Chapter 12 Lessons learned.
Azula and her brother awoke with the sun. As one began the day rousing his new student to begin their training, the other attempted to begin their morning routine. After slipping free from the blanket she shared with Connor, and dressing herself in all but her armor, Azula stopped herself, realizing that she hadn't brought any makeup with her. Sighing, she decided that she'd live without it, and attempted to put her own hair into a top knot… Though found it was significantly harder to do than her servants or Ty Lee had made it look especially without a mirror. Groaning, she pulled her hair back and folded it over once, wrapping the single tie she had around the loop she'd made, making a messy knot, with most of her hair falling behind her, and her bangs being more voluminous than usual. She huffed knowing she looked like a mess.
"You know, you look beautiful with your hair down." Azula heard Connor say from behind her.
Azula rolled her eyes playfully as she turned to face him. "I look beautiful however I wear my hair. It's just far more practical to have it kept out of the way."
Connor sat up, and got out of bed with a stretch. "You were right about the bed. It sucks." He said, before sitting back down. "What do we have planned for today?"
"I was thinking about joining Zuko in teaching The Avatar fire bending… You're more than welcome to come and watch, however I think since you have a proper earth bender around now, you should do a little bit of training with her." Azula said, grabbing Connor's pants, and tossing them at him.
He let the cotton hit him in the face and sighed. "You're right. I probably should." Connor pulled the pants off of his face, before standing up, and gathering the rest of his clothes.
Azula found her brother and The Avatar near the inverted base of one of the hanging temple buildings. "Good morning, brother." Azula said, before looking at Aang. "Avatar." She said formally.
"Good morning, Princess." Aang said, bowing to her. "Did you need something?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No. I figured that since you and my brother decided to begin training, I would come and join you." Azula said.
"That's ok, Zuko's already got the training covered." Aang said.
Azula narrowed her eyes at Aang. "You don't want me to train you for some reason." She accurately assessed.
"I mean." Aang stuttered. "It's not that I don't want to learn anything from you, it's just… I sorta think, you might be really… Really… tough to learn from."
"Oh nonsense. I'm far superior to Zuko at fire bending." Azula said with a scoff.
"I hate admitting this, but she's right Aang." Zuko said. "Azula's a prodigy. I would seriously consider learning a thing or two from her."
"Still. Have you begun with the basics?" Azula asked.
"I was just getting to that…" Zuko said, before looking back at Aang. "I know that you're nervous, but remember, fire bending itself is not something to fear." Aang took a deep breath. "But if you don't respect it, it'll chew you up and spit you out like an angry komodo-rhino!" Zuko shouted, causing Aang to flinch backwards.
"Oh, please with the theatrics, brother." Azula said with an eye roll, before stepping towards Aang. "Fire burns with the same intensity as the bender who wields it. If you're an emotional weakling it'll never grow beyond a flicker, if you're too passionate it becomes its own entity and you lose control. The key word there being is control. You must demand that any fire you create burns exactly as you wish it too, and only when you wish it too." Azula said.
"That's actually a good point to make Azula." Zuko said. "Control. Control your breathing, control your emotions, control your fire… Now I want to see what I'm working with here. Try to create fire. Any amount will do."
Aang stood up, and took a breath, clearing his mind, before thrusting his palm forward, and generating nothing but a puff of smoke. Azula put her head in her hand before she spoke. "Well I guess that's to be expected… You're still terrified of fire bending, and you have no passion to learn it… And though I think this goes without saying, but an open palm strike is a horrendously bad move for a beginner to attempt. If you were me or my father, you could perhaps muscle through it, but then again, you would have no control. Five fingers splayed out and all."
"Well, maybe I need a little more instruction?" Aang asked.
"Right…" Zuko said, as he held his chin. "The breath gives power to firebending, not just controle. When you try to make fire, exhale with the movement."
Aang nodded, before Azula cut in. "And for Agni's sake, close your fist when you strike."
"Yes ma'am..." Aang said shortly, before he nodded twice. Taking up a stance he'd seen Zuko use before, and pushed his fist forward Aang sharply exhaled. A single flicker, not even comparable to a struck match, came from between Aang's index and middle knuckle. Azula and Zuko looked between each other.
"Ok... Perhaps it's still the emotional part then?" Zuko asked.
"If I might ask, what exactly drives you, Avatar? Why do you want to bend fire?" Azula asked, crossing her arms.
"Well… I don't know. So I can defeat your dad?" Aang questioned more than answered.
"That's too specific to start with. Why do you want to defeat the Fire Lord?" Azula asked.
"Because… Because I don't want to see the people I love get hurt anymore." Aang said, hanging his head.
"Well there you go. That's your drive. You want to be the protector of your people, then think about them. Let your desire to protect them fuel you." Azula said, before Aang once again tried to create a blast of fire, only to again get a tiny spark. "Unbelievable." Azula said, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"At least he could light a stove without spark rocks." Zuko commented sympathetically.
"Maybe I just need a demonstration?" Aang suggested. Zuko nodded to his sister as he turned away from her, and punched at the air, only for a pitiful whiff of fire to come out.
"What?" Zuko asked, trying again, and again only creating a flame that was a fraction of the size he could usually produce. "Oh come on!" Zuko tried several more katas, only to create similarly sized puffs of weak fire. "What is going on?!"
"Really, Zuzu?" Azula asked. "That was pathetic, even for when we were kids." Azula stood with her fist cocked back. "Watch and learn Avatar." Azula said, before thrusting two fingers forward, creating a massive jet of blue flames that sailed across the canyon before fizzling out in mid air.
Zuko, scrunching up his nose, tried to mimic his sister, even going so far as to use only the tips of his fingers, the flames comparable to a lit match.
"Maybe it's the altitude?" Aang suggested.
"Impossible. The closer to the sun, the stronger a fire bender becomes." Azula said.
"Yeah, but the fire itself needs air, and air gets thinner the higher you go." Aang said.
"Which scales directly to the extra power a firebender receives from the sun. It's not the altitude, Aang." Zuko said.
"Then what is it?" Aang asked.
"I don't know…" Azula said, as she looked at the two, as her brother again tried and failed to create a simple fire blast. "You haven't become ill, have you, brother?"
Zuko shrugged. "Not since I was living in Ba Sing Se... Maybe almost getting blown up yesterday did something."
"Well... That's alright. If Zuko's not up for it, then I guess training can wait until tomorrow." Aang said as he rubbed his neck.
"Absolutely not!" Zuko said, turning towards Aang. "Look, just because I'm in a rut, doesn't mean you get to slack off."
