Having come to my senses after a while, I began to think logically and came to the conclusion that okay, screw him. I live in a world where people run around and are thrown by the elements, different spirits live in every corner where you can't look, and in general there is some kind of crazy going on that I can't explain yet. I don't think I'll ever be able to, ha. But in any case, this shouldn't unsettle me... for long. I'm so much stronger now as a mage that maybe it's worth fighting the Avatar and ending this all faster.
In the end, some men appear to an avatar and say that they are avatars? Are. Are they teaching him? Learn.
Why am I worse? I'm also an avatar of sorts.
But in general, now I somehow feel completely uneasy. Night forest, after such adventures... So I just took off. It's unlikely that anyone will notice me, and I'm fucking late! And already for a day already! If you roughly estimate how long I was there... it turns out to be too long a time, despite the fact that it was always daytime there.
Brrr, still not feeling well.
Although it was much more pleasant to fly. A lot. And I flew to the desired city in just a couple of hours.
Honestly, I expected to be burned on the spot for being late, but it turned out that there was no one in the city yet. Well, in the sense that the whole column is still on the way, life is in full swing in the city itself.
At first I was even scared. Could something have happened? But then I just found out the date. It turned out that I arrived a whole day early. That is, time also passed slower there? Or what?
In any case, I have no time for this, or rather, I try to distance myself from these thoughts as far as possible.
"Yes, yes, I can't leave either," said the spirit in my head, "I don't understand at all how you can block my access to you. I am, after all, a part of you for now. And time..."
And he fell silent, the bastard. Well, yes, it's a scary moment, especially when you consider yourself one of the biggest frogs in the swamp. But they show you so easily that you are more like a frog at the bottom of a well, and maybe there you are, of course, the biggest, but in the outside world...
Okay, in any case, I would like to look at this miracle of technology, on which the rest of our team will go to catch the Avatar. But first I need to go to the bar and have a little drink. After everything we've been through, it wouldn't hurt.
"Yes," the spirit nodded.
That's why we went to the nearest bar.
Speaking after the fact, probably, taking into account the fact that the hormones in the head still had not settled down after the "opening of the valve," this should not have been done.
I got drunk like I hadn't gotten drunk in a very long time, everything was swimming before my eyes, and my body wanted only one thing. And no, this, unfortunately, is not sleeping. The truth is, who can be seduced by a drunken body, even a pretty one?
No, of course, someone could, but, thank Agni, this did not happen. And in response to my attempts to make advances towards some ladies, the gentlemen of these ladies pulled me out to "talk".
And they tried, of course, to kick me. But even drunk as hell, I was still a strong airbender and an excellent swordsman, so I went the style of a drunken master and kicked them out.
Then the police came next, because all sorts of onlookers came to the fight. In front of the police, I tried to call myself Kira and intimidate them, but I left all my military uniform at the hotel, including my badge, and I myself was completely in civilian clothes.
Absolutely by accident, two policemen also got hit during the fight, but then I came to my senses a little, just as I went out into the cold, and surrendered into the hands of the valiant guards. And they dragged me to the local jail. Where I settled down on a bench as soon as they threw me there and fell asleep, not fully realizing where I was and what I was.
In the morning, of course, the princess was informed about the strange, violent character, and she decided to take a look at "Kira" herself. And imagine her surprise when she found there not some idiot, but me.
"Let me sum it up," Azula interrupted my story, squinting at me like a bug, "you got drunk like a pig, then you, an absolutely innocent person, were accosted by some "gangster-looking" people, and you decided that you should teach them a lesson.
- Yes.
- And then you beat them? Everyone, including the police who came?
- Yes, but it was by accident!
- So you want to say that you "accidentally" beat up four policemen and six civilians, declared that you were Kira and would imprison them all? - Azula asked, listening to my excuses from behind bars.
- Yes.
"And then you just passed out, and that's why they could take you away, otherwise you promised to kick everyone."
- Yes... what? More precisely, no. More precisely, I don't remember.
"But they told me everything," Azula said and continued to look at me, so beautiful, covered in dirt and stinking.
The pause dragged on, so I decided to justify myself a little, because I really was ashamed.
"I didn't leave to get drunk." I just finished my business faster," I said quietly, "and went to the city." And then I decided to recover a little from what happened.
- Mmm, and what happened to you? - the princess asked in her best bitchy voice.
"Well, firstly, it turned out that my bending had a slightly... negative effect on me," I said streamlinedly, "I managed to solve this problem and become even stronger." Secondly, I met I don't know what or who. When I returned, there was neither the area where we met, nor him, nor a hint of him. In general, something incredible.
- And what is this "negative impact"? - Azula continued to ask and, apparently, understanding from my face that I was planning to leave the topic, - no, answer. That's an order. I'm tired of your constant secrets, and it's reached the point of absurdity.
"Eh," I exhaled, "I learned to turn off emotions with the help of bending." And I got to the point where I was simply without them for a long time, and this had a very negative effect on me. And I managed to avoid this problem by developing my bending.
- A-and-and?
"And the hormones got to my head so much that I decided to drink a little," I shrugged, "but what can you say?" I underestimated the effect of alcohol on the body and drank too much. And a lot of emotions came out at once.
"This is just disgusting," Azula snorted, turning around and walking away, "Open up and drop the charges." This is an order," she added to the police, standing at such a distance as not to hear.
This made me angry. For the first time in a long time, I felt angry and irritated. What the heck? I stumbled once, and now it's "disgusting"?
"You're lucky, guy," one of the policemen chuckled, "I don't know why you're so...
"Shut up," I said, straightening my back and putting a mask of disdain on my face, "and tell your people that if this story goes beyond the witnesses, I will come for them."
- Who are you? - the man chuckled.
- Kira.
- Well, yes, we heard this fairy tale yesterday...
"You just saw the princess with whom I communicated and who ordered me to be released, are you still in doubt?" — I asked, coming close to him and looking straight into his eyes.
"N-no," the man was too frightened for some reason, his knees were already shaking, "no way."
I understood why when I saw a slight red reflection in a metal object.
"I decided to give your words some weight," said the spirit in my head.
It's clear, it's clear, someone painted my eyes again. Well, so much the better. I quickly went to the hotel to get ready. And then, half an hour later, I was already near the caravan in full dress. I took a bath, dressed properly, and put on a mask.
And there, near the caravan, a full gang already met me. And immediately the greetings, hugs, and questions began.
- Oh, Aki, it's good that you're so fast! - Ty Lee exclaimed, - it was so boring without you.
"I had to leave," I said, "did something new happen?"
"No," Suki answered me, "unless some weirdo here, according to rumors, shouted that he was you, and Azula even went to find out who was so impudent here."
- And How? - I clarified.
