Nothing really to say except that it's a long one. Well I hope everyone enjoys Chapter 7: Darker Tides
Aang walked down the dark pathway of the palace dungeon, a tray of food balancing on his head as he dodged the occasional fireball and tin cup that flew from the various cells that lined the walls. In the rare occurrence that he failed to leap away from the fire in time, he simply blew it out as if it were not but a candle, using his Firebending to suppress and snuff out the fire. He ignored the many unsavoury comments that the prisoners shouted his way, far more focused on the task at hand: keeping the tray from toppling over and falling to the ground. Around officials Aang was the Avatar, a symbol of peace and thus a deadly, serious politician. On his own, however, he reverted to being as care free as ever, relieved to have the weight of the world lifted form his shoulders, if only for a moment.
At last Aang reached the end of the hallway: a dead end, or so it seemed. The Avatar placed his hand firmly against the wall, while using his other hand to hold the food tray sturdy; the stone wall parted at his touch, beholden to his will as was all earth. Behind the stone wall was another wall, this one off ice, but Aang simply exhaled a small gout of flame, and the wall melted. It was plainly obvious that a river or the like flowed overhead, for the ice wall was replaced with a gushing torrent of water. Aang brufshed the waterfall aside as if it were nothing more than hanging cloth, at last revealing a steal door, the hidden cell of the most dangerous criminal in all the Fire Nation.
Pulling a key from his sleeve, Aang cautiously unlocked the door, taking a step back as he pulled it open. The room looked more like a luxury suite than a cell; the walls were literally made of gold with many intricate pieces of artwork adoring them, while the floor was covered in a series of the finest carpets gold could buy. The room was also adorned with furniture crafted from red oak. The entire cell was a single huge room, but it was divided into separate sections, living quarters, sleeping quarters, a small pantry, and an enclosed space that likely served as a bathroom.
Sitting at a table just opposite the door was a young woman, her hands behind her head and her feet resting comfortably on the table. A smile crossed her luscious, deep red lips, while her golden eyes betrayed a hint of amusement. Despite the fact that she was a prisoner she wore armour crafted from black leather and gold, and underneath she wore tight fitting, royal red silk clothing. Her long black hair was tied up into a pony tail, but the length was such that it reached just above her waist. She allowed her bangs to fall freely rather than tied back; parting in two at her forehead and ending just bellow her chest. Her skin seemed to glow in the light of the fire, but a trained eye would notice she was unusually pale, a sign that she'd not seen the sun in some time. She leaned forward, lowering her feet and resting her hands on the table, she drummed her well maintained, claw like nails upon the oaken surface.
"I see my servant has finally found the time to bring my dinner," she teased. "You know, even before my nation's decline I never would have dreamed that the Avatar himself would cater to my whims." Her tone was sweet, but every word she uttered seemed to seep from her lips like venom from a snake.
Zuko held a scroll firmly in his left hand, careful not to drop it; riding atop an ostrich horse, he found it far more difficult to maintain his balance than he remembered. Of course, in time passed he rode at a slower pace, while now he made all haste. He glanced to the side, where another ostrich horse rode beside him, but carried no rider, instead loaded down with supplies.
The second beast's reigns were tied tightly to the saddle of Zuko's own mount to keep it from meandering off on its own. Zuko slipped the scroll into his belt and patted a small pouch at his side, smiling at the sound of coins jingling together. Given past experiences, he dared not take his recent string of luck for granted. Giving his mount a soft pat, he pulled back on the reigns, and the beast reduced its pace. The other ostrich horse, seeing its sibling slow, followed suit.
"Easy guys," Zuko spoke in a gentle tone to the birds. "We're almost there. You can relax a little." Taking his own advice, Zuko slaked his shoulders and closed his eyes, musing how it was he'd arrived at this point.
Katara and Sokka marched through the desert like landscape, both wearing loose fitting white cloaks with the hoods up to keep the sun out of their eyes. Katara threw her arms up in exasperation. "I still can't believe he managed to steal both our ostrich horses and collect all his gear right under our noses. We almost had him." She sent a glare her brother's way, as though the whole ordeal was his fault. Of course it was, but she didn't actually know that nor did she need to.
"Hey, don't look at me," Sokka threw his own hands up in defence. "He managed to sneak by you and Toph, how was I supposed to stop him?"
"Oh right, I forgot, you just sat on your butt and watched him slink away."
