Wandering Firebender
Thirty Two: The Slums
"Hey, Elio. Elio, wake up! We're arriving now!" Sri shook him gently to wake him up. Elio grumbled and rubbed his eyes.
"We're on land?" Elio asked, sitting up slowly.
"Almost. But the captain already shouted 'land ho' and stuff. Hurry and get your stuff together!" She urged him.
"Y-Yeah! Got it!" Elio nodded, shaking himself awake and pushing himself to his feet.
Elio stood up and quickly realized that the ferry was pulling into port. He flinched in surprise as the impressive sight of Ba Sing Se's outer wall slapped him right in the face. He was frozen in awe for a few seconds. Then he tore his eyes away and gathered all of his things into his pack.
Sri grabbed Elio's hand and pulled him along, giving him an apple to eat as they walked together down to the lower level of the ferry. Attendants boarded the ship and directed all of the refugees onto land, telling them where they needed to go.
Elio ate his apple with one hand and held Sri's hand with the other. Sri used her free hand to guide their ostrich horse by the reins. An attendant approached the two of them.
"Are the two of you together?" He asked.
"Yes, sir." Elio answered.
"Identification, please." He requested. Sri held up her papers, while Elio simply held up his boarding ticket.
"Okay, thank you. Please head to section three. One of the women at the counter will handle your accommodations."
"Got it. Thanks!" Sri waved to him as they continued onwards.
"This is huge. I don't know why I'm surprised. I guess I just didn't expect things to be this...organized." Elio commented as they stood in line at the counter.
"Did you see how big the wall was?!" Sri brought up.
"Yeah!" Elio exclaimed before switching to a quieter tone, "No wonder the Fire Nation could never get in." He commented. Sri nodded in agreement.
"I think we'll definitely be safe here." She said with a mild chuckle. Elio nodded in agreement.
Once they reached the front counter, the woman handled their paperwork quickly. According to her, they were given a modest home in the Lower Ring that would be built right up against one of the walls. Elio and Sri were just relieved to hear that they'd have a roof over their heads.
Elio and Sri were given tickets for the train and sent on their way. They waited patiently in the station, taking seats against the nearest wall as far away from other people as possible. Elio gave La some food to eat before he ate some more fruit.
"How're you feeling, Elio? Excited? Nervous? Both?" Sri asked a bit humorously, turning towards him.
"Definitely both. Anxious too. I'm in the middle of the Earth Kingdom. Being who I am and with where I'm from, you can understand why I have my guard up." He answered. Sri nodded in understanding.
"Yeah, I do. It will be okay... And what about the other thing? How're you doing with that?" She asked slowly. Elio glanced at her.
"A little better...marginally. I'm okay. I've got my focus on what lies ahead. That's what's important right now." He answered.
"That is true. Just let me know if you need to talk, okay?" She offered again, resting a hand on his arm. He reached over and rested his hand over hers.
"I will, Sri, for sure."
"Hey, Elio! Sri!" They heard their names called. Elio and Sri separated from each other a bit, turning and looking over. They saw Ren and Caub walking over to them with smiles on their faces.
"Looks like we all made it in one piece." Ren chuckled.
"Yeah. Thanks again for everything, Elio. We'd be dead men without you." Caub thanked him sincerely. Ren hummed and nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, of course. You're welcome." Elio nodded.
"You two got your arrangements in place when you get into the city?" Sri asked.
"Oh yeah. We've got some friends waiting for us in the city. We'll be alright," Ren answered. "What about you two?"
"We've got a place being given to us in the Lower Ring. It's supposed to be right up against the wall." Sri explained. Both Ren and Caub made a face.
"Mm... Well, I'm sure you two will manage. At least you get your own place to stay." Caub said.
"Yeah. We got a little special treatment since there's two of us and we have La here." Elio elaborated, petting the neck of his ostrich horse.
"Gotcha. Well hey, best wishes to both of you in the city. If you guys ever need cash, I know a guy who runs a delivery service in the Lower Ring. I can put in a good word." Ren offered.
"We'll keep that in mind. Thanks again." Sri said with a nod.
Sri stood up as she saw the train pulling into the station. Elio noticed that two earthbenders were stationed at the very back of the train, pushing it along and stopping it when it needed to stop. He eyed them wearily as he stood up as well.
