"No. Stop." I said, putting a hand in front of Zek.
"What? We're past our mines."
"Yeah. Ours. See that dirt to the side of it, recently dug. They have mines here."
"Mines. Got it. I'll write that down."
"Are you actually writing anything?"
"Of course I am."
"Let me see." I said, taking the notepad from him. He was in fact writing but calling it even the least bit legible was something far different. "The hell is this?"
"My handwriting. Why? Got a problem with it?"
"More than 'a'. Who the fuck is going to be able to read this?"
"Well. I can."
"Really? What does this say?" I asked, pointing to a note at the top of the page.
"It says…mine?"
"There's 2 letters here. Mine has 5. Just give me the damn pen."
He handed me his pen and I saw the hint of a grin as he handed it to me, having just dodged his job for the night. "I should've just let you walk into that mine." I grumbled.
"Well that's not very nice of you to say."
"Fuck off." I said, not able to stop myself from smiling, but luckily, in the dark, facing away from him, he'd have no way of seeing.
But then, for a moment, that dark was gone, and then there was a noise. I looked towards where I'd heard it, and saw it, over the walls, fire.
I tugged on Zek's shirt, saying "Zek. Zek!"
"What? The sound was from the northeast not that-oh. The hell? Is that?"
"Fire. On the other side of the walls."
"What the hell is going on there."
I had seen things like this before. Back in Citadel, but never this extreme. "Rioting."
"Why?"
"They have no food. We're starving them out to the point of turning on their own city."
"Well. Makes it easier for us."
"No kidding."
"But hey, Luke. That noise we heard. That wasn't from the city. That was from behind us."
"What?"
"Yeah."
I looked where he was pointing but saw nothing past the hill in front of us. I created a small flame in my left hand, looking for where mines might have been dug, but saw none. I climbed up the hill, slowly, and carefully, and just beyond, in the distance, I saw it. A fire going to the sky, lighting an entire artillery camp I had no idea existed, with an Earth Kingdom banner above it.
I looked to my notebook, quickly, writing it down, ignoring its apparent self-destruction when another explosion came in the opposite direction, towards the wall, and saw the second explosion just in time, seeing the shockwave approach us in the midst of the night until it hit us with one of the loudest booms I've heard and was left there, wondering what the hell was happening.
"What the hell is happening?" I asked.
"I have no idea. Equipment malfunctions?"
"That well timed? No. Must be sabotaged."
"Shiiit. The blackfyres."
"Fuck. You're right, but what the hell are they planning?"
And then, not a minute later, did the real chaos begin. Streaks of Fire in the air appeared above us and flaming rocks were sent into the air and I could have sworn we'd been caught, until, however, the flaming artillery rounds didn't fall upon us, but went beyond, striking the other Earth Kingdom camp, to which they promptly returned their own fire. I went back on top of the hill, my gaze following the rocks as they hit the 2nd artillery camp, and the two were caught in an incident of friendly fire that I couldn't trust my own eyes to be reporting accurately on.
And if the night hadn't been chaotic enough, just to our left, thousands of Fire Nation tanks were riding over their own mines, taking no damage, heading straight towards the Earth Kingdom trench lines.
And then I realized why I was out here. This wasn't Boss giving me a chance to get out on the field. This was his way of keeping me away from the fighting.
I was underequipped. I had no helmet. I had a limp right arm, and no weapons aside from firebending. I wasn't equipped for battle. Just as Boss hoped, but he wasn't going to stop me. Nothing was. I was here to kill Earthbenders. And nothing was going to stop me