Another week, another entry for Avatar Spirit's drabble contest. I apologize for the general lack of updates and crazy ideas, but I'm still working on a (serious, not comedic) multi-chapter fic that's taking a lot of effort. Accurate yet exciting martial arts combat description is hard. Anyway, here's the criteria for this piece:

Letters

A Letter must be in the drabble. It can be in the form of an actual letter that the character (and therefore us) reads or it can be mentioned in some other way. Either way it must be central to the plot. It could be a letter from the past, a report being sent, a love letter, pretty much anything.

Emotion. The characters react to said letter in some way. Let's really feel it with them.

An Animal. Mention some kind of animal. Just for clockworkchaos. Turkens are optional but any animal will do.



De Cipher

Fire Lord Zuko was pacing in his private office when Mai found him. With the same coldness as a palace servant but none of the ingratiating tone, she spoke. "Aang and Katara have just landed. I'm having them brought here right away."

Zuko nodded. "Hopefully, they'll be able to solve this mystery. Lives may depend on it." Mai didn't react. She already knew that.

The Avatar and the Master Waterbender were ushered into the room several minutes. As usual, they were grinning at the prospect of reuniting with friends, but one look at the expression on the Fire Lord's scarred face killed their mood. Aang spoke first. "What's wrong?"

Zuko gestured, and Mai produced a paper from her sleeves. She handed it to Katara as the Fire Lord explained. "A few days ago, I received this letter from Sokka. It came by a very swift messenger hawk, and was addressed directly to me." For the first time, his eyes rose to meet the gaze of his guests. "He usually doesn't bother putting my name on it directly, since Mai checks them all first."

"Actually," Mai herself interjected, "that's not exactly accurate. Suki writes all Sokka's letters for him. I recognize her handwriting." The dour woman's mouth moved into a vague smirk. "I think she knows they'll get a quicker response if she lets me handle things."

Zuko nodded. "But then we get this note. The problem is that it's written in some kind of code, and I can't decipher it." Katara and Aang peered down at the letter. "I don't recognize any of those characters, and all of the substitution decryptions my military intelligence tried didn't produce anything. I thought it might be something having to do with the White Lotus, so I actually brought Master Piandao over to look at it, and he couldn't make anything of it, either." The Fire Lord sighed, and began pacing again. "It has to be very important, if Sokka wanted it in my hands so quickly, but couldn't trust that it wouldn't be intercepted. Who knows what kind of secrets that code is hiding from enemy eyes."

Aang gave up trying to decrypt the letter with the power of his gaze. "You think it has to do with the upcoming diplomatic summit?"

"It must. Otherwise, Sokka will be here in a few days; he could just tell me whatever it is then." Zuko shrugged. "Time is running out. I've increased security for the whole event as much as I can without committing our entire national defense force, but it would be a lot better if we could focus on whatever the problem is."

Aang nodded. "Channel our energy into one precise blow against the threat."

"Exactly. So, I was hoping you two could help me with this, maybe recognize the code as something Water Tribe."

"Sorry," Aang sighed. "It looks like nothing to me."

"Wait..." Katara muttered. Every eye in the room flashed to focus on her. "I think..." She rotated the letter so that she could read it sideways. "This isn't... this... oh, for goodness' sake."

"What?!" Zuko ran over to her.

Katara slapped her forehead and casually tossed the letter to the Fire Lord. "This isn't a code. It's just his horrible handwriting. He wanted you to make sure the receiving party will have those spicy turken wings he discovered the last time he was in the Fire Nation. He said that he couldn't trust Mai to do it, because she claims that his eating habits disgust her, and that if you're his buddy you'll do your best to feed him properly."

It was a long moment before Zuko could bring himself to react. He squinted at the letter, turned it sideways, turned it sideways again, and then held it up to the brightest light. "Are you sure?"

"I'm an expert on my brother's horrible handwriting. Trust me."

No one was quite sure what to say or do. Finally, Mai got up and headed for the door. "I guess I'll let the general know he can decrease security back to its original level."

"Are you going to tell the kitchen about the turken wings?" Aang called after her.

Mai stopped, and turned to throw the Avatar wink. "I love hot wings. They were already on the menu."

Zuko groaned and flopped down into the nearest chair. He felt fatigued for the whole rest of the day.

END