Despite Mai's fervent objections, Azula was driving again. The only reason Mai let Azula drive again was that she herself was too tired to do it. She would have just drank more tea to power through, but after finding out that the tea she drank was scooped straight off the floor of an animal pen, Mai decided she would get rid of her tiredness the old fashioned way and thus she retired to her cot. Ty Lee was still fast asleep from the medicine, so that left only Azula to pilot the tank.

Azula could feel the wind coursing through her hair through the broken windshield. It was actually quite refreshing compared to the normal stuffiness of the fortified tank. Perhaps when she got the windshield replaced she'd get the engineers to make it retractable. She looked forward, scanning the area to make sure they wouldn't get jumped by another band of Earth Kingdom soldiers. She felt quite embarrassed about their encounter with that first group. Granted, the only reason those soldiers were able to do so much damage was the element of surprise, but still, warriors of Azula's caliber shouldn't have had that tough a time beating some simple Earth Kingdom plebes. There didn't seem to be much cover in the surrounding landscape. It was mostly flat, rocky terrain, with little vegetation or places to hide. Day time, too. Point was, they wouldn't get jumped again.

Luckily, the fur trail still seemed to be going in a straight line. The Avatar is a moron, Azula thought. They had a solid twelve hours to shake the girls off, yet all they did was go in a straight line. How Zuko failed to catch them for so long was a mystery. She knew Zuzu was incompetent, but she figured her uncle, the famed Dragon of the West who breached the walls of Ba Sing Se, would be able to track a line. He must have lost his touch.

There wasn't much to do. The tank was chugging along nicely and the trail was still clear. She figured that she might as well use the spare time for some nice leisure reading. The book she chose was roughly as thick as her hand was long and weighed about as much as a child. A small, malnourished, Earth Kingdom child but still, a child. The title was rather underwhelming considering the sheer bulk of the book: Codified Laws of the Fire Nation, annotated by Kakushi Tentoshīn. Azula plopped the book on her lap and flipped through until she reached the ribbon marker she put near the end. She had finished the section on colonial administration a month prior to being assigned to hunt down Zuko and was currently at the beginning of the section on military affairs. She began to read.

"The Edict of Odoru-Doragon, enacted during the forty-third year of the reign of Firelord Yosor, established the first national system of conscription which was the direct precursor to the modern draft system. The original purpose of the act was to quickly raise an army capable of quelling the numerous small rebellions plaguing the archipelago. Conscripts were selected via lottery, with all males over the age of eighteen eligible for conscription. The act remained largely irrelevant until the reign of Firelord Sozin (*See "Post-Comet Mobilization Act"), whereby it became the cornerstone of modern Fire Nation military might. An amendment enacted in the twenty-seventh year of Firelord Azulon's reign lowered the minimum age of conscription from eighteen to fourteen and made females eligible for the draft.

"The Young Sparks Act, enacted during the eighty-fifth year of the reign of Firelord Sozin, established the Spark Bureau, which was responsible for creating and maintaining the national scholastic curriculum used by all institutions of education within the Fire Nation. An amendment enacted during—"

The tank shuddered as its frontal plow made contact with the hard trunk of a ginkgo tree. Azula pursed her lips. Mai and Ty Lee are gonna kill me if the tank breaks again. Luckily, the tree snapped and the tank continued to chug along. Azula heard a couple of light footsteps.

Ty Lee was awake!

"Hey!" Azula said cheerfully. "You're awake!"

Ty Lee stared at her. "What did you crash into this time?"

Azula blushed. "I…don't know what you're talking about."

"Azula, you definitely crashed into something. I got bumped out of my bed."

"Oh," Azula said. "Sorry about that. Yeah, it was a tree."

"How big was the tree?!" Ty Lee demanded. She poked her head out the window and gasped when she saw the monumental tree trunk behind them. "It's giant!" Ty Lee exclaimed. "How did you not see it?"

"Nah, I did see it," Azula said casually. "I just decided to assert dominance over the tree. By running it over."

