Night fell over the city of Anje and recent events such as the arrival of the Earth Kingdom army spread through both official criers and rumors passed between citizens.

Both sides, Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, had die-hard loyalists ready to argue which one of them came out on top during the first official meeting of the siege.

Of course, many of those arguments were often both contradictory and in several cases flat out lies.

Rumors spread of how one side or the other had been utterly outmatched by their leader’s skill at diplomacy and resulted in the utter surrender of one of the forces were countered with more rumors about dishonorable ambushes before the two sides even managed to speak that were single handedly defeated by one soldier.

Others spoke of how the city had been traded to one side in exchange for another city along the border and this was all just a play meant to keep the citizens in the dark.

Some citizens were even spreading tales of how the Fire Nation Princess and the Earth Kingdom General had fallen in love at first sight and that neither one of them could bear to harm the other, and that was why no fighting had occurred the first day the Earth Kingdom arrived. Those people were politely encouraged by any nearby guards to keep their mouths shut unless they wanted to repeat their story in front of the princess herself.

-o-

Far outside the city walls, the Earth Kingdom forces had their own rumors going around camp. Many were upset a teenager had forced their general into delaying their siege on the city because she had somehow managed to capture the saboteur group and would likely try drawing out the unofficial ceasefire by releasing the captives in small groups for as long as she could in hopes of receiving reinforcements from another city.

They weren’t too worried, though. Their General was on top of it. He had even split up the recovered prisoners and had them demonstrate their earthbending again out of sight from each other just in case the Royal Fire Brat had tried slipping a spy in somehow.

All of them had passed and none of them showed there were any hard feelings for the suspicion. A couple of them were even chatting amicably with the soldiers that had guarded them earlier. Some about how they managed to get captured, others about what they were planning to do after they captured the city, one of the younger released captives, who’s father worked as a merchant, was even explaining how to spice up their meals while traveling. A couple of the cooking enthusiasts in the army were hanging around him looking for any new tricks they might pick up.

“...wrap the whole thing in banana leaves and place them in the embers of a cookfire.” the young man explained to his crowd. “The leaves give the whole thing a subtle flavor and can even be used to reheat the whole thing later if needed.”

Some of the soldiers made appreciative sounds at the advice. Warm food was always harder to come by during marches (unless you were a firebender) so an easy way to heat food without needing to cook it or keep it warm for a bit longer was a huge hit in the group.

“Man, I can’t wait to try that out.” one of the soldiers commented. “Where did you even learn that, Zhu Wuneng?”

“Dad picked up some travellers obsessed with bananas between cities once. They spent the next five days telling him everything part of a banana tree could possibly be used for and a few things I’m sure they made up.” Zhu Wuneng shrugged. “He refused to even look at a banana for a few weeks after that trip but some of the tips are useful.”

“You meet all kinds of people on the road.” one of the soldiers said sagely. “But the sun's going down and we’ve got watches to cover.”

“Oh, we didn’t hear anything about a night watch rotation…” Zhu Wuneng scratched the back of his head and looked at a couple of his fellow *rescuee’s*. They shrugged back, no one had mentioned it to them either.

“Don’t worry about it.” Another of the soldiers reassured them. “The General doesn’t want to put too much stress on you guys right away. Unlike most of the nobles we run into, he knows you need a bit of downtime to recover after being captured.”

“Huh, that’s nice of him.”

The Earth Kingdom soldiers all smiled widely. “Yep, that’s why he’s the best. He’ll take care of that Fire Brat in no time flat once she’s done hiding behind people.” With that final comment they all walked off, heading to their posts and leaving Zhu Wuneng and his fellow earthbenders behind.

Zhu Wuneng slowly blew out a lungful of air while looking at the sky, hands laced behind his head.

“So General Fong is a good guy, huh?” He muttered. “That kinda sucks. This would be easier if he was a jerk.”

“Getting second thoughts?” One of the infiltrators asked, but Zhu Wuneng shook his head.

“Nah, I just don’t like being the bad guy. Plus, Azura’s counting on us for this. Can’t go letting down the only decent Noble we’ve run across.”

“True. But the good news is, if we pull this off, the army should turn around without a fight.”

“Better make sure we pull this off then.” Zhu Wuneng checked the progress of the sun in the sky and guessed at the time. “Should be a few hours before the signal. We should start getting in place.”

The group gave each other a bit of last minute encouragement and splintered off into the army camp. The general might be a good man who cared about his soldiers and trusted them implicitly, but this time his nature was going to come back to bite him very soon.

-o-

Even after the sun had set, some soldiers could be seen moving around the camp. Most of those were replacements for watch rotations or patrols around camp for troublemakers or to stop any fights between comrades, which really meant keeping an eye out for the few that had too much to drink and keeping them from hurting themselves.

A couple more could be seen heading to the mid-sized stream that ran westward towards Anje before turning south and disappearing into the thick forest bordering the city. Usually it was to fetch water for the various animals the army had brought with them, but others took advantage of the running water to wash themselves after moving around all day.

One group of five, however, took great care to make it to the bank of the stream while attracting as little attention as possible. They managed it easy enough, all the soldiers in the camp were looking for outside threats, not a group leaving their own camp.

Each member lined up along the bank and sunk into a low stance. As one they drew their arms back before crouching even lower, then suddenly surging upwards. Five simple stone pathways rose from the bottom of the stream and extended all the way to the other shore. A shuttered lantern was produced and three quick flashes of light later, several dark shapes started filtering out of the forest.

“No one spotted you?”

“If they did, they didn’t raise an alarm.”

“Good, then let’s begin. For the Fire Nation.”

“For Princess Azura.”

-o-

The attack caught the camp completely by surprise.

General Fong had posted watchers all along the perimeter but had left the side covered by the stream mostly unguarded, trusting the thick woods and the current to make any late night crossings impossible. Under normal circumstances he might’ve even been right. But with the aid of a handful of bridges made by Azura’s earthbenders, her firebender troops were able to cross undetected and unopposed.

They torched the supply carts first. Weeks worth of food was burned to ash in minutes. The Earth Kingdom soldiers did their best to haul the carts closer to the stream, but the axles were all mysteriously broken and some of the carts were crushed accidentally when several teams tried earthbending them closer.

Tents were next, not that anyone was asleep for long after the attack started, but a good amount of personal belongings were destroyed. Not all though. Several soldiers ignored the attackers in favor of protecting certain items like maps or blankets.

And finally the firebenders reached the temporary stables. The attackers freed every ostrich horse they could and stoked them all into a frenzy by waving a good amount of fire in front of them. The animals panicked and trampled their way through what used to be the Army Camp before they scattered into the surrounding landscape.

By the time General Fong and his officers managed to gain a small amount of control, the Fire Nation troops and their infiltrators had all retreated back across the stream and removed any sign of their crossing, like they were never there…