"You're right Katara, I guess I should have just crawled right after him," to emphasize his point, Sokka used one hand to illustrate someone walking away and the other to show what seems to be a worm crawling along the ground.
Katara could only shake her head at her brother's bizarre attempts at depicting his thoughts through hand gestures. "Look, I'm sorry; I know you couldn't have done anything. Your legs were hurt pretty badly but it's still infuriating that he was that close and still managed to get away."
"On the bright side, Toph was able to get us some more supplies from that village," Sokka began playing with his cloak. "Plus she gave us these awesome cloaks, they are so much better for travelling through this wasteland than robes. Plus Zuko forgot his stash of food; who'd have thought Firebenders liked jerky?" Sokka pulled a piece of the aforementioned meat from his pocket and began gnawing on it.
Katara narrowed her eyes at her brother, but quickly turned away, looking back to the trail in front of them. "The going is a lot slower on foot, but at least he's left us something to follow this time. He must be in a hurry to get somewhere if he's not even bothering to disguise his tracks; I wonder where he's going."
Sokka mumbled something unintelligible as he chewed on the piece of jerky, but after a stern look form his sister he forced the piece down. "I said, yeah I wonder too," Sokka lied as he looked up into the sky, raising a hand to his forehead to block out the rays of the sun.
Three days earlier…
"What is this?" Zuko asked as he took a scroll from the crippled Sokka.
The Water Tribe Warrior struggled to sit up, but failed until the prince gave him a helping hand. "It's a request for help that I was supposed to deliver to my sister," he explained.
"So why are you giving this to me and not her? Isn't this something she should have read at least a couple weeks ago?"
Sokka shrugged. "Read it and you'll see why I don't exactly think she's up to the task."
Zuko didn't bother to open the scroll, instead he stared Sokka in the eye. "What makes you think that I can accomplish anything that your sister can't?"
"Whoa, whoa, hey there buddy," Sokka held his hands up gesturing Zuko to stop. "I never said she can't do it, I just think that she won't."
His curiosity aroused by the comment, Zuko unrolled the scroll and carefully read each and every detail. Zuko looked back to Sokka, frowning as he regarded the younger man. "This is something that should have been dealt with a month ago, what do you think you're doing?"
"To be honest I'm not really sure myself. I was going to ask Toph to deal with it, but it took longer to find her than I thought it would."
Zuko pointed in the direction of his camp. "I think I saw her in that direction, though to be honest I made a point of not being noticed," he lied, not wishing to reveal his friendship with Toph to anyone he wasn't certain he could trust.
"Even so, I'd rather leave it for you to do. Seems like something a Fire Nation prince should be responsible for, and I know you have more free time than Toph does. Also I want to see just what kind of person you really are, the man behind the mask."
Zuko dragged a hand down his face, knowing full well this was an argument he had no hope of winning. "There's no mask Sokka, I'm true to myself."
Sokka waved him off like it was nothing. "Doesn't matter, I still don't know who you are these days. So here's the plan, I'll do what I can to distract Katara, and you steal an ostrich horse and whatever supplies you need. The only problem is sneaking by Toph; do you think you can manage that?"
It was Zuko's turn to wave Sokka off. "I think I can manage it."
Present Time…
"I don't want to hear your stupid jokes," Aang all but spat at his mention of the prisoners name. "I bring your food because I'm the only person that should have access to your cell, and you know it."
"And you know I'm eternally grateful for it," Azula replied as she lunged across the table for the plate of food. Aang was quicker, and pulled the plate away just in time, leaving Azula sprawled upon the table.
"Where is your brother?" The Avatar demanded.
Azula glared at the Airbender before smiling and sliding back into her chair, acting every inch like the snake she was. "Why I have no idea where Zuzu is, if I did I'm sure you would know too. After all, you're the only contact I get to have with the outside world," she pouted.
"I'm not buying that for a second," Aang's childish tone disappeared, and a scowl crossed his visage; he did not have the patience to deal with Azula's antics.
Azula merely exaggerated a shrug in response. "I guess it's a good thing I'm not selling anything then isn't it?"
Still holding the plate in one hand, Aang whipped out the other; a huge gust of wind followed, knocking Azula backwards out of her chair and pressing her against the wall. While Azula was dazed by the attack, Aang set the plate down on the table and began to work his hands.
Azula gasped, coming back to her senses a moment before lightning struck the chair she'd sat in. She looked form the now burning piece of furniture to Aang, who still had his arm extended from the motion of his attack.
