Sokkla - nowhere to go...

story by [link] for this pic and i must say, it's FAN-TAS-TIC! ok, here it is...


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Thank you, Bradbury, for being.

Sokkazula - Nowhere to Go

It was a pleasant blaze, chortling low under Azula’s relaxed conducting. After a brief direction, she exited the barn, leaving her bright blue flames to improvise their orange and crimson and dandelion cantabiles. The engorged hayloft would burst out in a chromatic chorus of infernal song any second and then…
The yawning mouth of the building belched flame and seemed to let out a girlish shriek. A second later, a lanky figure, clothed in smoldering red commoner’s garb, sprang through the door way, rolling away from the intensifying inferno. Whimpering, the high-voiced character rolled around on the ground until he felt all the cinders dotting his body had been snuffed out.
It was a beautiful warm night in the Fire Nation countryside, Azula observed wordlessly. The catty Firebender enjoyed seeing her prey in such a state of frightened disarray. She took especial delight in the notion that her prey had though itself the stalking predator before she led him into her combustible trap. Though he had escaped with his brown hide only slightly singed, she would soon accomplish what her first kindled blaze failed to do.
After a final pat down of his high-tied black hair, the dark figure readied himself for the Fire Princess’s attack. They faced off in silence, their silhouettes hard black against the backdrop of the blazing barn, shadows cutting think lines in the rippling pool of yellow light.
Sokka mustered his sternest glower. Half of his lithe adversary was illuminated, allowing him a perfect view of her supple white forearm; firm stomach; plain, blood-red clothing, much like his own; and a single, glinting, golden civet eye. The other half of her was cloaked in blackness. He figured he must have appeared much the same way to her. It must have been like staring into a mirror, except the mirror made you more handsome and less homicidal… and male.
Azula placed her hands on her hips and chuckled, which caused the Water Tribe warrior’s muscles and organs to constrict in anticipation of severe unpleasantness.
“Sokka,” she said amusedly, “if you wanted to see me safely home, you simply should have asked.”
“I knew something up: the way you’re dressed, going into random barns,” he retorted, his full composure far from regained. “Very un-princess-like.”
“And yet you followed me in, regardless. You must have known I’d set fire to the building.”
“Of course!” he cracked. “I was just… testing you.”
“Did I pass?”
“Let’s see. On a scale of one to ten, ten being stone-shirt-crazy…” Sokka feigned mental calculations as he slowly reached for the hilt of his black-bladed jian. The barn groaned, its wooden joints and bones complained, and the structure collapsed in on itself. Some of the flames leapt, flared, and dissipated in the encroaching darkness. A billowing cloud of black smoke, like a giant capped fungus, rose from the smoldering wreckage and the light continued to dim.
“You know what, Azula?” Sokka snickered. “I’d say you’ve earned extra credit.” The barn pyres died down and, when he thought the shadows were at their darkest, he turned on a heel and sprinted away. The tiny fires in the charred heap of remains sprang back to life and washed the tree dotted plain with yellow light once more. A wall of blue flames jumped toward the sky, bringing the burnished warrior’s frantic escape skidding to a halt. He turned and the Fire Princess was almost upon him, her flaming talons streaking toward his head.
Reflexively, he drew his sword, smelted from sable star-stuff, and slashed at his foe. She tilted, deftly dodging the shadowy steel and stabbed a lance of flame at his liver. Sokka was already rolling forward with the momentum of his downward cut, so the fiery jab only singed his back a little more than it already was. Coming out of the roll, the wolfen warrior swept his blade at Azula’s ankle, but it lifted inches before being sliced and came back down, blazing blue, exploding as she slammed it back into the ground.
Sokka narrowly escaped the blast, though he felt he may have lost an eyebrow in the process. There was no time to check because a streak of flame was shooting toward his face. He dropped to the ground and snatched up a hand full of dirt, which he then tossed at his sneering adversary’s eyes while screaming a high-pitched battle cry. He was a lot farther away from her than he thought. The cloud of dust lost momentum halfway to its target and hung in the air for a comical second before dissipating entirely.
Azula, who was visibly enjoying herself, burst out in maniacal laughter and kindled a ring of cerulean flames around both of them. Sokka had nowhere to run. The heat and mortal terror prompted tides of perspiration to stream from his brow. She was going to burn him to death while she laughed. He always knew that he’d go out on a laugh, though his hope had always been that he’d be the one laughing.
The demonic Fire Princess cocked her hand back to deliver the final blow. A broad hand came from the darkness behind her and clamped like iron around her poised wrist. Another arm wrapped around her body and lifted her into the air. The ring of fire quickly subsided. The universe had once again saved Sokka’s lean bacon from becoming extra crispy. That was the last thought running through his head before a stiff blow from a blunt object knocked him into dreamless darkness.

