The road was thankfully empty,–no troublemakers; or onlookers to think he was a troublemaker. As long as the weather remained nice enough; Shuzen could think of worse ways to make quick money. He adjusted the newly gained pack on his shoulders. The fresh bruises from his fall were aggravated, but the sense of security made the weight worthwhile.

His first lucky break since he'd arrived on the mainland. This girl's misfortune, however grim, had become his windfall. Free rein to take anything he wanted from what they'd left behind and, if she was telling the truth; an unspecified amount of silver would be his once they were in Gaoling.

They had covered a considerable distance already, tree-girl more or less leading...

Tree-girl.

Spirits, what was her name again? Had it been too long for him to ask her to repeat it without seeming rude? Shuzen winced internally. He'd always been terrible with names, but to be fair, he'd never really needed to remember them before. His village was small, the faces familiar. The occasional names of newborns were the only new ones he ever had to learn; even then, half recycled from grandparents.

He'd remembered the last name easily enough: Te.

Kyoshi island was largely out of contact with the world; so much so that no one back home could be bothered to name the current Earth King. But history was static and the Te family was an old enough, and well-known enough dynasty. Too well known really — dropping such a name was as good as calling herself Li.

If she was lying, what could she be planning? Shuzen fixed his gaze ahead, studying her every step. Careful and measured, favoring the balls of her feet like walking on glass. The soft-bottomed silk shoes might have something to do with it.

What kind of bandit or commoner had shoes like that?

Unless she stole them…

Boho or whatever his name was; must have made him paranoid. At worst, she was a normal girl who felt she wouldn't get any help without extending an unrealistic offer. Could he blame her for that? Even if there was no money waiting at the gates of Gaoling, he'd deliver her there all the same.

What was the worst she could do? Blink at him? If he needed to, he could shove her down and outrun her without breaking a sweat.

The off-kilter rhythm was almost painful to listen to. Clearly, she wasn't accustomed to walking long distances. If she had come from money, it made sense; she had likely spent most of her life traveling by palanquin or carriage, not trudging over uneven ground like this.

She didn't voice any complaints; and for that much, Shuzen was grateful.

Maybe he could offer to carry her bag? It didn't look heavy, but considering she'd spent a night hiding in a tree, she had to be exhausted. He almost voiced the thought before shaking his head. No way she'd trust him with it. She'd deemed it more valuable than everything else she had left behind. Firestarter, lanterns…

Food.

He still couldn't believe she'd left all of that behind.

There had been so much bread that some of it had gone stale. He had nearly bagged it all before thinking better of it when he found the dried fruit. Whoever she had been traveling with must have been well off—three different kinds of rice, a wealth of spices…

Yangchen's wet nurse! The spices!

Salt, pepper, coriander, anise—and saffron. Ground saffron! He had half a mind to sell it, but when had he last tasted saffron? Surely, this was a sign from the spirits to indulge himself. Hadn't there been dried sun-lemon wedges among the fruit? He would be an absolute fool not to try catching another fish to pair it all with.

If they hadn't been surrounded by corpses at the camp, he might have sat down and cooked an entire meal right then and there. It was tempting even then, but he knew she was exhausted, and that just wasn't the place or time.

Not that walking was doing her any favors, either. Hopefully, she wasn't the fainting type. For the third time, she stifled a yawn. She'd said Gaoling was a day-and-a-half away, but Shuzen had a feeling they'd end up stopping early; near a descent body of water if he had his way.

"So," she began, pausing as if debating her words, "What made you want to travel without any supplies?"

The response left his lips before he could think it over. "What made you want to travel without any supplies?"

She shrugged. "It's not that far."

Not that far? Did she not realize her fingers were shaking? A more considerate person may have urged her to eat at least a scrap before the hiking began. Right now, Shuzen was not that guy. Besides, it didn't matter. She'd asked him to walk with her, not babysit her.

"Far enough," he muttered. "I had some, but I lost them at a river." It wasn't a total lie.

She slowed her walking pace a bit more before asking, "Did you have a map? You seemed surprised by how close Gaoling is."

The small jab caught him off guard, and he stopped in his tracks. She stopped ahead of him as his irritation took the lead. "I'm not used to these huge expanses of nothing! I'm not from the mainland—where I'm from, every village is maybe a day away, tops."

She tilted her head slightly, her expression shifting. At first, she almost seemed put off; but then recognition sparked in her eyes. "You're from one of the islands?"

Shuzen nodded.

She brightened further. "Really? Which one? You can't be from Yesso. You would have said something about my family name. My father trades with them so often they call him their grain-bringer."

