I am so frigging sorry! I've been so busy, lazy, and tired lately I just couldn't work on any of my stories! *hits myself with a newspaper* BAD LLAMA! But finally here's an update and it's a nice long one too :) 4,181 words baby! Thanks to my betareader/co-author Zstar2010 for all your help! So enjoy and review please! :)
A dragon will always go for the kill...
Those words echoed in Katara's mind as she bended down to pick up the remains of the bola that had caught and tied up the Comet Eye the other day.
"So why didn't you?..." she muttered.
She dropped the bola and ran off into the direction the dragon had flown off in. After a few minutes of running Katara started to notice that a few of the trees were missing some of their branches and whenever she passed a large boulder or cliff she would see some scratches. She eventually found herself at a rocky crevice. She walked around the crevice until she found a good sized crack she could crawl through easily. At the end of the mini tunnel she found herself in a huge cove that could fit half of her village inside of it. In the middle of it was a large pond. At the end of the cove opposite her was the edge of what could be a cliff. Her eyes scanned the entire cove for any kind of movement. She leaned out more to look and felt something under her fingers. She looked down and found a smooth dark red scale. She picked it up and inspected it closely when something large and dark flew past her. She jumped back and hid herself in the shadows, praying that the thing didn't see her.
The Comet Eye struggled to climb the walls, his wings flapping like crazy, before falling to the bottom of the cove. Katara scoot forward a little to get a better look. The leapt into the air, beating its wings furiously, flew to the top for a moment before suddenly rolling in the air and crashing to the ground. Slightly fascintated, Katara pulled out her leather-bound book, flipped to a blank page, and she sketched the dragon quickly. The Comet Eye clawed at the steep rock walls, trying climb out of the cove before slipping and falling again. After crashing onto the ground again the dragon slowly got to his feet and moved to the edge of the pond to drink some water. Spoting some fish, the dragon dunked its head into the water and snapped at them. He pulled his head back out and Katara could see that he came up empty. He lowered his head, looking dejected.
Katara finished her drawing and looked at the dragon. "Why don't you just...fly away?" she muttered. She looked back at her drawing and realized the problem and did some adjustments to her artwork...half of the dragon's tail fin was gone. She looked at the dragon, not noticing that she was loosening her grip on her pen until it fell out of her hand and rolled off of the rock outcropping that hid her from view and bounced into the cove, making a few high pitched TINK sounds. The Comet Eye raised his head and spotted Katara. The dragon glared but didn't snarl or bare its teeth. He just stared into her eyes and she did the same, neither of them backing down.
Using her waterbending, Katara was able to keep herself from getting drenched from the storm. The recruits and Bato were meeting at the chamber hall in the village for dinner. Katara opened one of the large doors with a large CREAK and all eyes turned to her. All the recruits smiled at her save for Hahn who glared.
"There you are Katara." said Bato. "We were just going over our mistakes from today's training." He turned his attention to the recruits. "Where did Katara go wrong?"
Sokka waved his hand at Katara, gesturing her to sit with him at the table next to the other recruits.
"She showed up." said Hahn. Katara and Sokka glared at him.
"Where did Hahn go wrong?" Jet asked sarcastically. Without waiting for an answer he continued. "He didn't get eaten..."
Everyone save for Hahn and Bato (though the man did smile humorously) laughed.
"Thank you Jet." Bato picked up a large book and placed it at the center of the table Sokka and Katara were sitting at. On the front was a ferocious looking dragon. "You need to live and breathe this stuff." he said, pointing at the book. "The dragon manual. Everything we know about every dragon we know of." He looked up as the rumble of thunder was heard. "No attacks tonight. Study up." Patting Katara and Sokka on their shoulders, he left the hall.
The recruits save for Katara and Sokka stared at the book in disbelief.
"Wait, you mean read?" asked Jet
"While we're still alive?" added Pipsqueak
"Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?" asked Hahn.
"I've read it like, seven times." said Sokka. "There's this water dragon that sprays boiling water at your face. And there's this other one that buries itself for like a week..."
"Yeah, that sounds great." interrupted Hahn, obviously not caring or impressed. "There was a chance I was going to read that...but now?..." he trailed off, getting up. "You losers read, I'll go kill stuff."
