MAYA [Book 1 - Water]

Chapter 32 - The Freedom Fighters

-Zuko's Point of View-

It took a while before my uncle could answer my last question. "Before she went missing, was there news about her marrying someone and having kids with him?" I asked. Uncle crossed his brows and answered, "No. There was no such news. In fact, no romances occurred with her. She was known to be very strict and menacing. Fire Lord Azulon tried to look for a perfect suitor and introduced her to various noblemen in the fire nation, but she turned them all down." 

I never thought in my entire life that I would get to catch my uncle lying in front of my face. I glared at him and he stared at me right in the eyes. 

"So, she was lonely..." I said. "No one knew what was running inside her head, not even me," he replied. "But why did she go missing and how?" I asked. "No one knew how, she was last seen in her room going to sleep and the next morning she wasn't there. Father commanded all the greatest soldiers to look for her, but she was nowhere to be found," he answered. 

It seems like Master Anika was indeed the mysterious type. But still, how can I trust that uncle is saying the whole truth? Now that I know that some of what he has told me are lies, how can I trust that he doesn't really know how she went missing? 

"I think that's enough talk about Anika, and in fact, I would appreciate it if we don't talk about her ever again." Uncle suddenly said as he stood up. "But there are a lot more things I want to know," I replied. "You don't need to know who she is Prince Zuko, you can still learn lightning generation without information of the master's past. I'll help you." he continued. 

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have a Pai Sho game waiting," he added and then he left the room. 

Something tells me that what I've been told are complete lies.

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-Maya's Point of View-

"WALKING STINKS! How do people go anywhere without a flying bison?" Aang suddenly complained as we were walking.

It has been three hours since we started the journey on foot and to be honest, it is not quite fun and enjoying and relaxing compared to when we're flying. 

"Well, I don't know Aang... Why don't you ask Sokka's instincts? They seem to know everything." Katara teased. "Ha-Ha very funny," Sokka replied sarcastically. 

Ugh... whatever I'm too tired to even try and stop them

"I'm tired of carrying this pack," Aang complained once more. "You know who you should ask to carry it for a while? Sokka's instincts!" Katara teased once more. "Katara stop--" I tried to stop her from teasing Sokka any further but Aang cut me off. 

"That's a great idea! Hey! Sokka's instincts, would you mind--" Aang said trying to tease Sokka as well. "OKAY! OKAY! I get it!" Sokka cuts him off whilst sounding irritated. He looked back at us while walking and said, "Look guys, I'm tired too." then he parted a big bush that was in the way and continued, "But the important thing is that we're safe from the... fire... nation..." Sokka's voice suddenly went down as he looked forward and realized that we stepped into a fire nation soldier's camp.

All of us were astounded and frozen in place as we saw all the fire nation soldiers staring back at us. Suddenly, Sokka shouted, "RUN!" and dropped all of the things he was carrying to the ground. We hurriedly copied what he did and follow after him. We were about to escape behind another tall bush but one fire nation soldier lit it on fire.