Chapter 33: The Infiltration
While in the Fire Nation skies Appa hid above the clouds, making a slow beeline for the Fire Nation capital. Whenever the skies were clear Appa landed on one of the islands that constituted the Fire Nation, giving Aang and his friends time to rest. A week before the eclipse would arrive they stopped on the second largest island in the Fire Nation, the last place where any of them could gather information about the capital before reaching it. In the morning Appa landed on the island and walked into a cave, falling asleep in the back. While they let Appa rest Aang and his friends approached a nearby town, looking for clothes to take and make disguises out of.
A small farm on the outskirts was practically asking for someone to steal from clotheslines, which Toph was all too happy to oblige. "Dibs on the little shirt," she said, right before running for the clothesline.
"You can't call dibs on theft," Haru complained.
"I call the silk robe," Katara said, following Toph's lead.
Aang hesitated at first, but then followed Katara. "I call the suit."
"The dress is mine," Suki said.
Despite knowing that they all needed disguises, Haru wished his friends weren't so eager about stealing them. When Haru saw Sokka head for the clothesline he sighed and followed, selecting the first outfit that was in his size. Haru took a basic red suit with black pants, while he saw Suki take a dark red dress similar to her old uniform. When everyone had stolen a disguise they retreated to the cave that Appa was in, each taking a few minutes to put on their new clothes.
"This feels weird," Haru said, finding the Fire Nation colors hard to get used to.
"Feels fine to me," Toph said, while ripping the soles off a pair of shoes.
"That's because colors mean nothing to someone that's blind," Haru reasoned.
"Yup," Toph agreed, putting on her new soleless shoes.
Nearby Sokka stood at the cave entrance, while Katara was next to him. "We'll be back in a few hours," Sokka said.
"Where are you two going?" Aang asked.
"Shopping," Sokka answered.
Katara glared at her brother. "Seriously?" she asked.
"Among other things," Sokka added. He pointed a thumb at Aang's head arrow tattoo. "That needs a hat to cover up while we're incognito. And we need to find out what the Fire Lord looks like before we can find him."
"What should the rest of us do?" Haru asked.
Toph raised her hand. "We can share earthbending techniques."
"Like that trick that lets you fake sight?" Haru said.
"Yup," Toph answered. "And there are a few other things I want to try."
"You do that," Sokka said, already walking out of the cave with Katara.
For the first time since leaving the South Pole, the two Water Tribe siblings wandered with just each other for company. It seemed like a lifetime had passed since they found Aang in the iceberg, both seeing so much of the world in so little time. Neither had expected to end up in the Fire Nation when they had left home, much less on a mission to assassinate the Fire Lord.
While walking down a dirt path in a thin forest, Sokka and Katara were the only people in the area. "So how's Gran Gran?" Katara asked.
"She was just fine when I left," Sokka answered. "But that was just a week after you left."
"What took you so long to catch up?" Katara asked.
Sokka glared at his sister. "Hey, at least I made it to the North Pole. No one told me you guys stopped halfway there."
Katara raised one eyebrow. "You reached the North Pole? When?"
"Before the last lunar eclipse," Sokka answered. "You must have noticed it."
"Yeah, when my waterbending stopped working," Katara said. "Did something happen during it where you were?"
Sokka stretched his arms behind his back. "Well… I tried to save the Northern Water Tribe."
"Tried?" Katara questioned. "How'd you screw up this time?"
"I didn't have Aang with me," Sokka answered, jerking a thumb back towards the cave.
"That would have helped," Katara commented. "He did save a swamp tribe with some kind of giant spirit monkey."
The image that made in Sokka's imagination made him laugh. "I'd say you're joking, if I hadn't seen a giant spirit owl."
It was Katara's turn to laugh. "Did your spirit animal talk too?"
"Too much," Sokka joked. "And I pissed it off too."
Katara laughed even harder. "How'd you do that?"
