"Too long!" Azula cut him off, and there was a dangerous new edge to her voice.
"B-But..."
"You. You're going to lead us to the sealed-off cell blocks" She simply pointed at the first guard she saw.
Just an ordinary young private. Faced with the honor of being singled out by the visibly displeased heir to the throne, the poor lad turned as white as the snows of the North Pole.
One displeased narrowing of those amber eyes, however, nipped the problem in the bud.
It took our group all of ten minutes to round up an angry mob armed with little more than a few dirty tricks, and most of that time was spent simply walking from one cell block to the next.
Azula very obviously needed an outlet for her frustration, and I understood her completely. I had to fight the urge to burn the convicts where they stood, forcing myself to settle for slamming them face-first onto the floor instead.
The only problem was that, after fighting pirates on the rolling decks of ships or in their cramped corridors, suppressing this "riot" didn't even qualify as a warm-up.
Still, there wasn't a better option, so the next twenty minutes were spent sweeping the remaining sections of the prison and taking a fresh count of the inmates...
Exactly one was missing.
I don't suppose I need to explain who.
Damn that bald bastard's luck...
"This is completely absurd," Suki muttered weakly after we'd finished and were making our way out of the prison.
"You wouldn't believe it," Toph replied, stopping in the middle of the corridor. With a mischievous grin, she flicked a chipped fragment of masonry into one of the large clay water cisterns.
There were a couple of them on every floor, used to provide drinking water for the prisoners as well as water for the guards' and staff's everyday needs.
And no, this wasn't some form of abuse toward the inmates.
Before the Fire Nation captured the city, the cisterns had held different kinds of water—untreated water for general use and boiled water for drinking—but once Omashu fell, there was no longer any reason to waste scarce mountain firewood boiling water. After all, both had always been filled from the same source anyway.
But I digress.
When the fragment struck the mouth of the vessel, instead of the expected splash, we heard a pained:
"Ow!"
Our entire group froze mid-step.
"You can't possibly mean..." Mai began slowly.
"Hey!" a voice called from inside the cistern, cutting her off. "Somebody! Help!" It sounded... suspiciously familiar.
"And… how long have you known he was in there?" the princess asked in a tone that promised absolutely nothing good as she turned toward young Miss Beifong.
"I'm a great earthbender and all, but searching an entire prison takes time, you know," the little girl grumbled, sounding both cranky and exhausted. "It didn't exactly help that a whole crowd kept running up and down the corridors, stomping, stomping, stomping everywhere!" the earthbender finished indignantly.
"Mm..." Azula blinked. "I... hadn't thought of that. Sorry."
"Cough... Ahem..."
Zuko nearly choked on thin air.
"Zu-Zu? Are you all right?" The princess immediately turned to her brother, concern on her face and honey dripping from her voice.
"Uh... y-yeah. I'm fine. Just got some dust in my throat."
Somehow, that excuse did absolutely nothing to explain the stunned look on his face.
Incidentally, while Toph had put on an adorably offended expression, she'd never actually answered the question of when she'd discovered the cistern's occupant. And I had a sneaking suspicion the sweet little girl had simply indulged herself by watching the elite of the Fire Nation run around the prison with their tongues hanging out, spreading terror and panic among everyone unfortunate enough to be inside.
"All right, let's see who we've got in there..."
The three of us—Zuko, Blast, and I—heaved the cistern over. It turned out not to require much effort at all. It was empty.
Well...
Empty except for...
"Oh, my dear young Southern walrus-beaver!" I exclaimed, greeting Sokka like a long-lost friend. "Has your burrowing season begun? Unable to build yourself a lodge by the river, did you decide to settle down inside a water cistern instead?"
"Uh... what?" The Water Tribe warrior froze completely.
"He wants to know why you climbed into the cistern, genius," Suki translated my heartfelt speech.
"I-I... uh... well..."
"Very informative," Azula said through clenched teeth. Wrapping her fist in fire, she slowly brought it up before Sokka's face. "But we'd like a few more details."
"There's no need for that, Your Highness." I smiled pleasantly. "I'm sure this fine walrus-beaver will be delighted to tell us everything he knows. You wouldn't want to disappoint Her Highness or the Herald... would you?"
Sokka nodded so frantically I thought his head might come off. Yes! He understood! He was fully prepared to cooperate!
As always, the Bad Cop and Friendly Maniac routine proved exceptionally effective at loosening tongues.
And the tale this fellow told us was as ordinary as it was idiotic—just like everything else in this damned city.
One of the inmates—the one the Avatar and his girlfriend had handed a ring of keys they'd taken from the guards—was the one who freed Sokka. His advice was simple: "Get the hell out before the screws round everyone up again."
Sokka had gladly taken the advice.
He'd worked his way toward the exit, successfully avoiding the clashes between guards and prisoners most of the way. But eventually his luck ran out. He got caught on the edge of one of the fights and, while escaping, twisted his ankle.
Realizing he wouldn't get far in that condition, he'd decided to lie low somewhere, wait until the commotion died down, then quietly slip away without saying goodbye to anyone.
He'd overlooked exactly one thing.
The inside walls of the cistern were rather slippery.
I did mention he'd managed to sprain his ankle, didn't I?
In short, this "genius" got himself stuck.
And yes, he never even heard Aang and Katara.
When Sokka finished his story, a deathly silence settled over the room. Even Toph, despite her razor-sharp wit and endless supply of sarcastic remarks, couldn't think of a single thing to say.
"That..." Blast's voice finally shattered the awkward silence. "Was spectacular."
(End of Chapter)
P@treon: /SadRaven
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