"That's our ride. See you two on the other side." Elio said to the two men, shaking hands with them briefly before they went on their way.
"This is it." Sri said to Elio as they approached the train. Elio nodded, taking in a deep breath to prepare himself mentally. He took hold of Sri's hand again.
"This is it. You ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be." She answered.
Elio and Sri were directed towards the back of the train so they could stay with La. He tied La to a nearby handrail and the two of them sat down nearby. They turned towards the window and stared out of it as the train began to pull out of the station.
They watched as the station rushed past the window and revealed a huge open plain of farmland. Their eyes widened in amazement at the size of the land. They looked to the right at the outer wall they'd just come from; they had to turn their heads all the way to the left to see the next protective wall.
"This city is huge!" Sri exclaimed.
"Way bigger than what I was expecting!" Elio said, absolutely awestruck by the sheer scope and size of Ba Sing Se.
How did the Fire Nation ever think they could invade through these walls?
The train reached the next wall. They passed inside and through it, out the other side into the Lower Ring. Elio and Sri's eyes darted all over to see where they would be living from now on. They couldn't see much, but what they did see did not impress them.
The houses were all small and looked run down. They were all very close together too. Overall, the town looked overcrowded and dirty. All of the roads were unpaved. Very few buildings were built to be higher than one story.
"Oh wow, it's..." Sri trailed off, clearly underwhelmed. Elio swallowed and made a face.
"We got shoved in the slums." He realized...
Once their train arrived at the station, Elio and Sri guided their ostrich horse down to the ground level. They strapped all of their things to the saddle before mounting the animal. With Elio on the reins, they slowly made their way through town towards where their new home was supposed to be.
Now that they could see their new surroundings up close, they were able to confirm everything that they had seen from a distance: the lower ring of Ba Sing Se was trashy. The people were either dirty or shady looking, the houses were shoddy, and an odd smell hung in the air.
"I thought that Ba Sing Se would be nicer than this." Sri said honestly, looking around with furrowed eyebrows.
"It probably is. But we're new and fresh here. We probably got tossed into one of the ugly corners." Elio deduced.
"You think so?"
"Take a look around. It's pretty obvious that's what's happening here." Elio pointed out unhappily.
Finally, Elio and Sri made it back to the edge of the lower ring. They found their new address and stared up at their new home. It had been built on an elevated wooden platform right up against the wall. Directly underneath the home, a simple fence had been constructed for La.
"This is it." Elio said to Sri, pulling at the reins for La to stop. They dismounted the ostrich horse and he guided it into the fence. La was reluctant to enter into the fenced area, but after some reassurance, she obediently stepped within it. Elio closed the fence and began passing their stuff over to Sri.
"I mean, I know it isn't much, Elio, but we can definitely make this work." Sri said, trying to be optimistic.
"Yeah, of course we will. We kinda have to anyway." He commented with some mild sarcasm.
Once all of their things had been unloaded, Elio climbed out to the other side of the fence. They carried all of their things up the ladder fastened to their home. After a few trips, everything was unloaded. Then they stepped into their new home for the first time.
Inside the small home were three rooms. Most of the space was taken up by the first room: the living room. The space was open but had no furniture in it. A simple counter with a few cabinets served as the kitchen. The smallest room was the bathroom in the corner against the wall. It seemed to have a plumbing system that ran directly into the wall somehow. The final room was one single small bedroom with one bed. Only a small, old and naked mattress sat on it.
"Oyy," Sri grumbled. "Well, it's bigger than mom and dad's shop. We can definitely work with this space!" Sri declared, placing her hands on her hips. Elio dragged his stuff into the center of the living room.
"You can take the bed. I'll set up my sleeping bag here in the center." He decided.
"Thanks, Mr. Chivalry, but it's fine. We can share the bed." She interjected. Elio looked up at her and gave her an odd look.
"What?"
"I-I mean as in we can take turns using the bed." She quickly clarified with an awkward chuckle.
"Oh yeah, sure. That works." He nodded in agreement.
"Cool," She nodded, taking her stuff into the bedroom. "I know that it kinda sucks, but we can make this work. A little TLC on this place will go a long way. You'll see." Sri said optimistically.
