Ring of Fire

[nasrin]

The last few days of travel seemed like a haze to Nasrin. It felt as though they'd just left the beach and already they were passing through the mountain range that encircled the desert. Those mountains acted like a strainer for the clouds, squeezing out all their moisture as winds carried them inland from the sea and leaving nothing but dust as they crossed over to the opposite side. The scenery reflected this phenomenon of nature. Green grass and forests had blanketed the landscape previously, but now only arid dirstcapes with sparse patches of plantlife could be found where trickles of water collected. And beyond that was the great Si Wong Desert... the Ocean of Fire.

Honestly, Nasrin was surprised that Manju had stuck with her this far. She half expected her Igni companion to have split long efore they started crossing the mountains. Perhaps the girl honestly had nothing better to do with her time, or maybe she just wanted to visit one of the more exotic locations in the Earth Kingdom. But whatever the reason, Nasrin didn't feel the need to say her goodbyes just yet.

By midday they had made their way down the slope and were approaching one of the boardertowns that took advantage of the pockets of fertile land that dotted the edge of the desert. Nasrin could already see a few people of definite sand nomad affiliation milling around the tiny collection of buildings that passed for a town. There was a sand-sailor parked on the fringe of the town as well, and Narin hoped she might be able to barter passage into one of the larger desert hotspots where she could make contact with her employer's network of underlings...

Or maybe she could stop home for a visit before that. The sudden thought to deviate from her set plan came out of nowhere, really, and the sandbender attributed that to prolonged exposure to Manju.

"Well," she said, none to enthusiastically, to the Igni beside her, "Here's home sweet home." Nasrin half-heartedly attempted to sweep her hand out in front of her at the expanse of sand and raggedy dwellings, but didn't manage to lift her hand past her hips.

[manju]

It was so strange for the Igni to see such a drastic change in landscape. To go from a reasonably lush climate to rocky mountains to the edge of a desert and beyond in just a day's walk was completely bizarre for the Igni. Granted, less shocking for Manju herself, who'd not only seen the mainland Fire Nation plenty of times, but had basically wandered from one end of the southern Earth Kingdom to the next since she'd arrived. There was much that she had seen, but it was only a small scope compared to the entire continent with all its diversity. It was nothing like the dinky, isolated Igni Islands in any way, shape, or form.

And here, Nasrin called what lay before them, so vast, warm in color, and absolutely flat from what she could tell, home. Albeit detecting her normal tone so dry and listless, Manju turned her head toward the sandbender and squinted her eyes, wondering if the taller woman was all right in the head. Who would choose to live there? It looked exactly as bad as she's expected! "Too bad it sucks. Y' picked a bad 'home."

[nasrin]

Nasrin stared blankly at Manju for a few moments, considering her appraisal of the desert before offering a slight shrug. "Eh, beats the Swamp," she said and resumed walking. Her strides were steady but not rushed, but before long they were walking into the town proper. Manju's presence earned them a few odd looks, but perhaps not so much as in other places. Still, Nasrin felt a small comfort being among the familiar beige-tinted buildings sandy streets.

"We should find a cantina," Nasrin suggested quietly to her Igni companion. "Or a trading post... That's usually where the nomads tend to cluster." Thusfar Nasrin hadn't spotted any sandbenders since she actually reached the town. She kept her eyes peeled for the familiar white and beige wrappings and tattered robes that were so common among those who roamed the sands.

[mulaqi]

“Remind me again why we’re so far south?”

Looking over his shoulder, Muqali could see the tension on his comrade’s face. He smiled lopsidedly. Despite his large size, Gansukh was a worrier at heart, and he didn’t like big breaks in routine. How he and Muqali came to be good friends with such an obvious difference in that respect was a little bit of a mystery. Maybe it was because Muqali could always convince Gansukh to go along with his ideas.

“Because we never do,” replied Muqali. “Come on, don’t ya want to see something new for a change?”

“Yeah, big guy, don’t be such a wet noodle,” chimed in a younger man, slightly shorter than Muqali. “We’re just scoping things out.”

The second man was Askaa, four years Muqali’s junior but of a similar spirit. He and Muqali had always gotten along well, but it hadn’t been since Muqali had returned from his Earth Kingdom excursion that they’d kept each other’s company too much. They both had a similar want for excitement, so they’d prevented each other from getting too bored. Not that these little excursions were enough for Muqali. He really just wanted to leave the desert altogether, but he had obligations to fulfill. These bordertowns were about as far as he’d gotten since returning.

“Fine, but let’s not stay around too long, okay?” Gansukh muttered as the trio made their way down the street.

“We can stay long enough to have a couple drinks, right Mook?”

‘Mook’ laughed at his nickname and gave a shrug, “Sure, why not?”

