Avatar Chapter 34
I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender
It was once again the eve of the New Year and a festival was being held to celebrate the Royal Family, despite the emergence of the Avatar. The people here would probably not be celebrating if they knew what Azula knew but it would not distract her, even if it was unacceptable.
Just over a week ago they got word that the Avatar, who up until then had been literally flying around on a supposedly extinct bison, had actually entered Fire Nation territory. Furthermore her brother had followed him, breaking the terms of his banishment "Though he is supposed to be chasing the Avatar, I wonder if that supersedes him trespassing…Oh who cares."
Admiral Zhao confronted both of them at Avatar Roku's temple, at this point information became sketchy, Fire Sages had been deemed traitors, the former Avatars spirit, supposedly, appeared and the temple was somehow annihilated. What was true and what was the result of incompetence was up for debate but the point was that the Avatar, the greatest threat to their nation, had with apparent ease broken their security.
Even now he could be flying around above their heads and they would be none the wiser, once again Azula questioned her ancestor's mental state. "Dragons would be so useful for hunting down flying bison, instead we have people with spyglasses looking into the sky like lazy stargazers."
The government had kept this information under wraps and hopefully it would stay that way, and as the Princess Azula would act as if nothing was wrong, which for her was true, but others were far more skittish.
She looked out at the crowd from her private seat, the weather was being uncooperative so it was decided to move the celebration inside, which in the Caldara meant underground. Being that the city was nestled in the crater of a semi-dormant volcano meant there was plenty of room below for all sorts of exploits, a large ball room being one of the first things her ancestors had made out of one of the many hollow chambers.
It was all about being patriotic tonight and the most guests had dressed in formal military attire to show their support, having an actual enemy out there apparently spurred many to try to outdo their neighbors in regards to how loyal they were, already three Agni Kai's had been called between one slighted noble and another.
While amusing to watch Azula was having even more fun making other nobles profoundly uncomfortable, her new status had caught many flatfooted and all evening nobles had rushed to congratulate her, often stepping over their words and themselves to do so.
Azula plucked a berry from a large bowl and plopped it in her mouth, it felt so good to just relax and watch the festivities. Between training to master lightning, something which was taking her longer then she had hoped, and overseeing strange and outlandish science projects she had not taken a true break in a while.
"Most noble children don't even know the meaning of the word work, but I suppose not everyone is blessed with such brilliance." She smiled and tossed another berry in to her mouth.
"Hey Zula! Are you having fun? You have been sitting her since the party started!" Ty Lee burst into Azuka's vision, the girls big grey eyes blinked with wonder and curiosity.
"I'm fine Ty Lee, making well-wishers uncomfortable is plenty fun."
"Oh, well if you say so, hey what do you think of this cloak that Xizan guy sent me, my sisters say it suits me perfectly." Ty Lee stepped back and twirled, showing off the gift Lord Xizan had sent over, in gratitude of course.
Azula thought the man was simply try to drive her insane, he had sent Ty Lee somewhat of a replica of his cloak, only more obnoxious. It was feathered around her neck, made of fur that touched the floor and the inside shimmered and reflected every kind of light that hit it… and all of it pink, bright obnoxious pink.
"It looks like… you Ty, no doubt about it." Azula eyes were already getting irritated from how bright it was.
"Oh goodie I knew it looked good, and its sooo warm and cozy." She wrapped it around herself and actually snuggled into it. Azula's eyes twitched, she always underestimated how…wholesome, Ty Lee could get.
"So Zula are you really going to sit here all night?" Her ever energetic friend asked.
Azula plopped another berry in her mouth "I don't see why not, I have to prepare my speech and unless you are planning to reveal your feeling for my wonderful self again I am content." She made no expression but on the inside she was grinning, this was a significant night for their relationship, especially after her speech was given later tonight.
"Awww you remembered, that was a good night I was so happy." Ty Lee leaned down and planted a kiss on her nose, despite herself Azula blushed.
"But still, you should come down and do something, even your father is being social, which for him is like totally weird." Azula ignored the overly lack of grace in her girlfriends sentence and looked at the Fire Lords private box, where her father was indeed meeting with a fairly large number of guests.
"A lot of women, many I have not seen before." Azula was now very curious as to what her father could be doing, but then again he had his reasons and it was not her place to pry into the Fire Lords business.
