Burning Chapter 18: Ash and Smoke

Malu had always thought himself pretty lucky with the life he had. Instead of being born into a regular Fire Nation family, he’d been born to one filled with magicians and performers. As a natural performer, it suited him perfectly.

He’d been fairly happy with his lot in life.

Sure it could be fairly dangerous. There was a lot of travelling involved and he’d been forced to hide from the Earth Kingdom soldiers more than a few times, but he’d gladly put up with that if it meant not being drafted into the Fire Nation military.

It wasn’t that he didn’t support his nation. Quite the opposite in fact, he couldn’t wait for them to take over the Earth Kingdom. He just... Wasn’t a fighter. So, instead of fighting, he’d chosen to support his homeland in the only way he knew how. By performing.

Everything had been going perfectly, even with the sudden loss of his assistant... At least until he’d accidentally stumbled into a large group of Earth Kingdom soldiers upon travelling to the next town over.

Choosing to detain him, the soldiers had taken to going through his belongings... Not that he had anything to hide. Although, one soldier in particular had found the list the Fire Nation circus had provided him, detailing all the places he’d been and was still heading.

“What’s this? A list of villages?”

“Ah, yes, it’s the places I’m planning on visiting,” Malu said nervously. “You see, I’m a performer and–“

“Likely story, especially when several of them have been attacked by the Fire Nation,” the soldier muttered. Rolling the scroll back up, he slipped it in his pocket. “Secure the spy, we’re taking him back to General Fong.”

“But I haven’t done anything,” Malu argued, backing up as the Earth Kingdom soldiers surrounded him. “I’m not a spy.”

“That’ll be for the General to decide,” the soldier replied. ”Until then, you’ll be our– What’s that noise?”

A sharp whistle pierced the air, only to suddenly be replaced by a dull, meaty thunk as several of the soldiers suddenly fell over, several large darts piercing their backs.

Forming a defensive wall made from earth, the leader immediately turned on Malu, only to be harshly thrown into the very wall he’d made to protect them when a whip made out of blue fire cracked against his chest.

Not given any time to react, a dark haired girl wearing black and red suddenly appeared. Kicking off the stone platform, she sent a hail of small bladed weapons at the remaining soldiers that saw the leader hazily forming another wall of earth, blocking them off on both sides.

It’d done its job in protecting them, but it also had a drawback in giving them almost no room to move.

Smirking as she stood by the narrow gap the Earth Kingdom soldiers had sandwiched themselves between, she threw her fist forward, unleashing a thin jet of flames that rushed to fill the void between the earthen walls, giving them zero room to dodge.

Watching as several more soldiers made their way onto the dirt path, the girl took a relaxed stance. “Well, what are you waiting for, an invitation?”

...Burning...

Standing on the rim of Mt. Makapu, I watched as molten rock swirled and bubbled in the crater under a hundred feet below, radiating a massive amount of heat that caused the air to visibly distort and crease, as if it was made out of cloth.

That, however, was only surface level.

Holding my hand over the rim, I felt the heat radiating off the lava below, much like when holding a small ball of fire, only on a much larger scale.

The earth seemed to pulse with life as large vein-like tubes of superheated gas and magma stretched deep into the crust, slowly pushing towards the only exit it could find, building up a massive amount of pressure. The fact that Kyoshi could surf an entire island on one of these was nothing short of amazing.

Firebenders drew strength from great sources of heat, it was one of the main reasons why the Fire Nation was built on a chain of volcanic islands, many of which were still fairly active.

The only thing that would exceed it would be Sozin’s comet.

It was almost overwhelming... It was... It was...

“Achoo!”

It was screwing with my allergies.

“Woah, that’s a lot of lava,” Aang murmured. “Do you think that, if we were able to pour a bunch of water on it, we’d be able to stop it from erupting?”

“It wouldn’t, what you’re seeing right now is only the surface, there’s still a whole river of magma just below the surface,” I hummed. “Cooling the upper layer will only make the initial eruption more violent.”

