Finally, after a good six months, our ship and crew headed to where we were originally sent. To one of the middle ports in a village or even a city that was conquered a long time ago. So long ago that everyone here has already forgotten that the Fire Nation is, in theory, evil and bad. And the magicians of Earth and Fire get along quite peacefully.
As, indeed, everywhere in the territories that had been occupied for a long time, war became a routine thing, but one had to live somehow. If you look between the lines, at first the Earth magicians were feared and controlled most cruelly, and this gave rise to various unnecessary riots. Then they realized that earth magic can be used very well in construction, laying canals, and so on, and then they decided to slowly introduce propaganda and treat people better.
And what do we end up with? One generation has passed, the old one has been forgotten and the shrews are quite successfully working as builders. Of course, bubbling in kitchens is still present, as are some not very reliable elements, but there is no trace of a centralized system. To do this, you need to have a connection with someone from Ba Sing Se, and there they have long ago taken horseradish to most of their territories, which they captured under the king of peas, in terms of a very long time ago, and are successfully trying to squeeze back those territories where there is something valuable. There are certain mines or forests there.
In any case, artisans or builders have firmly staked out earthbenders, but they are not allowed into the army. Maybe in private, someone takes some especially talented magicians for themselves, but this is an exception. They are still afraid to entrust such power into their hands, to put it bluntly.
And probably right. It's too early yet.
They met us at the port, wrote down who, where and where from, saluted us and began to tell us with honest eyes that everything was in order here, look, they say.
In fact, it was already clear throughout the city that everything was fine. Even the slum areas were not as bad as one might think. There are no intimidated people, some move quite calmly in green colors, with a dash of red, of course, but still. They wore such clothes calmly, no one looked around, fearing ridicule or something worse, and so on.
What a dissonance the Kyoshi warriors caught, who grew up on stories about the terrible Fire Nation. Even on the ship they thought that they were almost prisoners; they walked as if to the scaffold, honestly. Just in case, I even set up patrols at night, supposedly against saboteurs, but... You never know what might pop into their heads? They will decide to slaughter everyone in the darkness of the night and say that this is what happened.
We don't need this stuff, that's why I arranged everything in such an interesting way. He also got female warriors addicted to training. A very interesting method, because at the beginning they really didn't want to train in front of everyone. Like revealing secrets and so on and so forth.
I forced them in a fairly simple way, put pressure on their pride and challenged them to a fight.
"I don't think your martial art is worth worrying about so much," I said casually.
- In what sense does this mean? Suki frowned.
It happened in the "dining room," if you can call it that. In which there was a separate table for senior officers - before it was me, and old Ueli Maurer, but now we have seated Suki here, after all, she is the main one among her own and, one might say, in this way we will highlight her. And in general, the redevelopment was done, just so that the poor fellows and cinema-goers would not crowd together.
Such a brilliant, maybe not even in quotation marks, plan came to Uli and me. Why not?
In general, the supposedly accidentally dropped phrase during lunch really hurt the warrior's pride, to which she did not fail to respond.
"Well, in the sense that there is nothing more secret or cool there," I answered, gesturing with a spoon, but at the same time pretending that I was still not interested in the dialogue and was looking at fucking canned food.
Of course, for the senior officers, the local cook very decently served and disguised the general army slurry, but in fact the same eggs, only soft-boiled. There is nowhere to get something else, and buying separate food for the sake of only two, already three, people on the ship... well, this is somehow overkill. So the cook gets rid of himself as much as he can, but there is almost no sense in it. The taste is still the same, typical army grub.
But the service.
Although at the beginning, both Uli and Suki wanted to join theirs, but then I decided, why the hell with it. To argue too much with your subordinates is overkill. Although, of course, both Uli and his team and Suki are already used to it, but it is necessary to at least somehow show the difference - it is necessary and that's it. I can smell it.
Yes, and sometimes it is necessary to discuss something that is not for ordinary ears, but every time calling some kind of meeting for this is overkill, and again, additional time. So let them sit.
