**Note from author: Hi there. Thanks to my follower, I was fairly surprised you were on it so quickly. Hopefully this won't disappoint. Everyone else, don't be afraid to review, burn, follow, whatever floats your metaphorical boat. Thanks!**
"Bind him, quickly," commanded a gruff voice. I was instantly awake, but it was already too late: soldiers were hefting their rune-inscribed chains over my head and torso, and I was soon trussed up tighter than a banquet hog-rooster. I shied away as best I could-not because the so-called anti-spirit runes were hurting me, but because the chains were cold as ice-but to no avail.
"What's going on here?" I demanded.
The sergeant grabbed my thin face roughly with a gloved hand. "That's no way to speak to your betters, boy," he hissed. I set my jaw and asked again, a bit more placidly, "Where are you taking me? I have a right to know what's happening."
That drew a cruel chuckle from the man. "You have whatever rights Prince Zuko says you have, which are none," he sneered. Turning to his men, he gestured. "Bring him."
Knowing it was useless to resist and burning with curiosity despite myself, I lowered my head and let them pull the sack over my head. Soon I was stumbling down an unfamiliar path through the ship; if I had to guess, I'd say we were heading toward the bow. The soldiers pulled me through a few more corridors, jostling me roughly whenever I didn't move quickly enough, then stopped me suddenly. Through the sack, I smelled only hot steam and the sharp oily tang of the ship.
'So, it's not a trip to the deck, after all,' I mused. The sack was yanked off, catching my nose on the way up and causing me to sneeze. I didn't bother stifling it, and I ended up sneezing all over Prince Zuko, who was standing before me in his Fire Navy armor; he held his pointed helmet under his arm as he disgustedly wiped off his chest plate.
"Oops," I smirked. "My apologies, Your Highness."
"How about you learn some respect?" Zuko snarled. "I promise you, you'll be sorry enough later. For now, though, I thought you might like to see the show."
I raised an eyebrow, and only then did I notice the pair of ranking firebenders standing at ease behind the young prince. It took me a moment, but realization dawned on me. "You aren't… You wouldn't… You haven't…" I stuttered, but the words wouldn't leave my mouth, so complete was my shock and horror.
Zuko scowled fiercely, the taut red skin of his scar wrinkling under the strain. "Yes. At last, I've found the Avatar and his hiding place. We're on our way there now; before midday, I will have defeated him and taken him prisoner. And soon after, my father will welcome me home again and restore my rightful place as heir to the throne." He clenched his fist in what could barely be called happy anticipation. Turning away and speaking over his shoulder, he continued, "I had you brought up here to witness my moment of triumph. Be grateful that I think so highly of you."
"Yeah, I'm real honored," I spat, then decided antagonizing him wasn't the best course of action. "Prince Zuko," I pleaded, changing tack, "don't do this. The Avatar is the one last hope for this world, the only one who can bring everything back into balance. You don't need him to have honor; you only need to act honorably." He ignored me, but I wouldn't give up.
"Honor cannot be rewarded or given by any man or woman. Honor is not something to be won by completing a task or fulfilling a vow. Honor is how you carry yourself and treat others."
"Silence!" he yelled, whirling on the spot. "I lost my honor, my throne, when I insulted my father. Now, only my father can give it back," he said bitterly. "And the only way he'll do that is if I bring back the Avatar in chains." A determined gleam leapt into his eye, and I hung my head, knowing the cause was lost for now. "This is my destiny," Zuko muttered, turning back to the forward ramp.
Prince Zuko, his soldiers, and I all stood in uncomfortable, hostile silence for another few minutes. Suddenly, the ship began to shake and rattle; a continuous cracking and popping could be heard from outside, muted a little by the ship's thick metal hull.
Bound tight as I was, I would've fallen flat on my face when the ship ground to an abrupt halt if a guard hadn't grabbed me. As it was, the weight of my chains nearly dragged him to the floor too, and together we bowled into Zuko and his raiding party, bearing us all to the ground in a tangle of waving limbs and shouted curses. The prince snarled and jumped to his feet with his firebenders just as the forward ramp fell forward with a jet of escaping air and a massive boom.
