It wasn't just rumors about the Avatar anymore. When Smellerbee and Longshot were next in the village just East of their hideout, they noticed an uptick in the number of soldiers in town.

"Why so many?" Smellerbee asked an older woman, presiding over a vegetable stand. "Was there a problem?"

"Not yet," the woman said, barely suppressing a grin.

"What does that mean?" Smellerbee asked, leaning closer. Longshot, too, moved in, shifting subtly to block the woman from the view of a pair of soldiers standing across the street, though they seemed to be deep in conversation with each other and not paying much attention.

"In just a few days, they say there's going to be an eclipse. The old man down the street says it's happened before and it's going to happen again."

"An eclipse?" Smellerbee asked. "Why does that matter?"

"Firebenders can't bend during an eclipse," the woman said, her voice growing high with excitement. "And that's not even the best part!"

"What's the best part?" Smellerbee felt her heartbeat quicken. The idea of the firebenders not being able to bend was enthralling.

"The Avatar is going to strike back against them!"

The woman looked at Smellerbee and Longshot with eyes wide and hopeful. Smellerbee and Longshot looked at each other. Could it be true?

"How do you know?" Smellerbee asked, her voice low.

"Well," the woman said, faltering slightly. "It's what everyone says. And it means an opportunity to drive them out here, too!"

"You're going to fight?" Smellerbee asked, anxiety coloring her excitement.

"That's what people are saying," the woman said with a satisfied nod. "And I'll take any bit of hope I can get these days."

Walking away from the woman, Smellerbee didn't know what to think. She could feel Longshot, muscles tight as his bowstring, beside her, and she was sure he was feeling the same way she was.

When they were back in their kitchen making dinner, Smellerbee asked the question hanging over both of them.

"Do you think it's true?"

The knife in Longshot's hand, chopping celery, went still. He looked up at her.

Do you think so?

"I hope it is," Smellerbee said with a sigh, stirring the rice in the pot in front of her. "I want him to take the Fire Lord down. I want this to be over. I want Aang to win." There were tears forming behind her eyes. She could feel them and she didn't want them to fall. She stared at the rice stuck to the spoon but said nothing else, just took deep breaths.

Longshot turned off both burners and gently pulled Smellerbee into his arms. She buried her face in his chest.

"I wish the world wasn't so broken," she said, and a tear slid down her face.

:–:–:–:

The unrest in the streets was palpable as the date of the rumored eclipse grew closer. More soldiers appeared in the streets, and regulations grew stricter. Longshot and Smellerbee only narrowly avoided arrest one evening as they were trying to leave town, and a solider interrogated them about being out past curfew. People didn't linger to gossip in the streets anymore, and groups of more than two or three seemed automatically suspicious and would draw the attention of soldiers all too quickly.

"But are they here because they know it's coming," Smellerbee wondered aloud one day as she sat, practicing with her slingshot as Longshot made new arrows, his back against a tree, "Or because people think it is?"

Longshot blew some sawdust off the end of his arrow and started to attach feathers to the end of it. He looked up at Smellerbee with thoughtful eyes. Could be either.

"But why add more soldiers? Are they all firebenders? Or did they only send the non-benders? Does it affect them, too, or just the benders?" Smellerbee was pacing now, anxious and unable to stand still.

Longshot shrugged and kept carving.

"What do we do?" Smellerbee asked, her pace increasing as she moved back and forth across the platform. At this, Longshot stopped, put down his tools, and looked at her from his spot on the floor.

What do you mean?

"What are they going to do?" Smellerbee asked, grabbing a leaf from a nearby branch and starting to tear it to bits as she paced. "If the people try to rebel, what are the soldiers going to do to them? How do we help them?"

Longshot shook his head slightly. We don't know what anyone's going to do for sure.

"But can we just… stay here? Can we hide away while they're fighting?" She asked, throwing the torn leaf to the ground in some horrible travesty of confetti.

Longshot stood up and stopped Smellerbee in her tracks, an arm on each of Smellerbee's shoulders. Look at me. She did. His dark eyes were focused and calm. He took a deep breath, and Smellerbee knew he wanted her to do the same. She did. We don't have to do anything yet.

"I know, but –"

Look at me. Longshot reached a gentle hand out to touch her face. She automatically reached up and covered his hand with hers, holding him against her skin. We don't have to do anything yet. When the day comes, we'll figure it out.

Smellerbee nodded, though she could feel herself trembling slightly.

"I hope so," she said.

:–:–:–:

Smellerbee had nightmares of fire, of darkness, of fighting forces she couldn't see and hearing the screams of people she didn't know. Her days were spent in a state of high alert, patrolling the complex and keeping her dagger in hand whenever she could. Longshot noticed, of course, but did nothing to stop her. Doubtless he knew it would do no good. Instead, he picked up cooking and keeping the place tidy, bringing Smellerbee food wherever he found her. It seemed the more anxious and restless she got, the more deliberately calm and collected Longshot became. She appreciated it. When they lay together at night Smellerbee tried to hold him close and tell him without words how much he meant to her.

