Fire and Wind: Routine

Sunlight filtered through the bright green leaves of the tree Seng had perched herself in. A gentle wind brushed through her hair and across her skin, bringing with it the scent of the forest surrounding her and the calm that it induced.

That calm washed over her as she brought her arms into the proper position, her fingers gripping tightly upon the flexible wooden handle of her bow as she slowly drew the string back, knocking an arrow in a smooth and practiced motion. Grey eyes sharpened and her body went still, her already shallow breathing subsiding to a mere whisper of what it once was as she submersed her senses within the air around her, listening to the wind intently and waiting for the perfect moment…

Something shifted almost imperceptibly, and Seng untensed her fingers, letting go of her drawstring. The arrow she had been holding back flew straight and true, the sharpened wood whistling through the air as it approached its unaware target with deadly intent.

The grazing fox-antelope’s ears twitched on its head, but it wasn't even given the chance to raise its gaze from its meal as the arrow pierced straight through its chest, sliding neatly through its ribcage and through its heart, killing it instantly.

Its herd-mates panicked as one of their members fell, jumping over one another in their haste to get away, before fleeing into the forest in all directions.

Seng kept her ears out for any of them heading back in this direction. Though fox-antelopes weren't exactly known for being dangerous to humans, they were still wild animals, and she knew to respect that fact.

Nearly a minute of silent listening revealed nothing, it seemed the coast was clear. Seng stowed her bow away, sliding the drawstring over her shoulder so it rested comfortably along her back next to her quiver and spear, before jumping down from her perch.

Wind rushed up to meet her, an unnatural gust forming underneath her feet and slowing her fall enough that she landed with the barest tap of her shoes against the earth. She patted down the ruffled edges of her tunic, before moving to retrieve her kill.

While fox-antelope meat was notoriously bad - tough and stringy no matter how it was cooked - their hide was actually worth quite a bit, especially in this area of the Earth Kingdom. Normally the animals were only found near Ba Sing Se, near the center of the continent, so finding one this close to the coast was pretty rare. The money she'd get from this one kill would be worth three or four of her usual ones, more than enough to meet her goals. Soon, she’d be out of this warring nation.

She trussed the corpse with practiced ease, tying the animal's limbs together to make it easier to carry, before heaving it up and onto her back with a grunt. After a moment of adjusting to make herself comfortable, Seng turned and began walking back into the forest.

