Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender, or any of its content.

Setting: Directly after the previous chapter.

They refused to look at each other. Zuko focused on a nearby weed. Azula had once told him that if you stared at something flammable long enough, it would catch fire. He had, of course, given up on that theory by the time he'd reached the age of ten, but he still concentrated on the plant. Concentrating on something helped to control anger.

Presently Sokka said, "Well . . . we could try the river."

"Why would we try the river?" Zuko demanded crossly. "It only leads away from the temple, and besides, you've gotten us into enough trouble for one day."

"Well, I'm going to try to get us out of trouble." Sokka marched towards the water with as much dignity as he could muster while being both covered in and hindered by mud. Sokka called behind him, "The river has to lead back into the temple somewhere, doesn't it?" He began to tug at a large log that had washed up on shore.

Zuko bit his tongue to keep from saying anything too rash and helped pull the log free of the mud. Straddling one log in the water was hard enough for one person, let alone two, so they searched along the bank for another one. Eventually they found one that was much smaller, but would get the job done. They didn't have any rope, so they undid the sashes to their tunics and used them to bind the logs together. When they were done they pushed them out into the river.

The river did not move quickly at all and really did nothing more than lap at their clothing. They mounted the log, straddling it as they would an ostrich-horse, and waited for the current to pick it up. It did, almost immediately, but they moved down the river about as quickly as one might on land at a leisurely walk. Maybe.

The day dragged on. More than once Zuko tried to speed the logs' progress by kicking out in the water. Each time he failed, but it relieved some of his frustration to at least try to do something.

The silence was deafening. It was as if nothing lived at the bottom. No wind stirred, and there no leaves to stir. The sky wasn't visible; it was blocked by the clouds of misty vapor. The water was brown and murky. It was so shallow in this part of the river that the tips of his boots brushed the bottom as the log moved. He pulled them up in the hopes that it might speed up their progress if they didn't drag so much. It didn't help.

"I blame you," Zuko declared. He wasn't sure why hesaid it. It just slipped out; he hadn't wanted to make conversation and had actually welcomed the silence, but he accidentally lost hold of his tongue and broke the spell.

"How is this my fault?" Sokka demanded.

"You and your virtues got us down here in the first place," Zuko growled.

Sokka ignored him. "I wonder if Combustion Man is down here somewhere?"

"He's dead," Zuko said firmly. "No one could have survived that fall."

He turned away from Sokka guiltily. He kept trying to tell himself that "Combustion Man" would have tried to kill Aang even if he hadn't sent the man after the group. But because it had been Zuko who had hired him, it was Zuko's fault that he had come after the Avatar. It was Zuko's fault he was dead.

"Honestly, I probably wouldn't be surprised if he survived," Sokka said thoughtfully. "He was kind of like you, showing up at the most random moments to kill us."

"Great," Zuko said sarcastically.

The log bobbed sharply as the river seemed to increase in speed. At least they were moving at a noticeable pace now. Zuko leaned to the side to see past Sokka, but the mist was too heavy to see beyond a hundred yards. He furrowed his brow as his eyes fell on the water. The river was wider than it had been, and moving swiftly. It was no longer as muddy as before; the riverbanks were rock rather than muck.

The log pitched again, this time more sharply, as they slid down into some minor rapids. None were violent enough to throw them from the log by any means, but it was beginning to pick up much more speed. Zuko had to grip a branch protruding in front of him as a particular fall sped the log up to twice the speed that they had been going. He turned his back to the other boy to study the rapids—the dips in the river were steeper.

"Sokka," he said slowly without taking his eyes off the rapids, "I think we're—"

Metal fingers gripped his shoulder. Zuko yelped and slipped, falling off the log. The water almost caught him up, but he still had his grip on the branch and used it to haul himself onto the log.

"What was that for?" Zuko spluttered.

Sokka was holding a metal arm, the only bit of Combustion Man that hadn't blown up. Laughing, he wiped tears from his eyes. "Oh, that was great," he chuckled. "So, did you think Combustion Man was after you?"

"That wasn't funny!" Zuko yelled. "Put it back!"

Sokka frowned and examined the metal arm. "Why?"

"Because you're disrespecting a worthy opponent, now put it back!"

Sokka looked like he was about to use it as a back-scratcher, to annoy Zuko further, but he reconsidered at the look on Zuko's face. "All right, all right; I was just joking," he said, putting the arm back into the water. "So, what were you saying?"

