Chapter Forty Three
The Kyoshi Warriors
A full week had passed since they had set out from Bao Hu. Azula, Mai, And Ty Lee had made what Azula deemed to be acceptable progress towards Ba Sing Se, having come over a hundred miles. The problem was, unfortunately, that Azula had not bought enough food for their journey. Perhaps it was because she had been emotionally compromised after another defeat by her uncle, or maybe it was simply an unfortunate byproduct of her royal upbringing that she didn't accurately estimate the amount of food that they would need, as logistics for a large host of trained soldiers did not translate well to three teenage girls, but all the same, as of that morning their food had run out.
Azula had developed a strategy to negate the negative fallout of this blunder, or at least part of it. She had decided to blame Ty Lee.
"Really, Ty Lee, this is ridiculous." Azula said, "You really should have thought ahead. This is exactly the sort of thing that Zuko would do; remembering to bring money but not food."
Little did Azula know, Zuko had done exactly that.
"I'm sorry." Ty Lee said in a small voice, "I didn't realize, but I should've known it was my job. I shouldn't have expected you to buy everything."
"It's not your fault, Ty Lee," Mai said, "There are three of us, and so the three of us should've checked over everything. The blame should be carried by us all."
Azula rolled her eyes. She could live with that, and making Ty Lee upset was not nearly as fun as it used to be. Had she grown soft?
"I suppose you have a point, Mai." Azula admitted, "At least the animals have enough food. We might be able to hunt for more, though I don't know how exactly we're supposed to cook it."
"Maybe," Mai said, "And this is just an idea, so hear me out, we use fire."
Azula rolled her eyes again, and Ty Lee snorted. "Wow, what an ingenious plan. I never would have…" Azula trailed off, noticing the signs of past battle on the road before them.
The broken haft of a spear protruded from a thicket of brambles, the remnants of a bow lay splintered against a stone. Shattered arrows were scattered across the road, their heads salvaged for later use. Azula raised her hand and called for a halt, Mai and Ty Lee ceased their banter and stopped. Azula dismounted, taking Sugar Foot by the reins and leading her forward. Mai and Ty Lee followed suit.
"There was a fight here!" Ty Lee gasped. Azula nodded, forgoing any cutting remarks, as Ty Lee had not been ordered to watch the road before them. Azula eyed the battlefield, wondering if it might be in their best interest to follow the fighters, but decided against it. For all of their collective skills, their immense education, and their sheer prowess in battle and strategy, they had the combined tracking ability of an unwashed teaspoon. The best they could manage would be to establish if either side had lost, or if the battle had ended in a draw or even a route. Maybe.
Azula handed her reins to Mai and bid Ty Lee to do the same. The two of them inspected the stretch of road.
"The archer laid in wait behind the stone outcropping, which was likely put there by an earthbender going by the look of it." Azula said.
"How do you know that?" Ty Lee asked.
In answer, Azula pointed to the sharp edges and corners of the rock. "A stone like that wouldn't look so precisely cut if it were a natural formation. Even if it was placed here as a marker, a mere few months would be enough time for the wind and rain to erode the sharp edges, rounding them and wearing them down."
"How long ago do you think it happened?" Ty Lee asked, "I don't think it could have been more than a few days. It might have been only yesterday."
Azula raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Why do you say that?"
Ty Lee tugged at her braid awkwardly for a few moments before continuing. She stepped lightly towards the shadow of the trees and picked up a metal object, a broken sword. "It's like the rocks; if it had been here for very long, the metal would have rusted. But," She tilted the blade for Azula to see that just a light sprinkle of the red-brown corrosion had taken hold of the weapon, "There's barely any on here."
"When I was with the circus," Ty Lee continued, "If a tool like, an axe or a hammer, was left out for more than a day or two, it would be covered in rust and whoever left it out would have to spend hours scouring it with sand to get it off."