Might as well end the guessing game before it started. "I'm from Kyoshi Island." That much of the truth was harmless.

But not without consequence. Her interest only deepened. "I've read a lot about that place."

Oh no.

As it turned out, she wasn't going to blink at him and be sullen. She was going to talk him to death.

The walking started again a little faster than before; but not as fast as the slew of questions.

"Is it true that a giant serpent patrols the waters?"

"The unagi is massive." said Shuzen

"How about the warriors, are they really all women?"

"Terrifying women." He said, placing emphasis on the word terrifying.

Hardly slowing to process his answers, she kept firing off questions seemingly as soon as they came to mind.. "And there's relics of Avatar Kyoshi?"

"A few." An understatement, really; but if he said more, she'd probably ask him to list them out.

"Was she actually seven feet tall?"

This was starting to get annoying; maybe they'd come across another dead thing and she'd clam back up and be bearable again.

Shuzen shrugged. "She was either really tall or liked clothes that didn't fit."

The girl's shoulders heaved as she choked back a giggle.

He sighed internally. The mainland was making him into an asshole.

Maybe they'd come across another dead thing and she'd clam back up and be bearable again?

His thoughts immediately stung him. She didn't deserve that. Maybe the talking wasn't as bad as he'd thought. Someone who'd been through what she'd been through definitely deserved a reprieve.

"That wouldn't be the strangest rumor I've heard about Kyoshi." she said.

Entertaining her questions and small talk was the least he could do. "What's the strangest rumor?"

"Well," she sucked in a deep breath before continuing, "The funny thing is… you might actually confirm it by being new to the mainland…"

"Oh?"

She was hesitating too much. Now he had to know. She glanced over her shoulder at him and stopped, turning to face him. "It's really stupid–"

'Please Tree-Girl, please just sate my curiosity', he begged internally.

Her face flushed slightly, and she clasped her hands together before finally letting it out. "I read a book once; that said Avatar Kyoshi hated males and all males past a certain age were kicked off of the island if they were deemed unusable for reproduction."

Shuzen stumbled as she caught him off guard. It was only pure luck that saved him from tripping into the woods.

"What?" He made a mental note to ensure that none of his sisters ever caught wind of such a thing. He would never hear the end of it.

She winced as he nearly ate the dirt. Turning on her heels, she walked slower as he tried to regain his balance. "For what it's worth— I don't think anyone actually believes that."

They walked in silence for a while so Shuzen could nurse his wounded pride. Eventually, however, as sure as a sparrowkeet will chirp, she broke the silence with another question:

"So, um… Have you ever been to the mainland before? You seem pretty confident in your ability to get around for someone who doesn't have a map." He could hear her wince without looking before she added an almost inaudible, "Sorry".

"No, this is my first time here, and I did have a map. I just lost it when I had to abandon my campsite."

"Oh, right." She seemed to chew that over for a second. "How are you liking it so far?"

Really? Maybe she really was a diplomat if she was more interested in how he found this place than her own issues. He really wanted to tell her this entire continent was a nightmare and the people here could bite his ass. But he looked at her, exhausted with every right to complain but still hopeful, and he couldn't do it. What kind of monster tells a baby-bird their nest is no better than a snare?

"It's… different."

"Really? Different how? What's it like on Kyoshi?"

He thought about it for a second, wanting to give her a satisfying answer, but not scare her. "My village is very direct." Shuzen said carefully.

"Direct?"

"A lot of out problems are solved… on the spot." He offered.

"What? How? Do you guys just draw straw?"

"No, um… we force a settlement with an adjudicator." He said. He didn't want to tell her that the Sur-Rin was essentially just an officiated fight and that he'd been in at least five in the last year.

"Laws are really important there huh?"

"Traditions mostly. Laws imply a more… rigid structure."

She seemed to digest that for a while and they had a bit of silence before she found her next question: "So what did you do?"

"To end up here? Be born unlucky I guess."

"No no! Sorry!" She waved her hands like she was trying to clear the air literally. "I meant what did you do for work back on your island?"

"Oh. That makes more sense. I guess I was… extra hands."

"I can relate…" Vanda said, so softly he almost didn't catch it. Shuzen raised a brow but didn't press her for details.

Deciding to dispel the sour mood his answer seemed to have left instead, he continued. "Finding work to afford basic resources around here is a pain. Back at home, if you look like you need a job, someone usually just tells you to show up somewhere for something they need done."

"All you have to do is look idle?"

