Be amazed! I got the fighting scene done! -The telephone rings and Usagi answers- Hello? Oh! Uh... Hey... Lucifer -Sweat drop- Uh, Hell's heater broke down, sorry 'bout that -Grins nerviously- No I'd rather not pay you back in soul, do you take cash? -Eyes widen- THAT much for a friggen heater? -Blinks- Oh... for the whole 9 levels, I guess that would be a bit expensive... -Looks at readers- Sorry, I have to take this, I really don't want to loose my soul, just read -Flips the page for the readers-

PS: the first chapter where Zuko and Sokka meet in the story :D And thank you HKL Betaing again!


Zuko rode impassively on his horse-ox, watching the scenery go by; and there wasn't much of that. He was silent as he rode by the cart, there the driver was silent as well, also a couple other brave villagers tagged along, with two to a horse-ox. Zuko was pleased that he didn't have to ride with any villager, just like he requested he was left alone. He had no interest in making friends or in anyway communicating with any of them. Business only.

So far, not as much as a rabbit crossed their path, and the horse-ox where whinnying and grunting calmly, trotting quickly across the path. Zuko wondered if there would be any attack at all, it just seemed so calm and ordinary, of course there where still miles and miles left to go, anything could happen. And he was also pleased with the set up of the drop off. The carts would meet, switch people, and head straight back to their own village, less time was consumed and no one had to go to a distant village.

It was so simple; Zuko sometimes wished the whole world could come up with justified agreements like that. He did have pride in his country and his people, but really, did his father really want to complicate things? Did his father have to have so much power? Sometime he pondered these things, and being exiled opened his eyes a lot to what was outside his own nation. Often times he thought upon what changed he would make if he were king, he would stop the pointless war and maybe offer a peace treaty to the other nations. The war had brought so much meaningless destruction and no rewards. Families torn apart, benders from other nations once friends now fought; even a whole blood line of benders, the air benders, were dead. Zuko saw no point in it, no reasoning at all. He would start thinking, "that if he was king..." but he couldn't become a king, not while he was exiled...

Zuko's horse-ox snorted and he was brought back to reality, snapping out of childish, overnight dreams. The world wasn't simple, never would be; but it would never feel right if he didn't at least try to change it.

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Sokka rode in the back of the cart, leaning against a couple bags of corn, one leg bent and the other hanging off the edge. He dully watched the dust fly up from the wheels and a couple of men on horse-oxen bob in and out of site from behind the canvas that covered the cart. A couple of hours of this got old quick; so far so good though with not being attacked. The only thing keeping him awake was the jumbling cart. He was glad that this would only take a day rather than more, he'd be back in time to go to bed if everything went right.

Looking up he saw the sun was clouding with dark gray clouds, seemingly harmless, gliding in the way of sun light, making patchy shadows before swallowing up the land in shade. Sokka yawned, almost hopping something would happen, but then again, he wished no harm to anyone, he was just so bored…

"Whoa!" The driver called to the horse-oxen and the cart jumbled harshly, nearly throwing Sokka to the ground. He yelped, quickly grabbing one of the bags so he didn't tumble out. He kneeled and peered over the bags of corn, seeing the driver's back.

"What happened?" Sokka asked and the driver, an old man, looked behind him to look at Sokka

"We have a bit of steep hill to climb," The driver said and gestured to the path ahead of them, "The animals don't like it" Sokka's eyes drifted from the man to the surrounding landscape and his blue orbs slowly widened with the intake of their surroundings. In front of them was the only patch of woods for miles around, and it wasn't just a small cluster of trees, it was acres upon acres of forest that would take at least two days to walk around. In the center of it all was a visible plateau covered in long grass.

