Intertwined Legends (Zutara)

Chapter Two

Zuko opened his eyes and stared up at the straw roof that was above his head. Looking outside, he saw that nightfall was approaching, which meant he had to begin work soon. He got up from the thin mat he slept majority of his days away on, in the cursed village he had made a temporary home in. This was his second week on the lake, and when he came here—alone—asking for shelter, they said that that one wasn't occupied because the old man that lived in it died of a heart attack. All in all, it was an alright place. Better than some of the other huts. He would have spent more time enjoying it, if he could.

        Too bad he had a duty to take care of.

        All Zuko had brought with him was a single bag, filled with clothes as one would see and believe. However, under the clothes, a hidden flap at the bottom of the bag contained dual swords and a blue-white-grey mask that resembled the face of a demon. The mouth was open, baring fangs. The only openings in it were the eye holes and even then there was a dark mesh covering them.

        Zuko put on the clothes he was given by the villagers—a simple faded green tunic and dark green pants. He slipped on a pair of sandals, tying a coarse rope around his waist to keep the tunic in place. He grabbed some money and went to Shu's stand before he closed at sunset; even though the fish was atrocious, there were a few greens that he'd have from the clean land around the lake or the non-polluted water. (Zuko learned from the village that that kind of water was hard to find, since the closest place was a solid hour away by boat.)

        "Hey, Shu," he greeted the salesman.

        Shu turned around, confused. "I'm Dock. Shu wanted to get some sleep, so I'm taking over for him. What can I get ya?"

        Zuko chuckled. Everyone knew Dock and Shu were the same person, except for Dock-slash-Shu himself. "Alright, Dock. Did Shu manage to get any greens today? Or fresh fish?"

        He waved Zuko to go behind the counter. The two of them had made a deal—Zuko would pay double the amount of money to get clean, fresh food, and the prices weren't that high to begin with. Crouching, the boatsman pulled out a wooden cart of clean seaweed and some edible grass. He pulled out another box, smaller than the greens, that had two fish with sickly green hues. Zuko eyed it curiously. "What happened to the fresh fish?"

        A sallow look on his face, Dock responded, "This is the fresh fish. The closest place is beginning to get polluted, too. And I don't know any other place nearby."

        Zuko cringed at the thought of eating the polluted fish. Who knew what kind of food poisoning or disease they could be carrying? He paid dock the usual double in Fire Nation money and took the sea plants and fish.

        Normally, Fire Nation money wasn't allowed on the lake village, and the same rule applied to Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe money. There were no benders in this little village since it was an independent community, but Zuko had explained (and lied) that he travelled there from Ba Sing Se and the Fire Nation money was all he had because he stole it off of a soldier. Shu accepted. Back in the hut, Zuko looked around. He was alone. He used his firebending to cook the fish and warm up the greens, sighing when he was done. "Time to get to work."

        Zuko swapped his village clothes for a simple dark brown shirt and pants, his platypus-bearskin boots, and pulled the mask over his face.

        He was the Blue Spirit, and he owed the factory across the lake.

        On his way to visit Iroh about a week prior, he was captured by guards who worked in the factory and were out on break. Because they were from the Fire Nation, they recognized the scar and were planning to tell his father that he was back. Instead, he begged for work, and so he was put on the lake where, every night, he was to dress up as the Blue Spirit and take a portion of each hut's possessions—whether it be clothing, medicine, food, money...anything. When Zuko was done collecting, he would bring the belongings to the factory and was paid handsomely afterwards.