Jet rolled his eyes at Hahn but got up to leave anyway, followed by the Duke and Pipsqueak, leaving Sokka and Katara at their table.
"So I guess we'll share-"
Katara pulled the book towards her and opened it. "Sokka, you just said you read this seven times." She smiled at him. "I think I'm going to need this book more than you. Go with them."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. See you at home."
Sokka got up and left. "Later.
After Sokka had left Katara realized how empty the chamber hall was, making it seem more large creeping her out a bit. Placing a few candles on her table, she opened the book.
"Let's see...Dragon classifications. Strike class. Fear class. Mystery class." She turned the page, revealing a silver dragon with fins. "Sea Snapper. This reclusive dragon inhabits sea caves and dark tide pools. The Sea Snapper's fangs can pierce through a full grown whale. Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight." She quickly turned the page. This one had a picture of a dragon that was as dark as night. "Shadow Striker. Lurks in caves and hunts only at night...When hunting the Shadow Striker silently sneaks up on it's victims and spit out a poison that blinds its victims...extremely dangerous. Kill on sight." She turned the page. "Black Wailer. Lets out a deadly wail that can kill when in close range. Extremely dangerous." Turned the page. "Gold Blaze. Kill on sight." She turned page after page quickly, the illustrations of the dragons were now a blur. "Tongue Lasher. Wind Arrow. Tiger Blast. Terra Club. Dart Shooter. Royal Inferno. Burns its victims. Buries its victims. Chokes its victims. Turns its victims inside-out. Extremely dangerous. Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight. Kill on sight. Kill on sight..." Finally after several pages Katara found the page she was looking for...
Comet Eye.
Katara frowned; the page was almost completely blank. There weren't any pictures and there were only a few vague details about this dragon.
"Speed unknown. Size unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Never engage this dragon. Your only chance, hide and pray it does not find you." She pulled her sketchbook out of her robe and opened it to her drawing of the Comet Eye. She laid it over the book's blank page.
Hakoda narrowed his eyes as he tried to see through the thick fog that surrounded the caves the dragons resided. In front of him was the map that led to the nest, on the corner was an illustration of mist and dragons.
"I can almost smell them." he muttered. "They're close." he turned to his crew and raised his voice. "Take us in."
Slowly, the three ships drifted into the fog. The warriors held their weapons at the ready for any attack.
"Hey Bato, I just happened to notice the book had nothing on Comet Eyes. Is there another book? Or a little Comet Eye pamphlet?"
A fire blast hit the wall not too far from Katara, causing her to jump in shock.
"Katara! You're not even trying!" Bato was watching from above the arena which no had tall wooden walls set up to look like a maze. The Dart Shooter was bounding along the top. Bato called out to the others. "Today... is all about attack. Dart shooters are quick and light on their feet. Your job is to be quicker and lighter."
The Dart Shooter swiped it's spiked tail, and the spikes shot out at Katara who quickly held up her shield to protect herself.
"Bato I'm really starting to question your teaching methods!" she yelled to him.
"Well quit yaking and start attacking!" Pipsqueak told her as he ran past her to dodge the dragon's attack. Katara quickly opened her water skin and was about to create a waterwhip when she saw the spikes being shot at her again and quickly raised her shield again.
"Any helpful hints WOULD be nice!" Jet called out
"Look for its blind spot." said Bato. "Every dragon has one. Find it, hide in it, and strike."
Hearing this, The Duke and Pipsqueak rushed to the dragon to attack and hid in its blindspot, right between its eyes.
"Oh geez Pipsqueak, do you ever bathe?" The Duke muttered
"If you don't like it, then just get your own blind spot." Pipsqueak retorted
Hearing their argument, the Dart Shooter turned its head and saw the two. Letting out a great roar, it moved to attack them.
"Blind spot? Yes. Deaf spot? Not so much." muttered Bato.
Katara hurried over to Bato while the others ran past her.
"So is it possible to sneak up on a Comet Eye?" she asked.
"None one's ever met one and lived to tell the tale. Now get in there!"
"I know, I know, but hypothetically..."