"Ordinary martial art," I continued my thought.
- It's not ordinary! — the warrior was indignant, putting down the cutlery, "you almost use it yourself!"
"The skill of the swordsman does not depend on how good the sword is," I said with a hint of deep thought, except that I didn't say "auf" at the end, by God, "in other words, it's me who is good, not the martial art." So I can't understand what you're hiding there.
- You're also in no hurry to teach your troubles... ugh, to train your warriors in what you know! — Suki spoke logically. The name "poor fellow" is too common. That's what set the trend.
Here, of course, the devil caught me.
"Let them master the army standard first, then we'll talk about something more sophisticated," I said vaguely, "but I'm training with them." If someone is such a genius that, looking at me, he will master my locomotive-forward style, then the flag is in his hands. But I can't understand what you're hiding. A combat game is just a combat game, what do you think?
"You don't understand anything," the girl literally scowled.
By the way, this is the first time I've seen her without makeup. They seriously wore makeup for almost four days, but apparently even they were swayed by it and decided to wash it off. Finally, I can distinguish them not only by their voice, because I almost got into some stupid situations. Otherwise, if you start a dialogue first, then you'll understand - you're communicating with the main one, not with the main one, and you had to arrange all the phrases so that they sound the same for both Suki herself and for one of the girls, and the meaning does not change, and no stupidity is added .
And Suki turned out to be a very pretty lady without makeup. Very. Although maybe the hormones are already overflowing, but it's unlikely... probably.
"So prove it," I smiled, taking my eyes off the plate for the first time, "all seven of you attack me, win, and I will admit that your kung fu is better than mine; lose, and you recognize that your style is one of many, and train on equal terms with everyone else, eh?
- Well…
- Or maybe you're afraid? Are you afraid to admit it even to yourself? Or maybe he can fight just me? - yes, it's a cheap joke, but she's not a master of intrigue, but a young girl from the island.
- I'm not afraid of anything! On deck in two hours today! — Suki ate the bait, even jumping up in a fit of emotion, leaning her elbows on the table, and tightly latching on to the hook.
"Hmm, since that's what you want, then we've agreed," I nodded, not even hiding my satisfaction, "just finish it, the cook really doesn't like to give out food outside of the usual receptions."
Still sullenly, the warrior sat down in her place, continuing to eat the stew.
Of course, two hours later the warriors stood, completely surrounding me, already in their war colors. I do the same with my rapier at the ready.
They attacked, obviously adhering to some kind of plan and, I want to say, they really had an idea. I can't say which one, and it doesn't matter: it wasn't very successful anyway, because I easily slipped past the first two, who rushed forward, attacking the warriors who had not yet expected this from behind, immediately neutralizing one.
Their whole plan went to hell and they began to attack according to a prepared and practiced pattern, attacking one at a time, periodically rotating, roughly speaking, and giving the attacker a rest. At the same time, two of them monitor the situation very accurately and try to attack from behind, catching him in a mistake.
Well, against any single target this is a very good tactic, I'm sure, and against group targets they also have a ready answer, but to their great regret, I am me.
But, to their credit, I must admit, over time I had to lightly help myself with air magic for greater acceleration. They would rather starve me out than I would them, even taking into account the fact that I am a magician and better trained, and I also cheat a little, using air magic, but there are still seven of them, and they help each other, and do not interfere, so I decided to act roughly and quickly.
The second, following the first, flew literally a minute later, when I caught her changing roles with one of the warriors - she tried to leave too early, which gave me the opportunity to kick her in the stomach with decent force.
I was simply able to catch the third one with a technique - during one of the techniques I responded with a link that she did not block.
In general, most of the girls ended in the first three minutes of the fight, after which me and Suki were left alone, literally.
- Maybe you will admit defeat? "I raised one eyebrow. "After all, all this time I acted absolutely non-lethally, unlike you," I added with a slight grin.