"Exactly." Shuzen threw his hands up as if asking the spirits for guidance for the rant he couldn't contain. "Everyone here wants some kind of reference and part of the work done for free, and even then, I have to fight to get the payment because I'm not 'Earth Kingdom Certified'." He sighed. He found it cathartic to finally get this rant off his chest: "Back home, if you wanted a job, you only needed to look bored, and someone would conscript you for something. Nobody on the island asks you to do sample work. Nobody complains that they don't know you. No village on the island asks you for paperwork either. It's so much easier to survive."

"Oh, you didn't have a travel visa?" She asked. She looked back at him as if he'd suddenly lost a limb.

"No I didn't have a— wait; what's that?"

"A travel visa, official documentation…" She blinked, looking him up and down, then dug into her bag and pulled out a thick cardstock. "it would look something like this… maybe minus the seal."

Minus the seal indeed. A two headed baboon viper stared back from the embossed gold at the top left corner. Someone of consequence, after all. Her name at the top–Vanda. That was it. Now he wouldn't need to ask–assuming the paper was actually hers.

"Not a scrap." he said

"You mean no one checked for one when you got to the mainland?"

"No one checked for anything but the dye shipment that was onboard with me."

"Oh." she inhaled for a beat through her teeth. "That's not how it's supposed to work. There's supposed to be procedure for this stuff."

Shuzen shrugged "Would've been nice to know upfront that existing was a crime."

"Well, I'll bet I can have the Beifongs vouch for your visa once we're in Gaoling."

That was a name he recognized.

That was a name anyone would recognize. His face must have paled considerably as the thought set it. The Beifongs were only one of the wealthiest old money families in the entire earth kingdom and main connoisseur of fish exports; every summer ended with a massive shipment of cattle-koi, tiger-eel and night shark eggs headed to the mainland courtesy of the Beifongs.

Shuzen once boldly smarted off to one of their couriers. Resulting in his ears being boxed, Kimyo catching the tail end and putting the poor man in a chokehold until he blacked out. An 8-year-old-incident that everyone still talked about. It was too bad Shuzen couldn't remember what he'd said to set the man off. The courier avoided leaving the trade ship anytime they sailed in for a pickup. That was fine with Shuzen. He didn't want to talk to him, anyway.

"Don't look so worried," Vanda's voice pulled Shuzen from his thoughts. "They're close family friends and Gaoling is like a second home to me; we can definitely have this fixed."

She continued unprompted,

"Anyway, Gaoling isn't like the smaller villages. They'll be thrilled to have a traveler like you. Festival season is coming up and there's always a big demand for workers. If it really came down to it, I could ask my father to grant you a diplomat visa. No one questions the governor's office."

There was no way in the four nations he'd gotten so lucky. Girls with a solution for your every immediate problem didn't come from trees any more than money. Shuzen thought to argue with her right then and there. Question her until there were holes in her story.

Instead, he shrugged. "if you say so." Shuzen sighed as they kept walking. Her steps seemed to get slower and slower as they traveled. He wanted to urge her to pick up the pace, but stopped himself. He was going to have to have a long conversation in the mirror… or some obtainable reflective surface—later about why he was such an asshole.

"Did you just come to the mainland to find work?" It was as if she wanted to help him lie, making him feel even worse about it.

"Sure did." The lie came easily. anyway

"Why? And why now?"

"The Unagi complicates travel during the warmer months so I'm more or less stuck here until fall- I guess I didn't realize how hard it would be to find work.

"Well, you won't have that problem in Gaoling." She sounded like she was putting in the effort to be cheerful, despite her recent… encounters.

"Doubt that." As hard as she was trying to be peppy, he seemed determined to bring the mood back down. He chastised himself for it again as he turned to gauge her reaction.

She didn't seem to bite on his downer lure. Amidst the fatigue on her face, her eyes looked determined. "No, I'm serious. Worst case scenario I can vouch for you but I doubt it'll be necessary. There's a lot of trade in and out and work is always in demand. Festival season is coming up too and it's always a big economic driver."

She swayed as he watched her, ready to drop. Glancing up, he estimated the sun's angle and determined it was well in the afternoon by this point. He couldn't ask her to go any further today, not on her constitution.

"Hey, uh, why don't we set up camp? You look like you could use some rest."

Despite her unsteady steps, her face puffed up in a pout. "No, thank you, I can… I can keep going…" He knew that look. He'd worn it himself while growing up. She was determined to not be perceived as a burden; determined to prove she could manage just fine.

He might even have believed her words if she didn't immediately stumble and begin a descent to the road. Shuzen dropped the sack he had been toting and stepped into her, catching the delicate girl. She'd have felt that fall when she woke up, for sure. He raised a brow at the peaceful face she made despite her traumas and moved her off the road so he could set up a fire. Maybe a few hours' sleep and a meal would help.