- Daichi Fei Min -
Omashu. One of the great strongholds of the Earth Kingdom, and the second largest city. The city itself was actually a capital of one of the Earth Kingdom provinces, and proved to be a formidable refuge away from Fire Nation soldiers. Then again, it was only 10 ASC, and who knew how long the war would last. It was placed in the Kolau Mountain Range, surrounded by steep canyons and an enormous gorge. The only way into the city was via a long, winding stone column that made it's way up to the three city gates, each made of large bricks of stoning and being around five feet thick, and thirty feet tall. The entrances are guarded by Earthbenders, and as such, can only be opened by them. The only other possible way in would be from above, and only an Airbender would manage that, and last Daichi heard, they were all killed off in the genocide. And as far as he was aware, there had been no flying mechanism or otherwise invented yet.
The inside of the city was built on a number of hills, causing the districts of the city to be divided by height. The palace itself resting on the largest hill. Among the thousands of homes, and hundreds of businesses, there lay massive chutes of stone, which would provide the complex mailing system. And under one of these chutes in particular sat Daichi, using the massive shadow cast as shade away from the sun that particular evening. It was stuffy, as always, and due to the frequent high temperatures, Daichi wasn't really enjoying his stay there all too much.
His business there, however, was a matter of slight urgency. For one, he was told he could find information there on a certain nonbender, and secondly, he was seeking a companion. Somebody to steal away from the place and drag along with him. He didn't care who, it just needed to be a person who wanted an escape. That was second priority, and so he began to focus on the first once more as he got up and maneuvered himself out from under the chute.
First priority was a certain nonbender named Chen Zhun, and as it turns out, he is the head of a moderately sized nonbender criminal organization. Though, organization seems to be stretching it a bit, and Daichi preferred to call them bandits. They claimed to be refugees displaced by the Fire Nation at the start of the war, but all they did was terrorize civilians and murder benders in cold blood, including Daichi's mother.
He wasn't really sure if it was a revenge mission anymore, and as years passed, Daichi got more used to the idea of simply questioning the man. It was partially why he required a companion, because of his aversion to violence, he needed some sort of fail safe to make sure he didn't lash out in some form of rage at the man who had taken his mother's life, regardless on if he deserved it or not.
His source of information was a man he was supposed to be meeting very soon, in a tea shop that stood out from the others. 'The Jade Dragon' it was called, apparently named after their signature tea and based around rumors of a dragon made of jade that once protected the city. Many citizens thought it was a bit of a stretch, considering dragons were Firebenders technically, but the citizens that were much older swore by it.
Daichi didn't really care either way.
Regardless, in his journey to reach this tea shop, he had to cut through the market, and in order to cut through the market, he needed to head down a particular stone walkway, and on this particular stone walkway happened to be a particular person that was about to run into him in particular. This person was not once Daichi knew, not that he really knew anybody in that city, considering he had only been there for a week or so, but still. This person was (surprisingly) smaller than him, by about two inches.
When they had bumped into him, Daichi, as well as the other person, had began to fall over. Losing his balance was something he had grown used to, however, and so he corrected this instinctively by flicking his wrist and raising a wide pillar behind him to push him back up onto his feet via his back. But because this was on an incline, heading down, it gave him a slight propulsion so when he got back on his feet, he stumbled forward a little, but regained himself in time to reach out and grab the hand of the person falling over.
It seemed slowed down to Daichi, but in reality, the whole ordeal had happened in a manner of seconds, and so he stood there with his heels dug into the ground, and his hand clasped around a strangers, which was connected to a person he had practically yanked close to him in order to ensure they didn't get hurt. It was now that he actually got a chance to look at them, well, her. Now that he had a chance to take the person in, he could tell that it was obviously a female. As previously observed, she was smaller than him and appeared to be dressed in something Daichi only imagined to not be all that comfortable.
Judging from her hair and eye color, though, Daichi only assumed she was on Fire Nation heritage. He detected some sort of nobility, and seemed to almost recognize her, but then... he didn't. He blinked a couple of times and realized he didn't, in fact, know who the hell this woman was. Then he finally came to his senses and realized exactly what the situation was, looking back and forth from his hand, the hers that was clenched in his.
He quickly let go of her hand, jumped back slightly, and raised both hands to place on the back of his head, cocking his elbows up and to the sides.
"Right, then. Um, sorry about that. Are you okay?"
His blue eyes darted over the small figure, and he seemed to be only slightly worried. From the outside, she appeared to be fine, but it was like she was... distant. Regardless, he let out a sort of nervous chuckle and began to bite at his lower lip.