Azula nodded in understanding, before looking back towards Mai, as she assumed that Mai would have at least a working knowledge of such things, given her proclivity for knives. The young woman nodded in confirmation to what Ty Lee had said. Azula returned her attention to the section of road that had been an impromptu battle field. She couldn't glean much more, other than that it appeared the ambushed group had prevailed and routed their attackers. Down the highway, strangely enough. Azula thought that was odd: why would a group of highwaymen, as it was likely these were the same robbers they had been warned of, flee down the road instead of into the forest? She wouldn't expect them to jump into the river, but… the river. Maybe that was it. Maybe, just maybe, they had a small fleet of riverboats stashed for a short trip down the road or were hiding out in a town nearby. Either way, Azula wanted to find out. If there was a town, she wanted to get there to resupply, or even find passage to Ba Sing Se.
Azula remounted and ordered Mai And Ty Lee to do the same. Within moments, the three of them were off at a run.
Sokka wondered if the dull ache in his chest would ever go away. It had been nearly two months since Yue's passing, and still, his heart pained him. She had been gone for nearly as long as he had known her, yet the pain was with him all the same. Would it ever go? Would he carry it forever? In every waking moment, through all the long years of his life, in bright summer days and through long winter nights? Would his only respite and relief be the time spent in the void? He didn't know, and he wasn't eager to find out. So, he found ways to distract himself.
For example, at that moment, he was sparring with Zuko. The Fire Nation prince was surprisingly, annoyingly, infuriatingly good with his swords. Sokka knew that he had been trained, and had seen him fight with them before, but this was the first time he had been his opponent directly. Sokka was tempted to use Koh's Mantle, but his honor as a swordsman was on the line. If Zuko didn't resort to using his fire, Sokka wouldn't use his… shadows.
"Your footwork is pretty good," Zuko said, "But you're announcing your feints."
"How so?" Sokka asked, curious, one eyebrow raised as he lowered his sword.
"Your left shoulder dips down when you plan to pull a strike." Zuko answered. Sokka nodded, and resolved to correct the mistake. Before long, the pair broke for lunch, as prepared by Katara, who was the only member of the group who knew how to cook.
Aang and Toph returned from their own training, and Appa lounged on the dry, cracked earth, freshly bathed. Zuko had informed them that he and Toph had been following a trail of bison fur, and Sokka had done the obvious thing and suggested giving Appa a bath. It had washed clean all of the shedding hair, and in everyone's opinion did the far more important job of removing the horrendous smell of the animal.
Sokka looked over to Katara, who had been incredibly bored. As they drew nearer to the desert, water had been in shorter supply. Zuko had asked if they could stock up on as much as they could, because he didn't want to be stuck in the desert without enough to drink. Katara had agreed, but there was a point of argument when Zuko had asked her not to practice bending, as he was concerned about losing water to evaporation. Katara had admitted to not knowing how to draw water from the air, so she had reluctantly not been practicing her bending. This left her nothing to do but read one of Zuko's two books, the one about the philosophy of a long-dead king. Now that the others were done training, she was overjoyed to have something else to do.
"So, Zuko," Katara started, "How do you like being a firebender?"
Zuko paused, his rice halfway to his mouth. "Uh, it's okay, I guess. I mean, I don't really have to worry about getting too hot or too cold usually. And I never have to worry about being without my element, since I can make fire."
"That must be nice," Katara said, with a hint of jealousy creeping into her voice.
"Uh…" Zuko said, trailing off as he realized his mistake. Katara would be largely without water once they got to the Si Wong. Fortunately, Aang came to his rescue.
"Zuko," The Avar began, "What's the most impressive thing you've done with firebending?"
Zuko paused again, and this time he set his bowl and chopsticks down. He looked thoughtful for a second, before saying, "I soothed a volcano once."
"How long did it take you to do that?" Toph asked, propping her feet up on a pillar of earth.
Zuko waved a hand in the air vaguely, "Uh… six hours? I lost count."
Aang blinked at Zuko. His eyebrows furrowed and he frowned. "It takes a team of highly trained, specialized firebenders weeks to soothe a volcano. You don't have to lie to impress us, or exaggerate."
"He's not lying." Toph and Sokka said at the same time. They looked at each other. Well, Sokka looked at Toph and Toph looked in Sokka's general direction, but she did her best.
