A warm welcome <Kei Lan, Earth Kingdom>

[jp]

(Feel free to join or take a role of one of the boys or relatives of one the boys if it fits your character)

A bunch of young boys are standing around in a circle. Suddenly they turn their attention toward a stranger entering town. They started whisper after they took a look at the stranger. The group of boys looked far from dangerous, but certainly they didn't give a friendly impression.

Jiaro walking slowly made his way into Kei Lan. He notices the boys paying attention to him, but he decides to ignore them. "I should be out of town before the next sunrise, locals can only get me in trouble. After a short rest I should get out of here again, if I would want a vacation I should wait for a more pleasant city" Jiaro uses some rational thought to assure himself that his plans are right. He takes a quick look from under his hood to see if the local boys are still standing there. "Ugh! they're heading this way, just keep ignoring them" Jiaro was becoming uncomfortable with the boys heading his way, he rather kept his stay in town as unnoticed as possible.

"Hey, nice spear" The largest boy yelled toward Jiaro. "Did you steal that from the fire nation soldiers?" A smaller quickly launched a question toward Jiaro after."Ignore them, these questions need answers, it's none of their business" Jiaro kept his head straight a head of himself, his hood over his head covering his eyes and the rest of his face emotionless. "I bet he one of the fire nation." "No, fire nation soldiers are not stupid enough to come here alone!" "But he's wearing fire nation clothes!" "No, he's not!" Jiaro was becoming very nervous by the discussion, if they discovered he was of fire nation blood there was a small chance he would leave the town alive.

"You got some sharp eyes, this indeed a spear made by the fire nation, but I don't think a fire nation soldier ever would travel alone in the earth kingdoms." Jiaro wanted to make sure the boys wouldn't expect anything, but he didn't want to lie either, especially about his heritage. Somewhere he felt some kind of pride for the fire nation.

"Wow, can I have the spear? You can always steal another spear, I bet you stole thousands already!" The largest boy was the first to open his mouth again. "No, I want it!""No, give it to me!" Some of the other boys tried their shot. Jiaro was starting to feel more comfortable and was surprised they all fell for his half truth. "You know what, if you bring me to a decent inn, I'll give you 3 coins, so you can spend as you like" Jiaro replied in a calm way. "We'll show you the inn, if you give us your spear, we'll share it" Again it was the largest boy to take the word. "In that case I'll look for a place to sleep myself" As Jiaro replied started walking again toward the center of Kei Lan. "Greedy! just keep walking!" "we could have made 3 coins!" "Shhh! we don't need his coins!" Jiaro could hear the discussion starting behind him with some nice and some hateful opinions about him.

"Well, that didn't turn out as I expected, most would have taken the first offer, not? Must be the earth kingdom persistence, should have thought of that. Well, one mistake won't get me into trouble... hopefully" Thought Jiaro. Unsure where to go where to look, Jiaro just kept walking straight ahead.

[jp]

The sun was starting to set and Jiaro was still looking for a place to stay that night. He walked past one inn, but it was far from his idea of an ideal place to spend a night. It looked like it was falling apart, the entire place was old and could use some fixing. However, that wasn't the main reason Jiaro continued his search, cause each single person inside looked like he could put a knife in his back.

"Hey you! Looking for a place to spend the night!" A half naked woman was shouting to Jiaro from an alley. "Ignore her, you're not interested" Jiaro thought to himself. He kept his view straight ahead. "Broke ass!" Sounded from the alley.

"This village is a bit less nice and quiet, than I thought it would be. Explains the rude behaviour of the boys too, but now I should find a place to rest and hopefully something decent." Jiaro was slowly understanding in what kind of village ended up and slightly losing hope that he would find a good place to stay.

[jp]

Jiaro was getting quite tired and still hadn't find a place to rest. He had seem about all of the town, but didn't see anything he would judge as a "safe place" to rest. The sun had almost set and Jiaro was uncomfortable with that in mind.

