Author's note: I obviously don't own Avatar or else I wouldn't be here writing this.
Please don't flame my pairings because I love ANY and ALL pairings in Avatar so it's kind of useless.
I'm not a professional writer so don't expect too much. I'm just an old bum who hasn't written anything in a long time (cleaned everything out).
I'm also never sure when the next update will be, if there is one, because I write whenever I feel like it.
Remember, comments encourage writers to write!
So hopefully you'll all enjoy this!
Chapter One: Princess in Prison and Prince of the Forest
"Water… please" she panted and begged. Four days now she hadn't been given water and she had to live off the humidity in the air to keep her body from over dehydrating. Her cell was a small bricked and metal windowless room which smelled of her own waste in the corner and raw dirt and mold. It was cold inside, with no light, and only a small pile of straws in the other corner for her to sleep on. Of course it smelled foul, not just the room, but the rags she was in too: torn, unsaturated simple oversized red t-shirt and baggy knee length pants.
She shivered and banged her weak fist against the door again. "Please…" Her golden eyes searched hopefully and desperately beyond the black strands of messy hair in her face. The only way to see out was the fist sized peep hole on the barred door, and no one answered.
She hadn't hear any guard walk past her door for over a week let alone given food or further punishment, which was the one thing she was grateful for being in solitude. But now she'd rather get hammered for the slightest piece of bread to chew on to quiet her empty stomach. Few months ago they'd come in and beat her when she cried or yelled for attention when everyone ignored her needs, but after weeks of neglect, her body was weary and it felt as if her mind was going insane.
The girl slid to the muddy floor with her back against the cold iron door, and rubbed the various browns and purples clumped together into one big dark bruise on her thighs. She felt her tears gather around her eyes but shook her head to stop herself. She can't afford to lose anymore water in her body. Already her body was losing more meat than she was sure she had before she was hauled into the prison, whenever that was. She tried recalling how she got here, but she had idea, rather, she didn't even have the slightest clue as to who she is... or was.
'Whoever I am, I must've been a very bad person to deserve this.' She concluded to herself.
Indeed she was a bad person. Who would have thought the princess of the fire nation, the genius and child prodigy of her generation, would end up in a prison cell in deepest pit in the middle of nowhere, trapped with the deadliest and cruelest criminals from all over the world. Well, perhaps that much was predicted after her defeat against the water bender Katara and the now king of the fire nation and her older brother, Zuko. But no one knew of her amnesia and torture she undergone.
The torture was just inhuman, to be described in one word. No prisoner had ever had as many and heavy beatings as she did, not even the big tough murderers, abusers, and assaulters combined. She had suffered fractured bones, dislocated joints, and countless cuts, leaving her scars and wounds still in need of healing. All in all, the only thing in her memory she could recall were torment and nothing else. She doesn't even know her own name, or what she looks like, having never seen a mirror or given enough water to look into the reflection. All she knew was that she's too scrawny to break out of prison, which, by the way she only guessed must be the prison for such horrible treatment to people.
Then suddenly she heard heavy footsteps. Three, no, five fully sized male guards marched over and stopped right outside her room. She jumped to her feet and immediately scooted to the far corner, hoping to conceal herself in the darkness, though she knew it would do her no good anyway. If someone was kind enough to have gone and fetched her water, there wouldn't be in any need of sending five grown men for her. This had to be another round of whipping. Her face paled, if that was even possible from her already paled face from her confinement and lack of light, and fear raced her heart. And here she thought they finally lost interest in torturing her. What a small break that was.
The door barged open, and sudden light shone in. She reached frantically up to cover her face, and eyes, from being blinded. Her dilated eyes tried to scan the faces of the guards, but failed miserably against the brightness.
"Get up." One of the men spoke strictly, prodding her with a weighty cane. "We have orders from the King to transport you." He jabbed her sides again, harder this time. "Don't make me repeat myself."
She supported herself on the wall to get to her splintered and dirty feet, and followed the men without a word
Perhaps the men wondered why she was so unusually quiet and obedient, perhaps they didn't. Perhaps the princess feared for her fragile life and uncertain future, or perhaps she saw this as an opportunity… for escape.
"Longshot! Smellerbee!" A slightly hoarse voice shouted through the leaves. A boy n older than seventeen ran through the forest, brushing harshly aside the twigs and branched concealing his way. "Guys! Where are you?"
"Jet?" A high pitched voice asked uncertainly from above. A tomboyish girl with brown fuzzy hair dropped from the tree above and landed next to him. Another second later, a boy around Jet's age and height joined her. "Jet! Where have you been the past week?" She hugged him tightly around the waist with her small arms.