"Some hill," Sokka muttered, "I don't blame them." The driver only chuckled and slapped the reins, driving the horse-oxen forward, into the woods. The way through the woods was better than Sokka thought it would be, they were slipping through a path in the trees that was obviously recently used for this purpose. , and no one ambushed them along the way. He absent mindedly listened to the driver talk about the trip. The two carts would meet at the top of the plateau, and so far, that had been a safe place from the bandits so far, the steep hill having kept them at bay. Sokka's eyes soon lifted to the sky which was graying quickly and the clouds grew heavier. His mind flickered to Aunt Wu's prediction; then he shook his head. So what if it rained, that meant nothing.

Sokka was startled when the cart jumbled and started at a faster past, nearing the plateau. He hung onto the sides of the cart for dear life as it started upward, and halfway up it started to slow down. Sokka shut his eyes and gritted his teeth, hoping the cart wouldn't stop wile they were practically vertical; because then he would have about 200 pounds of corn crushing him.

Sokka's muscles relaxed once the cart was on level ground, not having the anxiety of the cart slipping down the hill. The wheels squeaked to a halt and Sokka peeked over the bags again, only to see another cart was waiting for them; obviously the people where from the city. One was different though, Sokka noted, a lone man off to the side on a grazing horse-ox looked indifferent from his body posture, his face over-shadowed by a large hat, especially on his left side. Sokka absent mindedly commented that the man was nice looking, maybe even familiar, though at the moment he couldn't think where; and apparently the young man hadn't seen him, most likely because the bags were in the way.

The villagers greeted each other and Zuko watched from a distance. The way here was dull, he half hoped it wouldn't be on the way back, and with the clouds rolling in like they were, he doubted it would be. The men hurriedly started to untie the horse-ox to switch carts, the rain and anxiety of trouble starting moved them. Zuko spotted a teenager his age slip from the back of the cart to where the drivers where, asking them something whilst the muscle men worked. The fire bender's eyes widened and narrowed quickly as he realized it was Sokka, the teen that was always with the Avatar. His first instinct was to rush over and demand to know where Aang was so he could catch him and regain his honor. But he paused, mind thinking quickly. Aang wasn't in sight, and neither was his sister, the water bender. He looked around to be sure and saw no flying bison or lemur; conclusion was that Sokka had either gotten separated or he took this job like Zuko had. He made his body quit tensing and relax, observing.

Sokka hadn't seen him yet, that was clear to the fire-bender, the water-tribe teen was always more tense when they fought, or when he just saw Zuko. His eyes would harden and his body would go ridged. It was actually kind of strange to see the other so calm and just talking with the drivers, most likely about the shipping and the job.

The men were just strapping the horse-oxen to the carts when suddenly one of the beasts reared up with a whinny, the men backing up with shouts of warning. Both Sokka and Zuko spun in their spots, red blood flowing from the animal's side, where an arrow was lodged deep in the horse-ox's thick hide. Sokka immediately drew his boomerang and Zuko dropped down to the ground, looking for where the arrow came from.

All around them was long grass; the only clear path was made by the carts. The men backed closer to the carts and their own beasts for sense of security. Zuko stood stock still, listening intently, and fingers twitching in the intensity of the situation. Sokka had drawn his boomerang and listened also, his heart had leapt to his throat in the instant.

Then, it was sudden, a pack of people, almost like wolves lunged, with weapons in hand and a wild look to them all. Immediately a fight broke out between all three parties, villagers joining with villagers against bandits. There were fewer bandits than villagers, but the wild men also had more weapons, and were more willing to use them. A horse-ox was knocked down in the fray and silenced by a bandit's sword.

Sokka defended himself with his boomerang, deflecting a very nasty looking man's wild sword. He winced as the reverberation of metal against metal shook his body, these men where ruthless and mad. The one chance he got, he took when the bandit drew his sword high for an even harder blow, but Sokka lunged forward and gutted the man with his elbow, knocking the wind out of him. As the man hit the ground he sighed, slightly relieved that he'd brought down one of the man.