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A furious female voice roused him. “I’m only going to give you one chance to free me.”
“Another ‘one chance,’ ya mean?” teased a muscular bearded man who looked like he was one flex away from bursting every stitch on his tattered black vest and shorts. Sokka’s groggy haze quickly cleared to the aria of Azula’s vehemence.
“Your nethers will roast in the sapphire torches of my fury! I will see your limbs scattered to the winds, your sinews flayed fiber by fiber!”
“Stop screechin’ all that unpleasantness, down there!” yelled a voice from atop the wood paneled roof.
“You heard the captain,” grumbled the man. “No more unpleasantness.” With that last command, he left Sokka alone with the steaming Firebender. The room was cramped, made from slightly damp wood, and lit by a couple oil lamps hanging from the ceiling. There was a lingering scent of sea salt. Shelves crammed with all sorts of colorful knickknacks and jars surrounded them. There were white porcelain teapots emblazoned with circuitous illustrations of exotic animals, stout statuettes of stalwart figures clothed in scintillating jewels, spools of shimmering red and gold and indigo silk thread, carpets that captured in their stitching grappling dragons and swirling waves and torrents of flame. And the room felt like it was all moving, rocking. A droplet dripped on the back of Sokka’s neck and it hit him. All the pieces added up to one conclusion. He had been captured by pirates!
Another, infinitely more terrifying realization dawned on him an instant later: he was chained back to back and hip to hip… to Azula!! All other questions fell away in light of this fact. Why? Well, shackling two prisoners together makes it much more difficult for either of them to escape. Especially if they’re chained without much slack and to the Oh man! Chained to Azula! Why universe? Why? He felt his chances for survival dwindle to infinitesimal at best.
After about a minute, he finally started breathing again, though as shallow as possible to avoid contact with the Firebender he was bound to. At least there was some length to the chains and the two of them weren’t bound at the neck. She twitched and he felt her back almost touch his. He leaned forward.
A few more moments passed in excruciatingly uncomfortable silence. The panic left the Water Tribe warrior and was replaced by a need to be free of the situation and, most importantly, his attachment to angry-fire-incarnate. As hard as he wracked his brain, his plotting always landed him in the same awkward position: he needed to work with her to escape. It wasn’t a pleasant notion, but, in order to get out of all this, first he had to get Azula to play nice.
Sokka turned his head a bit to speak with the female furnace. “I think I might upgrade your loony ranking to soup-shirt-crazy.” He felt the words dribble out of his mouth, but he just couldn’t stop them, all the while mentally face-palming himself again and again.
“How about I upgrade you living ranking to stone dead?” she seethed, turning on her fellow captive with steady malevolence.
“Okay, I am really not cool with hostility this close to my sensitive self. Maybe we should just calm down. And by ‘we’ I mean you.” This time he really face-palmed himself. His chains jangled as if mocking his persistent sarcasm.
Azula growled. “I’ll calm down while I bask in the glow those cretins’ impromptu funeral pyres.”
“See, that kind of approach isn’t going to get a positive response.” Another burly specimen of manhood came down into the hold. He glanced at the two prisoners. His angular face was illustrated with coiling crimson serpents covered in blazing scales.
“This is how you do it,” Sokka whispered to his unpleasant shackle-mate. “Hey, my man. Nice ink. Thinkin’ of getting a tat across my… whole face, too. Right, well… look, I was thinking. You just want her, right? I mean, come on, I’m just a Wa…orthless colonial, here in the Fire Nation. Well, not worthless, I mean, I’ve got my talents, but there’s no money in me, see what I’m saying? Of course ya do, you’re an intelligent, free enterprising guy. So, I guess you can just uncuff me and send me on my way.”
The dragons on the man’s face lowered their howling maws as he furrowed his brow. “Maybe later,” he said with a very clean timbre. “Wouldn’t want the word getting out that we’ve got the Fire Princess hostage. It’s quite the bounty to reap and we’re not too keen on competition.”
“I completely and totally understand,” Sokka concurred. “Who wants somebody muscling in on your action? You worked hard to get this valuable prisoner and no one should be around to interfere with that.”
“Then you understand why we can’t let you go.”
“Of course. Hey, ya know, if there’s any other way I can help - swab the deck, clean up after the flying newt, plot a steady course - anything at all, I’m your man.”
“You like fishing?”
“I am an excellent fisherman. One time, I caught a fish this big. Actually, if you loosen this chain, I can show you just how big,” Sokka grinned, going for the long shot.
“I’ll take your word that it was ‘big.’” Then the man seemed to concoct an idea in the hollows beneath the two writhing, red serpents. “I was just wondering--”
“How many fish I can catch for you?” the red clad warrior eagerly interrupted. “Well, give me a pole and let’s find out.”
“I wonder how much chum we could get out of a good fisherman like you. Bait bucket’s getting a little light.”
Azula sniggered and Sokka blanched, turning almost as pale as Aang. “Ah, you know what?” Sokka gulped. “I exaggerated. The big fish was more like a minnow, really.”
“Aren’t they all?” The man with dragons dueling on his face turned to leave.
“Your powers of persuasion are stupefying,” snarked Azula.
Sokka ignored her. He had one more trick up his sleeve. “Hey, look! My chain’s loose! I mean, wow, this certainly is some sturdy craftsmanship! I can’t imagine anyone slipping these shackles!”
The pirate stopped ascending the stairs exiting the hold/brig and sighed heavily. “Even if that chain isn’t loose, I’m still gonna tighten it.” He pulled out a ring of keys as he approached the two prisoners.
Sokka was ready to make his move. Unfortunately, Azula moved first, leaping at the tattooed man, which caused the unprepared warrior to fall flailing to the floor, bringing the preemptive Fire Princess down on top of him in a tangled mess of chains and limbs.
The pirate didn’t laugh at the slapstick. He just calmly pulled a stout black club from his belt and gave the reeling Fire Princess a swift and powerful blow to the head. She went out like a candle. Sokka screamed in protest of the violent action, but an instant later received the same treatment. The pirate was nothing if not equal opportunity.