"Yea, I'm back," Jet smiled, or smirked rather, and looked from the girl that is Smellerbee to his best friend Longshot, who gave him an uneasy look. Was that jealousy in his eyes? Jet was surprised at how the always wise and contained Longshot would show jealousy through his eyes, especially when they all know that Jet and Smellerbee thought of each other as nothing more than siblings. 'Man, people sure changed during that time I was 'dead'', Jet thought to himself, and shrugged, pushing Smellerbee gently away. "Good to see you guys too."
"You could've at least left us a note or something," Longshot frowned. "We were so worried you went and got yourself in trouble again."
Okay, so Jet was wrong about the jealousy part, but still, he couldn't deny the fact that Longshot has been quite protective of Smellerbee lately. "Well, I've got some news I figured you guys would want to hear." Their leader said, hoping they'd forgive him. "I didn't have time to tell you two before I left because I was in a hurry."
Longshot wasn't finished with his lecturing and was about to make a comment related to "hurrying" and "death", but thought better and shut his mouth before the words came out.
"News?" Smellerbee asked, not so much concerned about Jet disappearing and reappearing whenever he felt like. She was just glad he was safe. "Good or bad news? Because you know, I don't want to be involved in something that'll have you ending up dead… again." She stressed the word "again".
'These two just won't let me off the hook, huh?' Jet contemplated in his head. "Good news." He leaned against a tree and unsheathed his hooked swords, "I heard from a reliable source that they're moving the Fire Nation's ex-princess, Azula, to the capital, and possibly, the castle. So having to check to see if the words are true, I made a quick trip to the prison she was in, and with a quick disguise and talking to a few loose mouths on top of seeing her escorted out of her cell with my own eyes, it's confirmed that she's to leave, well, today actually."
"Yea, so?" The small girl asked with a raised eyebrow, now folding her arms in front of her. Their archer wasn't very keen on the news as he eyed Jet suspiciously.
"So… we go and capture her. It's our only chance. Besides, they're traveling on the public train, for whatever reason, so it'll be easy to get on."
There was a moment of silence as his two friends stared at him mouths opened, as if he was crazy. Smellerbee was the first to snap back into reality while Longshot remained in his thoughts, "are you CRAZY? No wait, yes, yes you are, but this is just INSANE!"
Longshot, however, remained calm and glanced at Jet with his unchanging serious face. "Why do you need to do this Jet? What does it accomplish? We all know the Fire Lord Ozai was defeated by Aang and his crew, and that Zuko's now the King. The world is in peace now, we can just go back to-" But before he could finish, Jet interrupted him, in an even more serious and strong-willed voice.
"Go back to what, Longshot, what?" Jet chucked one of his blades at the foot of the tree, the blade digging deep into the soil beneath. "We don't have families, remember? We're orphans. We don't have any lives. We lived to fight the Fire Nation. It doesn't matter if Ozai's dead, which I'm sure he's not because Aang wouldn't have the guts to kill him. The fight hasn't ended yet. We take down the Fire Nation or else nothing would change!" Jet's face was hot as he fumed and ranted. "We need to take Azula as hostage."
The only words that Smellerbee could manage out of her mouth were "why Jet? Why…" She had hoped that now the war was over there would be no need of fighting and they could try and resume the life they never had. What Jet was suggesting was another risk, and possibility of destroying the peace Aang and his friends fought so hard for, the peace they themselves fought so hard for.
"Are you sure about this?" Longshot asked. Although settling down with Smellerbee and forming a family with the other Freedom Fighters was what Longshot had in mind, he wasn't about to abandon his friend, whose wound seems harder to heal than anyone else's.
"Definitely." Jet was never more determined.
She trembled as they jerked her shackles and nearly dragged her across the hallway. From outside she could hear voices she didn't when she was locked up, voices of other cellmates screaming, yelling, begging and pleading behind metal doors. Was that what she sounded like? They continued on until they've reached a small room, again, with no windows, with simple wooden table and a stool, and thankfully it didn't smell half as bad as the one she had been in for the lifespan of her memory. She was suddenly aware of how horrid she smells, being now surrounded by clean smell of wood and… food?
Her mouth watered and her stomach growled against her will. She swallowed her saliva in protest. What kind of torture is this? This was worse than just being beaten. Sure she's been shown her ration of food before only to be dumped to the ground in front of her so she'd have to eat the remains from the filthy ground, but that was better than not having anything to eat right? So what now, are they going to show her perfectly steamed meat buns and tea only to beat her and send her back to her prison feeling hungrier than ever? Secretly she scowled at the guards, and then instantly felt drained again. She didn't have energy to fight or think anymore. She was tired, confused, scared, and just plain miserable.
"Sit, woman." The watch ordered and shoved her into the stool. Without unchaining her constraints, he demanded again, "eat."
Wait, eat? Did he just tell her to eat? She took a glance at the food set in front of her with uncertain muddy yellow eyes. Is this a trick? Make her eat and then beat her up until she throws it all up? She gulped down her fears and hesitantly reached a muddy hand for the hot soft roll. Her stomach felt so painful at the sudden opportunity, it was speaking against her mind and her hands here moving against her will. She doesn't care anymore. She can deal with the consequences later, right now, she could only think of stuffing her stomach, even if the food will come up later.
