I just thought I'd say...today is my birthday! Yay! 8/24 hehe anyway, here's another fun chapter. And It has come to my attention that there has been a request for a certain something. Though I am not at liberty to reveal anything (actually I am :D) I will say that whoever you are, you are on the right track :D I is out now, PEACE!
~th3rdhal3~

After the episode of the Agni Kai, Zuko was banished. According to Ozai, the boy had proved to be an embarrassment and a disgrace to the royal family. Zuko was given a task before he left the Fire Nation; he would have to find and bring back the avatar. Only then could he restore his honor and be welcomed back as prince. His uncle chose to accompany him on his journey, since Zuko was still not quite and adult.

I came to his room just as he was gathering last minute things for his voyage. He had the hair around his pony-tail shaved, as part of his banishment. There was no more innocence in his keen, golden eyes; only anger, frustration and hurt. The scar spread over his left eye seemed to seethe with anger itself. His hard gaze softened as he noticed me in the threshold. Zuko attempted to smile at my presence or even lighten up his mood, but he was having a hard time in doing so. "Kari..." He spoke my name gently and meaningfully. I stepped into the room. He stood there, listlessly, trying to figure out what to say next. I didn't wait for him to find his voice again; instead, I threw my arms around his neck, capturing him in a big emotional hug.

"You shouldn't have to go, Zuko." I fought back tears as I pressed the side of my head into the shoulder pads of his armor. He placed his hands on my back, completing the embrace. Another person whom I cared for deeply was leaving me. Zuko was my first friend and the idea of him being sent away was horrible. I didn't want to loose him too.

"I know." he replied, grimly but calmly. "But it is my destiny to capture the avatar. Then I will get my honor and father's love back." My young eleven year-old mind couldn't understand why he had to earn his father's love again. I had always thought that love was unconditional-especially from a parent. It was hard to let go of him. I worried for his safety. The avatar was supposed to be the most powerful bender. They could control all four of the elements masterfully. Would fire-bending be enough for Zuko? Could he rely on it to restore his honor? "I should be going now." We ended our embrace. He stopped halfway out the door. His hand gripped the side of the wall as he turned around. "I'm sorry." His voice was low and gravely. "But this is something that I have to do. You understand, right?" I nodded my head, feeling melancholy. Zuko noticed the look in my eyes; a sea of confusion and discomfort. His face fell and he returned to me. He grasped my shoulders and looked directly into my gray iris'. "Sankari, I promise you, I will come back." My eyes lingered upon his for a short moment, and with that, he was gone.

It was different without Zuko around the first couple of months. Aram seemed pretty bummed for a while; the two had been best buds. His absence even effected Azula; she had to find someone new to bother and and torment-mainly Mai, Ty Lee and occasionally me. Zuko didn't know exactly when he would return. That all depended on when he discovered and captured the avatar. Weeks slowly turned into months. A year had passed, and Zuko was still on his hunt.

The four of us had a little party when Ty Lee finally turned twelve like the rest of us. I decided I was going to cook something special; I had learned well from my father when it came to food and the kitchen. I made shish-kabobs. It was pretty easy for me because I was a fire-bender. All I had to do was slide the ingredients onto thin wooden stakes and let them roast over my hand which was on fire. While cooking, I noticed something odd; my flames were a faint color. The orange was washed out and subtle. Did that mean something was wrong with me? Was I possibly dehydrated? I felt perfectly fine, though. I shrugged it off and brought the food to my friends. Mai ate quietly while Ty Lee and I scarfed down the succulent meat. Azula eyed her kabob strangely. "Kari, didn't you make any with just peppers and mushrooms and stuff?" she asked. I was already done with my first kabob and working on my second.

"Do you not want meat or something?" I asked in return, mouth full. Who in their own right mind could possibly not like meat? I wondered. It was so good and hunger satisfying.

"Yeah...I'm a vegan." The princess replied. I was taking a sip of my juice and if I did not have as much control over my bodily functions, I would have spewed out the drink, showering the three. Instead, I swallowed hard, sending liquid down the wrong tube. I hacked for a good twenty seconds.

"Wha-a-at?" I obnoxiously drew out the word, starting it out low and then raising the pitch. This was news to me. Terrible news. All I could do was gasp in awe. Mai, who was not convinced, raised an eyebrow.

