Aha! I'm back with the third part of "The Nature of Balance", the first episode of "The path to Ba Sing Se" move... Just so the reader(s) know, each part is divided into parts that would show before commercial break, so since this is the third part, only one more part of this episode to go...Yippee!
Of course I don't own Avatar, but I do own Po and Chiang.
Book II: Earth
The Nature of Balance
The desert…the spirit named Po was in the dessert the whole time. Naturally, only a fellow spirit as treacherous as Koh would know of the other's whereabouts… What if Po, whom Avatar Roku sought out for help hundreds of years ago against the Fire Nation, was still here?
Quickly being lifted out of his thoughts, Aang could see a bright light ahead of him…and it was coming in fast. He tried to run away from the giant ball of light as it traced after him, but it was too fast, and Aang was caught in the ensuing explosion…
Jolting out of his sleep for the third time in two days, Aang awoke to a gust of wind blowing across his face, and the sense that he was moving strangely quickly for lying face down on the hard wood surface. Sitting up, he realized that he along with Sokka, Toph, Katara and three other Sandbenders were riding on a Sandbender skiff.
"Wakey, Wakey Angie!" teased Sokka in an oddly peppy attitude.
"What are you so happy about Sokka?" Aang asked bluntly.
"Well, knowing Sokka," interjected the warrior's sister,
"He got to have your share of meat this morning" Toph finished Katara's sentence for her.
"Yeah, and it was cured too! Just like Gran-Gran used to make" added Sokka as he nostalgically remembered the meaty goodness he had finished just minutes ago while rubbing his stomach.
Lending a light smile to what was obviously Sokka's attempt to cheer up the gang, Aang was able to recognize the two fully robbed Sandbenders piloting the lead skiff to be Ghashiun and his father, Sha-Mo, but the third was a complete stranger. Or more accurately, Aang didn't remember seeing an old man holding a walking stick, wearing a Sandbender robe, an Earth Kingdom hat, and a blindfold like cloth around his face.
Noticing Aang's stares at the old man, Katara remembered that they had never met before.
"Oh…I almost forgot; Aang!" Katara yelled over the howl of the wind, "This is Chiang! We came across him wandering the dessert about an hour after we set sail this morning!" Feeling comfortable that Katara approved of him, Aang held out his hand in front of the old man.
"Hi…I'm Aang, nice to meet you Chiang!" Aang said politely. About a few seconds had past; Aang repeated what he had said; this time, he boomed it with the help of Airbending. The old man was startled by Aang's yell and almost fell off the skiff if it weren't for Toph grabbing onto Chiang's sleeve.
"He's blind Twinkletoes," Toph said in her lecturing voice, "not deaf!"
It was only then that Aang looked closer at the old man's walking stick to see that it wasn't just a walking stick, but it was actually a walking cane.
"Oh," the old man came to Aang's defense in a soft but audible voice, "It's quite alright Lady Bei-Fong; An honest mistake from an honest boy." Chiang then stirred the toothiest grin he could give to prove to the others that he was sincere in what he said.
Hours had passed since the introduction of the new traveler to everyone aboard the Grand Skiff Sokka, or GSS for short. Chiang had found himself the center of attention, as he told the gang stories of his life in the dessert. He answered questions about the Earth Kingdom that neither Toph nor the Sandbenders could answer, and it turned out that he wasn't always blind, but that he lost that sense years after living in the desert. Whenever the question of how long he had lived in the dessert arose however, Chiang always skillfully managed to redirect the conversation to another, unrelated story of his life.
Almost everyone in the group seemed to enjoy Chiang's company, and their like was greatly increased when they found an oasis that not even the Sandbenders knew about.
"This is a very important oasis because it is only a days worth of traveling away from the edge of the dessert." Chiang further informed everyone.
"Water!" Aang and Katara seamlessly called out in unison as they ran towards the oasis' center followed Chiang and the Sandbenders.
"I could've found an oasis…" Sokka murmured to himself as he started to gather his stuff from the skiff into his pack.
"Don't worry Sokka, I bet that if you complain enough, everyone will start paying attention to you again." Toph told her sarcastic friendly sweetly. Sokka paused to allow his sarcasm detector to calculate the best witty retort. He found none. Instead, he continued his packing, mumbling as he did so.
"You're not so off on what you said though…" Pausing again, Sokka looked up to Toph confused on what just happened.
"Wha?"
"I don't like him. There's something in the way he walks, or actually, hops."
"Toph, maybe the sand is messing with your 'feet vision'. Besides, Chiang's old. It could just be a really bad limp. Gran-Gran had one too."
"Sokka," Looking back towards Sokka, Toph gave him a stern look and simply said, "He hops."
"Sokka, Toph! Come on in! The water's fine! Waah!" Aang hollered as he was suddenly enveloped by a wave from Katara.
"You forgot the first rule in fighting Aang!" Katara giggled, "Never take your eyes off a waterbender!" As she taunted the now submerged Aang, she noticed that he had been underwater for far too long, his body could be shown just floating underwater. "…Aang?" Of course, Aang was underwater, but wasn't in any trouble. About a foot under the surface, Aang was inside a waterbuble, slowly making his way towards the shore where Katara's muffled voice was calling out for him. Sending one tendril out of the water, Katara's leg was snagged and pulled into the water with her screaming in surprise.
By the time the sun began to set, everyone was around the fire eating dinner. The Sandbenders talked amongst themselves, while the gang and Chiang sat in a smaller group on the other side of the huge bon fire. Sokka and Toph with Momo napping in her lap, sat close to each other, still conspiring about the new traveler while Chiang, Katara and a now injured Aang, nursing a bump on his head with a block of ice, continued talking about their adventures.
"Avatar Aang," one of the Sandbenders caught the attention of the small group, "Seeing as how we are close to the edge of the Si Wong desert, I regret to say that this is as far as we can escort you without accidentally moving through Earth Kingdom territory."
"Thank you so much Sha-Mo." Katara answered, "You've done more than enough for us. I hope you and your people make a safe trip back into the desert."
"I wish the same for you, and I'm sorry for what my son did about-"
"-It's okay Sha-Mo," Aang interrupted the Sandbender mid sentence, "It's in the past, and what happened in the past can't be changed." Aang stood up and bowed down in respect to the Sandbender chieftain and walked away to collect his things from the skiff before the Sandbenders left.
"That reminds me, I have to get my stuff too…" Katara said as she took off after Aang with Chiang in tow. The three leaving now left Toph and Sokka to observe Chiang from a distance.
"I don't know Toph, I still don't see him hop." Sokka said. Toph only groaned at Sokka's disbelief and let her head fall on the ground to sleep.
Toph…
"What do you want Sokka?" Toph responded to the voice.
"Uh, I didn't say anything Toph" Sokka said
"What didn't you say?" Katara asked returning with Chiang and Aang with their supplies. The Sandbenders had already left leaving the five in the oasis until the next day.
"Forget it! I just want to get some sleep!" whined Toph as her head dropped onto the sand again. Following her example, the rest of the gang proceeded to sleep as well.
"Toph! Psst Toph!" whispered Sokka in the middle of the night. Instead, he tried making vibrations in the sand by drumming on it for a couple of seconds, and almost forgot to keep quiet when he was starting to have a rhythm. Seeing that his attempts were moot, Sokka figured that he had to continue with the plan alone.
"Let's see…" Sokka said as he rummaged through his pack and took out the 'plan scroll'. " 'Operation Sokka's Right' is a go…"