"But..." Aang protested.
"No buts. Azula's here, and even she can stoop low enough to go over the basics, so for now, you can learn from her." Zuko said, before he stormed off.
Azula put her hands on her hips as she watched her brother kick a rock as he walked away, leaving Aang with her. Aang visibly swallowed. Azula rolled here eyes. "Oh relax. Since it's clear that you can't produce any significant amounts of fire, we're just going to go over a few simple breathing exercises, light conditioning, and the beginning stances."
Aang sighed. "For a minute there I thought you were going to throw a giant fireball at me and tell me to stop it."
Azula raised an eyebrow. "Who would come up with that sort of nonsensically dangerous training for a novice?!"
"Ah, Toph?" The Blind Bandit continued lounging on her makeshift earth seat, eating her pear, as Connor approached her by the edge of the temple's hanging fountain courtyard.
"Sup?" She asked lazily, before spitting out a pear seed over the edge.
"I was wondering, since you're a professional and all, if you could teach me about earth bending formally?" Connor asked.
"You seem like you've got it figured out." Toph said, tossing her pear core off the side of the temple cliff.
"From a certain perspective I guess that's true, but I haven't had any real teaching on the subject." Connor said.
"You don't really need it. I mean, I'm the greatest earth bender in the world, and I was self taught." Toph said, putting her hand on her chest.
"The difference between you being self taught, and me being self taught is, that I didn't grow up in a culture with earth bending." Connor said, and Toph's eyes went wide involuntarily, as she felt Connor tell the truth.
"Did you grow up in the Fire Nation or something?" Toph asked.
"Suppose I couldn't lie to you if I wanted to. No… I didn't grow up in the Fire Nation. I was born and raised in a different world, and I came to yours less than a year ago. My earth bending wasn't something I was born with, and if it was, I didn't know I could do it until I arrived here." Connor said.
Toph bit her tongue. "Wow… You're either insane if you really think that... Or you're actually from a different world."
"Yeah… You're the living truth seer here, and even you don't believe me." Connor said.
"That would sort of explain a lot." Toph said. "I mean, I knew you were weird, but like… A space alien? You don't feel any different than most people."
"Believe me, I look different." Connor said with an eye roll. "Though I'm not from space as far as I can tell. Our worlds, they share so much for that to be the case. The moon, the stars, they're the same. Your planet's not in the same place as mine as it goes around our sun, but… It's close enough… It's like this was god's workshop before he created my world."
"What do you mean by "goes around the sun..." I thought the sun and all that sky stuff people talk about went around the world?" Toph asked.
"Oh... Right, pre-renaissance astronomy... So, the Earth, and all the other planets, go around the Sun, not the other way round, 'cept the Moon, that does go around the Earth. And supposedly the Sun is the center of the universe, but I honestly don't believe that, because it's just a star like any other, so what makes it special? Ya know?"
"Man, that's weird…" Toph said. "So you know that, but you don't know anything about the philosophy of earth bending?"
Connor shook his head. Toph could feel him doing that and nodded. "So I'd have to start from the beginning with you."
"Couldn't hurt." Connor shrugged.
"Alright. So from the beginning… The first earth benders were badgermoles. They shape the earth to their liking, and are patient creatures. They're also blind, so I can relate." Toph said with a smile. "Anyway, the entire playbook for earth bending is waiting and listening for the right moment to strike, and until then, it's all about standing your ground, and when you do get the opportunity to attack, you do it, and do it hard." Toph punched her fist into her open hand.
"Ok, I understand that, it's a pretty basic tenet of not getting your ass kicked in a fight." Connor said.
"Yeah, but it's more than that. I can tell that you've got boots on. If you really want to feel a connection with the earth, you should start walking around barefoot." Toph said.
"Yeah I know, the whole feel the earth shaking, and sense people walking around you thing. But I gotta say, if the idea of stepping on a nail wasn't bad enough, it creeps me out having that tingle in my spine, so the boots are staying on." Connor said.
"Wait, you can see with earth bending?" Toph asked, surprised that she (and more recently Aang) wasn't the only one who could sense vibrations in the earth.
"I guess that's what it is." Connor said with a shrug.
"Are you sure you didn't have any sort of earth bending philosophy where you came from?" Toph asked.
"We have faith, and science." Connor said with another shrug. "And since faith hasn't exactly been doing it for me, I've been relying on science to explain half of the stuff I'm seeing."
"Ok, so how would you explain… Metal bending?" Toph asked.
Connor held his chin for a second, before looking down to his sword. "Well if you pull a chunk of raw iron out of the ground it's going to be absolutely filthy with other crap from the ground it was pulled from. I suppose if the craftsman was poor, or the metal wasn't forged right there'd be enough that you could bend whatever earth was left over in it… But I'd be surprised if that was the case for a lot of metals where I'm from."
"Let me guess, your space alien metal working techniques create the most refined steel the world will ever know?" Toph asked in jest.
"Test it for yourself." Connor said. Assuming Toph could bend metal, and that it was a relatively normal thing, he pulled his cutlass free from his belt and handed it to Toph. She grabbed the spine of the blade in two places, and grunted with effort, causing the steel to flex ever so slightly. She grunted again, flexing it in the other direction, fixing the slight warp.
"Ok, I'll admit, that was pretty hard." Toph said, dusting her hands off, as Connor put his sword back.
"Should have been, this is some good English steel." Connor said.
"Ok, so your brain is able to put forward a bunch of reasons on how and why earth bending works, and you've got the right attitude for it, so what exactly is it that you think you can learn from me?" Toph asked.
"Forms mostly. All the ones I've learned come from fire bending, which if you haven't realized is all about power and constantly being on the offensive." Connor said.
"Well I don't know what to tell you then. I was self taught, and the only formal lessons I ever got were for beginners." Toph said. "As far as I've felt and heard, you've kicked your fair share of ass just fine doing whatever it is you do already. Actually, because all of your bending knowledge comes from multiple second hand sources, you're less likely to be stale and too rigid to improve on your own."
"Right, well, thank you for the encouragement." Connor said, as he turned to leave.
"But…" Toph said as she stood, smirking… "I guess it wouldn't hurt to do a few exercises or spars with you."
Kozato Looked down at the attendant manning the door of the Fire Army and Navy's Military detention center just south of Caldera's royal port plaza, waiting on his request for entry to be put through. Once word had reached the Warden that the prospecting prince had arrived, there was no cell door that he would not open. As the Warden came face to face with Kozato the younger of the two men smiled. "Now... Take me to the most violent of your soldiers, sailors, and Marines..."
