Fuel To My Fire - Book Two (ATLA Zuko Fanfiction)

Chapter Two

Sakari's POV

We made it to the dock in no time and proceeded to walk between two lines of Fire Nation soldiers, it was very eerie. I could see Iroh watching them from the corner of his eye as we stopped at the ramp, Azula was waiting on the ship.

"Brother, Uncle, new friend, welcome." She greeted. "I'm so glad you decided to come."

Zuko and Iroh bowed to her as she started talking, so I quickly did the same, not wanting to get on this girl's bad side.

"Your highness, are we ready to depart?" One of the men asked Azula.

"Set a course for home, Captain." Azula stated, looking at Zuko.

Zuko looked content as he mumbled something to himself, and we began climbing the ramp up to the ship.

"You heard the Princess. We're taking the prisoners home." The Captain announced.

Wait... What?! All hell suddenly broke loose as Iroh started attacking the guards behind us and I quickly joined him, Zuko went after Azula. I bended some water from the ocean below us and knocked some of the guards off the dock while Iroh dealt with the others.

"Zuko, let's go!" I yelled, but Zuko couldn't hear me.

I ran up the ramp just in time to see Azula push Zuko to the floor, I ran to Zuko to make sure he was alright but was shocked to see what Azula was now doing. She looked to be summoning lightning! She shot a blast towards me and Zuko but Iroh caught her hand just in time and redirected it into the cliff before shoving his niece into the water. I helped Zuko to his feet and we started running, we ran as fast as we could away from the dock and into the forest, we only stopped when we thought we were far enough away. We collapsed to our knees next to a river and panted, trying to catch our breath.

"I think we're safe here." Iroh said.

"That was way too close." I stated.

Zuko said nothing, but instead he pulled out a knife and held it to his ponytail, he hesitated for a moment before cutting it off. He then handed the knife to Iroh who cut off his bun, the two men dropped their hair into the river before Iroh held the knife out to me.

"No way. I'm not cutting my hair." I said, crossing my arms.

"Azula knows what you look like, you have to, Sakari." Zuko tried to explain.

"Not gonna happen." I said, standing my ground.

"Will you just do it, please." Zuko said, getting frustrated with me.

"Alright, alright." I told him, taking the knife from Iroh.

I held it to my long plait, took a deep breath, and cut it off at shoulder length, my now loose hair falling around my face. I shot Zuko a look of annoyance for making me do it and he raised his hands in defence.

"It looks good." Zuko stated.

*****

"Iroh, what are you doing?" I asked.

Iroh had been staring at a flower for some time now, while Zuko was off looking for food, and seemed to be deep in thought about something. Iroh was just about to answer my question when Zuko came grunting through the bushes.

"I couldn't find any food. I can't live like this. I wasn't meant to be a fugitive. This is impossible!" Zuko said, dramatically kicking the dirt. "Uncle... What are you doing?"

"He was about to tell me before you had your little tantrum, hothead." I explained, ruffling the small amount of hair that had grown since he cut off his ponytail.