"Well, she hasn't returned yet," the warrior shrugged.
"She's become even more unbearable without you," Zuko complained to me next. Also wanting to chat a little. Somehow they quickly went wild without me, yeah, she poured liters of poison on us in those few days, enough for a month without you.
- Zu-zu, do you still like to tell lies? - said a voice behind Zuko. Of course, Azula's voice.
- Oh, you're back! Ty Lee said, but even she had a forced smile on her face.
Apparently, she really annoyed everyone.
- How is the fake "Kira"? - Suki clarified.
"No way," Azula answered, looking at me, "some drunkard decided to show off in front of the police."
"Oh, I see," Suki nodded, "drunks were weird even on our island, but here."
"Indeed," I added and changed the topic, "now let's go and look at the new miracle of technology." We'll find out more, maybe we'll have to change plans.
Well, we, as always, leaving the work of unloading and so on to the hard workers, went straight to the local workshops. Admire the miracle of technology.
How grateful I am to Azula that she decided not to tell my embarrassment to everyone around me.
"You'll have to," she said quietly when she caught up with me and walked a little further forward.
Hmm, well, I should have guessed. Given Azula's character, that's to be expected.
The workshop turned out to be huge, I'll be honest, I didn't expect such a size. And it's not for nothing that it's so big, there was a fucking armored car train inside.
"Wow," Azula said in the voice of an enthusiastic girl. Just like that, stretching out this vowel.
Clear, clear, technophile, damn it. In general, she liked the transport, and she would gladly take advantage of it, and I can see right in her eyes that she is looking for options on how to change it so that she can still travel on this colossus.
- Maybe we can try to take a ride around? - I suggested.
God, I've never seen Azula look like that. But, in short, they forgave me and even elevated me back to the rank of favorites.
"I think it's possible," May nodded, also noticing the expression on Azula's face.
No one began to argue, because it seemed that the princess would be eaten alive by anyone who even tried to challenge this idea. The management crew was already there, so all we could do was nod to the local chief and all of us climb inside this prodigy. At first it seemed to me that the speed seemed to be quite insignificant, but apparently they were "warming up" the car or did not want to pick up speed within the city, but as soon as the terrain became rough, our speed increased significantly.
I can't say that it's even the usual sixty kilometers per hour, but... all the same, the colossus was moving very quickly for its size.
But Azula did not move from the point where she stood, near a small loophole through which the street was visible. Well, the main thing is that my embarrassment is forgotten...
***
The transport trip ended without incident. We just drove around the city, Azula, looking out the window with a sad face, resigned herself to the fact that we wouldn't be able to ride anymore. She was well aware that chasing the Avatar was a one-way ticket for this machine. You can't think of anything there; this machine, let's be honest, won't even survive the road. This is still a beta version, stable, but with childish problems, and will not withstand a real chase.
But the engineers are ready to pledge every tooth that it won't fall apart in the first five minutes; they have at least a forty-hour trip.
However, if this is not enough, then, in my opinion, there is no chance of catching the Avatar in this way. Because I still doubt the plan to get a flying Avatar with a driving car, although some of the arguments sound good, like the fact that the car doesn't get tired, and the animal won't be able to fly all the time, and so on and so forth.
In general, they clearly had nothing to do, so I didn't argue. Let them play around, Agni doesn't joke, maybe it will work. At the very least, maybe one of the friends will be able to get kicked out again.
Azula and I had a hike ahead of us. And we weren't going to pull too hard. Therefore, we started packing as soon as we returned from our walk on the new transport. We started with a map, the kind of map that is used in the nation of earth. There, this matter is not as difficult as it could be, but we decided not to take too much risk. Next is the required minimum. I painfully handed my rapier to Zuko.
"I know that you are also interested in swords, I saw your twins," I said, "please keep my rapier."
"Okay," the prince answered simply.
But we understood each other, there was direct contact between our eyes, and we saw much more than we said. He will keep my beauty, and I would do the same for his swords.
"Oh my God, a drama in three acts," the princess interrupted our male understanding, "and for what?" Because of a piece of iron!
- Shut up, murderer of my first beauty! — I answered emotionally.
Which made Azula taken aback.
Because in general, my character has not changed because the hormones appeared, that's a fact. He couldn't change, but at the same time, banal emotions began to slip through his voice more often. I don't always sound like Kira anymore. In the past, especially lately, my voice gave the impression that an incorrect answer would get you killed, and I was convinced of this recently when, while clearing my head with the wind, I talked to Tylee, who thought that I was offended by her.
In short, my voice became more vibrant and less cold. Which still causes a little dissonance for some, but it seems that in general no one has a problem with this. Sort of.
My knives were in place, I regretfully left the mask with Zuko in the same way, gently hinting to him that Kira is recognized precisely by the mask, and by and large, if you don't use red fire, then it doesn't really matter who is behind the mask.
He nodded understandingly. In general, having returned my emotions to myself, I began to better understand the emotions of others, and it turned out that Zuko and I have a lot in common. We both have fairly similar childhood traumas, we both love edged weapons and masks, and we both perceive Azula differently than everyone else around us.
In general, the world opened up to me from a slightly different side. The same Suki, it turned out, still felt guilty, so her violent character faded into the background, and she hardly showed it in my direction. But with the rest, she may well show a few teeth within reasonable limits.
But there are also disadvantages, for example, Ty Lee's mask began to bribe me. In the sense that I began to slightly stop grasping what was in her head behind her sunny smile and perky disposition. This, in principle, is not critical, because her such behavior is not really a mask, rather she was simply accustomed to this, and she is a truly cheerful girl, but at the same time she perceives reality without rose-colored glasses.
But for some reason Azula treats me differently than the others. Well, indeed, what I previously thought I had earned her respect turned out to be... well, not entirely true. That is, I deserve respect, but Iroh, May, and many others also deserve it. But she listens to me and even more than that... she tries to be close. I was in no hurry to draw any conclusions; the absence of cold logic has its drawbacks - for example, the possibility of accidentally coming to conclusions under the influence of emotions.
Also, along with the mask, all the armor that was under the cloak went to the warehouse. Azula and I had to wear greener or grayer clothes. The princess also had to loosen her hair and use a regular ponytail with a banal hairpin. Of course, she left her curls framing her face.
The local chief also gave us two ostrich horses. Yes, that's what they're called, causing me slight dissonance. Are there any regular horses here? Or why are these horses, and not riding ostriches, for example?
In fact, I have huge questions about local history, and it actually scares me to try to logically comprehend what happened here. One might say, there is no information older than a thousand years; almost no archaeological or similar excavations are taking place. None of the nations care about this. But if you think a little about where such animals come from, the evolutionary path of which is impossible to imagine. Duck-turtle, for example. Fuck a flying duck with a shell in which it cannot even completely hide.
