Rainbow's Gift (Avatar The Last Airbender Fanfic)

43. The City of Walls and Secrets

We had slept at some buildings on the outer wall. We were all excited to get into the city except Toph. She seemed to loathe Ba Sing Se. I kept asking her what was wrong with the city but she wouldn't answer. She kept on muttering that we would see it for ourselves. I heard her muttering something about rules.

"Don't mind her, Taliya." Aang said as we got all our belongings. He was cheerful. It took an hour to reach the inner wall via train. The train ride was pretty boring. We all seemed like we were going to sleep but Katara caught our attention.

"Look! The inner wall!" We all looked at what she was pointing at.

"Yes, finally!" I cheered.

"I can't believe we've made it to Ba Sing Se in one piece." She told us.

"Hey, don't jinx it! We can still be attacked by some giant exploding Fire Nation spoon. Or find out the city's been submerged in an ocean full of killer shrimp." I shook my head. Leave it to Sokka to say the weirdest things.

"You've been hitting the cactus juice again?" Toph asked.

"I'm just saying. Weird stuff happens to us." We all made sounds of agreement and as if on cue a man who looked retarded with a huge cob of corn in his mouth sat between Sokka and I and continued to suck the cob like it was some type of candy. I stood up went to sit at the opposite side with Aang and Katara.

"Don't worry Aang. We'll find Appa." I heard Katara say. I went to look over at Aang. Wasn't he cheerful like a minute ago?

"It's such a big city." He said sadly.

"He's a giant bison. Where can somebody possibly hide him?" Sokka said and I had to agree to that.

"I'm pretty sure after a week of looking we will find him." I said as I stood as well and put my hand on Aang's shoulder. Once we entered in the inner wall we all gasped. The city was huge. I had never seen anything like it. It wasn't long before we reached the train station. We got out looking around.

"Back in the city, great." Toph said sarcastically.

"What's the problem? It's amazing." Sokka said.

"Don't mind her. She's been complaining about the city since we woke up." I told him. When we finished watching the train pass, we saw a lady smiling at us weirdly. She came over.

"Hello. My name is Zhu Dee and I've been given the great honour of showing the Avatar and the rainbow sylph around Ba Sing Se. And you must Sokka, Katara and Toph. Welcome to our wonderful city. Shall we get started?" I looked at her. There was something wrong with her. It was either she had rehearsed those words too well or something else. Something I had never heard of before. We all looked at her a bit before our idea guy started talking.

"We have information about the Fire Nation army that we need to deliver to the Earth King immediately."

"Great! Let's begin our tour then I'll show you to your new home here. I'll think you'll like it." That obviously angered Sokka. It was like he had said nothing.

"Maybe you missed what I said. We need to talk to the king about the war." He stopped her and told her.

"You're in Ba Sing Se now. Everyone is safe here." We all stopped to look at her. She was still smiling at us.

"Um... Zhu Dee, are you okay? Didn't you hear Sokka? We are not safe. The Fire Nation attacked yesterday and they'll be back." I told her. Her facial expression did not change. She continued to smile. Before I could slap her out of that annoying smile of hers, Sokka and Toph pulled me back.

"The carriage is here." She said with excitement. I growled.

"Don't worry. When she shows us the palace we will talk to the Earth King." Sokka whispered in my ear and I nodded. We entered the carriage. As we passed through the city, it did not looking as interesting as I thought it would be. It looked like the poor part of the city.