It was a long way back to town.

~~~

Kanu was like all other towns in this part of the Earth Kingdom. Small, poor, and most importantly, populated almost exclusively by Fire Nation colonists.

Despite everything that her life had become, Seng didn't have an issue with the people who called Kanu their home, or most of the Fire Nation in general, actually. They were just people trying to make ends meet, same as everyone else in the world. The only difference was they happened to be born in the nation responsible for said world's suffering. And her own.

She was paid little mind as she made her way through town. The occasional man would give her a jealous look as they caught sight of her kill and the occasional child might scrunch their face in disgust at the same thing, but she was not stopped or accosted despite her clearly non-Fire Nation nationality. People around here had more important things to do than try to enforce their own prejudices on others.

Seng paused for a moment as two children suddenly darted into her path, giggling madly to themselves as they chased a small lemur who was desperately trying to escape their childish clutches. She watched them go, a deep sense of sadness tinged with nostalgia.

She used to do the same thing with her own siblings years ago, though she was usually the one chasing after them and telling them to leave the poor animal alone. Kaya and Jin had never been the most gentle with animals.

That had been what felt like a lifetime ago now. Seng had long since forgotten their voices and now even their faces were starting to fade from her mind. She wondered how long it would take before they were nothing but ghosts in the back of her mind.

Seng frowned, clearing her kind of those thoughts. They'd do her no good, not right now. Perhaps one day, when the war ended if it ever did, she'd find them somehow, like she promised her mother. As it stood, she had her own survival to focus on. She ignored the clenching of her chest, burying the memories deep as she always did, and continued on.

Her feet took her to a building that looked the same as all the rest, rundown and slightly dirty. Walking inside revealed an interior that wasn't much better, though the scent of iron hanging heavily in the air made the decor the least inhospitable part about the building. That, as well as the slightly disheveled, severely obese man standing behind the counter.

“Chang.” Seng greeted the man who looked up at her as she entered, “I’ve got the carcass. The pelt is in good condition like I promised. A single clean strike through the heart.”

Chang gave her a wide smile as she pulled the kill off of her shoulders, “Wonderful! Wonderful! Just give it here and I'll take it to the back to prep it. I've got a fresh cut of gemsbok as part of your payment.”

Seng heaved the carcass onto the counter, “Please be quick. I don't want to stay in this town much longer than necessary.”

Chang gave her a curious look, clearly asking a silent question, but Seng didn't indulge him, simply stepping back and staring at him, waiting for him to get a move on.

He grabbed the carcass, “I'll be right back.” He said, before moving into the back.

Seng watched him go, disappearing through a doorway that smelled like blood and raw meat. She would normally be leery of doing business with someone like Chang, but he owned the only butcher in town and was willing to pay her for her kill and she really needed the money. It was the only way she would be able to leave this place behind.

Guan Ju was a rather large city several miles north of Kanu. It was a port city that specialized in the trade of seafood and pearls and the like. A fisherman’s town in other words. And fishing meant boats, which meant a way out of the Earth Kingdom and away from the war that had overcome the continent.

That was Seng’s goal. She had had more than her fill of the fighting and hiding from any Fire Nation nationalist who could possibly discover her bending. She wanted to leave and she had nearly earned enough money to do so.

If she was lucky, she'd be able to find a captain in Guan Ju that was willing to take her at least as far as the northern islands for a reasonable sum. From there, it wouldn't be very hard to find passage to the North Pole where she'd be safe from the Fire Nation for the foreseeable future.

The Northern Water Tribe may have been isolationists, but they were known to take in outsiders who could prove useful to them in some fashion. Seng had a bevy of skills that they would doubtlessly find useful, even outside of her airbending. They'd probably let her in. And if not… well she'd figure that out when she got to it. For now, the slim hope that she'd be free to do as she wished without fear of persecution was all that mattered.

Seng looked up as Chang returned, a wrapped package in one hand. He set it on the counter with a wet thump, “Here's your meat. Fresh as can be, just butchered it this morning.”

Seng picked up the package, bringing it to her face for a sniff. It was fresh, just like he said. She nodded approvingly and put it in her pack, placing it in a special recess specifically for meat and other raw foods. She looked back at Chang as he then placed several coins on the counter, “And here's your payment for the carcass.”

Seng frowned, picking up the coins and holding them up to her face. Four silver and two copper. More than enough to buy a few meals or even a new outfit if she knew the right place to look, and it put her nearly there to what she hoped would be enough to pay for passage to the north. Still…

“The hide alone is worth six silver.” She frowned at Chang, her eyes narrowing, “Are you trying to rip me off?”

Chang's smile was as insincere as it was full of missing teeth, “I'm very sorry, ma'am, but it seems I miscounted my inventory. I'm afraid I can't afford to pay full price for this one. I added some extra meat in there to make up for it.”

Seng's frown became more severe and she stepped forward half a step, “You said this morning that you'd pay full price. If you hadn't told me that, I wouldn't have bothered hunting it. I spent all day tracking the herd when I could have been halfway to Guan Ju by now.”

He put his hands up in a calming gesture, a bit of nervousness making its way onto his face, “We all make mistakes, ma'am. I’m sure you can understand that?”

Her glare didn’t relent and Chang sighed, putting his hands down, “Look, if I could afford it, I would be more than happy to pay you for your efforts. As it stands though, I haven't yet received my own payment this month and times have been especially tough, as I'm sure you can tell.” He gestured around at the empty shelves lining the store.

Seng just stared at him for a long moment, her grey eyes searching his own, before she nodded slowly. She needed that money but she also needed the meat. Raising an issue about it would see her leaving with neither so she forced down the curse she wanted to throw at the lying slimeball and simply took the coins from the counter without another word.

Chang's smile returned, “Wonderful. You have a good day now ma'am, and please come back any time.”

Seng didn't say a word, simply turning around and striding out of the building in complete silence. Chang was clearly lying, but she wasn't going to cause a scene. Not here and not over this.

Besides, there were other ways to get what she was owed. If she couldn’t get her dues from the man himself, then she would simply take them from his belongings instead.

As she made her through the town and back into the forest, a gentle breeze brushed along her shoulders, ruffling her dark brown hair in a phantom caress. She smiled slightly as she was filled with a sense of comfort and nostalgia, the decision she was about to make solidifying itself in her mind.

