Moons: (in fatal position muttering to herself)

Megan: Yeah, she took too long to update. Therefore, she must be trapped in an illusion. Relax, nothing that will hurt her. At most, she'll be mentally scarred.

Disclaimer: Moons-san doesn't own Avatar in anyway. She did however create the OC Tai Ming. Also, Megan is used with her friend's permission. Don't steal ether of them or you will be attacked by Mutated Kirbys.

Megan: Rebecca Cunningham, here's is your magical soda for reviewing. Now on with the chapter.

Chong and his group of earth nomads were nice people, but Tai Ming kept swearing to herself if she heard another song she would 'drop' that guitar.

Secretly she was quite thankful. They provided her and the knowledge seekers with food that they had desperately needed and they were kind. 'I guess this is what the air nomads were like.' Tai Ming thought, 'But, they probably would have been smarter.'

"So are you guys going to Crescent Island with me?" She asked Chong as they were walking the next day. "I don't see why." Chong said, "We never have a destination. You have to not think about that and just go."

"Well, this is kind of important to me." Tai Ming explained, "I'll have to take a boat over there soon. It's in the Fire Nation."

"It would be nice to see the Fire Nation now that the war's over." Chong's wife Lily commented. "Yeah it would be nice." Chong agreed. "We'll roam around the Fire Nation for a while."

"Sweet." Tai Ming said.

'Pr. Zei & Won Shi Tong

I made it to the coast of the Earth Kingdom. We are waiting to find a boat that will take us to Crescent Island in the Fire Nation. The knowledge seekers are fine and so am I.

Professor, I have a question for you: What' s with stupid people hanging around each other? We've stayed the night with a group of nomads and their IQ must not be that great.

Don't believe me? I asked one how far away Moku was from here so we could go and get supplies and he replied, "Moku is right behind us." I say "How's that possible?" He turns around and asks a member of the group, Moku!, "Aren't you south of us, instead of north? We need to get supplies from you." I'm not even sure if he knew Moku was also a city before I told him.

Once we get to Crescent Island, it won't be far to the book. You can expect us back soon.

Tai Ming'

"Thanks for loaning me the paper, Moku." Tai Ming called to him and she carefully rolled up the paper without letting the nomads see it. The foxes walked up to her side. "Oh, hey." She greeted as one climbed up to the usually spot on the shoulders.

She rolled up the paper and tied a red ribbon around it to hold it in place. "Now, if only I could get this to the library." She thought aloud. The fox on the ground yipped.

"Huh?"

The fox yipped and reached up for the letter.

Chong entered the room. "Chong, you have any idea what my friend is trying to say?' Tai Ming asked.

Chong studied the fox for a bit and said, "While I don't know. Maybe he wants some attention."

Tai Ming rolled her eyes, "Chong, ever since we joined you guy, the foxes have had nothing but attention."

"Oh…" Chong said flatly, "While what can I say. They're so cute!" He stared at the fox a little longer and said, "It a mail carrier!" Tai Ming raised an eyebrow as he continued, "You see its like a messenger hawk without feathers and stuff. It'll deliver the letter you have."

"Chong you're right!" Tai Ming said handing the fox the letter, "You know where to take this." She turned her head back to Chong as the fox ran off. "That was a great burst of knowledge you had, figuring out that the fox wanted to send my message itself."

"It did." Chong said in amazement. "Wow, whoever thought of that was a genius!"

All Tai Ming could do was stare blankly for a moment. When she snapped out of her phase, she said, "I need a walk around town."

"You guys sure you don't want to come with me?" Tai Ming asked Chong and his group, "I hear the Fire Nation palace is a grand site."

"We don't like destinations, Tai Ming." Chong said, "We'll just hang out here in the lowlands."

He held up his guitar. "But before we go, I've been thinking of a song." He started playing and sang.

"Foxy female on the path,

Best friend on her shoulder;

Tai Ming walks past on the path,

Breaking past the boarder;

The girl with the fox friend,

Traveling… on should… uh…."

He stopped there. "Uh… I didn't think of the rest. But I came up with an ending with a killer guitar solo. You wanna hear it?"

