Taken Captive
"Let go of me!" Katara screamed at the guard who held her in her position. But as she yelled he only held on tighter.
"Aang!" Sokka looked up in the sky at the bison with Aang riding on his back.
"Don't worry you guys!" Aang said and started to head straight for the guards that held Katara and Sokka. But as the airbender did, the other fire nation guards shot at him and Appa started falling from the sky.
"Aang!" Both Katara and Sokka gasped as they were pulled to look the other way.
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Once at the ship Katara and Sokka were forced into a small room. It was small and hot with little light to see with.
"Sokka? What's going to happen to Aang?" Katara couldn't help but say even though she already had her thoughts.
"I'm not sure. I just hope he's alright and comes to find us." Sokka said with a worried look almost like Katara's.
The place they were kept was small, most likely fit for one person only. There wasn't much in the room, other than metal floors and one bed that looked as though someone had torn it apart.
Oh Aang, I hope you come…
Katara thought looking around the room with a disgusted look.
"Hang on, if everything is metal, couldn't you freeze the handle on the door and break it open?" Sokka looked at his younger sister.
"No, I ran out of water when we were fighting Zuko. We're stuck here unless Aang comes and finds us." The waterbender sighed once again and sat down not knowing what to do.
Suddenly, the handle of the door turned and someone stepped inside.
"The Prince has commanded that you both be separated. You, come with me." The person at the door said and pointed at Sokka. No doubt it was a guard, by the clothing he wore which was just like the rest of them.
As the door shut, Katara and Sokka had become separated. Leaving the group spread apart.
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"Huh? Katara? Sokka?" Aang got up and looked around. Nobody was there. Then it all came back to him. The fight, Appa coming in, Aang going after Katara and Sokka, Appa falling, then nothing.
He sighed and looked up. It was night but how long had it been night he didn't know.
"Aaaarrrrrggghhhhhhh!" He heard behind the trees next to him.
"Appa!" He yelled and jumped to his side happy to see he was not alone. Also sprawled out on top of Appa's head, was Momo.
Something's not right here…
Aang went to the other side of Appa and tried to push him over to lay on his other side so Aang could see it. As he did and Appa sat up, Aang saw a deep cut on his right side.
"Appa…" He looked at his friend with a frown.
How could I have let this happen? Now Katara and Sokka are gone and Appa's hurt. It never would have happened if I didn't come.
Feeling guilty with himself, Aang took a peek at the landscape around him. Everything was forest.
"Appa, you'll have to stay here while I search for Katara and Sokka." Aang jumped up in the air on a high rock and opened his glider still looking down at the bison. Then he flew off.
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Aang! Aang!
Don't worry Katara, I'm right here.
Where's Sokka?
I'm not sure, you look that way and I'll look this way.
Aang? Aang where'd you go?
He's mine!
Let go of Aang!
"Let go I said! No!" Katara jumped from the bed and looked around.
It was just a bad dream.
Once actually glad to be in her cell, she let out a sigh of relief. But she knew that it couldn't last for long. Aang will be found and who knows what will happen to her and her older brother.
Just then the door opened again. It startled her as she fell out of the bed and hit the cold metal floor around her.
As the person at the door came into view she sat up but was surprised to see it was not a guard.
"What's going on in here? Weren't you told to keep it down!" an angry prince stepped out from behind the door.
"Uh, no… sorry." She tried not to look up from the ground she had hit seconds ago.
Without another word, he shut the door leaving Katara alone again.
Feeling relieved once again, she sat on her bed and thought. How much she wanted to be sleeping in her comfortable sleeping bag, with her friends at her side.
She wasn't sure how close the place where Sokka was being kept was, but she decided to call out to him anyway.
"Sokka?" No answer.
She tried to be as quiet as possible, so the angry prince wouldn't hear her once again.
"Sokka? Are you there?" Still nothing.
"This is hopeless," She told herself as she looked around once more. There was a window, but no way she could try to squeeze through it.
The room was very hot, but the window was too high for her to reach. She looked at her surroundings to find something to stand on to reach the latches that kept it shut.
Bed!
She went over to it pushing it closer to the window. The bed was easy to move, counting it was mostly a mattress from a bed.
Carefully, carefully… got it!
The latches opened and the cold winter breeze hit her face.
For quite awhile all the waterbender did was lean into the window from on the bed and cool off.
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On the other side of the ship two firebenders waited.
"Might I remind you Prince Zuko, that the avatar is still back on the island of Don-Sai?" His uncle said sipping a cup of jasmine tea while he talked to his nephew.
"If he doesn't follow we'll head back for the island by tomorrow. That is, if he doesn't come looking for them. It will be easier for him to come than the ship going back. Then we can make our way back to the Fire Nation with the avatar aboard. But for now, the ship will keep a short distance from the island."
"Very smart Prince Zuko, but shall we do with the children?" He asked once again sipping his tea.
"Leave them where they are. They're no other use to us." And with that he went out on the deck to be alone like usual.
Iroh didn't like the idea of that. They were kids, they needed to be treated better if they were going to be staying there for a while otherwise they could get sick or die of not having something to eat or drink.
Ok maybe not die from not eating, but other things could happen.
Iroh thought to himself.
With a huge sigh, he snuck into the hallway below deck and down the stairs into the hall the prisoners were kept. Not knowing which contained them, he started searching through them.
