Even though Lin had hoped that riding a flying bison had somehow become a less terrible way to travel, it was still fairly smelly and uncomfortable. How people actually enjoyed this, she couldn't say. Kya, however, was having a blast.
"Look, there's some people down there farming," she said, leaning over the edge of the bison and pointing downward, causing the bison to tilt towards the direction she was leaning.
Opting to not look over the edge of the flying creature, she leaned back and threw her arm over her eyes, thinking that if she didn't think about the fact that she was about a thousand feet in the air that maybe it wouldn't feel so bad.
"Are you going to be okay?" Kya asked, concerned enough to stop her sight seeing and crawl over to where Lin was laying.
"Yep, just peachy," Lin grunted in reply, sitting up quickly and immediately regretting that decision. She felt incredibly disoriented.
"We'll be there soon, just like another half hour, promise," Kya said, putting her hand on Lin's shoulder.
"So what exactly is on the agenda once we get there?" Lin asked, still unsure of exactly what business Kya could have in Ba Sing Se.
"Well, I suppose that's for me to know and you to find out, Chief," Kya laughed. Just one glance at her traveling companion's face told her that that answer was not going to fly today, "I've got to talk to a lady about a plant."
"Please tell me this is a legal plant," Lin groaned, not really wanting to have to arrest Kya for bringing some random drug into the city.
"It's a herbal thing for my mother, Lin. And yes, it's perfectly legal. But kind of rare. Her birthday is next week and I wanted to get her something she'd think was interesting,"Kya said, "I can't believe you thought I'd bring you along for one of my illegal drug runs."
"I'm just going to assume you're kidding," Lin said, although she honestly couldn't be sure.
"You're such a downer, Lin. Come on, you're on vacation," Kya pleaded, shifting so that she was sitting more beside Lin than in front of her.
Lin huffed at her and seemed to deepen her frown. She'd feel better about this entire thing once they were safely on the ground.
Kya had actually been fairly accurate in her estimation of how much further it was to the city. After about twenty minutes, they could see the outline of the Outer Wall on the horizon.
"So the plant lady is in the middle ring," Kya said, "I can manage by myself if you want to do something else for a while."
"No, I think I'll just stay with you. It's a big city and it might be hard to find each other again if we split up."
The bison landed in a grassy area and they hoped off, Lin with a bit more difficulty than Kya. Kya told the bison to stay there and they were off into the city.
Lin was just pleased that they weren't in the lower ring. She was also mildly surprised considering who she was traveling with. Kya tended to spend her time in some fairly undesirable places with some fairly undesirable people.
"Okay, I think it's this way," Kya said, motioning off to a street on their right.
"You think? You mean you don't actually have any idea of where we're going?" Lin said, wondering why she had started to get her hopes up about their prospects on this trip. Of course Kya wouldn't really know were they were going.
"I mean, I know we're in the right neighborhood. I just haven't exactly been here before," Kya explained, starting to lead them off in the direction she had been pointing.
"We could ask someone, you know. They do live here," Lin grumbled, conceding to follow behind the woman who had no more of an idea where she was going than Lin did.
"We're not in a hurry, Lin. We can find it. Besides, we might find something way better if we do happen to get a little lost," Kya said, smiling at the thought of getting lost in Ba Sing Se with a pissed off Lin Beifong.