Chapter 2 - The Avatar Returns

We arrived at a small village called the Southern Water Tribe. Me and another soldier are behind Prince Zuko walking down the walkway.

As we are walking to the villagers, a boy with a small ponytail wearing a blue outfit, face paint, and wielding a club in his right hand let's out a battle cry as he charges at the Prince. As he gets close, Zuko kicks the weapon out of his right hand and kicks him in the head, sending him into the snow.

The villagers gasp in fear as we proceed to walk twords them. Zuko passes to the right when he does not seem to find what he's looking for and stops in front of a girl with hair loops wearing a long purple parka who is holding on to an elderly woman.

"Where are you hiding him?" he asks angrily. The crowed of villagers fall completely silent. Zuko grabs an elderly woman by the hood of her parka.

"He'd be about this age, master of all elements?" he shoved the elderly woman back into the crowd. She shudders in fear and embraces the girl with hair loops. The girl glares at the Prince. Zuko unleases an arc of fire over the heads of people, causing them to cover their heads and cry out in fear.

I know that he's desperate of finding the Avatar but threatening a group of people is just wrong.

The small ponytail boy charged towards at Zuko with his club. Zuko ducks under the swing of his club and throws him forward. He lands on the snow and rolls from his spot when the Prince fires a blast at him. The warrior tosses his curled weapon at Zuko who barley dodged it. He glares at the boy for a near hit. A small village boy tosses the warrior a spear.

"Show no fear!" he yells him as the boy catches the weapon and charges at Zuko once more. Zuko breaks pieces of the spear with his forearms, pulls the remains of the spear out of the warrior's hands, and pokes him thrice on the forehead. He falls to the ground as the Prince snap the weapon into two and tosses them next to the boy.

The defeated warrior rubs his forehead in pain. The curled weapon strikes Zuko on the back of his helmet and is momentarily push forward by the unexpected blow. He rearranges his helmet and growls at the boy and readies 2 fire daggers.

Then all of a sudden he falls face-first on the snow. His helmet lands on his backside and I laugh. This is going to make a good memory. We see a boy with a bald head that has a blue arrow on it, wearing an orange and yellow outfit, and has a wooden staff in his hands.

"Hey Katara. Hey Sokka." He says to the girl and boy.

"Hey Aang. Thanks for coming." the boy Sokka replies moodily.

Zuko gets back on his feet and on his signal, me and the rest of his soldiers surround Aang. Both he and the Prince assume their fighting stances. He sweeps the ground with his staff, showering us with snow. I fall to the ground covered with snow. Aang sends a rush of snow at Zuko who braced for impact. Zuko heated the snow so it would melt and looked angrily at Aang.

"Looking for me?" he asked.

"You're the airbender? You're the Avatar?" Zuko asked back in a shocked tone.

"Aang?" the girl Katara said in shock

"No way!" said Sokka.

The Prince and Aang move in a circular pattern, waiting to attack one another.

"I've spent years preparing for this encounter. Training, meditating. You're just a child!" Zuko tells the Avatar.

Aang calmly tilts his head to one side with a confused expression.

"We'll you're just a teenager." he replies.

Zuko launches a series of fire blasts at Aang, who defends himself by twirling his staff, dissipating the flames. The villagers watched from behind as Zuko directs another fire blast at the Avatar, who twirled his staff to ward the attack once again. The villages scream as the flame stream nearly burned them. If this keeps going on, someone could be hurt or worse killed. Aang looks back in horror at the of frightened villagers. He immediately seized of defending himself.

"If I go with you," he holds his staff in front of Zuko to make sure that he understands that he doesn't wish to continue fighting, "Will you promise to leave everyone alone?"

Zuko nods in agreement. A soldier and I apprehended the Avatar. The soldier takes his staff. Katara runs forward as we escort Aang on the ship.

"No Aang! Don't do this!" she cries out sadly.

"Don't worry Katara. It'll be ok." he tells her calmly. "Take care of Appa for me until I get back." We take him on the ship and Zuko has a determined look on his face.

"Head a course for the Fire Nation. I'm going home" he orders.

Me, Iroh, Zuko, the Avatar, and the soldiers are on deck. Aang's hands are tied behind his back. Zuko holds his staff.

"This staff will make an excellent gift for my father." He inspects the staff further."I suppose you wouldn't know of fathers, being raised by monks." Now that was just straight up cruel. To his soldiers,"Take the Avatar to the prison hold," Handing the staff to Iroh "And take this to my quarters."

"Hey you mind taking this to his quarters for me?" Iroh asks one of the soldiers as he hands him the staff.

We take the Avatar to the compartment beneath the deck.

"So, I guess you've never fought an airbender before. I bet I could take you both with my hands tied behind my back?" Aang tells us slyly.

"Keep dreaming kid." I replied to him.

We stop at a cell. Just as the guard begins to unlock the cell door, Aang inhales deeply and unleashes a gust of wind, knocking 2 soldiers unconscious while I'm pushed back rearward, but I manage to flip backward and land on my feet.

The Avatar begins to run away and I chase him through the hallway. He turns his head around and sees me running towards him. He panics and runs faster than before.

