Ash [Prince Zuko - Book Two]

❃Chapter Five❃

Soft morning sunlight shone on the cobblestone ground, guiding Asake's way through the small town. Without tall buildings and trees to block the view, she wore Zuko's hat, situating it above her eyes to block the sun. The rest of her body was covered by a pair of hot pants and a long-sleeved shirt, hiding away the bruises and scars from her past. She wished she could hide them away forever, but they were there every time she changed or bathed, reminding her of what happened. It seemed like the past was haunting her.

She shoved her hand into her small pocket, her heart dipping low in her chest when she felt the single copper piece lying in the corner. She hardly had any money to buy anything that they needed, like food and clothes, but she had to get out of that cave. She couldn't stand it any longer. Zuko was being even more brooding, and he somehow came home with immaculate objects that glittered in the sunlight like they were made from precious jewels. She knew he didn't have any money to buy those objects, let alone food, and she had a sneaking suspicion he was stealing those items. His cold demeanor didn't help when she wanted to talk to him about it.

People bustled through the market Asake found herself in, filled to the brim with people who had more money than Asake could ever imagine. Her stomach burned at the thought of these people wasting their money on items that didn't even matter to them in the long run while she had to search through garbage to find food. How was that fair? Even when she was the daughter of an esteemed Fire Nation General, she didn't have the best-looking dresses or pretty hair pieces. She realized that nothing was fair in this world, and there was nothing she could do about it.

She stopped in her tracks, allowing the people to pool around her like waves parted in the sea. Her eyes bore fiery holes into the tree at the edge of the market as hot anger coursed through her veins. Around her, people grumbled to each other about this random girl with a straw hat and dark clothes standing in the middle of their market, of their city, of their land that she would never be a part of. Not like she wanted to be a part of it, anyway. They were too ritzy, too stuck up to allow a broken girl like her in their midst.

"You didn't hear this from me," a woman said as she brushed past Asake, "but Rin Gon was robbed."

Asake's eyes widened, and she swiveled around to find the woman. Dark hair and a smug look on her face told Asake everything she needed to know, and she started following the woman through the street. The person beside her, a stout man who was more round than anything else, struggled to keep up with the long legs of the woman.

"I also heard that Nili was robbed," the man said with a slight chuckle. "Our rivals are being ransacked, and we're not." He glanced around, so she hid behind a mother and son poking through some fruit on a merchant stall. He lowered his voice when he said, "Are you doing this?"

"How dare you?" the woman asked, placing a delicate hand on her chest. Her nails were sharp and thin, the dagger points painted in a soft shade of jade that matched her dress. "I would never stoop that far." She giggled as she picked up a lychee beside the mother, not even paying attention to the little boy with sad eyes. Asake wondered if the mother had any money to buy food for her child. "Rin Gon said that a person with a blue mask stole from him."

"So did Nili. If that person tries to come around and steal from us, we'll be ready for them."

Asake's blood ran cold. This was her proof that everything Zuko came back to the cave with was stolen. She growled, curling her lips against her teeth. She was right. Of course, she was. She knew Zuko better than most everyone else, and she knew he was doing that because he didn't know how to live without. Giving him the benefit of the doubt was getting on Asake's nerves; didn't he realize that he had a hundred chances with her and the world, yet he took one hundred and one chances to prove to everyone that he was still a deviant from the place that taught deviance was a way of life?