With nowhere to go, the pressure would just keep building inside until it found a weak point and then... Well, there probably wouldn’t be much left of the rim. It was one of the things that pretty much everyone in the Fire Nation was taught when they were young.

An erupting volcano was bad... A volcano that looked like it should erupt, but hadn’t was far worse. It was pretty much a bomb just waiting to go off.

Looking towards the village, I was just able to make out the people working below... digging a large trench around it, ending by the river.

They were pretty lucky that this was a relatively small volcano. If it’d been a larger one that was just about to erupt, they’d likely need to abandon their village entirely.

Although, given how hard it was to convince them to dig the trench in the first place, I wouldn’t be surprised if this village eventually ended up being destroyed by some easily avoidable disaster sometime in the future.

“Good thing we didn’t try it then,” Aang chuckled awkwardly. “It’s kind of crazy that we’re even here to begin with... Meeting Aunt Wu and having our fortunes told, although, I guess you saw that coming. I was actually wondering about that. You saw a bunch of stuff that’s going to happen in the future, right?”

I had a feeling I knew where this was going.

“You could say that,” I hummed.

“Great, so, uh, I was just wondering...” Aang trailed off awkwardly. “You didn’t, uh... Happen to see anything to do with who I, uh... End up with?”

Yep, this was about romance... It was a hell of a place to ask about it too, on the rim of a soon to be erupting volcano. To tell the truth, I was surprised he hadn’t asked sooner.

“I may have seen a few things there,” I hummed, getting an excited grin from Aang. “But if I say anything, it might not happen. The future’s not set in stone. Destiny is a book you write yourself.”

Koh kidnapping Zuko and Hakoda being one major example of such a thing. The more ripples that are made, the harder it’ll be to see the bigger picture. Seeing as I’d already made some big alterations, I wasn’t too worried about that.

Aang took a slow breath. “Okay, but what if you didn’t tell me who it was? Maybe you can tell me without, uh, changing things.”

He wanted me to be vague? Well, alrighty then.

“Trust your heart and you’ll be with the one you love.”

“But that’s the exact same thing Aunt Wu said,” Aang complained. “Isn’t there anything else you could tell me?”

“There isn’t really much more to say.” I shrugged. “Just be yourself and everything will fall into place. The worst mistake you can make is trying to be someone else. Even if it worked, they wouldn’t even be falling in love with you, but some fake version that you made. Everything will fall into place. Give it time.”

Sighing, he slumped forward. “I was afraid you were going to say that. How long should I give it?”

Comfortingly patting his shoulder, I smiled. “Only you’ll be able to figure that out... Oh, and you should probably tell Aunt Wu’s assistant how you feel about her while you’re at it.”

“Meng?” Aang’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Why? I haven’t even talked to her since we got here.”

That was kind of the problem.

“She has a massive crush on you,” I deadpanned.

“She does?!”

Feeling the ground shake beneath my feet, I looked towards the crater as the lava bulged outward before finally bursting, sending a geyser of lava high into the sky along with a big black cloud of superheated gas and other elements.

“GAH!” Flopping onto his back as he pulled himself up onto the volcano’s peak, Sokka slowly sat up. “You know, just once, I’d like to visit a regular town. No spirits, no volcanoes, no giant sea creatures, just... Normal.”

“But that’s what makes this fun.” Aang grinned, helping him up.

“Yeah, sure... Nothing screams fun like climbing up an erupting volcano,” Sokka muttered sarcastically, dusting himself off. “How’s that going by the way?”

“About as good as you’d expect,” I hummed. “We should probably make our way to the village, by the way.”

“But I just got here,” Sokka moaned. “Can’t we just wait five minutes?”

As if answering him, a large piece of stone broke off, falling into the lava below. A few seconds passed, before a large jet of molten rock suddenly shot into the air.

Taking a breath, I threw my palm forward, unleashing a stream of fire that kept any of the lava from landing on us.

Blinking as the volcano shook violently, Sokka rubbed his chin thoughtfully all the while turning his gaze towards the village. “Back down the mountain, you say... Yeah, I could get behind that.”

