My Life I Give to My Country
Chapter 1
That day we received a messenger hawk from the capital.
The war was over, the Fire Lord defeated, and Crown Prince Zuko to be coronated within the week. It was all a very momentous victory for the Avatar and his allies.
Our orders were to remain at our posts, wait for further instructions from the Fire Lord after he'd been crowned, and maybe go home before the winter set in. But the captain looked nervous, and his anxiety permeated through all the ranks present.
"Officers," he began, clearing his throat with a cough, "we have a situation."
"Sir? The war is over. There's been a worldwide ceasefire declared."
The captain walked to the other end of the officer's tent and sat down at the head of the war table quietly. "The new Fire Lord might think the war is over, but I'm afraid that conflict still reigns on our shores," he said gravely. "A call to stop battle cannot mend ill will between men. As the warriors of the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes return home, we cannot assume they will not be looking to settle old scores. If we are attacked for any reason, we have been strictly forbidden by Prince Zuko and his parliament to retaliate. Peace is shaky, and any amount of violence from the Fire Nation could destroy the balance of peace treaties that our government has arranged."
The captain let this news settle over his officers and they shifted uncomfortably upon their red silk cushions.
"So what you're saying is…if a rogue group of angry earthbenders out for blood finds us, we're dead?" questioned a young lieutenant.
"That's right lieutenant. If we don't defend ourselves, we will surely die. If we fight back, that is an action we cannot undo. We will be without allies in a world that prefers to see us as soulless monsters."
A ripple of distress and worry spread throughout the members of the Southern Seacliffe Post, honorable guard post of the Fire Navy.
"What are we going to do, captain?"
The captain set his mouth in a hard line across his weathered face.
"I, for one, am not willing to become a corpse just yet. We will fight for our lives, even if we have to fight the entire Water Navy to keep them."
I felt fear take hold of my heart and tighten its grip like a vice. Surely, I thought, we are all going to die.
Southern Seacliffe Post was a decently sized Fire Nation outpost, located on an island of some 7,000 native inhabitants, somewhere between the Earth Kingdom's southern tip and the South Pole. The people who lived there didn't really know which nation they belonged to originally, but had been assimilated into a Fire Nation lifestyle a generation ago. Minimal bitterness persisted between the soldiers who occupied the island and its people. Many soldiers had married the island's women and had families with whom they lived in either of two villages. New soldiers were rarely posted so far south where such little threat appeared and the group had experienced few casualties within the last 5 years.
However, the north side of the island was ringed by many other islands, primarily abandoned during the peak of the war, which would soon be repopulated by war-hardened veterans and "productive" young warriors alike. Those new men and women would be well aware that this Fire Nation-controlled group of islands had once been a great port between the Earth Kingdom and Southern Water Tribe. This served as the basis of the captain's fears.
It was only a matter of time, he believed. So the day after the messenger hawk bore its bittersweet message of the Fire Nation's concession to peace, the captain organized a group to spearhead a grand survival plan.
I was to lead this team.
Seacliffe Island was my home in many ways and I felt a strong duty to protect its people from the backlash of a war that didn't belong on to them. I'd been stationed on the island for three years now, having received a transfer from my previous assignment farther north and deep inland of the Earth Kingdom. Once, I'd assisted a group of strategists who planned a highly successful raid of an Earth Kingdom stronghold and had received a commendation. The captain looked to this talent now to aid in a different sort of battle.
"Lt. Shihan, the other officers are waiting for you inside," came a voice from the flap of the large tent that once served as our battle planning headquarters. I stared at the proud, violent red of the Fire Nation flag waving from atop the tent's center pole. Does flying that flag now endanger us, when it was once a symbol of our indomitable strength? I sighed.
Jia Shihan was my given name, a credit, my father had said, to the wisdom and intelligence he hoped to imbue in me. He did not think it was much wisdom when I decided to join our nation's fearsome Navy and serve the Fire Lord. Perhaps he had seen the life of a schoolteacher in my future, or if I achieved much, a tutor at the royal palace. This scene before me now, planning the fight for my life, would cause him to turn over in his grave. The man had never cared to hear news of success in war, but defeat he cared to hear even less.
I think somehow he knew I'd never return to see the shores of home.
I'd taken an oath to the Fire Lord when I first accepted my commission and my duties still called me to action. Replacing my gloves on my hands and my helmet on my head, I entered the new strategic headquarters with a show of confidence despite my ever-growing self-doubt.
"Alright soldiers," I said as I sat down on a threadbare cushion. "Let's figure out a way to keep our people alive."
Quick first chapter. I wanted to get the idea down before it ran away from me!