The Fire Bender, who introduced herself as the "Tiger Lily", or just "Lily" and the Air Nomad who introduced herself as Feng were going back and forth with each other, each commenting on each other, not tending to be on what appeared to be friendliest terms. Suddenly, Lily went right up to Zen, perhaps a little too close. Zen got a bit uncomfortable as she was in breathing distance apart.
"Hrmm?" She says, making her eyes quite big as she, from Zen's point of view, attempts to stair down. "C'mon, you're the leader, so where's the food?"
"Well...I uh...don't exactly have any on me at the moment..." He said, a hint of discomfort in her voice. The other Fire Bender, a woman, bowed to Zen the customary Fire Nation way adding some dialogue.
"I'll join you. My name's Ceara. It's a great thing you want to do Zen though I know many including my father back home don't agree with it. Also if anyone needs to send any messages we have my hawk Blaze"
Zen bowed back to her, in the same way, as did Feng. The Earth Kingdom Soldier spoke up next.
"Well if your goal is to bring peace between you picked the right kids for the job," He said, referring to the two going back and forth with each other. Zen gave him a wry smile, only to see it wasn't returned. He spoke once more.
"Rogue I'll be honest… I don't trust you and all you have shown me is that you're an enemy of the Earth Kingdom, which I might add I am rather fond of since it's my home. Thing is I made an oath that I would help bring peace to this world and stop some force or something that is trying to make us all destroy each other. So I'm going to help you, but I'm not going to attack anyone from the Earth Kingdom got it? These are my people and I can't betray them, and so far all I have seen is hostility toward my Kingdom and that is it. Also if it seems like all you're doing is trying to bring my Kingdom to its knees I'm making you another oath right now… I will kill you."
Zen sensed the seriousness of his voice, but his logic was sound. Any other person would have done the same, especially one who is patriotic to their nation. Zen nodded.
"I give you my word, Earth Kingdom Soldier." He said. Another voice spoke up afterwards. It was from the late arrival, the one who wasn't in the tea shop.
"Hello, I am Terrance Glyph. I'm from the earth kingdom if you couldn't tell. I prefer this to bulky robes or anything. If necessary, I have a Rhino-beetle who would be more that willing to help on this quest."
Zen bowed back to him as he introduced himself. Zen noticed a trend in many of them. Often, they had some sort of animal or pet that could aid in the journey. He made a mental note of that later. For now, though, it would be best if they didn't bring all of those pets along. Still, it was nice that they had it on standby.
As Zen turned again, he noticed Lily getting awfully close to Zen, perhaps, once again, a bit TOO close. Zen was definitely out of his comfort level.
"Uh..." Was all that came out as Lily once again asked for food.
"OK, once we have everyone together, we'll go out and get some food! Here, I was some leechy nuts right now..." He said, reaching into his bag and giving her some of the nuts. Zen looked around once more.
There was a Fire Bender with way too much lack of personal space that seemed to have mood swings by the name of Lily. There was an Air Nomad with quite a bit of spunk in her as well by the name of Feng. There was a patriotic Earth Bender with no name given, there was another Fire Bender by the name of Ceara with a messenger hawk. There was an Earth Kingdom citizen named Terrance Glyph, a water bender who still hasn't told Zen her name, and then there was the fire bender who had arrived on the dragon, who at this moment chose not to say anything, until...
Suddenly, Zen felt as the flame of fire shot out from the owner of the dragon. The flame was hit between Zen and Lily. Zen turned to face the fire bender, his hand resting on the handle of the sword. He introduced himself as well.
"HEY! The name's Garith Yang I prefer to be called Yang sometimes. I have a dragon named Vyer and before I join you Zen Kai I want to fight you! If you are able to give me some sport then I'll go if not then I'll be on my way," He suddenly used fire on his blade to create a sort of flame sword. He pointed it at Zen as he formed a stance.
"Do you accept?" He asked, prepared to fight.
Zen looked at him oddly. He wanted to fight at a time like this? Then again, why should he be surprised. Half of these people wanted to fight Zen. He half considered fighting the boy right now, but decided against it in the end. He sighed, getting out of his stance and letting go of the handle of his sword.
"Sorry, Garith. I would love to fight you, and any other time, I would do it in a heartbeat. But the world around us is going to chaos. We don't have time now to spar."
He looked at Garith, disappointed. He then thought of a solution.
"How about a new proposal?" He asked Garith. "How about IF you come with me on this journey, I'll agree to duel you someday. It'll be a glorious event, set at the start of the sunrise, or the setting of the sun. What do you say? Besides, we'll probably have plenty of people to fight along the way!" he asks, hoping Garith accepts the invitation. Zen now turns to the rest of them.
"It looks like this is it." He looked around at all of them. There were 7, if Garith agreed to come along: Lily, Caera and Garith from the Fire Nation. The Earth Kingdom Soldier and Terrance Glyph from the Earth Kingdom, a Water Bender of an unknown name from the Water Tribe, and Feng from the Air Nomads. He couldn't ask for a better group. To top it off, nearly all of them were powerful benders. Zen was actually one of the few who wasn't a bender.
"Well, I guess now's a good a time as any to get going. Gather around, everyone." He brought out a map of the entire world, with details written all over. These marking were done by hand, and many of them were actually places Zen had visited while on his travels.
"We are here right now, just outside of Ba Sing Se. Our destination is the Southern Water tribe. Here's my reasoning. The whole assassination of the Earth King, the tension of the Fire and Earth Nations, and the Water Tribe Civil War is somehow related. I don't know how yet, but I'm sure they are. All this is happening too fast to not be a coincidence. I say we head towards the direction of the Southern Water Tribe, stopping along the way at a few places to get extra information, including the Eastern Air Temple, as well as understanding into this whole chaos. If we're lucky, we'll get by all the way without any unnecessary conflicts. I doubt it, the way things are going, but we'll try. As for transportation..." He looked at Garith once more. "...I was hoping we'd be able to use your Dragon. It's not subtle, but it's fast. We can also switch around between your Bison, Feng." He said. "Hopefully, he will be in a close proximity. For now, however, I'm going to have to ask all of you not to bring your pets with us, except for you Caera." He said, looking at her now. "A messenger hawk is pretty tiny, and we may need it."
Zen stood up finally. He looked over all of them, and smiled, before bowing to them all.
"I can't thank you all enough for coming along with me everyone. Let's do this."
It was time to take off, destination: Southern Water Tribe, with a bunch of stops in between. Their mission: stop the conflicts that is sending the world to chaos.
