A/N: Content warning for this chapter for sexual assault.

Disclaimer: Yee-haw.

Ursa was not a strong swimmer. Naturally, that meant the universe decided to drop her right into a body of water.

Streams of bubbles enveloped her sight as she flailed wildly, trying to make sense of her surroundings. The last thing she remembered was following the white lotus tiles, and then all of a sudden, she was here. While she couldn't puzzle out what had happened between those two moments, thinking about it was not an option right now. With the way her lungs were burning, there wasn't time to focus on anything but survival.

Up, something whispered in her mind. No duh, she wanted to reply, but which way was up? In response, a current formed beneath her and began pushing her towards what was hopefully the right direction. Blindly, she swung her arms and kicked to assist the water's efforts, some half-formed instinct guiding her erratic movements.

Finally, just as her lungs felt as if they couldn't take anymore, her head breached the surface. Her desperate gulp of air earned her a mouthful of lake as the water carried her to land with a mind of its own. Soon enough, her hands and feet were scrabbling over mud and rocks instead of blindly sloshing through the depths. With one last burst of energy, she dragged herself out of the lake and collapsed on the shore.

Having successfully accomplished the task of not drowning, her body immediately alerted her to hunger and thirst and full bladder. At least the bladder part would be easy enough, considering this lake seemed to have spat her out in the middle of a forest at what appeared to be dawn. The water looked surprisingly clear and blue under the slowly lightening sky, enough so that she was tempted to take a sip in her dehydrated state. She held back though, half-hearing a murmur that she needed to get away from the water now that she was no longer drowning. Maybe it was Roku still trying to talk to her - maybe he'd somehow brought her here and pushed her out of the water - but the more she tried to focus her mind on the voice, the more scrambled it became.

Deciding to obey whatever was urging her away from the lake, she painstakingly shifted onto her hands and knees and began crawling for the treeline, wincing at how each motion sent a sharp jolt of pain into her ankle. If she was at her mother's house or in the palace, a sprained ankle would be nothing, but it could be life or death in the wilderness.

Once she'd relieved herself under a tree, which proved to be an extraordinarily challenging feat with an ankle out of commission, she turned her attention to her clothing. She'd lost her shoes in the lake, and her once-fine red robes were soaked, which threatened to make her sick if she wore them for too long. Deciding even the royal tailors couldn't save the outfit, she sacrificed the hem to form a makeshift wrap for her ankle. It was a poor substitute for the real thing, considering how wet and inelastic it was, but it would have to do.

While wrapping her ankle would hopefully prevent any further injury, it didn't magically make it possible for her to walk on it. Ursa grit her teeth and placed her hands against the tree, fighting her way into a standing position without putting any pressure on her bad ankle. A walking stick would be perfect, if only she could find one. With both feet and a good knife, it would've been an easy matter to scale a tree and fashion one herself. Ursa couldn't remember ever feeling so helpless - even when she'd been a newcomer in the palace, she had at least been able to literally stand on her own two feet.

Self-pity would never get her anywhere. She scanned her surroundings, trying to figure out which way to go. The sun was rising up from the horizon, thankfully marking the east. Of course, that didn't help if she didn't have a destination.

Her attention turned back to the lake. Now that her mind was a bit clearer, the water struck her as being almost unnaturally still and clear and blue. Not to mention the shape was a circle - a perfect circle. Unease rattled her nerves; something wasn't right here. Had she truly escaped the tunnels, or was this just another part of the same odd landscape?

Go, came the whisper in her mind. East.

Praying that this wouldn't lead to her dying of thirst, she turned her back on the lake and began hobbling east, into the woods.

Time once again slid into a sort of semi-suspended state. She eventually found a fallen branch that was sturdy enough to serve as a walking stick, but she honestly ended up making better progress on her hands and knees than she had been limping on her bare feet. The only issue was her dress was really not meant for crawling, meaning it was slowly becoming more and more mangled.

And there was, of course, hunger and thirst. Hunger she could manage, but the thirst was threatening to become overwhelming. At least this wasn't happening during the summer; this forest was humid and sticky enough without heat on top of it.

The whispers in her mind hadn't returned. Instinctively, she knew that they wouldn't, not while she was crawling away from that lake, whatever it was. She suspected she'd stumbled upon some sort of gateway between this world and the Spirits - how else could it have been possible for her to speak with her very dead grandfather? - but she was no Fire Sage to know for sure.

