She's so hungry.

OK. Survival rules of three. You can survive three minutes without air, three hours without shelter if the weather is bad, three days without water, and three weeks without food, if you have all of the other things. The weather's not terrible, although it's getting pretty cold at night, so she'll have to figure something out on that front soon. That means her real first priority should be finding something to boil water in, not securing access to food, and that she technically has another day on that front even though her plastic baggy is just this side of empty. If she doesn't think of something better, she can steal a container later tonight. And then return it before dawn and figure something else out.

She watches the stupid fire prince and his stupid adequate food supplies from the forest.

The stupid fire prince directs his soldiers to carry his stupid adequate food supplies back to the boat, and follows them there. The town is now princeless.

Score! She can now engage in CAPITALISM.

She waits a few more minutes in the underbrush to be sure that he's not immediately coming back, then takes her money to the other end of the market, just in case he told the people on his side of the market about whatever he even thinks is happening at this point.

Anything resembling food or fireproof containers?

Many things resembling food, and several things resembling fireproof containers, including this exquisitely beautiful teapot that is way beyond the reach of her budget.

Karen does not require exquisitely beautiful teapots. She also doesn't technically require food right this second, if she can manage to think with her brain and not her stomach for a second here. She definitely wants a container - something cheap but strong - and then she asks someone whether they know if anyone sells bows or arrows in this town. Or maybe just, like, has a bow that they might be willing to sell her.

The first person she asks has no idea. If she keeps asking, though, she can get as far as someone who thinks he knows a hunter who might be willing to part with one.

Probably a better long-term investment than spending all of her money on food right this second. She'll talk to the guy before she spends anything else, even though she really suspects she doesn't have enough right now.

The vendor says that when his granddaughter comes back in a few minutes he can send her to show Karen to the hunter's house.

She thanks him and idly looks around at the other market stalls to see if there's anything likely to be useful.

Someone else arrives before the granddaughter does.

His helmet is still off. He still looks unreasonably grumpy. He's leading a much older man in comparably fancy armor toward the teapot stall.

"It is beautiful," says the older man, upon seeing the teapot. "You have a discerning eye."

WHY IS EVERYTHING TERRIBLE.

"I'll actually just be back in a minute," she tells the vendor.

The prince scowls, like he's annoyed by the idea that he might be good at identifying beautiful teapots.

He looks around, spots Karen—makes no particular attempt to conceal that he's seen her; his blink of recognition is obvious and unsuppressed—goes right back to scowling at nothing in particular, making no move to interact with her in any way.

She stops herself from sprinting blindly back into the forest. She's ready to if it seems like a good idea. She goes back to waiting for the granddaughter, occasionally glancing warily at the stupid fire prince and his stupid teapot that's probably worth, like - she doesn't know how many meals, exactly, but a lot more than she's had in the past three days.

Iroh buys the teapot.

"That girl's over there," he mentions to Iroh as the vendor is wrapping the teapot in paper and packing it into a box. He sounds annoyed about it but at the moment he seems to be annoyed about pretty much everything in the world.

He looks, notes that she's seen them, makes a thoughtful sound, and returns to looking at his teapot.

"Are you going to say anything to her?"

"What would I say???"

"I don't know that you should say anything. I'm just noticing that you don't seem to be letting this go."

He scowls at the ground. "I don't like it when things don't make sense!!"

"Well. I have found that peaceful conversations with great warriors are often more informative than battles. Of course, attacking people does complicate things."

He continues scowling at the ground for a moment; then, for a change, he scowls at the sky, at his uncle, and finally at Karen.

And then, very much with the stance of a sulky teenager rather than a powerful warrior, he walks over to her and asks—or possibly demands— "Why does nothing about you make any sense???"

The vendor she spoke with earlier is quietly alarmed.

" - well I dunno, man, I'm not exactly an expert on your deal, either."

(She still kind of wants to run into the forest, but she's pretty sure he can't have notified his people, and if it's just him she'll be able to outrun him. And hey, no fire punches yet.)

His frown now looks more confused than annoyed, which... may qualify as some form of progress?

"What is there to know about me? I'm a prince of the Fire Nation."

(Now the vendor is substantially more alarmed.)

"You tell me, man, you're the one out here arresting random people and then blasting fire at them."