The Lost City of the South
Chapter 7 - Enter The Southern Princess
The blue hued glow of the rock chandelier formation had died down by the time the team had surrounded a fire ready for the daily dose of poison from Bumi's fatal cooking. Asami as always had retreated to her makeshift desk with the Account bared open on the plank of wood before her and her steel rimmed glasses poised on the tip of her nose. So many times on the trip had she done this, curled into her cave of self inclusion with the book that had become her bible. Much like every other night she was perusing the very passage in which the Fisherman was leading up to a heavy topic of thought and yet the next page was a completely different subject. It had baffled the archaeologist since she first read it on the boat heading South and now that they were so close to hopefully finding the city she was beginning to become annoyed by it. But it was hardly as if she could put the thing down, there was nothing else to be occupied by with the team actively excluding her from everything. To Asami it mattered little however, she would find the city and be back in Republic City to show it to the world before long.
Bumi brought out his cauldron on a trolley, piping hot molten death steaming from inside. It would be even better if had no flavour at all, but then one would still have to put up with the look of it. She set the book aside only for the crazy cook to move to the main team first. "Come and get it!" He shouted in his deep and gravelly voice as usual. He was hardly as unusual as Bolin but Bumi was a definite second. Bumi moved to Suyin first, slapping a solid metal tray with lips around each edge in her smooth hands and then lumping her portion of the terrible food onto it. "For appetizers; caesar salad," then he moved to Opal, who was already disgusted enough with the looming food, "escargot," and Bolin, who practically nipping at Bumi for his helping. Figures the animal would want the dog food. It probably wasn't that she thought just after. It was just that Bolin was a very practical man, very earth like, hence his profession and his values would include practical efficiency, meaning not wasting anything especially food. Part of her liked him fondly, his humour and such. "And your Oriental" Bumi finished, moving on to P'Li and Mrs Beifong.
Bolin looked at his tray of brownley, sickly orange mush disappointedly at his result considering he was excited about receiving it. "But I wanted the escargot". Opal lurched at her own plate, the one to which Bolin was ogling. She thrusted it upon him, preferring to go hungry than be subjected to the filth that was Bumi's cooking once more on the trip.
"Knock yourself out" she stated flatly, holding her nose to repel the horrid smell. Bolin was happy as he shoved spoonfuls of it into his mouth.
Next Bumi came over to Asami, handing her a tray and shoveling a ladle full of the goop onto it. She painted on a faux smile to get him to leave as soon as possible. "Thanks Bumi that looks… Greasier than usual" she faked as a compliment. It was always the same grease, the same bad smell and the same horrible taste that would leave all of them with the worst breath imaginable.
Opposing her assumptions as she pulled out her tablespoon Bumi did not leave. He instead looked at her with a smile. "You like it? Well have some more" he said as he picked up the cauldron and pile on another full helping onto her tray, leaving her more than disgusted while he walked off rather pleased with himself. She heard him say to himself, "You're so skinny if you poked out your tongue and stood sideways you'd look like a zipper." You wish.
Suyin took one spoonful daringly and instantly regretted it, spitting the mouthful out into the fire they were gathered around. After a sip of her evening tea she turned to her daughter and Bolin, P'Li in her peripherals.
"You know you have been pretty hard on Asami guys" she told them, her age and caring nature excluding herself from the address. She had been the only one to at least try to include Asami and now, on the eve of the least real day she decided to coax everyone into including her. Nothing looked more sad than seeing someone eating Bumi's concoction alone. "How about we all cut her some slack? She did get us this far" she finished, fortifying her argument. Even P'Li was convinced, and disappointed in herself upon realising that had probably given Asami the worst time on their travels.
Opal relented almost immediately, remembering that Asami did fix the digging rig. She looked at her mother a little sad herself. "Yeah, you're right" she said. She then shuffled on her crate seat to face Asami deep in the Account yet again, ignoring her meal.