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Sokka’s consciousness flooded back into him for the second time tonight. He was still in the same place, still in the swag constipated bowl of a ship, still chained to one of his mortal enemies… except now they were facing each other!! He restrained his urge to climb backwards up the wall like a startled gecko, assuring himself that she wouldn’t get any farther away.
Azula was still unconscious. He noticed a tiny trail of blood had trickled halfway down her forehead. He didn’t try to sit up, seeing as how that would pull up the young woman chained to him like a half-strung marionette. He just lay there plotting his escape in silence, finding his gaze occasionally distracted by his slumbering company. She really did have a singular… look about her. Her face glowed like the snow-capped summit of a sleeping volcano, all the molten wrath beneath subdued and calmed. Her silken obsidian tresses fell just to her strong shoulders. He had never seen her hair let down. She almost looked like Suki.
A faint whimper passed her lips as she slowly regained consciousness. When the world came into focus, her eyes went wide and her pupils shrank.
“Yeah, we’re stuck like this,” Sokka preempted what he anticipated would be a howl of disgust. “Let’s just sit up and calmly try and figure this out.”
They rose as one and sat on their knees for a few minutes without speaking or making eye contact. It was unnerving for both of them: everything about the situation. The utter helplessness of it. Being manhandled and treated like chattel, like objects worth only what ransom they might bring to their captors.
“Your head alright?” Sokka finally ventured, still avoiding eye contact. “You bled a little after he hit you.”
“Really?” she said, not too surprised. Her head was throbbing. “I should return the favor, I suppose. I’m used to it anyway.”
“What? Because you’re always fighting?”
“No.”
“Well, what then? Is getting hit just like family fun-time for… you.”
Azula’s silence was more telling than all the scrolls ever penned.
For once, Sokka felt truly ashamed of one of his quips. He felt ashamed of himself. He wished he could take it back, even if it was true, he wished he could take it all back, for her sake. “I’m sorry,” was all he could say, all he could do.
“Oh, don’t get all sentimental on me,” she huffed. “So my father beats me. A few blows make for strong, resilient stock. It discourages imperfections, leaves room only for greatness.”
“Come on. You know better than that. You’re too smart. It’s wrong. I mean, nobody deserves that kind of treatment, especially from their own dad.”
“Ah, so you got love and compassion from your father, then?”
“Yes.”
At that single, resounding word, Azula’s golden eyes met Sokka’s deep blue ones: two pale moonstones set floating on a sea of tranquil and singular life. In Azula’s experience, people were like torches, blazing away until they whiffed out. They radiated their pitiful existence, their light showing her nothing special, nothing of herself. Seldom did other people’s faces take of her and throw back her own captivated expression, her own innermost trembling want.
“Everyone deserves love and compassion,” Sokka said.
Azula couldn’t help herself. It was like an irresistible tidal force and she let the undertow pull her out into the ocean. She pressed her soft lips against his. Sokka accepted it for a blissful moment, then his sanity screamed at his lulled brain and he leapt to his feet, yanking Azula up with him.
“Okay, that blow to my head was a lot harder than I thought,” he laughed weakly.
Her stare was confused and almost hurt. Isn’t that what he wanted? Sokka asked himself the same question. It wasn’t right, fraternizing with the enemy, not to mention he had a girlfriend, Suki, remember? The girl whom he loved with all his heart and soul! But at the moment, those two shimmering eyes like pools of liquid gold, that raven hair, that face (and body!) like sculpted marble with all the hardness softened to warm seal down, those lips like twin hearts from plush strawberries, he couldn’t help himself.
He lifted the chain connecting his wrists over Azula’s head. She had already done the same. He took his dark-brown fingers, reached around her head and pulled the hair from her cheek. Her breath rose and mingled with his, like sun-drenched desert air following a decade-long monsoon. Sokka placed his firm hand on the small of Azula’s warm back and pulled her hips to his. She shuddered. Their lips almost touched and then… they kissed and drank in every sumptuous instant as their tongues coiled and writhed, their hearts pounded at blazing speed, and their skin cooked in a slather of passion.
Their world rocked as the boat lurched to the side, Azula having to rely on Sokka to catch her because her foot had spontaneously levitated, limiting her balance.
“Some kiss!” Sokka exclaimed. “Wait, that’s just silly. We must be under attack!” The boat tilted again and a commotion of screams and water confirmed the wolfen warrior’s assumption.
Azula pushed him as far back as possible and two blue blazes kindled in her palms. They encircled her hands before she struck down and snap-melted the metal links that joined the two prisoners at the hip. The metal girdles still wound round them like inflexible belts, but they were separated; they were free of each other.
“Why didn’t you do that in the first place!?” Sokka shrieked.
In one fluid motion, the Firebender lifted a leg, chopped the restraining chain as her foot rose above her head, and stomped the chain binding Sokka’s feet in twain. “Less whining! More escaping!” she yelled.
He didn’t need to be told twice. Hands still bound he burst out of the ships hold and into a maelstrom of water, wind, harpoons and general disarray. He clamored across the deck and heard the familiar trumpet of the great six legged beast, his flying furry friend, Appa. Before he could look up to confirm, an immense arm of water rose from the river that the schooner was floating, wrapped around Sokka, and whipped him skyward. He reached the zenith of the toss and then felt himself starting to freefall. His limbs flailed, he screamed in mortal terror and just before he crashed back down on the ships deck, he landed on something solid, but he didn’t splat against it. It was the floor of Appa’s saddle. Finally, he was safe.
But something was missing. Someone.
As the levitating behemoth circled around and flew off dodging harpoons, a menace could be heard rising from the hollow depths of the ship.
“I think it’s time I made good on all that unpleasantness I was screechin’,” dripped Azula with sly delight. She walked up to the pirates, her hands unbound, acting as stages for a ballet of undulating sapphire flames. The pirates had stopped and were looking at her, not with terror, but with unease.
“Heh! Alright, they’re gone,” said the man with the beard and the tight shorts. “You can cool it, now. Princess?” The flames grew larger. The air around her began to quiver with heat. “That’s not funny,” said the man, panic lacing his tone.
“Really?” chirped Azula, lowering her hands and letting her blazes die. “Perhaps you need a better sense of humor.” She looked up at the still, star-dusted night sky. “Sad he’s gone. He could have really taught you a thing or two.”
“We’re not here to get our funny bones tuned. We’re here to get paid.”
“Serving your country, your princess, isn’t reward enough?” Their collective silence betrayed their intent. The Fire Princess sighed heavily, thoroughly unamused and unsurprised by the rough dozen or so men. “The rest of your payment is waiting down river, along with my escort back to the palace. Well played, gentlemen. It was quite the convincing performance.” She almost clapped, but decided against it.
“Well, it’s been a real treat serving our country,” said the burly, bearded pirate.
“Oh, and one more thing. You, the one who struck me.” Azula approached the now nervous man with the crimson dragons jostling over his angular countenance. She noted that, underneath all that garish ink, he looked something like her father. “That was very good of you. It really embellished the illusion that you had indeed captured me and cared for nothing but the money that my body would bring you.”
He relaxed a bit and stammered, “It was just, uh, quick thinking, princess.”
“Yes, I know a quick thinker when I see one.” She smiled a crooked smile. The dragon man smiled back, his dragons bleeding sweat. “Think fast.”
Miles away, birds took flight from their undisturbed forest perches, startled by the most blood churning scream of horror and pain ever heard by the ears of man or beast.

