𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗜𝗧𝗬 𝗚𝗜𝗥𝗟 | zuko

5: HOTEL ROOM 16

"That was good tea," commented Kyra, as the waiter took our empty cups away.  "So, what do we do now?  We got what we wanted, Iroh's going to send a letter to Zuko."

"We could go to a spa, like you wanted," I offered.

"To heck with the spa," interrupted Toph, who had been listening.  "There are more exciting things you could do.  This city is ginormous!"

"Yeah, it is," said Kyra.  "But like what?"

"Anything, really.  Besides, I've been to the spas.  They're not as fun."

"Not as fun as what?" I asked. 

"Anything," said Toph.

"You're being extremely vague," said Kyra.  

"Why don't you just come and see?  You trust me, don't you?"

"Yes!"

"Kyra, we just met her!"

"Yeah, but I'm famous, so it's okay.  I'm not a stranger.  Plus, I'm twelve.  What could I possibly do?"

"Come on, Jin!"

"Coming!" 

I left the money out on the table for the waiter to collect, and we followed Toph through the city.  Ba Sing Se was always beautiful, especially the Upper Ring, and I'd only been there once when I was ten.  I barely remembered that trip, and even if a street seemed familiar to me, I was still in awe of it.  The three of us walked for five minutes, Toph navigating through the streets, and Kyra and I sometimes getting distracted by the sights and trinkets in store windows.

"Oooh!"

"Are you coming?"

"But that jewelry box is so pretty!"

"Eh, you've seen nothing once, you've seen it a thousand times."

"Right.  Sorry.  Coming."

We walked for a little longer until she stopped at a hotel near the middle of the city.  It wasn't the biggest I'd seen so far today, but it was big.

"Come on," she said, opening the door inside.  A person standing by the entrance bowed to her, and she smiled in return.  Emblems of an Elephant Koi decorated lamps and the desk in the lobby.  The hotel was in fact called the Elephant Koi Escape.

"Are you staying here?" asked Kyra. 

"Yeah, me and a few friends," said Toph.  I could see her smirking from the side.

Kyra turned toward me, still following Toph down a hallway. "I wonder who her friends are!" she said excitedly.  I was rather curious, too.  Maybe they were some of the others she was on the menu with.  I saw Zuko had a tea named after him, as well as the Avatar, and a girl named Katara.  Even a flying bison.  

Toph stopped in front of a room numbered 16.  She knocked on the door twice, and someone answered.  He had a ponytail and was wearing clothes colored blue.  There was a shiny silver sword in his hand, and a cloth in the other.  It seemed like he had been polishing it.

"Hi, Toph, who's --" he started, but Toph had already walked past him.

"Kyra, Jin," she said, pointing to us respectively.  We waved.  "This is Sokka, Katara's over there, or it's Suki, I can't tell.  Someone's sitting on the bed." She pointed toward a girl with dark brown hair, wearing the same blue color as Sokka was.  

"It's Katara," said the girl. "Nice to meet you both, but, um, Toph, what are they doing here?"

"Hold on," interjected Kyra, walking into the room.  "You're Katara?  We saw you on the menu too!"

"The menu at the Jasmine Dragon, right?" she asked. 

"Yes, that's the one.  You're a bender?" 

"A waterbender, yes." She turned to Toph.  "Not to be rude, but, why exactly is it they're here, Toph?"

"Well, Jin knows Zuko."

"How do you know Zuko?" asked Sokka, having sat back down on a chair.  He continued to polish the silver sword.

"Well, I met him when --"

"She went out with him," blurted Kyra with a smile.  I kicked her shin lightly, and she rolled her eyes.

Sokka scoffed.  "When was this?"

"When he was in Ba Sing Se, as a refugee," I told him.  

"I was thinking... we could help Jin out," said Toph, now leaning up against a wall.  

Katara didn't look like she liked Toph's idea's very much. "What is it she needs?"

"Well, she wants to see Zuko."

"That's easy," said Sokka.   "We could all just get on Appa and --"

"But Iroh's already going to send a letter to Zuko," I told them, taking a seat next to Kyra on the couch she had helped herself to.  

"That could take ages," said Toph.  "Besides, we can surprise him. "

"I don't know, Toph."

"We're welcome in the Fire Nation now! Cmon Katara, please?  It'll be a really nice surprise."

"I don't think --"

"Yeah, Katara, please?" butted in Kyra.  I smiled in pleading when she looked at me.

"Fine.  But we still don't know if Aang will even let us use Appa, don't get your hopes up too --"

"You know the Avatar!?"  asked Kyra, a hundred percent amused.

"Uh, yes?"

Kyra could've screamed in exitement.  "That's amazing! Where is he?"

"At a luncheon, with the Earth King."

"You guys are so cool!" 

"How do you know the Avatar?" I asked, interested.  

Katara and Sokka looked at each other.

"We found him in an iceberg," said Sokka.

"What?"

"Yeah, Katara got all angry at me, her waterbending got out of control, and she broke the iceberg."

"That's crazy," said Kyra, her eyes wide in attent.

"Try being there," said Sokka.  Katara rolled her eyes.

"Then how'd you meet Toph?" I asked.

"While I was beating up a bunch of pro-earthbenders in a ring.  They came to watch."

"You were a pro-earthbender too?" said Kyra.  She stood up with an idea.  "You have to teach me something.  Come on, I'm an earthbender, too!  You have to teach me something."

Toph thought for a moment. "We'll see.  I did teach the Avatar, how hard could you be?"

"You guys just keep getting more amazing!" said Kyra.  I had to admit, I was rather amazed as well.  

"What else did you guys do?" I asked.

Katara opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Sokka started listing stuff and couting on his fingers.

"Okay, so, found the Avatar, saved the Avatar, got saved by the Avatar, saved a town from being flooded, saved a town from a volcano, fought the Fire Nation in the North Pole... you know what?  There's a lot of stuff.  But mainly, we kinda just saved the world."

Kyra looked at him in amazement. "Hey, that's good enough for me."

"Okay, then, when Aang gets back, we're going to the Fire Nation," said Toph.  "Cmon, Kyra, let's kill some time."

Kyra squealed.