Chapter Three is up! Sorry, I wanted to write Chapter Four as well but I was so busy this week doing Ebay listings (my new job) and then the laundry was piling up and I wanted to fix some drawings before my friends looked at them… So yeah, just one chapter this week. But, hey, it's a longer chapter than the last two. Okay, here it is, I'll shut up now.

Chapter Three

Run For Your Life

Toph was the first to notice. Roughly thirty people were scattered around the perimeter of the clearing, hidden amongst the trees. They had seemed to appear out of nowhere, and what scared Toph the most was that, even though they were in such high numbers, they hadn't made a sound.

The girl, nudging the Water Tribe boy beside her, said in a hushed tone, "Sokka."

Before she had time to elaborate he responded dryly, "Yeah. I know." He adjusted his grip on his weapon, his body primed for battle. "We're surrounded."

The girl nodded slightly, trying not to be too conspicuous. "There's about thirty of them, mostly to the left end of the clearing. But there's one that's much closer than the others; he's the one we have to worry about. And he's," she paused for a second and then took a step forward. Raising her voice to a yell, she shouted, "He's about to attack!"

Not a second later a huge bolt of fire shot out from the forest. It skimmed across the ground, catching the grass on fire, and formed a wall of fire through the center of the clearing. On one side of the wall were Toph, Aang, Sokka, and Appa; on the other was Zuko and Katara.

XOXOXOXOXOX

Katara startled at the sound of her companion's voice. Toph had shouted something about someone attacking. Confused, Katara formed her water into a shield and positioned it between her and Zuko, thinking that is what Toph was warning her about. She nearly jumped when a wall of fire flared up from the ground and spread across the clearing, just missing her by a few feet. It shot straight towards Zuko and Aang, who were locked in a close-range battle. The two boys jumped backwards just in time to avoid it, the fire flaring up high and strong.

The wall now separated her and Aang.

"Aang!" she shouted, running towards the fire barrier. She had her water out, ready to attempt to break through the fire. A hand caught her own, halting her in her tracks, her water falling to the ground as she was pulled backwards. Aang's worried face was the last thing she saw before she was pulled away by her arm. She heard him shout her name, and then the shouts of many men dominated her hearing, drowning out even the crackling of the fire.

XOXOXOXOXOX

Iroh burst out of the cover of the forest. He had maybe a few seconds, then the area would be swarming with soldiers. He saw the Water girl running towards the fire wall, oblivious to the soldiers pouring out from the woods at the other end of the clearing. She'd be captured for sure.

Lightning quick, he grabbed her hand and pulled her away. Running back towards the cover of the woods, he grabbed his nephew's arm along the way and proceeded to lead both the teens away from the scene. Knowing his headstrong nephew, Zuko would have stayed and tried to fight off all the soldiers on his own. He wouldn't care if it was thirty on one or 300! He'd probably die trying to beat them all off.

Iroh ran, pulling along Katara with his left hand and Zuko with his right. Run now; worry about where they were going later.

About a thousand miles later, or so it felt to Iroh, Zuko, and Katara, did they finally stop running. Iroh let go of their arms and collapsed on the ground, leaning his back against a tree. Between huffs and puffs the man managed to ask them if they were all right. Bad choice.

Katara, kneeling on the ground, shouted her reply at him in outrage.

"No, I am not all right! Aang and them could be in trouble, what if they need me? How can I help them if I'm stuck in the woods with you two?!" With this she collapsed on the ground and tried to catch her breath.

Zuko, the only one not sprawled out on the ground, yelled something at her, which for the most part she couldn't hear over the sound of her racing heart beat and hard breathing. Why the hell was it so hot in the Earth Kingdom?

After that there was silence--a long, uncomfortable silence. When at last Katara found the strength to get up off the ground she sat there cross-legged, trying to come up with a plan of action. So far, she had nothing. Stay here with her crazy enemies that were not an hour ago trying to kill her, or go back to face the enemies that would still be trying to kill her? Her friends may not even still be there; they probably would've left on Appa. She was lost in thought for quite a while. When she at last looked up the old man was standing above her, holding a canteen.

"Water?" The man smiled a sincere, goofy smile. Katara found herself smiling back.

Taking the canteen from him she told the man, "Thanks." She took a long sip, savoring the coolness of the water as it ran down her parched throat.

She finished her drink and gave the canteen back to him, the man finishing off the rest of the water in it and plopping down to sit beside her.

"No problem. What is your name?"

She paused for a moment and then replied, "Katara. What's yours?"

The man stroked his beard. "Katara, hmm? That is a pretty name." The girl smiled at him. "I'm Iroh."

