I don't own Avatar: The last airbender

Chapter 32

Today had been interesting, Song decided. Scary, mentally scaring, and extremely bad, but interesting.

True to its word (does it even work in dogs?), The hound guided them back home. It was even considerable enough to slow its pace to match theirs. Before long, it stopped and pointed its nose in a direction across the trees. Luckily, both Song and her mother recognized the clearing as the one near the gates of the town.

"So this is it than, I guess it's a goodbye then?" Song said somberly. "Thank you, for everything."

"Yes, thank you for saving my daughter and I." Mother said. "She is all that I have left."

"Bark."

It seemed like mother's opinion on the hound had changed dramatically after she was sure that it wouldn't eat them or anything like that.

"You look tired and hungry, how about we give you a meal and some rest before searching for your owner?"

"Bark!" It shook its tail with excitement, the tongue was out.

Her mother giggled. "Well, someone sure has an appetite. Wait, now how do we get you in?" she suddenly frowned.

"What are you talking about, mom?" Song asked, confused. "He will go with us through the gate… You're a 'he', right?"

"Bark!"

She will take it as a yes.

"I'm sorry dear, but it's impossible." Mother moved her head from side to side. "The guards will never let a wild animal in, especially one that can kill a platypus bear all on its own. More so, if the animal is delivering some kind of secret message."

"What do you mean, secret message?" Song asked in confusion.

"Look at the bag, dear." Mother explained. "Do you see the piece of paper? It's obvious that it has been trained, especially after what we so. My guess is that the owner sent it to deliver a latter of some sort."

"Oh, really?!" Song was excited as she turned to the animal in question. "Can you show us?"

In return to her excitement, she received an unblinking pair of unamused, half-closed eyes that almost seemed to tell her "Seriously?".

"Amm, dear…" Her mother reached her. "I think it has been given the explicit order to tear anyone who tries to touch the latter to pieces, like it did to the platypus bear. I really don't think we should get involved in this."

The hound moved its head slowly up and down, as if it imitated a nod of agreement with her mother. Spirits, this hound was trained very well.

"Okay… So how do we get it in?"

In response to her question, the animal snorted, it honest to spirits snorted, and moved its head to the direction of the gate. It was as if the animal was telling them to just go inside and not to worry. After that, the hound just left.

"So… we just go in?" She asked.

"I guess we do, dear." Her mother sighed. "I guess we do."

"It's funny, never thought we would take orders from a dog." Song said.

"Trust me, it's far from the first time a dog is ordering us…" Mother grumbled under her breath.

The two went to the gate, where one of the soldiers greeted them. "Wow, what happened to you two? More importantly, how was your herb collection?"

"We… we ran into a platypus bear, we barely made it out alive. Unfortunately, the herbs were lost if our escape, this is all we could save." Mother showed a handful of herbs she picked on the way back.

"Tch, this is hardly enough." The soldier scolded. "Gow wouldn't be happy."

When is he ever, Song thought. As her mother spoke with the soldier, however, Song noticed that the black dog used this distraction and jumped over the fence without anyone noticing. Just how smart was that thing?

In any case, they were let inside soon after and went home. On the way, she noticed that the animals were scared for some reason, only to remember that she let inside a predator strong enough to kill a platypus bear… Spirits, she hoped it was well behaved enough to not eat any of the animals or things could get really awkward.

When she and her mother were near the house, she could see the ostrich horse of the family in the deepest corner of the yard. It was hiding its head deep in a pile of strews, what wasn't hidden, was shaking for dear life.

It was strange, but perhaps expected. The hound was likely following them to their house. What she didn't expect, was hearing her mother scream when she opened the door.

"AHH!"

"Mom, you're alright?!" Song ran to the door and saw the cause of her mother's scream. It seems that the hound somehow got inside the house and waited for them to return. It sat in the corridor, tail shaking from side to side.

"Bark!"

"Sorry dear, our friend just scared me." Mother apologized before giving a suspicion glare to the hound. "Although that doesn't explain how it got here in the first place, the door was locked."

As if understanding the question, the hound turned its head and pointed with one of its paws at an open window.

"Wait, wasn't that window closed?" Song asked, she was sure that she closed the very same window before she and her mother went outside earlier.

"Bark." The hound nodded once with its head.

"…" Song didn't have anything to say about it, the dog was clearly smarter than she initially thought. Heck she was starting to think that the animal was actually smarter than her. Starting to think about it, she really should call it by its name.

