The ground opened under them.
In their surprise, Zuko and Katara sucked in a sharp breath, unable to do anything else as they fell. The ground closed over them and Zuko immediately lit a flame. Their impromptu crypt was wide enough for them to sit comfortably, but the roof was suffocatingly close. Zuko wondered if he was claustrophobic as his pulse pounded in his head.
"What happened?" Katara whispered, hysterical.
"Earthbending. We should be okay." Zuko said.
They both froze as they heard footsteps above them. Panicked, Zuko turned to where the bonds had been. And there they were, sitting the same distance away in the dark.
He stared at them in numb disbelief.
"Why is this tent empty?" Zuri asked, their voice muffled by the solid layer of dirt between them.
"If a sheepig gets sick, we have to quarantine it in case it's the flu." The warrior answered. "The flu can kill an entire herd in a month."
"Mx. Chatan." The man said. "One of the girls fessed up. A group of bandits traded their monitor horses for a plough ox. She says she didn't see the prince or the Waterbender but they did have a cart."
"The cart tracks we saw were too heavy for only two bodies." Zuri retorted. "I'll question her. You and the others search the tents."
A breeze whipped Zuko's flame and he leaned to see past Katara. It was completely dark outside of the fire's glow, but the breeze meant an opening.
"I think whoever put us down here is giving us a way out." He whispered. Katara gave him a curt nod in response and Zuko tried not to notice how tight the muscles in her jaw were. Instead, he nodded back and turned back toward the opening. They both crawled silently, though Zuko hobbled on one arm as he held out the flame.
The breeze flicked at their faces like a thread, pulling them forward. Zuko tried to remember if there had been an Earthbender with Suki at any point, but he pulled a blank. Maybe from before his arrival, or perhaps even from her own time separated from the main group.
When the air turned clean, Zuko hesitated. He could see light falling into their tunnel just a few feet ahead.
"Do you know who it is?" Katara whispered. Even in the darkness, Zuko shook his head.
When he remembered to speak, he had to clear his throat of rock and grit.
"No clue." He said and started crawling again.
When they reached the hole, they both paused, sitting outside of the pool of light. Zuko looked up and his eyes watered, making everything blurry.
The light was very far up.
"How do we-" Zuko was cut off as the ground rocketed them skyward. Too frightened to scream, Zuko only clenched every muscle in his body as Katara dug her fingers into his upper arm. They fell back to earth, he could feel his hair standing on end.
"Told you I could get them out." A young girl's voice said.
Flames burst from his palms as he stood up and Zuko found a wall of dirt in front of his face before he could take a step.
"Woah there hot hands." The voice said from behind the wall.
"Toph?" He stared at the dirt, picturing the girl behind it.
"Even I'm not that good."
The dirt receded back into the ground and there she stood. Her cloudy eyes stared up at him and her hair was cropped so short she looked like a boy. But they saw each other.
"I thought everyone said the prince was good looking." Toph said and turned to another Kyoshi warrior.
"You can't see." The other girl replied.
"I can see well enough that the scar is pretty ugly." Toph countered.
"He doesn't have a scar?" The girl looked briefly at Zuko, as if checking for the deformity.
"Ha ha, let's keep teasing the blind girl. I'll remind you that you need me." Toph said and then turned back to Zuko. Snapping, she gave him an impatient look.
"Bend down." She ordered. Zuko obliged and Toph reached up, slapping her hands onto his face. Her own face smoothed out, then her eyebrows pulled together in confusion as she rubbed her hands around.
When she recoiled, Zuko stood up calmly.
"You have a scar." She said.
"Yes." He replied.
"But no one can see it."
"No."
"This isn't your face."
"No."
Toph stared at him for a second. When she turned, Zuko knew to follow and stayed behind her as she walked into the field. He glanced back, to check on Katara, and was able to see the campsite in the distance behind her. She walked toward him and he smiled.
"How do you know me?" Toph questioned. Zuko walked over to her and looked out over the rest of the field. It was wildly overgrown; an obvious pasture that was not being used. The long grass had not yet gone to seed and was the perfect green for grazing. He wondered where the other shepherds were, and if this would make the disguised warriors a suspicious thing.
"I know another version of you. Where I have a scar and you're a terrifying-" Zuko cut himself off. For the first time, he wondered how he would impact the history of this timeline. The war he had no problems stopping. Telling Toph she invented a new form of bending was something else.
"Master of Earthbending and not a petty thief?" She finished for him.
Katara approached him and put a gentler hand on his arm.
"How many times are you going to have to do this?" She questioned.
"Only one more I think. I'm not really too stoked about having anyone else find out." He said.
"Why not? Afraid they'll make you give back your pretty face?" Toph inquired.
"Afraid they'll put more than just a scar on this one." He said. Toph snorted and fell back into the grass.
With no other questions forthcoming, Zuko went and laid down near her. The fence of grass was thin and he could see her chewing on a long stalk, her hands under her head. Katara laid closer to him, propping herself up for a moment to look at Toph as well.
She breathed and Zuko watched the medallion dangle on her necklace. The sun was warm and he was overcome with the urge to close his eyes. His eyelids lowered and Katara moved to lay back on the ground. Cicadas hummed in the field as loud as the engines in the airship. The air smelled like dirt and grass. For the moment, he did not feel out of place. This was not his body or his world, but these things were familiar. The sun, the earth, the breeze.
Katara placed her hand on his arm just as his eyes closed.
The tide that took him under.