Ba Sing Se was the most heavily fortified city in the world. Built on a hill in the middle of an open field of solid bedrock, the city jutted from the horizon like a proud, earthen crown, impregnable and impassable. The walls of Ba Sing Se were legendary. Everywhere in all four nations, from the Water Tribes to the Fire Nation, walls like Ba Sing Se was a euphemism for impenetrability. When his mother had scolded him as a child, she would often compare Haru to his father, saying that they both had heads "as thick as Ba Sing Se's wall." Well, if Haru's head had really been that thick, he wouldn't have a hastily bandaged cut on his forehead that was annoyingly dripping blood into his eyes, and it was for those ancient, impenetrable walls that Haru now galloped, pinning all his hope and dreams—indeed his very life—on reaching those walls.
He had always yearned to walk atop the walls of Ba Sing Se. Now, it was more than a dream. It was more than a possibility. It was more than a reality. Now, it was a matter of self-preservation.
Haru a handful of other Earthbenders who had escaped the Fire Nation along with him raced across the desert field in the shadow of Ba Sing Se, the snorting rhinos of Fire Nation cavalry hot on their heels. The hell for leather pace that they had taken since fleeing the Fire Nation army in the forest so many miles ago was beginning to take its toll on their emu horses, and Haru didn't know how much further their proto-avian mounts could possibly take them before they keeled over. Domestic mounts would have long ago reached heir breaking point, and would have flatly refused to run another step. These emus, however, bred for Earth Kingdom cavalry, were trained for just his sort of exertion. They would run themselves literally to death, stopping only when their legs gave out.
That breaking point, the point when even their finely bred animals would no longer be capable of carrying them, was fat approaching. Haru couldn't see the other Earthbenders trough the cloud of dust that they had kicked up, but his own emu was lathering. He assumed that the other mounts were equally as tired.
Another plasma-hot ball of fire landed ahead and to the left of him, exploding in an incandescent wave of energy and heat. It had missed the Earthbenders by a considerable margin, but Haru could feel the sudden wave of intense heat wash over him, and he was showered with tiny flecks of red hot rock that singles his rough spun tunic and leggings.
So far, the primary advantage of the Earthbenders had been in the speed of their emus over that of the rhinos use by the Fire Nation, but that advantage was being negated by shear exhaustion. Haru and his haggard band had been riding for two days straight, without rest or food. Their water skins were almost empty. They didn't have enough water for themselves, let alone their animals. Ba Sing Se as only a few moments away. Once inside the city walls, they could have all the water they needed.
Thinking about water led, as it always did, to thoughts of that Water Tribe girl who had freed him for the Fire Nation prison barge almost a year ago. She had been breathtaking, and the sensual way her body had undulated and swayed when manipulating her element had never strayed far from Haru's mind. However, this fantasy of Katara was different.
For one thing, her clothes were on.
Another difference was the consistency of the daydream. Daydreams about pretty waterbenders were not uncommon, but typically they had possessed the consistency of daydreams. They had been fantasies, thick like pudding. However, this sudden flash of Katara's image was different. It was thin, shimmering, with the consistency of broth. And, far from being seductive, her expression looked anxious, almost as if she were warning him away form the city.
Is this it? Haru asked himself as he galloped for Ba Sing Se with the Fire Nation fast gaining on him. Is this death in its truest form? These Firebenders won't make me a slave; they'll make me a corpse. What I want isn't a daydream. My mind just wants to show me a pretty face one more time before I die.
Time seemed to slow down for Haru. All sound was muted, save for the sound of the wind that was roaring in his ears. The other Earthbenders thundered past him, but Haru, slowed his emu to a stop, and cantered around to face the oncoming Fir Nation horde.
Alone.
He stepped down off of his emu, which quickly folded its legs and dropped to the ground, exhausted, resting. Haru knew that he would never again be able to coax the emu to stand and run. That was okay. Haru had no expectations of escape. For the Earthbenders to reach Ba Sing Se, something had to slow the firebenders down.
Haru had learned everything he knew of earthbending from his father, and his father had taught him well. He braced his legs and stood there, rooted to the ground, in the path of the Fir Nation cavalry.
