Ru: Hey readers!
Bri: Waz up!?
Tawny: … (sigh) (says under her breath) What an airhead.
Ru: Um, okay, here's…um… the new… chapter. (turns to Bri and whispers) What was that?
Chapter 10: The Festival
Jet woke the next morning and looked around; the sun was peering in through a window with green drapes and a balcony. The two room suite was decorated with all sorts of paintings and a sofa with a book case. There was a dresser with a mirror, which he looked into and saw his awful behead. He quickly shook his head making his hair fall into place. Then he heard a knock on the door, he jumped up and threw on some clothes before he answered the door.
"Sir, are you asleep?" Said a female voice at the door.
"No I'm awake." Jet said as he opened the door revealing a young servant.
"Sir, I was sent to tell you that breakfast is in the parlor this morning for Prince Zuko, the avatar, and his friends." She said, Jet nodded in understanding and moved to close the door, but the servant girl stepped in between the door and the frame. "I was also sent to lead you to the parlor, since this is your first time in the palace." This girl is bold, strange quality in a servant. Jet thought, amused.
"Yeah, okay, just let me get properly dressed." He said and motioned for her to move out of the way of the door. She did and he shut the door.
Most of the group was already seated when Jet walked in with the servant girl.
"Thank you, Shuang, for waking Jet for us." Iroh said.
"It was my pleasure, sir." Shuang bowed and left the group to their breakfast. Jet looked around and took an empty chair next to Aang. A servant quickly brought a plate of eggs and pancakes and set it in front of Jet.
"That girl who led me here, Shuang, she's really strange." Jet said.
"Yeah, she's quite the trip, what's up with her?" Zuko asked. Just then Bri, Tawny and Ru entered the room.
"What's up with who?" Bri asked as she walked in the door. Ru shook her head.
"Bri, it's impolite to but into other's conversations." She told her sister.
"Oh be quiet, you want to know who they're talking about too." Tawny said; Ru glared at her then sighed; she knew that Tawny was right.
"It's okay, we don't mind." Iroh said. "We were just talking about Shuang, the servant girl."
"Oh, her," Bri said. "She's new."
"She just came from a Fire Nation controlled village in the west. She and her family were rescued just a few weeks ago." Tawny continued.
"To make a long story short she was changed in the years she spent under Fire Nation control; she became more defensive and bold. She changed so she could protect herself from the pain she saw every day; from seeing a neighbor being shipped out to the front to fight for the Fire Nation to watching the public execution of her brother." Ru finished.
"Oh." Jet looked down at his plate; in so many ways they were so much alike.
The group finished breakfast and went to their rooms to get ready for the festival; which would start at noon. The royal family had to be at the opening of the festival so everyone had to get ready so they could be there before noon. Katara wanted to look extra special; so, she put on a brand new kimono that she had just bought the other day. It was blue with no sleeves. The skirt extended to her knees and was trimmed with sliver thread. Waves cascaded in white across the kimono with beautiful fish swimming gracefully through it like dancers. She pulled her hair up into a bun with several loose strands of hair to frame her face. Last of all she put on her mother's necklace, which filled the bare space at the base of her neck nicely.
Zuko put on an outfit that he had gotten as a gift from the Earth King. His pants were red with gold trimming and orange flames racing up the sides. His shirt was black with orange phoenixes encircling his sleeves and trimmed in red and gold. The sash he was wearing was red, also embroidered with orange flames that wrapped themselves around his waist.
When everyone was dressed and ready, the party left the palace and headed for the city square. People were everywhere, crowding the streets, making it difficult for the group to make their way through the crowd. The entire city turned out for the festival even those who lived in cities far away. The Dai Lei were on high alert; with this many people assassins could make a move easily. But, thankfully, the party made it to the town square without incident. The company arranged themselves in the viewing box; the king and queen in the thrones in the center of the box, Prince Zuko on the King's right, Aang to the right of Zuko, Iroh on his right and Eriko to the right of Iroh. Tamotsu sat on the left of his mother, Ru beside him, Katara beside her, and Kayoko next to Katara. Toph, Sokka, Suki, Jet, Bri, and Tawny sat behind the first grouping in very comfortable chairs. Right in front of the king's raised dais were two small thrones. First there was the annual parade; floats of different societies in the city, the military's band, circus performers, and the king and queen of the festival's float was last. When the last float reached the viewing box, the king stepped forward to give a short speech.
"Fellow Earth Kingdomers, as your king it gives me great pride to usher in the new spring! This year will truly be the best yet in this long war. For this is the year that we will defeat the Fire Nation and regain all the land that has been taken from us! No more shall we live in fear of the day when the Fire Nation will crack through our walls, no more will we fear for loved ones outside the protection of the Great Wall, and no more shall the Fire Nation take from us what is rightfully ours! These years of war and desolation have been hard, I know, I have never known a time without war, but I can assure you that it is much better than what we are living now! With those words in mind, I crown the king and queen of the Chun Tian Festival and usher in the new spring; a spring of new life; new life for the Earth Kingdom!" The crowd bust into cheers and applause and the king and queen of the festival stepped off the float and up to the box. King Sujin placed the decorated crowns on their heads and the newly crowed couple took their seats in front of dais on a much lower platform. "Let the festival begin!" King Sujin said and everyone started milling about in every direction seeing what there was to do.
