It was so dark outside that the ship in front of them was barely visible, the smoke curling from the chimney looking like an ashy gray ghost sailing into the stars. The stars were the only objects that were to be seen, winking and sparkling like diamonds against the deep black abyss of the sky. Aang tightened his fist in Appa's fur from agitation, then released the bison and scratched Momo's long, floppy ears as he tried to relax.
"Chill out," said Sokka, barely visible in the blackness. "She'll be here. She's probably already there, and we just can't see her in this damned darkness."
"It got dark hours ago," said Aang, biting his bottom lip. "What if they captured her, too? What if Katara's already dead? What if she's not even on this ship?"
"She has to be on this ship. There's no other one close to the Earth Kingdom. And if they're holding Katara as bait for you, they're certainly not going to kill her after only one day."
But Aang wasn't listening. "What's that?" he said distractedly, gazing off in the direction of the Earth Kingdom.
Off in the distance were two white sails, looking like those belonging to a ship, yet they were floating in the air. The sails billowed in the gentle breeze, like two crisp, clean white sheets that made Aang remember how tired he was, and how much he longed for a bed.
"In the name of – what is that?" hissed Sokka, grabbing Aang's shoulder. "It looks like one of those glider things we saw at the Northern Air Temple."
"Maybe it is," replied Aang, and suddenly he was worried. What was it? Where would anyone here get an airbending glider? He took up Appa's reins.
"I think we should go," he said gravely. "Yip, yip!"
The massive bison took off with a grunt, his bulky body riding the currents of air like a dolphin in the waves of the sea. Aang kept one hand firmly gripped on the reins as he urged Appa on, his anxiety growing with each passing second.
"They're gaining on us!" Sokka called to him from where he was keeping watch near Appa's tail. The panic in his voice was all-too evident.
Aang shook the reins again. The wind howled as if its heart would break, and then roared like an angry lion. A storm was rising, that much Aang could see from the rising black thunderclouds up ahead. A huge clap of thunder caused him to leap out of his skin, and the accompanying streak of lightning seemed only inches away.
The two boys were not prepared for the torrent of rain that ensued. Big, fat icy drops began pelting down, splattering the boys and drenching them in frigid water. The wind whipped them like the tail of a giant iguana, chapping Aang's wet skin to the point where it began to bleed. He ignored his raw skin and concentrated on keeping Appa in line, and holding on to his soaked fur.
"Sokka!" he yelled. "Are you all right?" But his voice was carried away by the wind, and it was too much of an effort to turn his head to see if his friend was all right. He could feel Momo's claws digging into his shoulders as the lemur fought to keep from being blown into the violent, tumultuous waters of the sea. Aang briefly wondered if the gilder was still following them, then decided there was no way it could stay in the sky under these conditions. Whoever had been manning it was long gone now.
Thunder boomed, lightning flashed. The hairs on the back of Aang's neck stood up despite the avalanche of rain. He knew what that meant. Lightning was about to strike.
"Sokka!" he screamed as loud as he possibly could, so loud that his throat felt as if it had been stung by a million hornets. "Hold on!" He gave Appa's reins a sharp snap, and the bison stopped in midair and suddenly plunged downward towards the roaring sea. A mere second later, a crack of lightning snaked downwards where they had been only a moment ago.
Aang took a deep breath, filling his lungs with as much water as air, before Appa hit the ocean with a mighty splash, and he found himself submerged in icy cold salt water. With great difficulty he lifted his staff, and swung it in a tight circle.
The companions, including Appa, were instantly enveloped in a pocket of air. Aang took in great, gasping breaths as Appa paddled forward, and then he turned, frantically looking for Sokka.
"Sokka!" he yelled. "Sokka!"
Finally he spotted the young water tribe man. Sokka's boot buckle had gotten caught on the girth of Appa's saddle blanket, and by that alone he had managed to hang on to the great beast as they dove into the sea. Aang didn't have to shake him to realize that his friend had been knocked unconscious.
They had to find land. They couldn't stay under here forever, that much Aang knew. The air pocket wouldn't last forever, and then they would be stuck underwater without air on top of everything else. Somehow, Aang had to find land.
He briefly toyed with the idea of flying up with his staff and looking for land. He wasn't sure if his staff would hold up in this weather. But Appa was too exhausted to fly around the sky for very long. It was their only chance.
