Wandering Firebender
Seventy Two: First Line
Cindra was making her way down one of the hallways of the Fire Lord's palace when she crossed paths with Elio, who was dressed in full uniform. She smiled and waved at him as the two approached each other.
"Hey, Elio! How's it going?" She asked.
"Not too bad. I can't really talk too much right now. I'm on my way to a meeting." He said.
"Oh yeah? Is there something important going on that nobody told me about?" Cindra asked with a giggle.
"Heheh, yeah. Fire Lord Zuko wants to have an important meeting regarding relations with the Earth Kingdom. Avatar Aang and some of his friends are supposed to be there, as well as all the royal advisors." Elio explained.
"Oh wow! That does sound important! I'll let you go then. I guess I'll go see how Sri is doing." She decided.
"Yeah, good idea. I'm gonna be gone pretty much all day, so..."
"Oh man. Haha, well have fun then," Cindra said with a laugh and a wave. "See you around!" She said as she started walking off.
"Later, Cindra. Take care."
Cindra walked over to where the living quarters were and made her way to Sri's room. She knocked on the door, "Hmm? Coming..." Sri called out lazily. After a short minute, she answered the door and rubbed her eyes. Her hair was still a mess.
"Morning, Sri! Did I wake you?" She asked.
"Nah, I've been up for a bit, I just didn't feel like getting out of bed," Sri answered. "What's up?"
"Oh nothing. Elio's in an important meeting right now and he's gonna be gone all day, so it looks like we're gonna have to find something to do." She answered.
"Oh yeah? We're not supposed to be at that meeting, right?"
"Nope! So as far as I can tell, we got nothing going on today!"
"Oh yeah? You too, huh?" Another voice responded. The two of them turned to see Katara walking towards them, already awake and dressed similarly to Cindra.
"Man, you Water Tribe girls must all be early risers, huh?" Sri observed with a little chuckle.
"It doesn't feel like it's that early." Katara said with a shrug.
"You're probably just lazy," Cindra teased with a giggle. "Sri, this is Katara. She's one of the Avatar's friends from the Southern Water Tribe, my sister tribe." She introduced her to Sri.
"Nice to meet ya. I'm Sri from the Earth Kingdom," She introduced herself to Katara, shaking hands with her. "I didn't even know there were two water tribes." She admitted with a chuckle.
"Haha, that's okay. It's nice to meet you, Sri. You must be one of Elio's friends too?" She guessed.
"That's right. I'm part of his crew same as her. It's no flying bison and Elio's definitely not the Avatar, but it's a good deal." Sri said with a nod.
"Alright." Katara replied with a polite smile.
"Looks like you weren't invited to the important meeting today either, huh, Katara?" Cindra presumed.
"Nah. I could've gone, but I really didn't have it in me to sit through a whole day of strategies and speeches. Besides, both Aang and my brother Sokka will be there, so I'll just ask him to get me up to speed. I'm sure that'll make him feel extra manly." She joked.
"So it's just us three? Well in that case, why don't we all hang out together?" Cindra suggested.
"Yeah! We can make a girls' day out of it!" Katara agreed.
"A girls' day, huh? Never had one of those," Sri commented. "If we're gonna do all that, let me go brush my hair and stuff." She said.
"I'll go see if Toph wants to join us." Katara pointed in the direction of Toph's room.
"I'll go get my stuff. Let's all meet back here." Cindra decided.
The three girls split off from there. Cindra went to grab her money pouch and a different pair of sandals. Sri got herself dressed and ready to go out. Katara went to see if Toph wanted to come with them, but Toph declined, stating that she would rather stay inside and catch up on sleep.
Nevertheless, when the three girls met up again in front of Sri's room, Katara had a friend in tow with her; one that Cindra didn't recognize.
"Everybody ready to go?" Katara asked.
"Yep!" Cindra answered with an excited smile, "I don't believe we've met yet. I'm Cindra." She introduced herself to Katara's friend.
