Road to Ba Sing Se | Zuko

05

"Don't be scared, don't be scared." She repeated to herself as she slowly started pacing back to where she had seen Mushi take off to, ignoring the hunger in her stomach and the fear in her chest. "Don't be scared, don't be scared." Her words turned into a mantra.

"Don't be scared, don't be scared." The more she repeated her manta, the more it turned into a simple song. Mushi's spark rocks clacked in her pouch as she ran. "Don't be scared~, don't be scared~."

It didn't take long for her to jog past the boulder where Mushi and her had set up their camp earlier. From there, Keya could easily follow her old companion's footsteps in the sand. He must have been in a hurry, for his footsteps were placed at longer distances from one another, indicating that the old man had ran all the way to the explosions.

The scared -but nonetheless motivated- teen continued to make her way over to the ghost town she had seen the smoke rise up from earlier. A part of the town looked like it was still ablaise. The wildlife around her was eerily quiet. She slowed her jog down to a cautious stride. Feeling a bit out of breath (and quite scared), she stopped saying her temporary mantra out loud. She tried to continue as quietly as possible.

Once she got close enough to the town, she hid behind one of the many buildings to assess the situation. She could hear voices in the distance. They sounded distressed. Keya kept one hand on her father's old dagger just in case. Would she have to use it?

"Zuko, I can help." A feminine voice pleaded. Keya couldn't see the strange person and who she was talking to, but she did notice a familiar green clad kid standing somewhere nearby. Toph! Keya gave a sigh in relief. Did this mean that there were no Fire Nation soldiers around, like she had feared? 

"Leave!" Someone yelled out. His voice sounded familiar, but it didn't seem like the other people were very happy to see him. They jumped back from him, as if he had attacked them (with what, she could not tell). Keya decided to wait in her hiding spot. She did not want to get involved with these people unless she was certain that Mushi was here.

The group of people started to leave at the other guy's demand. Toph glanced back to Keya's hiding spot and gave a worried frown. However, whatever she had intended to do was stopped by her friends.

A girl and a boy with similar looks and blue clothing dragged Toph with them. They looked like they were from the Water Tribe. A fourth person was there as well, just out of her sight. All she could hear was what sounded like another boy's voice. However, as the goup headed her way, she was too scared to try and look at them. From the sounds of it, they had jumped on some kind of foreign animal and taken off. She couldn't tell where exactly, as the animal left no sounds of its footfalls. How interesting...

Now that the group had left, Keya felt like she had witnessed enough to conclude that Mushi was not here. Besides, whoever was here didn't sound too keen on making any friends, so the best thing to do was leave the way she came. The Earth Kingdom girl took a cautious step back, fully intent on leaving the smouldering town in order to continue looking for Mushi. However, fate had other plans for her. Just as Keya took another step back, a twig snapped beneath her tan boot with an audible snap!

"Who's there!?" 

The same familiar voice from earlier shouted out warily. She froze, her hands already blocking the terrified gasp that she was about to let out. She needed to get out of here unnoticed! 

Out of sheer stupidity, she shouted back. "No one!"

Had she not been fearing for her life, she would have smacked her forehead. Idiot! Keya panicked and took another step back. She tried to make a run from it, but quickly tripped over a fallen beam before she could make it very far.