Chapter 23: The Boy With the White Hair
[Several minutes ago]
With Aang and the group…
Before the party had started, Aang and Sokka agreed that the other two would not be able to let them in, so they decided to find their own way inside. Dressing up as the waiters, the two boys snuck inside without much of a problem, it was almost like nobody even cared to check waiters' identities. Wandering into the palace and finding the entrance to the party room, both boys stared at the expanse of the massive room in awe; to say that this room was just 'big' was an understatement to say the least. Weaving their way through the guests who loudly talked amongst each other, Aang and Sokka worked to find Katara and Toph somewhere in the crowd. Initially, they didn't think it would be that difficult to find two people they would recognize in a party full of unfamiliar faces, but that thought was pushed aside once they saw the sea of people that filled the chamber.
"You see them?" Sokka asked, balancing a plate of horderves in his left hand to play the role of a waiter.
"No, not yet," Aang swiftly replied as one of the guests took an item of food from his plate, "how about you?"
"Are you kidding? I almost lost track of you twice – and I'm standing right next to you," he exclaimed.
"Excuse me," came a voice from beside the startled boys, "I'll take whatever you're serving."
Looking to their left, Aang and Sokka were relieved to find Toph standing next to them with Katara in tow.
"Finally, we found you," Sokka said with a thankful sigh.
"Technically, 'We' found 'You'," Katara noted with a giggle.
"Yeah, whatever. Have you seen the Earth King yet?" the water tribe boy began, eager to get down to business.
"We haven't exactly had the chance to do much of anything. The guy we came in with won't leave us alone, and he's basically been following us for the past ten minutes," Toph explained.
"What guy?" Sokka asked, peering around the room.
Toph and Katara both turned their heads simultaneously (although more so Katara than Toph) and glanced around the room.
"I guess he's gone," Katara stated thankfully, "I hope we don't bump into him again."
Aang's attention was soon grabbed by a man who walked up to a small stage-like structure in the center of the room; after ascending the steps and turning to face the majority of guests in the room, he took a deep breath and began to loudly speak.
"Dear invited guests," the man began, holding his arms out in a welcoming fashion; the volume of the room lowered to a respectful hush as he spoke.
"Wait, that's him – that's the guy," Toph said, immediately recognizing the man's voice.
"Him?" Sokka said, turning to face the spectacle.
Having the guests' undivided attention, the man continued, "I am Long Feng – personal Chancellor to the Earth King. It is an honor for me to announce that the party shall begin in a few moments."
The guests in the audience smiled at the notion of the start of the event, and some of them even raised their glasses in a toast-like fashion as Long Feng spoke.
"The Earth King himself places a great amount of emphasis on the importance of this gathering and its guests," he continued, "The peace in Ba Sing Se has lasted for hundreds of years, all of which may be dedicated to the Earth King's rule as well as his predecessors, so it is only right that we celebrate such a momentous achievement by enjoying the bountiful feast that has been made by our finest chefs. So please - eat up, and 'Long live the Earth King'."
There was a respectful applause as the man descended down the steps once again and vanished into the crowd. The murmuring of the guests resumed as people returned back to their conversations prior to the announcement and engaged once more in the enjoyment in each other's company. By this point in time, the party had technically started, and the large front doors were being closed to provide the event with the privacy it deserved.
"If the party started already, then where is the Earth King?" Sokka muttered angrily; he wanted to cross his arms to further illustrate his irritation, but the presence of the plate in his hand made it difficult.
"Maybe they're only going to bring him out once the doors are closed. You know, for safety reasons," Aang wondered.
"That…..actually makes sense, Aang," Sokka yielded with a slight chuckle.
Once the doors had finally been closed and the room was secured, some of the soldiers that lined the back wall proceeded to watch as a small palanquin was brought into the room. Thin veils of green fabric shielded the inside of the structure from view, but it seemed evident that the Earth King sat within its confines.
"That must be him – The Earth King," Katara said, although the rest of the group was already thinking that.
"Now's as good a time as ever, gang," Sokka motioned with a confident smirk, "we have to make our way over to the Earth King."
"Gotcha," Aang acknowledged as he hurriedly walked between the conglomerates of party-goers.
