Chapter 32.4- And so the Dragons Danced

 Not the least of those reservations were the significant amount of resources being shunted into this project of hers.

“And so your fear of him necessitates this?” He asked, waving his hand around them to indicate the construction going on. They stood atop a wall that was at least a dozen feet high and had not existed there a scant few days ago. It was just his luck that Kuie was such an idiot. Very few of his predecessors would have failed to notice such a massive project taking place right at the outskirts of their city. Large as Ba Sing Se was, it was not so large that whispers would not have made their way to the Palace in any other administration. At least with this one, the staff of the palace answered to him above all else, and those who would have considered bypassing his authority had been weeded out with ease. Kuie ended up reporting them himself more often than not.

“Yes. I will see his ships sunk before he even manages to land. I will see his army ended in the sea before it can be a scourge to us over land.” She declared, looking at the massive trebuchets being constructed with a fire in her eyes. The fire of a zealot. The fire of a true believer. That was what Kali was, a true believer.

“And when I do see his threat ended, I expect you to fulfill your end of the bargain” She said.

“Like I told you earlier, the Earth King has no interest in meeting a General with no victories. Rid Ba Sing Se of this threat and you will find him more than willing to give you audience” He said, lying through his teeth just as he had been taught. The second this General Natsu was dead, he would be ridding himself of this woman and what she represented. He saw a pathway to finally saving Ba Sing Se. He would end the Fire nation Army’s bulk of veterans and skilled soldiers here.

And then he would use the Princess as a negotiating instrument. He would trade her life for a treaty that would ensure the City of the Walls would not find itself disturbed by this pesky war any further. Peace in his time. Long Feng could almost taste it.

XXXXXXXXX- Natsu Wu

The ships cut through the water like a hot knife through butter. He just thanked his gods that he was not motion sick. “Urrghhhhh” He chuckled at the sound of his apprentice retching over the ship’s edge. She did not take well to their present conditions at all. For one, like all the other ships in the Fire Nation Navy, this one was made entirely of metal. That meant she had no chance of feeling vibrations to see. Of course, I’d seen this coming and hoped that it would serve as a training opportunity for her. She was one hell of a talent and in canon she figured out sand after being tossed in the deep end so I just hoped this turned out to be a terrible thing.

“She’s still not getting used to it?” Toji asked, moving to stand next to me at the helm of the ship.

“Not even close. She’s barely been able to get any sleep either so sooner rather than later, I might have to have Amara take a look at things”

“Good idea?” He asked.

“She’s been punished already. And my daughter or no, I doubt she has it in her to harm a child. Killing those three men probably scarred her for life” I said in response to the question he left unasked.

“If you say so then. How do you feel about a spar?”

“I’m more than ready. That’s why you came up here, isn’t it?” I asked with a smirk that he easily returned. In the gap between one second and the next, he had tossed one of the sticks he was holding at me.

I caught it and twirled it around a bit to test the balance. It was well made. Made by him, I suspected. The one he weilded was eerily similar. Just like the training spears with no tips we’d used back when we were boys at the academy. Of course, Spear training was one aspect of our scholastic careers that Toji far outshined me in. I came second to him in those classes but I would have been lying if I called it a close second. It was almost like there was no contest between us when I had my bending put off the table.

Of course, I had come a long way from there and now there was no true way for my bending to be out of picture. Not since heat became my friend. I took a hold of either of end of the staff and tested the balance again, tossing it in the air and catching it at its centre before spinning it on that point and then catching it again.

“You ready, Show off?” Toji asked with a chuckle and I nodded.

I took a breath in, heating it up and spreading it all across my body. I barely moved my staff in time to block Toji’s first hit. The second came to the left but I ignored the feint and blocked the real attack that came from the right. His staff searched out for my feet but I danced out of the way with a chuckle. He joined me and I struck first this time. A powerful overhead blow forced him to lift his staff to block it. I repeated the blow twice, and on the third, he spun out of the way and my staff his the steel deck.

It was out of position for only a second but Toji took advantage of it and landed a powerful blow that walloped me across the face. “Thwack” the hit sounded in the silence that the ship had fallen into.

I took two steps back and lifted my hand to check at the wound. It wasn’t bleeding. It just hurt like a motherfucker. It was going to bruise, I knew almost instantly.

I stepped back again, and looked up at Toji’s smirking face. I could see Toph behind him listening to the whole thing with rapt attention. I wondered what she could tell without sight and vibrations to lead her through. I held the staff on either end and brought it down to my knee in a sharp movement, breaking it in half.

“I’ll help you make a new one” I told Toji even as I tested the grip of my new weapon, or was it weapons? He neglected to answer, instead moving in on the attack. I ducked underneath and overhead sweep and pounced on him with my weapons. First I came from the left, forcing him to block.; My right stick lashed out and struck his knee forcing hum to grunt and take a step back. That step backwards ended up being the one that decided the spar because he’d essentially given the initiative to me and I would not be returning it. I attacked almost faster than even I could think, acting the part of a storm better than I’d ever done at being a human. Every time I forced him to block, my other weapon was striking somewhere unguarded.

Of course, I only ended up being able to land half a dozen clean hits before Toji adapted. Now, he pushed against my attacks to give him the time to move his staff to block the next one. When it came to fighting, he was a genius with little in the way of equals and I enjoyed hacking him on. The back foot. In the end, my advantage did not last long. I pressed down on him with both sticks from above for a few seconds and right as it seemed I was about to break through his attack, I was forced to take a step back to avoid a staff that struck where my head had just been.

“You too?” I asked with a faux irritated tone that failed to reach my eyes.

“Couldn’t let you boys have all the fun” Maki replied before charging right at me. I sighed and prepared myself.

XXXXXXX

“What is that?” I asked, passing the telescoping eye back to Captain Hiro, the one charged with ferrying my army down to Ba Sing Se.

“A wall, General”

“Yes. But not a wall that one would expect to see this far out from the city, aye? They’ve walled off the entire beach head.” I said with a scowl.

“Any chance of us sailing around it and getting them from behind?”

“Nope. The beach head is the only place ships have any hope of landing. And if you look over there you can see that those are Fire Nation ships parked there. That means the Princess is there. That means we must sail right ahead into this mess.” I said with a scowl.

Of course, it was just my luck that the second I spoke, all hell broke loose.