She felt a weight fall on her and suddenly Ty Lee was right in her lap, looking at her with big round eyes.
"I refuse"
Two big grey eyes peered into her own.
"No"
Ty Lee blinked her adorable eyeballs and Azula groaned "Fine"
"YAY!" Ty Lee hoped up and pulled the pouting Princess with her "I hate it when you give me that look"
"I know." Her perky assistant smiled happily and led her into the crowd, which did part and bow at her presence which made Azula feel a bit better. Ty Lee led the way with a destination seemingly in mind and Azula wondered what strange or outlandish situation she was being dragged to.
They actually exited the main hall and made for one the smaller rooms where various forms of entertainment were being staged, most were at least "Here we are, you're going to love this Zula I got it just for you."
Azula was now very intrigued, all this room had was a something covered in a very large red sheet with a few curious, and bookish, guests standing around. She then recognized one man practically hopping up and down, "Well hello Gaz, you seem excitable." The inventor looked ready to explode, though she remembered him having more hair... and eyebrows.
"Oh I am beyond excitable Princess! I truly think I have outdone myself this time! This may indeed be the pinnacle of my career, the blood, sweat and various other fluids that have left my body have all been for this mo! -." The man started hyperventilating and had to pull out a bag to breath into.
"Gaz I have told you not to get yourself worked up." The formal voice of Lady Iza came from behind them, the women bowed "Greetings once again Princess, we are honored to be here and present you with such a gift."
Azula raised an eyebrow and looked at Ty Lee "Well well Ty, you seem to have been a very busy girl."
Her girlfriend beamed "Yeah, I wanted to get you something really cool and Li and Lo said I need to take more responsibility so I tried to think of what you like and you like big military things, and I thought Gaz was really good at making big military things and…." Ty lee was talking at an incredible speed and seemed to be speaking to herself now.
"What Lady Ty Lee means you highness is that she contacted me and asked if Gaz could come up with something worthy of your new station." Iza supplied helpfully.
"Yeah! What she said, and I know you're going to love it Zula."
Gaz seemed to have caught his breath and returned to reality "But of course the Princess will love it, it is a masterpiece, I have moulded her, shaped her, loved her, she is beautiful." He appeared to be crying.
"Galizo we been over this, you cannot get romantically attached to everything you make, besides the Princess has not even seen it yet."
"It does not need to be seen, it must be felt, experienced, all must respect the majesty of it the-"
Azula was wondering when this monologue was going to end but she doubted it would be soon "So what is under the sheet exactly."
Gaz stopped mid-sentence and suddenly looked horrified "AHHH! Of course, how can anyone look upon it with adoration and desire if it is covered in shame!" The man grabbed the sheet and with surprising strength pulled the whole thing off.
Azula had no idea what it was she was looking at, but the crazy man now trapped under the enormous length of fabric was right, it was impressive…whatever it was. It was obviously a vehicle of some sort and resembled the tanks used by the military only much bigger and more, what was the word she was looking for…imposing.
It had an enormous plow on the front, two cylindrical canisters on the sides and what appeared to be a smoke stack on top. Azula smirked, grabbed Ty Lee and gave her a long kiss "She certainly knows me."
"Gaz has called this a 'tank-train' though whatever term you decide to refer this contraption by would likely be more appropriate." Iza added.
"But it is such a simple concept, I took the best features of both machines and made them better!" The man had thrown off the sheet and stumbled towards the machine, marveling as if it were his child.
"It is a masterpiece, powered by a high intensity boiler, fitted with two grappling hooks of my own design and has a custom armored plow that can crush boulders in to dust!" Gaz began caressing the large plow in an oddly loving and creepy way.
As its inventor was off in his own world, the Princess began to walk around the machine, trying to determine what use, if any, this hybrid had. She could certainly see herself using it as some sort of battle chariot, running down her enemies and crushing them into the dust, but she did not foresee any opportunities of that in the near future… most unfortunate now that she thought about it.
But despite a lack of enemies to crush it could have its uses, it was big, it looked terrifying and best of all it was from Ty Lee, through a unbalanced engineer, but from Ty Lee none the less. Azula smiled at the giddy acrobat, she would decide what to do with this later; she had her own gift to give tonight.