Making their way through the small border town, the trio found the nearest bar and entered…

[manju]

"A cantina indeed," Manju quipped back at Nasrin, if only because of her notorious habit. It probably wouldn't surprise Nasrin to hear Manju's insane theories of how she thought the sandbender was drunk all the time. Truly, the fact that Manju told Nasrin her opinions on the matter plenty of times would lessen the impact even more so. Did that stop Manju this time around? "Jou're drunk alreddy, aren'chu?" the Igni said as she elbowed the taller woman in the ribs. What else could be expected?

"S'prised it's de first t'ing jou mentioned," Manju took a step back, hands on her hips, one eyebrow raised to a normal disturbing height to express her feelings. She was neither aggravated, exasperated, or exhausted by the sandbender's predictability (she was rarely any of the three for very long), so her joke could easily be construed as just that - a joke. However the sandbender chose to react was beyond Manju's control.

"Whatever, a cantina it is." Turning on her heel, Manju stepped ahead a bit, her normal fashion of walking in the wrong direction before being told the actual path she ought to follow taking precedent, naturally. However, even though she realized her error, she made no mention of the fact. She would say nothing, allowing Nasrin to lead. It was tiring to point out everything done wrong...unless it was someone else's wrongdoing. Then there was free reign for the Igni's cruel mockery.

[nasrin]

Drunk already? Nasrin wondered how Manju could not have realized by now that the amount of alcohol required to actually inebriate her, at least where standard ales were concerned, was simply not feasible to carry around while traveling. But then again, she also realized that the nonsensical accusation was intended to be nothing more than that. The sandbender didn't bother to respond to the quip, but instead spoke directly in response to Manju's following statement.

"Cantina's a watering hole]/i], or whatever you'd call it back home," Nasrin said while raising a hand to shield her eyes as she scanned around them. "In the desert it's usually the first and last place you'll visit when you come through a town." She remained silent for a few seconds as her gaze settled on a squat looking building that seemed to fit her typical expectations of what a cantina should look like.

"If there's sandbenders in this town, they'll have been there not long ago," she explained to Manju, even though she didn't think the younger girl truly had an interest in the answer. "And that's my best shot at getting transport across the sands..."

Without bothering to wait for feedback, Nasrin started toward the building she assumed to be the cantina. She offered Manju a slight nod of the head to gesture for her to follow, assuming the Igni had any intention to do so.

[mulaqi]

The three Sand Nomads had set up at a small round table in the middle of the cantina. Muqali leaning back in his chair with his feet on the table, Gansukh sitting hunched over, as though trying to shrink, and Askaa looking about like he’d never seen a bar before. Muqali smiled at them both. Askaa’s excitability was particularly amusing to Muqali. He reminded him a bit of himself…granted a lot more hyperactive and carefree, but his excitability about new things was something they had in common. Though, the more Muqali thought about it, the bleaker things became. Was this really going to be the extent of his adventures from now on? The farthest from home he’d get was a old bar at the edge of the dessert? He hoped not.

“See, Gansukh, this place is great,” Askaa said, taking a drink from his ale.

“The booze isn’t even good,” Gansukh muttered.

Muqali laughed, though he turned his head as he saw the door to the cantina open. However, whoever had opened it was just holding it open, and couldn’t be seen. Not really concerned about that, he turned back to his friends.

“Don’t worry, Gansukh, we won’t stay too long. Just long enough to relax a little, okay?” Muqali reassured the larger man. “We’ve got, what? A two or three day trip back to camp? We’ll need the rest.”

Slightly more relaxed, Gansukh nodded, but he still didn’t touch his drink. Muqalil decided that was good enough, and closed his eyes, leaning back in his chair even further.

[manju]

Manju shrugged when Nasrin explained (presumeably) everything there was to know about this 'cantina' place, which she really did assume to be another fancy word for 'building full of surly drunkards'. To her, it all read the same.

So she followed the taller woman, stepping across the dry, arid ground as she would with sandy beaches at home, trying not to dawdle with the soles of her feet supplanted firmly for any good length of time. It was generally too hot to do so.

In short order, wherein Manju surpassed Nasrin on the way to this 'cantina' place, the Igni walked right into the establishment proudly, like she owned the place. Despite her lack of clothing, simply wearing shorts and a tube top, she in her normal fashion didn't care what stares she received. Even if it earned her a plethora of sunburns, her clothes simply showed who she was. She was an Igni, and damn proud of it.

Inside, she squinted her eyes to adjust to the lower light, and swept her gaze over the place slowly. Nasrin was correct in how it was chock-full of sandbender, wrapped up in cloth like their entire bodies were burned, but it took her a moment to register just who that one person at the table smack-dab in the middle of the cantina really was. Could her eyes be fooling her? No...he looked right at her as she walked in. It was! She felt the need to squeal like some sort of fangirl, even though she didn't quite feel that was. She did have an image to maintain, though. Manju exclaimed loud enough for the whole cantina to hear. "Eee! It's Mulaqi!!!"

