Welcome to Gaia! ::

It took Tingzhe thirty whole minutes to find Shen-Ru, which was amazing considering how many people were around. The eyes and the ears of the camp where everywhere, and Tingzhe knew all the best people to ask. So what the heck?!?

Tingzhe was a child who'd always gone outof his way to be noticeable. He had no concept of how easy it was to get lost in a crowd.

"Hey, hey - what's up?"

Tingzhe walked up behind the Earthbender, who was looking over the camp with a glum expression. Tingzhe had to hand it to him. He never woulda figured the guy would hang out by the prop tents at dusk, when everyone else was off fixing dinner.

"You might wanna move, man. After dark, the adults that don't have their own tents use the storage ones for grown-up stuff."

He winkled his nose. Tents had thin walls, which meant that Tingzhe had grown up with more firsthand knowledge of 'adult time' than he would have liked to.

"That isn't gonna be a problem." Tingzhe brightened with relief. Was THAT all Shen-Ru wanted? "We never run out of work at the circus. C'mon, let's get something to eat an' sort you out."

Truth be told, Tingzhe had been worried about Shen-Ru. He'd thoguht rescuing him would make him happier, but it only seemed to make him glum! He guessed there was a point in life - INCONCEIVABLE AS IT WAS - when even doing for him cartwheels didn't cheer a guy up.

They over to the campfires, and Tingzhe grabbed two skewers of meat and vegetables off of the grill that the rhino drovers were using.

"Kid." His father said.

"Yeah."

Tingzhe declined to introduce his father to Shen-Ru, so they just walked off. What did THAT matter? He didn't want Shen-Ru and Qiao thinking they were cooler than him because they'd left their parents behind. That could get them inta trouble down the road, on account of Tingzhe's level of cool was amazingly high and known to all.

He handed one of the kabobs to his friend. It was sorta low-class food. He hoped Shen-Ru knew how to eat one.

"So what kinda work did you do at home?"

Tingzhe took a bite out of some onion on his kabob, and chewed it thoughtfully. He hoped Shen-Ru liked his meals drenched in hot pepper sauce!

"You can Earthbend? Why didn't you say so! I KNEW you had some kinda aweome going, bein' my friend an' all."

He led them out to a clearing on the outskirts of camp. It was close enough that they didn't have to worry about kidnappers in the trees - not that Tingzhe would ever admit being concerned about THOSE - but far enough away that they wouldn't bother anyone. The forest they'd stopped in was ancient, and mossy, and peaceful. Kinda relaxing. Y'know, if you liked things that were BORING.

"C'mon." He flashed Shen-Ru a wild, manic grin. "Do something cool with stones."

It went without saying that Tingzhe's standard of cool was VERY high.

"That is awesome!"

Tingzhe held Shen-Ru's kabob for him. He was sorta proud of his friend for not spitting out the spicey Fire Nation food. Earth Kingdom food was BORING, and did not even make his mouth tingle with burny-ness.

"Couldn't you - y'know - help make camp and stuff with the stones?"

He took a bite of his own kabob, savoring the way the porkbeef made his mouth feel numb.

"We should TOTALLY have a duel, man."

"Not a REAL duel. Since when do I wanna get into a REAL duel?"

Tingzhe jabbed his kabob skewer into the air, like a mock sword.

"People get hurt in REAL duels. I don't mind pain - my hands get cut up ALL the time, and once I really wrecked my knee. But who wants bruises and scars and all that gross stuff? SOMETIMES scars look really cool, but it's not like you can get rid of them if they go all gross and puckery! You can't even hide them with makeup!"

He whirled the kabob back up to his mouth, and took another bite of porkbeef.

"Nah, what we gotta do is have, like, a SHOW duel, where we do AWESOME cool moves and look awesome. I don't know anything about Firebending in a REAL fight."

Shen-Ru looked really pained, and Tingzhe didn't know what to do about it. He'd hoped his friend would think the circus was great, just like he did! And they would have GREAT adventures and not have to think about STUPID jails and bars and lightless spaces.

But Shen-Ru obviously did not think the circus was great. Tingzhe'd hoped he was just getting used to a world without walls, but if Shen-Ru was really unhappy... then Tingzhe was the one responsible.

"Hey, hey - you wanna know a secret?"

For once, Tingzhe wasn't grinning. Every bit of his body language was utterly serious.

"I wish I COULD Firebend, like in a real fight. Even if it made me all ugly like the ol' man."

He stared off into the trees. Into the dark. Anything could be waiting there, waiting to bury him alive for the second time.

"When they came for it, they had it so easy- I thought I was all that, but I was just a joke to them. I never want that to happen ever again." THe boy smiled wryly. "It's be bad for my image, right?"

It was almost cold out. In the morning, the whole of the green wood would be touched by frost. Tingzhe hoped that they made it to the Fire Nation in time for Spirits Day.

"But all the old teachers- you saw. They're gone. I'd probably have to join the ARMY or something if I wanted to learn. And that would be- ugh. They make you dress up like everyone else and you're only a RANK and it would be terrible!"

He sighed.

"Don't tell anyone I thought about it, okay? I've gotta be fine, or else the ol' man will never let me back on stage once we hit Hiyama."

"I don't want to be alone either."

Tingzhe relaxed a little. Shen-Ru was really pretty okay, for a guy he'd once thought was a hopeless snob. You just had to get him talking.

Having finished off his kabob, Tingzhe tossed the wooden stick into the bushes. By the time he turned back to his friend, he had slipped back into his old familiar self, always slightly smiling, with his weight on his toes, as if he was always waiting to spring.

"Do you miss Gaoling, Shen-Ru?" Tingzhe punched him lightly in the shoulder. "If you do, don't worry. I will do something TOTALLY AWESOME to entertain you."

He just, uh, had to think of it. That was all.

"It looked pretty boring to ME, but I don't get all that posh stuff."

Honestly, he couldn't even read half the characters Shen-Ru used. Not that he'd ever tell Shen-Ru that.

((AGREEEEED. <3 Though the trouble would be forcing him to admit he might need help.

I figure a low-class kid in the Avatar World would only need/get a very basic education. Particularly one who's always on the road, without a school to go to. Tingzhe knows a lot about acrobatics and circus animals and cooking and travelling, but not so much about, like... reading and math. He gets by on context and bravado.))



Tingzhe devoured the kabob with astonishing speed. For a kid as skinny as he was, he had a really huge appetite - probably because he spent eight hours a day working out and practicing. Even Qiao had been surprised by TIngzhe's work ethic.

Whatever. It was not HIS FAULT if Shen-Ru didn't appreciate quality food, instead of that gross doughy Earth Kingdom stuff.

"Right! So show me your coolest move, and we can work on yoru AWESOMEness, okay? Most of the people here are Fire Nation, so I bet the Ringmaster would appreciate you even doing boring ol' stuff like helping Earthbend fresh sand into the ring. But who wants to be BORING?"

In Tingzhe's opinion, Shen-Ru could use the exercize anyway. He'd never met anyone with so few callouses on his hands, and Shen-Ru wasn't very muscular. Tingzhe guessed that was what happened when your parents made you be a poetry nerd.