It was at that time that the Royal Party was able to go and enjoy the festival. Katara dragged Zuko over to some shops, Suki and Sokka walked around the festival finally finding a fighting competition, Tamotsu and Ru sneaked away from the Dai Lei quietly to enjoy the festival alone, Sujin and Saimei went on a walk through the town square with some Dai Lei agents around watching, Toph and Aang went to go find an earthbending competition, Jet walked around to look at the shops that were set up for the festival, Bri and Tawny walked around looking at a few things, Iroh went to find a vendor of green tea cakes, and Eriko and Kayoko went to go look for some entertainment with the Dai Lei carefully looking after them. Jet soon ran into Smellerbee and decided to spend the rest of the festival with her. The festival went on like this until dusk when families ushered children home and couples went to the wall, which wasn't far away, to watch the sun set. After the sun had set the city became alive with light. It is said that on festival nights you can see the lights from the outlaying islands along the coast. And it probably was true; it is times of celebration that the Earth Kingdom shines the brightest and this year more than ever.
A dance had started in the city's square, and the dance floor was crowded with people, including Zuko and Katara. They whirled and twirled along with the music and Katara soon found herself with a different partner; Haru.
"Katara?" He said
"Haru? What are you doing here?" She asked puzzled. "Your village is at the south of the Earth Kingdom."
"Oh, my parents and I are here for the festival. We used to come every year, and now that my father is back and the Fire Nation has been dispelled from our village, we decided to continue the tradition." He answered while spinning her out, and then back in. "What are you doing here?" He asked when she had come back closer to him.
"Aang, Sokka, and I are here to fight with the Earth King. We went to the North Pole and Aang and I mastered waterbending, he's now learning earthbending from Toph." She replied.
"Okay, so are you here with anyone?"
"Yes," Katara blushed, "my boyfriend, Zuko."
"Oh, that's great! I'm very happy for you Katara; I'll let you go now he's probably wondering where you are." Haru laughed and stepped away; found another girl in the crowd and whirled her away.
When Katara had spun away, Zuko had also found himself with a different partner.
"Oh Gods, not you!" He said.
"What, you don't like my company?" Jun taunted.
"Hey, I gotta go someone is waiting for me." He started to leave, but Jun held him closer.
"Who?" She inquired.
"Katara. Now let me go."
"You mean that girl whose necklace you had! She is your girlfriend, that's hilarious!" In Jun's fit of laughter, Zuko broke away and went in search of Katara. He found her stepping away from another boy. She must have been taken by another partner too. When she turned around she found Zuko standing there. She smiled and they resumed dancing together.
In another part of the festival Saimei had wondered away from her husband and was walking alone down the street.
"Saimei." She heard her name and turned around; Iroh had walked up behind her.
"Iroh, um, hello." She greeted quietly.
"It's a festival, a time for happiness, why are you walking alone?"
"Please, don't do that to me, I can't take it."
"Saimei, it's been a long time, I know, but we need to talk…"
"I can't talk with you, I'm married, remember?"
"What does talking with you have to do with any of that?"
"Talking with you will always lead to other things and those are things I can't do anymore." She replied and turned her back to him.
"Saimei, I'm not going to do that, I know you have an obligation and that you love Sujin, you've moved on and so have I. But we need to talk about what happened between us and Lu Tien." Saimei's head popped up at the sound of her son's name. She turned around to face Iroh. "I know that you may not want to talk about him or about what happened, but it's essential to help heal the pain you suffered when he died." Saimei looked at Iroh with tears in her eyes.
"That was a long time ago, Iroh, six years ago; I've healed and I'm over it."
"No you're not healed! If you were healed why would you be walking along the street by yourself?"
"That's none of your business!" She exclaimed, her voice breaking, but quiet. There was silence for a long time.
"Fine, have it your way, but I think that you do need to talk to me about this, it involves both of us, hurt both of us and if we don't talk about it then we shall both be miserable the rest of our lives." And with that last word her left her standing there in the middle of the street with tears streaming down her cheeks; making a line tan where white face paint once covered her skin.
Zuko and Katara had decided that they were tired of dancing and were walking down the street together holding hands. There was barely anyone on the street, it was late and most everyone had gone home already. They relished their time alone together and quietly conversed. They were passing an alleyway when, a lady in a black ninja outfit leapt from the shadows, swords at the ready, and demanded their money. Zuko stepped in front of Katara and stood in his battle stance, hoping that he would be able to get the swords away from her and not have to use firebending. But the woman was smart and flipped over them landing behind Katara and slicing her flask open; spilling the water contained inside all over the ground, where the dirt hungrily soaked it up. As she was about to strike again, this time at Katara, Iroh grabbed her hand and twisted it making her drop the sword. When the woman looked at Iroh her eyes got wide; and she wriggled out of his grasp, and took off down the street. Zuko took off after her and tackled her to the ground.
"Now you're going to get proper justi-" But he stopped, for he had pulled off her hood and had seen her face. Iroh came running up and looked at the would-be-thief. He gasped when he saw her face, Katara, who had run up with Iroh looked puzzled.
"What's going on here?" She said, but no one answered her. Finally Zuko spoke.
"Mother?"
Ru: Didn't see that one coming did ya?
Bri: Wow, I can't believe it!
Tawny: Yeah it's pretty shocking.
Bri: I know, we've never added symbolism on purpose before!
Ru & Tawny: What?!
Bri: Am I the only one who sees it? Guess I'm not such an airhead after all, am I, Tawny?
Tawny: We weren't talking about that! (under her breath) What an airhead.
Ru: That's okay, Tawny. Bri, I guess it was smart to see the symbolism and if anyone else sees it would please tell us in their review, we would appreciate it.
Bri: Yeah you'll get ten points and a cake!
Ru: (whispers) We can't promise them anything! ahem Um…so the end was pretty shocking and we would like to thank 2wingo for all the help on this chapter and other chapters.
Tawny & Bri: Yeah thanks a bunch!
Ru: So all of you know what's coming next: Please review!
Tawny & Bri: Bye!
-Directorchic16