"Hey Sato, come sit with us!" the engineer shouted over to her. Asami stood up, nearly banging her knees on the makeshift desk with a rather flamboyant grin on her dumbstruck face. She removed the glasses from her nose and folded them, setting them neatly on the desk before grabbing the rim of her tray. Her emerald eyes were almost aflame with excitement. "You really mean it?" She asked just to be sure.
Opal suddenly smiled at her, a little wink followed. "Yeah park it here. She gestured to Bolin's seat while he moved instinctively.
The archaeologist trudged over, wishing she left the 'food' at her desk, but then it would still be in the morning because no one else would touch it. Damn you Bumi and you're horrid cooking. If that even counts as cooking. She reached the crate still smiling. "This is great," she began to say awkwardly, not really knowing why she was talking at all as usual. It was the social awkwardness kicking in once more. "I mean, it's good to be included in your-"
Her zigzag monologue was cut short by an elongated rip from under the pillow on her crate. When she leaned over to look she instantly saw a whoopie cushion, which set Bolin off on a fit of laughter, rolling on his back like a polar bear-dog. All of the group barring Asami looked at him sternly, yelling his name like a group of teachers in a classroom.
"Forgive me. I could not resist" Bolin excused himself. That was the deciding factor. It was a stupid prank but Asami now liked him regardless. He was certain funny and excessively mad but she found him cute in his own way. A friend she knew he would become even with his poor concept of personal hygiene.
Opal was next to pipe up once Bolin had returned to his new seat near P'LI, she was staring at the Account that Asami had also brought, she took it everywhere, literally everywhere with her and now Opal was looking at it as it were attached to Asami.
"Asami don't you ever close that book?" She asked calmly. Suddenly the rest of them were looking at her, of course not Mrs Beifong. Sato looked nervous suddenly, as if she were naked or something as equally embarrassing. She lowered the spoon that was close enough to her mouth a little relieved that now she didn't have to eat the disgusting slop before her. She set her tray on the floor to explain why she had the book with her at all times.
Before she could Suyin opened her mouth. "You must have read it a dozen times by now surely?" She said rather fast before taking her first spoonful. She had eaten worse in her days so she took another with barely any fuss. It stung a little on the back of the tongue and Bumi had cooked up worse food she thought.
Asami turned to the page that had been bothering her for a month now. "I know I have but there's a section here that just doesn't make sense." She held up the book for Suyin and her daughter to see while the mother ate some more of the food, the taste gradually deteriorating in her mouth. They saw what she saw, only in a dead language that made no sense at all, glyphs and lines of curves with some pictures and carvings that resembled the old Northern Tribe. "You see here the Fisherman seems like he's leading up to something," she pointed to one particular sentence that lay right next some etching of a rather tribal pattern in blue with a bright white shadow. "He calls it 'The Spirit of the Light" it could mean the power source I've been studying but when he goes to explain it," she flicked the page to another diagram that made completely no sense to Suyin or Opal. "It just cuts off. It's almost like there's a missing page" she finished rather disappointedly, bringing the Account closer to herself and closing it for the night. The riddle had plagued her mind for the whole two months and she was no closer to figuring out what it could be. The Spirit of Light? The spirits died thousands of years even before the South did.
"Sato, relax." It was P'Li, of course it was P'Li, brash and booming like the explosives she loved so much from the other side of the fire pit with her tray in her lap but with no food on her spoon at all. "We don't get paid overtime for this" she stated in her edgy voice, like a knife. She was so untouchable, like her skin was made of steel and her temper was a time bomb, yet still she had the sarcasm when she chose to. She was as strange was Bolin was really, such a broody woman but also one with some form of personality there. Asami had assumed it came down to a flawed relationship, or even a bad childhood with multiple siblings older than she. Or maybe P'Li was just an agitated person right through to the core. Asami didn't know for sure and with the way the woman was set on acting with her she feared she never would.
"I know, I know. I just sometimes get carried away" she told them, beginning to get giddy with the excitement for the next day considering they must be close. She shuffled her rear a little in the pillow to brush the excitement away. "But that's what this is all about right?" She was trying to appear more of a fictional person than that of a plucky archaeologist on a multi-million yuan expedition with a host of complete strangers. It was already failing to work with her desired effect. "Adventure, discovery, teamwork, right?"
