Percy Jackson and The Fire Prince

Chapter 2: The Road to Ba Sing Se

Percy had a dream. 

Well, it was a little more than that, but that's how it started. He saw a huge desert and had a feeling like he really needed to find something. He was seeing it from a bird's-eye view, soaring over the sand dunes, and searching. Always searching. 

It was scorching, he could tell that there was no water nearby. That didn't matter as much as finding him . . . who? He was looking, he needed to find him, he was stolen! They stole him! Who was stolen? He grew frustrated and landed, looking around again before he smashed something into the ground, creating a huge cloud of dust.

Then, Percy saw a boy wearing a weird red and orange outfit and --

The scene had changed. Now, he was in a forest, seeing a large, white animal who looked scared and alone. It had shackles on its six feet, and what looked like thorns in its body. It looked directly at him before looking past him and growling. He turned and saw a gang of girls find the animal. They helped him, cleaned him up, and were about to help him find "Aang."

They were forced to send the animal on his way when the girl Percy had seen running away from Zuko appeared and attacked them. The giant beast flew away, landing inside a city with giant walls before being swallowed into the earth. 

A low voice called out as his vision got darker, 

"Save him."

---

Percy woke with a start, surprising Zuko who was walking beside the Ostrich-Horse, and Uncle Iroh who was sitting behind him.

"Percy?" Zuko asked, a little worried for his friend. 

He smiled, "It's nothing," he lied, pulling back the Ostrich-Horse's reins and dismounting, "besides, it's your turn to ride." 

They continued until Zuko heard a noise, turning to find a group of five men, all armed differently, and riding on the backs of some kinds of giant, lizard-dragon hybrids. 

Uncle Iroh took them down quickly, and they escaped on the Ostrich-Horse who complained about the weight using very colorful language the whole time. 

"Don't you have any old friends that don't want to kill us?" asked Zuko, he was understandably annoyed after a long time of slow traveling. The comment brought them to a village beside a desert, the very same desert that he instinctively knew was the one he saw in his dream. 

When Zuko and Uncle Iroh went into the bar, Percy abstained, looking over the desert with curiosity. He could still remember the heat and the thirst he felt in his dream. He turned to the melting ice glacier, frowning when he sensed that there was a well of untapped water underneath it. 

Percy wondered how the glacier stayed frozen in this heat but inspected it curiously. He could feel its desire to shoot into the air, to grow higher than it was, but it also seemed to be blocked by something. He remembered something Annabeth had spoken about in the past, tectonic plates and the earth shifting. 

Maybe the earth had shifted to cover the well. Percy knelt down, placing his hands on the ground and focusing. Before he could consider if this was a bad idea or not, the water had grasped on to his gut and he felt that familiar tugging sensation. The ground rumbled loudly, like a burp, before forcing the water to fly into the air. He was amazed when it flew up, freezing as it came into contact with the air.

When Zuko and Uncle Iroh finally came out, they rushed into a flower shop. Percy ran to join them, and Uncle Iroh went into his secret hideout in the back room, leaving Zuko and Percy to wait outside.