Accidental Avatar 2-RocknRoll

Politics

A/N: so this one actually took slightly longer to get around to, despite being pretty short, due in no small part to the combination of three assignments and a birthday for me.  SashaL is still looking for votes for those other stories he put up. I'm still keen to hear your ships (Like, think outside the box, is there any character you can think of from any other fandom that you think the four peeps might make a good match with?  This has no bearing on canon ships by the way ;) )  But anyway! Keep voting, commenting and if any of you have little fanarts or theories tucked away, throw 'em our way :)  I'd love to see and hear whatever!  Toodles~

The tour brought us into the Upper Ring, which was admittedly beautiful, full of rolling hills. We could see tall pagodas sitting atop these hills.

"The Upper Ring is home to our most important citizens."

I think this chick was called Joo Dee? I don't know. I was busy having a stare-off with Mogui while Muteki and the others were looking around.

She said something about our house not being far, and Mogui blinked. He sighed and presented his shoulder, and I punched him.

A carriage passed by another wall with a tall gate, and behind it, we could see the roof of an enormous building. Three men stood in the gateway, wearing dark robes and wide-brimmed hats. They turned their eyes towards us, and I tensed automatically. I wouldn't say I liked how they were eyeing us up like they were plotting something—sneaky, strange men with wide hats.

"What's inside that wall?" Katara asked.

"And who are the mean-looking guys in robes?" Sokka added.

"Call em what they are, Dude," Mogui said, wrinkling his nose at them. "Dresses."

Muteki took the liberty of punching the punch bag this time.

"Inside is the Royal Palace," our guide said, completely ignoring Mogui's comment. "Those men are agents of the Dai Li, the cultural authority of Ba Sing Se. They are the guardians of all our traditions."

"Can we see the King now?" Aang questioned.

"Oh no! One does not just pop in on the Earth King."

Aang nodded his head sadly, and we continued.

I shivered and rubbed my bare arms, looking around nervously.

"Something up?" Muteki asked in an undertone.

"Just... I suddenly felt freezing," I answered.

Mogui visibly shivered and looked troubled for a moment before continuing his discussion with Sokka on the best way to cook a steak.

Muteki patted my shoulder in a comforting gesture. "I felt it too, but I think it's just us right now."

"You mean, you, me, and Mogui, or just us two?"

"I think I saw him shiver," Muteki said slowly. "But I mean, Aang would have said something if he felt something."

"I guess," I could still kind of feel the lingering chill, like something heavy in my stomach or a tightness in my chest. I couldn't really place it, and it felt wrong.

Before long, we reached a lovely little house, which Momo flew above in little circles before descending and landing on the roof.

"Here we are," our guide said, waving out an arm towards the building. "Your new home."

A messenger ran up to her and handed her a scroll. She quickly read it over, and without breaking that creepy grin for even a moment, she looked back to us.

"More good news, your request for an audience with the Earth King is being processed and should be put through in about a month," she said. "Much more quickly than usual."

"A month!" Sokka cried, stunned.

"Six to eight weeks, actually," she said, still grinning.

"That's dumb," Mogui grunted. "What? Does potential disaster rank as slightly less important than land disputes or something?"

"Probably," Muteki grunted back.

"Why are you two grunting at each other?" I demanded. "You're like cavemen!"

"Me caveman," Mogui joked back. "Caveman pull hair. Garr!"

I pushed him over. "Come off it, you weirdo."

"Hey!" he retorted.

"It's the weird ones that make things a little more interesting," Muteki laughed. 

I just rolled my eyes at them as we went into the house.