Hey guys! Yes, I know it's been a while and I blame college for that, but here's the next part in the Walking a Wire story. Just as I was finishing this, "The Beach" aired, and now I keep thinking about the various stories/rants that the characters went on, especially the girls, because you've never really heard anything about their pasts before. Ty Lee's mother had septuplets? Wow. Watching the shows, I keep thinking that there's a reason these guys are getting paid to do this, and I'm doing it for free. Maybe that's just me, but still--well anyway, here's the chapter, I AM NOT trying to follow the show, as I have said before, and enjoy!
Oh, and I don't own Avatar, although I like to think I own my OC's
Chapter VII: Thought and Action Part 1
The wagon rattled along the road, the light from the rising sun obscured by the thick tropical canopy. Birds screeched loudly in every direction, and insects buzzed everywhere. The forests of the homelands were full of life, and he had traveled enough to know that nowhere else was there this much life concentrated in so small a space. The irony wasn't lost on Akira, either. The new lands gained in the war allowed factories and manufacturing centers to be set up over there instead of here, where they would have tied up precious land and water resources that these forests need to survive. He idly fingered the robe he was wearing, one of the High Guard's old traveling cloaks that could be worn over the armor, or without it when the situation demanded they go unarmored. This was one of those situations--no one would do anything remotely out of line if someone caught a Guardsman walking the city. He had almost brought one of the newer cloaks, but the sunburst clasp and woven designs were too easily identifiable.
"We'll be arriving sometime this evening, if you were wondering." The driver was an old fish merchant who had been paid to go visit his family living inland. He had been paid a little more to allow Akira to ride in the back of his wagon. Despite the strong smell of fish and rattling noises the cart was giving off, Akira was finding it oddly pleasant. He had quickly realized that he no longer cared for the behaviors at Ozai's court. Petty officials jockeying for post-war positions, favors for their families, and more often for themselves. Ozai himself seemed strange to him now, after so long a time without truly observing the man. Akira just guessed that the end of the war meant adjustments for them all, and Ozai was preparing for his share of changes.
As the cart rolled on, he found himself daydreaming. When I get back, we should go to the Royal Market, she'd like that I bet. She really hasn't changed as much as she seems to think she has. All that energy, she could wear me out some days! And she never stopped smiling, and when she was around, neither could I. Yeah, she's definitely still herself underneath all she's been through. Maybe--
No. Nothing like that. You have a duty to your nation, and that would just get in the way. Besides, what makes you think that it would ever happen anyway? What happened years ago means nothing.
But what about what happened in the pavilion last night? Does that mean nothing?
It meant that she was upset, that's it. Now get over it.
But, she reacted. She reacted to what I said. She--she hugged me.
So?
So, it was something I did. I meant something.
You mean what you said meant something, and really not much at that. Face it, if that fish merchant said something similar, it would have ended the same.
No. I won't believe that.
Disbelieve all you want, idiot. It won't change the fact that it's impossible. Not only does she still, in all probability, hate you, you also have to avoid anything that could compromise your service to the Fire Nation. Oh, and let's not forget your back...
Shut up.
Is that all you can come up with? Face it, you're better off anyway, you don't need that.
I want it.
No you don't. You just think you do, but you can live without it. You've never wanted it before.
That's because I never knew what it was before! Shut up and leave me alone!
He let his head fall back against the wagon. Suddenly he was exhausted. He heard the merchant say something about the trees, but he let himself drift off into merciful silence.
"You alive?" Mai's voice drifted through the door to where she lay. She hadn't been able to get back to sleep since Akira had come and woken her up earlier this morning. He's leaving. Again. She tried to block out the thoughts, but all that she could think of was that, the last time he had left, she hadn't seen him for three years. Three years, seven months, and a week, but who's counting? Letting out a distinctly uncharacteristic groan, she pulled herself into a sitting position at the edge of the bed. "Yeah! I'm up, Mai!" She glanced over to the windows, noting that clouds were covering the late morning sun. This is not going to be a good day. "Need anything?"
"Just thought I'd ask if you wanted to go to the market." The acrobat's excited squeal met the somber girl's indifferent voice through the door, and with a hurried yelp of, "Wait up!" Ty Lee began scrambling to find her shoes amid the clutter of her room. Finally coming up with a pair that almost matched, she hurried out the door and very nearly ran into Mai, who had remained standing just outside. "Oops, sorry Mai! Hey, come on, what are we waiting for?" Despite the pink-clad girl rushing down the hallway, the other stayed put, idly rolling a dagger across her knuckles.
"It's who, Ty Lee." Almost as if on cue, the cloaked figure of Prince Zuko exited a small side passage and began proceeding down the hallway, with Mai finally detaching herself from the wall to follow. With another high-pitched yelp, Ty Lee ran to catch up with the pair as they reached a door to the main entrance hall.
"You did bring money, right?" Mai called back to her.
"Ummm...be right back!" Spinning around, Ty Lee dashed back to her room.
Despite Mai's best efforts to keep her friend organized, Ty Lee's room bore more than a passing resemblance to a battlefield. Clothes were strewn across the carpet, and several scrolls vied for position with brushes, makeup, and braid assisters on an overflowing desk in the corner. On one wall, a tapestry hung slightly crooked, it's hanging beam the victim of a slghtly overzealous flip off the bed one morning. I should ask them to fix that, she thought to herself, as she furiously hunted through drawers and the closet for her money pouch. Finally finding it on the desk, exactly where she had left it a week ago, she grabbed it and hurriedly left, hoping that Mai hadn't already gone with Zuko and left her to walk to the High Market by herself. Again.
