Omashu - Part 2

She stood under the late morning sun eager with anticipation for what was to come. Although it was still rather early in the day, much had transpired. Tensions were high and the princess was itching for a fight she hoped the rebels would provide.

Ty Lee moved in an inverted fashion, happily exercising her new fully healed hands. Azula would have stopped the childish play if the girl wasn't wearing such a big smile. It was such a silly thing to have missed, after all. How useful could walking on your hands actually be? But Azula could not deny Ty Lee her simple fun; it was her fault the acrobat had been hurt in the first place. The memory brought a grimace to her formerly expressionless features.

Mai stood abruptly, her attention turned skyward. Azula followed her gaze to see an approaching outline far off in the horizon. A war balloon, she thought astonished before she immediately reconsidered. The Earth Kingdom had no air fleet, the Fire Nation were the proud owners of the only war balloons in existence. Besides, even if they did happen to capture a balloon, it wouldn't be in the hands of some failed city's rebels. It would be kept safely behind the large walls of Ba Sing Se, their precious "impenetrable city."

But as it grew nearer she began to see the distinctive differences in its movements. It turned too sharply and moved to swiftly against the wind. This was no ordinary war balloon.

She was thoroughly intrigued. Even Ty Lee's demeanor changed as she righted herself and moved to stand beside the princess.

It moves far to quickly. "What is it?" Ty Lee asked as she stared, mouth agape. Azula squinted to sharpen her sight but was at a loss for words when it came to the strange shape before her.

It was close enough to see clearly in a matter of seconds. An air bison, she realized suddenly. In that instant Mai turned with an expression just as astonished as the one Azula was sure she wore. "How?" was all she said. Azula was, for the first time, without an answer. She had been told they went extinct along with their human counterparts a hundred years ago. Though she grudgingly supposed it was possible for a few to stay in hiding.

The air bison landed 30 yards away to let off its passengers. Three small figures left the safety of their flying beast causing the princess to scoff at what she was sure must be a joke of some sort. Children. They sent children.

In truth, they weren't all that much younger than herself, but she was never truly a child to begin with. Born an adult with more responsibilities than most, Azula was never afforded the luxury of a child. Mai was much the same.

But the three that stood before them were nothing more than snot-nose kids. She could tell simply by the way they carried themselves. She soon lost hope for any semblance of a challenge should this trade turn into a conflict. The only thing even remotely interesting so far was their entrance.

She saw the child in the arms of the taller boy, she rolled her eyes. All this for a toddler.

Mai took a step forward to take control of the situation. The prodigy decided to give Mai the lead in this particular trade as a test of sorts. Newly named her right hand, the sardonic girl would need to prove more than fighting prowess and above average intelligence, negotiation could be considered one of the most important parts in war.

But before any words could be said, a gust of wind took hold of a sleeve to the shorter boy revealing a strange thin blue cloth running up the length of his arm. No, not a cloth. A tattoo. She smiled instantly, thanking Agni for her good fortune. Father always did say I was born lucky.

If she was right, and she usually was, the child standing before her was the avatar himself. The air bison gave her the first hint and the airbending tattoos he failed to properly conceal led her to her final conclusion.

Overcome with a sense of joy she stepped forward and, without having given much thought to the toddler clutching heavily to one of the avatar's companions, easily dropped into a firebending stance.

"Azula, no!" She heard Ty Lee's concerned voice behind her, but Mai said nothing. She must have seen it too. Ignoring Ty Lee's loud protest behind her and relishing in the look of concern in the eyes before her, she thrust her arms out swiftly and sent forth a huge wave of blue fire.

The boy standing nearest to her, the one she adamantly hoped was the avatar, immediately took action and used the wooden staff he was carrying to amplify his airbending and redirect her fire over their heads. The air bison spooked and took off into the sky, leaving the 3 children at her mercy, which was nonexistent where they were concerned.

Without taking her eyes off the prize she yelled over the commotion to the two women behind her. "Take the other two, I've got the avatar."

Taking advantage of the chaos and allowing no time for the rebels to conspire, Azula immediately took off after the airbender. She could trust Mai to take control of the situation she left behind and with Ty Lee standing beside her, she simply could not fail.

As Azula's pounding footsteps grew closer, the boy suddenly realized she was after him and him alone. He dashed the bottom of his rod against the ground and it transformed into some sort of flying contraption, as he was suddenly way over her head, flying in the opposite direction of his companions. He is drawing me away from them, she realized. Good, I already found one weakness.

Before she had a chance to turn and follow him, she saw the air bison returning. Deciding to save Mai and Ty Lee some trouble, she spun upwards and released another wave of flame at the beast. Just as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone from the sky.