"Hey, I know you from somewhere, don't I?" Sri said, taking a closer look at her face.
"I don't know. Do you?" She asked with a little smile.
"Yeah, your face looks familiar...weren't you at Full Moon Bay?" Sri recalled.
"Oh yeah, I was! You were with Elio then, right?"
"Yeah! Yeah! Nice to see you again." Sri said with a nod.
"You too. My name's Suki by the way, in case you forgot. Katara's told me a bit about you, Cindra. Nice to finally put a name to the face. I mean a face to the name." Suki corrected herself.
"Same thing." Katara giggled and waved it off.
"Hahaha, it's nice to meet you too, Suki. Are you ready to go, Sri?" Cindra asked.
"Yep. Got all my stuff. Are we like going out? Like out out? As in leaving the palace?" Sri asked.
"Uh...yeah, I guess we are, right?" Cindra realized, letting out a nervous chuckle.
"Haha don't worry, I've been around the Fire Nation a little myself. I know this great market not far from here that we can go to." Katara said.
"Perfect. We'll follow your lead then." Sri nodded.
The four of them left the palace and made their way into the surrounding city area. It was obvious by their attire, as well as Cindra and Sri's lost expressions, that they weren't native to the area, so they got a handful of stares from people passing by.
"Man, it still feels weird that we're in the Fire Nation. I hate to say it, but I'm kind of uncomfortable right now." Cindra admitted.
"Yeah, I remember the first time we came here. I felt the same way. But it's alright. No one's gonna do anything." Katara said.
"They can look all they want, but they'll get a surprise if they try anything on us." Suki said with a chuckle.
"Heheh, I'll just hide behind you then." Sri joked.
Finally, the four of them reached the market area. Cindra, Suki, and Sri were pleasantly surprised to see that the market was quite extensive, lined with different little shops with red cloths hanging above in cross patterns.
The four of them nodded in approval and started walking in different directions: Cindra went with Katara, and Sri went with Suki...
"You have any idea what you would wanna buy from this place?" Sri asked Suki curiously.
"Not really," Suki shook her head and chuckled. "I really just came along just to spend some time with Katara and you guys. I'm not really a shopping kinda girl." She admitted.
"Oh yeah? Me and my parents used to make a living running little shops like these, so it's kinda nice to be on the other end of it for once." Sri commented.
"Oh yeah? What kinda things did you sell?" She asked curiously.
"Mostly knickknacks and collectibles; anything we could get our hands on that could turn a profit. That's basically what I've done all my life up until now." Sri admitted, her eyes drifting downwards slightly.
"There's nothing wrong with that. Why do you say that like it's a bad thing?" Suki asked.
"Well...heh, let me not bring the mood down right away when we're supposed to be having fun." Sri tried to avoid talking about what was on her mind.
"Nah, come on. You can tell me." Suki insisted.
"Well...Elio asked me to be a part of his crew. He told me that he believes I could be valuable to the team, but I really don't see how...I'm a shopkeeper. I don't know how to fight and I don't have any bending. I feel like I'm just here to point at a map and hide behind my team when trouble starts." She explained her feelings.
"I see...I'm not a bender either. Sometimes it can be hard to keep up with them. But I can teach you how, if you would like." She offered.
"Teach me how? What do you mean?"
"Well, where I come from, we have a group of all-female trained warriors. We take after the disciplines of Kyoshi, one of the previous Avatars. I've taught many girls like you how to fight, both with weapons and hand-to-hand." She explained.
"Really? And you can keep up with benders?" Sri asked, still a little doubtful.
"I've taken down a group of firebenders by myself," Suki answered with a little smirk. "And so can you. I'll make sure of that." She promised. Sri clenched her fists, beginning to get excited.
"Yes! Thank you!"
Meanwhile, Katara and Cindra were walking in step next to each other, looking around at the various stands to see if anything would catch her eye. In particular, Cindra was interested in finding some nice jewelry to wear.