With that, the girl started shoving handful of steamed dumplings and meat buns down her throat between greedy drinks of tea. She moved so fast her throat hurt from the lack of chewing and she didn't bother letting the tea slide down her face wetting her shirt, nor did she mind the fact that she was eating in the dirt on her hand she smeared on the delicacies. From time to time, she would puke up the food, but she swallowed them back down before they can make it out of her mouth. If they haven't beaten her yet, then they probably wouldn't… unless she wastes the food, possibly.
Surprisingly, nothing happened, besides the disgusted looks she'd get from one or two of the guards from time to time, until she finished all that was on the table. She burped satisfied, her stomach now full and feeling like she's six months pregnant. Almost instantaneously when she consumed the last drop of her tea, the man closest to her hauled her out of the chair.
Out of reflex, her skin instantly goose-bumped and cold sweat of fear soaked her already damp shirt. But there was no punch or slap across the face. He simply directed her out the room to another. This room was much smaller than the room she dined in, around the same size as her cell. It was completely metal with a horizontal pole stretching across the ceiling with rings and a plastic curtain attached. One man pulled open the curtain roughly, revealing only one shower head. Apparently it was a single person shower room.
"Clean yourself off. Towel and clothes are over there" he pointed to the basket in the corner inside the shower area. He unchained only the right side of her wrist cuffs and relocked them onto his own arm. "Don't try anything funny or these men will fry your head off."
'Fire benders.' She thought, but a moment later she pondered how she knew the term and what it was when she clearly couldn't remember even her own name or who she is, or if she knew anyone.
She would've been surprised by her own knowledge, or why she felt more threatened about being chained than fire benders, if it wasn't for the fact that the guards remained in place with no signs of leaving. Wait, they're going to stand here and watch her shower?
"Umm…"
The guard who did all the speaking and the unchaining and re-chaining glared at her, but seemed to know what she was concerned with. He pulled a knee-length plastic certain from one wall to another in between him and her closed so they wouldn't be able to see up past her knees. There was a slit cut on the curtain for their hands to pull through. She supposed this wasn't the first time they had to chain a prisoner who needs showering.
Without complaining, she turned on the shower, and tried to suppress the sigh of bliss that pressured to escape her lips. Was she dreaming? She was given food AND a bath. She had to be dreaming. Or maybe she already died from starvation or disease and this was heaven. No, someone like her wouldn't be in heaven. Maybe this was hell? She didn't bother anymore, and enjoyed the hot water clean off her skin as she scrubbed her dirt and straw covered hair with soap and inhaled the warm vapor into her lungs.
She never felt so alive when she was done drying herself and stepped into fresh Fire Nation peasant clothing. Her long black hair flowed down almost to her waist, and she brushed her fingers through them to clear out the knots in them. After several attempts, and ripping out too much hair in the process, she gave up. Before she could tell the guards she was done, the curtain was pulled opened and the inpatient guard re-attached her cuffs.
Treating her just the tiniest slightest hint more like a human being, they ushered her to the stairs and from there they climbed what must have felt like over thirty flights of steps, until they reached the front gate above ground and when the giant thick wooden and metal doors opened, sunlight poured onto her like lava. She never felt as blind as she did now, her eyes burned gold. But she didn't bother closing them, she let them sting, and let the pain punch her body. She could feel the power filling her. She felt so right out here, so alive. Her eyes quickly adjusted, much faster than any normal person would be having been underground for months.
The first thing her cleared up eyes saw was a train, a small distance across a bridge directly ahead from where they were, waiting at what looks like a small train platform. It took them less than ten minutes to get across the bridge, and when they arrived, the girl could see that there were already some passengers there, most looking uneasy and nervous, quite possibly because this train actually stopped at the station they'd never dreamed would, in front of the infamous prison, Dead Drop. Dead Drop was most known for being dug deep and dark into the ground. Some of the most important prisoners and the Nation's most wanted were sent here just so people wouldn't know. Of course many were sent to Boiling Rock, but they couldn't risk keeping all the deadliest criminals at the same place. Especially not after the prison break incident only a year ago.
When they got to the door of the train, two of the guards got on first before she was shoved in. They made her take the window seat as one man sat down besides her while the rest of the guards took their place in the row before and behind her. Once they sat down, the train took off.
She stared out the window at the beautiful landscape of fields and forests at the foot of mountains in off distance and then at the clear blue sky above. 'This must be a dream…' And then it hit her. She had been so content the past half and hour, that by the time she realized it, she mentally smacked herself, hard. Wasn't she trying to escape? Now she got onto the train that's taking her to who knows where and she'll probably end up in more torture than ever before! 'You idiot!' She wanted to hit her head against the wall, hard.
To be Continued...