Green Dragon Tea House(Open to all)

Along the wall that separates the middle and lower rings, there lies a small shop. The walls were painted a light tan, the roof was the signature green tiles one saw all over Ba-Sing-Se, and to silk paintings hung across from one another by the entrance. Each scroll had a green dragon painted on a white background. This was the Green Dragon Tea House, a small shop known for it's hospitable staff and it's dumplings.

The sun was just rising when Han Shu, a long time worker at the Green Dragon, was arriving. Her hair was tied up into a bun, and she wore a simple green and tan sleeveless dress with the earth kingdom symbol embroidered along the collar. Looking around, Han wasn't surprised that the owner wasn't there yet. Han never really minded though, she knew he had his two daughters and his son, so whenever she could take care of the early morning prep, she would.

Taking out her key to the store, Han unlocked the door and stepped inside. Following her daily routine, Han went into the back, put her apron on, started the several burners that lined one wall, filled the empty tea pots and placed them on the burners. While the water heated, Han began mixing the dough for the dumplings, making sure to do a rather large batch since they seemed to be the most popular first thing in the morning.

It had been days since Xuan Feng had seen any civilization and he was running low on supplies, but definitely not money for he had scammed a lot of people in the small fire colony that he had come from. He knew nothing about where he was or where he was going since the monks from his childhood attempted to keep the outside world out of their minds, so when he approached the immense city of Ba Sing Se, he had never imagined that there would ever be a city this big. His Sky Bison Fei was becoming very exhausted so he decided that this is where they would stay for the swift foreseeable future. At such a high altitude, he noticed that the city was separated into three rings, all at different levels of elevation. He decided that he would try and head into the middle ring because the upper ring seemed all royalty and the lower ring looked like an enormous ghetto slum. As he landed just past the wall that separated the lower and middle ring, he dismounted Fei and jumped to the ground, eager to explore this huge town. He tied Fei to a metal post sticking out of the ground and gave her a sizable fruitcake, the last bit of food he had, to keep her occupied and not inclined to fly away, as she did frequently.
As he walked through the middle ring, seeing so many new types of architecture, fashion, and forms of technology, he maintained an astonished gaze at everything, creeping out some of the residents. However, his trance was broken when he heard a familiar cry. He heard Fei, wailing in distress and quickly made his way towards her voice. When he reached her, he found a great amount of green-clothed, armored, and armed men using ropes to restrain her to the ground. Confused at the identity of the men, he sprinted toward the strangers and quickly attacked without speaking, sending a huge burst of air which dispersed the crowd of men. Without wasting momentum, he used his staff, which he carried everywhere, to pole vault onto Fei's back and held a defensive stance as the men regained their footing and approached the boy and his bison.
Some in the crowd began to run toward the bison when a man with a powerful voice began to speak to Xuan.
" Excuse me young man, but do you know the penalty for assaulting officers of the law?"
Xuan finally realized that these men must be policemen, and the emblem on their uniform revealed that this was an earthbending city. He quickly disengaged defensive mode and said,
" ...Well, you can't take Fei! Why are you taking her?"
" Well, first of all, you are not allowed to abandon large animals without leaving them in a proper stable or housing facility. Second, as my men approached your bison, she displayed signs of aggression that could prove harmful to the citizens of this ring, one of those signs being hurling one of my officers into the wall. I'm sorry, but we have to take her to the animal shelter to be evaluated by veterinarians."
" I'm sorry about your officer, but you can't take her! She doesn't do well when I'm no with her..."
" I'm afraid it's not up to you, and because you're being so difficult..."
Without any warning, Three of the officers shot a long thick wire at Xuan which wrapped around is arms and legs and threw him against the wall. Xuan gasped as the wind was knocked out of him and he slowly fell to a heap on the ground knocked unconcious. The wires remained, but the sight of this caused Fei to viciously attack the men, bringing all of them to the ground with a whip of her wide tail. Seizing the moment, she quickly flew off into the sky and towards the desert. The head officer quickly regained his footing, violently cursed at the bison, and stormed of towards the middle of the city. The officers followed, but one remained looking at Xuan. As he began to regain consciousness, the officer began to violently wail on the boy. Hearing the commotion, two officers returned and restrained the overzealous officer, one of them screaming " Stand down! You're causing a commotion!" The officer looked up as a small group of middle ringers looked on, most definately seeing the violent act he comitted. He forced the other officers off of him and stormed off. The two officers remained, helping him up, and brought Xuan to the gate leading to the lower ring and ordered the gate keepers to open up, releasing xuan into the lower ring, sitting against a barrel near a row of small houses and shops.