I was pulled back to my feet. Looking outside, I saw that all the shaking had been the ship grinding through the polar ice and through a pitiful wall of snow. The prow of the ship had come down in a large clearing of a Southern Water Tribe village. Peering around Zuko and his soldiers, I could see a circle of cured sealhide tents and a few domed igloos. Huddled a few dozen feet from the end of the ramp was a group of women and children clad in blue and white furs. A young man in fierce warpaint with a strange-looking club was kneeling in front of them, and my heart sank.
'Is this it?' I thought, dismayed. 'This can't be all the great Water Tribe can muster against the Fire Nation. Where are the men, the warriors?' Prince Zuko started striding down the ramp, followed closely by his firebenders, and the painted teen charged with a yell, his club held high over his head. Zuko disarmed him and pitched him off the ramp headfirst into a snow bank with two deft kicks.
The soldiers behind me prodded me forward, and I made my way down the ramp; steam curled faintly off my bare chest and arms into the freezing South Pole air, and I was glad I had the warmth of a firebender running through my veins. My chains clanked faintly with every step, and the soldiers led me to stand off to the side of the ramp. Clearly, I was meant to only be a spectator.
The villagers gasped at the loss of their sole defender. Zuko stepped away from his men and strode forward, his imperious squint causing the children to shy away with little cries of fear. One young woman, no more than fourteen, stared at me, her eyes widening until I feared they might pop out. I looked away self-consciously; between my tattoos, my minimal clothing, and the grime of captivity, I'd already figured I wasn't exactly easy on the eyes. But this wasn't disgust or pity, and as her gaze returned over and over to my bald head, it struck me: she'd seen air bender tattoos before. 'She's seen the Avatar!'
Zuko swept the semicircle of Water Tribe women with his eyes. Seeing something, he walked purposefully over to a woman that looked to be nearly as old as I was and demanded, "Where are you hiding him?"
I prayed to the spirits that she would cooperate, but the village elder simply held her silence. After a beat, Zuko's hand shot out and seized her by her fur hood, dragging her over and holding her at arm's length.
"He'd be about this age. Master of all elements!" he continued, shaking the woman as if she were a lost puppy. The villagers looked at him in fear, and he gave the old woman a shove into the arms of the same girl who'd been looking at me. She caught the woman, who must have been her grandmother, gently and gave the prince such a look of contempt that I feared she might attack him.
Growing impatient, Zuko balled a fist and sent a wave of fire over the villagers' heads, the sudden flare of light and heat causing them to cry out and back away. "I know you're hiding him!"
An angry yell nearly caused me to jump out of my chains (which I really wouldn't have minded all that much): the young warrior from before, his warpaint partially gone, had picked up his fallen weapon and was charging Zuko for all he was worth. The prince ducked casually, sending the boy flying head over heels, his war club spinning out of reach. The warrior landed on his rear in the snow and instinctively rolled to the side as Zuko fired a blast at where he'd been. The warrior came up on a knee and whipped his arm forward, throwing what looked like an angled blue stick of some kind. Zuko jumped back out of the way in surprise, and the stick whirled away out of sight. Zuko shot the warrior a nasty look, while I just looked at him with pity. It was him against an angry prince and a squad of well-trained soldiers; there was nothing I could do.
Despite the odds, the warrior looked unfazed, and was tossed a spear by a much younger boy, who loyally cried, "Show no fear!" He charged point-first, and Zuko promptly smashed the head off the spear with his wrists. He grabbed the spear with no apparent effort and, bopping the warrior in the forehead and causing him to fall onto his back, broke the stick in half, throwing the pieces into the snow with disdain. The prince was looking down in grim amusement at the young warrior, who was busily rubbing his head, so he didn't see the curved stick come whizzing out of nowhere to strike him square in the back of the head.