Without hesitation, Manju ran straight toward the table in utter disregard for everyone else in the place. It seemed two other Si Wong natives were right with him on the table, but she didn't bother to see the long on either one's face. The largest of the three, however, would soon be surprised when Manju jumped and landed straight on his shoulders, perching like a bird with his head between her legs. With a wide, exuberant, rather maniacal, and somewhat forced grin, Manju waved at her old friend, the 'big jerk' she used to tease so often. "Heeey!"

[nasrin]

The sandbender's eyes barely even tracked Manju as she walked on by at a swift pace once the target destination was clear. The Igni was so uncomfortably energetic, Nasrin often wondered if she would explode if she was ever strapped down to a chair for any length of time. The thought was amusing, but not enough so to crack a smile on the desert nomad's face. It was too early, and she'd need a few more drinks before she was in a laughing mood.

Manju preceded her into the cantina by several strides, ut before Nasrin ever reached the entrance she could hear the girl squeal. Nasrin stopped in her tracks and had to think for a moment to decipher the word she had said. "Mulaqi?" she mouthed to herself, letting that name settle into her memory for a moment before she realized that Manju had mispronounced it.

Muqali... They split up a few weeks ago. Apparently the man hadn't gotten too much farther than they had, but it was still quite the coincidence to come across him the moment they set foot in the desert.

Nasrin slowly stepped forward through the doorway but stayed close to the entrance. She leaned against the wall and watched, with something less than surprise, how Manju had found herself a perch atop another man's shoulders as she pestered their former traveling companion.

[mulaqi]

Muqali nearly feel out of his chair at the loud squeal from the cantina doorway, only recovering from his surprise in time to see a familiar Igni girl leap up and perch on Gansukh’s shoulder. His comrades shared his surprise, Askaa looking up with mouth agape and Gansukh’s eyes widening as he stared up at the girl. Fortunately for all involved, Muqali noticed as Gansukh’s expression quickly harded and he reached towards his belt.

“Gansukh!” he blurted, causing the man to pause. “She’s all right. Relax.”

“But she…”

“Is just a little,” he eyed Manju, looking for the right word. “Strange.”

Gansukh glared up at the girl, then glanced around the bar. There were a lot of people staring, but he seemed to be the only one of the three sand nomads to notice. He grimaced.

“All right, but can she at least get off my shoulder?”

Muqali grinned and turned to Manju, “All right, Manju, enough playtime. Get off the man, huh?”

As he waited for Manju to respond, he glanced around the room, searching for a moment before finding Nasrin. He knew there was a chance they had split up, but considering their location, it seemed unlikely. Grinning again, he waved to the Si Wong woman.

“Hey, Nasrin!” he called in greeting. “Come on over!”

“You meet these guys when you went to Omashu?” asked Askaa, staring at Manju like she was a rare animal.

“Yeah, they helped me out over there,” he explained. “Traveled part of the way back with them, too, had to go through a big, uh, swamp.” He glanced at Manju, speaking sarcastically. “That was fun, huh Manju?”

[manju]

Oh, how Manju basked in it. Not for too long, though - she wasn't that much of an attention whore, she thought. Either way, she didn't really want to hop off this 'Gansukh' fellow's shoulders. It felt nice to sit on someone's shoulders again, like papa after he returned from a months-long venture to the Fire Nation, affectionately letting his youngest daughter be carried in such a fashion. This guy wasn't papa by any means, nor did he seem terribly fond of the fact that Manju's crotch was behind his head. If Muqali hadn't shouted out, who knew what would happen? There were dangerous people about in this Si Wong place, it seemed. Shrugging her shoulders, she fell back off the man, rolling like some sort of tumbleweed and landing on her feet.

Muqali seemed preoccupied telling his comrades about their journey in and around Omashu, relating their heroic tale that even continued through that swamp, where that fat guy with the weird hair tried to kill them. He was right, though - that was fun. So why did she respond as she did? She was Manju, that was why.

"No," she said, pausing to make sure her eyes contacted those of Muqali just long enough to (probably) make him feel uncomfortable, during which time she slowly and fluidly tilted her head to a very slight angle. Then, as though she snapped out of a trance, she pointed directly at Muqali, no doubt shocking him to no end at her reaction. "You!"

It was all in good fun, though. The scantily-clad Igni never really intended to cause much harm unless someone really pissed her off, and this simply wasn't the case. Muqali was a friend, and viewed as such by Manju. He'd never done anything to make her change her opinions. "Mulaqi!" Manju said as she jumped at him, attempting to throw her arms around his waist in a big, exuberant hug."

