I was in a room adorned with only a hand towel on a rack, a water basin, a blood-red fire nation banner, a small, hard cot in a corner, a woolly blanket and, of course, a door. I was facing the door.

My hands were tightly and thoroughly tied to the metal pole behind me, and my feet were chained to a hook on the floor a few feet away. I was kneeling on the cold floor, with my head bent, the perfect picture of defeat.

But he probably knew better. He being prince Zuko. My captor.

My head shot up as he barged into the room, flanked by two of his stoic and sullen crew members, guards. Here we go again. I sighed and lowered my head again, keeping with my defeated act.

"So are you ready to tell me yet? Or will you keep playing innocent and docile? We both know it's just an act." I just stayed exactly as I was.

"WHERE IS THE AVATAR?" I flinched. Ok, I was done playing defeated. I raised my head and glared.

"Look, for the umpteenth time, I don't know where he is. I was on my way to look for him when who shows up but Prince Zuko and his band of Merry Men." I glanced at the guards. Their expressions didn't change. As always.

"You are a highly trained Seeker, part of an elite band of child and teen prodigy spies trained thoroughly in nearly every kind of martial arts and weaponry that the world has to offer. You are both a diplomat and an actor, with masterful knowledge of all four kinds of bending-"

"And yet somehow I got captured by you." I mumbled. Oops, I would pay for that. If he even heard me. But Zuko had not yet finished his speech.

"-not to mention if you can bend yourself. You have yet to divulge that knowledge to me. You have been schooled in military tactics and strategies, and even the history and culture of all four nations, including air. You have been trained since infancy in all this, and yet you expect me to believe that you don't know where the Avatar is." Boy, this guy had a lot of wind. At least I knew now the point of that spiel.

"Gee, I'll try to take time out of my busy schedule to feel flattered. But you really don't think that they would have us spread out so much to look for the Avatar if we knew where he was, do you?" I shifted where I sat. My legs were cold and numb from kneeling for so long.

"You've been schooled in diversionary tactics as well as I have, Lady Cadence. So where were you going? Don't make me force it out of you. It might hurt." Zuko was starting to get angry and frustrated. Not a good combination in this particular hothead.

"You know full well that I was going south when you overcame my ship. Figure it out yourself." Zuko advanced toward me slowly and said in a creepily low voice: "I'll give you one last chance. Where is the Avatar?"

"My guess is as good as yours, and I'm not going to figure it out sitting here, am I? I didn't know the first dozen times, and I still don't. Hurting me isn't going to change that. Nor is asking me again and again and again…" That's when he sent a roundhouse kick aimed at my head. I ducked as well as I could in my bound state and managed to miss most of it, his foot only just catching my cheek and effectively slamming my head back into the pole I was tethered to.

"I don't know!" I burst out. My head was throbbing and there was blood trickling down my cheek. Zuko raised his hand to slap me. Lucky for me, that's when Zuko's uncle Iroh walked in.

"I heard shouting. Prince Zuko, what's… Zuko! She has already told you many times that she doesn't know where the Avatar is!"

"But Uncle, she's lying!" Zuko whirled around to face his uncle.

"No, Prince Zuko, she's telling the truth!" Iroh retorted.

"No kidding, hothead." I grumbled. To say I was out-of-sorts because of my new injury would be an understatement. Zuko just glared at me and stormed out, followed by his guards. Iroh just sighed and dipped the hand towel into the water basin. He knelt down and started wiping the blood off my cheek.

"My nephew means well…" I'm sure. "…but he's just confused right now. He wants to restore his honour and return to his father. I am sorry for the pain he has caused you these past few days. I am sure he will let you go soon." I was silent.

Once he had finished tending to my injuries and had left, I made sure my one, four-inch throwing knife was still strapped to my arm under my long sleeve. How on earth haven't they noticed it? Oh well. I was waiting for when we landed to make my epic and memorable breakout. There was no point breaking out when I had nowhere to go. Zuko had inferenced that since I had been heading south when he caught me, I was going to the Southern Water Tribe. He was right, of course, but I wasn't about to tell him that. It had been my mission to infiltrate the tribe and become one of them. I was to live with them for roughly a year, or until I found the Avatar, unless an extreme emergency came up.

After a few minutes, a guard came in to give me a plate of soggy food, and he stood by while I ate. Two more guards stood by the door. Wow, I'm important enough to get 3 guards all to myself. I'll try not get a swelled head, I thought sarcastically. The guard that had given me my food re-tied/chained me to the cot in the corner. I co-operated. He took my plate and left. He also locked the door.

He wouldn't have been able to capture me if it hadn't been for some idiot that lost hold of their sword during the skirmish. I'm just lucky I got hit by the hilt. I'm not so lucky that I got knocked unconscious and wound up here. I wonder how my ship and crew are… Anyways, I should probably sleep. We should be arriving at the Southern Water Tribe soon…

So I slept.