Zuko's 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 wasn'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 prescence 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.

Aang sighed in relief as Sokka's blue eyes fluttered open. He corked the flask and then grunted with the effort of trying to help his friend sit up. Sokka coughed, a bit of the blue liquid Aang had just poured in his mouth trickling down his chin. He moaned, and then wiped his chin with his parka sleeve.

"Where are we?"

Aang opened his mouth to answer, but before he could, a female voice cut him off. "Mustafa Island," she replied.

Sokka blinked several times, trying to bring the girls in front of him into focus. "Wh – what are you doing here?" he said in a voice that would have surely been an angry shout had he not just woken up from a three-day coma.

"We followed you in our glider," explained Ming. Or was it Cori? After three days of their company, Aang still had trouble telling them apart, especially when they both wore their hair down. When they had their hair up he could see the tiny scar above Ming's left ear, a reminder of a childhood spill out of a canoe.

"WHAT!" exploded Sokka. "Why would you follow us? We have enough to do without having a bunch of girls tagging along after us!"

"And what does our being girls have to do with anything?" challenged Cori, just inches from Sokka's face. Her thunderous expression disappeared. "Mm, you're kinda cute. You have beautiful eyes," she cooed, running her hand through his dark hair.

Sokka pushed her off him. With Aang's help he managed to get to his feet. He pointed an accusing finger at Cori, but before he could say anything, Aang stopped him.

"It's no use, Sokka," he said. "I talked to them while you were knocked out. They're not going home."

"That's right," said Cori, her hands planted on her slender hips. "We came to help you find Lady Katara."

"Our father never lets us do anything anymore," continued Ming. "He wouldn't even let us fly the glider after we turned thirteen. He said it wasn't proper and would interfere with finding us proper husbands."

"And when we asked him to let us go with you and find Lady Katara, he went on one of his rampages and locked us in our bedchamber," chimed in Cori. "That was when we climbed out the window and slid down the mail slopes to the stables."

"Father hid the glider from us the day after we turned thirteen," added Ming. "But one of our servants saw him, and we bribed him into telling us. So we knew it was in the stables. And then we saw you guys on that big fluffy beast with the arrows on its head, and so we followed."

"By the way," said Cori conversationally. "What happened to Lady Jade? Why did you just drop her off on that Fire Nation ship?"

The vein in Sokka's forehead pulsed with rage. His hand was on the handle of the small axe that he kept in his belt, and Aang quickly moved forward to grab his arm and stop him.

"Why –," began Aang as he was struggling to wrestle the axe out of Sokka's iron grip, "- do you want to help us find Katara?"

Ming sighed. "Because she's smart and funny and brave -,"

"And beautiful," Cori added.

"Right," continued Ming. "She talked to us at the banquet, and told us about some of your adventures. We could never hope to do half the things she's done, or see half the sights she's seen. We're both earth-benders, but Father won't let us practice or have anything to do with it."

"And we could never hope to meet so many interesting people," resumed Cori. "Especially handsome, strong young men like Jet –"

"So anyways," Aang quickly cut her off. "We don't know where Katara is."

"Well," Sokka corrected him. "We know she was captured by the Fire Nation. We sent Jade on the first ship we saw, so that she could free Katara and bring her back to us and we could make a getaway. But she was supposed to come back with Katara that night, and then she didn't, and we were caught in that storm…"

"That's terrible!" cried Cori. "You just left her there! You stupid boor!" The look of outrage swiftly melted off her face, and she smiled coyly. "How naughty. I think what you need is a good spanking…"

Sokka's face turned bright red, and he opened his mouth in protest. Nothing came out. Aang tried to hide a smile.

Ming seemed to be the more sensible of the two. Sensible, or else the one who was not completely hung-up on Sokka. "We have to get her back!" she gasped. "Both of them! Especially Katara! We promised our brother. If she doesn't return, he'll be ever so upset!"

Aang whirled around. "What?" he growled, his face darkening like an approaching thundercloud. Sokka had turned to glare at them as well as he chugged down water from the skin around his neck.

"Our brother, Ulic," said Cori in a bored voice as she flicked a beetle off her shoulder. "Goodness, I can't stand these bugs!"