There were two score of them, all told, with no telling how many of them were firebenders. They were getting closer now. Haru could see their steel faceplates shining in the light of the setting sun. He couldn't hear their hoof beats, or their curses or their battle cries. He couldn't hear the clatter of their weapons or the rattle of their armor. The wind was in his ears and in his lungs filling him with the scent of the earth.
Ultimately, the Fire Nation was doomed. Haru never would have entertained such a thought in the weeks or years before, but it swept into his mind now like it had always been their, and it had the cool certainty of a brisk ocean breeze. They lived on the earth. The earth was the Fire Nation's livelihood as well as the Earth King's. By declaring war on the earth, the Fire Nation had upset the balance. It didn't matter how many cities fell o the Fire Nation. It didn't mater if Omashu fell, or it the Fire Lord himself appeared at the gates of Ba Sing Se. Ultimately, the Earth would reject them. The Earth Kingdom would endure, somehow. It might never regain its former glory but, somehow, Haru knew that the balance would be restored. Just like he knew, with equal certainty that he would not be there to see it.
Haru knew that he could not hope to defeat the Fire Nation scourge chasing him now. He knew that he could not flee, for they would surely capture him, burn him alive, and then move on to kill his comrades before they reached the city. Hope would distract him. If he had any chance of surviving the next few minute, he needed to concentrate only on the present. He abandoned all thoughts of walking away from this battle.
He stored down the Fire Nation soldiers, and the soldiers stared at him with the primal bloodlust that can only awaken in battle. He had no more thoughts.
The first Fire Nation warrior to die was an officer with a handlebar mustache. He was twice Haru's age and twice his size. Age and experience, however, was no match for the twenty four pound rock that smashed his face and turned his head into pulp and bone fragments.
Haru stomped on the ground, freeing a boulder which he sent toward another fire bender with a sharp thrust of his hand. The firebender, who's hand's had already become engulfed with flame in preparation for burning Haru to the ground. The boulder caught the firebender in the torso and threw him off of his rhino with enough force to snap his spine.
Pillars exploded out of the ground like stalagmites and knocked riders off of heir rhinos. The rhinos themselves were far too heavy to be affect in the same way, but the powerful columns of earth battered them nonetheless, occasionally knocking them onto their sides, and, in a few fortunate (fortunate for Haru, anyway) cases striking them below the jaw and breaking their necks.
Several fireballs burned their way through the air towards the lone earthbender standing in their path, only to splash against the earthen shield that Haru had raised from the earth only seconds before. The makeshift barricade was as tall as Haru, and was as wide as it was tall. Haru slammed his fist into it, and a fist sized missile of rock blew off of the other side and impacted solidly with a mounted pikeman, either crippling on killing him.
Again and again and again he did it, shadow boxing against his self-made wall and sending chunk after chunk of rock into the advancing Fire Nation horde. Perhaps half a dozen fell, but Haru was making no discernable dent in the Fire Nation's numbers. They were only a few yards away now, close to overrunning him. Fires raged as fireball after flaming fireball detonated all around him.
Haru spread his legs in a wide horse stance and called upon the power of the earth to send the barricade itself at the firebenders, who were riding in tight formation. The stone wall struck what looked to be a sergeant and had roughly the effect of…well…a stone wall. The Sergeant and his rhino were stopped cold in mid gallop when the flat of the wall hit him and knocked him clean onto his back with enough kinetic force to rupture every organ in his body. Even the tough skinned rhino was dazed.
Now bereft of any cover, Haru braced his legs and pushed outward with his hands. A fissure opened up between the fire nation soldiers and himself, and then slammed closed violently, forming a chest-high ridge with Haru atop it.
Haru dropped down behind the new made obstacle just as fireblasts started exploding against it.
He felt a nip against his sleeve and whirled around, ready to flatten whatever had touched him, then breathed a sigh of surprised relief as he saw that it was his emu horse; strangely back on its feet and nuzzling his arm anxiously.
"You want us to leave this place, don't you," Haru whispered, the spell over him broken. Sound returned to his ears, the wind vanished, and time returned to its normal speed once gain. The emu horse actually didn't want Haru to die. It was touching, and Haru actually had to fight back a tear as he mounted the emu and spurred the avian mount away.
Haru's barricade had slowed the ungainly rhinos more than he had expected, and he was soon out the firebenders' effective range. It was not long, though, before the firebenders overcame the pitiful obstacle and were giving chase once again.
