Chapter 10

Ship Goes Down

News usually travelled very fast in my world. Cautious generals and gossipy nobles were always buzzing with the latest information. I could always count on the court of the Fire Nation to spread news like, well, fire.

Which was why I was on the verge of panic, wondering why no alarms had been raised by my absence. Despite all of my self-depreciative humor, I am realistic enough to know that the disappearance of the Fire Princess, no matter how much of a screw-up she may be, would send most of the Fire Nation into a frenzy in minutes.

Torrin and I glided unimpeded through the Great Gates of Azulon after Torrin presented some paperwork (which I thought was questionable) to the sentry my father had posted at the base of Azulon's statue. The lack of opposition was not just suspicious; it was ominous.

But still, the waters were calm and empty as we rolled along peacefully and quietly.

Well, maybe not entirely peacefully.

Torrin had been in a terrible mood for the past few hours. After trying to engage him in conversation multiple times, only to be met with glowering and snippy remarks, I abandoned him to sulk in the dark cabin while I got some sleep.

When I woke up again, it was mid-morning. I stretched and yawned from my bedroll on the deck and my knuckle touched something cold and wet.

The cold, wet thing yowled.

"Did I just see you punch that cat?" came an incredulous voice from above me.

I bolted upright, blinking rapidly and squinting against the harsh sunlight. For a moment, I felt nothing but sheer panic at my unfamiliar surroundings. Where am I? How did I get here? What cat?

And then it all came flooding back to me.

Especially the parts with the cat.

I groaned and rubbed my hands over my face.

"So, are you this cruel to all animals? Or is it just cats? Or is this part of some weird Fire Nation custom where you all wake up and have to punch a cat before breakfast?"

"Shut up. You're ridiculous," I grumbled. I shimmied out of my bedding and squinted up at him with a hand shielding my eyes from the harsh glare of the sun… and his hugely sunny smile. "You seem like you're in a better mood today," I muttered, then grimaced. That was not, perhaps, the most tactful thing to say…

Torrin laughed. "Well you seem like you soaked up all of the grumpy, so it evens out." He held out a hand to help me up and I took it, staggering a little as I got to my unsteady feet. I looked around.

"Where are we?"

"Heading to the Fire Nation Colonies that are no longer the Fire Nation Colonies but no one knows what to call them yet so everyone still calls them the Fire Nation Colonies."

I shook my head. "That was way too many words for the morning. Actually, it was too many words for any time of day."

Torrin beamed at me. He had changed out of his stealthy green-black costume and had put on a breezy Earth Kingdom green tunic. It suited him better, I thought, but would never tell him. I'd only known him a day and could already tell that his ego was big enough as it was.

That thought made me pause. I'd only known him a day and yet here I was, traveling across the ocean with him. Anyone else would have jumped overboard the first chance they got, but I couldn't fight the growing feeling in my chest. Excitement, adrenaline, daring, and just a hint of insatiable curiosity were waiting on that boat, and I wasn't about to let it sail away without me.

I had no regrets.

…Until I turned and saw a speck in the distance. A Fire Nation messenger hawk was speeding toward us with a rolled up message clutched in its talons. Dread pooled in my stomach and the blood fled from my face, rendering me even more pale than usual.

"What is it?" Torrin asked, face conveying the utmost concentration and concern.

I pointed at the bird. "That's a Fire Nation hawk. If it found us, the army can't be far behind…" My arm trailed downward and settled on a distant smokestack coming into view from behind the hawk.

Torrin scoffed. "They're not gonna send an entire army after us for a few scrolls."

They would for a princess, I thought. "You'd be surprised how seriously they take stealing property from the Fire Lord," I said, choosing to watch the approaching hawk instead of meeting his eyes.

Sure enough, the hawk landed on my outstretched arm just as a Fire Nation Navy ship finally came into view. Torrin stiffened and jumped into action. He flew into the cabin with me hot on his heels.

"That's a Fire Navy ship," I reminded him. "There's no way we can outrun it in this thing."