"Right…" Ty Lee said skeptically. She glanced around the cockpit and spotted the massive legal tome on Azula's lap. "I knew it! You're reading and driving again!"

Azula nervously twirled one of her bangs. "Hey, I can read and drive at the same time. It's called multitasking. Anyway, how are the hands?"

Ty Lee put them up in front of her to show Azula the bandages. "Actually, they're pretty good! Mai told me there was this smelly swamp man at the encampment. He used his magic water powers and voila! Hands fixed."

Azula furrowed her brows. "What about the broken bones?"

"The magic water fixed that too! Cool stuff, right?" Ty Lee exclaimed. "I really wish I wasn't knocked out so I could see it for myself. Actually, you know what…I don't even need these." Ty Lee peeled off the bandages on her hands. Azula took a peek and to her astonishment, they looked completely fine.

"So…they're totally fixed?" Azula asked.

"Well, Mai said not to punch anything for a while," Ty Lee said. "But other than that…yeah! Good as new."

"Glad to hear that." Azula let out a sigh of relief. She looked ahead to make sure there weren't any trees or giant rocks in front of the tank, but what was more surprising was what she didn't see—a fur trail. It was gone. Well, I guess I'll have to tell Mai.

Azula walked to the sleeping coach, expecting to see Mai resting in her cot, but instead finding her hunched over a bowl of water scraping blood off her knives. Strange, Azula thought. Mai's knives were family heirlooms, forged by her grandmother, one of the first Yuyan archers, and passed down through generations down to her. She took great care of them, sharpening them after every battle and shaving off every dent or scratch until they gleamed. Dirtying her knives with peasant blood was something Mai would normally never do. Azula walked closer, curious on just how much blood was on the knives. She sat down next to Mai and examined one of the knives, noting the sheer number of red speckles dotting the surface.

Mai explained, "The guards at the camp weren't wearing sleeves."

Azula shrugged. "Ah well," she said. "Unfortunate. You know, the army has tons of knives. When we get back, I can just go to the armory and fetch you some cheaper knives so you don't have to worry about dirtying your nice ones."

"Thank you for the offer," Mai said. "But I'm fine with these." She raised one of her knives and used her stone sharpener to scrape the blood off. "Earth Kingdom uniforms are baggy enough to hit. The issue was most of the guards over there weren't actually wearing their uniforms."

"Yeah, so what were they wearing?" Azula asked.

Mai scoffed. "Rags. The fabric was so cheap that when I tried hitting them it just tore apart. I couldn't even pin the soldiers down since their clothes would rip."

"Wow, that's sad. Well, anyway…" Azula was trying to remember what she originally came her to talk about. "Oh, right," she said, finally remembering. "We lost the Avatar's fur trail."

"Okay," Mai said casually. Azula was surprised she wasn't more worried. Seeing the expression on Azula's face, Mai chuckled. "We don't need the trail, we can just keep going in a straight line. It's like you said, they're morons. You know that boy in their group?"

"You mean the Avatar?"

"No, that little brat with the boomerang and the ponytail."

Azula thought for a second. "Oh, right. That kid. Yeah, what about him?"

"He's the smartest one in their group."

Azula and Mai stared at each other for a moment, letting the statement soak in. Sokka. The smartest one. Azula burst into laughter while Mai just barely maintained a neutral face. Suddenly, the tank jolted from impact. Both girls could hear the sound of splitting wood.

"Another tree. Okay then," Mai deadpanned.

Azula waved her hand. "I know, right? I don't get how Ty Lee keeps crashing into trees. She's such a bad driver."

"Hey!" Ty Lee shouted indignantly from the cockpit. "You crashed into the first one, Azula!"

"Lies," Azula muttered as Mai rolled her eyes.

They both joined Ty Lee in the cockpit and looked out the dashboard. There was a river flowing their direction. Azula looked at the currents and spotted little bits of white floating around. Fur.

"Alright girls," Azula said. "We know the Avatar was here. Let's go find him."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm finally done with my history AP! Still got statistics though… I'll try to update more frequently after that's done. Sorry that the chapters are so short.