Avatar: The Storm Book 1; The Stirring

Chapter 2 The Secret Tunnel

The storm had finally cleared as the group flew through the dark night's sky, Zuko at Appa's reigns, leading the way. Sokka sat up near the back of the saddle.

"Are you sure about this, Zuko?" Zuko looked back at Sokka from his perch on Appa's head.

"Yes. I specifically said to shut down the main entrances to the city. There's only one other entrance that isn't closed, and it's a secret to a lot of people, especially the guards." He thought for a moment. "We should probably add some security there, we could easily get sneak attacked that way." He turned to Katara. "speaking of added security, I need to have a word with the chief of the Northern Water Tribe about adding security around the water ducks that the sealturtles use."

"Why? It's not like anyone can really survive swimming through those. Let alone be stupid enough to actually try." Zuko was silent for a moment before he laughed nervously and turned back around.

"Yeah.... No one..." Aang stood up.

"Wait, did you-?" Zuko nodded slowly, staring straight ahead.

"How did you even survive that?!" Sokka exclaimed.

"Pure spite and a lot of fire." Zuko responded.

"But why would-" Zuko cleared his throat, interrupting Toph.

"Hey, look at that, we're here, no more time for questions about my poor life choices, fancy that." He patted Appa's head to tell the bison to go down. The ground below seemed normal, nothing really out of the ordinary.

"You sure this is it?" Aang asked, looking around as Appa landed. Zuko jumped off and nodded.

"I don't see anything." Katara remarked. Toph knelt down and placed a hand on the ground.

"That's because you're looking with your eyes. There's a whole cavern of underground tunnels right under us!" Zuko nodded again.

"Exactly. It's the perfect place when you need to sneak in and out of the city without drawing any attention. These tunnels take you straight out of the Fire Nation, and this is the only access point in the city." Sokka frowned.

"Not only that... This would've been the perfect spot for a sneak attack!" He got up right in Zuko's face. "If you had helped us earlier, we could've used this in the invasion on the day of the eclipse!" He shouted, waving his arms in the air. Zuko frowned too and flickered Sokka's forehead, casing him to stumble back.

"It wouldn't have worked anyways! This only leads into the Fire Nation capital, not the palace itself. I would've loved to see you try to sneak an entire army through the streets like some grand parade!" Aang stepped in between the pair.

"Guys, calm down, the past is the past, and it all turned out fine in the end so why bother dwelling on it?" He turned to Zuko. "Where exactly is this entrance anyways." Zuko gestured with his head.

"Over here." He walked towards a large cluster of boulders over to the side by the large rock wall. They had clearly been there for quite some time, miss and vines growing around it. Zuko brushed the vines out of the way and stepped back, revealing the entrance to the tunnel.