The girls really didn't hold back and honestly, at certain moments they could have killed me, but I didn't mind. Let them not say later... the same thing as me now.
Suki didn't respond to my speech, she just rushed into battle. Blocking fans with a rapier is still a perversion, I want to tell you, but I managed, although for the most part I still dodged and honestly, I could have killed or crippled her a bunch of times, but that was not an option. That's why I danced the fucking dances here.
And even one on one she doesn't hesitate to aim straight at the neck. That's why she's restless. I responded to another too obviously untrained attack with a rapier, leaving a decent bloody mark on her hand, knocking out one of the fans. You have to have some boundaries, well. Even if they are very distant, they are at least some, otherwise aiming so as to exactly cut me in the Adam's apple is overkill.
Well, in this situation it was not difficult to win, literally a couple of exchanges of blows and I punched her block on her bad arm and landed a good kick on her head. Not much, but she was disoriented, which allowed me to knock out the second fan with my hand and trip her with my feet, putting a rapier to her neck.
"It seems that victory is mine," I grinned, looking at the angry girl rubbing her cheek.
After this, normal training for my entire combat personnel began. And experience began to be gained on both sides and communication finally began to flow at least to some extent.
And after some more decent time we arrived in the coastal town. In which the warriors caught the culture shock from the interaction between the people of fire and earth. However, it's time to start implementing my brilliant plan, and for this I need to leave my entire "army" here, take Suki with me, and go scout out several points in the form of simple travelers.
So to speak, a twenty-minute adventure, Kira.
Although before that we should have a heart-to-heart talk with the local mayor or whatever they call him here. He obviously won't reveal his cards, but I think he'll happily hand over his neighbors in the hope of grabbing more from them until the new government replaces the previous one.
And in the next city we will do exactly the same. And so, in the end, we will collect the control incriminating evidence, choose from them a little man with at least some principles and settle down there, holding the head by the balls tighter than a burdock on clothes.
***
- Why me? - Because I need a partner. Two heads are better than one. - Well, I'd take one of my poor fellows, what does that have to do with me?
Suki and I were walking through the forest, she was dressed like an ordinary traveler, her clothes were gray, no bright colors, and I just took off my military uniform from under my cloak. To the hard-nosed folks on the continent, I certainly shouldn't be known as Kira. Except that I had a rapier wrapped in cloth on my back, and a hatchet tucked into my belt. And, of course, I didn't forget the lighter so that I could burn anyone.
In general, in theory, I could also change my clothes, but did I buy a raincoat in order to leave it on the ship when traveling overland? It would be better for someone with big eyes to somehow recognize Kira than for me to be without my cloak.
Suki was simpler in terms of weapons - her main weapon was not a long sharp stick, but fans, which she literally hid in her sleeves, ready to snatch them in any situation.
During the voyage, I began to trust her enough to understand that she wouldn't kill me out of nowhere. It was not in her character, and taking into account the fact that I was the only stronger person on the ship, I decided to immerse myself in local life with her, not forgetting to take writing utensils.
We will clearly write and take notes on where and in which city the specific jambs are.
And, of course, bags of money. We'll go to the local bars, listen to the complaints of ordinary people, then change our clothes to richer ones, walk around, see how they deal with the bandits, and then we'll make a verdict. Moreover, we will keep records separately and then compare them. We have different upbringings and different views on life, so we may have a different opinion about this or that moment. We won't delve too deeply into objectivity - we're just a superficial check, when we send the news, the Military Police will arrive here, and then they'll take everything apart, piece by piece, interrogate, compile and hang it up. Although we can too, no one will say anything against it.
"You're a strong single fighter, that's why I need you," I shrugged, "plus you're a girl familiar with the traditions of the people of Earth, which will also come in handy, you know." Well, it won't be superfluous for sure. And I'm a guy from the aristocracy of the Fire Nation, this is the only way I can mess up.
- Aristocracy? You? - Suki looked at me doubtfully, - funny joke. Yes, despite her kind character, she still loved to spit poison at me. She's still a long way from May, but she's trying, from the bottom of her heart, let's say.