"We're close enough to the shore, we'll just have to outrun them long enough to get on dry land, then I'll take care of them," his voice took on a harsh and dark tone that I didn't like, but wasn't about to waste time arguing with.

"So you admit you are an earth bender?"

"Is right now really the time for this?"

I shook my head. "Right, sorry." I looked through the class of the cabin windows at the shore of the Earth Kingdom coming into view, then back over my shoulder through the open door at the gaining Fire Nation soldiers. "We won't make it to shore in time," I said, "but maybe we can find some… There!" I cried, pointing to a set of enormous boulders side-by-side a little ways ahead of us. "Head for that spot right there!"

"Uhhh, I don't know if you know how earth bending works, but I kinda have to be close enough to the earth for me to bend it, and at this speed, I think we'll be getting a lot more than a friendly tap," Torrin said, pulling at the collar of his tunic nervously as he gazed out at the rocks.

"Just trust me and go above deck! Secure anything that might fall, this could get a little rough…" He obeyed reluctantly and I held the wheel steady as we headed for the rocky shoreline.

The two towering boulders were set just far apart enough for a tiny little boat to fit through. Was our boat tiny enough?

"I guess it's gonna have to be," I muttered through gritted teeth and aimed the ship for the crack between them.

It didn't take long for me to realize that we definitely were not tiny enough, but by then it was too late to turn back, so I raced out of the cabin and yelled, "Brace for impact!" I threw myself onto the ground over my pack of supplies just as the boat smashed into the rocks, splintering the wood on the hull and sending some fishing tools tumbling over the edge into the water.

"You're insane!" screeched Torrin.

"Well you can touch them now!" I screeched back. "You're welcome!"

He grumbled something I probably wasn't supposed to hear and ran up to the part of the boat that had become one with the boulders and put his hands on the rock. He let out a loud grunt of effort and a jagged slice appeared in the earth at his fingertips, cutting the rock in half. He took a step back and raised his hands in the air. The top half of the boulder followed his movements and rose up. Then he turned and threw his arms forward with so much force, he nearly knocked himself off of his feet.

My jaw dropped as the enormous rock sailed through the air and crashed with a deafening CRUNCH into the Fire Navy Ship, breaking a hole through the tough metal of the hull. Immediately, the ship slowed to a stop and soldiers raced to the edge of the ship to inspect the damage. Clearly, they hadn't expected opposition like this.

I whipped my head back at Torrin, extremely impressed and slightly terrified. "Well, that's one way to do it," I mumbled.

He had already turned back to the rock, where he placed his fist and pushed, shifting the earth to move away from what was left of our ship and let us pass through.

The tide carried the boat to shore, where we tumbled onto the sand and took a moment to gaze at the carcass that slowly toppled sideways before us. The entire left side had been scraped clean off, leaving a gaping hole in its place. The other side was more splinters than planks now, and the cabin windows had been shattered. Crates and boxes were either floating in the ocean, snuggled in the sand, or else precariously balanced against the lip of the now almost sideways deck.

Torrin and I made eye contact. Then we shrugged and got to work.

We collected everything we could and shoved them into our bulging packs. Food, clothes, canteens, and a few other essential items were all we were able to keep. The rest of Torrin's masks, other than the two we'd chosen, and his remaining contraband had to be abandoned on the sand.

We bolted away from the beach toward the mountain pass. Before we got too far, I turned back and gazed at the distant Fire Nation soldiers who were scurrying around in the sand, trying to find us and repair their ruined ship.

"Come on, Tiny!" called Torrin.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" I called back. I turned around and jogged to catch up with him, which was no easy feat with his long legs propelling him forward at twice my pace.

"I told you I wouldn't burn down the ship," I told him after we'd rounded the bend in the mountain and were out of sight of the soldiers on the beach.

He stopped dead in his tracks and stared at me in utter bewilderment. "That's because you crashed it into a bunch of giant rocks!"

Conjuring up my best look of innocence, I looked up at him sweetly and said, "But I didn't set it on fire!"