Havi of the Earth Kingdom

Chapter 36: The Serpent's Pass

The woman, Ying, gasps, "the serpent's pass? Only the true desperate take that deadly route."

"Deadly route? Great pick, Sokka," Toph pushes him over.

Sokka rubs his arm, "Well, we are desperate."

"You should come with us to full moon bay. Ferries take refugees across the lake. It's the fastest way to Ba Sing Se," the man informed just before his wife continued,

"And it's hidden so the fire nation can't find it."

I hum, "peaceful ferry ride or deadly pass?" I get a glare from Sokka.

• • •

As promised, the refugees led us to full moon bay. "I can't believe how many people's lives have been uprooted by the fire nation," Katara says while looking at the large group of people in need.

"They're all looking for a bit of life safe behind the walls of Ba Sing Se," Than explained to us as we go our separate ways.

We stood in line for a ticket while the lady stamping them started to yell at a customer, "I told you already, no vegetables on the ferry! One cabbage slug could destroy the entire ecosystem of Ba Sing Se! Security!"

A platypus bear breaks a large cart of cabbages as the owner cries out, "gah! My cabbages!"

How familiar..

"Next!" We walk up to the ticket desk.

Aang speaks for us, "Four tickets for the ferry to Ba Sing Se, please."

"Passports," the lady grumbles.

"Uh, no one told us we had to have passports."

I step in, "don't you know who this is? He's the avatar."

"I see 50 avatars a day and by the way, not a very impressive costume," she points over to a group of people dressed up like Aang, "besides, no animals allowed. Do I need to call security?"

Aang backs down, "that won't be necessary."

"Next!"

Toph walks up, "I'll take care of this," she slides a paper on the desk, "my name is Toph Beifong and I need five tickets."

The lady's eyes widen, "Oh, the golden seal of the flying boar. It is my pleasure to help anyone of the Beifong family."

"It is your pleasure," She takes me by the arm, "As you can see, I am blind, this is my sister and these three imbeciles are my valets"

"But the animal?"

Toph interrupts, "Is my seeing eye lemur."

"Well, normally it's only one ticket per passport but this document is so official, I guess it's worth five tickets," she stamps all the tickets and gives them over.

"Thank you very much,"  We follow Toph away.

"All right, we scammed that lady good!" Sokka yells, "but why did Havi get to be your sister while we're all your servants?"