"My face is quite typical for representatives of the Fire Nation aristocracy." I'm sure that even Prince Zuko and I had quite a lot in common," I didn't fall for the bait, "I think it's not so difficult to notice. Something like this.
"It's a bit difficult, the scar on half your face shifts the emphasis a little when you look at your face," the warrior complained, "but in fact, I immediately believed you - your face is really thoroughbred." This catches your eye from afar. And also manners that periodically break through your deliberately rude negligence.
- Wow, where did you read such words, in a rural library? - why not respond to a joke with a joke?
- W-What? — the girl blushed with indignation, "just so you know, we have a very good education!" The headman strictly monitors this so that we receive...
"Calm down, I was just joking," I chuckled, not paying attention to her speech, "let's go, and don't arouse suspicion anymore." We are simple brother and sister who went to travel together from our native village.
"I remember," Suki was pleased at the change of topic, "but we were just discussing your noticeable mug, and you're saying that representatives of the Fire Nation don't recognize the aristocracy?"
"Given my hairstyle, you need to be a little attentive to see the characteristic features," I chuckled, because I had already let my hair down to my shoulders quite decently and just made a small, loose ponytail, "among my people, aristocrats usually wear a certain type of hairstyle, that's why My long hair does a pretty good job of confusing me. Yes, and it's not really worth catching your eye, that's all.
"Eh, how simple it is for you," breathed Suki, who was still unsure of this idea and felt uncomfortable without her armor.
"Don't worry so much," I chuckled, "we're both excellent warriors and we'll get out of any trouble." The main thing is that you don't get ahead of yourself and remember: the villages captured by the Fire Nation are already under my jurisdiction, and bad treatment of people there is a direct violation of the laws. Although there may be exceptions, of course.
- Yes? — the girl immediately grasped a topic that was important to her, "what are these, for example?"
"For example, villages overflowing with benders," I answered, pursing my lips slightly, "there's nothing you can do about it, you can't leave them as is—a ready-made combat cell, literally in a few months." Therefore, there are few options here, some jobs that pay a salary or prison, where, one might say, the same job, only without a salary. So far, no one has come up with a better idea, and, to be honest, no one really wants to think of anything. The cases are quite rare, and you can always just go somewhere with your family. A normal earthbender will not be left without food, nor without shelter.
"I still don't like it," the warrior expressed her opinion.
- Who likes it? - I shrugged, - the closer to the front, the more tense the relationship. You see, the long-occupied coastal areas are already completely ordinary Fire Nation cities. And some front-line village, different things can happen there. Let's see.
- Yeah.
"I know that you are a patriot of the people of the Earth, but believe me: you need to see how they live and who is in their army." You will see our army from the inside with vices and moments that you can be proud of, but the army of the People of the Earth... But you most likely think that this is our propaganda. I really hope that you are right in this regard. Otherwise, it will become sad for humanity in general.
"Well, you speak beautifully, there's no arguing with that, but I've hardly seen you in action yet," Suki chuckled, "and your justice and morality, which you sometimes like to talk about, too."
***
What can I say after literally a day of travel? Suki knows how to survive in the forest, roughly speaking, even if we go on the road, but only in theory.
Although, what can I say, I have almost no practice myself. But I have been on the road more than once or twice. So, I collected everything I needed and didn't forget to load it on myself and the girl - gentlemanliness only works when it's necessary, so let him carry it. I already stuffed all the rations into myself.
It was quite easy to walk, with a pick-and-roll in which Suki always lost due to lack of experience. Whatever one may say, she had never had to utter sarcasm before. And here on you, you have to somehow show that you are "fi" and generally "fu", but, damn, it's difficult.
Although we also had normal dialogues, it was the same as without them. They talked like that normally, discussed various topics, but what else to do on the road?
- Tell me, why do you carry a lighter with you everywhere? "You're a fire magician," the girl raised the question when we were sitting at a rest stop, around the fire, which I lit with this very lighter.
