Year of the Dragon [ Second Gen ]

She looked back and smiled at ren. She was hopeing for the best, after what she said.

Ren had nothing to worry about, because Ursula promptly straightened up and laughed in pure mirth. "How positively precious." She reached out and scritched Jie's head as if she had every right in the world to do so. "What a unique pet. Maybe he can have a playdate with Kaya and Seze."

Kiki smiled She stared at kia, standing on her sholder. "And this is kia, my flying lemur." Happily.

"It's nice to meet you, Kia," Ursula answered airily, making a vague gesture with her hand. She tossed her hair back, speaking with the utmost pleasant nonchalance. "Flying lemurs might be more of a problem, unfortunately. Unless she wants to be a late night snack for Kaya or Seze, you might want to keep her with you. Just saying!"

Kiki laughed. "Kia can defend herself. I can train many types of animals." Kiki said, after she was done laughing, but still had a chuckle in her voice.

Ursula threw her head back and laughed even harder. "Any lemur that can hold its own against a hungry dragon hawk and an eelhound is definitely a first!" She smirked at Kiki. "You can't train away the food chain, sweetie."

Ren was a bit surprised when the princess scratched Jie's head. The platypus bear moved his head a little in pleasure, not minding the noise at all. The boy thought Jie was usedto unusual places and people. As for the playdate... He smirked. "Of course, I'll be present there. Eelhounds and dragon hawks look a little bit too big for a bear cub." He listened to both the girls's words and held back a laugh. "Isn't your lemur still a young one?" he asked Kiki. Shi tried her best to look concerned and involved, but eelhounds... She wasn't too eager to meet the royal pets of the Fire Nation.

Kiki rolled her eyes with a smile, this is how her long lost sister was. "Say, this is funny, but you are almost exactly like my long-lost sister. I have no idea if she is alive or not.

Ursula raised an eyebrow at Kiki, and scoffed. "How flattering. I think." She rubbed Jie's head once more, before turning away and continuing down the long gilded hall. "Well, anyway, the guest rooms are just around the corner here. My family's bedrooms are on the other side of the palace, so I wouldn't recommend wandering around at night." She smirked again, glancing at Ren, and then the girls. "Of course, if you need anything, you could always scream really loud."

Kiki was literally cracking up. If her sister was having guests like this and lived in a palace, she would have said the same thing. Kiki followed ursela in. Kiki also then looked at ren. "Yes, Kia is not an adult."

Ren had a strange look on his face as he glanced back at Kiki. Ursula was enjoyable, but surely, she wasn't that hilarious. He ruffled the tuft of fur on Jie's head before trooping after the little girl. Shi had thought Kiki was rather strange, too. No matter. It will pass, and hopefully, stay in the past. The landlord didn't want a mentally ill child. And Shi was worried about the girl's health.

Ursula glanced briefly back at Kiki, seeming just as put off by the laughter as Ren. But she said nothing else on the subject, and they turned the corner, coming to another long corridor with doors all up and down either side. Ursula approached the first one and open the door with a grand gesture, revealing a lushly decorated interior with a canopy bed, a chaise lounge, and an elegant table for tea, all gold and red.

"Here we are!" said Ursula magnanimously, pointing out the rooms in which each of them would be staying. "One, two, three. Since it's so late--" she looked each of them over again, bluntly, "--and I assume you want dinner, we'll have it brought for you in your rooms. We do love to make sure our guests feel right at home."

Ren smiled and went into a room. Red and gold. Just how he liked it. He thought it was already quite comfortable, and for once, the food would be brought to him, as if he was a wealthy person. Jie was still asleep, but he awoke slowly and Ren let him walk around. "Thanks," he said to Ursula.

Shi nodded to the rest and opened the door next to Ren's. It reminded her of a story about three doors, and how each one could change your life. Nevertheless, she stepped in boldly. The room was enveloped in lavender, lilac, pink, red, gold, bits of green... She could call it fruity. The soft colors made her grimace slightly, but the room wasn't half bad. One gigantic bed at one wall with many pillows of many sizes, a vanity (Shi never thought she would see such an expensive vanity. The one the landlord gave her was a rotten wooden one with a small mirror.) that seemed to be made of the best kind of wood. It looked like it was rosewood, and the mirror seemed like the best in the whole nation. Then there wasa small table and she just discovered that a delicate, cherrywood chest sat at the foot of the bed.

"W-wow," Shi stammered. "I... Didn't expect a room like this..." And it was true. She wasn't fond of these types of color, or used to such large spaces. Or even the vanity.

