Ziggy's corner: Okay, this is chapter three. So far I've been very happy with how this series has played out, and so far I hope I keep hitting grand slams with it! I now have eleven reviews for chapter one, so who knows, this could get to triple digits by the time the story finally ends! My Witch Hunter Robin story has finally reached double digits too, but this story still has the most. This chapter opens up just two hours before chapter two ends, and gets right into the action, what action I know how to write (apologies to the Avatar supreme fans, I'm not very good at that type of crazy action,) just a few paragraphs after that.
Sokka had woken up nearly ten hours after falling into Appa's saddle, and Aang had woken just four hours after that. Just as the admiral had surmised, the flying bison had decided to hide in a nearby island, until the two warriors could awake, and they could make their next plans. At first Sokka had been enraged at his sister's abandonment, and would have loved to taken his fury out on the bison, but Aang managed to talk sense into him. They had a late lunch and rested, until they ate again.
The day after that, Sokka snuck into a nearby village, and secretly bought some supplies, and to hear what news he could about his sister, he really did not think that he would hear anything, the Fire Nation must have either executed her right off the bat, or taken her far, far away. But he had struck gold when an old woman, the wife of the elder of the village announced in hushed tones to her friend, that her husband was to leave for the very island that Appa fled from that night. A prisoner, a water bender was going to be publicly scourged that same morning.
Sokka raced back to their camp as if the flames of the underworld were on his heels, and told Aang what he had heard. Neither of them was in fighting condition, but neither would let Katara go through that. With the blink of an eye they packed up camp, and headed right for the island.
It was a little past five o'clock in the morning when they arrived near the island, and both of them could tell something was not right. Hoards of Fire Nation soldiers were screaming orders, and rushing to boats, heading for the ocean. Admiral Zhao seemed to be having a stroke, and from what they could hear was demanding who was responsible for letting some kind of agent break the girl out of prison.
"So, she's free," Aang said, a big child like grin spreading across his face.
"Yeah, but we still don't know who freed her, or why," Sokka said, turning Appa's reins back, so the bison would avoid being seen. His face was covered with bruises, and he looked a little like a brown raspberry than he did Sokka. "And we don't know where they are right now."
Aang lowered his head, as if in prayer, and sighed. At least she's safe. "Well, she just barely escaped, from the sound of it, so perhaps she's not too far off. And the Fire Nation is heading out to sea, in that direction," he said pointing to the armada of boats, "so it's a safe bet that's where Katara went."
Sokka thought for a moment, and then laughed, socking Aang in his shoulder playfully. A second later he gasped and chuckled again, rubbing his head as he blushed. The teenage water warrior had forgotten about the avatar's broken arm, which was resting in a sling. "Sorry," he murmured.
Aang shot him a scornful look, and then smirked. "Be glad Katara's not here right now, she'd bust your arm for that," he giggled.
Sokka smiled and exhaled his breath in a puff of frozen smoke. "Yeah she probably would," he joked. "Well, at least nothing else can go wrong."
As if on cue, they heard someone from down below call out, and shout about the avatar. There was confusion on the sea, and on the island, before a hail of fire stones began raining down on them. The fire stones were so thick that the sky itself smelled of burnt rock and looked liked as if the sky was bleeding red goop.
"Aw come on, give us one break," Sokka wailed, looking up to the skies, "it's the holiday." He ground his teeth and heaved and yanked the reins this way and that, avoiding the deadly, flaming balls. Sweat began to pour down his forehead, and he could feel his muscles groan and cry as he pulled them in ways they did not want to go. Appa grunted and wailed, as the balls' heat singed his fur, and temporarily blinded him with each flash of light.
"This is getting crazy," he shouted, over cannon fire and catapults flinging their deadly cargo. He turned to look at his young companion, and felt his jaw drop. "What are you doing!"
Aang was standing in the edge of Appa's saddle, using his one good arm to create burst of air to either shield them from the enemy's ammo, or shoot back balls of air, down at the ships and the island, which was acting like a yo-yo, swaying back and forth on the horizon as they served back and forth between the deadly man made comets. "I have to try something to help," he called back, his clothes completely drenched, his skin a pasty gray.