Leaving no more time for the boy to escape, she turned her attention back to the retreating figure. He landed on a platform above where she stood and smiled down at her, surely thinking he was out of her reach. He was wrong.

She speedily took off after him and sent high velocity jets out from her hands and feet when she reached the wall, something she had taught herself within the last few months or so. One lesson she has never forgotten since she first started her training is that there is always something new to learn with firebending, even for masters of the art. The steady current of flame allowed her to virtually run up the wall and land directly in front of the astonished boy.

"What's wrong, avatar? You didn't think you were the only one with a few tricks up your sleeve did you?" Her voice resumed the taunting nature it usually held. The boy stamped his rod against the ground again, allowing her to witness the mechanics of the spring loaded contraption that allowed him to fly. But before he had a chance to take off, she took action and threw multiple balls of glowing blue fire at it.

The avatar stood helplessly by as he watched the thin material easily melt into the ash.

"Looks like there'll be no more flying for you." Her lips pulled at the corners when the avatar dropped his stick and took a defensive stance.

"What do you want?" She stifled a laugh at the boy's pre-pubescent voice.

"What do I want?" she pondered aloud with a lazy half smile touching her lips. "I want the world, avatar." Her voice remained calm and soft and held an air of arrogance to it, she could already see by his unease that he wasn't a fully realized avatar. He would be no match for her in the state he was currently in.

"Who are you?" he asked. "Why is your fire blue?"

"Excellent questions. And the answers to them both go hand in hand." She took a step towards the boy. "I suppose it's only fair that I answer," she said indifferently. "I'm Princess Azula, the prodigy of the Fire Nation." She took another step forward, dropped into a stance, and took in a deep breath simultaneously. "And I'm going to kill you."

With two outpointed fingers on each hand, she swept her arms about, gathering both the positive and negative charges needed to create a devastating blast. She would not be stupid and draw this boy's death out any longer than she already had. The last thing she needed at the moment was for her father to find out she let the avatar escape her.

Being the sadist that she was, she glanced at the boy and connected their gazes for the first time, hoping to find fear in his eyes. But as her molten gaze lingered, she hesitated at the eerily familiar look in those large glistening grey eyes.

All the air left her lungs in a heavy expel and her arms dropped to her side before a proper current could be made. Her face contorted into a mask of confusion as she bore into the eyes before her.

It was the first time she had ever seen anyone with eyes like Ty Lee. She always thought it odd that the acrobat didn't have the golden irises like the rest of the Fire Nation nobles, but never gave it much thought beyond that.

A sudden possibility hit her through a gasp. Her step faltered and she forgot all about the boy standing before her. She took another step back closer to the ledge of the platform.

She stupidly turned her back on the boy, too caught up in her thoughts remember the objective. She looked down and zeroed in on Ty Lee sneaking up behind the avatar's female companion, who was focused on Mai and made no notice of the girl behind her. She launched into the air and landed directly beside her, striking the girl with precision that put her right arm to sleep.

She heard a loud bellow to the right of where she stood and her eyes immediately snapped to the threatening sound. The air bison was headed towards the four people below. Only this time, the bison had a rider.

Idiot, she thought angrily before jerking her around to prove what she already knew. I let him go!

The bison landed backwards, beside the waterbender and the other boy, and slammed his tail down on the ground. A powerful gush of wind sent Mai and Ty Lee flying 10 yards in the opposite direction. While Mai landed rather ungracefully, Ty Lee corrected herself and landed on her feet much like a bearded cat might.

The tall boy and waterbender boarded the beast and immediately took off into the unreachable skies above leaving the toddler behind.

Azula began her slow decent back to the duo below with a million thoughts running through her mind.

She hadn't realized she had reached ground level until she heard Ty Lee's shrieking voice.

"Azula! Are you okay?" Ty Lee asked as she thrust the child in Mai's arms and ran towards the princess. When she reached the firebender she immediately engulfed her in a hug. "What happened? How did the avatar get away?"

They were, of course, valid questions, but Azula had much more pressing matters on her mind. She pushed the girl away at arms length and stared, once again, into a pair of grey eyes. Every possibility of a Ty Lee-less future passed before her as she thought of the consequences of making her recent revelation known. It was entirely possible, though not likely, that she was wrong. Perhaps her eye color is simply a misfortunate coincidence.

She decided then never to mention her possible discovery to anyone, especially Ty Lee. To simply forget this whole unsuccessful and frustrating day.

It was surprisingly easy to put out of her mind with all that was going on in her life. She needed to get back on track. She had now failed her nation twice. Worse, she failed her father twice. That's two times more than he would ever forgive.

She needed to find the avatar and kill him, then she would get her brother and uncle. No more failures would be acceptable, but now that she knew the avatars means of transportation, he should be fairly easy to find. After all, how many air bisons are left in the world?