No, the natural process is doing its job, and this species is gradually dying out, they can neither fly normally nor live on the surface, but nevertheless, where did they come from? I'm not talking about various two-headed fish, rabbits with horns, wolf-bats and other perversions.
No, everything, of course, can be attributed to bending, but then the question arises... now, especially recently, many species simply do not become extinct in their natural habitat. What the heck?
"Baby," said a voice in my head, which at first I didn't even recognize. Unlike Vaatu's standard voice, this one was more... tired. As if an ancient elder, who outlived his grandchildren and already dreams of following them, spoke to me, "You don't want to know what happened here. You will not be able to apply this information or somehow influence what is happening, and it will not affect you, but you will not be able to sleep peacefully for the rest of your life. Trust me. It's better to focus on current problems."
I did not respond to such a revelation. Suddenly, there was some kind of coming of Cthul...
- "Shut up!" - a voice sharply yelled in my head, "I don't know how you knew this name, but don't even mention it in your head. Trust me"
Class. With a slight cold sweat running down my back, I came to the conclusion that it seemed that I did not want to delve into the past of this world at all. Therefore, I'll just return to the current problems, otherwise this ostrich horse has completely led me somewhere. And if my old friend, and a very old one at that, is panicking, then there's probably no need to get involved.
In any case, we didn't take a lot of things, spare shirts and pants with underwear, maps, a supply of water and dried meat just in case, and that's where we left off.
The farewell was a mess. If we think logically, there are a lot of unresolved problems between all of us that we pushed aside because of the problems facing us, so we just said our goodbyes, albeit heartfeltly, but without much ranting, and we went on our way.
Most of all, I felt sorry for Toph, no matter how you look at it, but it was I from the whole team who became a family member for her, but at the same time we can't take her with us. If we had a person to pair with Suki, we might still think that the child would not arouse suspicion, and her abilities would be so useful to us, but we cannot reduce the number of units, nor can we let Suki go alone. Whatever one may say, there must be a couple.
By the way, we had a lot of disagreement on this issue regarding the pairings of Mei-Tai Lee and Zuko and Iroh. Two non-benders and two benders, wouldn't it be more logical to mix it up somehow?
But the two friends were very well-coordinated, while none of them could curb Zuko's violent temper. It will be difficult in this regard when May and Zuko are together, but nevertheless we have what we have. The pair of May and Ty Lee could give even Azula a beating; close combat is too weak for her. And Ty Lee cannot somehow answer if she gets to her.
On the other hand, this is a theory, because the same princess needs to act with caution so as not to seriously harm her friends. Maybe if this was a real fight, she would be able to pull something off.
But these are all theories. They can give even a strong S-class bender a beating, let's say. A few lower-class mages, too, I think.
In general, there is no gradation as such, only the Master or not in his element, which is not very convenient. Compare the same Iroh and Azula. With all due respect to the second, Iroh will erase his niece in direct combat.
Therefore, I remembered a successful gradation from a previous life. Yes, banal from E to S class. And what? Let's say the same Zuko is a strong A-class. This one is right on the verge of S. Azula, in turn, is a very unreliable S class, almost falling into A. But Iroh is a very strong S class.
I modestly consider myself to be in this strong S class. Especially after my training. So it turns out that if we divide it like this, the pairs we get are as follows:
SS - me and Azula.
AS - Zuko and Iroh.
AB - Ty Lee and May. Yes, I transferred May to a very strong, but B class, because she, of course, is a strong ranged one, but the same Ty Lee has the ability to chop off a bender in a second, if only she gets there.
SB - and this is Toph and Suki. Yes, I mentally gave Toph an S class, albeit with a strong stretch, because, frankly, she is on Zuko's level. This is the only way Azula does it for now. But, let's say, for the future. With Suki it's about the same story as with Mei. Very good combat, but no aces up the sleeve.
In general, taking into account that May and Ty Lee are a very well-coordinated pair of fighters, all groups except Azula and I reach A class on average. But we will still scatter according to the pattern: the stronger the group, the closer it is to the center.
Azula and I must get to the very center when Iroh and Zuko are not far from us, on the middle ring. On the outer one there will be Toph's group with Suki, and Tai Li-Mei's group, because the outer one is the largest.
But this is still based on the theory that the most powerful benders and dangerous opponents are located not far from the king.
I was in no hurry to voice such a number system to anyone; explaining these letters when there are hieroglyphs here will be quite a task. But inventing something and redoing it in a local manner... well, you can, but, let's say, why?
By the way, the same Avatar is in two classes at once, like Aang, he is in a strong S class, because he already masters two, and maybe three elements. But as an Avatar, he is somewhere at the SS level, or I don't know him, in short, well above the S class, out of rank, let's call it that.
Qatar is somewhere at the level of good A class. At least until he lost his arm. That is, Zuko's level. It doesn't reach Azula, and here, unfortunately for her and fortunately for us, origin plays a role. If Katara had had a teacher since childhood, like the princess, the conversation would have been different, but that's what we have.
By the way, to our slight regret, judging by the map, the shortest route to Basing Se ran through the least vegetative regions of the continent. Therefore, Azula, unlike standard clothes, also had to wear a cloak in order to pass as one of her own in the desert.
What am I talking about? And besides, this beast hasn't been able to stop really whining for an hour now about how uncomfortable the coat is.
I have never seen this side of her before, but the fact remains that the cloak irritated her very much.
Okay, maybe I went too far with my whining, but she makes sarcastic and wisecracks with or without reason, mentioning every ten minutes how difficult it is for her to be in this raincoat and how I generally walk around with it all the time.
But other than that the trip was quite calm. Even when we crossed the conventional borders and already drove through the territory controlled by the People of the Earth.
We also had false documents. Of course, it's not of the highest quality, I'll be honest, but it's not an outright fake either. In general, if they really need to, they will understand that it's a fake, but if they get hooked on us like that, then it doesn't matter what they discover, the plan is still a failure.
The problem arose when we hit the first shrew roadblock. Unfortunately, no matter how you look at it, our faces are remarkable. In the sense that there is no such thing among the nation of earth.
"Stop," one of them stopped us, blocking the path with a spear, "who are they?"
"Travelers," I said, "are a little lost, can you tell me where the nearest city is?"
— Are there any documents? - the strawberry asked still a little rudely.
"Yes, it's there somewhere," I nodded. "Lei, please get our documents, they're somewhere in my backpack."
Yes, we also changed the names accordingly. Azula is Lay, and I am Wei. Personally, I somehow don't really like these names, but nevertheless they are the simplest, and there were documents for them.
Azula, without appearing or somehow participating in the dialogue, silently approached me on her ostrich and, rummaging in her backpack, handed the documents to the strawberry.
