While it was fun to get much attention from the villagers, his thoughts kept wandering to Azula.

He'd never seen her so upset before and he almost felt guilty impressing the children and performing tricks while knowing all of this and not having talked to her yet. Once he broke away from the crowd, he made his way to the hut that the villagers loaned them for their brief stay.

"Azula, you there?" he greeted, stepping inside. The interior looked much like the other houses, with matted floors, wooden walls, and modest trappings within. There were some tapestries pinned to the wall, depicting Avatar Kyoshi and some Earthbending warriors. The small table was set against the wall, allowing for more space in the center of the room. In Azula's case, to practice her firebending forms with ease.

Aang admired her movements, noticing her slightly different style of fighting and how it compared to Zuko. While Zuko favored large, simple, concussive blasts emphasized by closed fists, Azula favored speed and energy conservation. Instead of balled fists, her pointer and middle finger were pointed forward like daggers, allowing her to launch thinner but more accurate blasts of fire. They looked almost like thick needles of yellow-orange energy before they fizzled out once they flew far enough away from her. Idly, he noticed the fire seemed to carry a slightly darker tint than before.

Woth a start, he realized Azula hadn't answered and that he'd been staring. He shook his head, clearing his thoughts.

Azula, come to the village hallanIt's time to eat. You don't want to overdo it with the practicing."

Azula finished her form by landing on the matted floor with her hands parallel to each other, with two fingers still pointed out like knives. An arc of thin fire had followed her hand movement in a thin arc before dissipating. She held the pose for a second before relaxing and reaching for the wall, grabbing a cloth to dry herself.

"I don't have an appetite," she replied quickly, and a bit too aggressively, without turning around.

Aang backed up a step, a bit put off by her temper. "Okay..." he said slowly. He still wondered what the big deal was with the sparring match between the two girls later today. It wasn't like it was a life or death situation. "Why don't you join us for dinner? It's not healthy to get worked up like this," he advised, remembering some of the teachings Monk Gyatso imparted to him. "Besides, everybody loses a fight once in a while."

Azula finally turned around, glowering at him. "Firstly, I didn't lose any fight," she affirmed, arms folded in front of her. "They used dishonorable guerilla tactics. I'm completely certain in a fair match up, she would have been utterly destroyed." She turned back around, hanging the towel on a rack.

"Zuko isn't hung up about it," Aang pointed out, and Azula's scoff made him wonder if he said the wrong thing.

"Well that's because he's him," she retorted, as if that was all the explanation needed.

"That's not very nice," Aang lightly scolded, feeling the need to defend Zuko. He sighed. "I mean, do you even need to go to the dojo? Maybe you're blowing this out of proportion-"

"Are you saying I can't defeat her?" Azula interrupted, throwing Aang off track. He furrowed a brow in confusion.

"I didn't say th-"

"She's just a peasant," Azula continued, and Aang made a face at the terminology. "Once we have our duel, you will see that she is nothing without sneak attacks and dirty tactics."

Aang looked at her blankly, exasperated. "It really isn't that serious," he pointed out, stepping deeper into the hut. "She seems really nice. She gave us a tour and everything. And she was really understanding about our unannounced visit and all." He scratched the back of his head. "Would have been nice if you were there for the tour."

Azula seemed to pick up on his mood, because she sighed, looking at the floor. "Fine, after the duel, we can go look around the village."

Aang seemed to perk up at the offer. "Sparring match," he politely corrected.

"Whatever."


Inside of the Dojo, Suki was finishing up some last minute drills with her comrades.

She corrected one warrior's stance by loosening her fan-holding arm. After a few more minutes of cook down drills, she returned to the front of the room.

"Alright, girls, that's enough for today," she announced, clapping her hands twice. All of her peers relaxed their stances, returning their war fans to their belts and immediately breaking intl conversation.

It was during this period that Azula brashly stepped into the dojo, hands on her hips, observing the interior as if she owned the place. The casual atmosphere somewhat tensed at the arrival of the intruder.

Suki suppressed the urge to furrow her brows when Azula's gaze fell on her.

"So, this is where you all learn your martial arts?" It didn't go unnoticed that her tone was a bit patronizing. Her "Greeting" was met with a mixture of annoyed stares and subtle scowls.

"Azula. You grace us with your presence," Suki replied, schooling her features. While she didn't really like the first impressions of the Fire National, she did her best to not let her displeasure show. Her brother didn't seem so bad, though. But even with the effort, she still sounded the slightest bit standoffish.

Azula didn't react to the stiff reply. Instead, she shrugged. "Well, I'm here for the duel like we agreed," she replied, returning her wandering gaze to Suki. "I'ce been trained in hand to hand, if you need a handicap."

At the hidden insult, Suki's Kyoshi Warriors immediately shifted there gazes to her, as if wondering how this would play out. Suki couldn't hide her annoyance, and so settle on a sigh, hoping to calm herself down.

"A sparring match, not a duel," she corrected, wondering if Azula even knew the difference. "Aren't you a firebender? Just use that."

If anything, Suki's response seemed to annoy Azula, which Suki found odd.

"Fine. Lead the way."

