Chapter 3: Travels and Thieves


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Azula watched the sun come up as her leg tingled unpleasantly, it having gotten more sleep throughout the night than the rest of her cramped up, uncomfortable body had. How anyone could sleep outside like this was ridiculous; she remembered being out in the wild with Ty Lee and Mai, but the group of them had always had some kind of shelter, even if it was just a tent for each of them; and at the least, they usually had a pillow or something.

She rose to her feet and stretched, feeling stiff and achy. She had injuries she hadn't even known existed, probably because all the adrenaline of the night. Her ribs were tender, possibly bruised, and her legs felt sore, but when she touched them, it didn't feel like there were any scratches or wounds. But worst of all, she felt a scrape on the side of her chin. Azula had always been careful about getting any part of her face damaged in fights, and the chin wasn't a very noticeable place to be injured, but still. What if it scarred over? She would have to check on that before they returned to the Fire Nation. She hoped it wouldn't leave a mark—what a nightmare, to have a permanent facial scar like Zuko.

Zuko was sitting in his spot several feet away, his legs crossed over each other, his hands resting on his knees. He looked like he was meditating. His posture was very good, she thought, but he looked a mess. His hair stuck up at a weird angle, and dirt had adhered itself to his arms and legs, almost masking the bruises she remembered seeing on his forearms. She realized that he was still in his sleep clothes, something she hadn't noticed in the night. A dark red shirt that tied in the front (and was torn along the bottom) and short pants that only reached his shins. The swords that he had fought with were nowhere to be seen, and he didn't even have shoes. Ha! He looked silly like that out here. Azula was thankful that she hadn't put on her sleep clothes before the attack, or she might be just as ill-equipped as he was. As it was, her clothes were decent for traveling; after all, it was the outfit she traditionally wore beneath her armor. She wore a red shirt that tied in the front, and her long pants were tucked into her knee high shoes, which, she had to admit, were a bit uncomfortable damp and chafing as they were. The side effects of falling into the ocean, she supposed. Thank goodness she had managed to get dry.

She wondered where they were in the world. It was a beach, obviously. This beach was nothing like Ember Island, or any of the other beaches surrounding the Fire Nation. The sand was filthy-looking and dark, and the beach part only extended so far, as trees quickly took over the landscape on all sides. The water even looked murky and awful. She shuddered to think that she had been submerged in it. Azula turned to her brother, ready to leave this place, ready to be back in the Fire Nation. How long was it going to take to get back home? They had to get a move on, especially if they were to get back to the Fire Nation and destroy the Avatar all before Sozin's Comet… which was 29 days away now. Less than a month!

Azula approached Zuko, who was still quiet and meditating, and almost considered letting him finish his meditation before starting on their travels. It would be the polite thing to do. But they had a deadline to make. So, she roughly nudged his knee with the tip of her shoe.

"Come on, Zu-zu," she said. "It's time to get going."

He opened his unmarked eye and frowned at her. "You ought to meditate too," he said calmly.

Azula set her hands on her hips, her foot still on his knee, essentially stepping on him. "You can't tell me what to do," she told him, though she usually did meditate in the mornings. A meditation as the sun rose usually helped to energize her. Not this morning though. Today, everything was just too different, and the sun was already up anyway. It wouldn't feel the same. Besides, they had to begin traveling. There wasn't time for this.

"Come on, Zu-zu," she repeated, prodding him harder. To some, it might have been considered a kick. She considered it to be more of a forceful nudge. With her foot.

"Cut it out!" Zuko snapped at her, shoving at her leg. She stumbled a bit at the push, and glared at him as he sullenly got to his feet. He dusted himself off, taking his sweet time, stretching his arms in front of him, and she crossed her arms over her chest as she waited. He was so annoying. So. Annoying.

"I cannot believe," Azula said, as they started into the trees, "that I am stuck out here with you. It is going to be such a long day."

