Once the giants were gone, Zuko picked up a frilly pair of pants. A look of disdain was on his face.
"They expect us to wear these?"
Suki struggled to not laugh at the sight of the firebender with his new clothes. He noticed and tossed a bright orange and pink smock at her.
"We don't even know what they expect us to do," Katara commented, looking at a ripped piece of a handkerchief which was apparently supposed to act as a shirt.
Aang shrugged and put on a hat made of felt. "Let's find out."
His friends were not as open to wearing the strange outfits, but they also knew that the giants would only wait so long before coming back to the room. It was entirely possible that there were not many options if the friends did not want to get on the rulers' bad side. So, Zuko grumbled and put the bizarre pants on over his usual ones. Katara added a shirt with blinding sparkles onto her regular clothes. Sokka ended up with an oversized jacket with wide stripes.
"How weird do we look?" Toph asked.
Katara cringed, seeing the lavender dress the earthbender was wearing. "Well, remember our spa day?"
"Yeah."
"You look girlier right now."
Toph groaned. "Between Anton and this, being in Krozhny is giving me Sokka's luck."
Her friend opened his mouth to defend himself, then realized he had no argument. Instead, he turned to Suki, beaming.
"You still look great," he said, earning a kiss on the cheek.
Zuko rolled his eyes. "We all look ridiculous."
Aang adjusted his hat. "I kind of like this," he admitted.
The firebender frowned when the Avatar dipped his hat to Katara, who curtsied in return. Wanting this to end as quickly as possible, Zuko went over to ring the bell. Immediately, giants entered and saw that the group was ready to be presented in front of the royals. One held out her hands for the tiny people to stand on. They were taken out of the chambers and to the throne room again. Vadim and Tatia started to smile when they saw the group.
"Good to see that the doll clothes fit," the king said. His eyes moved to Sokka. "Mostly anyway."
Tatia gestured for the giants to set the team down onto a table. When this was done, the queen shooed them away.
"We only want to be around the tiny ones."
The specialists bowed and exited, but Tatia did not look satisfied. She glanced to her right, seeing Naum.
"I thought I expressed that clearly," she stated.
Naum's eyes widened slightly, then he also bowed. "My apologies. I misunderstood your intentions."
Quickly, the jester headed out of the throne room. Once his face was out of sight, it was covered in a scowl. Neither the king nor queen would have cared if they had seen it anyway.
"The specialists told us about the kinds of bending you have in your world," Tatia stated. "Besides the shortest one using metalbending, who else uses those?"
For a moment, the friends got quiet. This could be dangerous if they said too much. They did not want the royals to know that Aang and Zuko could redirect lightning in case the skill became necessary. Similarly, it was better to keep Katara's bloodbending a secret. At the same time, offering the giant couple nothing could cause the Gaang to be deemed boring–a fate none of them wanted.
"I can do sandbending too," Toph said, making her friends wonder if she had heard their thoughts.
This intrigued the king and queen sufficiently enough.
"We don't have too many sandbenders," Vadim mentioned. "What can you do?"
"Beat me in a sand castle building challenge," Sokka commented.
A contemplative look crossed the giants' faces.
"And no one does anything else, like lightning bending?" the queen asked.
Zuko shook his head. "No, we don't create lightning," he answered honestly.
The king and queen looked slightly disappointed, but they still liked some of what they heard.
"Sand!" Vadim yelled.
More and more, the team was beginning to realize how hateable it was when he shouted. Even faster than this realization, servants entered the throne room. They had buckets in their hands and approached the friends. Turning over the items, sand spilled out onto the floor.
"Make a sandcastle you could walk in," Vadim instructed. "It should lack a fourth wall so that we can see."
"Why do you want a sandcastle?" Toph asked, already feeling herself getting annoyed by this.
"Dolls need a house," Tatia said, matter-of-factly.
"We're not dolls," Toph mumbled, walking over to the sand.
