Dai Li's Personal Spy

Chapter 32: Sand & Pillars

I watched as Aang played a sweet tune on his flute, and the gopher-looking things popped out of holes in the ground to repeat the sound. We had landed in a relatively barren savana, different to the canyon where we trained the first time. As we stopped, Toph would train Aang and I. The ground was sandy and strange feeling. It was the earth, but it felt soft and malleable. To step on it was to have a shifted sense of vision, unformed and blurry.

"This is great and all, but don't we have more important things to worry about? We should be making plans," Sokka interrupted our fun to get serious, nothing off-brand for him.

"You and plans," I whined, to which he shot me a scowl.

"We did make plans. We're all picking mini-vacations," Toph corrected Sokka.

"There's no time for vacations," Sokka argued.

Aang stepped in, "I'm learning the elements as fast as I can. I practice hard every day with Toph and Katara. I've been training my arrow off!"

"Yeah, what's wrong with having a little fun in our downtime?" Katara supported Aang, and I couldn't help but agree. We were constantly moving and training it was all so tiring.

"Even if you do master all of the elements, then what? It's not like we have a map of the Fire Nation. Should we just head west until we reach the Fire Lord's house?" Sokka imitated a knocking motion, "Knock, knock. Hello, Fire Lord. Anybody home? I don't think so. We need some intelligence if we're going to win this war." Even though I lived in the fire nation, I didn't have a grasp of how to infilitrate it or move through it, I just studied where I lived and how to get from point A to point B.

"All right, we'll finish our vacations", Katara put on a mocking tone "And then we'll look for Sokka's intelligence." Aang laughed in response.

Aang opened a map of our surrounding area, and I peered over his shoulder with Katara. "Your turn, Katara. Where would you like to go on your mini-vacation?" She surveyed the options and landed on a particularly enticing destination.

"How about the Misty Palms Oasis? That sounds refreshing," Katara pointed to an ice oasis situated on the map. It wasn't getting any cooler in that Sahara, that was for sure. It would be nice to visit a natural wonder.

"Oh, yeah, I've been there. It's a pristine natural ice spring. And I usually don't use the word "pristine". It's one of nature's wonders," Aang sold the cool-sounding Oasis, and we were on board. But when we arrived...not so much.

The 'oasis' was a decrepit pit stop in the middle of the desert; travellers, bandits, and thieves alike would stop there to have a drink or maybe steal something. What was left of the ice was situated in the middle, in a disappointing mound that seemed to be slowly melting over time. A dog licked at it, which made it even more repelling than it already was. Someone failed on the upkeep.

"Very pristine..." I repeated Aang's words in sarcasm.

He grinned sheepishly, "Must've changed ownership since I was here." He laughed nervously at the end of his sentence.

We walked through the 'oasis' to the most popular stop: the bar. It was just as seedy inside as it had looked on the inside. It was full of men in weathered clothes, some appeared to look like sandbenders; an earth sub-culutre I was forced to study in Ba Sing Se. It wasn't very cheery, but the drinks being made up at the bar looked quite appetising. One sandbender spat at Sokka's feet in an attempt to intimidate-I assumed. Katara pulled Sokka away to the bar, and the rest of us followed.

"One mango, please," A man ordered a drink as we arrived at the bar. The bartender used two swords to precisely cut up fruit and ice, extracting both juices to make a refreshing drink. Sokka eyed the mixture as it was served up in a coconut bowl, topped with a mini umbrella.