While passing through one of the alley's during his search, he suddenly heard a voice from behind. "Hey young man, you are not from here, are you? Are is interested in a small job by chance?" Jiaro turned around he looked at a shady looking man stepping out one of the buildings. Jiaro didn't like the idea, but he thought it might be his only chance to find something in this night. Thinking about it, he might even look shadier than this stranger. "Well, I might be able to help out, I just hope you could do something in return" Jiaro replied in a clear voice. "Ah, of course, there's a pay for the job, not sure what you're interested in?" The spoke in a very polite way as if he was a very decent person, which didn't seem to match his appearance. "I'm looking for a place to rest for the night, the inns around here just seem... so.." Jiaro was looking for the right word to describe the inns he had seen, without insulting the man. Before he had found a word the man already replied. "Haha, I hear that often from passing travelers. It's a simple job, just delivering a some vegetables to a restaurant down the street. I crippled my leg, so it'll take me a lot of time and a lot of pain to get there. After you deliver the vegetables and ask about a place to rest, they'll help you. Where are my manners by the way, I'm Fong." The man spoke in a bright and relieved voice as he holds out his hand. Jiaro was not really sure yet if he would take the job, but the way the man spoke to him he couldn't really refuse and it never hurts to help a out a man. "I'm Jiaro, nice to meet you, the job sounds fair, just give me the vegetables and tell me where I should bring them." Jiaro wanted to ask what happened to his leg, but than he thought he should respect the man's privacy. Fong went inside picked up a crate from around the corner of the door and gave it to Jiaro. "Thank you so much, it saves me a lot of time and pain, I hope you'll be glad with your part of the deal. The restaurant left out of the alley, into the large road, then a 10 minute walk till you'll see a sign "mountain badger" at your left hand, that's the restaurant." The crate is a lighter than Jiaro expected, than again it are only vegetables. "I guess, I'll be on my way then, but euhm... are you sure they will give me a place to sleep there, it's a restaurant after all."
"Don't worry, it our very open people and they know that anybody who brings vegetables is send by me." Fong speaks in a friendly voice. "I'll take your word for it then, I'll be going then, euh.. thank you and bye."Clearly Jiaro wasn't sure how to reply. "No, thank you and farewell my friend." Fong replied smiling.

Jiaro walked out of the alley into the larger street. Feeling quite happy as this seemed to be the happy ending to his search, the place could be quite simply, but unlikely it'll be filled with the thieves and hooker crowd. The sun was completely set by now, but the large road was lit by lanterns. The road was completely empty, however he did notice some moving shadows in the alleys from time to time. It made him uncomfortable, but he kept going.
Jiaro was trying how long he had been walking, his guess was about 5 minutes, when he was crossing a bridge. Suddenly he heard a voice from behind. "Sir, could I have that crate?" A rather small man was standing behind him at the start of the bridge. Jiaro turned around, but was confused by the question as he didn't understand how somebody could ask for a crate like that. "Sorry, what did you say?" it was Jiaro's guess that he misunderstood. "I said I wanted the crate" The man sounded a lot less innocent and a lot more aggressive this time. A second man came to join the first man, with the 2 f them they blocked that side of the bridge.
Jiaro was starting to feel uneasy as he knew this meant trouble. "It are just vegetables, nothing worth creating trouble for." Jiaro made sure he sounded confident. "We'll decide that, don't you think?" From the way Jiaro was going Jiaro heard another a third voice. He turned around to look at this man, but it turned out there were 2 of them. Both sides of the bridge blocked by these guys. Jiaro quickly dropped the crate and in one movement draws his spear from his back. "Guys, are you so hungry that'll go through all this for vegetables." Jiaro was moving toward the side of the bridge and shoved the crate with him. The four men were slowly moving forward, leaving Jiaro less and less space to move. They stopped moving when Jiaro reached the side of the bridge. Jiaro took a look down to see if he could jump if he had too, it was quite high, but if he had to, he would. With no room left behind him, Jiaro was standing at the side of the bridge unsure what the next move would be of the 4 men.