When the Wind was Reborn
Chapter Seven
"It's been two days," Zuko complained.
"I saw him go this way! He's here somewhere!" Aang insisted.
"You saw him go this way two days ago and he's not been in the sky since!" Zuko snapped.
"So I should just leave him?" Aang rounded on him, pouting angrily.
"Yes!" Zuko yelled, exasperated. "He's a ten tonne flying bison, he'll be fine!"
"Appa is family!" He shot back.
"Ugh!" Zuko groaned for at least nine seconds straight then continued walking. They'd left the skiff a little ways back when they'd ran out of water to row in and now they were tromping through endless plains of thick, crusted snow with great big lurching steps. The cold was getting to Zuko now, even in spite of his breath of fire, and he'd been shivering for what felt like far, far too long.
"Hey, look, people!" The Avatar stood atop a snowdrift with a bright smile on his face, pointed and waved. Zuko's eyes went wide and he jumped up, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and yanked him down behind the cover of the snowdrift.
"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Zuko snapped.
"Maybe they can help! What if they've seen Appa?" Aang spoke, eyes wide and naïve and all too trusting. Zuko resisted the urge to groan again.
"Let's see..." Zuko muttered, peering over the edge of the snowdrift. He saw a ringed wall, not much more than a mound of snow, really, that encircled a small cluster of snow-bleached hide tents. He saw smoke, from campfires dotted about, and little bundles of blue huddled close to them - people, it took him a moment to realize, draped in heavy Water Tribe blue parkas.
"They look friendly," Aang opined.
"No, they don't," Zuko disagreed, eyeing the weapons carried on every person - hooked machetes, battle clubs, whalebone spears and jawbone knives.
"Well, neither do you, but it turns out that you are," Aang replied. Zuko gave him a large serving of side-eye in response.
"Wait..." Zuko muttered, noticing what looked like a large pile of snow in between gaps in the tents. He noticed a bit of grey, an outline, then the shape shifted slightly. He saw lines, criss-crossing, binding ropes, and realization struck.
"What? What is it?"
"It's your sky bison," Zuko whispered, pointing. Aang squinted, struggling to make it out, then his eyes went wide when he saw it.
"It is! It's Appa!" He beamed, practically jumping for joy.
"Shh!" Zuko quieted him and held him down with one hand on the shoulder.
"Is he...tied up?" Aang asked, squinting in confusion which quickly turned to anger. "I bet they're going to sell him!" Aang practically spat, furious.
"Or eat him," Zuko said, mostly to himself, then realized his mistake.
"Eat?" Aang's eyes went wide, baffled for a moment, then his face quickly turned to snarling rage. He gripped his staff and made to stand, but Zuko stopped him with a firm hand once more.
"Don't be foolish!" Zuko admonished him.
"I'm getting Appa!" Aang shrugged off Zuko's hand and stood up - the kid was strong for his size, Zuko thought.
"If they see you they'll attack!" Zuko warned.
"So what if they see me? I'll fight them!" Zuko eyed the villagers and didn't like what he saw - every adult carried a weapon, man or woman, and even some of the older children did, and any number of them could be waterbenders.
"And what if your bison gets caught in the crossfire?" Zuko said, not convinced that the danger to himself or Aang would dissuade him. That shut him up, and Aang faltered. "We do this quick, and quiet," Zuko went on. After a pause Aang hunkered back down behind their cover, nodding.
"What do we do?"
"I..." Zuko trailed off. He didn't know, he had never been a tactician - all his life he'd done as he was told in the name of honour and duty. In the past his father had plotted and schemed and for the sake of his family's honour Zuko had been the obedient son, feeling more tool than human, for a long time, until he had decided no more. After, it was the Fire Lord who commanded his loyalty and Zuko had carried out his wishes willingly, proudly. More recently Lu Ten was his master, and as much as Zuko didn't like being directed like a soldier he had done as ordered dutifully and without complaint - until recent days, at any rate. Zuko had never commanded anyone, even himself, he was always the fist, never the mind.
"Haven't you done this before? Aren't you a soldier?" Aang asked, tilting his head.
"No! I'm a Lord!" Zuko snapped.
