A Crimson Sabaku

Chapter II

The waterbender was taken below decks first, while Aang was left on deck for some time. Zuko handed me the glider and ordered me to take it to his quarters, which I then left to do. Finally, after so long, my Prince's search was finally over. I was hoping to see the Fire Nation with my own two eyes for once, instead of just listening to Iroh telling stories.

I should have known that the Avatar would lie like he breathed.

Within minutes of the Avatar being brought below decks, he had fought his way back to the top deck. The waterbender girl was with him, too. I was able to quietly make my way to the top deck, just in time to spot them both discussing how to leave the ship. Using my bending, I hardened and slightly enlarged the gloves of sand I wore, making them appear swollen and powerful, and then I leaped up and prepared a smashing motion. The Avatar quickly alerted the girl, and they ducked out of the way as I swung my fists down while clasped together, creating a large crater in the metal floor.

At that moment, Zuko emerged from below deck and threw a blast of fire towards them, the girl dodging away, the Avatar deflecting the blast with his staff. A large roar filled the air, prompting me to turn and observe what the source was. I was met with the sight of an enormous bison with white fur, a brown patch in the shape of an arrow on its head.

"Appa!" The Avatar cried, apparently heralding the beast.

Zuko once again began blasting fire at the boy, who kept redirecting the flames with the staff of his. In an attempt to disarm him, I used my gloves to create a small shard of stone which I shot towards him, knocking the staff from his hands. With another wave of flame, Zuko sent the Avatar over the rail and into the frigid water below. With that, the waterbender girl cried out. "Aang!"

The water on the ship quickly froze, trapping me and Zuko in it. The girl ran towards Zuko and kicked him, launching him away and eliciting a yelp from him. Angrily, I started using the pieces of my gloves to batter away the ice, quickly freeing me. A glance over at Zuko showed that he had used his own bending to get out of the girl's ice.

Suddenly, a large cyclone of water rose up from the ocean, the boy, Aang, at the top of it. His tattoos, as well as his eyes, were glowing with a bright light. He created an enormous wave of water and, with a single motion, sent it sweeping across the deck of the ship. Quickly, I morphed my gloves into claws and used them to anchor myself in place, whereas everyone else was sent overboard. As the water finished clearing the deck, a large portion of it trapped me in a huge chunk of ice, preventing me from moving. The warrior who had tried attacking Zuko before rushed to the railing and peered over it to someone in the water. He then called down to them, "Ruka!"

The waterbender who we had taken with us, perhaps?

"You have Aang, now get out of here! I'll be fine!" The voice was definitely the girl who had frozen me and Zuko to the deck earlier. So Ruka was her name.

"We can't leave you with him!" The boy yelled down, pointing at someone - probably Zuko, from the hateful tone of his voice.

"I'll be fine!" Ruka shouted from the water. "If he gets back up, you'll never leave! Now go, Sokka! Now!"

The warrior-boy, 'Sokka,' seemed to be a bit upset at being ordered around. "I'm older than you. You can't tell me what to do!" Mid-sentence, I heard his voice crack. For someone who was older than the waterbender girl - who, to be honest, was a total spitfire of a girl - he didn't seem that much of a man.

"Now, Sokka!"

Sokka looked down over the railing, sadness in his face. Looking at him filled me with a sense of deja-vu, for some reason. What was so familiar about this, anyway?

Sokka quickly made it back to the bison, Appa, and it took off - carrying on it another Water Tribe girl and the Avatar.

I managed to manipulate the sand of my gloves so that it broke the ice off of me, and we managed to pull Zuko back onto the ship. The girl, Ruka, was still with him, but she had passed out from exhaustion at this point.

"Good news for the Fire Nation," Iroh said to me, "is that the Avatar is just a little kid."

"There is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent," I quipped in reply, quoting an old saying that I remembered had been whispered into my ear during my younger years.

Zuko quickly ordered the soldiers to set a course for the nearest port, and he then turned to me and handed the limp form of Ruka and said, "Have her put in one of the spare rooms."

I was not about to question the orders of the guy who'd spared me years ago, so I brought Ruka to a spare room and set her into the bed. I then went off to my own quarters, to attend to my own business.

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My room was described with the term 'organized chaos.' The bed was somewhat made, and the desk had papers and a few maps strewn across it. A few sheets of paper had been pinned onto the wall, and a shelf that I had put up was cluttered with small figurines of glass and ceramic. It was a cozy environment, to say the least. Pinned up on the wall beside my desk was a painting of me and a few of my friends from Ba Sing Se - Jingyi, Xieren, and Lang.

Jingyi was a small, cherubic girl with long, brown hair put up in a ponytail, and she wore a constant smile on her peach-colored face. She had been a good friend in my life in the city, always being optimistic and making sure that our spirits were lifted. Jingyi was innocent and sweet as a moon-peach, sometimes acting as our voice of reason whenever we were about to do something stupid. At various moments, she was less of a doting friend and more like a scolding mother.

Xieren was a big contrast to Jingyi. He was a large fellow, just as tall as I was and with a much better physique. Whereas most people in the Earth Kingdom had tanned skin and green eyes, Xieren's skin was a dark ebony color, and his eyes an earthen brown. Countless times he had reminded us that we were human, and he even made us laugh with his lighthearted jokes. But whenever someone tried to threaten us, Xieren would stand at his full height and stare the culprit in the eye, sending them running without a word.

Then there was Lang. Lang, even though he was Earth Kingdom, was quite pale, not to mention of average height and skinny body. He wore a pair of glasses on his face, and his lips were twisted up in his signature smirk. Lang always considered himself a philosopher of sorts, speaking with a sophisticated vocabulary, as he would put it. Despite how much he got on mine and Xieren's nerves, Lang was generous enough to let us and Jingyi live with him in the Middle Ring. It made life that much more bearable - even if I had to suffer through his speeches.

The painting had been something that the four of us had gotten done before I left Ba Sing Se to seek out my place in life, and it was something that I treasured dearly. In fact, whenever I felt unsure of myself, I carried the small picture with me, reassured by the fact that I was bringing a portion of my friends wherever I went.

Not a single moment passed where I didn't wish that my friends could be with me.

And I was sure that not a moment passed that they didn't wish I could be back with them.

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END OF CHAPTER II

Hey there guys! Oryx here. Sorry for being away for so long - I got a bit caught up with things in my real life, some of which included brainstorming. Now that I'm back, I'm gonna try and update this story a bit more often(hopefully) and I might also come back to some of my other stories too. For now, this is Oryx, signing off!