They all looked at her with rather vacant expressions, not connecting at all with her reasoning behind her being here. She knew really why they had signed up for another crack at the South. Money. The one thing she had never cared for, not because her father made sure she was set up before he passed, but because it was a silly thing to care about really. Money was a resource that would never run out really there was so much of it in the world. More would be printed every hour of everyday for longer than Asami Sato would live for. There was no need to chase or fantasise over it because if one simply lived life they would have enough of it to survive. She never really liked the museum dungeon but it was a job and it meant she would never starve. But money was certainly not her motivation for anything, least of all finding the South.
Still P'Li answered her. "I'm gonna say money."
"Money" reiterated Mrs Beifong, followed by her daughter and granddaughter. Bolin just continued to eat his food.
Asami sighed, defeated. "Guess I set myself up for that one huh?" The awkwardness had still a hold on her but she tried her hardest. It had been so long since she had actually needed to talk to people. Even at her boarding school she had only a few fleeting friends that she would talk to regularly. It was always work with Asami Sato, ever since then and beyond without her father to ensure she didn't sell her soul to herself. She missed him. She missed him more than ever now. It was his dream as well as hers to see the city and now that it was looking like she might, she missed him so.
Suyin was passing behind her to get her canteen when she spotted Asami rubbing the back of her neck rather awkwardly, all of those nights hunched over her desk with the oil lamp low engulfed in the Account. "Something wrong with your neck there Asami?" She asked caringly as she always did. She was a Matriarch there was no doubt about that, motherly to all. Asami confirmed and within a second Suyin grabbed her jawline and twisted her head to both sides firmly, creating a stout crack from both movements as the archaeologist yelled briefly. Asami was cured.
"How's that?" she asked after picking up her canteen. Asami had a smile on her face her neck felt so fine.
"How did you do that?"
"Omashu Medical College, trained with the Dai Li too" was Suyin's response. An organisation with a questionable reputation were the Dai Li, used hundreds of years ago to stage a deadly coup in Ba Sing Se. Asami now looked at her questionably, wondering what else was behind the loving expression Suyin always had on her face. She held up her hand. "Don't worry I'm not secret service or anything I just trained medical with a few veterans. This was while I was at Ba Sing Se one year," she began to tell. Opal had no doubt heard this story a dozen times before as well as Mrs Beifong but the mention of the Earth Government intrigued Asami. She loved visiting the provinces. Omashu, Kiyoshi, Yokai and even the capital once or twice with her father as a girl. Suyin pointed to her mother on the other side of the circle staring absently into the flames.
"You can blame her. She's the one who settled down in the capital." She then pulled out a necklace from her bust under her green uniform. "I've got metal from the capital," she referred to the small lump of meteorite firstly, "sandstone from Omashu." There was an equal lump of smooth sandy rock next to the metal. "Flash ice from the north and wood from the Fire Nation. Mom hung round with a very weird crowd" she told, gesturing to the perpetually frozen ice and then the rather crisp wooden piece. Mrs Beifong chuckled to herself. "And then halfway through medical college I got drafted," she said, remembering some conflict that Asami could not. "One minute I'm studying gross anatomy in the classroom. The next I'm patching up the military from bandits in the valleys" she finished and tucked in her necklace. Such an exciting life. Now she truly admired Suyin. She was not only a Doctor and a Matriarch and a mother but she she was a genuine medic, saving lives in the combat or at least making sure they weren't in pain. She herself was a veteran and deserved an immense amount of respect.
Bumi popped in from nowhere. "Main course coming up" he announced. Everyone declined all at once, hoping and pleading that he would not pile more awfulness on their trays. He chuckled at that, knowing they'd have to eat it sometime. "Don't you worry, it'll keep and keep and keep." Of course it will Bumi. It'll never go stale with your handiwork.
