A/N: Thanks to Private Fire for suggesting xenophobia.
Travels through the Alphabet with Mai
Part 24: Xenophobia
Mai sat at the back of the classroom, most of her attention focused on the wall of windows to her left. The teacher spoke about the March of Civilization and the war that continued on and on, leaving generations in its wake. She'd heard it all before, committed facts and dates and heroes to memory like a good student should. But none of it really meant anything. None of her family was personally involved in battle.
Only once had the war impacted her. Zuko's cousin Lu Ten died in the Earth Kingdom and his death shattered the prince. The ramifications of battle became clear when Mai witnessed the pain and sorrow in Zuko's eyes. But the war raged on and on.
The Fire Nation's desire for land and power and domination over the scrabbling scum of the other nations had no end, it seemed. And that's what they all were, those distant people she had never seen, people with green eyes and blue eyes and those who could bend earth and water, not fire; they were beneath her, a Fire Nation girl, beneath all those born on the blessed string of volcanic islands that made up her country. Well, that's what teachers and parents and other adults would have her believe. That's what other children thought too, their natural curiosity and openness tainted by adult prejudices.
Mai had met plenty of disappointing people right there in her own country. She couldn't imagine those of the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes being any worse. But she never gave them any thought either. They were far away in countries she might never see. Their fates and their day to day struggles did not affect Mai.
"What did you learn in school today?" her mother asked when Mai walked in the front door, hungry and tired and desiring only solitude.
"Nothing important."
That was Mai's standard answer. And it always frustrated her mother. Wearing a smirk, Mai headed to the kitchen for a snack and then upstairs to her room where quiet was abundant.
~~~~0000~~~~
When her parents announced that they were moving to the Earth Kingdom, Omashu specifically, a newly conquered city that her father had been made governor of, Mai was taken aback. She was not sure how to react. Her life in the Fire Nation was dull. But it was familiar at least. Omashu, or New Ozai, promised nothing but the same life in a different location.
If possible, she would be even more isolated. Her father had already declared the city and its people off limits to Mai.
"I don't want you mingling with them."
"Dad, I don't mingle with anyone." She huffed with exasperation. "You mean I can't even go for a walk and look around? I can dress like an Earth Kingdom girl. It's not like they'll know who I am."
"Mai, you can take the girl out of the Fire Nation, but you can't take the Fire Nation out of the girl."
"Seriously; that's your best argument?"
"Who knows what they might do if they realized a Fire Nation noble was walking in their midst? They could attack."
Mai flaunted one of her blades. "They wouldn't get very far."
"They'll be envious and angry."
"Well, it is their city. We don't really belong there, do we? We weren't invited." Mai was goading her father now, not focusing much on the import of her words.
"That's traitorous talk, young lady. And you had best stop right now. This world is ours for the taking. We're smarter, stronger, more advanced. The other nations should be thanking us for making their lives better." He was red in the face and puffed up full of his righteousness, a giant blowfish defending his ideals. "They're savages, most of them, unpredictable like animals." He shuddered. "I don't want you or your mother or your brother near them."
Mai couldn't win the argument, not against a man so convinced that New Ozai was a terrifying place filled with terrifying people ready to rip them into pieces or taint them with their stupidity and savagery. It was a ridiculous way to think, though Mai supposed resentment would be rampant and anger too.
"Let me stay home, then. I can manage here by myself."
And I can walk around the city when I want to.
Her father's glare told her everything. That was unacceptable. Mai would be dragged off to New Ozai, trading one boring life for another.
~~~~0000~~~~
Some tiny part of Mai expected to see monsters, two-headed malevolent creatures perhaps, when their ship docked in the Earth Kingdom. Standing beside her mother, Mai observed the people, ordinary folk working hard, playing, laughing, staring at the new Fire Nation arrivals with fear, rage, disgust.
Feeling like a specimen, Mai hurried into the awaiting carriage, part of a caravan that would make the trek up into rugged mountains and the city of New Ozai. She stared out the window, a morose expression marring her pretty features. The trip took two days that seemed to stretch out forever.
It awed her at first, the city built on a mountaintop, no, carved out of a mountaintop. Once inside New Ozai's gates, and moving up, up, toward the summit, along its winding streets, the people hiding in their homes, sneaking terrified peeks at the caravan, the Fire Nation soldiers marching along behind, their stomps the steady rhythm of tyranny, Mai's unease began to build.
"Guess they don't like us much," she drawled as a cabbage hurtled through the air, bouncing off the front of the carriage.
"They don't understand yet, Mai. In time, they'll come to realize that it's all for the best."
"All for the best," she echoed. "Whatever; I'm bored already."