Chapter 23.3- And so the Dragons Danced

Eastwards, I noted. We continued East. The Journey to Ba Sing Se was going to be a long one and every possible second would count. Especially when I was certain that the defences of the city would be prepared to resist us if we tarried. I was not going to assume that the city was as unprepared ats it has ended up being in the cartoon show. There was nothing here that gave the impression and considering that the Earth Kingdom military still hosted in this world, then they had to have some sort of presence in the city. Sure, they were disorganised, indisciplined and predisposed to failure, but that didn’t make them a non-factor. In fact, the only reason I’d have an easy time with what I was doing was the presence of multiple Fire Nation armies in the Earth Kingdom’s territories. They needed to have forces all over dedicated to stopping us on all front and for a military force that was barely anything to write home about in the first place, it was proving to be a task too difficult to consider.

“So we’ll get to Goaling in about 2 weeks, and from there, we should have a pretty straight shot at Ba Sing Se” Toji said as he rode by my side. I turned to him and lifted an eyebrow.

“2 weeks? Where’d you get your math from?”

“I’ve been looking at the maps. At our present speed, we’ll take about 16 days to get there, hence 2 weeks.”

“No we won’t. We’ll only take a week at the very most”

“Do you plan to suddenly grant us the power of flight. The men might worship the very ground you walk on, but don’t let that get to your head, Natsu, you aren’t one” He said with a chuckle, almost like he found the very idea ridiculous.

“No. We’re just going to take a straight path”

“A straight path?”

“Yes. A straight path. From here to Gaoling” I said while making a gesture with my hand like a missile travelling straight through the air. “As the crow flies”

“A straight path crosses over the Foggy Swamp.”

“So?”

“It’s going to be hell to go through. My boots are going to be soaked for days. Add to that the fact that the bloody cartographer himself lists the Foggy Swamp as an area to be avoided ‘unless highly necessitated by the most precipitous of exigencies.” He said, adopting his best impression of stuck up Lord at the last part of that to make it clear that he was quoting the map maker. I chuckled at the comedy of it all. Shiro the Mapmaker might have been a once in a generation talent who the Fire Nation had still never managed to replace even if he’d been dead for close to three decades now, but all that talent did nothing to hide his snobbish origins.

“Pretty certain he was a cousin of yours” I pointed out to Toji.

“Go back far enough and everyone is a cousin of mine one way or another” He replied with a shrug.

“We’re still facing the Swamp, so do get ready to get wet”

“Fuck”

A/N; Progress sings