Dangerous Ground
Chapter Seven
The next few days went surprisingly well, however. Zuko, although getting his ability to yell back, seemed to need to do so less often. He accepted his food without (much) complaint and didn't antagonize Sokka as much. The tension that had hung so thickly in the camp for the past two and a half months now seemed to be dissipating like the sun hitting fog.
I was so happy in the newfound peace that I decided to celebrate. The boys had gone to town to try and earn a fish for dinner, and to gather more information of the Earthbending army. That left me plenty of time to do something fun before they could get back and spoil it.
"Want to take a walk down to the river?" I aimed the question at Zuko, who was meditating on the ebbing fire from breakfast.
"Why would I want to do that?" He grumbled.
"Because, it'll be good for you!" I said cheerfully. "You've been cooped up for a long time. You want to have all your strength when you start rabidly chasing the Avatar again, don't you?" I teased, tugging lightly on his tunic. He hid a grin and shrugged me off.
"What if I try something funny? What if I kidnap you and use you as bait to capture the Avatar?"
We both laughed a little over that. "You're in no condition to capture anyone, mister. Now, are you coming or not?" I gently cut the ropes around his legs and held my hand out to help him stand. Of course, he refused my help, but I'd come to expect that from Zuko.
"It's cold out there. Here, wear this." I threw him a cloak. He rolled his eyes but accepted it. I left my heavy parka for the lighter cloak, figuring that we'd be back long before it turned cold.
The river was beautiful. It sparkled beneath a sheet of shimmering ice, the water reflecting the brilliant-but-cold sunlight like a thousand tiny mirrors. I caused the ice to rise and fall, sent the waves spiraling and twisting into shapes which I froze and melted at my whim.
"Look! I made Aang!" I pointed at the ice sculpture I'd created in the rough image of Aang.
"His head is too big." Zuko frowned and shot a blast of flame at the figure, melting the head down to a pea-sized ball on the shoulders.
"Hey! You ruined it!" I laughed and bent a water whip to snake around his ankle and pull him over.
His boot became engulfed in flame, immediately transforming the snake into steam.
"Okay hot-shot, try this." I threw a water ball at him, which he easily deflected.
A shout! I whirled around to find myself face-to-torso with a seven-foot, burly man. He wore a green tunic that barely covered his muscle-bound bulk, and hefted a viscous looking axe in his right hand.
"Look, Amhan! I told you I saw smoke! They're firebenders sure enough." He lifted me by the back of my collar and stared at me straight in the eye. Before he could question me any further, though, a bolt of fire hissed by the man's head, singing the ends of his mustache. The man ducked and dropped me, sending me sprawling onto the ice.
I felt a hand grip my shoulder. It was Zuko. He pulled me to my feet and pushed me behind him as he set himself in an attack stance, hands consumed in fire.
Enraged, the burly man began to walk out onto the ice. Zuko sent a few fireballs at him, but the man evaded them and kept coming. We backed out further onto the ice. He seemed to have had some experience fighting Firebenders, as he was able to apprehend and dodge the attacks with speed and agility that seemed out of place in the enormous man. But Zuko wasn't deterred, he kept flinging fire, and managed to keep the man at bay. I quickly waterbended a flurry of attacks, which sent the man spiraling into the woods.
But our troubles weren't over. At least twenty men, all dressed in the same green cloth as the first man, soon materialized from the wood. We were badly outnumbered, and Zuko was in no shape to fight even one person. I glanced at him. He was panting shallowly and clutching his ribs, barely able to keep up with the attack.
And now we had another problem. We were in the middle of the river, and Zuko was putting off an enormous amount of heat. I heard the ice splinter and crack, and suddenly I was no longer standing up, I was sinking.
I should have anticipated the crack. I should have waterbended out of there, but the cold hit me like a sledgehammer and I felt myself sinking into blackness. Air slipped from my mouth, life left me as my breath did. I tried to focus, tried to bend the river to my will...
And then two powerful hands were pulling me up like a fish from the river. I gasped, shivering on the snow-crusted ground.
"What do you want to do with them, Onan?" I heard a voice say through the hazy fog of cold that clouded my brain.
"Throw them in the dungeon. We'll have Taikai deal with them when he comes." I felt myself lifted again, slung across a wide, burly back. I tried to resist, but the arm that held me was packed with more muscles than I'd thought were possible.
Earthbender. He was an earthbender. And he thought I was a Fire Bender. I struggled, but he only gripped me tighter. I tried to explain, but I was shivering too hard. Then my world went black.