Finally, as Ursa was only holding back her desperate tears because she knew her body couldn't afford to lose any more hydration, she heard it. The most beautiful sound in the world: the babble of a brook. It came into sight only a few minutes later, convincing her it wasn't just a trick of her imagination. She scrambled forwards and all but collapsed in it, immersing herself up to her elbows in the clear, flowing water. There was no unnatural blue or calm or perfection about this stream, so she plunged her face in and drank greedily.

Fish swam by, the first sign of animal life she'd seen in the forest. Ursa didn't know much about fish in the wild, having only ever seen them at markets or on a dinner plate, but these fish struck her as being rather large. Their scales shimmered beautifully, catching the sunlight and reflecting it into such a vivid rainbow she couldn't tell what their true colors were. In contrast, their eyes were large and black and…seemed to be unerringly fixed on her. Suddenly feeling like an intruder, Ursa withdrew from the stream and shook off her wet forearms. She'd hoped to gain some relief for her ankle by soaking and rewrapping it, but maybe that wasn't meant to be.

Her stomach rumbled, drawing her attention to the promising plants growing alongside the stream. The position of the sun in the sky indicated that it was now mid-morning, and Ursa hadn't eaten since she'd fallen into those tunnels an undetermined amount of time ago. Her mind flashed briefly to Iroh - was he looking for her, was he somewhere nearby? - before the pressing matter of food distracted her from those thoughts.

Meadowsweet was hardly a full meal, especially without anything to accompany it, but the herb had never tasted so precious to Ursa before. She was careful not to uproot the plant as she pulled off pale white flowers and dark green leaves for her watering mouth. Hopefully she would find something more substantial soon, but this would hold her over for now. The shimmering fish continued to flash by; Ursa couldn't shake the feeling that they were judging the way she ate, not unlike the nobles at the garden party.

"Thank you," she whispered to the meadowsweet once she'd finished her meager breakfast, an old habit from her mother. As she turned to examine the flow of the stream, wondering if maybe she could follow it to civilization since it was blocking her eastward path, she realized with a start that someone was approaching her from a distance. Automatically, she tensed up, deeply aware of the fact that she was a young woman alone and injured in the woods. There was no way anyone who saw her right now would believe that she was Princess of the Fire Nation.

The person drew closer at what seemed like an unearthly speed, moving faster than should have been possible considering how leisurely they seemed to be walking. It was a woman, presumably an older one from the silver of her hair. For a brief moment, Ursa thought it looked like she was moving through - no, on - the river; then she was suddenly in front of her, standing very much on the land.

"Who- are- you?" The woman spoke haltingly, the words seeming to fight their way out of her throat. "Speak- slow-ly."

"My name is…" Ursa hesitated, then decided lying might only make matters worse. She wasn't entirely convinced this woman wasn't another vision or test of some kind. "Ursa."

The woman was staring at her very intently as she responded in her chopped manner of speaking. "Ursa, why have you come here?"

"I don't know. I didn't mean to come here. I'm just trying to go back home." She made sure to form the words slowly as instructed, noting that the woman seemed to be following the motion of her lips. "Could you tell me where I am?"

The woman examined her. "Come with me," she said, ignoring Ursa's question.

"I…I can't," Ursa said, feeling rather pathetic. "I hurt my ankle."

The woman gestured for her to come closer to the stream. "Put your foot in."

Ursa had been thinking about doing just that anyway, so she obeyed despite her misgivings. Cool relief, the kind she'd been aching for all morning, flooded through her sore ankle. It was so soothing, it almost felt like the sprain was gone. She experimentally rolled her foot around in the water, trying to gauge how bad the injury was, but there was no roar of pain like she'd come to expect.

It couldn't be…

She lifted her foot out of the water and repeated the motion. Still no pain. She carefully placed it back on the ground and tentatively placed some pressure on it. There was no sharp protest, no spiking agony telling her to stop. Slowly, she rose onto her own two feet for the first time in hours, her ankle completely healed.

The woman watched with a neutral expression, clearly not surprised.

"Where am I?" Ursa asked again. "Is this the Spirit World?" It felt like a foolish question: where else could possibly have streams of healing water and pools that portalled you to other lands?

"No. It is a place favored by some spirits, though. I believe humans like you know it as Forgetful Valley."

The name automatically sent a shudder of fear down Ursa's spine, but as she whipped her head around to take in her surroundings, she found it hard to reconcile this place with the haunted forest she'd heard so much about as a child. The sky was blue, the water was rushing along happily, even the woods didn't seem so intimidating now that she'd been fed, watered and healed. The valley hadn't tried to kill her or wipe her mind at all; if anything, once she'd gotten away from the pool, it had been quite helpful.