Once she was standing in the shifting grains, the earthbender manipulated the substance so that it became firm. The sand came together, moving as one until it began to form a miniature palace. Toph had never built one as large as this, but even the grains of sand were bigger than usual. She stopped her construction when there was a castle for the group to enter. The royals looked amused.
"Every palace needs a king and queen," Tatia stated.
Her eyes moved over the group. Sokka kept gesturing to himself and Suki, a wide grin on his face. Tatia pointed at Suki, making the Water Tribe boy hopeful, but then the queen pointed at Aang.
"Suki's my girlfriend," Sokka said, "so we should probably be king and queen together."
Tatia shook her head. "This is all pretend anyway. Naum said you mentioned jokes. You can be the jester."
Toph elbowed her friend. "Looks like our make believe won't be that different from real life after all."
This warranted a frown she could not see but knew had appeared on Sokka's face.
"You'll be the princess," Vadim said.
Sokka laughed and elbowed Toph back. "He's talking to you."
The girl's jaw dropped although the royals were unfazed as they continued coming up with characters.
"And then you two will be the executioners," Tatia said, gesturing to Katara and Zuko.
"Who are we executing?" the waterbender asked, hoping the royals would keep to their word of this not being real.
"Whoever the king and queen decide. Obviously," Vadim scoffed.
"Oh, well in that case, I think we should pardon whoever did something wrong," Aang said.
Vadim frowned at him. "You make a dull king. Switch with the scarred one."
"Why does everyone get to be king except me?" Sokka protested, arms crossed.
"Since I'm queen, I won't let you get executed," Suki promised.
Her boyfriend felt a little better after hearing this, but the improvement was minor. The group went into the castle and stopped unsurely.
"Well, go on," Tatia encouraged.
"We're not actors or anything," Zuko said.
"And we're not patient. Start."
The firebender's brows pinched together and he tried to think of the Ember Island Players. Maybe the friends could at least do better than those thespians.
"Good day, Queen Suki, nice…ruling today," Zuko stated, forcing a smile which looked as awkward as it felt.
Suki tried to cover for her friend's lack of skill in this area. "I agree. We can probably expand the kingdom soon. We should ask what Princess Toph thinks."
"I think it's dumb," the earthbender said, joining them.
Zuko glanced at the king and queen to be sure they were not irritated by that. "Good thing you're not the one who sends out the soldiers then. We like the idea."
"Maybe the princess would be happier if she had some jokes to listen to," Sokka suggested. He cleared his throat. "Your highness, what do subjects need to follow and inventors need to sketch their plans? Rulers!"
Zuko facepalmed, but he was surprised when he heard some chuckles from the royals.
"That's got to be one of the worst jokes we've ever been told," Vadim admitted, laughing harder.
"If anyone else said that, we'd have them thrown in the dungeon," Tatia added. "But you do have a certain charm."
"Still, this story seems to have no reason for the executioners," the king added.
Suki and Zuko looked at their friends. There was not anyone who made sense to pretend to kill.
"The princess," Vadim suggested. "She doesn't understand the importance of expansion."
The Kyoshi warrior's eyes widened slightly. "I know this is fake, but that's kind of harsh. She's still our pretend daughter."
"And?" Tatia asked. "It's not as if you couldn't find a new heir. You could even make the waterbending executioner her replacement."
It was easy to see the disturbed expressions on the friends' faces. Tatia and Vadim frowned before turning up their noses.
"Clearly, none of you have children," Vadim said. "You'd understand how harshness is sometimes necessary if you want to keep the kingdom strong."
Tatia leaned back further in her seat. "Just stop. You'll need more practice if you're going to put on shows. We'll have scripts prepared for the next time. Your improvisation skills are severely lacking."
"That said," the king added, "we got to look over your test results while you were changing into those outfits. You all scored relatively high in agreeableness. Your brains seem to work alright." He pointed at Aang. "You missed a lot of questions about the sciences, though." His gaze turned to Sokka. "And I didn't expect you to get the most correct."
"I won?"
"It wasn't a competition," Katara said, slightly disappointed in herself.
