Hey guys, Happy New Year! A lot of you seemed to be excited for the new chapter of Timeless, so here it is. Consider it a Christmas/New Years gift, cause otherwise I'm broke. Anyway, on with the show:
"What are you doing?' I asked. Zuko looked like he was pondering a set of plants with his hand on his chin. It was dusk, and we were settling in to camp for the night.
"I'm trying to decide if this would be a good ingredient to add to the soup," he answered. I simply cocked an eyebrow at the plant and then at him.
"That's poison ivy." He glared at the plant some more before incinerating it with a blast of fire and muttering under his breath the whole time. You could feel the frustration rolling off of him. He wasn't in his element out here, and it showed.
"If you can't even do the leaves of three thing, you're worse off then I thought," I said as I reached into a saddlebag and grabbed a small circular tin. Zuko plopped down next to the fire and folded his arms as he pouted.
"This is wrong. I am Crown Prince of the Fire Nation, I shouldn't be living off scraps from the road," he said.
"That right there is the kind of mindset you need to get rid of right now if you want to stay alive," I said as I opened the tin and dumped some of the seasonings inside into the metal pot that was suspended over the flames. The young firebender, however, wouldn't give up his grump tantrum so easily.
"I shouldn't have to live like a peasant." I grabbed up a pebble from beside the fire and threw it at him. It impacted him squarely in the forehead and sent him sprawling onto his backside. He wasn't down for long, as he was back up with fire in both his eyes and his fists.
"What did you do that for?!"
"Cause I'm tired of listening to your moaning. Your father cast you out and you are in a foreign land. You complain about having to live like a peasant? Wake up, you ARE a peasant now! The way you are right now no one would give a damn if you lived or died! It's time to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and do things for yourself, not Zuko the Prince, Zuko the person!" I snapped.
"My father…"
"Is a very shit example of the title. He doesn't love you, he doesn't care about you. The only thing you are to him is what you can do for him, and once that's done you're expendable," I interrupted.
"And how would you know?!"
"Because I've been a father," I said solemnly. My sudden change in tone seemed to have gotten his attention, because his anger seemed to melt into a cautious curiosity.
"Been. As in past tense," he stated. It wasn't a question.
"It's a long, sad, and somewhat pathetic tale that I'd rather not go into. My point is, Prince, that fathers are suppose to be examples for what their sons can look up to and become. They don't mark their children, not for any reason," I said, tapping my face just under my eye with the tip of a knife, indicating his scar. He fell into a deep silence at that. Apparently I had given him a lot to think about, because he stayed quiet all throughout the meal and barley touched his food.
"What is your plan for the future?" he finally asked.
"Like what? When the war ends or just what I intend to do later this week?"
"Where are you headed from here? This place, right now," he elaborated.
"I'm hunting someone, a thief. Problem is I don't have a description or an idea as to where they are headed," I answered after some personal debate. It's not like there was anything he could do to sabotage my mission. By this point I was up a creek, but had refused to admit I didn't have a paddle.
"There's a bounty hunter I know, she has this pet that can track someone's sent from long distances. She might be able to help you," Zuko said. Long distance tracking, based on smell alone? Maybe I wasn't without a paddle after all.
"You have my attention," I said.
Zuko and I parted ways with the rising of the morning sun. He was continuing east toward the desert, while I was headed north to find this bounty hunter of his. June, he said her name was. Granted the two hadn't kept in touch, but the Prince gave me her description and an area where she was last known to be operating.
Ordinarily I preferred to work alone. In this line of work, when large sums of money are on the table, it doesn't take long before people are literally stabbing each other in the back. But I was at the end of my rope here. My only other option was to stop at every house, inn, and town along the last known road my target had taken and ask every female present if the hair ribbon I had was there's. I figured my odds of getting shanked were a little less likely if I went with the teaming up approach.