"Since when?" Azula glared at us like we were the worst friends ever for not knowing that about her. She folded her arms. "Since practically forever. I thought we went over this before." Well apparently not when I was around. I was still shocked and appalled. How could she be a vegan? There were too many restrictions and plus, no meat! How could people live like that? I grabbed a kabob loaded with strips of steak and jumped to my feet. "No friend of mine is a vegan!" I charged down Azula who was sitting cross-legged across from me. I shoved the kabob in her face as I tackled her. There was a great struggle. "Eat it!" I commanded. She resisted, forcing the wooden steak away from her. I pushed harder. "EAT IT!" Mai drank her tea calmly and ignored the ruckus in the background. She'd had years of learning how to tune us out. The oldest girl turned to the cheery little birthday girl whom we all should have been paying attention to. "Hm I think now's a good time to open presents, Ty." The little contortionist's eyes sparkled with joy.

"Yay! Presents!"

Mai walked into my room a few days later to find me tied to a chair. Trust me, I've had weirder things happen to me. She stared at me, blankly then closed her eyes and shook her head. "I'm not even going to ask." Then Azula came in with a raw steak she had swiped from the kitchen. My eyes lit up and I began to drool. She placed the precious meat on a table about five feet away from me. "I know I said I wasn't going to ask, but what in Agni is going on?" Azula double checked the ropes which bound me to the chair.

"I'm teaching Kari how to become a vegan." she explained. "It requires lots of will power to be one, something she obviously doesn't have enough of." She glanced over at me who was busy trying to scoot my way over to the table. No dice; the chair was weighed down. I was going nowhere real fast.

"Ow." I complained. My wrists were sore from the constant pulling. For extra measure, Azula had put shackles on me. "Are theses really necessary?" I turned my head past my shoulder to look down at my wrists behind me. "I feel like a slave. What are you gonna do, whip me if I misbehave?" I retorted. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mai half-grinning and possibly chuckling to herself. Thought I still didn't realized it, I was funny at times. Azula rolled her eyes at my comment. "You're lucky I'm not going to hit you for that. I'll be back." She left the room. It was just Mai and I. Thought I knew it was impossible, I kept trying to pull myself and the chair closer to the steak. I was pretty pathetic when it came to meat. The look on Mai's face seemed to concur with that statement as she watched me continue to fail. She walked over to the table and picked up the plate. "Azula can bend all the fire she wants at me, I can't bear to watch a dumb animal suffer." she teased, expressionless. I almost shouted out an objection to her comment but realized that she was going to help me out. "I seriously wouldn't-it'll make you sick, but if you insist. Here." She put the plate on my lap and exited my room as well. I was overjoyed.

" Thanks Mai!" I called out after her. I leaned in to smoosh my face into the wonderful meat which lay in front of me. I stopped. I tried again. And again. The ropes prohibited me from bending any further. I was so close yet so far. "No!" I howled in despair. "Damn you Mai! Damn you to hell!"

Surprisingly, Mai and I had gotten along really well. I guess it was because I understood her in a certain aspect. I also knew how to act around her; not super cheery yet not down in the dumps either-a medium, if you will. I knew that deep inside, Mai was capable of displaying as much emotion as Ty Lee and I were. But at that point, I didn't know why she wouldn't. We would always dare each other to do ridiculous things: I got her to skip everywhere she went one day. Another day she made me sing everything I would say in opera format-that was quite lovely. But I remember one time in particular when she, Ty Lee and I were playing Wall-Ball in the hall. "I think Azula's PMSing." I shared my thoughts, recalling how she had snapped at all of us at various times earlier that morning. Ty Lee caught the ball and sent it up the wall again. "You think?"

"Hey, I started my time of the month when I was eleven." Mai, who had just turned thirteen, told us. She picked up the ball and started the ricochet all over again. "But with Azula you can never tell, because it seems like everyday she's PMSing." The three of us laughed in unison. I bounced the ball against the floor and into the wall once more. "You know what would be really funny?" Ty Lee and I waited for her to finish. "If you stole her hair piece, Kari."

Being the stupid child I was, I agreed to Mai's challenge. She and Ty Lee waited outside of Azula's room while I went inside. The princess was standing in front of her rather large mirror, trying to fix her own hair. She was just about done with her topknot when she acknowledged me. "Kari, have you seen my hair piece anywhere?"

"The one that looks like a sharp, pointy object of death?"

