Tatiana raced through the forest, moving faster than she had ever gone. The paths were a dark green blur behind her as she raced to get too the deserter's camp before the Prince and his soldiers. Trees whirred past along with the occasional deer or another form of wild life. She gritted her teeth and tried too go if possible, faster.

The ground was trembling all around her with the force of her bending. Tatiana stood with her feet planted apart and her hands stuck together in front of her, the palms pressed together and the fingers pointed outward looking much like the head of a spear.

Sweat dripped down her temples as she fought the urge to break the connection between herself and the earth. The impact of her bending forced her arms together, she strained to pull them slowly apart.

She could see the clash between the fire bender's occurring down below. Come on Sokka! She urged him on with her mind. There was no mistaking that while her rest from earth bending had helped her to regain her strength, the effort of keeping the ground together while readying it to fall apart on the inside at this distance was quickly draining it.

It's not working! She thought frantically. I'm too far away! Tatiana put her bending on hold, freezing it.

She thought frantically. Tatiana put her bending on hold, freezing it.

She tumbled down the hill, not daring to take any longer than was necessary to resume her bending. Tatiana raced closer to the confusion of the battle and stopped in front of the clearing.

The blue of Sokka's tunic stood out amongst all of the red and black of the fire bender's armor. He was in the middle bent double untying Aang.

A fire ball flew past her face and landed in the tree at her shoulder. She nearly shrieked and waited for Sokka to untie his friend. Come on Sokka! Hurry! She resumed her bending stance and the unpleasant weight of the land was once again placed upon her shaking arms.


As the rumbling stopped Sokka yanked his boomerang out of it's sheath and slashed at the ropes on Aang and Katara. It didn't work, she couldn't do it. Just get Katara and Aang out of here and the rest of the plan can work out.

"Come on Sokka!" Katara said as a fire bender fell at her feet, his armor smoking. Sokka yanked the ropes off that had held Aang and Katara together and flung them on the ground. Aang stood up and Sokka slashed at the ropes that kept his hands behind his back.

Aang lifted his hands in front of him wincing. Katara let out a strangled cry as her ropes caught on fire. Aang started to frantically pat the flames down as Sokka ripped the ropes off of his sister's wrists.

Katara immediately stood up, "Lets get out of here!" she said as the battle continued around them. Sokka grabbed her wrist and pointed too the sky. The rumbling began again.

"Aang! Fly us over the battle into the forest or we're going to go down with the fire benders!" Sokka yelled at Aang over the clash of weapons and the smell of smoke. Aang nodded and lifted his arms.


I'm going to faint, Tatiana thought as she saw the Avatar clutching Sokka and Katara under each of his arms propelled them out of the midst of the fight and into the air. Although this was not what was going too make her faint.

The amount of skill and strength it was taking from her to hold the ground together and to now break it apart was channeling out of her and into the object of her bending. No! Not yet! They haven't reached the safety of the forest yet! These thoughts kept her awake as more sweat dripped to the ground and her arms shook more and more.

"THE AVATAR! GET THE AVATAR!" yelled a voice over the clash of armor and moans of pain. As the figure of the Avatar and his friends dove beneath the cover of the trees met her eyes she almost smiled with relief and pulled her arms apart. The rumbling increased to an almost deafening roar as her arms moved away from each other, the palms glittering with perspiration as they separated.

The battle ceased as the ground began to move and there was a tumultuous scramble for the trees as the rocks began to shift beneath their very feet.

She could feel her energy draining into the earth below her feet as great cracking sounds issued from underneath them. Screams were heard from the men as a large crevasse opened in the middle of the clearing.

"DO NOT LET THE AVATAR ESCAPE!" came the voice of the Prince from over the terrified screams. Rocks shot from the ground as if to dare anyone to think about getting away alive. Pounding began in her temples as giant rocks sprouted from the ground like daisies, carrying the men who had been standing where they had broke the surface too thirty feet in the air. More screams issued as fire benders scurried away from the crevasse and headed for the shelter of the trees.

NO! She screamed in her head as she thrust her arms jerkily as far away from each other as they could go.

For a moment all was still and everyone cast an anxious fleeting glance at the chaos that surrounded them. That was when the ground began to crumble with great resounding cracks at the edges of the clearing.

The ground of the clearing shuddered and sunk fast into the ground creating a large twenty foot deep cage. Boulders rolled down the walls of the hole to either land on fire benders or clash with one another.

Everyone watched in amazement and fear as they took in their surroundings. A terrifying shriek went up in the air as the ground gave two final shudders and the walls moved in closer around the fire benders.

Tatiana fell twitching to the ground as the earth beneath her gave a last long shudder and all was still.


Prince Zuko sat up and rubbed his head, he had an ear splitting head ache. He stood up and surveyed the wreckage around him. As funny as it may seem, he thought, the ground has actually, literally, fallen down around my ears. He almost laughed as he dusted himself off and eyed the twenty foot walls made of rock and dirt that had ensnared his small army of fire benders, and the deserters.

She did a good job. At least it was susceptible for her purposes. Keeping the Avatar safe, Zuko was beginning to tire of people's unwavering loyalty towards the child Avatar.

True, it would take a while to get out of the hole, but he would get out. And when he did, the Earth Bending brat would be sorry.


Sokka raced towards the still form of Tatiana. She lay on the ground with her eyes closed and her arms spread out around her. He skidded to a halt at her head. He knelt down and looked at her. She wasn't breathing.

"No," he said as he wiped the hair off of her forehead. "No!" he said more frantically as he closed his eyes. He opened his eyes and lifted Tatiana's still form on his shoulders and walked back into the trees towards where he had left Katara and Aang.

She's not dead, he told himself over and over in his head. This has happened before when Katara had used up more strength then she should have when she was ten. He walked one tracked toward the spot where he had left Katara and Aang.

he told himself over and over in his head. He walked one tracked toward the spot where he had left Katara and Aang.

"Oh no! Sokka what happened?" Katara said as she ran over too Sokka. He laid Tatiana gently on the ground.

"She did that," he said, meaning the earth quake.

"Oh no… Aang went to go get Appa and Momo… Is she?" she asked as she stooped down by Tatiana's head.

"I don't know. She hasn't moved since I found her." Sokka kept his eyes on Tatiana's still face. Her dark brown hair was slightly tinted red in the rays of the rising sun.

"Katara Sokka hurry!" called a voice from above them. Sokka looked up to see Aang holding Appa's reins in his hands.

"Hold on, we need to get Tatiana back too!" Katara yelled back to Aang.

"Hold her up and I'll get her!" Aang yelled down at them from Appa's head. Sokka and Katara lifted her up. Aang took a deep breath and sent down a jet of air that lifted them high enough for him to grab onto one of Tatiana's hands.

After he helped Katara and Sokka up they sped off down too the other shore.

"Come on Sokka, she'll be alright," said Katara as she turned around to look at her brother reassuringly. Sokka looked back out into the forest.

"Maybe," he said. Katara looked worriedly to Aang. Aang lowered his eyes not knowing what to do.

"We'll get her to safety Sokka," he finally said. "And she'll be all right."

(OMG! Can you feel it? The last 'chapter, chapter', cliffy huh? Sorry, but review and I'll give you an imaginary cupcake. crouchingbunny.)