Hey, so before you throw anything (please?) I wanted to say sorry for taking so long to get this updated. Tokka week was a lot of fun but came at a rough time, so this month has been super-busy. It's a personal pet peeve of mine when people update so sporadically that the flow of the story gets interrupted, so I hope this won't happen again. Anyways, thanks again for those of you that reviewed last chapter (and read my Tokka week stuff)...
And now on with the story... =)
Crossroads
"Ana…Ana…pssst…Ana, wake up!" Katara whispered into the gloom.
Peering into the gloom, Katara could barely make out Ana's still, sleeping form against the opposite wall of their cell. Holding her breath, she waited, hoping she could rouse her cellmate without alerting the guards.
Just when she thought she was going to have to risk making more noise, she heard Ana begin to stir from the small ball in which she slept.
"Hmmm?" She mumbled groggily, before slowly coming to and realizing that it probably was the middle of the night. "Katara," she hissed, "what are you doing? We're supposed to be asleep right now!" Opening her eyes briefly, she glared across the small, bare room, "And, as much as I do love talking with you, I feel like we'll have plenty of time to do that in the morning. Now please, I'm going back to sleep."
"Shhhh," Katara said, trying to calm her agitated cellmate as she glanced warily toward their door where the guards were supposedly stationed. "I just wanted to talk to you about something."
"Can't we do that in a few hours?" Ana shot back, irritated at Katara's persistence.
"No," Katara responded quickly, "we can't. It needs to be now."
"Ok," Ana sighed, knowing that she couldn't avoid this conversation any longer, as she sat up and leaned back against the wall, "I know what you're going to suggest, so go ahead, tell me your idea."
"What!?" Katara asked indignantly, surprised that Ana didn't even seem the least bit interested in hearing her plan, "you don't want to try and escape?"
"No," Ana said, tipping her head back to stare up at the ceiling, "I don't, because frankly, it's pointless. You can't escape from this place—it's like labyrinth. And besides," she said, sweeping her hand in a gesture of futility, "what do you think he'll do if he catches you?"
"Well then we won't get caught," Katara shot back, a bit perplexed over Ana's reluctance. She figured that she'd be more than willing to comply—especially after all the time she had spent in here.
Leaning forward, she stared out at Ana, hoping to get some kind of indication, some kind of support from her. As she did, she thought back to the weeks—or maybe it had been months—since she had been taken, and with each passing moment she kept getting angrier. She was tired of sitting here as the bait! She didn't want to be a helpless prisoner anymore!
Her eyes sparkled in dim light as she pushed thoughts of Shong Ti and their last meeting out of her mind. She wouldn't be intimidated any longer.
Turning back to her impassive cellmate, who had now closed her eyes and resumed trying to sleep, she again endeavored to convince her to at least be open to a plan.
"Ana…" she began again, "we can do this; we need to try."
"Katara…" Ana started, eyes still closed.
"I'm tired of being the bait! I'm tired of being treated like this! I'm going to escape—but I want to do it with you!" Katara exclaimed, before quickly dropping her voice to a whisper, "you deserve your freedom. You deserve an opportunity to have a life—at least more of one than you have now. Will you at least listen to my plan? Please?"
Ana paused for a moment, running a hand through her hair.
"You know Shong Ti is going to kill us if we get caught?" She mumbled.
"No he won't," Katara protested, "he needs us."
"No," Ana corrected, "he only needs you. He doesn't need me."
"We'll be fine," Katara repeated, her own voice sounding a bit hollow in her ears, "now let me tell you what we're going to do…"
"As if I had any choice in the first place," Ana muttered, willing to let Katara talk for the moment, but reluctant to do much more.
"Zuko, we've been riding for over an hour now," Mai complained from the back of her lizard-mount, "don't you think we should try going a different direction?"
Reining in his mount, Zuko signaled his men to halt and allowed Mai to come up alongside him. Sighing, he turned to his wife,
"I don't know Mai," he answered, "the tracks led this way and Gansu said he thought there was a ravine or maybe even some caves in this direction; I think we should at least check them out. They can't be too much further."
Mai grunted and rolled her eyes, "Well if we don't find them in another half an hour, I'm turning around. No offense to the innkeepers, but one kid isn't worth wasting a whole week to find—we have things we need to do. Besides, we don't even know if he's still alive."
"Agreed," Zuko nodded reluctantly, "but there's a good chance Azula and her men fled this way. Who knows, it could have been her."
"In what?" Mai spat, "another deranged attempt to try and capture you?"
"I wouldn't put it past her," Zuko muttered.
Hearing Mai snort at the irony, Zuko rolled his eyes and began to lead the way once again over the dunes.
