Katara grinned as she looked down in the crates they had brought onboard the ship.
Under normal circumstances, these would be very odd crates to transport around on a ship. Because honestly, they were just filled with dirt.
Another word for dirt though was earth! A bunch of water benders sailing up to a giant prison ridge in the ocean when the fire benders had no fire bending, dumping all of these crates of earth down to the earth bending prisoners and this was going to be easy as pie.
"HURRY UP ZOMBIE KID!" Toph shouted in a grin.
"Would you stop calling me that?!" Jet huffed as he walked after Toph. "Names Jet. Milky eyes!"
"No it's not. It's Kailin. That's what Smellerbee called you when you were all zombiefied and she couldn't reach you." Toph grinned in a snort.
"That was my name! But not any more." Jet huffed.
"Sure thing Mr trying to so hard to be cool." Toph grinned.
"Dirt mouth." Jet replied.
"Gloob brain."
"Princess snark!"
"Mister Hypocrite!"
Pipsqueak blinked as he walked a bit behind them alongside Sneers. "You think maybe we should… Stop them?" Pipsqueak asked.
"You know… I actually think they like each other in a weird way." Sneers commented. "Jet has only given all of us one name each. He's given her." he started to count fingers. "At least over ten names now."
"You just ran out of fingers." Pipsqueak observed.
"Yeah…." Sneers sighed. "My school was burned down before I got to multiplication in math…. You know when all of this war stuff is over. It would be kind of neat to actually learn how to read."
"You want to go back to school?" Pipsqueak asked.
"Well I mean… Yeah kind of." Sneers said.
"Oh… That's cool." Pipsqueak grinned. "You got this!"
"Thanks man. Means a lot." Sneers replied just as Toph and Jet in front were hurling even more colourful names at each other.
"Okay so let's go over the plan again!" Sokka proclaimed. "We will be sneaking into the prison twenty-four hours before the eclipse actually happens. Find Suki and spread the word about the eclipse among prisoners so they will be ready!" he said. "Aang is to small to pose for a guard so he'll be waiting outside. As soon as the eclipse happens we are going to concentrate on taking down and tying down all the guards. With the help of the prisoners who outnumbers them that should be doable. So when the eclipse is over we will have a longer time to transport prisoners away. It will take some time since the only two ways off the prison is either flying or on the Gondolas."
Mai nodded. "Right." then she smirked. "My uncle is going to have a melt down."
"Oh?" Hakoda asked.
"He is so proud of his perfect record." Mai informed. "There has never been an successful escape attempt from the boiling rock. But this… This is going to work. I'm pretty sure."
Sokka was grinning all over. "Just wait till you meet Suki dad! You're going to love her! She's so strong and smart and funny and strong and wonderful and… and."
Hakoda shook his head. "I'm sure she's wonderful." he said as he reached out a hand and then ruffled up Sokkas hair.
"DAAAAD!" Sokka whined. "Dad don't! That's totally uncool."
"My kids are growing up so fast! Just give me this." Hakoda asked. "To be honest. I have a hard time realizing you are old enough for dating!"
"I'm plenty old enough!" Sokka proclaimed.
"So erhm… Has Katara… Dated anyone?" Hakoda asked.
"No!" Aang exclaimed so loudly and quickly it made everyone snap towards him. "She… She hasn't!" Aang stammered.
"She did have a thing with Jet though." Sokka pointed out.
"For half a day!" Aang huffed. "And thank the spirits that didn't last!"
Mai lifted an eyebrow.
"You jealous Aang?" Sokka asked.
"No." Aang crossed his arms as he turned his head away, which pretty much revealed the lie instantly and Hakoda lifted an eyebrow.
Mai shrugged. "Kids."
"We're literately the same age." Sokka commented to Mai.
"Yeah. But I got what I wanted. And it wasn't that hard." Mai smirked as she leaned back with her hands behind her head.
"How?" Aang asked very sincerely.
Mai shrugged. "Used my feminine charm."
"I bet it helped that Zuko is a bit of a sadist." Sokka commented in a smirk.
If that was supposed to offend Mai it didn't. She just closed her eyes as she smirked. "If that's what you think." she said.
Sokka blinked. "Man… Now I see it. You two could get into some crazy stuff in the…"
"STOOOOP!" Aang covered Sokkas mouth. "I'm twelve! I don't need to hear it!"
"What?" Sokka asked. "I'm just saying."
"You're realizing your dad is also listening in right?" Aang asked and Sokkas eyes widened as he turned to Hakoda who sat with a lifted an eyebrow.
"Oh don't mind me." Hakoda said. "I remember when I first dated your mother. The nights were cold as they always will be at winter on the south pole. But we didn't mind, we were sure to keep each other warm it was..."
"DAD! Noooooo!" Sokka screamed holding his hands towards his ears and Hakoda laughed while Aang was beet read in the face and Mai smirked, seemingly off the her own fantasies.
"What do you mean you can't make ice?!" Torrak asked absolutely bewildered. "That's like… The first lesson of water bending!"
Musk blinked as he looked at Torrak. "What would I be needing it for?" he asked.
"Build houses! Walls! And combat!" Torrak exclaimed.
