Traitor - Zuko X Reader

Chapter 30

We had been walking for what felt like days but what was in actuality only a few hours. The sun pounded on my back and my eyes were droopy as I walked on, my feet dragging on the ground. No one had said a word since we dismounted Appa and the tension and defeat in the air was palpable.

"This is humiliating," Katara broke the long-kept silence.

"Do you mean getting thoroughly spanked by the Fire Nation or having to walk all the way to the Western Air Temple?" Sokka asked from beside her.

"Both."

"Sorry, guys, but Appa gets tired carrying all these people," Aang defended his bison tiredly.

Teo changed the subject, "I wonder how the rest of the troops are."

"They're probably on their way to a prison," Haru spoke sadly. "It seems like my dad just got out, now he's going back in."

"I miss pipsqueak," The Duke remarked, keeping his gaze trained to the floor.

"I miss not having blisters on my feet," Sokka added, making me weakly roll my eyes.

I kept my gaze trained to the ground but abruptly looked up when Toph yelled, "Hey! We're here, we made it!"
Expecting the temple to be right before me, I was mildly disappointed when all I could see was the edge of a cliff. Katara beat me to making a remark, "Um, I think your feet need their eyes checked."

"No, she's right. We are here," Aang's tone was lighter now, laced with excitement.

I looked over to Sokka and raised an eyebrow, to which he responded with a shrug of his shoulders. Aang ushered us all over to board Appa so we could fly to the temple. We all boarded quickly, eager to get off our feet for even a few seconds. He flew us down with a tired grumble. I gazed at the landscape before us, the Western Air Temple was almost completely upside down, making it to where only Airbenders could traverse it easily. The buildings were overgrown with plants and some of the plaster was chipped, but it was nonetheless breathtaking.

Appa landed us near a large fountain (that was right-side up) thats water flowed off into a small stream and off the side of the temple. We all unboarded and took a better look at the area surrounding us.

"This is a lot different from the Northern Air Temple. I wonder if there are any secret rooms," Theo commented, looking around in amazement.

Haru ran forward, "Let's go check it out!"
Theo and The Duke immediately ran to follow and Aang went to go with, but Katara stopped him before he could. "You guys go. I think we need to talk about some things."

Haru nodded and the others ran off to go explore. Aang watched them leave before turning back to Katara, "Why can't I go?"

"We need to decide what we're gonna do now and since you're the Avatar maybe you should be a part of this."

Aang sat down and crossed his arms, "Fair enough. So what's the new plan?"

We all followed his lead and sat in a circle on stray boulders to discuss. I sat beside Sokka and crossed my legs, resting my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands. I nodded at Sokka to start talking and he put a hand on his chin before speaking, "Well, if you ask me, the new plan is the old plan. You just need to master all four elements and confront the Fire Lord before the comet comes."

"Oh yeah, that's great. No problem. I'll just do that," Aang spoke sarcastically, turning his head away from us.

Katara tried to reason with the boy, "Aang, no one said it's gonna be easy."

"Well, it's not even going to be possible. Where am I supposed to get a Firebending teacher?"

"We could try to find Jeong Jeong," Katara suggested, recalling the older man who tried to teach Aang what seemed like forever ago