Hahaha!! CHAPTER FOUR!! Yeah! I've done it! Four chapters in two days! I am so happy with myself! I probably would have more up, but I've been busy shopping, and I've got homework to do, so no updates for... maybe a week?? I've got butt-loads of make-up work from school, so this will probably be my last chapter until next weekend. Enough small talk, I now present: CHAPTER FOUR!!
Chapter 4: Gypsies
The teens woke the next morning to another drawl, boring day. They headed down to the local diner for breakfast, and were tacked up and gone before the sun escaped the horizon's grasp.
Siku, the woman with whom Mia had spoken the night before, was being inquired that very morning, not long after the group had departed.
"Now, you're sure she had blonde hair with black streaks in it?" one of the soldiers demanded. The woman nodded earnestly, hoping for her feet to touch the earthen floor.
"She was with a boy and two more girls, the girls with striped hair as well. Did you see them leave?" Siku nodded again.
"When did they leave, and what direction did they go in?" a soldier demanded. Siku remained silent, debating as to whether she should betray the woman she spoke with the night before. She had been so kind, and now she was being hunted. What could she have done? Siku wondered. She was shaken abruptly and dropped on her rear on the dirt floor.
"Answer me!"
"Th- They left only a little while ago, just before the sun escaped the horizon. They were headed southwest."
"That will do." And with that, the soldiers departed. Siku feared for the kind strangers. She hoped she hadn't made a mistake in telling the soldiers where the group had gone.
"We could get this done so much faster if you used the sniper attachment," Zane commented.
"Shut up. The rabbit will be dead when I'm good and ready to shoot it," Sammy retorted. Zane was acting more and more like Sokka every day, what with his hunger pains and ego trips.
BAM!
The gun was fired, sending Sammy backwards only about an inch. Mia ran out to seize their catch. The teens sheared the fur off the jackalope and pierced it with a metal spike. Mia set it beside the previously caught fish above the fire to roast. The scent of cooking meat and fish soon filled the teens' sinuses, easing their tense nerves.
Each sat down with his/her gun and began to clean, waiting for their food to finish its time above the heat.
Mia sat down with her Super Match M1A Rifle and her cleaning tonic and rag. She dipped her rag into the vat of cleaning tonic and began to rub gentle circles onto the gun, making sure to clean the exterior to the point of perfection, as she was so well-known for doing.
Lila sat down next to Zane with her L.A.R. Grizzly, by far her most favorite, and largest, gun. She took out a small rag and began to rub down the dirtier pieces, as well as cleaning out the small, oval divots along the barrel. She was done quickly, having been through the gun-cleaning process so many times with her Grizzly that she could do it blindfolded.
Zane pulled out his Ruger All Weather .44 Magnum Bolt-Action Rifle and went through his paces, smudging the light coating of dust off of the barrel, trigger, and elsewhere the dust had collected.
Sammy, after turning the fish and rabbit, pulled her Weatherby Mark V Ultra Light Weight and continued to clean it. She finished quickly, cleansing every nook and cranny of the light sheen of dust that her gun, and all the others, had collected while at the inn at the last town.
As each finished with their rifles, they moved on to their Wilson Stealth handguns. Each had two of these, totaling eight between the teens, and they were the most recent Christmas gift from Sammy and Lila's parents.
The scent of freshly cooked meat began to fill the small campsite, and as the teens finished with their guns, they placed them back in the saddle bags and returned to the small circle around the campfire.
"Well, it's about time. I am starved," Zane said, grabbing the jackalope and its roasting stick from above the flames.
He pulled four simple metal plates, four forks, and four knives from his own saddle bags and handed them out. The girls each graciously accepted the plates, and as the fish became suitable for consumption, they cut up and divided the fish between the four of them.
As they finished their small meal, they stacked the now soiled plates, forks, and knives for later cleaning. Zane and Lila pulled out the sleeping bags and began to lay them out while Sammy and Mia wandered down to the creek nearby to wash the dishes.
"I wonder if we'll ever get back home," Mia wondered aloud.
"Yeah. I'm really homesick. I miss my parents like absolute mad. And Munster," Sammy commented.
"Yeah, I miss my parents, too. They can be a pain, but I really do miss them. And no matter how much I hated cleaning his cage, I miss my hamster Spunky."
"C'mon, Mia. We'd better get back." The girls gathered the dishes and put them back in Zane's saddle bags. The girls wandered back to the campsite to find Zane and Lila curled up in their sleeping bags, already half asleep.
"Well, they've beat us to the punch again," Sammy whispered. Both girls crawled into their sleeping bags and were asleep in moments.
