BraveGirlsWearBoots:Interlude1

Interlude One – Run, Kitten, Run


She arrived just in time to hear him say it.

“My name is Zuko.  Son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai.”  He sheathed his Dao.  “Prince of the Fire Nation and heir to the throne.”

She hardly heard what they called afterwards.  Their voices were merely blurs of sound upon the heated air:  “…liar…outcast…father burned…disowned…”

Song did not care.

Zuko took the dagger back, approached the boy.  A woman slipped forward, between the prince and the child.  “Not a step closer.”

Song could barely breathe as she watched Zuko kneel and hold out the dagger, that precious object, saying, “It’s yours.  You should have it.”

She wanted so much for him to have a happy ending in all this, some crumb of light for him to keep burning…

“No, I hate you.”

That did it.  She plunged awkwardly from her mount’s back, calling, “Zuko!”

He looked up at her, face full of disbelief, even as she rushed forward and cannoned into him, arms going tight around his neck and shoulders.  It took a few seconds, but he hesitantly hugged her back.  “Song?”

“Please don’t leave again,” she whispered.  She felt he villagers’ shock and scandal upon her – the weight of their eyes.

His arms tightened around her.  “I won’t.  I promise.”

As they rode away, the sun setting before them, she sat behind him, arms about his waist.  Her own ostrich-horse walked beside them, its reins tied to their saddle.

Song looked back.  Zuko did not.

~~~

The last train was coming in to Ba Sing Se.

Shivering, Uri pulled the cloak closer about her – she still wasn’t used to Earth Kingdom weather – and watched the night sky peel away outside the train carriage’s windows.  She found the familiar constellations; the Snow Dogs, the Skua-Hawk and the Running Rabbit with its single red eye.  This far north she could also make out the Great Northern Dragon; a coiling line of brilliant blue and silver arcing from north-east to south-west, though it dimmed the further they got into the City, the many street lanterns drowning out the light of the stars.

She turned in her seat, folding her legs beneath her, and reached out to open the pack beside her.

“Dee-Dee?”

There was a soft, rasping meow from the mouth of the pack, and two jewel-bright yellow eyes peered out at her.  She smiled and hauled the pygmy puma into her lap.

“Look at the stars,” she told him, pointing, and that wonderful little beast followed the line of her hand.  “Take a good look, pusscat.  I don’t know if we’ll ever get to see ‘em this bright again.”

Dee-Dee flicked his mismatched ears; red back, black forward.  His white coat caught the starlight, making it look almost blue.

The last train into Ba Sing Se began to slow, and Uri gathered her things.  They would be getting off in the lower tier – she didn’t have much money and it would be easier to blend in there, ragged as she was.  The wind rushed her as she stepped down from the platform, and she shivered again, glad of Dee-Dee, who lay curled about her neck and shoulders.

The pair began walking, but as neither thought to look up, they didn’t spot the lone figure pacing them across the rooftops; black-clad, nimble, half-shrouded in a charcoal-grey cloak.

Had they looked up, they might have seen the white oval of the figure’s blank Noh mask, hovering in the night air, the face of a lost soul in a sea of dark.  The mask bore only the minor markings of delicately painted eyebrows; each a single swift brushstroke, while the hollow eyes were lined with black, kohled like those of a noblewoman.  Upon its forehead were two calligraphed characters, meaning simply: fox.

Perhaps most unnerving was that the mask had no lips, not even the slightest suggestion of a mouth.  And yet…

“Run,” whispered a voice behind the ghostly face.  “Run…”

~~~

Jin had arrived at the market early that morning, and begun work in the vegetable shop almost immediately.  The weather was good – warm, but with a light breeze to keep the fruit from ripening too far – and so they were expecting heavy foot traffic through the plaza.

Settling, she gazed out at the rest of the market, at the dust and worn pavers, at the other stallholders, the children zigzagging underfoot, smelt the sunlight and the familiar bouquet of new fruit and fresh-rinsed vegetables.

And then her eyes caught on one figure, shoulders slumped, wandering toward her family’s stall.

Well, now…

“Hi,” she called.  “Hungry?  We’ve got a special on lychee nuts today.”

The girl looked up.  Jin saw the flap of her satchel lift and a mottled tri-colour head pop out; a pygmy puma with odd patterning instead of the usual solid black.  She approached cautiously, waiting until she was sheltered by the stall to pull out her purse – smart girl, there would be pickpockets out in force today.

Having bought a generous handful of nuts, the girls stood snacking and doing as Jin had done; taking in the view.  Jin took the opportunity to size her up.

She was short and small featured – some might have pegged her at about thirteen, but Jin’s practiced eye saw her own maturity reflected back at her and mentally added another two years.

She took in the scraggly black hair, cropped to just above the girl’s round shoulders save for clusters of uneven bangs either side of her pale face; the well traveled rust-coloured tunic and brown three-quarter trousers with sandals, where most people wore pantaloons and closed toed-shoes.  She wore sleeved cloak too, which was odd in this warm weather.