…Burning…

Smirking as the final soldier fell, Azula brushed her fingernails against her chest.

The area in her immediate vicinity looked like a war zone. Large, jutting spears made from earth slowly crumbled to the ground while several of the closer trees smouldered, one of which let out a loud groan as it collapsed, sending small sparks flying across the forest.

Taking a slow breath, Azula clenched her hand shut, snuffing out the remaining fire. It wouldn’t do to set this entire area ablaze while she still had business here.

“That looks like the last of them,” Mai noted, slipping her knives back into her sleeves.

“So it would seem,” Azula replied.

Ty Lee obviously wasn’t anywhere near here otherwise Azula wouldn’t have had to take care of those Earth Kingdom soldiers, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know how to find her.

Looking over at her target, he took a cautious step back, before bowing deeply.

“Thank you for the help. If you hadn’t come along, I would have been in a lot of trouble.”

“Yes... You would have been,” Mai deadpanned.

Nodding, he shot a quick glance towards his bag that’d miraculously survived the fight. “I appreciate it none the less. Please, if there’s anything I can do to repay you.”

He seemed just about ready to make a run for it.

Good.

That meant he wouldn’t lie to her.

“As a matter of fact, there is one thing you could do for us,” Azula hummed, taking a predatory step forward. “It wasn’t by chance that we ran into you. We’re looking for someone that we heard was travelling with you.”

“You’re looking for... Wait, do you mean Ty Lee?” Gone was the look of apprehension, instead, the performer looked genuinely annoyed. “Of course this is about her. If she’d been here to scout the path like she usually did, I wouldn’t have even been in this mess.”

“Then she’s still in the town you just came from?” Mai asked.

Shrugging he grabbed his bag. “I honestly have no idea where she is. The last time I saw her was when we put on a performance during some kind of festival. She kept going on about how she found some old friend who she thought was dead.”

Azula shared a quick glance with Mai.

“Who?” Mai asked.

Sighing when he pulled out a burnt scroll from one of the soldiers pockets, Malu shoved it into his bag along with a handful of other things he’d picked off the ground.

“Not sure, some guy in the crowd. He looked to be a Firebender too... Him and that kid,” he hummed. “All I know is that she said she’d be meeting him in the morning and just disappeared after that. I tried looking for her, but I couldn’t find anything. That was about a week ago... Maybe two. Guess she just ran off with the guy.”

Out of all the... Here they were, travelling through the Earth Kingdom trying to find Honō and Ty Lee literally just stumbled across him and instead of doing the logical thing, like letting them know, she just, what? Decided to travel alongside him.

Dusting his hands off, Malu slung his bag over his shoulder. “I’m gonna get going before anymore Earth Kingdom soldiers come this way... I swear, this is the last time I tour Earth Kingdom villages, it's way too dangerous... Unless. You two seem pretty strong. How would you like a job?“

“I would sooner pledge my allegiance to the Earth Kingdom and drag you there as an offering,” Mai deadpanned, idly reaching for a knife.

Chuckling good-naturedly, he took one look at Azula and promptly paled at the look on her face. “Right, well, I must get going. It’s a long road before I reach the next Fire Nation colony... Best of luck to the two of you.”

Retreating down the dirt path, Malu soon disappeared, leaving the duo on their own... Well, aside from some of the Earth Kingdom soldiers.

Smirking lazily, Mai shot a quick glance towards Azula and winced. “Should we go after him?”

Taking a short breath, Azula slowly exhaled, unclenching her fingers. “Let him go, he doesn’t know anything else... Besides, we have far more important things to attend to.”

Relaxing a little, Mai placed a hand on her hip. “Where to next?”

“Back to the ship,” Azula answered. “We’re obviously on the right path... We just need a little more information. In fact, I dare say that this has made our job a little easier.”

After all, how hard could it be finding those two? One extra person meant that they’d be travelling a bit slower, even if that person was Ty Lee. Catching up to them should be fairly easy, especially with her ship. It’s not like they suddenly gained the ability to fly.

