[Open] A Stroll Interrupted

[Zhilan Shihong]

Such a shame, such a shame.

Zhilan sighed softly as she gazed out to the pond, her golden eyes looking a tad distant. Her red parasol rested in her lap, her hands resting daintily upon it.

Her stroll had come to an end already; and she had been enjoying herself so much.
Her eyes moved to the area further down the trail, where she had spotted from the distance several Earthbenders chattering and laughing. Loud little heathens. Refusing to so much as cross paths with the brutes, she had decided to simply take a seat and wait for them to inevitably lose interest and move on. They were like animals, she knew. It shouldn't take long.

But it seemed it was, indeed, taking long. They were sparring or something childish; she didn't really care enough to find out. She simply shook her head, murmuring about the individuals before she stood, extending the parasol back over her head.

"I suppose I should just return home..." she murmured, her voice soft and dainty, despite the irritation in her eyes. "Perhaps Father has prepared some tea for me when I arrive."

She started walking down the trail, her long, red robe trailing on the ground. It was a bit warm out today, but she refused to leave behind her long robe- she had to represent her people well when she went out on a walk. There was no doubt in anyone's mind what kind of Bender she was when she wore these clothes.

It was a shame she had to turn back so suddenly. She gave another quiet sigh, shaking her head a bit.

Suddenly, she found herself run into what felt like another person; and she hit them hard enough to propel herself backward. Her parasol dropped just as quickly as she did, landing quite hard on her bottom.
"Agh!" she gasped, wincing as she put a hand on her rump, the pain pulsing through her body. She hadn't been paying attention to where she was going. She looked down at her robes, a slightly irritated look as she saw the dirt and newfound mud stains upon them. This was just terrible. She looked up at the offender, a glare on her face. If this was an Earthbender, she'd show them what was what.

[Mu Sheng]

A beautiful day to be lost in the middle of the bustling metropolis known as Republic City, no? For a place having such a diverse population the infrastructure looked mostly the same, which spelled disaster when trying to move about in a new place. The warmth of the sun, nor the cloudless sky could fully alleviate the young man's worry about becoming lost in such a place; though stumbling upon a park could have been seen as a silver lining of sorts.

The trees were lush and bright with life, while the water was clearer than glass. Various creatures roamed about the park either frolicking in the warmth or searching for food, while the people seemed content with just enjoying the day. Of course, the agenda of said people varied just as much, or more, than the actual number of people present. Some were here on dates, others taking their family for a mid-day stroll, and then there were the select few who were face deep in a map trying to piece together some sense of direction.

Specifically, the struggling wanderer was none other than Mu Sheng, the newly rooted earth-bender who had barely begun to get his feet wet in Republic city. While he had little qualms going from his home to his job, and vice versa, attempting to traverse anywhere outside of that immediate area was a daunting task. If it had not been for a random flip of the coin, Mu would have gone a completely different direction and not stumbled upon this park at all.

As he did not want to give himself away looking like a tourist or someone new to the city, the bender had purchased a smaller map that had a flip book like design to it; though even with the labels he found himself flipping through the tiles like a mad man. This distraction had cut him off from experiencing the world around him, which nearly led to a few accidental dips in the pond, but by fate's grace he had been able to stay dry. With his eyes glued to the map, there was nothing to stop him from his next action, however, as the sound of two bodies colliding into each other broke Mu Sheng from his trance like state. The many years of laboring on a farm left the young man with a muscular build and preventing any kind of staggering on his end, which was probably why whoever was on the other end took the worst of the impact.

Dark hues shifted from the map to the woman who sat on the ground, daggers being shot from her eyes in Mu's general direction. "I'm so sorry about that, too busy looking at the map to watch where I was going." He said sheepishly while extending a hand to help the maiden up. A sorry excuse, but it was the truth. Given her robes, the woman had Fire Nation loyalist stamped right in the middle of her forehead, and could have possibly came from a higher-end family. Hopefully she was not the spiteful type. "Mu Sheng, by the way. May I ask your name?" The plan now was to rush past the incident with extreme haste so that any ill-tempered feelings would not have the time to manifest, whether it be from hitting the ground, or staining her robes.

[Zhilan Shihong]

Of course it was an Earthbender. No other race was quite dim-witted enough for this sort of business. This huge oaf of a boy had caused her to hit the ground and stain her robes, and possibly get a bruise on her bottom. And for that, this heathen would pay.

She smacked his hand away from him as she stood up, a scowl still pasted on her face. "My name is Zhilan Shihong. And you will sorely regret crossing paths with me, Earthbender."

She rose her hands up to her chest, unfastening the robe from around her and letting it fall around her- she would buy a new one, considering the stains may not even come out. Beneath the robe were rather form-fitting clothes; red with accents of gold and black, fitting tightly to her body to allow the best amount of movement. With two quick punches, she sent two fireballs blasting towards the man.

Zhilan didn't have the insight to realize just how foolish it was for her to be fighting in Republic City Park. People got in trouble here for fishing- setting things on fire probably wasn't going to go over well either. But she wasn't about to let this terrible, vile little man get away with staining her clothes. Usually she did her best to behave like a lady around these subhuman creatures; she'd just laugh at how sad and useless they were. But this one had crossed her- not only after she had had her walk ruined by a bunch of his kind, but also causing her clothes to be stained.
Perhaps she could kill him- then she could go home and boast about how she contributed to one less Earthbender in the world.

Sadly, her bending skills were barely average, considering how little she worked at it. But she was aggressive- she threw herself forward after her fireballs, bringing up a leg and aiming to kick him right across the skull, bringing up a wave of fire behind her limb.