"How can you tell?" Sokka asked, confused.
"People's bodies react when they lie, and I can sense it with earthbending. How can you tell?"
"Um," Sokka wiggled his fingers, "Creepy spirit powers."
"I… see." Toph said. Aang blinked in wonder at having two lie detectors on their team, and then blinked in astonishment at Zuko's feat.
"Zuko! That's amazing! Can you teach me how to do that?"
Zuko rubbed at his good eye, careful not to touch the scar on his left. "I can and will teach you the technique I used, but maybe hold off on the volcano thing. It's complicated." The vivid memory of him being stuck in place as heat rushed through his body and into the air passed through his mind. "I think I'm the only person to have ever tried it, so the kinks haven't been worked out."
Aang looked a bit dejected, but he nodded in understanding. "I understand. When I first tried to learn firebending, I got impatient and started playing with the fire I was supposed to be holding. I ended up starting a forest fire, and that's how Azula and Zhao tracked us down and captured Sokka and I."
"Yeah, I saw the smoke from my ship," Zuko said.
"Anyway," Aang said, "What's your best firebending move? Can you make lightning? I know you can catch it and then throw it back, but…"
"No, I haven't mastered lightning yet," Zuko said, "And it's called lightning redirection. It's probably my second-best move."
Sokka, who along with the others had been paying close attention to the conversation, raised his eyebrows. "What is your best move? Was that the one you were trying to figure out when Iroh told you about the spirit thing?"
"Yes, that is the one." Zuko said, "And I think I'll just show you rather than try and explain it. I need to practice more anyway."
"Is it the loud one?" Toph asked. Zuko nodded. Toph stood and walked over to Zuko. "How far?"
"A hundred yards?" Zuko said, though his answer sounded more like a question. Toph focused on the distance and stomped a foot, causing a man-sized pillar of stone to appear exactly one hundred yards from Zuko.
Sokka, curious about what was about to happen, opened his third eye. He watched as Zuko measured his breathing, and the golden light that was his firebending chi swirled through his body. It pooled in his mind and condensed. Zuko took a sharp, clean breath. His stomach clenched tightly and a line of fire shot from his ruined left eye.
The line of fire zipped across the open ground in a few seconds, and the stone pillar exploded when it made contact. Sokka's jaw dropped open, Katara stared in awe, and Aang leapt into the air and sped around on his airscooter. The Last Airbender was chanting "He's got a laser eye!" over and over again.
"That's called combustion bending." Zuko said, "And it's one of the most powerful attacks in the entire discipline of firebending."
Azula slowed the group to a walk as they neared the crest of the hill. The sound of fighting could be heard on the other side, and she did not plan on running into the fray at a full sprint, if at all. She dismounted, and her friends followed suit.
Azula was the first to crest the hill, which was only natural given her station, and was… surprised by what she saw. Five young women clad in ornate green armor were fighting at least fourteen grown men, two of whom were earthbenders. The female warriors had ostrich-horses, or at least that was the reasonable inference given the five animals that meandered along the side of the road a safe distance from the battle. Mai and Ty Lee crested the hill soon after and were evidently surprised by what they saw.
"Do you think we should help them?" Ty Lee asked. Azula frowned with slight confusion.
"Why would we do that?" She inquired with a raised eyebrow.
"It's the right thing to do." Ty Lee said in a small voice, barely audible despite their close proximity. Azula looked at her in incredulity. Mai offered another answer.
"They might have food." Mai began, "They're wearing uniforms, so it stands to reason that they are some official Earth Kingdom force. Making a good impression could help us get into Ba Sing Se, should we convince them to vouch for us."
Azula nodded slowly, agreeing with Mai. She decided not to press Ty Lee for her childish reasoning, for the girl had always been rather soft-hearted. She gave quick orders and led the three of them into the fray. Limited to non-bending as she was, she assigned Ty Lee to pursue the benders, as she had the best close-quarters combat skill among them for dealing with benders. One of the highwaymen was using a bow, so naturally, she ordered Mai to neutralize the weapon.