By the way, in order to at least slightly hide or divert attention from the face and black hair, we wore straw hats. They also create a shadow around the face, hiding it from the sun. Which helps a lot considering we're approaching the desert.
"There's a small town further down there," he said, handing the documents back to the warrior. "Be careful in the desert, there are a lot of hungry predators roaming around and they might attack, especially at night."
"Thank you," I nodded, and Azula and I moved on.
Honestly? I expected problems. I can see from the princess's face that she does too. Somehow my luck taught me that in such little things something will always go down the drain. But no, the documents were checked and they were allowed to continue. Happens?
Gradually, as we moved, the trees thinned out and the grass became yellower and yellower. In turn, the sun burned stronger and stronger. And we decided to take a little rest after so many hours of travel and settled down in the shade of one of the trees near a small stream of water.
In very limited shade, because there were almost no leaves on the tree. To our surprise, there was fish in the river, and we decided not to waste our rations for now, because there was some "oops" moment.
We knew how to survive in the forests and the terrain in which most of our journey took place, but how in the same desert... In general, this moment was slippery, but there were no difficult adventures planned ahead, so we decided that we would just buy more stocks in the nearest city.
And if you believe the map, then it's literally an hour's drive away.
"Do you think we can get to Basing Se without incident?" - Azula asked me, looking into the distance.
"No," I simply answered, shrugging, "that's not in our character." Unfortunately or fortunately, adventures will stick to us, and we, of course, will be able to drive past them, despite ourselves, but... hardly.
"And I think so," the princess sighed, "but we need to drive through the desert as quickly as possible so that I can take off this terrible cloak and throw it away as quickly as possible." Or burned it, yes, definitely burned it!
Oh, and again again. Why do I need all this?
***
Our journey with Azula was interrupted in a small town in the middle of the steppes. Whatever one may say, it's still correct to call it a desert; it's just that, in contrast to the dense forest, the sand underfoot and the small amount of vegetation a priori looks like a desert.
But here you can still find fields with cereals and quite rivers and streams.
We realized this fact during our transition.
So, we stopped in a small town that literally has one street, with houses on it and various farms around. We needed to buy some provisions.
We stopped near a small shop, where there was clearly a merchant standing. Having dismounted, we decided to buy here.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed how two boys, almost children, hiding in the shadow of the counter, looked at each other cheerfully and threw something at the local officers of the law sitting nearby, who, according to the classics, look more like local bandits who control this village.
The egg hit one of the four strawberries, and the children disappeared from sight. But the guards got up and walked towards us.
"Hey, you're the one throwing eggs," said the chief, apparently the senior in rank. He had better clothes than the others, and weapons in the form of two small hammers on his belt.
"No," I answered, turning to them. Azula initially stood sideways and looked at them when they were just approaching.
- Do you see who you hit? - he said.
"No," I answered the same way, slightly amused by their reaction.
"The egg flew in from somewhere," the local lawman continued to press.
"Maybe a chicken was flying somewhere," Azula chuckled, causing one of those standing behind to laugh, but immediately fell silent when the main one looked at him.
- And you, I see, are a comedian? — the man shifted his gaze, "maybe you are that same chicken, and we need to properly... pluck you?" — the man cast a greasy look over Azula's body. Even though it was hidden by a cloak, it didn't stop the fantasy much.
But, apparently, no one planned to get to this point, and it all ended there.
"Here," meanwhile, the merchant put the supplies on the counter.
The main warrior, bumping me with his shoulder, took the supplies.
"Thank you for your support, the army appreciates your contribution," he said, throwing bags to his subordinates, "leave the city, otherwise the punishment will be so ...," again looking towards Azula, "that you will not be able to stand it." Believe me," he said, slamming his hands on the hammer on his hip.
"Soldiers must protect us from the people of fire," said the merchant, watching the departing warriors, "and these are not soldiers, but robbers."
Well, watching Azula begin to boil over this, I took her back to the ostriches, let's go buy it in another city, it's not such a problem, and we don't need trouble. More precisely, unnecessary attention.
But one of the two boys was already near our ostriches.
- Thank you for not giving me away! - he appeared.
We remained silent and sat on the ostriches, but the boy intercepted us.
- I will take you home and feed you ostrich horse meat.
Well... the meat turned out to be enough of an argument for us to follow the kid. We were greeted by their rather extensive farm of different animals... too different animals. Perhaps my brain was short-lived by the moment of the Rooster-pig and the sheep combined. After that, I simply didn't look out of harm's way. Well, fuck him.
-Are you friends with Lee? - Apparently, the father of the family came forward. At this name, Azula twitched funny, shooting a glance at the boy.
- They opposed the soldiers! And in the end they almost forced them to flee! — the kid who took our ostriches into the hangar justified us.
- Do these people have a name? - appeared from the house, apparently the mother of the family.
"My name is Wei, and my friend is Lei," I said, almost out of habit not making the standard gesture of greeting the Fire Nation. But he pulled himself together in time, and from the outside it was nothing more than an awkward twitching of his hands.
- In any case, anyone who opposed these nasty soldiers is a welcome guest here. They should be ashamed of themselves for wearing this uniform! - said Father Lee.
"Real soldiers fight in war, like Lee's older brother Sensu," the man added.
Word for word, and they went to feed us. Dinner passed in a rather uneventful atmosphere; not only Azula and I were tired during the day, but also the local people. We were given a haystack in the Barn, and I know and understand that this is all that these people can give us. Their house is not that big, and there is simply nowhere to put us there.
But, apparently, the aristocratic note made itself felt and, despite the fact that on the outside I was smiling, inside everything was writhing in pain.
I didn't understand this, given that I was already sleeping on the ground and we planned to continue sleeping on the ground, and on the hay, if we lay out more sleeping bags, generally excellent conditions.
However, Azula was of the same opinion and, thank Agni, waited until the owners left.
- Are they treating us like animals? - she asked, looking around with disgust.
"They have nowhere to put us," I shrugged, "and it's better than sleeping on the ground."
"Still," Azula replied, "it's just humiliating." Hiking is one thing, sleeping on a haystack at someone's house is another thing.
"You don't have to choose," I shrugged, "by the way, this is the first time I've seen one of the locals separate the army and bandits like this."
"It's not surprising," Azula shrugged, "they need to believe in something, and they believe that their son is not sitting in another village, robbing residents, but fighting at the front." What a pity that it doesn't work like that, and even they are constantly rotating.
"Well, I don't want to ruin their hopes," I shrugged and, yawning, suggested, "whatever you want, I'd rather sleep on a haystack than on the ground."
