I don't own Avatar.

Oh, and thank you all for the reviews! It really helps to know that people are reading my stories.

FYI: This is not going to be a KxA FF. I'm sorry, but that's just twisted! You show me one really well written and non-disturbing KxA FF and I might change my mind, but all the ones I've seen have been…well…interesting, let's say.

Chapter Seven

Zuko awoke, but didn't open his eyes; the left one was swollen shut, and he was too tired to open the other. He had an odd feeling in his limbs, as if they were moving on their own accord; it was almost as if he was on a swaying boat or something of that ilk. He took a quick inventory of his nerves. His feet were partially numb, his arms and hands were sore, his head was pounding in excruciating pain, much of the surface of his skin felt raw and peeled back, and his back felt as though it would never straighten again. Other than those minor maladies, plus his eye, he was fine. Finally, he opened his good eye.

Blue sky lingered above him, white clouds hanging gently in its midst. He felt a soft, cool breeze on his cheek that stung for the tenderness. Carefully turning his head, he registered his surroundings. There were four human-like figures around him; three were closer than the fourth. From what his blurred eyesight could tell, one was a girl, and the other three were boys of varying ages and statures. There was a funny animal on one figure's shoulder; the animal had very large and pointed ears. Suddenly Zuko knew where he was.

"Holy…" he exclaimed, trying to sit up and back away, but unable. Then he realized that he didn't really know where he was, just who he was with.

"He's awake," the girl they called Katara said. "What do we do with him now?"

"I'll tell you what I'd like to do," the boy, Sokka, said, making a grotesque gesture in the air.

"Sokka," a boy Zuko didn't recognize reprimanded. The boy was wearing green Earth Nation rags.

"Ask him what he was doing on the beach," the Avatar said.

"Avatar…" Zuko breathed, letting the words spill off of his tongue as he stared at the back of the monk's bald head. He was so close to the Avatar now; all he had to do was reach out and he would have him. But he couldn't move his arms, or anything else for that matter. He could barely turn his head.

"What were you doing on the beach, Zuko?" the unknown boy asked.

Zuko stayed silent in defiance.

"Answer him," Sokka said as menacingly as he could.

Still Zuko was quiet. He didn't have to do anything for these vagrants.

Katara moved around and kneeled directly in front of the prince, staring straight into his eerie amber eyes. "Isn't it odd, Jay, that the Prince of the Fire Nation, had to fall back on a little pre-pubescent Earthbender?" she asked Jay without pulling her eyes away. She would mock and humiliate the swine until he would answer if she had to. "I guess that this so-called 'magnificent warrior' just isn't as strong as everyone makes him out to be," she said, using air quotes in as insolent a manner as she could muster. "I guess that Fire really is the weakest element."

Zuko snapped. He opened his mouth to shoot fire at the cheeky worm in front of him, but nothing came. He tried again, but still he was left looking like a caricature of a gargoyle locked in a perpetual yawn. "What did you do to me?" he asked them, his heart filling with panic and his eyes filling with malice.

"Ah, no," Jay said, shaking his finger at the bigoted boy. "We asked you first."

Zuko stayed silent. Their ridicule would not work.

"I guess this means that we already know what he was doing," Sokka chimed in. "He was getting beaten up by a few Earthbenders. You're just too delicate for your own good, Zuko."

"It's Prince Zuko to you, Water Nation scum."

"That's where you're wrong," Sokka said, a correcting smile similar to Jay's playing on his face. "I am the leader of this group, Aang is the captain of this Bison, Katara is the master Bender among us, Jay is our honored guest, and you are just a lowly prisoner. We owe you no title." This was going to be fun

"Now answer our question. What were you doing on the beach?" Jay asked sternly.

"Why should I tell you?"

"You don't have to, I suppose," Katara said, standing up and walking over to the edge of Appa's saddle. "But it is a very far fall."

Zuko leaned over painfully to gaze down at the open ocean below. His stomach lurched and he pulled back. He felt beads of sweat blossoming on his brow. He had a horrible case of acrophobia. "Fine. I was trying to get supplies for my ship. We were going to the village when we were attacked. My soldiers ran while my uncle and I…" he trailed off.

"Yes? Go on, Zuko."

"Where is my uncle?"

/chapter seven