"Hey, boy, do you have a name?"

"Bark." It showed off its collar, which had a nameplate now that she looked at it. She walked closer to the dog and held the nameplate, the dog didn't make any movement so she guessed it was fine.

"Xing… that's your name?"

"Bark!" The now named Xing wiggled its tale.

Song turned the nameplate to the other side. "If lost, return to Zuko… Huh, like the fire price." Song could hear her mother coughing from behind her, as if she was choking a little.

"Anyway, mom makes roast duck." Song said before she whispered to Xing's ear. "She always makes too much roast duck."

"Bark!"


The people on the ground stared fearfully at the shapes above, the earth peasants did not know exactly what those things were. They did hear about the "eyes" the fire nation created and were told horror stories about how a soldier can spy on a woman bathing half a continent away. But they have yet to experience the eyes that could bombard them.

And while they didn't know what the gathering flock above them meant, they knew that they should take cover and pray for whatever spirit was listening that they would survive. For they knew that it had to be another scheme of the fire nation.

Up above in the sky, unaware and uncaring for the people down below, the F.E.A.R (fire eastern air force) was heading directly to Ba Sing Se, the heart and capital of the earth kingdom. Spirits were high as the soldiers talked to each other about the operation.

"I can't believe we're actually going to attack Ba Sing Se."

"You better, think the girls there are as pretty as the songs say?"

"Don't be a pig, man. I'm more interested in seeing the infamous wall, I heard they say it reaches the sky."

"Well, we'll see that soon enough. By the way, what do you guys think about the rumor about the earth king?"

"The one with the grand secretary? Ha! It's so preposterous it must be true."

"Yeah, no one had ever seen him with a girl, did they? But apparently, he spends the entire time with the old man."

"I know, me and the gals from the logistic department were actually just talking about it before the mission."

"Damn, Korin, that's brutal girl. With those girls, at least half the continent will talk about it by tomorrow morning."

"Linda actually wrote a story about it."

"If it's Linda than I don't want to know."

"Yeah… her writing isn't exactly my cup of tea."

"You're all mean."

"No, we're honest."

"Well, for your knowledge, the colonel took great interest. He even had the penalty legion make as many copies as possible, he said that we're going to distribute them across all of Ba Sing Se as we fly."

"Damn… The colonel is cruel, aren't the bombs enough? I actually feel sorry now for the poor sods in the capital."

"Now I know why the relief holes were full of puke. Penalty legion or not, I salute them for their sacrifice."

"May Agni have mercy on their souls."

"Amen."

"You guys are unbelievable…"

The bickering continued as the group un winded their excitement. Their commanding officer could hear them from his place at the command center of the eye but decided to let them be for now. They still had some time before they reached the infamous walls of Ba Sing Se, and the troops should let their steam out so they will be at full attention when the time comes.

Inwardly, he thought about the plan the colonel had told them. The idea was simple enough: fly above the walls, find the palace (most likely the highest and biggest building), bomb it and any other important looking buildings, and fly away while blowing the gates and forcing the earth king to an ultimatum.

While the main force was busy with the palace, a secondary task force was to distribute propaganda to the entire city of Ba Sing Se. The idea was to tarnish the earth king's reputation and cause civil unrest in the city. He himself was unsure why the colonel thought that the peasants would want to rebel against their king who protects them with his walls, but he trusted Thrawn's judgement.

The commander shuddered at the thought of those infernal things.

The colonel, as his usual pragmatic self, used the most efficient (and sadistic) way to achieve his goals. After he had ordered an intelligence gathering of everything they know about the earth king and the grand secretary, he used the scorn and vanity of an officer who just found out that her husband cheated on her to draw the most offensive and eye bugling caricatures she can. The results were so effective that even he felt outrage for the earth king. And he was a part of the conspiracy for crying out loud!

Another idea that came straight from the swamps of Koh, was the… book. Utilizing the degeneracy found only in a frustrated housewife with a lot of imagination, Thrawn had created a story about the forbidden relationship between the earth king and the grand secretary. The sheer filth of this thing… let's just say that the puke the crew below spoke about wasn't only from the penalty legion. He will never forgive Thrawn for forcing them to read the damnable thing to know the accusations against the earth king.

The worst thing was that once you start reading the book, you can't help yourself but finish it in spite of all the filth. Like a forbidden fruit, once you get a taste you have to get more to know what's happening. For some forsaken reason, the book was named "Twilight", according to the colonel it was a wordplay about the ending of the earth kingdom as an analogy to the setting sun.