And taking out my sleeping bag, I lay down on top of it, without opening it, I don't need any hay to get inside, thank you, just a small spacer between me and the prickly hay. That's enough.
Azula looked around helplessly, tsked, rolled her eyes and repeated my actions, falling not far from me.
After about five minutes we both fell asleep, but apparently the princess wanted to have the last word.
- And it stinks in here!
In the morning, when we were almost leaving and, already sitting on our ostriches, were saying goodbye to our hospitable hosts, we saw dust on the road coming from the city.
And a couple of seconds later the same bandits appeared that were there yesterday.
- What do you think they need? asked Father Li.
"Huh, trouble," Azula replied. And yet, blood is not water, he and Zuko have too much in common.
- What do you want, Gou? - asked the man.
"Someone should tell you," their leader said with a rather nasty smile, "your son's battalion has been captured." Did you hear what the Fire People did to the previous batch of captive earthbenders?
"They dressed us in Fire Nation uniforms and left us unarmed on the front line," one of the singers cheerfully answered, "and watched what would happen."
- Think what you say! - Father Li was indignant.
"You don't have to be happy," the princess said sarcastically, "that means there will be a rotation soon, and, most likely, you can get there too."
"And, as far as I know, this is how they treat prisoners on both sides," I added, out of some habit adding a little agitation to the words, "and this is how they treat prisoners taken during escape, desertion or cowardly surrender." As far as I know, your son is a valiant warrior and it is unlikely that he would give up just like that, and soldiers captured in battle are not simply mocked. They are either exchanged or tortured," I said, but, feeling even Azula's reproachful look, I realized that I had blurted out something wrong, "well, if it's some kind of soldier in high ranks, yes.
"Hmm," was all the chief answered, "doesn't it disgust you to huddle in the shack of these pigs?" - he said and, turning around, drove away in the opposite direction.
While I was watching, a real drama unfolded behind me.
- What will happen to my brother? — Lee asked in an almost whiny voice.
"I'm going to war," the man said sharply, "I'll find Sensu and take him home."
Fuck, simple man. Leave your wife and son alone in this city, and go there yourself, I don't know where, without even possessing bending? What's up, can he even hold a weapon? Or am I seeing the birth of the legendary spear-wielding peasant?
Oh, okay.
— His full name: "Sensa"? - I clarified, deciding that, hell, why not.
Azula understood my train of thought, but I could see from my face that she didn't approve. I myself would not have approved, if this scene didn't protect my heart. What can I say? I have problems with hormones, I have a right.
- Yes…
- What front was he on? At least approximately?
"In the south, as far as I remember," the man said, looking at me with some barely noticeable hope.
"Great," I nodded, "first of all, your son will be released soon." Consider it a thank you for the night. Secondly, this farce will soon stop here. And if, Agni forbid, the coming Fire Mages do the same, you can call the bending word: Kira. Trust me, it will work. Be there," I waved my hand and headed forward, Azula, rolling her eyes, simply silently followed me.
- AND? - she asked me, - what does this mean?
- Why not? - I asked, - according to the plan, these lands will be reached within a few months, and these will already be our people and our colony. Their farm will feed a dozen nearby settlements, have you seen the number of crops and animals? Extra workers...
"I know that you can justify your action," the princess interrupted me, "but I'm wondering where your cold calculation went?" Then you got drunk at the bar, now this, what next? Will you decide that the avatar is right and go save the world from the evil Fire Nation?
"Don't exaggerate," I waved him off, "I told you, I solved my problems." Including lack of emotions. And this is a consequence. There are enemies, Azula, and we are at war with them. And there are people who have nothing to do with it. But there are creatures, and they must be exterminated. And these concepts must not be confused, otherwise sooner or later you yourself will become the last.
"Oh," Azula sighed, accepting my rebuke, but not impressed, "okay, I wanted to help - I helped, why are we going to the city now?"
-Didn't you hear me? — I turned my head in her direction, raising an eyebrow, "creatures." Necessary. Exterminate. And that's what we'll do.
From my intonation and gaze, I saw how the skin on Azula's neck stood up in single file. Apparently I put too many of the wrong emotions into this message.
We arrived in the city on time, just behind these same idiots. Who got up from their ostriches and surrounded the young girl. Their plan was clearly to have some fun. Lee's father, while his son was not listening, said that this is almost the norm here, no one can do anything to them anyway. I didn't stand on ceremony and immediately walked towards them.
The chief noticed me first.
- What did you forget here? - but I simply pushed him to the side with such force that he fell, I grabbed the second one, who had his back to me, by the shoulder and pushed him in the same way in the other direction.
The third and fourth stood very close to the girl, so the closest one got a fist in the face, and the one standing a little further got a kick in the knee, which caused an unpleasant crunch and a cry of pain.
"Close your eyes," I even said to the girl.
The one whose knee I broke didn't even try to get up, but the rest were already on their feet and all ran towards me together. The main one already has the hammers to his advantage.
The latter again caught a blow with his fist, only this time in the stomach, from which he bent in half and allowed me to throw him over him, knocking the main one off his feet. The second one pounced on my back, grabbing me.
An elbow strike to the ribs, and I easily freed myself from the grip, snatching the knife that was in my sleeve in a movement with my hand, and a fist blow to the nose flies towards the local wrestler, crushing it, because the fist has become heavier due to the knife, and I put in a lot of effort myself.
But the latter was already on his feet and was swinging his knife at me, I blocked the blow and delivered mine to his armpit. The second, having already come to his senses, attacked me again, but I, without ceremony, moved away from the direction of his swing with a knife and cut the tendons on his hand and, while he was moving away, I finished off the second with a stab in the neck, but with no plans to finish off the second, because I have to dodge a stone thrown at me by the local boss.
His main mistake was that he did not have time to move away a decent distance, so while he was swinging for the second time, I had already taken a step towards him, dodged the next stone, and after another step, he was within reach of me. When someone tries to hit me with his one-handed combat hammer, I let it pass me and hit the hand holding the weapon to disorient the enemy. For a second, he lost his practiced movements, which gave me the opportunity to then plant the knife in the fold of the same hand and, holding the knife inside him, like a kind of handle, I break his hand with a grip.
My hand is literally twisted behind my back, bleeding and lying with my face in the sand, this, I decided, was enough, and switched to the unfinished man, who was already running in my direction, to realize that this was a hopeless man, he didn't have time, I dealt with his boss in a few seconds.
I knock his hand with the knife to the side, in which he then flies due to the fact that he attacked completely incorrectly, and I finish off the fallen man with a throw of the knife to the head.
Two corpses, one barely conscious, the other with a broken leg, whining, had already crawled about five meters away. But it didn't work out, I just took out another knife, and within a second the little one fell to the ground.
— Did I say something about your composure? - Azula asked, - forget it. What about this?
