Author's Note: Hi, guys. Sorry I didn't update yesterday. To be honest, I completely forgot. Also, I'm running out of chapters to upload because I haven't been writing as much. Feel free to kick my butt about it to get me in gear! Enjoy the chapter. - Fira
Twenty-two
It had been over an hour since Maya and Zuko had returned to the ship, but Uncle had never showed up. So, they returned to the hot springs with a few guards. Maya thought Uncle had probably just fallen asleep, but Zuko, ever the optimist, automatically thought he had gotten into some sort of trouble.
When they got to the hot springs, Uncle wasn't there, and it looked like some sort of struggle had taken place.
"Something's not right here," Zuko murmured, looking around.
Maya went over to the spring that she knew Uncle had been using. There was an odd pyramid-shaped piece of earth in the center of it, and the water was gone. "Look," she said.
"It looks like there's been a landslide, sir," one of the guards said to Zuko.
He studied the formation closely. "Land doesn't slide uphill." He stood up. "My uncle's been captured by earthbenders!"
The search for Uncle took all night, and into the morning. Although, it really wasn't much of a search. It was more of a really long waiting game. Early on in the search, Zuko had come across some very odd tracks. They were, he said, ostrich-horses, a favorite pack animal of the Earth Kingdom. So now, Maya and Zuko were following them. Zuko had sent the guards back to the ship, in case Uncle got free and returned.
Everything was quiet, the only noise being the sound of the rhinos' hoof-claws. And then Maya saw the Avatar's fluff-monster appear from above the tree line.
"The Avatar," Zuko said. He pulled on the reins, causing his rhino to turn in the direction of the bison. Then he stopped, and looked down at the tracks they were following. He looked back up at the bison, and then sighed and looked at the ground.
"Zuko?" Maya said gently. It was all she needed to say to get her point across. Do you really want to abandon your uncle?
"Come on," he said, turning back to the tracks. And then he looked down and saw something in the road. It was a sandal. It looked like the kind Uncle Iroh wore. Zuko hopped down off his rhino, picked up the sandal, and sniffed at it. Then he jerked his head away with a gag. "Yep. That's Uncle Iroh, all right. We're getting closer."
Maybe ten minutes later, Maya and Zuko were hiding in the bushes, watching a group of five Earth Kingdom soldiers speak harshly to an almost naked Uncle. It seems they'd had the decency to give him a loincloth.
"These dangerous hands need to be crushed!" one of the men was saying, and Maya wondered exactly what Uncle had been doing all this time to elicit such angry words.
She gasped when one of the men shoved him to his knees, holding him there. Then, the man who had spoken earthbended a boulder so that it hovered directly over Uncle's shackled hands. By the time he had begun to lower it, Maya and Zuko had burst from behind their cover and sprung into action.
Zuko made a flying leap at the boulder and kicked it away. Then he swung his leg around and brought the heel down on the chain that linked Uncle's handcuffs together, which caused them to break.
"Excellent form, Prince Zuko," Uncle complimented as he stood up.
"You taught me well, Uncle," Zuko replied, getting into a ready stance.
Maya had no weapons on her, and neither could she bend. But she knew how to fight well enough. A year on the streets had taught her to keep her wits about her. She also got into a ready stance.
One of the men laughed. "Give up now. It's three against five, and one of you is a girl. You are clearly outnumbered."
"That's true," Uncle said. "But you are clearly outmatched."
Then they attacked. Maya focused on the man closest to her. She dodged the rocks he chucked at her, each one whizzing past her head and thudding into the ground. When she was right up in his face, she grabbed his shoulders and brought a knee up into his groin. He fell to the ground, incapacitated.
Meanwhile, Uncle was using the chains of his manacles to swing a boulder around that had been earthbended at him. Then he stopped spinning and the boulder was released, flying into the man who had originally bended it. Zuko was also taking part in the fight, firebending at two of the men before they even had a chance to use their own bending. They crumpled to the ground at one blast each of a fireball.
The last man was Maya's. He tried to use earthbending to shift the dirt under her feet, but she jumped forward and landed in a roll. Then she got onto her hands and kicked the man's feet out from under him. He fell to the ground and while he was down, she stood up and shoved him off the cliff with her foot.
She took a few deep breaths, and then turned to grin wildly at Uncle and Zuko. "We did it," she said.
"I'm impressed," Uncle said, grinning back at her.
"Yeah, yeah," Zuko said. "We all fought pretty good." He put a hand on his uncle's shoulder. "Now will you please put on some clothes?"