I stopped at a few inns and taverns along the way, asking for the bounty hunter June. Each time I received a distasteful look, directions to another place further north, and a request to personally settle a score with her. By the fourth time, I was starting to get the impression of just what kind of woman June was. Brash, tough, unafraid to throw a punch or break a stool over someone's head.
In other words, she was sounding like my kind of woman.
Finally, I reached a rather large stand alone tavern along the roadside about a full days ride from where I had started. The place was a few stories tall, with holes in the roof and the walls. It would have looked like it was abandoned if not for all the lights inside. A few of the patrons were so piss drunk they couldn't even stand, and had resigned themselves to rolling around in the mud outside. I stepped over them as I made my way inside.
I've seen a lot of bars in my time. Drank several of them dry too. Some places managed to maintain a little class. This place? Not even close. Everyone who wasn't drunk was involved in some kind of gambling game. There were a few scantly clad women serving as dance entertainment. A short fight broke out near the bar, which ended when one of the men involved earthbent his opponent through an already busted window.
Toward the center of the room was a large cluster of people surrounding a man and a woman. The man was rather large, his arms being the size of trees and his belly being large enough to match. It was the woman, however, that caught my attention. She had a fair complexion, with black hair pulled into a top knot. Her clothing was black as well, but the sleeves were open on her upper arms, revealing a swirling red dragon tattoo on her shoulder.
The two of them were involved in a drinking game, based on the empty glasses around them and the ones they were both holding. While the man was swaying in his seat with a lopsided grin on his face, the woman was leaning forward onto the table between them with a sly, confidant smile. I folded my arms and watched as the man leaned back to take a large drink, and kept going, fully falling backwards out of his chair and passing out cold on the floor.
People all around them cheered as the woman stood and held her fist aloft in victory. Several coins, manly copper and silver, found their way onto the table and she was quick to gather them all up for herself. I pushed my way forward, one hand resting on the hilt of my sword while the other stayed close to my coin purse to insure it didn't get snatched.
"You June?" I asked.
"If you're thinking you can drink or arm wrestle me and win, you might as well just hand over all your money now, kid," she said, not even bothering to look away from her money.
"I'm here on business," I said.
"And what sort of business is that?"
"The kind where you stand to make a lot of gold, providing you're the woman I'm looking for," I said. She paused mid count on her coins when she heard the word gold. It was clear her main motivation was money.
"I might be, what's the job and how much does it pay?" she asked.
"Tracking. My employer is wanting the return of someone and the item they stole. Trouble is, only thing I have to go off of is this," I said, holding up the ribbon.
"And the payment?"
"Enough gold to compensate for all expenses, and then some added really fat bonuses if the person is returned unharmed along with the stolen object," I answered. I could tell she was interested. The promise of payment had certainly gotten her attention. There was some hesitation, however, something that didn't sit quite right with her.
"Who's the employer?" she asked. Ah, there it was. She'd noticed that I had neglected to mention an actual amount, and wanted to see who my employer was to find out if they were worth her time. Rather then an answer, I dropped a single dull brass token onto the table. It spun on it's end a few times before falling face up, revealing a flying boar with it's wings stretched upward. At the sight of that, June's eyes went wide with surprise.
"The Beifongs?!"
"That's right. Now, do you have the means to do this job or not?" I asked. June flipped one of her coins into the air and caught it.
"Trust me, pal, you came to the right woman."
"How do I know you're not lying your ass off to make a quick score?" I asked, folding my arms in the process. I didn't like liars and cheats. If I found out she was faking it just to get some gold, I'd cut her left hand off for theft. Not that she needed to know that, or had anything to worry about, providing she was telling the truth.
June finished collecting her money before standing and motioning for me to follow her. Outside, rubbing it's back on a tree like a large dog was a shishu. A massive rat like creature with brown and black fur, huge teeth, and a star like nose, shirshus are rare creatures valued for their ability to track the sent of anything almost anywhere. The venom they produce is also valued for its ability to leave people and creatures paralyzed. Now I knew why June was so good at her job.
"A shirshu," I said with pleasant surprise in my voice.
