Chapter Text
the dark, thick, veil of the night is barely lit by the crescent moon, on the road that leads to the shimmering light of a city, is a hooded figure. walking slowly as there is no danger to fear in the shadows.
The traveler moves carefree and confident, moving tired but not bored towards the city to take shelter.
Not long after she is on the outskirts. Where farmers reside and make a living.
Something in the yard of one of the houses caught her eye. Someone was foolish enough to leave their washed clothes hanging on the rope at night. She scanned her own under the cloak; muddy, burned, and the design that itself got her in the fight that made her look like this. She looked at a green shirt on the rope that would probably fit.
“Finally! Something to wear”
*****
In some unfortunate farmer’s clothes, she enters the first inn she found in the town.
She was lucky the cheapest room was exactly the amount of earth kingdom money she had. Her empty pocket would be tomorrow's problem. Now was the time to rest.
Her room was small, dirty, and with what she could describe as “a heavy smell”.
The mattress of the bed was old and stained and probably hosted a bug party. But that was the life Kugisaki Nobara chose when she left her hometown.
Now there was no turning back. The young lady just had to live with it. And who knows? Maybe when she gets used to this more…grounded way of life, she might never let it go because of this freedom she can feel even now.
The cockroaches in her room she woke up to told her that she needs way more time.
Although she brought a lot of money with her, apparently foreign coins weren’t accepted. And all of the places she's been to till now were small villages. Maybe she could find somewhere to exchange her coins here
Money was the only thing she was sure of when she fled from her hometown. Now there wasn’t even that.
How people make money? She wasn’t going to stay for long. What pays fast? What can she do anyway? Sing? These people didn’t look like they could spare money for some performer on the street.
Strolling through the town…now that she thought about it, even though it is quite big it looked more like a village compared to her home. Simple little houses, not very fancy shops, and a lot of beggars and half-ruined alleys. she wondered why they looked like that, then she remembered, the war.
Winter had no mercy this year, there was no snow or strong wind, just claws of the ever silent and cruel cold. Some man was shivering, sitting on the side of the street, begging for something he could survive another day with.
Seeing all of this was heartbreaking, turning away was even harder. But she had nothing to spare either.
She looked for somewhere she could exchange her money, in this side of the town things looked newer, or rather, cleaner; wealthier.
Maybe she could find a job here in the market.
She got in the first store she saw.
“hi! Do you need someone to help you with the store?”
The sound of a hatcher hitting a bone inside of meat and the butcher looked up at her and frowned: “if you’re not going to buy anything, leave. You are blocking the way” this time when the hatcher hit, it cut the whole way through and the sound made Nobara shiver.
Well, that was some unexpected hostility.
Not far from the butchery a flower shop was open and as Nobara entered the small building she was surrounded by the sweet smell of different flowers she didn’t know the name of.
The girl behind the counter looked the same age as her, maybe a couple of years younger.
This looked like the time to summon her charms; Nobara put her hand on the counter: “hello there, you’ve got a pretty little shop over here; and some pretty…flowers too” she probably should’ve used a different adjective there “so perhaps…you need someone to help you? I’m pretty good at cleaning”
The warm smile the girl answered with gave Nobara some hope. now that she noticed the girl was quite pretty; particularly, the beauty mark under her lip caught her attention. It suited her round face.
Then she opened her mouth “oh sorry I don’t think there is much to do here. I can take care of everything by myself just fine.”
she should’ve expected that.
Next on the way was a diner that looked way too crowded for its capacity.
And inside there was a short gray-haired lady running around so fast that made Nobara genuinely worry about the dishes in her hand.
This looked like a good opportunity to shoot her shot. Third times have charm.
“hello miss you look quite busy! Good business huh? Need a hand? I’m a quick and not a very expensive worker I’ll be glad to help you out for-”
The lady shoved two bowls in her hands: “oh thank you dear two of my workers are sick and we are so shorthanded give these to the couple on that corner.”
And just like that, she got her first official job.
Till noon she ran around, taking orders, giving and returning dishes, and occasionally making jokes about the customers while giving the dirty dishes to the dishwasher boy. His name was lee and he was thirteen and didn’t like people who ordered tea with their lunch
Spending nearly five hours at this place, she decided she liked it. It had a nice feeling to it. The lady said she would pay her too. That made her like this place more.
Nobara was cleaning a table when the owner lady approached her.
Her figure was scrawny and lean, didn’t look like someone that could run around that fast like she did in the morning.
When she spoke her voice was low and very slow:” thank you child for helping us today. I don’t know if you weren’t here how in the world I could handle things. Lin will come back in a few hours. Can you stay until then? I’ll pay you then for your hard work. What was your name again my dear?”
“I’m No…” no that wasn’t right she couldn’t use her real name. “Ming! Just call me Ming!” generic but that was at the top of her mind, couldn’t do anything about it now.
The lady smiled at her: “and you can call me Madame Fen”.
For the rest of the day, nothing really happened. Except that she kept forgetting to respond to Ming. And Lin never actually came. So after closing time Madame Fen gave her salary for a whole day and asked if she could come back tomorrow as well. Of course she would.
Nobara lost her way back to the inn. She had no idea where it was. And she didn’t care, that nasty room was only paid for one night and now she took that as an excuse to get herself a better place to sleep.
She headed towards the place where she thought she saw a couple of inns in the morning.
She was definitely lost and had no idea where she was or how to find her way.