After about ten more minutes of riding, Zuko suddenly heard one of his men call out from behind him,
"Sir!" he exclaimed, "I think I've found something."
Spinning his mount around, Zuko hastened over to see this new discovery, hoping for some good news. What he found, however, was far from that.
As he approached, he noticed the man's lizard-mount curiously nosing the ground and pawing at the sand in an apparent attempt to uncover something lodged below. And, as his mount got closer to the same area, he could see its tongue flicker rapidly and feel its muscles tense, almost quivering in barely contained excitement.
Pulling back on the reins sharply, Zuko hopped off, handing the reins of his mount to one of the other men, before signaling for them all to back off from the area.
Approaching cautiously, Zuko knelt down in the sand next to the spot his man's mount had been scratching at. Slowly, he began brushing the sand away, allowing the coarse grains to slip through his fingers until his hand encountered something below.
Pushing further into the sand, Zuko grasped at what he had felt; the coarse fibers of what assumed had to be a tunic or some kind of shirt, resisting his pull to the surface, standing firm in its desire to stay unseen.
Not willing to accept defeat, Zuko plunged his other hand into the sand as well, grasping the cloth tightly and heaving against its weight. This time, the object obliged, moving slightly towards the surface.
Carefully brushing more and more sand away from the area, Zuko pulled again and this time was met with success as slowly but surely, the object came to the surface.
Only then did he realize what it was that he had found and why the lizard-mounts had been attracted to it.
Because there, lying in the sand in front of him, was the upper torso of what could have only been one of the missing villagers that Gansu had mentioned.
The dead man's eyes were glazed over, a milky white substance much like that which covered Toph's eyes dulling the clarity they had had in life. The skin on one side of his face had been replaced by many sand scoured furrows, his previously tanned skin dyed almost red in his death. Apparently whoever had killed him hadn't been interested in burying the evidence but had decided to let the elements do the work instead.
Leaning back into his crouch, he glanced up as Mai came up alongside him, his eyes reflecting the sorrow of the scene in front of him. Even Mai, who rarely showed much outward emotion, was visibly taken aback by what her husband had found.
They each took a moment of silence to compose themselves before Mai finally spoke,
"What killed him?" She asked, her voice low and quiet.
Rolling the body over, Zuko examined him thoroughly, looking for any sign of a struggle, cut, or even a burn mark from a firebending attack. He was just about to admit his puzzlement when his probing fingers reached up just into the man's hairline on the back of his skull, and it was there that he felt the viscous, sticky remains of dried blood and an obvious indentation in the skull.
Removing his fingers carefully, he stood up slowly before speaking,
"It looks like he was struck on the back of the head—but it's almost impossible to tell by what out here in the wilderness. Any kind of mace or hammer, or even the broad side of a sword could have caused the injury."
"So what now?" Mai frowned.
Zuko wiped the sweat from his brow before responding,
"We do the only thing we can do: keep going and hope we find these guys before we come across more bodies like this one."
Mai nodded once, reaching out and giving her husband's hand a quick squeeze before nimbly mounting her lizard.
Zuko smiled tightly to his wife before bending down to brush the sand back over the body, giving the unidentified man the most dignified burial he could, given the circumstances.
Mounting his lizard, he signaled the men and they continued their long march into the wilderness, their thoughts plagued with questions, with fears of what they could possibly find next.
"Toph," Sokka called, nudging his sleeping companion, "Toph…wake up. We're here."
"Mmph…five more minutes Tara, I'm tired. Go bother Sokka," She mumbled.
Sokka snorted before gently running a hand along Toph's upper arm, slowing bringing her back to consciousness.
Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, the blind earthbender gradually sat up and turned to Sokka,
"What?" She said, sensing like only she could the amused grin on Sokka's face, "are we there yet?"
The grin on Sokka's face quickly faded as reality set in. Nodding to Toph, he motioned to the town that now lay before them, snugly nestled against the mountains as the morning sun bathed it in its yellow and orange hues.
Sokka shook his head, if only the peaceful surroundings weren't a façade—if only the comforting glow was reminiscent of what they would find when they landed. If only…
"Sokka?" Toph spoke, breaking him from his revere, "you alright? Are we there?"
Smiling down at Toph, Sokka patted her arm, "We'll be there soon, and don't worry about me, I'll be fine—it's you I'm worried about."
A sad smile crossed her face, her old defiance not fully returning, "Don't worry about me; I'm tough. I can handle it."
Sokka didn't say anything, not missing the quiet frown that settled on her brow as the turned back toward the horizon.
"Just set us down on the lawn," she said, "I'm sure my folks won't mind…for once."
"Will do," Sokka agreed, "I can see your home from here."
I know it's not the longest chapter ever but believe me, it sets up for the next few chapters well... Please review!