"A what...?"
"Like a prince, sort of, but I'm not heir to the throne."
"That doesn't sound like a prince at all," Aang said under his breath.
"I'm like a minor noble, okay! My cousin is the heir!"
"Oh." A pause. "Sorry."
"Don't patronize me!" Zuko barked, and Aang ducked his head as though for cover.
"Alright, alright..." A longer pause this time, until Aang looked up nervously, ready to duck for cover if Zuko's temper flared again. "So...how do we save Appa?"
What would his father do? Stupid question, he would burn the whole village to the ground and Appa with it, just for the sake of dominating the enemy. What about the Fire Lord, his esteemed uncle? Iroh would walk in with open, empty palms and appeal to reason, if that didn't work he would tell them plainly that if they wouldn't acquiesce then he would use force, and only if all else failed would he spill blood. Zuko didn't have the charisma or the aptitude with words for that, though, and that left him with his cousin.
"So?" Aang pressed.
"I'm thinking about what my cousin would do," Zuko confided, staring at the snow, pensive.
"The angry, uptight guy on the boat? The one that didn't want you to help Appa back at the iceberg?" Aang asked.
"Yeah, him," Zuko affirmed. "Lu Ten would march right up to the entrance with his soldiers at his back and he would demand they hand over Appa. If they didn't do it immediately he would attack, and he would make sure he crushed them. For him it would be about sending a message - that he's strong, he doesn't ask twice, and he's not to be defied."
"That doesn't sound good at all," Aang muttered uncertainly.
"He wasn't always like that," Zuko told him. Recent years had done that to him, the pressure of his impending rulership, the stigma of not being a firebender, the constant challenges to his position, the assassination attempts, it had all gotten to him and convinced him that he had to be proud and strong, that might was paramount. He didn't say that to the Avatar though. "He's clever, my cousin. The Lu Ten of a few years ago would look closely at the village, and he would figure out how to get in and out, silent, like a ghost. He wouldn't fight, or threaten, or bargain, he would trick them."
"Okay, so how do we trick them?" Aang asked, brow furrowed in thought. "We could disguise ourselves as otter penguins?" He suggested.
"I...don't even want to know if you're serious or not," Zuko sighed, then paused as a thought occurred to him. "When I was young, Lu Ten and I got into trouble and were being chased by...palace guards," Zuko lied, memories coming to him thick and fast of the two of them running through the halls of the Fire Nation palace, the footfalls of would-be assassins close behind. "There was nowhere for us to go, there were guards approaching from ahead and behind, just around the corner. All I saw were dead ends everywhere, but Lu Ten saw something different, he saw an escape. There were suits of armour lining the halls, and we hid inside them. The guards ran right past us, and we watched them argue over who had lost us."
"That was smart of him," Aang agreed, then "Hey, that's like airbending! Looking at a problem from a different angle and finding a way to solve it!"
"I don't know a lot about airbending, but it sounds like the way Lu Ten would think," Zuko replied.
"Hey, maybe your cousin should have been born an Air Nomad instead," the Avatar said with a small laugh. The Lu Ten of a few years ago would likely have agreed and might even have cracked a smile, but the Lu Ten of now would take it as a slight and he'd have the kid's head for it, Zuko thought.
"The point is, your disguise idea might not be too ridiculous."
"So, otter penguins?" Aang beamed.
"No, that's stupid," Zuko dismissed.
"Aww."
"Now, come with me," Zuko turned and crept away, hiding behind the cover of snowdrifts and dips in the landscape.
"Hey, wait up!"
Slowly, painstakingly, Zuko slunk around the perimeter of the village, cringing every time the snow crunched underfoot. Aang followed behind, effortlessly light-footed as always. Zuko would be lying if he said he wasn't a little bit jealous. The two stayed out of sight until they reached a gap in the short wall that looked like it served as an entrance.
"We wait," he said to Aang, who suppressed a groan.
"But -"
"We wait." Aang groaned again and fell backwards into the snow with a soft thunk. Sooner than Zuko had dared hope, he spotted two villagers approaching, leaving to do something or other - maybe they were going a hunt, or perhaps fishing, Zuko thought, but he didn't much care. This was their chance! "Aang, get up," he whispered.
