[Open] Food Run: Interrupted

[Narye Matsuya]

There was almost no reason for Narye to be at the Central City Station this time of night, except for one: Arin's Mobile Baking Cart. It did not matter how many places Narye visited and sampled across the city's many marketplaces, none of them sold or could make the same delicious cookie sticks that Arin did at his little cart. So as much as it was out of the way for Narye to visit him on a short grocery run, it was all totally worth it as soon as the scent of Arin's goods wafted into his nose. Narye probably could have found the cart wherever it was just by smell alone, but fortunately it was always in the same place: near the statue of Fire Lord Zuko, facing the station.

"The usual, Mr. Matsuya?"

Narye was such a regular patron of Arin's, that the eponymous Arin pretty much had his order ready as soon as Narye came into view. The older gentleman with glasses also gave Narye a friendly smile.

"You know it!"

Before he knew it, there was a small bag Arin's cookie sticks, warm with their precious cargo, being exchanged for the appropriate amount of Yuans. The little bag went into the larger one Narye was already carrying, on top of some beef and onions.

"What's your secret, Arin? Are you lacing my stuff with... something I should know about?"

"Even if I was, would you stop buying them?"

".... No. Well, good evening to you!"

Narye waved goodbye to Arin and set off on his walk home, immediately followed by indulging in one cookie stick from the bag.

Normally the walk home was as uneventful as any other night. Sometimes it was a little too hot or a little too chilly, and sometimes it rained, but all of that was something Narye could easily deal with in some manner. A coat or an umbrella solved most of the problems of walking home, but neither could provide any solutions to the three suspicious looking men who were rapidly approaching Narye from the side. They immediately took up positions in front of and to the side of Narye, stopping him in his tracks and preventing him from going anywhere else.

"Can I help you, gentlemen?"

"Gentlemen" was far too nice a term for these three men, or boys. Judging by their looks, they could not have been more half of Narye' age. Youngsters. Obviously with some sort of gang, possibly the Triads, though the Triads did not normally go this far out of their territory. Narye had never been held up before, but he knew to stay calm and cool.

"I dunno. Can you? Or should we just... do it ourselves?"

These boys just wanted a rise out of Narye. The thinly-veiled threat of violence or robbery was meant to scare him, and that fear would fuel the boys' aggression. Sure, they might still hurt Narye, but it would be less severe.

"I think you boys need to take a minute and think about what you're doing."

That response, while well-meaning, just made them angry. The one who spoke slapped Narye' groceries from his arms onto the ground and held up a finger to Narye's face. A tiny flame sparked into existence at the tip.

"We KNOW what we're doing, man! Just hand over your damn money!"

Narye probably could take one of the boys on his own using raw strength alone, but three of them was probably more than he could handle. Plus at least one of them was a Fire Bender. Still, Narye held his ground and kept a calm demeanor. He wouldn't yield just yet. These boys needed to learn what they were doing, and that their brashness did not work on everyone.

[Inahku Yuzuki]

Once again, Terra found herself wandering the streets of Republic City at night. She knew she shouldn't really be out at this time of the day, but at least she had made sure to wear more anonymous clothes this time. Last time, her troubles had started because her clothes had set her apart from the masses as someone who came from money, and she did not wish to repeat that experience.

Still, the temptation of the city had been too much for Terra. While she was glad that Councilman Tenzin and his family was so warm and welcoming to her and her mother, life at Air Temple Island was dreadfully boring. The only two things that seemed to be to do was either practicing one's bending or spending time in the library.

Terra had spend the better part of her time in the library, pouring over scrolls and texts. The library on Air temple Island had many scrolls that Terra had never even seen before, and she had spend many long hours going through the scrolls, and she had found that the one's she liked the most was Master Katara's writings about the war and her journeys with Avatar Aang.

She already knew about the Fire Nation's siege of Ba Sing Se, but she had never read the story told from this angle, and being curious by nature, Terra would never say no to a new learning experience.