Mrs Beifong was lighting another cigarette as she had done thousands of times probably in the two weeks it had taken them thus far. "Thank the spirits I lost my sense of taste years ago" she said before shovelling the least of her food into the fire. Everyone else did the same after her, even Asami and P'Li. Bolin had finished his ages ago anyway and had left in search of entertainment as he was hardly one for sharing stories.
It took them all less than thirty minutes to pitch up their respective tents. Opal had offered Asami a spot opposite her own with Suyin and P'Li around the same space to form a complete circle. It was the most fun really Asami had had in awhile. Joking and messing with Opal as the two took longer to complete the pitching Suyin laughed with them while P'Li just did as she meant, not bothering to enter the playfulness. Suyin attempted to break her mood by throwing a pillow at her harsh face. It did bring a small smile to her face but the tall demolition woman was simply too broody.
Suddenly, once all the tents had been erected and the sleeping mats were out Asami began to chuckle as she lay on her back. Opal laughed back as a result, almost flirting with her. "What?" She asked her still in mid laughter.
Asami rolled over to lay on her chest. "I was just remembering this one time my dad took me camping near a river in the Fire Nation" she told, remembering the experience as it flowed to her. It was such a night for storytelling and now it fell to Asami to tell a tale of the legendary Hiroshi Sato in his prime, at his best and before the hideous drama of the courtrooms that pushed him into his early grave. Opal was in full attention and it was the first time that Asami had seen her without the rail cap on her head. Her hair was indeed rather beautiful. "I found something in the river. I was a genuine arrowhead from the days of the hundred year war. Hell the way my dad went on about it you would have thought I'd discovered one of them Air Temples." Opal giggled at the story. She had never met Hiroshi but her father had and the stories he told the budding engineer of their raid of the Air Temple made her admire Hiroshi herself,and now she was admiring Asami Sato as well. "It wasn't until I was twelve that I discovered the thing was a piece of metal that had been almost fossilised but that was just how dad was."
"Do you miss him?" Suyin asked her from the side. She was settling down for bed herself.
Asami looked at her with a thin layer of tears in her emerald eyes, her hair flowing gracefully down the side of her face. "More than anything."
Bolin was walking across the tenting field in some childish looking pyjamas with a stuffed animal in his hands. It was a ginger and white tailed Fire Ferret, Asami had seen a real one once before while visiting the nation and the stuffed toy looked so cute.
"That is so cute" Bolin muttered as he hugged his Fire Ferret. He then continued walking to find his own place to sleep, most probably in the dirt.
Asami now turned back to Opal, suddenly curious as to why she was even there in the first place. "Hey, Opal, how does a teenager, no offense, replace her father as the chief engineer and mechanic on a multi-million yuan expedition?" Asamo asked rather bluntly.
Opal wasn't offended in the slightest, more like she was proud of her status, especially considering her mother was also on the team and had been for longer than she. "Well I took this job because my dad retired" she told her simply, looking to her mother as if it were more her story to tell than Opal's. Asami followed her gaze to Suyin.
"Bataar and I are working on a housing development project in the Earth Government so he's retired from mechanics" Suyin stated.
Now it was back to Opal. "He's back at home with my four brothers. Hyon's an artist and Wing and Wei are athletes. Junior would never touch a monkey wrench so I guess I just took to it with my dad" she told Asami, a cute tale to match her personality. And she was finally being so human with the archaeologist. Non professional and just natural, allowing Asami to not only get along famously with her, but to see the real Opal, the cute and cuddly Opal as she was being now before her. Asami would make sure that she remained friends with the engineer from now on, once they returned to the surface.
Mrs Beifong was the next and final person to walk past and again Asami had no idea how she was walking so expertly without cane or guide. Still she shrugged it off.
"Forget your jammies Mr Beifong?" She asked so innocently. Mrs Beifong completely blanked her
"I sleep in the nude."
Suyin tossed Asami a sleeping blinder. "You'll want these. She sleep walks." Dear lord. But then again Suyin was her daughter so she would now for sure of not if she did.