I let out a loud bray of a laugh that was part-amusement at seeing Zuko's helmet askew and part-appreciation for the warrior's skill and his weapon's cunning design. Meanwhile, Zuko straightened his helmet, his teeth gritted as he seethed. He clenched his fists at his side, and twin daggers of fire flared up in his hands. I sobered immediately; I'd been in the prince's company long enough to predict what was coming next.
"No, Prince Zuko!" I shouted, taking a difficult step forward. "He's just a boy, can't you see that?! He's no older than you are!" A few of the soldiers next to me looked sideways at me, and I got the feeling I'd hit a chord with some of them.
Zuko whirled on me. "Be quiet while I teach this enemy soldier the meaning of respect."
"He's only defending his family! He's just a boy!" But my cries fell on deaf ears, and Zuko turned with finality to the warrior in the snow. I resigned myself to watching his soul join the spirits, a curse of my heritage. 'It was a valiant effort,' I thought miserably. 'If only I wasn't so damned weak, I could have done more to help you.' At the thought, I had to concentrate to keep from recreating my incident on the ship's deck.
The next thing I knew, Prince Zuko had landed face-first in the snow, his helmet landing on his butt as an extra humiliation. Looking around, I saw a number of the village children covered in snow and a bald-headed monk boy being chirped at by a penguin as it waddled away. He had a familiar set of blue tattoos adorning his hands and bald head, and his yellow-and-orange tunic was lightly covered with powder snow. In his hands he clutched an ordinary-looking staff. My heart sank, and I felt the blood rushing to my head. 'Please, no…'
"Hey, Katara! Hey, Sokka!" the new boy greeted them happily, and my worst fears were confirmed a moment later when the Water Tribe warrior replied unenthusiastically, "Hi, Aang. Thanks for coming."
Zuko got to his feet and took a deep breath, settling into a fighting stance. All but the two soldiers guarding me automatically fanned out to circle the boy. The monk's brow lowered in determination as he brandished his staff. All at once he blasted the soldiers aside with a gust of icy, flurry-filled air and blew snow all over the prince with a wave of his staff. Zuko stood his ground, the snow quickly melting from his shoulders and hands as he looked at Aang in fierce disbelief.
"Looking for me?" Aang asked him.
"You're the air bender?" Zuko asked incredulously, water trickling down his face and armor. "You're the Avatar?!"
"Aang?" said the girl, equally surprised. She crouched next to the young warrior, who, sounding like he didn't really believe his words, replied, "No way."
Zuko, momentarily put off, seemed to remember his mission. He started slowly circling Aang, who matched his movements stride for stride. "I've spent years preparing for this encounter," he said slowly. "Training; meditating. You're just a child," he growled.
Aang quirked an eyebrow. "Well, you're just a teenager," he returned reasonably.
"Zuko, don't do this!" I shouted as loudly as I could, but he took no notice of me. He began firing at Aang, who yelped and spun his staff to disperse the bursts of flame. Zuko, finished testing the Avatar's apparent limits, began to put more power behind his fireballs, and Aang kept looking more and more desperate, doing a little four-step in a circle as he tried to keep from being blown off his feet. I shouted again at Zuko, but I didn't really expect him to stop.
A tongue of flame licked out over the women and children, causing them to scream again. Time seemed to slow down for a moment before Aang battered another blast away with a flourish and piped up, "If I go with you, will you promise to leave everyone alone?"
"No, Aang!" I thundered desperately, feeling my own fiery temper awakening. "Don't! You're too important to give yourself up! Run!" The boy's eyes flickered towards me for just a moment, but I was too far away to be able to see what he was thinking, to see whether he knew me. He looked at Zuko again, letting his offer stand. The prince nodded and lowered his hands.
