Azula stomped up to her uncle, who was reclining in a heated pool with a supremely relaxed look on his face. He breathed steam through his nose, and the water began to bubble. She snorted. Her uncle had tremendous control over his firebending, and this was what he used it for? Already the sun was rising in the sky. They were wasting the day.

  “Are you going to stay in there all morning?” she demanded. Honestly, the man took his retirement too seriously. He could be one of the laziest men she’d ever seen.

  He slowly opened his eyes. “And where is my dearest niece off to today?”

  “My spies tell me they’ve spotted the Avatar northwest of here. If I know the Avatar, he’s going to try something. It’s the winter solstice, after all,” she said, tapping her horned boot on the dirty ground. “Aren’t you going to come with us?”

  “Mm,” he said, “Just a few more minutes. Besides, I’m only in here with my trunks on. It would be unseemly for me to come out right now.”

  “Thirty minutes, Uncle,” she said. “Thirty minutes, or I’m leaving without you.”

  She turned and trudged back down the trail toward her men. “Thirty minutes,” she mumbled.

  She rounded the bend and practiced her lightning bending. It had finally been coming, but even now, only a few sparks flew from her fingers. Maybe if she showed her uncle how far she'd come, he’d be willing to teach her more.

  ***

  She’d warned him, and so she left him. Hopefully, now he’d learn that she meant business. She crossed over the crest of a hill and gasped. There, down below, was the Avatar and his annoying group of friends. She motioned to her men, and they snuck up on the group. She smirked, feeling like a fanged mongrel ready to pounce on unsuspecting prey. Soon, the Avatar would be in her grasp. She really should pay her spies more. They'd more than proven their worth.

  She and her men were just about in range of the Avatar when a shudder passed through Azula. It was the chill of death.

  “What was that?” she whispered.

  The soldier standing next to her whispered. “What was what?”

  “I thought I felt something strange, like something is…terribly wrong.” Azula had never been one for the spirits, so this was unfamiliar territory for her. “Are you sure you didn’t feel it?”

  The soldier nodded, and Azula frowned. It was probably nothing. She pressed forward again. The Avatar was so close.

  “Azula!” a man’s voice echoed.

  She froze. “There it is again.”

  “Do you know who it is?” The soldier pointed to the old man the Avatar and his friends were talking to.

  She stood there for a moment, pondering, and the voice came once more. “Azula!”

  It was loud enough that she thought she recognized it. Was it her uncle? She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Uncle Iroh.”

  “What?” the soldier next to her said.

  She opened her eyes. “My uncle is in some trouble. Deep trouble.” She looked through the trees where the Avatar and his friends were still talking to the silly, old man. They weren't even paying attention. All she had to do was attack, but she could feel her uncle’s plea for help. It wouldn’t leave her mind.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Watch them,” she told her men, “But don’t interfere or be seen.”

  “Where are you going?” the soldier asked.

  She clenched her fists. “To rescue a fat, lazy old man instead of attacking this one.”

  ***

  Her breath caught in her chest when she arrived back at the spring. Her uncle was gone, and rocks and scorch marks were strewn all over the hill. Her right hand began to tremble, for a horrible thought had occurred to her.

  Earthbenders had her uncle. Nothing else fit the facts.

  She raced up the hill.

  ***

  She’d tracked them down the road. They’d moved quickly on ostrich horses, and they could be headed only one direction: Ba Sing Se. The Earth Kingdom had captured its most famous antagonist, the Dragon of the West.

  She hurried up the trail and found a sandal. She’d have recognized the stinky thing anywhere. It was her uncle’s. Rage and fear burned in her heart. “Whoever they are, they’re going to pay.” She’d teach these peasants this lesson, personally.

  But first, she had to make it in time.

  ***

  She reached them a couple of hours later. They’d formed a hasty camp and had stretched Iroh’s manacled hands across a rock. One of the earthbender soldiers stomped on the ground, and a large boulder popped out of it. He bended so that it hovered over her uncle’s hands. All it would take is a single drop, and his hands would be pulverized forever.

  Her golden eyes glinted with cold fury. This ended here. She jumped and kicked a powerful fireball with both feet. The blue fire sped toward the rock and knocked it clear into the dirt wall beyond. She flipped past the astonished earthbenders and blasted her uncle’s chains free. They snapped, and Iroh swung the chains around as if they were whips. He whacked one of the men in the head, who promptly fell onto his face, unconscious. Iroh spun to face another one.

  Azula channeled all of her anger and concern for her uncle into stopping these men. One after the other, she took them down: one with a whip kick that slashed fire against his back, another with fiery punches. She twisted and fired from her hands and feet simultaneously, and two more men who'd been rushing her from different sides went down.

  She turned to fight the last man.

  “Why do you defend this monster?” the man snarled.

  “Monster!” she shouted. “You want a monster, then you deal with me.”

  The man stomped, and a huge rock rose in front of him. As he punched it at her, she rolled underneath it and summoned her lightning. Since she hadn't developed her lightning-bending much, it wasn't yet powerful enough to kill at a distance, but it would work at close range. She grabbed him, and he screamed in pain as electricity surged through his system.

  She shoved him into a rock. “If you ever go after my uncle again, I’ll kill you." Her face was beet red. "Maybe I should do it right now.”

  The man’s anger finally gave way to fear. “P-please.”

  The rage in her refused to be placated. She shot another round of electricity into him. His screams were music to her ears. She hit him again and again. The smell of sizzling flesh stung her nostrils.

  “Azula!” her uncle said, trying to get her to stop.

  She ignored him and electrified the man again. How could her uncle do that to her, allow himself to get captured? Didn’t he know how scared she was for him? Tears streamed down her face. "Just one more." Lightning crackled between her thumb and forefinger.

  Her uncle placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Azula,” he said quietly. “Don’t be cruel.”

  She stopped herself from sending the final, deadly jolt through the earthbender. She looked at her uncle, and she saw concern in Iroh’s eyes, concern for her and the man who’d tried to crush his hands.

  Her nostrils flared. “He was going to hurt you.”

  “I did worse to his people. I deserve far worse than anything he could have done to me.”

  "How could you say that we deserve the same as this filthy peasant?" Azula said. She didn't care enough to stop the tears flowing from her eyes.

  He tried to hug her. “Azula.”

  She shoved her uncle away. “Don’t you ever do that again.”

  Iroh’s face held a mixture of shock and confusion. “Do what?”

  “Get captured. I can’t—” she choked down the terror she’d felt for him and took several deep breaths. She tightened a trembling, fiery fist. “No more, you hear?”

  He nodded.

  She wanted to burn something, but Iroh wouldn’t let her take it out on the stupid earthbenders. She spotted a tree and raised her hand, sending forth violent blue flame. The young tree burned to cinders.

  “I’ll see you back at camp. I left some men to watch the Avatar,” she said, turning to leave. “And for goodness’ sake, put some more clothes on. Those trunks aren’t cutting it.” She had no more wish to see her uncle’s flabby belly.