Life can never be what we want it to be...

It was almost creepy how the estranged prince resembled Rozan in his strife to be free of his family, free of his legacy.
Getting out with some friends, getting some food, and ideally a drink as well, was exactly what he had wanted to do tonight. Unfortunatelly, all his friends were on duty, this was the reason why he had started off alone in the first place. Rozan was not a very solitary person, he wanted to spend his evening rather in the company of some maybe-in-the-future-friends than alone in some tavern, with the one or other wench on his knees - although that also had its good sides, surely.

"Then I will go with you... Erolass, as a friend. But just to clarify this, in case someone tries to kill my friend - am I allowed to help my friend or should I just stand by and watch? Just so I know." Rozan winked, and it came out clear he was just joking about the matter. happy for the adventurous evening that lay in front of him. Not everyone could say they had dined with a prince, and those who could most certainly did not have a good time because all those stiff bows and answers and titles. This was going to be very interesting, and it was very unlikely that someone would try to kill the prince who had been treated by his family exactly as Rozan had - oh yes. He had heard whispered rumours and stories about Erolass, the lame bender, the child that was not good enough to compete with his siblings. Rozan knew how that felt only too well.

He himself had been a fire bending protegee, but he had been wounded severly when he watched an Agni Kai his brother Verrain had fought and lost.

Rozan was not a man who admitted his weaknesses easily. He rather covered them up and turned them around to use them against his enemies. But he was scared of fire, and not only scared. He was terrified. He was paralized by the thought that it ever again might touch his skin, burn through it, eat into his flesh. He often woke up at night, being bathed in sweat, still feeling the burning pain on his back and right arm, a pain that drove him almost into insanity. Oh, he knew what it felt like to embarass your parents, your family, do be estranged from them and be treated snobishly for it. He got it.

Petra looked back and forth between the two men. All this was simply too weird but at the same time a shock. "Of course, I will deliver it, your royal highness, I did not mean to show any disrespect. Please excuse me for not addressing you in the manner your status asks for, I did not recognize you at first. It won't happen again." said the guard, Rozan. Petra automatically stiffened, Erolass is of royal decent! and now remembered where she had heard his last name. It was too long ago when she 1st started to travel but Petra had been so tired then, it didn't register in her mind. How could she be so...silly?

Petra jumped when Erolass suddenly spoke in the voice of thunder, boomed not in volume but in tone. Petra didn't notice that she had suddenly turned pale as the moonlight. Her bright blue eyes also widened slightly, at the moment she didn't know what to say nor do. She stared at Erolass out of fear, not of the man himself but of his title.

"Please, follow me Karma. And Rozan, if you promise not to protect me and treat me like I were anyone else, you too. Dinner will be ready within the hour." Petra snapped back out of her darkened thoughts and had relaxed a bit. Quickly her eyes averted away from Erolass to Rozan who said that he would be joining them for dinner. Involuntarily though, from behind the thick and heavy gray cloak of her fathers, Petra's fingers lightly grasped Judgement, her most prized possession. Should she still go with Erolass then? Guards always made her feel so UN-comfy...but it would be rude of her to turn down dinner when she just accepted the offer. "I am sure the man is more then perfectly capably of defending himself..." she said to Rozan, her hand still on the dagger.

Rozan smiled back at Karma. "Oh, that he surely is, no doubt in that. I was just being self-protective this time - you see, if he got himself killed in my presence, and I had not even TRIED to help him, my mother would unfold all her wrath upon me for dishonouring the family."
He said that in the dryest voice possible, but if she had any sense of sarcasm, she would spot that he was kidding at once. If the others had listened closely, they might also wonder about why he had said the family instead of my family, or our family, but perhaps they did not even think about so small a nuance.
Rozan realized that the girl seemed kind of tense, and lifted a brow because of that, but he did not dig any deeper. At least not now.
She is hiding something, or thinking something. Well, most people have their secrets. And again - she is very unlikely a bounty-hunter, and her tenseness possibly just because of all the titles flying around here. She will relax once we get over this whole weirdness.

