Chapter Three: Sacred
Katara dreams of dragons.
They swoop around her like a cage of bright, beautiful colors that glisten like gemstones. Katara tries to step away from them but they speed up and make her stumble. Through the gaps, Katara sees Sokka stumbling in a fight he cannot win. She tries to rescue him but cannot manage.
The minute she passes the dragons, claws dig into her arms and drag her through the floor into the darkness.
Katara wakes with the jolt of falling that makes her body flinch.
Azula is still on her watch, basking in the sunlight as she practices. Katara cannot help but watch the flames that remind her of the dragons in her dream. It is strange to see how Azula can be so… peaceful.
"We should get going," Katara says, making Azula stumble. If looks could kill. "You said the Ruthless Sun would stop at nothing, so let's start trying to find a way out of this maze."
"I had a dream last night," Azula says and Katara cocks an eyebrow. That is not abnormal. "It was about this maze. We have to leave escaping up to change anyway; why not give my dream a try?"
Katara licks her lips. She cannot disagree with that.
"What did you dream exactly?" Katara asks and Azula ignores her. She sighs and gets up onto her feet. This princess is somehow a thousand times harder to travel with than her brother. Katara did not think such a thing was possible.
Azula starts walking towards the fork in the walls that they camped near. They couldn't make a decision in the darkness, but now the daylight makes it slightly less intimidating.
Princess Azula dreamt of translucent souls. They were dead and gone, and she was in a crypt, trapped by them and pained by their voices making demands that she could not comprehend. The crypt was a dragon tomb, Azula realized when she woke, and the dead were lurking inside of it.
She starts quickly moving, going on her gut instinct.
Azula does not say, because she knows she would sound insane, but she is following whispers that Katara does not seem to hear.
She pursues them through the maze. Katara watches the number of statues increase and the maze walls widen. It could either be a good thing or a bad thing; she does not know which one.
It turns out to be a good thing; the girls reach a central building. Katara walks towards it too fast and screams when the ground falls out from under her. Azula reaches out, grabs her arm and pulls her back onto her feet.
They lock eyes and ignore that gesture. It was for survival and survival alone.
Azula jumps over, Katara jumps over, and they remain wary as they proceed towards the golden, overgrown pyramid.
Darts shoot out from a wall and Katara saves Azula this time.
They see two broken ropes that probably triggered other traps once upon a time, but do not face any more trouble on their walk.
"It's a Dragon Temple," Azula announces as a chill washes over her. Her skin prickles with goosebumps when she sees the recognizable writing and statues. "Sozin, he destroyed many of them, and other warriors destroyed more trying to kill young dragons. Cowardice. It's cowardice to kill an adult one as well, but it disgusts me."
"Young dragons?" Katara asks, although she realizes it.
"Dragon Temples are manmade dragon nests." Azula says exactly what Katara was thinking. "We can take shelter in there. Hopefully the Ruthless Sun will not make it through the maze."
The girls run now, traps be damned.
[X]
Katara understands Azula's awe once she enters the temple. The architecture itself stuns her, but the ornate carvings and paintings make her softly gasp. In the center of the room, a slab of rock made for sacrifice rests undisturbed by time.
"This is amazing," Katara openly admits. She feels no shame about appreciating Fire Nation beauty. "This is amazing."
"I noticed," Azula coldly replies as she walks towards the slab. She sits in front of it to catch her breath and get her bearings. Her head spins with everything she knows about Dragon Temples, and how she has always wanted to see one. Now she sits inside of one and can only think about how she can best defeat the soldiers that pursue her.
"We need water bad," Katara says. She frowns. "That should be our first priority."
Azula opens her mouth to agree before she feels a humming deep inside of her. The whispers had stopped, but now she feels a very powerful urge to go across the room. Katara watches her as if she is crazy – and perhaps she is – but she keeps going until she finds a half-concealed set of stairs going down into what must be the deserted nest.
Glancing up at Katara, "You ought to accompany me into the catacombs," Azula orders.
Katara laughs. "I would rather put out a campfire with my face."
Sharply, Azula retorts, "I can arrange that for you."
[X]
Akio addresses her soldiers after they come up short on pursuing the valuable targets. The Ruthless Sun always has been loyal to money and money alone, and those two girls are worth a fortune. Enough to buy three islands this size or live comfortably for the rest of one's life.
"I am splitting you all into threes. Three against two seems like fair odds, even against the princess. This island is too large to not break into the smallest groups possible. To sweeten the pot, whichever trio that brings me the girls will received half of everyone's else's share."
That makes the men and women stir with some excitement. Akio smiles faintly to herself.
Akio continues, "You all have the chi-blockers to protect you from the princess and carry her in. You have all of your equipment and weapons that you can carry. They have nothing but what's left of their clothes and their bending. I know that the bounty for a living waterbender is astronomical, but she is expendable if you can get the princess through ending her. Princess Azula is to be left as unharmed as possible, or she goes significantly down in value. By significantly, I mean we're more likely to be imprisoned or executed than rewarded."
She silently moves on to split them into trios based on strengths.
Those girls are already hers.
[X]
In the Dragon Temple, Katara says, "Azula, we can't go down there. I am not getting trapped in another cave in my lifetime."
"You have no curiosity at all?" Azula feels a magnetic pull dragging her down into the catacombs, but, of course, Katara is whiny and self-righteous yet again. "What if I go down and you keep watch? You do not even have to save me if I look on the verge of death."
Katara shrugs. "Go ahead. I'll be up here trying to rest before you nearly get us killed again."
Azula gladly abandons her companion and delves down into the tunnel. She lights a palm when the darkness consumes her, and sees how the carvings on the walls intensify. The pull becomes so much stronger and she turns to pursue it.
