isolated,, sokka

ii.

zhao was furious with zhavia, to say the least. but because he didn't want to appear weak in front of his crew, she was allowed to leave without much resistance from him.

it had been a few days since her leave, and she currently was staying in a earth nation based town near a forest. her and zaia had immediately left the ship after one of zhavia's spies revealed that zhao was attempting to track them. zaia and zhavia did split up, because zaia claimed her older bones couldn't bear traveling. zhavia, reluctantly, agreed.

it wasn't like zhavia was scared of her father, or that he was angry with her, but she finally had gotten the courage to leave his control and she wouldn't lose that now.

she had been staying in a small rented home, but the fire nation soldiers who patrolled the village made sure she didn't have to pay any fees for staying after learning she was commander zhao's daughter.

"miss zhavia," one of the soldiers had escorted her to the place she decided to stay for a few nights, "please enjoy your stay here. it's a true honor to have you in this village."

"thank you, you may leave now." zhavia said, as he dropped the keys in her hand and walked off with the other soldiers. zhavia knew better than to appear weak or helpless in front of fire nation— so she put up a tough front.

deciding to check out the home later, zhavia took the opportunity to walk around the village. she stuck out in her high-status fire nation apparel amongst the other earth kingdom citizens, but she didn't think too much of it.

she had never taken the initiative to leave the fire nation before, so she was a bit thankful she was checking everything out without her father's manipulative words clogging her experience.

"hello there," zhavia smiled towards an older woman as she walked into a fruit shop.

"oh—" the woman was surprised at zhavia's entrance, not usually having fire nation customers, "what can i get for you?"

"two papaya's please." zhavia smiled, reaching into her changepurse as she awaited the total.

"hear you go, miss." the shop owner handed zhavia two papaya's.

"how much?" zhavia asked, her voice was soft as she was able to tell the shop owner had fear over zhavia's fire nation attire.

"everything is free of charge for the fire nation, those are the rules." the woman's voice was shaky, as if she believed zhavia was testing her. zhavia narrowed her eyes a bit, not towards the lady selling her the fruit— but at the rule she thought was stupid.

"how much would an earth kingdom citizen pay for these?" zhavia asked.

"two copper pieces." the woman replied, eyeing zhavia skeptically.

zhavia hummed for a second in thought, before pulling out two silver pieces and handing them to the lady, "here you go, ma'am."

"you really don't need to, it's an honor to have you shop from here itself." the woman disagreed once more, and zhavia sighed.

"i'm new here, just stopping by. i don't need to be treated differently than any visitor," zhavia shook her head, "please take it, ma'am."

"thank you so much, dear." the shop owner thanked, finally trusting zhavia to have pure intentions.

"if you don't mind me asking, why are you so afraid of the fire nation?" zhavia asked, a confused tone laced throughout her voice.

"the-the fire nation has taken everything from our village. they use our coal mines to power the fire nation navy, and ever since the soldiers-" the lady's voice was hushed, but interrupted when another guy ran into the shop.