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When Sokka’s sister had finished berating him for going off on his own for some untold, inconceivable reason, she and Aang went off to catch some sleep. They didn’t care that the sun was painting the horizon in preparation for its luminous daily debut. Spending all night tracking down those pirates to rescue Sokka had exhausted them beyond caring about light. Toph, however, chose this time to have a talk with the still wide awake Water Tribe warrior.
She walked over and wrenched the metal cuffs from his wrists and ankles, but left the metal girdle. The petite blind girl thought it looked cool. Sokka didn’t whine to have it removed, though. He just stood there, swimming far away in unknown oceans of thought, before asking: “What? Do you have some nagging to get in, too?”
Toph was a little stunned by the dark attitude, but not enough to stop her coming right back at him. “That’s sweetness’s thing, and I’d say she laid into you plenty.”
“Well, no more worrying. I’m back and I’m just fine.”
“I don’t worry and I know you’re not fine. Those pirates did something to you.”
“They didn’t do anything… though I think I was about to become bait.” he mumbled, more like his usual self for a brief moment.
Toph shut her eyes and smirked. “So it was Azula that rattled you, then?”
“How did… who said anything about Azula?”
“She did? As we flew away, I heard her make a threat. Crazy like that’s pretty recognizable. So what did she do to you?”
The warrior went grim once again. “Nothing.”
“Sokka, you know I’m not blind. I just see things differently. That means I can understand some things better.”
“Yeah, but you weren’t there. You didn’t feel it and I doubt you’d understand. Anyway, it’s not something I want to… relive.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Yeah,” he said simply, his countenance heavily frowned.
Toph didn’t press any further, but, despite being blind, she could clearly see that Sokka was lying.