"What is it?" The Avatar muttered, shaking snow from his shoulders.
"Follow my lead - remember, quick and quiet, got it?" Aang nodded and gave a grunt of affirmation.
The villagers didn't know what had hit them. Fire was too loud and bright, so instead Zuko dove at one of the men, wrapped his arms around his head and neck and tumbled to the ground with him, muffling his cries of surprise and alarm. Sleep, Zuko thought, tightening one arm around his throat until his struggles grew weak and his body went limp. Only then did Zuko let the man's body slump to the floor.
"Help!" Aang hissed. He was perched on the other man's shoulders, hands covering his eyes and mouth while the villager stumbled and staggered about blindly, trying to throw the child off. Zuko groaned, stepped towards them and threw a kick up at the villager's head. His kick struck the other man in the jaw and he fell into the snow like a bag of rocks, out cold. Aang fell with him, wind-milling his arms in panic and rolling in the snow.
"I said quiet!" Zuko admonished him, casting his eyes around the village in panic - it was a miracle but nobody had seen Aang riding the Water Tribe man like an ostrich horse.
"I tried!" Aang protested.
"Nevermind," Zuko grumbled. He knelt by the man's side and began undoing his anorak with some difficulty - why couldn't these Water Tribe savages dress like normal people?
"Um, what are you doing?" Aang poked his head over Zuko's shoulder.
"Here, wear this." Zuko tossed the anorak at Aang.
"Oof!" The Avatar fell over, tangled in the blue clothing. He rolled around in the snow, extricating himself from his fur prison and eventually managed to stick his head out. "We can't just leave him naked or -" Zuko tossed the fur trousers at his head and Aang was once again underneath a sea of fur. Zuko moved onto the next man and began stripping him as Aang flailed and struggled to breach the surface of the furs.
Savages they may be, but they knew how to make warm clothes, Zuko thought as he donned the anorak, breeches and boots. The clothes were soft against his skin and as soon as they were on him he was warmer than he'd been in days - a few days ago he'd have sneered in disgust at the thought of donning some filthy Water Tribesman's sweaty and lived-in clothes, but now, after a few days in the wind and snow, his mind only had room to be grateful.
"We can't just leave them in the snow!" Aang protested, having finally freed himself from the tangle of the furs.
"Do you want your bison back or not?" Zuko snapped, turning to him. The airbender had at least decided to don the clothes in question, that was something, Zuko thought.
"They'll freeze!" He stubbornly maintained.
"Then what would you have us do?" Zuko demanded - really, this kid was impossible.
"I have an idea..." Aang said, then got to work. A short few minutes later Zuko and Aang stood looking down upon two grown Water Tribe men squeezed into a Fire Nation prince's robes and an Air Nomad monk's garments. Both were too small for them and left their ankles and midriffs on show. It wasn't perfect, but it would have to do.
"Well, this is..." Zuko wasn't sure what words to use.
"Ridiculous?" Aang suggested.
"No, not strong enough."
"Absurd?" Aang tried.
"I suppose that'll do," Zuko replied. "Let's go - hood up, hide that arrow of yours." Zuko's own skin was paler than that of the Water Tribe, but with the anorak's hood up and his face cast in shadow he shouldn't have any problems - or so he hoped.
"Ah!" Aang tripped and stumbled as they walked. "Trousers are too big..."
"Then roll them up," Zuko snapped. "Act natural." They walked into the village and Zuko felt transparent, as though everyone they walked past could see through his disguise and into his very soul. There weren't a lot of people, just the odd wanderer making their way from one tent or igloo to another, and none of them paid the pair any mind, but Zuko would not be at ease.
"Uh-oh," Aang muttered. Zuko groaned.
"What is it this time?" He practically snarked, his patience running thin.
"That." Aang pointed and Zuko followed his mitten-clad hand until he saw it. A Water Tribe boat, moored far on the other side of the village, with paintings of a swooping seabird on the hull.
"It's a Water Tribe ship, so what?" It was a Water Tribe village, of course there would be Water Tribe boats!
"You remember that Water Tribe guy back on your ship? With one eye?" Aang asked.