As for herself, Azula opted to fight the spearmen who had cornered one of the female warriors. She fell into a low sprint, close to the ground, and dodged strikes from various weapons as she ran. As she closed the distance, one of the spearmen thrust towards the warrior, who ducked to the side and quickly snapped the head off the spear. Before she could follow through with a strike of her own, the two remaining spears stabbed at her. She barely twisted out of the way, and her back was nearly pressed against the large stone they had cornered her against.
As the man with the now broken spear tossed aside his weapon and drew a horribly spiked mace, Azula made it to the fray. She swept the legs from under the leftmost man, knocking him to the ground. In a sharp wheel kick, she slammed her heel into the sprawled man's solar plexus, driving the air from his lungs and cracking his ribs. As the man gasped and moaned in pain, she sprung into further action against the remaining spearmen, who had changed their attention to focus on her instead of the warrior, much to their own doom. The moment their gaze shifted, the warrior struck like a viper and shattered the hand of one man before she rendered the last man unconscious.
"Thanks." Said the young woman with a smile, "That was getting too close for comfort."
Azula, who had never been gracious by nature, was struggling to find something that was appropriate to say in the context of the moment when there was a startled cry from across the battlefield.
"Witch!" Screamed an earthbender, struggling in vain to earthbend, "She's a witch! She stole my bending with her dark magics!"
"What?!" Azula said in disbelief, "You are an idiot, you blithering buffoon. There's no such thing as magic!" Except, she remembered, for a single, glowing sword.
"Then explain how she-!" Said the bender, before being completely immobilized by the chi-blocker, "Oh spirits, she's killed me! Is this what death is like? Can anyone hear me? Oh please, please, no!"
"You're not dead, Chin." Said the other earthbender, the judgment and disdain evident in his voice. "Although, you are perhaps the worst criminal leader in the history of crime. Why did any of us ever listen to you?"
"Because you are a collection of violent dullards who lack the intelligence given to a pair of stones when you rub them together?" Said one of the warriors, a different girl from the one Azula had rescued. Azula took a quick scan of the battle, and saw that it was over. Two men were pinned to trees by Mai's knives, and the archer was being hog-monkey tied by one of the warriors, the other soldiers were either tied or unmoving, and Azula presumed them to be unconscious.
Azula looked at Ty Lee. "Would you get on with it? Stop toying with him."
Ty Lee frowned. "You're no fun." And in less than a second she had the last of the criminals unmoving on the ground. The bender groaned, and said. "I never should have dropped out of dentistry school."
"Alright," Sokka said, pointing at his diagram with a long, thin stick he found. "So this is the plan. We go into the Si Wong desert and make for the Misty Palms Oasis. Once there, we will ask around to find if anybody has heard anything about a strange library or spirity building in the desert."
"Spiritual." Aang corrected, and everyone turned their attention to him. "Spirity isn't… a word. Sorry."
"Moving on," Sokka said, "To maximize our effective information gathering, I have split the group into three teams."
"Nah, I'll just go with Zuzu," Toph cut in.
"Sorry Toph," Sokka answered, "But Zuko's going with Aang. You're with Katara."
"What?! Why?" Toph asked. Katara looked mildly offended, but Sokka explained before she could say anything.
"I'm glad you asked!" Sokka said, "First off, you and Katara have spent almost no time together since you joined our group. I know you and Zuko are close, but it's important to build friendships with everyone to maintain a healthy group dynamic. Second, Katara is a waterbender, and there is no water in the desert. She'll be limited to whatever water she can carry, so I want someone without those restrictions to be nearby if something happens."
"Then why not Zuko? Or Aang?" Toph asked.
"I'm pairing Zuko with Aang because he's a firebender and prince of the Fire Nation. If he's recognized or has to firebend at some point, it's better that the Avatar's with him to vouch."
"Then what about you?" Zuko asked, "Who are you going with?"
"Maybe his girlfriend sent him a secret message to meet her there," Katara said innocently.
"I do not have a girlfriend," Sokka said, glaring at her.
"See, you say that, but then you and Azula get all smoochy whenever you too meet," Katara said.
