The cat pauses a moment, then gives a sort of shrug.

"Hiss-ss. We have seen, yes, and spoken. Our task is done, hiss-ss." It rises and stretches again, tails lifted into the air. They pause in their movements for a moment and a flame blossoms between their tips. In an instant, it flashes and consumes the cat's entire body. It disappears without a trace.

...Tarinda stays awake for another half an hour, watching.

The forest seems to be a little louder than it was before, but there are no further visitations.

She goes back to sleep.

The next day dawns bright and clear.

And she gets up and makes sure her fire won't spread and tromps back into town to look for work - and stop by the bookstore to see what they have on spirits.

Does she go to the factory? The bounty boards? Other shops?

She'll at least look at the bounty boards.

There's posters advertising rewards for a con man, a gang of bandits by a mountain pass, and a pirate ship.

Honestly fighting a shipful of pirates and sailing it home sounds like so much fun but under these conditions she's going to have to pass. She swings through shops looking for anybody explicitly hiring or understaffed, stopping in the bookshop early in the search.

She doesn't see anything before getting to the bookstore.

Spirit books?

There aren't many. The ones present seem to be fairy tale style, likely aimed at small children.

The proprietor smiles to see her again. "Back again, are we?"

"Yeah, I'm interested in spirits today!"

"Mm, that can be a dangerous topic. Interest in such things is... not officially encouraged."

"Oh! Can you tell me why?"

"The Fire Lord disapproves of such 'mystical nonsense'."

"Oh, so they aren't real?"

They're alone in the store, but the old man glances around anyway.

"Oh, they're real. If you ask me, Ozai's doing his people no favors by suppressing the stories. Just means people who cross them have no idea what they did wrong or how to fix it."

"Gosh. Can you give me advice for if I run into any?"

"Different sorts take different things, but in general- be polite, be respectful, don't be aggressive, don't agree to anything you won't follow through on."

"Since I'm very foreign do you think you could help me with the ways of being polite and respectful that are usual here?"

"A few bits of advice, yes." How to bow, formal and informal registers, a few standard turns of phrase.

"Thanks!" She practices bowing a bit.

"Looks like you've gotten the hang of it."