DEAR DICTATOR → zuko

╸six : blowing smoke

❝ blowing smoke  ❞

· • -- ٠ ♛ ٠ -- • ·

          Nari twists the ends of her charred ribbon between her fingers. As the silky thread comes to an end, it's lined with a cauterized edge that saves the crimson stripes from fraying apart. She's grown quite tired, eyelids drooping like a wet rag as her body slumps against the back of her rhino's saddle. "You are aware that chasing after the avatar can wait for daylight, right?" She grumbles, her words slopped together with the slur of sleeplessness.

Nothing but the stillness of the night followed Nari's complaint. No creatures stirred save for the silent hum of cricket beetle, the subdued post-midnight wind, and Nari herself. She turns to Zuko only to see him gifting her with a critical stare.

"What?" Nari asks, sharp brows barely pressed together. Her face remains flat. "Some people need their sleep. I don't operate well on twenty minutes of it." The girl gestures to Iroh, who has slumped against Zuko's back as he rests shock-still, and then to herself. Her finger tips press against her chest, eyelids stretched.

Zuko sighs, having grown accustomed to her dramatic and otherwise mildly irritating attitude (specifically crafted to vex him, yet of this he has no knowledge), and in his best attempts he speaks silently, lest he wake his uncle. "I've told you many times-"

"Honor?"

"No." Zuko strikes, hushed. "The avatar never stays in one place for too long. We have to catch up before he runs off again."

"Right, because the avatar and his merry band of misfits never sleep, either. Who needs rest when you're trying to master all the elements?" Nari remains unmoved in her disposition.

Zuko barely turns his head, but with a slanted posture he keeps his eyes on her. They glow dark past the shaded night, and his grip has slightly tightened against the rhino's rein. "If we're quiet enough, we can capture the avatar and leave without a trace-- no fight at all."

Nari spins the button sown into the jacket's cuff of her right wrist, settling further into the saddle of the rhino. At this point, her lower back might as well be resting against the seat. "Our plans never work, so I've gotten used to finding dead ends." She states, a nonchalant depth in her tone.

Zuko raises his one brow, begging for her extended list of what may go wrong.

"Waking up in a fire nation ship would scare the kid, and he's beaten us with air bending before." She continues to spin the button, cool metal like ice against her fingertips. Her eyes glance up to Zuko occasionally as if searching for a signal to continue-- as he remains a statue, she furthers botched plans. "That bison could easily smell us, with how big it's nose is. Not to mention that lemur has huge ears-- he'd hear us before we could take one step towards them, even without these pointy shoes."

As Nari lifts her boot, delicately decorated to match the rest of her attire, Zuko sighs. "Maybe fighting would work better?"

She'd sneak around her home as a kid, gathering late night snacks or a cup of water when sleep eluded her, so Nari herself is decently skilled in the matter of stealth. Even in her time at the Royal Fire Nation Academy for Girls-- a rather long name which should be abbreviated, Nari believes-- she'd succeed in many furtive activities. For the slim part in which they focused on cloaked training at the academy, her grades skyrocketed. Otherwise, she was quite mischievous and nothing close to a teachers pet.

But that time is passed, and she retains her covert prowess. "Correction," She blurts in the procured silence, "maybe fighting would work better for you."