"Humans don't always choose names well," the woman said, seeming to read Ursa's reaction. She was shorter than Ursa had thought, which was evident now that they were standing face to face. "Come with me."

Ursa followed her downstream a bit apprehensively, mind turning over the way her guide had phrased her answers. "Excuse me," she said hesitantly after a few minutes, "are you a spirit?"

No answer. The woman kept walking ahead, silver hair gleaming in the sunlight, spine straight and tall.

"Excuse me?"

A fish suddenly splashed out of the water, flashing brilliantly for a moment before continuing on its way. The woman turned her head to look back at Ursa. "Are you trying to speak to me?"

"Yes," she said, losing her nerve. "I was just wondering what your name is."

"You may call me Neelu. Do tap my shoulder if you want to speak to me. These ears have never really worked."

Ursa nodded, noticing how Neelu's stormy gray eyes remained trained on her mouth. A deaf woman who got by with lipreading seemed like a very human phenomenon. "Neelu, where are we going?"

"My home. You seem to need some dry clothes and food before finding your way out."

To be fair, she was completely right. "Okay. Thank you."

Neelu's home was a small cabin that was nearly directly on the river itself, to the point where it looked like it might collapse into the rushing waters at any moment. A series of stepping stones across the stream led up to the front door; the older woman hopped across them with ease despite her age. Ursa eyed the slippery-looking rocks uneasily, not eager to sprain another ankle or repeat her near-drowning, but Neelu beckoned her across.

"Come, Ursa. This is a calm river."

No gut instinct screamed at her to get away, so Ursa held her breath and mimicked Neelu's light-footed leaps from stone to stone, finally landing at the door of the cabin. Her feet were wet, but surprisingly, it hadn't been nearly as challenging as she'd feared.

The house was as cozy as could be expected from a forest cabin, with a fireplace, a small kitchen and eating area, and plenty of open windows to let in the sun. From somewhere in the rafters, a cat mewed, then leapt deftly into Neelu's arms.

"Hello there, Shui." Neelu ran a hand through the cat's blue-gray fur. "Here's that guest I went looking for. What do you think?"

Shui poked his nose out towards Ursa, silver whiskers twitching. She'd never thought a cat could have eyebrows before, but something about this cat's bushiness made her picture a pair of thick eyebrows on a wizened face with a beard to match.

"Nice to meet you, Shui." Ursa held her hand out for the cat to sniff as she'd done with dozens of strays before, inordinately pleased when the cat meowed again and flicked its rough tongue out at her thumb.

"Do be patient with Shui here," Neelu told her as she placed the cat on the ground. "He's as blind as I am deaf, not that you'd know it from how keen his nose and whiskers are. I'm his eyes and he's my ears."

Ursa had already noted the uniqueness of Neelu's name, and now she couldn't help remarking on her relationship with Shui. "Just like in Why The River Roars."

"What is that?" Neelu asked, tilting her head as Shui purred.

"You haven't heard of it? It's a folktale in the towns near here actually, about a little girl named Neelu who befriends an old river spirit by telling him about the things he can't see himself. At the end he floods his river to save her town from invading bandits and decides to coexist with humans after all. It's funny that your name is Neelu, and you act as eyes for someone too."

Neelu seemed to find this immensely amusing, as did her cat, who wound through Ursa's legs before darting over to the fireplace. "How quaint," Neelu said. "Shui has the right idea. Let's start a fire and get you out of those damp clothes while I cook."

The cabin quickly filled with the smell of something spicy as Ursa changed into the pink tunic and black leggings Neelu had handed to her. The tunic was a bit short on her, which made sense with the height difference between her and Neelu, but Ursa was just grateful to be in clean, dry clothes. The fact that this was a simple outfit, like the one Iroh had given her for the trip to Hira'a, further improved her mood.

Iroh. Ursa had been gone for at least one night, based on the sunrise. What was Iroh doing? What did he think had happened? It would be terrible if he believed she'd abandoned him, but she wasn't sure how she would explain everything she'd been through in the past day without sounding crazy. Iroh had a reverence for spirits, but would he believe the Spirit World had somehow trapped her? After the way she'd yelled at him?

Shui wound through her legs again, purring contentedly. Ursa smiled; she'd always wanted a cat but had never been able to do more than feed strays due to her father's allergies. Perhaps an appropriately regal-looking cat would make a fine pet for a princess. She wondered if Iroh liked cats.