Hopefully they wouldn’t get themselves in too much trouble before she found them.

...Burning...

“THE VOLCANO... SHE AWAKES!”

A deafening crack echoed through the village, before fading off into a low boom. The earth shook as flecks of fire and molten earth shot up into the night sky, pouring an entire river of lava that glowed ominously down the mountain side.

Vibrating, a large wave of lava violently churned inside the crater, letting off a massive amount of heat that radiated for miles while ash began falling on the tree tops.

“Achoo!”

“Seriously,” I muttered, rubbing my nose.

Smoke and ash had never been a problem before... There must have been something else mixed in the air along with it.

Jumping onto a nearby roof, Aang pointed off into the distance. “Everyone needs to evacuate, we’ll come get you once the danger’s passed!”

Hurriedly making their way across the river, the villagers quickly disappeared from view, leaving only the five of us behind.

Watching as the lava steadily grew closer, a wave of heat washed over us as a few trees that’d been too close to the stream of molten earth were set on fire, adding to the smoke and ash.

“Ugh, this heat is going to be super bad for my hair,” Ty Lee commented, holding the end of her ponytail.

“That’s what you’re worried about?” Sokka squawked. “If you haven’t noticed, there’s a whole bunch of lava heading right towards us!”

“Yeah, but we’ve already done everything we can about that.” She shrugged. “I’m gonna need, like, so much avocado paste to fix this.”

“Avocado paste?” Katara hummed curiously. “Normally I use a special seaweed lotion for mine. You’re welcome to try some if you want.”

“That'd be great, thanks,” Ty Lee beamed.

“Girls,” Sokka groaned, slapping a palm to his forehead, leaving a red mark behind.

I let out a snort of laughter at that. Ty Lee wasn’t technically wrong, there really wasn’t much else we could do, but wait.

Growing ever nearer to the village, the lava poured into the trenches, rapidly filling it before being redirected towards the river, successfully diverting the molten earth away from the buildings.

“Huh, it looks like everything’s going to be alright,” Aang hummed. “I was kind of expecting something to go wrong. This almost feels a little... Easy.”

“Of course it would work,” Sokka said boastfully. “It’s my plan after all, why wouldn’t it–”

Erupting violently, what seemed to be an ocean of lava shot up into the air along with a number of large boulders, several of which were heading our way. One of which landed right in the center of the trench, sending a wave of lava high into the air.

Taking shelter, Sokka and Katara retreated further inland while Ty Lee took a few steps, before stopping when she saw that Aang and I hadn’t moved.

Reacting on instinct, Aang rushed forward, launching himself upward, before pulling on as much air as he could, pushing the lava back, before rapidly cooling it, forming a solid protective shell that kept the rest of the molten earth at bay.

Exhaling slowly, Aang brought his arms down.

“Woah,” Ty Lee breathed.

For the first time since she’d joined our little gang, she’d been rendered speechless, not that I could blame her. The level of bending Aang had just pulled off was nothing less than incredible... And he’d only get stronger from here.

“Well, looks like that’s taken care of,” I hummed, turning around. “We should probably go tell the villagers that their village hasn’t burned down... Although we might need to wait a few minutes before–“

Hearing a loud crack, I suddenly turned back around, looking at the volcano as the side seemingly ruptured. That wasn’t right, this was supposed to be over once Aang took care of the initial eruption... But there it was, flaring up once again.

Cracking violently as lava began pouring through the gaps, an entire chunk of the volcano's rim snapped off, shattering as it tumbled down its side. Freeing a massive amount of molten earth dying the land red.

Catching a flicker of movement on top of the recently formed barrier surrounding the village, I glanced towards it, spotting a faint figure of a man wearing what appeared to be green and white Earth Kingdom robes.

Narrowing my eyes, I glanced towards the approaching landslide of lava and earth, before looking back, only to find him absent. Taking a step towards it, I paused when the ground began to shake once more.

