Where There Is Smoke, There Is Fire [Avatar: The Last Airbender Fanfic]

Chapter 49

Izara was walking through the Palace towards her post in mid-morning. When she reached the door to the gardens, it felt as if the ground began to move beneath her. One of the guards, Raiko, called out to her, and she stumbled until she could grasp onto the door itself so she didn't fall over. It only lasted a few seconds, maybe ten at most, and both Izara and Raiko stared at each other with panicked expressions as they tried to figure out what just happened.

"Oh, shit! Is this an earthquake?" Izara exclaimed, keeping a white-knuckled grip on the door.

"I think so! I've never felt one before." Raiko answered with widened eyes.

"Neither have I." She responded and tilted her chin outside.

The shaking subsided, but Izara felt wobbly, half from the shock and half from the earth, which was probably still shaking.

"I'll check on everyone out here. Don't move."

Finally gathering the courage to release her stranglehold on the door, she assessed the ground beneath her with a sharp gaze as she made her way across the gardens and training areas over to where she was posted today, on the wall. From her spot on the ground, she called up to Zhang, who she was supposed to be taking over for.

"Are you okay?" She asked, not quite sure if there was any way to be all right after experiencing such a thing.

"Uh, I guess so." He answered with a vague expression and shrugged. He was clearly stunned but didn't appear to be injured.

"Do you mind staying here while I check on the others?" Izara asked, and Zhang blinked slowly before nodding.

Izara took the chance to jog along the walls, checked on all the guards, and asked them to assess for any structural damage they could see from their posts. She ran back to Zhang and asked the same thing of him before moving to the staff just inside the Palace doors, including Raiko and Ling, who were just around the corner, heading towards the kitchens to work for the day. Everyone was thankfully unhurt, just rattled, and so Izara focused on asking all available staff to check on anyone else they could see and the building itself for any damage.

Since Zhang was fine to stay at his post for now, her panic shifted to ensuring Zuko was safe, and she sprinted to his office. He was outside, standing at Wen's desk and looked wide-eyed, but unhurt. Turning towards her with a relieved expression, he let out a breath and then marched over and pulled her into a hug. It startled her, but she returned it after half a second.

Toph and Katara came around the corner, walking with purpose and stopped in front of them as they separated.

"Aang has gone to check the city to see if there is any damage or instability in the populated areas." Katara started.

"I'll join him shortly. Everything seems fine here." Toph said with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Please request any available Earthbenders to assist you. It's a lot of ground to cover." Zuko responded with a furrowed brow.

"Hello? I invented metalbending. I've got this." Toph bragged, pointing to herself while Katara just shrugged nonchalantly.

"Everything seems fine outside. I've asked all the guards on the wall to check for structural damage." Izara's concern grew as she did her best to draw on her limited knowledge of earthquakes, and Zuko nodded in agreement.

"We need to be wary of aftershocks and keep up the checks until the ground settles." Toph followed up, frowning deeply.

"Wen, could you send out messages to all the cities and towns to request them to notify us if they are okay?" Zuko asked after turning to Wen, who was writing on some paper as if already doing precisely that.