"You're going to kill yourself, using all that energy," Sokka snarled. The teenager released one of his hands from the reins and tried to pull the avatar to his butt, to protect him. "Aang, you're not strong enough right now to use this much air bending!"
"If I die, at least it won't be by the hands of the creeps who want to martyr me," the boy snapped back, back flipping away from his friend's hand.
"Oh, that makes sense," Sokka growled. "Let's do the Fire Nation's job for them!"
"If you don't want me to get killed then get us out of here," Aang growled, twirling his staff between his fingers, creating miniature tornados, causing all sorts of havoc with the ships.
"What the heck do you think I've been trying to do!" Sokka roared back. He swore under his breath, and narrowed his gaze to the largest of the Fire Nation ships, the Dominator, Zhao's ship. There on board he could spy an ant that looked very much like the admiral himself, laughing and shooting up flaming "fungus" balls of death from his fists. "Look I'm going to try and take cover in some of those clouds," he said, pointing at medium sized puffy formations just in front of them.
"We aren't going to make it to them," Aang roared, his heart racing as his muscles strained. "Try dive bombing them."
Sokka thought that he had finally lost his hearing, "Dive bomb them! You're insane aren't you?"
"Those are storm clouds over there, Sokka," Aang said, collapsing to the saddle, his energy spent. "If we tried to hide in them, we'd become cooked ducks. Appa can temporarily hold his breath. If we go under them, we could sail past them and go after Katara that way."
The fire balls had some what stopped soaring, but that was only so the Fire Navy could load their more lethal weapons. Sokka looked at his young companion, and then back at the navy. "Even if he could hold his breath a long time, we can't."
"We can if I create an air ball for us to breathe in," Aang shot back. The weapons were flung with a loud explosion, and gigantic weapons of destruction flung toward them.
"You don't have that kind of strength right now," Sokka growled. He twisted Appa's reins, and the giant bison grunted in frustration. "You could kill yourself."
"You're starting to sound like a parrot who only knows a few words of the language," the boy snapped." Besides, if we stay up here arguing too much more, and we'll both die," Aang shot back angrily. "If they catch us, we're both dead, so I don't see that we have much of a choice."
Mentally Sokka swore and looked for an alternate route of escape, seeing none he felt his shoulders collapse in surrender. "Are you sure you can pull this off?" he asked, his tone tired.
"There's only one way to know," the avatar said.
Sokka sighed and nodded his head, yanking the flying bison toward the water. There were cries of victory at first, as the Fire Nation had thought either the animal had been hit, or the avatar had decided to give up. Then the jubilant cries turned to surprise, and many of the men and women on board the ships began jumping overboard, as the animal hit the water like a ten ton boulder, and submerged, leaving a large tidal wave to take out a dozen or so ships.
Admiral Zhao watched for the animal to rise to the surface for a number of moments, and felt his anger build. "Damn it all to hell," he screamed, smashing the wooden frame of his banister he was standing next to.
"Sir," a subordinate said cautiously, "it is possible, that they are dead, sir."
"No sergeant," he growled. They're swimming under water."
"But could they breath that long?" the other man stammered.
"The bison is a large animal, he probably has large lungs," the admiral howled, flames coming from his throat. "The avatar is an air bender; he probably used a technique that allowed them to breath temporarily underwater."
The sergeant looked at his admiral and swallowed. He knew the command that was coming next, and he hated to be the one who had to give his superior officer the bad news.
"Get the submersibles ready," his admiral snapped.
The sergeant swallowed again, with difficulty this time. "Admiral Zhao, sir. We don't have any."
"What do you mean we don't have any?" Zhao said; his voice on edge.
"A few days ago an order came in from the Fire Lord, which said all available submersibles were to be sent to Lady Akikira, to the eastern front of the war."
Zhao's breath stopped and he simply stood there looking at his subordinate. "What does that maniac need them for," he roared, his fists clenched so tight that the sergeant could hear bones cracking. "She's not even with the navy, she a land general."
"Sir, we only did as commanded by Fire Lord Ozai, as was asked by Lady Akikira."
"And why was I not informed of this?" Zhao's dark eyes began to turn stormy and much more dangerous.