"These are the guest rooms. If you're uncomfortable, you could always stay with the servants," said Ursula, as casually callous as her sense of humor appeared to be. She leaned against the doorframe of Ren's room, arms folded, and watched with mild interest as the platypus bear cub snuffled his way around the room. Then she abruptly pushed away from the door and strode off down the hall, waving over her shoulder. "Well, good night!"

Ren looked after Ursula's back. There seemed to be something strange about her, especially when she suddenly pushed off from the doorframe after eyeing Jie. He shrugged and sat down at the table. Jie was observing one of the gold-laced curtains, nibbling it ever so slightly. The door was still open, and he glanced at it occasionally. The food isn't here yet, he thought, to give himself an excuse. Really, he wanted another glimpse at royalty, though he didn't know it. And he wanted to glance at a certain royal person.

Shi sat down on the bed, still grimacing at the colors. She wondered what happened to Raizo; did she cause trouble? Would he be punished? Perhaps she should escape now with the others and the Fire Lord will wonder if it was a dream. But she had never been close to royalty before, and she knew no one would believe her if she said anything about it. She wondered about Kiki. Was she okay?

Ursula made her way through the palace toward the throne room. She wasn't about to interrupt her father and her brother, but she was fully prepared to wait outside for Raizo to emerge. She had plenty of questions for him. For one thing, why he brought a thief into the palace (it was so obvious, even if he was cute); for another, why there was a young woman wearing Raizo's scarf around her neck; and finally, why the little group of ragamuffins was rounded out by a small girl who couldn't have been older than ten, if that.

Something was going on with her brother, Ursula knew that much. Although it was the first time he'd done something as overt as this, it wasn't nearly the first time that stress had triggered some kind of bizarre reaction. Like the time when they were younger, when she'd made an admittedly cruel comment about Raizo inheriting a perfect world from their father and the Avatar. Raizo had had nightmares for the entire following week about finding out that he was somehow the Avatar as well, in addition to being the next Fire Lord, and having to master all four elements in time to stop the world from going up in the flames of Ozai, Azulon, and Sozin all at once... Well, it'd been pretty dramatic, to say the least.

Her parents hadn't been very pleased with her about that.

She hadn't meant to scare him like that; she never did. She worried about Raizo, too. He was wound way too tightly all the time. Sure, as soon as he came out of the throne room she was going to grill him into the floor, but that didn't mean she didn't care.

Ren walked around the room slowly, not midning Jie at all, who was now sniffing at the doorframe where Shi had recently stood. This was way different from what he had dreamed of at night, when he had thought of life in the palace. Everything was just... rich. He touched a delicate piece of fabric hanging on the wall, admiring its golden threads briefly. Dropping the fabric, he turned to face the wall.

For my sake, he thought, I need to get out of here! This is too much--I can't live like this! I'm not used to it... I'm going insane... Ren sunk onto the bed, looking at the floor. Jie had waddled out of the room, just a few paces away.

Kiki leaped onto her bed. Kia, wildly investigating the room, looked up at kiki, who was already fast asleep. Kiki still could not stand how much ursela was like her sister.

It took a long time for Raizo to emerge from the throne room. And as soon as he finally came through the doors, Ursula could tell by the look on his face that she shouldn't ask what was said in there. Sometimes it was difficult to tell how their father would react to things, and when all was said and done, he rarely scolded them -- but, for all the strange things he did sometimes, Raizo feared Zuko's disapproval more than just about anything. To the degree that he was developing a teenage complex about it, really, it was embarrassing.

In any case, it wasn't all that often that Ursula couldn't tell what her brother was thinking just by looking at him. Twin thing, she supposed. But this was one of those times. Raizo's face seemed to be carefully blank... but she could tell that something important was going on behind that expression.

"Well! Your new friends are all comfortable and cozy," she piped up, falling into step beside him with her arms folded casually behind her back. "You don't have to thank me for playing hostess for you. Actually I rather enjoyed it!"

"Thank you, Ursula," Raizo murmured, sounding honestly as if he hadn't heard her.

She glanced sideways at him. "Still, you could repay me the favor by explaining to me just where you managed to pick up such an odd assortment of people. Why is that dancer girl wearing your ratty dress-up scarf, I'd really like to know that -- oh, and where did you find that blatantly obvious thief with the platypus bear? He's actually rather cute, I might even be able to overlook it if he makes off with one of the gold vases," Ursula said, gesturing with her hand and smirking to herself. "Although it would be impressive enough if he could actually move them by himself..."

"She was cold before," said Raizo, still distracted. "And Ren had lunch with me. Kiki lost her parents, and Shi has been looking out for her."

Ursula gave her brother a scrutinizing look, and then grabbed his shoulder and stopped them both. The twins faced each other in the middle of the hallway. "Great. Thank you for that. Now are you going to tell me what's going on with you?"

