Chap. 7

The Next Day

"Did we have to get up this early?" Toph muttered, as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. The early morning light shone down, as the young Earthbender made her way out of the inn and into the front yard.

"According to Aang and Zuko, yes." Trueno said, as he tightened the harness on Appa's saddle. After returning home last night, Aang and Zuko had informed the group of Jin's situation. While their had been some initial discussion on such a big excursion, no one had put up any major complaints about. Part of it had been wanting to help Jin and her family, and a bigger part was wanting to get out of the controlled city for even one day.

However, there had been one thing that had almost thrown a wrench into the whole thing, which everyone had grudgingly agreed to. Apparently, the trip would require them to leave just after sunrise, even on Appa. Toph and Sokka had been most opposed to this, but thankfully, the prospect of leaving Ba Sing Se for a day had been enough to convince them. But now that she was standing here in the early morning light, Toph began to think about how good her bed would've felt for another few hours.

"You the first one up?" Trueno asked, as he finished with Appa's saddle and began to feed him some hay. The ram had volunteered to get up early and prepare Appa for the ride (he'd always been an early riser, so Trueno had figured he would've been the logical choice anyway). Therefore, by whatever mental clock forced him to rise each morning, the ram had risen about an hour before sunrise and had been loading Appa with enough supplies for the day.

"No, she's actually the last." Katara said as she exited the inn. "We saved some breakfast for you Toph. Fuego made eggs."

"Yea." Toph muttered tiredly, as she turned on her heels and walked back inside the inn.

"She's gonna be fun, isn't she?" Katara asked, once Toph was inside.

"You know Toph. She does everything her way. Besides, how many times do you think her parents made their 'poor, helpless' blind daughter wake up early?" Trueno asked.

"Good point." Katara said. "So are we ready?"

"As ready as we'll ever be." The ram replied.

"Of course, it still sounds like we have to worry about Jin's father." Katara added.

"I don't think so. Aang said he told the man about Fuego, and he was ok with it. Besides, Iroh and Zuko are smart enough to be careful. Especially Zuko; I know he doesn't want this girl to hate him."

"Aww, Zuko's in love." Katara said with a laugh. "It's still strange to think of him that way though. He's always been such a loner, and so secretive."

"Everybody deserves to be happy." The ram answered. "Besides, people like that are the ones who want love most; they're just too afraid to go for it and they stay loners."

Katara nodded, and then looked over as something caught her eye. As Trueno glanced over at it too, he smiled as he saw the forms of Jin and her family approaching the inn.

"Good morning to you." The ram said cheerfully, as he and Katara moved over to greet them.

"It's good to see you too, Trueno." Jin said, as she reached out and gave the ram a quick hug. "Apparently." The ram said with a smile, as Jin repeated the gesture with Katara.

"You must be Kinjo." The ram said, turning to the large burly man who stared at him with a bit of shock and awe. "My name is Trueno. I'm the Elemental Knight of Thunder. And this is Katara, Master Waterbender. It's very nice to meet you." The ram said, ignoring the man's shock and greeting him as warmly as he could.

"Uh, yes, thank you." Kinjo replied, trying to shake off his fear. "It's an honor to meet you both. This is my wife Aia and my son, Hita." He added, gesturing to his family.

"Nice to meet you as well." Katara said, shaking Aia's hand. "Would you like some breakfast? One of the Knights was just finishing up some eggs."

"That sounds very nice." Aia said. "And I'm sure Hita here is quite eager to meet the Elemental Knights."

"Well, we'll try not to ruin his youthful enthusiasm too much." Trueno said, as they moved inside the inn.

The meeting inside went over quite well, despite everyone's early morning gripes. Jin's family was very happy to meet everyone, especially Iroh, who was at his most easy-going and charming. And the others were not far behind (even Toph managed to be halfway sociable). The only tense moment came when Kinjo was introduced to Fuego. Everyone paused then, and watched as the living voice of Fire met with a man who hated his people more then anything else in the world. But perhaps realizing the situation, or perhaps due to his family, Kinjo merely shook Fuego's hand and then sat back down and said nothing else to him until they were ready to leave. It wasn't great, but given the alternative, everyone took it.

"So, everybody ready?" Aang said, as he led them all out to Appa a little while later. The bison looked up from his meal of hay, saw the people approaching him, and with a grunt, stood back up on his feet.

"Are you sure that he's safe?" Aia asked, as she looked at the huge animal.

"He's perfectly safe, Mom." Jin said, as she walked over to Appa. Grabbing the saddle, the young girl pulled herself up and sat down.

"Well, all right then." Aia said a bit nervously, as she made her way over to the large bison, Kinjo and Hita following behind her. Grabbing the saddle, they made their way up and sat down. But it was then that Jin voiced a thought; "Are you sure you can fit everybody in here?"

"Don't worry, Aang can fly on his own." Oscuridad said. "And we've figured out the rest. We'll just need you to fly ahead and tell us where to go."