"Alright, I'll tell you what I know," she admitted in defeat.
Zuko brought the ostrich horses to a complete halt; he could clearly see the port town that was his destination. However it was not the sight of the town that made him stop, but rather a half dozen Earth Kingdom soldiers standing between him and his goal. Climbing down form his mount, Zuko held his arms high and kept his hands open in a gesture of peace and surrender.
"We don't need nor want your kind here stranger," declared the apparent leader of the bunch, a bulky man with two hammers strapped to his side. Zuko had a brief moment of déjà vu, certain he'd met this man at some point in the past. "Be gone," The leader commanded.
"My kind?" Zuko asked, though he had a sneaking suspicion he understood the answer.
"Why Fire Nation scum of course," spat the leader as he took a step towards Zuko.
Zuko narrowed his eyes, not one to be intimidated. "I was here a month ago and this town was home to a couple refugees."
"Those old fools? We ran them out of town weeks ago. The boss said to take out the trash in this town so we did. I'd even wager that they didn't survive one night out there in the wild," the man laughed.
Zuko ground his teeth, debating what he should do, but the choice was obvious. Kicking out he sent a stream of flames at the soldiers.
Sokka held up his hand signalling Katara to stop. "I think I heard something," he explained. He began to slowly sneak around a large mount of sand and dirt, but a piece of cloth sticking out of the ground caught his eye; he realized it wasn't a mount at all, but a tent covered in sand to keep it camouflaged. He began to search for the entrance, but his only reward for finding it was a ball of fire that narrowly missed his face.
Upon seeing the fire Katara immediately ran to her brother's aid; Sokka stood with his hands up in surrender, an elderly man emerged form the tent with his fist pointed at the boy's head. Reacting swiftly, Katara drew the contents of her water skin and splashed it over the old man. Even as he turned to face his assailant the old man felt the water cooling, and before he could look Katara in the eye he was frozen in place.
"Bah," grumbled the old firebender. "First durned earthworms, now water whipper snappers."
Katara remained alert and on edge, but Sokka's features softened somewhat; the old man was a Firebender, sure, but he seemed less hostile and more a typical crabby old man; a crabby old man that could shoot fire and possibly lightning, but a crabby old man nonetheless. "Sir, are you a refugee?" Sokka asked, keeping his hands up on the air.
Despite his predicament the old man kept his sour image. "No, I happen to like wandering around the Earth Kingdom homeless."
Katara let her form go, standing calmly with her arms at her sides. "There are plenty of towns that are taking in refugees from the Fire Nation, you could easily find a place to live," she reasoned.
"Do I look senile? I know that, don't you think I know that?" It was difficult to tell if the old man was being serious or not, his personality was simply over the top. His scowl was quickly replaced with a solemn expression. "Found shelter in a town about a week from here, but then the durned earthworms came and kicked us right out. Told us to leave and not come back."
"Us?" Katara and Sokka spoke in unison.
"Why my wife and myself of course."
The soldiers quickly brought up their arms to shield their faces from the flames; Zuko noted that at least three of the men had burns already. These men had obviously come into conflict with a competent Firebender recently, and the prince could take a wild guess at whom. At the moment though, it did not matter who they fought before, because he was fighting them now. Zuko bent his knees, ready and waiting for the counter attack; it came in the form of six rocks, one sent flying by each Earthbender, coming right at him. The leader of the bunch smiled as the sound of rocks colliding and dust filled the air. Waving his hands he cleared the dust, only to reveal Zuko standing calmly atop a pile of rubble.
Zuko crouched and jumped, and as his feet left the ground the rubble beneath him exploded; flame and rocks went flying outwards in every direction but up. One unfortunate soldier caught a piece of shrapnel right in his forehead; it failed to cut him, but it was enough to knock him out. Ignoring their comrade the other soldiers pressed their assault. As Zuko set his feet back on the ground he was met with two slaps of stone rushing at him. Standing his ground he held his hands out, forming small balls of flame in his palms which quickly expanded to the size of a human head. When the slabs came within arms reach Zuko pushed the balls of flame into the stone, exploding violently outward upon contact. The slabs were reduced to sand and dust while Zuko stood, unmoved and unharmed.
One of the two guards that had launched a slab looked to his leader with a confused expression. "Sir I ain't never seen anyone fire bend like that before."