In a true stroke of sadism, the colonel forced the penalty legion to copy that heretical text in mass. They actually had to put soldiers to make sure that the men copying didn't commit a suicide.

Shaking his head from the thoughts, he pulled a spyglass and could see the walls. However, just as he was about to order the crew to start preparing for the attack, he noticed that a gathering of clouds was starting to form around the walls.

"What in Agni's name…" He said as the clouds evolved into a full-blown storm. "All personal, prepare for a storm!"

Just what were the spirits throwing at them now?


Far away from the material plane, in an unknown place inside what the mortals call "the spirit world", one spirit was extracting its power on the mortal world.

It resembled somehow a human shape, at least its head and upper body (if one were to ignore the goat horns on the head). There was a pair of semi-transparent butterfly wings on its back, pink on the outside and green on the inside. In the middle of each wing there was the symbol of the air proudly displayed.

In had two pairs of arms, the upper ones were that of a human and the lower ones were those of an ape. That was probably compensation for the lack of legs, or torso actually, because from the waist downwards it had the spectral tale of a djinn.

It was panting, not physically obviously, but metaphorically. It was a named spirit, Gale was his designation. But even for him, the task of manifesting a storm the size of the capital of the children of earth from a world away was demanding.

He also had another problem, one of more dire consequences. He was interfering with the human world without being challenged by the mortals, which was against the unspoken laws of the realm. Even if he got permission from his superior (in a way…), Gale really didn't want any other spirit to confront him. Especially a stronger spirit, he knew that he wasn't high on that pole.

Then, as if an even higher power was mocking it, Gale sensed the very thing he was trying to avoid. The spirit he sensed held great power, in fact the feeling was so strong that Gale could only compare it to his own superior Kōng, the ancient great spirit of air. Gale turned to meet the spirit and nearly stopped the storm from shock. Of all spirits in existence, it had to be that spirit…

A titanic figure with the very ideal body of a paragon warrior of humanity. It was covered in armor and armed to the teeth from head to toe, its armor and weapons ever so slightly changing. The only thing that stayed the same was the fact that everything on the figure was practical, as well as intimidating. The head was covered in a helmet, the face forever hidden beneath the ever-changing visor.

It radiated power, it was made for battle, it was…

"Lord Sensō…" Gale said fearfully as it quickly bowed.

Sensō, the spirit of war himself. Sensō, unlike most spirits, is deeply influenced by the mortal realm. While nature spirits were only concerned with mortals if their own piece of the world was in danger, Sensō actively fed from humans. Their battles and violence fueled him, the souls of the fallen soldiers fed him and expanded his realm. Whenever a soldier, no matter the side, prayed for whatever deity they worshiped, half of the devotion went to empower Sensō by his right as the spirit of war. And to make matters worse, by his power and title as the spirit of war, the more you fight him, the stronger he becomes.

In a harmonious world, Sensō wouldn't have been much of a talk, a spirit above the average but not of much interest. However, fed from nearly a century of global conflict, Sensō was now on par with the great ancients like Agni, La and Tui, Tsuchi and his own Kōng. Some may say that Sensō was even stronger, just below the power level of Raava and Vaatu, he certainly was during the divine war…

Sensō was also known for his possessiveness, viciousness and violent nature. One time, Koh stole a few souls that Sensō considered his, the war spirit came straight to the face stealer's lair in rage. While Gale wasn't sure about all the details, the encounter ended with Sensō literally beating the souls out of Koh, and then some more for good measure. Sensō also tied Koh around itself so tight, it took a few decades for the centipede like spirit to untie itself.

And Gale was caught rad handed messing with his domain…

"I can explain –"

"Silence." The war spirit didn't yell or even raise his voice, but his words filled the space regardless.

"You interfere with the mortal realm unprovoked. Worse, you mess with my domain and with a world changing event. You have exactly one minute to explain yourself."

Deciding to immediately get to the point, Gale didn't waste his time on trivial honorifics. "You've sensed the return of the abomination, so as anyone else. But did any of them rise up and crush it as is right? No! And almost immediately after the reawakening, the spawns of Agni assault the capital of the spawns of Tsuchi with monstrosities who clearly bare the sign of the abomination's corruption. Something must have been done, and since none took action, I did!"

