Chapter 16
Zuko's POV
I don't know how long I have been sitting there reading and rereading that letter over and over again, but I still wound up clueless. Looking over to Xueyou, he had this large smirk to his face, like he was in on the biggest scam of the world, or like he knew that if I opened my desk drawer, a fruit pie would just spring in my face.
"What?"
"Oh, nothing…"
Getting really annoyed by this point, I turned my eyes back to the letter, and said, "Do you possibly know what this means? What he is saying because I have no clue?"
If his face could be any smugger than what it held right now, I would be worried that his ego was so big and how it hadn't crushed him by now, "Ah, in due time My Lord, I believe that, as a dragon knows when to hatch from its egg, in due time, you will know exactly what to do."
Glaring back at the man, "You know I really do get annoyed when you and Uncle avoid the question by using one of your proverbs?"
Smiling, "Ah yes, but it is that annoyance at our proverbs, that we at least know that you are still listening to us."
I had to roll my eyes at that, but it was true, I did listen and hang to nearly every word these old men would tell me. I know that Uncle appreciates it, especially after everything that had happened with Azula and Ozai, but the thing is, as much as it was the whole routine, it gets a little old, I did appreciate the fact that Uncle cares enough about me to mentor me. He was much more of a father than Ozai, and I could never repay him for that.
Katara's POV
I kept pushing through all of the skirts, trying to run as fast I could from him. My hair by now was flying all over the place, and I knew that my makeup was probably streaming down my face in ribbons of blue, black, and red.
Oh great! I am the punch line to that stupid ass joke.
You would think that as a water bender I should be able to stop myself from crying all over myself, but I don't think that that is going to be happening very soon for me. However, when I heard voices coming down from the way I was running, it was like something snapped inside of me, and my crying immediately stopped. Listening to see who it was, I could tell that the voices from down the hall were some of the tribesmen I traveled with.
Panic-stricken fear grew inside of me, and I looked around for some way to avoid them. I almost went the opposite way that I came, but I remembered why I went down this way in the first place. Dread overcame me as I pressed myself against the wall, wishing that somehow I could blend in a red wall with this blue dress.
Suddenly, a sense of vertigo overcame me, and I felt like I was falling down into the deepest black abyss, only to be seized and enclosed within its grasp.
Unknown POV
Steam thickened the air within the tent. Darkness overhangs the small space, except in the center where I was sitting with a few candles. The tent flap behind me whipped open and the barest semblance of light from the moon shone into the tent.
"Sir, according to one of our sources there seems to be another wedding due in the process of the Fire Nation. A sort of treaty with the Water Tribes, by way of using their princess in an arranged marriage."
I looked over at the young lieutenant, "Is that all?"
"Yes, sir."
"A treaty… The Fire Nation has truly fallen since that no-good, snot nosed brat took the throne from Fire Lord Ozai. Very well, how long do we have until the wedding date?"
"We are not currently aware of this information yet sir. It seems that the current Fire Lord was a little reluctant to bind the two nations with a treaty by marriage."
I raised my eyebrow, "Oh?"
"Yes sir, it seems that the Fire Lord did not approve in marrying off the princess to one of the Fire Nation noblemen."
"Why?"
The boy gulped, "It seems that the princess and the young Fire Lord were traveling together as friends and allies of the Avatar as his Fire and Water bending teachers."
I was getting rather testy, "So?"
"I don't know sir. They never told me. Maybe they are too good of friends?"
The boy was obviously scared by this point, shaking in his boots, "Get out of my site!"
He ran from the tent, and the candle flames were billowing from the change of the air.
Why would he not want a treaty for peace?