The Traitor Princess

Chapter 8 - Imprisoned

After a few minutes she could finally breathe steadily. Hesitantly, she opened her eyes. Sokka was sitting in front of her with a worried expression. He took her hand from his chest and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"I'm sorry..." Eziri whispered. The tears were still streaming down her face and she felt drained.

"Shh. It's alright. You're safe." Sokka murmured as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest. He softly stroked her hair and mumbled short reassurances into her ear as she sobbed. He had only seen Eziri as the tough, brave fighter she pretended to be. Even when she was injured, she kept going as though nothing was wrong. She was fierce and determined; nothing could hold her back. But now? Now she was trembling and vulnerable. Seeing her like this made his heart ache. He didn't want to think about what could possibly make her this upset.

He let her cry into his shirt for a while until she finally calmed down, wiped her face, and pulled back.

"Where are the others?" Eziri asked quietly.

"I sent them away to look for firewood. They just kept asking questions and I figured you needed space."

"Oh...thank you." The two sat in awkward silence for a few moments.

"So umm....do you want to talk about it?" Eziri looked at Sokka in confusion.

"Talk about what?"

"Um...your uh...dream....or whatever scared you so much." He scratched the back of his neck nervously.

"Shit." She muttered. "Was I talking in my sleep?" Sokka shifted uncomfortably.

"Uhh...not talking...more like...whimpering..? I don't know....you just sounded like you were in pain or something." Eziri cringed at his explanation. Eziri had started shifting in her sleep while they were landing. She started crying and whimpering and the trio stared at her in concern. Sokka felt his stomach turn at the sound and immediately tried to pull her from her nightmare.

"Oh." She swallowed heavily. "No." She wiped the remaining tears from her cheeks. "I don't want to talk about it."

Sokka looked like he was going to argue, but the two were interrupted by the return of Aang and Katara.

"We're back!" Katara called out.

"We found firewood! Can Eziri breathe now?" Aang asked innocently as he looked up at the older teens in the saddle.

Eziri hid her head in her hands as she felt her face heat up with embarrassment. Sokka ignored the question and started to climb down the saddle. He knew Eziri was a private person and she probably wanted some time to recover alone.

"I'm going to find some food." He walked up to the younger two and spoke softly so Eziri couldn't hear. "Just leave her be and give her some space for a bit," Sokka instructed as he walked into the woods in search of food.

Aang and Katara shared a worried look before they followed Sokka's instructions and started to set up the campfire.

--

Eventually Eziri collected herself and climbed down the saddle to join the others. Aang and Katara were chatting by the unlit fire pit. Sokka was still off in the woods searching for food.

The two looked concerned as Eziri approached. She sat down on a log and lit the kindling in the fire pit with a flick of her wrist.

"So...." Eziri trailed off. "You guys want to tell me what happened in Omashu? I got the short version from Aang but it didn't really make much sense."

Both Aang and Katara perked up at her question and launched into their re-telling of the events in the city.

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