sorry folks, but I accidentally posted 2 as one, so I had to fix it!

Fighting For Freedom

About a week later, Ryko and Zuko had ended up in a forest. Zuko had made the decision that they should stay close to the river. Even if Ryko wasn't a waterbender in truth, but until he had his true element, they could still use the basics the kid knew. This meant that Zuko got drenched whenever Ryko started practicing.

As they wound through the trees, a boy yelled, "Halt firebender! Release that young one!" A boy with short, messy hair and a long thin hook in each hand jumped down from a branch, "Let him go, Fire Nation scum!"

As Zuko struggled against incinerating the boy, Ryko said, "You know, you're lousy at first impressions."

As few more boys leaped out of the trees and surrounded Zuko, Ryko was shoved out of they way. He staggered to his feet as the apparent leader of the boys raised his hooks and said, "You'll pay for trying to destroy they world firebender!"

"I haven't tried to destroy anything!" Zuko snapped.

"Your nation has-" the leader started, but then he was whacked with a loosely bonded lump of water. Zuko took this as a cue to start fighting, with the other boys off-guard. The boy with a bow and arrow yelled to the leader, "JET! This little one's a demon!"

"What!" yelled the leader. "Longshot, you're getting your butt kicked by a kid?"

Zuko took the opportunity to rush the boy called Jet, but a large boy snagged the prince and flung him bodily to the ground. Zuko started to sit up, but Ryko was flung onto his chest by Jet.

Jet chuckled, then leaned forward, his face twisted into a snarl, "Guess what little waterbender? Those who aid the Fire Nation are no better than them! Don't worry though; even the avatar had issues with that lesson."

"Right, you met the avatar," Zuko snorted in disbelief. A little kid tried to punch Zuko, who simply blew fire in his face.

Jet barely spared the kid a glance, but said, "Are you okay Duke?" The little kid nodded, and Ryko stuck out his tongue. Jet leaned forward, "Put that away waterbender, before I decide to..." he pulled out a dagger, "remove it, hmm?"

----

The boys, who were called the Freedom Fighters, has tied up and locked up Ryko and Zuko. Zuko was impressed they knew the exact way to tie up a firebender, palms facing each other. Ryko had barely managed to get some water out of the air and gotten it to freeze into a sharp spike, but it was clear that his waterbending abilities were fading. Zuko wriggled his bonds against the spike and almost had them cut when it melted into a puddle.

Zuko sighed, "Dang! Ryko, can you do it again? Just a few seconds ought to do it!"

Ryko nodded and raised his (bound) hands, and shut his eyes to concentrate. The water lifter a few inches in little streams, but did little else. As Ryko continued to try, Zuko went for his pocket, in which there was something Iroh had given him just before he left the North Pole, but was distracted as Ryko whined. Zuko glanced over. "Now what?" he asked in a tone that was a bit too harsh.

Ryko didn't notice, and looked down, "I can't waterbend!"

Zuko sighed; he couldn't even imagine not being able to bend. He thought, 'I mean, if you've never done it, like Lieutenant Ji for instance, I guess that you wouldn't miss it, but I know that my fire is a part of me, I'd hate to lose that!'

"Well," muttered Ryko, "At least maybe now we can narrow down who I might be..."