A/N: WOW! You guys rock! Thanks for all the support! Here is the chapter I promised upon my return. Don't forget to tell me what you think!

OOO

Zuko awoke suddenly and wasn't quite sure why. Sitting up, heart pounding, breath rapid, he tensed, listening in the silence. Moments passed achingly slow. He heard Sokka's fretful sleep and the woodland animals calling to each other but nothing out of the ordinary. Chiding himself for being too on edge, he slowly allowed himself to relax.

Then he heard it again. Crunching of footsteps through the nearby brush and hushed voices.

Diving for the dwindling fire, Zuko hurriedly slapped out the flames, casting their camp into the darkness of the night. The only light coming from the moon and her accompanying stars and they were playing hide and seek in the rolling clouds.

Grabbing his twin swords and quickly strapping them around his waist, he crossed the camp and knelt down next to the squirming Sokka. He placed a hand on the other boy's shoulder and shook. Sokka's eyes flew open in surprise, the blue unnaturally bright, reflecting the moon in their depths. His surprised cry was cut off by Zuko's hand being clamped firmly over his mouth.

Zuko held a finger to his own lips not releasing his hold until Sokka acknowledged the sign. It took him longer than Zuko thought normal for his companion to grasp the situation, but he gave a shaky nod.

The firebender let go and wiped his hand on his pants, making a face when he realized Sokka had been drooling. Still crouching, Zuko peered around a tree and attempted to discern shapes in the darkness but saw nothing. Leaning forward, he tried to block out Sokka's ragged breath, the hoots of a raven-owl and the chattering of other nighttime animals, and just listened.

Sokka pushed himself into a sitting position and leaned against the rough bark of a nearby tree. Sweat poured off of him despite the cool of the night and the occasional chill that swept through his frame. If he wasn't so sure that Zuko would roast him, he would have let out a soft moan. Instead he concentrated on keeping his lips pressed together and his senses alert.

They both heard the voices in the distance and the loud footsteps of people walking through the thick forest, the snap of twigs, and the unmistakable crackle of dried leaves being crushed beneath booted feet. The sound did not come nearer but was still too close for comfort.

Zuko's heart was racing and he feared the pounding of it against his ribcage was loud enough to alert whoever was out there to their presence. Knowing that neither fight nor flight were truly valid options, he wanted to obtain more information before making a decision that could cost them their freedom or their lives.

Turning to Sokka, Zuko pointed at himself then out to the black of the forest, and made a circle in the air with his finger indicating he was going to take a look around. Sokka nodded his understanding. Zuko then pointed to Sokka and around the camp at the loose supplies. Sokka stared blearily back then gave him a weary 'thumbs up' when he got the message that he was to pack up.

On swift, silent feet, Zuko slid into the shadows, blending into the foliage and the night. Calling on his experiences as the Blue Spirit, he circled the intruders using their own noise and the sounds of the forest as his cover. Slipping unnoticed from tree to shadow and back, he crept closer, intent on discovering the identities of those he stalked; secretly hoping it was a band of travelers, a circus, or something as equally non-threatening.

Golden eyes piercing into the darkness, he bent low hiding behind a full spiky shrub.

"Let's go back to camp," said one of the silhouettes. "You drug me out here chasing a phantom fire and for what? They wouldn't be dumb enough to light one anyway."

Zuko restrained himself from smacking his forehead.

"I told you I saw it," the second figure groused as he followed his cohort assumingly back to their camp.

Zuko stopped breathing when they passed within an arm's distance of his hiding place, their clothes rustling, catching on the prickly leaves of the shrub. The moonlight illuminated the gold emblems on their chests and bounced off the coned hats. His heart moved to his throat. The Dai Li.

The sound of their voices diminished as they moved away from his hideout and Zuko was torn. Did he follow them back to their camp and find out more information or did he go back to Sokka and run like Azula herself was chasing them? He would not allow Sokka or himself to be captured again. He had made a promise and he was a man of honor despite what others believed. However, any strategic advantage he could get from observation and eavesdropping would be most valuable especially with the way their luck had been running.

Pushing his already tenuous fortune, he followed. He half-listened to their conversation as he snuck behind them, following discretely, concentrating on his breathing, his footfalls and anything else that could alert them to his presence.