As the soldiers closed in around Aang, taking his staff away and grabbing him by his upper arms, I tensed my muscles against the chains, trying to fight my way free. But my bindings didn't give even an inch, and I knew it was futile; there was no way to free myself, Aang, or the villagers in my current state. It didn't stop me from struggling all the harder.
"No, Aang, don't do this!" the girl pleaded. Aang looked over his shoulder at her and said reassuringly, "Don't worry, Katara. It'll be okay." But his smile didn't reach his eyes, and his words did nothing to convince anyone present; least of all me, who was starting to consider trying to melt my manacles off. The pair of guards at my side grabbed my chains and began to haul me up the ramp after Zuko and the Avatar; I was practically face-to-face with him.
"Take care of Appa for me until I get back!" Aang called down the ramp, and I snorted, drawing his attention as they walked us back into the ship. "You're a bloody fool," I told him. "Aang, you should have run when you had the chance!"
He looked askance at me (which wasn't unusual, since askance is the only way to look at someone over your shoulder). "Um, do I know you?" he asked a little fearfully.
I shook my head in frustration. "No, but I'm your friend. I'm telling you, get out of here right now!" I hissed. "It's the only way!"
"Silence!" one of my guards ordered, giving me a rough shake. "I'll distract them," I whispered to Aang, then concentrated. After a moment, I exhaled a burst of sparking red fire through my nose, burning one guard's hand.
"Go!" I told Aang, then turned as best I could and roared like a tigerdillo at the other guard. The man jumped back and reached for his sword. I ballooned my cheeks and tried to torch him, but all that came out was choking black smoke, and I started to cough. I heard Zuko's enraged tones, then felt a sharp pain at the base of my skull a moment later.
I was out like a light.
Somehow, even before I woke up, I knew I had a pounding headache. I winced as I opened my eyes-thank the spirits for the darkness of my cell-and slowly took stock of my body. My arms were chained up in their usual positions, making my hands go dead with that strange tingly feeling. I could feel a knot just above my neck that throbbed horribly.
'I suppose it could be worse,' I grumbled, tilting my head to the side to make sure my brain hadn't liquefied and wasn't going to slosh out. I winced; it hurt like hell, but I'd live.
'Aang!' Everything came back in a rush, and sparks showered from my fists, lighting me up like a demon as I remembered how I'd failed the younger boy. I began shaking uncontrollably, my temper getting the best of me, and a red haze dropped over my vision. I let my anger build into a thundering cry that fairly shook the walls; white-hot flames poured from my mouth, streaking over the metal bars and heating them to a dull red.
Smoke began to build, billowing to the ceiling, and I finally wrested myself under control again. 'Get a grip!' I snarled at myself, chest heaving against the steel bands from my tantrum. 'None of this is helping Aang!' He had to still be on the ship; if I could somehow escape, I could help him do the same. I dug deep, concentrating hard, but in my heart I knew it was futile to try and affect the change. The only time I'd been in full communion with my spirit side had been more than a hundred years ago, and then only for a moment. The only other time had been a brief glimpse a few days ago, and that had been borne from sheer emotion rather than any real effort on my part.
As I'd expected, no matter how hard I tried, my body refused to respond, and my spirit stayed locked firmly away. Growling again, I directed my chi to the surface of my hands, trying to melt my shackles. After a moment, they began to glow and steam, but no weakness appeared in the treated metal. Swearing steadily now, I resorted to the ever-popular but forever-ineffective tugging and pulling that always comes with being a desperate, panicking prisoner.
Heavy running footsteps outside the cell alerted me that someone was coming in a hurry. I let myself hang limp in my chains, near spent after such an outpouring of energy. It had been a long, long time since I'd put any serious power behind my fire bending. Plus, it was usually better to act weak and feeble around the guards.
The door opened with a loud bang, antagonizing my headache, and Shun rushed in. I gave a sigh of relief and peered around him as he hurried to the cell door; there was no sign of any other guards outside my room.
"What happened to the men outside?" He ignored me, leaning on his knees and panting. "Thank the spirits," he gasped. "You're still here."