“C’mon,” Sokka called out. “We’ve done all we can.”

“But we might still be able to stop it,” Aang said. “This doesn’t feel right.”

He wasn’t wrong. This wasn’t supposed to happen. The only thing that was different this time around was my and Ty Lee’s presence and I somehow doubt that was enough to cause all of this. No, something else was at play here.

“If we stay any longer, we’re going to be toast,” Sokka argued. “We need to– Hey, where’re you going?”

Jumping onto the newly formed barrier, I stared down at the approaching landslide of molten earth. To even think of stopping it, you’d need someone like Toph or Bumi.

Diverting it, however...

Feeling the heat from the flowing lava radiate around me, I took a slow breath, causing it to glow brighter as the heat suddenly increased. Exhaling slowly, I dipped my hand low, reaching towards the lake of molten earth below, before raising it back up.

“Honō...”

Unlike with water which had been almost resistant to the process, removing heat from lava was far easier as there was so much more.

“Honō!”

Feeling my robes cling to my body as sweat poured down my face, I watched as the landslide of molten earth and debris grew closer, waiting for just the right moment.

“HONŌ!”

Planting my feet firmly on the ground, I threw both my hands forward.

Fire sparked into existence, before expanding into a wave of blue and white flames that crashed against the approaching wave of lava with enough force to cause it to fold in on itself while the more liquid part flowed into the trenches towards the river.

Taking a slow, controlled breath, my hands shook with exertion. Gritting my teeth, I focused on keeping the flame going for as long as possible.

Minutes seemed to stretch on for hours before I finally hit my limit. Feeling as if my heart was beating in my head, I took several heavy breaths, my hands dropped limply to my side. Watching as my flames slowly died down, I was met with a glowing red field of lava that bathed the surroundings in a dull light.

However, that’s not all there was.

Sitting in front of me, only ten or so feet away from the newly formed volcanic barrier was a large, red hot boulder that’d likely once been a part of the volcano’s rim.

“Well that was lucky,” I muttered softly, drying my face with my sleeve.

Looking up at the volcano which was now missing a sizable sliver, I waited a few moments, before letting out a short breath when nothing happened. It seemed to have finally died down.

Turning to see if there was any damage done to the village, it seemed mostly untouched... Aside from an ever growing amount of ash that was coating everything, that is.

The gang also seemed alright... Well, with the exception of Sokka who’d somehow managed to get a mouthful of ash and was begging Katara for water.

Ty Lee was grinning as usual while Aang was staring... Only, it wasn’t me he was looking at.

Following his gaze, I looked up to see the same man I’d seen earlier, only he was a lot closer.

Staring at the glowing red field, he nodded to himself.

“Not bad... I counted three bending disciplines in that one move. Earth for stability, water to absorb the heat and fire for the power. In the future you might want to add air and give yourself a little more freedom. Do that and something like this becomes child’s play.”

“I’ll get right on that,” I deadpanned. “So, mind telling us why you tried to destroy this village?”

“Uh, Honō, who’re you talking to?” Ty Lee asked, while Katara and even Sokka had stopped to watch.

“What do you mean?” Aang asked. “He’s talking to that guy on the rock over there.”

Looking over to where Aang was pointing, Sokka raised a brow. “Right… And is he here right now?”

“Unfortunately only those that have been to the spirit world can see me right now,” The man explained. Looking at his hand, it slowly became transparent, along with the rest of his body.

“Oh, so you’re a spirit,” Aang realized. “That explains why no one else can see you.”

“More of a ghost really,” He murmured.

Dropping off the volcanic barrier, he disappeared entirely upon hitting the ground.

Brushing my hair back, I let out a short sigh. I guess this was one of the changes that came from Koh’s death.

“Well that was weird,” Aang muttered.

“You could say that again,” I hummed. “I wonder if Roku knew anything about this.”

“Roku?”

Right, I hadn’t told Aang about that little meeting just yet. Well, now seemed as good a time as any… Especially since we had to wait for the lava to cool.

“Achoo!”