Aang summoned what little strength he had left, and with a sweep of his hand shot up out of the water and into the threatening sky. He took his staff in both hands and held it behind his back, and long red wings spread from the tips. Aang glided through the air, trying to see amidst the pounding ran drops that splattered in his eyes, and the raging wind that threatened to send him back into the sea. He scanned the ocean as far as he could see, looking for a town somewhere.
There! An island! About a mile away, Aang could see a mass of land covered in trees. The trees would shelter them from the storm until it calmed down, and they were rested enough to try and make it back to the Fire Nation ship. Balancing the staff in one hand, Aang managed to bring the thin wooden whistle that hung around his neck to his lips. The wood was wet, the whistle was filled with salt water, but Aang still managed to blast a short, piercing note.
He spun around, and was relieved to see Appa rise out of the ocean, with Momo hanging onto his head and Sokka still dangling from the girth. He made a gesture with his arm, hoping desperately that Appa could see it and would understand to follow him, and then headed for the island.
With the last bit of strength in his body, Aang spiraled downward towards the island, and was relieved to see the exhausted bison crash down on the sandy beach a few seconds behind him. The wings on his staff disappeared, and he managed to drag himself across the beach and amongst the trees. Appa followed, bringing Sokka and Momo out of the howling wind and hammering rain.
Aang freed Sokka's boot from the girth and then let the boy drop to the soft ground and sleep. He fell to the ground and closed his eyes, about to do the same.
"Oh good! I'm so glad you made it. We thought you had been lost in the storm!"
Aang's eyes flew open at the sound of the familiar voice. He groaned when he saw who it was.
"You're wasting your time with all this. I'll never tell you where he is, and he won't come for me."
"Oh, my opinion quite differs," answered Admiral Zhao confidently as he circled the girl on the floor. "The Avatar knows that I won't hesitate to kill you if he doesn't turn himself in."
"And what makes you think that he cares if you kill me? I mean nothing to him. I'm nothing more than a water tribe peasant, a means of entertainment for him," said Katara in a weak voice from where she lay in a crumpled heap.
"He'll come for you. I saw the way he looked at you when we invaded the North Pole. He won't leave you to die." Zhao stroked his beard. "It is taking him a long time," he said, almost to himself. "I would have thought his tracking skills were better than this."
"He doesn't care. He's not coming," Katara cried pleadingly. "Just kill me now, and end this pointless torture."
"You're going back to your cell. Any more today would indeed kill you, and we can't have that just yet," said the Admiral. He snapped his fingers, and two guards appeared, the same two that had first escorted Katara to the Admiral's quarters the day she arrived. They scooped her up roughly, making her cry out against the pain of her broken ribs. The soldiers laughed, their hands running roughly down her legs and over her stomach and breasts. If she had had any strength left she would have made them pay.
If she had had any strength. She had no strength left. She moaned and tried to ignore the meaty, dirty fingers that slipped inside her top and traced the swell of her breasts. Her whole body hurt, and she felt as if she were one big bruise.
At least he hadn't raped her today.
The soldiers dumped her onto the floor of her cell before chaining her shackle back up to the wall. They laughed, each of them taking one last turn to paw at her bare stomach before leaving and slamming the heavy wooden door behind them.
"Oh, Katara," breathed Suki, her voice choked with unshed tears as she moved closer to cradle her friend's battered head in her arms. "Here." She handed Katara a bowl of musty-smelling water. Katara managed to lift the arm that wasn't broken and dip her fingers into the bowl.
She pressed her wet fingers to her broken arm, a few inches above the wrist where the bone was snapped, and winced in pain, biting her lip until she tasted blood. She kept pressing until she felt the bones mend, and the break heal.
Her arm still hurt as she took her fingers away. Her newly-found healing skills would make the bones reknit, but the arm would still be tender and weak for a few days. And she could heal her own burn wounds, but she couldn't keep them from scarring, that much she had discovered. She looked down at her body, which was now scribbled with scars and bruises. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she refused to let them spill. She had cried enough in the past few days.
"You don't have to be so brave," Suki said as she handed Katara a wooden bowl. "Here. Dinner's cheese tonight."
"Delicious," muttered Katara through clenched teeth as she dug her fingers into her ribs. It was almost too much pain to bear, but she concentrated on letting the healing powers seep from her mind and ebb into the cracks of her ribs. She imagined them functioning and strong again, and pictured the cracks in the clean white bones filling and becoming whole.
