A Visit to the Capital <Lun Yang, Fire Nation>

[daishuakatsumitana]

Daishu absently swept her dark hair back into her bun, allowing the one piece over her eye to remain stationary. She rode in the carraige feeling very alone, simply sitting with a stony expression as her family exclaimed at the sites surrounding them. Suddenly the carraige came to an abrupt halt in the middle of a cloud of dust. The footman opened the door for the branch of the Royal family, and helped each and every one of them out.
Except Daishu.
She jumped out onto the ground unceremoniously, her boots leaving a dusty footprint in the red road. It was not as if she was going to listen to her parents now that there was time to really learn to fight. Making an excuse to go on a little excursion around the city, Daishu walked off in her sulky state, because there was a set curfew for nine. Her hands fell at her sides and sorely missed her dagger. She longed to whip it at a tree trunk or, more violently, her friend's heads when they mock battled in secret. But what was back in her city was back in her city. Nothing to do now but explore and try to keep from being recognized. She wandered into the middle of town, taking in all the shops and the hustle and bustle of daily life with raised eyebrows.
"So this is what it's like on the outside", she muttered.

[rairii]

Rairii leaned heavily against the counter of a stand near the middle of the market, rubbing her temples in annoyance while she tried to argue with an aging man who claimed to be in charge of the dilapidated old pack-selling booth. She shifted her weight to lean on her elbows and tried her next argument. "But, Sir, you have so many bags and mine is falling apart at the seams. Surely someone as wise as yourself knows I can't afford anything that costs such an amount as nine silver pieces. Isn't five enough?"
"I already lowered it from eleven, Miss. Don't make me call the city guards on you."
She bit her lip, wondering if it was worth it. She needed a new pack or else all the supplies she'd collected throughout the day would fall out, wasting her hard earned smattering of copper and silver pieces. She sighed, giving up, "Very well, Sir." She walked off, seeming crest-fallen, but quickly snatched one of the packs while their maker wasn't looking. Stuffing in her old bag, to switch them later, Rairii walked off towards an old shop a little down the dirt road.
As reddish dust swirled around her sandals, Rai longed to walk around in her bare feet, the dirt filling in between her toes, but sandals were more proper for shopping in the capital city.
Just before entering the shop, a girl standing alone caught her eye. It wasn't just that she was all alone, Rai was and she hadn't drawn too much attention, not since the incident in Hokage. She had a faint look of bored arrogance, the look of nobility. Rairii sighed, shuffling her feet on the ground. Things were simpler back home, and even in Hokage. Only soldiers or merchants, stopping to do their business. This was Lun Yang, a city crawling in pampered nobles and high ranking military men. She wrinkled her nose, disgusted at the thought. Too good for us common-born, eh?

[daishuakatsumitana]

Daishu scowled at her feet. At least she knew the layout of Lai Nao. Here it was just...ablaze with people and shops, carts and komodo rhinos. It was confusing. She leaned back on her heels, seemingly looking for something. She found it. A person justy scuttling along, raggedy and dusty.
"Finally", Daishu grumbled.
She had longed to see a normal person around here! Well, normal as in the people from Lai Nao. And she had a couple questions to ask. Her feet began moving toward that person she had spotted. Her lungs were filled to the brim with the searing air of the summer day and the dirt from a dusty street. She approached that person cautiously, watching their scuffling movements. Everytime they noticed Daishu looking at them, they gave her a hard stare, but moved even faster. Finally Daishu broke into a run and caught the person by the arm gracefully.
"Excuse me", she said,"but would you happen to know where I can get a place to stay around here"?

