Chapter 4
The outset of pride
And so I stood here, in the garden of the Firelord's palace. My head was covered by a straw hat, which hid almost my entire face from the sun. In front of me stood my new employer, a grumpy middle aged man with a grey beard. My mother was so proud of me, hearing I found a job at the royal palace. Xion, my little brother, had envied me for serving the firelord. One day, he said, I will be the one to serve and protect him. I had no doubts about that. Xion had a strong will, and do whatever it took to get what he wanted. He would be a great bodyguard, also because he was a firebender. I wasn't, well, I thought I wasn't. I never tried it, because in my old-fashioned father's opinion only boys were allowed to use bending. And I knew the consequences of disobeying my father. But now he was gone forever, and maybe some day I would try it…
'Hey, are you even listening?'
I startled from the strict sound in the sudden sharp voice and started to talk a waterfall of nonsense.
'O really, young lady? Then what exactly was I saying?'
If I would say I hadn't have heard one single word of what he just babbled, I would be kicked out immediately.
'First I have to… errm… prune the hedges, and when I'm done with that, I will mow the lawn. O, and for the lawn's sake, always mow with the growth direction.'
That sounded pretty convincing. Too bad my employer didn't exactly say that. And so this would be end, farewell sweet justice. But just when I thought my butt was going to be kicked out of the garden, the bearded man burst out laughing.
'You have guts, little girl.'
I was flabbergasted. Not only because he just accepted my silly sham, the more for what he said afterwards. Shams weren't the same as guts, shams were easy. And for the record, I wasn't just a little girl.
'Alright, you want to prune the hedge? Start over there. I will be back within an hour or so, to check on you.'
It. Was. Boring. No wait, boring was an understatement. It was a dreadfully tedious and mindless job even a cerebral dead horsemonkey could do. The temperature was way too high, and since I was working without any form of shadow nearby I felt like I was being boiled in my own sweaty tunic. Now I understood why nobody was pruning hedges. I felt stupid, and hearing I had a "awful deviation to my left hand which kind of ruined the outlook of the hedge for the next few weeks" didn't really cheer me up either. But hey, maybe though trimming vegetation wasn't my greatest ambition, I earned money with it. Every hour in this garden was worth 3 copper coins. If it wasn't for the money, at this very moment I would have walked away to find some shadow and a mug of water. Mr. Lawnmower, as I nicknamed him, didn't talk to me again for the rest of the day. He never even introduced himself, which was rude and ill-mannered. He just walked around and looked at us with a severe glance.
The dreamy mood from this morning though came back when I walked home, sweaty and tired. Everyone would be waiting for me to bring home food. Not just food, it was fair, fresh, and above all self-eared food. For the first time in my entire life I felt… I didn't know exactly, but I thought it was pride. Pride for being useful. Real pride, not the itchy feeling that I called from now on arrogance. No, I was changing, just like the world did. And the biggest change was yet to come…
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O and for political correctness' sake, I don't own ATLA (which is obvious, why else would I be on a FANsite?!)