"Fight or die, boy!" she called angrily, probably garnering a bit of outside attention as she did so.

[Mu Sheng]

Getting his hand smacked away, though unfortunate, was completely reasonable; the robes looked rather expensive and replacing them probably wasn't something that the woman had any intention of doing today. Her name didn't ring any bells in Mu's head, though he wasn't sure why Zhilan sounded as if some part of her name were supposed to be known throughout the city. Weird. Though that would pale in comparison to what happened next, as she somehow managed to figure out that the young man was an earth bender. He had no markings that proclaimed his allegiance and believed for a moment that the woman who he had just run in to was a psychic. However, his time for speculation was cut short as the woman, now standing, de-robed into what looked like fighting gear, and the two fireballs headed his way served to punctuate that assumption.

Strong leg muscles allowed the bender a forceful jump to his right, effectively dodging the attack as he wondered if all the people in Republic City acted this way after they were bumped into. Mu Sheng was not in the mood for altercation in the middle of a foreign land, and even more so in the middle of a public park. Though judging from the look on Zhilan's face he would have little choice in the matter. As the woman leaped forward Mu would take a haughty step into the ground and raise both of his arms which would cause a slab of earth to rise from the ground and hopefully shield the incoming kick, fire and all. While he had no intent to injure, the earth-bender would act in self defense if the need arose.

The stinging words seemed like acid coming from the fire-bender who must have had some personal vendetta against any and all earth-benders, and if the time came when she was calm enough to talk Mu would be sure to ask her how exactly she knew he was an earth-bender. Perhaps it was the deep green coloring on the cuffs and collar on the kung-fu style suit that he wore, maybe it was just woman's intuition. Whatever the case, all hell had broken loose with Mu Sheng right in the middle.

If his defense strategy had pulled through and the slab of earth had successfully blocked Zhilan's kick then that would have put her coming down right in the middle of the slab, an open target basically. With two punches, square pieces of the slab would jettison off in the general direction of the woman, though due to not being able to see through the slab Mu was essentially taking a shot in the dark. Perhaps the situation could have turned out differently if only one side were attacking, but with the earth-bender now sending out counter-measures the tables had shifted from good guy/bad guy, to two benders dukeing it out in the middle of a public park.

[Zhilan Shihong]

((Doh, apologies for the metagame. I assumed his green clothes would have some sort of Earth Kingdom emblem on them. My bad. :b ))

Green was such a garrish color. She'd seen many, many Earthbenders of Republic City wearing it; after all, it was custom for benders to wear their typical colors around here. Though Zhilan would never admit it, she was possibly attacking a nonbender just because he was wearing a certain color. But that thought didn't even occur to her; she had just seen and assumed immediately.

Her eyes widened slightly as he very suddenly opened a defensive counter, which effectively managed to block her kick. She grit her teeth, falling backwards right onto the slab. Two more pieces of earth skimmed just above her, just barely missing, though through no work of her own. His aim had been slightly off, it seemed. She forced herself back up to her feet, leaping into the air and bringing both her arms down toward him in a flare of flames, hoping it'd either be enough to kill him or at least burn him. She was already out of breath; it had been too long since she had last done any sort of work.

"Damned heathen." she hissed angrily, narrowing her eyes as her arms moved down toward his head, hoping he would be too slow to dodge it. But she was leaving her legs wide open; sadly, despite provoking fights so often with Earthbenders, Zhilan was simply not a well-practiced fighter.

Her family would definitely be hearing about this- how some pissant Earthbender had attacked her in the park. Maybe she could get him arrested...as much as she loathed to come into any contact with those Metalbenders. They were just another style of Earthbending as far as she was concerned, and she would have nothing to do with them.

[Mu Sheng]

(It's all good!)

Through the two holes made from the jettisoned pieces of rock, Mu could see that his attack was unable to completely drop the attacker, though it did push her back a bit. With his palms facing downward, the earth-bender extended his arms toward the ground to return the slab to it's original position, minus a couple pieces. Words would do little good at this point as Zhilan had seemed to make up her mind about any and all earth-benders years ago which left Mu Sheng looking little more than a practice dummy at this point.

Once again the woman would leap towards the boy, but this time she chose to attack with her arms which left the legs an easy target. What Mu had in power he lacked in speed, and she was moving too fast for another muscle-imbued jump to safety. The chances of performing a counter before Zhilan was upon him were extremely low, and at this point the hit was all but assured. Mu, however, would do his best to soften the blow and brought his hands up once more to raise the earth around him. He did not have enough time to create another wall, and instead would opt for rock armor covering his arms which he placed in an 'x' pattern over his head. Though it would not shield him completely from the attack, his arms, and more importantly his head, would survive to see another day.

As the two made contact Mu Sheng could feel the immense heat radiating from Zhilan's attack. By the point the smell of burning hair was beginning to become potent, and if it continued any longer it would be the boy's scalp smoldering next. With a power shout of sorts Mu would attempt to push his arms outward to end the fire-bender's attack and hopefully leave a moment for attack. He stomped his left foot on the ground to force a narrow, rectangular piece of earth to rise and hopefully come up under Zhilan's right leg which would effectively throw her off balance.

If all went according to plan, Zhilan would be left open for a counter measure the likes of which Mu Sheng had already partly completed. With his arms still coated in rock he would thrust out a double force palm in an attempt to both push back the woman and hopefully break her spirit to continue fighting. Endurance was a strong trait the earth-bender built up from his time on the farm, and though he might not have been able to evade every attack from the woman, chances were that he would be able to outlast her if the bought continued to drag on.