"Of course Captain..." The Warden said, before holding a hand out for the younger man to enter the prison with him. "If I may ask, Captain... Why exactly do you want the military's rejects?"
Kozato raised his eyebrows, before smirking mostly to himself as the two came to the observation tower that looked down on the first cell block, a small fight having been started. "It is in my experience, Warden, that in battle there is only one factor that determines who will win... Aside from an immeasurable difference in technology, the victor of any fight will most assuredly be the one most committed to winning... The one most willing to exercise violence of action." Kozato said, as he leaned over the tower to watch the fighting below, just before one of the two inmates amid the fight shanked another. "Simply put, these men have a fighting spirit."
Later that evening, after the sun had set, Zuko could not produce even a small puff of flame without the warmth of Agni to aid them. He approached the campfire that team avatar and those saved from the invasion had gathered around, and Zuko stepped forward to stand beside his sister. "Listen everyone… I've got some bad news… I… I lost my stuff."
Toph held her hands up. "Didn't touch it. I was training with Connor all day." She pointed to the now slightly bruised redhead.
"Using me as target practice is more like it." Connor said with a grin.
"I'm not talking about possessions… I mean, I lost my firebending." Zuko said.
Laughing like an old witch from the other side of the campfire, Katara caught the attention of everyone as dinner was passed around. "Oh, I'm sorry, I just find it funny. The irony. You know? Like, it would have been nice if you lost it a long time ago?"
Azula pouted at Katara, as Zuko continued. "It's not really lost, it's just so much weaker than it was before."
"Well maybe you're just not as good as you think you are." Katara suggested with a smirk.
In response, Azula got to her feet. "You watery tart! Zuko might suck at bending, but he's far better than you could ever hope to be... And besides that's not ironic, it's just karma."
"Azula!" Zuko said, earning a glance from his sister.
She crossed her arms and sat back down, before narrowing her eyes at Katara. "No one speaks ill of my brother, except for me."
"What if you lost your bending because you changed sides?" The Duke asked while picking his nose.
"Oh please, our allegiance has little to do with Zuko's ability to bend." Azula said.
"For once I'm agreeing with you." Katara said. "Otherwise you would have lost your fire bending too."
"Maybe that's not so far-fetched." Aang said. "You were talking earlier about how emotion played a big part of fire bending. What if the core emotions you channel are just running lower than normal?" He asked, before eating another scoop of rice.
"So we just need to get Zuko angry?" Sokka asked with a mischievous grin as he stood up.
"How about we not piss off human torches, eh?" Connor asked. "I've seen them both cause camp fires explode." He pointed to the one they were sitting around. Sokka quietly sat back down.
"And either way, hate and anger aren't necessarily a drive to fuel bending, they're just too broad." Zuko said.
"Then maybe you two need to find a new source to draw your bending from. I'd recommend going to the original source." Toph suggested.
"Right, well, I don't think we've got enough eagle feathers or wax laying around for them to fly up and touch the sun." Connor said.
"What about jumping into a volcano?" Sokka asked.
"That's sort of just liquid earth." Toph said with a shrug. "The original earth benders didn't use earth bending for fighting, it was just an extension of themselves. So whoever the original firebenders are would do the same... That's who you should probably learn from."
"The original air benders were sky bison." Aang said. "Maybe I could learn a thing or two from you buddy!" He shouted over to Appa, as he ate from a pile of hay. Appa grunted in response.
"Well that doesn't help us." Zuko said. "The original firebenders are extinct."
"What do you mean?" Aang asked.
"You're talking about dragons, aren't you, Zuzu?" Azula asked glumly as she sat down.
"There were plenty of dragons around when I was a kid." Aang said.
"Well they're gone now." Zuko snapped.
"That doesn't necessarily mean you can't still learn from them." Azula said. "You remember history class. The Sun Warriors, the first great civilization. They were the first to learn firebending from the dragons."
"I definitely don't remember them from when I was a kid." Aang said.
"You wouldn't. They died off almost a thousand years ago." Azula said, as she picked up a bowl and scooped herself some stew from the still warm pot beside the fire. "I'd suggest going to the Caldera Library or museum of anthropology to read a bunch of their recorded history, and study their artifacts, but good luck getting into the capital at this point."
"The ruins of their civilization aren't that far from here." Zuko said, as he sat by the fire. "We could take a day trip, poke around and maybe learn something about their culture at least."
Aang looked around the room. "The monks used to tell me, that the shadows of the past can be felt by the present… I think going would be a good idea to go."
"To what, stand around where they did a thousand years ago and pick up some sort of cosmic energy?" Sokka asked.
Azula rolled here eyes. "And you think jumping in a volcano is any better?"
"Well one way or another, I need to get my firebending back." Zuko said clenching his fists.
Aang and Zuko set out at dawn, riding south west on Appa, keeping low over the sea to avoid being spotted by the Fire Navy. Zuko was growing impatient. "We've been flying for two hours… I don't know why, but I thought this thing would be a lot faster." He said, before Appa groaned.
"Appa's right, Zuko. Usually we start our trips with a more positive outlook." Aang said.
"I can't believe this." Zuko muttered to himself.
The two reached the ancient remains of the Sun Warrior civilization within the next hour, and once Appa had landed on the outskirts of the city, they set off on foot into the overgrown ruins. Zuko's head was on a swivel throughout their walk, as he took in the architecture of the buildings around him "There's something familiar about this place. Everything here is ancient, but all of the buildings have a lot in common with how most stone work is done in the homeland."
Aang looked up at some of the buildings. "Well, at least we're learning something about architecture. Maybe we'll learn something about firebending. The past can be a great teacher- Aagh!" Before he could take another step, Zuko grabbed his robe, and pulled him back. "What was that for?!" Aang asked.
"Look at your feet." Zuko said.
Aang glanced down, and saw a thin wire stretched between the walkway. Zuko stepped on it gingerly, and the stone tile in front of them sunk into the walkway, as spikes were revealed. "Whoa." Aang said.
"This place is a death trap." Zuko said, as he took care to walk in between the spikes sticking out of the ground, as Aang jumped clean over the spike pit.
"Do you think that maybe we shouldn't be here?" Aang asked his firebending master.
"People don't set traps without a good reason." Zuko said, as they started walking. "I'm thinking that there's something here worth protecting, and the more dangerous the trap, the closer we are to whatever that something might be."
There was a knock at Mai's front door. Pulling her head away from the pillow she'd been crying into for the better part of two days, she got out of bed, hastily threw a robe on, and wiped away what makeup might have remained with a wet cloth, not bothering to do her hair. Once downstairs and at the double doors of her home, she peeked out of the crack and blinked twice.
