𝑴𝑶𝑼𝑵𝑻𝑨𝑰𝑵𝑺 || 𝑨𝒂𝒏𝒈 (𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 2)

City of Walls and Secrets

It had been a long journey. Needless to say, traveling on foot took ages longer than their normal way of getting around. Still, after all those days of walking for hours, they had finally reached their destination.

After the events with the drill, they were finally able to enter the city without any more distractions or problems. The trip on the train car wasn't even very long, but she had taken the chance to fall asleep anyways. This was likely one of the few moments of calm where she would be able to nap without issue.

There were less than ten other people in the train car, despite its fairly large space. None of the occupants spoke a word, leaving the car in awkward silence. Of course, that was perfect for Jade to enjoy her slumber.

Eventually, she began to feel someone poking her arm in an attempt to wake her. Without moving her head or opening her eyes, she let out a whine of protest and swatted the person's hand away. When whoever it was eventually began poking her cheek instead, she groaned and finally lifted her head from Aang's shoulder.

"Can I just sleep for another two or three hours?" She pleaded.

Katara smiled, petting Miko's head as the spirit lay curled up in her lap. "You've only been asleep for five minutes."

"Exactly."

"Well," She pointed out the window behind Jade's head. "You might be interested to know that we've finally reached the inner wall."

Jade craned her neck to get a glance for herself. The inner wall was just as tall as the outer one. It went on for miles, farther than the eye could see. If the wall surrounded the entire city, the city must have been huge. 

She grinned. "Wow, we're actually here!"

"I know!" Katara turned to look where Sokka and Toph sat across from them. "I can't believe we finally made it to Ba Sing Se in one piece."

"Hey don't jinx it!" Sokka held up one hand. "We could 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."

"You been hitting that cactus juice again?" Toph asked him. 

"I'm just saying. Weird stuff happens to us."

Typically, a large man slowly walked over and dropped himself to sit between Sokka and Toph, startling them as he sucked on the cob of corn sticking out of his mouth. When Jade met the stranger's glossy gaze, she slowly turned around to look away and glance out the window like Aang and Katara were doing on either sides of her. 

After a few moments, she noticed that Aang looked away from the window and lowered his head. She reached over and squeezed his hand.

"It's gonna be okay, Aang." She reassured. "I'm sure that we'll find Appa, don't worry."

"It's such a big city." He remarked.

Sokka stood up and approached them. "He's a giant bison. Where could someone possibly hide him?"

He kneeled next to them on the seat to look out the window for himself. The cart went dark as the train car passed through a short tunnel in the inner wall. But as soon as the dark was replaced with light again, Aang and Jade turned their attention back to the window.

Jade's jaw dropped.

"...Oh."

The city was massive, if that word was even enough to describe it. The train's railway passed through the middle and spread out to the left and right. There were thousands and thousands of houses and structures everywhere they looked, varying from nice homes to quaint shops to bigger and fancier buildings.