"Don't remind me," he murmured, and he let her lead the way.


oOoOoOo


Ten hours and five breaks later, it was humid and heavy outside, and the bugs were unbearable, slapping into her neck and face. Azula had always really liked the summertime for the sun and heat, but summertime at home had never really been like this. For one thing, it wasn't overrun with insects. For another thing, she usually wasn't lost in a wild forest with Zuko.

This was probably the worst day ever. First of all, Azula felt drained of energy. The sleep they had gotten the night prior had not been quality sleep, and she still felt cramped and sluggish. Walking miles and miles was not helping her feel more alert, and she trudged through the thick foliage, not wanting to pick her feet up any higher. Secondly, she was hungry and thirsty. She did not think she had ever gone a full day without eating or drinking something. Wasn't that unhealthy? It was only one day, she reasoned, though her body protested and hated her for it. Lastly, she really, really had to go to the bathroom. She did not think she had ever held in her bladder functions for so long. It was miserable. But where would she go? Even when she had been forced to go outside, the forests had been less unkempt, not overrun with bugs, or they had brought along a pot. This was so undignified, she thought. She was a princess.

She set her hand against a tree, looking up into the sky as the sun started to make its descent into dusk. "How far away are we from a town?" she asked, her first words since the morning. Her throat felt drier than a desert. She wished they had some water, and she thought back to the ocean they had fallen into. If only they had had a container to keep some in.

"I don't know," Zuko said, sounding hoarse himself. "Are you getting tired?"

She eyed him, unsure if it was a taunt of some sort. Perhaps he was still angry that she had kicked him in the morning. "No," Azula leaned against a tree, crossing her arms over her chest. "You're supposed to know where we are, Zuko. You traveled the world."

"Yeah, but I didn't memorize it," he pushed through the hanging branches and gestured for her to follow. "Come on, let's keep going. If you're not tired."

"I would think you would remember a place like this, if you'd been in it. And I would think you would go everywhere on a search for the Avatar," she ranted at him, following though her legs felt like jelly. She did not want to walk anymore. She sighed, letting him lead. Wherever they were going. Maybe he subconsciously would remember. She wished she had eaten a larger dinner last night on the airship. "We're going to die of starvation out here, aren't we?"

"We won't," Zuko said confidently. "We've only been out here a day. I once went a whole week without food."

Azula stared at his back, annoyed for some reason. Was that his idea of reassurance? She did not want to spend a whole week without food out here. She huffed out an angry sigh and said nothing. What she really wanted was some water. Or a bed. Or a toilet. Damn. Every step she took felt like an aching jolt to her body. She did not think that she had ever walked this much in her life. When she had been traveling with Mai and Ty Lee, they had borrowed eel-hounds or ostrich-horses or had gone in tanks. They had walked a little, but nothing like this. Not hours and hours and hours of walking.

She took another heavy step and found herself stumbling over a tree root. Thankfully, her reflexes were quick enough that she didn't fall into the dirt, but how obnoxious! Azula never tripped over things. She was poised. She was graceful. She was most certainly not clumsy. All this walking was exhausting her to an unmatched level.

Zuko turned and looked at her, the vague creases of a frown on his mouth. Did he hear her slip? She shrugged at him, like there was no big deal, and she continued to walk forward. But he stayed where he was, looking now into the trees, questioning.

"What is it?" Azula asked impatiently.

"Shh," he put his finger to his lips, listening to something she couldn't hear. She quieted herself, turning her ear toward the wilderness. She heard rustling, and lots of bug and animal noises. These noises had been a constant since they had walked into this terrible place. She heard nothing out of the ordinary.

Until a razor-sharp pain pierced her upper arm, so forceful and sudden that she fell backwards onto her bottom, almost falling into a tree behind her. Azula gasped from the shock of it, turning to look at her arm which so abruptly suffered. The sleeve of her shirt was torn, and her upper arm, just by her shoulder, bled and darkened the red fabric that was left on her arm. Oh damn, it was painful! She glanced at the tree that had almost broken her fall and saw a long arrow sticking from its trunk, an arrow that had not been there just a minute ago. Some idiot had shot at her with an arrow! They had sliced her arm! They were going to pay for that!

