Chapter Text
Lomri opened their eyes and sat up, they had finally made it to ba sing se—sort of. They were at least on the ferry ride over, and in the home stretch.
They looked around to try and figure out what woke them—there, that was it. There was a man asking for a healer, and a boy with a scar on his face, helping the man’s… wife? Sister? They looked like lovers, so that’s what Lomri would assume they were. It looked like the boy was a water healer, but Lomri could almost taste the fire radiating off the boy, begging her to feast. The boy’s chi smelled so tasty, but Lomri steeled themselves, there would be plenty of humans to eat in ba sing se.
A boy with hook swords handed them a bread roll and they passed it to the nearest human, “I don’t eat human food.”
The woman looked confused, but took the food anyway, “O-kay?”
“Hey, do you know the deal with that healer?” They asked the woman.
“I don’t know much, but I think he helped get us food last night.” The woman said between bites.
“Huh,” Lomri followed the spit-fire as best as they could, but a guard stole the boy and the old man away somewhere they couldn’t follow. “Damn it.”
“Papers, please.” The woman behind the counter said, “Come on, kid, we haven’t got all day.”
Lomri looked up from their lamenting at the woman, and promptly handed her the requested papers.
The woman nodded, stamped the papers, and directed her to get on a train car.
They managed to catch up with the car that had the little spit-fire in it before it left, and get in. They stared at the boy, but he didn’t seem to notice—they sucked away a bit of his chi experimentally. Well, tried too. There was some sort of wall around the kid’s spirit, like he’d fought spirits before. That was terribly annoying—the first strong chi’d kid they’d found since they’d left, and he had an Agni damned wall around his spirit.
Lomri looked at the boy’s old companion, but he seemed to have the same wall around his spirit, that was where it started to get confusing. While on the train, they felt strong benders everywhere, but when they tried to take chi, they were stopped by the same kind of wall every single time. It was normal for a few people, Lomri knew that, but this could not be normal.
Once off the train, Lomri followed the boy and the old man, hoping they’d lead them to a meal, but alas, they went into a building that warded off small spirits. They kicked a rock. Going to a big city was supposed to make it easier to find meals than in small towns. They fumed for a bit, before stalking off.
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Lomri got a job at a dumb shop next to a dumb tea shop, run by the world’s worst bender. His chi tasted like licking shit that sat in the sun for too long, and he was ugly. They wouldn’t let their dislike for their new boss show on their face, however, because apparently to get lodgings they needed money(?), whatever that was.
Lomri was closing shop for the night, when they smelled the chi of that old man who had the best smelling chi ever. It was too bad they couldn’t get a taste, they were practically drooling.
Lomri walked to the place where their boss said they could find a place to stay and put money on the counter, “The man said if I gave you this, then you would give me a place to stay.”
The lady looked down at them, it wasn’t their fault they weren’t that tall, and spoke, “Child, this is ten silver and four buttons.”
“You admit it’s money.” Lomri pounced (not literally), “Can I have a place to sleep?”
The lady sighed and handed back all their buttons, half the coins, and a… Key(?). “What do I do with this?” They asked, “What does it go to?”
The woman sighed again, “They key has a number on it, climb the stairs, find the door with a matching number, and that’s where you stay for a month. In a month, you pay again, and stay for another month.” The lady looked tired. “This continues until you stop living here.”
Lomri looked at the key in their hand and nodded, “Okay.” They started on their way up.
Their room number was 43, so they continued up the stairs—floated up the stairs—until they found the room.
They put the key in the door to unlock it, and then walked in and looked around. The main room was bare except for a futon, a stove, and some other things, but they wouldn’t need those, since they didn’t eat like humans did.
They slid out the window and ran across the roofs in search of dinner, “No, that won’t work… There!” They slowed to a halt on the roof of a house in the upper ring. It contained several sleeping benders with delicious smelling chi. They opened their mouth wide and sucked in enough chi that it was a big meal, but they could come back for more the next night.
When they turned around to leave, there was a man in a wide hat standing behind them, it was one of the odd wall chi ones, “You’re not right.” They circle the man, “You’re supposed to be easy!”
The human—because no matter how inhuman it felt, it was definitely a human—shifted into a new stance, grabbing chains. Lomri ran.