Chapter 34
The lanterns of the Fire Lily Festival cast their dim orange glow across the sands surrounding the seaside town. The plump little fixtures were strung nearly everywhere, crisscrossing the streets and alleys as buzzing crowds of people gathered around vendors and performers.
Alone, Azula sat a fair distance away against a tree near the edge of the forest. She'd reached the town earlier in the day and decided to double back a few miles to cut her mongoose lizard loose, thinking it might be somewhat suspicious to enter the town on lizardback. She transferred the quickly diminishing roll of bandages and medicinal jelly from the saddlebags into the guard's boots and gave the animal a nudge back in the direction of the mental institution. The princess was not concerned about where the creature ended up. Mongoose lizards were thick-skinned survivors with an impeccable sense of direction. She would be more surprised if the beast didn't find its way back to the blackened and singed stables.
The rest of her day was spent training and walking barefoot through the forest until she reached the town again. Now, she lingered in the darkness feeling the cold outline of a metal flame held tight beneath the wrappings on her leg and took in the scene before her.
Festival goers and their friends and families cheerfully bounced from stand to stand or meandered slowly through the main road of the town. The bubbling laughter was enough to make her lip curl and she scoffed, wondering why anyone would want to waste hours and hours of time spending money watching idiots perform and buying trinkets to be set on a shelf and forgotten.
Her stomach grumbled angrily and Azula placed a hand over it as if to shut it up. It had been awhile since she last had a proper meal and she wanted something substantial soon.
The princess shifted her attention from the warm light of the festival to the cold, dark blue of the sky, fidgeting with a ribbon in her hand. A particularly bright star was positioned directly over the port in the distance, closer to the water. She could just discern a ferry near the entrance of the port next to a decrepit looking ticket booth, where she would surely stand in a few days' time to travel to the Fire Nation islands. Although they were obscured by the darkness, she could hear several small fishing boats bumping gently against the docks and the waves of the sea rolling onto shore in a steady rhythm. Most people would find it peaceful. Azula did not.
Later, once the few remaining workers scrambled to their respective homes after cleaning up for the morning, Azula waited for an additional amount of time to make sure the town was indeed deserted and finally stood to stretch her stiff limbs. She tucked the guard's boots containing her few possessions behind a tree further in the forest and made her way across the stone and dirt path towards the town's main entrance.
The transition from tree cover to rocky soil and then sand was abrupt. Azula felt her body tense instinctively in the open space and was suddenly struck by the lack of Fire Nation guard presence. With only a few exceptions, Azula was nearly always surrounded by or in the close proximity of some number of guards throughout her youth and her time in the mental institute. And her father had them in place at nearly every border and port in the Nation. But in the wake of the war, apparently her brother had lessened their abundance. Still, the princess had the odd sensation that she was not alone.
Azula entered the darkened street parallel to the shoreline. The lanterns now hung lifelessly above her, ready to be resurrected in the evening again tomorrow. She started browsing the shops, seeking something that sold clothes.
Candles, agricultural supplies, tea and spices, sweets… Ah.
A simple shop sat at the corner of an intersection. Peering into the front window, Azula could see rows of basic clothes in all shades of red, black, and gold. She paced around as much of the perimeter as she could and found an employee's door tucked away at the back. The two story building cast the narrow alley into deep shadow and Azula had a hard time making out the door's lock. She was determined to stay as silent as possible, quite sure that the upper story of the building served as living quarters for the owners.
As she was about to light a flame in her hand, a very faint rumbling sounded in the distance, towards what looked more like a residential area, and Azula's head snapped up, now quite sure someone else was wandering the town in the dead of night.
Abandoning the shop, she moved in the direction of the sound, straining her ears for that unmistakable rumble. Moments of silence passed until it sounded again and she inched closer to the source. The princess continued this until she was close enough to hear the shuffling sounds of feet. She had a hunch and wanted to act on it, using a trick she'd been honing in the days after her escape.
Suppressing some of her power and energy, Azula illuminated the alley with a small orange flame in her left hand and caught a young man emerging silently from the back lot of a house with a small sack slung over his shoulder. Although she was not expecting to come face to face with this person so suddenly, she decided to engage.
"Festival's over, what are you snooping—"
With surprising speed, the man in the flickering light spun on his heel and launched himself over the low wall of the alley into the neighboring lot. Azula blinked, again straining her ears for any noise, but this person was a master at moving soundlessly. That is, until a tearing noise ripped through the air a few streets over.