"Is this another one of those 'lifting my mood' moments? Because it's not working." A thought struck me: if I could get him to release my hands, I was as good as free. I didn't need fire bending to fight. "Say, mind letting me out of these for a minute? I seriously have to pee."
He gave me his guard look. "No time. I have to report back; they sent me down to make sure the Avatar hadn't found you and let you out."
I could have danced for joy. As it was, I didn't find my voice for a few seconds. "Aang escaped?!"
Shun nodded hurriedly. "He's loose somewhere on the ship, near as we can tell. Now I really have to go." He turned away, and I yelled desperately at him.
"Shun, you have to let me out!" He didn't stop, and I tried to reason with him.
"Shun, you're a good man. You know it's wrong to imprison a twelve-year-old kid in a ship's hold, let alone two, and you know it's wrong to capture the Avatar. He's the only chance for balance." He stopped with one foot outside the door, one hand on the door latch, and I could sense a chance. A slim one, but a chance. "I'm right, Shun; you must see it. Help me right the wrongs and free me. I have to help Aang get away however I can! It's the only way!"
He chewed his lip, tearing it open, but he didn't seem to notice. The wheels turned in his head for nearly a full minute, until a hoarse cry rang down the hall, snapping him back to the real world. "I can't, Dao," he whispered. Then he was gone.
I sagged, then tensed and straightened my back. I'd been so close; I could see it in his eyes: he'd been about to do it. He was going to let me go before he'd been called away. I gritted my teeth in a determined grin. I had all the time in the world; sooner or later, I could corner him again, reason with him, and turn him to my side. It was only a matter of time.
For now though, there was nothing I could do but stew in here, alternating between inventing new ways to curse my situation for the umpteenth time since I'd first been captured, ignoring the ever-increasing pounding in my head, and bearing down with all my will, trying my hardest to change even the slightest bit of my physique. Unfortunately, I only met success with the first.
Time passed. At one point, I could faintly hear what sounded like either explosions or impassioned fire bending in the command tower. A few minutes later, the boat rocked and shuddered like we were roiling in rough seas. 'Sudden pole storm?' I wondered.
I got a pretty good scare later on, when a tremendous crash reverberated through the whole ship, nearly deafening me, and the ship ground to such a sudden halt that my wrists and ankles got cut on the hard edges of my manacles. As hot blood dripped down my arms, I prepared for the worst: that the drowsy helmsman had run us aground on pack ice, or, even more dangerous, that we'd hit an iceberg and punctured the hull. But no ice-cold torrent of water came racing through the door or vents to drown me, so I sat tight and tried my hardest to ignore the pain in my head and extremities.
At last, footsteps sounded outside my prison. "About bloody time!" I yelled sarcastically, wincing as my wrists twisted in their cuffs. "Can I get somebody to help me with these?" But to my surprise, it was no guard that came through the door, but Prince Zuko, along with a posse of ordinary guards. He was angrier than I'd seen him in a long time, but in my current mood, I didn't really care.
"Oh, lucky me," I taunted, "the local royalty has come to pay me a visit. To what do I owe this pleasure, Prince?"
He remained silent, taking the key from the jailer and unlocking my cage himself. Then he dismissed the guards. Coming up right in front of me, he backhanded me across the face nearly hard enough to loosen a tooth. I grunted with the impact and spat a blob of red-tinged phlegm onto his boot. "Will there be anything else, Your Highness?" I asked with a grisly grin. "Let me guess: the Avatar escaped, didn't he?"
"Somehow, this is your fault," he hissed, circling me like a shark. He kneed me in the kidney, and I would have fallen to my knees if I could have. "How did you help him?!" he roared.
"Help him?" I coughed innocently. "I wouldn't have even known he was on board if you hadn't invited me to the show, remember?"
"Shut up!" A kick in the shins, accompanied by a furious burst of fire from his fists that thankfully cascaded away on the floor, not on my body. "He must have had help getting out of his cell." He walked around my front and thumped me in the stomach, nearly making me retch all over him.