"I threw a book at it," Sokka answered. At that moment he noticed that they were about to enter the local town, which wasn't the place for the current conversation. "Well, let's get what we need and get out."
Back at the cave Suki watched the earthbenders practice their techniques, keeping an eye out for any wandering Fire Nation folk that might stumble upon them. Toph had a few new ideas for earthbending, now that she had a fellow earthbender as well as the Avatar to fight alongside. Aang and Haru thought Toph was crazy at first, before she explained how her idea worked.
"This should be good," Suki muttered to herself, sitting on a stone and resting her head on her hands.
First to earthbend was Toph, shaping stone from the cave around herself into the twenty foot tall golem that she was fond of. Haru mimicked the earthbending to make his own stone titan, just as tall but narrower and blocky with his face exposed in the titan's head. Aang used his own earthbending to make a ten foot tall stone armor around himself, going for mobility over size. Toph gave Aang and Haru a little bit of time to get accustomed to bending so much earth at once, before they started sparring.
Haru started by charging straight at Toph, ramming the titan's shoulder into the golem's chest. Pieces of rock broke off both of them, scattering gravel onto the cave floor. Toph retaliated by slamming her golem's fist into the titan's back, knocking it onto its hands and knees. She raised her golem's arms to strike again, but was interrupted by Aang jumping underneath her and landing an uppercut in the golem's torso. As Toph's golem stumbled back Aang swung a kick, but was thwarted by Haru swinging his titan's arm and tossed Aang away.
Aang slammed into the cave wall and fell to the floor, which shook when Haru tackled Toph and the weight of the golem and titan hit the ground. Aang got up and ran back into battle, slamming into Toph and knocking her into the wall. But that tactic left Aang open to Haru, whose titan grabbed Aang's armor by the leg and swung him into Toph's golem. Aang armor broke apart he fell to the floor, while Toph's golem stumbled into the cave wall.
Loose rock broke off the cave ceiling in the impact, forcing Suki to take cover. "Watch it!" Suki yelled. She saw Toph's golem tackle Haru's titan, shoving him into another wall and making the cave shake again. "You're going to cause a cave in!"
While the golem and titan grabbled Aang leaped on top of them both, bringing down his fists and hitting both of them at once. Aang's earthbending make cracks spread from where his fists struck, which covered both golem and titan in seconds. After his earthbending Aang dropped to the floor, and behind him the golem and titan broke apart. As the rock crumbled Toph and Haru fell onto the floor, both getting back on their feet and facing Aang.
After a few seconds of glaring at each other, all three of them started laughing. "Well that was fun," Aang said.
Leaning against the cave wall, Haru stretched his arms. "That's quite a workout."
"Let's go again," Toph said.
"Not a good idea," Suki interrupted. She gestured to all of the rock broken off the cave walls and ceiling, which had hundreds of cave bugs hopping all over the place. "You guys might collapse the entire cave."
"Like anyone would miss this place," Toph said.
As if on cue Suki heard several sets of footsteps coming from outside the cave. "You were saying?"
"Hide," Haru ordered.
Aang created one of his air spheres and rode it to the back of the cave, where Appa was still sleeping. He quickly earthbended a stone wall to hide the sky bison, but left several holes for Appa to breathe. While Aang hid with Appa the others made their own hiding places, Toph choosing to hide below the floor while Haru hid in a wall with Suki.
Looking through small eye holes Haru earthbended, Suki looked towards the cave entrance. She expected a squad of Fire Nation troops investigating the sounds made by earthbenders, but that wasn't what she saw entering the cave. Instead she saw a Fire Nation couple enter, both middle aged with short black hair.
The man looked around the cave, seeing the rubble left by the earthbending. "You know what this means?"
The woman nodded, seeing the same signs. "Yes I do."
Suki clenched her fists, expecting the couple to discover them any moment. "We have to stop them," Suki whispered to Haru.
"On three," Haru whispered. He got ready to earthbend, while watching the couple through eye holes in the rock. "One… Two…"
Right then the woman turned around and raised her voice. "Kids, bring the baskets!"
