Wandering Firebender

Thirty Three: The City Rings

Elio woke up on top of his sleeping bag feeling stiff. He groaned in discomfort and pushed himself to sit up. His wrist popped from putting pressure on it. He hissed and grumbled under his breath, sitting up fully finally. He stretched out his arms and rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes.

"Good morning, Elio." Sri said, walking over and bringing him some breakfast that she'd cooked.

"Mm good morning. Oh! Thank you, Sri." He said appreciatively, taking the plate with one hand while still rubbing his eyes with the other hand.

"You're welcome. Did you sleep alright?" She asked.

"Eh, I slept okay. I gotta get used to being in this new house. I have a hard time sleeping in new places." He explained as he began to eat.

"I'm the same way," She said with a chuckle, sitting down on the floor and eating too. "I didn't sleep so well either. I had to kill a bug." She commented with a shiver.

"Aww." Elio teased her. Sri scoffed and shook her head.

"It was a big bug, alright?! And nasty!" She defended. Elio chuckled a bit.

"I'm sure it was." He joked dryly with a small smile. Sri chuckled and smiled.

"It's nice to see you smiling again." She commented.

"Thanks." Elio nodded appreciatively.

"Of course," Sri smiled again before changing the subject. "So I was thinking. How about today we travel over to the Middle Ring of Ba Sing Se today? We can look for jobs and buy some stuff for our new place! What do you think?" She asked.

"Don't you think we should get jobs first before we start spending the last of our money?" Elio asked. Sri gave him a sideways glance.

"You really want to spend another night on the floor? Without any chairs or tables?" She asked. Elio took one look around the empty room and realized that they really did have nothing right now.

"Yeah okay, good point. I suppose we could at least get a few things so we're not sleeping and sitting on the floor." He decided.

"See? You get the idea," Sri nodded. "We'll take La into the Middle Ring, spend a whole day getting a few things to make this house just a little – just a tad more of a home." She said with a laugh.

"Haha, okay. Sounds good. We'll head out after breakfast then." He decided.

So Elio and Sri quickly finished their breakfast and then got dressed to go out. Once they were ready, they locked up the house, took La out from her cage, and then went back to the train station. They boarded the train in the rear and rode it to the Middle Ring.

"I didn't realize that Ba Sing Se was separated into the sections." Sri said as they stared out the window.

"Me neither. This city really is way bigger than I thought... I guess we'll see what the Middle Ring has to offer." Elio said, sitting up and looking out curiously as the train approached the wall separating the Lower Ring from the Middle Ring.

As they went through the wall out to the other side, the two of them were instantly greeted to a much more pleasing sight. The houses in the Middle Ring were of normal size and much nicer. The entire area looked cleaner, and everything was a little more spread out. Trees and flowers decorated the walkways and spaces between the houses.

"Oh wow! This is a lot nicer!" Sri said immediately. Elio nodded in agreement.

"Now this is what I expected out of Ba Sing Se." Elio declared.

The train pulled into the station. Elio and Sri got off and led La down to the ground level. They mounted the ostrich horse and began riding around at a pace just slightly faster than normal walking speed. They searched for furniture shops.