"Everything is a competition," Tatia said. "So, yes, he did win."
Sokka beamed at the compliment, but his smile fell. "Then why did you want me to be the jester? Shouldn't I have been the advisor or some high position like that?"
"Jesters are supposed to be smart," Vadim stated. "They'd be horribly boring if they weren't. Of course, ours have never been smarter than we are, but we like for them to be quick-witted."
"You've had another one besides Naum?" Aang asked, noticing the wording.
"Several," Tatia answered. "He's lasted the longest."
Vadim called for some more servants before the friends could ask anything else.
"Our playwrights will consult with you before we do this again," the king said. "Wait in your chambers for them to bring you the script."
A servant held out his hands to transport the friends. Once they exited the throne room, they noticed Naum near the entryway. He stared at the team with an unreadable look in his eyes, then reentered the chambers. The Gaang entered theirs as well before promptly being bid farewell by the servants.
"We will tell the playwrights to begin right away," one giant said, leaving the friends.
Once the giants were gone, Aang turned to the others.
"Suggesting that Toph get executed isn't necessarily the same as saying they'd kill Yeva, but…"
"It does show that the idea isn't too far-fetched for them," Zuko finished. "Not if it'll strengthen their kingdom."
The firebender quickly began taking off the silly clothing with disdain on his face. He was followed by the others, who took this opportunity to return to their usual wardrobe.
Sokka shrugged. "I'm not surprised. We already saw Tatia bloodbend him. That's not as bad as killing, but they don't like him. It doesn't seem like there's anyone in the kingdom who they respect. Levka told us about how they team up with the nobles to mistreat the villagers, then Vadim and Tatia get to mistreat the nobles during the parties. No one's safe."
Katara looked concerned. "Maybe we can get the others to rise up against them. Vadim and Tatia might be powerful, but they're just two people. If all the subjects work together, there could be a change in leadership."
"But we'll need the groups to be willing to see eye-to-eye," Aang said. "If they can't respect each other, it'll be really difficult to have them act like a team."
"Unfortunately, I don't think talking with the merchant-farmer family will help too much with that," Suki admitted. "Levka seems really upset with nobles. Alexei probably is too, but if they aren't even allowed close to the castle, asking them to start a revolution with everyone is a lot."
"We'd be better off finding some nice noble who could go anywhere," Toph said, "but where are we going to find one of those?"
The friends got quiet as this question remained unanswered. Toph felt more giants approaching and sighed.
"I guess we'll have to figure that out later. We're about to have more company."
A few moments after she was done speaking, unfamiliar-looking giants entered the chambers. They had scrolls in their hands, but these were not for tests.
"We've prepared some story prompts for you in case you are summoned to put on a play before the proper scripts are finished."
The scrolls were set down on the bed, then the giants hurried out to finish their writing. Aang eyed the prompts curiously.
"If we get really good at this, maybe Vadim and Tatia will invite some nobles to see us perform," he mentioned. "Then we could try to talk with them to see if anyone's willing to help."
"Worth a try," Sokka said. "First, you'll all need to get way better at acting. Especially you," he added, looking at Zuko.
The firebender frowned even though he could not disagree. Aang started to read off ideas the playwrights had concocted, but the friends were not alone in trying to decide how to deal with their giant overlords. In the tiny lands, a much needed rest had been taken by the people of Rhijaj and Xei. Regardless, some of them did not sleep for long. They could not. How could they be asked to rest peacefully while the lives of those they swore to protect could end at the whim of a dictator? As soon as their bodies were rested enough to not cause the people to collapse, the leaders of both lands prepared for the day. Durnaz found the rest of the royal family and Inaya in the throne room. A determined look was in the princess's eyes.
"We won't be able to use the common ground to talk anymore," she reasoned.
Ebrah considered this and nodded. "With the giant having her castle there, she might overhear us if we talk nearby. It would be safer to change our meeting location."
Buraid was quiet for a moment, taking a breath. "What if they came here?"
The others regarded him in shock, believing they had misheard the prince.