The soup Neelu prepared - something spicy and strangely smooth - was just what Ursa needed, filling without being heavy in a way few foods were. "This is lovely," she told her host, making sure to wait until Neelu could watch her lips. "What's in it?"

"A few specialties of Forgetful Valley. It should give you strength for your journey." Neelu poured a small portion of soup into a plate that Shui immediately began lapping from. "One of Shui's favorites as well."

"I can see why." Ursa gulped down the rest of her soup appreciatively before addressing the matter at hand. "So…do you know how I can safely make my way home?"

Neelu inclined her head at Shui, who slunk away from his empty dish and out an open window. "I think so. Soldiers arrived on the outskirts of the valley this morning, in search of the missing Princess Ursa."

Ursa's heart leapt into her throat. It couldn't be that easy. "Really? You've seen them?"

"No, but the river tells me they're here. Just as it told me you were here, and that the soldiers are not the only ones looking for you."

The river told her? "What do you mean?"

Shui leapt up onto the windowsill, catching Neelu's attention, then darted out again. "Here," Neelu beckoned Ursa as she stood, "I'll show you."

Outside the cabin's front door, the river's water had begun to swirl unnaturally, the shimmering fish creating a radiant vortex. Unperturbed, Neelu knelt and beckoned Ursa to join her. Dimly, Ursa knew this was exactly the kind of thing that should disturb her. But there was no instinct telling her to run, so she somewhat hesitantly looked into the water.

At first, she couldn't make sense of anything but the fish scales' shimmering so brightly she had to squint. Then, an image formed: a man, with bedraggled dark hair and a beard, sitting with his head bent under a tree on the riverbank. Ursa didn't understand why she was seeing this, until the man lifted his head, and she gasped.

Ikem.

Beaten down by the wilderness, but unmistakably Ikem. She would recognize those eyes anywhere, as sad as they were now, and the crooked nose from when she'd accidentally kicked a ball into his face when they were seven.

"What is he doing here?" Ursa gasped, before remembering to turn to Neelu and repeat the question slowly. "What is he doing here? How are we seeing this?"

"He came to the valley a few months ago bemoaning his lost love, Ursa. Yet somehow, I don't think he's the prince who's searching for his missing princess." Neelu's eyes narrowed knowingly. "As for how, well…the river has its tricks. Ever since I was a girl."

There were more questions battling for her attention in her mind, but the vision of Ikem vanished, and she let out a sob. "Is he okay?" she begged Neelu. "He always hated being outdoors for too long, is he okay?"

"He is alive, and he's been respectful to the valley so far, so it hasn't done him harm. But I suspect that's not what you mean."

It wasn't, but Ursa didn't need Neelu to tell her that Ikem wasn't okay. The fact that he'd left everything behind - his friends, his acting, his family - to brave Forgetful Valley was enough of an answer.

"So, Princess Ursa, where are you going from here? To this man or to your prince?"

Her heart screamed what it wanted at once. But Ursa knew the choice wasn't just about what she wanted.

"Why did you show me this?" she whimpered, allowing the tears to flow freely now. "I- I'm supposed to return to my husband, but…" How could she leave Ikem here to suffer alone?

Neelu laid a cool hand on her arm. "I have trouble understanding you when you cry, but I can tell this is hard for you. Do you not want to go back to the prince?"

Numbly, Ursa thought over the question. Given the choice between Iroh and Ikem, her heart still belonged to Ikem. But abandoning Iroh also felt like a betrayal after the vows they'd made. Even with their recent fight, she knew they were still bound to each other. Not to mention what Roku had said to her about fixing his mistakes with Sozin. If Ursa ran away with Ikem, it would besmirch her family forever and paint a permanent target on their backs, and Roku's legacy would remain tainted.

There was no real choice here. But the brief illusion of one made the whole thing worse.

"I have to return to my husband," Ursa said clearly, wiping away her tears. "Tell me where the soldiers are, and I'll go there."

Neelu pursed her lips, and Ursa could see a hint of pity in her eyes. "Would you like to see the other man first?"

"No," she said at once. "No, if I see him I…" I don't think I'd be able to walk away. "It's best if I just go straight back."

"Well, Shui can show you the way out." Neelu gestured upriver, and Ursa turned to see Shui sitting in a small canoe. Where on Earth had that come from?

"I'm not the best rower," Ursa said nervously.

"That's okay. The river will carry you where you need to go."