"Baskets?" Suki muttered.
Five children ran into the cave, each carrying a pair of wicker baskets. There were four girls in front between five and ten years old, followed by an eight year old boy wearing a shirt with I love grilled hoppers hand stitched into it. All of the kids started digging in the rubble, collecting the cave hoppers that had been disturbed in the earthbending. Grabbing handfuls of bugs at a time, the kids stuffed them inside their baskets with lids to keep the bugs from hopping back out.
The father of the children smiled as he watched the kids collect cave hoppers. "Knew that earthquake would bring out the cave hoppers," he said to his wife.
"I'll get the grill heated up," the mother said, turning to leave the cave.
For several minutes the children collected cave hoppers while the father watched, waiting until each kid had completely filled their baskets. "Alright kids, let's get cooking."
As a group all five children walked out of the cave with their filled baskets, and their father left behind them. None of them had noticed the four people hiding in the cave behind earthbended rock, who remained hidden for several minutes after the family had left. When it appeared to be safe the three earthbenders opened their hiding places, walking back into the main part of the cave.
"What just happened?" Suki asked.
Aang scratched his head. "I think we just helped feed a Fire Nation family."
Toph started patting her stomach, which rumbled loud enough for everyone to hear. "How do you think they cook those bugs?"
Haru looked at his friends, wondering if they were thinking the same thing he was. He eyed the cave exit, and noticed Suki doing the same and Toph leaning in that direction. At the same time all three of them ran for the exit, while Aang stood still and watched them leave for food. Aang would have left with them, if the food had been vegetarian instead of bugs.
Inside the local Fire Nation town, Sokka and Katara completed most of their shopping in an hour. Sokka purchased a large red bag to hold their supplies, which reminded him of the green one he had back in the Earth Kingdom. Katara found a red woolen hat for Aang to cover his arrow tattoo with, along with red gloves to cover the arrows on the back of his hands. And then Sokka purchased an item that he wished he had months ago, a Fire Nation map.
"Finally," Sokka muttered, walking out of the store with Katara. "This is going to make getting around a lot simpler."
"You do know how to read that, right?" Katara asked.
Sokka partly unrolled the map as he walked, enough to see the main islands of the Fire Nation. And there was a big black star on the largest island, indicating the capital city. "See, that's where we need to go."
"Doesn't tell us much about what's there," Katara said.
"That's what we have Toph for," Sokka said. He rolled up the map and put it away, and then noticed his stomach rumbling. "Hey, do you want to eat here or head back to the others first?"
Katara shrugged. "I don't feel like cooking today."
After a short stroll through the town Sokka spotted an outdoor stand where a merchant was selling hot meals. On the menu was a slice of meat held in a piece of bread split down the middle, with hot sauce on top of the meat. The merchant called it a 'hot cat-dog' and was selling them to anyone walking by that wanted to try it. Sokka bought a pair for himself while Katara only wanted one.
With their hot cat-dogs in hand Sokka and Katara sat down on an outdoor bench with a wooden table, which was next to a small park. While she ate Katara watched several small children play in the park, who only cared about their game of hide and explode. Sokka unrolled his map on the table and examined it while he ate, being careful to not spill hot sauce on it.
"This is really good," Sokka said, finishing the last bite of his first cat-dog.
Since her mouth was full, Katara only nodded in agreement.
Looking over the map, Sokka formed a plan for how to get into the capital city without being discovered. With flight at their disposal they could reach any part of the island, bypassing the only port it had which would be under constant surveillance. According to the map the southern coastline of the island was a sheer cliff, worn completely smooth by crashing waves and tides. It seemed simple enough to have Aang and Haru earthbend a landing site when they get there, then tunnel their way to the capital city undetected.
"Okay, I've got step one figured out," Sokka whispered.
Katara finished her cat-dog before whispering back. "What about step two?"