"I told you that you had no chance against the Avatar. Did it ever occur to you that he never even made it into the cell?" He snarled, twin daggers of fire shooting from his fists, and he made to slash me before I bellowed, "WAIT!"
Zuko was so surprised that he froze, flames vanishing into the ether, and he looked at me with an expression I couldn't read. "I was being serious," I imparted, coughing up more hot flecks of blood. "I doubt he gave your men a chance to lock him in; no one's seen an air bender in a hundred years, let alone fought one, so I doubt they really knew how to handle him." Zuko straightened up and looked at me, suspicious of my sudden sincerity. "I don't believe you," he said.
I shrugged, making my wrists twinge. "You don't have to believe me. I'm just telling you what I suspect happened." He narrowed his eyes, his scar tightening, before he relaxed his clenched hands and stepped closer.
"Why are you helping me?" he asked quietly. Out of nowhere, I saw an irregularity deep in his eyes, deep in his being: an inkling of the boy he'd once been. It was gone in an instant, and he was the same angry, misguided, cruel teenager I was familiar with. I filed the sight away for later reflection and turned my attention to his question. "I'm not helping you, I'm gloating," I said quickly. "There's a difference. If I wanted to help you, I wouldn't be keeping track of the mounting cost of your weekly rant sessions. Some people charge a fortune for that."
He grimaced and tightened his fists again. "You're going to help me, alright. Lieutenant!" he called, and a man with spiky hair and a mustache/sideburn combo walked in with a few firebenders. He snapped crisply to attention. "I'm done with the prisoner," Zuko said rudely. "You know what to do, Lieutenant Jee." With that, Zuko spun on his heel and strode away.
Lieutenant Jee looked at me, and I looked at him. "So, are you here to beat me, too?" I asked tiredly, nodding with my head to the bruises already forming on my body. Jee had the good grace to look a little disgusted, though whether from Zuko's abuse or a prisoner's filthy blood on his floor, I couldn't tell.
"Long story short, boy, the Avatar buried the front half of the ship in spirits-know-how-much snow and ice. Prince Zuko has ordered all able firebenders to the deck to dig us out." Lieutenant Jee grimaced and raised an eyebrow. "And I guess that means you, too."
I wrinkled my brow in confusion. "Surely the prince doesn't think I can be expected to assist my captors, let alone be trusted on deck?" I looked Zuko's second in the eye. "Would you trust me with the job, if it were you?"
"If it were me, we wouldn't be here in the first place," Jee responded flatly. "But it's not me, unfortunately, it's the prince. That means, like it or not, you're digging us out." Jee leaned closer. "I'll be frank; if you cooperate, I'll see what I can do for you," he said. "We really do need all the help we can get right now. Please behave yourself."
I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously. "On your honor?"
"On my honor," the lieutenant promised. I nodded my head once, and he stood up straight. "See to those wounds as best you can, then bag him and bring him up."
The soldiers hastily cleaned and bandaged my wounds, if a bit sloppily, then slipped the canvas over my head and lead me away. I was becoming familiar with the drill and knew what to do; the guards seemed to appreciate it, muttering warnings if there was a particularly high step and not banging me into things as much.
Before long, I could feel a chill wind whipping across my bare skin, frosting my chains and bands. The sack was removed, and I blinked, impressed: as promised, a veritable mountain of snow buried nearly half the ship; I could just see the midway hatch poking out from under a chunk of ice. It looked like Aang had somehow managed to bring down nearly half an iceberg on us, though how was utterly beyond me.
Zuko loitered nearby, watching disdainfully as his captain directed the efforts of the firebenders as best he could and consulting every so often with the few engineers on the ship, trying to make sure he didn't bring down an avalanche from the towering glacier next to us. Groups of firebenders stood around the perimeter of the snow, throwing up spurts and flares of flame every now and again, slowly eating away at the rock-hard ice. It didn't look like they were getting far. He noticed us and strode over, his face unreadable.