Ursa clambered into the boat, feeling oddly calm now that she'd made her decision. Still, there was one more issue to address.

"Neelu," she said, "will you help Ikem find his way home too?"

The sun shining on Neelu's silver hair lent her the appearance of a halo, contrasting with the sad way her mouth turned downwards. "Not everyone who wanders into this valley is like you, Ursa. Some people imprison themselves in their own grief more than the spirits ever could."

"But can you try?" Ursa pressed. There was truth in what Neelu was saying, especially considering Ikem's sensitive temperament, but Ursa couldn't just accept his fate. "Please? I won't know a moment of peace otherwise."

"I will try," Neelu promised. "It will be his choice at the end of the day. But you must learn to find peace in your own circumstances. Otherwise, you'll find yourself chasing it endlessly."

Easier said than done. "Okay. Thank you, Neelu. For everything."

"Thank you for telling me about how I'm remembered outside of this valley," Neelu smiled. "Goodbye, Ursa. Be well."

The boat was already moving downstream by the time Ursa had processed those words. "Wait!" she called. "Do you mean- are you actually Neelu? From the myth?"

They were too far apart for Neelu to read her lips, but Ursa thought she already knew the answer.

"What does that make you, then?" she asked Shui, who remained languidly stretched out on the side of the boat. The cat's ear twitched in response. He definitely wasn't a normal cat, but it didn't seem like he could talk either.

No matter. True to Neelu's word, the river was guiding the boat of its own volition. All Ursa could do was sit and wait, running her fingers through Shui's soft, sun-warmed fur. A pet cat really would be nice.

Find peace in your own circumstances, Neelu had said. Even though her heart was breaking at leaving Ikem behind again, this was a peaceful moment. Despite the circumstances of her marriage, she'd been able to find peaceful moments there too: feeding the turtleducks, baths in the spa, drinking tea with Iroh. She could hold onto those moments, and fulfill Roku's instructions to fix her relationship with Iroh, if she could put Ikem out of mind first.

"I'm sorry, Ikem," she whispered into the wind, half-hoping the river would carry the message to him. "Please, get yourself out of here, and find peace in your own circumstances too."

Shui meowed and headbutted her hand. She sniffed, realizing she'd started to cry again, and scratched the cat behind the ear. "It'd be nice if you had a friend who could stay with me," she told him. "I don't really have a lot of friends where I'm going."

In response, Shui leapt into her lap. Ursa took a deep breath, prayed for Ikem one last time, and then dutifully turned her mind to her husband. Iroh. Was he worried, upset, angry? What could she say to explain where she'd been? What would he say about their fight?

Her thoughts chased themselves around her mind, over and over again, until suddenly Shui yowled. She looked for what had caught his attention and saw a soldier standing with his back to the river. He was clearly not particularly alert, based on how he was leaning to one side and cleaning out his ear with his pinky finger, but he was a soldier nonetheless. The river seemed to agree, steering the boat sharply towards the bank.

"Hello!" she called out, startling the man. The boat bumped onto land not too far away from him. "Excuse me! I think you're looking for me, right? I'm Princess Ursa."

The soldier stared at her with wide eyes. He was definitely a younger recruit, based on the roundness of his face. "Um…are you sure?"

Well, she knew she wasn't dressed the part, but that was just rude. "Yes, I'm quite sure. Can you get me to Ningzhou, or at least to the nearest town so I can arrange a transport from there?"

The hapless soldier seemed too shocked to make much sense of her request, but his captain had a somewhat more sensible approach once she'd been brought to the scene. Ursa ended up in an army office, waiting for soldiers from the royal procession to arrive so they could confirm her identity and escort her back to Iroh. She was given a decent spread of snacks and a wide berth while she waited: nothing too formal in case it turned out she was a commoner pretending, but not too simple to avoid offending her if she actually was the princess. It was strange, wading back into this life where no one except Iroh and occasionally Ozai treated her like a normal person. Ursa already missed Shui's calm company. She really would have to see about getting a cat in the palace.

Embarrassingly, she didn't recognize the four royal soldiers who came to get her, but they thankfully knew her. "Princess Ursa," one spoke as they bowed, "what a relief it is to find you safe and sound. Prince Iroh has been beside himself with worry."

It was just flowery language, she told herself, even as an odd warmth filled her at the thought of Iroh worrying about her. "I'm so sorry to have been the subject of such a fuss. Please, how far is he from here? I would like to be reunited with him as soon as possible."

