Happy National Awakening Day to all my Indonesian readers!
Responses to Reviews:
Zigzagdoublezee: He just can't help himself!
RonaldM40196867: Probably actually being the Avatar. It's a full time job you can never quit, the world relies on you, there's enormous pressure and many, many people want or need you dead in order to get you out of the way of whatever nefarious schemes they're cooking up.
As Always, Please Review!
Zuko crawled along the rooftop, Chen just behind him, and stopped when he reached the correct building.
"How do we get down?" Chen hissed.
Fortunately, this building had a skylight, and so Zuko did not need to do a repeat of his death-defying ascent to the roof to get down from it. He stood up, and looked the girl straight in the eye as he smashed his foot through the glass.
"Li!" Chen said in alarm as he swayed, trying not to lose his balance. Then he was dropping down in to the room, landing with a thump on a wooden floor.
Immediately a huge man came at him wielding a chair. Zuko rolled out of the way and held his hands up.
"Wait wait wait, I'm not with them! I'm here to help you!"
The man lowered the chair, suspiciously.
"How do we know this isn't a trap?" He asked.
"Why would I come here alone if I wanted to hurt you?" Zuko pointed out.
The room was full of people, all of them wearing red. Bags were piled up in one corner of the room.
"Who are you?" He asked.
"You first," the man who had been on the balcony said.
"My name is Li. I'm a refugee from the coast. I saw you were in trouble. Now come on, who are you?"
"I have the honour of being Chikao, the director."
Despite the enormity of the situation, Zuko noted the emphasis he put on his job title. Chen dropped through the skylight behind him, landing heavily on the floor. As she rubbed her ankles, he turned to the group.
"Director of what?" He asked.
"Of the theatre, of course!" Chikao said smugly. "Of the Chida Polytechnic Drama Society, to be precise."
Zuko had never heard of it, but he knew that Chida was a place on the outlying islands of the Fire Nation, well away from the capital, so they were unlikely to know him by sight. He relaxed.
"You're a long way from home."
"I know," Chikao frowned. "We had embarked on a grand tour of the Earth Kingdom, to bring the magic of Fire Nation theatre to a new public. For some reason, the old public didn't really want to know."
"Maybe they would if you were a better director," the big man boomed. Zuko winced; he was very loud. "If I were the director-"
He was cut off by a chorus of groans from the rest of the group.
"I don't think now is the time for drama group politics," a woman pointed out. "There's an angry mob outside, or had you forgotten?"
She stepped forward, bowing to him formally.
"I'm Fumika, by the way," she said. "This is Riku."
The tall man nodded. Others crowded around them, making introductions; Makio and Joji, a small man called Daishi that the others seemed to treat a bit like a child, Sachiko and Airi (both of whom introduced themselves as the leading lady of the group) and a stagehand, Teruo. They came up in turn and bowed, and Zuko bowed back.
"Thank the Spirits for a friendly face," Joji said. "I was getting worried. We were run out of a town with pitchforks at one point."
"Oh how horrible!" Chen replied. "I'm so sorry. Innocent Fire Nationals shouldn't be paying for the war."
You've changed your tune, Zuko thought. You were all for leaving them a minute ago. She had at least come with him though, which was more than anyone else had done to save these people.
"The war?" Teruo asked, confused. "This was about a month before the war."
"...Oh," Chen looked confused. "So what happened then?"
"It doesn't matter!" Chikao interjected. "The details of our tour really are not the issue here."
"Not even Daishi forgetting all his lines?" Riku asked. Everyone else swivelled to shout at him.
"No!"
"What do we do?" Fumika went to the window and looked out, before immediately looking like she wished she hadn't. "How do we get out of here?"
"This does look like an angrier mob than any we've dealt with before," Makio observed.
"They're not just after us because of our plays any more, are they?" Joji whispered, white-faced.
"I'll go and talk to them again," Chikao suggested.
"You've already tried that, and got shouted down," Zuko pointed out.
"I'll go then," Riku suggested. "After all, anything you can act, I can act louder. I could maybe get through to them."
Chikao scowled at him, but it was Sachiko who spoke.
"Being heard doesn't mean they'll listen to us," she pointed out. "I don't think they can be reasoned with."
"So what do we do?" Daishi whispered.
"You're actors, aren't you?" Chen pointed out. "Act."
"How will that help? I don't think an impromptu performance of "Love Amongst the Dragon" Will win them over," Chikao told her.
"Shouldn't that be 'Love Amongst the Dragons'?" Zuko asked. "I love that show!"
"Budget issues," Chikao said sadly. "We only had the money for one dragon. And we've lost that, so it'll be 'Love Amongst the Geckos' from now on."
"That's not what I mean anyway!" Chen ploughed on, looking frustrated. "The mob is after you, but if you disguised yourself and then pretended to be part of the angry mob..."
"You could just walk straight through them!" Zuko realised. "By the time they realised you were gone, you could be far away from here."
"Could we?" Sachiko asked. "They do know my face after all."
"No, it's me they saw," Chikao said sadly. "I suppose I can stay behind. If I provide a distraction then the rest of you could get away."
"No!" Riku looked outraged. "That is absolutely not happening."
"I'll knock you out and drag you with us if it comes to it," Teruo said threateningly, wielding a spanner. The director relented.
"Alright, what do we have to do?"
Chen gestured to their clothes. Zuko looked on, impressed, as the refugee girl began to take charge of the situation.
"Lose the red," she said. "Find any green clothes you can in this building. You need to look like you're from the Earth Kingdom, at least at a glance."
"And how are we going to get out once we have these clothes?" Fumika asked.
"It's very simple," Chen nodded. "Chaos."
