Carved In Rock || ATLA

Issues

Lake Laogai Continued

"So out of hell they cry, that's how they get to me. Inject my head with lies, the pain's astonishing. Like a brick or a stone, slowing crushing my bones, sending me to my grave and if such a fate, this life that I've made I'm going insane. These issues, pin me to the floor. These issues are my overlord. I feel so dominated. These issues, they choke me like a noose." - Escape The Fate

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Kyojuro could hardly muster any words as he stood at the base of the Outer Wall. From the shores of Lake Laogai, he had seen the Wall in the distance but it was hard to believe they were the same structures up close. It stretched on as far as his eyes could see and somehow managed to make the walls inside the city seem small in comparison. He stood where no King or Queen or even child of such had stood in damn near a millennium. He couldn't wait to bring Kuei here.

"Holy shit." He muttered under his breath a final time, taking in one last good view before they would move on. "Alright, time to go up."

"Are you sure about this, Prince Kyojuro?" Murata asked. "Life on the other side is...not easy. The war has stayed away from Ba Sing Se for the most part but signs of the Fire Nation can be found on the horizon. And many of the troops that patrol the Outer Wall are rough around the edges, to say the least. Some have seen things you could've never imagined, others come here because even this is peaceful compared to other frontlines. You've already shown Long Feng you aren't one of his puppets, what more do you have to prove?"

"To him?" Kyojuro raised a brow at the agent before shrugging. "Nothing. I don't have to prove anything to him. He knows the man he raised me to be - at least he thinks he does and if not, that's his own problem. He made his choices and he'll live with the consequences. But to myself? My family and my people? I have everything to prove and an entire world I hope to have a part in changing. You said it yourself, the men on top of that wall are a different breed and have experienced a life I could've never imagined. That's why I need to go, that's why I need to meet them and hear their stories. I need to know the reality of the world we live in if I have any intention of making an impact on it."

Murata was surprised by the rawness and maturity of the boy's words, especially coming from a sheltered Prince. They were the kind of words that made him want to follow Kyojuro, and so he did. The two moved to the base of the wall and Murata declined the offer of assistance from the Prince. He bent a platform large enough to hold the two of them and began to move it up the massive structure using pulley-like motions. When they created the top of the wall Kyojuro was rendered speechless for a second time.

Murata was too. He had been born in the Lower Ring as the son of refugees who were long since displaced by the war. Life outside the Wall had almost felt like a myth up until now. The landscape in the distance could've been a painting and Murata would've never been any the wiser.

Kyojuro knew at this moment he could never go back to the life he had lived before yesterday, not when there was a world like this out there. Beyond the wall stretched two massive twin lakes separated by a thin strip of land, the further of them disappearing in the light of the blinding sun. Even against the yellow shine, Kyojuro could see the faint outline of a black ship billowing smoke moving along the water's surface. At least, he assumed it was a ship. He had never seen one in real life but it looked like a far more modern version of the wooden models in the library. The land just beyond the walls was rocky and the earth scarred, a stark contrast to life on the other side. Kyojuro couldn't help but wonder if that was what the rest of his Kingdom looked like now.

"Holy shit," Kyojuro muttered again, taking one last moment to take the scenery in. He would've stared just a little bit longer but the sound of approaching footsteps brought him back to the present.