Chapter Text
“The trail goes this way.”
36 hours.
That’s how long Azula had gone without sleep and it was starting to show. Maybe if she had gotten a little extra sleep she would have gone after the bison fur and sent Mai and Ty Lee in the direction of the broken tree branches. Maybe if she had this whole situation could have been avoided. Yet, she didn’t make that choice. Instead, she told Mai and Ty Lee to follow the fur while she went in the direction of the broken tree tops.
After a few minutes, she came across the bison with the Water Tribe siblings on it. Not the Avatar, but they would make good hostages. She could threaten their safety and the Avatar would surrender to her in seconds.
“Katara!” She heard the boy yell.
If Mai and Ty Lee were correct, the boy was a nonbender and the girl was a waterbender. Both of them were probably forces to watch out for, but it was good to know who was a bender and who wasn’t.
“How did she find us?”
Their bison did make it across the river and the siblings hugged, believing they had gotten away from Azula.
“Idiots.” Azula whispered as her lizard walked across the lake.
The waterbender acted first, sending a wave straight at Azula and forcing her to jump off. She was able to use her firebending to send her straight onto the shore where the warrior attacked her with a machete. It was two against one but Azula was the better fighter. She had them both until another firebender entered the fight.
“Zuko!?” Katara and Sokka shouted.
“I would have thought you’d be chasing the Avatar, Zuzu.”
“Zuzu?” Sokka asked.
“The Avatar isn’t with you?” Zuko asked.
“We split up.” Katara told him.
Zuko grunted and sent a fire blast towards the siblings, which the both dodged. The battle became intense and increasingly dangerous since they were in front of a forest that was starting the catch on fire. Appa growled at the siblings and tried to hit Azula with a wind blast, but she dodged.
“Beast.” She spat, sending a fire blast towards him.
“Appa! Get Aang!” Katara ordered, “We’ll be okay.”
Appa grunted gently but flew away nonetheless. Sokka and Katara started to falter without Appa, and because Zuko had decided to fight them as opposed to them and his sister. Katara could handle Azula but with Zuko there it was a lot harder and Sokka proved to be enough to keep Zuko on his toes but not enough to completely defeat him.
Then there was a light.
A light so bright it blinded the four and forced them to put their arms in front of their eyes. When it dimmed, the two pairs of siblings saw a spirit before them. He was small, only about a foot tall. His arms were long as were his feet and they had something akin to talons at the end. A tail could also be spotted that looked similar to a peacock-pigeon. His eyes were a deep red color and his ears were pointed upwards. All in all, he looked pretty ridiculous.
“How dare you!?” Despite his tiny appearance, his voice boomed.
“What are you?” Sokka asked.
“I’m the spirit that guards this forest. My name is Chisai. The forest you four have destroyed!”
Azula rolled her eyes, “Out of our way, unless you want to end up burnt to ash.” She warned.
The spirit’s eyes became a darker shade of red, “You have burned and destroyed my home! I’m going to make sure you can’t do it again!” The light from before returned, forcing the four to cover their eyes again.
When the light got to its brightest, the spirit spoke again, “If you want to return to normal, I suggest working together.” Then the light disappeared as if it was never there to begin with.
The four opened their eyes and looked around at their surroundings. Everything seemed off. The grass came up to their knees or thighs depending on where they were standing, the river next to them seemed more like a great lake and the trees, while taller than them before, now appeared as big as mountains. If Sokka had to guess, he’d place him and Zuko at about six inches tall and Katara and Azula at about five inches.
Yeah. Now was a good time to start panicking.
Zuko opted for the screaming curses route, Azula stood still as if still processing the event, Katara was pacing back and forth and Sokka was doing a mix of freaking out and trying to get his brain working again to figure out a solution. Finally, Sokka spoke up.
“We need to stay calm.”
“Stay calm!?” Katara yelled, “The spirit shrunk us!”
“And freaking out is helping us how!?!” Sokka was freaking out too but maybe he could channel that into finding a solution.
That seemed to calm everyone down at least a little, “The water peasant-”
“Sokka.”
“The water peasant is correct.” Azula continued, “Standing around and freaking out won’t get us back to our real forms. We need a plan.”
“What plan can you think of that will reverse spirit magic?” Zuko asked.
“Obviously we find this spirit and-”
“What? Threaten it? It just shrunk us down to a few inches tall! I don’t think it’ll be too intimidated by us.”
“Guys?” Katara tried to get their attention but the three were continued to argue and brainstorm ideas.
“What if we tried finding another spirit to help us?” Sokka suggested.
“Do you know another spirit?” Azula asked.
“Guys.”
“No, but we do know the Avatar. He can help us.”
“If you think we’re letting you trick us into getting captured by the Avatar. You have another thing coming.”
“Guys!” Katara yelled.
“What?!” Everyone asked.
The sound of thunder went off above them. Everyone’s head turned towards the clouds. They were dark and lightning could be seen from a distance, but, for now, rain was the big problem.
Being only a few inches tall, the rain affected them a lot more now. One raindrop wouldn’t have been bad but hundreds of thousands of them pouring down on the four forced them to run. They headed for the forest, hoping for some form of cover. Eventually, they found a tree with a hole at the bottom that they used as a hiding place while the storm continued.
Katara removed the water from their clothing then leaned against the wood, “Look, we all want to be our normal sizes again. We need to work together to find some kind of solution and I think Aang is our best bet.” Azula and Zuko opened their mouths to argue, but Katara beat them to it, “On our honor, we won’t trap either of you as long as you promise not to turn on us the second we return to normal. A temporary truce until we can find a cure and then you give us a two day head start?” Katara offered her hand.
