Learning Experiences Zukka

Chapter 6: Prisoners

Having Zuko charge into their camp wasn't that surprising. It was one of those things that happened, like Aang being randomly distracted or them getting captured. It was surprising that Sokka's first thought was "Hey cool, Zuko! I gotta tell him about the balloon I helped design!" Or maybe that was a little disturbing. The fact that Zuko was shooting flames behind him instead of in front of him and vaulting over Appa with no apparent interest in stopping was definitely surprising. And the pillars of earth that started erupting from the ground were very surprising, to the extent that one caught Aang off guard and smashed him against a tree.

It was at that exact moment that the day went truly wrong, because neither Katara nor Appa was going to shrug that off as an understandable mistake and apologize to the nice earthbending soldiers for getting in their way. Well, Sokka might not have either, but he wasn't the one who waterwhipped the Sergeant in the face or tailslapped two others. He was busy checking Aang and glancing over with concern at where Zuko had been pinned by a pile of rubble.

Not, unfortunately, that he would have done a lot of good if he had joined the fray with Boomerang. The prince had apparently been playing tag with a total of six earthbenders when he joined them, and with Aang down for the count their small group was quickly overwhelmed.

As Appa was being encased in rock up to his neck for safekeeping and the rest of them bound, Sokka tried for diplomacy. "Listen you guys, this is all a big misunderstanding! You just attacked The Avatar, but I know you didn't mean to, so how about we all say sorry and call it a day, huh?" He received a cuff to the head and slightly tighter ropes as a counteroffer.

"It doesn't matter who you claim to be, you attack Earth Kingdom soldiers in the course of their duties, you pay the penalties. Especially some water witch, the Major will want to have a word with her, I'm sure." The man's tone scared Sokka but before he could say anything further he was thrown in a pile with the others and two of the earthbenders moved together to lift the ground they were on and propel it through the forest. By giving himself a bit of a neck ache, he could see that two others were still with them, the remaining pair must be guarding Appa.

He turned the other way and realized he was facing Zuko, who was visibly pushing aside the disorientation from his close call with being buried alive, and assessing the situation as well. Sokka was glad. Zuko might be chained up, palms pressed together to keep him from producing flames, but he was still an ally. Well, probably. Lately. Maybe. "Hey Zu-"

A sharp shake of the head cut off his words. The prince glanced meaningfully at the nearest earthbender, then schooled his face to the arrogant scowl normally used for dealing with peasantry in his personal space and turned slightly away. Okay, yeah, noticeably collaborating with the local representative of the Fire Nation might not be supportive of his "big misunderstanding" argument. Fair point.

When they were brought into an earthbender camp and allowed to stand up again, Sokka made another try for diplomacy. "Look, I need to talk to who's in charge here, you guys are making a big mistake but I think we can clear this up now."

"I'll clear them up, all right, they knocked Aang out!"

"Katara, not helping..."

Another soldier walked up, an officer from the way the others responded. "I thought you boys were on patrol for Fire Nation, not feisty Water Tribe toys..."

"Even feistier than she looks, Major, she's a waterbender. They attacked us when we were in pursuit of a firebender, they claim the tattooed one is the Avatar and they had a giant creature that attacked us, too - Ling and Gao are guarding it now." As the sergeant gave his report, Sokka noticed out of the corner of his eye that Zuko had adopted a defeated posture quite unlike himself. But his attention was quickly distracted when he saw the major grab his sister by her braid.