The Traitor Princess

Chapter 29 - Boiling Point

The group continued their journey to Omashu after leaving General Fong's base. Eziri had grown more distant and on edge each day. Her friends were all getting increasingly worried, but she refused to talk about it. She spent almost all her time trapped within her own head. She was rescinding further into herself with every passing minute.

"Eziri? Did you hear me?"

Eziri snapped her head over to Aang and gave him a puzzled look.

"Hm?"

"We're uh...here. Aren't you going to get down?"

"Oh.." Eziri looked around and realized that Appa was no longer in the air. Aang was still on the saddle with her and the Water Tribe siblings had already gotten down. "Sorry. I...I just got distracted." Eziri stood up and grabbed her bag. She climbed down off the saddle and plopped her bag in their little camp site.

"I'll get the firewood." She told her friends. Without giving them time to argue, Eziri wandered off into the woods by herself. She let her mind wander once again as she started to gather logs and twigs. She was utterly exhausted, having barely slept for almost a week. It wasn't for lack of trying; her sleep was always interrupted with some form of a nightmare. It seemed her mind wouldn't let her have a moment's peace.

"You're a traitor."

Eziri gasped and turned around at the sound of the voice. She was only met with empty woods behind her. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and continued gathering firewood.

"I didn't spend all that time training you for it to go to waste." Eziri let out a yelp and dropped all the firewood she gathered. Once again, she searched the woods around her and saw nothing but trees.

Eziri took a few deep breaths. Hearing her father's voice always left her panicked and on edge. She put her hand on her chest and tried to calm down.

"What happened? Are you ok?" Eziri jumped once again, but this time she didn't see an empty forest. Katara stood in front of her looking very concerned.

"I..I'm fine." Eziri bent down and started to re-gather her discarded wood.

"I heard a shout, are you sure you're ok? You look really pale."

"I said I'm fine!" Eziri snapped. She gathered the rest of the logs and stormed off towards their campsite.

The longer she went without sleep, the more frequent the voices were. It was getting difficult for Eziri to distinguish her thoughts from reality.

She made her way back into camp and set up the fire right away. She didn't spare Aang or Sokka a glance, just focused on her task. When she went to light the fire, a puff of orange flames came from her fingertips instead of blue. She stared down at her hands in shock.

"I thought your fire was blue." Aang said curiously.

"It..it is." Eziri continued to stare at her hands in disbelief.

"But that wasn't blue."

"Oh really? I didn't notice!" Eziri snapped. Aang flinched a bit at her tone and she immediately softened. "I'm sorry, Aang. I...I think I'm just gonna go to bed."

Eziri quietly gathered her belongings and tucked herself into her sleeping bag.

"But we didn't make dinner yet..." Aang said quietly. Eziri didn't respond. She just remained in the sleeping bag, faced away from all her friends. Before long, she drifted off to sleep.

–

"I am proud of you, Princess Eziri. You have proven yourself worthy of the throne."

Eziri looked around her, completely disoriented. She was kneeling in front of her father. He sat atop his throne in the palace with the wall of fire blazing behind him.