Our trek up to the cliffs was slowed down slightly by the fact we only had a handful of people able to check for traps or ambushes.
None of the soldiers in the city were frontline groups used to dealing with Earthbender tricks and the five Earthbenders I had with me weren’t exactly on the same level as elite Earth Kingdom troops.
But the Earthbenders we were approaching seemed to have done the bare minimum in terms of traps or early warning systems. There were no scouts waiting for us that we could find and only a few basic pitfall traps that were easily countered.
Was it because they didn’t have enough people to properly screen for enemies? Were they in the middle of another sabotage attempt? Was it a trap? Or were they simply arrogant enough to believe that they wouldn’t be discovered this quickly and hadn’t done more than the bare minimum?
Pointless questions since I wouldn’t get an answer until we found the Earthbender camp, but I couldn’t keep my mind off of it. Apparently neither could Chi Song since she hung back to walk with me and whispered, “You think this is too easy? It feels too easy.”
I nodded.
“Nothing we can do about it until we reach our destination. Just keep your guard up.”
We walked in uncomfortable silence for a while until we reached the final bend on the mountain path. If the maps were correct then the clearing we expected to find the enemy camp was just around the corner. I had sixty Firebenders and five Earthbenders with me and somehow we had not seen any reaction to such a force moving up a relatively open path. Something that had all my instincts buzzing.
The advance guard turned the corner and for a heartbeat there was no change. Then there was a loud sound of rocks crashing together and a shout of “It’s the Fire Nation!”
I wasted no time once I heard that.
“Forward! Capture as many as you can, let none escape!” I ordered as all my troops ran to get into position.
Chi Song followed behind me as I charged ahead as well, we turned the corner and the normal soldiers fanned out to the sides so I had an uninterrupted path forward to see… a handful of Earth Kingdom soldiers and a group of peasants.
What?
Even as I froze because of the unexpected sight, my soldiers encircled the camp and a couple small fights broke out between them and the Earthbenders. Most of both parties hung back and were on the alert for large moves but one or two would duel each other. I knew the Firebenders were doing so to ensure no gaps opened in our encirclement, but the way the Earthbenders were huddling up instead of trying to break out made me nervous.
“So the Fire Nation is sending little girls to face us now?” A loud booming voice cut over the sounds of the various fights, causing almost all of them to come to a halt. A large man in Earth Kingdom armor made his way through the crowd to face me along with some other soldiers flanking him.
“The Earth Kingdom is reduced to sending villagers against us now?” I returned, pointedly drawing attention to the peasants in the crowd. Now that I had a better look I saw that there were only ten or so properly uniformed soldiers. Even if the rest turned out to be Earthbenders the sight of them wearing rough-spun clothes and the like undercut any respect I had for them as soldiers.
“Hah, of course not! These are the brave people willing to cast aside the false promises of the Fire Nation and join the Earth Kingdom army!” Agni’s grace this man was loud.
“Oh? And what lies are those?”
“Interested now are you?! What do you say, men?! Shall we let them know the lies they spread?”
The crowd of peasants started shouting almost as one but I was able to pick out some individual comments.
“They treat us like second-class citizens!”
“We were here first!”
“...lies about Earthbenders being accepted!”
“...saying a princess is going to help us…”
And many more things of that nature. It was a little disheartening to hear my activities were so outlandish people were distrusting them so much. I might need to do something to ensure my father doesn’t think to use that as incentive to reverse my progress.
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The leader of the earthbenders clapped his hands and grinned widely. “There you have it!” He proclaimed. “The Fire Nation is so desperate to keep a leash on the people of the Earth Kingdom that they spread fanciful tales of a princess coming to lift them up and guarantee equality if they just behave themselves. But we have told them of these lies before they could take hold! And I, Lieutenant Fang of the Rumbling Boulder Squadron, will lead them against this foe! So that they can be victorious!” Chi Song choked back a laugh as the Lieutenant pointed a finger at me. “Now then, while it pains me to see someone so young allowed to lead the vile forces of the Fire Nation to battle, I will allow you to tell me your name so it will not be forgotten in the face of your inevitable defeat!”
“...he...hehe...hehehe...hahahaHAHAHA~!!” Chi Song gave up restraining her laughter and nearly doubled over in the face of the leader’s declaration. Her laughter turned out to be infectious as quite a few soldiers started chuckling along with her. For my part, I simply crossed my arms and looked on disapprovingly.
The sudden laughter had also really thrown off all the enemies in front of us as well. The peasants were looking around worriedly and the soldiers had tensed up. The leader was also slowly going red in the face.
“What is so funny?!” he demanded.
“H-he doesn’t even know!” Chi Song almost howled, waving a hand in my direction.
Our enemies were now almost all looking at me warily and I could only roll my eyes at my subordinate’s behaviour.
Figuring this joke was getting out of hand, I strode forward confidently.
“Listen up!” I raised my voice so everyone could hear me and smiled internally as the last of the fights stopped in response. “I am Azura, First Princess of the Fire Nation. I can’t say for certain all of the rumors you have heard about me are true...but I can say that the improving conditions for earthbenders in Fire Nation territory is no lie. In fact, I have some of them with me.” I motioned towards Chi Song. She got the message and bent a couple pillars of rock as both a demonstration and in preparation to attack when a fight broke out.