Awkwardly moving around and past guests as they absentmindedly shuffled through the room was quite a rough task. At some point in time, the young airbender could've sworn that someone stepped directly on his foot and accidentally elbowed him in the gut. Still, the journey over to the Earth King was relatively quick and uneventful – he just hoped he didn't draw too much attention to himself. Just then, through a combination of poor concentration and unintentional coincidence, Aang bumped into someone and watched as the plate full of food landed on them.
It was a woman, who judging by her attire and posh attitude, was probably of relatively high standing in Ba Sing Se.
Oops.
The woman whirled around, looked at her dress, and then stared back at Aang with a look of wordless astonishment on her face; her mouth curled into a frown and her lip quivered as if she was going to start crying.
"Shhh. No, no, don't scream," Aang pleaded, placing a finger on his mouth to signify silence.
Then, thinking of nothing else to do, he outstretched his hand and allowed a sudden gust of wind to rise up in a feeble attempt to clean her dress off. The technique seemed to work, at least it rid her clothes of any stains, but now the sheer force of the wind seemed to have messed up her hair and a large portion of her makeup.
Thankfully, the woman didn't look like she was going to cry now; instead, he surprised face morphed into a relatively excited face at his presence.
"Oh, the Avatar!" she exclaimed, staring down at him, "I didn't know the Avatar would be showing up here."
As she spoke, the woman attracted the attention of some of the other guests, and within the matter of a couple of seconds Aang was surrounded by a group of fascinated people who all stared at him as they talked amongst each other. Aang looked over at his friends and gave them a sheepish smile as Sokka pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head - a commotion was the last thing they needed right now.
Suddenly, there was a loud BOOM sound that caused everyone in the room to turn their heads over to the entrance doors, including the guests that surrounded Aang.
The entire room felt like it shook; Aang looked up at the chandeliers to see them gently swaying from the ceiling. Glancing over his shoulder, Aang watched as Long Feng emerged from a separate chamber off to the side of the main party room, he looked quite irritated – as if he had been just been interrupted. After walking out, he joined up with a man closer to the back of the room; the man, possibly a soldier due to his wardrobe, leaned closer to Long Feng as if to inform him of something.
A few moments later, there was a second one.
BOOM!
The soldiers at the back end of the room took defensive positions as they kept their eyes on the door; it seemed like no one knew what was going on. Taking advantage of the stillness of the guests, Aang started to make his way back to his friends; they seemed to be just as curious as the rest of the guests, keeping their eyes steadily on the gigantic metal doors.
"What's going on?" Aang asked, hoping that someone had some answers.
"No idea," Toph returned.
Then, there was a third one – BOOM!
Almost immediately after this one occurred, there was a loud snapping sound that echoed throughout the chamber. Aang gasped as he watched the hinges on one of the massive doors break away; the stifling atmosphere within the party room was enough to make most of the guests start to panic and back away from the entrance. Then, almost as if moving on its own, the doors fell all the way down onto the carpeted ground with a thunderous sound. A mist of dust particles collected and lingered in the air as everyone in the room held their breaths in wait of what would enter the room.
There was silence at first, but soon the echoing of soft footsteps made their way into the room; Aang felt a chill run down his spine as he spotted a thin figure move through the dust cloud. Looking over to the faces of his friends, he was sure he wasn't the only one who felt so….terrified.
Toph probably had it the worst – she was visibly shaking.
Even through the vagueness of the mist, Aang could make out the movement of two, red eyes that cut through the dust.
The first thing that emerged was enough to confirm the group's worst fears; the sight of white-hair made them all stiffen up as they waited for the rest of the figure to be revealed.
It didn't take too long – first was the white hair, second was the pair of red eyes, and third was the pale skin.
"'Sup," he motioned with a slight head nod.
'The Boy with the White Hair' had come to Ba Sing Se.
End of Chapter 23
Author's Note: Hey, guys, I hope you're all doing well. The past few chapters were pretty short, I admit, but it's with good reason. You see, I wanted to flesh out the situation a bit more, something I don't think I did too well in the last chapter. Although many people may not think that Aang's part of the story is necessarily important, I wanted to add this perspective of the story because I feel it will inform how the rest of the story will go.
Anyway, enough of my babbling, here's a short haiku:
Creativity
Originally has been
Made real by man/
Memory without
Emotion, is just data.
Nature has them both/
The end.
*I wonder if there's a hidden message in there. Hmmmmmm. (Trust me, it's not hard to find – let me know if you found it.)