Her waist long, dark brown hair was tied into a top knot, leaving only two strands down to frame her face. Despite her regular appearance, the Earth Kingdom princess had made sure to bring her fans with her. Over time, she had developed her own unique style of earth bending that relied heavily on the use of the golden metal fans.

She had been casually walking around, minding her own business, when suddenly, she spotted some sort of commotion near by. Driven by instinct, she unfolded her fans so that she would be ready to defend herself and the man, should she need it. However, before she made her presence known, there was something she would like to try.

It was the same move Konei had showed her when she had first gotten lost in the city and had been followed around by the Agni Kais. If the move worked out properly, it would send a series of needle sharp rock slivers flying the the three men. With a flick of her foot, she did just this, resulting in a series of stone slivers flying towards one of the men, the one dressed as a fire bender.

"Are you okay?" she asked Narye, stepping out of the shadows. She was, of course, followed by Shia, who seemed to almost melt out of the shadows with her sleek, glossy, black fur. The feline's green eyes was staring intently at the three men who had been trying to rob Narye.

She knew that the men would most likely not back down just yet as she was just one girl. Even if she had had the best earth bending teacher money could possibly buy while growing up, she was still just one girl against three grown up men.

The chances of them just turning around and walking away were slim to none, but Terra didn't care. She could not just stand idly by and watch them mug an innocent man.

[Narye Matsuya]

"Just think about it, son. There's no good outcome for this unless you just stop and walk away. I won't even alert the police."

"I'm not buying it, old-"

"Incoming!"

The boy to Narye's right shouted and grabbed the Fire Bender. With a sudden yank, the Fire Bending boy was pulled aside and out of the path of travel of several nasty-looking earthen spikes. Narye instinctively jerked away from them even though he was well out of their way, mostly out of shock and surprise. The third boy, whom had spun around to spot the origin of the spikes, was now staring down the interloper. His two mates followed his gaze and also locked eyes on her.

It was a girl, a young one at that, with a pair of fans(?) in her hands and an intense-looking cat creature at her side. Between her and her companion's stances and the distinctive pits at her feet where the pavement was Bended, there was no mistaking them as innocent bystanders. For a moment, there was silence as everything caught up to Narye and the boys seethed in anger.

"Y-Yeah. I'm alright. Tha-"

"But YOU won't be! Get that Earth Bendin' bitch!"

The Fire Bender called the shots and his mates responded post-haste. All of three of them, their attention successfully diverted from Narye, turned and started to make for the young girl. However, thinking fast, Narye reached out for the nearest boy and grabbed at the back of his shirt. His fist clenched around a wad of the boy's shirt and he was clothes-lined against his own collar as he was snapped back toward Narye and right off of his feet. Next he knew, there was a large, muscular forearm and bicep wrapped around his neck in a headlock. Narye was by no means a trained fighter, but he knew how to hold his own, rough-and-tumble style. The boy, apparently a non-Bender, struggled but was unable to free himself from Narye's considerable arm strength.

"I told you this wasn't going to end well. You should've walked away, son."

Having succeeded in detaining one of the attackers, the girl was only left with two of them, and one of them was a Fire Bender. Better odds. Not good odds, just better. The Fire Bender let off a series of fiery punches while his friend continued to run toward her. The leader paused his flame assault long enough for his mate to jump up and attempt an overhead punch at the girl.

[Inahku Yuzuki]

It was clear to Terra that the fire bender was the one in the group calling the shots, so she also knew that he would most likely be the strongest of the three and the hardest to deal with. Still, she was not about to just walk away from something like this. It just wasn't in her nature to walk away from someone that needed her help.

Beside her, Shia's fur stood straight out into the air and she was hissing and spitting at the non-bender who was now advancing on them. Then, when the man got close enough to her, the pygmy puma latched onto the man, clawing and biting away at the man's leg.

Meanwhile, Terra was left to deal with the fire bender on her own. He had just send a series of fireballs flying her way and at the almost exact time, Terra moved so that she raised a small wall of earth in front of her to block the attack before it could hit her.