Who on Earth was in this forest with them? Azula clenched her teeth, a strange mixture of a hiss and a growl escaping her, and she scrambled to her feet, searching the trees, searching for any sign of movement. This was unbelievable!

Zuko immediately faced the direction from which the arrow had come, his two hands up in a fighting stance, prepared for retaliation. He didn't look at her, his eyes wildly searching the trees. He was next, she thought. The next attack was for him, and they didn't even know where the attackers were. Seeming to be thinking along the same lines, Zuko yelled at the trees.

"Show yourself!" he shouted, creeping toward the trees just straight ahead, slowly crossing into a small clearing.

Azula rolled her eyes at him, feeling extra embittered by the ache in her upper arm. Like yelling at a hidden attacker would make them come out of hiding. What kind of logic was that? If she was an attacker, she would just wait until he was lulled back into a false sense of security before attacking again.

Even so, Azula painfully raised her hands, skimming the area herself. There was no response from the trees; even the wind and every noisy animal in here seemed to have elected to cease. She clenched her jaw, each movement sending a twinge of pain through her arm. It was unpleasant, yes, but what made her angrier was the fact that some person-some hidden, cowardly person-would attack from above, when she had no chance of defending herself. That was not fair. She could obliterate this stranger in a heartbeat, if she had been given the chance. Did they even know who she was? When they found out that they had shot the princess of the Fire Nation, they were really going to regret it.

"Show yourself immediately!" Zuko repeated.

They weren't going to show themselves, Azula thought. They were going to hide in the trees and make them uneasy before shooting them both in the head. Unacceptable. These cowardly criminals had to be weeded out of this forest. They had to force them out of hiding. She aimed her fist at the tree directly ahead of them, and shot a burst of blazing blue flames out at it, lighting the branches and leaves up like a second sun in the late afternoon.

There was a pause, and she and Zuko exchanged glances.

All of a sudden, the ground around them thudded as at least fifteen large, muscular men landed from the trees to the outer part of the clearing, blocking every little path of exit. Azula's eyes focused on the one with the bow and arrow, and she felt Zuko turn, his back to hers; kind of a smart idea, to not leave any spot unwatched around them.

"Firebenders, huh?" said one of the men, and the first thing she noticed was his large nose ring. Well, when she attacked, that would be the first thing to target. Such an easy target. Imbecile.

"You're going to pay for shooting at me," Azula said, directing this threat toward the man beside Nose Ring, the one who held the bow and arrow.

"Firebending kids are usually worth a nice ransom," Nose Ring continued. "Since most of them belong to nobles."

"We're not for sale," Zuko said firmly.

"And we're not kids," Azula added, somehow more affected by the offense that they saw her as some kind of useless child than the offense that they were property to be taken. Her youth did not equate to idiocy.

Several of the men chuckled at this. Nose Ring smirked. "And just who do you kids think you are?"

She held her head up high, carrying all the dignity she could muster in her weary and irritated state. "I am Princess Azula of the Fire Nation, and this is my brother, Prince Zuko."

This really made them laugh, and several of the men pointed their weapons at the two of them, stuck in the middle. She wasn't sure if they believed her. They had swords and knives and the bow and arrow, of course, but she noticed that none of them was just standing there with fists. This was a pretty good indicator that none of them were benders, which just gave her and Zuko even more of an advantage, even though they were mostly outnumbered. It wasn't as much of an outnumbering as it had been on the airship. There were only about fifteen of them. And for one thing, there was so much more space out here. For another, these people were not firebenders. They were certainly not lightning benders. They were at a huge disadvantage, even if they looked strong. They may have been strong, but Azula knew that she was quick, and strength would never do you any good if you couldn't catch your prey.

The men stepped forward, leering at the two of them.

