Life of Air
Chapter 13
The Play – Part 1
With a stretch and a groan, I lifted myself up out of bed, tossing the blanket back in place. I took a moment to stare at the Fire Nation emblem on the blanket I slept under, a peaceful sleep at that. No one could have made me think I'd be sleeping so peacefully under the symbol of the nation who destroyed my people, let alone in the vacation house of that nation's leader. That is until I actually found myself locked in a kiss with the Fire Nation's own prince. Banished prince or not, he still belonged to his people just as I belonged to mine.
Thinking of the kiss we shared made my cheeks warm and I suddenly felt vulnerable, having slept in my underwear and with my chest bared. I quickly dressed, though logically I knew no one would be walking in on my almost naked form. My clothes were anything but complicated. I wore tight shorts going just above my knee under a long skirt with slits on each side going up just below my hips. To keep my chest covered it was a simple band around my breasts under a nearly sheer fabric wrapped around my middle, chest, and over one shoulder. As always I tied my hair into the one long braid that hung over my shoulder.
I took to my knees in front of the window in my room, gazing at the bright sun as it rose and blanketed the land with warmth. With a bow of my head, I gave a simple prayer to the spirits, then rose. Just as I stood there was a knock on the door.
"It's open." I said.
Through my door came the very firebender I was just thinking of. He gave me a soft smile and shut the door behind him then walked up to me.
"Good morning, Iyashi."
I smiled at him and took his hand gently, pleasantly surprised by the soft squeeze to my fingers I received in return. "Good morning, Zuko. What brings you here?"
Zuko rubbed his neck, seeming nervous. "I know it's early but umm... breakfast is about ready and I wanted to check if you were awake so you don't miss it." He gave a soft chuckle. "If you don't get your food quick, Sokka may just eat your share."
I giggled into my hand then leaned forward, leaving a soft peck on the prince's cheek before fluttering around him to the door. "Well then come on, I'm starving!"
I moved much faster than Zuko did and reached the dining room before him. There everyone sat, even my brother, waiting as Katara served rice to go with the rest of the meal. I took a seat at the end of the table, next to my brother and soon Zuko was coming to take the seat next to me. My brother gave a look but I thumped him on the leg, reminding him to mind his manors as this is technically Zuko's home more than it is any of ours.
"We wondered if you were ever getting up, Iyashi. Have a good sleep?" Aang asked once swallowing a mouthful of his breakfast.
I smiled nervously and waved my hand at him in a dismissive action. "Oh I slept fine, just took a little time to pray this morning, that's all."
Toph burst out laughing and smacked the table a few times. "Praying in the morning? What is that suppose to do?"
"Well," I started, raising the pointer finger on one of my hands. "It helps me connect to the spirits and reminds me to maintain my humility, gratitude, and generosity, among other things."
The blind earth bender shoveled some food into her mouth and spoke through it. "That spirit junk doesn't do much for me."
"You'd be surprised how good it can feel to give time to the spirits, Toph." Aang said, smiling brightly. "I don't meditate for no reason, ya know."
The rest of breakfast went on with some more conversations about whether meditation and prayer even meant anything, even Tanro piped in a few times with the lessons he learned from our grandmother. While he was distracted arguing with Sokka and Toph, I utilized those moments of distraction to draw circles and meaningless designs on Zuko's hand with my fingers under the table. With a glance at the prince I noticed he had become as red as hot lava and did my best to hide my giggles. He grabbed my hand suddenly and laced our fingers together, forcing me to stop my teasing in the best way possible.
Once breakfast was over, along with all the bickering, Katara and I moved out to the the court yard with Aang and Zuko where they would be practicing their firebending. Tanro and Toph took off somewhere to battle, who knows how that would go, and Sokka took Suki to the village to buy supplies.
It was always amazing watching Zuko firebend. His bending was nothing like the stories I had heard from the elders about how vicious firebending could be. He was powerful, that was obvious, but there was control and his movements were so deliberate that it almost seemed gentle. I often caught myself being entranced by the bender himself, rather than the art of his bending. He was built, obvious muscles showing with each movement as he practiced without a shirt on, but he wasn't bulky like my three eldest brothers. Zuko's pale skin was lighter than even my own, which says a lot considering how much sun I lacked, though I was still paler than the rest of the group.
