Post by waterbender525 on Jan 3, 2007 14:13:40 GMT -6
Here we go
A young, fourteen year-old girl, and extremely talented gymnast, Ty Lee, stood along the edge of the earthen cliff, staring down into the abyss, as if staring fiercely at an opponent. Hearing the fast paced footsteps of running behind her, she made up her mind. Quickly turning around so that her back faced the canyon, she swung her arms down, flung herself into a back handspring and into a double tuck into the canyon, landing on her feet, she started sliding down the canyon and reached a piece of rock that jutted out from the rest. Extending her feet, she stopped sliding and sat there, on that piece of rock and looked up to the top of the canyon. Squinting through the dust she saw some Earth Kingdom soldiers peer into the dust and shake their heads as if a fisherman almost caught a shark but failed. Ty Lee let out a small smile, jumped off the rock and landed gracefully at the bottom of the canyon.
Ty Lee strutted through the canyon until she saw an extremely small alcove. Walking up to it she walked in and descended down the stairs, she passed many Fire Nation soldiers and observed as the walls slowly turned from an earthen cave, into a metal casing. She reached the bolted metal door and said to the Fire Nation general, “Ty Lee, a friend of Princess Azula’s.” She smiled brightly as he nodded, unbolted the door, and stepped out of the way. Ty Lee nodded to him as she passed through the door into a giant metal chamber that led up like a chimney to the top of the cliff. She was standing on a metal circular walkway that led downwards into a slowly increasing in size, half three-dimensional oval shaped metal lab. The thirty feet in diameter hole in the roof let in a large ray of sunlight that focused on one pair of things: a basket, and a balloon.
Ty Lee looked around to see six workers working at a twelve-foot long desk, scribbling away at blueprints and at new ideas. Three workers prodded and examined the balloon and basket, experimenting with the blueprints that the workers at the desk were scribbling at. Turning her head a little more left, she saw Azula, along with Mai, under a small arch, talking about nothing that Ty Lee could hear. This is neat, what if the balloon popped though… Pop! Ty Lee ran up to Azula and greeted her with her fist in her palm, in front of her chest. “Azula it’s great to see you! This balloon is work of a genius! You’re really smart Azula, I wish I could’ve thought of that idea.” Ty Lee was downcast as all she received was a smile and a glance. Spacing out a little, Ty Lee was pulled back into the real world as Azula beckoned to her to be beside the balloon. Ty Lee followed Azula’s finger as she pointed to a crude, black, metal canister in the middle, a simple cylinder with a tapered opening in the top, with a switch. “This hot air balloon was recovered from the Northern Air Temple, and was confiscated from the general who found it. As we turn on the switch gas from this canister, is released and will fill up this balloon, and will make it ascend in the air.” As she said this, she made a line from her finger from the canister, to the opening, to inside of the balloon. To control where you are going, there is a bar in the back, which controls a wooden panel, which is used to turn the balloon. If you rise too high, simply turn off the canister.” Ty Lee started clapping and the sound waves echoed off the metal walls and repetitively sounded until they faded away. Ty Lee walked closer to the balloon and said, “What are we going to use it for?” She turned around to face Azula and saw the edge of her mouth twist into a smile. Then she heard the words, “For the great wall of Ba Sing Se of course.”
“For hundreds of years, the Fire Nation has tried to break through the wall, but now we have this… With a few tweaks that our mechanics are working on, the basket will be bigger, the canister will hold more gas, the balloon will be stronger, and the whole thing will be faster.” Ty Lee glanced towards Mai as they exchanged surprised looks as they saw Azula walk over to the balloon. I don’t get it, why are we taking a balloon to Ba Sing Se, wouldn’t they just pop it? Ty Lee did not share this information with Azula, for fear of angering her. Ty Lee has always been a friend of Azula’s, even as a child. She played cruel tricks on people and if she couldn’t do something that someone else could; she turned it into their embarrassment. Years ago, as they were doing gymnastics in the courtyard, Azula attempted a move and fell down, but Ty Lee landed perfectly, feeling proud about her skills. Azula, being jealous, walked over to her, knocked her down, pointed, and laughed. Ty Lee now always attempted to gain Azula’s friendship and was desperately hammering away to bond their relationship. Ty Lee and Mai are opposites, and as they say, opposites attract. They are nice to each other, and usually make sarcastic, but not hurtful jokes. As they were taking make-up off, Ty Lee, being girly, and a circus performer, that wore make-up, quickly removed it and made a sarcastic joke about how Mai always is wearing depressing make-up. Mai then looked over with two black streaks running from her eyes to the bottom of her jaw, and sarcastically said “Ha ha.” Ty Lee has always been girly, and perky. Always loud, casual and fun, she rarely gets mad, but she can really pack a punch, aimed at the correct places of course. Ty Lee as a child was a great gymnast, and also learned the art of Kyushu Jitsu, a martial art that concentrates on disabling the pressure points of a victim. Being girly she usually wore a flower skirt, with loose pants that go up to her knee under it. Also a loose top, and wrist braces for performing gymnastics tricks. Her shoes, instead of the custom, metal Fire Nation shoes, are replaced by comfortable, leather that was dyed red, and her hair is let down in a long braid, held together by a pink and red piece of elastic cloth. Also, Ty Lee’s eyes have been odd. Instead of the regular, golden, Fire Nation glinted eyes, her eyes are a light shade of gray. Ty Lee was broken from her daze as Azula patted the balloon, walked over to one of the workers and started pointing at some parts of the blueprint. Then she picked up the blueprint, gave it to another worker, who immediately started making changes on the balloon. Knowing what she was going to say, Ty Lee clenched her jaw as Azula said the three words, “Let’s go girls.”