"Well," said Nose Ring, pointing his blade right at her. "Then I guess we're going to get a really nice ransom today."

"Alright, Zuko," Azula said authoritatively, as poised as ever, her tiredness forgotten in the rush of adrenaline. Her hands were still raised in front of her, ready for attack. She was not worried, even though her hurt arm throbbed at her in protest to her movements. "We'll split these fools, half and half. I'll attack the stupid ones, and you attack the ugly ones. I know it might be hard to tell them apart, but just do your best."

They weren't laughing anymore.

Chaos. The forest immediately heated with the bursts of flames that emerged from their hands. Blue flames erupted in front of her, alighting several thugs and some of the surrounding trees. Some of them pushed through the fire and continued to attack, but some screeched and took off in opposing directions. Azula smirked at that. Some people were so weak to pain. The minute they got burned, they took off in another direction to avoid any more of it. Cowards.

She dodged several sword swipes and knocked the back of someone's knees. Leapt in the air to avoid an attempt at her legs. Tossed punches of flame into the group of them, one into Nose Ring's face, one into the archer's side, one into someone's legs. One by one they fell, not all dead, but incapacitated or knocked out.

And the forest was quietly noisy again, punctuated by the crackling of the burning trees. She had to wonder how Zuko had been able to tell that something was amiss when this place was constantly rustling and chirping with animals. She held her hand out and minimized the fire around them; it would do no good to have a forest fire in the forest they were stuck in.

Azula turned to look at Zuko, who had two opponents left from his half of those thieves. She felt a trickle of pride; of course she had always been quicker and more talented than Zuko, but it was nice to really see how much more efficiently she got the job done, even in the middle of a forest, away from home. Even if he was capable, she was still faster. She aimed a final attack at one of his opponents just as the other fell, and Zuko took it in stride, huffing loudly in a sigh as he put his hands on his hips. Almost as if they had planned it that way.

"Well," Azula declared, still energized from the adrenaline. "That was easy."

Zuko glanced at her for a moment, rubbing his elbow. She wondered if he had gotten hurt; he looked the same way he had looked before the fight, though. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Of course I'm okay," she said, surprised he would even ask. They had both fought large numbers before. It wasn't like this was all that new.

"I mean your arm."

"Oh," Azula looked over to her new slash, still bleeding on her upper arm. She had nearly forgotten it. "Yes, I'm fine." She tore what remained of her sleeve off and began to fold it, intending on tying it around the wound to absorb some of that blood. The injury itself was not lethal, and it didn't hurt that badly if she wasn't moving her arm around. A long slash on the upper part of her arm; at least that arrow hadn't stuck into her. Then she really would have had a problem. Satisfied with her new bandaging job, she glanced back to her brother, who had moved closer to some of the burned trees, listening to something else. She prepared herself for another attack, irritated and yet somewhat thankful that he was able to already pick up the noises in this place that weren't normal.

But she heard this one too.

It was like a galloping, running kind of noise. Something heavy. It definitely didn't sound human.

It sounded like an ostrich-horse, or an armadillo-llama. Either of which would have been a wonderful thing to have, since they would be stuck traveling many, many miles on foot without one. What could they lure it over with? Azula thought, and Zuko promptly took off running.

"What are you doing?" she yelled at him, exasperated.

"Catching it!" he called back, and aggravated, not wanting to remain here for when the knocked out kidnappers revived, Azula followed. Zuko was not fast enough to catch a running animal! Was he crazy? They should have made a plan to lure it over; perhaps identified its location first and then set a trap or something. This was a foolish idea. And what if the creature had a rider? They would have to deal with that, too. Did he not know how to think things through?

She had caught up to her brother, running the best that he could, and she could still hear the creature galloping not too far away. Squinting ahead, she could see a flash of brown from the creature's body. It had to be an ostrich horse, as everyone knew that armadillo-llamas were usually bred to be more of a tan color. There did not appear to be a rider. It must have been an escaped one from maybe the kidnappers' campsite. Or perhaps it had gotten lost in the forest; perhaps they were getting close to a town!