"It's a mere two hours' journey, Princess. If you're ready, we can set off at once."

With a brief thanks to the patrol that had found her, Ursa allowed one of the soldiers to boost her onto a komodo rhino, remembering how Iroh had challenged her to ride one of these beasts nearly as well as he could ride an ostrich horse. What would he say if he saw her now? Based on how the saddle dug uncomfortably into her rear, Ursa had a feeling she was doing it wrong.

It was good she wasn't taking the journey alone, at least. Her rhino seemed content to follow the others in the pack, and her geography was shaky enough that she wouldn't have known where to go without guidance. Still, it was a painfully awkward ride, considering that royal soldiers weren't ones for small talk.

"How much longer?" she asked once the sun lowering in the sky indicated it had been a couple hours. Oddly, there were no signs of civilization that they should have been passing on the way to camp: no villages, no inns, nothing but trees. They didn't even look like the trees she remembered…maybe the camp had shifted while she was gone?

"Not too long now, Princess. Would you like a break?"

Ursa was starting to feel a bit stiff. "Yes, please."

The rhinos came to a halt, and one of the soldiers came to help her down.

"Thank-"

She was cut off by his hand clasping over her mouth, stifling her instinctive scream as his other hand held a fireball dangerously close to her face.

"Behave, Princess." A man stepped out of the trees to address her now. Ursa's heart sank as she caught sight of auburn hair on top of a familiar leer. Tiron.

The other soldiers dismounted and removed their helmets, similar grins gracing each of their faces. "I don't know if you've met these other good soldiers whose lives you ruined," Tiron continued. "These are Teromu, Siru, and Keema. And the man holding onto you is charmingly known as Bullseye. You should be flattered; he very much wanted to have the chance to touch you."

Bullseye chuckled and ground his hips into Ursa's backside, moaning lewdly when she tried to squirm away. The fireball that threatened to set her hair alight made it impossible for her to resist meaningfully.

"The Boiling Rock didn't particularly suit my fancy, and my comrades here didn't care for their new homes either. I mean, years of dedicated service, only for some stuck-up new princess to walk into the palace and decide a few servant girls' hurt feelings are worth imprisoning us? It just didn't feel fair. So as reparations, we just want a little ransom from your husband. Don't look at me like that," Tiron chided as Ursa glared, "It could be a lot worse. You'll be safely back with the prince at the end of this, as long as you and he both don't do anything stupid."

Like she hadn't been stupid enough, getting herself into this. How could she not have realized she was being led into a trap?

"Now give me a nod like a smart girl so I know you understand, Princess," Tiron instructed.

Slowly, her pride rebelling, Ursa nodded.

"There you go. Bullseye, Siru, come with me. Teromu, go stash the rhinos. Keema, send off our ransom note to the prince. If he's fast enough, we might only have his wife for a night." He bared his teeth in a hungry grin. "We'd better make it a nice one for her."

The three men led her up a hill, Bullseye slapping her ass when she tried to stubbornly dig her feet in. Her eyes watered, both at the sting and the humiliation of Tiron and Siru laughing. Even if Iroh came for her as soon as he got the ransom note, how would she last in the meantime?

Please, she prayed to Avatar Roku and the spirits of the forest around her, please, please. Help me.

"Here we go," Tiron hauled open the door to a run-down cabin, camouflaged by the shade of the trees with the sun slowly sinking to the west. "Our lovely home for the foreseeable future."

Unceremoniously, Bullseye shoved her down onto the pile of bedding in the corner. Ursa just barely managed to catch herself in time to avoid breaking her nose. "Pigs!" she spat out, hoping it sounded more forceful than she felt on the inside.

"Oh, Princess, that's just not smart." Tiron grabbed her by her hair, making her cry out, and pulled her up to her knees. "Didn't we just have a talk about not doing anything stupid?"

"Who are you to lecture me about stupid?" she hissed through the pain in her scalp, allowing that and her desperate fear to fuel her rage. "Do you really think you can get away with this? That Iroh won't see you straight back to the Boiling Rock, if not worse, for laying hands on his wife?"

"There's the feisty bitch I remember," Tiron smirked. "Your prince isn't that worried about you, bitch, not after the way you humiliated him in front of the royal procession. I wouldn't be surprised if he takes his time coming here to let us show you how to behave. Agni knows that sheltered, snotty prince has no clue how to tame a wild bird."

"Don't you dare speak of him that way." Ursa whispered, losing her rage despite herself. Tiron had every reason to lie to her but…was Iroh really that upset about the fight?