"Ah, you've seen one before?" June asked as she walked up and began to rub the beast's belly affectionately. The last time I had seen a shirshu was in the court of the Earth King. Not the current one, mind you, a few generations back or so if my memory served me right. The creature and it's rider had served as the King's personal tracker and agent. If the King wanted someone dead, he'd dispatch his rider to hunt down and kill that person.
Taming and training one of these things was a task that took years to accomplish, providing that you didn't get hit with it's tongue and then eaten when it decided to use your face as a snack. Personally I would have rather stuck with ostrich horses. They're way easier to maintain and train then an overgrown mole with no eyes.
"Once. A long time ago," I answered.
"This is Nyla. His nose can track a rat a continent away. Satisfied now, Ronin?" she asked. I looked the creature and his master up and down once more. I would much rather do the job on my own, but I didn't really have any other choice here.
"You'll get paid when I do. We split the profit fifty/fifty, deal?" I said, sticking out my hand to shake. June didn't even look like she bothered to think about it before grabbing my hand and shaking firmly.
"Deal." Taking the ribbon from me, June held it up to the creature's snout. Nyla sniffed it several times before it began to sniff the ground around us. Finally he raised his head, looking in an easterly direction with his teeth bared. Saliva dripped from the sharpened fangs as he let out a snarl like series of breaths.
"The sent is strong, we should move quickly," June said. I readjusted my hat and gave a half grin.
"Let's ride."
Ostrich horses, despite being these rather large and gangly creatures, are surprisingly fast and agile. They're able to maintain a fast and steady pace for hours on end, which was how I was able to keep up with June the whole time. The miles faded away as we raced eastward, Nyla snarling the entire time.
But, every creature has it's limits, and we were forced to stop at a small stream in order to let our mounts rest. We had ridden through most of the night without stopping, and now the morning sun was starting to rise before us. I pulled a few strips of jerky from my pack and passed them to June, who took them and ate them in silence.
"That's quite the sword you got there," she said. This was the first time since we'd left the tavern that either one of us had spoken.
"It serves it's purpose," I said, resting my hand on the hilt lazily. The katana was all black while in it's sheath. Only the guard on the grip, a decorative dragon that wound it's way around the sword's body, was a silver color.
"It must have cost a pretty penny," she said before tearing a strip of dried meat in half with her teeth. I shook my head slightly.
"Didn't cost me a copper piece," I said. She cocked her eyebrow at that.
"Oh, daddy's money then?"
"Nope. Made it myself. Besides, dad was a fisherman, couldn't have afforded a sharpened stick much less something like this," I answered, giving the weapon a good and proud pat. June just rolled her eyes.
"I've met your type before. A young, brash hotshot eager to prove himself. If you aren't careful, kid, the world will chew you up and spit you out like charred gristle," she said. It took every ounce of willpower I had not to laugh. The smile, through, that was impossible to keep off my face. She had absolutely no idea just how wrong everything she had guessed about me was.
"Something funny?" she asked, her eyes flaring with anger. She'd seen the look on my face and thought that I was laughing at her and disregarding her advice. Technically I was, just not for the reasons she thought.
"Yeah, just…something I was reminded of," I said, choosing my words carefully. Not that I was afraid of June, I was confident I could take her in a fight. But fighting her meant running the risk of her calling off her end of the partnership, and that was something I couldn't afford to have happen.
"I'm trying to give you valuable advice, and you're thinking of inside jokes?!" she asked, anger building in her voice.
"There's a lot more to me then what appears, June," I said. She snorted at that.
"That's what all kids say. You'll see soon enough, the world is a rough place that will just keep kicking you when you're down," she said. Now I was starting to get annoyed. I was older then her ancestors, and here she was treating me like I was a fresh face that had left home looking for adventure. Before I realized what was happening, I was face to face with her, my anger barely able to be controlled.
"I've seen more then you can possibly imagine, squirt, lay off with the life lessons," I hissed in warning.
