Princess of the Fire Nation

Chapter Two

Before the fire blast could hit its target, another almost masculine fan warrior was able to step between the blast and the warrior deflecting in with enough surprise to spook the rhino forcing Zuko off it.

"I guess training's over" shouted the masculine warrior in the dress towards the one who had thrown the fans as they both cautiously approached her fallen cousin.

Before Lian could rush over to help her cousin, she too was surrounded by two fan warriors in green dresses and unique makeup. Now that she thought about it, they looked very similar to the Avatar who the island was named after – no wonder why the airbender knew he would receive a safe haven here. As the two warriors went in for an attack, Lian was able to swiftly jump out of the way forcing the two warriors to run into each other, knocking them both out. She turned in time to see Zuko spinning on his hands, shooting fire bolts out of his feet at the approaching warriors, knocking them all to the ground and pulls himself to his feet.

"Nice try, Avatar! But these little girls can't save you." Lian decided to let the little girl comment go for now.

After watching Zuko deal with the fan warriors easily and having seen him deal with Zhao previously, Lian didn't feel the need to hover close to him like a mother hen. Instead she decided to do what she did best which was stay in the shadows and find out exactly how the Avatar got here.

From the story Zuko had told Zhao about what happened at the South Pole, Lian knew the Avatar had some type of flying monster which was able to get them easily out of situations. Judging by the chaos the Avatar had brought to Kyoshi Island, Lian knew he would soon try to escape in order to spare the island her cousins' wrath.

Lian stayed in the shadows, avoiding the fighting between the firebenders and the fan warriors, searching instead for the fluffy monster her cousin had described. How hard could it be to find such a beast?

As she searched for the beast, Lian saw a young bald boy in yellow and orange land next to a young girl. This must be the Avatar and the girl, judging from her water tribe attire, must be the girl who helped the Avatar escape from her brothers ship with her brother.

"Look what I brought to this place" said the Avatar, visibly upset.

"It's not your fault Aang" replied the water tribe girl. So that was the name of the Avatar - Aang.

"Yes, it is. These people got their town destroyed trying to protect me."

"Then let's get out of here. Zuko will leave Kyoshi to follow us. I know it feels wrong to run, but I think it's the only way."

"I'll call Appa" So, Lian was right. She knew the Avatar and his friends would try to leave after seeing the destruction of the town. All she had to do was follow them.

Lian watched carefully as the Avatar and water tribe girl jumped onto the flying monster along with a lemur. She couldn't really call him a monster, the sky bison actually looked quite cute. It was more like a ten-tonne fluffy teddy bear than a monster although she knew he probably wasn't one to mess with.

Lian wasn't concerned about the bison flying away, according to Zuko's story, there was another water tribe boy who would be joining them.

As she waited, a young boy, dressed in the attire of the fan warriors ran up ready to jump onto the bison. However, before he could do so, Lian made her presence known from where she was hidden in the trees. Lian gracefully jumped down behind the water tribe boy, locking arms around his neck while the other kicked the back of his leg, forcing him to kneel.

"Sokka!" shouted the water tribe girl out of concern for her brother before turning to glare at Lian. "What do you want?"

Lian ignored the girl, instead focusing on the Avatar who watched the scene with despair. "Come down from the bison Avatar and I'll let the boy go – I don't want to hurt him."

"Who are you? You weren't on Zuko's ship last time" asked the Avatar. Instead of replying, Lian's arms around the boy tightened forcing a groan from between his lips. "Okay, I'm coming down, let him go."

With the grace of an airbender, the Avatar jumped down from the bison landing in front of him. "I'm here, let him go and I'll go with you and Zuko."

The Avatar was in front of her. Lian knew all she had to do was bring him back to the Fire Nation as Zuko's prisoner and they would finally be allowed home. Some part of her felt however felt that home would never be the same again for her young cousin.

As she looked at the look of defeat on the young Avatar's face, she felt conflicted. Could she really take this boy back to the Fire Nation to be subjected to the mercy of her Uncle? She had already seen how her Uncle had cruelly taken the childhood of her cousin, could she put this boy through the same? Just by looking at him, Lian knew he was just a young lost boy trying to do his best in this world – Avatar or not, she knew someone else like that.

She signed. Releasing the water tribe boy from her grip as she heard the voice of her cousin in the distance. "You should get out of here Avatar."

"Really?" Lian couldn't help but smile at the innocence of the boy who really chose now to question her motives.

"Get out of here quickly Avatar!" she responded looking behind here as the voice of her cousin and his men grew louder. The Avatar, still stunned, jumped into action grabbing the water tribe boy and jumping swiftly onto the bison while the shocked water tribe girl looked on in surprise.

"Appa, yip yip!" said the Avatar but not before looking back at her in wonder "and thank you!"

Lian couldn't help just give out a short laugh once the Avatar was out of sight. He really was something. Zuko must have seen the bison leave as the next thing she heard was him shouting instructions.

"Back to the ship! Don't lose sight of them! And where is Lian?"

"I'm here cousin. Let's keep going" called Lian, racing back to the ship.

As she got back to the ship with her cousin and his men, they caught a glimpse of the bison flying in the sky ahead. All of a sudden, a human figure that looked like Aang dived of the bison into the bay below.

Then out of nowhere, a large eel like creature emerged from the water with the Avatar riding it by holding its whiskers. Pulling its whiskers back, the large eel released a wave of water over the town dampening the flames cause by her cousin and his men.

Lian watched on in amazement as Aang jumped from the eel back on to the flying bison and could only manage one word.

"Wow"