"I'll do what I want until he pays me not to." Tiron released her and shoved her back down to the floor. "Including this."

Dread and nausea clogged up her throat as he moved to straddle her body. "Get off me!" she shrieked, successfully jamming her knee up into his groin. He fell to the side, gasping for air as Siru and Bullseye laughed. Ursa desperately searched for something, anything she could use as a weapon, but the pillow she ended up swinging at his head only provoked more laughter.

"Wow, Tiron, you sure you can handle all that?" Siru taunted. Ursa vaguely remembered that he was the one who'd assaulted a female stablehand.

"Shut up," Tiron snarled. "You see what I mean about her husband not teaching her how to behave?"

The pillow was tossed aside in a shower of sparks, and Ursa shrank further back into the corner as he bore down on her once more. A hand grabbed her ankle and pulled her towards him, her attempts to kick him again quelled when he sat on her waist and crushed the air out of her lungs.

"Bitch," he swore, pinning down her wrists. "You'll pay for that."

"You'll pay ten times over when my husband finds you."

"Hm, it'll be worth the joy of him raising a child that he'll never be quite sure is his own, don't you think?"

Ursa's entire body went cold with horror at Tiron's intentions being made so clear. "You can't."

"Watch me." A hand released one of her wrists to pull up her tunic. Hoping to at least delay the inevitable, Ursa rashly grabbed his hair and slammed her forehead up into his.

That had not been her best idea, she decided as pain exploded behind her eyes, but it was just a little worth it to hear him groan. Of course, he shook it off faster than her, and then his forearm was pressing into her throat.

"I never did burn you that first night I met you, did I? My mistake. Let's fix that."

The hand still gripping just below her right wrist tightened with bone-crushing strength, going from warm to hot in a matter of seconds just like that first night.

"Who's going to come save you now, Princess?" he taunted.

No one came. His hand escalated to a burn, one that she could not escape no matter how she tried to claw at him and thrash against his entire body weight on top of her. It hurt, spirits, it hurt worse than anything she could've thought possible; every burn she'd ever suffered - quick flashes of heat from careless cooking - paled in comparison. Distantly, like an audience member in her own body, she realized she was screaming through her strangled throat and unable to stop even as she saw Tiron's smirk indicating how much he was enjoying it.

"Tiron," one of the other men said from somewhere Ursa could not see with her vision going blurry with tears, "Don't hurt her too much. If she gets an infected wound it'll be a pain."

"Relax, Bullseye." All at once, the burning sensation vanished, but Tiron maintained his iron grip. "I'm going low and slow," he said. "I have to treat the Princess carefully, after all."

He moved to kiss the back of her burned hand in a sickening mockery of chivalry, releasing her as her screams reduced to sobs. Even though the pain was gone, Ursa could smell the charring of her own flesh, which combined with the absolute lack of feeling from her right hand, curdled her gut. Dazed, she just barely managed to flop her head to the side and immediately regretted it when she saw the browned and blackened mess that had become of her once-smooth skin.

Shock, she thought vaguely as she felt her breathing shorten and the rest of her body turn cold and her bruised throat go dry, I'm going into shock. It was a normal physical reaction to such an injury. Knowing that wouldn't stop it from happening, though.

"I bet you she'll be nice and quiet now," Tiron said, finally clambering off her. "But give it long enough for the smell to dissipate. It's kind of rough to get it up with that."

"Maybe for you," one of them laughed.

"Hey, I planned most of this, I get to go first!"

Can't fade away, can't let them…take me… Holding onto that train of thought was turning from challenging to impossible. The shock dragged her down, enveloping the world in a haze that softened the men's lewd comments into background noise and the swaying room into a candlelit fog. Ursa's mind curled deep into itself to protect her from the grim reality of the situation.

Tiron's face suddenly leering in front of her jolted a semblance of alertness back into her being. Rain pattered onto the roof of the cabin, thunder rumbling somewhere in the distance. A glimpse out an open window showed the world outside had gone dark. How long had she been lying here?

"How's she looking?" someone asked.

"Definitely still dozy enough to cooperate. Wouldn't be surprised if this arm gets infected though." He nudged the limb in question. "She'll just get it fixed up once her husband forks over the ransom."

"Good, we need to move," Keema said, sounding a bit nervous. He and Teromu must have returned from their tasks at some point. "The storm's gonna pin us down."