"She is not my girlfriend, and that was literally one time. And she had me in chains, I didn't get a choice!" Sokka barked back at her.
During this exchange, Zuko held an expression that went from amusement to confusion, to horror, and finally to fury in seconds.
"What are you talking about? Answer me!" Zuko asked, at what he decided was a reasonable volume. Unfortunately, what was reasonable to Zuko coincidentally happened to be the volume appropriate for a sea battle in a hurricane.
Sensing an impending disaster, Aang decided to play mediator and explained the situation, from Sokka's time in the void to the note that he left in her room to mock her. Zuko calmed somewhat, and then measured his breathing.
"I see." Zuko said, before looking at Katara, glaring sharply enough to cut steel, "She is not his girlfriend."
Katara paused, before saying, "Okay. Sokka, let's get back to your plan."
Sokka nodded, "Alright, so I'll be by myself, well actually I'll be with Momo but that's beside the point. After we gather what information we can, we'll comb the desert by air until we find it. Once inside, we'll have to search for anything we can find on the prophecy, v-"
"What prophecy?" Zuko interrupted.
"Eh, I only know a little about it," Aang said, rubbing the back of his head as he shrugged. "Basically, it goes, 'When the Avatar and the First Son unite with the heir to the dragon throne, the world will face great peril' or something like that."
"Oh, great," Said Zuko, throwing his hands in the air, "By switching sides I've made it worse." he shut his eyes tightly and pinched the bridge of his nose. In a whisper he said, "Why am I so bad at being good?"
"Eh," Sokka began, "I don't think that your joining up with us was some sort of catalyst. I think that a prophecy is more of an identifier of imminent danger than a warning not to do something."
"Let's get back to the plan." Toph said, laying back where she sat and staring sightlessly at the sky. In her expert opinion, the entire discussion was rather boring.
"Right, so, yeah," Sokka continued, "At that point, when we're in the library, I say we split up again. No point in everyone searching for the same thing in the same place. Aang will look for stuff on Vaatu, Katara will look for …. something" At this point, Zuko gave him a confused look, and so Sokka waggled his fingers at him, "Weird spirit powers. Zuko can help one of them, and I'll look for ways to fight the Fire Nation."
"Uh," Zuko said, as he wasn't comfortable with the idea of finding potentially disastrous information that would lead to the destruction of the people he was meant to save, "I don't like that idea."
"Zuko," Aang said carefully, "I know you're the Fire Prince and all, and I don't like the idea of fighting either, but this is the best way of defeating the Fire Lord. We have to end the war."
Zuko frowned and looked like he was fighting some grand internal struggle, and coming to a decision he said, "If it's something that can get us past their defenses, sure. But if it's something that will kill thousands of people then I won't be able to support that."
"No," Sokka said, "I don't for a moment believe that anyone here would even consider that," He had at times considered the idea himself, wrapped in the void. In that cold and barren trance, that empty place of perfect stillness, the concept had seemed viable. When separate from his emotions, from his humanity, the human soul seemed to be worth very little. "If I find something like that, I'll put it back where I found it."
Zuko crossed his arms and furrowed his brow. "You would know, still, that such a way was possible. What if it came to the worst, and the only path to victory was slaughter? Could you ignore it even then?"
Sokka was silent for a long moment. He knew that in the darkest hour, when all seemed lost and the light of hope had faded, that men were capable of terrible things. His father had told him when he was a boy that the greatest cruelty lay buried in the depth of the human soul; that even a kind man could be driven to evil if all that he held dear was taken from him. He thought for a moment that if he were to enter the void, he could do anything. He would do anything, if he fell deep enough. Even still, he knew of a way.
"If I find something like that, a weapon or power that could destroy them, or even pull the sun from the sky, I shall scour the memory from my mind. I will take it, and hide it somewhere I would never think to look."
The group was silent for a moment, and then Toph said, "What does that even mean?"
