Chapter Text
“You’re an earthbender?”
Shirayuki didn’t miss the disbelieving note in the question but opted to smile back at the soldier instead.
“These herbs don’t grow this fine without a little help. Did you need my assistance or…?” She dusted most of the dirt off her hands and leaned on the post marking the edge of her fields. The neat rows of sunflowers and banana leaf sprouts stretched out behind her, the fronds tickling the inside of her calf as she straddled a row. There was no way he was taking a single step onto her land when she’d spent all morning making sure the earth was turned just right.
“You need to come with me.” The soldier looked at her expectantly and gestured towards the road leading into town as if she didn’t know which way to go.
“Is someone sick? I’ll need to bring my bag along before we leave,” she said, staying rooted to the spot. His face grew tighter, irritation sowing itself among the creases of his beard.
“No one’s sick. You’re being ordered to the outpost. As a citizen of this— “
“I’m sorry, if there’s no one who needs medical help then I’m afraid I can’t leave town. There’s too much that needs to be done.” She pushed her hat back down until the brim shaded her eyes and bent to dig her fingers around the base of a shrub.
“Ma’am, you must come.”
A hand landed on her shoulder, twisting the fabric of her dress underneath the rough grip. A wind swept through the rattling branches of the sandalwoods as the millwheel at the end of the row slowed to a stop with a long-suffering creak. She let out a sigh, tipping her head just enough to level a look at the soldier leaning over her.
“I wouldn’t step there if I were you.” She curled her fingers in the soft loam, counting the seconds as the wind came close to whipping her hat off.
“Don’t make this hard, ma’am. We’re just pulling you in for an evaluation.” The rancor in his face had grown and spread like a weed, poking through the facade of patience. She took in the way his boots tread close to a fire pepper, the side of the small mound it was planted in caving and crumbling from his step.
“Well, if that’s the case.”
She yanked her hands out of the earth and pulled it with her, burying the soldier’s feet into the hard-packed road with a turn of her wrist. The ground stirred beneath her as an answer to the rock-hard defiance. Sensing the tension in his arms, she locked her fingers in front of her and held him still with the grime he carried on him. The dust of traveling goes unnoticed by many until it’s time to wash it off at the end of a long day, but it’s there in every fold of clothing and covering every inch of skin, an avenue for the ground to reclaim what will eventually return to it in the end. Shirayuki regarded the scowl stretching the face of the soldier and reached into her front pocket. Waving the frond of the delicate herb under the man’s nose, she waited until his eyes slid closed and the resistance faded from his body.
A second later, a blast of air almost tore it from her hand as Obi landed behind the soldier with twin glints of steel peeking between his fingers.
“What did he want?” Was all he had time to say before the water that had turned the millwheel came roaring back in one enormous wave. As it teetered overhead, drops of it splattering onto Shirayuki’s hat and sliding down the straw sides to land on her shoulder, she motioned for Zen to back down.
“Nothing much. We should take him back to the garrison.”
“Is it time to move again?” Zen pulled back the water, cautiously letting it settle into the creekbed again.
“It looks like it. Shame about the lotuses, they were so close to blooming.” She pushed her hair out of her face, tucking it away out of sight again. Maybe next time they’d be able to stay in place for a full year.