Standing on the entrance steps to her house a head taller than her, was a man she did not recognize, but his eyes, she'd seen before. The amber of the royal family. "Mai, if I'm correct?" The young man asked. Looking behind him, Mai saw what appeared to be a Company of men standing in formation, though she did not recognize the uniform in figure or material, outside of the fact the color matched those usually worn by the army. The young man was wearing the same uniform. The black boots, brown paints and burgundy tunic of the standard Fire Nation Soldier was all present, but the body armor was missing. The men wore no padding, no helmets, no card armor, not even the signature shoulder yoke armor was present. In place of armor was what could only be described as a thin pig-sheep wool coat in the dark imperial red, that ran to the soldier's knees, and was fastened at the right side of the breast, with the collar buttoned on the same side. A cloth belt was tied around the waist with several separate pouches, two leather boxes, and a blade in a sheath and frog. Atop their heads were conical hats, made from leather stained the same color as the coat, with a black sun shade draped behind it. In the hands of every man, the butts planted to the ground, was a short cap lock musket.
She sniffed before speaking. "Yes... And who might you be?"
"Captain Kozato Masashi of "Shock Company," Fourth Special Infantry Test Battalion, Fourth Combat Brigade, Fourth Light Infantry Division, Fourth Infantry Corps." Kozato said with a small bow. Mai, having kept herself cooped up since the invasion ended, was unsure if that was supposed to mean anything. "I've been tasked with a very important mission from the Fire Lord. I understand that the former Prince Zuko, was your..." Kozato rolled a hand to find the right word as he took off his hat. "Suitor?"
"He was... Before he ran away..." Mai said avoiding eye contact.
"Yes... Well Fire Lord Ozai has called for his, as well as his sister's deaths..." Kozato's words put a shiver through Mai's spine, and not in a good way. "They betrayed the nation you know?"
"I became aware of Zuko's treason after he had left... But Azula?" Mai asked, unsure.
"Vying for power as it seemed. Apparently she'd struck some kind of deal with The Avatar to overthrow Lord Ozai, some time before your adventures in the Earth Kingdom came to an end." Kozato said, before stepping up into the house as if invited. He took about two paces before looking over his shoulder. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?"
"That sounds like an accusation." Mai said, holding the door open still. "And if Azula made any kind of deal with The Avatar I have know knowledge of it."
"If I thought you were a conspirator, I wouldn't be standing here discussing it with you..." Kozato said turning his body to face her, though pivoting his head to look around the house still. "The mutual friend you and the former princess Azula have however..."
"Ty Lee... What have you done to her?" Mai asked, narrowing her eyes.
"She's been arrested on conspiracy charges... Attempted to defect on a north by north western course via a stolen war balloon... Knocked out about thirty men to take it. She was shot down, and survived with minimal injury... Her trial is pending, though I've no doubt she'll be serving a life sentence at least." Kozato said plainly. "Like I said, if I thought you were a conspirator, we would not be talking."
"Then why are you here?" Mai closed the door.
"The reason is twofold..." Kozato said as he turned and took a few steps into the ornate study that belonged to Mai's father, left empty since his move to New Ozai. "In my quest to... Execute, is a good word, your former lover, and his sister, I have the support of the Fire Lord, the resources of the War Ministry, about one hundred fifty men or so outside who are just itching to, wound, maim, kill, pillage and do other unspeakable acts to the unwilling, but the one thing I don't have is any good information on my intended targets, and the company they keep. The royal family is secretive, and the Avatar is equally as elusive. I've only managed to find sparse second hand reports, and what we were able to scrape from an investigation after the invasion."
"You want me to tell you everything I know about Azula, Zuko, The Avatar and his friends from first hand experience?..." Mai asked, as Kozato looked at the stuffed boar-Q-pine head on the wall. "What's the other reason you're here?"
Kozato turned his attention to her. "Tell me about your former friends and their new associate and I'll get to that."
Mai looked away from Kozato for a moment, before making up her mind. "How much detail do you want?" She asked, and Kozato smiled at her in a way that made her uncomfortable in way's she didn't know she could feel.
Kozato couldn't see any shift in Mai's expression but he could tell she was unnerved. "I want to know everything about them... Down to the color of their socks."
Aang and Zuko began to climb the steps of the largest and centermost building in the desolate city, and halfway to its peak, found a mural. The stone engravings depicted two dragons casting fire from their mouths onto a person standing between them.
"Well, this looks promising. Though I'm not sure what this tells us about the origin of firebending." Aang said.
"The dragons look kinda angry." Zuko observed.
"I thought that dragons were supposed to be friendly to humans?" Aang asked.
"So long as humans were friendly with them." Zuko commented before walking away.
"What happened to the dragons in the past hundred years that you aren't telling me?" Aang asked. "I mean, I understand that they've died out… But how did that happen?"
Zuko closed his eyes for a second before he continued walking. "My great grandfather Sozin started the tradition of dragon hunting for glory. They were the ultimate firebenders. If you could kill one, it made you a legend, and you were granted the title of "Dragon." The last dragon was conquered before I was born… My uncle killed it, in celebration of his son's birth."
"I thought your uncle was… Good I guess?" Aang asked.
"Uncle Iroh is as complicated a man as any other…" Zuko said, the two moving on.
The two continued to climb the centermost monument within the empty city, and when they reached the halfway point, were met with a golden door.
"Now there's gotta' be something in there." Aang said as he ran forward and tried pushing the door open, finding that it wouldn't budge. "It's locked." He said, hanging his head.
"Can't you just make a hole under it with your earth bending?" Zuko asked. "The floor is made of rock."
"After the spike pit back there? Besides, this is the ruins of an ancient civilization It would be super disrespectful to just start breaking down walls out of convenience." Aang said as he started looking around. "There's got to be some way to open it within easy walking distance."
Zuko looked over his shoulder, and squinted as a light shined in his eye. Backing away, he saw a red gem casting light refracted from the sun onto a circle cut into the ground. A circle that led to the carvings bordering the golden door, which had another red gem sitting above it. "It's a celestial calendar…" He muttered. "That door's not opening until the summer solstice."
"The solstice?! We can't wait that long? Why is there alway something like this?" Aang asked himself.
"Are you sure you don't want to try busting a hole in the wall or something?" Zuko asked.
"I'd rather not be dropped into a pit filled with venomous spider snakes, or crushed under the ruins." Aang said holding his hands up.