"Or what?" she asked, refusing to back down, "without me, you don't find your target."
"Without me, you don't get paid," I countered. For a moment, it looked like a blood vessel would explode in her temple. Then, she huffed out a sigh and looked down.
"Fighting isn't beneficial for either of us. We should get moving," she said. I gave her a short, crisp nod of agreement, but otherwise kept my jaw clenched. Mounting up again, we continued our race eastward as we tried to run down the thief.
It was mid afternoon when we stopped in a small village on the edge of the desert. Nyla entered the town square and began circling, sniffing the air. People screamed and ran in terror, but June ignored them as she studied the actions of her mount closely.
"The target spent a lot of time here. We're close," June reported. A couple of men took notice of us and started our way. They were big, muscly types, but only one of them had a weapon, indicating that his partner was a bender.
"What are you two up to?" the one with a weapon, a dao sword, asked.
"We're tracking someone, mind your own business," June replied.
"You're strangers. Strangers don't last long here. So we're making it our business," the man said as his hand fell to his sword. I looked back and forth between the two before swinging a leg over the side of my mount and sliding off of it. Both of them quickly shifted their focus to me.
"That's far enough, youngster," the unarmed man said, raising his hands into a bending stance.
"Look, fellas, we're just passing through. There's no reason for violence," I tried to reason.
"We don't trust bounty hunters around here," the first man replied. Oh well, can't say I didn't try. I let out a sigh as my hands fell to my own sword.
"Shame." Like a cobra, I struck first, drawing my sword as I lunged toward the bender. I was upon him before he could react, slicing off his right hand with a single swing before turning on the balls of my feet in a full three sixty turn. My blade followed suit, slitting his throat in the process. I came to a halt, facing the other man with my sword at the ready. Behind me, his partner fell to the ground, his still intact hand trying to clench at his throat.
The swordsman before me had his eyes go wide with surprise and shock. This quickly gave way to rage as he yanked his own sword free and charged me with a yell, fully intending to burry his sword in my skull. I sidestepped him, swiped at his exposed side with my sword, before reversing my grip on my weapon and stabbing backwards. The result was my blade fully impaling him from behind before he even realized what had happened.
With his yell devolving into a strangled cry, the swordsman dropped his blade before he collapsed to the street, joining his companion in death. I twirled my sword back into a ready stance, waiting for another attack. When I was satisfied that another wasn't coming, I resheathed my sword. June looked on at me with her mouth agape, which didn't escape my notice.
"I told you there was a lot more to me then what appears," I said. She closed her mouth, but otherwise remained silent. It was pretty clear she was reevaluating her initial assumptions about me.
At that moment a set of doors on a nearby stable burst open. A massive green eel hound pounced out of doors and skidded to a halt a short distance away. Sitting atop it's massive, yet slim and powerful frame was a young woman.
Her hair was short and dark in color, coming down to her shoulders while her skin was a slightly tanned pale complexion. Upon seeing us, her already wild green eyes went wide. She yanked on the reigns, turning her mount away from us before kicking her heels into it's flanks. The eel hound yet out a yowl like noise before taking off at a high rate of speed.
"Shit!" June exclaimed before grabbing her whip and cracking it. Instantly Nyla bounded after them, shooting his tongue out to try and hit the creature before it got too far away. Instead, the tongue struck a bystander, causing the man to go limp and fall to the ground. Then, just like that, the eel hound and it's rider were gone, having vanished into a cloud of dust.
"An eel hound. Now that she knows we're after her we'll never be able to run her down," I said. Shirshus and ostrich horses may be able to cover long distances quickly, but neither of them hold a candle to the overland speed of an eel hound.
"Nyla still has the scent. She can run, but she'll have to stop for a break eventually," June replied. The hunting part was over, now the chase began.
And cut! So, the chase begins. How will all this play out I wonder. Remember, I want to hear from you guys. Drop reviews, leave PMs, find out someway to either do that or ask a question or ten, and I'll see you all next time.