"I'm debating between getting another necklace or some kind of bracelet. What do you think, Katara?" She asked.
"Actually, I was thinking about finding a nice outfit to wear. The Fire Nation has some really nice clothes to choose from." She answered.
"Really? You've worn Fire Nation clothes before? Are they comfortable?"
"Oh, they're perfect for when the weather gets warm. We should find you something! Sri and Suki too, wherever they are." Katara suggested with a giggle.
"Hmm...alright, sure! Why not? It'll be a nice switch up from always wearing my clothes from home." She agreed.
"It does get hot here, and in the Earth Kingdom too. Might be worth looking into. Just saying." Katara said with a smile before leading Cindra towards the clothing shops.
"True. I guess there's nothing wrong with that...man, I really gotta get used to the war being over." Cindra said with an odd chuckle.
"Yeah, tell me about it. But there's a lot of nice things here in the Fire Nation. You just gotta look past...the past." Katara said with a smile, ushering her through the different clothing options.
"Oh wow, so much red," Cindra laughed. "But this is really cute!" She said, walking up to a top on display.
"See? That was quick." Katara joked. The two of them laughed.
"Alright, you convinced me. You know who would love this? My best friend Tara back home." Cindra said, running her fingers down the garment.
"Oh yeah? It's hard to imagine anyone in the North Pole liking anything from the Fire Nation." Katara commented.
"What do you mean by that?" Cindra asked, looking at her quizzically.
"Well, you know...with what happened up there?" She brought up.
"Ohh. Yeah. Right."
"Did you heard about what happened last week?" Katara asked.
"No. What? Is everything okay?"
"Everything's fine. But Zuko tried sending relief supplies to the Northern Water Tribe and, as you might expect, they didn't accept it. They sent the ships away." She informed Cindra.
"Oh wow. It's just like what happened to us in Omashu."
"Omashu?"
"Yeah. We took relief supplies over there and the guards refused. We had to disguise everything so it looked like it came from the Earth King just so they would take it. They even threatened us!" Cindra recounted.
"Seriously? That's a little ridiculous." Katara commented.
"Right?! Maybe they should've done that with the stuff back home." Cindra joked.
"Ha, you think that would've worked?"
"Nah," Cindra shook her head. "The chief and his counsel are too proud to let anyone outside help them just like that."
"You're not wrong," Katara sighed. "It's gonna take a long time for the world to heal from what happened. There's generations worth of hatred on both sides." She pointed out.
"Yeah, we were all talking about that on the way back from Omashu. But my friend Alger said something nice – that that's why we're here, you know? The world's gotta heal, and we're here to help the process along."
"True." Katara smiled at that.
"Hey, healing is one of the main things we Water Tribe girls do, right?" Cindra joked.
"I think it'll take a little more than some waterbending, Cindra." Katara chuckled.
"Well you never know." Cindra shrugged and smiled.
Shortly thereafter, the four of them found each other again in the market. They decided to take a break and have lunch. They all sat around the table with the items that they'd bought in little bags set on the table next to their food.
"What did you guys end up getting?" Sri asked Katara and Cindra.
"We got some totally official Fire Nation outfits. I got some for you too, Sri! I found some stuff that will look great on you. We're basically the same size, right?" Cindra asked.
"Probably. You can show me when we get back to our rooms." Sri decided.
"What about you? Did you and Suki find anything?" Katara asked.
"Eh, not really." Sri shrugged.
"I did find a nice golden bracelet with a dragon on it. I thought it was cool." Suki brought up with a smile.
"Suki also agreed to teach me how to fight like a Kyoshi Warrior." Sri brought up.
"Oh really? That's great! Suki's a really good teacher." Katara smiled.
"Can you teach me too?!" Cindra requested.
"Oh, you wanna learn too?" Suki asked in surprise.