"Uh, no that's ok! You can surprise me when you finish the song!" Tai Ming said almost too quickly, " We'll meet again some other time and then you can share the song."

"Alright." Chong agreed. They all said goodbye again and went their separate ways. Tai Ming listened to the nomads play as she walked to the military docks of Crescent Island. She made it this far. The book couldn't be far off.

The inn was crowded with pirates drinking rum and elderly sailors playing pai sho. Not the best place on the island, but it was the only one that allowed animals. Also, it was a place where she could get some case, if only a little while. The innkeeper noted that she wasn't given that much money (the nomads had only given her ten copper pieces, which she was ok with).

He took the pieces for her night's stay and offered her silver piece for each poker game where she was the card dealer. Apparently, pirate ether couldn't understand the rules of pai sho or thought the game was boring. They preferred poker. All she had to do was deal out some cards and flip some over and called out the binds.

With the fox wrapped over her shoulder in sort of a doze she handed out cards to five pirates, a fire nation general, and a long water tribe boy a little older than her. "Big bind is 15 silver. Small bind is 13 silver."

The boy put out 13 silver coins for the small bind. He After awhile it was just him and the general in that round. The boy looked at his cards and then the cards laid out on the table. "I fold." He finally said throwing his cards onto the table, still facedown.

A twelve year old girl behind him slapped her forehead stupidly as the general greedily took his money.

Tai Ming gathered up the cards, "Alright, you guys. Take ten to do your business. Remember that's ten minutes and the game starts up again."

The girl took the water tribe boy by the back of his shirt and dragged him over by the restrooms. Tai Ming passed them on her way into restroom. She managed to catch the words "-Cheat for you-" coming from the girl's mouth. Slyly she closed the door so it was just open a crack and listened.

"I'm sorry, Toph." The boy was saying, "I thought my cards weren't good enough that round. I was just trying to save our money. You know I need this for Suki."

"I don't freaking care about your girlfriend." Toph argued, "In case you haven't noticed, she's in Kyosi! Next time when I give you the signal, you keep going and don't fold!" Toph turned to the door. "Oh, crap…"

"What?"

"Don't think I'm helpless because I'm blind. I can feel your vibrations through my earthbending. Come out."

Tai Ming stepped out of the door. "You're blind." She got a closer look at Toph's eyes. They were a pale, lifeless shade of grey. Toph pointed an accusing finger at her. "How much did you hear? And don't try lying. There'll be a physical reaction that you can't hide."

Tai Ming thought for a moment, then smiled a plan formed. "Ok, I give up. From basic knowledge and what I heard I know that you use your earthbending to tell when a player is bluffing in the game. Then you give a signal to your friend who's playing so he knows who's fibbing."

"We said no lies!" The water tribe boy exclaimed moving his hand to draw a weapon.

"She wasn't lying, ponytail." Toph said plainly.

"Sorry." He apologized, "It's just a little creepy that she got our whole plan perfect, and there's the fact that most people lie in stuff like-"

"Sokka."

"Yeah, Toph?"

"Shut up!" The boy got quiet and Toph said, "Sorry about Sokka. He's an idiot sometimes. And he owes his girlfriend some money, so we would love you deeply if you didn't rat us out."

"It's cool." Tai Ming said, "But, what do I get?" Toph and Sokka stared blankly for a moment, unsure of what to say. Tai Ming spoke, "I need a ride to-"

"Ride! We got a giant, furry monster that flies! We can take you anywhere!" Sokka spat out.

"If your monster gets me to the Fire Nation capital, then back to the Earth Kingdom I'm in."

"Nice going, Sucka." Toph muttered, "Fine we'll get you to those places on Appa."

"Thanks." Tai Ming said, "I really need this. Oh, and keep my travels quiet will yah?"

"Why?" Both asked.

"Because if you don't, some warrant will learn about your gambling strategy."

Sokka sighed and reached out his hand, "Deal."

Moons: (Still on the floor)

Megan: Don't worry, she'll be back to work on the next chapter. This time, it better be up by Monday.