I came to realize that some may be repulsed by the scar on his face, and wondered if he had experienced negativity in regards to the burn. His charred skin never bothered me, and as I thought about it I realized it never took away from how attractive I had always found him. Though at the beginning of our friendship I wasn't looking at Zuko as a love interest, honestly I wasn't looking at anyone as such, but I wasn't so blind as to not noticed the prince's good looks. His warm amber eyes always seemed to pull me in and even when I wasn't asking for him to do so, he always made my heart warmer.
Zuko and Aang finished their practice set and took a break, stretching and sitting down. Zuko sat next to me on the old waterless fountain while Aang took a seat next to Katara.
"Doesn't it feel kinda weird that we're hiding from the Fire Lord in his own house?" Katara asked.
Zuko took a towel that I handed him and started rubbing the sweat from his neck. "I told you, my father hasn't come here since our family was actually happy, and that's a long time ago. It's the last place anyone would think to look for us."
"I feel safe here, especially with everyone here." I said, leaning forward. "Don't you Katara?"
She shrugged. "I don't know about safe, I don't think I've really felt safe in a long time. But it is kind of peaceful."
Just as she finished speaking, Sokka, Suki, Toph, and Tanro came into the courtyard. Sokka held up a poster. "You guys aren't gonna believe this! There's a play about us!"
"When we were in town we found this poster." Suki said, smiling at the ever exuberant Sokka.
"I think it sounds dumb." Toph said, crossing her arms over her chest and rolling her sightless eyes. "Definitely not worth ending our battle."
Sokka ignored her and started to read from the poster. "The Boy in the Iceberg is a new production from acclaimed playwright Puan Tin,who scoured the globe gathering information on the Avatar from the icy South Pole to the heart of Ba Sing Se. His sources include singing nomads, pirates, prisoners of war, and a surprisingly knowledgeable merchant of cabbage."
Suki leaned forward and read from the poster as well. "Preformed by the critically acclaimed Ember Island Players."
Zuko groaned. "My mother used to take us to see them. They butchered Love Amongst the Dragons every year." He shook his head, probably trying to rid his mind of the memory.
"Sokka," Katara started, "I don't think it's such a good idea for us to see a play about ourselves."
I lept up. "Aww! I think it sounds wonderful! Being able to see all your adventures on a stage like that would be great."
"Yeah Katara. A day at the theater is the kind of wacky, time wasting nonsense I've been missing." Sokka said with an exaggerated grin.
I look to Aang who hadn't shown any reaction towards the idea yet. "What about you, Aang? Do you think we should go?"
He eyed the poster for a moment then smiled at me and then at Sokka. "Alright guys, I can't think of a reason we shouldn't go. Guess we're spending our time at the theater tonight."
Suki and Katara had to find me some Fire Nation appropriate clothing for our little outing since the bright orange of my clothes called attention to myself that wasn't needed. The girls came back with a long red and black skirt and a bright red sash with small gold tassels at the bottom to tie around my waist. The top was a simple red band, very similar to what I always wore, and a red vest trimmed in gold. It felt odd to be out of my normal clothing, but I knew it was for good reason. They even forbid me from bringing my staff, but I convinced them into letting me take my bag with my art supplies. This play was an excellent opportunity to find inspiration in other art forms.
Not everyone was excited, but I sure was. We all shuffled into the seats at the highest part of the building. Sokka and Suki sat in the top row, while Toph, Katara, and Aang took the seats right below them. Zuko sat on the other side of Suki and I started to take the seat next to him until Tanro grabbed my arm rather roughly and plopped me in the seat next to Aang while he sat next to Zuko. I glared at my brother but he didn't ever acknowledge my stare, crossing his arms and keeping his eyes on the stage. I gave an apologetic look to Zuko and he just nodded, looking rather uncomfortable next to the bulk of my brother.
"Why are we sitting in the nose bleed section? My feet can't see a thing from up here." Toph complained.
"Don't worry," Katara said, smiling and placing her hand on the earthbender's shoulder. "I'll tell your feet everything that's happening.
