His once troubled mind now calm and focused on the girl before him. Had he inherited this strange characteristic from his parents? Or was there something else at work here? Well the strange voice was gone for now... Who knew when it would reappear.

At least for now he was with his beloved...and he could simply be with her.

" I think I can control it... As long as I'm with you I think I will be fine..." He said to her, shame filled in his eyes for acting so strangely in front of Susin.

"I'm sorry that I am behaving like this... I really don't know what is going on... But I'm sure i can keep it under control... So there is no need to worry."

Middle Ring

Karanbir looked down at Susin, who's soft face was looking back up at him, her soothing emerald eyes calming his soul.

" Is it alright if we just stay out here for a little longer?" He asked her in a soft tone of voice. His heart was at a steady and calm pulse, and his face wore a faint smile as he continued to look into Susin's soothing emerald eyes.

The bright sun beat down on his face as he now started to look around at the outside world.

" It sure is a lot different up here in the middle ring... It feels almost as if the third ring doesn't even exist the level of contrast is so great..." He said as he watched people walk by in their nice clean clothes.

Middle Ring

Karanbir felt Susin rest her head upon his chest as she so often did. He smiled as the rest of her body seemed to rest against his as well. She felt warm, a warmth that he had not felt in quite some time. He then wrapped his arms around her small frame and embraced her. He then heard three little words that meant so much in this strange world.

" I love you too..." He said to her in the same whispered tone that she had spoke in. The young bender then rested his head atop hers and simply stood there enjoying the small moment of peace that the two had some how managed to receive. He then wondered what would happen if her father where to see them like this? Would he yell at them or something? Well that didn't matter he was enjoying his time with Susin as she stood in his arms.

" So what are we going to do? Are we just gonna stay here with your father tonight?"

*Lower Ring*

The Lower Ring was so busy! Taru knew he should've sneaked into the Middle Ring and found a place to stay. This place was beneath him after all, as were these beggars who crowded the streets. They were all disgraces. Why didn't they get jobs and make themselves productive instead of clinging to his clothes with their dirty hands, begging him for what little money he had brought with him? Taru simply turned his nose up at them and shook them off of him before going on about his business.

Feeling the slight pressure of something bump into him, he whirled around and glared at the person. His face softened for but a moment when he took notice of who had bumped into him. It was a girl...not a beggar...and he was ready to yell and everything. A scowl quickly returned to his face and he glared at the girl. "Watch your step, girl," he snapped. He adjusted his clothing before giving the girl a quick once over. He concluded that she too was beneath him. But he had been alone all morning. So he'd indulge her in a conversation. Just this once. "What is a young lady like you doing in this beggar pit?" he asked in a minor annoyed tone.

-Lower Ring-

“Not to worry, boy. You’ll be looking fine in no time,” Fen Wan said, his concentration already on cutting the young man’s hair with surprising grace and dexterity for his bony fingers.

Kaede made the slightest of movement, her attention turning to Daiyu. She had taken a seat next to the earthbender, but still had the underlying current of shifty nervousness. Daiyu knew this. As good as she was at keeping herself calm and collected, the recent series of events had rattled her and the idea of someone being right outside the boarding house ready to haul her off for disturbing the peace (and the myriad of crimes she was wanted for) was just so very unnerving. The young waterbender suspected that Kaede was the only one picking up on this nervousness; she just seemed the type who would.

“Have you really only known him for a few days?” Kaede asked.

Daiyu frowned. “How long have you been following me?”

“Long enough.”

Daiyu grunted in response. The idea that Kaede had been trailing her all this time was annoying and disturbing. If she could be following her for that long without attracting attention who else could be doing it? Kaede was good, yes, but there were people far better than her. Daiyu had pegged herself at being so great at picking out potential threats and people that could trail her. Kaede’s length of surveillance was proof that the waterbender wasn’t as good as she had thought. How humiliating.

“Yes.”

“Yes?” Kaede parroted.