"It makes the most sense," he added, noticing their astonishment.
"I think so too," Inaya admitted. "A lot of the others are going back into their homes because the giant doesn't need all our land anymore."
Durnaz started to smile. "And with so many groups of people moving around, we wouldn't even stand out. I'll see if the others will agree to this."
Ebrah and Buraid gave nods of agreement, so Inaya went with the princess and left the palace. They began approaching Xei and saw Azula's palace. The duo glared at it with hatred in their eyes. Picking up their pace, they continued going until they were in front of the turquoise building. A few people were standing outside, keeping their gazes on the large castle in case Azula's attention turned to Xei directly.
"Did you come here to talk with the president?" one citizen asked.
"Yes, is he with Tipah and Sabit?"
The guards nodded and moved aside so that the pair could enter. Durnaz and Inaya could overhear the trio tensely talking. Tipah turned and smiled when he saw the newcomers.
"I didn't expect you to come here," he admitted.
"We want to ask if you'd all meet in Rhijaj to speak with us about how we're going to stop the giant," Durnaz said.
"In Rhijaj?" Sabit asked.
"We won't be noticed as we travel back and forth. A lot of people are doing that already as they move their belongings from here to there."
The assistant paused briefly. "As long as we get rid of the giant, that's what matters to me. If we do something else that upsets her, she won't be 'nice' enough to just throw someone in a prison."
"I agree," Inaya stated. "That's why we want to see what we can do to protect everyone."
Sabit and Tipah glanced at Megat. He had a contemplative expression on his face, then spoke.
"Alright. We'll go there with you to formulate our plans. Something has to be done. We can't rely on the giant's mercy. I doubt she has any."
"Wonderful," Durnaz said. "Let's go then."
She started leading them out of the building. Like the tiny people had hoped, the groups of Rhijaj subjects going back to their homes made their tiny travel group seem unremarkable. If Azula noticed them, she did not do anything. So, they were able to continue going until they reached Rhijaj. Buraid and Ebrah were out of the palace, already coming up with some ideas. They greeted the others when they arrived. There was a short but tense moment between Megat and Buraid that the others tried to not dwell on.
"We're going to need stronger weapons," Ebrah said. "Our bending alone doesn't work against the giants. We saw that when the friends stopped our battle."
"But the giant might have more work for us to do," Sabit said. "It would take a lot of time to make something strong enough to do damage and handle her orders. How would we do both?"
Tipah tapped his chin thoughtfully. "We can delegate tasks. For those who aren't as physically healthy as the others, we can have them help the inventors with designs. It would also keep them away from the giant in case she wants us to do more laborious tasks."
"That would be good, but what if we're noticed?" Buraid asked. "For all we know, that tyrant will decide to blow down our homes just to make sure we aren't conspiring against her. She could probably flick a dozen buildings over."
Durnaz's eyes brightened excitedly. "We could hide the weapons in something she wouldn't want to destroy."
"And what's that?" Megat inquired.
The princess turned to the others with a smile and explained her plan. When this was done, they all started traveling back towards the castle. Instinctively, some Rhijaj subjects who were standing guard bowed to the royals.
"We need to speak with the giant," Ebrah stated.
This caused a nervous look to appear on the guards' faces. Reluctantly, they moved to allow the group to enter. When the leaders did, they saw the ruler blasting a thin line of fire near her prisoner. The man was dodging and leaping out of the way. It seemed to amuse Azula slightly, but she also appeared bored. Intrigue lit up her face when she saw the guests.
"Why are you here?" she questioned.
"To be granted permission. We appreciate you giving us this day to rest," Durnaz said. "In order to show our gratitude, we want to build a statue in your honor."
Azula eyed the group suspiciously, then looked curious. "A statue? I didn't think you'd want to do anything in my honor."
"We should adjust to the way things are now," Tipah added. "It's our goal to be loyal subjects, so this is a way we thought of to do that."