"Well my swamp is pretty hot. Any houses or walls of ice would melt." Musk commented then crossed his arms. "Hmm… I might be able to. I just never tried." he admitted.
Zuko sighed deeply as he was watching the two water benders argue ones again. It looked like they never stopped.
They had finally arrived at their destination not far from the prison camp they were intending to target and had sat up temporary camp hidden away in the forest.
"So how did you become Zukos servant?" Ty Lee was chatting away at Zhau-Li.
"Well erhm…" Zhau-Li hesitated. "Actually I'm not really sure. I just knew I wanted to serve him the best way I could. And then I just did… And now we're here."
"So you were the one who chose it?" Ty Lee asked. "Wow that's cool. I don't think you need to be a servant though." she said. "I mean I guess I was sort of Azulas servant. I didn't really have a choice though… And she said we were friends. But honestly it was more like servant."
"Oh Prince Zuko always assured I didn't need to do anything. And never had to be his servant. I chose it myself." Zhau-Li assured. "Beside he always asks me if I want to do something. Every single time."
"Hah! That's the total opposite of Azula. I should have known." Ty Lee beamed happily. "Following Zuko is sooo different! I never have to do anything I don't want to! like you said, he actually asks! And no one shouts at me! And people are so nice! I got so many new friends!" she beamed. "You know what the best thing is?" Ty Lee asked.
"Erhm… no." Zhau-Li admitted.
Ty Lee smiled. "I don't have to be afraid any more. That's… Like being able to live again. It's wonderful."
Zhau-Li smiled a little softly. "Yeah." he said. "It is. That's what we are trying to give to the rest of the fire nation."
And Ty Lee nodded as she smiled.
Zukos cheeks grew red as he turned his head away going away from the personal conversation and glanced at Piandao who was training with Jua. Mostly the Kyoshi warrior trying to get a hit in on Piandao and… Piandao dodging each and every attempt barely even moving at all. With minimal movement… The man was at least three times Jua's senior and stupidly graceful in comparison. Zuko could only hope he would age with similar grace.
Then Haru approached Zuko. "Erhm.. hi. Your highness. Prince Zuko…" he tried a little nervously.
"Zuko is fine." Zuko assured.
"Right. Okay." Haru nodded.
There was an awkward silence that seemed to stretch out.
"So erhm… You're the one that. You'll be fire lord." Haru said.
"Yeah…" Zuko hesitated.
"And you'll set the earth benders free. Those we don't free doing the eclipse. And then leave the earth kingdom alone?" Haru asked.
"Yeah, that was the plan." Zuko nodded.
Haru nodded. "Good."
Zuko was quiet. "So… you're from an earth kingdom village right?"
"Yeah. Used to be a mining village. Then the fire nation took all the earth benders away. Those who would do the mining. For a while I was the only one left and had to hide my earth bending at all cost... Cause you know. If I were ever figured out they would either take me or just kill me on the spot."
"Oh." Zuko realized. "So-Sorry."
"It's okay. Katara and the others helped free my father and other earth benders. They kept up the defence since. Though with Ba Sing Se taken. Now it's only a matter of time… I wanted to stay and protect them. But I realized taking down the current fire lord would be the only real way to protect them long term."
"Ah… I see." Zuko replied.
"I always kind of wondered. Why would the fire nation do this?" Haru asked. "What reason could they possible have?"
"I wish I had a good answer for you." Zuko admitted. "But I honestly don't know. Other than my great grandfather, grandfather and father are all insane." he sighed deeply. "I guess it's something about spreading the superiority of the fire nation across the world and thus 'help' everybody… But yeah. When you burn everything down first I don't really know how that is supposed to help anyone."
"Heh. I'm starting to see why Katara and all the others are always praising you to the skies." Haru commented.
"Oh.. thank you." Zuko blushed deeply.
Just then a shout sounded, it was Torrak who exclaimed .
"How did you do that?!"
Zuko looked up to see Torrak wide-eyed looking at the swamp bender who was manipulating the branches of a tree.
"Oh that's easy!" Musk said. "All plants have water see? So you control the water inside of the plants to control the plant!"
Torrak gaped.
"Ya don't do that at the north pole?" Musk asked as he let go of the tree and it got back into its original position.
"We… Don't exactly have a lot of trees at the pole." Torrak admitted. "Or any greenery."
"Well no wonder then!" Musk grinned. "Don't worry I'll show you. I'm sure you'll get the hang of it in no time! Then you can show me some of that fancy ice water bending or what you call it."
"Oh… Okay. That seems fair." Torrak nodded.
Zuko grinned as he heard them.
"Wow, each bending elements actually have a lot of forms don't they?" Haru asked.
"I know!" Zuko exclaimed. "When I grew up they always insisted there was only one way to do fire bending! But there are a ton of ways! You just have to figure them out!"
"Yeah Toph taught me some new earth bending moves. They were so different from what I knew." Haru nodded.
"I wonder how many ways there are." Zuko smiled. "I suppose as many as we can figure out."
"That's so cool." Haru grinned and the two looked at each other and then smiled. They were figuring it out all right. And like Ty lee said, it was honestly really nice that you could just keep making new friends around here.