She trudged through the entryway and into the High Market, and her still-simmering anger at Mai was instantly dispelled by a small stall selling armadillo-cats. They're soooooo cute! I want one! Bouncing over to the man in charge, she couldn't help but notice that one of the kittens wasn't playing with the other ones. It seemed smaller than the others too, with a bright orange stripe running through its calico pattern from the back of its head down to the tip of its tail.
"How much for that one?" She said, pointing at the calico kitten.
The man stirred somewhat sleepily; no one expected business this early, and at an animal stand no less! "Ummm, it's, uh, you say you wanted the calico?" Seeing Ty Lee's vigorous nod, he looked thoughtfully down at the box, "Well, she's sorta the runt of 'em, and she don't like to be messed with too much. Shy, I mean. Hmm, well if you're set on having her," another nod from the acrobat, "Well, I guess twenty-five silver pieces ought to do it."
Ty Lee's face fell. Twenty-five silvers? That's an awful lot, especially after he said she was the runt. "I dunno, I don't have that much money with me." Checking the money pouch, she discovered to her horror that she only had twenty-three silver pieces and two coppers. And I was gonna get her, too! Oh well, maybe there's something else around here. "That's okay. I'll pass."
"Well, if you want to come back, I'll be here all week. Can't guarentee they'll be, of course, but you understand." With a sigh, she drug herself away from the armadillo-cats to tour some of the other stalls. While looking over a bracelet that claimed to prove irresistable to the opposite sex, she began hearing a heated argument a few stands over.
"And I say that these arrows aren't worth the twigs you made them out of! I expect quality from this place, not some half-broken piece of driftwood with duck feathers attached to it!" The shout was coming from a young woman about her age, wearing sparse leather pads over a short black vest and red pants, with a bow prominently slung over her back along with a full quiver. She was now shaking an arrow in the face of the stand's manager, allowing the arrow head to graze his nose with each pass. The manager looked as though he couldn't decide whether to be livid or terrified. "What happened to Lee, huh? You fire him, was he asking to get paid again? That guy was the only one in this whole flaming city who actually knew fletching besides us. I don't give a volcano-rat's rear end how, I'm telling you get the guy back now, or else get someone to tell him the Yu Yan are hiring him, understand?"
The man seemed to finally decide that "terrified" suited the situation better. "I--I'm sorry ma'am, please I'll go get Lee as soon as I can, but please understand, we have other customers and, uh, please ma'am I--" He was cut off as the young woman roughly pushed the arrow into his hands and marched off up the street, shoving the occasional pedestrian out of her path.
Ty Lee shrugged--she knew that the Yu Yan were really good archers, but beyond that she neither knew nor cared. Turning back to the bracelet, she briefly and seriously considered buying, but the eighteen silver pieces it would cost would put her further than ever from the cute armadillo-kitten. She sighed, reluctantly putting down the bracelet. Probably doesn't work anyway, at least not on him. She continued her search of the stands as she continued to wonder if the kitten seller could be talked down, even twenty-three silver pieces wouldn't be too much for that cute little calico.
Suddenly hearing shouting, Ty Lee turned toward the sound and was rewarded with the sight of a large, cloaked figure barrelling toward her through the crowd. Hardly thinking, she took up a combat stance. A quick roll brought her next to his legs where a pair of jabs sent him to his knees just as an arrow soared over his head to bury itself in a storefront display. Coming out of the roll, a hard fist to the back sent the figure sprawling in the dirt. At the corner of her vision, Ty Lee noticed another cloaked figure fleeing the scene, ducking into an alley as the crowd began pressing in toward her.
"All right, people, clear out! Everybody get back! That includes you, Pink!" Ty Lee realized that the young woman now striding towards the downed man was the same girl who had been arguing with the vendor earlier. Her bow was now held out before her with an arrow nocked and ready, and Ty Lee noticed some kind of design along her right arm. "Hey, you deaf or insubordinate! When a soldier tells a civilian to move it, they usually listen!"
"Sorry! I just wanted to help!" Ty Lee backed away from the man, who was now trying in vain to get up from the street. "He had a friend I think, he ran into the alleys."
The girl looked up from the fallen man, "You paralyzed him, didn't you? You blocked his chi. Useful, we needed someone alive to spill on the smuggling ring." She glanced around at the crowd, "Hey! I said go on! Nothing to see here, folks, so go back to shopping!"
"But, ma'am, you're right in front of the shop that I was wanting to look at."
"What? Oh, right." The girl bounced up from her crouch over the man, walking smoothly over to the acrobat. "Well, I guess maybe I was a little harsh on you, considering how much you just helped us out." The girl looked thoughtfully over at the man, then at Ty Lee, "Actually, if you could help me out a bit more, I bet I could make it worth your time." Seeing Ty Lee's look, she continued, "Just like you said, he had a friend who ran for the back streets. Now, there's only one real way in or out of this market, so that the merchants who come here don't have a choice but to pay the fees. But if you've never been off the main street, it's amazing how big this place really is. Too big to search with one person, that's all I know. Anyway..."
"Oh, I get it! You want me to help you look for the other guy!"
"Not as dumb as you look, huh? Sorry, comes from working with a bunch of men. Anyway, I'm Mina."
"Ty Lee."
"Okay! Small-talk's out of the way, let's go already!" Ty Lee followed the archer into the alleys, noticing that the girl had traded her bow for a brutal-looking knife. Now that they have the one man alive, guess they don't need the other one. She shuddered, but kept going as they split among the back streets of the market.
Well, there we go, and hopefully my writer's block has broken with the completion of this chapter. Look for Part 2 in a week, ten days tops, and questions/comments/complaints are always welcome!