Suki obliged, leading Azula out of the Dojo and into the village center, where Team Avatar actually got a good first look at the settlement, in front of the towering statue of Avatar Kyoshi. Besides the Kyoshi warriors that followed behind to spectate, many other villagers arrived to observe as well, a sense of nervous excitement permeating the crowd. Everyone had seen the tense exchange between the two girls, and everyone present was curious to see how the spar would end.

Aang and Zuko had showed up as well. The Kyoshi warriors formed a loose perimeter to separate the crowd from the two fighters, with the space within wide enough to give them plenty of maneuvering space. While the crowd observed from behind the wall of warriors, Aang and Zuko sat farther back, able to get a more comfortable view from a raised porch of one of the village's houses.

"Who do you think's gonna win?" Aang asked the Prince. He was supporting his weight with his arms, leaning back on the wooden surface of the porch.

It's not that he doubted Azula's ability; everything he'd seen so far displayed that she was especially skilled. The glimpse of blue fire he'd seen her use came to his mind.

But facing off against a nonbender who specialized in particularly unconventional weapons was another matter. He'd rarely seen War Fans even when he still lived in the Air Temple and he was curious to see how they looked in action.

"Its hard to say," Zuko replied. Suki had shown him and Aang the Kyoshi Warriors' dojo and their fighting style. It was fluid and graceful and vaguely reminded him of waterbending philosophy. If Suki were a bender, it was a guarantee that Azula would have problems, he thought.

"Azula does favor speed and backing the opponent into a corner," Zuko added, though both he and Aang knew it wasn't much of an answer.

"And Suki almost fights like an Airbender," the young Avatar stated.

One Kyoshi Warrior, a tall girl with hair that pooled behind her into a large braid that reached just below her waist, stepped into the center of the impromptu ring. Without a word, she held her arm straight up, closed fan raised in the air.

Azula and Suki stood across from each other, then bowed to each other in their respective style.

Then she chopped the same arm down, fan unfurling with a metallic swoosh.

As if a gong sounded, both girls flew into action.

Azula made the first move, jumping forward with a snap kick, calling forth a short lived wave of flame. She was intent on ending the duel quickly. If she had it her way, Suki would already be flat on her back.

To her surprise, Suki hadn't even bothered to so much as dodge the flames. For a fleeting moment, she wondered if she overdid it with her initial assault, until the fire dispersed.

Was that firebending? Azula thought, her mind racing.

Suki stood at the same spot, arms spread outward, her War Fans unfurled, stray licks of flame dissipating around them as they were spread apart.

"Of course..." Azula muttered, annoyed.

She switched up her stance, closing her fists except her pointer and middle finger, favoring precision over power. No matter how large her flames were, it seemed Suki's fans could nullify them.

Suki still did not go on the offensive, only moving enough to position a fan in front of her face, masking her nose and the bottom half of her face.

Azula quietly sucked her teeth, again going on the attack. She jabbed her fingers forward, launching daggers of flame toward her opponent, hoping the smaller overall size of them would catch her off balance. But Suki seemed somehow prepared, slicing through the smaller fire darts with ease.

Growing frustrated, Azula added kicks to her assault, mixing the larger flames from them with the more precise assault from her fingers.

But even the larger gouts of fire left the Kyoshi Warrior unfazed, as she seemingly weaved through them.

Neither party seemed to overpower the other. Except Azula realized that her offensive was beginning to leave her out of breath. On the other hand, she could observe that Suki was still breathing evenly. Fatigue appeared to not have touched her yet.

The girls began to slowly circle each other. Azula with her fingers spread out now, facing Suki, studying her opponent's stance for any weaknesses.

For Suki herself, she still held a fan in front of her face. Azula couldn't tell if she was smirking or not behind it. The way her eyes creased though definitely implied the latter. Azula's brow lowered, and she stamped down on her rising anger.

"Guess you're fighting style isn't as amateurish as I thought," Azula conceded with a backhanded compliment.

"I guess commoners can be full of surprises," Suki retorted evenly, while at the same time acknowledging her status as royalty. Zuko must have mentioned it to her during the tour she'd turned down on tagging along with.

Azula wouldn't dignify that with a response though, and instead resumed where she left off, firing a few warning shots at the fan wielding girl.

Suki would again deflect all of her long range firebending, so instead, Azula led with a large fire blast before closing the distance, fire daggers at the ready.

Suki finally seemed to be caught off guard, but it was only briefly. Suki maneuvered her shoulder just so, that the dagger would glance off of her shoulder pad. She went with the momentum, spinning with her fan in hand, hoping to catch Azula in the arm.

Her attack struck true, hitting Azula's left arm and making her swing go wide. Suki stepped to Azula's left, hoping to pin her arm behind her and end the match.

Azula's other hand was waiting for her and only a moment later, Azula and Suki were at a stalemate.

Azula's right hand was aimed at the side of Suki's neck while Suki's fan was positioned directly in front Azula's throat.

The princess cursed under her breath.

It looked like it was a draw, and the apparent referee Kyoshi Warrior, the same girl with the hair pooling into a braid, announced as much.

Slowly, the two girls separated from each other.

Without another word, Azula stalked away toward the team's house.


A/N: This chapter was a bit light. I had some other engagements going on today so I couldn't make this chapter longer without a longer wait, so I decided to upload this. Next chapter will be up pretty soon.