"Go jump on him!" Zuko told her, seeming to realize that she was much faster than he was. "Grab his tail!"

"And be dragged for miles?" Azula retorted. "I don't think so. That's a terrible plan," she paused, collecting her ideas, and she saw how hard he was working to keep up with her. It was almost funny. "I'll go around and slow it from the front, and you'll be able to catch up from behind."

"Okay, go!" he agreed, and she dashed forward, through trees and bushes and bugs, determination and leftover adrenaline providing the energy. Azula watched the ostrich-horse running, noticing the slightest incline toward the left side. Perhaps it was turning. She took off towards the left, trying her best to be as silent as possible, but with the shrubbery everywhere it was hard to not have some kind of rustle. Her muscles and her upper arm protested the pressure, but that didn't matter. If they caught this animal, they would be riding the rest of the way back, and that was something that was invaluable.

Azula cut in front of the beast, her hands up, and it ran to the side, avoiding her. She moved with it, cutting in front of it again, trying to make it stop, or pause long enough for Zuko to catch up. If they stopped it at both ends, it wouldn't be able to escape. Hopefully, they wouldn't frighten it too much.

Stricken by a sudden inspiration, she threw one hand out and sent a burst of flame ahead of them, straight into the creature's path. It screeched and came to a quick halt, panicking. She ran out in front of it and tried to calm the animal, but in the presence of the flames it seemed to be having a hard time. "Shh," she said, diminishing the fire. She had never been good at this reassuring stuff. Animals usually didn't trust her, which didn't matter, since she had never really liked them all that much.

This one seemed to be doing okay now, though it eyed her warily as she approached. Perhaps it trusted her more, watching her decrease the flames. The ostrich-horse was not a very pretty-looking animal, she decided. Its big eyes glared at her and the skin on its neck was spiked and matted and filthy; it overlapped around a rope that was tied around its neck and broken at one end. It even had a collar. It must have broken free of somewhere.

"Pent," she read from the collar, looking up at the hideous creature in front of her. She heard Zuko come crashing out of the trees and he stopped several feet away, slowing himself. His mouth moved as though he was considering a smile, but he abandoned it.

"Good job," he said to her, touching Pent's back, his hand falling on a brown bag that was strapped around the animal's neck, something that she hadn't noticed. Zuko untied it, visibly interested, and Pent just looked at him, seeming less wary now that they had proven they weren't hurting him. The bag was filled with a few coins, a single knife, and a canteen.

He pulled the canteen out and weighed it in his hands. He opened the top and sniffed it cautiously. Such a peasant he was, she thought, and she wondered what he was checking for. Poison? Alcohol? He seemed to consider something and then put the opening from his mouth and drank from it, just a little bit.

"Drink the rest of this," he said, and he handed it to her. She might have minded about the sharing aspect of it, but she found that she was too thirsty to care that much, and she drank from it as well, draining the rest of it in one go. There wasn't much in there. Well, hopefully they would find a town or something soon. With the addition of this ostrich-horse, it would surely be much faster than it would have been on foot. And then they would be able to get back to the Fire Nation, and everything would work out just perfectly.

Feeling rejuvenated, now that she had drank something for the first time today, Azula watched as Zuko strapped the bag back around Pent's neck, putting the now empty canteen into it. All they needed now was to get to the next town, so they could bully them into giving them food and supplies. Perhaps even an eel-hound; she knew that eel-hounds were far faster than ostrich-horses, but Pent would do for now. Things were looking up. She hoped that when they got to the next town, it would be one conquered already by the Fire Nation so they could make it a quick stop before they got their ride back to the Fire Nation. Although, if they found an unconquered town, then conquering it would really do wonders for proving their worth to Father. She had conquered Ba Sing Se, after all. She knew how it was done. Add in the Avatar, and they would be swimming in honor. Well, she would.

