Title: The Island Of Dr Mori

Author: overlithe

Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender

Summary: Ever wondered where all the hybrid animals in the Avatar world come from? Wonder no more.

Characters/Pairings: OCs; gen, though you can certainly read some femmeslash subtext between the main characters.

Prompt: avatar_500 prompt 038. Road; fanfic100 prompt 002. Middles

Word Count: 498

Rating: K+

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and concepts created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, and owned by Nickelodeon and various other corporations/people. I'm not making any money and do not intend any copyright or trademark infringement.

Author's Note: The title and some of the concepts come from HG Wells' The Island of Dr Moreau, Shi is pretty much a female Igor (from Terry Pratchett's Discworld via countless movies) and there's several references to various mad scientist stories. I've just mixed them together FOR SCIENCE. ;) This is set long, long before the canon's events.

The Island Of Dr Mori

'The rods, Shi! Activate the rods!' Dr Mori yelled from the floor. Shi scrambled up towards the open roof; servant or not, she was always willing to lend a hand, though she supposed it was easier when you had so many spare ones.

The air hummed with lightning. Sparks flew. In the vats, an eerie green liquid boiled over and the air filled with the stench of hot tar, alcohol and, rather inexplicably, boiled cabbage. The machine's jaws opened, disgorging a flow of mucus.

A tiny creature stood up in the spill, shook its damp feathers and shell, and sneezed.

'Alive!' Dr Mori lifted her hands dramatically. It did give the place a certain flair, Shi had to admit. 'It's alive!'

'Jolly good, boss,' Shi said from her perch, then looked over the sloping tiles. 'Oh dear, there's a mob coming this way. Not to worry, though, looks like they're not carrying any torch—no, wait, there they are. Never mind.'

:=:

'Well, here we are on the road again, boss.' Shi adjusted the pack on her back, filled with half of the odds and ends they'd managed to save from the little… misunderstanding with the villagers. The duck-turtle thing scurried after them, pecking at their shoes and occasionally letting out an indignant squawk. 'Fresh air,' Shi added, trying to sound helpful.

Mori just harrumphed in reply. Shi knew she didn't like to be reminded of their first time on the road, after she'd presented her earliest triumph to the scholars assembled under the University's crystal dome: meat, milk, and silk in a single animal!

Things had gone downhill once it started climbing down from its web.

'Don't they see the possibilities?' Mori had said. 'Scientific! Agricultural! Economic! And it's not like the animals suffer. Some of them are even dead to start with! Don't they understand?'

Shi thought that, on the whole, no, they did not.

It didn't really seem fair. Not that she understood all of her boss's little eccentricities, particularly the eight-legged ones, but Mori was a generous and just employer and they'd been together for so long they'd become shaped to each other, like roots pressed together.

Besides, Dr Mori always kept her word, and she had indeed made a new woman out of Shi.

Well, parts of her, anyway.

:=:

'There's an island out there, boss.' Shi had tucked her stitches out of sight so she could talk to some of the fishermen on the shore. Meanwhile, Mori had laid out their rather lean lunch on a handy rock, and the duck thing was napping inside its shell.

'You didn't need to do that, boss.'

'Don't be silly,' Mori said with a faint blush, and immediately looked down to divide a mound of seaweed in two. 'Fair's fair.'

'Fisherman said there's no one out there. Just palm trees and a lot of sea turtles. Sounds good, right?'

'Yes. Good.' Mori looked up, an almost-smile on her lips. 'Let's go make it better.'

++The End++