When she finally felt the last thread of power drain away, she sighed and dropped her hand. Like her arm, the newly healed bones were still tender, but at least mended. The other girls in the chamber watched in silent awe, like they always did when Katara performed her healing abilities on herself every day. She did it for the other girls as well when they were in need, but none of them ever needed to be healed as much as Katara herself did.
She sniffed at the hard yellow cheese in the bowl. It smelled slightly rancid, and if she hadn't been faint from hunger she would have never touched it. She supposed it could be worse. The "first-class whores," as the girls in the first chamber had so named themselves, received three square meals a day, if you could call cold porridge and foul cheese and fish heads a meal. They were the girls that were reserved for Admiral Zhao himself and his highest-ranking officers. No other men could touch them.
The "second-class whores," as the girls in the next chamber were called, were for any member of the crew, even the lowest scullery servant, that wished to satisfy their desires. The girls were mostly the same age as the ones in the first chamber, but they were not as attractive, their bodies not as fit and trim, their faces not as comely. These girls received one or two meals per day, if any at all, and were not allowed to bathe nearly as often. Admiral Zhao allowed the first-class whores to bathe once a day, since he liked them to be clean and sweet-smelling when he called for them, and he made sure to feed them well so that they would not lose any of their curves.
Katara had learned that when a female prisoner arrived, Admiral Zhao himself decided whether they were first or second-class. She supposed that she should feel a little bit of pride that she had been placed in the first-class chamber, but somehow that didn't matter. She would rather be placed in the second-class chamber and never be touched by the Admiral again than get three meals and a bath a day.
"Doesn't it drive you mad?" said Katara conversationally when she had finished the cheese. "To be so helpless. I can't stand having them touch me, and not being able to do anything about it."
"You have no idea," replied Suki. "The things that I'd like to do to that man run through my head a thousand times a day."
Katara felt the slightest twinge of guilt. She knew from talking to the other girls that before her arrival, Suki had been the Admiral's personal favorite. She had been for his use and his use only, and she had been treated fairly well. Now Katara seemed to have replaced her, except that in her case the Admiral's idea of, "fairly well," including daily, crippling beatings and rapes that left her feeling as if she had been split open.
It was easy to see why Suki had been Zhao's personal favorite. She was a beautiful girl, rivaling Jade in good looks, but in different ways. Whereas Jade was soft and curvy, Suki was small-boned and slightly taller than Katara, her slender, wiry build made up entirely of muscle. Her chest was small, only about half the size of Jade's, but it suited her slim form. Her face was beautiful as well. Her eyes, framed by sweeping blond lashes, were as large and round as teacups, and an unearthly violet-blue color. They were filled with a fierce, threatening pride, which told others that she would not be dominated easily. Katara could see why Sokka had fallen so head-over-heels in love with her.
"Cheer up," smiled Suki as she twisted her now-short, wavy blond hair into a braid. "Aang will come for you soon. He won't leave you to endure this much longer."
"I'm beginning to have my doubts about that," sighed Katara. "Besides, if he had an ounce of sense he would see that my life is a small price to pay. He's no good to the world dead."
"Not a small price to him," answered Suki. "I think you underestimate his feelings for you. And if he doesn't come – well – your brother certainly won't leave you to die."
Katara saw the faintest hint of a blush creep up on Suki's cheeks. She smiled slyly. "Yes, Sokka won't be so keen on leaving me here with these Fire Nation pigs. Or you, for that matter."
"Me? What does Sokka care about me?"
Katara felt her heart warm when she remembered the way Sokka had talked about Suki, how he had described her as more of a goddess than a mere human girl, and the tears he had shed when they had been forced to depart so suddenly. Not even Yue, the mysterious Princess of the northern water tribe that Sokka had been attracted to, had been able to inspire such feelings in Katara's brother.
"Oh please, Suki, he was madly in love with you. You must have seen it. He was devastated when we had to leave, especially since you were in the middle of a battle with Fire Nation soldiers. I've only seen him that upset a couple of times."
Suki's jaw dropped open, and she looked genuinely shocked. "Really?" she said, a soft smile lighting up her lovely features. "I think I was in love with him, too. He was so cocky and arrogant when he first arrived, and then seeing him in one of our uniforms made me completely melt. The entire village could see that I was smitten with him, but I was just too proud to admit it. Besides, in our village it is custom that warriors marry only Kyoshi men, and not foreigners."