I hear a soldier informing the helmsman that the Avatar has escaped, but I'm following him.

I proceed to chase Aang through the corridors. He stops running and yells as three soldiers with swords drawn standing in the middle of the corridor.

"You guys haven't seen my staff around, have you?" he asks them.

The three man prepare to attack him, but before they can make a move, Aang sprints across the hallway, along the floor and walls, spiraling in circular motions past us.

"Thanks anyway!" he says.

Now this is is just great! We have an airbending Avatar that has escaped from us, and now we don't know where he is! I continued running through the ship and as I run on the deck, I see the Prince attacking Aang, who is on the ledge of the deck.

Zuko directs fire blasts at him and Aang twirls his staff to deflect the attacks. He aims 2 more blasts at the Aang and he loses his staff in the process. The Avatar evades more fire blasts and ended up on the edge of the ship. He struggles to keep his balance as Zuko unleashes fire blasts. Aang holds up his arms in defense as one off Zuko's attacks hits him, knocking him out cold and fall of of the ship into the ocean.

"Aang no!" the girl Katara yells out in horror.

I too look in horror at this situation. Has Zuko killed the Avatar? Now how will he return back home and regain his title as Crowned Prince?

When all hope seems lost, water in the shape of a tornado formed around Aang. Zuko gasps in horror and I look at the tornado shaped water in surprise. Aang lands on the upper deck, summoning water behind him. He swirls the water sound himself as a protective circle before spreading it outward. The water knocks us off our feet, causing only me and Zuko to fall off the ship. I scream as I fall off the ship and into the ocean.

I swim up top and cough up water. I continue to swim to the side of the ship and climb on it. As I climb up the ship next to an anchor chain on my right, I witness Zuko trying to pull himself back on the deck, only for the boy Sokka to use Aang's staff and repeatedly poke him in the head. Zuko struggles and fall off the side of the ship, but manages to hold on an anchor chain.

"Do you need any help?" I asked him with concern my voice.

"I'll be fine. Just don't let the Avatar and his friends escape this ship." he tells me.

I smile and proceed to climb back on deck. I reach to the deck and see Katara help Aang on the head of a furry create with a brown arrow and horns.

"Hold it right there!" I tell at them and channel fire in my hands."If you think that you're going to escape off of this ship then this is where you think wrong!". The soldiers there were knocked down by Aang's water attack rised up and walked by my side. We approach Katara. She steps backs and summons a stream of water from the puddle, making the soldiers and me gasp in surprise. She swings her arms around in attempt to strike us. The water freezes behind her on the deck, only for the boy Sokka to be encased in ice.

"Katara!" he yelled at her. I have to admit, this Water Tribe girl has a lot of potential to become a powerful waterbender. She just needs the discipline and concentration in order to master her powers.

Back in reality, we continue to approach and she turns around with her back facing us. She summon a stream of water and swings her arms behind her. The water nearly hits me but I use my fire bending to evaporate the attack. Katara turns around and sees that I'm unharmed. She turns around once again and unleashes another water attack in my direction. I dodged to the left and a soldier is freezed in the process. She slowly backs away, turns around and runs towards the furry creature. While climbing on it's head, Sokka tries to free himself from the ice by using his curved weapon to smash it.

He mutters to himself as he chips the ice."I'm just a guy with a boomerang," he frees his left foot, "I didn't ask for all this flying and magic!" He manages to free his other foot and dashes towards the creature's tail.

He climbs on it's head and shouts at it, "Yip- Yip! Yip-Yip!" The creature grunts and takes flight. Iroh opens the door, having to just waken up from his nap. He rubs his eyes and stares up at the creature in surprise.

"Duh? Huh?"

As the creature flies away from the ship, We help Zuko back onto the deck.

"Shoot the down!" he tells us angrily. Iroh, Me, and Zuko synchronize a firebending move and created a big fire blast at the trio riding the creature. Katara and Sokka stare at the incoming attack in horror. Aang leaps on the saddle, opens a small tail wing on his staff, and swings it around to create a powerful swipe. It redirects the fireball into a nearby cliff side. The impacts causes an avalanche of snow and ice to fall in our direction. Zuko and I look at this event in horror as the front of the ship becomes buried in a mass of ice and snow.

The Prince firebends in rage with Iroh erecting himself and I melt the snow that was on top of me.

"Good news for the Fire Lord. The Fire Nation's greatest threat is just a little kid." Iroh tells us calmly.

Zuko lifts his head and I help him up while his uncle is speaking.

"That kid uncle just did this." he says while holding back his rage. "I won't underestimate him again. Dig this ship out and follow them!" He orders the soldiers and points at the piles of snow. Three soldiers use their firebending to melt the ice encasing coating of off 3 other soldiers who Katara froze.

"As soon as you're done with that." Zuko says slightly embarrassed. I laughed out loud. If there's one thing that Zuko can't admit is that he got defeated by a 12-year-old old who hasn't even mastered other elements despite the fact Aang create a big water tornado that is on a waterbending mastery level to take us down.

Looks like it's gonna be a longer process to ride out on sea to capture the Avatar...