Southern Star

Chapter Nine: Where Our Broken Hearts Were Born

It was dusk when Avatar Aang showed Song how to land Appa. They'd made it to an island near the Capital that Song had once sailed past with her father, and Song and Tongyi scouted ahead through the bushes while the Avatar woke Sokka, Toph, and Katara from their sleep.

She reported back that there was no one in sight, excluding the flocks of wild koala-sheep that inhabited the island. As she led them towards the large meadow she'd found so Sokka could make sure that it was the right one, Toph and Katara filled her in on their plan: apparently, they were planning an invasion on the Capital. When the solar eclipse took place, any firebender in the shadowed area would lose their ability to firebend.

"Of course," said Song when she heard that part of the plan. "You didn't know that?"

Sokka tried to hit her, but Katara managed to hold him back. "It's not exactly common knowledge to anyone outside of the Fire Nation," she explained. "We almost died figuring it out."

"Oh."

It gave them enough time to take the Capital and defeat the Fire Lord before Sozin's comet made its appearance. Song was very aware of the devastation that the comet would allow, so she was all for the plan that Sokka outlined.

"Have you already invited everyone to the invasion?" she asked.

"Yeah," said Sokka, "though I'm still worried that we won't have enough."

"May I use Tongyi to invite two more?"

Sokka hesitated then. "It's not Iroh and Zuko, is it?"

Upon hearing those names, Song's heart felt like it twisted in on itself. Absurdly, the voice from her nightmare returned to her mind all of a sudden: Where did you go?

"No," she said, though her voice was suddenly strangled. She watched Toph elbow Sokka in the stomach, and then she said, "It's my aunt and someone I met in Ba Sing Se."

"Would your aunt tell the Fire Lord about our plan?"

"No. She works in the government as a representative for the Fire Nation's lower class and doesn't approve of the Fire Lord's imperialist policies."

"The Fire Lord's what?"

"No, she won't tell the Fire Lord about your invasion plan."

"Good. You can write to them when we make camp."

"Okay."

They kept walking, and Toph started making fun of Sokka for not knowing what imperialism was. He did his best to ignore her, but eventually he threw his map at her head, and Katara and Avatar Aang had to scramble to find it in the bushes while Toph refused to help.

Finally, they made it out of the bushes to the meadow that Song had located. Sokka stared at his wrinkled, dirty map for a moment before saying, "This is it, the official rendezvous point for the invasion force."

"How did you pick this place?" asked Toph.

"Before we split up, my dad and I found this island on a map," he replied. "It's uninhabited, and the harbour surrounded by cliffs seemed like the perfect secluded place."

"Good idea," said Song.

"Nice choice, Sokka," said Katara as everyone started laying out their sleeping bags and Song found a good rock to curl up against. "And we're here four days ahead of schedule."

Avatar Aang leapt up from where he had already been laying down. "Wait, four days!" he yelled. "The invasion's in four days?"

"I better send Tongyi right now, then," said Song.