"What if we could trick the rock?" Zuko asked while he looked up at the sun stone over the door, before pulling out one of his swords, and held it up to the red light on the floor. Angeling his blade, Zuko walked the ruby light cast by the shining sun stone up to the one over the door, and after a few seconds, the door began to groan as the heavy metal opened. Zuko smirked, and put his sword away, as the two entered a statue-filled hall.
The giant stone sculptures depicted men of frightening dispositions with muscular builds in varying stances mirroring each other along two crescents throughout the room.
As Zuko walked deeper into the temple, Aang stopped to look at the first statue. "The dancing dragon." He read from the cornerstone of the display. Setting his staff down, and stepping back a pace, Aang mimicked the stance the statue took, and felt the floor shift under him. Looking down, Aang saw a stone had sunk into the floor. Ignoring the possibility that this was another trap, Aang stepped off the stone, and then mimicked the stance again, yielding the same result of a sinking stone. Looking around the room, Aang grinned.
"Hey, can you come dance with me?" Aang asked.
"Dance?" Zuko asked, in confusion.
"Yeah, just, Look at the statues." Aang said as he pulled on his friend's arm.
Zuko reluctantly walked over to dance with Aang, and shortly after giving in, The Avatar and Zuko mimic the statues, the stones beneath their feet sinking.
"See?" Aang asked. "It's not really a dance, it's some sort of lesson. I think it's a Sun Warrior fire bending form."
"Well whatever it is, better be worth the trouble." Zuko said as he continued to "dance" with Aang.
There was one final clicking of stone setting into place, before the floor beside Azula shook slightly, as a pedestal emerged from the floor, carrying a golden egg idol. From the moment he saw it, Zuko couldn't help but stare.
"Hooray!" Aang cheered as he raised his arms, before dropping them. "What exactly is it?"
"It looks like some sort of mystic artifact." Zuko said as he stepped closer to look at the object, before reaching a hand out towards it.
"Well don't touch it!" Aang said.
"Why not?" Zuko pulled his hands away.
"Remember the traps? I mean, what if it's like, tied to a wire and poison darts start flying all over?" Aang asked.
"That's ridiculous, we just did a whole dance routine to uncover it. Why else would it come up if it wasn't earned… Maybe it's some sort of reward?" Zuko asked, before looking at the idol again. Wordlessly, he reached a hand out to the golden idol, placing his whole hand flat against it.
Zuko felt the idol grow warm against his palm, it was not an uncomfortable warmth, like that of hot iron, or even like that of a flame, it was almost alive. Zuko pulled the idol from the stand and turned to Aang. "I think that this is actually a- WAAAA!" Zuko was cut off, and shouted in surprise as he was blown upwards by an eruption of green gunk from the floor surrounding the pedestal. Flying up into the bars that let light shine into the room, Zuko felt his shoulders strike them, and grunted in pain, finding himself dangling from the ceiling by the gunk. "I can't move!" Zuko shouted, kicking her feet as Aang stepped away from the flow of green gunk, the room's only door closing in front of him.
Aang jumped up onto the nearest statue, losing his staff to the gunk. "It's like glue!" Zuko said, pulling his feet up to try freeing himself now, only sticking both them and his chest to the bars.
Out of time and out of statue, Aang leapt up to the ancient metal grate, grabbing it, before pulling his head up through the bars. "Stick your head out." Aang advised, before Zuko pulled his face as close to the sky as he could.
Below them the glue continued to flow, and just as it passed through the bars in the ceiling, it stopped. Zuko's face was free, Aang had his head and neck clear of the gunk. The two took a few calming breaths, before Zuko groaned. As the two looked at each other.
"You just had to pick up the shiny thing." Aang said.
"Well, at least we have air." Zuko said.
Aang sucked in as much of the aforementioned element as he could. "HEEEEEEEEEEEELP!"
Zuko, despite having his hands stuck in glue, tried covering his ears. "Who are you yelling to? This place has been abandoned for centuries."
"I don't know, maybe Appa could pull us free?" Aang suggested.
"I'd like to keep my head attached to the rest of my body, thank you." Zuko said.
"So what now then?" Aang asked.
Zuko looked up at the clouds passing by. "That one cloud sort of looks like a fluffy bunny-cat." He said.
"I remember something about a fluffy bunny-cat being a sign of great doom from a fortune teller I met a while ago." Aang said, as he looked up at the cloud.
"Oh forget it." Zuko groaned as he just relaxed into the goo.
Toph sat opposite to Connor inside of the Western Air Temple, an iron pan between them. "The key to metal bending is feeling the earth trapped inside." Toph said, as she picked up the metal. "You said you can feel vibrations in the earth, so you should be about halfway there." Toph tossed the pan at Connor, who caught it mid air before it could hit him.
"Don't need to feel it when I know exactly where it's going to be." Connor said, as he flipped the pan over in his hand. "This is cast iron. A twentieth of the metal is impurities, probably more, and because it's cast it'll be pretty evenly distributed." Connor said, running a finger along the rough surface.
"Should be no problem for you to bend then." Toph said with a grin.
"Funny." Connor said, as he grabbed either side of the pan, and squeezed with a grunt of effort, yielding little in the way of results, only managing to bend the rim of the left side, and Connor honestly couldn't tell if that was a result of metal bending, or his own strength, as the pan was kind of thin.
"You're being too physical with it." Toph said.
"Right." Connor said, setting the pan down. "Bending is magic and all that… Maybe I should just try punching first?"
"Whoa, hold on." Toph said, standing up. "Why don't we try, just lifting it, before you go and break your hand, or put a hole in the wall." Connor shrugged. "You're treating the metal like it's separate from the earth, when it's one in the same, in a way. Close your eyes…" Connor did as instructed. "Reach out, and feel the impurities." Connor held his right hand up. "Focus on moving the earth, not the pan it's been turned into." Connor closed his fist, and inhaled. "Now just, lift."
Connor raised his fist, and though his eyes were closed, he could see the pan elevate off of the stone floor in his mind's eye, the cast iron scraping against the stone as one side lagged behind the other.
"Bravo, my young pupil, you're a metal bender." Toph said with a smile.
"I'm definitely older than you." Connor said as he opened his eyes, dropping the pan. "And I've been bending metal since I was ten, you know, blacksmithing and all."
"Yeah yeah. Try scrunching the pan again." Toph said, waving off Connor's comment. Picking up the pan, Connor closed his eyes, and tried pressing his hands together, only managing to crimp the other edge of the cast iron skillet. "Well that's progress at least… Try again."
