[Avatar] Flint and Spark, part 1

[gaisce]

Another unspoken resolution I have this year is to stop being an over-analytical whiner and just write. Which primarily focuses on how I have no pacing for longer stories to save my life and thus don't attempt them. TIMELY EXPOSITION IS MY NEMESIS. I have probably written this chapter over twenty times, posted and deleted it twice, and will likely

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[sharpasfire]

IT'S STILL ON MY LIST OF THINGS, maybe fourth or so, so it's not hopeless but I haven't been writing as much as I needed. Anyway, thank you for the encouragement. I figure I could at least show you a snippet to prove it's not dead forever and I have at least two parts mostly written:

Not to be deterred, Azula adjusted her boots before taking her first steps onto the rocky terrain. Toph followed at a leisurely pace, which only served to make the exile more determined to continue up the hillside and keep ahead of her. “It depends on where you’ve seen fit to take us. You do have a plan, I hope.”

“Yeah, but you’re gonna like it as much as the last one, because they’re pretty much the same. I get you to a safe place so we can tell my friends what happened. We call in the reinforcements, then you finish your side of the deal.”

“Where?”

Toph scratched her nose, not bothering to hide a smirk. “Wish I could show you but I can’t read maps. It’s a blind thing.”

“I should at least know how long we’re going to be acting like refugees.”

“Look, Sparky, I’ve been doing this for years. You can survive off the land anywhere in the Earth Kingdom if you’re smart about it.” She paused for a second, as if to reconsider her words. “Eh, maybe if we were crossing the Si Wong Desert that kind of talk might get me to reconsider your delicate sensibilities, but we’re not so you can suck it up.”

“I’ve already told you, I have no intention of escaping. However, if I did, telling me which direction I should be running from is hardly ruining your ‘strategic’ advantage.” Azula paused, crushing a twig under her foot for a particularly loud snap. Toph heard a rabbit mole bolt at the sound and waited to see if Azula would give chase.

The exiled princess tensed, every muscle coiled up to strike the way a cobra mongoose waited for prey. Her entire stance seemed to change in that moment and, for the first time since they started in their journey, Toph recognized Azula for what she used to be. Not from her posturing, not the words, but here was the girl who managed to fight the Avatar to a standstill. This was the tension of a predator in wait. Which made Toph all the more confused when she compared it to the way Azula waited in the garden, seeking out a weakness but not with the same instinctive, ruthless surety.

“Not hungry?” Toph asked, and realized she was as tense as the girl she was observing. The echoes of the rabbit mole’s footsteps grew fainter, until they vanished in the muffle of the rest of the earth.

“Not wasting my time,” Azula retorted primly, starting down a new trail of rocks and brambles.