The sight of an earthbender so close to Fire Nation royalty and obviously trusted set a wave of mutters through the enemy. The Earth Kingdom lieutenant grit his teeth so hard I was almost worried they would break under the pressure. Not that I could really bring myself to care about an enemy’s dental care.
“A single person means nothing…” he tried to deny, but his mouth snapped shut when the other four earthbenders with me revealed themselves.
“Indeed. A single person does mean nothing.” I mocked. “Which is why I make it a habit to bring a few earthbenders from each colony I recruit from to prove my words. Most of them are still back in the city, helping recruit the ones willing to work for me.”
Another wave of mutters broke out and suddenly I saw quite a few people not looking so sure about their choice to be here. I could use that…
“I know that many of you are here because you didn’t believe the rumors that things could get better. You thought that it was a trick and lashed out. However, since this misunderstanding has been cleared up I will graciously promise that anyone who surrenders now and comes with us peacefully will be pardoned fully as long as they join the city register.”
“To be leashed as dogs by you, no doubt.” the lieutenant tried dissuading his faltering troops.
I shrugged. “Not at all. The register is going to be a list of all benders in the city Fire, Earth, or Water and used to request help during emergencies.” It was simply going to be expanding on the existing register for Firebenders standard in the home islands. Granted, those were mostly for ensuring young firebenders didn’t go unnoticed or unsupervised but the premise remained the same. “Though if you want to openly use your bending then you will of course need to join my forces.”
“And if we don’t want to fight in the war?” someone in the crowd called out.
The Earth Kingdom soldiers’ faces darkened. Ah, some of the draw for these people was the freedom to use their bending openly. Letting them move deeper into the Earth Kingdom to do what they wished with their bending. Well that wasn’t an issue I was unprepared for.
“Each branch working for me is local to it’s own city. You will be called on to defend it but you will not be sent to fight unless you request to, and there are plenty of jobs to use your bending for.”
More of the crowd wavered and some of them even visibly made a decision. With a bit more time I could probably convince more than half of them to surrender, which is exactly why Lieutenant Fang decided I had spoken more than enough.
“It doesn’t matter if she is trying to make things equal for earthbenders, if we capture her now then we can use her to pressure the Fire Lord to end the war in return for his daughter!” Lieutenant Fang shouted. “For the Earth Kingdom, to battle!”
He and the other soldiers stomped the ground and punched the resulting boulders into shrapnel that targeted the people surrounding me. Just like that the enemy forces collapsed into chaos as the disorganised rabble tried to attack, surrender, and retreat all at once.
I ignored the peasants, trusting my soldiers to handle that mess, and reduced any shrapnel coming towards me to dust with a blast of fire and charged the Earth Kingdom Soldiers. The only real thing keeping the enemy’s morale from collapsing entirely was the lieutenant. Take him down and this fight was over.
I was vaguely aware of Chi Song following behind me as I ran forward a bit to make sure I had clear surroundings. Once I had room I sent sheets of fire crawling along ground to try and trip up their footing. Some of the soldiers tried to block with a raised wall but that left them open to Chi Song’s followup attack. Two rocks slammed into the soldiers and knocked them unconcious. A third blocked another rock from hitting but was blasted in the side by one of the other Firebenders. Lieutenant Fang reacted the best by raising a solid pillar about the size of himself and sending it rocketing towards me, the large block of stone tearing up the ground along the way.
I kicked out with the strongest fire blast I could on short notice and frowned as the mass of rock easily passed through my flames and forced me to swiftly dodge. Lieutenant Fang was a much stronger Earthbender than I figured he would be. A series of fireballs and rocks flew through the air between us as we both struggled to control the pace of our fight. I was attacking easily three times as much as the Earth Kingdom Soldier, but his attacks consistently forced me to dodge out of the way before I was struck, allowing him to reestablish his defence and making me start all over.
I hadn’t had this much trouble with an opponent in a long time. It was actually somewhat enjoyable and I might have drawn out the fight for the novelty of it, but the chaos of the common soldiers was dying down as my forces managed to subdue them with numbers and teamwork. If this went on longer someone was going to do something desperate.
Lieutenant Fang was forced to raise a thick wall as I punched out a sustained torrent of fire directly at him, he couldn’t dodge without opening his comrade up to the fury of my attack. Something I was more than happy to use against him.
I extended two fingers and moved my hand in a small circular motion, feeling the energy in the air part as I moved them through the air. My other hand came down in a similar manner, my surroundings now crackling with the promise of barely restrained power. When the energies built up to the point I could barely hold it back I thrust my hand out and watched as the lightning I released tore through Lieutenant Fang’s wall and exploded.
When the smoke cleared everyone was able to see the groaning form of the lieutenant on the ground.
Naturally, after such a display and their leader defeated, the few Earthbenders still fighting took that moment to surrender.
I straightened up and let out a long breath, releasing the tension that came from that technique, and motioned my soldiers forward to restrain them. Chi Song wandered over to my side and looked over the scene with a smile.
“That went pretty well. We found the bad guys and took them down before they could do more damage. You even got to make another fancy speech.”
I smirked in response before growing serious. “Yes. Now we need to figure out what they were hoping to accomplish in the first place.”