"The Fire Lord and Lady Akikira demanded utmost secrecy about it sir," the sergeant whimpered. His admiral growled with animalistic fury, his teeth grinding like a spice maker, and finally the poor lad found himself flat on his back, with a broken jaw.
Zhao had yet to calm down, but was determined not to let rage blind him to his ambition. "Order all ships to head to the direction of the masked individual and the girl went. That's the area the avatar and her brother are heading for anyway. With any luck, we'll get them all in one spot." He turned to leave, but was stopped by another subordinate.
"Sir, where are you going?" the older man asked.
"To write a couple of letters," the admiral snapped. "Get two carrier hawks ready to fly."
His eyes narrowed. What could that crazy witch be up to? The last time she had used ships of any kind was to lure peasant children with a promise of a ride on the lake, only to have her men blast the ships to oblivion and send all of the brats to a watery grave, and that was simply because she was bored. Zhao ground his teeth again and entered his room; the letter to her was not going to be a very G rated one. She'd be lucky if it was R rated.
/
Katara could hardly believe it; she had escaped in oven, only to be put on the frying pan. True in most instances that would have been better, but in this case, she looked at the Fire Prince and shivered. "What do you want from me?" she demanded.
"Even you couldn't be that dumb," the prince shot back, what do you think I want from you?" He stared at her for a brief second, before turning away and lowering his head.
"Ashamed of yourself? You should be," the girl snapped, as his crew hoisted her on board ship.
"My men will get you to your quarters, and give you fresh clothes to wear, and then we will talk," Zuko said, storming away, his head still hanging low.
Katara stared off after him for a moment, and then blushed slightly. He wasn't ashamed of what had had done, but was embarrassed at her clothing. Most young boys, most men for that matter would have cheeked out a barely dressed young woman with desire in their eyes until the woman was either out of sight, or until the next woman came by. Zuko was showing her some modesty. Well . . . good for him. But he's still a jerk.
His guards, lead by his Uncle Iroh showed her to her quarters and then let her be. It wasn't exactly a four star hotel suite, but it did remind her of her jail cell when she and her brother and Aang had been captive guests at the Earth Kingdom city of Omashu. Okay the bed wasn't cushioned and looked like it belonged to a countess either, like it had in Omashu, but still it wasn't like Zhao's prison at all either. And she felt a tinge more comfortable here than there.
Her cabin was light brown, with the smell of salt, duh sense it was on board a ship at sea, and lightly decorated with symbols of the Fire Nation, and flowers. Katara frowned. Now there were two things that didn't go together. There were three small boxes to the far right corner of the room, probably containing food, and a small desk with paper, where she could write if she wanted. The one window of her cell was much smaller than Zhao's prison had been, and there was no way Katara could slip a message out to see with her paper if she had wanted to.
To a very far left corner, the water bender could see a descent tub, with a small bar of soap sitting at the edge of it. There was no water anywhere near by, smart since she would have used it to try and escape, or would have had she been properly dressed, but she didn't doubt that all she had to do was ask, and it would be provided to her. The young teenager looked all about, trying to see if there were any peep holes, where she could be spied on, and finally decided that there weren't any. She had just barely considered using her skills to bring in some salt water from the outside and washing herself quickly when a voice caught her attention.
"All you have to do is ask, and we'd bring you some fresh water." Katara spun around and blinked at the door, staring at the eyes of the prince's uncle. Katara held her clothes next to her body and back up, blushing a little, but he only laughed, not a vicious hungry laugh, that the admiral's men had, but tender and genuinely concerned with her well being.
"We're not all animals, my dear," he said warmly. "If you would permit me, I'll have the men send in some warm water and some clean clothes for you, then you could join my nephew and me for some lunch."
"I'm not going to tell you anything about Aang," she snapped, backing further away.
"No one said you had to," Iroh said gently. "Of course my nephew has quite a temper, so I would hold your tongue around him." He smiled, his eyes closed and his teeth white and clean. Then he chuckled and added, "Just a little bit anyway. I'm sure you have a temper that could match his." He motioned for some guards, and gave her a quizzical look.