"Two orders of dumplings and a black tea coming right up," Han said hurrying into the kitchen. The shop was starting to get busier, but Han was doing her best to keep up with it. The chatter of the customers mixed with the sounds of the tea pots in the kitchen always made her day a bit better. "Here you go Mr. Song, can I get anything else for you?" Han asked bringing the elderly man his order. Mr. Song smiled and looked up at her, "I don't know how you do it Han. The owner must be so proud of you. Keep up the good work." Han blushed a bit and chuckled, "You flatter me sir. I hope you enjoy it."

Han was taking out the trash when she saw something by one of the barrels. She threw the trash in the dumpster then walked over to the barrel. Oh my...It's a boy! she thought kneeling down and touching a hand to his forehead. She didn't feel any fever but he was fairly beaten up, "Hey...You alright sir?" After looking around, Han figured that he must have somehow staggered to this area because there was no real commotion, nor was there a crowd of angry guards. While she waited for a response, Han tried to think of how to move the boy inside where he would be safe.

Xuan slowly awoke, leaning on the barrel. It took him a while to process his thoughts, but when he finally realized what had happened, he jolted up, which turned out to be the worst thing he could do because instead of getting up all the way, he fell back into a painful heap on the floor. This was the most pain he had ever encountered, and he cried in agony, wanting to remain on the floor forever. However, his pain was interrupted by the sight of a young women who seemed concerned and he slowly began to rise from the dirt floor.

When the boy started waking up, Han felt a sense of relief overcome her troubled mind. As he jolted up though, Han jumped back and paused a moment, then went back to him, "You look a little worse for wear. Can you make it inside if I help you?" As a gesture of kindness, she held her hand out to him. She hoped he'd be able to make it in as she wasn't sure if she could carry him or not.

Still confused about his predicament, Xuan knew that he wouldn't be able to take care of himself, as much as he wanted, and saw the woman's held out hand as an invitation for help, so he decided to receive her assistance. He reached towards her hand, turning out to be harder than expected in his current physical state, and began pulling himself up before he collapsed again for the mind-blowing pain in his abdominal area. Feeling embarrassed and frustrated, he tried again, only this time he forced himself to fight through the pain and soon he was being helped along the dirt road with his arm around the kind woman's neck.

Han made sure to support the boy as he got up, he seemed to be in a great amount of pain. It took a few tries, but he finally managed to stand, hooking his arm around her neck, "Here...Take it easy alright?" Han then slowly helped him inside the tea shop, trying to keep him from falling over. Once inside, Han took him through the kitchen into the main room, helping him to sit at one of the tables. She then turned to her customers, "Sorry guys! We need to close early. We'll open back up later." Despite the protests, the customers left and Han locked the door behind them. She then returned to the boy and looked him over, "Are you alright? Can I get you anything?"

Xuan looked up at her and tried to speak, but his throat was hoarse and also in pain and all that came out was a low, crackling groan. He tried again and managed to say,
" Wa...wa...t...ter."

"Alright...don't push yourself," Han said hurrying to the kitchen. Shen came back with a glass of cold water and a bowl with warm water and a rag in it. She hurried back and set the water glass in front of him. She then pulled a chair up beside him and set the bowl on the table. "What happened to you? You look like you picked a fight with a cougar-badger," Han commented as she squeezed most of the water from the rag and gently started wiping his face a bit.

Xuan flinched at her strange, foreign kindness as the rag touched his head, but as she continued, he slowly relaxed as it comforted him and he began to recount what happenned, still hoarse.
" Well... I had just arrived in the city on Fei, and... oh my god! Fei!"
Xuan suddenly remembered that his sky bison was nowhere to be seen and he panicked, quickly attempting to jolt up, only to be thrown back down by the continued pain in his body. He was sick of being injured and wanted to run and look for Fei and he screamed and slammed his hand on the table in frustration, not realizing that Han was still watching him.