Daughter of the Moon - Book Two: Earth

Chapter 9.4: The Great Escape

- Elara -

I had never seen a sunset so beautiful before, the sky blossoming with an elaborate array of oranges, reds, and yellows while the dark of night swelled with twinkling anticipation. There was a slight chill in the air, a prominent sign of the approaching nightfall, but it had no power over the warm embrace that I was trapped in. We stood together in a large field of beautiful red flowers as the wind tickled the petals, the two of us clutching onto each other as we watched another day come to a rest over the pristine waters and rolling hills—our home.

"Elara..." he whispered to me, pulling my gaze away from the scenery and to the man beside me.

A strange, but familiar warmth filled my chest as he smiled at me, and it may not have been possible to properly describe what that feeling was supposed to be. For all intents and purposes, perhaps the most appropriate term (although it cannot even begin to properly describe the feeling) could only be depicted as this: Love.

"Zuko..." I muttered back as he raised his hand to brush his thumb across my cheek.

And as the sun dipped below the horizon, Zuko lifted my face towards his own, stooping down and inching closer and closer until...

BANG!

I awoke with a start, no thanks to Iroh practically blasting the door open at the conclusion his meeting. I scrambled to my feet as the members of the White Lotus stepped back into the main room of the flower shop, frantically wiping away a night-time collection of sleep as I anticipated the announcement of our new plan (and I was horrified to discover the remnants of sleep-slobber dripping out of the corner of my mouth as I cleaned myself up).

"What's going on? Is the club meeting over?" I heard Zuko's familiar voice echo from where I had left him standing last night. I glanced in his direction as he spoke, but I quickly looked away as the events of my dream resurfaced to torment me. Spirits, I was going to have to get my stupid heart and brain under control if I was going to survive living with Zuko as a...friend...

"Everything is taken care of," Iroh answered Zuko's question, and I quickly focused my energy on listening to his plan. However, nothing would have prepared me for the audacity of this firebender. "We're heading to Ba-Sing-Se."

"Ba-Sing-Se?" I ask instinctively as I considered traveling to the source of all Earth Kingdom law-enforcement (the very people who were trying to capture us). "But aren't we trying to avoid getting caught by the Earth Kingdom?"

"The city is filled with refugees from all over the world," the Pai Sho player began to explain as he followed Iroh out of the meeting room. "If you travel there under the guise of a refugee, no one will suspect a thing."

"We can hide in plain sight there," Iroh continued. "And it's the safest place in the world from the Fire Nation. Even I couldn't break through to the city."

Before I even had a chance to consider (or even process) what Iroh was telling us, another man burst through the door with several pieces of parchment in hand. At first I was afraid that he was going to try to capture us, but the reaction of the other men in the room (or the lack thereof) led me to believe that he was just another White Lotus member (even though he was significantly younger than the other men in the group).