— Tell me about your hobby.
— I like observing venomous snakes in the wild. You know, nothing compares to that thrill when you're watching them up close, knowing they could bite you at any moment and…
— You work in an office full of women?
— Yeah.
***
Chan. One Month Later
Streams of blue fire twisted above the deck in a furious vortex. Had some unfortunate observer from the Earth Kingdom happened to witness the scene, they might well have died of a heart attack, overwhelmed by the sheer joy of encountering masters of such power at such close range. Any member of the Water Tribes would most likely have shared the mainlanders' opinion—quite possibly with much the same consequences for their health.
Then again, even among the people of the Fire Nation archipelago, very few would have willingly risked setting foot on the battleship's upper deck at that moment. The two figures locked together at the very heart of the fiery tempest, however, cared nothing for the opinions of outsiders.
The tall, broad-shouldered man moved with deceptive slowness. His arms swept through the air only occasionally, his footwork barely perceptible, yet time and again he evaded every attack while forcing his opponent to give ground. The girl's more slender figure whirled around him, combining breathtaking grace with astonishing speed. Again and again she rushed in, exchanged several feather-light strikes, then instantly broke away to avoid the answering torrent of fire.
Every attack, every movement from either combatant was accompanied by the deep, resonant roar of flames bursting from their hands, the tips of their boots, their heels, or even their open mouths. The blue flashes of one exchange had no time to fade before fresh ones replaced them, and the firestorm howled ever more savagely, ever faster.
Another heartbeat—and the two figures lunged toward one another. They collided, and a wall of fire, carrying the full might of the vortex, drew a mournful groan from the steel deck, which had already been heated to a pale crimson glow and was steadily whitening with the heat. Yet the hellishly hot surface beneath their feet concerned the combatants no more than the opinions of onlookers. The man swept his arm once more, while the woman spun around him. A new vortex was already taking shape.
"How long have they been at it, Lo?" the woman standing atop the deck turret asked, turning to her companion.
Even from nearly fifty yards away, the desiccating heat was impossible to ignore. What the warriors in the corridors below deck must have been enduring was difficult even to imagine.
"As if you didn't know yourself, Li?" (Yes, yes, there are millions of women with that name in the Fire Nation too! — the author's cry of despair.) replied the short old woman, long since stripped of the last traces of her former beauty, addressing her twin sister. "Two hours already, and neither of them is even breathing hard."
"Remarkable. I daresay these matches are doing more for the princess than months of ordinary training ever could."
"Matches?" Lo raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Look more closely. This isn't a match. It's a dance. A beautiful dance between the two most dangerous predators."
"Yes... I suppose they really are well matched. They'll make quite an interesting couple..."
"If they don't kill each other first, of course," the old woman agreed.
"Isn't that why we're here? To make sure they don't?" her sister asked philosophically.
"Yes, but they don't need our interference right now. And, to be honest, it wouldn't be possible even if they did. So, sister, how about a cup of tea?"
"Excellent idea... Ah, well, let's leave our lovebirds to their cooing. Lord Ozai will be pleased to hear that the prospective candidate truly is quite impressive. Come, let's have some tea."
"Lovebirds, hmm? More like a dragon and a tiger. But you're right. Tea shouldn't be kept waiting."
And with that, the two distinguished ladies who had spent their lives raising Fire Nation royalty departed their observation post, while below them the two firebenders with anything but simple personalities continued their "training."
***
The lookout's cry of "Land ho!" interrupted us just as we reached the final movements of our training. Azula was beginning to tire, and I was feeling the strain myself, so the moment we heard the shout, our eyes met. Without exchanging a single word, we both came to the same decision and stopped.
The princess tilted her head back to look up at the lookout tower, then turned to scan the horizon ahead before irritably brushing a loose strand of hair away from her face. The gesture was entirely reflexive—this particular lock seemed determined to fall into her eyes at every opportunity—but that trivial annoyance had very little to do with the source of her irritation.
By now, I had become thoroughly convinced that Ozai's daughter possessed a remarkably complicated and contradictory nature. Or rather... simple. Once you understood a few key things about her. But… still complicated.
At the moment, for instance, what annoyed her most was that we had been interrupted. The fact that she herself had been more than ready to stop didn't bother her in the slightest. In other words, Azula could effortlessly combine happiness that the voyage was nearly over, satisfaction at the unexpected chance to rest and relax, and sincere indignation that some insolent fool had dared interrupt her in the middle of what she was doing.
"Excellent." A heartbeat later, every trace of emotion had been tucked safely away behind her usual mask. "Let's hope this won't take long."
"I imagine we'll be entering the harbor within a couple of hours," I replied calmly, stepping up beside her.
"Good to hear." The princess casually adjusted her sleeve, pointedly keeping her eyes off me. "See to everything here. I'll be in my quarters."
"Of course."
I watched her proud retreating figure for a moment before letting out a silent sigh and making my way toward the bow.
At last... Yu Dao.
Soon I'd see Suki and the Kyoshi warriors again, drink tea with Morishita, and finally get a break from Azula. To be perfectly honest, there were times when I really wanted to... well, not exactly strangle her, but something in that general vicinity.
Our relationship had developed into something... peculiar.
We got along reasonably well, and we even favored almost identical fighting styles—though there was nothing surprising about that. An "aggressive jinki" was simply in the nature of firebenders. The princess, however, was far too straightforward, whereas I preferred every dirty trick available and making full use of the terrain. I distinctly remembered how astonished a certain someone had been when that certain someone ended up wrapped inside a tapestry whose supports I'd quietly cut during one of our training sessions. But never mind.
(End of Chapter)
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