Azula ate with little of the grace she usually carried. She ate, if she was being honest, like a peasant. The act of it was rather appalling to her, but if the Kyoshi warriors were to be deceived, such a sacrifice was needed. She viewed it as a sacrifice, but Ty Lee viewed it as a fun hobby to do with her new friends, never mind that the Kyoshi Warriors ate with poise. Mai just ate at her regular pace, albeit taking larger bites.
"So," Suki began, wiping her mouth with a cloth. The warriors had removed their face paint before sitting for the evening meal. "I don't believe that we've all introduced ourselves. That's Himari," Suki pointed out each warrior as she named them, and they all waved or bobbed their heads in turn. "Akara, Sara, and Haruhi."
Ty Lee waved energetically at the warriors, eager as ever to make new friends. Azula did not roll her eyes at the bubbly girl, despite wanting to. It wouldn't do to let slip the mask she had crafted, before even having a chance to show it off properly.
"I'm Ty Lee!" Ty Lee said, forgetting entirely the plan to use fake names. "That's Mai," Mai sighed and waved apathetically, "And this is Azula."
Azula grit her teeth for a fraction of a second, before smiling in what she hoped was a friendly way. Suki and her team didn't seem to recognize their names, not that Azula had expected them to recognize Mai or Ty Lee, but the fact that there was no reaction to the princess's name did irritate her a touch. She was the princess of the Fire Nation, and her beauty and cunning should be known the world over.
"Where're you girls from?" Suki asked, looking at them curiously.
"Omashu." Azula provided. She had come up with a cover story in advance and shared it with her friends. "We left before the siege."
"Siege?" Suki asked, alarmed. The other warriors looked up from their meals with concern. Evidently, the news of the fall of Omashu hadn't spread everywhere.
"Sadly," Azula said, "The city was taken by the Fire Nation. King Bumi simply surrendered, he put up no fight at all."
"I see…" Suki said, trailing off as her eyebrows furrowed in thought.
"How do you know that?" Asked one of the highwaymen, from his place tied to a tree. "If you left before the siege, then how do you know that King Bumi just gave up?"
Azula scowled at him. "It's no concern of yours."
"My sister lives in Omashu, I'd say it is a concern of mine." The criminal snapped back at her.
"I can't believe this." Mai said, "Azula, arguing with a criminal? Look, we heard it from another refugee in Gaoling. Now shut up before I tie your feet to my saddle and ride around for a while."
"Why were you in Gaoling?" Haruhi asked.
"We were looking for Azula's uncle." Ty Lee said.
"Oh? What's his name?" Akara inquired, "We might know of him."
"His name is Orochi," Azula said, with more speed than was strictly necessary in her effort to stop Ty Lee from giving away more information.
"Orochi… as in snake?" Suki asked slowly. Azula nodded.
"My grandfather was a herpetologist. He liked snakes."
Suki, after a pause and a perplexed facial expression, responded slowly. "...Okay."
"So where are you three headed now?" Haruhi asked.
"Ba Sing Se."
"That's where we're headed," Suki said. "There's a village a little under a day's walk east of here, where we'll drop off these criminals. We'll resupply there and head straight for the city. You're welcome to join us if you'd like."
Azula blinked in surprise. That had been her goal, of course, to get the Kyoshi warriors to bring them into the city. She had not expected that it would be so easy. "That is most considerate. We would love to travel with you."
Author's Note.
Hello all, I am terribly sorry for the long wait. I had meant to finish the chapter in a few days, yet here we are nearly three months later. To be honest, I had intended to have the entire thing done by July, but I highly doubt that will happen.
My Life has been pretty busy for a while. I got a GF, made a bunch of friends for the first time (I was a loner and a homeschooled kid) and then my brother got into a motorcycle accident and lost his leg. So I spent a few days a week for around a month driving from where I live to a university hospital, which took up a lot of time as it was nearly a hundred miles away.
Anyway, I'm single again now so I'll have more free time to write. It's good for I now have time to practice writing so that I can pursue my life ambition. I'm going to get on the New York Times Best Seller List. Unless AI takes over the field of writing fiction, which it might.
If you're still with me after all this time, thank you. I'll try not to make you wait anymore.
Charlamagne OR WHATVER