In retrospect, yelling at the spirit of war seemed like a very short road to great pain, it seemed, however, that Sensō was humored by the bravado as he didn't smite Gale then and there. Instead, he asked Gale with a curious tone. "And how did you get that old airhead's permission? You'd be hard pressed to act across worlds without it, and I know firsthand how uninterested Kōng is in everything."

"..." Gale didn't have an answer, or at least a one that wouldn't embarrass itself. Luckily, the war spirit figured out the answer before Gale could form a response.

"You asked Kōng if he has any problems with it and you received his silence as a permission, didn't you?"

"…Yes."

The spirit of war sighed, apparently expecting something like this to happen. "That old air for brains really couldn't care less about anything, is he? Truly the detachment part comes to light. Makes me wonder it he even felt something when his children were slaughtered in the genocide."

Gale could easily answer it, Kōng didn't care at all. A raised eyebrow, perhaps, but nothing more. One would think that the great spirit of air would come to Agni and demand retribution for the crimes of fire, but none of that happened. Gale itself didn't care much about the humans, fragile apes full of nastiest, but such a disregard for those who spent their entire lives worshipping you? It was too much even for him. Not to mention that it made Gale think about how important he was to the great spirit of air.

"Kōng didn't even complained to Agni, you know. That ball of gas was downright insulted by such lack of honor and demanded Kōng to face him in a battle of honor for the fallen nomads, quite the irony I must say." The humor in the war spirit's tone was unmistakable.

"But we digress." Sensō became serious once more. "Do you have a name, spirit?"

"G-gale, my lord."

"Well then, Gale, answer me this. Why not attack our new little overlord straight away? Why not do it while he was vulnerable at sea?"

"After I was made aware of that abomination's return I did try to search for their location. The damned magic wave from the infernal workshop has been messing the senses of all the lower spirits, we feel as if the outcast is everywhere all at once."

"True, but then why not try and find him? Cut the head of the snake, so to speak?"

Gale wanted to, oh he so wanted, but he knew his limits. "Screening through the world would have taken too much time on my own, and none of the other spirits would have helped. All of them are too preoccupied with their own little things to see the big picture. And even if I did find them, I lack your might, lord. Stronger and better fitted spirits than I have tried and failed containing this disease, I'm unsure of my ability to win."

The war spirit nodded. "It's admirable to know your limitations and act accordingly. Yet you still persist, how long do you think you could hold until you're unable to sustain the storm any longer?"

"Not long, lord."

"Hmm…" The great spirit was thinking. "How about I land you a fraction of a fraction, of my power? That should suffice to hold the storm across all of Ba Sing Se indefinitely."

Gale couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You- You will do that?"

"Of course." Sensō said with a cheerful tone. If Gale had to guess, he'd say that Sensō was smiling under his visor. "We can't have the earth kingdom surrender so early, can we? This will basically bring the end of this wonderful war and I can't have that, not until Humanity is in a position to start their own war. Oh, the overlord wars were always such a delight, and I have a good feeling about this one."

Of course, the spirit of war wanted more war… Gale really shouldn't have been surprised.

"Well? What is your answer?"

Gale didn't really like any of those options. If he accepts, he will be in debt to and under the thrall of the war spirit, basically betraying his own great spirit. If he declines, he will not only lose the storm, but he had a very strong feeling that Sensō will actually kill him. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. But at least in one of those choices he manages to act for the spirit world. Besides, it's not like Kōng cares, he never does.

"If I accept, what will you have me do?"

"You are to guard Ba Sing Se and Ba Sing Se alone from the sky." The war spirit ordered. "You will guard your post without leaving until there is no more arial threat. And don't worry about the other spirits, I'll take care of them."

Gale could feel his power almost disappearing. "I agree."

"Good." Gale immediately felt the power. Oh, it was so overwhelming, he could feel evert fiber of his essence being empowered. His body was evolving as well. His arms were beefed up, his wings sturdier and sharper, as well changing color from pink to red, his goat horns grew to bull horns. He felt himself grow in strength and size.

Was this the power of war? No wonder Sensō was so arrogant when he commanded such might. No, the war spirit said it was a fraction of a fraction, Sensō was truly an amazing being. He needed to test it, he needed to fight!

"It seems like I kept you too preoccupied. The airships are almost on mark."

"NOO!"

Gale looked again at the mortal realm and to his horror, the infernal devices were already past the wall. He quickly put all of his power into the storm. The fact that he was still in one piece meant that Sensō was fine with him… for now at least.


"Now that is unexpected." Thrawn commented about the sudden storm.

