p class="MsoNormal"Sky's POV/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"It was daytime, and the sun was shines. We were in a Earth Kingdom village. People bearing backpacks and other loads walk back and forth over the bridge near us, either entering or departing the village. We were sitting on straw mats, our stolen ostrich horse behind us. Iroh held his hat in his hand with some money in it. A cart festooned with masks for sale passed briefly in front of us. One of the masks was the Blue Spirit mask. As the cart passed, another pedestrian walked in front of Iroh. Iroh held his hat out to the pedestrian and spook to him, "Spare coins for weary travellers?" The man threw a few copper coins into Iroh's hat, joining perhaps a dozen already there. span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanZuko turned to Iroh in anger to say, "This is humiliating! We're royalty. These people should be giving us whatever we want." To which Iroh replied, "They will - if you ask nicely."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Several more pedestrians passed. Iroh next solicited a well-dressed young woman and asked in a weak voice, "Spare change for a hungry old man and his pregnant niece?" The stopped to look at us, "Aww," she produced a coin from her sleeve and had put it in his hat saying, "here you go." Iroh then said, "The coin is appreciated, but not as much as your smile." To which Zuko slapped his forehead in a Sokka-like gesture of frustration. The girl giggled and I then she walked away. A man carrying a pair of broadswords on his back wandered by the opposite direction as the girl. He stopped and addressed us smiling somewhat cruelly, "How about some entertainment in exchange for..." Suddenly in the Broadsword Man's hand appeared to be holding a gold coin, "a gold piece."/p
p class="MsoNormal""We're not performers." Zuko replied. Iroh just smiled and put his hat on the ground, "Not professional, anyway." Iroh said, standing up and clasping his hands together as he began to sing, shifting from one foot to another as he rocked back and forth, "It's a long, long way to Ba-Sing-Se, but the girls in the city they look soo prett-ay!" This displeased the man, "Come on! We're talking a gold piece here!" He then walked up to me, crunch to my level and grasped my chin saying, "Why don't you give it a go, hemmm? You would be quite pretty if you weren't so fat." The man said while looking at my pregnant belly, which just made Zuko angry. I stood up with a little assistance from Iroh and began to sing No Excuses by Meghan Trainor:/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"What you sippin' on that got you talking crazy?br /Lookin' at me sideways, always coming at mebr /Why you, why you acting hard when you just a baby?br /Boy, I keep it real with you, but you trying to play me/p
p class="MsoNormal"Have you lost your mind?br /Open up your eyesbr /Huh!/p
p class="MsoNormal"(Someone else) You must have confused me, confused me withbr /(Someone else) You must have confused me, confused me withbr /(Someone else) There ain't no excuses, excuses, babebr /(Someone else) Your mama raised you better than that, huh!/p
p class="MsoNormal"What you sippin' on that got you talking crazy?br /Lookin' at me sideways, always coming at mebr /Why you, why you acting like you never met a lady?br /I don't disrespect you, don't you disrespect me/p
p class="MsoNormal"Have you lost your mind? (lost your mind)br /Open up your eyesbr /Huh!/p
p class="MsoNormal"(Someone else) You must have confused me, confused me withbr /(Someone else) You must have confused me, confused me withbr /(Someone else) There ain't no excuses, excuses, babebr /(Someone else) Your mama raised you better than that, huh!/p
p class="MsoNormal"'Cause your mama raised you better than thatbr /'Cause your mama raised you better than that/p
p class="MsoNormal"Have you lost your mind?br /Open up your eyes (your eyes)br /Huh!/p
p class="MsoNormal"(Someone else) You must have confused me, confused me with (confused me with)br /(Someone else) You must have confused me, confused me withbr /(Someone else) There ain't no excuses, excuses, babe (no excuses, no, no)br /(Someone else) Your mama raised you better than that, huh! (how she raise you?)/p
p class="MsoNormal"You must have confused me, confused me withbr /Your mama raised you better than, better than thatbr /There ain't no excuses, excuses, babebr /'Cause your mama raised you better than that, huh! (she raised you better than that)/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Zuko's eyes burn with anger as the Man got angry with me about the song I sang. Broadsword Man took out his dual blades and pointed a sword at Iroh shouting, "Dance!" With the threat of swords, Zuko grabbed my hand and guided me to return to my place on the ground beside him. The Broadsword Man began to swing his swords at Iroh's legs. Iroh hoped up and down to avoid the blows while continuing singing his song, "And they kiss so sweet that you've really got to meet the girls from Ba-Sing-Se!"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanZuko was gritting his teeth and gripping his knees in his hands while watch these events unfold. Broadsword Man just laughed, "Hahaha! Nothing like a fat man dancing for his dinner," He then tossed the coin on the ground in front of Iroh, "Here ya go!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Iroh leant down and picked up the coin as the Broadsword Man walked away, putting his swords back in their place. Iroh sat back down as we looked towards the Man walking away. "Such a kind man!" Iroh said smiling. I looked away from the man when Zuko tightly squeezed my hand as he glared at the man./p