Katara had always found the lifestyle of the Kyoshi people fascinating. In the South Pole, women were expected to stay home and cook and clean and care for children while the men went out and hunted and fought battles. Katara remembered how much she had hated being forced to stay inside with the other girls her age as she painstakingly tried to make straight stitches with a needle and thread. As the only waterbender in their tribe besides her grandmother, she was granted some reprieve from these tedious lessons, and would often go out with Sokka and his friends to practice shooting arrows and throwing boomerangs.
On Kyoshi Island, the roles of men and women were reversed. There were few men on Kyoshi Island, only enough to ensure that the population did not die out. There was no such thing as marrying for love. A Kyoshi warrior chose her husband based on strength and capability, so that he would father strong, capable children, and it was the duty of the men to stay home with the children and keep house while the women trained and went to battle whenever the occasion called for it. Katara had seen the weapons these women used, a leather fan called an iguani, trimmed with sharp metal. At first glance it looked like an ordinary fan to be used by a noble woman, but in the hands of a Kyoshi warrior, especially one as skilled as Suki, it was a deadly weapon that showed no mercy.
Suki seemed caught up in a trance. "Before I was captured, I was scheduled to be wed," she said in a far away voice. "To a man many years older than me, who had many Kyoshi warrior wives and had already fathered many Kyoshi children. If Admiral Zhao had not captured me, I probably would have flung myself into the sea with the unagi before marrying him."
Katara took her friend's hand. She thought about Jade, and how she had been engaged to Reid before running away.
She hadn't thought about Jade in a while, but she desperately hoped that her dear friend was all right. She hoped that Jade had had the sense to not come after her, and had stayed back in the Earth Kingdom under the protection of King Bumi and his soldiers. Though Jade was indeed a waterbender, she was a weak and untried one, and would be no match for a Fire Nation soldier.
"Do we have to talk about such somber issues?" broke in one of the girls against the western wall, a pretty redheaded earthbender named Deribeth that Katara had become good friends with since coming on the ship. "If you're feeling better, Katara, could you show us some more dance moves?"
Katara grinned and nodded. She had come up with the idea yesterday to teach the girls some of the traditional dance moves of the water tribe people, in order to keep their spirits light. She was a very talented dancer, and had been one of the best in the South Pole.
The shackle and the chain allowed for her to stand up and move around a few feet, and so with Suki's aid, ignoring the pain in her ribs, she got up and spread her feet apart. All five of the other girls, including Suki and Deribeth, stood up as well and imitated her stance. Katara started in on a fast, lively jig that required her to kick her legs up so that her knee was touching her nose. It hurt her ribs, but she kept at it, because the other girls were laughing and giggling and enjoying it as they attempted to imitate her and then lost their balance and landed in a heap on the floor.
After about an hour of dancing, the guards brought in the two washbasins of cold water, six washcloths, and three cakes of dirty yellow soap that smelled suffocatingly strong of lye. Katara wrinkled her nose as she dipped her cloth into the water and then lathered it with soap, shivering as she swathed herself in the icy water.
When their baths were done and the guards had taken the soap and water away, the girls stood up again as Suki showed them a few battle stances of the Kyoshi warriors, using her washcloth as a substitute for her fan. Katara had a good time laughing with the other girls, and for an instant she was able to forget where she was, and what would be done to her the next day.
"I'm sorry we weren't able to find your friend," said Prince Zuko, sounding genuinely apologetic. "None of the men have any recollection of seeing a tall brunette girl with blue eyes. She must not have come on the ship."
Jade tried not to let her panic show as she glanced out a nearby window. It was morning, and Aang and Sokka would have surely left by now. Even if she had been willing to abandon Katara, all chances of escaping were gone.
"Are there any other Fire Nation ships around here?" she asked desperately. "I'm sure she left the last town and got on a ship. It would really mean a lot to me to find her."
"No ships that I know of," replied Zuko. "And if she were on this one, believe me, I would know about it by now."
Jade struggled to keep the anger out of her eyes as she looked up at him. He knew perfectly well where Katara was. He knew that Jade knew that Katara was on the ship, and yet he insisted on playing games with her.
"Well, it's not really that important to me, anyway," said Jade smoothly, completely contradicting what she had said earlier and hoping that Zuko would not notice. "In fact, I couldn't care less." She looked up, expecting to see the note of surprise on Zuko's face, and was disappointed when she didn't. She rubbed her hands together. "What does a girl have to do to get a hot meal around here?"
"Why, of course. I'm sorry I didn't think to offer you one earlier," said Zuko. "I'll have a servant deliver it to your room."