"You think it's the work of spirits? I don't know how to explain the sudden storm otherwise." His right-hand man said.

"It is of no consequence." Thrawn decided. "The storm will substile soon enough."

"What?! How to you know that colonel?"

"A storm can be created so quickly only by an air bender or a spirit. While most would go straight to spirits by elimination, I will still hold the first option. No matter how good a plan and an execution are, some guppy will always slip the net."

"If it's the first option, then the air bender's chi will soon run out, rendering the storm useless. If it's the second option, then said spirit is not with us. Meaning it has to force this storm from the spirit world. And unless we are dealing with a great spirit, its power will soon run out as well."

"How do you know so much about spirits?" asked the right hand. "And what if it is a great spirit?"

"To answer your first question, spiritual encounters are written aplenty in the novels of all nations. And while they are unreliably narrated at best, the keen eye knows the extract the facts from the fiction. A spirit, if present, will always reveal itself in some form to demand compensation. The fact that such a spirit is yet to appear points us to the fact that it's not here."

"And as for the great spirits… If that was the case, then we wouldn't be having this conversation. Besides, according to all accounts, spirits are extremely territorial. Unless the spirits in question are deeply connected or share a symbiotic bond to the world or each other, they will see the appearance and extraction of will of another spirit in their territory as an invasion. And because there was never a mention of a wind spirit in Ba Sing Se for all of its history, we can safely assume that the spirit causing this storm is not local."

And soon enough, the wind became weaker and weaker until it was barely felt.

"Push forward, if you please. Full speed ahead." The crew immediately followed Thrawn's command, which was quickly transmitted via light signals to the other eyes.

The fleet was now above the walls. If Thrawn was to look down, he was sure that he would see the frightened faces of the earth kingdom soldiers. Their expression broken as their belief in the wall, it was quite ironic that those who guard inside of a fortress are breakable as wood while those who guard outside of a fence are hard as stone.

Poetry, however, will have to wait. With a signal, the armada began its mission. The bombardment class eyes were on their way to the palace with Thrawn's eye on the lead, the other eyes were beginning to spread across the entire city. Suddenly, the storm returned at full force. No… it was ten times stronger.

"Sir! What are we going to do?!" his right hand asked fearfully as their vessel shook. "The eyes wouldn't be able to hold out much longer in this pace!"

"Order all none bombardment eyes to drop their cargo and retreat." Thrawn ordered calmly. "The wind will take care of the distribution for us. Order the men to warp the papers with something against rain, it would be a waste if all of our work is erased by some water."

"Yes sir!" the man besides him saluted. "But what about us, sir?"

"We're making a gambit." Thrawn said, tone normal in spite of the sour taste the words left in his mouth. "Order the other bombardment eyes to close in, we're going to transfer all the explosives to this ship. Once done, the other ships will retreat the city in haste while this ship will be used as a distraction."

"Distraction, sir?"

"Yes, it will fly straight to the palace with everything we have. The spirit responsible for this storm, and make no mistake about spiritual involvement, will hopefully be too preoccupied with stopping this single vessel then hunting the rest."

"It's a suicide, sir!" his right-hand yelled.

"Yes."

"…I will do it."

"Pardon?" Thrawn asked in a confused tone, a rare sight.

"I can pilot the eye on my own, until I crush into the palace. You and the others can escape on the rest of the eyes. That was your plan, wasn't it?"

"In most part, yes. Although your part in it wasn't included. You have a family, we can find an-"

"And in my final moments I'll think about them, and about the chance my sacrifice will give them for a better world after your victory. Sorry sir, but this is nonnegotiable."

"... It's been an honor, Glass."


"What are they doing?!" Gale yelled as he watched the puny children of fire clustering around what he assumed to be their main vessel. They were bringing to the bigger vessel some things that he didn't recognize nor cared about.

"Hmm… Interesting, if a bit rushed out." The war spirit commented.

"You know what they're planning?!"

"Yes, and watch your tone. Remember who you're talking to." The tone of the great spirit was calm, but the threat hit him like a storm.

"Y-yes, my lord." Gale frightfully replied. "But shouldn't you tell me? So I could put a stop to this? This could jeopardize your war, after all."

Sensō looked at him in what may have been a look of disgust, if the visor allowed to see what's behind it. "You have more than enough to figure it out on your own. Don't try to use my arguments against me, leach, I have been more than generous with your transgression. If you can't hold your part even with the power I gave you, then you're clearly not worth my time."

