Daughter of the Moon - Book Three: Fire

Chapter 18.7: It Was Not a Good Idea to Go to the Boiling Rock

- Elara-

I freaking hated my job, and I wasn't referring to my disguise as a guard (although, that was pretty awful as well).

I couldn't understand why I had to be the one to get Zuko from his cell. I was perfectly capable of finding Jade, Suki, and the others and bringing them to our rendezvous point so that we could escape. But no. Sokka had to interpret my words literally, meaning that he was dragging his butt after that Suki girl non-stop to chase after the love in his heart...it was like I had told him to do just that, or something...

That left me with the dirty work—tracking down Zuko and busting him out of his cooler before he somehow managed to pry himself off the side of the building (even though I would rather Zuko perished by his own stupidity). I paced down the rows of detention units absentmindedly, accidentally passing right by his cell a few times just to make sure he had extra time to learn his lesson. It wasn't like we were in a hurry, or anything, so I saw no fault in taking my sweet time.

I did eventually pity the stupid boy, though—I wasn't too fond of extreme cold, after all—so I made my way to where he had been stored previously by the other guards purely out of guilt. But once I began to pay attention to my surroundings, I was surprised by what I found.

I stared up in awe at the cooler that Zuko was being kept in before I went to move forward with our plan. I wasn't too sure why, but I had assumed that the coolers would be a bit smaller than they were. They only needed to hold one person, after all, so when Sokka had suggested that we use one as a boat, I was hesitant because I didn't believe we could even fit everyone into one pod. But sitting there and looking at one up close—it was rather intimidating. Even the door itself, seemed massive...

And I had to open that extremely large and heavily bolted door all by myself, no thanks to Sokka.

I was sure that there was no way Zuko wasn't frozen solid inside that chamber, and I even worried for a moment that he may not have been able to unbolt the cooler from the inside because of the cold (I had seen his childish reaction to the cold in the North Pole, after all). And as I reached out to open the door, I was startled to find that the small observation window was completely frosted over, the air just outside the cell was icy and hard to breathe in, and the door handle was frigid to the touch. I tried not to feel bad about having kept Zuko stuck in there longer than needed, but I just couldn't help it. It seemed awful in there.

The cooler opened with a loud whine as I strained against the frosty seal, almost as if the metal was complaining about the cold as it rushed out of the belly of the beast, but as I peered inside—fully expecting to find Zuko shivering on the floor—I was surprised to see that he didn't seem too cold. His skin was still rosy, his hair wasn't frosted over, and his clothes appeared to be soft. He wasn't even shivering.

And I was immediately jealous.

I plastered on a cool façade so that Zuko wouldn't even have the chance to think for a moment that I might have been worried about him, crossing my arms in front of me to put up an unwelcoming front as I went to speak to him (and definitely not to fight against the cold that was leaking into the hallway). "I can take you back to your cell if you've learned your lesson," I told the boy angrily.

Zuko inhaled sharply before sighing a breath of fire, briefly illuminating his features as he looked up at me with a mischievous smirk. "Yes, I have," he answered confidently as he revealed all the bolts he had hidden safely against his sweltering torso. "Completely."

"We'll see about that," I coughed uncomfortably as I turned my face to the side, infinitely grateful in that moment that I was wearing a helmet that covered my face.