“It’s only been about a day. Don’t ask me how it happened. I don’t know. I was feeling generous, and he was just so…so down on his luck,” Daiyu said.

Kaede’s eyes shifted back to Heika, her voice stayed low. “Wouldn’t peg you one for sympathy, given what people think you’ve done…And what you have done.”

“It ain’t sympathy. I just…I don’t know. He’s been helpful,” Daiyu said. Talking about Heika like this, only a little distance away from him made her uncomfortable. Yes, Feng Wan had launched into a long winded story about what he did with his friend when he was child. It was some rambling tale, the kind that meandered and had many detours before getting to the ultimate point (which usually was forgotten by the end anyway). Still, it was awkward, and Daiyu suspected that Kaede had some sort of angle going on by pursuing the subject.

“What he got is dangerous. Do you know where he’s from?”

“Does it matter? I mean, compared to what his stick can do?” Daiyu asked in return. Her low tone took on a sharp accusing edge.

Kaede nodded once. “Yeah, it does.”

With a slight, but sharp movement the bounty hunter’s head turned towards the door. There was something that she could hear, or know, that Daiyu didn’t. That bothered her in so many ways. She supposed it was because Kaede was an earthbender, and older than her. More years of training, more warnings of when something was going to go wrong.

There was a loud knock on the door.

Something was very much going wrong.

Without saying a word, Daiyu jumped to her feet and ran. She disappeared behind the swinging door to the kitchen. Apparently she was under the assumption that the boarding house had a back door.

Kaede rose to her feet, watching the space the young woman had occupied only a moment before. She was flighty; Kaede had to give her that. Not that anyone could blame the waterbender. If everything she had said was the Spirit’s honest truth, Daiyu had every reason to run from the slightest noise, the littlest of oddities.

Although…her association with this Heika wasn’t very reassuring. No, not in the least. If what Kaede suspected was true, Heika was not someone that any of them should be around. His weapon was dangerous, more dangerous than anything she had ever seen, and if he was Fire Nation…He would need to be stopped. Daiyu may not know his true intentions. How could she, she had only known the boy for a day. They could all be in danger from his intentions and weapon. Kaede got the feeling that Daiyu at least knew where he was from, and she didn’t care.

But she cared about his weapon. That was enough to get things started.

The pounding on the door increased. Feng Wan declared he was finished with Heika’s hair cut only a moment before the knocking became unbearable.

“Hang on, hang on, don’t break the door down. I’m coming,” Feng Wan told the knocking at the door, as if his comments could pacify it.

He opened the door, and was greeted by the sight of two men in black and green robes and large conical hats. Their eyes were shielded from the old man’s view, their hands hidden in the unseen recesses of their sleeves.

Kaede took one look at them and knew they were trouble for Daiyu and Heika and exactly why the waterbender was running. Though she had never seen one in person, Kaede was pretty sure she knew had come knocking.

It was the Dai Li.

-Upper Ring-

“You have no appointment. No appointment, no meeting.”

“But I am the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors! Surely someone would want to see me!”

“I’m sorry, do you have an appointment? No. You don’t. So you are not coming in.”

Suki growled, frustration radiating from her. The first competent soldier she comes across in all of Ba Sing Se and he’s a stickler for some sort of rule that made no sense. How could she get an appointment if she didn’t come to see them? Joo Dee wasn’t going to give her an appointment, the woman in the town hall wasn’t going to give her an appointment. The girl had no choice but to come to the building and demand an audience with someone…almost anyone. Her instincts had served her well, and she had been pleased to find out that the building she’d suspected as being military was.

But being stymied by this stupid man who was giving her a ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ scenario? That was bad in all manner of ways.

“How do you propose I get an appointment?” she asked.

The soldier shrugged a little. “That’s not my job, miss. You’ll have to ask someone else.”

“Could you at least go inside and ask someone if they would see me?”

“And leave my post? Don’t be stupid!” the soldier balked, his eyes almost crossing in his flurry of disbelief.