He felt something wet fall on his head and he immediately jumped away, looking up, he felt another hit his nose. The dark clouds over head had decided to let loose its burden and it didn't just rain, it poured; but it was gradual, starting slow with big heavy drops of water splashing on the ground. Sokka didn't really have time to worry about the weather as a larger, more muscle bound man than the last, headed towards him with an ax. Sokka's eyes widened as the man came at him quickly, but he moved out of the way just as the heavy blade slit the dirt where he'd been just standing.

While the huge beast of a man struggled to get his ax out of the glue like wet mud, Sokka stumbled back towards the edge of the plateau, panting, the large man disappearing in the thick rain. He spun around to make sure the man was out of sight before he looked at his surroundings. A flicker of misplaced light caught his attention and he swiveled around to see the man with the large bamboo hat lunging at one of the bandits with two thin swords, too flimsy to cut through bone, but it would defiantly slice someone's skin open in a heart beat.

They were fighting by the edge of the plateau. The obvious guard for the port town cargo was moving in a familiar calculated way, and it was before a spurt of fire that Sokka realized it was a fire bender. The bandit was unimpressed and unafraid of the fire, any flame that licked skin in this weather was immediately soaked. A strike was made with the swords and the fire bender leapt back away. The bandit treated the swords like whips in all reality, swiping back and forth instead of thrusting forward. The guard was quick on his feet, and backed to a point by the edge where he really didn't feel comfortable being near the slippery mud like edge.

Sokka saw the fire bender's hand go to his hat and it was flicked at the bandit. The bandit fell for the ploy and sliced the hat to ribbons as it was thrown at him, letting the fire bender charge forward. In the bandit's moment of distraction he was gutted in the stomach hard by the fire bender's fist. It was when the bandit hit the ground did Sokka get to see who the fire bender was. He was surprised to see it was Zuko, here in the middle of nowhere fighting for a bunch of town's people. Zuko's yellow eyes met his blue and Sokka got a sinking feeling in the pit of his gut. Zuko had seen him; Zuko knew he was with Aang, this wasn't good.

Sokka heard heavy movement behind him and his head spun around, seeing the man with the ax lifting his weapon high behind him. Sokka's eyes widened and his muscles tensed. Between a 300 pound muscle head with an ax, and a fire bender around his physique; he would rather take his chances with Zuko.

The ax hit dirt again, and Sokka fell on his butt only a couple of feet away from Zuko, who hadn't moved since he'd knocked out the first man. The beast like man didn't bother removing his weapon from the mud, it would take too long, and he was confident that he could take care of two kids half his size. Sokka scrambled to his feet as the man stepped towards them, though Zuko stood still eyes narrowing at the man. The rain pounded down on everyone and when the lightning flashed the huge man charged, Zuko was ready. Sokka also readied himself, though he wasn't sure what he could do, this man was as huge as a fire nation tank.

Sokka suddenly felt himself get his shirt grabbed and was pushed to the side, Zuko shoving him out of his way.

"Move, Idiot!" the fire prince hissed as the huge man was only a foot away, and like any heavy moving object, the huge man couldn't stop of turn sharply, and while the man was busy stopping, Zuko took advantage, kicking the man's legs from under him. Zuko had been tempted to set the man's clothes aflame, but the water did nothing to help things catch fire. The man stumbled, but didn't go down; standing up again, but just as he turned a boomerang hit his temple, making the man stumble back. Sokka caught his boomerang and watched as the man fell. It was almost like an earthquake as it caused the earth to tremor under the man's girth.

There was a moment of quiet except for the rain. The two glanced at each other and they almost reacted, though whether it was positively or negatively was never known, because the next thing Sokka knew, there was a swift movement of a club and being near the edge of the plateau, where else was there for someone unconscious to fall.

Sokka swiftly looked to see another bandit with a thick and rough branch as a club, a mad look in his eyes. Sokka then heard the sound of someone hitting and tumbling on the ground, and all that he could do was react.


:D Hopefully it will be smoother writing from here, I hope you like it andI hope I did ok with the action scene, I hate fight scenes