Granted, she knew she would hate it going in. A small town. Village. Little collection of huts. “Town” was far to generous a phrase, even if Lady Yu was even in her most generous of moods. And she was certainly not in her most generous of moods. The village (did it even have a name? She had never bothered to learn it) was only a rude collection of huts. Her in-laws' home was markedly larger and finer than the rest, but to Lady Yu's pampered eye, well... she had seen guest houses that were larger than this.
Her reception had been less than welcoming as well. As with her crude lodgings, she had also expected this. Annoyed as she was with her in-laws and their cold hospitality, she understood the source of their displeasure. Yet that did not mean she couldn't be annoyed by it. Tensions had been running high in the house, and as such the noblewoman had done something she normally wouldn't have considered: she went out, to take a walk and enjoy some time alone.
Well, nearly alone. Her faithful servant Yuanji was with her, the little waif skipping along to keep up with her mistress. Clutched in Yuanji's tiny hands was a parasol, should Lady Yu decide to keep herself shielded from the sun. For the moment, Lady Yu ignored Yuanji. The sun was hidden behind a bank of clouds for the moment, leaving her free from worry of the sun's sharp rays for the moment.
She wandered aimlessly for a time, having no destination in mind other than to simply escape the borders of the village. Not like that was hard-- five minutes, and she was already in the sparse and sandy countryside that made up the landscape. Ugh, the sand. If she never saw it again it would be too soon. How could such an innocuous substance get everywhere? Her hair, her clothes... not even her food was immune from its pervasive influence.
“How can anyone stand a place like this?” she wondered aloud. Yuanji did not reply.
After several more minutes of silent walking, Lady Yu slowed to a stop, glancing around as if struck by an idea. “Yuanji, did you bring the earth bending scrolls with us like I asked?”
The waif bowed hurriedly under her mistress' gaze. “Yes madame! They're back at the house. Shall I fetch them?”
“Please do so. And leave the umbrella; I believe I will have a need of it.”
Yuanji hurriedly bowed again before handing the umbrella over and darting off back towards their temporary abode. Snapping the jade-hued parasol open, Lady Yu idly twirled it by the handle as she waited. Earth bending. How had she not thought of that before? The place was secluded enough and bare enough to allow her to practice with minimal disturbance. It would certainly be a way to pass the time. And, she thought idly, an excellent way to vent some frustration...
It had been a past few months since the boy had set off on his journey and ever since then, it was the first time he set foot back in his home town. Wei's elderly uncle Xian was surprised to see the boy standing there at the door and in that moment, he nearly had a heart attack. The boy had to admit that he was surprised, he did not expect to have been missed this much, he was grateful for it in fact, there was sparsely a time where he did not find himself wondering about home. Wei let a small smile tug at the corner of his lips as his uncle moved to hug him, Wei did the same, letting out a soft laugh as he did so.
"It's good to see you too uncle."
Wei's elderly guardian was crying happily, the boy was embarrassed but knew that his absence had no doubt weighed on Xian's mind. After a moment, Xian stood back up, his arm wiping his face hurriedly as he did not want his nephew to think little of him. The elderly man cleared his throat and stood up proudly, placing a hand on Wei's head on ruffling his hair lightly as he looked down at him.
"How was it kid? Did you get to experience everything you wanted?"
Wei smiled and nodded, he had experienced a lot over the past few months, the majority of which would seem unbelievable had he not experienced it first hand, even then however it seemed far fetched. Xian stepped to the side as to motion his nephew in, without hesitation Wei did so, he missed it, his home, his village, his uncle he even missed the desert. It was good to finally be home and catch up.
"Uncle, you won't believe what I have with me! It's something you should have...we have been working so hard for so long...our money troubles should be over, at least for a few years."
The boy lowered his left shoulder and allowed the bag to slide down so the strap fell into his hands. He set the bag on the table and opened it up, as he dug through it he removed a medium sized rice bag and left it on the table for his uncle. Xian stepped forward and looked to his nephew at first he thought that maybe Wei had brought back this bag of rice for them to sell, it was rare for rice to exist this far in the desert. However, when he opened the bag, a familiar glow of light struck his eyes, Xian paused, no words leaving his lips as he revealed the mass of gold coins and gold nuggets within. The price Wei had been paid in exchange for his services was astounding, a mountain of gold that little others around the town had ever seen before.
"W-what...? W-we're..."
Wei nodded his head and laughed softly.
