In the morning, we ate and left again, riding our ostrich horses. Zuko didn't speak a word the whole morning and he looked angry, so Zian didn't get near him or try to speak to him. Instead, he talked to me.

"So," Zian said, walking his ostrich horse next to me, leaving Zuko behind, "You're from the Northern Water Tribe?"

"Yup." I nodded.

"That's cool. I've met the Avatar before," Zian told me.

"Really?" My eyes widened. "What was he like?"

"I was visiting my cousin, Haru, at the time. The firebenders were at our village and they took our money and everything, and they imprisoned us if we earthbended."

"That's horrible," I said, shaking my head. "Why would they do something like that?"

Zian shrugged. "They took Haru, and my other aunt, Haru's mother, was devestated. But the Avatar and his two friends saved all the prisoners."

"Whoa."

"Yeah. Hasn't he met him too?" Zian pointed at Zuko over his shoulder.

"Yeah, but," I lowered my voice, "he wants to capture him."

"So why are you traveling together?" he asked.

"Dunno. He actually is better than before; maybe he won't capture the Avatar after we find him."

"You guys are so different it's funny," Zian laughed.

"Extremely," I agreed, and grabbed the reigns to calm down my ostrich horse.

As we rode, Zian stopped.

"Shh . . ." he put a finger to his lips and brought his ostrich horse to a complete halt. He jumped off as we stopped and knelt on the floor, his feet flat against the floor. "I hear vibrations," he said. "Someone's coming. Actually, more than one person. Run or fight?"

I jumped off. "Fight, of course."

Zian stomped his foot on the ground and a huge chunk of rock rose out of the ground. Zian tied all three ostrich horses to the rock.

Then I saw them. Far in the distance. they were a small army of about twenty, riding on mongoose dragons.

"Damn," Zian mumbled.

The first the he did was lift the ground under us so we had a higher advantage.

I saw the three leaders and my blood started to boil as flames appeared around my balled fists. It was Azula, Ty Lee, and . . . Mai. I looked at Zuko who wasn't in battle mode, just staring at them coming towards us.

"Zuko, what are you doing?" I hissed. They were getting closer.

"Huh? Oh." He put his fists up but his eyes still had that faraway look to them.

I pursed my lips. "Zian, take the creepy one."

Zian started laughing. "What?"

"The one who looks like she wants to run the world over with a giant tank." I smirked, and snuck a glance at Zuko who looked annoyed, his eyes narrowed.

"Wait, there's two who look like that. Be more specific."

"The gloomy goth one," I snickered, starting to laugh.

"The rabbit-ear hair one?" Zian continued laughing, and I punched his arm.

"Ah, I love your sense of humor Zian," I cracked up.

"Uh-huh. Wait why are we targeting her only?" Zian said, grinning.

"Oh." I grinned slyly. "Because she used to be Zuko's—"

"That's enough!" Zuko yelled.

"Whoa, take it easy. We were just joking," I scowled. Way to ruin all the fun.

He shook his head, angered.

Suddenly, the enemy attacked, sending a fireball right at us. Zuko cut through it, followed by a few more. Azula and Ty Lee stood back, watching, Azula smirking.

Mai had her hands up her sleeves and the next thing she did was pull out razor sharp shurikens, and threw them straight at my face.

"Seriously?" I yelled. "Why me?" I dodged them and smacked into Zuko, ruining his fire aim and sending him flailing down the rock mountain we were on. Luckily, Zian abandoned his fight and grabbed Zuko's arm, pulling him back up.

"Watch it!" Zuko grumbled as he regained position and took down two more soldiers. Zian stomped on the ground and a large rock exploded out of the ground, throwing two soldiers off their feet and into the air, landing unconscious far away. Then he pulled his fists back to his waist, his legs spread apart, stop once and punched clumps of earth at the enemy.

That's when I decided to jump off and Zian followed me, surfing down the cliff with an earth-board.

Azula took this as her cue. Blue fire reflected off our faces; it was like she was waiting for me.

I cut through her fire attack and realized her fire was warmer than the others. It was blue; the peak of heat in fire.

I cut through another wave of fire and kicked at her, fire slamming into her chest. With a shocked cry, she flew back and hit a rock that had just protruded out of the ground.

"Thank you Zian!" I yelled, turning on Ty Lee.

"No problem." He nodded, shifting his feet across the floor.

Zuko was against Azula now who had gotten to her feet, furious.

Zian took Ty Lee, and I took Mai.

"How's it goin'?" I yelled from a distance as she held her shurikens between her fingers.

She didn't reply, only letting a frustrated yell out and slicing the shurikens at me. I dodged one but the other cut through my shirtsleeve and grazed my skin.