Gale decided to wisely shut up and focus on eliminating the threat. He noticed that some of the constructions were already beyond the city walls after dropping some carts, which he immediately crushed with his wind. Noticing that the carts held nothing but warped pipers, Gale lost interest in them and focused his attention on the main vessel.

One mortal felt different from the others, it wasn't just his pale skin or red eyes, his soul felt different, more… war-like. He turned to the final authority in such things.

"One of your champions, I presume?"

To his shock Sensō shook his mighty head. "An understandable confusion with this one, but no. I don't take champions, I am all the sides in war. Besides, it ruins the principle of war if I give some people divine intervention and others no. I also loath to help the cowards and unfit who don't help themselves, if one is to win a war then they should win it on their own."

Gale didn't miss how the war spirit used the word divine, treating himself as a god and not the spirit he is. Similar thing actually happened to Agni now when Gale thought about it, a spirit worshipped by evil mortals thinks themselves a god, fitting. Wait…

"So why did you help me?" Gale asked before quickly adding. "Not that I complain or anything!"

"Humanity made their move. This unbalanced power balance enables me to even the scores, reluctant as I am to do it, without betraying my beliefs. Should the fire nation have come up with this machine on their own, or at least take the idea from another mortal, then I would have had no problems. Intelligence and cunning deserve their reward after all. But the fact that Humanity decided for them, no matter how much of it the mortals did on their own, is something I can't let go unbalanced."

"But enough about this, you should be more focused on the task ahead."

"Hmm?! No!" Gale saw that while he was busy talking, the main vessel was left on its own. While the other machines were escaping, the main vessel was moving at full speed towards the palace.

Gale put every bit of wind, rain, hail and lightning he had to stop it. He watched as the vessel caught fire as lightning struck the tail end and went plumbing straight down. Gale allowed himself a chuckle of victory, before noticing that it went crushing right on top of the palace.

"NO!"

The thing, accelerated by gravity from the free fall, managed to breach the walls of the palace before it exploded in a big ball of flame. Gale was sure that no mortal could have survived that blast head on.

Yelling in rage and frustration, he was about to dish it on the other flying vessels. He noticed that they managed to get out of the city and prepared to strike them with everything he got, until some force stopped his winds once they reached the wall.

"What?!" Gale raged at the fact that some spirit denied him his vengeance. "Who dares!"

"Me." And Gale was once again aware of the very powerful and terrifying spirit that was behind his back.

"But their getting away!" Gale tried to reason.

"I don't care. The palace was breached by your own incompetence, you have no excuse to leave your post."

"What?!"

"You are to guard the city, amateurishly as it is. Meaning, you're staying here, inside the walls."

"But how can do my duty if I can only influence the inside of the city?!"

"With ease. The power I gave you is more than enough. You are to not interfere in this war any more then I gave you permission for."

"You tricked me!" Gale angrily proclaimed. "You trapped me here so you could have the abomination continue your overlord wars!"

Gale suddenly felt a power knocking him down and squirmed in a pain unlike he felt ever before.

"I made my intentions clear, insect, the fault is not in me if you refused to see the warnings. I am many things, but a liar I am not. Disrespect me like this again, and I will make you reflect on this moment as a mercy for the rest of your pitiful existence. Now if you excuse me, I have new souls to greet in my realm."

With that, Gale suddenly didn't feel like he was burning from the inside and noticed that the war spirit was gone. Oh, just what did he get himself into…


Song woke up from her slumber the day after the incident with the platypus bear. As she was gaining conciseness, she felt herself hugging something big and soft and… breathing? She was scared for a second until she remembered the night before.

She saw Xing sleeping on the floor next to her bed, cuddling itself like a ball, as she gently got to her bad to not to wake the dog. After some time of tossing and turning, she was woken up from a nightmare of that day's events, fortunately without screaming. As she calmed herself down, she noticed Xing looking at her in concern.

Without asking for permission, it jumped on her bad and, despite her protests, it positioned itself in such a way that she was forced to touch it. She had to admit that Xing was very soft for the touch, and warm as well. No, seriously, it was like being near an oven. Song quickly fell into a dreamless sleep as her head was buried in Xing's fur.

She was facing a problem with how to get out of bed without waking the dog up, as well as how to physically get up. Xing, she discovered, weighed more than her. In the end there was no problem, as the dog raised its head not long after she had woken and got off the bed. She changed her clothes and was ready to go downstairs to have breakfast with mom, at least she was until she heard a strong knock on the door.