I was sitting in a typical "cultivator" pose and cultivating the blue root of the red tiger celestial level... I was just chasing the breeze, of course. I trained, so to speak, studied, because my bending ability does not suit me at all. Recently, some strange thought came to mind: what if the sharp wind, which is already quite well cutting trees... was wrapped around a rapier? To completely swing it like a Jedi stick and cut through any object at all.
For some reason, I think this is why airbenders used rapiers in the first place. Although it remains to be seen what happened there. On some level, it is clear - airbenders who have their cuckoo cut off and all their feelings become those berserkers without pain, fear, compassion, and given the very unpleasant elements, they also became those rippers. And they decided, or perhaps forced them, to literally go to the mountains. And lead a nomadic life, almost without going down to ordinary people. And little by little they began to forget about the combat unit - and to hell with them, no one will reach it anyway.
And here's how they reached it. The only interesting question is how...? Oh, I feel it couldn't have happened there without earthbenders. But what's the point for earthbenders to cut out the airbenders? They do not interfere at all, in terms of territories.
But if hostilities begin, then in theory such a fighting people could be slaughtered... But the earthbenders seem to be the injured party here, right?
Even our propaganda claims that it was the Fire Nation that attacked, although there are a lot of excuses, well, in terms of, they are completely true, but still justifications.
In theory, if there was even a hint that, say, the Countrymen were the first to attack, we are generally defending ourselves, and so on, then this should have been written in all textbooks and shouted everywhere? Although we must take into account, probably, the mentality of the Fire Nation, where strength is everything. Maybe this is the point? They don't want to show any weakness of Sozin and the Fire Nation. They say they attacked themselves, for the sake of the life of our nation, and so on.
There are so many questions and each one only opens up even more...
- Kira? - Suki called me again, because I, still meditating, fell into my thoughts again, - did you fall asleep?
"No, no," I opened my eyes, "what are you saying?" Why do I carry a lighter... the answer is simple - I cannot create a flame. By all accounts, I am not a firebender, in fact. That's why I became a swordsman, only to later discover in the process that I could still conquer fire using the castrated method.
- Uh-huh, why did everyone then look at your fire as if it were Agni himself, sort of? — Suki chuckled, but without any sparkle. The girl was tired during the day, she couldn't bear the venom in her voice.
She didn't look great, apparently she was really tired - she sat in front of the fire, pressing her legs to her body and sticking herself into the flames. I even gave her my cloak, despite protests. What's wrong with me - the breeze keeps my temperature up, and, Agni forbid, she'll catch a cold during our outing and that's it, our plans are over.
- Because my light is blue. And this is a rarity, so we watched, a little afraid," I answered, smiling slightly, "and the rumors, I'm sure, added pathos and brutality to me. Of course, we killed the pirates pretty well, but the tales about me are too exaggerated. Although I like the way "Kira" sounds, and all this flair around this image, to be honest.
"You bet," Suki chuckled again.
This is where the dialogue basically ended - I went to meditate again, and the warrior wrapped herself in a sleeping bag and went to sleep.
And suddenly the thought popped into my head to test the limits of my Air magic. How long will I be enough? What can I do? A rather childish desire, but when else if not now? Move further into the woods and breathe in the elements.
This is what I decided to do, moving away to a decent distance, leaving everything, even the rapier, in the camp.
It was already deep night, the only source of light was the full moon, a light breeze periodically fluttered the leaves, and somewhere in the distance the howls of wolves could be heard. And I stood in the middle of all this beauty and concentrated.
Inhale. Exhalation. My inner tornado burst out, without any artificial limiters with which I dosed the force, the wind began to swirl around me, without losing its razor-sharp properties, first a meter around me, two, three.
A few seconds, and I'm standing in the middle of a huge tornado, raising my hands up for better control and looking with some empty look at how my creation grinds absolutely everything tens of meters around.
