On waking, seems very ATLA but with a few notable exceptions.
There was a princess who was falsely accused. Her father, the forty-seventh king of his dynasty, banished her but afterward proof of her innocence came to light. However the king could not recall her as her whereabouts were unknown. Her brother the crown prince, having maintained her innocence throughout, was upset with his father and challenged him to a duel. The father bested him and the son in turn was banished. Now forced to travel under an assumed name, the son, having done no labor of his own, decides he will make his living as a storyteller. However he has this quirk. He begins his stories in the same way: "There were forty-seven" Forty seven what was different every time. While he thought this would help him build his "brand" his stories were deridden for being bad and offputting. So he would go to a town where he was unknown, advertise himself as a storyteller extraordinaire, the townsfolk would pay to hear a night of stories, they would hate the stories and demand their money back, and he would flee as he was driven out of town by angry customers that felt they had been cheated by a fraud. He had done this so much that he was now out at the edge of the kingdom, traveling to the few isolated places where his reputation had not come before him.
In one such place he had been caught, and a group of angry young men were going to rack him, break his bones and snap his ligaments so that he would have to hobble wherever he went and he could never again outrun his reputation. They locked him in the church while they gathered everyone that wished to witness his torture. Searching frantically for a way out, the prince (me, I'm the bad storyteller) saw out the back a man signaling to him from the treeline. He climbed out the window and attempted to make his escape, but they had already cracked his knee and he had to limp to freedom. One of the young men around the back saw the attempted escape and chased after the prince, when the man from the forest came out of the shadows and clapped the young man hard on the ears, causing him to pass out. The prince and the man left town by the abandoned north gate, no one else the wiser. The man's name was Tozan, and when the prince asked why he saved him, he said simply, "Boys no good. You maybe no good either. But I know boys no good. So I rescue you." The prince asked Tozan if he knew who the prince was, "Sure. You storyteller. Stories stinky, start bad, like rotten egg. Rest of story pretty good, but smell stay." This was the last communication the prince could get out of Tozan, who seemed taciturn bordering on laconic. They made camp out in the woods and the prince, now used to years of travel on the road, now knew how to make a decent camp. They made a fire and ate dinner, all in silence. The prince was used to this as well and was just appreciative of his life, his limbs, and a little company. As they slept they heard the young men combing the woods looking for the prince and his long-haired accomplice. The young men called Tozan the r-slur and said if he gave up the prince they would let him lots of yummy cat food to eat. Tozan was quiet and very quick, and one by one the young men dropped in the forest as he slammed them into the ground or gave them a wallop upside the head with a long branch he'd fashioned into a cudgel. Eventually the remaining boys got wind of what was going on and fled to fetch a larger mob from the town. Tozan rejoined the prince and they abandoned their camp, heading still further north into the wild and perpetually frozen parts of the kingdom. In the next town, the prince, who still had the money from the showgoers in the previous town, got them a room at the inn and a hot meal of whatever was bubbling in the pot at the time, which looked like a chicken-and-dumplings soup, heavy on celery and light on chicken but still good. As they ate, they saw a trained monkey being pressed by its owner to perform. The monkey would perform in the tavern, and the owner would record the monkey on his phone and send it out on instagram and tiktok, wherein the monkey had grown quite popular though not famous by any means. Seeing the monkey's misery and promising it a better life, the prince escaped town with the monkey and the owner, along with the owner of the inn, chased them out of town once again. On the run and now with a monkey in tow trained in show business, they ventured even further north. Every day the prince, seeing their dwindling purse, asked Tozan whether he could perform in the next town, or the next, but Tozan always said "Not yet. Story still stink. need time to air out." So they would pass the day with the prince asking, "Tozan, how do I become a better storyteller?" And Tozan would say, "Good storyteller good listener first. Listen, and I will tell when we reach the castle of Panai."
Finally they do reach the castle of Panai, a formidable structure with high walls constantly battered by arctic winds. The lord of Panai, a horrible man, enforced his rule with the help of a terrifying secret police force and overt brutality from the town guard. It was not a pleasant place. Tozan walked right up into the palace and was not stopped by the guard. He walked right into the throne room and was not stopped there either. The lord greeted Tozan and asked him, "Brother, what have you brought me on your travels?" Tozan said, "I have brought: best monkey, and worst storyteller." The lord of Panai recognized the prince but did not acknowledge him. Instead he employed the prince as a fool and would ask him to tell stories. He would deride the prince and throw rotten food at him, while the monkey was given a place of honor at the king's side and a studio where it could continue its social media work. The prince did not see Tozan after that. After performing as the fool for a month, the prince made a remarkable discovery: His sister was living there in Panai castle as a maid-of-all-work for a prominent but not well-to-do guardsman who could only afford the one servant and ran her ragged daily. The prince revealed himself to his sister and began planning their escape. The night they were to escape, Tozan showed up in a helicopter. He flew them away as the angry guard below fired arrows and cursed. The monkey fell out of the helicopter, and in the end Tozan himself was shot by a arrow during the escape. When they landed, Tozan gave them each a little pouch of silver and said, "After this, stories full of truth. Of life. Not stinky. Truth never stinky." and kissed the prince and gave him ten gold coins. "Go home to my brother, nephew. His heart is hard, stinky. Soften with truth. Truth about him, and me. My brother stinky, but good. If he no good, I let son die, no rescue. Now go."
Even with the money on hand, it was still months to travel back to the heart of the kingdom. Winter had set in and travel was near-impossible, but neither the prince nor his sister wanted to wait so they pressed on in the snow and bitter, cold wind day after day. Near the heart of the kingdom they happened upon a bar where a decrepit monkey was turning a squeezebox outside, The squeezebox played Sonic music and the bar owner called him "Hedgehog Phil". The monkey was delighted to see his old friend, but the fall had left him frail and unable to move without the aid of a cane. Still, he gladly joined the prince, who carried him all the way back to the grand palace.
Once there, the king, seeing his daughter returned home, was beside himself with joy. However, on learning his son too had returned, he went to bar his own son from entering the palace, saying, "You must challenge me again or I cannot restore you to your title. You must disgrace me or stay disgraced yourself." "Was this the rule that estranged you from your own brother?" With the mentioning of his brother, the king softened,"My brother! How did you know?" "I met him and traveled with him for many months. He is a good man, and he says you are good and telling the truth about him and you would soften your heart." The king sat down on the steps to his palace and related to them that he challenged his brother for inheritance of the kingdom. He lost, but rather than see his own brother exiled, Tozan voluntarily chose exile himself. "I have not seen my brother in forty-seven years. I have hidden the shame of his exile all my life, he and I were the only two that knew the secret.
"Father, if you demand I challenge you, I will. But I won't fight you. Infighting and exile have cost this family enough." The monkey stood in front of the prince, brandishing his walking stick, ready to club the king's kneecaps should he advance on his son. Before I could learn the king's final decision, I woke up.