Zuko gestured to the rapids. "The river's picking up speed really quickly. Is that a good thing?"

Any amusement vanished from Sokka's face. "Oh." He turned back to face the front of the log and leaned forward, as if that would help him see ahead. "I was so busy trying to catch you off guard, I didn't notice. No, that's not really a good thing. Whenever Katara and I were in rapids like this in the South Pole, we steered out of it as quick as possible."

"What's it mean?" Zuko inquired.

"Well, either harsher rapids ahead, or waterfall."

"WHAT?"

No sooner had Sokka said it than the roar came to their ears. "Yup," Sokka said, "definitely a waterfall."

Sokka wasn't panicking and out of the two of them, Sokka had more experience with these situtations than someone in the Fire Nation. So, Zuko took a deep breath through his nose and asked calmly, "What should we do?"

Sokka pointed ahead. "The water's disturbed there. That piece of land divides the river in two. We already know that this particular stream is going to go over the falls; our only hope is to get the log into that other stream."

Zuko saw what he was talking about. There was a fork in the river, so to speak. He nodded and settled down on the log, balancing himself carefully on his back. Then he shot as much fire as he could muster out of his boots. It was a strain to keep his legs straight while the fire shot out; his muscles contorted and his legs wanted to bend under the force. Sweat broke out as he forced a greater spurt of flame.

Little by little the force of the jets of fire guided the log farther to the side that they were aiming for. "Yeah, that's it!" Sokka shouted excitedly. "There aren't any rapids in this other stream. If you can get us there, we'll be safe!"

Zuko grunted in reply and squeezed his eyes shut, gripping the log while he focused on shooting as many flames out of his feet as he could.

"Keep going," Sokka called. "You're good—you're good—we're gonna make it, just keep it up, we're gonna make it!—we're, we're—we're not gonna make it!"

"Oh, come on!" Zuko yelled in frustration.

"Just push harder!"

"You push!" Zuko retorted, but he focused all his power into a final surge of flame so sudden and powerful that it sent the log skidding into the other current. It flipped over, landing on top of them.

Zuko pulled himself back onto the log and offered a hand to Sokka, who took it. He nearly tipped himself over again in trying to pull the other boy up, but they managed it. The two of them sat there, panting.

This river was still moving swiftly, but had no rapids. The current from which they had come was tumbling over a cliff that was but a few hundred yards away; they could the roar and crashing of the falls.

"Well, that was exciting," Sokka remarked.

Zuko could do nothing but nod. Once he'd finally gulped in enough air to satisfy his lungs, he paid more attention to their new surroundings. The river curved, into a cave in the cliff-side, taking the log and them with it.

The light faded as the river guided them inside. All they could hear was the gurgling of the running water. Zuko held his hand before him and a flame flickered into view. It didn't offer much light, but its warmth was comforting.

"An underground river," Sokka observed in awe. They spoke in whispers. Speaking normally would be too loud; even their lowered voices echoed along the walls. "That still doesn't explain how the water gets from here up to the temple."

"I can't believe you're still focused on that!" Zuko hissed.

The river drifted along quietly for a few minutes. Wolf-bats hung from the ceiling, glaring hungrily at Zuko's light. He dimmed the fire a bit, but the light still caught their eyes and the eyes' glazed, red appearance shown through the dark. Zuko and Sokka shuddered simultaneously.

Presently they heard a steady thrunk, thrunk, thrunk—the kind of sound produced when one submerges a bucket in water, and the water all rushes in. They exchanged curious glances. "Zuko, give us a little more light," Sokka said.

The fire flared up, making one of the nearby wolf-bats growl softly and fidget with its wings. The flame was strong enough to light up most of the cave around them. They were in a huge cavern; the ceiling was so high that they couldn't see it. It was a dead end, but there was a giant waterwheel ahead of them—it was at least two hundred yards in diameter, with hundreds of trough-sized buckets. The river pushed the wheel forward and while it moved, the troughs scooped water up in them. Each trough was then lifted by the wheel and deposited somewhere near the top that they couldn't see.

"Do you reckon we should try it?" Zuko asked.

Sokka shrugged. "Where else would we go?"

They stuck their hands in the water and paddled the log forward, though they didn't need to. The river carried them right under the ancient wheel. Zuko flinched at the great creaks it produced; it amazed him that even though it was powered by water, something so old would still be working after all this time.