"How could I forget?" Zuko muttered. "What about him?"
"Well when I was flying away, you know, out of your ship, he was saved by that boat," Aang told him. "I recognize the birds."
"What? No, no he's dead," Zuko dismissed. He'd wounded the would-be assassin badly with his swords, then blasted him with enough fire to burn a forest to a crisp, blasted him through solid steel and then he'd hit the water. He'd either have bled out, burnt to death, been smashed or drowned. He couldn't be alive, no one could survive all that.
"Are you sure about that?" Aang asked, and pointed again. Zuko's jaw nearly dropped - the one-eyed assassin was striding through the middle of the village, clad in nothing but pants and a dark vest despite the chill. He moved like a lizard, Zuko thought, every movement loose and lazy, his lean arms swinging by his sides as he swaggered on. His one narrow eye flickered around, appraising his surroundings shrewdly.
"Hide!" Zuko hissed, grabbing Aang and dragging him into the shadow cast by a tent.
"But we're in disguise!"
"Shut up!" Zuko dismissed him, and strained his eyes and ears to see and hear.
"We saw you catch that giant white bison," he said to another man - Zuko didn't recognize him, a villager, a local, he assumed. Zuko expected the one-eyed man to sound gruff, with a low rumble or a throaty growl, but instead his voice sounded light and airy, as though he was having fun.
"It was quite a sight," agreed a young woman by his side, not much younger than Zuko himself. She had dark eyes set in a heart-shaped face framed by waves of hair the colour of a storm, and wore an expression just as dark. She was pretty, Zuko thought, as much as he tried not to - he really had more important things to focus on.
"We plan to cook and preserve it, it'll feed the village for a year!" The villager told them happily. Zuko stuck an arm out and caught Aang, who tried to step out from their hiding place, anger on his face at the villager's words.
"Wait," Zuko urged him under his breath.
"Yeah, buddy, that's not gonna happen," the assassin told the villager, whose face dropped. "We'll be taking him."
"Sokka!" The girl admonished him. "What he means is, we'll pay you for him."
"He's not for sale," the villager told them in what Zuko supposed was supposed to pass for a firm tone of voice. He fidgeted with his hands and wouldn't meet their eyes, nervous. Zuko didn't blame him with the withering look that the other man - Sokka - was giving him.
"We'll trade you our boat," the girl offered, voice gentle, palms out in a non-threatening manner.
"Katara!" Sokka squawked, eye wide. "No, you're giving us that bison or else," he warned the villager, taking a step forward and drawing that savage knife of his - a thick, heavy, single-edged blade styled in the likeness of a jawbone, with what appeared to be teeth along the back.
"Sokka, stop!" The girl snapped, but he wasn't to be convinced. He advanced and the villager retreated, hands up in surrender, trembling.
"Stop!" Aang demanded, stepping out to face the two.
"Shut up!" Zuko hissed, eyes wide, dragging him back into the shadows, but it was too late.
"The Avatar!" The girl, Katara, gasped.
"Yeah," Sokka drawled. Less surprised, it seemed.
"Give Appa back!" Aang demanded, face drawn into a frown that was supposed to look fierce but only managed to look childish.
"We don't want any trouble," Zuko called, stepping from the shadows, resigned to the fact they were caught. "We just want the bison back and we'll be on our way."
"Yeah, I don't think so," Sokka said, free hand going to his belt and drawing a thick, heavy machete with a hook on the end. Zuko didn't like the look of it, it was a cruel weapon, like the knife he held in the other hand. These Water Tribe dogs really were no better than animals, he thought.
"We don't want to hurt you," Zuko said, drawing his blades in an attempt to ward him off. It wasn't really true, it was more that Zuko didn't want to be within reach of this Sokka character and his steel - Zuko had beaten him before, yes, but it had felt like fighting a wild animal, like he had been a hair away from losing his life at any moment. He was dangerous, and Zuko wasn't eager to test him again.
"Bold of you to assume that you even could," Katara said, eyes narrowed fiercely. She moved her hands in a circle, shifting the snow and ice beneath their feet. A waterbender.
"Give. Me. Appa!" Aang growled, brandishing his staff, lost to reason.