The girl lowered her head for a moment, and then nodded. With the twist of a lock, the door opened, and the guards brought in some water, and some water bender clothes, much like she had worn and had stolen by Zhao. They looked at her bruises and gasped, turning to each other as if to ask how anyone in their nation act could so savagely. Katara would not buy the act, but allowed them to complete their mission and leave.
Iroh smiled gently yet again and nodded. "When you are ready for lunch, just let the guards know. Oh, and do not try collecting that water in any jar or container," he chuckled again. "It tends to evaporate once it has left the tub, so it would be quite useless to be used as a weapon." He waved to the girl and ordered the guards to lock the wooden slat so no one could peak in on her as she bathed.
Katara wasn't sure what to make of the Fire Nation general. She knew that he was the Fire Lord's older brother, and had lead the attack against the Earth Nation's capital, Bosing Se, only to have his men retreat after a long siege. From what she knew of him, he seemed to be very honorable, but she also knew there were very little who had that trait in the Fire Nation, and even those who had it, according to the stories, would abandon it as quickly as it suited their ambitions.
Katara removed her clothes, and slipped into the warm water, allowing her muscles to loosen and she sighed. She rested for at least thirty minutes in the wonderful liquid, and then reluctantly got out, and dressed. Just as the general had said, once the water was removed from the tub, it was gone, completely useless as a weapon. Katara sighed and tired her hair up into its normal fashion, and then knocked on the door, ready for her lunch with the prince, and for the interrogation to commence.
Okay, time for some review responses. Sigh, hopefully my ultimate number one fan, TheShoelessOne will review soon. (She was my first, folks ).
Totallystellar: Thank you so very much. Hopefully you enjoyed these two chapters too, and I hope to have a third to update along with them come the 5th of September.
Spleef: Yeah she suffered quite a bit under Zhao's hands, but now she has to deal with Zuko's stubbornness. Or rather he has to deal with hers. Lol, gee I wonder who will have the reader's sympathy?
Purple Demise: Interesting writer's name dude, I personally like the color purple the best. Anyway thank you . . . Just thank you so much .
SilverStorm106: Well if I update on the 5th, that should be soon enough. I can not update weekly like most, because I use a relative's computer for the net, and don't normally get to go on except for ever two to three months at a wack. So I'm lucky right now.
Erena G.T. Rose: LOL, well thank you so much! From your reaction to the first chapter, I guess I'd have to call you the number one fan of this story! Hopefully I have not disappointed you with these new chapters.
mimazz: Well as I have told everyone so far, I plan on updating these two, possibly three chapters by the 5th of September, so hopefully that will be soon enough for you .
slipknotZuko: Another interesting writer's name, kinda kool, I likes it. Anyway, thank you for your love .
starlightz1112: Thank you so very much, I've worked hard on descriptive scenes for over ten years, even went to a writer's school for it, and my instructor told me that I was getting it very well at the point of my graduation. Hopefully you'll like this thirty year old dude's (Um, thirty year's old, does that make me creepy that I write fanfiction at this age, anybody?) new chapters.
Arwey: You, my dear, or dude if you're a guy, have my everlasting thanks! Your review gave me a great direction to take with Zhao in this storyline, one I wouldn't have thought about until you brought it up with him having a "thing" for Katara. Course in this story its only because – oops, almost spilled the beans too soon! Lol. You'se guys are going to have to wait for that bit of info. Again, Arwey, thanks .
ML7: You also inspired me a bit. I was going to let it go at the vague Christmas tree scene, but decided to add other holiday elements too it. I also plan on researching out the Solstice and seeing what other cultures do to celebrate that, so look forward to seeing much more holiday goodness in this story. Thanks for the inspiration and the comments dude, er or dudette, whichever you are Lol.
LoyalFan: Thank you, thank you very much. Damn I'm beginning to feel like Elvis at a Las Vegas concert, Lol. By now you know why I do the descriptive scenes the way I do and whatnot, so hopefully all I can wish is that you enjoyed these chapters (whether they be two or three) just as much as you enjoyed the first!
By the way, does anyone know the name of the creepy smiling woman who stood next to Iroh during Zuko's Agni Kai with his father in Episode 12 – The Storm? If she doesn't have a name, that's groovy, cause that's who I named Lady Akikira, who you all will see in a future chapter of the story. Thanks again in advance.