"I don't know why we're out here. They're probably dead anyway. If they did cross the sea like the Princess thinks then they probably ran into that sea monster. You saw what that thing did to that ferry. There's no way they could've survived an encounter with it."

If you only knew. Zuko thought wryly.

He stopped short when he realized they had entered the outskirts of the camp. Maneuvering through the brush, taking care he didn't step into a stray beam of light, he watched. With movement, shadows and the frantic dancing of the flames of their campfires, he could not get a completely accurate count. Yet, he was able to guess that no more than a dozen Dai Li were there looking for the exiled prince and the Avatar's friend.

But that was not what had caught his attention. To his immediate left, ground tied, were ostrich-horses, well fed and resting. He smirked as his mind quickly came up with a plan.

OOO

Sokka sat, idly staring up at Yue, his arms hanging limp by his sides and his leg aching, waiting for Zuko to return. He knew he would come back. Sokka was quickly finding out that Zuko was a man of his word and determined to see a task through. He should've realized the latter part earlier since Zuko had chased them to the ends of the earth trying to capture Aang.

Despite initially not wanting to trust him, he had found himself leaning toward doing so. Zuko had proven himself several times in the past few days but some small part of Sokka could not accept the fact that he was being aided by the same person that had made his life miserable for so many months.

Katara had told him what had happened beneath Ba Sing Se and that confused things even more. Had the Fire Nation really taken Zuko's mother away from him just as they had Sokka's? Maybe, there was more to Zuko than the angry, scarred jerk that Sokka was so used to seeing.

Scarred.

Something else they now had in common. Sokka absently touched his own burn and quickly pulled his fingers away when the contact sent hot streaks of pain through his chest. Wrapping his arms around his torso and pulling his knees up, he attempted to ward off the chills that continued to rack his body.

"Where's a frozen frog when you need it," he asked miserably.

He wearily raised his head from his knees minutes later when he heard someone approaching, fast. He struggled to his feet, and reached for the only weapon in sight, his rolled blanket. Brandishing it like his machete, he was fully prepared to use it as such when Zuko burst through the brush, astride an ostrich-horse.

The other boy raised his eyebrow at Sokka and pursed his lips to keep from outright laughing.

Him and his crazy weapons!

Sokka dropped his blanket and stared back. "Where did you get…?"

"We don't have much time," Zuko interrupted.

As if to punctuate his statement, a volley of rocks flew from the darkness behind them and crashed into the nearby trees followed by shouts of "Stop, thief!"

"Make some new friends?" Sokka asked as he tossed up the roped contraption of supplies.

Zuko shrugged into it and offered his hand to Sokka.

"If we don't hurry, you'll get to meet them."

Sokka took the hand and swung up in front of the prince.

"Some other time. I haven't recovered from the last time I attended one of your parties," he shot back, leaning forward on the animal and clinging to the furred neck.

Zuko spurred the beast into a run while the shouts and the flying rocks increased in volume.

Zuko's plan had been a simple one; to steal one of the ostrich-horses and release the others to hinder the Dai Li's search. After untying all of the mounts, he realized that they were unwilling to move of their own accord. Even after pushing them and whispering threats they refused to scatter like he had envisioned, and firebending was certainly not an option because that would alert the soldiers to his identity.

Resigning himself to the fact that he was only going to be able to steal one, he grabbed the reigns of the nearest animal and attempted to sneak off with it. Unfortunately, the ostrich-horse was skittish and let out several loud neighs of annoyance, alerting the soldiers to Zuko's company. Their reaction of hurtling rocks and running towards him spurred the other mounts into action. They scattered into the forest and into the heart of the camp, dragging supplies behind them, knocking over tents and engulfing the camp in utter chaos.

He thought he had managed to slip away unnoticed while the Dai Li were comically trying to catch the wayward ostrich-horses.

Another stream of rocks flew too near them for comfort and Zuko ducked more out of instinct than anything else.

Swerving between the trees and shadows, twigs reaching out, tearing at skin and cloth, they endeavored to elude the earthbenders following them. Despite the cover of night and the fact that their pursuers were on foot, they couldn't shake them.

