Disclaimer: I don't own the avatar, or it's character.
The night was silent, peaceful and cold as Zuko was considering blowing up the damned door. He wasn't good at picking locks. It always came across to Zuko as somewhat dishonorable skill, and most doors came down with a single kick anyway. But the stone door was ridiculously thick. And this lock seemed more like some monstrous bulk then a lock.
as far as Zuko knew, airbenders did not have any worldly possessions. They had no need for locks. But he still had to go in, check just in case. You never knew, after all. Maybe he had, for once in his life, stumbled in to some luck. You never knew if he might be able to go back home, If he had only trained harder, searched a bit more throughly, or right now, scaled the walls.
The blue spirit slid down and landed with a roll, quick, silent, and stealthy. Despite the thin layer of black cloth and the feeling of mask on his scar, he felt like he really was the mischivious spirit, slipping in and out of reality. One foot in the spirit world, where he could disappear to the dead of night.
Blue spirit glanced at the large passage with stone walls, golden with specks of red, glinting like fiery eyes. It was no air temple, after all. In fact, the slanting walls and carved images reminded Zuko of fire temple. Odd. There was too much stone, of the dusty general earth kingdom kind, for it to be aything fire nation.
And you would have thought that it was one of the forsaken air temples, if you looked at the bodies littering the ground. Zuko tasted vile acid, rebelling in his throat. He swallowed with a grimace.
Dead bodies everywhere just like the southern air temple. taking a step, afraid that it would land on cold body-
Zuko steeled himself, gritted his teeth and thought. He've seen death before. He was not going to throw up. He had grown beyond that. He was not going to retch at such sights anymore.
There were red plates, next to golden jewels. Fire nation uniform.
Why was his home country here?
He moved the opposite direction of where the door had been, his feet extra light and careful to avoid the corpses.
These armors were old. The designs were different, at least fifty years ago, Zuko would guess. Sign of fire bending here and there, which wasn't a surprise, really. Significant portions of the fire nation were fire bender and most were in the army.
No one here seemed to be alive, except for Zuko. He was sure, because he was listening to footstep. And other things that would like to kill him.
After all, places where death happened so much tended to make spirits restless.
He really didn't want to believe in spirit, but he was traveling with uncle. Uncle Iroh had hinted that not acknowledging the spirits were a good way to die. And he believed uncle Iroh, so he decided to keep a eye out for spirits, ready to run. The fact that, in addition to everything, Zuko had to watch out for spirit too rankled Zuko, considering the fact that out of his fourteen years of life, he had never, ever felt the blessing of a spirit.
But it didn't change the fact that a spirit could and would make your life like few of more unpleasant and burning places in the spirit world. He wished he had some salt on him.
He drew up a fireball in his hand. he looked around. Those things couldn't be real gold. Some of the army would have looted it, cursed or not. Idiots always brought their own demise, he thought grimly. And failures survived by groveling and being cowardly.
No. zuko was not going to go in to that. He needed his head clear. He bit his lips, desperately not thinking. Focus.
Something snagged his feet. He quickly took a step back as the floor opened up beneath him, revealing spikes and deadly intent. Another trap. He had to be on his guard. Most of them were too old to be functioning, but some still worked well. Those guys must have been good at making traps. He backed up, and jumped over. Landing with one hand to support him. He looked again at the trap. The dead armies, the boobie trap, somebody was hiding something. Something important.
And maybe the army hasn't found it. If they worked this hard to protect whatever it is, then they probably worked a little bit harder.. Zuko continued, in to the center of the temple. Zuko glanced back at a hoot of a cat-owl. He reminded himself that the blue spirit did not jump at the slightest sound, even if it was so quiet here. He met a dead end. There. A classic switch, a strangely shaped block of stone, with faint outline of hand. He pushed, gently, and the trap changed, again, to a hole. He lowered his hand. The small fire didn't offer much illumination. he could only see a rather precarious looking footholds, looking just barely more inviting then that trap with the spike had been. He tried rattling one of the ledge close to the surface. it didn't rattle, so maybe it was safe. He crawled down, sticking close to the wall as possible. At least he was used to ropes. Unable to see, it was worse then the air temples had been.
The floor, he realized with relief as he hit solid ground, was devoid of pointy, lethal stuff. He summoned a fireball. The long corridor only went one way. Toward the center.
There was a jewel on the circle room on a pedestal, sitting in a way that was most absolutely inconspicuous way. It was sitting all innocent-like, on a pedestal that was not attention attracting at all. And it just happened to be in a center of the room.
This was it. The one they were looking for.
He hesitated a little, and then picked it up. The smooth reflective shell was hot to touch, like it was a little sun. He wouldn't have been able to hold it if he wasn't a fire bender. There was a loud squelch sound. Sound of something ... slurry pipeline. He grabbed it and broke through the trapdoor on the ceiling. The door looked too thick to deal with violence. The metal bars on the top looked promising, though, he grabbed a statue's arm and leaped. Zuko was quite a leaper, and he soon was dangling with one hand. Other drew a dao. He slashed though the bars he wasn't holding on to and swung. Nope, not high enough. He looked below. He shuddered at thr houht of what that green ooze could be. Poison, acid and other lethal things were first to come to Zuko's mind. Better stay away from it, then.
He succeeded on the next attempt. He flung himself to the ground and ran, clutching the thing. Tripping on carcasses and adrenalin, Zuko ran. He tasted night air. How air nomads liked it, cool and dry. So diffrent from everything. He flicked up a fire to look around. He jumped over the wall. Sneaking away with a treasure pressed to his chest.