A/N: Yay! I'm back with another chapter! Thanks to LoveMeNever and DAve and Bob for their great and helpful reviews, I really appreciate it. Enjoy the chapter!
Disclaimer: Ba Sing Se belongs to Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino. I do own the idiot hero Lian and her ever weak(ish), brother Guo.
Update: It's been a while since I last worked on this story. I was having a lot of trouble with Chapter 3, so I decided to combine what I had done so far with the previous chapter, which, I realised had been way too short.
It was two weeks after the bodyguard incident and it had managed to become even hotter since then. The sun was a huge, gleaming ball of fire, raining scorching heatwaves onto the civilians of the Lower Ring. Vendors sighed in the wake of the heat, fanning themselves limply and waving away flies from their merchandise. In the distance, the world rippled and melted. The streets were empty; most people were in their homes, sleeping. This left an unnerving peace in the slums, particularly at Jinu Street, which was known for its violence. Lian gasped, sweat pouring down her face and neck. She sat in the shade of an awning, which she had chased a vendor from. Her grimy clothes clung to her skin uncomfortably and her toes ached in sunburn. Guo lay beside her. Pale, perspiring and shivering slightly, he was suffering from a horrible fever. Lian glowered at him.
"There! I told you shouldn't talk to the hag. Now you've caught a fever."
"M-Mr Xi-Xiaolu i-isn't ill w-with f-fever," he spluttered, before breaking out into a hacking cough. His sister snorted but said nothing more. In the baking heat, she couldn't bring herself to tear him apart with her tongue. Instead, she closed her eyes and let the warmth wash over her. Within her, her stomach writhed and clenched with hunger.
In a corner of the street, a gaggle of six boys appeared. Tattered and dusty, their dirty faces shone with mischief and their incessant giggling mildly disturbed the peace in the streets. But, when they saw the two siblings, the group hushed almost tentatively. One of the boys, a scrawny thing with dark skin and black hair, picked up a small and very sharp stone and launched it at Lian. The stone hit its target squarely in the side of her head. Snorting like pigs, they ran and squished themselves behind a doorway. With nervous excitement, they watched as she sat up, rubbed her head and looked around with confusion. Another boy picked up a rock, large and bulky, and hurled it at her, before ducking back into the safety of the doorway. They heard a soft thud accompanied by an angry 'oof!', and began to snigger triumphantly. Caught up in their delight, they did not notice the scarlet, fuming face of their enemy until it was too late.
"Which one of you threw that rock at my head!? You slime-bags!
The boys dispersed, terror written on their faces. One didn't make it though. He was pulled roughly from the group and met the fists of a raging Lian. Once he was down, she severely kicked him in the gut.
"Did you throw those stones at me!? Speak up, scum!"
"N-No, it wasn't me!" he gasped, wincing with every blow she made. Her foot suddenly stopped contact and the boy heard her retracing footsteps. Instantly he was on his feet, cringing with each step. He didn't get far. An earth column knocked him off his feet and sent his limp body smashing onto the ground. Chest, limbs and head aching, he tried to get up, but was smacked back down with a hard, wooden object. It was a huge thick stick, rounded, but with jagged ends. Lian wielded it with a murderous look on her face.
"Trying to run away from punishment!? You liar! Scumbag!"
"I wasn't ly-" he tried to protest, but the sentence died at the back of his throat as the second blow landed. More followed, each one more ferocious than the next. Lian saw red, oblivious to what she was actually doing. She was angry, angry at her life, at the world, at upper rings, at the Queen. Why couldn't life go back to the way it had been before?! When they'd had beds and clean water and food?! Looking after a weak brother as well as herself wasn't something she could do! She hated living like this. It was tiring and nerve-wracking and dangerous and frustration! She wanted out, now! Argh!
Eventually, the fog in Lian's mind cleared and a feeling of calm suddenly settled inside her. She pulled herself up and-
Crimson. A vivid crimson liquid was dotted about her palm. It wound a murky path over the stick in her hands and onto a face. Or what had been a face. The body was fearfully still, red splotches staining through the limp cloth adorning it. But the face was a brilliant scarlet. Whatever features it had had were crushed into a disturbing mixture of flesh and blood. Its mouth hung agape.