Trees, stones, earth and even small animals - all this was crushed in a huge meat grinder into small, small particles, almost dust, sand, which also helped grind other objects.
It was both breathtakingly beautiful and scary. One magician, if you turn off the brakes, can cause such a local apocalypse, but if it were in the middle of the city, nothing would change, only objects that would shift.
In theory, I should have stopped, told myself enough was enough and gone to bed, but I wanted to push myself to the limit so that every drop of strength or magic, or whatever, would come out completely. I closed my eyes and completely focused on the storm in my head, trying to intensify it. I used all my imagination, renounced the world around me, and the tornado in my head began to spin faster, expand and beat more violently against some invisible frames, and I began to feel how fatigue suddenly fell on my shoulders like a heavy load that increased with every second .
And then I opened my eyes.
The storm around me was so strong that it lifted me into the air to a decent height, so high that the clouds in the sky began to disintegrate and be sucked into a tornado, so fast that I could no longer see new pieces of the environment - they were spinning around so quickly.
And then the weight of fatigue on my shoulders overpowered me, and I let go of control. I thought that everything would disappear, that it would just calm down, but, unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.
Absolutely nothing has changed: I set the start and launched an avalanche that I myself am unable to stop. I was in the center of this storm and understood that I myself could now die for such a stupid reason, and also kill a bunch of people, because this tornado would not stand still, it had already begun to move in some direction.
This realization broke out in a cold sweat and, despite the enormous fatigue, I began to try to take control of my surroundings. It felt like lifting several tons for a person, but I knew for sure that I could do it. All the facts led to the fact that physical fatigue is just that, fatigue, not exhaustion of magic or something like that, which means that if you overcome the limitation of your body, then you can quite easily use magic as much as you like.
The plan looked good on paper, but in reality it hardly worked. Stopping a tornado is not creating it, so I directly felt how my magic, my wind, tried to counteract the horror that I created, but nothing worked. Almost.
After five minutes of struggle, when the sweat was already pouring from me in a stream, and all my limbs were shaking like a Parkinson's patient, the storm around me began to lessen. Not much, but now at least it couldn't be called a catastrophe or disaster. After a couple more minutes of this struggle, I realized that if I don't get myself out of this fucked-up place now, I won't get out. Therefore, I spent the rest of my strength to spit myself out of the epicenter to the side. The fall didn't go very well - he scraped his knees and palms, and also hit his head on a tree. But I was at a sufficient distance so as not to die from my brainchild and to see it from the outside.
I only had enough strength to turn over to face the tornado and stare at it. I was lucky, my "going beyond the limit" was enough for the storm to calm down by morning. This was obvious: the counteraction to my magic gave the desired result, and my creation would not harm anyone, but the very fact that it could.
That I could have ruined many innocent lives with my stupid childish desire, that I myself could have died in vain and not even in battle, that I could have killed at least the same Suki, made me break out in a cold sweat again and thank all the gods for I miraculously managed to almost neutralize this fucked-up thing.
For about another twenty minutes I stuck into the tornado, absolutely not moving and gaining strength. This time was enough for me to accumulate enough stamina to rise and stagger to the camp, where I fell next to the fire, falling asleep.
* * *
I woke up abruptly and with a jerk, because a tub of cold water was literally poured on me.
- Well? Finally woke up? - Suki asked, standing over me, putting her hands on her belt and looking at me displeased.
"Yes," I said, realizing how my entire body was aching. This has never happened in my life; it feels like even my eyebrow muscles were incredibly sore.
- What the hell, Kira? I barely woke you up!
"I just overtrained yesterday," I said as I exhaled, wiping the water off my face and grunting as I got up to sit down, but unsuccessfully—my arm couldn't withstand such a load, and I collapsed back, "I overtrained too much."
- How... what should you do to be so tired? — the girl waved her hands in despair, "and why?"
"It happened... by accident," I smiled wryly, raising a light breeze in my head, which made my whole body feel a little pain, but then the emotions and pain disappeared, and I stood up almost calmly, "by accident." Okay, here you go, please collect everything, and I'll be back soon.
