You're getting ahead of the story. It's not going to make sense if I tell it out of order.
[She pauses for a moment to properly backtrack.]
The fleet was led by Admiral Zhao. He'd been pursuing us for months, trying to get Aang. Zuko wasn't with him. I'm not sure of the details, but I think that Zhao wanted to make it so that Zuko could never go home again. [Frown.] He wanted the honor of capturing the Avatar himself. But he came prepared. I think that he was the one that Wan Shi Tong said had burned down the Fire Nation section in the library, and he was the one who discovered the hiding place of the moon and ocean spirits.
[She pauses to glance down for a moment, and then she continues.] We managed to hold them off for the first day. They wouldn't attack us at night, knowing that our power increased with the moon. Aang must have destroyed dozens of ships, but... there were still so many out there. It didn't look good.
We decided to try and contact the spirits. Yue took us to the most sacred place in the North Pole so that Aang could meditate there. It was an Oasis. [A quick smile.] You would have loved it, Toph. It was the most amazing thing. Real dirt, real earth, warmth and growing things in the middle of the North Pole. Aang meditated, and I was going to stay there to guard him.
[Her expression and tone once again takes on shadows of loss.] That's when Zuko showed up. How he got there, I don't know. We fought, Yue ran to get help, and I won. Or at least, I thought I did. I had him trapped, iced to a wall... but then the sun rose. He attacked me when my back was turned. He took Aang.
[Her hands clench.] We went after them. There was a blizzard outside, and by the time we found them and brought them back to the city, Zhao had found the Oasis.
action;
[She pauses for a moment to properly backtrack.]
The fleet was led by Admiral Zhao. He'd been pursuing us for months, trying to get Aang. Zuko wasn't with him. I'm not sure of the details, but I think that Zhao wanted to make it so that Zuko could never go home again. [Frown.] He wanted the honor of capturing the Avatar himself. But he came prepared. I think that he was the one that Wan Shi Tong said had burned down the Fire Nation section in the library, and he was the one who discovered the hiding place of the moon and ocean spirits.
[She pauses to glance down for a moment, and then she continues.] We managed to hold them off for the first day. They wouldn't attack us at night, knowing that our power increased with the moon. Aang must have destroyed dozens of ships, but... there were still so many out there. It didn't look good.
We decided to try and contact the spirits. Yue took us to the most sacred place in the North Pole so that Aang could meditate there. It was an Oasis. [A quick smile.] You would have loved it, Toph. It was the most amazing thing. Real dirt, real earth, warmth and growing things in the middle of the North Pole. Aang meditated, and I was going to stay there to guard him.
[Her expression and tone once again takes on shadows of loss.] That's when Zuko showed up. How he got there, I don't know. We fought, Yue ran to get help, and I won. Or at least, I thought I did. I had him trapped, iced to a wall... but then the sun rose. He attacked me when my back was turned. He took Aang.
[Her hands clench.] We went after them. There was a blizzard outside, and by the time we found them and brought them back to the city, Zhao had found the Oasis.