Guge opened door number twelve, and disappeared into the sudden brightness pouring in. But where his reluctant companions staggered back and squinted from the new light, Zuko closed his eyes and felt slightly reinvigorated by what he immediately recognised as sunshine. It was a subtle feeling, like a single static spark injected in his bloodstream, but enough to put him at ease not just physically, but mentally. His mind had been spinning in circles coming up with schemes to make use of the bizarre state of affairs.
Just being in the presence of his target of three years… he had kept quiet not just because he expected to be shouted at. His hands were shaking, and not all of the sweat gathering in his stolen garment was from the heat.
Aang had been unwisely welcoming, actively involving him in their quest for the pet and persuading his friends to do the same. His amiability was useful, just in being allowed to stay near them, but also disconcerting. For three years he had been practising his bending in the wind and rain, to simulate an enemy wielding those elements. But what he had not been preparing for, was a target with a grin and a sense of humour.
"How…" Sokka said with a quiver, pulling him out of his thoughts. "We climbed three staircases and descended one, but now we are level with the ground again?" Zuko followed him through the doorway, and was similarly bewildered by the sight of an expanse of grassland stretching out behind and beneath them.
"Your confusion is perfectly reasonable; neither the floors inside nor the meadow outside is perfectly horizontal," Guge spoke with what could be mistaken for glee. He took it as an excuse to tell about the original owner of the house, an Omashu general who had slowly lost his mind, and the party promptly stopped listening.
The scenery was infinitely more captivating than Guge's genealogy lesson. The main structure of Master Bing's mansion was U-shaped, which they had evidently entered in one leg and exited in the other, and now they looked at the interior, which normal buildings of this shape would pave over and fashion with a fountain and a pavillion or two. But Bing - or the general who had built it - had welcomed the nature in his domain. Hills of emerald rolled out of the courtyard and descended down to a secluded valley. There were no more mismatched patches of flowers, but just a spread of grassland, bespeckled with wild shrubbery and the occasional oak or cherry blossom, stretching out into the distance until where a modest stone wall formed an artificial horizon, framing the whole in marble.
Zuko saw Aang sigh and his shoulders lower as he took it in, and wondered if he was going to fly off, sit on a cloud and meditate on the beauty of nature. He did take a couple steps forward and stared around with the excitement of a child - which he was, to be fair.
"I beg your forgiveness for the unkemptness of Master Bing's internal garden," Guge said soberly as he descended along a cobblestone path. "We have yet to collect enough blossoming plants to fill up this area with more appropriate verdancy." He gestured to a section to his left, which was another incongruous patch of expensive greenery, maintained with expertise but arranged without the slightest sense of taste.
Aang halted and let Guge take the lead while he let his friends catch him. "Guys, this may sound ridiculous," he whispered hurriedly, "but is there any way we could buy this place? This could be the Spirit World, and Bing will just ruin it with his insane flower hoarding..." Katara shook her head in shared sorrow, and Zuko nearly grew a smile. Rather than chase him, he should have been setting traps at the most impressive vistas.
With the most rehearsed of coughs, Guge requested that they keep up, and the Avatar's pleasure faded more when he saw where they were headed. Just below the rim of a hillock, right besides the outer wall, were built a series of metal cages, ranging in size from shoebox to apartment, and all of them stuffed with all kinds of fauna. One of the larger cages held nothing but herbivores, and a series of smaller ones contained one predator each; none of them had enough room to take as much as a breath without bumping into the walls or their fellow prisoners.
"This one is the aviary," Guge announced, and his voice was strange without the veneer of pride with which he had described every other element of the household. He pointed at a cage filled with every possible creature equipped with the power of flight: several hundred animals locked in a room; some unmoving and lying on the ground, others flying tired circles in their confined space. "We keep these animals here until they can be properly skinned and stuffed," he duly explained. "Master Bing has occupied every taxidermist in Tamuzen, and it takes a couple days until the newest arrivals can get their turn."
He gestured the shocked Aang towards the entrance of the aviary. "Find your lemur, Master Avatar, and I shall attempt to locate Master Bing. I had expected to find his excellency here, but there are a few alternative places to look while you look for your pet."
Time slowed to a crawl. Aang moved like he was submerged in honey, and not just from the onset of depression at the sight of the animal cruelty. Zuko stared at the lock mechanism Guge opened with a long metal key, after which he turned back to go find his master. There were ten paces between the Avatar and a cage, and Zuko's thoughts rushed like a whirlpool to find a way to take advantage of the situation.
Their approach had driven the birds to begin making an unbearable cacophony of shrieks and whistles, and the larger animals in the surrounding cages joined in with lower tones. His ears were hurting but he would not move a finger to cover them; he only watched Aang move on towards the door. It was a double doorway, he would pass through one, close it behind him and then open the mesh of metal separating him from two hundred feathered fiends and the possibility of one lemur. With every step, Zuko was sure he could hear the pebbles crack underneath, even with the barrage of animal noises assaulting his eardrums.
Aang had passed through the first door, and Zuko had followed. He glanced to his sides, and found that he could not locate either of his companions. It was of little consequence - he was certain he could take on both in a brawl, especially this far from any water. The creatures were not even supplied with a drinking trough - this was their purgatory. And it would be the Avatar's.
Aang had closed the first door behind him, and between the bars Zuko saw him scanning the frenzied flock for his own creature. He had clutched the handle of the second door with a quivering hand, and lowered it.
Suddenly, there was a man; dressed in Guge's colours, but armour instead of a robe. It didn't help him in the slightest: Zuko tackled him to the ground with almost no effort or thought, his eyes were not even leaving the back of Aang's head, whose own were still at the birds. Leaning his knee on the guard's throat, Zuko reached for the lock on the outer door.
It was uncannily easy. He twisted the metal knob, and a click, which he sensed more than he heard it, proclaimed that the doorway was shut solid. Only Guge's key could liberate the Avatar, who had closed the second door and was separated from freedom by a patchwork of metal bars each as thick as his thumb. He saw a small komodo rhino in a different cage with the same make-up, and knew this was an adequate prison for even the most powerful human on the planet.
Zuko sighed, and removed himself from the mystery man who had already passed out from lack of breath. He would have to deal with him later. The task was finished. Aang was still not even aware of his imprisonment; of the end of the entire war. Zuko would be home by springtime.
He staggered back, and cast one last sideways glance, expecting an assault by the waterbending girl or her even less competent brother. Dealing with them was the first step. Step two was figuring out how to subdue the Avatar in a way that was more mobile; step three involved transporting him to the Fire Nation while avoiding Azula; and step four was…
...dodging the giant slab of rock hurled in his direction.
His lurch to the back was as late as it was fruitless, and after a painful encounter with the stone he found himself to be hurtling over the compounded dirt besides the cages. Still in mid-air he caught a glimpse of the familiar, by now dreaded black-and-golden uniform, and with all his rage and boiling energy he threw a ball of fire at the shape.
It turned out to be his salvation. Not because the attack landed anywhere near its intended target, but because the recoil was enough to slam him against the metal, which he instinctively held on to. It was a wise decision, because there suddenly was a gaping hole in the ground where he would have landed, and been swallowed by the earth.
Those responsible for the calamity quickly revealed themselves over the horizon. Five, six… a dozen, three dozen uniformed guards. A small platoon of them, and clearly skilled in their element. More stones were coming his way.
But there were not all in formation yet. Zuko hesitated for no longer, and launched as much fire as he could to the soldiers closest to his exit route. They threw up barriers in protection, and by the time they lowered them once more, he gone ran between them, through the nearest doorway, back into the psychotic castle.