With these words, I, almost without a limp, turned and stomped to the place of yesterday's fucking. The journey took me about twenty minutes, although only ten yesterday.
What can I say? There was literally nothing left of the huge piece of forest. Just a bunch of colored sand and various scraps. On a piece of land that looks like a circle, with a radius of about fifteen meters.
"Fucking in the mouth..." I whispered under my breath.
I will never suffer through this kind of crap again unless absolutely necessary. Thoughts about how this could turn out again threw me into a cold sweat, despite all the winds in my head. Although this is most likely because it was too weak, literally a breath. I almost completely felt pain, fatigue, and emotions. But, nevertheless, this was enough to walk back and sit down for breakfast.
Although judging by the sun, it's time to have lunch.
- No, seriously, what were you doing to make you SO tired? — Suyuki decided to raise the topic of interest to her again.
"Hmm," I said thoughtfully, biting off a piece of bread or some kind of bun, "magic, in fact, is very physically taxing, so I just overdid it with magic and got this kind of setback."
— Should I go look for a scorched clearing? "Suki said with concern in her eyes. Seriously, he's worried about the forest, isn't he? Damn woman, not only did you and I die yesterday, but also a couple of nearby settlements. And she is for the forest.
"It's not worth it," I shook my head, although I immediately regretted this action - my tired muscles gave off pain, "thank you for collecting everything." Let's go further.
-Are you sure you can go?
"We'll just take a little more breaks and that's it," I shrugged, not paying attention to the pain, "we don't have much time to take breaks because of my stupidity, and the village here is actually not that far away - there's only half a day's journey. There you will be able to sleep in normal conditions and relax.
To this Suki shrugged her shoulders and, turning around, silently walked on. Well, me too, actually.
The dialogue between us, of course, is still tense to some extent. She doesn't want to accept the new reality, oh she doesn't want to. But you have to.
***
The first village that we encountered on our way was a sad sight. A bunch of shacks made of mud, sometimes stone, and wood. We came to this settlement quite unexpectedly, walked straight along the road, and unexpectedly came across shacks like these.
Suki looked at this with rather round eyes and, judging by her face, thought that it was bad fire magicians who forced people to live like this. Well, maybe she's right, and they're forcing it very indirectly - after all, if there were more earthbenders, the houses would look better, but not much. Earth or just stone - the overall appearance does not change much.
For a normal structure you need wood, tiles, glass, and so on and so forth. What is needed is simply a higher standard of living than that of the average peasant of the people of the earth. And who can fix this? That's right - Fire Nation. Industrialization. And these are factories. What are factories? That's right - jobs and production. Which will increase the standard of living and allow people to have essential goods in any case. The village will not starve if the harvest fails. And so on and so forth.
But this requires industrialization and globalization. I understand how this sounds - like an attack on civilization, which in theory is not correct. But this has already been started by our ancestors and we just have to finish it.
Suki had other thoughts, of course. And, apparently, I have yet to encounter and discuss them. I hope to discuss, and not something worse.
- Let's go, maybe we'll have a snack somewhere? There should be at least some kind of eatery right there, a town near the road," I suggested hesitantly.
"Let's go," Suki nodded, although she immediately added, "if your aristocratic majesty can stand eating in such a place."
—Have you eaten somewhere besides the ship and your village? - I did not remain in debt, so be silent. I can handle it - and I didn't have to eat in such places.
- Is that all you have to say? — Suki stopped and, grabbing my forearm with her hand, hissed so as not to attract attention, "do you want to comment on what kind of fucked up thing is going on around here?"
"No, I don't want to," I pulled my hand away, continuing to walk. What should I tell her? Let her think about it and come to her own conclusions. I'm sure the local provisional government, in the person of some Fire Nation officer, is messing around and pocketing money hopelessly, but first, I'd rather see something like that myself, and then I'll say that to a girl. Otherwise, I will perpetuate the image of a bad army, and not vice versa. Maybe here our soldiers, on the contrary, are trying to help by the sweat of their brow. Well, there may well be such a situation - after all, these are quite distant rear areas, which have been under control for quite a decent amount of time.