[rairii]

Rairii raised an eyebrow and unceremoniously plucked her arm away from the girl who had approached her. Shaking out raven curls she thought for a moment, frowning in concentration as she tried to remember the basic layout explanation a merchant had been kind enough to give her. She would've taken up his offer on a map if he hadn't been so stubborn with his ridiculously high price. What had he said about places to stay. Something about the main road... Ah, yes.
Rairii loaded all her purchases into one arm as she used her free hand to point down the road. "This here is the main street in the market. Just down there, before it turns into the residential district, there are some inns. Chose wisely. The cheap ones have shady folk inside and the expensive ones are... Well, they're expensive."
Using the the delay as something that could actually be to her advantage, Rairii shifted a few items into the new bag and slung it over her shoulder along with the old one, making her load much easier. She looked back at the girl standing before her and asked, "Now, do you need any more information, or may I be on my way?"

[daishuakatsumitana]

Daishu gave the girl her best attempt at a smile, which, admittedly, turned into a goofy, buck-toothed grin.
"Thanks", she muttered, eying the girl carefully.
'When in public, you must always be kind, caring, and hospitible'. Daishu recalled her father scolding her for this mishap with a traveler a few years back, but only until her mother had left the room.
"Yes, there is one thing I'd like to know". She said in reply to the girl's tonally absent question.
"Do you know if Fire Lord Ozai happens to be in the capital at the present time"?
She'd hoped for a bad answer. She NEEDED a bad answer. Ozai's rasping, long winded seminars on the economic junctures of the Fire nation and it's agricultural welfare would put her to sleep if he found out their royal branch was here. Since her father had only recently returned from a meeting with the Fire Lord-suprisingly unharmed- it was apparent that their help was needed in some situations, as their ancestors had archived their spot in history by giving tactical information to the previous rulers of the nation. The girl standing beside Daishu looked annoyed ever so slightly by the question, but not much affected. Daishu studied the girl once more.
Wait.
Something was different about her now. Was it... the bag? Daishu tried to recall the shape and size of the bag before, but all that really stuck out was the...two bags?!
Daishu narrowed her golden eyes, but said nothing, standing beside the girl who made her feel just a tad uncomfortable right now.

[rairii]

Rairii stared at the girl, an incredulous look spreading across her features, as she answered the question, trying her hardest to make her tone more respectful, and less uncaring. "Honestly, Miss. Do I look like I'm from around here? As shocking as it may seem, I'm not a Lun Yang resident, nor do I pay heed to the local gossip, and thus I don't know, nor will I ever know, if the firelord is present at this time. Chances are he is, yet there's a possibility he is not. So I'd suggest checking with the merchants, or even better, going to the palace to find out for yourself. Those merchants, never can trust 'em. Not that any of us common folk are to be trusted, never know when we'll do something downright vulgar."
By this point, Rairii was trying to fight back a laugh, and so far successful, but you could never be too sure. Her eyes were dancing and the last few words held a hint of amusement. Again, one could never be too sure.
Regaining composure, she added a few words to her latest statement, "I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help, but as I said, I'm a traveler with no taste for gossip. It just causes trouble no matter the city."

[daishuakatsumitana]

Daishu shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Her rough skin itched on her arms and she scratched at it ruthlessly.
"It's alright. Personally, I despise this place. Too many people and their lies."
Daishu was hinting back towards the girl's odd remarks, not to say she was lying, but only to make the dying conversation have an interesting ending.
"Lai Nao was-is- a place of those who don't mind getting down and dirty. Then again, you never can distinguish between the two if you're not judging."
Speaking of herself and her hidden hatrid for her half royal blood, she looked back towards the inns, and mentally picked out the most shabby looking one there was. She didn't want to be recognized as anyone important. She didn't want to be important. She wanted to be just like everyone else, and deal with the welcomed problems life would hurl at her. Also, she longed to practice with her weapons, so perhaps she could get a room in the back and buy a few knives or something of the sort.
Daishu gave the black haired girl beside her a tight lipped smile, not wanting to show her buck teeth again, and turned to leave. But suddenly she stopped in the road, and made an abrupt about face, giving the girl a full smile.
"By the way. You might want to put some distance between you and those merchants. Stolen property, at least where I come from, is not taken lightly".
And she turned her back, calling out,
"My name's Daishu. Nice to meet you".
In her footprint in the dust as she walked away, there was six gold pieces left glinting in the hazy sun.