Bella [AANGXOC]

Chapter 80: Haven

From now on, (hopefully) I'm going to post every Monday and Friday.

Let the long stretch commence!

~

We've collected incredibly valuable information from the library. Our mission now has a course, it has structure. With the eclipse we can invade the Fire Nation and finally restore peace. But the nightmares from the owl spirit's sickly figure, the desert's heat, and then the avatar state almost made none of it worth it.

It was a terrible experience, and yet we got out alive.

The sandbenders gave us a ride out of the desert and stopped at the Oasis. We had water and food and then they gave us a map showing the fastest routes to Ba Sing Se.

Since then, we've been on foot. Aang has been surprisingly calm and normal. After the instance in the desert he was quiet, and then he was fine. Just like that.

Appa is everything to him. A best friend he's had most of his life, and a piece of his culture that nowhere else in the world can provide.

So he still cares about Appa, but he's not showing it. Or he's ignoring it.

Either way it can't be good.

~

We had gone a few days travel. The dry desert terrain turned into the familiar red rock and grass patches that we had seen throughout the last few months. We hadn't run into any trouble, and we traveled quietly. Since we were still recovering.

It was nice to do nothing after such a horrible experience. It was like the universe was rewarding us with sanctuary.

But it couldn't reward us forever.

We stopped at a little lake where Aang and Katara could train lightly and the rest of us could relax.

Although not much training had been going on. Aang and Katara were playing in the water, Toph and I had waded in up to our knees and Sokka had declined from swimming. He would rather examine the map.

There were a couple routes leading to Ba Sing Se from where we were now, so I'm guessing Sokka wanted to spend time choosing a good one.

"Waterbending bomb!" Katara yelled and then jumped off of a cliff. She fell into the lake and a large splash covered all of us in water.

We laughed but Sokka got annoyed, "Sure, 5,000 year old maps from the spirit library. Just splash some water on them."

Katara rolled her eyes, apologized, and bent the water from the map back into the lake.

We then gathered around the map to see what route Sokka picked.

"So did you figure out what route we're gonna take?" Aang asked him.

"Ok, we're around about here," he said pointing to an area on the map, "And we need to go to Ba Sing Se, which is here," Sokka pointed to another place on the map that was a little ways away from where we were. At least a three or four day trip.

"It looks like the only passage connecting the South to the North is this sliver of land called, 'The Serpent's Pass'" He pointed to it on the map. It was an incredibly thin line on the map, like a strand of hair, and it stretched a little over halfway of the journey.

It also looked to be surrounded by water, so if we happened to fall off the incredibly thin piece of land, we'd go right into the ocean.

"You're sure that's the best way to go?" Toph asked him. Even she felt iffy and she couldn't even see the map.

"It's the only way."

Sokka was right, there were many routes that led to The Serpent's Pass, but only one way to get across the body of water.

"I mean it's not like we have Appa to fly us there."

I choked on my tongue.

"Shut up about Appa! Can't you at least try to be sensitive?" Katara scolded him.

But Aang looked as calm as always. His expression had barely moved.

"Guys, it's ok. I know I was upset about losing Appa before, but I just want to focus on getting to Ba Sing Se and telling the Earth King about the solar eclipse."

His voice was monotone.

I seriously, seriously, didn't like it.

It was like he was empty. Completely emotionless.

"Then to Ba Sing Se we go, no more distractions," Sokka continued to be insensitive.

The plan was to stay at the lake for the rest of the day, for Aang to get some waterbending training, some earthbending training, stay the night, and then leave early in the morning. But as usual our plans were disrupted in seconds.

"Hello there! Fellow refugees!" A man called out to us from behind us.

We all turned around, there was a man and two women, one of them was pregnant and they were all dressed in earth kingdom clothing.

I saw Sokka's face drop as he realized this wasn't going to be as easy as he planned it to be.

~

We lead them to our fire and gave them a bit of food. They looked like nice enough people, I wouldn't mind it if we ended up traveling with them.

"So are you guys headed to Ba Sing Se too?" Aang spoke first.

"Sure are," the man answered, "We're trying to get there before my wife, Ying, has her baby."

"Great, we can travel through the serpent's pass together," Katara smiled.

All three of them jumped and widened their eyes, "'The Serpent's Pass?' Only the truly desperate take that deadly route," the woman said.

Turns out our distraction is more of a warning signal.

Toph hit Sokka, "'Deadly route' great pick Sokka."

Sokka rubbed his arm, "Well we are desperate."

"You should come with us to Full Moon Bay. Ferries take refugees across the lake. It's the fastest way to Ba Sing Se."

"And it's hidden, so the Fire Nation can't find it," the older woman finished for him.

"Hmm," Katara pretended to think, "Peaceful ferry ride or deadly pass?"

"Come on! It's not far from here," The man stood up, helped his wife up, and motioned for us to come with.

I grabbed my bag, placed Momo on my shoulder with some nuts, and followed the newcomers out of our campsite.

We have two objectives for Ba Sing Se. Find Appa, and inform the Earth King of a glowing opportunity.

Seriously, what more could go wrong than encountering a deadly spirit owl and then getting stranded in the desert.