It took Raizo a long time to speak, until Ursula was convinced that he wasn't going to. But to his credit, he answered her, and he didn't even try to pretend that nothing was wrong. Instead, he simply said, "I'm really tired, Urs. Can we talk about it tomorrow?"

"..." Ursula relaxed her grip and slowly released him. Something about the way he said that made her believe that he would. "All right, Zoey," she said, smiling slightly as the nickname made him roll his eyes; at least that was something, "tomorrow. Dinner is on its way to your little friends now -- but maybe you want to turn in early tonight." When Raizo hesitated just long enough to let her know she was right, Ursula looped her arm in his and took the lead back to their bedrooms.

They hadn't shared a room since they were kids, but when they'd made the change to separation, they'd kept their spaces right next to each other. Ursula walked Raizo to the door of his room, and stood there for a little while, watching as he went inside and looked around as if he hadn't been there in a very long time. Or, perhaps, as if he wouldn't be seeing it for a long time, instead.

"Just get some rest." She smiled at the back of his head, genuinely affectionate as long as no one could see. "I'll make sure your friends are all right."

Raizo was running his fingertips over his detailed jade dragon sculpture, resting on an ornate mahogany dias underneath a banner of the new Fire Nation regime. He paused, and looked back at his sister, and there was something heartfelt in his voice. "Thanks, Ursula. I mean it."

"No problem." And she left him to his privacy, closing the door behind her.

The food had already been delivered to Ren and Shi, who ate in their separate bedrooms. When Kiki's food came, however, Shi wandered to the next room, only to find the girl fast asleep. She didn't have the heart to wake her up, so she went back to her guest room. On her way, she saw Ren snatch up his cub and closed the door. He never ate his food when the door was open, or in public places, besides the tea shop. It comforted him to be secluded and alone with Jie. Shi sighed and closed her own door. Once the quiet donned the room, the dancer was aware of a soft pitter-patter sound. Was it raining? She looked at her food: roasted duck and other dishes in rich sauces, richly roasted nuts glazed over with honey, a small cup of spice, some rice, two cups of tea... It was impossible not to stare and sniff in the smell.

Ren was glaring at the food. He knew that he should eat up, since it would be a once-in-a-lifetime kinda situation. Instead, he sat on his bed, holding Jie close to him, eying the food with distaste. The smell had already reached his nose and he couldn't do anything about that. He had never seen anything like this in his life, and if he didn't know any better, he would have wolfed it down, then suffer from an overwhelming stomachache. So he just sat and glared at the food, wishing he could eat it, but knew it would be rather fatal to his poor stomach. Finally, he went and snatched a honey-glazed nut and fed it to Jie. It wasn't that he was being mean, but if he couldn't eat anything, at least Jie could. Absently, he let the cub onto the low table, where he began to eat. The thief hadn't realized a soft tapping noise, but if he did, he dismissed it as the guards' footsteps.

Kiki woke up, with a tear in her eye. She missed her sister toka.
Toka rustled on the street, wondering about kiki. "Man, hope she ran from mom and dad by now" Toka whispered to herself.

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It wasn't until morning that someone came to find him.

Ursula and Raizo were always up with the sun, but when Raizo's door remained closed well past the komodo rooster's crow, Ursula assumed that he must have been more exhausted than she thought, and went off to morning exercises without him. A fresh blend of aerobics and bikram yoga was her favorite way to wake up in the morning; after an hour, she decided that she was ready for breakfast, and mused that she might as well make sure that Raizo's guests didn't miss out on the meal as well.

Which was, of course, when she found out that Ren was missing. And it didn't take much questioning around to learn what that was all about. So, after giving the girls a terse and fairly impatient wake-up call, Ursula made her way to the farthest extension of the palace, where the holding cells were kept. And there was Ren.

The very first thing she said was, "Tell me you at least tried to steal something interesting."

"If you're talking about those golden vases out in the hallways, I don't even think about it. Those things must weigh a ton," Ren said. "And good morning to you too, princess," he added sarcastically. The guards seemed rather bewildered at finding the princess talking casually with someone like a thief. "Anyway, I couldn't eat the food you sent me, so I tried to steal something simple." He shrugged. "Now can I get out of here and get my platypus bear?"

Shi woke up at Ursula's call. After she stretched herself, she glided out into the hallway. She supposed she should wake up the boy, too. Knock, knock. She opened the door and found only Jie, who was beginning to wake-up.

"Wh... What did he get himself into now?" she growled and picked up the sleepy cub. She'll see to Kiki later. "Where's the Princess?" she wondered as she walked down the hallway.