She saw a group of teenage boys on the other side of the street and headed towards them.
Now they were at the hearing range: “I’m sure Mountain king is going to win tonight’s match” the shorter one of the group said. One of his friends with three moles on his forehead laughed at him: “he never has won anything! He always gets his ass kicked by Diamond and at least two other players after that. Bet on someone better”
“but his techniques are so cool! And he uses TWO swords!”
Now they noticed Nobara beside them and looked at her. She wore her best welcoming smile in hopes of not getting pranked: “hey kids! Can you tell me where the nearest inn is?”
The short one answered: “oh it’s close. Just go straight in that way and turn right. You should see it when you reach the end of the street”
She was grateful for the answer and the boy seemed innocent enough to not have given her wrong directions, but now something else had caught her curiosity.
“So that thing you guys were talking about, that match or something. Where is it?”
*******
Nobara never knew that this kind of place could be found in a corner of the world.
After straying off the road out of town in the desert, those kids brought her to…what seems to be a boulder in the middle of nowhere
And probably this would be the moment when they pull out a knife or…earth bending to take what little money she had.
That did not happen _even though very careless of her to not consider that while following a bunch of peasant children to nowhere in the night_ and one of the kids knocked the solid rock in an obvious pattern she forgot to memorize and then a few seconds later the rock moved to reveal an entrance and a bunch of stairs that gone done.
And a giant man standing in front of it with his hand out. Without a single word every kid put two silver coins into his hands and proceeded to go down and fade into the darkness.
When Nobara handed out her share of what she thought was an entrance fee the man frowned at her
“I don’t know you”
She tried to sound as confident as she could: “oh I’m a traveler! Just passing by trying to have some fun” and the man just let her enter. Maybe he didn’t deem those half his height would be a threat.
The stairway was narrow and it smelled and it just went down and down and down and the shiny stones in the walls didn’t help her vision at all and at some point it was complete darkness and once she touched the wall and it was sticky in the most disgusting way and then finally finally! The cursed stairs finished and she found herself with a view of a very big arena from the audience seats.
There were quite a lot of people there _mostly men_ and it seemed like people were having fun chatting and buying food and trinkets from the few little stalls around there.
She took a look at the unoccupied seats and walked toward a row that was empty and far from the more crowded area.
There was only a woman sitting there.
And Nobara wasn’t antisocial; she was going to sit next to the woman.
Not a woman. With a second thought, she didn’t seem much older than Nobara. It wouldn’t surprise her if they were the same age and the girl was just very well built and her face just looked…well, more mature , if that’s the right word to give that very serious expression.
The girl looked at her as she approached. Her face was defined with a sharp nose bridge and eyes that were…judgmental isn’t the right word, maybe determined? Piercing? Nobara thought.
“HI! Can I sit here?” she tried to smile with as much confidence as she had.
“no” there was no hesitation in the girl’s response.
Now that is a very awkward and uncomfortable scenario. But it faded away as the girl started grinning: “I’m just joking. You can”
Nobara sighed out of relief as she dropped into the stone bench: “Ah! You scared me there”
And before she could start introducing herself a man_the showrunner?_ started shouting.
That is somehow very effective even though there are a million better ways to get the attention of approximately a couple hundred people when they are already performing a show but maybe it’s an underground fighting tournament thing.
“Attention! Attention everyone!” he sounded like a dying ratowl in Nobaras ears.
The man clapped his hands: “welcome! Welcome my comrades to this month's battle of stone and rock! Where our skilled benders fight each other one on one to win the title of the great boulder ” that name sounded so stupid. Who would want that?
“and the grand prize of…” the man hesitated, probably for the excitement of the crowd that was not that much thrilled “ two hundred gold coins! Yes you heard it right! Double the previous prize! And yes! Anyone can sign up even now before the first rounds finish! Just remember to bring your entrance fee with you! and for our dear audience! don't you forget that you can place your bets before any match starts! your intuition can get you big money! be careful and check the lists thoroughly for who you think is tonight's champion! and the more money you put in the richer you get out of here! hold on to your tickets after you give the money to the staff members”
After the man's begging for money, the atmosphere changed. People began to take their seats, some going down inside the hallways around the arena, probably the participants.
Chatters started to tone down, feeling different as people placed their bets when some young boys ran around them giving tickets and collecting bets.
Nobara looked at the list of participants for a while as one was offered to her.
"Who will it be, miss?"
Maybe she could afford to gamble a little; who that boy said was the best again?
Then the girl next to her spoke, voice low and confident: "you should go with number 7."
"The wanderer," it said. A better stage name than "Emperor of rocks" and "sand breathing god" for sure.
She put two silver coins in the bag and received her ticket but a question remained.
"Why didn't you bet on this wanderer guy if you are so sure?"
The girl looked at her, smirking.
"As a participant, I can't bet on myself"
Oh
She was this Wanderer? she didn't seem like the type to go fighting people with embarrassing stage names in earthbending battles underground in the middle of nowhere.
"Aren't you a little too sure of yourself wanderer ?"
A chuckle came from the girl: "I know my way around this stuff." she got up "just watch"
Then after a step, she turned around
"My actual name is Maki"
"Nobara"
Maki nodded "well nice to meet you, Nobara. I'm not gonna let your two coins go to waste"
Nobara watched as Maki walked away and the pipes blew to announce the first match starting.
then it hit her.
I was supposed to be Ming!