The leader frowned; bring up his hand he raised a stone from the ground, a quick flick of his wrist sent it flying towards Zuko. The Firebender brought one foot forward, and as the rock closed in he stomped his foot; a wall of flame exploded from the ground, knocking the projectile harmlessly away.
"That's because he's not fighting like a Firebender, those are all Earthbender moves," the leader revealed.
"Your wife," Katara began, "is she okay?"
"Of course she is, taking more than a couple o' durn earthworms to keep her down. Them fools hardly laid a hand on her; she down right scares me when she's like that."
"But they still managed to expel you from the village you were staying in," stated Sokka, though he tried not to sound insulting.
"Bah, my wife has a bad back, couldn't keep it up for too long, plus we was afraid're lighting the whole place up. Those villagers, they were mighty kind to us before the earthworms showed up, we didn't wanna make no more trouble for them. We up and left first chance we got. I was some afraid though, I think she overdid it a bit. She passed out a couple days ago and she hasn't waked up. No medics around, but I did what I could."
Katara looked back and forth from the old man to Zuko's trail, gritting her teeth as she weighed her options. Closing her eyes, she breathed a sigh of defeat, at the same time the ice holding the old man melted and flowed back into the water skin at her side. "I'm a healer; I'll see what I can do for her."
"Katara!" yelped Sokka. "What about Zuko? We might lose his trail if we take too long; he's headed for the coast, if he goes out on open water we'll never find him."
"It doesn't matter," Katara's voice carried a hint of regret; she knew her brother was right, but she'd made her choice. "There's someone here who needs our help now, I can't turn my back." She turned her back on Sokka and made her way to the entrance to the shelter.
The old man moved in front of Katara, blocking her path, but he quickly lifted the flap to the shelter and held it open. Katara quickly entered the shelter with the old man following closely behind, while Sokka chose to remain outside. The young warrior smiled to himself as he watched Katara eagerly set about helping the old man and his wife. It was good to see that despite everything that, had happened in these past years, she was still the sister he grew up with.
"Your boyfriend said you're looking for prince Zuko?" grunted the old man.
Katara showed no reaction as she began examining the old woman that lay in a bedroll at her feet. "He's my brother, not my boyfriend, and yes we're looking for the banished prince."
"I saw the prince only a couple weeks ago, I guess it would be closer to a month actually. He passed right through the town we was stayin' in. Lad even gave us some coin to help us on our way."
Katara simply ignored the man's comment about Zuko's act of kindness, but filed away the information that Zuko had travelled this way before, and recently. She was far more focused on the task at hand, the woman before her had many bruises and even a couple bandages. Slowly unwrapping the wounds, Katara's eyes went wide and she gasped.
Zuko stomped his foot on the ground and raised his hands into the air, his palms facing the sky; a stream of fire seemed to explode from the ground in a line starting at his foot and separating the soldiers into two groups. Bringing his hands back down the Firebender clapped and the line burst into a wall of flames. Breaking into a sprint Zuko ran directly beside the wall, occasionally jumping through it, the fire failing to burn him, as though he were merely passing through a waterfall. Anytime an attack was launched at him, Zuko would retreat to the other side of the wall, until he finally came close enough to a soldier to attack.
Zuko ran at the soldier, and stopping only a few feet from the Earthbender, he kicked out high, catching the soldier in the face. The man fell backwards to the ground, while Zuko leapt back and crossed to the other side of the wall. The other soldiers on the side of their fallen comrade, one of them the leader, were dumbstruck.
As he emerged from the fire Zuko found himself directly in front of another soldier; he cursed his miscalculation but made no sign of pausing. The soldier was inexperienced in physical combat and instead brought his hands forward to bend. Zuko immediately noticed the man was not actually attacking, and grabbed the soldier's wrists to prevent him from finishing the motion. The Firebender slammed his forehead into the soldier's face and pulled hard on his arms. The soldier instinctively pulled back, and Zuko released him causing the Earthbender to fall flat on his back, clenching his bleeding nose.
Zuko looked to the last soldier standing on his side of the fire wall and summoned another ball of flame while allowing the wall to dissipate. Running at the soldier Zuko threw the fireball ahead of him, the man brought his arms up to block the attack, but the fireball snuffed out long before it would have made contact. Instead Zuko punched the man in the stomach, causing the soldier to double over while the Firebender clenched his fists together and slammed them into the back of the man's head.