Turning her head to the side, she noticed Xing ready to pounce. It wasn't growling, but it was a near thing. Deciding to follow the animal's instincts, she stayed in her room as well.

"Melody open up! It's Gow!"

She heard her mother running to the door and unlocking it. As well as heavy footsteps of the soldiers as they went in.

"G-Gow, w-what brings you here?"

"You know what, Melody. Where are the drugs you promised us?"

"T-there is a little hiccup, you see-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know of your little meeting with a platypus bear." Song could actually hear the dismissal. "But a deal is a deal, and you promised us those drugs by today and I don't see any drugs. We all must contribute to the war effort, you know ~"

"Luckily for you, I'm not unreasonable." Gow continued. "I heard that you found a stray on your way home yesterday, an exotic full-fledged dog. Give me the animal and I'll overlook your lack of contribution, for now."

"B-but Xing saved us from the platypus bear. B-besides, it has an owner, it's not ours to give. I-I can make a double next time, please don't take it away."

Song heard a loud crash from downstairs.

"I'm not one to be toyed with!" Gow yelled. "I was more than generous with you. Me and my men stand day and night protecting your village from the fire nation, and this is the thanks I get. When we were told that there is a village near the front that needed protection, my men and I jumped to our duty!"

Unlikely, Song thought. From what she remembered, Gow was very displeased about being here. She clearly remembered how he grumbled about being too close to the fighting for his liking, cursing the messenger and the commander who took him away from some village in the wasteland periphery of Ba Sing Se.

Looking aside, she saw Xing opening the window with its paws. How was that even possible, she didn't understand, but at least it somehow explains how it got to her home unnoticed. She watched in fascination as the dog jumped down to the ground, its feet barely made a sound as it landed.

"I thought we had an agreement." She heard Gow still speaking. "I protect the village and leave you and your daughter alone, and in return you make me drugs to sell to those in 'need'."

"But you ask too much!" mother said desperately. "There are simply no more herbs for me to make you drugs!"

"None of my concerns. The main guys of the trade are having some problems, apparently things became hot when the fire prince decided he didn't like them. Meaning, me and my boys have an opportunity to fill the shoes, at least until things return to normal. So once again, you can blame the fire nation for everything."

Song wasn't sure what they were talking about, but from his tone alone, she figured that in this particular case the first nation wasn't so much to blame as the man speaking.

"By the way, where is your daughter?" Gow suddenly asked, making said girl frightened.

"W-what do you want from my daughter?!" mother stutteringly demanded.

"Well, we can't have her smuggling it away while we chat, can we?" The man mockingly asked before he yelled. "Come here now, girl!"

Without any other option and fearing what they may do to her mother if she didn't comply, Song went quickly downstairs. There she met the small frame of her mother next to the much larger frame of Gow and his underlings. They were all dressed in their uniform, but she couldn't help but see them as the thugs she more and more suspected they were.

"Ah! Good, you're here." Gow turned his attention to her. "Where is the dog? Quickly girl."

"It's not here!" She yelled. "It ran away!"

"Excuse me?!" Gow caught her hand and pushed her to him roughly. They were face to face now. "You let it escape?! An exotic animal like that could have set us for life, you little –"

"It hurts!"

"I don't care! Where is it?!"

"Please, I don't know! It jumped off the window once it heard your screams!"

"If you don't tell me now – Argh!"

It happened so fast that Song barley seen what was happening. One moment she was being held by Gow, quite painfully she may add, the other moment a black shape came from behind Gow and bit his shoulder. Which in return, forced the man to release his grip. The shape then dragged the screaming man away.

"Boss!"

"After it!"

"Get the ostrich horses!"

The other soldiers put chase to rescue their leader as fast as they can. Once they were gone, Song finally had the courage to ask her mother. "Mom, was that…"

"Yes honey, it was Xing."

"Do you think Xing will be fine?" Song asked with concern. "A platypus bear was one thing, but there are multiple soldiers after it. And Gow is an earth bender."

"If its owner is who I think it is, I don't think it's the dog we should worry about." Mother said in a confident tone."

"Hm? What do you mean?" Song was confused.

Her mother sighed before answering. "I have the suspension that this 'Zuko' written on the nameplate is the real Zuko, as in the fire prince. The dog was simply too trained for any other explanation."

"What?!" Sing was shocked. "No way! Xing saved us, an attack dog of the fire prince will never do this! It must be some pet of some earth kingdom noble, who coincidentally named Zuko. Why would something of the prince will be here of all places, we don't have anything important."