Erolass tensed at the mans offer to protect him, "I do have my own soldiers...conodottiere, mecernaries." he said, "Quite remarkable actually." He kept walked down the streets towards the gates of the city, it would be a good half hour walk to his manor and estate, but he was used to it. Rozan being a soldier would be fine with it, and Karma seemed like a traveller looked like she would be okay too. "Thank you for the support Karma," he replied to her comment about him being able to protect himself. Then Rozan spoke again, "Well...I guess helping out is fine," he said, "I mean, that's common courtesy as well as family duty as well. As long as you know that I'm not totally helpless, and I WILL join in on that fight if need be. Which reminds me, are you on duty Rozan? I will be serving wine with dinner, and I know soldiers aren't allowed to drink while on duty."

Rozan smiled lightly. "Those mercenaries sound like they are worth their prize, whatever you pay them. I know that my brother prefers to have our own loyal little houseguard, similar to the royal guard, just smaller, but I guess there is nothing wrong with fighters who have more... personality of their own."
He listened while the prince spoke about joining in the fight if need be. "I had expected no less of you, s... Erolass. As long as I am allowed to help, I'm fine with the arrangement. I won't act as your guard, you have my word." He managed to let the formal sir slip just before it came over his lips, being so used to using it that he had to focus on not saying it.
They walked in silence for some time, before Erolass asked about Rozan being on duty.
"No, I am actually off duty, s... Erolass." Again, the formal addressing of sir almost breached his lips, but he forced himself to instead use the prince's first name.
"My shift ended almost an hour ago, and I won't be on duty for another twelve hours."

He then turned back to Karma, asking her in a friendly tone: "So, what is your profession, Miss? Are you also some kind of fighter?" He had realized the grand staff she was carrying and figured it must be some kind of weapon, as she showed no limping or any other physical need for a staff. It was obvious he did not want to exclude her from the conversation and had asked in order to include her some more.

Petra looked over to Rozan, her face held no emotion to it. ""Oh, that he surely is, no doubt in that. I was just being self-protective this time - you see, if he got himself killed in my presence, and I had not even TRIED to help him, my mother would unfold all her wrath upon me for dishonouring the family." She knew he was kidding yet still felt as if a sharp needle pierced her heart. Atless you still have yours... she thought and turned away from Rozan, following Erolass as they walked to his manor. Normally being at a place as rich as Erolass's would of made her at less a bit nervous...but being back here, in the Fire Nation...it was simply drudging up bad memories...

Petra quickly looked to Erolass when he thanked her, she looked at him as if he suddenly appeared out of no where but just as quickly gave him a small smile, "It was needed..." was all she said. Petra was quiet the rest of the way to his home.

"So, what is your profession, Miss? Are you also some kind of fighter?" Rozan asked Petra, in a tone that only made her brows creased. "I am a mere traveler, is all. Nothing special about me...and the staff you seem to have your eyes glued on I do use to protect myself, but I wouldn't call me a fighter...." Petra spoke in a soft yet mellow tone, she turned away from the guard, "I came to the Fire Nation to...see what it was like..." Petra lied.

As usual....

((Last post of me before I go skiing for eight days. Hope you two have a splendid time, just drag Rozan through with you, thanks BIIIIIG post when I come back, I promise! ))

She was acting all self-protectively all of a sudden, and did her best to make herself look insignificant and normal. Argh, you see enemies where there are none, Rozan, stop it! She is just a girl and an obviously nice one on top of that. So she does not like authorities and their questions, but really, who does? And if she is fighting with that thing or just protecting herself is clearly none of your business.
So, stop it Rozan, back off, and let the prince do the talking! She seemed to like him more than you.

They reached Erolass' mansion, a grand building that could host at least, as Rozan suspected, 200 people, surrounded by smaller buildings, that probably hosted the servants and such. Rozan knew those grand mansions, he had grown up in several of them, depending on where his family was staying currently. They had not only the grand house in the upper ring of the Fire Nation Capitol, they also possessed a pompous - not exactly a castle, but close to a castle - abroad in the Fire Nation Colonies, overlooking the land that had been passed down in his family throughout generations, and of course, the obligatory villa on Ember Island. Also they had staid at his grandparent's house at the southern pole for several months, to his mom's and Nurian's pleasure, since the two of them could do much more splashing around than they could to at the lake in their garden in the upper city.
This mansion here was of course grander than the one his mother, his eldest brother and his baby sister staid in during their stay in the capitol, but nevertheless Rozan was not impressed. He had served at the palace for over a year and he knew so many mansions, since his family had dragged him to those dreadful dinners at other high nobility's homes, that he actually did not care for another pretty house, another parc for a garden or another fountain in the front yard. Pretty or not pretty, those things looked kind of the same every time you saw them. Noble families had an obligation to live grand, and that they did with excitement. Rozan had been breaking out of that world for many years now, unsuccessfully up to now.