"What does your brother have to do with Katara?" demanded Aang.

"He was smitten with her at the ball," said Ming gleefully. "Shortly before Lady Katara disappeared, he told me he thought he might be in love with her. So much, in fact, that he had even expressed his desire to ask for her hand in marriage."

Sokka let out a series of spluttering coughs as he choked on his water. "You mean to tell me," he said in a hoarse voice as he pounded himself on the chest, "that after knowing her for less than half a day, your brother wants to marry my sister?"

"Arranged marriages are part of our culture," explained Ming. "It isn't uncommon for a couple to know each other only for a short while before marrying. Especially among the royals."

"Hundreds of girls would cut off their own foot if it meant being able to marry a Prince, even more so if he is as handsome as our brother," drawled Cori. "Your sister should feel honored. You should feel honored. But it's not like it's ever going to happen. You and your sister are mere peasants, and our father would never agree to a union between Ulic and a commoner."

"Commoner!" exploded Sokka. "How dare you! I'll have you know that back in our water tribe village, I was revered as one of the best warriors there. And as the only waterbender besides our grandmother, Katara wasn't exactly unknown among our people, either!"

"While fighting and bending skills are admirable, they still don't make you royal," admonished Cori. "Only blood can do that."

Sokka spat on the ground. "Even if my sister were princess of the entire world, she still wouldn't want to marry a dirty earthbender."

Anger ignited like sparks in Cori's chocolate-brown eyes. A nearby boulder the size of Appa's head lifted a few feet off the ground.

Before a violent and gory battle could break out, Aang grabbed Sokka's arm. "Sokka!" he hissed. "We have to find Katara and Jade. Getting yourself killed won't help to accomplish that!"

"Killed? By a girl?" Sokka laughed. "I could throw a pebble and break her fingernail, and the fight would be finished."

"Listen to me! King Bumi is the most powerful earthbender the world has ever seen. Cori is directly descended from him. Though she doesn't have much experience, she could bend that boulder and squash you with it before you could even lift your axe."

Sokka seemed to consider this. Aang could see the angry fire still roaring in his ice-blue eyes. Eyes that were so much like Katara's.

For a moment, Aang thought that Sokka was going to completely disregard what he had just said and go ahead and attack Cori anyway. Aang put a hand on his shoulder.

"I miss Katara, too," he offered softly. "When we get her back, she'll put Cori in her place. Trust me."

Sokka grinned at that. He lowered his axe. "Are there any shops on this Mustacho Island or whatever it is? I'm starving!"

Aang grinned. "I'll ask the girls. They seem to know their way around this place."

Meanwhile, Ming had been busy calming Cori, who had settled the boulder back on the ground. She smoothed her long dark hair, looking as perfect as she had at the banquet. Ming, on the other hand, seemed much less superficial, and was content to pull her straight black hair back from her face and tie it with a red ribbon.

"Sokka calls for a truce," said Aang with a small smile. "He promises not to slit your throat with his knife if you don't try to flatten him with massive rocks."

Cori still looked as if she were struggling not to hurl the boulder in Sokka's face. Ming glanced at her reproachfully. Cori sighed, and finally the violent rage faded from her eyes.

"It's a good thing his face is so handsome," she said. "Otherwise I would be all too keen to smash it. Dirty earthbenders indeed."

"Well, his handsome face demands food. Is there a market around here?" Aang posed his question at Ming.

"Yes, there's a small village several miles from here, and they have a marketplace."

Aang glanced around for Appa, and spotted the furry monster standing on his hind legs, ripping the green fronds from the tops of the trees. He pulled the whistle from under his shirt, put it to his lips, and blew. The ground trembled as the great hulking beast came down on all fours and ambled over to his master.

With Aang's help, Ming easily vaulted onto the huge animal and settled down on his wide, comfortable back. Cori wasn't so keen to ride a flying bison, but after Aang coaxed and then resorted to threats of leaving her to walk to the village alone, she willingly accepted his aid in climbing aboard.

