Danev

It was night now, but the day had only begun. And we were down to 2. I had sent Za'ik to the Fire Nation lines to give them our plan of attack. They'd have to be ready. The minute the Earth Kingdom's artillery turned on each other, we would need our tanks storming over their trenches, securing as much ground as possible

Zonda and I had split up. Zonda would go to the outskirt artillery camp, grab the commander's seal and a messenger pigeon and forge a message to the camp I was infiltrating, where I was set to do the same, but send the false orders to his camp. I had set the time for us to send the pigeons at exactly midnight.

Hopefully, even, if only one of us succeeded, receiving artillery fire, the other camp would return fire, and we'd still be able to get done what needed to be done.

I was wearing my Earth Kingdom uniform now. I was past their trenches and in the belly of the beast. Luckily for me, most of the personnel there was either artillery gunners or guards who weren't fit enough to be on the front lines.

Getting past them was the easy part. Then was the Commander's tent. I had no idea who was leading Earth Kingdom forces out here, but it shouldn't matter. I just needed his seal.

I checked the time on my pocket watch. 11:37. I had time. That was one thing I had come to appreciate about the Fire Nation over any other nation. A proper way of keeping track of time. I had no idea what means the Earth Kingdom used, but the Fire Nation, I knew for sure, did it, and did it right.

I moved over within earshot of the command tent, guarded by two far more competent looking Earth Kingdom guards, and I made myself looking busy, arranging spears, swords, and shields on a weapons rack that I carried a small way closer to the command tent to be closer within earshot.

So I stood there, rearranging weapons that were already perfectly arranged, undoing its work in a style that honestly made me feel quite guilty, as I listened to whatever I could, not knowing exactly what that was, but 5 minutes later, I got my answer, just as they were leaving the tent.

"General How tells us the middle district's soldiers are on the retreat. Fires are being started by protestors and we have orders to prepare a retreat to the wall if necessary and reroute are troops to the defense of the inner district."

"That's not possible. Go into my tent and send him a letter saying I cannot leave. I have a plan to destroy the Fire Nation lines and I will not abandon the Earth Kingdom citizens living in the outer district."

"Yes sir. Where are you going?"

"To take a piss. Now leave me alone."

"Yes sir."

The squire entered his master's tent and left around 2 minutes later with a parchment in hand. I tracked the direction he was going in a round the rookery for the messenger pigeons. Perfect.

I walked casually to the other side of the camp, behind it and out of view of its guards. I attempted to lift the bottom of the tent, but it was strongly secured to the ground. Fine. I took out my knife and began cutting a hole at the bottom of it, big enough for me to crawl through when I heard behind me "What are you doing, private?'

Fuck. "Oh. I'm-. I saw a big scorpion fly on the side of the tent and I'm trying to kill it."

"With a dagger?"

"I-uh." I threw the knife at him, merely hoping to surprise him, but to my surprise, in my first ever attempt to throw a knife, much more with the aim of hitting and killing someone, it struck gold straight between his eyes, sending him to the ground without a sound other than that of his body hitting the ground.

And then, in the span of 1 minute, I secured my knife, I finished my hole in the tent, crawled through, found the seal freshly used on the desk, grabbed it, came out, secured the body, dragged it to the weapons rack to an upturned spear, and positioned his body with his hear coming in direct contact with a spear about his height to make it look like he'd tripped and fallen on it.

They'd believe that, right?

I hurried back into the tent, remembering my last job, going through the crawl hole, grabbing the nearest piece of parchment, setting it on the desk, scribbling as fast as possible:

"Camp under attack from Fire Nation. We are overwhelmed. Fire on our coordinates ASAP. Friendly casualties acceptable."

I sealed it, making sure it looked as realistic as possible of the General of a camp under attack, and I set down the writing material as quick as I could, exited the tent again through the same hole, closed it as best as I could with some tape I had on me and made my way to the rookery, looking at the letter in my hand, making sure it looked official as possible when I finally got to that rookery, passing the same squire, and grabbed the nearest pigeon already trained to fly to what was labeled as "Artillery camp 2."

At least I hoped that was the right camp. I checked my pocket watch. 11:57. 3 more minutes. I grabbed the pigeon, not attaching the message just yet, but stuffing it into my jacket pocket as I looked for the nearest thing to blow up and start a panic. And I saw it, a stockpile of blasting jelly.

I decided to do one last thing, to cripple as much of their communications as possible, and, despite my love of the animals, took out a match and set it down on the straw below the rookery, knowing it would light up soon, bringing the camp to life with the sound of screaming pigeons.

It was close enough to time now. I put the message in the pigeon's bag behind it, and set it loose, watching it fly to make sure it went in the right direction. And thank Raava it did, to the Northeast, right towards my target.

The fire had now begun to spread, and the birds began making their noise. The camp was springing to life and I had one last target. I was running now, matching the speed of the rest of the camp, lighting my last match. I ran past the stockpile and threw the match directly at the nearest barrel, throwing my knife alongside it to get some of the jelly falling out as quick as possible and ran just as quickly, but not fast enough to escape it.

I felt myself carried by the impact of the blast and was on the ground a second later, still alive, but the world on fire around me.

It worked.