"The eclipse is supposed to be tomorrow," she said one night, staring at him. The moon was full and shone through their little window. Longshot's pale face seemed to glow almost silver in the light, his eyes appearing almost black. He nodded, looking intently at Smellerbee. "Do you think Aang is really going to fight back?" Longshot seemed to consider this for a moment before he nodded. Smellerbee felt a slight sense of relief, like at least she wasn't alone in her hope. "Do you think he'll win?" She asked.

At this, Longshot looked away slightly. Smellerbee's heart sank ever so slightly. Had she wanted him to tell her yes, of course Aang will win? Some part of her, she realized, had wanted exactly that. But Longshot wouldn't lie to her, not even to spare her feelings. Longshot looked back at her and gave his head the tiniest, most helpless shake. I don't know.

She understood. The idea of hanging all her hopes on Aang tomorrow was a double-edged sword. It was nice to think the war could be over tomorrow and the Earth Kingdom free again. But if he fought and lost… how could they survive? The fall of Ba Sing Se had been bad enough, but how could they hope to defeat the Fire Nation if they couldn't do it on their one day of weakness?

:–:–:–:

Smellerbee woke before the sun.

She climbed up a lookout tower that ended in a small platform just barely above the tree line, like the crow's nest on a ship. There she sat, legs dangling over the edge in the open air, leaning against the low railing, watching the sun come up.

It looked like any other morning. She couldn't seem to sense anything in the air, truly, that was different, but all the same, she seemed to scan the horizon for some sort of indicator of what might come during the day. But the birds and the animals of the forest seemed to be waking up and going about their day as if nothing was wrong. She didn't hear the sounds of battle from anywhere. If the villages were planning to rise up, they were not doing it quite yet.

Smellerbee thought of her father, an earthbender, and the way he used to talk about the way that firebenders and waterbenders could sense their powers change depending on the time of day and the positions of celestial bodies.

"Earthbenders," he'd say proudly, "We're constant as stone. Nothing changes our powers, for better or worse. We are steady and strong as our element. I can't imagine what it would feel like to be at the mercy of the moon and sun."

As the sun rose, Smellerbee wondered what it would mean to have one's power defined by the presence or absence of something else. She wasn't a bender, but she could fight day or night, full moon or new moon. No eclipse would slow her down or give her extra power. There was a comfort in the steadiness, the reliability of it, even if it meant she also never felt any heaven-sent power surge, either. It seemed a fair trade.

Smellerbee heard Longshot approaching as the sun moved higher into the sky, rising well above the horizon. She sat and waited for him to come up and join her, which he did. He also handed her a bun he'd topped with apple and honey, which she ate gratefully as Longshot sat beside her, eating a bun of his own.

They were quiet for a long time.

"I haven't heard anything from the towns," Smellerbee said. "I don't know when the eclipse is happening or how long it will last. But everything seems… normal. Maybe the Fire Nation overreacted. Or maybe everyone got scared."

Longshot leaned his head on Smellerbee's shoulder, and she could feel him sigh. It appeared they had finally switched places. Smellerbee's heartbeat was steady and calm, but she could feel Longshot growing more tense beside her as the minutes ticked by.

"Let's go," she said at last, knowing that Longshot, like her, needed to be doing something while they waited for whatever might come that day.

They climbed down from the lookout tower and Smellerbee had Longshot grab his bow and quiver and led him down to the forest floor. Even Smellerbee wasn't sure what it was she had planned, but it felt good to be moving, even if they didn't know what towards.

They slowed as the trees thinned near the next village, eyes scanning for anything alarming, ears attuned to any sounds that might indicate danger.

The strangest thing was not the presence of anything odd, but the absence of anything normal.

No children laughing in the streets. No shopkeepers calling to one another across the roads. No ostrich-horses screeching as they pulled clattering carts, nothing. The village seemed silent.

"Where is everyone?" Smellerbee asked Longshot, quietly as she could, when they were both behind a massive oak tree at the end of the village's main street.

Longshot, his eyes dark and wary, shook his head. I don't know.

Then his eyes grew wide and he flung out an arm, pushing Smellerbee back against the tree trunk. With his chest pressed to hers, Smellerbee could feel his heart thundering, and she heard the sound of approaching soldiers that had startled him. She held her breath as they listened.

"Is this the last of it?" one voice asked. His voice was accompanied by the sounds of a creaking cart.

"Yes," said another, gruffer voice. "Enough to finish them all if we have to."

Smellerbee looked up at Longshot, but he was lost in his thousand-yard stare.

"Do you think that's likely?" asked the first voice.

"No," said the second. "They're not stupid enough to get themselves all killed for nothing. A few minutes of eclipse won't do them any good if they're dead."

"Is it true, then? We can't bend during the eclipse?"

"It doesn't matter one way or the other," the gruff voice said warningly. "Blasting jelly doesn't need the sun. They act up, we blow them sky high. Now let's move these in place and get back on patrol. No one's broken curfew yet but that doesn't mean they won't."

They heard the soldiers retreat, their voices growing fainter. Smellerbee let out a huge breath as Longshot unpinned her from the tree.

"Blasting jelly?" she said. "Longshot, do you really think they're going to blow up the village if they go through with – with whatever they're planning?"

Longshot's stricken face was answer enough.