The door to the forge was opened and daylight spilled into the room. Mr. Wong looked up from his work, and swallowed hard when he saw who had entered the room. "Kozato... What are you doing here so early? I thought your deadline was by the end of the week?" Mr. Wong said, as Kozato stepped into the forge.
"There's a change I need you to make..." Kozato said, as he approached the shorter mastersmith. "I would hope you haven't made too much progress."
Mr. Wong wiped his brow with the back of his glove, and pointed to the table. "The weapon you wanted is done..."
Kozato turned his head and saw one part of his order on the table. "Excellent. It shouldn't need any modifications... So long as you put forward your best work."
Mr. Wong shuffled over as Kozato inspected the strangely shaped pistol. "Rifled barrels just like Connor showed me. Six of them, four suns long, forged together. Point forty five caliber."
"And the mechanism to fire?" Kozato asked, as he manually rotated the cluster of 6 barrels the ratcheting system like a sailing ship's capstan.
"Touch hole style as you asked." Mr. Wong said. "All you need to do is create a fire with your thumb, and hold it near the hole on top. I put the loading stick in the center of the barrel group, so it won't get lost."
Kozato hummed before looking at the work still on Mr. Wong's anvil. "By my count, if I use this right, I won't need to reload it... Now about those other changes..."
Hours passed, and once the sun had set, Aang and Zuko had moved on from cloud gazing, to star gazing.
"Do you know what that one is? The one that looks like a guy with a bow?" Aang asked.
Footsteps came from the south, and the two turned to look at whoever was approaching as best they could.
"Who is down there?!" Standing above them, was what appeared to be a ghost from the past. A Sun Warrior.
The room below the two explorers was drained of glue, and they were pulled from the ceiling. Once free, they were set outside of the temple, surrounded by more Sun Warriors. The glue that still encased them was being licked away by aardvark-sloths. The warrior who they had first met, stepped forward with his scepter.
"For trying to take our sacred idol, you must be severely punished." He said harshly.
"We didn't come for your idol. We came here to find the ancient origin of all firebending." Zuko said, trying to sit forward better.
"Hhmp!" The warrior carrying the idol said. "These are obviously thieves, trying to steal our sacred idol."
The chief looked around, before asking a question of the supposed thieves. "Who exactly are you two?"
Aang looked at Zuko before speaking. "I've been trying to avoid playing this card, but. I'm The Avatar, and I'd like you to hear us out." Aang said.
"My name is Zuko, Crown Prince of the Fire Nation… Or I used to be." Zuko amended. Zuko attempted to stand up, pulling Aang with him. "I know that my people have twisted the ways of firebending, to be fueled by anger, and hate. But we came here today to learn the original way. The true way, as the dragons taught you. I didn't know that the Sun Warrior civilization was still alive after all these years. We are humbled to be in your presence. Please…" Zuko said, bowing his head, along with Aang. "Teach us."
The chief looked between them, and spoke. "If you want to learn the ways of the Sun, then you must learn them from the master's Ran and Shao. When you present yourselves to them, they will examine you. They'll read your hearts, your spirits, your ancestry." As the chief spoke, he looked at both of them intensely. At the mention of his ancestors, Zuko cringed. "If they deem you worthy, they will teach you. If they don't you will be destroyed, on the spot."
With their warning issued, Aang, and Zuko looked between themselves, before Aang spoke. "We accept this challenge."
At dawn, The Avatar and The Prince had been cleaned, and ascended the Temple of The Sun, meeting the chief of the warriors at its peak, as he stood beside a raging fire. The chief nodded to them. "If you are going to meet the masters, you must bring them a piece of the Eternal Flame." The chief turned to the inferno. "This fire was the very first one. It was given to man by the dragons in the beginning… We have kept it burning for ten thousand years."
Zuko's eyes lit up. "I don't believe it."
The chief turned to Aang. "You will take a piece of it to the masters to show them your commitment to the sacred art of firebending."
Aang rubbed his neck. "Yeah… Mr. Sun Chief… Sir… I'm not really a firebender yet. Could my friend carry my fire for me?"
The Chief blinked in confusion. "No." He said finally, before turning and pulling a piece of the flame from the pit, turning to face the two again. "This ritual illustrates the essence of sun warrior philosophy." The chief stood on one leg, taking the first stance of the dancing dragon, holding a fire in each palm for them to take. "You must maintain a constant heat. The flame will go out if you make it too small." Aang flinched away. "But make it too big, and you might lose control." Zuko nodded.
Zuko took his piece of the Eternal Flame in both his hands, the fire growing in size until he felt comfortable with it.
The chief nodded his head, as he put his foot down, before turning and holding out the other flame for Aang. The Avatar flinched again, before apologizing. "I'm sorry. I'm just a little nervous." He said, before putting his hands below the fire, and taking control, shrinking it. In surprise, Aang opened his eyes, and smiled a little. "It's… Like a little heartbeat."
The chief spoke. "Fire is life, not just destruction." He pointed to the mountain to the west. "Now, you will take your flames up there. The master's cave lies below that rock."
Connor stood in front of Toph, barefoot, a blindfold covering his eyes for his third day of training. Toph lifted the cast iron pan that sat between them, and sent it flying at Connor with a punch.
Reaching out, Connor caught the iron disk in his hand before it could hit him in the head, and threw it back at Toph, the pan inverted, causing it to curve in the air towards her.
Toph spun, and pulled the pan out of the air before it could hit her, and as she turned dragged the pan with her, before sending it sailing towards the side wall where it bounced, and headed towards Connor again.
Turning his head, Connor snatched the flying iron once again, before taking off his blindfold. Toph smirked. "Go on then." With her instruction, Connor grabbed either side of the pan, and effortlessly bent the metal in two like it was paper. "You really do learn stuff quick." Toph commented, as she made rock seats for both of them at the center of the room.
"This time around, I just had a good teacher." Connor said, as he took his seat, and fixed the pan so Katara wouldn't get mad at him for breaking it.
"Admit it, you're just a nerd." Toph joked.
"If you think I learn stuff fast, you should meet my dad." Connor said, dropping the pan to the ground.
"Is he the one who taught you blacksmithing?" Toph asked.
"Ah... No, actually... He's a surgeon." Connor said.
Toph turned her head towards Connor if only to make the conversation less weird for him. "Your dad cuts people open for money?" Toph asked.
Connor cringed. "Well, not exactly. Most of the people he saw were actually just sick... The wounded were the ones he did the cutting on, mostly."
"I guess he taught you a bunch of super advanced space alien medicine then?" Toph "looked" at the floor. "Like, how to cure blindness?"
