Playing With Fire

The wooden floor creaked almost imperceptibly under the weight of the passing shadow. Aside from these slight noises, there was a deep silence which only came in the small hours of the night; the city was sleeping. The figure continued down the hall and down the stairs by feel alone; she dared not use a light. Reaching the back door, she slid through it silently and out into the garden. She paused and listened intently for any sign that the household had awoken at the sound of her exit. Satisfied, she slunk toward the garden wall and, finding a foothold, hoisted herself to the top. Gravel crunched under her feet when she landed crouched in the alleyway.
Finally free of the house, Aria stood and smiled, pleased that she had gotten out unnoticed. Shouldering her pack once more, she headed in the direction of the docks where a fleet of Navy ships had arrived the previous day. The word was that they had only stopped to resupply and they would be leaving with the sunrise. Aria intended to be on one of those ships. Dressed in her military field outfit and with her hair done up in a high top knot standard of the Fire Nation military, she felt reasonably confident that she would be accepted; she had the added perk of being a bender. After walking for another fifteen minutes, she reached the docks and found a place to sit not far from the ships she was concerned with. She made sure she wasn’t completely comfortable; she didn’t want to sleep at the risk of being left. She closed her eyes, content to wait for the morning; hopefully she wouldn’t be missed before they left port.
She had made the decision to leave shortly after the night Commander Zhao had dined with them; she would not allow other people to govern how she would live her life and who she would live it with. The thought of Commander Zhao being able to touch her whenever he wanted raised goose bumps on her arms and she held herself tightly, trying to block out the unpleasant thoughts. Slowly, despite her intentions, the background sound of the waves moving in and out lulled her to sleep and her negative thoughts seemed to be washed out with the tide.
“Oi! Out of the way boy!” A sailor spat at her, reaching for the crates stacked behind her. Aria jerked awake and jumped up quickly, frowning at being mistaken for a boy. The man rummaged through the nearest crate, bringing out a long, thick coil of rope. Hoisting it over his shoulder, he strode off without another glance at her.
“Sir, excuse me? Sir!” Aria cried, jogging after him.
“Budge off, I have no time for the likes of you. This ship needs off within the hour” He answered gruffly, unconcerned that she was in fact a girl.
“Please, I want to enlist. Can you tell me who the Commander of this ship is and where I can find him?” She begged.
“We’re fully crewed; you’re wasting your time.” He answered, finally stopping and looking at her. He read the stubborn set to her scowl and sighed, “But if you’re determined, the Commander took leave for the night and should be coming in anytime; wait for him over there. It’s Commander Kon.”
Aria thanked him and settled in to wait once again. The sun was barely clear of the horizon when the Commander walked into view. It was evident that he was the Commander by the sash wrapped around his torso, over his uniform. Aria jumped to her feet and moved to intercept him.
“Commander Kon.” She said, bowing. The young, handsome officer squinted at her and only grunted in response. The way he was squinting in the light and the smell of alcohol coming off his clothes advertised to everyone how he had spent his night in the city. Aria couldn’t blame him; after being at sea so long, she’d probably go boozing around town too.
“I wanted to speak with you about enlisting in your-” Aria said hurriedly, trying to keep up with his long strides.
“Listen, girl, I have a splitting headache and can’t deal with you right now. I’ve got a lot to do before we cast off so why don’t you just go on home?” He said, attempting to brush her off. Aria clenched her jaw and sped up, cutting him off.
“My parents kicked me out of the house, I didn’t attend to my studies intensely enough. But I can assure you, you won’t regret it. I’m a decent bender and a hard worker. I follow orders and I promise I’ll pull my own weight…and I probably won’t stop bothering you.” She stated.
He considered her briefly before smiling faintly and continuing walking.
“You know, I like you kid. So probably against my better judgment, I’ll let you on. Can you read maps?” He asked.
“Uh…yes of course.” Aria lied. She was unwilling to admit to anything that would keep her from being allowed on the ship.
“Good. Go find Captain Le, he’ll tell you what you need to do.” He said approvingly. Aria saluted and they parted ways; the Commander to his quarters and Aria to the helmsman room.
Several hours later, the ship had left sight of land. Aria stood at the railing, staring out at the sea. She couldn’t believe she had gotten away with it; it seemed impossible that she had gotten one over her father. The movement of the ship was unfamiliar to her and she felt as if she was just learning to walk. Captain Le had told her that until they got further out, she wouldn’t be needed as an assistant to the navigator; she could do general chores and jobs needed to keep the ship running smoothly in the meantime.
After two weeks at sea, Aria was standing at a low table trying to hide her confusion. The map below her had a spider web of squiggly lines crossing all over the world. She had been told that some of the lines showed the movements of other Fire Nation military, others Earth Kingdom Battalions, and very few of Water Tribe attack movements. So far all she could see was a garbled mess of crisscrossing lines and the coordinate numbers were completely beyond her. Swallowing down her nervousness, she glanced up at the man waiting for the numbers and back down at the map. Giving up on complete accuracy, she estimated where she thought they might be and read off the coordinates.
Commander Kon, who was across the room, looked up sharply at this. He jumped to his feet and strode across the room to look at the map. Frowning, he checked their heading against the map before finally relaxing.
“You gave me a scare girly. According to you we were right in the path of those water tribe peasants who like to pretend to play navy. Not that we’d have any problems with them, it’d just be inconvenient…” He said merrily. “You’ve never read a map before have you?”
“Um…yea-no, no I haven’t.” Aria answered sheepishly.
“Eh, that’s alright, we’ll find something for you to do.” He answered, still pleasant. In the short time Aria had been on the boat, she had really come to enjoy talking to Commander Kon. Although sometimes arrogant and short tempered, he was fun and the crew loved him. She had made a fast friend in him.