The next morning the teens woke to rays of sunlight piercing the canopy of the trees, leaving a streaked appearance to the forest. The fresh scent of morning dew laced the air, along with a light mist of flowers. The horses, tethered to a line not far away, nickered when they noticed Lila stir and get up. She walked over to her saddle bags and pulled out the last of the peppermints that the horses so loved, unwrapped them, and went down the line, feeding each horse a single peppermint.
She paused to listen to them chew, savoring the sound. She pulled the muzzle of her horse up to her lips and kissed the velvet-soft skin. Her horse puffed out a long, warm, peppermint-scented breath of air which Lila delighted in.
"The simple pleasures in life are the best," she said gently, smoothing the hair along her horse's cheek. Far off, she heard birds chirping merrily. She knew they were at home, happy. She wished she could be, too. No matter how much Zane tried, he just couldn't quell the unease rising inside her. She was in a new land, not physically alone, but she felt as if she were the only human left in a world filled with alien creatures.
She heard Sammy tug at her sleeping bag, the universal sign for 'Dang, I'm awake. I want five more minutes!'
She walked over to where her sister slept, or was trying to continue sleeping, and she knelt behind her head. A devious smile stretching across her face, she reached slowly for Sammy's pillow. Getting a good grasp on that which supported Sammy's head, she tugged it out from underneath her sister.
"Ah! What the?! LILA!" Sammy screamed, waking the other two. She scrambled out of her sleeping bag and ran to tackle her sister.
"I'm going to kill you! How dare you wake me up like that! That's just wrong!"
"Hey, you deserved it!"
"What did I do to deserve that kind of punishment?!"
"You exist!" Lila yelled, answering her sister and laughing maniacally. Seeing Sammy speed up, she, too, picked up the pace and made for the trees, breaking the continuous circle around the campfire she and her sister had previously made. All the sudden, as she turned around to check her sister's progress, she ran into something hard. The chest of an armor-clad Fire Nation soldier.
As she hit him, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, turned her around to face her sister, and lit a small fire on the tip of his forefinger. Sammy slammed to a stop.
"You're going to do as I say, or I'll fry her alive," the solder growled, bringing his lit finger nearer to Lila's face.
"Let me go!" Lila screamed, knowing that, while she may end up burned, at least Zane and Mia might figure out what was going on.
"What do you want with us?" Sammy asked, anger etched across her face.
"I want you four to come with me. I'm taking you captive," he replied.
"You're not taking us anywhere," came Zane's voice, behind the solder. Zane had one of his Wilson Stealth handguns mere millimeters from the man's temple. He cocked the pistol and pressed it flush with the solder's head.
"Let her go," he growled in the man's ear. The soldier let the flame on his finger die and his grip on Lila cease.
Feeling the pressure on her shoulders ebb away, Lila pushed away from the soldier and ran to her sister and best friend. Mia and Sammy grabbed Lila and the girls hugged each other tightly.
"What do you think we should do with this one?" Zane asked. The soldier in front of him was beginning to tremble and sweat.
"I think we should kill him," Mia answered.
"I concur. I like that idea," Sammy replied.
"Me, too," came Lila's response.
Zane shrugged his shoulders. He squeezed the trigger, and the pistol fired. Blood, bone, and brain shot out of the other side of the soldier's head, and he collapsed. A pool of blood began to grow around the man's skull, soaking the leaves, grass, and dirt.
"Let's get going. I don't want to be around when the rest of the soldiers show up," Zane said solemnly. The three girls nodded their agreement.
Back at the camp, the group began packing up. Each took a different chore: Zane began rolling the sleeping bags and tying them up. Lila took to brushing and saddling the horses. Mia grabbed the four canteens and ran to the creek to top them off. Sammy destroyed all remains of the fireplace.
With all the chores done, the group mounted their horses, checked their cinches and tightened them if necessary, nudged their horses into a steady trot, and was gone.
Noontime came and the dead soldier was finally found. The pool of blood had partially coagulated, but was still mostly liquid. Maggots, flies, and ants had already lay claim to their part of the dead man. Were it not for the man's uniform, he would not have been recognizable.
"This is Narim. He disappeared around daybreak, and he never came back. I heard a strange blasting noise. That must be what killed him. Half his head is gone," the scout spoke solemnly of his former partner.
"Thank you. That will be all." Azula motioned for Mai and Ty Lee to follow her.
"What do you think killed him?" Ty Lee asked in her naturally high-pitched, girly voice.