Another crash of thunder sounded, much closer this time. "The storm's already pinned us down, from the sound of it," Tiron said with a shrug. "No problem. They don't know where we are, and we've certainly got a way to pass the time, don't we?" His hand reached out and stroked Ursa's clammy face, trailing from her cheek to her neck to pull down on the collar of her tunic. "Small tits for a princess. You make up for it elsewhere?"

Ursa would claw and kick and cry out if she could. But her whole body was frozen in fear, every nerve focused on his hand groping her chest while she silently prayed his touch wouldn't suddenly turn burning, blistering, blackening hot-

Lightning struck again, so close her hair stood on end. The man all jumped.

"Agni," Siru muttered, "That was a narrow miss."

Not so narrow, Ursa thought, as the smolder of burning wet wood suddenly flooded her nose. The cabin had been hit.

Tiron swore. "One of you go put it out. It shouldn't last long in the rain anyway."

Keema sighed, but obediently walked to the door. Opening it revealed just how frenzied the storm outside had gotten, the wind slamming the door back with a howl as rain whirled into the cabin. Automatically, Keema held his hand up to shield himself from the deluge.

So, of course, he didn't see it coming.

Lightning arced through the doorway, wrapping Keema in its splintered grip before he could do so much as scream. He'd hardly dropped to the floor when a figure was moving into the cabin, surrounded by crackling blue lightning that next leapt at the terrified Siru who didn't even produce a wisp of smoke before he was struck. Teromu and Bullseye had better luck conjuring their flames, but their defense was pitiful: they went down immediately as well, their shrieks of agony and convulsing bodies imprinting themselves into Ursa's mind within the split second in which it all happened, before Tiron hauled her up in front of him.

"None of that, Your Highness," he panted, hooking an arm around Ursa's waist so he was shielded by her limp body. "Can't blast me without getting her too, can you?"

The lightning vanished, leaving Iroh standing amid the scorched cabin. Now that Ursa was upright, everything was spinning far too much for his face to be clear, but she could see he was wearing armor. His hands at his sides were curled into tight fists.

He'd come for her. Against all odds, he'd come for her.

"Move out of the way," Tiron told him. "Or I'll burn her. You can ask her if I'm bluffing."

Without a word, Iroh moved. Ursa's head lolled bonelessly to the side as Tiron dragged her past her husband - so close yet so far - and towards the door. She just barely caught sight of Iroh's hard amber eyes and clenched jaw before the rain was shuddering over her.

"Stay away!" Tiron yelled, continuing to half-pull and half-carry Ursa further into the woods, the thick summer night rain disorienting her more. All she knew was she was going away from Iroh and Iroh had been right there and why isn't he doing anything who's going to help me if he can't oh spirits please I don't want to be burned I don't want to be raped I don't want to die-

Tiron let out a scream, his grip on her failing. She collapsed onto the muddy forest floor, vaguely aware of Tiron being yanked away by someone who blocked his firebending and made him howl with agony again. Iroh? There was an unnaturally wet crunch, a final pained groan, and then the attacker was kneeling next to her in the dirt, panting in a very un-Iroh fashion.

"Sister, are you alright?"

Her overwhelmed senses strained to reconcile the garbled sounds and sights with the impossibility of that voice being here, but there was only one person in the world who called her Sister. Ozai rolled her onto her back, letting out a quiet curse as he got a good look at her.

"I'm sorry I wasn't fast enough this time," he whispered. "I…"

The rest of the apology was cut off by heavy footsteps running to the scene. Strong arms pulled her into a lap, amber eyes piercing through the rain to find hers. Iroh.

"She's in shock, I think," Ozai said to his brother. "Her right arm…it's bad."

Iroh's eyes flashed to look at the limb in question, narrowing at the sight.

"Ozai," he spoke in a deadly serious voice unlike any he'd used before, "is he still alive?"

"Yes. I thought you might want to…well, yes, he's alive."

Iroh's instructions echoed as if they came from a great distance, like a dream fading away. "Wait for us to go. Then make him suffer."

"Yes, Brother."

The world spun again when Iroh's arms curled around her back and legs, lifting her with him as he stood. Some half-awake part of her mind knew she was far from okay, with the burn and the shock and the fear branded into her, but the immediate danger had passed. Iroh was here. She was safe for now.

It was a relief to succumb to the soft blackness that had been threatening to overwhelm her for hours, eyes finally sliding shut while the rain poured and her husband held her close.

A/N: This was definitely a tough one to write, but…yeah. Here it is. No journal entries since I really wanted this one to be about just Ursa and her journey.

~Bobbi