"Come and get him," Sokka taunted, smug smirk on his face. Aang swallowed the bait whole and rocketed towards the pair, propelled by a thick gust of air, staff cocked back as he prepared to swing. Sokka lowered himself into a crouch, flexing his fingers on his weapons, while Katara gathered a swirling mass of water around her, preparing to attack. In a fraction of a second the three would collide.
Zuko turned and ran the other way. He heard the whistling of wind and the rushing of water, felt the breeze at his back and drizzle on his neck but he didn't know what happened. Zuko ran towards Appa as fast as his legs would take him. Aang was strong and skilled, Zuko knew that first-hand, he could survive against those two for a few moments, he had to believe that.
"Easy, boy," Zuko said uncertainly as he approached the creature, showing his open palms and hoping that would placate the creature. It grunted and growled at him, snorted a gale through its nostrils strong enough to set Zuko's stolen parka whipping, but nothing more. Zuko drew his swords slowly, carefully, and saw the creature's eyes widen and it begin to strain against the ropes that bound it - it wasn't stupid.
"Help!" He heard Aang call, and chanced a look over. He was whirling and dancing around, evading flying icicles and whips of water, and circling away from Sokka's deadly blades. He was okay, for now, but he was on the defensive and it was only a matter of time until he faltered.
"Hold on!" Zuko called back. He looked the bison in the eyes with a pleading look. "Please trust me." Zuko abandoned the slow and careful route and decided to risk the bison panicking. He rushed around the bison, blades a whirl as he cut through the many ropes that bound him, hoping that once he had a limb free the great beast wouldn't just crush him. He breathed a sigh of relief as he freed the creature's first two legs and remained in one piece.
"Help!" This time Aang's cry was desperate. Zuko looked from the struggling bison to the flailing and struggling Avatar, torn. With a couple of legs free the bison's straining was beginning to snap and pull free the remaining bonds, though - he could free himself now. Zuko turned towards the skirmish and tore towards the battling figures. He watched as Aang swept his leg out in a wide arc and sent Sokka flying with a blast of air that ended with the assassin stuck head-first in a snowdrift but what the Avatar didn't see was the girl approaching from his blindside. She yanked his leg away with a water whip and Aang tumbled onto his back. He tried to get up only to find that one of his hands had been bound to the ground with ice. He looked up fearfully, defenceless, as Katara towered over him, a blade of ice held in her hand. Zuko was sprinting, but he realized with a cold feeling in his blood that he wouldn't make it.
The girl's hand stayed where it was, trembling slightly. Hesitation. She looked down at the helpless Avatar with wide eyes full of conflict for the few long seconds that it took Zuko to close the distance.
"Do it!" Sokka screamed, still half buried in snow some distance away. Katara might as well have not heard him, she just held her hand above him, blade of ice shaking until a blast of fire from Zuko shattered it.
"Hyah!" Zuko punched at the air, fast and hard, sending a flurry of fireballs at the waterbender. She fell back, broken out of her momentary fugue state, blocking Zuko's blasts with swirls of water and plumes of snow, just barely, stumbling as she retreated. She faltered as she went, dropped her guard, and received a burn across one forearm for her troubles. She fell back with a cry of pain and landed in the snow, at Zuko's mercy, and looked up at him with pleading eyes just as Aang had done moments before. Sokka stumbled over to her and stood there, weapons brandished, ready to defend her to the death. Zuko dropped his hands and instead shattered the ice that bound Aang's wrist with one heel.
"We're not done," Sokka gasped, chest heaving with exertion, but he didn't advance again, knowing that they were beaten.
A roar, then a thud behind them that set the earth shaking as Appa landed, having freed himself from his bonds.
"Appa!" Aang exclaimed, a bright smile on his face, as he climbed aboard the creature and took the reins. Zuko followed uncertainly, climbing up by grabbing handful's of the creature's thick fur, and took a seat behind Aang on the saddle. "Yip yip!" The creature bellowed, its tail beat against the ground and sent up a flurry of snow as they rose into the air.
"We're not done!" Sokka repeated, bellowing up at them.
"You know, I have a feeling that he's right," Zuko muttered.