"Uncle, we're rich!"
Xian's look of shock began to transform, his eyes widened and his lips turned into a massive grin, he had been a tour guide all his life, needing to support Wei who was not even his child. This amount of gold could change their lives for the better. Xian grabbed a handful of the gold and gave it to Wei, he jumped frantically, letting a cheerful holler ring out.
"You did it!! Wei, we can move! First, you need to get something to celebrate! Head over to the market and get the most expensive food they have!"
Xian rushed the boy out of the door, his cries of happiness still could be heard as the boy walked down the dirt road towards the market area. Wei was happy, he had finally managed to pay his uncle back for his years of kindness. As he made his way down the street, a strange looking lady rushed passed him, judging by her attire she was not native to the Si Wong Desert. Wei looked back, wanting to catch a second glimpse of the woman, she was dressed far too fancy, almost like the people Wei had encountered in Ba Sing Se. As he continued looking back, Wei had accidentally bumped into a second woman, he had not been watching where he should have been walking.
"Oh! Sorry!"
Wei apologized a bit, placing his hands together, forgetting he was holding a few dozen coins and gold pieces as they dropped down to the sand in front of himself. He looked down and leaned over to pick them up, forgetting that he had just bumped into the lady immediately.
Lady Yu, having been distracted by the bleak scenery of the surrounding desert, could not help but exclaim softly and stumble back a half step when someone collided into her. It was not a hard collision, and even in her distracted state the noblewoman had no trouble in regaining her balance. Lady Yu’s attentions suddenly whirled away from her sightseeing, now focused in finding out who had crashed into her. How rude! She out to—
--Oh. It was a child. Upon her realization (and with the child’s hasty apology), Lady Yu’s features shifted from a look of annoyance to mild surprise. Her intention to snap at the offender vanished, though the thought still lingered in the back corners of her mind. Should she snap at the child? Lady Yu had only ever had a very limited experience with children, and as such she never quite knew how to appropriately talk to them or deal with them.
“That’s—” she began, gingerly taking a step back from the child. Ugh, he was filthy. Lady Yu’s free hand suddenly went to swipe at her skirts where the child had crashed into her, furiously attempting to brush away the dirt, grime, and whatever other filth the child had on him away from her dizzyingly expensive silken clothes. Ew. Ew ew ew! She would have to have these washed now! Who knew what diseases the child could be carrying?
She glared in annoyance at him again, now silently seething at the boy for getting his grime on her silks(as if he had done it on purpose). Her large brown eyes narrowed in suspicion as she watched him scrabble in the dirt around her. Gingerly, she took another step back, keeping what she believed a reasonable distance between the pair of them. What was that he was picking up in the dirt? Was that… “Where did you get all of those coins? " Was he a thief…?
Wei was on his knees as he began to brush away at the sand, picking up the pieces of gold, he had dropped, he knew it would be extremely wasteful if he even left a single piece behind after having worked so hard for it. As he did so, he noticed the woman's shadow slowly receded from view, he looked up and saw her brushing a small patch of sand that had been present on her silk dress.
As he finally stood up, he watched as the woman's annoyed expression suddenly changed to curiosity as her eyes averted down to the handfuls of gold the young Earth bender was carrying. She asked where he got the coin from, judging by her dress and the way she carried herself, Wei knew she was probably from the higher class families in Ba Sing Se, so no doubt a boy carrying this amount of coin would seem suspicious.
"Hm? Oh, I worked for this coin Miss. My uncle gave me this little bit so we can celebrate with some more expensive food."
He knew she probably wouldn't have believed him if he didn't explain exactly how a 10 year old boy worked for that much gold. He slipped the gold into his pockets and reached into the inside of his travelers hood, removing a small piece of parchment from the inside. He opened it up with both hands so she could see it better, on the inside were the four nations, each nation was colored with it's respective main colors. A circle was placed in the Si Wong Desert, this was where the small village where the two were currently standing in, from there, a collection of red lines trailed through the desert, to the fire nation colonies, the fire nation and then to Ba Sing Se and all the way back where shown.
"I led a couple of people from here all the way to the Fire Nation and they paid me a lot of coin for doing a good job."
Notably, his fingers which were holding the map open, where covered in bandages and stains, his hands were covered in cuts and scars from needing to climb constantly. He rolled the map up and put it back into his travelers hood, patting it.
"I didn't mean to mess up your dress. Oh I know!"