"And this one will come with us," I chuckled.
And who said that my anger does not require an outlet?
And you can get so many interesting things out of this bald guy, oh-oh-oh. At least I hope so, ha.
In any case, the city residents, apparently slightly afraid of me, still saw us off with joyful cries.
The man woke up half an hour later because I was splashing water on him.
- They will find you and kill you!!! - was the first thing he said.
"No one will even hand us over," I chuckled, "unfortunately, you slept through how the residents joyfully saw me off and how they went to throw the corpses of your colleagues into the gutter." Anyway, let's get started. Tell me everything you know, and maybe I will be merciful.
- Will you let me go?
- I'll kill you quickly.
He didn't know much. What else should you expect? Why is he going to tell all Basingse's secrets here? Yes, in general there is almost nothing of value. Of course, we still have to convey the news through agents about Brother Lee, but, nevertheless, I expected to receive something more significant.
"Well, at least you did it all without bending," Azula concluded as we left the city, "which is good." Otherwise, I would have left you here to be torn apart by the benders who came after your soul, and I would have moved on.
"How malicious," I chuckled, "and where did the one who threw her leg over me at night and put her head on my shoulder go?"
- What!?
***
There were more adventures along the way, thank Agni and everyone else who is responsible for all this husk. In general, we have almost reached the lakes or rivers surrounding BasingSe. I ran from the other side and that's probably good.
Because on this side life is more... active. At least according to rumors, there is a ferry service that takes people directly to Basing Se. There are only more questions.
The influx of people is easy to explain, there is a lot of space - labor will come in handy, another question: how has information about the war not yet leaked inside?
Either they are transporting everyone far from being working meat, or I don't know. They have mastered mental bending and are letting everyone through special gates to erase the memory of the war? It sounds like nonsense, but what other options are there?
Well, it's trite, they forbid talking about it, and if someone does not follow this instruction, some kind of punishment immediately occurs. I didn't have the time or energy to dive into this matter at that time.
Let's take this version as a working one, since we don't have the rest. But we will understand it factually and internally.
Closer to Basingsa, nature was already felt better, green trees and grass appeared again under our feet, which we were immensely happy about. Getting food was no longer a problem. It's good that we didn't have to cross a real desert.
We decided to stop not far from the crossing itself, in a gorge near the lake, to swim for the first time in quite some time and eat clean. An incredible thrill.
- How are we going to swim? — I raised one eyebrow.
- Don't you have any underwear? - Azula answered, also raising her eyebrow, already undressing.
Yes, she didn't really care about the little things anymore, she wanted to swim, so she quickly took off her outerwear and went to the water, without even looking back.
However, I immediately followed her, throwing off everything except my trousers. We wore underwear suitable for travel, so it was more of a wrap around the body, which in a more modern society is not like a swimsuit, but rather outerwear can go beyond it.
But my stomach, neck, legs and arms were open anyway, and I remembered that I hadn't had sex for a very long time, and Azula was a very beautiful girl. It was hard not to stare at her, it's good at least I'm wearing equally dense fabrics, and all the embarrassment is not visible behind them.
But Azula sensed something through bending and, as if on purpose, began to tease me, straightening up somehow, now this way, now that way.
I think I'm going crazy. It's good that at least I have discipline, and I can swim and swim with a completely neutral face. We would still like to have lunch, but for this we need to catch fish.
Maybe she's taking revenge for laying down on me in that barn? Well, what do I have to do with it?
- So, which version do we follow? - Azula asked me while floating in the water.
- The same as before. A couple looking for better opportunities in life," I shrugged, "listen, would you like to heat up the water?"
"Heat it up yourself," the princess answered indifferently.
"Hm," I said, "I can't."
"Ah," Azula answered contentedly, clearly remembering this moment, but deciding to tease me, "okay."
And a second later the lake turned into a clean jacuzzi, where bubbles bubbled.
The two of us immediately made sounds of relief. After all, taking a steam bath in warm water is also a kind of pleasure. But Azula didn't stop there and steam began to rise from the water.
"Sit still," said the girl, "I'll undress and sit naked for a while."
Here is a simple man, only a partition of steam covers us, and I see its outline. She definitely seems to want me to go crazy.
Well, okay, two people can play this game. I hope they can see my boner through the steam. Therefore, without taking your eyes off Azula's figure. And I undressed, of course, with my side to her.
And then, already fully naked, I saw that there was a reaction when Azula's figure abruptly stood back to me, and not sideways.
Hehe.
After steaming for another ten minutes, we finally got dressed and got out. And at the same time, both pretended that they were red from heat, and not from shame.
Well, what can I say, my hormones are crazy, and I suppose hers are too. Oh, that could certainly be a problem.
- How can you not have information about... about this? — the princess was quietly indignant, looking at the fucking port for ships with thousands of people.
We both thought that this was at most a pier where you could swim to the other side, and no one knew anything about Basings, but there was a real office, security and passes for documents. How can this be done at our reconnaissance site?
- Port. A real port for the mass transportation of people," the princess continued to mutter, "but what's on the other side?" Red carpet right to the main entrance to the city?
"Hush," I said, "then you will express all this to our intelligence, and now we will act according to the fact."
We stood in line in front of the ferry pass; the line was quite long, but it couldn't compare with the stand behind which sat a fat woman in Fire Nation colors and glasses on a chain. This cabinet was two heads taller than me. What kind of idiocy?
"Documents," an unpleasant voice sounded from above as we approached.
"Here," I put mine and Azulina's documents on the counter.
Then there was silence while she examined our documents. And even the silence dragged on. Which started to stress me out a little.
— The purpose of visiting Basingse? — she asked still continuing to look at something.
"Refugees," I shrugged.
"That's understandable," she chuckled, "what benefits do you plan to bring to the city?"
Yeah, without even hiding.
"We don't know yet," I answered, "I'm a good blacksmith, and my girlfriend is not bad in philosophy."
"Pfft, who needs this philosophy," the lady answered, lowering the volume slightly, as if she was saying it under her breath.
"Well, in order to sit somewhere outside the city and enjoy your imaginary power, you don't need it, yes," Azula couldn't hold her tongue.
"Refused," the grandmother muttered through clenched teeth, literally throwing out the documents, "show your wit elsewhere."
I had to squeeze Azula's hand really hard to distract her from her anger at least a little, otherwise she would have started throwing fire right now.
So I grabbed her forearm and pulled her aside for others like us.
"Well, what was that," I hissed through clenched teeth, "are you going to respond to every tease like that?!" So that they nail us right at the entrance?
"That stupid bitch pissed me off," Azula said.