It was unfortunate, she thought, that after how helpful Zuko was out here, that he would eventually just be imprisoned.

Forever.

Critically, she watched him climb up onto Pent's back, almost wishing that Pent would knock him off, if only to entertain her, or validate the idea that he was incompetent. That he deserved this destiny. Zuko, who had once gone a whole week without eating; Zuko, who had realized others were in this forest before she had; Zuko, who found them a way of travel by noticing this damn animal. He could be so frustrating, and it was hard to articulate why.

He gestured to her, like he was their leader or something, and still annoyed, Azula hoisted herself up behind him, looping her arms loosely around his middle. Even though it was somewhat uncomfortable to be squished here together with Zuko on Pent's back, she had never felt so much relief at sitting. She felt him sigh heavily as he pressed Pent forward, and she realized that he must be very tired too. Especially with that wound in his side, she remembered; he was still hurt. How was he even walking around like this? How was he fighting people off and chasing a wild ostrich-horse into the forest? How had he noticed that there were other people in the trees? How had he noticed that there was an ostrich-horse running around? She hadn't noticed until she saw him listening.

Zuko was not better than her, she reminded herself. He just had the experience of living this way. She was still smarter and quicker and more talented than he was. After all, he had needed her to help catch up to their new ostrich-horse because he was slower. They would not have gotten Pent if it wasn't for her. And she had been a great fighter when those kidnappers had dropped in. Surely he would not have been able to take all of them alone. It was lucky for him that some of them had run away.

Some of them had run away.

Azula felt her blood run cold; those thieves and kidnappers could be hiding in the trees right around them, right now. What if they were shot at again? No, that wasn't possible; she had hurt that archer with the bow and arrow. What if there were more of them though? Those criminals could attack them in the night while they slept, and with a terrible jolt, Azula realized that she might not be able to tell. Zuko had been the one to notice that something sounded off about the forest. If she was not with him, then how would she know the difference? Everything sounded noisy with the bugs and rustling everywhere. Listening more carefully just wasn't an option. She had not yet become acclimated to the sounds of this place.

The idea that she needed Zuko with her made her stomach twist, but she didn't have to tell him that. She only had to make sure he didn't stray far from her. She remembered last night when they had made their own little spaces far apart from each other. They had to stick together this time. It was only for a little while. They would be back to the Fire Nation soon, and then things would all be set right.

They traveled until the sun had completely set in the sky and it was dark. The sky was cloudy and it was getting difficult to see much in front of them, though it was clear that they were coming into a more open area; the trees were further and further apart. It must have meant that a town was near, Azula reasoned, relieved that they would be out of this place soon. She rubbed her eye with one hand, knowing that they would need their full strength again in order to properly boss around a town. They were going to have to rest soon. Tomorrow would be the day. And then they'd be on their way home. 28 days was plenty of time. She was the princess. She could make that happen.

In front of her, Zuko stifled a yawn with his hand.

"Let's rest," Azula suggested, setting her hand on his shoulder for a moment.

"Okay." He agreed so readily that she wondered if he had just been waiting for her to decide when they would rest. Perhaps he did not want to admit that he was tired too. He slowed Pent to a stop and then hopped off, stumbling on his landing. She slid off, determined to not trip up in spite of her exhaustion, and she scanned the ground for a suitable place to lie while Zuko tied Pent to a nearby tree with the rope that had remained on his neck.

"I'm gonna find a place to sleep," he told her, focused on his tying. "So, goodnight."

"Don't go too far," she warned, and it almost sounded like it was proper caution instead of her way of making him stay nearer to keep them both safer.

"Why?"

She wondered how he had ever survived out in the wild when he was so ignorant of human behavior. He may have known how to fight and notice when things were out of the ordinary, but this was more important! Predators attacked when there was less chance of their prey defending themselves. Especially when their prey was by itself. People who were alone were incredibly easy targets, just plain sitting turtle-ducks. Especially after the attack they had stricken on the group of thieves and kidnappers.