[nasrin]

As if she were waiting for a sandstorm to blow over, Nasrin calmly waited out the greeting process while Manju made it clear to everyone in the room that she had special needs. Eventually though, the igni removed herself from the other man's shoulders and Muqali waved her over to join in the reunion.

With the slightest grunt of exertion, the sandbender shoved off the wall with her upper arm and began slowly walking her way toward their table. Along the way she veered close to another table, and hooked her hand over the back on a chair tht wasn't being used. The two patrons sitting there eyed her for a moment, and she offered a quiet, "Borrowing this," as explanation. They didn't seem to care enough to retort so she continued right over to Muqali's table and swung the chair around in front of her. In the same fluid motion she stepped forward and sat with the chair facing backwards and her forearms resting on the chair's back.

Nasrin exhaled a long breath as she settled in comfortably and gave Muqali a sort of reverse nod in greeting. "So," she said, switching her gaze toward the table to see a few mugs, "What are you boys drinking?"

[mulaqi]

“Uuuuh…” was all Muqali could offer at Manju’s strange outburst.

He simply sat there perplexed, mouth open, eyebrows raised and a kind of “is this a puzzle?” look on his face. Even for Manju, this seemed crazy. Askaa shared a similar, if slightly more reserved look, and Gansukh…well, he still looked grumpy. Just as Muqali began to snap out of it, Manju pounced forwards. Not prepared in the slightest, the Igni essentially knocked Muqali right out of his chair and straight to the ground. Essentially, he’d just been tackled. As soon as he recovered from the tackle, he realized that people were probably staring. The group was causing quite a ruckus after all, and when even Muqali could notice when other people were staring, that wasn’t generally the greatest think. Part of it probably had to do with Manju being a scantily clad woman. Clearly, none of the bar’s patrons were familiar with Ignis

“Hi…Manju…” he said with nervous cheer, patting her awkwardly on the head. “Wanna let me up now? Oh, and uh…it’s Muqali.”

Muqali had been tackled so promptly that he hadn’t noticed Nasrin sitting down, and if she hadn’t spoken to them, neither would Gansukh or Askaa.

”So, what are you boys drinking?”

Gansukh managed to pull his attention from the Igni first, somewhat grateful for a distraction from her, “I dunno, some kinda ale. This guy ordered it. Tastes like piss, though.”

“Huh?” Askaa managed as Gansukh thumbed at him. “Oh, come on, Big G, it’s not that bad, loosen up.”

Gansukh scoffed and turned back to Nasrin, “If I were you, I’d just get something hard. If it’s hard enough, even dumps like this can’t screw it up.”

[manju]

Manju didn't pay much attention after Muqali replied to her - and actually had the audacity to correct her! She admittedly may have forgotten the sand nomad's actual name, but figured this could be an ace she kept up her sleeve for all the right moments. She could spring them on Muqali whenever she pleased, reversing the syllables in his name (or rearranging it entirely) just to confuse and/or annoy the heck out of him. 'Mulaqi' was so fun to tease sometimes. She got a lot of mileage out of any joke she chose to use against him, really. It was a highlight of her life when someone like that was around - even if she wasn't the slightest bit attracted to him. It occured to her several times before, during their travels and such, how the guy could be pretty cute, but it altogether went out the window when she saw him as more of a friend (or target practice for her cruel jokes) than anything. He was still alright in her book.

She was indifferent on the idea of drinks. It seemed like every time they wandered into a bar, there was a fight (whether or not it was Manju's fault), so she didn't want her senses dulled and reflexes slowed. She would make sure the place was safe before ordering something potent. An interesting thought crossed her mind, though, which she would soon voice as she lingered around the table's edge. Looking between Muqali and Gansukh, she said; "What d'jou guys drink out 'ere, anyway? Sand juice?"

It seemed like their only natural resource...

[nasrin]

“If I were you, I’d just get something hard. If it’s hard enough, even dumps like this can’t screw it up.”

"Words to live by..." Nasrin commented quietly, though her remark was largely overshadowed by Manju's attempt at humor. She cast a glance toward the younger woman for a second or two, wondering exactly what the standard was on joke telling where she came from. As poorly as her punchlines were contrived and delivered, maybe she was considered a comical genius back on her home island?

However, Nasrin shook aside that digression in thought and brought her attention back to her fellow Si Wong natives. Before asking the question that was burning in her mind, she took a moment to lift a hand and signal a waitress across the room. Once her attention was grabbed, Nasrin used the time it took her to cross the room in order to inquire to Muqali and his friends, "I don't suppose my luck's improved enough that you boys rode into town on a sand sailor..."

It wasn't exactly a question, but her tone and inflection posed it as such. And before committing to hearing a reply, Nasrin leaned back in her seat and turned to the waitress as she approached. "I'll take a mudslide... on the rocks," she ordered, and the waitress nodded her acquisition of said order.