Erolass' place lay quite a bit out of town, but getting some exercise had been refreshing after standing perfectly still for hours, so he did not mind the lengthy walk.
Rozan had become hungry, what was a good thing since food and wine had been promised, and he was really looking forward to this evening. He answered to Karma's explanation, that all she wanted was to see what the Fire Nation was like, in a very calm manner. "Oh, I hope you like the Fire Nation. I myself am, of course, a patriot, but I still think that the volcanos and even our most grandeous buildings don't make half as magnificent a view as the open sea, or, even better, the fortresses of the southern water tribe. I don't know if you ever came to one of the poles on your travels, but you certainly ought to go there if you find the time. It is cold, I give you that, but it is also just mind-blowing. A whole world, built of nothing than ice and snow, so only water, everywhere you go. When the sun is shining, everything glitters and blinks, and when the moon shines, it all shimmers like one single white pearls. You being a girl and all, I bet you'd enjoy those beautiful views. My sisters sure always did."
He smiled at her and then backed off again, leaving the rest of the conversation to the prince and the girl.

((If you need him to say something, you can always assume something like "I might tell you some day", or "Maybe I'll tell you later, when I had some more wine" etc. just so it is not so weird that I don't say anything for a whole week Have fun!))

Erolass looked up at his home as they entered but didn't stop to take it in. "It's more than enough to call home," he said as he pushed open the oak doors, "I don't need this much room, so it gets lonely. But it does allow me lots of space to store my sculptures and paintings and such." And just as Erolass had said, the place was covered in art. Paintings big and small covered the walls, paintings of people--men, women and children--, of buildings big and small, of places like towns and cities, the royal palace, and many places all over the world. Sculptures lined the walls as well, many of great Fire Nation warriors and heroes of legend and reality, and even some Fire Lords. There was a jade statue at the centre of the room on a raised platform--many statues to be exact. "The statues in the middle, are the Spirits of Creation, and in the centre behind them is the Gedo Mazo, the Great God." he said, "I just recently completed that statue, and I'm quite proud of it. It's been a collection that has taken my about 5 years...mostly because I can be...well lazy and tend to procrastinate. What do you think?"

Petra's eyes widen at the site of the many paintings and sculptures that decorated the room she walked in. "It's...amazing!" she said in a breathless amazement. She had never seen so much artwork in her life. Petra walked over to one of the statues and lightly touched the jade, her fingers traced over the curves and scores in the stone, "It's amazing what people can crave to bring out the true beauty in things..." Petra muttered to herself before turning around to Erolass, smiling, "This is all truly wonderful, Erolass." She had no problem saying his name without accidentally stuttering out Sir then correcting herself.

Something suddenly dawned on her. She wasn't exactly...ready yet. Petra looked down at herself, she was covered in dirt and her boots caked with mud which she had just tracked into Erolass's nice clean house, "Oh I am so sorry! I didn't mean to get your floors dirty!" Petra rubbed the back of her head, "Maybe before we eat, I can wash up 1st. Hmm?" It would also give her time to change into cleaner clothes.

Erolass smiled, "Oh it's no trouble at all," he said, "I'll clean it up later when I'm moving my new painting into the room for that wall over there." Erolass walked over to the left wall and tested the scaffolding to make sure it would hold, "Perfect," he said, "That should hold for later. And yes, of course!--" Erolass turned around and snapped his fingers, "--I'll have someone show you both to your rooms. Rozan I know you're not staying the night, but you can wash up or rest if you so please. As for Karma, I know you ARE staying the night, so you can drop off your stuff and wash up in your room there."

Two butlers appeared and began to usher Karma and Rozan towards different wings of the manor. The butlers asked them repeatedly if they would like certain amenities or snacks or such. Erolass began to walk down the left hall towards another set of large doors, and as he opened the door, he came unto a room with pain all over the walls and floors. Several white sheets with paint stains covered the floor, and canvases--both old and new--sketches, and statues filled the room. All in various states of completion. Several tools were scattered around the place, and an old oak desk covered in papers with an ink well and a quill sat off to the side, adjacently crooked to the wall, and stained with paint and ink. "Ah," he said, "Home sweet home." Erolass walked over to the bed that sat against the far wall and lay down on it, he hoped to rest a bit while he waited.