Just as she did that, she looked over at the man who she was trying to help. He was holding one of the three men in a firm grip, keeping the man from getting to her. She shot him a grateful smile before turning her attention back to the fire bender in front of her. The fire bender was furious that Terra had managed to block his attack and send another round of fireballs her way.

"Ha, is that all you've got?" Terra taunted the man, having just gotten an idea. She sensed that the man's anger was putting him out of balance, and she fully intended to use that to her own advantage.

It would be brains and not brawns that would win this battle.

"My old grandmother is a better bender than you could ever hope to be" She kept taunting the man, making him angrier and angrier by the minute. The man kept up his fiery assaults on Terra, as his focus grew smaller as his rage towards the young earth bender girl grew bigger.

Everything was going according to her plan until she suddenly heard a loud yowl coming from Shia. She turned to the non-bender who Shia had attacked a moment earlier and to her horror saw that Shia was on the ground with the man standing over her, an evil smile on his face.

Without hesitation, Terra raised her arms and send a big slab of rock flying towards the man just as he was about to strike Shia again. Terra's actions did, however, provide the fire bender with the distraction he needed to hit the young girl with a fireball.

Terra cried out in pain as the fireball made contact with the skin on her right shoulder and her tears filled her eyes. However, she refused to let them fall. She did not want to look weak in front of these men, so she merely turned to the fire bender again, a fierce scowl on her face.

She was not going to let these men get away with attacking an innocent, that much was for sure.

This was the one thought that roared silently in her mind as she closed her eyes, focusing on the ground below. Then, she send another big slab of earth flying towards the fire bender, hoping it would be enough to stop him from harming anyone else.

[Narye Matsuya]

"Look, kid, quit struggling. You're gonna hurt yourself."

The headlocked boy's face was turning a bright shade of red as he kicked his legs and swung his arms in a vain attempt to either hit Narye or twist himself free. On one hand, Narye was doing his best to hold on to this young man and keep him from getting away. On the other hand, he did not want to grip the kid's head to tight that he suffocates or accidentally snaps his own neck. To attempt and satisfy both of those conditions, Narye tried to keep his headlock strong while not flexing his muscles too much.

There was no anger or resentment directed toward this kid from Narye. Instead he felt a twinge pity for him. He wanted to think the best of this boy, that he was just following the misguided orders of his Fire Bending friend and he himself had made some bad decisions.

A girlish scream reminded Narye that there was another entire skirmish going on between the heroic girl and the remaining two muggers. Glancing up from his own quarry, Narye saw that the poor girl had been hit by a belch of flame and her cat friend was down and out. The girl looked so young and Narye's paternal instinct was starting to kick in for her. He wanted to go over there and help her, but he was doing his best as it was just hold this one kid.

But the girl was holding her own using her own Earth Bending. Two flying slabs of earth later, both of the remaining muggers were out cold on the street. It would seem that even Benders could be untalented fighters. When Narye was sure that the two boys were out of it, he turned his body so the final boy could see his unconscious mates.

"You see that, son? This is a mild example of what where you'll end up if you continue on this path."

Narye could not see the boy's face from his angle, but the fact that his struggling was subsiding showed that the sight was making its point.

"If I let you go, will you just get out here and not cause anymore trouble? Well?"

The boy felt like he was trying to nod, so Narye unhooked his arm and dropped the boy to the ground. The boy gasped for air and rubbed his neck before looking up at Narye's serious face. A second later, the boy was sprinting down the street, not looking back. After he turned a corner, Narye turned his attention to the girl and quickly went over to her.

"Are you alright? You need to get to a doctor?"

[Inahku Yuzuki]

To be honest, it wasn’t so much the pain as it was the shock that had caused her outburst. As it was now, her body was flooded with adrenaline and because of this, her brain barely registered the pain.

Terra was just glad that she wouldn’t need to be fighting these men any more. The non-benders attack on Shia had been just the distraction the fire bender had needed to hit her and thus breaking her root.

