Sorry it took so long for me to post it.
"The Earth Camp"
Chapter 4
The afternoon sun shone overhead, it was hot, too hot, even for a Fire Bender. Zuko trudged on, it had only been a few hours since he killed the sea Serpent and freed the Serpent's Pass of the Fire Nation. It was weird how in only two days time, he would be thinking of his homeland as 'the Fire Nation', after all it was still his home, wasn't it?
Zuko, Lang and their commanding officer, Captain Loam continued their hike through the blazing desert. The banished prince had only a moment or two of rest before Loam pushed them to move on. Even when nearly their entire unit had been destroyed by the Serpent and the Fire Navy ships, Loam would not give up.
Escape seemed impractical, even though Zuko could easily defeat both Loam and Lang, the desert that they traveled in was relentless. When or if he got away from them, Zuko would have most certainly died from heat and lack of water. He knew how dangerous it could be traveling in the desert.
"Sir" Lang asked, breathlessly "What if there were more survivors?"
"They know their orders" Captain Loam said, while wiping a drop of sweat away from his eye. "They'll meet us at the camp."
At this point Zuko did not really care about their orders or anything like that. He would be happy when this was all over.
"How much farther." Lang complained.
Loam took out his map and replied. "About two miles before we see the walls of the camp." He rolled the map up and put it away.
Two miles? I guess it's not that bad, I have faced worse. Uncle and I traveled farther than that on no food and no water. I wonder what my uncle is doing right now? probably worried sick, Zuko thought while the three continued on.
ATLAB
Zuko had been gone for almost three days and Iroh was getting worried. He had hoped that his nephew just wanted to be by himself for awhile. But three days was way too long, he knew Zuko had learned his lesson a while ago about being on his own.
Something was definitely wrong. Zuko was so upset about him bringing up the fact that capturing the Avatar would, in all likelihood not help Zuko's situation with his father. It certainly did not help his nephew's attitude towards the whole thing.
Iroh knew his brother well, and he never regretted anything. He also suspected from the very beginning of his nephew's banishment, that things would never be the same. Now it seemed that Ozai never expected his son to return home with or without the Avatar.
It was now the mid-day rush at Pal's Tea shop and the tea shop was bustling and busy. Iroh waited on tables, taking the customer's orders one after another.
"Sir" One customer called out." May I have a refill" he said waving his empty tea cup."
"Just one moment!" Iroh shouted back while trying to balance a pile of empty tea cups and the tea pot. He struggled through the crowd until he came to the counter. Iroh set the tea cups down and turned back to pour the man his tea. But he was quickly interrupted by a women who called out,
"Sir may I have the Jasmine Tea, please"
"I'll be right with you" he said to her, but by then he was bombarded with many orders.
This is too much, Iroh thought I need to find my nephew. That is the priority, tea will need to wait.
"Mushi!" His boss, Pal called out, while handling some of his own customers. "I need you to clean tables eight and nine" he paused to listen to someone's order. "Where is Lee!" he shouted out frustrated. "This is the third day he missed this week."
"I don't know!" Iroh shouted, while ignoring some unhappy customer's order, "but I am going to find him." With that Iroh put down the tea and threw his apron to the ground. He began walking towards the door when Pal called out,
"Mushi if you leave…" Iroh paused at the door way. " you… you're fired." He finally said it. But Iroh did not care. Finding Zuko was more important than his job. Then with that he disappeared out the door, leaving Pal with a lot of unhappy customers.
ATLAB
The hot sand burned Zuko's feet as the prince continued on. They were nearing the main camp of the Earth Kingdom Army. In a normal situation the banished Fire prince might have felt a little nervous about entering a camp with thousands of Earth Benders just waiting for their chance to take out a Fire Bender. But this was definitely not an ordinary day. Zuko would just be glad when he had a chance just to sit down and relax.
The trio soon came to the wall surrounding the encampment. Two soldiers stood guarding the entrance.
"State your business" One guard said roughly.
"We are what's left of Unit 77" Loam said. "Our orders were to take Serpents Pass, then to meet up with the main army here and await further orders."
"Open the gate" the guard called out. Then with some earth bending the gate slid open.
"General Salto is expecting you" the other guard said after they were led through.
This Earth camp was nothing like the training camp that Zuko had been at only hours before, this one was much bigger and grander than the fire prince had expected.
As they were led through the camp, Zuko could feel the eyes of every soldier on them. He wondered if they some how sensed that he was a Fire Bender.
Now I am just being paranoid Zuko assured himself. No one here knows who I am.
They were led to an Earth building where Zuko assumed the General awaited them. As they stepped through the doorway and into the room, General Salto stood up from his desk.
"Greetings survivors of the 77th. I welcome you to the camp of the Earth Kingdom army." Salto said, as he bowed to them. "As I am sure you know, I am General Salto." He paused to stroke his long beard. "I am surprised that only three of you survived the encounter with only one small Fire Navy ship…"
"Sir, if I may interrupt" Loam said, when the general nodded he continued. "There were three Fire Navy ships, not one. Plus we had to get by the serpent as well."
"That's strange." General Salto said, sitting back down in his chair, "Our intelligence report from Ba Sing Se reported that there was only one small Fire Navy ship and it would be a minor mission." He paused, a confused look covering his face. "It must have been a miscommunication," he said waving it off. "But I am glad that you three have survived because we just received word from Ba Sing Se that the 77th is needed for a new mission."
Zuko stood beside Loam, and Lang stood on the other side of the captain, as General Salto opened a map and pointed to a place in the desert.
"A few months ago a battalion of Earth Kingdom soldiers were captured during battle, it will be your job to rescue them."
"How do you know they are still alive?" Captain Loam asked.
" We don't know, that's why you will be infiltrating the Fire Nation army," the General said.
"Sir, what about Full Moon bay? That will still need protecting" Lang spoke up.
"I am aware of that situation and I am sending two full battalions to protect it. You three are most needed for this mission. Since you are so few, I will be sending with you two of our most powerful Earth benders as well as a weapons expert. We have received word that a small group of Fire Benders are moving weapons through this road." He pointed to a road on the map. "What we need you to do is take out the Fire benders"
"Do you want us to destroy the weapons?" Lang asked
"Of coarse not" General Salto said, "Do not compromise this mission for any reason. You will be taking the Fire Bender's place. After you get into the Fire camp it will be up to you how you free the prisoners and get them back to the camp. You will be sent out first thing in the morning, that is the time the weapons will be moved. Good luck."
After the General was done talking they began to exit the General's quarters. Lang and Captain Loam had disappeared out the door when the General turned to Zuko.
"Is your name Lee?" he asked and Zuko nodded. "It seems that you made some very powerful friends in Ba Sing Se. I was requested to personally see if you survived the battle."
"Well wasn't that nice of them" Zuko said sarcastically and then exited the tent. The Dai Li is manipulating the army? Zuko thought, I'm going to need to be more careful. He hoped this mission was not going to be another 'miscommunication'.
Chapter 5 is coming soon. I usually try to post within 2 weeks. (or when ever I come out of shock from the season 2 finale)