The giant was quiet for several moments, then gave a cold smile. "Good. It's for the best that you accept your fate. I'll be your ruler now, so I'm glad that you want to show your loyalty to me. Go on. I look forward to seeing the completed project."
Relieved, the group bowed and quickly exited the palace. They went off to gather workers who could help with this new task.
"Make the center shallow," Megat instructed, talking to several earthbenders.
"We're going to fill it with weapons and use it as a bunker," Durnaz added.
Obliging, the group started their designs for ensuring that Azula's likeness was accurately captured. They did not need to see the princess's reaction to already know that she would not take kindly to being improperly sculpted. While they worked, Azula thought over what the people had said. It was interesting, but that was good. She needed more loyalty. This was more difficult for her to obtain than she had expected. So easily, people could become traitors. A glare covered Azula's face as she thought of everyone in her life who had turned on her. It could not happen again. It would not. Maybe the people of these lands just needed a reminder of why it was wise to keep the giant's good favor. Azula stood up from the throne and strode outside. She let lightning sparkle on her fingertips before she blasted it out and towards the sky.
The blast was bright. It was temporarily blinding to the tiny people. The next one caused them to cover their eyes. This had multiple purposes for Azula. It was impossible for the tiny people to not notice the sheer power she possessed. It also allowed for this aforementioned power to be released in ways it could not be in the prison. Azula imagined filling with lightning the bodies of those who put her there. Each blast could have had her brother and his friends in front of it. The crackling of the lightning might as well have been their cries of pain. Sometimes, Azula still saw her lightning hitting Zuko's chest. It normally led to her chuckling until she was reminded of what happened immediately afterwards. Then the memory would be ruined. Anger began entering the princess as she fired more lightning. Her attacks became more aggressive and she even shot the ocean. Lightning came off the water, daring anyone to step in and be killed. The sculptors trembled slightly as they worked, praying desperately that they did a good job so that none of those attacks were ever directed their way. Azula kept shooting lightning, imagining how different things would be there in her new kingdom. As she did, uneasiness was felt by Naum. When he had entered the throne room, he bowed again.
"Oh, you're back, Naum," Vadim remarked. "Do you have any experience as a playwright?"
"I have been trained in all of the arts, my liege," Naum answered, eyes low. He lifted his gaze to the royals. "May I approach?"
Tatia shrugged, lackadaisical. "Why not?"
The jester walked over to them and lowered his voice. "These tiny people, can they be trusted?"
"I don't see why they shouldn't be," the king stated. "You've seen them. If we're ever angered, we'll simply crush them under our pinkies."
"You could, but I worry if their pasts are too unknown to us."
This fascinated the couple, who looked at Naum with frowns on their faces.
"What do you mean?" Tatia asked. "Did you hear something?"
"I would never dare to imply I know more than Your Majesties. I am only hesitant to believe they have been fully transparent. Even with the answers they gave the specialists, we relied on them being truthful. If they were not…"
"Then we won't know their actual skills," Vadim stated, eyes widening as realization dawned on him. "Maybe that bald boy was actually going to win his competition."
"We don't have a way to test them and truly know what they can do," the queen said unhappily. "Even if we threaten their lives, they might really not know how to do something and we'd lose entertainment pointlessly."
Vadim appeared just as troubled as she was. He turned to Naum whose expression was calm.
"What do you suggest?"
"I believe that you should observe them closely. You might not know the full extent of their abilities, but they also do not know yours. If you'll be so kind as to allow me to remain here when you meet with them, I will observe their responses carefully to see if I can interpret any behavioral cues."
"Good, yes, do that," Vadim stated. "Let us know what you come up with."
Naum bowed again. "I appreciate this honor, Your Highness. I will not disappoint you."
Tatia anxiously wrung her hands together. "For now, go work with the playwrights to come up with something for them. We don't want the tiny people suspecting us of mistrusting them."
The airbender stayed in his bow before leaving the throne room. An icy look was in his eyes while he walked away.
"Entertainment," he said scornfully. "Little friends, you've just gotten in the way of the wrong jester."