~~~

Seng's nomadic lifestyle had made her adept at many things people might not think of. On occasion, when the weather was especially bad or the forest was filled with more predators than she could avoid, she would need to find a place to stay. And unfortunately, she couldn't always afford to pay for a room at an inn.

She could recall many nights where she was forced to break into a barn or a vacant home just to avoid the elements. It wasn't something she was proud of, but it was necessary if she wanted to survive, and she prioritized survival above all else.

Though, this was not exactly a case of life and death. This was a case of taking what she was owed from someone who refused to give it to her.

It was almost laughably easy to enter Chang's abode while the man slept. Her airbending meant that she was able to access places that most wouldn't even think possible, and it was a rare occasion that a home like Chang's had locks on the windows. She crept through his halls, following the sound of loud snoring to the man’s bedroom and, after a moment’s hesitation, made her way inside.

It soon became apparent to her that she had been much more cautious than needed. Chang was clearly a deep sleeper, as evidenced by the way that the man didn’t even twitch at the creak of his opening door, continuing to snore loudly in his rather plush bed.

His snoring provided the perfect cover from Seng’s activities as she began rooting around in the drawers and chests located around the room, searching for anything of value and stuffing it into her pack.

As she got to the drawer right beside his bed however, she paused as she noticed something odd. A moment of intense scrutiny revealed what it was, the inside of the drawer was much smaller than the outside would indicate. Careful probing around the edges revealed that the bottom was fake and that there was another recess further inside. Seng carefully pried off the wooden panel, lifting the false bottom to reveal the treasures that lie inside.

Jewelry and a rather fat coin pouch sat on the real bottom of the drawer, alongside a leather bound book that was clearly some sort of ledger given its label. Seng ignored the jewels, knowing she wouldn't be able to sell them anyway and they'd just weigh her down, and grabbed the coin pouch, stowing it away in the folds of her tunic.

She then reached back inside, grabbing the ledger as well as curiosity got the better of her. The moonlight sliding in the nearby window provided the perfect amount of light as she untied the small string keeping the book bound and opened it, perusing its contents with interest.

What she saw made her scowl. Chang had been lying when he said that times had been tough for him. If this ledger was to be believed, he had made at least fifteen gold coins in the past two weeks alone, more than most could say they made in thrice that amount of time.

“I knew he was trying to rip me off…” Seng muttered to herself as she flipped through the pages, “It's clear he's doing more than fine enough for himself to pay full price for a pelt. Especially since he doesn't have a family to feed.”

That just made her decision to rob him all the more justified though, didn't it? She was just taking back what she was owed, with a bit of interest of course.

She closed the ledger with a huff, moving to place it back into the drawer she had retrieved it from, only to freeze as her ears picked up the sound of movement on the bed behind her. She whirled around to find that Chang had woken up and was sitting up on his bed, staring directly at her with sleepy confusion.

Seng stared at the man, completely frozen as if that would make him unable to see her at all. She had no luck in that regard as the obese man’s face suddenly twisted in recognition and he jolted in his sheets, “H-HEY! WHO ARE YOU!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?”

Seng burst into motion at his shouts, immediately sprinting out of the room and down the hall that she had come through previously. There was a thump that was likely the man falling out of his bed in his hurry to chase after her, before he scrambled to his feet and followed behind her at a much slower pace than she herself was moving.

She fled down the hall, making a break for the open window several meters away. Behind her, she heard Chang’s bedroom door slam open, the man following her into the hallway. She looked behind her, her eyes widening slightly as she saw the rotund shop-owner take a bending stance, before thrusting his fist out at her with a yell.