And yet despite her oblivious destitution, there were battered gold cuffs at her wrists and throat, and an old ornate fan hanging from a sheath at her belt.

Also…

Amber, especially amber that dark, wasn’t an oddity in certain regions of the Earth Kingdom.  But those regions were well west of here, on the coast.  And Jin had never ever seen or heard of someone with dark amber eyes, flecked with gold.

You’re not from here, girlie, she thought.  And if someone looks too closely they’ll figure you out just like I have.

~~~

“Are you sure about this?”

The girl, Uri, was giving her a faintly uncertain look.  Only faintly, mind you, but still.

Jin nodded reassuringly.  “Its no big deal,” she told her new friend.  “If you’re going to stay in Ba Sing Se, even for a little while, you’ll need a job.  Pao’s been making noises about needing someone in the tea shop’s kitchen for a week or so now – I should know, I’m in there often enough.”

Uri nodded and gave her a grateful look.  “Well, thanks.  It’s nice of you to go out on a limb for me when we only just met this morning.”

Jin waved her off, but let her curiosity show on her face.  “Its okay, really, but you can pay me back by letting me know who I’m going out on a limb for.  What’s your story?”  She smiled easily.  “Everyone in this city’s got one.”

Uri’s button nose wrinkled the way a puma’s did when it smelt something it didn’t like.

“That bad?”

“Pretty much.”

“Tell?”

Uri sighed.  “I ran away, basically.  My dad’s a tyrant.  Mom’s not around much.  I wanted to get out, so I did.”

Jin raised her eyebrows but nodded.  “Sounds reasonable enough – oh, here we are.”

And they were.  Like the market, Pao’s tea shop was doing a roaring trade, but they had arrived during one of the between-meal lulls and so were able to pick one of the nicer tables closer to the counter.

And there was Lee rooted to the spot at the sight of her, eyes already darting nervously.

Probably looking for an exit, Jin thought dryly.  Poor schmuck.

She left Uri at their table, strode purposely up to the counter and met his yellow eyes squarely.  He was big bundle of nerves, and from the looks of things probably expected a slap or a crying jag after last week’s debacle – and if she had been any other girl, Jin might have obliged.  However, that not being the case…

“Lee –”

“Jin – I – that night – I’m really sorry – I –”

“I need to speak to your boss, actually.”

He blinked at her.  “Wha…”

“Ya know what?” a new voice piped up from behind the stricken boy.  “Why don’t you go find the boss man, and I’ll wait with Jin.”

It was Aneko (closely followed by Song) who grabbed his shoulders and turned him with swift shove towards the back rooms.  He stumbled off, still blinking at the three girls.

Aneko rolled her eyes.  “Honestly.”  To Song and Jin she said, “Go sit, I’ll get tea for you guys.”

Song shifted restlessly.  Jin noted the small parcel and canister she was carrying.  “Aneko, I really should be getting back –”

“The hell you are.  Shan gave you a whole hour and if I have you nail you to a chair you will spend at least some of that hour off your feet.  Now go, sit, shoo!”

She flapped at them with her serving tray.  Song gave her friend a small frown but allowed herself to be herded over to the table where Uri sat with the pygmy puma in her lap.  She looked up at the two girls and offered a slightly nervous smile.

“Uh, hi, I’m Uri.”

“I’m Song,” Song said, offering a habitually reassuring smile as she sat.

Jin took the seat at right angles to both, and an awkward silence immediately fell.  Jin felt she had a pretty good idea why and sure enough…

“So,” Song said, fidgeting with the sleeve of her hanbok, “how – how did you’re date go with…Lee?”

Oh hell…

“Oh, well, you know…”  She slumped.  “It sucked.”

Song gave her a hesitant look, as though she didn’t know whether to commiserate or…or be quietly smug.  Well, it seemed not only did Lee harbour secret feelings for her, but she harboured something similar for him.  And evidently, both were rather oblivious to the fact.

What a perfect pickle.

“That’s…that’s awful,” the healer’s apprentice told her tentatively.  “What went wrong?”

Right then and there, Jin decided to be helpful.  “Please,” she sighed.  “It’s a poor girl who can’t tell that the guy she having dinner with has a major crush on someone else.”

“Oh?”  Song’s fidgeting got a little more intense.  “Did he, um, give any indication of who it might be?”

Jin pretended to look thoughtful.  “Well, he got this soppy look on his face when he was talking about one the girls he works with.”  She snapped her fingers and Song jumped.  “Didn’t you used to work here?”

“I – I – I –”

“Who’s Lee?” Uri chose that moment to interject.

“Waiter who works here,” Jin explained.  “Good-looking, a little grouchy, got a scar shaped like a comet just here.”  She indicated the approximate size of Lee’s scar on her own face.

Uri was beginning to look nervous.  “A scar?  What from?”

“Firebenders,” Song said faintly.

Dee-Dee chose that moment to let out a squall and try to climb out of Uri’s lap.  “Oh, no, sorry, Dees,” she cried, stroking the puma’s back apologetically.  “Was I holding too tight?”

Dee-Dee hissed, but stopped struggling.

“I come bearing peppermint and jasmine.”  Aneko arrived at the table and began setting out teacups with a particularly pretty blue willow pattern along with two matching pots of tea, steam rising in pleasant spirals from their spouts.  “So, I miss anything crucial, gossip-wise?”

Ominous silence.

Aneko’s eyebrows migrated north up her forehead.  “Oookay…”

It was at that point that Lee showed up.  “I couldn’t find Pao, so I brought –”

“Uncle,” Song said looking up at the old man and smiling.  

“Mr. Mushi,” Jin chimed in.

“Bossman,” Aneko added cheerfully.

“Meep,” went Uri, whose eyes were now huge in her face as she gazed at the elderly tea maker and the boy beside him.

“Girls,” Mushi greeted them, before turning his gaze on the newcomer.  “And you must be the applicant.  I am Mushi, the head tea maker.”

“I – I – I’m U-Uri.”

Lee’s eyes had narrowed (further).  “Don’t I know you from somewhere?”

The girl managed a nervous laugh.  “Ha…ha-ha, I don’t think so…”

“Time is marching on, children,” Mushi announced.  “We have tea to make, tea to serve and a new member of our tea-shop family to initiate.”  (Lee’s palm hit his forehead)  “Uri, my dear, should you be hired here, you’ll be working in the kitchen.  Please follow me and we’ll see what you can do, mmm?”

“O-okay…”

The two of them disappeared into the backrooms of the tea shop.

Aneko watched them go as she slid into the seat next to Song.

Jin sipped her cup of jasmine and asked the waitress casually, “So, she got a snowball’s chance in hell of getting hired?”

Lee snorted, Song giggled helplessly and Aneko rolled her eyes.  “Please, she’s practically a shoe-in.  No one else is going to apply – no one wants to work for Pao, the world’s biggest skint-master, Supreme Boss of All Things Stingy.”

Jin frowned.  “But…you guys all work here…”

Aneko smiled over her teacup at the other girl.  “I’m here for the pocket money and social interaction (who wouldn’t be – look at the company!)”

“And I don’t work here anymore,” Song added cheerfully.

“And we didn’t know any better,” Lee finished absently, frown still aimed at where Mushi and Uri had entered the backrooms.  “I’m sure I know her from somewhere.”

Song and Aneko exchanged significant glances.

“Really?”

“Wouldn’t that be interesting…”

“Maybe you met her at the circus.”

Pause.

All eyes zeroed in on Lee, who stood frozen.  Again.

Aneko smiled with far more teeth than any teenager that wasn’t, in fact, a tigershark, had any right to possess.

“Circus?” she said.