P'Li finally said a word, laying flat on her back with the blinders on and a match in the ear. "I just like to blow things up" she said almost monotonically putting the straight end of the match in her mouth. Asami was hoping she'd say something because up until this point the woman had remained as constant a mystery as the missing page in the Fisherman's Account.
Suyin loomed over her, pulling the blinder from her eyes to stare at her. "Come on P'Li, tell the girl the truth" she instructed her rather sternly. She then dropped the blinder back on her face with a slapping noise. The demolition lady pulled then down to her upper bust and moved the matched back to her ear.
"My family owned a flower shop in the Fire Nation" she sighed, obviously embarrassed. It suited too, such a broody independant and unfeminine woman to come from such a humble and polite background was why she was the way she was. Asami had her figured now. Still she continued her own family tale. "We would sell roses, carnations, you name it," she continued.
"So one day, my father has me making these corsages for a damn prom. You know the stupid thing the girls put on their wrists," she twists her other free hand around her right wrists, both hands still gloved and her chest covered in a green tank top much Asami's own. "And the girls are all like 'where is it? When will it be ready? Does it match my dress?' it's hell.
"Anyway, I guess there was this gas leak next door of gas or what. Boom!" She made another gesture with her hands, practically leaping from her sleeping mat. "No more laundry. Blew me right through the front window of the flower shop." She rolled over on the mat, striking her match in her fingers, creating a small flame in her hands. "It was like a sign from the spirits. I found myself that boom" P'Li finished, exhausted with talking about her secret flower shop life so much.
The whole eir of the conversation was cut suddenly by a scratching a digging sound some ways off from the main site. It was Bolin digging himself a hole in the ground in which to sleep. He chuckled once he was completely submerged in his hidey hole and turned off his small flashlight.
Asami had to finally ask them. "So what's Bolin's story?"
Suyin snapped right at her daughter quite seriously. "Opal, don't tell her. You shouldn't have told me, but you did. No I'm telling you," meaning Asami, "don't want to know." She pulled up the oil lamp and blew it out, thus ending the story telling and signalling it was time to go to sleep. It hardly took any of them much time to doze off and once they had the camp fell silent apart from Bumi's snoring. Mr Beifong got up once and then quickly went back.
They came in the dead of the night. Five of them in all, crouched and covered, Their masks were large, enough to cover both head and torso with tussles on each other their wrists. Each of their masks were different, large faces made of wood with a blue hued glow from the mouths. By their physique at least one of them was female. They all carried sickle styled weapons with a polearm length staff to carry to the picks. They were like phantoms, or harmful spirits of old yet once they reached the camp site they simply gazed upon the sleeping bodies.
The female one signalled the others, indicating she was the leader. Her skin was tanned and as she reached Asami's satchel over by her makeshift desk her fingers were just slightly shorter than the archaeologists yet with more muscle in her hands. Her arms were the same; thick and muscular biceps with an arm band tattoo on her left, dark and then white with triangular segments.
She removed her mask at the protest hushed syllables of her party. She was gorgeous. A tanned face with sapphire blue eyes glowing in the darkness with a somewhat sharp chan and chunky cheekbones. Her lips were perfect and just left from her nose below the eye lay two paint strokes of the same blue as her eyes with a dot closer to the bridge.
She purused the contents of the stachel, a complete invasion of privacy but by the way the woman moved she had to be tribal. She tossed out book after book, not finding the Fisherman's Account because of course Asami was sleeping with it. She quickly came upon a picture frame of Asami as a child on her father's lap and the woman instantly connected with it. She felt some sort of connection with it, a girl and her father alone with no mother. She acted sheepishly around it, looking deeply into the frame with her prominent eyes.
As she was about to move on back into the satchel something sounded off from the tents. It was Asami getting up. The woman moved like a flash, hiding under the desk with her party moving back away from the site.
The woman looked at the archaeologist as she stood from her tent in her tank top and slacks, her hair a mess and a flashlight in her hand. She was moving for the toilet set up away from camp near the bridge. The woman's mouth opened, an instant flutter of attraction worming its way into her six pack of a stomach once she saw the emerald eye glowing in the dark.