The Fire Nation

The monotonous tone of the foghorn sounded from above as a thick veil of smog descended upon the archipelago that came to be known as the Fire Nation. A single ship chugged on in the murky waters, leaving a trail of foam in its wake as the waves relentlessly attacked the hull from either side. Jian peered over the edge, squinting in a fruitless attempt to see any farther. What had the colonel said again? Ah yes. If his memory served him well, the old man had decided to bring a small force of trainees and foot soldiers with him in order to look for some important official that had gone missing in a covert operation in the Earth Kingdom. It seemed like they hadn't taken too kindly to his small trip or that he had simply 'legged it' as a fellow trainee had piped up, expressing what everyone in the room had on their mind at the time.

It was no secret that the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom were on unstable terms.

Whilst the four nations seemed at peace to any other civilian, anyone from the army like Jian himself could almost see the tension between the world powers rising as technology developed more and more by the day. Rumors spread around the fortress he had been stationed at like wild fire, of course, none of them were ever sourced and proven to be true but the very thought of them sent the forces into a state of unrest and anxiety. And here he was, leaving the mainland that he had never once stepped foot off for "enemy" territory. He could almost laugh. His own father had died on foreign soil but orders were orders, right? Technically, they weren't even on official duty, their expedition was marked as a small holiday of sorts in the official records so they weren't allowed to bring their usual uniform and armour. With a sigh, he shifted his weight back to his feet and made to move inside. There was still a couple of hours until they docked and went their separate ways, a short nap wouldn't do him any harm before he was made to invest his energy into looking for a man he had no interest in with nothing but a rough description and a hastily sketched portrait.