Aang really, really did not want to look behind himself. But his curious nature betrayed him. Against his better judgement, he turned to look behind him at the source of the shadow that had blotted his body from the sun.
His jaw dropped.
A serpent, one as large as… Aang struggled for something to compare the creature to, 6 Appa's lined up tail to horns. A small, meek smile grew on his face, and Aang gladly hid his fear behind it, "Hi there… Mr. Giant Serpent uh… creature, I can see I am interrupting you, So I'm just gonna…" His voice trailed off as the Serpent unleashed a roar that shook Aang to his core. Fully unleashing the Boy's terror.
With a considerably unmanly scream Aang jettisoned himself above the waves and began to propel himself though use of Airbending to run across the water back towards shore.
He was there in under a minute, bursting onto the beach and crashing into the bushes nearby. Somehow winding up upside down.
As a single leaf fell from the trees above him and onto his face, he heard the sound of a barely restrained laugh.
"How is it that despite you almost dying I can still end up laughing at your foolishness? It honestly astounds me."
Azula stood above him now chuckling into a closed fist. Aang wanted to be annoyed with her, but something about the smile on her face drove away his lingering fear and anger. He smiled up at her, "Just part of my Avatar charm I suppose."
Finally suppressing her laughter Azula offered Aang a hand, which he gladly took, "Yes," she replied, "I suppose it is."
Aang gladly took the princesses offered hand, directing a widening smile at her as she pulled him to his feet. "Thanks Azula…"
The words had barely left his mouth before everything went dark.
~0~
Azula groaned slightly as her consciousness slowly returned, her head was throbbing, and and she couldn't see anything. 'Well, isn't this just great,' she thought, 'knocked out as well as captured. On the bright side it won't be long before the soldiers figure out somethings wrong and come to retrieve us, all we have to do is persevere long enough…
Her thoughts trailed off as the bag was ripped from her head rather violently, causing Azula to shut her eyes, the light of the sun was far too bright at that moment. A few moments, then a voice began to question her, Anger and suspicion clearly evident in its tone. "Who are you? What does the fire nation want with our island?"
She groaned to herself, 'ah, it's one of those islands,' over the course of the war the fire nation army, under command of firelord Iroh, had generally left the smaller more insignificant islands alone, islands that were either too small to hold any grand army, or didn't have a sizable population of benders, were generally left alone, much to the appreciation of those islands.
Azula herself had always thought it was a poor decision, leaving them alone led to situations like this, where the people occupying the territory believed themselves to be some final pocket of resistance against the fire nation doctrine. It was inefficient and created opportunity for revolution amongst the people, and if Azula had her way they would have conquered places like this too, but her uncle was much softer than she was, often he would quote some idiom or piece of sage advice that he would make up on the spot. She giggled slightly as imagined what his stance of this situation would be, 'Azula, one can not hope to dominate a world purely on fear of power, there must also be a level of trust.'
This was what her uncles trust had resulted in. His niece tied to a pole held captive by… Entertainers? With her vision now acclimated to the sun in her eyes Azula could clearly make out her captors, a group of women, sporting armored robes and garish face paint. They were clearly warriors, but Azula recognized an opportunity here, anger caused people to get sloppy, and Azula was great at making people angry.
She laughed loudly, "Well, this is an insult to me. Hey, you, girl in front, yes you, madam impractical golden headpiece, how to keep your balance with that thing? It's unseemly?"
The girl whom Azula was addressing flinched backwards at her crass commentary, reaching her hand up the the large golden headpiece that adorned her brow, it was clearly some sort of identifier, If Azula had to guess it marked her as the leader.
The girl quickly moved past the commentary, her eyes taking on a slightly darker gleam as her anger grew. It was all the princess could do to suppress her own smirk, this was going even better than she had originally planned.
With remarkably quick motions the leader girl had opened a fan of some kind and had it pressed lightly to Azula's throat. She didn't even flinch, "Wow, a fan, should I thank you? It is rather hot today after all." The girl's eyes narrowed, staring into Azula's. Their gazes met, and between a silent battle of wills raged.
After only a few moments of mental battling, the unknown girl released a small sigh. She turned to her troops, "This one won't talk." Azula gave a triumphant huff and allowed a satisfied smirk to grace her lips. The girl glared over at her, but quickly took a deep breath, then sidestepped to Azula's left.
"If we can't get anything out of you," She was addressing Azula, yet her eyes were focused on the pole next to her. Azula's gaze followed the girl's, her eyes widening as she realized who it was tied up next to her, "perhaps we can find out something from him."
Without any further words, the girl reached forwards and ripped the hood from Aang's head, revealing his face to the glaring sunlight once again.
