Welcome to Gaia! ::

"You do me too great an honor," Yana smiled. It was wiped off as she saw Kyoujin suffer technical difficulties with his ostrich-horse. "Although sometimes I wonder whether or not I overestimate him sometimes."

"We just had breakfast at the palace an hour ago." scolded Yana with a discerning finger, "And you ate an entire plate of cheese pastries! All that food is going to catch up with you." Instead, Yana urged Sachi and Kyoujin's steed into a faster trot.

"No. We're not stopping until we reach the first stop point at the nearest Earth Kingdom fort. King Bumi said that General Giji would provide us food and shelter for the night and help us in arming ourselves for any roadside bandits."

"Ugh. Here..." she threw him an apple, "You can eat that while we ride. I told you, we can't stop for anything."

She kicked the ostrich-horse into action, spurring the others to follow as well. "Besides, bandits are a lot cleverer and stronger than you think. A little fire won't do the harm you think it will. It'll take all day to reach the fort, and the roads beyond it are dangerous. I won't be surprised if they send escorts with us.

One second later an especially big apple seed became painfully lodged up his nose.

"I'm guessing you didn't see that coming either." Yana replied cooly, letting her ostrich-horse eat the core from her hand. It paid to have several sources of martial arts and precision skills in the family. Yana was not a bender. But she also not weak.
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They arrived at the fort, an enormous structure of carefully earth-bended walls where the general greeted them in his traditional war-attire, despite the peace.

"Welcome, welcome," He greeted warmly. "Glad to see the beloved friends of our king in such fit condition. Please, come join our feast."

"I suggest you hold back some of that feast for the bottomless pit over here," Yana said shooting a look at Kyoujin, looking strange with a seed stuck up his nose.

The feast wasn't as exquisite as the palace feasts, but the simple food was welcome after a day of travel. The window let the fading light of the sunset shine through, letting in a soothign orange glow.

"It would be wise to have a few escorts," Giji suggested, "The roads ahead are filled with all sorts of shady characters, and our earth-benders are very well trained."

"It would be prudent to move with secrecy though." Yana said in debate. "The entire world is seeking the Avatar...and some of those reasons are ill meant. My ability makes it easier...I'd hate to become a prize."

"I wasn't looking at you moron." Yana said pertly. "Excuse him. He followed us from a merchant caravan." she explained to Giji. "No dissuading him in going back either."

"You've hardly contributed during this journey." Yana said sharply. "All you do is eat and complain. Not to mention the fact that you smashed the wall at the palace."

"You smashed the ancient palace?!" Giji said in horror.

"You're not even going through with this mission with good intentions." Yana reminded him. She had seen his lie, seen her death, and she knew...he didn't want peace. He wanted the world.

Yana's eye twitched. Angrily.

"You wanna run that last name at me again? Little Merchant Boy?" She hissed.