~~~

“Now, over here we have…”

Iroh turned around, only to find Uri kneeling facedown on the kitchens terracotta tiles, piping, “Please don’t rat me out, oh Honourable General!”

Iroh paused.

Well, this was new.

“Uri, my dear child, what are you doing?”

She peered up at him.  “Begging?”  She winced.  “Badly?”

“Yes, I can see that, but why?”

“Uh…”  Uri sat up, looking perplexed.  “I ran away and I don’t want to be sent back?”

“I fail to see what this has to do with me,” he said, crouching down to her eyelevel and raising his considerable eyebrows at her.  “If you know who I am, you must also know that I, too, am a runaway.”

“Oh.”  She appeared to ponder.  “Right then.”  More pondering, this time with frowning.  “But…you recognize me, right?  You know why I was – ugh – begging, and why I know who you are – General Iroh?”

Iroh smiled genially.  “Yes, dear.  You do, in fact, greatly resemble your mother the last time I saw her.  She was a lieutenant then, I believe.”

Uri nodded.  “During the Siege…  She’s a commander now.  Three of the ships in the Southern Fleet are hers.”

“Aah.”  He continued to smile, nodding gently.  “You must be proud of her.”

The girl looked down and fidgeted.  “Yeah…”

Iroh sobered.  “Uri,” he said softly.  “Why did you run away?  Was it to find Hui-ying?  Because if it was, I am sorry to tell you, you are going in the complete opposite direction…”

“No, it wasn’t – I mean, if she’d been home I wouldn’t have had to –”

Her face tensed, lips pressed painfully together, eyes tightened – before she suddenly blurted:  “Dad was trying to marry me off.”

The former General scowled.  “Was he, indeed?  You are right; had you mother been home, she would have skinned him.”

Uri smiled.  “That’s what I said.”

Iroh sighed.  What a day… He heaved himself to his feet and helped Uri to hers.

“Well, since Pao has left the hiring of kitchen staff to me, I see no reason not to give you a job.  However,” he added, at the girl’s blooming grin, “you will have to work.  And to do that, I suppose I will have to teach you to bake.”

“Bake?” exclaimed Uri.

“Bake,” confirmed Iroh.

As it turned out, she was natural.