A burst of flame exited his knuckles, lighting up the hallway a bright orange as he sent the fireball rocketing towards her. It wasn’t nearly as big as she was used to, making it clear that the man was either weak, or worried about burning down his own home with reckless attacks.

Either way, that meant that it was easy to dodge to the side of the flaming ball, allowing it to pass her by. It slammed into the open window that she had entered through, shattering the glass and blowing the whole thing out of the wall and down to the ground below. That made Seng’s escape a whole lot easier.

As Seng reached the end of the hall, she leapt out the window without hesitation, leaping down from the second story home to the hard, unforgiving ground below as Chang’s fire followed after her, narrowly missing the back of her head as gravity took effect and sent her plummeting down below.

As she fell to what should be her death, Seng concentrated, moving her arms in a swirling motion as she called upon her chi, performing an action that would doubtlessly get her killed should anyone see it. Luckily, it was the middle of the night so nobody was around and Chang was too far behind her to witness anything that she was doing.

A tunnel of swirling air immediately gathered beneath her feet, snaking up and around her lower body and then her torso, slowing her fall enough that by the time she hit the ground, she was able to simply roll and bleed off any residual momentum.

She looked around, making sure that nobody had seen her flagrant use of airbending, before rushing towards the nearby treeline when she noticed that there was no one nearby.

“STOP HER! THIEF! THIEF! SOMEONE HELP! THIEF!”

Seng grimaced, looking back to find Chang leaning out of his window, gesturing at her angrily. Rearing an arm back, the man thrust a fist forward, a much larger burst of fire shooting from his knuckles and racing across the distance between them. Apparently she had been wrong in her assumptions that the man was a weak firebender, as the fireball that lit up the night around them was larger than most she had witnessed.

Seng cursed, twisting on her heel and squaring her stance as the deadly flames approached faster than she could hope to avoid. Twirling her arms, she clapped her hands together, air swirling over her fingertips as she stared at the encroaching torrent of fire with a nervous glint in her eyes.

The moment that she could feel the heat slide across her skin, she shoved her arms apart, a torrent of ripping wind slamming forth into the fireball as it reached her. The fireball dispersed with a loud whoosh, wind tearing it apart and sending flames scattering every which way.

The moment that the night went dark once more, Seng turned on her heel and began running once more, booking it towards the forest as fast as her feet could take her and hoping that Chang was as clueless as she originally thought he was.

Like all others she knew, the bending technique that she had just used was one she had made herself. It was purposefully similar to something that firebenders might do when faced with enemy fireballs, the movements just the smallest amount different as airbending required more movement than most. She was hoping that, blinded by the glare of his own fire, Chang wouldn’t see that extra bit of movement and would instead just believe her to just be another firebender like himself.

Chang’s fireball as well as his loud voice was doing its job, waking the sleeping town as candles were lit in the homes around him, their residents doubtlessly getting ready to come investigate the ruckus.

Luckily for her, Seng was fast and more importantly, practiced in doing this sort of thing. It only took her a few more seconds to cross the several meters between her and the edge of the forest, not giving him another chance to fire at her unless he wanted to set fire to the forest surrounding the town.

The moment that she passed the cusp of trees into the woods, Seng crouched down and leapt upwards with all of her strength, the wind aiding her and

Despite the unlikelihood that anybody was chasing her, Seng didn't slow her pace at all, bursts of wind propelling her forward as she leapt from tree to tree, putting as much distance between herself and the town as she possibly could as fast as she could.

As she flew, she took a moment to check the coin pouch that she had stolen, grinning as she saw a pile of dull silver and copper glinting under the moonlight. There was probably enough here to buy her passage to the North Pole twice over!

A giddy excitement settled within her chest as she stowed the coin pouch away once more, focusing on her bending lest she fall to the ground below. She had gotten what she needed, now all she needed to do was make it to Guan Ju and buy herself passage North. Away from the Earth Kingdom and the fighting that had consumed the once proud nation.

Finally, after years of fleeing and hiding, she’d finally be free.