Katara was happy at a chance for good conversation and relaxed, brushing a stray strand of brown hair out of her face.

"So, where are you and Sunshine over there headed?" She gestured to Zuko who was off sulking under a tree.

Iroh laughed amusedly. "Sunshine huh? It suits my nephew well." They both giggled for a moment at Zuko's expense and then Iroh continued, answering her question. "No where in particular, just wandering."

Out of the corner of her eye Katara saw Zuko stalk off into the forest opposite the way they came from. She sent an inquisitive look to Iroh, the old man shrugging in reply.

"Perhaps he must take care of some private matters?"

As he said this the girl, blushing slightly, decided to change the topic.

"So," she began, her and Iroh resuming their conversation, what exactly was that back there? Fire benders attacking?"

Guessing that she meant the earlier incident, the old general tried to explain his Nation's war strategy to the girl, something he found quite hard to do without erasing her hope that the Avatar could ever restore peace to the land.

"You see," he started out, once again resuming the habit of running his fingers through his beard. "The Fire Nation has stationed small divisions of troops all around the areas it has conquered. These troops are mostly just to keep a strong hold on the villages under their control and to beat back any rebel forces. The Fire benders who attacked us were probably Fire Nation soldiers in one of these units." To his amazement the girl seemed to understand what he was saying.

Nodding her head in comprehension, Katara questioned a bit further. "But why were they attacking us? Err, well…" she stumbled, searching for the right words, "Because Aang is the Avatar, obviously. But I mean why were they attacking you and Zuko? Aren't you two Fire Nation royalty or something?"

Iroh visibly flinched at these last few words. "I suppose," he stated sadly, "we are no longer associated with the Fire Nation." He didn't want to tell the girl anything his nephew wouldn't want her to know and decided to leave it at that. Katara seemed to understand, because she dropped the subject.

After that the two talked about a lot of things. Katara talked a bit about her life at the South Pole, Iroh seeming especially interested in their culture. He told her old war stories from when he was a general. Each one steered clear of anything too personal and whatever their companions wouldn't want told, but they were quite open to each other despite their differences. After just about running out of things to talk about, they realized Zuko still wasn't back yet.

"My," Iroh said, getting up onto his feet with slight difficulty, "I hope my nephew hasn't abandoned us." Katara followed suit, standing up and brushing the dust and dirt off of her blue dress. "Would you mind helping me look for him, Katara?"

Truth be told, Katara had no interest in searching for the Fire bender. After seeing the worried expression on the man's face, however, she grudgingly agreed to the task. The pair set off in the direction the boy had gone, taking care to stay together.

Outside the forest the sun had been bright and hot, clearly a sunny afternoon of late Spring. Once underneath the dense canopy of trees, however, everything grew ten shades darker and noticeably cooler. Shadows danced around, creating fleeting illusions so that you had to look twice to make sure that what you were seeing was real.

Katara kept scaring herself by catching some shadow or tree out of the corner of her eye that she swore looked like some monster or enemy, but when she tried to catch a second glimpse it had vanished. One time she was so focused on trying to see which illusions were real and which were tricks of sight that she walked right into a spider web! She couldn't go on walking until Iroh had confirmed that there wasn't a spider on her head.

After a few minutes of walking Iroh really got worried about the whereabouts of his nephew, and after that began to call out his name every thirty seconds. Katara found his genuine concern endearing, and even began to hope that they found him soon.

Suddenly they heard a faint, muffled voice. The pair nearly jumped when they heard it, the girl was scared out of her wits and nearly tripped over a three root. The old man calmed her down after assuring her that it was Zuko's voice and not some shadow demon hiding in the trees. Of course, if it was Zuko, the two didn't see him anywhere.

Taking a few steps forward on the leaf-covered ground, Katara and Iroh looked around quizzically.

"Zuko? Where are you?"

Another step forward, and the ground fell out from under them in a flurry of leaves, yells, and flailing arms.

From the ground Katara sat up with difficulty, rubbing her knees that were scraped up and bruised from where she fell on them. Her eyes widened as the ground under her moved, and cried out in surprise as it pushed her off, yelling, "Get off me, you idiot!"

The ground, as it turned out, was Zuko.

Hastily apologizing, she picked herself up and looked at her surroundings. The three of them were standing, more or less, in a big hole. The floor was a few feet wide by a few more feet long, forming an odd rectangular shape. The walls were pretty much straight up, about ten feet so. By the perfect edges and corners, you could tell someone had dug out the hole. Then that someone had laid a net over the top and covered it with leaves, perfectly camouflaging the trap.

Zuko, Iroh, and Katara were in a bid, deep hole in the middle of the woods. And who ever had dug the trap was standing at the top and glaring down at them.