others. Upon me. And I had actually accepted his marriage proposal. How could I have been so blind?"
He saw the vulnerability in her eyes as she recounted everything that had happened to her under Zhao's watch. He didn't interrupt as she told him everything. She had been bottling this up all these weeks, he mused. He had assumed she had left it behind her when she had escaped from his clutches. She seemed so fearless, so sure of herself.
But as she told this, he finally realised how absolutely terrified and alone she had felt. She hadn't shown it to anyone and she kept up her appearances. Why didn't he see it sooner? He always thought she was so unbearable happy, but that was only because he never saw her at her lowest point.
"You got through this all by yourself?" he asked as he held her gaze. Her shoulders were tense, but her face seemed to relax a little bit.
"I didn't allow myself to break down." She answered with a decisive look, "Picking myself up would take so much longer." The way she said it, with her chin lifted and her eyes fierce, he didn't doubt that she wouldn't allow herself to give in to emotions.
Zuko felt as if someone had frozen him on the spot as he thought about what she just told him. If anyone should have understood this, it was him. He had been cut off from everything for years, he should have noticed her state. But he didn't because he was too busy feeling sorry for himself. What must she have hated him.
"I only realised that I had so narrowly escaped from the worst decision of my life." She added slowly, "It can be called a miracle that I escaped from Zhao's clutches in the way it all happened. And I was accepted into a new family – my family – before I was forced to adapt again by Azula's treat."
"Then why aren't you more upset about us being fugitives?" Zuko asked, wanting to know everything now.
"Because this gives me an odd sense of freedom. With you and Uncle, I finally feel like I am somewhat safe, even though I know I am not." Elyrie answered. Her hand went to her neck, but she lowered it again after her finger touched the empty spot between her collarbones. Zuko understood why: her necklace had been hanging there. She had always touched it for comfort, but now her long neck seemed bare without it.
"I like not knowing what comes next." She answered as she let go of his hand. She sat down and wrapped her arms around her knees, "I never had that opportunity, not really. I might have joked about running of to become a writer or singer but I know that I would have returned to the Water Tribe after some time to see what my next step there would be, which would undoubtedly be marriage. Zhao refused to acknowledge I had a voice and in the Water Tribe might not be the future I dreamed of. I only want the freedom to make my own mistakes. And here, I believe I finally can."
Zuko sat down next to her without interrupting. He felt as if the strong walls were finally broken and the wave of thoughts, emotions and longings had poured through at last.
"I hate that this happened, but I try to focus on the bright side of it all. Without anywhere to go, I can finally allow myself to ask the big questions: who am I and what do I want?" Elyrie said, now a little more cheerful as she started turning her ring around her finger.
"Why did you stay with Uncle then? You could have gone anywhere, but why did you stay?" Zuko asked.
"Because I care for Uncle, just like I care for you and hoped you would return." She replied truthfully, "And I am sorry if I hurt you by saying I wasn't here for you. I want to be, I truly do."
Her eyes, unbearably blue, turned to him. "Can you forgive me?" she asked genuinely. It had been plaguing her how they had parted their ways, jut like it had bothered him. She asked his forgiveness, just as much as he wanted hers for being so blind and foolish to her terrors.
You need to let go of your feelings of shame. He did feel ashamed: ashamed he wasn't there for her. Ashamed that he only saw his own fears. Ashamed he couldn't be the man she deserved.
"Can you forgive me?" he asked quietly.
"Of course I can!" she said and her smile lit up her face once again.
Zuko only nodded when she was finished as he tried to wrap his head around her complexity. She seemed so sure of herself and he had to admit, she seemed to be perfectly comfortable with being herself. Why did this bother me so much? Why did he feel like the child when he was almost two years older than she was? Because girls just mature faster, Zuko, that is the way it is, his mother had once told him, Look at them for guidance.
"Lily?" Zuko asked.
"Yes?" she answered.
"I want you here too."
For a moment, neither of them said anything. Elyrie's face split in a genuine smile but just as she was about to say something, the door swung open with a loud squeaking sound. They both looked up in surprise when Uncle entered the room again.
"Is the club meeting over?" Zuko asked, still a bit surprised as he rose to his feet.
"Everything is taken care of." Iroh answered with a knowing smile as he pretended not to see the blush on both their cheeks, "We're heading to Ba Sing Se."
"Ba Sing Se?" Zuko repeated with a frown.
"Why would we go to the Earth Kingdom capital?" Elyrie asked as she took Zuko's hand and lifted herself from the floor.
"The city is filled with refugees," The Pai Sho player answered as he stepped out of the room, "No one will notice two more."
"We can hide in plain sight there," Iroh added with a joyful smile, "And it's the safest place in the world from the Fire Nation. Even I couldn't break through to the city."
He said it far more cheerful than anyone would have when talking about their greatest military defeat, but it did made Elyrie think about it. Ba Sing Se was the last place Azula would come for them, simply because she couldn't.
"We need to make sure you don't stand out among the other refugees." The Pai Sho man said as he motioned to their clothing.
"With these outfits, I thought we'd blend right in." Zuko answered as he looked down at his own attire.
"She doesn't." The man said while pointing to Elyrie.
"What?" she asked surprised, "But I thought I was the least obvious one? I don't have the Fire Nation characteristics?"
"It isn't the fact that you don't look like an Earth Kingdom citizen, but you don't look like a refugee. Look at your hands." He motioned as she lifted her hands to study them. Her usually well-cared for and shaped nails were now broken. It had been weeks since she applied oils or cream to her skin, so the knuckles were a slight red colour form the drought. The only thing that really stood out was the thin white-gold band with the sapphire on it.
"It is not just the ring," the man said as if he could read her thoughts, "But the softness and the good shape of the nails. They are the hands that belong to a noble woman, not a refugee."
Zuko took one of her hands to study it and immediately felt how soft her skin was, despite the weeks of hardship. "But they are rough?" Elyrie said as she pulled her hand back and twisted her ring around.
The man let out a low laugh, not unkind but slightly amused. "They are rough because of the lack of creams, they aren't rough from years of hard work. Their hands are rougher because of their fighting experience." he added as he motioned to Zuko and Iroh. "First, we have to get rid off the ring."
As soon as the man said it, Elyrie backed away and placed her hand behind her back. The man laughed at her hesitant reaction. "Don't worry," he said in a reassuring tone. "I only mean you need to hide the ring, I am not taking it from you. I would suggest you wear it on a string around your neck so you can hide it beneath your clothing."
"It is a good thing that you'd cut your hair." He added as he further studied her, circling her like an eagle-hawk, "You'll find more women with short hair in Ba Sing Se." Elyrie wanted to ask why, but he already went on.
"If you all tried to keep your heads down as much as possible, I don't see any further complications to this plan." He handed Elyrie a simple string to hang her ring on. It pained her to take it off, but she understood why they needed to blend in as much as possible.
Years of pampering show, she mused as she attached the ring to the thin rope. Zuko and Uncle both put on their straw hats, which was enough to make them look like proper refugees.
"I have the passports for our guests," a second man said as he entered the flower shop, "But there a two men out there looking for them."
"The two from the tavern?" Elyrie asked as she put the rope around her neck and hit it beneath her clothing.
"How do we get out now?" Zuko asked the Pai Sho player.
"Don't worry." The man said with a knowing smile as he motioned to the large flowerpots behind him, "I know just the way."