Aang shouted to Sokka, and the young water tribe man sauntered over, taking his place beside Aang on Appa's head without making eye contact with the girls. Aang could tell that he was still sore about almost getting his butt kicked by a girl.

Appa landed with a thud in the middle of an almost miniscule village compared to what Aang had seen in the Earth Kingdom. Ming had not been joking when she had said, "small." The entire village was composed of about fifty houses made of wood, with thatched roofs. From the slight size of each of them, Aang guessed them to be no more than three or four rooms in size.

The marketplace consisted of about a dozen stalls, each made of rough, unglazed wood and roofed by tightly stretched animal skins. The scent of fresh meat cooking on a spit reached Aang's nose from the stall closest to him, and his mouth watered.

Before he could dismount and head towards the source of the delightful smell, an arrow whizzed past his head. More quickly followed suit as Sokka ducked beside Aang and attempted to bury himself in Appa's fur. Aang could hear screams of horror erupting from the girls beside him.

Fury coarsed through Aang like lava spouting to the top of a volcano. Not so much unlike the lava, his rage erupted, sending him spiraling into the air. The arrows marking his head turned a bright, blinding blue, and luminous light shot out of his eyes.

It was as if he had left his body, and was hurtling upwards through the air. As he torpedoed into the clouds, he looked down and saw his body floating a few feet above Appa's head. He could vaguely hear Sokka shouting his name, and the girls screaming hysterically behind him.

"Stop shooting!" he heard Sokka holler. "We come in peace! This is the Avatar! Aang!" Aang saw Sokka yank on the sleeve of his tunic.

His Avatar spirit began to calm down. He stopped his mad, uncontrollable rush into the sky, and began to drop downwards into his body. The color left his arrows, and the light given off by his furious body faded.

He opened his eyes and found himself floating above Appa once again. He heard Sokka sigh in relief that he had been reunited with his body, and he sank down into Appa's fur. The attack of the arrows had stop, and Aang looked down at the ground to see a small group of bare-chested warrior men circling the giant bison, their spears pointed toward the great animal and ready to pierce flesh should he make one false movement.

Aang stood up. He had a powerful headache, one of the side effects of triggering his Avatar spirit. He ignored it and held up his hands.

"I am the Avatar," he said as calmly as he could. "These are my friends. We do not intend to harm you."

A crowd of people had immerged from the wooden houses to watch the action, and at the word, "Avatar," a hush fell over the crowd. Aang didn't think they would have believed him if they had not just been blinded by the unearthly blue light.

The circle of warriors parted, and a woman stepped forward. She was an older woman, with crisp brown skin interrupted by an occasional wrinkle, with long black hair streaked with gray down to her knees. She was pleasantly plump, and her eyes were ghostly pale, so translucent that Aang wondered if she might be blind. The way she fixed her eyes on him quickly dissuaded that notion. Her eyes seeped into him, as if she were trying to see his soul, trying to determine if he was telling the truth.

Obviously she was a woman of some standing, because the people quickly stepped aside respectfully as she came forward. She walked with a slight limp, and Aang could see a long white scar on her favored leg, stretching from mid-thigh to ankle and about the width of a finger. He wondered briefly what had happened to leave such a harsh reminder.

The woman spoke, causing Aang to stop wondering and start listening. The language was the same as his own, though spoken with an accent so thick and foreign that he could barely understand. Fortunately, the two Princesses beside him seemed to know the language, and when he missed a word they were able to inform him in his own accent.

The woman claimed to be the spirit woman of the Mustafa people, and she welcomed them all, most especially the Avatar. She spoke of what an honor it was to be visited by the Avatar, and apologized for the hostility of the warriors. Apparently, they had been visited by a huge ship recently, and men dressed in red had stormed their village on Komodo dragons and seized a number of their young girls. When Aang heard this, his blood ran cold. He was sure that the woman was talking about Admiral Zhao.

Admiral Zhao had taken the Mustafa girls prisoner for his own pleasures and wishes. Aang was certain now that Zhao had captured Katara. His hands balled into fists as he pictured the young waterbender girl, and the horror of what was being done to her.

Sorry, short chapter. But I'll try to do a longer one next time. Please read and review!