"We still need to find out what the Fire Lord looks like," Sokka answered. He took a moment to finish his second cat-dog before continuing. "All I have to go on is Sparky's face, but that assumes his old man looks like an older version of him."
"He might also resemble that princess that chased us a while back," Katara said.
"Princess?" Sokka questioned, along with a slight snicker.
"Black hair in bangs, same eyes as Sparky, bends blue fire," Katara described. "Ring any bells?"
"Not really," Sokka admitted. There was one person he knew was close to that description, but lacked the blue fire part.
Then Katara put a hand to her face. "Sorry, forgot you weren't there when she attacked us."
"That's okay," Sokka said. "Still, it shouldn't be hard to find the Fire Lord. He'll probably have guards and wear some kind of crown."
"Probably armed guards," Katara assumed. The thought of fighting during the eclipse brought up a question. "Sokka, we're probably going to end up fighting indoors. If we're not outside, how are we going to know when the eclipse starts?"
Sokka paused at that question, having never thought about that issue before. But a simple and practical solution came to mind. "We'll just have Aang hold a fireball while we wait for the eclipse. When it goes out on its own, we'll know that firebending is off."
"That's… actually pretty clever," Katara said. "We should get back and tell the others."
"I wonder what they're up to," Sokka said.
Toph, Suki, and Haru followed the Fire Nation family to their home, which happened to be the farm that they had stolen clothes from earlier. From a distance Suki and Haru watched the parents cook outside, taking turns firebending into a grill. The cave hoppers the children collected had their heads removed, while the rest of their bodies were seasoned and grilled to a golden brown. The aroma of grilling cave hoppers reached Suki and her friends, making all three bellies rumble.
"So are we going to steal food now too?" Haru asked.
"Just our cut of it," Toph reasoned. "They did get a lot of bugs because of us."
Suki gestured towards the farm's clothesline, which used to have the clothes they were all wearing now. "How are we going to keep them from noticing their own clothing?"
"Like this," Toph answered. She earthbended the ground beneath her feet, making her sink beneath the surface with barely a sound.
A slight ripple in the ground showed where Toph was tunneling, only noticeable if one knew to look for it. That ripple moved into the farm and stopped near a table, which had several plates of grilled cave hoppers on it. Toph bended the ground beneath the table to make a miniature earthquake, which shook one of the plates off the table. When the plate hit the ground Toph made it sink beneath the ground, falling into her waiting hands below. With her meal Toph headed back to her friends, filling in the tunnel she just made.
Toph popped back up from the ground and offered the plate with grilled cave hoppers to Suki and Haru. "Lunch is served."
Cautiously Haru sampled one of the cave hoppers, finding it crunchy yet tasteful. "This is better than I was expecting."
"I guess anything can be good if cooked right," Suki said, taking a bite for herself.
"Yup," Toph added, stuffing her mouth.
When they finished eating they left the plate on the ground where anyone could see it, leaving it there for the family to find later. It only took a few minutes to reach the cave, with Appa still sleeping in the back. Aang was sitting on the cave floor with his back resting against Appa's fur, trying to take a nap. He heard his friends coming back into the cave, so he stopped trying to nap and stood up.
"Hey guys," Aang greeted. "Did they have any vegetables?"
"Nope," Toph answered. Then she noticed two more people approaching the cave. "Maybe Sugarqueen and Snoozles got some green stuff?"
A second later Katara and Sokka entered the cave, hearing Toph's nicknames. "Please don't call us that again," Katara asked.
"Sure thing, Sweetness," Toph said.
"Not what I meant," Katara complained, shaking her head in frustration. She turned her attention to Aang, handing him the red hat and gloves she bought earlier. "Here Aang, these will help cover up."
"Thanks," Aang said, trying on the hat and gloves.
"We also got this map," Sokka said, showing it to everyone. "We should be good to go for the eclipse."
"Great," Aang said. Then his belly started rumbling. "Hey, did you pick up some veggies in town?"
Sokka patted the back of his head, feeling his stomach sinking fast. "Uh…"