Connor sighed. "Well there is noonecure for blindness..." Toph remained silent. "But in your case, as far as I can tell from a glance, you just have cataracts. The uh, the lens of your eye is just cloudy. Like, ah shit I don't know, tossing dirt into water, makes it thick, and you can't see through it... Or..." Connor remembered what his seismic sense felt like on the sand at Ember Island. "Sand... It's like seeing with earth bending while walking on sand."
"So my eyes are just really fuzzy then?" Toph asked.
Connor chuckled. "In a way... There's a few treatments. They're pretty simple actually if you have the right tools."
"But you can do them?" Toph asked.
"I mean it wouldn't be the first one I've had to do. But it's not just as simple as couch it with a needle and bam you can see again. Most of the procedures if done wrong, or not given proper aftercare can actually make you blind permanently in three other ways." Connor said.
"Right, I figured there was a huge downside." Toph said.
"It's not a downside, so much as a risk of any surgery going wrong." Connor said with a shrug. "You'd still be blind for a while since you've gone so long without using your eyes, but after removing the opacificated lense, a lot of opium for someone your size, some bandages and bed rest, three hearty meals a day, and a thick pair of spectacles to replace the lense, you'd probably be able to see at least half as good as me... And I've got some really good vision." Connor gloated.
"Really?" Toph asked, thinking his sincerity was mostly boastful.
Connor seemed to miss the skepticism. "Sure. If there's no issues, and you don't get any infections. Should take about two, maybe two and a half months to fully heal."
Toph cringed. "As enticing as it sounds being able to see, I don't really think that I should be out of commission for that long... Especially since we're on the run and all."
Connor nodded his head. "Yeah that's a fair assessment... But hey, once the war's over, I'd gladly treat your eyes."
Toph smiled, before punching Connor's arm. "Thanks, ya big lug."
Outside, on one of the temples smaller pavilions, Katara sat on the ledge of an aqueduct, scrubbing out what cookware the team had after lunch, before she'd inevitably need to dirty it again at dinner. Bending made the task all too easy for those instances where she needed a little bit of water pressure to blast stuck food grime out of a pot. Looking over he shoulder as she heard footsteps approaching, Katara saw Azula holding a plate and one of the little four pronged stabbing instruments that she'd seen Connor and Azula eating with. "Afternoon..." Azula said as she looked down at Katara. "Your brother said that you're usually the one who cleans dishes."
"And?" Katara asked.
"And I've brought you mine so you can clean them." Azula said matter of factly, earning a look from Katara.
"Oh do it yourself princess." Katara muttered to herself, refusing to take the bowl and fork.
"What was that?" Azula asked, eyebrow raised.
Katara rolled her eyes, before she turned to face Azula. "Look, I'll tell you what I had to tell Toph when we first picked her up. This..." Katara spread her hands out and around to the dishes, and her brother sitting on the adjacent pavilion, cleaning everyone's bedrolls and blankets. "This is a team effort. We all pitch in to make all our lives easier. So unless you can think of a way to make yourself useful, wash your own dishes." She turned back to scrubbing out a pan, growing irritated, as she found a warp on the rim, likely Toph's doing.
Azula scoffed. "I have made myself plenty useful. I was the one that had to train Aang since my brother went and lost his bending."
"That was almost three days ago." Katara said idly.
"I've also started every camp fire since I've arrived." Azula added.
"That's something all of us can do with some spark rocks." Katara said, glancing at Azula.
"And all of us can wash dishes too, but you don't see me discounting you for doing it with waterbending..." Azula said with a smirk.
Katara turned and looked at Azula again. "Listen, Princess, I know that you're probably accustom to life in a palace where every one of your needs and wishes are fulfilled by other people, but you're with us now, and in case you haven't noticed, there aren't any servants around to do all the hard work for us. So when I say make yourself useful, I mean, pick a chore from the to do list I gave Sokka this morning, and do it."
"I have. In case you weren't aware, I fed you pet bison and lemure." Azula said, putting her fists against her hips, before narrowing her eyes at Katara. "I know that my brother, Connor and I might have been horrible to you in the past, but that's no excuse for you to be hostile towards us now, after we left our "life in a palace" to help The Avatar."
"And you ditching your dad just to kill him, is no excuse for how horrible you were." Katara said as she stood up, looking down at Azula, the shorter girl pouting, as she crossed her arms. "Do you have any idea the pain the three of you have put us all through?" Katara asked. "The amount of people that you three have gotten killed?"
Azula was reminded of Connor's bemoaning the worsening brutality of the war by his doing, a blame she carried as well. "I..." Azula dropped her arms to just hold her elbow, as she glanced away from Katara. "I do..." Katara's face softened. "And so does Connor. Him most of all I'd assume... The Avatar's death, Ba Sing Se's fall, the war's escalation to this bloody brutal mess it has come to... He blames himself, and I share that blame."
"What do you mean?" Katara asked. "I know that Connor shot Aang, and that you were the one behind the rebellion that crippled the city, but what could you two have possibly done to make the war as bad as it is? It's not like you invented the thunder sticks all the soldiers have been killing each other with."
Azula cringed a little. "Actually... In a way we did." Katara blinked once and pulled her head back slightly. "The hand cannon is an ancient fire nation weapon that both appeared and fell out of use some four hundred years ago. Connor introduced me to advancements in the technology, being the modern muskets you're familiar with, and I advocated for their procurement and integration with the military... In a way, the two of us are the reason so many die on the field of battle now."
Katara found herself genuinely speechless for a moment, as she could see the look of somber on Azula's face. "I.. Wow..." She muttered. "You're... Not to sound rude, but, you're genuinely remorseful about that ain't you?"
Azula shrugged. "Being the reason so many have suffered in such a short period is only half as exciting as I was always led to believe. Obviously I cannot speak on behalf of the entire Fire Nation, and I know that I can't right the wrong that the war has done unto you and your people, but for what it's worth, consider this a personal apology."
Katara shook her head as she sat back down. "Yeah well, when either you or Zuko become Fire Lord you can start righting wrongs by, oh I don't know, rebuilding the Southern Water Tribe after raiding it for almost eighty years."
Azula chuckled. "I'll take a mental note of that."
Just then a thought struck Katara. "Wait... If Connor was the one who showed you the muskets, where did he get them from? He doesn't seem smart enough to create something like that."
Azula raised an eyebrow. "Well if you're so curious why don't you just ask him." She said, before dawning a small smile. "And as for the chores... I'll take over the dishwashing for you."