He held his hand out in front of himself, his palm facing up, he lifted a finger slowly, a few pieces of gold floating out of his pocket and onto his hand as he held it up to the noblewoman.
Lady Yu regarded the boy and his story with some degree of skepticism. While the story itself seemed simple enough (and from where she stood she assumed his map was all properly detailed and such), but... “Why would a child be the one leading people through this desert?” Children? Really? From all accounts, this desert was supposed to be exceptionally large and even more treacherous to navigate. Who in their right mind would allow children to run loose on the desert?
Despite her misgivings, Lady Yu found herself wanting to share some strong words with this boy's family.
She recoiled slightly when the child offered some of the coins he had held. Grubby, nasty coins that had been dropped upon the ground, no less. Ew. “No thank you,” she responded with a notably forced politeness “You may keep your money.” She certainly had more than enough to keep a dress cleaned. Besides, the garment did not seem to be damaged.
The conversation fell to an awkward pause. Luckily for Lady Yu, her servant Yuanji came scuttling back, a small collection of scrolls tucked away in her grasp. “Mistress!” she drew to a halt, bowing slightly as she took a moment to catch her breath. “Mistress! I brought the earthbending scrolls as you asked!”
Excellent. Here was a way to extract herself from this awkward encounter. Lady Yu offered a nod in thanks toward the servant girl. “Thank you, Yuanji. Now, child, if you will excuse me...”
"Hmmm? Oh my Uncle has taught me how to do it properly, I went with him a bunch of times while he was guiding people and so I learned!"
Wei couldn't blame her for being shocked that he was a tour guide, most of the people he led responded the same way. He laughed to himself slightly, he looked up and was surprised as she had refused the reimbursement he offered. He blinked in surprise and let the pieces of gold move back into his pocket with the limited motion bending he had learned a few days ago. She declined his offer and said that he may keep his money, he was grateful that she did so, though he felt as if he owed her.
The sound of footsteps approaching caught Wei's attention, he turned his head slightly and saw the lady that had run past him earlier. In her hands was a selection of rolled up parchments that she clutched to her chest as she approached the two. She yelled out, seeming to call to the more fancy dressed woman that the boy had just bumped into, he knew she was fancy but he didn't know she was so important as to have a servant following her. Wei listened as the lady said she had received some earth bending scrolls that she requested, this in particular piqued the boys interest.
"Wait, excuse me Miss."
Wei took a step forward as the woman moved to walk away, he was curious as to her skill as an earthbender.
"If you have scrolls like this, you must really be a great bender! Do you think you uh..."
Wei tapped his index fingers together, trying to think of the best possible way to organize his question, though he was having quite the hard time. As he was about to speak, the young bender heard a familiar voice calling out to him.
"Wei! What're you doing, we need to get some food to celebrate!"
It was Wei's uncle Xian, the 50 something year old man was still rather spry and fit for his age as evidence by the way he was able to run. He caught up to Wei and then looked to Lady Yu and her assistant, he was entranced for a second by the noblewoman's beauty and then looked to Wei, a slight scolding look on his face.
"Wei, what're you doing bothering such lovely young women?"
He stood up and bowed before the two ladies, being able to identify their social status very easily.
"It's rare to see such beauties in these parts. Excuse my rudeness, my name is Xian, a pleasure."
Xian spoke out, no doubt trying to court the women as his nephew watched in embarrassment.
"Geez uncle, you really know how to make an entrance..."
Lady Yu wore a feigned smile at the boy’s explanation, the strained insincerity of it well-disguised, but still faintly present to those who were trained to seek out such visual cues. Her voice was carefully kept neutral as well, with only a small pause in her response betraying her. Did the child notice? She doubted it. He was only a child after all, right? Right?
Again, children. Lady Yu had no idea how they worked, especially those of the lesser classes.
She had already begun to start out when the child called out. Oh, now this was getting silly. The false look of pleasantry vanished completely from Lady Yu’s features as she turned back to face him, now replaced by one of indignant annoyance. “Yes?" What was it? Their conversation was over, as far as she was concerned. They had had their collision, the round of apologies had been made, and she had refused his money. What more did he want from her? She wasn’t about to give into charity, that was for—
Just as she was about to dismiss the child and leave Yuanji to deal with him, another voice cut through the air, drawing the attention of the entire assembly. Lady Yu could not help but seek out the source of the cry—an older gentleman, it seemed, and one who knew the boy.
