Chapter Two.

Azula had made a grave miscalculation.

One would think flying thousands of feet above a frozen, unexplored wasteland inhabited by savages and monsters would have been fun, but it was anything but. It was nothing more than men running about checking valves, rudders, and gas levels. Those not busy with that were bent over maps and fretting over weather.

To make matters worse Azula had left Ty Lee and Mai, her two friends, back in the Fire Nation. She did not even have her brother to torment. She had left them behind mainly because she wished to be the one to tell them what it was like to fly through the air over the clouds. Ty Lee especially would be curious and would have to be content with whatever Azula decided to tell her.

Leaning over the railing of the battle deck, she doubted she could make the trip out to be exciting. The deck was long and narrow, designed for one or two firebenders to stand out on and rain fire down on enemies and buildings bellow. She had sent a few bolts of blue flame downward, only to watch them fizzle before getting near the ground. As powerful as she was they were up quite high and it took much of her energy to keep from getting frost bitten in the sub-zero wind. That she was even able to stand on the battle deck in the open air dressed as she was had amazed the crew.

She had the urge to spit, to see if it would freeze into an ice pellet, but could not bring herself to commit such a vulgar act. Instead she looked about for some frost to collect and send down, and in so doing spied something on the horizon. Squinting, she thought it might be some sort of bird seal given its size and shape, but as it turned into a wind current and gained altitude she saw it was something else entirely.

A sky bison.

There was only one sky bison in the world and even if there were more it was not likely the others would have a saddle. The how and why could wait, she thought, as she ran to the bridge. "You have a problem," she said to the captain, an old, thin man who had commanded a seaborne vessel prior to this assignment.

"Yes, princess?" he said, barely managing to conceal his insolence.

"Look off to starboard. It's the Avatar on his flying buffalo."

The captain smiled, and she could feel the other crewmen pretending to focus more intently on their work while they watched the interaction from the corners of their eyes.

"The Avatar? Isn't he..."

"Dead? Apparently not. I'm telling you, look!"

The captain waived towards a navigator who didn't look as busy as the others, bidding him to look through a nearby window. Frost had collected on the outside of the glass and while he tried in vain to clear his view, Azula lost her patience. "How do I get to the top of the balloon?" she asked.

"Erm...at this altitude I wouldn't..."

"At this altitude you'll die before you hit the ground after I've thrown you off," Azula said, and was promptly directed towards a hatch near the middle of the ship. Two men were at her back, and helped open the hull where a ladder ran up the side of the balloon.

"Tell the captain to decrease our altitude," Azula said. "Tell him that's an order!"

One of the men left, and before ascending the ladder Azula made it clear what would happen to the other if the hatch closed behind her. He nodded and up she went, her concentration bent on keeping her body warm in the blistering cold as her light clothing offered almost no protection.

It took longer than she thought to gain the top of the balloon. Her warm hands made the frozen rungs slippery, and keeping warm and climbing tired her out as well. -It's nothing,- she thought. -I'm the most powerful firebender in the world, cold is nothing, cold is nothing...-

At the top with the wind pushing her she thought that perhaps she'd let her confidence go too far. There was no sign of the bison and for a moment she became angry at how foolish she would look when she went back in, but that emotion was soon replaced when she saw someone in blue furs kneeling over the top of the balloon working intently at something.

With a wide stance she went forward softly, wanting the element of surprise. "So," she shouted above the wind. "You're alive."

The face that turned to her did not belong to the Avatar. His skin was light brown, his eyes a bright blue. She thought she recognized him, but there would no telling who he was after she burned him and sent him to the ground.

"You!?" he shouted, keeping his face towards her and his body hunkered over what he was doing.

-He's drilling a hole to let the gas escape,- she thought, knowing a similar tactic was used on wooden sea ships. -Fool, the metal is too thick for that. And too thick to be harmed by flame.-

A cold gust made her unsteady on her feet and she decided to end the encounter by sending a long bolt of fire at the boy which would set him aflame and knock him off the balloon to die.

He shouted "No!" before leaping out of the way, surprisingly agile in such thick furs. Azula did not have time to so much as curse in the span of time it took her to realize her fire was going to hit the keg of blasting jelly the Water Tribe boy had been planting.

The explosion was powerful enough to knock her through the air and send her sliding over the top of the balloon, but it was more of a pop compared to what happened next when the gas inside the balloon combusted. She felt her body vibrate enough to make her nauseous as the sides of the balloon blew out. That was quickly followed by a great wave of rolling metal and canvass that sent another wave of force through her, tearing away her ability to think and perceive the world around her.

She woke cold and weightless in a world of white. When she realized she was falling, she put all her effort into making an educated guess as to what direction the ground was in and pointed her feet towards it. She then forced flames out through her hands and feet using the resulting thrust to fight against gravity. The flames pushed against the tremendous force pulling her down and Azula gritted her teeth, knowing the deep cold had sapped much of her bending strength and that she might not have enough to slow herself enough in time.

Her focus gave way to fury, as it became clear the elements and gravity would have their way. When she came to a stop she was aware of two things, one was that the leg she favored on the way down had snapped and the other was that the falling airship was close. The world of white now was a world of heat and sound. Groaning metal, snapping beams, and the popping of flames roared over the snow which was all around her and keeping her from moving away.

The bending of metal could no longer be heard only the hiss of fire on snow and the crackling sound it made as it consumed wood and fabric. Azula thought she could hear screams under the din but now the pain in her leg was the only thing she knew. It was her left leg and she felt for where it had broken. She cried out when her hand found the bone protruding from her shin, and now the pain hit her in a great wash blotting out all other concerns.

When the pain had dulled, she could feel the cold creeping in. Half buried in wet, slushy snow she could still hear the fire from the airship burning somewhere to her left, and picked her head up to look. She went back down, having jostled her leg in the process, and tried to refocus on keeping herself warm and not vomiting.

Everything had happened too quickly for her to make sense of it. After her fire attack it felt like she had lived a million years in the span of a few seconds. She now found herself in a dark place with cold all around her. She could keep it at bay but the pain in her leg and weariness she felt would not let her gain any ground on it, and it was all she could do to keep her mind on not freezing. -Just wait,- she thought, holding onto it like a rope thrown to a drowning woman. -Just wait, stay warm, maybe someone else survived.-

To be continued...