"She is still there!" Sokka shouted at Katara and Aang. Katara flinched and looked over too Aang.

"Alright… Tatiana? She let you stay at her house, and the fire benders captured her too?" he said processing the information. Sokka groaned and threw a stick into the forest.

"We know Sokka, but Appa is pretty tired from flying so fast back here," Katara said as she patted Appa's head. Appa groaned in affirmation and Sokka felt his eyes narrow.

"We need to help her, no telling what the fire benders are doing to her!" he said again.

"We know Sokka, but if the fire benders catch us before we get her to safety then we'll be back where we were before," Katara said before she put a hand on Sokka's shoulder. Sokka looked down at the ground.

"Yeah Sokka, Appa just needs to rest. Don't worry, we'll get her," Aang said and put a hand on Sokka's other shoulder.


"Wait!" Tatiana called as she raced down the stairs after the Prince. Zuko turned around and glared at her.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"I can help, it's my home," she said.

"What can you do?" he asked, as he studied her. Tatiana swallowed. Just do it, otherwise you'll never get off of this ship.

"I'm an earth bender," she said. Zuko lifted his eyebrow and folded his arms. "I am the earth bender, there was a landslide and I was coming back from it to my home. Which was where your soldier caught me," she said it all very fast.

"That makes sense, go wait the deck and for me," he said and stalked down the hallway. Tatiana stood there for a minute and then ran up the stairs too the deck.


Prince Zuko slipped his armor over his head, if the weather held they should be back at the earth village by the next morning. He grinned slightly and recounted the earth nation girl. It made sense now, she was the earth bender and had obviously used a rock slide to help get the fire lord's comb from one of the troops. After she had assisted them with the deserters from the fire nations army he would have her shipped back to the fire nation's capital with his father's comb and his father's new servant. And he would be another step closer too reclaiming his throne.


Tatiana was getting tired of waiting, not that she was anxious to see the Fire Prince again, but she was anxious on getting back too her home. I still don't trust him, she thought as the Fire Prince's face surfaced in her mind. A picture of Sokka floated into her mind as soon as she got rid of Zuko's image.

She stared out to sea, she had tried not to think too much about Katara or Sokka since she had last saw them. She didn't want them to come back for her, it would only put them and their friend at risk, she could take care of herself. Tatiana pushed herself off of the rails and began walking down the stairs looking for Zuko.

Tatiana walked around the ship for a while looking for a trace of the Prince. As she rounded a corner she saw him step out of a room and close the door. Something stopped her from calling out to him as he rounded another corner and disappeared. She waited for a few seconds and then walked too where he had disappeared. She peaked around the corner, he wasn't there.

She walked slowly back too the closed door and opened it. Inside was a large bed, a table and two dressers. She looked behind her and then closed the door.

Tatiana walked over too the dressers and went through the contents of them. Shirts, pants, under garments, nothing that she hadn't seen before of her brothers. She closed the drawers carefully and looked around. He had put out his fire, so he obviously wasn't coming back anytime soon.

Something silver flashed as she turned around. The table, she thought and walked over too it. Her comb glinted on the table top. Tatiana picked it up and held it close to her chest and fingered the handle. She put it in her sash and went through the other things on the table. The handle of a silver and blue boomerang that she recognized as Sokka's peeked out from underneath a black cloth. Tatiana looked towards the door. Better to get out now before anyone walks in on me, she thought, but she couldn't resist the urge to have something of Sokka's to remember him by.

She looked over her shoulder once again and grabbed the end of the boomerang. As she pulled it out from under the black cloth, it snagged on the fabric. She silently cursed as she gently removed the cloth from sharp end of the boomerang.

As she pushed the cloth to the side another shimmering caught her eye. She put Sokka's boomerang inside her sash beside the comb and moved the black cloth more. She gasped as she looked at the most beautiful necklace she had ever seen. She had never seen a stone like this, or a gem stone for that matter upon closer examination it held the water symbol inside of it.

She picked it up by the blue ribbon that it hung from and let it dangle in front of her face. It was light blue with a pearly sheen that seemed to come from the inside and the outside at the same time. Hands grabbed her shoulders and she tensed.

"I wouldn't take that if I were you," said a familiar voice from behind her.

Zuko knocked on his uncle's door. "Uncle are you in there?" he asked. A grunt issued from inside.

"Hold on Prince Zuko," came the reply. Zuko stood away from the door as it opened. His uncle came out with a towel around his waist. "So, how is your inquisition going with young Tatiana?" he asked as Zuko walked past him.

"Actually it hasn't," Zuko said as he sat down. There was a tub of steaming water in the middle of the room. "She is waiting for me," he said too his uncle's questioning look.

"Oh," Iroh said. Really this is like killing two birds with one stone, he thought. Zuko would have to marry some time and if he didn't mind stating the obvious he wasn't very good at courting young ladies. And if he came out and said that Zuko needed practice then he would stay away from them entirely. So this different approach might get Zuko his information and may help himself get grand nieces or nephews.

"Where is the young lady?" he said asked.

"She is waiting for me on the deck," he said and got up. Iroh nodded.

"Perhaps it is not wise for you to leave a pretty girl such as Tatiana alone, on a ship full of men," he said.

"I trust my men not to touch earth nation scum," Zuko said.

"Don't put too much faith in them," Iroh said, "Two years at sea does things too a man." Zuko lifted his eyebrow and got up to leave the room. As soon as the door was closed Iroh got back in the tub and relaxed.

"Grand nieces, grand nephews!" he said reclining on the edge of the tub.

Tatiana had heard this voice when she was first captured, it sounded exactly like the fire bender who had captured her. The hand on her burned shoulder barely grazed the teeth marks. She froze as she felt the hands slide down her shoulders to her elbows. His breath was stirring the hair that lay over the back of her neck. The hands were on her stomach now and traveling up.

She broke the contact and spun around. "Who are you?" she shouted at him and fought the urge to run. He laughed. Tatiana grabbed for the boomerang in her sash. He stepped closer to her and she jumped back yelping.

"Don't scream," he said as he grabbed her wrist. Wonderful, he tells me not to scream. I'll be sure not to scream, she thought as he pulled her closer into him. He removed his mask. He had dark black eyes and eyebrows but he was still handsome. And he was still a fire bender. She opened her mouth to scream but she was pulled closer into the armor of the fire bender and a mouth was pressed over hers before she could scream. Heat came off of the fire benders hands on her back. Her arms were pinned in front of her as the kiss continued. Tatiana could see that his eyes were still opened. Funny, I thought that you were supposed to close your eyes, she thought as he broke the kiss.

"It's not polite to stare," he said. As soon as her hands were free Tatiana grabbed the boomerang and whacked him over the head with it. She obviously did not hit him quite hard enough as he grabbed her leg and pulled her down with him.

"Get off of me!" she yelled at him as she tried to desperately get him off of her. His hand met her face with a loud smacking sound and she felt her top lip bust with the impact of the hit. Her head bounced against the wood of the ships floor. Stars swam before her face and she felt her eyes dilate.

A loud crashing noise was heard in the back ground and a spray of wood chips littered the floor around her. Intense heat shrouded around her for a second and the guard slumped off of her. Another face was in hers.

"Sokka?" she asked dizzily, trying to focus.

"No," said the face.

"Oh… I'm sorry I broke your boomerang," she said again as she looked at the boomerang in her hand. "Wait, it's not broken after all," she said almost laughing at how silly she felt.

Tatiana felt hands scoop her up and she absently put the boomerang back in her sash before she fainted.

(Review my pretties! Review! -crouching bunny.)