However, now that the adrenaline was slowly beginning to wear off again, her brain began to register the pain coming from her shoulder. She looked down at it to examine the burn and made a face when she saw that her dark skin had turned a bright shade of red where she had been burned.

As she folded her fans and hid them underneath her clothes again, she thought to herself that this was one of the few times she had wished she was a water bender instead of an earth bender. If she had been a water bender instead of an earth bender, she would have bee able to heal her wound herself and skip the visit to the healer, but that wasn’t to be the case.

Well, at least she had been able to help the man out.

When he came over to her and asked if she needed to go see a doctor to have her burn treated, she thought about politely refusing it, but then thought better of it. She couldn’t say that she had had it worse in the past, because she hadn’t, but her mother would definitely freak out over the fact that she had been out wandering the streets on her own as it was. There was no reason to make matters worse.

”Yes, I think that would be a good idea” she replied with a nod. She had no idea where they might be able to find a doctor, but she knew that the two of them had to get out of there before the three men woke up again.

”We better get out of here quickly before the three of them wake up again” She said, looking towards the place where the three men was lying unconscious on the ground. The next thing she did was walking over to where the man’s things lay scattered on the ground and she bend down to pick them up.

Terra knew full and well that the burn on her shoulder was her own fault for interfering with the situation, but she couldn’t just have ignored it either. Something like that just wasn’t in her nature.

When she had picked up the groceries that had been scattered on the ground, she held them out for him to take with a small smile as she spoke.

”I’m Terra” she said with a small smile, feeling that an introduction was in order. If there was one thing Terra was above all else, it was polite. It came with being the crown princess of a kingdom, after all.

Since Terra still didn’t know the city all that well, she decided that it was probably in everyone’s best interest if she let the man lead the way to wherever they were going, so that was what she did.

[Narye Matsuya]

Looking at the two unconscious boys, Narye was in agreement that they should probably get out of the area before they came to, or before anyone else showed up. At least the Police will have an easy job handling those two when they showed up. As for the third boy, Narye just hoped he learned his lesson.

Narye's groceries were handed back to him, along with one of the sweetest smiles ever, and he returned one of his own to the young girl. Now finally getting a good look at her when she was not fighting or being attacked by flames, he saw that the girl probably could have handled herself in a fair fight. She looked young, and she was nearly a whole head shorter than he was, but she had an air of strength about her.

"I'm grateful for your help, Terra. I'm Narye. Now lets get you to a healer..."

Looking around again, Narye remembered how late it was, and that most places were probably closed up for the night. The only healer he could think of what would be open at this hour was closer to his house. He knew the Water Bending woman who worked there, so maybe she would help out even if the place was closed.

"Follow me. I think I know a place."

Groceries in hand and Terra in tow, Narye began walking down the street.

"I'd like to thank you again for helping me back there, Terra. I didn't know there were heroes in this city, and so young too. How old are you?"

[Inahku Yuzuki]

Terra glance one last time at the two unconscious men on the ground before following Narye. For the briefest moment, she felt a nagging feeling at the back of her mind. What if he was just another person wanting to hurt her?

However, that thought was quickly dismissed again. He did not seem very threatening, and she was sure that if he really wanted to hurt her, he would have acted by now. That was the just some of the thoughts that ran through her mind as the two of them walked.

"It's nice to meet you Narye" Terra's voice was soft as she spoke, and her green eyes scanned the man next to her curiously. No, he certainly did not look like someone that would hurt her, despite him being almost a head taller than her, and she felt that she could trust him, even though the two of them had only just met.

Without even thinking about it, she used her bending to pick up a medium sized rock and began bending it into different shapes. When she had been younger, she had spend hours playing like this, passing time by bending rocks into different figures, but as she had gotten older, there had been less and less time for playing because of all the responsibilities she had been expected to fulfill.

When Narye spoke again, Terra stopped playing with the rock and looked at him.

”I only did what any decent human would have done” She said simply. Of course, the emphasis was one the word decent as there was also a great deal of not-so-decent humans in the world, as it had just been proven by the three men from before.