"Yeah, you're probably right... I'm just not happy about the conditions. I guess something is better than nothing though." He shrugged it off.
"What exactly were you expecting?" Sri asked curiously.
"Well, I mean, Ba Sing Se was constantly advertised as this big, great city that saves anyone who makes it inside. After all I went through just to get here, I was just expecting something more... I don't know." Elio sighed tiredly.
"I get what you mean," Sri nodded and looked over at him. "I'm just happy to be here. We gotta work with what we got, right?"
"Yeah, right." Elio agreed again before silently going back to unpacking his things. Seeing that he was still processing through his disappointed feelings, she decided not to push the issue anymore for now...
They spent the rest of the afternoon finishing up with unpacking. Once everything was arranged, Sri got to work with preparing a meal for both of them. Elio offered to help a little, but they quickly realized that they didn't have all of the ingredients they needed.
So Elio volunteered to do a little grocery shopping.
When he exited the house and took La out of the fencing, the sun was already beginning to set. He rode out into the market and picked up a few things. While shopping, he took the opportunity to take in his new surroundings and circumstances.
At the very least, costs weren't too high. Even with the limited amount of money that he had left, he was able to get just what they needed for each ingredient, which was good since they would be quite limited on funds until they could secure some work.
The people were about what he expected: they were polite but brief, mostly keeping to themselves and going about their own way. There wasn't a whole lot of idle conversing going on, not that he could see. He was fine with this; he wasn't here to make friends.
With the ingredients in his bag, he got back on his ostrich horse and rode back home. By the time he had returned and placed La back in her fenced area, the sun had almost set. However, before he could make his way up the ladder, he was approached by four unsavory men.
"Hey, kid. You must be new here," One of them said with a chuckle. "Welcome to Ba Sing Se."
"Thanks," Elio said politely, resting his hand on his staff. He already had a feeling that these men were going to give him grief. "Can I help you fellas?"
"That's up to you," Another one approached him. "I'm sure you've gathered by now that Ba Sing Se ain't all it's cracked up to be. Unless you got a good stash of credits on you, you're gonna be in for a rough time."
"Yeah, that's true. What do you want?" Elio asked.
"We were gonna ask you the same thing, kid. You need money? Furniture? All that stuff?"
"I do."
"Then come with us. We can get you hooked up." They offered. Elio shook his head.
"Thanks, fellas, but I'm good. I'd like to figure things out on my own anyways." He answered them respectfully.
"It's not a request, kid. This generous offer only comes once. You better say yes." One of them said. The men all started to crowd around him. Elio took a cautious step back.
"Come on, guys. Let's not get into trouble. We don't need to get into this." Elio said with a sigh.
"Give us what you got in that purse and we'll call it even."
"Sorry, I need this for dinner." Elio said, pulling his staff out and spinning it around. He crouched into a defensive stance, ready to fight.
Elio had gone through this enough times to where it was almost like a routine to him.
The first two men approached him. He sidestepped their charge, tripping one with his staff. He spun around and struck the third one in the head, knocking him to the ground with a few quick blows.
The fourth man was apparently an earthbender. He threw a stone right at Elio's face. Elio tilted to the side to dodge it, jumping forward to get in close. He dropped his staff and threw a few quick chi-blocking jabs into the earthbender's rib cage. This knocked him limp to the ground.
That left two more men.
One of them was able to graze Elio in the head and make him stumble. Elio raised his fists up and ducked underneath the next punch. He twisted his body and hit him in a chi-point with an uppercut. He punched him in the same spot several more times, immobilizing the man. He yelled out in fiery pain as he fell to the ground.
Elio had just enough time to scoop up his staff before the last man was back on top of him; the one whom he had tripped in the beginning of the fight. Elio spun his staff repeatedly to block oncoming punches. Once the man was weary from the strikes to his wrists and forearms, Elio went on the offensive.
He changed his grip to take hold of the middle of his staff. He quickly twisted it back and forth at different angles, striking the man in the head, shoulders, ribs, and sides. He thrust it into the man's nose, causing him to fall back in a blinded daze. Once on the ground, Elio beat him down with a few more overhand strikes.