"Oh, look, this is something like a tavern," Suki brought me back from my thoughts, poking at a small canopy, under which there was a small bar counter. Obviously not without reason, that's why we headed there.
"Hello," I said, barely having time to suppress the reflex of the traditional Fire Nation gesture, "can I buy food here?"
"Of course, of course," the pretty woman behind the bar smiled a little tensely. Really pretty, despite signs of fatigue in the form of bags under the eyes and possibly slight malnutrition, judging by her too obvious cheekbones - what do you want?
Actually, after briefly looking at each other, Suki and I fell onto the chairs in front of the counter, ordering dishes. In order not to fall flat on my face, I simply repeated after the warrior, because I am not familiar with the local cuisine. Hopefully, there won't be any baked grasshoppers in skunk stomach sauce?
Fortunately, my fears were not confirmed, and they brought us quite a passable stew, even I would say delicious, considering what I've been eating lately. Of course, our cook is trying his best, but let's be honest: no matter what you do with the dry ration, by the second week, you'll be sick of all the variations of this crap. And here is such homemade cooking.
The woman sat back down, not far from the conventional bar counter, continuing to darn some clothes.
— I haven't seen you here before, you are probably travelers? — The woman decided to start a dialogue.
"Yes, I'm Aki, and this is my sister Suki," I introduced myself, immediately throwing in our legend. "We decided to go on a trip across the continent and see how people live."
"Wow, a worthy goal," the woman raised her eyebrows, finally really smiling, apparently understanding what I wanted to convey. I thought we ran away from home.
Our age, whatever one may say, is suitable: the duality of the world - some at my age run away from home in teenage rebellion, and some are captains of the Fire Army and a student of Piandao... It sounds really cool, I just got a little proud.
— How is your journey going? — the woman asked, "How many settlements have you seen already?"
"Mmm," Suyuki took the floor, "so far this is the first," and smiled very awkwardly. I praise, "most of the time we just walked through the forest and then along the road."
- Oh, you probably don't even have somewhere to spend the night? — The lady was worried.
"Don't worry, we have sleeping bags, and we're used to spending the night in the open air," I took over the reins of the dialogue, although in fact it would be nice if she left us at her place for the night, maybe we'll be able to find out better about what is happening here.
"Oh, why are you going out in the open?" the woman was sincerely worried, "let's spend the night with me." Of course, my house is not so great, but it's better than being in the open air!
"Thank you very much," Suki joined in, smiling openly and joyfully, I couldn't do that anymore, honestly, "we're really tired of spending the night on the street."
Don't forget to pay for lunch from a special "poor" wallet allocated in advance. I have a bag of gold in my bosom, but on my belt is a thin, thin wallet, where we just gave away more than half for lunch. The plan is so that those who are especially attentive will not click that we are not such running teenagers. Teenagers don't walk around with a bag of gold.
It was already almost evening, so we decided to chat with each other about what was happening around us, and then go to bed. They rarely use any sources of fire other than the fireplace, so they go to bed at sunset and wake up with the roosters crowing.
Country classic, damn it.
-Who is the ruler in this village? — I decided to ask the question while she escorted us into the house.
-What is that object behind your back? — the woman smiled slyly, flashing her charm.
— A question to answer a question? — I smiled, "I stole the sword of my ancestors… and took it with me." Father doesn't need him anyway," I "accidentally" misspoke, "and now you answer, please, it's interesting."
"Who knows who our ruler is now?" the woman sighed heavily, "It used to be Tyro, but then all the earthbenders were taken to prison at one certain moment, several years ago, and no one knows who is in charge now." But the commandant's office of the Fire Nation walks around, keeps order, and collects taxes... and sometimes extorts.