Chapter five: Sneaking In

'Why did I agree to this?' Sokka wondered as he crawled through the ventilation system, stealthily making an escape. They weren't as spacious as he had hoped whenever he had been presented with the plan, they barely allowed him to crawl through. He had reached his first intersection, so he pulled out the map he had been given.

"How did you get this?" Sokka questioned the Lieutenant.

"Learn when to not ask questions" was all the Lieutenant responded with, completely serious.

"So let's see where I need to go" He unfolded the floor plans to the ship and found where he was. "So if I go right, forward, and then up, I should be able to reach the vent the Lieutenant circled". He folded the papers back up and put him in a waterproof pouch so he wouldn't ruin them.

After several minutes of crawling through the tight space, he found a vent shedding sunlight through. Almost on queue, a horn sounded off, denoting engine trouble. Almost instinctively, everyone rushed to the back of the ship to find the source of the problem.

"I will tamper with the engine while most of the engineers are on their lunch break," the Lieutenant said when explaining the plan, "at that point, we will be close enough to port that you can swim to the outskirts but not be seen. This vent," the Lieutenant circled a vent, "is loose, it leads to the deck which will empty when they hear the engine failure horn. Wait until you don't see or hear anymore soldiers. Push the vent out and be sure to place it back when you are out so you leave no traces of your escape route. From there, just dive off the ship and swim to the shore nearby. Keep a safe distance from the people and structures so they don't discover you and I will look for you at the rim overlooking the city". He folded the floor plans up before tucking them in a waterproof pouch. "Keep these safe, you never know when you'll need them".

He looked around a little through the vent while listening...nothing. He slowly pushed out the vent before crawling out and replacing it. He stood in broad daylight, wearing nearly nothing, as his clothes would have been ruined and only serve as a nuisance while swimming. He looked left and right, seeing if anyone had found him.

Blood drained out of his face as he found the captain near the bow, staring him dead in the eye with pure hatred. "Boy!" he shouted out and started to run toward him. Sokka instantly realized that he needed to dive quickly, so with lightning quick speed, he did. He swam as fast as he could, remaining below the surface as he didn't know if the captain was a fire bender or not… the water behind him warmed up slightly and evaporated, 'yep, he is'.

Just as soon as he started trying to attack Sokka, he stopped, realizing it was futile.

After an eternity of swimming, Sokka finally managed to make it to the shore. In reality it was probably only about thirty minutes, but he exerted so much energy that his perception of time was completely distorted. He crawled up from the water before almost immediately collapsing.

It was almost night time when he woke up. Restored of most of his energy, he realized he needed to get to the rim as quickly as possible, so he quickly started to climb the natural sea wall. As soon as he reached the top, he started running through the terrain toward the city, making sure not to alert anyone of his presence. As he started to climb the steepest leg of the trek, he heard a horn wail. He looked back to the port and discovered that it was the southern raiders ship he had escaped from. 'Good' he thought, 'I'm not late.' So he walked the rest of the way up the incline and waited at the rim, discovering what may have been the greatest achievement of mankind, having a city inside of a volcano.

Just after nightfall came, and flames throughout the city were lit along the streets, Lieutenant showed up, carrying Sokka's chest from the ship. Sokka didn't take notice at first, still basking in the strange site, until Lieutenant's footsteps became audible to him.

"Alright, here is your chest, now for figuring out where you can live for the time being..." he said, pondering the possibilities mentally.

"Frankly, if I may voice my opinion, this plan is becoming worse and worse by the minute" Sokka said with skepticism.

"Calm down alright, there is a man, an army swords master… who I happen to know, he is staying in an inn on this side of the city on business, sneak into the city and find him, got it?"

"So you're not only telling me to go into the heart of the fire nation, but you're also telling me to meet with someone I should probably be avoiding to stay hidden?"

"Well, you will just have to bear with me on all of this, okay?" The tone of his voice was becoming less convincing with each word.

"I guess I don't have a choice now do I?" which was responded to with only a shaking head.

"I will not see you for a while, so I guess this is goodbye for now" said the Lieutenant after realizing he needed to get back.

Sokka simply said "Goodbye" and the Lieutenant walked away. Several minutes later, Sokka started to walk in the same direction after enough time had passed, doing his best to hide within the darkness of night.