"What is he still doing standing here?" he demanded.
Lieutenant Jee looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Ah. Well, sir… The thing is…"
I decided to spare the poor man. "They'll have to take off most of my chains," I interrupted blandly. "I can't help dig us out if I can barely move."
Zuko lifted his one good eyebrow, and I half-thought he was going to refuse. But then he said, "Very well. Lieutenant, remove the prisoner's cuffs and chains at once." Jee nodded, and two guards began going around with keys, undoing various locks and letting them drop to the deck with a loud clank.
I rubbed my wrists vigorously, getting the blood flowing as I looked up at Zuko challengingly. "Where do you need me?" I asked innocently.
He seemed to sense that I was testing him and took a step forward, pushing two fingers hard into my bony chest. "You make one wrong move, one toe out of line, and you'll be back in the cage without food for a week." He turned to his second. "I want a full squad watching his back at all times. If he escapes, it's on your head, Lieutenant," he threatened, then turned and headed for the command tower.
Jee didn't say anything, he simply gave me a look that practically begged me to keep my cool, then put a hand on the back of my neck and steered me toward the captain.
The engineers had determined that the best way to free the ship would be to melt the snow from the top down, to reduce the risk of avalanche. So while barefoot firebenders clambered up the side of the glacier and began melting ice with stomps and sheets of flame, I was tasked with helping to cut away ice on the side of the glacier so it would break away in certain places when we made the final push.
The work was hard, much harder than I was used to; being chained hand and foot for two years in the bowels of a ship doesn't do much for your muscles or bending. I tired quickly and had to endure the raised voice and occasional blow from the captain or bosun, but I really did do my best. Often, my fire turned to wafts of smoke, and I was reduced to heating the surface of my hands and physically touching the ice and snow where I wanted to melt it. A group of fifteen guards with spears and swords followed me everywhere, watching me like a hawk. I think they expected me to take off at any moment, but soon I was too exhausted to try it, even if I'd wanted to.
I tried my best to keep my mind on the task at hand. But, whether from the increased blood circulation or crisp, cold South Pole air, my mind was awhirl. As always, escape was a hot topic (no pun intended). For some reason, Zuko popped into my mind, causing me to wrinkle my nose slightly. 'Why would I turn to him?' I thought of his face when he'd accused me of freeing Aang; right after he'd beaten me ruthlessly, I'd been honest and open with him, something he probably wasn't used to from anyone but his uncle. There'd been a glint of something in him; humanity? Could escape be as simple as befriending the prince? Getting on his good side, as it were?
I shook the errant thought away. 'If I think he'll just magically let me go if I get all buddy-buddy with him, then I've been out in the damn polar sun too long.' Shun was probably my best bet; if I timed it right, it should be relatively easy to get the chains off, escape the prison hold, and make my way off the ship when we pulled into port for repairs. From there, I could steal some clothing and slip away into the Earth Kingdom to look for Aang.
'Aang…' Now there was a true mystery. I wasn't surprised that he'd escaped the clutches of his guards, but how he got off the ship was another thing entirely. 'Unless he had his staff,' I mused, narrowly missing getting clouted in the head by a sizeable chunk of hardened snow. "Hey, watch it!" bellowed the bosun, and I made a mollifying gesture. I decided that it didn't really matter how, as long as the young Avatar had escaped. Therefore, my next step after somehow freeing myself would be to find him and help him in his quest. I frowned; how was I supposed to find one kid and his flying bison in the whole world?
I sighed and strove to clear my head; I'd have plenty of time to worry about that in my cell. For now, I had a ship to dig out. Drawing upon any energy I might have left, I channeled my chi up from my breath and down my arm, a small blade of flame flaring from my fingertips like a cutting torch. I thrust forward and up, slicing a man-sized chunk of ice clean in two, the ends weeping as they fell into the ocean. 'Back to work!'