The two firebenders spent much of their day walking west up the mountain. Aang protected his fire with his free hand, though kept it away from his body. Zuko held his own fire in his palm, kept high near his chest. It took until Sunset, but they'd managed to make it to the rock without issue.
Between the split point of the mountain, there was a stone stairway, and a bridge connecting it to a cave on either peak. The Sun Warriors had managed to beat them to the mountain, and the chief approached them as he spoke. "Facing the judgment of the masters will be dangerous for you both." He looked at Zuko. "Your ancestors are directly responsible for the disappearance of the dragons. The masters might not be so happy to see you." The chief turned to Aang as Zuko looked away. "And you disappeared, allowing the Fire Nation to wreak havoc on the world. Through your inaction, the decline of the dragons is also your burden to bear." Aang looked at his own feet.
The chief hummed at that, before planting his scepter into the ground, and taking fire from Aang and Zuko, passing it to warriors at either side of him, who began to pass the flame to each other, forming circles with the heat.
Aang turned to Zuko. "We could turn back now. We already learned more than we could have possibly hoped for."
"I don't think we should. I want to see this through to the end. We're going to meet these masters, and find out what's so great about them." Zuko said, as he turned to look at the chief walking towards the stairs.
"What if they attack us?" Aang asked.
Zuko smirked. "You're the Avatar, and I'm the crown prince… I think we could take them in a fight, whoever they are." Aang grinned a little. Zuko nodded, before stepping forward. "We're ready!" He said loudly.
The chief nodded. "Begin." He said, spreading his arms. From the circle of warriors, men beat on drums, chanting, as sun warrior women kelt and prostrated themselves to the mountain.
Aang, and Zuko stepped forward, before beginning their climb to the top of the steps. Once at the top, they heard the voice of a man below, speaking through a horn. "Those who wish to meet Ran and Shao will now present their fire." Aang and Zuko looked at each other, before facing a cave each, and lowering their heads.
From the distance, a war horn sounded out across the evening sky, and birds flew away from the mountain. A heavy thud came from the cave to the north, and Aang looked over his shoulder at Zuko, who remained unflinching. Aang whipped around to Zuko and let go of his fire for a moment. "What's going on?" Aang asked.
"Do I look Like I know?" Zuko asked. The two began to bicker back and forth, before Aang eventually swiped Zuko's fire from his hand and in doing so whiffed it out like a candle.
The Chief, at the base of the starecase sighed. "Nitwits." He said under her breath.
The cave to the north rumbled again, and as the two without a flame to carry looked to it's entrance, the screech of an ancient dragon cried out, as the red scaled, winged great lizard burst from the cave, before flying in loops around the bridge and stares between the peaks. Joining it from the south, came a blue dragon, of an equally massive size. The two flew circles around each other and the bridge.
"The masters are dragons…" Zuko said to himself in amazement.
"Still think we can take them?" Aang asked quietly.
"I never said that!" Zuko hissed.
The Avatar raised an eyebrow as he watched the two dragons fly circles around them. "Zuko… I think we should dance."
"What?" Zuko asked.
"The dragon dance." Aang reminded him.
"What about this situation makes you think they want us to dance?" Zuko asked over his shoulder.
"Do you have any better ideas?" Aang asked in return.
Grunting in frustration, Zuko took a step forward, and began with the first stance in the Dancing Dragon form. Aang mirrored him. As they completed the movement in synchronization, the masters followed them. True to the dance's name, as Aang and Zuko danced across the bridge, the masters flew around them in patterns following suit.
Before long, Aang and Zuko had completed their dance with the dragons in the air, and came to a halt at the center of the platform they shared. Ran and Shao hovered over either end of the bridge, looking down on The Avatar and The Prince.
Ran and Shao had made their judgment.
Perching themselves against the stareway, the two dragons opened their maws, and exhaled fire around the two standing at the bridge's center, letting the fire they created burn with all the colors of the world, as it swirled around them, and reached up toward the heavens. Shedding a single tear, Zuko spoke. "I understand…"
After only a few short seconds, Ran and Shao stopped their display of the first form of bending, and after ascending into the sky, returned to their caves, north, and south. Seeing the ceremony to be over, the two descended the staircase, and spoke among themselves. "That was the most amazing thing I've ever seen." Zuko said. "I saw so much. Color's I didn't know existed. It was like…" Zuko trailed off.
"Firebending harmony." Aang supplemented.
The chief smiled at them. "Ran and Shao judged you. They gave you visions of the meaning of firebending."
"It's energy, and life." Aang said.
Zuko looked back up to the mountain peaks. "My uncle Iroh said that he hunted down the last dragon, and killed it… Why would he lie about something like that?" He asked.
The chief smiled. "Well, it wasn't a complete lie… Your Uncle Iroh, Dragon of the West, was the last outsider before you three, to face the masters. They judged him, and saw the good in his heart yet to be, and shared with him the secrets of firebending."
"He lied to protect them." Zuko said, before looking at Aang. "He lied to protect the secret of firebending. The fact that it's light, and warmth… Like the sun, but inside of us. Like a drive." He blinked twice before continuing. "That's why my bending was weak. After I joined you, I lost my purpose... But now, I have a new one. I'm going to help you restore balance to the world, and defeat my father."
Zuko stepped past the chief, and threw two fire blasts, before Aang tried his hand, bending a bright orange ball of fire into the air with an open palm and a wide eyed look of joy.
The chief smiled at the two, and bowed to them. "It was an honor to have The Avatar in our presence, And the Prince of the Fire Nation, both." He said with a smile, before seemingly growing serious. "Of course, now that you have learned of our tribe's existence, we have no choice but to imprison you here, forever." Aang and Zuko gasped, only for the chief to smile again. "Just kidding…" Before either of them could sigh, the chief snapped at them. "But seriously, don't tell anyone."
Author's note.
Half cannon, and half original content.
We got to get the Zuko field trips in, and of course keep up with the others.
Connor's knowledge of astronomy is period accurate, as supposition of heliocentrism was widely accepted by the general public, (by 1785 galactocentric models, where the milky way is the center of the universe, and the sun somehow is supposed to be at its center, was scientifically accepted) however Connor is a sceptic, because as he said, the sun is just another star. (or the other way around) This was also a widely held view, and considered fact by at least the 1800s.
The next few chapters are going to follow a close format to this, with a significant bump in length, and for that reason it might take longer to upload. I'll also be going on vacation for 2 weeks, so I might not post anything until it's over.
Fun fact, Azula's voice actor Grey DeLisle played a role in the game "Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon." As she seemed to for every other part of our childhoods.