Start at the very beginning

With extreme care, Hal closed the door of the small house he shared with his brother behind him. There he paused, eyes peeled for any movement and listening carefully from any noise both from within the house and from the streets around him. When there didn’t seem to be any, he exhaled slowly. Sneaking out of the house hadn’t been this difficult a few months ago, before the Fire Nation decided Gaoling would make a nice trophy. Back then, there had only been Max to consider, who could be a light sleeper at times. Now, Hal had to consider both Max and the Fire Nation soldiers out on patrol. Under current circumstances, he normally wouldn’t have thought of leaving his house, but he had somewhere to be.

As ironic as it might seem, late evenings and early nights were the only time when it was more or less safe to meet with the few members of the resistance that were living in Gaoling. Hal didn’t know whether it was the Fire Nation’s arrogance that they had never been caught, but the soldiers on patrol seemed content to stick to the streets. None of them ever checked the buildings. If he was honest, Hal didn’t very much care for the reason why; al he cared about was that it enabled them to conduct their business without too much fuss. Once they were off the streets, they were more or less safe.

Actually getting to their meeting place was a challenge with more than a few close calls, but Hal stuck to the shadows, flattening himself against walls and wedging himself in between buildings whenever a Fire Nation patrol came too close for comfort. Though his heart was pounding with excitement, he managed to arrive at the meeting point in one piece. He slipped into the building – an abandoned apothecary without a roof or doors in what had once been a booming part of the city but now housed Gaoling’s poorest – with another careful look around. While he entered, he nodded at the man perched on top of the front wall, almost completely hidden from view in his dark clothes. The man served as their lookout, warning them of any approaching Fire Nation soldiers.

The inside of the building was filled with the soft whispers of roughly sixteen people, who looked up as one when Hal entered. Once they recognised him, they immediately relaxed and beckoned him over. Hal took a seat next to a woman he knew, vaguely, from the mines. “Is that everyone?” he whispered, counting heads. Upon receiving several nods, Hal relaxed. “Okay,” he said, leaning forward so that he could peer at the map that was spread out on the floor, lit by several candles. “Where are we at?” One of the men spoke up, pointing at several points on the map and relating what information he had on the area. Hal listened silently, brow furrowed in concentration.

Things weren’t well – which he had expected, but it was still disconcerting to hear. The Fire Nation was making its move in various locations, Gaoling being only one of them, and the members of the resistance, while increasing steadily in number, were still too few to make a huge difference. They still hadn’t worked out how to drive the Fire Nation from Gaoling, or if they even could. They still hadn’t found a way to release the members of the previous resistance – Hal’s father among them – from Boiling Rock, which was a setback. Considering their current numbers, they could have used the boost in members the old resistance could provide.

They hadn’t, in short, made any progress since the last meeting two weeks ago. Hal sighed and sat back, thinking things over while the other resistance members came up with suggestions that were shot down just as quickly because they were either too dangerous or impossible to achieve with their current numbers. Hal listened quietly and said nothing. He was one of the youngest members of the resistance and while he knew every man counted, he also knew that he was the last person who should take the lead in discussions. Not when he didn’t have anything good to add, anyway.

Suddenly, there was a sharp whistle from above them and conversation immediately ceased. The seventeen men and women crammed together into the small room looked at each other with wide eyes, suddenly tense, as they waited for more whistles – one for each Fire Nation soldier approaching. But there were no other whistles, just the one. Slowly, some people rose to their feet, quietly reaching for their weapons or readying their stance to earth bend. No one moved until Hal took a cautious step forward, one hand around the kukri tucked into his belt behind his back. He held up a hand to stop the others. Out of all of them, he looked the most malnourished; if it was a Fire Nation soldier on the other side of the wall, perhaps he could convince them he was homeless and had been sleeping rough in the apothecary.

Taking a deep breath to calm his racing heart, he moved to the doorway, halting there, fully prepared to face a Fire Nation soldier in full armour, fire at their fingertips – and instead came face to face with a girl who very much did not look like a typical Fire Nation soldier. The sight threw Hal for a loop. He blinked, his hand loosening slightly around his kukri. “Can I help you?” he asked slowly, looking the girl over.