Siron Lannor: Thank you! :)

Disclaimer - I still don't own ATLA.

As I walked, I planned.

First I'd have to get in unnoticed, which should be the hard part. I knew the castle was surrounded by some thick walls, and I wasn't an Earthbender, but I also knew that I could do it. I'd climbed plenty of things before. I could handle this. I'd just climb up the wall. Easy enough. At least, it certainly sounded easy in foresight. I had a feeling that it would just be plain stupid in hindsight, but it was the only thing that I could realistically do. For not the first time, I cursed myself for not being a Bender of anything, for being a simple Nonbender with no purpose, nothing extraordinary about me. . . . It was enough to make someone's self-confidence and self-esteem plummet.

At this point, I was almost to the castle. I started jogging, easily keeping my footing on the muddy pathway. There were enjoy rocks in it to help me keep my footing, so it wasn't exactly that hard to stay upright. I pushed my wet hair out of my face and skidded to a halt outside the gate. I looked up, blinking against the raindrops, my mouth gaping open wide as I tried to see the top of it. Maybe climbing the wall was a bad idea, especially with how wet the stones must've been.

So what did I do? I grabbed the elegant golden knockers on the doors of the gate and started pounding them furiously against the wood, hoping someone would answer it. Sure enough, a short ten seconds later, if that, the doors opened, revealing the face of a man, probably a butler from the way he held himself. His graying black hair was slick against his head, but he didn't seem to mind that. "Excuse me, but the master isn't looking for any students, so I'd suggest - hey!"

I didn't let him finish that little suggestion, choosing instead to make my move. I ducked under his arm and into the courtyard. I was jerked to a halt for a moment when his hand closed in on the hood of my cloak, but the entire thing simply tore in two, taking some hair out with it. The only sound I made from it was a squeak of pain, but I didn't stop sprinting. Stopping was the equivalent of death, or at least in my mind, and I would not die. Now I had to hide, and the best place I saw was in the castle itself. Frankly it was the most logical place that I could see anyway.

I managed to reach the door to the castle and fling it open before the butler was even halfway to it. I ducked under the couch, only just able to squeeze in the small space. From there I just had to steady my breathing and wait for the danger to pass by.

"Master Piandao! Master Piandao! There's a thief in the house!"

There was the sound of footsteps, coming quickly and none too loudly. "Where?" A deep voice asked, low, dangerous, and brimming with fury. I assumed it belonged to Piandao.

After that, there was a pause for about five seconds before the butler replied sheepishly, "I don't know. She ran away in here and simply seemed to vanish."

"Lock the gate. Check every inch of this place. Make sure that she doesn't escape." The butler ran off, but I wasn't sure what Piandao did. After a few minutes of hearing nothing, I simply assumed that he had left to try to find me somewhere else and wiggled out from under the couch.

I should've known that assumption would be the death of me. Not saying I died from it, but I thought it was about to. Wouldn't anyone think they were going to die if they stand up and a sword pokes them in the back from out of nowhere? I didn't even have to turn my head to know who it was, and I didn't even hesitate to run again. I was determined to get my prize for all of my hard work in getting in here, although dying wasn't among them. On my list, at least. Whether it was on the swordsman's was a completely different story that I didn't want to find out the hard way, or really just at all.

"Technically you can't get me since I haven't stolen anything yet!" I called over my shoulder, then mentally facepalmed from how stupid that sounded. At first Piandao wouldn't be able to persecute me at all, having no proof of what my intentions would be - sure I was suspicious, but I hadn't done anything. Now I had just told him what it was.

Unfortunately for me, I didn't get very far at all before my bare feet, still wet from the rain, slipped on the hardwood floor. I more or less faceplanted before sliding along it, my back slamming hard into the floor. I started to scramble back up, but I suddenly heard a hollow ring and felt a sudden pain in my head. I fell back to the floor, lifeless. My last conscious thought before slipping into the darkness was, It's the end. I've failed.

The worst place to wake up in has to be prison, and I can say that accurately, having woken up in plenty of very strange and bad places. After this experience, I can add prison to that list.

My head hurt. I didn't move from my spot, not even feeling like opening my eyes, staying limp against the cold, wet metal floor. My mouth and throat felt dry from the lack of water and something itchy was tickling my head and getting in my right ear, the one toward the ground. My fingertips brushed against another piece of metal, probably a bar for my jail cell to keep me in. I could feel that it was a small cell, since my feet were pressed against wall on the far side away from the bars. The air was dry and musty, the only reason for the dampness being from the rain. And the noise. . . . I could hear the other inmates shouting, fighting, calling. They scared me.

After ten minutes of getting accustomed to my surrounding by every sense except sight, I stretched open my tired eyes. Just as I had thought, the cell was small. The only light came from the torches in the hallway. There wasn't really much in there with me, just a bucket and two bowls for food. Curious as to know what was so itchy on my head? Well, someone had roughly shoved a pillow made of burlap cloth with straw stuffed in it and shoved it under my head so that I wouldn't get neck cramps. At least someone around here was thoughtful.

With a groan, I pushed myself up, my disheveled hair falling over my face. I pushed it back behind my ear as best as I could and crawled (it was more like sliding honestly) over to the water bowl. I picked it up with one hand and tilted my head back, pressing my lips to the edge. I proceeded to tilt it back, draining it all in a single, long draft. More of the clear, delicious liquid missed my mouth and drenched my neck and shirt than actually got down my throat, but I digress.

Now, there was absolutely nothing else to do except sit there and let the butterflies do whatever.