- Oh, can I give her a medal? Someone besides Zuko who could get under your skin? - I sarcastically, - dear princess, if this continues, then it's easier to jump off a cliff than to fall into the hands of the Dai Li, because otherwise you will know all the stages of despair, and they won't make the mistake they made with me a second time.
"Oh, stupid," said a voice in my head. Perhaps it was mine, but the word is not a sparrow, and the princess slowly began to understand what I said. I could see the thought process on his face.
- What? - she asked, - do you mean you have already been to Basings? And he was silent!?
"They took me there as a prisoner," I answered, "and they tortured me there, they mistook me for the Avatar, so they tortured me carefully, trying to cause as much pain as possible and not kill me." I escaped only by a miracle, there with the help of fire I learned to fly, there are walls inside.
- AND?! - Still continuing to pout with rage, the princess asked why. You. Silent!?
"Because I have zero point zero information," I answered, "but you know, I don't want to remember captivity, because a couple of months ago I caught all the signs of PTSD from it for a couple of days!"
"... okay," the princess shrugged, snatching it from my hand, "both are good." Let's go and think about what to do next.
It was at this moment that a guy and a girl started approaching us.
- Did you get kicked out too? - the guy asked, - here we are. We are planning to go through the snake pass, would you like to come with us?
- Snake Pass? - asked the princess.
"A narrow earthen pass between two lakes," the girl answered, "they say some spirits live there, but we don't believe it."
"Hmm," I thought.
What should we think? Do we have any alternatives? Looks like no. Therefore we must agree. And apparently Azula had similar thoughts, so she replied:
"Yes, let's go," nodding his head and trying to hide all his arrogance.
Well, what can I say, they just turned around and walked away, and we followed them. Somehow I don't like it. Okay, Azula and I, we don't seem to be afraid of spirits, we beat them, including the Avatar. But ordinary people, in theory, should be afraid of this.
So, frankly, this all looks like a terrible hoax. And they walk somehow painfully confidently, as if they had already been there. In general, their friends will most likely be waiting for us very soon, and they will gently ask for payment for the trip there and back.
When we reached the very pass, we saw a cheerful sign along with the message "Leave." Well, great.
"So, well, here we are," said the guy.
"Not yet," I chuckled, "we need to get to the other side, remember."
"We remember, we remember," the girl sarcastically, "come out."
Well, as I expected, a bunch of ragamuffins with weapons emerged from behind the nearest hillock.
"Money and jewelry," the one who led us here stated the fact too simply.
"How expected," Azula rolled her eyes.
Throwing the knife at the farthest of the attackers, I jumped on the nearest ones, taking out two more knives. These scum hardly know how to use weapons, and I calmly cut out about six people, they really did not present any difficulty, and I just walked over them almost in one continuous movement.
When Azula finished the second, where she killed the first with a sharp and unexpected blow to the jaw. Well, or turned it off, how do I know.
In any case, we stared at each other among the mountains of corpses. Spark, Storm, Misunderstanding.
"I..." Azula drawled, "what about without bending against weapons?"
Poom poom, we have a problem. The princess is still a typical bender, albeit a melee one, she is used to relying on her bending, but what to do without it? Her reflexes are stupidly fighting in the wrong direction, so to speak.
"And so," I shrugged, "we'll teach you." Were you taught hand-to-hand combat?
"Yes, but against other benders," she answered somewhat stunned, "but against a person with a weapon it's just fire, that's all." But as…
"Okay, it doesn't matter, let's go, we still have a lot of time to spend walking along this pass," I sighed heavily. Problems came from unexpected places.
- Do you think there is something in danger for us there? Azula raised one eyebrow mockingly.
"My experience tells me that if people call a place cursed, then something is definitely wrong there," I answered, "so I think there won't be any surprises here either."
***
Snake Pass... sounds scary, but in fact we walked quite calmly, and there were no such spirits. Except that the road was quite dangerous. She walked along the middle of a sheer cliff, and a rockfall or landslide of the road itself could happen quite easily. We even heard it a couple of times, but somehow we weren't too worried. The reaction speed should be enough, if anything.
Maybe.
But there is simply no point in being afraid: there is still only one path. So let's move forward and think about the goal, and not about a random stone on our heads.
- Look! - Azula exclaimed, pointing to one of our ships, which, at the moment when the princess noticed it, was turning in our direction with catapults.
- Oh, fuck! - I exclaimed, - like the ships of "refugees", they are blind and deaf, but as the princess walks along the isthmus, they "must be shot." Oh, if we didn't have a goal, I would have put everyone there to hell.
— How can you let huge ships pass!? - Azula also exclaimed, expecting a shot at us.
"Corruption," I shrugged, "I don't know how and who agreed with them, but obviously part of the fees from those leaving goes to them." And now we will get shells.
"I'll just burn them now," Aula grimaced.
"Yeah, and you'll immediately tell everyone that there's a fire mage here somewhere?" And not just a fire mage, but also one with a blue flame," I chuckled, "there are many of them, what do you think?"
- And what do you suggest?
"Run," I said, grabbing Azula's hand and starting to run to the side.
— An excellent plan, if I understand correctly! Reliable as a Piandao watch! - she said, pulling her hand away and matching me so that I wouldn't drag her.
- We didn't give in to them! - I shouted, - they'll fire a couple of volleys and sail away about their business, I'm sure.
Along with my words, the first stones just flew somewhere higher behind us.
- You are sure? - How can you give off sarcastic notes while running?
"I think so," I answered streamlinedly, "who knows what's in their heads!"
It was under these words that the second volley of burning stones arrived somewhere behind us again.
- They're reloading again! You were wrong! - Azula said somehow even with joy.
"Yes, yes," I waved him off, "so what now?"
- I am asking you! There is only an open road ahead! Are we planning to run through everything?
"I feel something in the water," the spirit said, "Be careful, there's something clearly not a squirrel that decided to swim there."
Damn it!
"I noticed something strange floating in the water," I said to my companion.
"Big," the spirit suggested.
"It's big," I repeated, "so we run until they leave us behind; jumping into the water is not an option."
- Agni! — the princess, who was already slightly exhausted, cursed.
We ran fast, and not with endurance, so the air in our lungs ran out very quickly, at least for Azula.
Then I notice out of the corner of my eye that this time the stones are flying much more accurately, so I pull Azula's hand towards me and immediately fall to the ground, turning over so that the princess is under me.
Before she had time to be indignant, the stones broke the road right in front of us and flew into fragments over our heads.
- I will find them and kill them after all this! Azula exclaimed from underneath me.
And I? And I tried not to show with my face that I was in pain, and urgently healed several wounds on my back. Thank God, only bruises and not open wounds. Because I somehow don't want to explain the torn clothes.
"Maybe you'll get off me already?" - asked Azula, - there will be a volley again now!
