The Officer and the Princess: The Flames Of War

Chapter 10

Sung felt sick. In a two year span he had killed his fair share of his fellow human being but they had always been strangers, just faces in the crowds. But when he had killed one of his Houses Warriors it felt wrong...wronger than normal. He had known the woman he had killed, her name was Ichika. Her favorite food had been lotus buns, she loved Raspberry tea, she had been learning how to play the seven string Yamatogoto. The man he had burned had been named Ryōta, he hadn't known him well but he had seen his face around the Castle, he had seemed kind.

He had known Kurn and those who followed him would have reappeared at some point, but he had thought they would have come to Sun Dao to challenge his rule, not do whatever this mess was. They had abandoned everything they had been taught when the swore allegiance not only to House Yang, but to the Fire Nation itself. They weren't just disagreeing with the current government, they were in open rebellion against it.

His mind was racing as he attempted to predict what Kurns next move would be but he was currently at a loss. If Sung was Kurn he would be consolidating his position. Setting up a foothold somewhere. But where would that be? Yamagishi would be his first choice, it was isolated from the Rest of the Fire Nation but even if it was mostly ignored by the other Islands the other Lords would quickly take notice when Lumber suddenly became in short supply. Another choice would be Ma'inka Island in the East, but House Saowon would almost immediately take notice of outsiders, that wasn't counting the stir that would be caused if Kurn and his follower distributed the phoenix-eel spirits that were said to live on a portion of the Island. A third choice would be Kakizaki, it was small, unimportant and situated close to the Capital, a perfect place to stage an attack on the capital. House Sei'naka wouldn't be in a position to oppose invaders.

It was odd however that Sung didn't spare Ozai so much as a half though during the journey. Sung wasn't scared of Ozai since losing his firebending the once powerful leader had become nothing but a shell of his former self he wasn't the threat he had once been.

Sung had once thought his greatest regret was not standing with Azula when she had needed him, but now he believed his greatest regret was not killing Kurn, had he known what Kurn and his followers would do he would of had them all killed. He would rather be known as a tyrant than as a man who had been the reason the Country was thrown into chaos.  Speaking of Chaos Since Azula had joined the merry band of misfits there had been a sudden rise in the arguing. 

"I did not." Azula shouted. She was dressed in a red short sleeved shirt, pink pants and a pair of pull on slippers, her hair pulled into a ponytail. On her shoulder she held a satchel tight, all the possessions she had taken with her when she left her home behind.

"Yes you did!" Ty Lee said back. Sung held in the urge to thrown himself off of the Bison and see if he could fly too. It was early morning, they had all been up all night an tensions were on the rise. Azula and Ty Lee had been spending most of that time since leaving Yamagishi arguing about trivial matters. The current argument...over a doll. "You set my doll on fire when I brought it to the Palace, that was my favorite Doll!"

Azula's mouth hung open slightly, her eyes narrowed just as slightly. "Are you just going to bring up everything thing I did, hold it over my head until we both grow old?"

Even under that pale makeup Sung could see Ty Lees face redden with rage, Sung couldn't help but think that must of been one hell of a doll for her to be that mad about it. "I saved up to buy that doll for weeks, and the second I showed it to you, you took it from me and used it for target practice." Amaterasu teaches that a warrior is nothing without patience, the ability to drown out distractions could mean the difference between victory or defeat, but Amaterasu probably never had to deal with a situation like this before. First it had been about Prison, that Sung could understand, but about five arguments in when it switched to an argument about makeup kit that one of them owned was when Sung's annoyance began to grow.Though he said nothing.