The wind billowed at them as the balloon rose from the chimney like hole in the metal roof. Two workers, and six soldiers joined Mai, Ty Lee, and Azula on the balloon. Taking a stealthy attack, all of the people were dressed in green and yellow Earth Kingdom robes. From this canyon, it would only take about fifteen minutes to reach the outskirts of Ba Sing Se. Ty Lee put her elbows on the outside of the basket and looked up at the balloon, the insignia wasn’t there! Squinting to see, she saw the green, Earth Kingdom, insignia, patched onto the balloon.
As they flew over the desert that surrounded Ba Sing Se, Ty Lee’s braid blew out to her right as she looked at the cliffs. I’m never going to do that again. She turned to her left and saw the great wall of Ba Sing Se. Ty Lee looked at all of them and anxiety spread across her body. It was today, that the Fire Nation would infiltrate Ba Sing Se. The Impenetrable City… Ty Lee thought. Ty Lee waved at the soldiers on the wall happily as they shared whispers and pointed at the object in the distance. Nearing the wall, the balloon landed with a thud on the Great Wall of Ba Sing Se.
Ty Lee stepped out of the basket daintily and greeted them with the custom greeting of a superior to a minor. The soldier she was facing bowed down to her, as she smiled and told him to rise. Ty Lee shuddered as she heard Azula’s voice behind her. “We are politicians from Omashu, take us to the Earth King.” The soldiers nodded and directed her down a narrow path of stairs, leading from the wall, to the train that would take them to the Upper Ring. They all walked slowly into it, and while no one was watching, Ty Lee let out an exasperated sigh. Her heart beat faster as she looked around to see Azula smiling widely and Mai, with no expression at all as they slowly descended the dark stairway into the Lower Ring.
The group of eleven slowly walked towards the Earth Kingdom Palace. Each one sweating and their heart beating fast, knowing that at any moment, they could be discovered. As they neared the green double doors, two Earth Benders opened the doors with extreme slowness. Ty Lee broke into a cold sweat as they walked through the doors into an intersection. The Earth Benders showed them to another set of giant green double doors, and also opened them with excruciating slowness. They walked in to a giant room, with earthen pillars and at the back of the room was a throne, a bear, and the expensive silk clad Earth King.
Ty Lee saw Azula walk up into the center of the room, so Ty Lee followed. They walked to the middle and bowed down to the royalty. The Earth King motioned for them to rise, and immediately, they did. Ty Lee stayed quiet for she knew Azula could handle the, politics, and the converting of sides. Ty Lee blankly looked around as conversation passed by. This war always interfered with her life. Her passion was gymnastics; her rightful place was the circus. As a child she always wanted to be happy and peaceful. You could’ve called her… a hippie. People only do that because their lives have been interfered with propaganda by the Fire Lord. They think this is right, they think… that this war will help people. But whom would it help? This war seemed extremely useless to Ty Lee, and has polluted her upbringing with propaganda, violence, and hatred for the other bending nations. Ty Lee made no action to change anything for, what could she do? A gymnast who is in the circus could not stop a war. Ty Lee broke out of her daze soon enough. She dazed a lot, not being exactly the smart one. She was the fast, agile, flexible, strong, and happy one. The Earth King silently waved them off as Azula smiled. Oblivious to what have happened, she just followed Azula and Mai, into a bedroom, from which they will stay, so they could slowly… conquer… the whole Earth Kingdom.
