Year of the Dragon [ Second Gen ]

Raizo rubbed Seze's neck to calm her; she was only looking out for him. His scrutinizing gaze lingered on Ren before reluctantly turning to focus on the angry merchant boy.

"Look, I'm sorry about your tent," he said. "We just needed shelter from the hail. As soon as it stops, we'll be out of your way." He reached into the pack hanging from a long, thin strap slung across his chest, and withdrew a coin purse. "In the meantime, can I make it up to you by purchasing something from your family's wares?"

Toka sighed. Then, she started bleeding, her face got cut by hail. She sniffled a little, but smiled as her hand came out out with a baby hawk. She sheilded it from the hail with her other hand.

Raizo's face flushed bright red, and he sighed, taking a few silver pieces out of the purse before sliding it back into his bag. "Really, I insist. It's only fair."

He looked around to see what this particular merchant family was offering, and then he noticed the family's sign, hanging at the back of the tent above several crates full of fruit (someone in their family must be a Firebender, for them to be able to grow produce in the winter). It was the same emblem that had been on the back of the message that arrived at the palace this morning by hawk. And that must be the hawk in question, high on a little perch safe from the hail, sleepily eyeing the newcomers with less than riveted interest. Well, that was some strange providence, at least...

"Do you have peanuts?"

Toka stared at raizo and sighed. Kiki was still cooing over the chick.

Ren was pulled into the tarp extension quite suddenly. He quickly warmed himself with a flick of a finger on his clothes, feeling a pair of eyes on him. He turned to see Raizo staring at him, like he wasn't human. Then he attended to the vendors who he stole the room from.

"I didn't know you were a Firebender." The words bounced in his head. No one had ever been interested in what he could do, besides stealing. He nodded his head almost shyly.

Shi still stayed in the basket, wondering when she could go home. She didn't want to go--she'd rather stall her time, play it out before she was dragged unwillingly back home. Then she noticed a thin red line on Toka's face. She hadn't noticed the baby bird.

"What happened to your face?" she asked.

"Hail." Toka replied. Kiki set the chick back in the basket.

"Oh." Shi relaxed. "Has it stopped bleeding?" she asked. Leaning against the wall of the basket, she looked Toka and Kiki over once more. It didn't seem to bother them that they were both homeless by now, and she knew that Kiki hadn't told her sister about agreeing to live with her.

Kiki Whispered something in toka's ear. "Really?"Toka said to kiki. Kiki Whispered in Toka's ear again. "No. But, Kiki said something about coming to live with you? Wow..."

Shi smiled. "Yes, I offered her a life under a roof with enough food, and training to entertain guests," she replied. "If you want to live with us, you may say so."

Raizo sighed again, quietly beneath his breath; he disliked being treated this way simply because he was royalty. Unlike Ursula, who believed that all forms of adulation and praise were owed to her at any point in time, Raizo preferred to deserve it in a way that was real. Trouble was, princes telling other people not to suck up to them so much tended to confuse them more than anything.

"No, thank you. This will be fine." He paid for the peanuts, and added a nice tip on top of that. "For letting us use your tent," he explained. "As soon as the hail ends, we'll be out of the way, I promise."

Seze snuffled, and curled her tail alongside her body.

Ren began to chuckle at how Hiro was doing his best to please Raizo. His gaze swept over to Kaori, who doesn't seem to infatuated with the prince, but was rather a fan of the eel hound. He found it... strange. Even the thief respected the prince, but she had rolled her eyes at her brother and went on to look at the eel hound. Ren looked around him and found that he was huddled next to the eel hound's foreleg. Looking at the girl again, he felt Jie twist around a little in his arms. His hair was still sopping wet, and Jie didn't seem to be dry, either.

Just then, he heard Raizo talk and smirked. He seemed to try and take all the respect in. Just then, he felt something whack his arm and realized it was the eel hound's tail wrapping around herself. He shuffled forward, glaring at the huge creature.

"Well, I guess we are comeing with you.." Toka said.

Shi smiled. "Okay. But we'll have to wait until the Prince delivers us to my house," she said. "I don't mind being away, personally," she muttered to herself as she glared at a small spot in the basket. After a minute, she returned to her normal state.

Seze was watching the girl, between protective glances in Raizo's direction; she lived in a fairly serene environment most of the time, after all, and wasn't used to so much commotion or attention from people she wasn't familiar with. She wasn't aggressive, as long as everyone minded their manners, but if Raizo had any problem with these people, then she would, too.

"Well..." Raizo hesitated, glancing back at the others, not sure how much he wanted to reveal to this stranger. "I'm taking the girls home, is all. Coming down the mountain on foot would have been dangerous in the rain, so we took my eel hound, Seze."

Shi raised herself a little higher to see what Raizo was doing. She caught sight of Hiro and Kaori, then ducked down again. Jie started to squeal at the two strangers, like he did back at the hospital, puzzling Ren. He tried everything he could to calm the bear down, but he kept squealing.

Ren glared back at the girl. He hadn't done nothing wrong--it was Jie. He whispered sternly into the cub's ear and the cub fell silent, but still faced the girl, nose twitching. He still had no idea why Jie was making such a commotion. He only did that when he met strangers again, or something. Strange little bear, he thought and he, too, backed up, his eyes still glaring at the girl.

Raizo was surprised; he hadn't paid much notice to the girl, until she was suddenly facing him with a very unpleasant look on her face. "Is there a problem?" he asked uncertainly, and the question was directed at the girl, not her brother.

"All right..." Raizo said, skeptical. Was she squeaking at the platypus bear cub? He turned his attention back to the young man, briefly, figuring that now would be a good time to retreat back to the people with whom he at least felt moderately comfortable. "I'm going to go back to my friends now. Just -- let me know if there's any trouble."

He returned to Seze's side, rubbing her broad throat affectionately. Her skin was feeling a bit cold; he felt bad for sticking her out in the middle of a hailstorm with nothing to keep her warm. He was about to try and get a flame going with his fingers to heat her up a bit, when he remembered just who else with them was a Firebender. Looking over at Ren for a long moment, Raizo moved over, glancing once at the girl who was still apparently trying to talk to Jie, and leaned in to say quietly, "Can you give me a hand over here?"

Jie pricked his ears and squealed back. Ren looked surprised and loosened his grip on the cub, but that was a bad mistake. He jumped out and landed clumsily on the wet, slippery ground, then made his way to Kaori, squealing a little as he sniffed her legs.

"Can you give me a hand over here?" Raizo had asked. Ren turned and nodded.

"Sure, what is it?" he asked.

"I need to warm Seze up a bit," Raizo answered, keeping his eyes on Ren carefully. "But she's so big, I could use a hand. And since you've been hiding some fairly impressive firebending ability, I figure you could help me out."