I turned on her, flaming. I created a burning torpedo thing that I kicked at her and she flew back, arms flailing wildly. But that didn't stop her. Stumbling to her feet and running all ninja-like, she sent more shurikens spinning at me and I felt the anger in the wind as they sliced past my ears. I had to do a handstand and walk around because I could barely dodge them, my face the main target. I jumped to my feet and bent backwards, forming a backbend as they sailed over my head.

"How many do you have?" I yelled when I was back on my feet. I got no reply but suddenly, she pulled out two and ran at me.

That same second, I saw Azula kicking her crazy blue fire in my direction. Torn between which side I should block first, I ducked and pushed out my hands towards Azula, cutting through the fire.

But I wasn't the only thing cutting.

Mai's shuriken successfully got through my skin this time, and I crouched over, holding my arm. At first there was no pain but I could see scarlet spreading through my sleeve. The next thin I saw was an explosion of orange fire and Mai hitting her head on the solid ground, knocked out.

Azula landed on her feet and Ty Lee was completely untouched by the angry fire storm, which I realized was coming from Zuko. Zian, out of nowhere, split his hands and planted his feet on the ground, and with a small jerk of each foot he made a wall around me, which I hated. Just because my arm was cut didn't mean the whole world was ending. I mean, I could fight.

I had a dark rock wall around me as I heard the shouts from outside. I crouched low feeling useless. I clutched my arm.

Then suddenly, there was silence. After a few seconds, the rock wall around me came down, and I saw them retreating.

"Be ready, brother," Azula smirked, "I'll be back." Then she blasted off into the air towards her retreated army.

"How bad is it?" Zian asked, and I let out a small hiss of pain as i tried to show him. I glanced at my sleeve that had been torn and peeled it off gently, frustrated with what an easy target I was.

How could I not have just jumped over that attack? Useless and hopeless.

"It's not that deep," Zian said to himself. "It just got through the top layer." then he ran to get supplies to clear up the wound.

It was deep. I could feel it.

Zuko came out of nowhere, and knelt in front of me. "You okay?"

"No, I'm useless," I mumbled.

Zuko rolled his eyes. "You practically sent them running."

"Yeah right," I scoffed. "All I did was knock Azula out for a second. Even you took down Mai, which is really funny. Was she unconscious the whole time?"

"Uh, no. She got Azula to leave somehow after you got hurt."

"What?" my smile faltered. "Why?"

"Maybe because you were acting senseless."

"I was not."

"Yeah. You were."

Zian came back and washed off the wound, wrapping it tightly in white bandages while I sat there, gripping a ripped bloody sleeve in one hand.

"What do you mean, senseless?" I asked, frowning.

"You weren't even paying attention to your opponent. All you were doing was randomly flying around and doing handstands. I've never seen you act so . . . silly before," Zuko scoffed.

"And I've never heard you say 'silly' before, so I guess we're equal," I pointed out.

"I take that back. You always act silly." He rolled his eyes.

Zian stood up and I stared at my bandaged arm. "It's still bleeding a little."

"I'll live." I flexed my arm, glancing at the prince.

"Zuko," I punched him in the stomach, "What did you do to make them leave?"

"Nothing." He averted his eyes.

"Zuko, you big turtle squid, what did you do?"

"Nothing." he repeated, flatly.

"Fine. Be that way," I mumbled. "Let's go Zian. You're my new travel buddy. I hate people who keep secrets."

"There's no secret," Zuko rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Really? Then why don't you tell me?" I asked.

"Because there's nothing that happened."

"See! Secret right there," I pointed at his face.

"Stop arguing," Zian pushed us to our ostrich horses, untying them. "Get on please."

🔥🔥🔥

We continued until we came across a campsite. Zuko went to ask if they had anything to give us, and the friendly group of earthbenders let us stay. We set up our own tent and I took my stuff and ran to my tent, away from everyone, thankful for time to myself. I sat quietly and pulled my sheets over my lap. Zuko's tent was on my right and Zian's was on my left. Everyone else's was next to theirs; all the tents forming a large circle around the campfire. I lay down and listened to their converstaions outside. Then I realized Zuko had also gone back to his tent, making sure no one recognized him. As I lay there, I saw a shadow come up to my tent.

"Who is it?" I called.

"Im here to look at your arm," an old feminine voice said.

She came into the tent and unwrapped my bandages, examining the wound closely. "The wound is not to severe. It only cut through the top layer, but make sure to keep it bandaged and safe from the germs traveling in the air or it could get infected. Just until the cut mends itself. Got it?"

I nodded, and she wrapped it in clean bandages again.

Then she left and exhausted, I fell asleep.