The Dragon Princess and the Wolf Warrior

Chapter 37 [~|~] The War Balloon

Following the Mechanist and Sokka into a dark corridor, Azara raised an eyebrow as the Mechanist handed Sokka a pathetic excuse for a lantern. "These lanterns are horrible! I can't see!" Sokka muttered as Azara caught up.

"You know, you could have just asked me to firebend," Azara pointed out, starting a small flame in her hand. The Mechanist looked panicked as he ran over to her.

"Put that out, right now!" he demanded, causing Azara and Sokka to jump.

"Okay, okay. Jeez, all you had to do was ask," Azara replied, putting out the fire and holding up her hands in defense.

"Why would you use fireflies for light?" Sokka asked, unscrewing the lid on his lantern.

"Put that back on, they'll get loose! Fireflies are a non-flammable light source," the Mechanist explained, giving Azara a pointed look when he said 'non-flammable.' Azara rolled her eyes at his statement and followed them to a large wooden door. 

The Mechanist motioned for Sokka to stand next to him before opening the hatch in the door. As Sokka and the Mechanist looked inside the room, Azara leaned on the wall, contemplating if she should have followed Aang, Teo, and Katara instead.

"Ok, so you brought us all the way down here to see an empty room?" Sokka questioned as the Mechanist closed the hatch in the door.

"Wrong, it's filled to the brim with natural gas. Came across it my first time here. Unfortunately, I was carrying a torch at the time. Nearly blew me and the whole place even more sky high! Thought my eyebrows would never grow back," the Mechanist spoke, pointing at the scattered remains of his eyebrows.

"And we're here because . . ." Azara drawled, still leaning on the wall.

"From time to time, we have gas leaks, and they're nearly impossible to find."

"So, this is all one big explosion waiting to happen," Sokka deduced, looking grim.

"You know you should really have a big sign on the door that says, 'No Fire!' if it's that big of a problem," Azara suggested as the Mechanist ignored her.

"Yes, until I figure out how to locate something I can't see, smell, or hear," the Mechanist sighed, looking troubled. Sokka and Azara followed him back to his workshop to work on the problem. 

As the Mechanist brainstormed ideas to solve the natural gas problem, Azara and Sokka looked around his workshop. Azara studied some sketches the Mechanist had framed on his wall when the sound of a crash beside her made her jump. Sokka looked sheepish as he stood next to a full shelf-worth of items on the floor. 

Azara and the Mechanist hurried over to help him clean up the mess. "I said don't touch anything!" the Mechanist muttered as Sokka picked up a small hot air balloon model. "Oh, don't worry that experiment's old and that egg was just part of last week's lunch."

"Ugh! Week old egg smell," Sokka whined as Azara plugged her nose.

"Quick, find that egg!" the Mechanist ordered, crawling on his hands and knees around the room. 

Looking through the materials still littering the ground, Azara raised an eyebrow at the dark piece of metal she found. Picking it up, she inspected the craftsmanship. The metal was black and had been clearly treated and molded by a master craftsman, a Fire Nation master craftsman.

Azara looked up from the metal as a bell went off on the Mechanist's desk. "Something's wrong. I've got to go!" The Mechanist got up quickly, sprinting out of the door. Sokka was about to follow him when Azara grabbed his arm.