"Quiet, lie down," I said, "don't move." I see them.
- Congratulations! - the princess hissed, - what next?
"Then we'll pretend to be corpses," I hissed no less venomously in her ear.
- You're just a genius!
"It's working for now," I answered her, slightly irritated, "they don't recharge." Therefore, lie down silently.
As a result, we lay there for another ten minutes until the ship sailed away to do its ship business. And only after that we got up.
"Oh, well, that's an excellent plan, of course," Azula said, trying to somehow put her clothes in order. Unfortunately, this is not a Fire Nation uniform, which is difficult to even get dirty, but simple clothing. And now she is dirty, yes, just like us. Two homeless people are going to take over the city, Agni forbid.
"There were no others," I shrugged, "apparently, they really wanted to hit us, maybe they trained their accuracy, who knows, but I didn't want to run all this way."
"Yes, yes," answered the princess, "okay, the plan wasn't so bad." I'm just all dirty and it annoys me. Let's go further.
"I understand," I nodded.
It was not very pleasant to go further, because the dust was on us everywhere: on the cloak and under the cloak, and wherever possible, and this was very annoying. Of course, we are not sugar-coated, but the situation is very unpleasant. We literally bathed in mud.
The next stumbling point for us was the area of water. It's just that the rock went under the water, and that's why there are about five hundred meters of clean water there.
"I still feel something under the water," said the spirit, "it's better not to go into the water, fly over."
"We'd better not get into the water here," I said, "I really don't like what I saw there."
- What you see?
"Something large, floating close to the surface of the water," I answered as streamlined as possible, "grab onto me, now we'll fly over."
"Tch," Azula rolled her eyes, walking up to me and wrapping her arms around my neck.
Taking a breath of fresh sea air, I listened to the feeling of the air around me and, to my surprise, noticed the anomaly that Vaatu had spoken about. It was as if something in the water was attracting currents of air. You definitely need to fly as high as possible.
I had to strain as hard as possible in order to give out at least a little fiery air to disguise the flight. It's not that difficult, I just left a little reserve of air in me, which I let out during my "gliding" along the air flows.
In principle, it looked normal; for a person who doesn't know physics, it would definitely do. I'm talking about Azula, if anything.
When we flew through the middle of the isthmus of water, I felt how the air currents with triple force began to concentrate directly below us.
- Hold on! - I said, disconnecting from the air currents and filling myself with bending, I push us strongly to the side, and just in time, because some huge snake jumped out from under the water and snapped its jaw exactly where we were a second ago.
True, we were falling, so we had to slow down the fall using the old method, blowing out air. We were unable to gain altitude using this method, but we fell almost painlessly.
"I understand why people don't like this place!" Azula exclaimed as she jumped to her feet and saw the snake getting ready to spit something out of its mouth.
- Me too! - I said, not allowing the princess to start the battle, and, grabbing her hand, I simply ran. There was an ascent to a height, and this time the road ran right along the ridge itself, and the snake was not a threat to us in principle.
- Why are we running away again!
"Because now we will constantly try not to engage in battle," I answered, "without bending we will not defeat this miracle Yudo, but with bending it will take at least ten minutes, during which we can be noticed." What's the point? It's just an animal that we'll move on from now.
"Well, of course," the princess rolled her eyes, "cold logic as always."
We ran for another five minutes, just in case, and only then stopped. Then the rock went straight up and widened, it was no longer a thin path, so we decided to stop and swim somewhere. At least I made such a proposal, because I simply could not stand the dirt anymore.
"Do you think we can find water here somewhere?" We're above sea level," Azula raised one eyebrow, not forgetting, of course.
"This is a lake at best," I chuckled, "but maybe you can find water, there are a lot of rocks here, and some hot water could come up."
I did not say that this isthmus, most likely, in principle, is the result of a shift of tectonic plates, and therefore, at the very top of the head there could be anything, from the bones of old animals to the same hot spring. And after ten minutes of searching, in one crevice there was a small round depression, and there was water there, from which steam was even coming out.
"Apparently there was some kind of earth bender here," the princess said, looking at the rather clear edges of the water pool.
"Maybe," I shrugged, "or maybe nature just did its best." In any case, you can finally take a swim!
"Go behind those stones," Azula said, "I'll go first!"
"Eh, no," I chuckled, "there's steam and so on, almost nothing is visible, so we can swim at the same time, I'm not going to endure even ten minutes."
- No! - Azula exclaimed, blushing a little, apparently remembering our last shared bath.
"Yes, Azula," I exhaled, "I'm very tired and I want to relax, so let's just stand on opposite sides of the pond and that's it."
Saying this, I already walked around the small pond and began to undress, quickly getting into the warm water and relaxing. The problem was discovered when the princess climbed in too. It turned out that the reservoir is not that big. Well, okay, the main thing is that nothing is visible except outlines, and the fact that they started kicking their legs to get themselves into a more comfortable position, then okay.
After resting, it turned out that we were almost there, just a couple of hours, and by evening we arrived at the huge, almost undisguised premises of the station.
"Station," Azula said somehow even detachedly, "seriously, a station?" I'll personally burn a dozen people when we're done here.
"Well, hush, hush," I chuckled, looking at the rather large-scale construction, given the realities around it, illuminated by some strange lamps.
And there it was as if I had returned to my own world, queues, tickets and so on, waiting places near the tracks for the rails. The only thing is that the train is pushed by earth mages, there is no automation. However, they managed to get out of it as best they could. There's clearly a lack of brains here, because in the Fire Nation we already have a lot of technology, and more will appear soon. Because even I feel how close the technological breakthrough is. And there it's not far from electronics.
However, that's just me, I thought about it. Our train had already arrived, and we, like a dozen other people, boarded it.
To my surprise, the ride was quite smooth, and the inside of the train was even lit up. Which made it possible to observe absolute darkness outside. It was only when we started approaching the walls of BasingSe that we saw the lighting on top of them.
The train itself drove into a small hole in the wall, showing us that the walls were about ten meters thick, which was even a little terrifying. It's good that there were no huge guys without skin inside, otherwise I would definitely have thought about life.
As soon as we left the wall tunnel, we were both stunned. The view opened up to a bunch of lights and streets below us, which were quite well lit even at the external level. Everyone else in the carriage was similarly staring out the windows, surveying the outer level.
To be honest, despite the lighting, it was noticeable that this was the worst area, simply because the buildings there were quite old and in some places slightly destroyed. But, nevertheless, there are a lot of well-made streets with fountains and decent houses. It is logical, apparently, that even the Ghetto has its own ghetto. Well, what can you do? The external level is too huge, so there will be a different standard of living there. As far as I understand, we are being taken straight to the middle level. I wonder why?
Okay, we'll get there and find out.