A large boulder smashed magnificently into a tree in front of them, sending a shower of pebbles and rocks over the boys. Zuko thanked any spirit that would listen for not blessing the Dai Li following them with good aim.

Suddenly, the ostrich-horse reared back, jerking Sokka hard into Zuko as a rock wall rose from the ground in front of them. Almost falling, knees clenched tightly around the animal and knuckles white on the reigns, Zuko roughly pulled the beast to the left, running parallel to the wall.

The thundering animal beneath him, the rapid shifts in direction and his ever climbing fever had Sokka thoroughly disoriented. Leaning heavily into the body behind him, he almost fell again when another slab of rock appeared imposingly in front of them. Another shift in body weight, another near miss of rocketed debris and Sokka's feverish brain became starkly coherent.

"They can't see us," he said softly, catching a glance of the cloud filled sky obscuring the moon.

"What?" Zuko asked as he turned the animal harshly again.

Sokka slipped sideways and Zuko was forced to grab his arm to haul him upright. When his pale hand wrapped around Sokka's forearm, Zuko was surprised at the heat radiating off of him but didn't have time to analyze it as another torrent of stone barely missed them, instead imbedding itself in the ground in front of them.

"They're trying to corral us," Sokka pointed out. "They can hear us like we heard them."

Zuko almost exploded at his own shortsightedness. The earthbenders didn't have lousy aim, they were driving the pair! And off course they could hear the animal tearing through the underbrush!

"All this so you wouldn't have to walk," he grumbled, narrowly squeezing through another attempt to box them in, his shoulder catching on the edge of the wall.

Sokka huffed. "You mean so you wouldn't have to support me," he retorted, not wanting to be blamed for all the trouble.

Zuko would've responded but a slight breeze blew the dark clouds across the moon, briefly illuminating their surroundings. He caught sight of a town in the distance and abruptly turned their mount toward it. Spurring it forward, he consciously zigzagged to avoid the inevitable rock barriers while gripping Sokka's arm to keep him from pitching off.

The buildings of the town came closer as they barreled toward it, pushing the poor animal to its limit as gravel rained around them and earthen obstacles burst from the ground. As they neared the outskirts, Zuko spotted a ditch to their right and knowing now they would never be able to flee their hunters, grabbed Sokka around the waist. He tugged hard on the reign causing the ostrich-horse to veer sharply left and away from the town, and then jumped, pulling Sokka with him.

They fell, hit the ground and rolled through the undergrowth earning more scratches and bruises, tumbling over each other until the slope evened and they came to a halt.

Crawling on hands and knees over to Sokka, Zuko again clamped his hand over the other boy's mouth and breathlessly waited, hidden in a mass of vines and leaves. He could hear the ostrich-horse continuing to charge away and the Dai Li still chasing it, not able to see that the passengers were no longer there.

He waited for what felt like an eternity until he could no longer hear any sign of the soldiers and the night once again lapsed into its familiar sounds. He finally let go, secure in the fact that they were alone.

"Don't ever do that again," Sokka's weak voice floated across the silence.

"It wasn't exactly part of the plan," Zuko said, sitting up gingerly and testing his limbs for more damage.

Sokka pushed himself up on his elbows. "Oh really? And what was the brilliant plan?"

Zuko eyes narrowed. "We needed faster transportation."

"Well I need a frozen frog to suck on but I'm not going to go steal it and certainly not from Dai Li!"

Zuko studied Sokka after the odd statement. Frozen frog? Was he delirious?

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," he snapped.

Sokka lay back on the ground and closed his eyes. "Yeah, I guess that happens."

Now, Zuko was sure he was delirious.

Spying a barn nearby, Zuko began picking up their scattered belongings. Once he had the essentials, he grabbed Sokka's arm and pulled him to his feet. Supporting him, they made it inside the barn without incident.

Zuko found a clean, fluffy stack of hay inside a stall and pushed Sokka onto it. He situated himself at the mouth of the stall, legs crossed, swords lying across his knees. Determined to stay awake until sunrise, Zuko began plotting their next move.

OOO

Don't worry. Their luck is going to change. Please don't forget to review. And thanks again for all the encouragement.

P.S. My vacation sucked and now I have a cold. I would have much rather stayed at home and read fic than visit the in-laws. Maybe some reviews would make me feel better….