~0~
Personally, Aang really wished Azula hadn't pissed off the scary warrior ladies, he was uncomfortable enough as it was, and it was much harder to diffuse an angry and suspicious person rather than a purely suspicious one.
Still though, that was the hand that he had been dealt, and Aang was someone very good at going with the flow. 'Best to try and calm them down first,' As he felt the bag being removed from his head Aang donned a large and hopefully disarming smile, "Oh, Thank God!" he exclaimed once his head was fully unveiled. "You have no idea how bad it smelled in there," he watched the confused expressions on the girls faces, already caught off guard by the stark difference in attitude. Aang swept his eyes over the crowd, then focused on one of the girls in the back, putting on a meek smile on his face and shrugging his shoulders, "Morning breath," he explained.
There was a brief moment of silence before a small giggle escaped one of the girls mouths, followed by another, and quickly most of the female warriors were emitting a soft chuckle. Aang laughed right alongside them, happy to see some of the previous tension dissipate, and even happier to just barely hear the sound of a barely restrained laugh escaping Azula's throat.
He knew of course it wasn't the best joke, but in high tension situations like this it took only a small push to ruin the moment, in one way or another.
Suddenly there was a piercing sound filling the air as everyone grew silent. And all the warriors stood at attention. The lead girl removed her fingers from her mouth as the whistle dissipated into the atmosphere before turning her glare on Aang. "That is enough!" she shouted angrily, though Aang was fairly certain that comment was directed more at her forces than himself, the girl refused to break eye contact with him.
"That won't work again," she was breathing a bit heavily, but Aang's goal was already accomplished, most of the other girls were far less apprehensive towards he and Azula. Unfortunately, his joke had managed to annoy the leader even more. Aang still couldn't help but smile though. He was in his element here, diffusing situations nonviolently was a specialty of the airbenders after all.
He smiled once again at the leader, "Alright, I'll talk with you, but I think if we are going to get anything done, we should at least know some names. I'll start, my names Aang." he made sure to keep his tone light and jovial, and to maintain the large grin.
The girl eyes him suspiciously, but then taped herself on the chest and introduced herself, "Suki," she gestured back to the other girls, "these are the kyoshi warriors, we are the ones who protect this island. Now, who's your friend if I might ask, the lady dressed in her fancy fire nation robes?"
Aang's smile faltered ever so slightly, he didn't know if he should divulge that information. Although his gut instinct told him he should, the pressure of Azula glaring at him said otherwise. Aang swallowed, he had to speak up, nothing was more suspicious in a negotiation than allowing a question to sit for so long, it would be best to go with the tried and true solution, diverting responsibility.
"I'm sorry, but the manners I was raised on told me it was impolite to introduce someone else for them, so I will respectfully leave it up to my companion to introduce herself." As he finished his sentence Aang threw his gaze over to Azula, trying to mentally convey the importance of the situation.
Azula glared at him once more, then ultimately sighed in defeat. "Azula," she stated it it bluntly, but Aang took notice of the slight widening that grew across their faces. As quickly as that they all dropped in to battle ready poses, "The fire nation princess," Suki spat the designation out, "I knew you were no good."
Aang's smile dropped, he was not expecting for a simple name to devolve the situation so quickly.
"Wait!" he shouted. Suki's eyes shot over to him, anger and suspicion very evident in her eyes. "We're not here to invade you or anything! We're just here because Azula was obliging my request," Aang suddenly felt rather sheepish, their original reason for being present on the island seemed rather foolish in regards for the current situation.
Suki continued to eye him suspiciously, "Why in the world would she do that? No offense, but we have no Idea who you are, and the fire nation isn't exactly known to do favors for anyone not in the fire nation."
Aang let a breath go, "She did it because…" Suki was standing straight again, her arms crossed over her chest as she looked at him, one eyebrow raised. Aang paused. He wasn't exactly sure how to address this. One look at the waiting warrior, and he decided the best solution would just be to simply tell the truth.
"She did it because I am the Avatar."
I got this chapter done actually really quickly, mainly because the story is rather interesting to think through. We're nearing the halfway point of the arc, so things are going to get kind of interesting. Things to look forward to in the future, Zuko and Iroh will have appearances coming up, nothing huge, but they will be there. Aang and Azula will definitely start to figure things out, though Aang is a lot closer to accepting the facts than she is, and our two central protagonists will be leaving the comfy safety of their nice fire nation ship for the closeness of the saddle of a giant white fluff-ball.
Thanks for reading as always, and be sure to tell me thoughts and maybe suggestions. Nothing I have said is set in stone and can be subject to change depending on how things go.
Till next time. ~Zorcoz~