"Some of those thieves could still be out there," she pointed out, kicking some leaves into a little pile. It was cleaner than a dirt bed, at least.

"We got pretty far on our ostrich-horse," Zuko responded, but he paused, turning his attention to Pent, having finished his knot. He was thinking about this.

"They might have had one too," Azula reasoned, and that much was very true. Who knew what resources those kidnappers had? There were many of them, after all. "You never know."

"Are you trying to protect me or something?" he asked incredulously, arching his one eyebrow. "I can defend myself. I've done this before."

"I'm not trying to protect you," she snapped, refusing to acknowledge that she was trying to protect herself. "I'm just trying to open your eyes, dummy. I'd hate to tell father you were killed by thieves because you wanted to be alone, and you had this silly idea that an ostrich-horse would take us far enough away from them." She shook her head at him like he was a complete fool, but she knew that he wouldn't go far now. She had him. "Just do whatever you want, Zu-zu. See if I care."

"I wasn't going far anyway," he told her defensively, skimming the ground briefly. "I'm not leaving you alone with our stuff." Zuko settled himself in a spot on the ground with minimal leaves, only a few feet away. It was essentially a dirt pile. Azula pressed her lips together in disapproval and irritation. So he thought that she was going to steal their stuff, did he? Well, that just proved to her that she should be more watchful of him anyway. He turned on his back in the dirt, looking up at the sky. Ugh, he was filthy. He wasn't even trying to be dignified. She noticed that his ankle was scraped and bleeding, and she wondered when that had happened. Probably when he decided to chase after Pent so unexpectedly. He didn't have shoes. It could have been any time, really. It didn't matter though. If he woke up to attack some intruder, than she would wake up too. There was some comfort in that. She wouldn't concern herself with his suspiciousness and rudeness right now. He would get his eventual reward for that anyway. And she would be glad about it. So there.

She sat back against a tree on her little bed of leaves and crossed her legs at the ankle, several feet away from him. She wondered what was happening in the world. Did the people of the Fire Nation think she was dead? Would they hold a funeral in her honor? Or worse, would they hold a funeral jointly for her and Zuko? What an insult that would be, to not even give her an individual funeral; that wouldn't be fair if she had to share such a thing with Zuko when she was worth so much more than he was. And she was younger, which proved even more that she deserved to be honored on her own for her greatness. And with the two of them presumed dead, who would become the heir of the Fire Nation? There were no more children from the previous generation, and Father wouldn't live forever. Heavens, what if Father conceived a new heir before they even returned, and then she would have to prove her worth over some insolent child? Well, at least it was easier to defeat a child. And it already was far too late for Zuko to redeem himself. She shouldn't have to worry.

But surely she was over-thinking the whole situation—perhaps no one knew about this. The soldiers on board the airship could have easily continued flying through the skies, with no word to the Fire Nation about the incidents that had occurred. In fact, she thought, they probably had done just that. Imbeciles.

Azula sighed and leaned her head against the tree. Immediately, her head felt itchy, and she scratched at it, irritated at the whole world and the insects that flittered fearlessly about her body. It was abandoned and lonely here in the middle of the trees. How ridiculous that the only company a princess should have would be the insects and filth around her. And Zuko, she supposed, but he hardly counted. This whole day had to be an outrageous nightmare. Perhaps she would wake up soon and discover than Father had simply given her the right to rule the Fire Nation since he did have the power to do that, if he so chose. It was annoying that he was putting them through so much for something he had the authority to do in one simple action. He could say the word and she would be heir, and Zuko could be a forgotten note in the back of a history book, if he was lucky. But she supposed father had his reasoning; he did have years of experience as the Fire Lord and he had promised her the throne when they returned successful. She just had to prove herself. That was what it was about. It was fair, she reasoned, and she quietly let the sounds of rustling leaves and cricket-mice consume her thoughts.


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Gosh I hope this was coherent. Lol. This chapter gave me such a hard time.

Please review! :)