Turning to view his remaining opponents Zuko noted that the leader still stood, while the other man was literally trembling in his boots. In less than a minute Zuko had brought down four men with (what seemed to any onlookers) little to no effort. Zuko began to walk towards the two soldiers that were still standing, and the fearful one gave a yelp and started to run away; Zuko ignored him, and instead kept his eyes focused on the leader. The light from the waning sun shined off the prince's face, illuminating it for the first time during the short encounter.
The leader's knuckles went white as he tightened his grip on his weapons, pointing the head of one at Zuko. "You, you're that brat from that village four years ago!"
Zuko drew his swords, at last remembering when he last met this man. Over four year's ago in Li's village, he was the soldier that was bullying the citizens; sadly it seemed not much had changed in half a decade. Zuko snorted a puff of smoke and charged at the Earthbender.
"You said that you were attacked by Earthbenders?" asked Katara as she examined the wound beneath the bandage.
"That's what I said, earthworms, weren't you listening?" Sarcasm seemed a permanent attribute for the old man.
"Then how do you explain this?" Katara moved, revealing the wound on the woman's arm; a burn that was roughly the size of a hand. "Earthbenders don't leave burn marks."
"Of course they don't, I did that. Couldn't get the cut to stay closed and it was starting too get infected. I had to do what I could, I told you that earlier," explained the elderly Firebender.
Katara looked back at the wound and examined it more closely; sure enough, she could find signs of a cut beneath the burnt flesh. "I don't think I've ever heard of someone using Firebending for medical purposes."
"Bah, of course you wouldn't have, you probably never even saw the flames of war until after Ozai took the throne."
Katara stared at the old man. "Why would Ozai taking the crown have anything to do with medicinal use of Firebending?"
"Simple, once Ozai became Fire Lord he decreed that all Firebenders were to take up roles as soldiers. Even the medics were forced to give up their trades and enlist in the military, was an awful shame. Fire Nation could used a lot more medics, and we could sure use them now, but no ones been trained up in a decade and most of em died in the front lines."
"Were you a doctor by any chance?" Katara couldn't help but ask.
"Are you daft? I told you we couldn't find no medics, would found one right off were I one. My son though, he was a medic, he taught me how to close the wounds, some other stuff too but I don't remember it quite as well as I suppose I should. When Ozai took the crown, my boy was one of the ones sent to the front lines, never came home. War lost all meaning under Ozai, weren't no more honour to it, just people dieing."
Katara's eyes went wide before she narrowed them, frowning deeply at the old man. "That war never had any meaning or honour. No, it was just a bid for more power."
To his credit the Firebender stared right back, not so much as blinking at the accusation. "The war was a cruel thing, but it was a necessary thing. The Fire Nation was the most powerful of the four countries. The war was to spread our prosperity, so that the other nations might achieve what we had. We had medicine that didn't need Waterbenders, bountiful crops and secrets to keep them such, and of course advanced machinery."
"Fire Nation seems to have quite the way of sharing," accused Katara.
"You been through war and you're still looking at thing like they're all black or white? Tell me, you think if the Fire Nation just gave away whatever it had peace would have been guaranteed? One of the other nations would have eventually decided they wanted more than the Fire Nation was offering, they would have just taken it. Someone was going to make a move eventually, Sozin decided if he was to share his countries prosperity it should be his country that takes the role of ruling over the others. He did many horrible things, but he did it for his people and for the world; stop looking for thing to be so simple girl. Nothing in this world is ever as simple and good and bad, everyone has their reasons."
Katara was left speechless; she had no idea what to say to the old man. Everything he said could have been a lie, propaganda that the Fire Nation spread amongst its people to support the war. She couldn't shake the feeling that there could be some truth to it though, and try though she might she'd couldn't disprove it.
Zuko and the last soldier, the leader, circled each other, waiting for the right moment to strike. Based off the Earthbender's confident swagger, Zuko reasoned the man either did not remember their last encounter that well, or had improved significantly. The prince managed a smirk, it didn't matter which it was, because he had improved too: exponentially.
The soldier acted first, slamming his hammer into the ground he raised stone spikes from the earth and sent them rushing towards Zuko. The very same attack had almost lead to the prince's demise years earlier, but he was a different man back then, in body and spirit. Zuko spun to the side, narrowly dodging the attack, but the Earthbender was not done. He slammed his other hammer into the ground sending another series of spike's Zuko's way; soon the soldier was beating on the ground like a drum. However the attacks proved totally ineffective against Zuko, the young man's agility and reflexes allowed him to easily dodge everything the Earthbender could throw at him.