Lian's stomach dropped and constricted, tying itself into various knots. The offending stick clattered onto the earth and she stared at her hands in horror, reeling backwards onto the ground and squirming away from the decapitated apparition. By now people were starting to gather on the street, pointing, gasping with shock, staring, whispering in hushed scared voices.
And there was Guo. He had moved away from the shade, but was now crawling back towards it. A look of terrified fear and disgust was etched clearly across his face. It was a look one might give a serial killer. Her own brother was staring at her as though she was a murderer. What hurt more was that it was true. In her self-consumed rage, she had taken the life of an innocent boy.
Suddenly, a large hand clamped across her shoulder and she found herself staring into the grey-green eyes of a cop.
"Well," he boomed, "What have we here?"
Lian made no reply, instead she took hold of the man's arm and, with what little strength she had left, flung him over head into a blacksmith's workshop. Then she got up and ran.
Down deserted streets, crooked lanes and decaying alleyways she ran. Away from the havoc she had wrecked on herself, away from the smog of guilt that hung over it. Yet the smog grew and blinded her, and stumbled tumbling down into the darkness and the nightmares.
Lian awoke with a start. Saliva dribbled down a small corner from her mouth, which she wiped away hurriedly. Her body felt limp and weak. Groaning, she pushed herself up, joints creaking within her. A sudden pain pierced through her neck and back and she bit her lips in agony. Once she looked around, she saw why: she had fallen asleep on a group of steps neatly tucked between two buildings.
Wait, why was she asleep on a staircase?
Worry fluttered in her chest as she got to her feet and dragged herself down the stairwell.
The road was foreign, full of citizens milling around. The buildings were taller than those on Jinu street. Restaurant signs dangled over them and a pungent smell of oil filled the air.
Where was she and why was she here? Where was Guo and Mr Xiaolu? Where was the stench of dung and the annoying flies that accompanied it?
She looked around herself, feeling like a lost lamb far away from its mother and its herd in a dense forest, with the frightening possibility of wolves and bears. Suddenly, a chilling sensation plunged onto her hair, slithering down her neck and biting into her back. The pungent smell of sweat and grime. It slid into her eyes, temporarily blurring the world out. Lian sucked in her teeth in horrified shock. Someone had just dumped their dirty washing water on her. The nerve!
But with the chill of the liquid, came vivid memories of the night before: the blood, the body, its face marred beyond recognition, and the look of fear and condemnation on Guo's face.
It hurt, knowing your own brother saw you as a dangerous criminal.
All annoyance building up inside her fizzled out, and she staggered and sat back at the base of the steps, wiping away the cool water.
Where was she going to go? In this state, she had no right to return to Jinu. She didn't even know where she was! And as the world was a small place, getting smaller by the day, there was a chance, however slight, that she would run into someone from Jinu. She had no companion, she was hungry and wet, not to mention a murderer. Depressed, with all prospects in life turning bleak, she watched the motions of the people through her lowered lashes.
Republic City.
Those words struck her with the force of oiled lightening, and she started with sudden velocity. She could run away to Republic City! But almost instantly, the idea was lost in a pile of worries. She had no money to buy monorail tickets, and she couldn't sneak aboard; the Dai Li* were the cat-owls* of the cities, with their keen eyes and inhuman stealth. They were always lurking about the stations, ready to snatch people up and throw them in the dungeons. With those things in mind, Lian set aside her hope of running away to Republic City.
The rest of the day was spent wandering around the slums of the Lower Ring. As she was too proud to ask anyone for help, she ended up far more lost than she had ever been. It wasn't even as though she wanted to return to Jinu. It was the only familiar place in the whole city. She and Guo had never ventured too far from the street, unlike some fellow street urchins who knew the Lower Ring like the back of their hands. As the sun began to melt under the horizon, Lian collapsed by a noodle shop, utterly exhausted. Gloomy thoughts began to cloud her mind.
What was she thinking? She couldn't return to Jinu and expect everything to be fine and dandy. But she didn't want to go to jail. Stuck in this impossible situation, 'Republic City' flittered into her head as it had done before. This time, though, she let it stay, and slowly a plan began to form in her head.