"I don't know, but whatever it is, they did a very good job of covering their tracks. I can't find a single clue as to who it was. All we have is that old trail to follow." Azula shook her head, clearly disappointed in the lack of evidence she had found.
"I say we follow it. You never know. We might get lucky," Ty lee spoke, obviously being the optimist in that situation.
"Or, Ty Lee, they might be completely gone by now. They've had at least half a day to get away," came Mai's voice, dark and pessimistic as usual.
"No matter. We still follow the trail. Come, let's go," Azula commanded. Mai, Ty Lee, and she mounted their giant lizards and were off in a cloud of dust.
"Well, there's the next Earth Nation town. Sad thing, though, we don't have any money left from our time working for Mitzi. We've stretched it as far as we could, and now we're completely out," Sammy said as she checked both the horizon and her small, hand-made leather purse.
"Maybe there's someone down there looking for a few good workers to do a day's worth of work. Lord knows I'd be able to do anything they could think of," Zane said hopefully.
"We can check… Hey, what's that?" Lila asked, pointing to a strange cloud of dust down by the dirt road leading into the town.
"That's Azula and her lizards. We'd best not toy with the idea of stopping here. Our horses are warmed up, so we ride like hell to the next town, stop there and look for work, and if we don't find any right away, we ride to the next town, and so on. C'mon, before we waste any more time and risk getting caught," Zane said, edging his horse into a steady canter.
The girls followed behind him, keeping one eye on the infamous dust trail that marked Azula's coming.
The Next Day
Dusk came the following day, and the teens had just reached the second town along the coast. Their horses were drenched in a heavy coat of sweat, white, sticky foam gathering on their shoulders and under their saddles. They were breathing heavily, and they were letting their heads droop, obviously quite tired.
Their riders were tired, too, from having to keep up a proper gallop position: hunched over the horse's neck with one's rear end out of the saddle to help the horse extend his/her back while running to maximize the length of the stride.
They walked into town, slowly, only to run into a familiar face. The Avatar was sitting on a rail nearby, clad in Fire Nation attire and with a full head of black hair. Katara, Sokka, and Toph were standing in a circle around him, each clad in their own Fire Nation clothing, and the four were conversing quietly, until—
"I don't care! I'm starved! I am going to go find something to eat…" Sokka yelled, storming away from the group. Katara rolled her eyes and rested her forehead against the palm of her hand.
Sammy jumped at the opportunity to talk to the group. She walked her horse over to the group and gracefully slid off.
"Wow, he sounds like my sister's boyfriend."
"Yeah, he's always hungry. I swear, he must have a hollow leg or something," Katara said genially as the rest of Sammy's group caught up. "So, where are you from?"
"Far away," Lila replied.
"Eh, so are we. My name—"
"Don't bother, we know who you are," Lila said cheerfully, though it still dropped the smiles off the three faces.
"Hey, don't worry," Sammy reassured them. "We're not going to turn you in. We're being chased by Fire Nation royalty ourselves. We know the feeling. Funny thing is, with us, we're being chased by the princess, but the prince and his uncle enjoy our company. We're hoping to come across them again. Safety, you know?"
"Uh, yeah, safety. I don't know why you'd want to hang out with them, though. They're Fire Nation royalty. For all you know, they could be scheming to capture you," Aang said warily.
"Well, that's a chance we're willing to take," Sammy sighed.
Zane spoke up.
"Hey, do you know if anyone here's looking for someone to do some cheap labor for them? We need money badly, and we can do almost anything."
"You might want to go and check out the shipping station. They're always in need of people to haul stuff from Point A to Point B," Toph suggested, pointing to a ramshackle building just down the dock.
"Thanks!" Zane said, nudging his horse into a slow jog and heading down the way.
"I hope he finds some work there," Lila said, worry apparent on her face.
"Alright! I am back and I have food! Who are these people?" Sokka asked, approaching cautiously, one hand on the hilt of his black-blade sword and the other carrying a large pouch bulging with food.
"They're new friends," Katara answered. "They're on the run from Azula, too. Be nice."
Sokka nodded.
"I'm sorry to have to say this, but our horses are horribly tired, and we'd like to get them some food, water, and rest as soon as possible. We'll be at the stables if you want us." And with Sammy's departing words, the trio of girls headed to the stables to cool their horses down.
They reached the stables, and three of the working stablehands came up and offered their services. The girls explained what they wanted done with the horses, from stalls for each to water and food to a good washing, and the stablehands went to work without so much as an improper facial expression.
