Chapter Four
It was early afternoon the next day when the ship dropped anchor, and Zuko and his uncle entered the village. It was a small, communal town made up of straw huts, and wooden carts selling all kinds of fruits and vegatables bordered the narrow dirt paths.
"Hurry up and get your tea uncle, we have to get moving." Zuko said impatiently as Iroh wandered off the path to a cart selling old knick-knacks.
"Now now Zuko, don't be so impatient. Look at all these priceless antiques! Some of them might be worth millions!" his uncle replied, sifting through a crate of old jewlery.
Zuko slapped his hand to his forhead and sighed. "I'm going to go do something productive and ask the locals about the Avatar. Be back at the ship in an hour." Zuko said, then stalked off moodily.
Sarafina lazily blinked her eyes as sunlight filtered through the window. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Must have overslept a bit…" she said to no one in particular. She was increadibly startled when she got an answer.
"No kidding. I was just about to take this food back if you weren't gonna wake up soon." There was a man just outside the bars with a plate of leftover food, a leg of roast duck and a rather over-ripe fruit. He slid it through the bars and she took it and sat back in the corner. The man walked out, leaving her to tear at the duck, which was rather old and over cooked.
She picked up the fruit and tossed it up and down a bit. Deciding it didn't seem very edible, she tossed it out the far window, listening to it fall into the river with a splunk. Then, with nothing better to do, she began to practice firebending. She aimed a swoosh at the bars of the cell, not expecting anything to happen. She was surprised when a bar at the far end gave in slightly. She walked over and closely examined it. It was made from a different material than the rest of the bars. A material that wasn't fireproof. She was about to further test this theory when the clunking of boots sounded on the deck above her.
I'll have to wait until nightfall when they're all asleep. Sarafina thought to herself. So she went back to her firebending as the ship began to chug off down the wide river.
The sky was starting to dim into a pale greyish black when Zuko came down into the cell with a plate of food. "Having fun down here, I asume?" he asked, sliding the tray between the bars.
"Oh yeah. Great fun. I am just having a blast." She said, leaving the food where it was.
"I heard you firebending from up here. Not trying to cause trouble now, are we?"
"Nah, just a way to vent my frustration and spend my energy. My legs are really getting cramped you know."
"Hm." Was Zuko's only reply. "Are you gonna eat that, or should I take it back?" he asked, gesturing towords the food.
"I'll eat it eventually." Sarafina replied. There was a moment of silence, then Zuko broke it.
"I wish you were on my side. I could use a firebender like you to help me catch the Avatar. I'm sure my father would forgive what you have done if you turned him in with me."
Sarafina gave a sort of giggling snort and replied, "You really think so? The only way that man would want me back in his nation is if my head was mounted on the wall."
"You seem awefuly quick to think that my father could never forgive someone."
"That's because he can't Zuko. Why can't you get that through your thick skull? Avatar or not, Ozai thinks you are a failure, just because you give a damn about other people."
"Don't speak about my father that way! You have no idea what he thinks of me! I was disloyal to my nation, and I got my just punishment."
"So you think that because you tried to save a bunch of inocent people that you deserved to be thrown onto this crap-heap of a boat and sent to find some twelve year old kid on a giant fluffy beast?"
"Well when you put it that way…"
"You mean when I put it the way it really is."
"That isn't the way it really is."
"Is too."
"Is not."
And this argument continued for a good while, and when they both finally fell silent, small sparks of fire were jumping about in their hands, threating to leap forward and destroy whatever was in its path. Zuko turned around and gave breath to a giant plume of fire from his mouth.
"You are infuriating! Why do I keep you on this boat?" he yelled.
"I dunno. How about you let me go and both of us can be on our merry way?" Sarafina replied.
"No. I'll turn you in to my father so you can suffer at the hands of the Firenation."
"I'll bash my head in against a wall before I go back to the Firenation."
"Suit yourself. But I'm not cleaning the blood stains off the wall."
"Fine."
"Fine."
Zuko stomped up the stairs, leaving Sarafina alone. Finally. She thought. Now for that bar... She walked to the bar and pushed on it. It stood fast and didn't move. She lit a fire in her hand and held it to the bar. After about twenty minutes, she was rewarded with a slow trickle of liquid metal. It would take a long time to melt the bar, but she could do it. She could escape! She spent a huge chunk of the night slowly melting away the metal in the bar. The moon was high and all the stars were out when Sarafina decided to take a break. The rest can wait till tommorow night. She thought. She slumped against the wall and fell asleep with visions of freedom prancing in her head.