Morning arrived, with the sun blooming into the sky like a lotus in spring. The Lower Ring slowly came to life, its inhabitants gradually wandering out onto the streets. Lian watched the slums awaken with a weary look in her eyes. Her body, her head and her eyes throbbed with sleep deprivation and hunger. But she had made it! The platform was near-empty, with the odd cleaner doing a pitieous job in cleaning it. Disgusting characters were etched into the walls, most of them railing Queen Hou-Ting and her annoyingly unscrupulous Dai Li. Lian crumpled down beside one of the supporting pillars. The cleaner gave her a suspicious glance, but she paid him no attention. Her body felt weak and sluggish, as a result of travelling at night. The platform she was in was nearest to the Inner Wall, and carried passengers out of Ba Sing Se to the West Sea, which led her straight to Republic City. Very convinent. All she needed to do was board a carriage, preferably the cargo one, and sneak aboard a ship headed to Yue Bay, an inlet of Mo Ce Sea which connected Republic City to it. It was perfect.
In time, the platform became full of people, coming and going. Lian's eyes took note of the people that steered near her: a sharp-looking buisness man in a grey-green suit, a woman and her many children dressed in mouldy furs. Her eyes swept through the bustle and hustle of the commuters, trying to find an oppurtunity. At the side, with steely eyes and draped in dark green, were the Dai Li. The ominious aura radiating from their heavy clothing prevented people from approaching them. Lian tried to ignore them, with too much success, as sleep proved a great distraction from the threating figures dotted about the platform. It took several pinches to stop her from falling asleep. But with her patience came a reward. In the heat of the afternoon, the stage was finally set.
Koo stood on the outermost platform of the Lower Ring, perched right on the Inner Wall. His thick fur coat was beggining to suffocate him, and quietly he cursed his wife. Stupid fussy woman. Nagging at him to wear a jacket right in the middle of summer. Koo corrected himself quickly. It wasn't summer-it was autumn, but the universe clearly thought otherwise. Groaning, he set down his enormous suitcase and shrugged off his suit with a sigh. Suddenly a scuffle exploded at the core of the platform. It came from two men, rolling on the floor like sparring pygmy pumas*. Shouts and curses flew off the pillars and a small crowd of people began to flock round them. The Dai Li- weird things- left their posts, probably to break of the fight and throw the men in the dungeons. He rolled his eyes. What good was starting a fight with them around? Idiots.
"Hello sir, may I help you?"
Koo jumped. Looking around wildly, his eyes settled on a slender- looking girl, wearing a grubby yi and pants. Her hair was long, wild and matted and hung over her brown face like vines. Instantly Koo was on his guard, his emerald eyes narrowing suspiciously.
"Help me how?"
"Your bag looks awfully heavy and you have a lot of other stuff to carry. I can carry the bag. I'm very strong!" Her voice was rough but eager and instantly, Koo felt pity for her, so young and so alone.
"Of course." He complied, ignoring the tiny voice reprimanding him for his actions. At that moment, the doors to the train swooshed open. Koo thanked the girl, who cheerfully skipped towards the baggage car attached on the end of the tram, and stepped in, praying that he would not regret his desicion.
A/N: What a short chapter. This one was simply to get the story moving along. Still, I like it better than the first, mostly because it was easier to write. I planned to expand it so we also see Lian actually leaves the city, but I was unsure on writing it. Hopefully the next chapter will be much longer. Please review! Constructive criticism is welcome, so please tell me how I can improve my writing. Thank you!
: Yay, I've finished updating this chapter! Now I can get to work on Chapter 3. Thank God!
Dai Li: In this story, Hou-Ting has come to power, so naturally the Dai Li follow. However, I'm not sure if Hou-Ting was crowned Queen before this period, as my story is set shortly after Suyin left her family to live with her grandparents.
Cat owl: Some creepy creation from the Avatarverse. It has the head of a cat and the body of an owl.
Pygmy Puma: A much more ordinary creature than the cat-owl, pygmy pumas are basically smaller versions of real pumas and are bred for compact city-living.