The lanterns which lined the walls began to ease down until they were nothing more than a flicker of light. I smiled big as the curtain began to rise and leaned forward to see better. On the stage was a blue-ish scene made to look like water with two actors that looked somewhat like Katara and Sokka sitting in a small boat. Sokka leaned forward in excitement and placed a hand on Katara's shoulder, pointing at their actor portrayals.
The actor Katara started to speak in a dramatic tone, talking about the lack of fulfillment in her home of the South Pole. The actor Sokka made a lame joke of wanting a full feeling in his stomach which made the whole theater laugh, that is everyone but our section. Sokka complained about the jokes being made, saying his were much better than that but Toph chuckled and disagreed.
"I think he's got you pegged." She said.
Actor Katara began a long, dramatic, and rather whiny speech about hope which ended in her fake tears.
"Well that's just silly, I don't sound like that." Katara complained.
Toph giggled again and put her feet up, seeming to be getting more comfortable. "This writer is a genius."
The actor version of Aang was next to appear, in a rather strange way might I add. A woman jumped out of a prop iceberg dressed up as an airbender, tattoos and all. Aang was obviously angry about this but Toph continued to laugh, saying the casting choice had nailed him.
The scene continued with as many dramatic lines and cheesy jokes as possible, making it rather hard to take serious. The Appa character of sorts was even rather odd, much more light and skippy than the gigantic, fluffy beast I considered Appa to be. The actors moved to the side of the stage behind curtains and on came a dingy and rough thing I assumed must be a ship with actors for Zuko and his uncle.
Taking a good look I noticed that the fake scar on the actor's face was on the wrong side and his hair was much different. A large, fluffy ponytail adored the top of actor Zuko's head and the rest was bald. This version of Zuko I couldn't help but find strange, he was gruff and his obsession for capturing the Avatar was dark and cruel. Considering how close I'd gotten to the current Zuko, I was rightly surprised. It was like looking at someone from a completely different world.
"They make me look totally stiff and humorless." Zuko commented, glaring at his actor counterpart.
Katara smiled, looking back at him. "I think that actor is pretty spot on."
"How could you say that?" Zuko said.
"How could you say that?" The actor Zuko said just after. This made our Zuko slump a little in his seat and Katara giggled.
The story continued with more bad jokes and bad acting. The group of Aang, Katara, and Sokka discovered Momo at the Sothern Air Temple which turned out to by a "flying rabbit monkey" according to the woman playing Aang who also made the suffed animal talk. Aang sat back in his seat and groaned, rubbing his head in annoyance. Then to Kyoshi Island, where actor Sokka was concerned with how his backside looked in the uniform of the Kyoshi Warriors. In Omashu the group was forced to face riddles and challenges though actor Katara only dramatically suffered in a cage of crystal. They were then attacked by pirates because actor Katara was given hope by a waterbending scroll, so much so that she needed to steal it from the pirates.
The next scene was rather confusing because it showed the blue spirit, an alias Zuko had told me he created for himself when he needed to do things that wasn't for the prince of the Fire Nation to do. In the play, however, the blue spirit rescued actor Aang from actor Zuko. This lead the woman playing Aang to title the blue spirit as his hero, in a rather feminine way might I add. I saw Aang look back at Zuko and the two cringed which made me smile.
It was Katara's turn to be embarrassed by her actor as the woman portrayed a romantic relationship with a character named Jet who wiped out a town by breaking a dam so the town would be flooded. Actor Katara claimed Jet was "so bad" as though this is what she found attractive about him. They then passed the Great Divide without a story. Next the North Pole and all those happenings, a good story but I assumed is was much better told by the real people as these actors had a tendency to over act. I did enjoy watching the princess Yue who had a relationship with actor Sokka. The fact that Sokka had tears in his eyes by the last scene with her I was sure there was some truth to that tale at least.
Actor Aang fused with the ocean spirit and destroyed the Fire Nation ships in a rather clumsy manor but it was entertaining nonetheless. The end of this scene brought the curtain down and marked the intermission of the play.
A/N – I really hate cutting The Play in half but it's so long that it literally creates two entire chapters. I like my chapters to be at least 2500 words, so when I got past 5000 words I decided to split it into two parts. I hope this doesn't bother anyone! Since it's been so long since I uploaded I was really motivated to write and wrote another chapter, which means this is being posted just a few hours after the last one. Let me know what you think! It really means a lot to me.