"Well," Jade began. "I don't really have a definite room of my own. I've been –" her face turned scarlet, " – sleeping in the rooms of the other men since I arrived, and taking my meals there."
The Prince turned red as well. "Ah, well," he said in a stumbling voice. "If you would like, you can take it up in my suite. I have a meeting to attend, and you can make yourself at home."
Jade's panic came swooping in. It had been safe to tantalize the other men because she was quite certain that they would never be able to produce an appropriate amount of gold to hire her. In the case of Prince Zuko, he would certainly be able to afford the services of a prostitute, even one as high-class as Jade appeared to be. If he offered her the money, she could not refuse him, or else risk blowing her cover.
Remembering that she was supposed to be playing the role of a scarlet woman, and that the prospect of a customer should please her instead of fill her with dread, Jade dropped a quick curtsy and then winked at him. He didn't seem to have much experience with women. Perhaps if she were bold enough, she could intimidate him into backing down.
"As Your Highness wishes," she cooed coyly, coming up beside him and stroking his arm. "Show me the way."
Zuko's eyes widened. "No, I wasn't implying – ah – I only meant," he stammered. "See – I wouldn't have nearly enough gold to purchase the companionship of a woman so fine as yourself."
Jade looked at him in surprise. "But you're the Prince of the Fire Nation. Surely you can afford anything your heart desires."
"Banished Prince of the Fire Nation," Zuko corrected her. "My father disowned me. I haven't been in contact with him since I set off to capture the Avatar. My uncle is only a poor general, who receives only the bare minimum from my father to keep the crew and the ship running, plus whatever income he makes from his estates back in the Fire Nation. We aren't exactly poor, but we are by no means rich."
Jade glanced around the ship, looking at the expensive tapestries and lush carpets. She raised one eyebrow skeptically.
Zuko gave a tiny, sheepish grin that was gone almost as soon as it had appeared. "This is my father's ship. The one luxury he granted me before he disowned me was to give me a ship and crew. Everything else has come from the sweat of my back."
"Everything I've earned has come from the sweat of my back as well," said Jade. She opened her mouth to tell him about the tragic death of her mother and all she had been through since. She wanted to share with him her memories of Katara, and allow him to see how much their friendship meant to her, because although she had had many friends back in the North Pole, Katara was the one she could count on, the one that she knew would stand up for her no matter what. The one she could trust.
But then she remembered that she was Jade the expensive whore, and that expensive whores didn't have friends or tragic pasts. She shut her mouth and smiled up at him.
Zuko stared at her, his coal-black eyes boring into her emerald-green ones. After a moment, he said, "I'll show you to my room."
Jade allowed herself to be led down several hallways and up a flight of stairs. Zuko paused in front of a set of double doors, taking a key out of his pocket to unlock the brass locks in the shape of a serpent. He turned the knob, and the left door swung inward.
The room was remarkably simple, with only a bed, a sofa, and an overstuffed easy chair. The walls were plain and bare except for a set of silver armor and a long, deadly sharp sword that hung from a peg on the wall. There were no tapestries or ink paintings such as the ones Jade had seen decorating the corridors, and the floor was bare wood planking except for several thin woolen carpets scattered about.
Jade turned to the Prince. "Your room suits you," she said to him. "Simple and mysterious."
Zuko only nodded gruffly. "I'll have a servant bring you a meal," he said. "In the meantime, feel free to have use of my privy room and bath, Miss-,"
His cheeks suddenly flushed. "I'm terribly sorry, but I just realized that I don't even know your name."
"Oh, well, ah, it's… Rose," Jade quickly informed him. As soon as she said it, she wanted to kick herself. She should have given him a scarlet name, the most scarlet one that she could think of. Instead, like the senile fool that she was, she had told him her mother's name. A whore with her mother's name. It was an insult to her memory.
"Rose," said Zuko softly. His gaze swept over her, and came to rest on her shining red hair. "It suits you." He turned on his heel and left swiftly, the door crashing closed behind him.
Jade stood in the center of his room, and she at last allowed anxiety to sweep over her. What a fine mess she was in. She was supposed to be searching for her friend, and yet here she was in the bedchamber of the Fire Nation Prince, her enemy, and no closer to finding Katara than she had been upon boarding the ship. She broke into a cold sweat as she thought about what would happen if Katara weren't on the ship. She would be trapped here, a prisoner as surely as if Zuko had clapped her in irons and chained her up in the prison barracks. Aang and Sokka had no way of knowing what had happened to her. What if they were still waiting for her, despite what she had told them before sneaking on the ship? What if the guards happened to see them, and they were caught?