“Then ask someone else! Please. Tell them my name is Suki, I am the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors and I am staying in a house in the Middle Ring,” she pleaded, doing her best to still come across as strong and commanding.

The soldier sighed, his eyes seemed to uncross. This was good. Suki was making headway. A small smile crept across her face and she did her best to contain it. This was progress. This was good.

The soldier looked down the massive pavilion of the entrance. Very near to the colossal wooden doors stood two soldiers, fully decked out in their uniformed best. The disagreeable soldier put a hand next to his mouth to amplify his voice. “Hey, Ling, go inside and get someone! We have a Kyoshi Warrior that won’t leave till she sees someone!”

Suki’s small smile spread just a little further, though she was unaware of it. Satisfaction fell over her. Yeah, he wasn’t treating her with the respect that she wanted, but that would come soon. He’d probably apologize when it was all over. That was fine. After all, he was just doing his job.


OOC: Sorry Suki’s is so short. Can’t really think of much at the moment. If anyone playing a ranking officer in the Earth Kingdom army wants to talk to Suki, PM me. It would keep me from needing to make another NPC.

Edit: Suki's post was in the wrong ring, my bad.

Upper Ring

"Breath, Kuai Xin" said the old man, walking around her and correcting her posture. "You're too tense. Even Earthbenders will break their bones if someone hard enough hits you. Relax a little, enough to spread the impact over your whole body."

Ling breathed out a long, deep sigh, hunched her shoulders, and tried again. The rock that Tai Juan had placed in front of her shot up into the air, and the Old Man punched it, sending it flying at her. Ling's feet itched to move, to get away from the ballistic missile, but with an effort of will she managed to stay rooted to the ground. Moving her right hand around and shifting her foot very slightly, she lashed out at the rock.

It exploded in a cloud of shrapnel, some of which slammed into Ling; as the old man had said, however, there was no pain as the impact spread from where it hit on the arm, causing nothing more than a slighty sensation of force over the whole of her body. Tai Juan nodded, once.

"See, girl? That is how it is. Stand rock hard, spread the impact, and you can cope. Power at a point, young lady, power at a point. Remove the point, and there is still power - but it's not directed anymore, it's generalised, spread out. Loose power, easy to absorb. And that is the lesson for today."

Ling saw the sadness in the old man's face, tempered with the tiniest bit of joy. Unable even to acknowlege their relationship, here in Tai Juan's own personal courtyard; but at least her father knew she was here, and knew who she was. The judge was an important figure in the Local Courts, true, but his myriad of servants could be hiding a single Dai Li informat, or a tattle-tale gossip, and that would be enough to drag him down from his honour position.

She bowed to him, as a pupil to her master, because she could not kiss him on the cheek as a daughter to her father. She didn't like things this way either, but it was safer for both of them this way. He was her patron, and nobody could fault Judge Tai Juan for his compassion and generosity to a poor Ba Sing Se street rat; not even the chatty, vindictive 'ladies', who could do so much damage with the right rumour in the right ear, could possibly find a way to bring him down with that.

"Kuai Xin?" Tai Juan said, and Ling heard the slight hoarseness in his voice. "Look out for yourself... out there, you hear me?"

"Yes, sir" she replied, respectful for once. Turning her head, she resisted her initial impulse to leap onto the roof, jump the 7 or 8 loose tiles she could see, and wander off into Upper Ba Sing Se; instead, she slowly walked to the gates, and let herself out.

Outside, she started running. She needed the practise, after standing still for so long, taking direct hits from rocks to her shoulders. Sure, they weren't boulders, but still... her muscles ached as she begun to leap from building to building, heading for the station and the way back to the Pits.

A person caught her eye as she landed on a roof. A girl with orange eyes and peasant clothing? A rarity in these parts of the city... Ling knew another street rat when she saw one. She leaped off the roof and landed, catlike, next to the girl. "Hah, another resident of the Pits' up here?" she said, softly enough to be heard only by the girl. "I'll be damned!".