Curiosity piqued, and mostly out of the intense craving for something interesting to do, Azula pursued the man. She followed his escape route in the darkness and stopped once she could just make out some whispered cursing.
"Stupid fucking bag, come on. Come on… No, don't fucking rip even more you little shit."
From a safe distance, Azula's eyes readjusted to the darkness and she watched the shadow scrambling on the ground, trying to pick up whatever had fallen. His movements were jerky and rushed as if he fully expected to be followed.
The princess mulled over her choices and ultimately decided to approach again to see if her hunch was right. At worst, she might get into a little scuffle, which could be rather fun, although unwise, considering her life for the past five years.
Azula remained enveloped in the darkness and emulated his silent walking as best she could until she was quite close to the mumbling man. She crouched and conjured a larger orange flame in her hand.
This time he froze instead of bolting. She could see that his bag had caught on the corner of a gate and torn in half. The man turned his head towards this young woman; his face assumed the look of general confusion and apprehension at her strange clothes.
Azula surveyed the contents of the ripped bag that he hadn't managed to stow away yet. Chicken and some gold. Thought so.
She clicked her tongue, slightly disappointed, "The poster said you were a skilled earthbender."
He clenched his jaw and continued to sweep up his goods, clearly convinced that this person wasn't a soldier intending to capture him. "I don't know what you're talking about."
The princess bit back a scoff at the obvious lie. "Let's not pretend you aren't the wanted earthbender that posters all over the Fire Nation say you are." The man opened his mouth to speak but Azula cut him off, "Frankly, I don't care. I wonder if you might help me with something."
He raised his eyebrow and sat back on his knees to look Azula in the eye. This was her first real look at the supposed uncatchable thief. Azula nearly doubled over laughing at the fact that she'd encountered this man by chance only a couple of days after discovering he existed, while he had evaded her brother for who knew how long. The wonders of Zuko strike again.
He was probably in his mid-twenties and looked as if he'd been living on the streets for some time. His skin was weathered and tanned from the sun and he was very lean. Thinner than the usual earthbender, but nearly all muscle. Dark brown, almost black hair fell messily across his brows and cheeks in what Azula thought must be an attempt to hide his forest green eyes. It worked well enough in a poorly lit alleyway at two in the morning, but she found it hard to believe he hadn't been caught yet with such a glaring tell of nationality.
He wore standard winter Fire Nation garb: A form fitting long sleeved black shirt beneath an open chested deep red and gold trimmed tunic vest, with loose black pants and tall boots. A smaller bag hung from his crooked leather belt. Aside from his eyes, he was the picture of Fire Nation youth.
He rubbed his short beard, "Why should I help you? Who even are you? You're dressed like a beggar."
She glared at him. "And you're a thief. What's to stop me from turning you in?"
Through his hair, his eyes glittered in the light as he laughed, "Like you're a fuckin' bounty hunter. You wouldn't snap a twig if you stepped on it. Besides," he stood up to tuck the semi-stuffed bag into his belt, "I'm a skilled earthbender."
In one motion, he flipped backwards and while in the air, punched his hands straight out, opening a hole in the ground beneath him into which he disappeared. Azula stepped forward, but he'd already sealed the hole.
Annoyed, she stomped a foot on the spot of earth he had melted into. She turned around to where he'd been kneeling moments before and saw a few bits of chicken and three gold pieces that he'd deemed fine to leave behind. Azula placed the gold in the bandages of her leg and brought the chicken close to her eyes for inspection. Her stomach growled at her pickiness, but she gave the chunks of meat a good scorching anyways before finally allowing herself to eat.
Once finished, she wandered the streets of the seaside town, getting a sense of its scale and the layout of its buildings. All the while keeping her ears perked for an earthy rumbling.
She had to admit, it was impressive how quietly he could bend his element. Earthbenders certainly weren't the stealthiest people. Stone and earth splitting the ground and flying through the air tended to create a great deal of noise. But this man had apparently developed some skill at quieting his movement. An essential quality to have as a thief. And now I know how he's managed to avoid capture for so long. Disappearing beneath your feet. Such a cheap tactic.
Azula sighed. It was late and she hadn't realized how thoroughly exhausted she was from all of the travelling on foot she'd done today. As much as it pained her, she was far from perfectly in shape after her multi-year containment, so she decided to make her way back through the streets to her spot in the trees for the night. Besides, it would be good to give her still healing blistered feet some rest.
And she needed to think of how to catch a thief. It was nice to have something else to think about for once. No parental confrontations or acrobats disturbed the princess that night.