"Yeah! No one back home wanted to teach me how to fight for the longest time. I had to figure out so much myself. I'd benefit a lot from a real teacher. That way I won't be defenseless if someone gets around my waterbending." She explained her thinking.
"I don't even have waterbending so I need it even more." Sri added.
"Sounds like you have two new students, Suki." Katara giggled.
"Guess so," Suki laughed. "This calls for refills. Drinks all around!" Suki joked as she stood up.
As Suki made her way to the counter and got everyone's drinks refilled, she overheard two men talking around the corner. She couldn't hear everything they were saying, but the words 'palace' and 'inside' caught her attention. She inched towards the edge to hear better.
"...know where the Fire Lord's throne room is. How are we supposed to-"
"Later this afternoon, the guards will change their shift. That's when we make our move. We get in, make the kill, use the tunnels under the palace for our escape." The man listed.
"Alright...I don't like this, man. I get chills just being here."
"Yeah, me too. But that's good. That'll keep us on our toes."
Suki's eyes widened. She stepped away from the counter and circled around a nearby table. She snuck a glance to her left, but the two men who were talking were dressed in hoods that covered their faces. She let out an annoyed sigh before making her way back to the table.
"Girls, we've got a situation." She said to them. They all looked up at her.
"What's up?" Sri asked.
"I just overheard two guys over there. I didn't catch everything, but it sounds like they want to sneak into the royal palace and kill someone – I'm guessing Zuko."
"What?!" Cindra exclaimed in surprise.
"We better get back there then." Katara said, standing up.
"Yeah. They said they're gonna make their move when the guards change shifts this afternoon." Suki informed them.
"That's not long, is it?" Sri asked.
"No, it's not. Let's hurry." Katara urged them...
A group of earthbenders had managed to sneak into the Fire Nation by posing as a small trade ship. Their mission was to steal Fire Nation uniforms and sneak into the palace in order to kill Fire Lord Zuko. It wasn't a perfect plan, but they were all certain that they could pull it off.
However, despite being able to steal a few soldiers' uniforms, when they approached the gates of the Fire Nation palace that afternoon, there weren't any guards around. They wandered in confusion towards the entrance and were met by four girls.
"You lost, fellas?" Sri asked the six of them.
"Not at all, cutie. We're on our way to our posts." One of them answered.
"Oh yeah? Did you receive the Fire Lord's special message today?" Suki asked, folding her arms and raising her eyebrow.
"Uh...yeah, uh, about the...throne room, right?" One of them tried.
"That was a trick question. There was no special message." Katara said.
"...I knew that."
"That was another trick! There was a special message!" Sri snickered at them.
"We know that you're here to kill the Fire Lord," Cindra spoke up. "Please give up now and we'll kindly escort you onto a ship out of here."
"Great, a trap. Looks like we'll have to do this the hard way, guys."
"I was afraid you'd say that." Suki said, getting into her fighting stance.
"We need to barrel through before backup gets here!" One of them jumped forward, shaking up the ground with earthbending.
While Katara and Sri were stumbled, Cindra kept her footing and started shooting ice spikes at the men. Meanwhile, Suki jumped up into the air and did a front flip, landing next to one of the men. The man threw a punch at her. She ducked under it and grabbed his arm and head, sweeping his legs and forcing him to the ground.
Two men were knocked down by Cindra's ice spikes. Two other men standing behind them pulled boulders out of the ground and shot them at Cindra. Katara grabbed onto her and created a path of ice for the two of them to skate on. Cindra steadied herself on her feet and followed Katara's lead.
"Waterbenders?! Why are you fighting us?!" One of the men exclaimed in confusion, creating a wall around himself and four of the men to protect them from Katara and Cindra's ice spikes.
"Because you're on the wrong side here! You're making a mistake!" Cindra shouted.
