Chapter. 29.2- And so the Dragons Danced

Overwhelming victory or evasion were two ways to achieve that goal. Evasion had been the option that most of my council had leaned towards, but Toji had been patently against the idea, and so had Maki. Perhaps for different reasons. Toji disdained the thought of running from earth benders. Maki feared being chased from behind and then being hemmed against the walls of Ba Sing Se. Needless to say, once she spoke of that possibility most of those recommending evasion were quick to change their tunes to something else. Most of them. Shin had it in his head that we could dodge the pursuing Earth Kingdom army and then somehow take Ba Sing Se before they could catch up to us.

It was a bold plan. The kind of plan I actually was a fan of. If we were fast enough, we’d have the advantage of Ba Sing Se’s walls working in our favour, and with that on our side, we’d slaughter the Earth Kingdom Army at our leisure. Still, we didn’t have much in the way of concrete plans to take the Walled city and when I pressed Shin on that, he’d shrugged and simply said- “I thought you had something up your sleeve, Taker of Cities”. While I’d chuckled at the title and associated implications that I had some sort of plan that would make us take the most protected city in the world in a matter of days.

“I have concepts of a plan, but nothing that would bear fruit in the time period needed for us to get into the city to avoid General Jinpei. We will take them here, and crush the Earth Kingdom” I remembered saying in reply to Shin and as a final word on the debate.

“It’s not working” I heard the raged shout from behind me and calmly turned around to see the little girl bent over a piece of metal trying to get it to move.

“What do you mean/ You can’t feel anything?” I asked as I walked to stand over her. Metalbending as just one of the things I had Toph working on at present. It was what was going to mark her as the greatest in the world in time and if it was going to happen, then I wanted to be sure it happened under my roof. ‘Father of Metalbending’ was going to be a useful title to add to the list I was already cultivating for myself.

“Nothing at all. I can tell it used to be stone but I just can’t do anything with it. The earth within doesn’t move- it’s dead.” She said with a frustrated look on her face.

“Oh. Alright then. How about we come back to it later and instead we go do some practice outside?” I offered with a small smile. A smile that widened into an ear to ear grin as she instantly accepted the offer. I reached out to pull her off and felt my smile widen when she pushed off from the ground on her own and slapped my hand to the side.