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At about the same time, in a pleasant little inn near the river, Mai glowered at the unfolding crimson and jet rose blooms out the window. It wasn’t that she hated roses, though she wasn’t a fan. Her face just didn’t take many other shapes other than apathy and apathetic annoyance. In any case, it was a comfortable state for her. Her comfort was jostled when a pink blur pirouetted into the delicately furnished room.
“How’s the world within you, Mai?” chirped Ty Lee.
“Abysmal, so nothing new,” droned the loosely robed young lady.
“Oh, that’s just more room to fill you with cheer, fill you to the brim,” the pink clad girl said, throwing up her arms to emphasize her last word.
“You seem a lot…”
“Pinker?”
“Sure.”
“Well, I’m just happy Azula made it back from her mission safe and sound. What’s even better is that she seems happy, too.”
“That can’t be good.”
“Of course it’s good. It’s about time she felt really good about something.”
“Speak of the demon,” Mai quipped as Azula entered the room, redressed in her black battle armor, something more comfortable and respectable than common clothing.
“So did you… kiss him?” Ty Lee prodded with her fists raised to her chin in anticipation.
“I did what was necessary to gain his trust or at least his misplaced pity. I sobbed that my daddy hit me and that mommy never loved me and how I was sad with my wretched royal life.”
Ty Lee’s demeanor seemed to dim. “But… none of that’s true… is it?”
“No, of course not, but he doesn’t know that.”
“So you lied to him?”
The princess sighed while she twisted one of her signature dual bangs. “Ty Lee, your naiveté is, more often than not, an invigorating ray of sunshine, but right now, it’s getting a little… bothersome.”
“Azula, you can’t go around playing with peoples’ hearts like that.”
“Can’t I?”
“It’s not right.”
Azula placed her hands on her pouting companion’s shoulders. “Nothing about war is right, Ty Lee. But anything that ensures victory over our adversaries is for the best. Now, go and get some sleep and don’t worry about it anymore.”
The pink young woman regained some of her luster and went off to get some sleep after a long night of staying up worrying.
After the genuine happiness had left the room, Mai spoke. “Sweet words, Azula. How’s the aftertaste? Bitter?”
“It’s all taste to me, Mai.” Azula walked to the open window and fondled one of the roses, awakening in the brightening dawn. “The seed of doubt has been planted. Soon, a rose will blossom in his heart and when next we meet, he’ll hesitate and I will not.”

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Wow! great story from the very talented [link] , thank you so much for writing this!

picture is for the Sokkla-fans- HQ competition

Prompt: Chains

yeah, this was a speedy lil bastard. sokka's really getting into it, holding her hair out of the way, like a gentleman . and look! azula's leg is about to do that pop thing that girls do when they get macked... XD hahahahaaaa

avatar the last airbender and everything attached doesnt belong to me. belongs to someone else...