One of the troughs came from under them and scooped them up; the bucket was large enough to hold the log. Soon they'd left the river and were in a flying bucket. Zuko looked above him, curious as to where the water went after the wheel. It looked like it was poured out of the troughs at the top, but he couldn't see into what; other troughs were in the way.

Finally it was their turn. The trough above them was emptied of its contents, and their own bucket rose and replaced it. Zuko and Sokka got a shock that they hadn't expected:

Most of the mountain on which the Western Air Temple was placed was hollow.

For a moment Zuko just gaped. A giant cavern lay before them. Like webs, structures crisscrossed all over the cavern in an elaborate sequence of water transportation—it was similar to the way goods were transported in Earth Kingdom cities, like Omashu: with carts that sped through built canals in the city, like a coaster. The difference here was that there were no carts, because the water flowed through the suspended canals of its own accord.

Zuko only had time to utter a single swear before their log tipped into the first of the canals. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" they screamed.

The first canal seemed to go straight down. Zuko's hair was blown back from his face and the wind tore the cry from his throat, so they sped down the structure in silence. At the bottom of that first horrifying hill the canal veered back up, and the sudden change in direction nearly threw them from their seats.

The momentum from the slope carried them up the incline and, to their relief, the canal leveled out for a few yards. "What do you think of your natural virtues now?" Zuko demanded.

"I think they can go hide in a hole and die," Sokka moaned.

The canal dipped again.

It was horrible. By the time they neared the end of the blasted structure Zuko was ready to puke from the feeling of having his heart leap to his throat, Sokka already had puked, and they were so dizzy and waterlogged that they could hardly hold onto the log. Though they didn't know it, the wild structure was designed to lift them higher and higher into the mountain—it did this by using the extra momentum from the falls to go a little higher after each hill. It was difficult to tell that they were escalating because it took so long to do so.

Zuko belched uncomfortably. "How much farther?" he groaned.

Sokka pointed ahead feebly. "One more slope, and then it levels out."

This last one was a monster. The final incline was so great, that the slope needed to gain the speed to complete it was nearly straight up and down. Zuko closed his eyes for this one.

When it was over he couldn't hold it in more, and leaned over the side and threw up.

They decided that the worst was now behind them (nothing could be more awful than that). Now the water was moving slowly. The new canal was small and getting thinner. The squeeze for their log became smaller and smaller until it got stuck. They were forced to step out of it, heave it out of the stream, and trek through the waist-deep water of the aqueduct themselves.

Zuko was shivering and, no matter how many times he tried to summon a flame to warm them, it wasn't effective when they were squirming through cold water. Sokka was too tired to walk and simply leaned back, letting the river carry him. Zuko didn't feel comfortable letting the water take him, so he continued to walk instead. Since Sokka had the river's speed on his side, the distance between them grew greater with every passing minute.

Finally Zuko called, "I think you should wait for me to catch up."

"Why?" Sokka said indignantly. "I'm as old as you are, Princey, and I can fend for myself, thank you."

Zuko rolled his eyes. Right. "I just don't think we should get separated."

"Oh, don't worry about it." Sokka waved him away with his hand. "The canal goes straight so there's no way to get lost." He turned around to confirm this suspicion and was shocked. "There's a dead end . . ."

"What?" Zuko groaned. They couldn't have come all this way for nothing!

Sokka was swimming towards the dead end. "It just ends right—" He was sucked under.

At first Zuko thought Sokka was joking and he got even more aggravated. His second thought was that Sokka had gone underwater to examine the dead end more thoroughly. His third thought was, Come on, a Water Tribe boy can't swim? And finally, his fourth thought was that maybe Sokka was indeed in trouble.

"Sokka?" he called uncertainly. When there was no answer, he swam forward in the water. "Sokka!" he shouted as he reached the dead end, but before he could do anything else he was pulled under as well.

There was a quick sensation of being squeezed through a straw; he was being dragged through a tube so thin that his arms were pinned to his sides. He thought he would suffocate; no light could be seen through the water; all was black; but just as his lungs began screaming for air he was shot out of the tube—

—and straight into the fountain.

Zuko spat the water from his mouth and gasped for air. Sokka was choking up water beside him. Water fell from the fountain as if nothing had happened.

Apparently they had been eating dinner; the group was staring at them with their chopsticks frozen halfway to their mouths. Zuko wondered briefly how ridiculous it had looked to have two boys fall suddenly out of the fountain.

Aang finished his bite, amused. "Where have—"

"Don't ask," Sokka said tiredly, and Zuko groaned and let himself fall back into the water.

A/N: Please review! :)