The Warrior's Song
The battle had raged for sixteen hours, from six in the evening when they storm the Fire Nation palace until the sun's zenith when the comet crosses the sky. Though Aang defeated Ozai around five in the morning, the dictator's followers and rivals still surged against the Avatar's gathered forces at noon, when the comet flew overhead and the Fire Benders received an enormous extra burst of strength.
Desperately the Southern Warriors, fighting as a unit at the front line, struggled to compensate for their enemy's sudden vigor. The effort seemed useless as they fell back slowly, into the Earth Kingdom troops sent by King Bumi and the small, newly energized unit of Fire Nation rebels under the flag of General Iroh fighting nearby.
From out of the midst of the warriors, a young and untrained voice rose above the battle cries and screams of agony. It carried over the sounds of the battle to his brothers'-in-arms ears, reminding them of home. The song told of the moon spirit, the cold shores of the North Pole and the stark beauty of it all; of family, hearth, ice dodging and proud paint, and becoming men. The comet passed out of sight, and behind it – like a miracle from a tale of old – followed the moon until it reached the sun and stopped, casting the battlefield into darkness.
Other voices joined the high young warble, adding their rough richness and singing of places far from home, loneliness, of death and destruction at the hands of a powerful enemy. The warriors in blue pushed forward again, startling the now depleted Firebenders with the feeling in their song and the ferocity of their attack. The song, nearing its end, turned to victory, to the spoils of war and finally returning home.
As the moon dropped slowly from the scene the leader of the southerners surveyed the field; in the scant hour that Yue covered the moon the Avatar's troops had won almost total victory. A single young voice, the first singer, sang still of young love and loss quietly as he watched the moon sink again under the horizon.