"The would be the one." she replied sweetly. My eyes happened to catch something shiny and gold laying on top of her bed. Bingo! I picked it up and studied it for a moment. Golden, just like her eyes. "Ah, there it is. Hand me that, will you?" Azula held her hand out. I was almost about to give it to her, then I remembered Mai's dare. Azula noticed that I hadn't moved; I stood there, thinking what my next move would be. "Kari, give me my hair piece." she repeated, a little more curtly the second time. She saw me eying the door as I slowly began to shift my feet. "Kari," she warned. "I'm not in the mood." I didn't stop. I kept shifting over. "Don't you dare." she demanded, realizing what I was doing.

"Oh I didn't dare- Mai did." I giggled like an idiot, then bottled out the door. "I got it! I got it!" I cheered as Mai and Ty Lee watched me run past them. Now what do I do with it? I could hear an extremely angry voice behind me though I didn't dare turn around.

"You little shit! I will fire-bend you into the next dynasty!" I was right; she was definitely PMSing. The thing about Azula's threats though, was that she followed through on ninety-percent of them. She was livid then, I could only imagine what she'd do to me once she'd catch up. I couldn't believe how Mai had tricked me into doing this; my life was at stake. The chase was on.

"'Scuse me! Coming through!" I dodged and did my best to evade the servants and any other passerby that were in my way. After this little episode, I was going to make Mai sing the Fire Nation Anthem half naked, juggling apples and riding a unicycle outside in the blistering cold of winter. I was flying down the halls at what I thought was the speed of light. But apparently not fast enough because Azula was still dashing after me. Cursing, swearing, and threatening as she did so; so basically her usual, only worse because she was PMSing. I sped around a corner quickly and threw myself into a dumbwaiter. She zoomed past me, thinking that I had somehow managed to get farther down the hallway. I was safe for then.

Using the cable that was fed through the center of the dumbwaiter, I pulled myself gradually down. It was dark between the floors so I couldn't see anything. I kept pulling at the cable until the dumbwaiter creaked and I could see light. I had made it to the first floor. I crawled out, only to be discovered by the pissed off princess. How had she gotten down to the first floor so fast? Then I remembered that the palace was her house so she probably knew of certain faster passageways and what not. "Where is it?" Her teeth were clenched. I had hid the metal piece inside my long sleeve so that it appeared as if it were no longer in my possession anymore. She drew closer. I raised my arms up in surrender. "Don't hurt me! I tossed it in the bathroom of the South Wing." She glared at me, then stalked off down the hall. I sighed in relief to myself. I was just about to slip away, when Azula slowly turned herself around to face me.

"There is no South Wing." Her grin wasn't friendly. "You little liar." Caught red handed. Ah crap on a stick. I smiled, guilty as charge.

"I learned from the best." I bantered.

Mai heard my cries for help and followed the sound of my voice to where Azula had me pinned on the ground. This was just a little weird; just a bit. "Mai, save me! Azula's raping me!" I hollered from on the ground. I had given her fair warning that I would yell it out for the world to hear, but she didn't listen to me. "Am not!" The princess hissed. "Give it back!" Mai's infamous rare grin returned to her mouth as she glanced at us. I wanted to beat her for talking me into doing the dare.

"Aw how cute." Mai pretended to coo. "I can't wait to tell Ozai that his daughter and and his second prodigy are gay for each other." WHAT? I was going to fire-bend Mai into oblivion for that comment. Never had I felt more awkward in my life. Well at least at that time. She would pay; she would pay dearly.

"I am not gay!" Azula shrieked, giving Mai the death stare. If looks could kill, Mai would have roasted to death, slowly. Azula rolled off me and snatched up the metal piece, placing it in her topknot.

"Me neither." I agreed, still lying on the ground. I shivered, suddenly. "I've just been violated." I whimpered. Azula shot me a glare as well.

"Oh shut up, you big baby. All it took was one hit and you went down." As embarrassing as that story was, it was true. She had thrown herself at me, causing both of us to topple to the ground. Our argument was interrupted when a man in Fire Nation armor approached us. His stance was strong and perfectly proportioned. The man had a look of authority written all over his face. He had brown hair and long side burns I had seen him before. His name was General Zhao.

"Sankari," he glanced at me for a moment, to make sure that I was the right person he was looking for. "The Firelord would like a word with you."