"No noble of the earth kingdom will name their son after the banished prince of the fire nation." Mother rebutted. "And you saw the latter it had, I don't think we were particularly a destination. Most likely it was near because of its delivery, who are probably some fire nation forces in the east and came to our help because it was trained to protect humans from wild animals."

Song refused to believe it. "But we played together! It did all kinds of tricks, an attack dog wouldn't do it. It even helped me sleep when I had the nightmare!"

"Xing's master trained it very well."

She really didn't know what to think about this. Unable and unwilling to think about it further, she decided to change the subject.

"What do you think will happen to Gow?"

"The same thing that happened to the platypus bear, if I had to guess."

"Oh…" Song paused for a second. "Do- do you think that the fire nation will come here? With Gow g-gone there isn't anyone to protect us."

To her relief, her mother shook her head from side to side. "I don't think so. They wouldn't have used the prince's personal pet for a simple delivery if they were close. Besides, we will be much safer without that pig around. Mother said the last part with a sneer."

They decided to stay home for the rest of the day, just to be safe in case of any surprises. When her mother opened the door next morning, she saw tween meteor hammers on the front of her door. As well as a few poaches with coin, most likely taken from Gow and his men. In case any of them had any doubts about the fate of the soldiers, it was pretty clear now.

"Damn, it's a clever dog." Mother couldn't help but say when she saw the poaches, Song couldn't help but agree.

Of course, the mayor of the village was informed about this, and when he asked about the cause of death they didn't even have to lie. They simply told him that Gow and his men were mauled by a wild animal. The mayor only said good riddance and didn't question them farther, it also helped that the bodies were found after a few days by a random earth patrol passing by with clear signs of animal attack. The soldiers said that unfortunately there weren't enough men to spare to reposition the guarding positions of the village, a fact that was met with the outrage and disappointment of none of the villagers.

And this concludes chapter 32.

Not a lot of Zuko, but important stuff that happened on the background. We dwelled into a bit of the spirit world and met new spirits that will play a huge part in what's to come. Both Gale and Sensō are my out creations and none cannon. It came from the idea that if spirits are so dominant in the Avatar world, then how is it that after a century of war we don't see any mention of any war spirit? There was bound to be at least one, like with our dear owl in the library who represented knowledge. by the way, Sensō means war in Japanese according to google translate.

for those who wondered, this Gow is indeed the same Gow from the episode "Zuko Alone". Because of the much dire situation at the front then usual, more personal was administrated to the front. This caused Gow to move from his original post to one that (as I think) is closer to the front. As for him being a petty drug dealer, it's something that I can easily picture him doing if he has the means, like a knowledgeable medic he could bully. Hope it didn't come as anything rushed.

The explosion of the palace will have dire consequences. One of the two (the king or the grand secretary) died from it, the only question is who's throat should I slit, what do you think?

Anyway, the next chapter will be more of an exposition to explain a few things and plot bunnies and connect everything together. Some will be shocked by the reveals, some who caught a clue or two across the story will be less.

now for the reviews:

deniswanheda:

Happy that you loved it as always!

We will see more points of view of people from different sides, as well as their thoughts about Zuko and the situation. Glad to know that you noticed that little detail about the coats. And to be fair to Katara, Zuko is the only other guy her age she met besides her brother and she's a teenager who has no maternal (or paternal) guidance about those stuff.

USSRFox:

This will be an interesting meeting, that's for sure.

02cjdgmail:

You wouldn't believe how emotionally aware dogs are. Dogs, and other animals, can remember and even act accordingly to events from their past. Xing is also magic and smarter then most. Following the footsteps of the leader is very well within a dog's mentality. I will take your idea about Kanna under consideration, but I'm afraid that there will be a no for teen dad Zuko. Besides the fact that his honor wouldn't allow him to even sleep with a woman before marriage, Sai will always be there to make sure that such mistakes will never happen.

Engineer1869:

It's always a delight to read your reviews!

Hakoda wouldn't have an easy pass before him, that's for sure. Zuko is indeed already setting his sights north, and with much better preparedness than what Zhao had in cannon. That will be a fun arc to write. You'll see about what I have in mind for Amora, for better or worth. Glad that you liked the Thrawn scene, Kuei X Long Feng for the win!

EvilChaosKing:

Thank You! it's always good to see a new face.

Anyway, be sure to write what you think about the chapter and the story. Don't be afraid to share what you think could and should happen.