Lady Yu paused, hovering to watch what would happen. Despite herself, her curiosity had gotten the better of her for the moment. The jade paper parasol twirled lazily in her fingers as the old man stared her down, caught by her beauty. She knew the look. Lady Yu had caused men to make that face for years now. She responded by the faintest hint of a smile, her pleasantness seeming to return for the moment. The old man’s compliment only served to bolster her spirits. Well, at least someone had some charm here. That was a welcome change from the sullen terseness of her husband’s family.
Yuanji tittered softly in girlish glee at the compliment, but Lady Yu maintained her composure. She would not fall to little compliments like that so easily (though she certainly appreciated them). Still, it had certainly improved her mood immensely.
It was only proper to repay such manners with similar ones. Lady Yu responded to the older man’s bow with a genteel nod, a small chuckle escaping her lips. “A pleasure, to be certain… The child is yours?” She raised her eyebrows in a carefully-measured look of interest. “You say you are celebrating? What is the occasion?”
Xian let out a warm chuckle as Yu asked whether of not Wei was his child, the elderly man felt complimented. He placed a hand on the young Earthbenders head, ruffling the chestnut colored hair that he had.
"Oh no. I'm not as young as I would like! This is my nephew Wei, he has been living with me for most of his life here in the Si Wong."
Wei looked up to his Uncle and then at the two ladies before him, the older woman seemed to be in a better mood because of his presence. Was Xian actually lending the boy a hand or was it just by pure coincidence that he was able to turn the mood of the conversation around so easily. Xian patted the boys head and then motioned to Lady Yu, as if telling him to introduce himself.
"Oh yes, it's very nice to meet you."
Wei placed his right fist in front of himself and brought his left palm against his knuckles, giving a formal bow as he had just introduced himself. Xian smiled and looked back up to answer the second question that the finely dressed woman had asked.
"My nephew here has just returned from a very long journey, I am proud to say that he has proven himself to become a very knowledgeable tour guide. The cause for celebration is because of his safe return, he has also brought back a large sum of gold."
Xian motioned to the large pouch of gold he had tied to his waist, it was rare to see such an amount anywhere except the Fire Nation or Ba Sing Se. No doubt that this was the old mans way of showing it off to the other villages but after years of simply struggling to get by, Wei figured he deserved the chance. A realization crossed Xians mind as he looked down to his nephew, his hand moving to the boys shoulder instead.
"Wei, why were you talking to these nice women? I'm afraid they're a couple leagues ahead of you!"
Xian laughed to himself softly, the joke caused Wei's cheeks to turn a shade of red as he flailed his arm slightly in embarrassment.
"No! Uncle...I bumped into this woman by accident and I heard she had Earthbending scrolls. Ba Sing Se has some of the best Earthbenders, I wanted to know if...I don't know, maybe she could give me a few lessons."
Xian raised an eyebrow and placed his hand on his chin, he knew that Wei desperately wanted to become a talented Earthbender. No doubt a teacher would be a great way to get him closer to his goal but how could he expect such a finely dressed woman to accept his nephew. It was a longs hot though Xian would help his nephew out as best as he could.
"You bumped into her hm? Well, how can you expect her to even take you on as a student Wei? To become a student in Ba Sing Se, you have to be taught proper mannerisms. I had been living there in my youth and I saw what the training employs. You must have social grace and etiquette!"
Eona: SO... is this sight still active?
Dec 21, 2014 19:04:15 GMT -5
Psychosynchrony: Hmmm... was popping in to see if this was still going. Guess not.
Apr 6, 2016 13:44:28 GMT -5
Wei Shen: If any of the admins are still here, e-mail me at Nexocidal@gmail.com, I would love to get the site started up again. I'll try to help
Apr 20, 2016 2:00:37 GMT -5
Wei Shen: If anyone does come back, I'll be checking on this site for at least once a day~ Hope to see some old members maybe
Apr 20, 2016 2:12:40 GMT -5
Guest: Is this still active?
Sept 2, 2016 13:05:51 GMT -5
Mordred: i'm here somehow
Nov 9, 2016 13:19:01 GMT -5
Wei Shen: If you see this Mordred, I PM'ed you my chat info!
Feb 16, 2017 23:34:37 GMT -5
Mordred: well i still need you to answer the pending info
Feb 18, 2017 20:02:03 GMT -5
Mordred: also i can't shoot you a message on discord since you disabled it
Feb 18, 2017 20:02:40 GMT -5
