Book One: Omashu
Chapter I: The Ambush
The quiet column of Earth Kingdom soldiers steadily moved onward, determined to put as many miles behind them as they could. In the western Earth Kingdom there was no telling what could befall even a decent sized force of soldiers and earthbenders if they were to march at night. The mountains were dangerous, crawling with all sorts of beasts, and worse yet – firebenders.
Ever since the War began, the Fire Nation tried to gain a strong foothold on the shore of the Earth Kingdom, and it seems they had succeeded. There were only several safe places for Earth Kingdom soldiers or refugees, and one of those was the south-western Earth Kingdom military base, located in the mountains some way south of Omashu (it would later be known to the Avatar and his companions as General Fong's base).
And that was where the 53rd Omashu regiment was headed. The regiment consisted of five hundred soldiers in total, along with a hundred of armoured Ostrich Horses. Of the soldiers, only fifty were earthbenders, as the War was straining the Earth Kingdom army and forcing it to direct most its earthbenders to the north-western coast; Omashu was forced to rely on its own garrison for benders, along with whatever few Ba Sing Se would spare.
Only a handful of the earthbenders were from Omashu, as King Bumi's captains, just like the Council of the Five at Ba Sing Se, could only spare so many. The earthbenders they did spare, however, were mostly youths, ill-experienced and just finished with their training. And even though three years of trudging about the Earth Kingdom did get them accustomed with a soldier's way of life, the fact they had not yet taken part in any of the true engagements didn't help with their lack of experience.
One of these Omashu earthbenders was Li Tzu; son of Feng Tzu, an earthbender and a soldier of the Earth Kingdom, and Yin Tzu, daughter of a wealthy trader from Omashu. Li himself was still at his prime, having recently hit his twenty third year of life, and still hadn't lost the optimistic outlook that the Earth Kingdom could, and would win the War.
However, three years of walking from base to base without any serious assignment had made his energy fade somewhat. By now, he was similar to most other soldiers of the Earth Kingdom Army, benders or not; perhaps the only thing that still stood out from other soldiers was his unsure look on life and his bending, which was based on a small amount of bending he saw the soldiers at Omashu performing, combined with his own practices, resulting in a style more reminiscent of waterbending to those who had seen the Northern and Southern waterbenders. Believing it to be inferior to that of other earthbenders, Li always used his short spear in conjunction with it, which also hinted at the odd nature of his bending, since spear wasn't a weapon commonly employed with earthbending.
By now, the other earthbenders of the regiment had gotten used to the 'oddities' of Li, and thus no one gave the young man any weird looks for the different, more flowing movements he used to move his large stone disc forward. Like most other regiments, the 53rd had one of these large tools for each earthbender in the regiment. Shaped like large versions of the Earth Kingdom symbol, they could serve as many things, from mobile walls to means of transportation for the earthbenders.
Currently they were only being a hindrance, however, and although Li knew the discs would probably come in handy when they finally got into a battle, he was all for throwing them off the mountain right this very moment. The narrow path they marched through only allowed for five men to march together shoulder-to-shoulder, thus the earthbenders were split into ten rows, each separated from the other by their discs, which the first five rows moved before them while the other five dragged them behind themselves.
Li was on the very left edge of the last row; to his right was another earthbender from Omashu, Tho, and to his left – a very steep slope. He and the other benders could only move very slowly, since they had to deal with several problems – the need to maintain constant contact with the ground with at least one leg at a time to prevent the discs from falling off the mountain, also avoiding slipping and falling down while moving backwards and still be concentrated enough on the discs or, in Li's case, the small rock columns, as he moved his discs by slowly moving his hands in a circular motion and raising a new column each time his hand reached the highest spot of the circle.
The atmosphere was certainly not very cheerful; this was the first time they were as near to death as they were now. To make matters worse, most of them were pondering on the possibility of an ambush by the Fire Nation, although some encouraged themselves that the hated firebenders would find themselves in a similarly difficult situation and forget about trying to ambush the marching troops.
As hard as he tried, Li could not fend off thoughts about his father – had he went through a similar path at some time of his service as a soldier, maybe even this one? What if he had been unlucky and slipped? What if the Fire Nation had attacked the regiment he was in? So many doubts and considerations filled him that the young earthbender only barely avoided meeting the fate he was considering – he noticed his foot was about to miss the earth at the last moment. Had this happened, he would've fallen off balance and at best lost his disc; at worst, he would've lost his life.
