In the Shadow of the Wall
Before dawn on the six-hundredth day of the siege and the sky was clear. Prince Lu Ten emerged from his humble army issued tent and scrubbed up at one of the barrels of clean water that were scattered throughout the camp. He pulled on his uniform and armor with the ease that the peasants slip on their boots. The only thing that distinguished him from the other men of his current rank was the small insignia on his collar that most Earth Kingdom military men would not look twice at. It wouldn't do to make himself a target for an ambitious Earth Kingdom general going into business for himself by trying to ransom a prince off.
He made his way silently to the front, where the trebuchets lazily launched tar-covered flaming metal balls at the freshly broken outer wall. Both sides were tired of the siege but neither could back down either. He could almost set his timepiece to the answering fling of boulders as they clacked against the metal barriers and shields that had been raised up against the Wall Guard.
The young prince sighed. He would have rather joined the navy, but both his father and grandfather believed that he needed to cut his teeth in battle under the capable command of his father, Prince Iroh the Dragon of the West. Serving under his father had been… interesting. If "interesting" meant that he often felt like a pai sho tile shuffled around a battlefield. He knew his father was trying to shield him from any actual combat. Though now with the outer wall breeched, he may actually see some action.
Soon the encampment would be fully awake, but the Prince liked the early morning, more time to be alone and think. At least there was an unspoken agreement that when the sun went down, the war slowed down. At least after almost two years, it seemed like a steady rhythm. Though the cracks in the Wall were being slowly repaired, the Fire Nation Army was slowly whittling away Ba Sing Se's supply of earthbenders. Soon they would have to start recruiting the inexperienced or the city militia to fill in the gaps on the defenses.
Another ball of flame soared overhead, but the answering rain of rock and boulders did not come. The prince turned to see what their enemy would do next. Every fiber of his being tensed… the world slowed down and suddenly swarms of earthbenders came up from the ground around him. Dressed in dark robes, almost black, their hats pulled low over their eyes. Heavy chains flew out and encircled him from three sides and he couldn't bend.
"So our intelligence is correct." The first man pulled the chains down, forcing Lu Ten to his knees.
He opened his mouth to scream and his mouth started to fill with dirt. "You will not escape Prince Lu Ten.
The prince's eyes went wide. They knew who he was? How? Spies! Someone was spying on him! Who?
The agents sunk down into the earth, dragging him with them. "By the way, your Uncle told our superior that you should write more. You missed your cousin's birthday."
Uncle Ozai? No… he wouldn't.
Would he?
He struggled, trying to get himself free; he had to warn his father! He couldn't die like this… assassins hired by his treacherous uncle. Enemy assassins no less!
Lu Ten choked and sputtered as the earth pressed him on all sides, filled his nose and mouth. He couldn't get any air. Father! No! It hurt to think.
He couldn't breathe. He choked on dirt, trying to cough but there was nowhere for it to go. It filled his mouth and nose. He could feel the grit in his eyes. The dirt pressed on him from all sides. Even if the chains weren't there, he would not be able to move.
Father!
Darkness.
He drifted silently above the encampment, watching men who had seen him being pulled under dig him out. He could see his father there too, kneeling in the dirt and digging like a mongoose-dog retrieving a lost bone.
He stared down at his father, clutching his filthy body close and lifeless. How he wanted to go back, but… he knew it was impossible. He had died in the ground. And soon his body would be returned to the Fire and his father would return to the Palace to face his brother.
Ozai had sent those benders after him.
But… he was not supposed to be here. He could already feel himself being pulled elsewhere, the living seeming so far away.
His father was on his own now.
He took one last look at his father and let go… letting himself pull him towards wherever he was meant to go.
In the shadow of the outer wall of Ba Sing Se, Prince Iroh, General of the Fire Nation Army and the Dragon of the West, broke.