She stops at a door that requires bending to open. It requires more than one person, or a well-trained prodigy. Azula does not hesitate or think about the consequences when she fills the room with bright blue fire.
Azula sweats from the heat of her own flames, but she does not release them until she hears the groaning of the door. The flames cease and Azula walks through the entrance without thinking twice. She wonders where her higher thinking went.
But she quickly stops mentally chastising herself when she sees the room she has entered. Without a doubt, she has never seen anything as beautiful as what surrounds her. The stunning gemstones adorn the engraved golden walls. Azula looks up and sees the sunlight coming from a carved opening above the chamber.
After the awe fades, Princess Azula sees the center of the room. Three stones. She approaches them cautiously, trying to avoid any traps like the ones she and Katara encountered earlier, but this room seems to be guarded only by the strong door.
She gets closer to the three stones and sees that they are… eggs. Or at least are carved in the image of them. Maybe they could be fossilized or unfertilized or anything that could explain them remaining unhatched for centuries. They seem worth taking.
Blue, red, green. Azula reaches to the blue one in the center; it draws her attention first. As soon as she picks it up she notices the room becoming darker. Then she hears the voices and Katara screaming.
That cannot be anyone but the Ruthless Sun. Azula has no choice but to confront them. She needs to bring this egg. She must bring it, and she must protect it. Azula wants to take them all, but she grabs the red one for Katara to hold. Azula kicks off of the pedestal and burns her way through the skylight.
She sets the eggs behind the sacrificial slab and starts throwing lightning.
Katara looks shocked. Shocked and lying on the ground, unable to move. Azula does not know where that came from, but she gives these two ladies her worst.
Then she sees a man running at her. He looks large enough to snap her spine if she were not nimble and on fire.
One woman grabs at Azula and the princess seizes her arm, snapping it and then burning her face. She collapses, motionless on the stone floor. Azula moves on to the next and does not succeed at taking her down; she brings out a weapon that Azula does not recognize. An identical one is hooked to Katara, the man has just crushed one of the statues with his bare hands, and Azula decides that now would be an appropriate time to run.
She races back to the catacombs; she thinks she can lure them into the dragon egg chamber and take them out where brute strength is a disadvantage.
They pursue her and her dehydration starts to make her dizzy. Not the time, not the time. Azula runs into the chamber and runs to the back of the room, beneath the shadows. The two Ruthless Sun soldiers stop, awestruck like she was.
Azula takes down the woman with a bolt of lightning. She moves to hit the man, but he is walking towards the egg that Azula had to abandon.
"Are you going to—" break that.
He does not; he grabs it and Azula lunges to stop him from further defiling this sacred place, but he is gone in a flash, slamming the immovable door behind him so that she cannot easily follow.
Katara. Azula does not want to think about that girl's fate if Azula does not do something, so she repeats her stunt with the pedestal to get into the temple.
"Did you see where he went?" Azula gasps out.
Katara glares. Azula rips the strange stone weapon off of her and she very shakily manages to sit up and lean against the slab.
"Why do you care? He bolted like you were outside or something."
"He stole something." Azula coughs, and coughs, and saliva drips from her mouth. Katara thinks she might vomit, but she holds it together.
The princess grabs the two eggs and breathes a sigh of relief when she finds them unharmed.
"These are dragon eggs. Probably without dragons in them, of course, but dragon eggs all the same. There were three. He took one."
"Why do we care? We got lucky that he found something else expensive to steal and left us alone," Katara says. Her voice quavers.
"We have to get that egg back."
Katara laughs. "Not in a trillion years."
"Stealing their ship would be just as difficult. I still plan to steal it, of course, but we have to get the egg first."
"They are hunting us down. We have to get out of here. If we get an opportunity to take the egg, you can do it, but I am not going out of my way to save a shiny fossil," Katara manages to say. "Let's find water and move on."
"You will help me carry the red egg."
"Sure; it seems worth taking. But I think it goes without saying that I'm abandoning it if my life depends on it."
Azula sits down beside Katara and examines the stone.
"What is this?" Azula asks.
"You don't know?"
"I am not up to date on Fire Nation technology." Azula hesitates. "Especially not my cousin's technology."
"Tell me the truth about the Ruthless Sun. They are on your dad's side. I can feel it."
"They are loyal to money and money alone. There are countless people who would pay astronomical amounts of money for me. I have to admit I took you prisoner because a waterbender is worth so much. Much more than any other rebel. We're a fortune on feet."
"So, they aren't working for your cousin?" Katara smugly clarifies.
"I believe he would pay the most for me." Azula knows very well that Ozai would pay more, but Katara is a temporary acquaintance who has no need to know that.
"Who was the guy with you when you captured me? He grabbed me, not you. You were too busy killing my friends."
"Some barely-tolerable person that I have had the displeasure of relying on. Just like you," Azula says through her teeth.
"That was a touchy subject. Is he your boyfriend?"
"No." Something occurs to Azula when Katara asks that absurd question.
This is all Zuko's fault. She is going to throttle him if she ever sees his mutilated face again. The mental image of murdering her brother for getting her into this mess is incredibly satisfying.
Of course, Katara ruins that brief happiness.
"Tell me who he is. Come on. We could die out here."
"I am not planning on dying, and I am not giving you any information about me. I have no reason to discuss my feelings with some water peasant."
"I'm basically a princess."
"Of what? An igloo?"
"No. My dad is the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe," Katara bluntly states. She cannot help but roll her eyes when Azula smirks.
"Which is not real anymore thanks to my grandfather."
"I could say those exact words about your dad. I am exactly as royal as you are."
"Well, that's… shut up." Azula walks away to go find water with the odd weapon in one hand and the blue egg cradled in her other arm.
Katara laughs and shakes her head.