An Innocent Spark [Zukka]

Chapter 22: The Raid

The morning sun shone brightly through Sokka's eyelids. He retreated further into his sleeping bag, not wanting to wake up yet.

The sun was relentless though, and he eventually unzipped his sleeping bag and climbed out. Zuko was still sound asleep to his surprise, so he tried to be as quiet as possible while adding more fuel to the furnace.

In the distance the clouds parted, revealing a long coastline dotted with trees. Sokka was relieved to see land again after so long over the open ocean. He turned around and saw Zuko sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

"Morning your royal sleepiness," Sokka said to the tired Fire Lord. Zuko glared at him before unzipping his sleeping bag and standing up to stretch.

"How far are we from Omashu?" Zuko yawned as he stretched out his arms as far as he could.

"From the looks of it only a couple hours," Sokka replied and poured them both a glass of water and rummaged through a bag of food they had prepared for their voyage. He produced two sandwiches from the sac and chose the one that looked fuller for himself before handing the other to Zuko.

"You look nervous," Sokka observed as he began nibbling away at his sandwich. Zuko looked off into the distance at the landmass they were approaching and sighed. "We don't know what we're going to be up against. It could be a whole army's worth of bandits and..."

Sokka could tell Zuko was only making himself more nervous, and so he said in his most calming voice, "We'll be fine. You're one of the best firebenders in the world, and we've got the avatar on our side. Besides, we've faced off against an army of fully trained soldiers before and won."

Zuko took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "You're right, worrying about the unknown won't do anything but make things worse."

"You know, I never did get the tour of the palace you promised me," Sokka said with a smirk.

"If we survive this, I'll give you the deluxe tour," Zuko smirked back and Sokka raised his eyebrow at this. "What's the difference between that and the regular tour mister Fire Lord?"

"I'm so glad you asked mister boomerang boy," Zuko said and Sokka pouted at his new nickname which made Zuko laugh. "This one includes a tour through the secret passages underneath the palace."

Zuko had caught Sokka's attention with his mention of secret passages underneath the palace. "Why did you never tell us about them before? What are they for?"

"That will have to wait for the tour, because I think we're nearing the city," Zuko said and quickly worked to put out the fire keeping the balloon airborne.

They agreed they had to land far enough away from the city so as to not be spotted by anyone who could give away their arrival. They needed the element of surprise on their hands if they wanted to gain any valuable information.

The war balloon touched down a few miles outside of the city walls. The two put on cloaks and raised their hoods before setting out towards the gates to Omashu. Once inside the city limits, they made their way towards the palace, avoiding populated areas and busy streets in favor of back alleys and secondary streets.

They were greeted at the palace by a guard and were finally able to discard their disguises. The guard led them to the throne room where to Sokka's extreme joy, he saw Aang deep in conversation with his old friend King Bumi.

"Aang!" Sokka shouted in joy. Aang turned to his friends and his face lit up. "Sokka! Zuko! You guys made it!"

He ran over and gave Sokka and Zuko a big hug. Sokka looked over and saw Zuko's face tense up in a plea of help, he never was a big fan of hugs. Sokka on the other hand enjoyed the hug after such a long time apart from his friend.