Responses to Reviews:
Ghostwrittr: I plead plot reasons. But if you want to square it, then maybe in the original timeline the South had those sexist ideas but, bearing the brunt of the Fire Nation attack, were more sensible than the north were in quickly ditching them so everyone could fight, leading to the comparatively more equal society of the original show.
Zigzagdoublezee: None of our team are very proficient fighters yet, and the only competent bender is Rinzen, a pacifist, so they have to rely on their brains until they can be trained properly.
RonaldM40196867: No, I haven't thought about eating any of them.
As Always, Please Review!
The war was not going well for the Earth Kingdom. The Fire Nation had successfully landed at several points along the coast and was now pushing inland. The only resistance that had been offered so far was a few hit-and-run attacks, a couple of sieges of surprised and unprepared forts, and one pitched battle between professional Fire Nation soldiers and poorly armed and trained local militias.
That had not gone well for the militia.
That left the Earth Kingdom's military fortunes in a perilous state, and that led to panic spreading through the village. Families were loading up carts, ostrich-horses were being loaded down with bags and small children, and everyone was preparing to flee in the face of what seemed like an imminent Fire Nation advance. Nobody noticed, in the chaos, a lone figure stumbling down the street, hoping desperately that nobody recognised him.
After all, the Prince of the Fire Nation was unlikely to be very popular at that moment.
Zuko didn't see how that was fair. They didn't know anything about him, he was just as much a victim of all of this as they were. But, if he was unmasked reason would not be enough to save him. Better not to get unmasked in the first place. Fortunately he had acquired new clothes, a green robe which made him look like a subject of the Earth King like any other as long as nobody looked too closely and saw his eye colour.
His stomach rumbled. Lu Ten had left some food in the boat, enough to last him this long, but it had gone now and he was hungry.
He turned a corner and came face to face with a pair of ostrich-horses. They were saddled up to a two-wheeled chariot painted green, with flags flying from the back with the symbols of the Earth King and the local Governor on them. Two soldiers looked down at him from where they were stood on top of the contraption. They must have been sent to make sure the evacuation proceeded smoothly.
"Are you alright, son?" One of them asked, not unkindly.
"Yeah, fine thanks," Zuko said quickly.
"What's your name?" The other asked. "I haven't seen you before."
Zuko silently cursed. He hadn't actually prepared a fake name, he hadn't needed one yet. He thought about just telling the truth, and resigning himself to the comfortable captivity Lu Ten had told him about, but something stopped him. He hadn't run away just to go to a different jail.
"Li," he said after a moment of frantic thought. "My name is Li."
"Did you come from somewhere else?"
"From the coast," Zuko replied, truthfully. "My home was attacked by the Fire Nation and I ran."
"I'm sorry," the soldier said. "Are you headed to Ba Sing Se?"
"That's the idea."
The soldier nodded sagely. "I think you're not the only one," he said. "Many people from this village, many other villages, are going that way."
Zuko nodded.
"Hey," the other soldier, the one holding the reins of the Ostrich-Horses, said. "How old are you?"
"16," Zuko told them.
"Have you ever considered a career in the military?"
Zuko shook his head.
"We are short of men," the second soldier mused. "Yeah, I think you're coming with us."
"We can't do that!" The first soldier argued, but before Zuko had a chance to argue someone shouted.
"There you are!" Someone looped their arm through his and he found himself being dragged away.
"Don't say anything," his saviour whispered. "Just go with it."
Zuko found himself arm in arm with a woman who looked to be in her late 40s, maybe early 50s. She was wrapped in a warm green coat and had brown hair tied into a ponytail with a few flecks of grey in it.
"You had a lucky escape," she went on. "They were about to conscript you. You're going to Ba Sing Se, aren't you?"
Zuko nodded, dumbfounded.
"My name is Lian," she said. "We're going to Ba Sing Se and we'll help you get there too. What's your name?"
Zuko was so surprised that he almost forgot to lie.
"Z-Li, my name is Li. Why are you doing this?"
"Because you need help!" Lian said this as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "You look lost, and alone."
Zuko didn't say anything, because what could he say? He was lost, and alone, in a foreign land where his true identity could get him killed by either side of a war far beyond his control.
Lian led him over towards a house, where a man was helping to pile stuff onto a cart parked outside. A toddler was sat in the driver's seat. As they approached, a girl who looked like she was about Zuko's age came out of the house, and she saw them first.
"Who is that?" She asked suspiciously. The man looked up.
"Darling, what have you done this time?" He asked.
"This," Lian said, "Is Li."
"That could cause a bit of confusion," the man Zuko assumed to be her husband said wryly.
"I found him alone, he was about to be conscripted by some soldiers. He's going to Ba Sing Se like us."
"Is he?" The girl asked. "Good luck to him."
"No, he's coming with us."
"Why?"
"These are tough times," Lian said gravely. "We have to stick together, and we have to help whoever we can or else we might not get through it."
"And how do we know we can trust him?"
"Call it gut instinct."
"Right." The girl looked unconvinced.
"This is my husband Bei," Lian gestured to her husband, who nodded.
"And this is my daughter, Chen."
Chen didn't look very enthusiastic, but she also greeted him. Zuko bowed.
Bei gestured for him to come over, and pulled back the covers on the cart.
"You can come," he said. "But because I don't know you, just know that if you try anything, I'm very good at using these. I was in the army after all."
Laying in the cart, glinting softly in the light, were a pair of dual swords.
Zuko nodded vigorously. He did not need the warning.
"Great!" Lian said happily. "Let's get moving!"
The admiral stepped into the town centre and watched as the merchants were forced to bow their heads to him. They were being forced to kneel down by Fire Nation marines, the port having been surrounded by his ships on the seaward side and by the army on land. His heart twisted at the sight.
There was a shout from behind the prisoners, and more marines entered, led by Commodore Zhao, his second in command. They were dragging men in chains.
"We caught them trying to get back into the port," Zhao explained. "They're pirates."
The Admiral nodded, and turned to the prisoners.
"Pirates," he spat. "Do you know what the penalty for piracy is?"
"We're not pirates!" Their leader tried. "We're just high-risk-"
Don't give me that!" The Admiral scowled. "I know your type. You have a total disregard for others. You take and you take, always thinking of your own benefit. Pirates are a scourge."
He pointed.
"Is that your ship?" He pointed to the abandoned sailing vessel still moored in the bay.
The captain nodded, and the ship was immediately engulfed in a wall of flame which sprang out of the ground and rolled over it, setting the entire wooden structure ablaze.
"My ship!"
The pirate captain fell to his knees in horror.
The Admiral turned back to him, the man's face glowing in the light of the blaze.
"Take him away," he ordered.
"Wait!" The captain begged as he was hauled to his feet. "Don't you want to know why we were out of town?"
"No," the Admiral shrugged. "Get out of my sight."
"We saw the Avatar!" The captain said. "The Avatar! She was here!"
That got the admiral's attention, and he ordered the guards to stop.
"The Avatar?" Admiral Jeong Jeong advanced towards them carefully, fixing the captain with a curious gaze. The man shrank under his stare.
"Very well, pirate. Tell me about her. Tell me everything you know."