Avatar Zuko

Chapter 36

Mai and Ty Lee stood outside the Earth King’s Palace, discussing loudly about their Fire Nation descent.

“Ugh, how long will Princess Azula make us stay here?!” Moaned Ty Lee, pouting her lips endearingly.

“We can go back to the Fire Nation as soon as we have the Avatar.” Replied Mai, frowning a little as she leaned against a golden pillar.

“Ughhhh! But that will take sooooo long!” Ty Lee practically yelled, which actually fit her personality of being a little over the top.

“Shut up! Do you want all of Ba Sing Se to hear you?!” She berated falsely, and the other non-bender offered her a small, assuring smile.

Mai spied a Dai Li agent as they disappeared from the roof, probably going to tell Long Feng about them- just as Azula had planned. She tutted to herself, by now used to the Princess’ schemes but knowing that this one was different; the firebender was more desperate, even crueller- especially to them. Somehow Mai doubted this would end well for anyone.

“Well done, girls. I think he took the bait.” Azula's voice came like a knife, cutting through the non-bender’s thoughts and alerting her that she'd shown up. The Princess smiled coldly up at the palace, likely wondering where she'd hang the Fire Nation flag.

“What will happen now?” Asked Ty Lee, much more quietly than she'd previously been talking. Her expression of worry contrasted Azula's icy anger scarily, and made Mai wonder why she'd chosen to accompany the Princess. Oh right, it was because Azula wouldn't have taken no for an answer.

“I assume I'll be arrested soon and taken to that snivelling advisor, Long Feng. I'll make a deal where he tells me where to find Zu- the Avatar, and I get him the throne. Only I will obviously betray him and take it, as well as the Dai Li, for myself. All you two have to do is stay out of my way.” Explained Azula, gloating as she basked in her glorious plan to take over the Earth Kingdom.

“Of course, Princess.” Muttered Mai, her normal sombre tone covering up the annoyance she held in her voice after being told to ‘stay out of the way’.

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Sokka sat on Appa’s head (a rare occurrence in itself) with Katara, who was steering the bison through the air towards the edge of the Serpent’s Pass, where their dad was supposed to be stationed. The waterbender could feel an uncomfortable amount of emotions churning in her gut, the excitement shining a little brighter than the rest but anger and hurt shadowing over it a little.

“Look! I see them!” Shouted Sokka excitedly, pointing towards a small fleet of ships with blue sails. They were gathered in a strategic spot with lots of cover, but were still easily noticeable to her brother's eagle-eyes.

Katara swooped down to the small patch of rocky ground that the ships were docked at, thankfully eliciting more shock from the tribesmen than aggressiveness. The siblings descended from Appa, Sokka now looking much more nervous than he had up in the air, and they started heading through the crowd of men that were staring at them incredulously. They took of few unsure steps before their Tribe got over the initial surprise of a flying bison dropping off two teenagers into the midst of their ranks and began to smile, rubbing Sokka’s hair before he pushed them off, standing tall even though he was still only up to the warriors’ shoulders.

“Sokka! Katara! It's so good to see the two of you again! How did you end up here?” Questioned one of the men cheerily, Katara couldn't recall his name but she did remember that he had always been in charge of gathering seal-fox meat back in South Pole.

“Uhh, that's a long story, Runik. But we need to see our dad, do you know where he is?” Asked Sokka with a smile, still looking pretty nervous but less so thanks to the friendly atmosphere.