Zane arrived later with his horse, explaining that he was with the three girls, and another stablehand, one who had worked for the girls, did with Zane's horse what was done with the other three.
The girls had left a message with the stablehands to tell Zane to meet them at the weaponry shop. When Zane received it from the stablehand tending to his horse, he thanked the young boy and headed over.
Throughout the day, the four picked up small, odd jobs around the town that they could do for money. Lila and Mia took to polishing swords for the weaponry shop, Zane hauled cargo for the shipping station, and Sammy took work as a gardener for an elderly couple.
The day passed slowly for the four, but luck soon turned their way. A large Fire Nation ship came into port around mid-afternoon. It was none other than Prince Zuko and Iroh that stepped off the deck.
The Prince and his uncle wandered through the town, stopping at supply shops and stocking up.
During their stay, though, something went horribly wrong. Azula showed up.
"Mai! Search the stores! Ty Lee! The houses! I'll take the docks!" she commanded.
The women split up on their giant lizards. Unbeknownst to the Prince, his uncle, the Gaang, or the four foreign teens, the women on the lizards were closing in quickly on their prey.
Zane was walking down the loading ramp to the Prince's ship, headed for the last box that needed loading when Azula came upon him. She ignored him at first, seeing him as just another Fire Nation peasant laborer, and she went for the dock master first.
Holding up wanted posters of the Avatar, the Prince and his uncle, she railed him for answers. Claiming he knew nothing of the Avatar, he revealed that the Prince's ship was docked down the way. Azula leapt back onto her lizard and scurried down the dock. Zane, now aware of the ruckus, stealthily made his way back to the shipping station to collect his pay, guns loaded and cocked, ready to fire.
Meanwhile, Sammy had only started on the last little corner of the elderly couple's garden when she heard a commotion in the town. Turning, she recognized the giant lizards and the pink outfit of Ty Lee. She dropped her tools and ran inside, hoping not only to save herself and the elderly couple, but also to get her weaponry and pay and leave.
Lila and Mia, on the other hand, had not been so lucky. The first store Mai entered was the weaponry store. Sitting behind the counter tag-team polishing one of the larger blades, the girls shot up out of their seats when Mai entered.
"Tell me, has anyone seen a young boy traveling with a young blind girl about the same age, a teenage girl with long, brown hair, and a boy with a wolf tail?!" she demanded. The customers in the shop all shook their heads, telling her they had not seen anything. She then looked to the girls behind the counter.
"You! You're the ones with the strange weaponry!"
Mai shot daggers at the girls, but they ducked behind the counter and out the back, failing in collecting their full day's pay. They had left their rifles behind the store, and as they ran out the back, the girls grabbed their weaponry and fled to the stables.
Mai made for them, but they were gone by the time she made it out the back door.
At the stables, the three girls met up again, but noticed that Zane was not with them. Lila grabbed Zane's and her horse and began throwing tack and supplies onto them. Sammy and Mia did the same, and soon the four horses were tacked up and ready to go, having had almost a full day to rest and recover.
Searching the docks, Sammy spotted Zane. He was cornered by Azula and Ty Lee. Sammy lurched onto her horse and spurred it into a gallop. Wrapping the reins around the saddle horn, she loaded and cocked her Weatherby Mark V and took aim.
She shot at the tail of one of the lizards, hitting her target dead on in a ride-by. Queuing her horse with a shift of her leg, she turned her horse a full 180 degrees and made for the other lizard while watching the first flee uncontrollably.
She locked and loaded her gun again, taking aim this time at the left foreleg of the remaining lizard. She shot, and her gun held true, shattering the knee of Azula's lizard. The lizard limped away as fast as he could on three usable legs, leaving Azula to lurch off and begin to fight from the ground.
Noticing the commotion, Mai ran to assist Ty Lee with her uncontrolled lizard while Azula was left to the two teens at the docks.
Prince Zuko and Iroh were standing not too far away, watching the whole scene unfold.
Azula took aim with a large, long chain of fire. Sammy leapt off her horse, heading it up the loading ramp and up to Zane. The fire chain hit between Sammy and her horse, scorching the air and dirt left behind.
Noticing the scheme her friends were uncoiling behind Azula, Sammy just stayed where she was, crouched near the ground, all eyes on her enemy.
Azula aimed for another attack, but never followed through. Mia came up behind her on her horse and rammed the butt of her rifle hard into the back of Azula's head, knocking her out cold.
Zane grabbed Sammy's horse and made his way down the loading ramp to meet the others and get his horse.
"Are you three okay?" he asked upon arrival.