Jin still seemed a bit puzzled as to how they could pull this off, but decided to trust the others' plan. But her confusion grew bit by bit, as Iroh, Sokka, Toph, Momo, and Katara climbed in and filled up the saddle. Jin truly grew confused now, as the Knights and 'Li' now had no way to ride in the saddle. Turning back to the Knights, she started to ask her question, but got an answer before she even asked. The Knights' bodies suddenly began to glow with power, as their respective elements suddenly washed over them. Within seconds, the elements had hardened in glistening suits of armor. As Jin and her family watched in amazement, metallic wings suddenly grew out of the backs of the Knights' armor.

"You guys head out, we'll follow." Oscuridad said suddenly.

"Right." Sokka replied, as he moved down to the reins. Grabbing them, he cracked the reins and called out, "Appa, Yip-Yip!" Appa instantly took off, Aang trailing behind on his glider, as Jin kept her eyes on what was going on down on the ground. One by one, the armored Knights took off into the air and followed. All except Oscuridad, and as Jin watched, she began to understand why….

"You sure you're ready for this?" the bat asked Zuko, as he moved himself into position.

"No, but what else can I do?" Zuko muttered angrily, as he tightened his grip.

"Hey, we could've taken Toph; you didn't have to volunteer for this."

"Just take off." Zuko muttered.

"All right. Try not to look down." The bat said, as he bent down and then launched himself up into the sky, Zuko holding on tight to his back. The former prince kept his eyes shut, not wanting to look at any of what was going on. Why did I agree to this? He asked himself as the wind bit at his face. Toph would be better; she can't be afraid of heights.

You did this because you thought Jin would think it was cool. A voice in the back of his mind said.

No I didn't! There wasn't any more room, and it had to be somebody. I was trying to be nice.

Right. That's why you made sure she could see you climb on board. The voice said.

Zuko gritted his teeth in response, but could think of nothing else to say.

Appa and the Knights soared over the city walls, to the delight and amazement of Jin's family. Under the guidance of Kinjo, the group soared over the vast landscape of the Earth Kingdom. While they traveled, Jin and her family conversed about the ceremony, how Kinjo's paranoia about the Fire Nation had driven to Ba Sing Se, and their lives in the financial district. By contrast, Katara and Sokka talked about life in the South Pole, while Toph discussed her own upbringing. Jin listened to all of it politely, but her constant gazes to the side told everyone that she wanted to hear only one specific life story.

But, perhaps sensing that Zuko was not ready to (nor very good at creating one) divulge a false history for Jin, Oscuridad kept far from Appa. Indeed, the trip the two of them spent was a rather quiet one, with Zuko deep in 'quiet reflection mode' and Oscuridad, knowing from personal experience how difficult that was, keeping his mouth shut.

What am I going to do? Zuko thought as the air streamed past his face. I can't tell her… can I? No! She may like me now, but she'd never accept me as a Firebender. And her father…. Darya, he'd rip me to shreds. And Jin would hate me for lying to her. I couldn't live with myself if she hated me. She means too much to me.

Wait, what did I just say? Zuko thought in shock. But he knew that it was true. Despite all his insecurities, all his beliefs that putting down roots would ruin him, Zuko had developed feelings towards Jin. How deep they were, he didn't know. But the more he thought about it, the more he wanted a chance to try and find out. Even if this was just a 'first crush' that didn't mean anything, Zuko wanted to find out for himself. As he thought about Jin, and how happy she would be once he started really returning her advances, he had to smile himself.

But Zuko was torn out of that little daydream a moment later, when he felt Oscuridad shake slightly and say, "Looks like we're here." Shaking his head to clear his mind, Zuko looked over and saw the outline of a small farming village appear on the horizon. It was quite dusty and ragged looking, but the more Zuko gazed at it; the more he felt something tug at his heart. There was something about this place that made Zuko feel uncomfortable, especially concerning his relationship with Jin. But what was it? This was just a simple village; there was nothing here that could hurt him. All there was were some buildings, several Earth Kingdom flags blowing around, and a lookout tower…..

Oh no. Zuko gaped, as he recognized the tower and subsequently, the town it belonged to. Instantly, he leaned down to Oscuridad and whispered, quite urgently, "Land! NOW!" The bat turned his head to face him, but seeing the panicked look in Zuko's eyes, the bat nodded and began to descend. Within a few minutes, they had landed by a large Joshua tree near the town entrance.

"Now then, what's wrong?" the bat asked, as his armor vanished around him. Zuko's response was to pull him behind the tree, out of sight of anyone.

"Do you remember what I told you about how I separated from Uncle and did some traveling on my own?" Zuko asked.

"Yeah, you said you came to a village and….. oh no…. you can't be serious."

"I am. This is that same village!" Zuko said urgently.

"Holy bleeding monkey-balls!" Oscuridad cursed aloud. "And you said everyone there kicked you out?"

"Every single person watched as I left." Zuko replied. "I'll never be able to walk in without everyone in town grabbing their pitchforks and trying to kill me."

"And this is after you saved them." Oscuridad said. "Thank God you didn't attack them. But there might be something I can do. Now, this may sting a bit…"