Just as he shook his head to try and concentrate fully again, he felt someone grab his shoulder. Surprised, Li turned to see that it was Tho, who hurled him to the ground, ignoring the fact that both of their discs, with no more support from the benders, rolled down the path and finally off the slope.
"Tho, what the h-" Li was cut off when a fireball flew right past where his head was moments ago, bursting into a massive flame as the one who sent it unleashed another one, accompanied by many others.
Feeling panic fill him, Li reached out for his spear. Someone in the distance cried 'AMBUSH!'; a whistle was blown, signalling for the earthbenders to form a platform behind the troops to give them space to manoeuvre.
Some of the battle-hardened earthbenders immediately took up the task, soon followed by those less experienced; one joint earthbending movement was all it took to make a portion of the mountain road three times as wide as it was before. Previously such earthbending would've attracted the Fire Nation's attention, but now it no longer mattered – they had found the 53rd regiment.
Feeling strangely dizzy, Li rose up, his short spear in hand. It all seemed unreal, like a series of pictures; the military drill couldn't prepare for the thrill, chaos and confusion of the real battle.
The discs were quickly moved to shield the regiment's front from firebenders' attacks; it was still unclear from where had the Fire Nation soldiers struck, and thus the earthbenders couldn't respond with a counterattack.
However, the Earth Kingdom troops could soon get a very clear view at their attackers; Li only barely managed to bend himself a way around the disc wall before the firebenders unleashed another wave of quick strikes, going out of their hiding in the process. The earthbenders answered by quickly bending the square holes in the middles of their discs open and propelling rocks roughly towards the ambushers before bending the discs shut again.
Li only managed to get a hold of himself when the firebenders struck the third time; when the disc centres were once again bended open, he joined in with the attack, firmly planting his feet in the ground and raising a rock by moving his hand in a half crescent, before letting it loose with a swift stab of his spear.
However, the situation the Earth Kingdom troops found themselves in was a dire one – their platform was getting thinner with every earthbending attack, and their discs were growing thinner with every firebending one. It was obvious that if the battle went in such turns for much longer the 53rd Omashu regiment would soon be another regiment in the list of units annihilated by the Fire Nation.
As soon as the firebenders struck for the fourth time, Hao, the captain of the regiment, signalled to bend the disc wall into two parts; the firebenders used this opportunity to deliver a quick blow, although it was significantly weaker than the previous ones due to the firebenders expecting to face another attack of the earthbenders instead of this strange manoeuvre. Hao, however, ignoring the flames that delivered injuries to several of his soldiers, as well as a couple of fatal blows, assumed the usual immovable earthbending stance, then extended both his hands forward towards the mountain. Imitating grasping the rocks with his hands, the captain began executing an earthbending move that could've very well been the doom of both the Fire Nation troops and the 53rd Omashu regiment.
Li and several other young earthbenders watched in quiet awe as Hao slowly pulled his hands towards himself, sweat emerging on his brow, his teeth clenched so tight they creaked. Somewhere above in the mountains, a rumble was heard. With a triumphant look on his face, Hao suddenly pulled his hands backwards quickly, then signalled to close and fortify the disc wall.
It was obvious that such a display of earthbending prowess had exhausted the captain; however, it was well worth it. Li was more than impressed when he saw that Hao had created a huge avalanche. Unfortunately, it was coming towards the Earth Kingdom soldiers and it seemed unlikely that even all the earthbenders together could stop it – moving it was easier, although still no easy task, but stopping it would be nigh-impossible for all but the masters of earthbending.
With haste, the earthbenders moved the disc wall together again, holding it tight, while those not occupied with maintaining the wall bended another layer of rock in front of it. Li, Tho and the rest of the earthbenders who had lost their discs frantically worked to raise another, thicker wall, Tho with the usual straightforward earthbending moves the other earthbenders also used and Li in his traditional flowing style.
However, the avalanche was moving too fast for the earthbenders to finish, and it bore down on them before the second rock wall was ready. The falling rocks smashed into the incomplete work of the earthbenders; most of them attempted to stop the rocks heading at them with their bending, however the platform under them collapsed, sending both the benders and the simple soldiers falling to their deaths. The last thing Li knew was that he was falling, then something hit the back of his head and everything went black.