Meanwhile, the man that Suki had pinned down wrestled free of her grip, turning and throwing her off. As he got up, Sri ran up to him and jumped on his back, pulling him into a choke hold. She squeezed as tightly as she could while he tried to yank her off. This allowed Suki to get back up and chi-block him.
The five earthbenders proceeded to coordinate an attack, separating their defensive wall and shooting pieces of it all around them. This broke apart Katara's ice wall, causing her and Cindra to tumble to the ground. Sri threw herself to the ground to avoid getting hit while Suki dodged the stones.
"We're wasting time with these girls! We need to get into the palace!" One of the earthbenders yelled.
"That's not gonna happen!" Another voice yelled. The earthbenders turned just in time to see a bunch of fireballs coming their way. Two of them were knocked to the ground by them. Cindra looked and saw that finally, Koda had shown up with Nezu and Marx as well as a handful of guards.
"You sure took your sweet time, didn't you?" Sri said sarcastically, lifting her head a little.
"Heheh, sorry. These idiots actually picked a good time to sneak in. We had to scrape a handful of these guys together." Koda chuckled.
"No...we can still do this. We gotta try." One of the earthbenders tried to rally the men's courage.
"I think you would be smart to analyze the situation: you're outnumbered and you don't have the element of surprise. The best option here is to surrender." Marx advised.
"Yeah! We don't wanna have to pummel ya, but we will!" Nezu added.
"So what's it gonna be?" Koda asked.
The earthbenders all looked at each other. One of their men was already down for the count. It was highly unlikely that the five of them could take down more than a few men before they'd be defeated. Their plan had failed. They raised their hands in surrender.
"Smart choice." Koda commented. The Fire Nation soldiers surrounded the men and handcuffed them before bringing them to be placed in the palace holding cells. Koda, Marx, and Nezu watched them be taken away before approaching Suki and the others.
"You guys struggled a little bit to hold off those guys, huh?" Koda asked with a chuckle.
"Well, we weren't counting on you taking so long. You should've brought Toph with you. We could've used her." Katara commented.
"Whose Toph?" Koda asked.
"Never mind. Thanks for the help," Katara said appreciatively before turning to Sri, Suki, and Cindra. "Well, now that that's taken care of, what do you wanna do?" She asked them.
"Well, I'm a little worn out, but we still got some time before the sun goes down." Suki pointed out.
"True. Hey, would you like to come hang out with us for a bit?" Cindra asked, looking at Koda and the others.
"Sure! Where we headed?" Nezu asked.
"Heheh, we'll figure something out." Cindra giggled...
That evening, after Zuko's meeting had come to a close, Elio went to speak with the Fire Lord privately in the throne room.
"Elio. What're you doing here so late? I was just about to go to my room for the night." Zuko said, already in the process of standing up when he noticed Elio approaching the throne.
"Cindra just brought something to my attention, and I think you need to hear this."
"Okay. Come with me." Zuko invited. Elio and Zuko left the throne room and started walking towards Zuko's bedroom.
"Today, a group of earthbenders were intercepted in front of the palace. They stole uniforms with the intention of sneaking in here and killing you." He informed Zuko.
"Really? How many were there?"
"Six men. Thankfully, Suki overheard them talking about their plans in the marketplace. Suki, Cindra, Katara, and Sri were the first line of defense and held them off until backup arrived." Elio explained.
"I see. They were smart to pick today. We were all distracted. I'll need to prepare better for that next time." Zuko thought out loud.
"Yeah...I have to admit, I'm a little upset by that. It feels like we're still the enemy despite everything we're doing to try and make things better."
"There's still a lot of work to be done. Don't lose out hope on me now, Elio. Just be glad that our friends were there to keep something worse from happening." Zuko said, patting a hand on Elio's shoulder.
"Right," Elio nodded in agreement. "I'll be sure to give them your thanks."
"Don't worry about that. I'll handle that myself." Zuko said with a small smile before entering into his bedroom. Elio nodded again before turning and leaving...