Now with the four men defeated and laying on the ground around him, Elio slid his staff back into his sleeve. He stepped over the men and made his way back up the ladder, speaking to them as he climbed,
"Let's all agree to never do this again. Leave me and my friend alone and don't come back here again. Otherwise, I will make sure that this hurts a lot worse next time." He threatened from the top of the ladder before making his way back into the house.
"Elio! Why did those men attack you?! Are you alright?!" Sri asked worriedly, already standing at the door. She had heard the fighting from inside and saw it from the window.
"Oh yeah, I'm alright. Just some idiots out there looking for trouble. I made sure they knew they weren't welcome. I brought the vegetables." Elio smiled a bit, pulling the groceries out of his handbag.
"Well that's good. Are you sure you're alright?" Sri asked again to be sure.
"Of course. It's getting late though. I'll help you cook dinner." Elio offered.
So Elio and Sri went about making dinner for themselves. Sri took the lead in making sure everything was prepared correctly while Elio assisted. After first ensuring that all of the windows in the house were closed, Elio was able to use his firebending to help speed up the cooking process.
The unfortunate part of living in Ba Sing Se for Elio was going to be having to restrain his firebending more than ever. He already knew, but he was going to have to accept now that his firebending skills were going to become dull and rusty.
"Elio, you haven't spoken much. What's on your mind?" Sri asked as they sat down at the edge of the bed and ate. Elio looked at her, realizing that he had gotten lost in thought.
"Oh. Sorry, was just...thinking."
"Well yeah, I saw that much. But what about?" Sri asked again.
"Mm," Elio hummed. "This town, this city. I don't think I'm going to like it here." He chuckled a bit, although he was being honest about his disappointment. Sri chuckled and nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, I was hoping for better too. The best we can do is just try to make things as good as possible. I'm sure by the time my family gets here, we'll have already improved things... Well, I guess that's if they ever get here." She added at the end with a sigh.
"Right, yeah... I'm sure they will. Just gotta be patient. We've got plenty to work on in the meantime." Elio said, trying to be encouraging.
"Yeah, I suppose so," Sri agreed with another small chuckle. "First order of business is fixing up this house. And getting jobs! Actually, getting jobs should be first order of business." She realized.
"Yeah, kinda hard to fix up a house when you can't afford furniture." Elio joked dryly. They both shared a laugh over that. Then Sri changed the subject again.
"We'll figure it all out, Elio. I am worried about you though. Being here is more dangerous for you and for me... Plus, you've still got a lot weighing on you." She said, hinting back to previous events. Elio swallowed and nodded quietly.
"Yeah. That doesn't concern me though. It's just... Cassian has been in my head the past two days. I keep replaying what happened over and over again. It doesn't even feel real right now. I just can't believe he's gone, and I'm... I had to do it." He sighed.
"You made that choice. And I would argue that it was the right choice. But I know that doesn't change the fact that he was your friend." Sri said, doing her best to show that she understood, at least to an extent.
"My best friend," Elio clarified. "Cassian was a lot of things, but he was always good to me – like a brother. The fact that even for a second I'd made the decision t-to kill him... It terrifies me, what he made me do." Elio swallowed hard, his hands beginning to shake as Cassian's death replayed in his head again.
"I'm sorry, Elio. I wish I could say something more to help you." Sri said, taking one of his hands and squeezing it tightly. Elio's eyebrows furrowed as he tried to relax himself a little.
"It's okay... It's not his fault. He was just doing what the Fire Nation, my nation, had taught him – taught us. If he had been more reasonable, I could have..." Elio trailed off as his throat tightened. His jaw clenched up as he tried to forcefully fight back tears.
"Hey," Sri took his hand in both of hers now. "It's like you said, it's no one's fault; not yours, not his. You can't carry the guilt and regret like this. You did what you had to do, and you can't take it back. Even if you could take it back, do you think you would've been able to change anything? Honestly?" She asked him.
"No..." Elio sighed and shook his head, wiping his eyes with his other hand. "It still would've ended up the same."
"Then you did the right thing. I know it's hard...but I'm here for you." She said, turning and hugging him. She'd run out of things to say, but she was still doing her best to comfort him. Elio hugged her back tightly as he cried again.
"I know... I just wish it could've been someone else instead of me." Elio let out his last lament before giving way to tears again...