Azula looked over at Zuko. They wanted to act like this was a choice, like they had another option if they refused Katara, but, in truth, they didn’t. Katara’s offer was their only option. Zuko nodded towards his sister.
“Truce.” Azula agreed.
“The rain looks like it’s going to keep up for the next few hours. We might as well get some sleep.” Sokka mumbled, “We’ve missed a few hours thanks to a certain someone.”
“Don’t be mad at me if you’re too weak to go a few hours without sleep.”
Sokka just rolled his eyes. He was way too tired to counter her claim. The hole in the tree was big enough for the four to get their own spots to sleep in without worrying about invading other people’s space. Katara and Sokka were out like lights, both because of their lack of sleep and because they were used to sleeping on the ground. Zuko turned on his side, putting him face to face with Azula, who glared at him. Zuko, not wanting to deal with being anywhere near her for the time being, moved so that his back was facing her. Sleep took him over next. Azula was only a few seconds behind him.
———————-
When Aang arrived at the town, it was a fight just to keep his eyes open. In truth, he had no clue how he’d beat any of them. None of them seemed tired a few hours ago so he was probably going to be fighting them while they were rested. The sound of incoming mongoose lizards forced him to wake up. He recognized the two girls quickly. According to Sokka and Katara, both of them were non benders but the one in pink could take people’s bending. He’d have to be fast around her.
“Who are you and what do you want?” He demanded.
“What do you think? We work for the Fire Nation.” The girl with long black hair asked, remaining emotionless.
Aang stood up, pointing his staff at them, “Then let’s get this over with. I’m done running.”
Mai attacked first. She sent daggers straight at him which Aang dodged. While he was busy dodging, Ty Lee came in and went for his shoulder. The only thing that saved Aang from getting chi blocked was ice breath on Ty Lee’s hand, forcing her to retract it. Quickly, he realized there was no hope in beating either of them. He was too tired and they were too well trained. His only real hope was to escape and fly back to Katara and Sokka.
Maybe they were having better luck.
As he flew up, the sound of something slicing through the air filled his ears. Looking back, he could see that Mai had sent multiple knives in his direction. Only two made contact. One got him in the leg. The second got him glider just enough to send him falling to the ground. Ty Lee cartwheeled over to chi blocked him but she was thrown to the side before she could.
“I thought you could use a little help.” Toph told him.
“Thanks.”
Toph and Aang working together proved to be a formidable force against Mai and Ty Lee. They were in a standoff when Appa showed up and slammed his tail down in front of them, sending the two girls flying back. Although it would be easy for them to stand up and continue to fight, it was pretty easy to see that they weren’t going to win this fight.
“Let’s get back to Azula. Maybe she had better luck with the Water Tribe siblings.” Mai said.
“They’re running. Let’s grab Sokka and Katara and find a place to regroup.” Aang helped Toph up into Appa’s saddle and they took off.
Appa brought them to the river which only confused Aang and Toph, “Katara! Sokka!” Aang yelled, “That blue firebender must have captured them. Appa, yip-yip.” Appa refused to get up.
“What’s wrong with him?” Toph asked.
“I don’t know. He’s never refused to fly unless he’s tired.”
“Is he tired?”
“Maybe.” Aang winced, “Buddy, I know you’re tired but we have to get to Katara and Sokka. Please. Yip-yip.” Again there was no movement, he let out a small grunt but then didn’t do anything, “I’m going to fly overhead.”
Aang took to the skies before Toph could respond. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the two girls they’d been fighting in the village heading towards a small Fire Nation outpost. If they were working with Azula then that’s where Azula would most likely have taken Katara and Sokka. Not wanting to be seen, Aang flew down and hid in the trees.
“I’m sorry, but the princess hasn’t returned.” One of the guards said.
“What do you mean she hasn’t returned?” Mai asked.
“Her mongoose-lizard did but she didn’t. We sent out some soldiers to look for her and none of them found anything.” Wait. Azula was missing too.
“Do you think the two Water Tribe siblings could have captured her?” Ty Lee asked. Aang shook his head, even though she couldn’t see him. If Katara and Sokka had captured Azula then they would have kept her close to the river so Katara could waterbend at her if they needed to. Something else was going on.
“We’ll keep a look out for her.” The guard told them.
“We should go out and look for her.” Mai stopped by Ty Lee by grabbing her arm.
“You’re exhausted and I’m exhausted. We’re not going to help Azula by falling asleep in some forest. We need to get some rest and if she isn’t back by morning then we’ll go look for her.” Ty Lee clearly wanted to argue more but she knew it was an argument she wouldn’t win. She nodded and turned towards their tent with Mai.
When Aang returned, Toph came from the forest and shook her head, “I couldn’t find anything.”
“Azula doesn’t have them. I think we should get some rest then resume the search in the morning. Appa will be better rested and so will we.” Toph nodded, “Let’s get a little distance between us and the Fire Nation though.”
This time Appa did fly, but he only flew over the forest then landed again and refused to get up. It wasn’t a lot of distance, but if that’s all Appa was willing to do then that’s what Aang and Toph would have to settle for.
“Good night, Toph.”
“Night, Aang.” After a few seconds, she added, “We’ll find them.”
—----------------
Iroh couldn’t believe it. How could his nephew have just disappeared? He had tracked him over hundreds of miles but somehow managed to lose him after a brief conversation. It didn’t make any sense. Where could be have gone? The Avatar was still around so Zuko couldn’t be far.
Iroh pushed past another tree branch, but, because of how little sleep he’d gotten, didn’t notice the rocks beneath him and tripped. He got back up but it was another reminder that he was tired and not moving as well as he could be.
“Nephew. Please be okay. I must rest.” He whispered before falling asleep against a tree.
—----------------
In the forest, four small figures continued to sleep.