Realizing he would lose at this rate, the soldier raised both his hammers into the air and brought them down on the ground together. Like a pond after a rock is thrown in, the earth rippled and waves of sand, mud, and stone rose close to six feet into the air. Fire wrapped around Zuko's blades as he ran at the approaching wave rather than away. A quick slash with one sword, and a portion of the wave seemed to melt away as if it were nothing but butter. Zuko turned, bringing his other sword to bare against the next wave and cutting it down as well. Continuing the motion he continued to rotate in circles, cutting down wave after wave until he was standing directly in front of the soldier.
The Earthbender gritted his teeth, but as he moved to raise his hammers from the ground he felt a sharp pin in his right wrist, forcing him to drop that hammer. Glancing down he saw that Zuko had kicked his hand, hard, which also brought about the reality that Zuko was within arms reach. The soldier looked back up, and his eyes were nearly pierced by the tips of Zuko's swords, so close were the points to the man's face. Realizing that he had lost, the Earthbender dropped his other hammer to the ground and raised his hands in surrender.
"You mentioned that the boss sent you here. Now, do tell me more about this boss," ordered Zuko.
"The boss, the general, he sent us, told us to rough up the town, and scare off any Fire Nation we found," spouted the captive soldier.
"Give me a name!" commanded the prince, fire flaring form his nostrils.
"Long Feng, he sent us. Told me to take my men and head here, said it was all part of our duty to our nation, to make up for past mistakes."
"Who's Long Feng?" The name was familiar to Zuko, he was certain he'd heard it somewhere, but he wasn't sure of where. Perhaps Aang or one of his friends had mentioned the name back when they were allies but he could not be sure.
"He's the general of the new army and the commander of the Dai Li."
"The Dai Li follow Azula; she took command of them before she conquered Ba Sing Se four years ago."
"Yeah, four years ago, but things have changed since then. Everyone says Azula was captured, Long Feng came back then, started up an army, and now the Dai Li follow him, just like they used to," The solider kept his eyes on Zuko, but slowly began to reach for a hammer, hoping that the prince was too busy contemplating to notice. Luck was not with him however, as Zuko gave him a quick boot to the head, knocking him out cold.
"Zuzu was in south not too long ago, but now he's somewhere in the Earth Kingdom," Azula admitted, though she sounded more bored than frustrated at being forced to reveal the information. "He docked a boat in a southern port village and paid the dock keeper a healthy ransom to keep the boat safe and to keep quiet."
"I guess he didn't pay enough," reasoned Aang.
"Hardly, I think I would have hesitated at paying that man what it would take to get him to talk. However, I find that a few well phrased threats work wonders for loosening the lips, but you know that already don't you?" Aang merely ignored her jab and waited for Azula to continue. "Regardless, I'd say my brother had some business in the south recently and since he wanted to keep his boat safe he likely plans to return at some point. Of course he's not very god at planning ahead, he might be planning to return so far in the future that the boat will have rotted through by then. I wouldn't gamble on it."
Aang smiled, and turned to leave; he'd garnered enough information and did not wish to subject himself to Azula any longer.
"That's it? You're going after just that? How do you even know I'm telling the truth?" Azula seemed to regain her fire; she'd expected more fight from the Avatar, but he was satisfied with taking her words at face value.
Aang shrugged, not bothering to look back. "I'm willing to take the chance; besides I think you want me to catch him. He's the reason you got caught in the first place, right? You want pay back, and you can't get it if he's running around the world while you're locked in here," Azula remained silent, and Aang was pleased with this. It meant he'd guessed right, that Zuko had played a part in Azula's capture, and that was more than he had known before. The steal door slammed shut behind the Avatar, as he made his way out of the dungeon the waterfall froze back into ice, and the stone wall rose to conceal the whole thing. Azula broke into a grin as she took her plate of food and began to eat her dinner.
"Everything is back in motion."
Chapter 7: End.
Originally I'd planned to have this chapter up a day earlier but I fell asleep in the midst of typing it up. It's a lot longer than I'd originally planned, but I think it's justified. Next chapter; how will Katara fight when she runs out of water? How can Sokka hope to defeat benders with only his sword? Where is Zuko headed in such a hurry? What happened to Toph? Until then, remember to seize the day.
-fallendeathlord