Haru and his emu raced across the remaining stretch of land between the battlefield of ruptured earth and the Earth Kingdom's capital city. The firebenders were gaining on him again. They were all now within the shadow cast by the city's walls.
"Open the door!" Haru hollered to whoever might be listening up on the walls. The other earthbenders had disappeared, presumably having gone inside the city, so Haru assumed that ere must be some sort of sentry on the wall. "Let me in!"
There was no movement on the wall, and Haru realized with a skipped heartbeat that the Earth Capital would not open its gates with Fire Nation soldiers so close. He would have to make his own entry.
Never slowing down, he closed his eyes and gathered his chi. The walls of Ba Sing Se were ancient and solid, designed to hold off an entire army. It had not, however, been designed with defense against fellow earthbenders in mind. It was made of rock, just as most other Earth Kingdom fortifications were, and such a massive wall could not stop a single intruder so much as it could halt and army.
Haru could feel the wall. He could feel the structure and build of the wall, every pebble and every masonry stone. He could feel it all with a clarity that he could never have achieved had his life not been in such dire jeopardy. With an explosion of will and a mighty cry, Haru thrust both hands forward and made a sweeping motion, as if he were clearing off a cluttered desk. Every muscle in his body was straining, and his spirit was crying out for rest, but his mind and his heart refused to relent, imbued as they were with the stubborn, immutable desire to live, to see beyond this single fateful sunset, to see tomorrow's sunrise, an to see many days to come.
Hope, Haru thought, his mind filled with pretty waterbenders and lumps of coal.
With a deep grinding sound, a square slid open in Ba Sing Se's massive wall, like a window being raised. The window was tiny, scarcely big enough for Haru to scramble through, certainly not big enough for his emu horse, and it was already beginning to close, the strength of will required to keep the egress open against the massive weight of the wall beginning to drain his reservoir of chi, already nearly depleted from his flight and subsequent skirmish with he firebenders. Only a few yards were separating Haru from the wall now.
"I'm sorry my old friend," Haru whispered to the emu horse, his heart breaking in a way that he never though possible for abandoning an animal to die. The emu horse, though, seemed to understand, and gave Haru's hand one last sad nuzzle as they reached the city.
Haru stood up in the stirrups and yanks on the reigns, prompting the well-trained emu horse to come to an almost instantaneous halt. Haru leapt from the back of the emu horse and trusted the earth spirits to see him through the air. He straightened himself like a diver and flew the last few feet of air with the ease of and air bender, landing on his belly in the rapidly narrowing shaft that he had created in the wall. Friction put a violent stop to Haru's momentum, and the young earthbender felt the rough stone abrade his arms.
Ba Sing Se's walls were thick, though, and Haru still had a distance to crawl before he made it to the other side. He frantically scrambled through the collapsing tunnel, his face turning soot gray from the dust and pebbles falling from the top ceiling (such that it was). The light at the end of the tunnel was shrinking, and Haru had a sudden, horrible vision of being buried alive.
"No!" he bellowed, calling upon a final store of chi that he didn't even know he had to propel him though the tunnel like an earth train, and he exploded out of the other end of the wall like a torpedo, bringing with him a shower of dirt and rock. He briefly fell through the air—apparently the ground outside the wall was quite a bit higher than the ground inside the wall—until he felt himself impact a structure of cloth and wood, falling through an awning and into a what must have been a shopkeeper's stand. His fall was cushioned by a cart full of cabbages, limiting what would have normally been a broken neck to a minor series of sprains ad bruises. The cabbages and the cart were less fortunate, as the cart collapsed under his weight and the cabbages went flying everywhere.
The citizens of Ba Sing Se shopping in the area froze and stared at the spectacle, in shock. A girl in a fancy gown covered her daintily painted lips with her sleeve, and a passing carpenter, dropped his toolbox in surprise. The owner of the cabbage cart that Haru had so inadvertently and completely crushed let out a plaintive moan.
Haru barely noticed any of this. The last of his energy was gone. His chi was completely depleted, and he was in too much pain to move. He hadn't eaten or slept for days, and it was all catching up to him at one. He was both physically and emotionally drained. His thought process was reduced to random firing impulses and half finished thoughts, but he still managed o pull one final completed though out of the chaos of his mind before the world finally went black.
So, this is Ba Sing Se. It's nice.
Reviews would be appreciated.