There was no point in panicking, at least not yet. Jade decided to take advantage of Zuko's offer of a bath, and so she shed her dress and entered the powder room. To her surprise it was much nicer than the actually bedroom, constructed of sparkling white marble, with a large marble washtub with gold claw feet. It was already filled with steaming hot water, and Jade slid down to the bottom with a sigh of pure heavenly bliss, her worries seeming to melt away.
Lining the edge of the tub were bottles of expensive oils and hair soaps, causing Jade to smirk. Sweat of his back indeed. She picked up a vat of lavender hair oil and poured it on her scalp, using the porcelain-toothed comb resting in the soap dish to run it through her hair. With a soft lamb's wool rag, she swathed her body with jasmine and moonblossom, and she even yanked the hairs from under her arms with the silver plucking instrument that lay next to the oils.
She stepped gingerly out of the tub and was wrapping herself in a large, fluffy towel when she heard the knock at the door. Thinking it must be Zuko, she hurriedly dried herself on and slipped into the low-cut dress she had arrived in before opening the door.
Instead of Zuko, however, it was a maidservant, and elderly, stooped lady with graying hair. "Prince Zuko humbly requests that you join him for dinner," she said, bowing.
"He was supposed to send a meal up for me," replied Jade, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"The cooks are rather busy," said the woman, and then winked. "And apparently you made quite an impression on the young Prince."
Jade blushed, and then remembered that she was supposed to be used to this sort of thing. "Well, it is my job," she said, with a wink of her own. "But I have nothing to wear."
"Yes," the maid pondered. "You most certainly cannot wear that to a formal dinner."
"Formal dinner?" squeaked Jade. "I thought it would be just me and Zuko."
"Yes, but you are forgetting that Zuko is the Prince of the Fire Nation, if not banished. He is royalty, and any meal involving him is considered formal."
Jade sighed with relief. For a moment she had panicked, thinking that, "formal," meant that General Iroh would be joining them. If she dined with the General, Zuko would certainly realize that his uncle had never seen her before, and that Jade had been making up the story about Iroh hiring her at the last town. If he did not know already.
"It would please me greatly to join the Prince for dinner," she said with a slight bow. "But this is the only garment I brought with me, and I'm afraid it is hardly suited to a formal evening meal."
The maidservant looked her up and down. "I suppose I could sneak in and borrow something of Princess Zula's," she said with a sigh. "She's a bit taller than you, and you're a bit bigger in the bust. But it should do for now. She has so many gowns that I'm sure she would never miss one."
"Princess Zula?" questioned Jade, furrowing her brow in confusion. She couldn't help but feel a slight stab of disappointment. "I wasn't aware that Prince Zuko was betrothed."
The maid threw back her head and laughed. "Zuko engaged – it's enough to make an old woman get the giggles again. And especially to the likes of Zula. No, the Princess is his sister, though blood seems to be the only thing that links them. She searches for the Avatar relentlessly as well, and is Zuko's biggest rival. Yet because they are related, they are required by protocol to host one another whenever their ships pass by. She is on this ship now, and will be joining you for dinner as well, I daresay."
Jade had heard of the great Princess Zula, but she had not been aware that Zula was Zuko's sister. She had not even known that he had a sister, though she supposed there was no reason she should, as she had never spoken with him before today. She trembled with intimidation at the prospect of meeting the woman she had heard so much about. She recalled the legends told around the fireplaces of the North Pole, of a mighty Fire Nation warrior who single-handedly destroyed the royal guards of the Northern Air Temple and then led the relentless slaughter of the monks. These tales had always frightened her, especially when she learned that this infamous figure was a woman. Jade had been taught that it was unnatural for women to go to battle and fight and bend elements, and the thought of one that did had always been terrifying to her as a little girl. It was only after being reunited with Katara, and seeing her friend's skill in battle, that Jade had come to realize that perhaps the ways of her tribe were a bit outdated.
Well, if Zuko had requested her presence at dinner, there was no way out of it, even if it meant she would have to meet his sister. Jade smiled at the maid. "I can be ready in half an hour," she said.
Hey everyone! This chapter is a little shorter my friend told me that my chapters were too long, so hopefully this one is more manageable. Please, please, please, PLEASE read and review!