Rated M for strong language, drug/alcohol use, possible sexual themes and situations, violence, etc, etc...
"I knew it was going to be big...but this..." Ba Sing Se....Xia had to have read about the city in a hundred histories and twice as many poems and epics...yet still it defied imagination. It didn't just make her feel small, it made her feel minuscule. The whole island on which she had been born could be sunk in the center of it's great harbor and the wake caused would barely reach the docks. The wharves and storehouses and fishmarkets that ringed that harbor seemed as if they could house everyone she had ever known with room to spare...and this was outside the outer wall that blocked the horizon as far the eye could see.
And then she finally understood the great folly her forebears had been making excuses for for over a century, driving army upon army, generation after generation of loyal soldiers to fight and die attempting to make make just one breach in those walls or to hold even a few scant yards of farmland within them, the city proper still leagues distant. It was a saddening, realizing how much blood had spilled over nothing.
Ba Sing Se still stood, the Earth Nation still prospered, and the Fire Nation was still rich in honor and poor in all else. She frowned, reaching up to brush away a stray lock of black hair that had escaped the carefully-arranged topknot she'd been talked into wearing. She then felt a gentle hand upon her shoulder. Tsen. If it had been anyone besides the nomad had touched her uninvited like that, she would have burned the offending hand to a charred stump.
"Deep breaths, one step, one thought at a time. Half the city's gathered to see their Avatar. Demonstrate what you've learned, let them walk away with a tale to tell their grandchildren. A wise man once said that to be loved, one must..." The tall, tattooed man young man started, but never got any further as she whipped around and fixed him with a withering glare. Whatever words of wisdom from some long-dead guru he was about to impart, she had no doubt heard before.
"Lets just get this over with. I'm here to find my Earthbending master, not to put on a show for a crowd of simpering peasants, looking for a savior. But I'll do my duty. I always have." She answered, as the ship slowly made for the berth that had been cleared for them at the center of the harbor, a straight shot from one of the great gates of Ba Sing Se. They were still half a mile out, but she would already hear the echoing din of a great mass of humanity murmuring as one all around them. How many people must have turned out to do her homage...ten thousand, twenty? From here, they were nothing more than a featureless mass of browns and greens.
The captain shouted an order, and the banners were unfurled along the decks, four great silk banners, one red, one green, one blue, and one grey, bearing the emblems of each of the four nations. At the prow, a fifth was added, stark white, bearing a lotus flower in gold, the symbol having become synonymous with the office of the avatar. The crowd seemed to be making Sunset anxious too, the small, winged reptile of golden scales draped about her shoulders turning it's head up and exhaling a plume of smoke in annoyance, and she reached up to stroke his leathern wings, calming him.
"Well, here goes nothing...." The Avatar muttered wistfully, checking herself over once more as they drew closer and closer to the docks, ensuring that her topknot was properly wound, her two deep crimson sashes were secure, her inscribed gold medallions facing out to catch the light, and her armor was polished to a mirror sheen to very nearly match the dragons scales. She drew up for her full height, glad that at least she was tall enough that few would be looking down on her, and waited as the crowds drew closer and roared louder, drowning out all other noise, and fought hard to keep her hands from trembling as the ship finally stopped, and the fore bridge dropped down to meet the waiting dock, thankfully cleared of onlookers by the honor guard waiting at the end of it.
But everywhere else, there were people....old, young, tall, short, homely and handsome, rich and poor, a sea of the olive-skinned people of the earth kingdom in their greens and browns, perhaps one in fifty from elsewhere, lending a splash of blues and yellows....but there was very little red. Rather than dwell on that, Xia took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and rather than walk down the waiting dock, she danced, taking precise movements, sliding one foot in front of the other, stopping now and then to twirl about, flaring out the long hem of her black gi.
On the third step, she threw a hand out over her hand, summoning a ribbon of flame that surrounded her like a halo of red and orange. After the next step, she swept an open palm over the water, calling up a powerful gust of wind that ruffled the cloaks and hair of those watching from the bank, eliciting awed gasps, but no cheers, not yet. They were too enraptured. Three more steps and she made a gentle pushing-and-pulling motion at the water, making waves upon the bay to one side of the dock while the waters on the other remained calm and still. Several more steps brought her close enough to the quay to feel the stones that cobbled the long thoroughfare leading from the docks to the great gate, and she let the ribbon of flame die and threw up two fists, pausing for a moment, gathering her concentration.
Earthbending required strength. Mental, Physical. The will to force change upon an immovable object, her instructors had taught her. She gritted her teeth and tensed her muscles, as if lifting an invisible weight, a sheen of sweat forming on her forehead as a pillar of stone rose up to each side of her, slowly but surely, and bowed together at the top, forming an arch through which the Avatar passed, head held high, careful not to let her utter exhaustion show. From her shoulder, Sunset took wing, letting out a piercing cry and flying a wide circuit over the heads of the crowd before lighting atop the arch, preening.
Finally, the Avatar opened her eyes. Before her stood a half-dozen notables, dressed richly in green and gold, hats of various heights, shapes, and ornamentation denoting their rank. One, who's cap was almost plain, fell to his knees first in a low bow. Then another, and another, each prostrated themselves before her until only one was left, an older man who's cap was tallest and woven wholly of cloth-of-gold and decorated with emeralds, who only nodded once in recognition. Avatar Feng nodded back.
And then came the cheering, a deafening din that seemed to go for eons without end.
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