Thank you to everyone who pointed out that Sokka and Katara are from the Southern Water Tribe, not the Northern. It has been remedied. Cookies for everyone!
On a less happy note, I will be gone until next Wednesday on vacation. Sorry, nothing I can do about it. At least I got a chapter up before I left.
Hope you like it
-Random Stuff About Stuff. I have no idea why I signed this, since you probably know who I am already. Whatever.
8: Start singing 'The Song That Never Ends' when there's a small pause in the meetings.
Lara had failed.
Don't be too shocked, it does happen sometimes. Right now, she had failed at annoying her older brother.
After telling the Generals in the War Room that Iroh was much better than any of them, there had, naturally, been a bit of dissatisfied muttering. Then Ozai had explained to the entire room that Lara was just a child and wanted some attention. So he let her stay for the meetings.
Lara had never hated her brother more.
And she vowed revenge!
Yes indeed. Lara would never rest until she had avenged herself. And she would never have avenged herself until she was satisfied enough to rest.
So if she wouldn't be avenged until she rested and wouldn't rest until she had avenged herself, she would never be avenged.
And so she would spend the rest of forever bugging Ozai.
Isn't that cool?
Anyway, the meeting continued on a more subdued basis than ever before. Every once and a while, a General would stop what he was saying, as if afraid that it would offend Lara. And, of course, they were all staring at her when they thought she wasn't looking.
To Lara, this spelled one thing: fun. See, 'A General would stop what he was saying, as if aFraid… And, of coUrse, they were all stariNg…' See? F in Afraid, U in Course, and N in Staring. F-U-N. Fun.
Well, to Lara, everything spelled fun. Because everything spelled 'annoy Ozai' (Anyway, meeting, continued, on, every, would, waz, as, if) and Annoy Ozai spelled Fun. Because annoying Ozai is fun, and that counts, okay? Just deal with it. Sheesh.
Okay, let's get back on track. The Generals were all on edge because Lara was there, and Lara saw that as a perfect opportunity to annoy Ozai and therefore have fun.
Right. Three paragraphs summed up in one sentence. I am pathetic.
Anyway, Lara didn't really have a plan on how to annoy her brother the Fire Lord. She was better with spontaneous things.
And her spontanouity and geniusisness would definitely come in handy here. Because before long, she was presented with an amazing opportunity.
"And the water supply of the troops on the Earth Kingdom's eastern border is almost entirely being supplied by raiding nearby villages. This cannot continue forever. While this is not an immediate problem, Your Majesty, it should be remedied before we send these troops anywhere else, unless it is near a water source. I would recommend further taxation of the nearby villages, so that we can import water from another source, such as different villages," General Vahe was in the proud possession of an extreme monotone that bored even Lara, with all of her maturity (coughyeahrightcough) and patience (coughseepreviousstatementcough).
Excuse me. We're having a bit of bad weather down here, and I have a cold. Sorry about that.
"How much do you think we should increase taxes?" asked Ozai in a bored tone.
"A twenty percent increase should do it," General Vahe droned.
"Done."
There was a moment's pause while the other Generals tried different methods of keeping themselves awake after listening to Vahe monologue incessantly.
One General pinched himself.
Another slapped himself.
Yet another yawned loudly.
One dumped a cup of water on his face.
Another banged his head against the table.
Yet another rubbed his eyes and stretched, earning himself a glare from Vahe.
One (a Bender) dropped a fireball on his leg and ran out of the room screaming.
That woke just about everyone up.
But there was still a long moment while everyone was trying to understand what was going on, and Lara's spontaneous annoyingness kicked in.
"This is the song that never ends!
It just goes on and on my friends!
Some people
Started singing it, not knowing what it was.
And ended up singing forever, 'cause
This is the song that never ends!
It just goes on and on my friends!
Some people
Started singing it, not knowing what it was.
And ended up…"
"Lara…." Ozai was still keeping his temper. "Get out."
Sadly, Lara got up and left the room, only to stand outside the door with the sleeping guards and the now-unconscious General.
Absently, the Fire Lord's sister woke one of the guards and sent him off to get medical assistance for the General who had burned himself, then returned to listening at the War Room door.
They were now talking about rations for the troops, completely forgetting about the rather odd instances that had just occurred. Fire Nation people are like that.
Continuing to listen to the conversation until the next pause was extremely trying for Lara. But she persevered through the proceedings.
One mutiny
Two civilian uprisings
Three problems of starvation since the last meeting
Four battles that their troops were engaged in
Five riots
Six cases of mass panic because the Avatar was back
Seven cases of mass celebration because the Avatar was back.
Eight petitioners who wanted the war to end
Nine people who believed that the comet was never coming back
Ten minutes that this took.
And then…
Ten Generals said something stupid.
Nine Generals started kicking each other under the table.
Eight Generals started playing with fire.
Seven Generals asked to check if Lara was listening and were ignored.
Six Generals spaced out.
Five Generals fell out of their chairs and sustained minor injuries.
Four Generals had rumbling stomachs.
Three Generals asked for a break and were kicked out.
Two Generals yawned.
One General fell asleep and was kicked out.
There were only ten Generals there, but since four had been kicked out, there were six, plus Ozai. And none of those six had anything to say, but nobody wanted to ask for a break or to end the meeting.
So Lara stepped in. Literally.
"This is the song that never ends!
It just goes on and on my friends!
Some people
Started singing it not knowing what it was
And ended up singing forever 'cause…"
You don't become Fire Lord by having patience, and Fire Lord Ozai couldn't keep his temper under pressure for that long.
"LARA!"
And now Lara had succeeded, so she felt free to smile innocently and say,
"What?"