It felt nice, walking and just talking, no strings attached. Back home, she was always being watched by people and while some may consider it a luxury to always have people taking care of you, Terra thought more of it as a prison. People always expected her to behave a certain way when she was out and about, and sometimes it was just plain suffocating to have people’s expectations to you shoved down your throat.

That was why moments like these meant so much to the young girl. In moments like these, she could almost forget she was the crown princess of a kingdom and just be a normal kid. Almost, that is. Given her upbringing, she had always carried herself with a poise that was remarkable for someone her age, and sometimes, her mother had told her that she appeared much older than she actually was.

”I’ve been training earth bending since I was five, when it was discovered that I was an earth bender and I’m also hoping to master metal bending some day” she added, explaining a little more about herself. Even though she wanted to learn the art of metal bending, she had no dreams of going into law enforcement.

No, her responsibilities was to her family and her people.

[Narye Matsuya]

So many talented benders were roaming around the city lately, and Terra was another one to join their ranks. A lot of them seem to use it not only as an expression of their chosen martial art, but also as something to fiddle with when they were just going about their lives. Like Terra, for example, could be seen making little earthen figurines out of the corner of Narye's eye.

It would seem that even such fantastic abilities, such as Bending, become commonplace and forgettable for the people who wield it. That is, until it is used in a combative context, then it becomes fantastic and strangely-wondrous again. But that was the other side of the Bending coin, the double-edged sword of something like that becoming an after thought. When Bending loses its novelty and sense of power, it becomes just another tool for someone to use or abuse. That Fire Bending mugger may have remained a mugger without his Bending, but he was certainly a more dangerous one with it.

That thought nagged at the back of Narye's mind when Terra mentioned that she had been training since she was little girl. She saved Narye for sure, but did she have a real perspective on what her power entails? Do any of these young Benders understand the responsibility of it all?

"Metal Bending? Like the Police? That just looks amazing sometimes. Like when they skate on the wires to get around."

Thinking of the Police made something click in Narye's mind, and he stopped and looked at Terra with an inquisitive and worried look.

"Hey! What are you doing out here so late anyway? I know you're not some little girl, but still. You shouldn't be out here by yourself. Those boys could've jumped you instead of me."

That thought by itself since shivers down his spine.

[Inahku Yuzuki]

"Metal Bending? Like the Police? That just looks amazing sometimes. Like when they skate on the wires to get around."

Terra smiled a little at this. She had never actually seen it before, but it sounded awesome when Narye described it. Still, law enforcement was not something she considered as a possible career.

Would she have considered it if she had been a normal bender like most other people in the city? Maybe. The idea of using her bending to help other people like that seemed appealing to the young girl, but she had responsibilities in other places.

"Well, yeah, I guess" She replied with a small shrug. Having never actually seen the Republic City police force in action, but she had heard about their superior skills in the art of metal bending.

The two of them walked in silence for some time again, and Terra was not sure what she could say to start up a conversation with this man, which was strange. Usually, she had no problem talking to people, not even if they were strangers, but this was different. She guessed it had to do with the fact that she was not really supposed to be out and about at this time of the day, which Narye had now pointed out to her.

"I know" she said quietly, not sure what else she could say. She wasn't going to make excuses for herself, because there was no acceptable ones. She knew all along that what she had been doing was... well, wrong, but still, she did not regret it. The city seemed so much more alive at night, and having always grown up as the over protected oldest child, she had never been allowed to go anywhere alone.

"You know, people may think that coming from a lot of money and constantly having people to take care of you is nice, but it isn't" She said with a huff of indignation. It had always annoyed her endlessly that her parents insisted she always had someone with her where ever she went, and she guessed that this was also the reason why she had sneaked away from the palace so many times while growing up.

"Coming from a lot of money may have it's perks, but there's also a great number of downsides to it" She finished, crossing her arms in front of her. This was a posture she most often used when she was uncomfortable with something.

Narye may think her an irresponsible little girl who had just run away for fun, but in reality, he knew nothing about her at all.