A man, past his prime but not yet old, with worn clothes and a ragged haircut, approaches.  Despite his appearance he has a bit of energy to his step, as if he had heard some piece of good news or made some happy decision recently.

Even with the money he appropriated stole (he’ll be honest with himself about that much) he can’t really afford to buy anything that isn’t strictly practical.  But he would like advice about traveling through the region… and maybe someone to watch his back along the way.

“That’s an interesting cart you have.  Have you traveled far with it?”

He fumbles around with (one of) his coin purses, to make it clear he has money and is a potential customer.

"Yeah, quite the nice construction isn't it? I go all along the southern coasts. So long as you can still do commerce freely there, anyway. Foggy Swamp, the edge of the desert, and past the barrier mountains..."

"Do you have any wares you would recommend to someone planning to travel to the great desert, and perhaps around it's edge?  …I'm looking to be far away from anywhere worth fighting over if the Fire Nation starts a new offensive or if the Earth Nation pushes back."

"...There aren't a lot of places that are definitely safe, these days. Ba Sing Se is the closest you'll get, and it's a long, long way away from here. Are you used to rough living?"

That problem with Ba Sing Se is that it might be sophisticated and proactive enough to identify and eliminate former Fire Nation soldiers.

“I haven’t roughed it for extended periods of time, but I think I can learn to cope.  And I was worried the Fire Nation might make another push towards capturing Ba Sing Se.  Of course they will fail but it wouldn’t be safe to approach the city if it’s under siege.”

So that's a 'no'.

"One hears rumors that there are ways. Of course, being so far from Ba Sing Se, I wouldn't know if those are just rumors or not. Gao Ling is the largest stop on my route south other than Omashu, which lies behind me, and it is still safe... For now. I wouldn't rate their chances high if the Fire Nation decides to go there in force, but they have a lot of other places to deal with now don't they? And Gao Ling is not nearly as symbolically important as Ba Sing Se, or even Omashu."

The Fire Nation army often has cripplingly logistical issues from graft and incompetence so it’s not exactly easy living!  He isn’t going to explain that though!

“Gao Ling sounds like a reasonable place to go… are you on your way there?”

He lets the coins in his purse clink a bit.

“My biggest worry isn’t actually about the Fire Nation… have you heard the rumors about what happened to their Northern Fleet?”

"You don't have to show off your money... Oh? Something new to report? News travels at the speed of messenger hawk for some but foot for the rest of us."

He was trying to be subtle about his money, but he really isn’t calibrated to life outside the army!

“So you know how the Fire Nation propaganda and wanted posters kind of alternate between portraying the Avatar as an effeminate feckless child and as having a bunch of dangerous esoteric bending techniques?  It’s looks like the second description is the accurate one.  The Northern Fire Nation fleet had recently massed for a single crushing blow on the Northern Water Tribe, and it looked like they would be successful, but the Avatar wiped out their entire fleet in less than a single night.”

He smiles, a bit manically.

“So the Fire Nation is probably all fucked.  Best case scenario for them is Kyoshi Island a few times over.  Worst case scenario… their islands have a lot of volcanoes I hear.  So the rest of the world is saved, we just need to stay away from the Fire Nation and any fault lines or dormant volcanoes or areas susceptible to rock slides or other such areas that might get set off by distant cataclysms until it’s all settled.”

"...Well."

Deep breath.

"Bearing in mind that this is one rumor, that would seem to indicate the Fire Nation going down sooner or later, wouldn't it? A lot of people could get burned in the meanwhile, though. Spirits of ancient days, how must you feel about the stupidity of human design...?"

“I’m pretty confident in my source…”

Namely himself, snooping through messages he didn’t have the authority to read but his commanding officer was too sloppy to keep properly secure.

“It would be just like the Fire Nation to make one last suicidal push out of pride or idiotic refusal to admit defeat.”

"Quite. Well, one can hope that Gao Lin or... I'm not sure where fault lines are. Away from mountains and from the coast and... It sounds like the great desert might be the safest place, inhospitable as it is..."

“Yes, you can see my reasoning for the desert.”  

Well that, and the fact that it’s far enough from the war that the common people won’t want to kill a fire bender on sight.

“I don’t need much, just enough civilization that I can spend my money and work a modest trade without being robbed.”

"I don't know much about living in a desert. I've skirted the edges and even with clever contraptions there's no water to be found. The deeper oasis towns, well, presumably people live there and do trades."

“Do you know of any villages on the outskirts that have trade with the deeper oasis towns?”

"Misty Palms oasis. Right at the very edge of the Si Wong Desert, literally a few hundred feet from where the green ends. I pass by there on my way south because I get decent custom there, it's a bit of a desperate market. I try to leave the same day I arrive. A bit of a harsh place. And there's a not insignificant chance of danger. There are people watching the obvious last call before driving into the desert, you see. For easy marks."

“Ah, yes, that sort of barbarism is what I was afraid of.  Maybe I should go to Gao Lin then, and just hope it isn’t subject to a last desperate suicidal attack by the Fire Nation.”

"They are pretty civilized and traditional in Gao Lin. I'd rate your chances of a peaceful time higher there."

“Will your current route take you to Gao Lin?  Would you mind a traveling companion along the way?”

He resists the urge to fidget with his purse.  He’ll hold off on offering money, why pay if he can get help for free?

"...I generally move alone. Or with reasonably close acquaintances whom I have known for some time. I can sell you travelling supplies, though."

“Well I certainly need some of those!  How strongly committed are you to traveling alone… like, if you had to put a monetary value on it?”

And if money doesn’t work, he has one more bribe to try, but it will reveal a lot more about himself than he wants to.

"It's not about the money, it's about risk, and trust. I'm sure you would understand that, seeking a safe place yourself?"

He stands and starts digging through cabinets built into the little open side of the wagon.

"Waterskins. Firestarter- Just flint and steel in a little doohickey. Scroll on basic fieldcraft. I can whip up a tent in a couple of hours. Warm blanket. Oil lantern, plus oil. A good backpack... A good, reliable work knife if you don't already have one... Camp cauldron, which is just a pot with hooks to hang off five sticks set up as a stand... Oh, rope and cords. Chalum powder, to relieve fevers, and lemon oil you can rub on your skin to drive bugs away."

It will ruin the carefully cultivated refuge image he has going, but it does all sound useful, especially as he passes through less populated areas where there is no one to fool in the first place.

He starts counting out coins and preparing to haggle.  He knows what things nominally cost in the Fire Nation’s army’s ledgers, and how much you can get for slightly burned stuff recently looted, but he isn’t quite sure of typical normal prices.

He might as well make his play now, it might at least give him some leverage in haggling.

“If money isn’t enough to tempt you to take a risk… how about knowledge?  The Fire Nation has experimented extensively with ratios of fuel to water to boiler sizes and a source of mine obtained some of their research.  I don’t have the writings on me, but I can reproduce many of the more key finding from memory, like some of the tables comparing designs and ratios.  I think you would be quite interested… that stove part isn’t just for heating food now is it?”

Glance around... Nope, everyone's just going about their day still. It's well after lunch, and the trickle of customers has been absent for a while.

"A source. Right... I've found it to be a painful struggle to adapt certain methods and techniques being developed by the Fire Nation. And found limited success, but still constant problems, not to mention the hostility and suspicion it tends to provoke. But I believe a tool is a tool - and though I have been scolded in the past for certain directions of inventions... I rather don't like being told what not to do, you see? And thus, I go through a lot of metal and coal."