The three girls nodded, Sammy out of breath and panting slightly. Iroh walked up to the group and wormed his way in.
"You four worked like a well-oiled machine. That was quite worth watching."
"Thank you," Sammy and Mia said in unison.
"Sir, I wonder if you might do us a favor." Lila asked.
"What might that be?"
"We need a place to hide. We can't seem to get away from those women. They've caught up to us time and time again, almost every town we've stopped at. We'll work for you if you'll just hide us and our horses."
"Well, that is not purely my decision. Zuko!" Iroh yelled, beckoning his nephew over. "Would you be interested in helping these fine young fighters hide from your sister?"
"I'm not sure that would be a good idea, Uncle."
"Oh? Why not?"
"If they're being chased, then they could inadvertently lead Azula right to us. That, and what exactly can they do, besides fight without bending?"
"I'll tell you what we can do," came Mia's response. "We can shoot farther than your silly little YuuYan archers could ever dream of with these," she said, raising her rifle from its saddle pouch, "and we can fight like hell, even though we can't bend. We're tough, independent workers, we're resilient, and we're well worth our troubles.
"Zane, here, can lift almost 300 pounds worth of gear, as well as track, hunt, and apply proper tactical skills in the battlefields. Sammy, the one you saw launch herself off her horse, is a highly talented marksman, as well as good at gymnastics, swordsmanship, and archery. Lila, here, is talented at marksmanship, gymnastics, archery, and swordsmanship, as well, as she and Sammy are sisters.
"I myself am a skilled tracker, I can hunt better than any of these three, I can survive in the wild with nothing but my wits, and I have had experience crafting items from melted metal. I've molded swords, daggers, throwing stars, arrowheads, anything you can think of that can be made into a weapon. So tell me, Prince, what do you think? Are we worth your time?"
Two weeks had passed, marking the second month the four teens had been in the Avatar realm. Sammy was lying in bed in one of the rooms aboard Zuko's ship. She had an oil lamp, her manuscript-journal, and her lucky fluffy purple pen.
Dear Diary,
I've done it. I've made it on Zuko's ship. We've been here two weeks, and mostly we've been taking Pai Sho and tactics lessons from Iroh. I'm not complaining, myself, because now I'm not stuck in a saddle the whole day. Zuko is much more secluded than I remember him being. That, and I think I missed the episode where he got a new ship and freed his uncle. Or, that episode has officially happened, and I lived through it. I honestly don't know, though. Iroh has been a true blessing. He's the uncle I never had. I feel as though I can ask him anything.
Lila has been spending a lot of time with Zane. I swear, I think she's pregnant. I shouldn't be cruel to my sister, but she and Zane have been together for almost two and a half years. I'm shocked she's not pregnant now that we've left home. 'Course, maybe she's playing it safe, hoping that we'll get back to our own dimension soon. That, or she's already preggers but just isn't showing yet. If that's the case, though, where's the morning sickness?! Huh?! I was looking forward to laughing at her all through the first few months of her pregnancy. Knowing her hormones, I'd be running like hell as soon as she could stand. She blows so much stuff WAY out of proportion when she's hormonal. Ah, well, that's Lila for ya.
Gush time!! Zuko is HOTT!! OMG! I walked out this morning to him training shirtless with a couple other soldiers. His pecks are gorgeous, and his abs look just rock-hard and sexy. I'm going to try and corner him, soon, and talk to him one on one. Maybe I'll be able to see what's going on. Normally, were I watching this from home through an HDTV screen, I'd have total access to his life, but now that it's been two months since my last exposure to a TV and one month since I last saw him, I've got to find out!! NOW!! Some might call me mad. I would concur. That's where I shall end. Iroh just called for dinner. I smell grilled sea bass. YUM!!
Sammy Wise -
I had planned a slightly larger part for the Gaang, but I just couldn't figure out how to put it in with the rest of the story. Apologies. This chapter was sorta rushed, and yet it took up a good 10 pages in Word '03. The longest yet. Go figure. Anyway, if any of you are curious, I have pictures of the guns I mention in this story on my homepage. You'll have to scroll down to somewhere around the middle to find them. They all open in a new window, so if you have pop-up blocker, disable it. Also, if there's any of you out there who know guns, I just want to warn you of one thing: I picked the guns based on what I could understand of the text, what I learned while watching the Tremors movies, and which looked most fitting for the character(s). If you have anything to critique me on based upon my gun choices, then please, critque away! Just don't flame. I will hate you, I will post an anti-flame post at the top of my profile, I will tell all my buddies, and I will post an anti-flamers forum. Just warning you!
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