"Katara!" Sokka whispered/yelled to her. She turned to see him crouched behind some crates with Hahn. He puts his finger to his lips and gestured for her to be quiet and hide. Suddenly the dragon leapt over the walls, landed in front of Katara. She quickly ran into its blind spot and opened her waterskin again. The dragon turned its head repeatedly to look for her but she made sure to stay in front of its large snout. Katara quickly bended some water out and was about to attack when Hahn leapt in front of her.
"Watch out babe." he said, smirking at her. "I'll take care of this."
He threw a knife at the dragon, hitting it's head with the hilt. Katara glared at him.
"The sun was in my eyes..."
The Dart Shooter roared again and Hahn and Katara ran in two different directions. The dragon ran after her, still roaring and knocking down the maze walls. The other recruits were able to get to safety without getting hurt from the falling walls. Katara looked over her shoulder to see if the dragon was still chasing her only to crash into Hahn, knocking the both of them over with Katara on top.
"Oooh! Love on the battlefield!" Pipsqueak teased
Jet rolled his eyes. "She could do better." he muttered.
Hahn smirked at Katara. "You know, I've always dreamed of you being on top of me."
Katara blushed in annoyance and glared at him. "Only in your dreams..." She looked to the side and saw the dragon charging over to them. She quickly reached to open her waterskin only to find that it had fallen off. The dragon was getting closer and Katara and Hahn struggled to untangle themself from each other. In the process, Hahn accidently ended up rolling on top of her. Starting to panic, the two looked up and saw the dragon getting closer. They both yelled as the dragon was almost upon them. Then suddenly, Sokka's boomerang came flying through the air hitting the dragon hard on the side of the head. Knocking it off course just enough to send it crashing and falling over the still standing wall next to Katara and Hahn. It got up and groaned dizzly and stumbled off to the side.
"Well done Sokka." Bato called out. Sokka let out a huge sigh of relief before walking over to Katara and Hahn and helped her up. He glared and pointed at the warrior.
"Touch my sister again and I'll put your nuts in a jar, and use them as a fishing lure!"
Hahn quickly got to his feet and stumbled away from the siblings. Sokka went to grab his boomerang, Katara following behind him.
"Thank you Sokka..."
Sokka turned and glared at her. "KATARA!"
Katara took some step back in surprise. "What?"
"QUIT CLOWNING AROUND!" he yelled. "Dad's fighting in this war, and pretty soon it'll be our turn! Get your act together, because I don't want you ending up like M-..." He bit his lip and turned his head away.
She looked at him in shock. Did he really think that she was clowning around? She was being chased by a dragon and ran into Hahn! And she had done nothing but train and fight dragons ever since the first day of training.
"But I wasn't-"
"Just focus on your training." he interrupted. He turned to leave, throwing his sheild to the side. Katara stayed where she was, hurt by his words. She ignored the stares the recruits and Bato was giving her.
Katara ignored the stares she was getting from the villagers as she walked home. No doubt what happened in training had spread. From the leers she was getting from Hahn and his older brother and his warrior buddies, the idiot was telling about her falling on him and was most likely saying it in a way that she was, a nicer way to put it, a lady of the evening.
"Hey Katara!"
Katara looked around and smiled when she saw her friend Teo rolling over to her in his wheelchair.
"Hi Teo. Your dad bringing in some more weapons?"
Teo and his father lived in an old house miles from the village. Because they didn't have any livestock they didn't have to worry about dragon attacks like the village did. Teo's father, the Mechanist, made some of the weapons the villagers used for dragon attacks and battles.
"Nope, we're doing some shopping. Since winter's coming up we need to stock up on some stuff. Oh by the way, that little catapult work for you?"
Katara rubbed the back of her neck. "Yeah it worked great...but I didn't really catch anything..."
"Oh, sorry. But hey," he patted her on the arm. "Always next time. Can you bring it to dragon training?"
"I wish, but I can't. I'm supposed to fight them myself with either my bending or a weapon. I really could have used it today..."
"Ooh...yeah...I heard about what happened. You okay?"
Katara nodded. "I just made a small mistake..."
"I wouldn't call you knocking over the maze in the arena and almost getting eaten by a dragon a small mistake..."
Katara couldn't help it, she had to giggle at that. "Yeah I probably wouldn't either."
"Hey Babe!" Katara rolled her eyes when she heard Hahn calling for her. Some of the nearby villagers stopped what they were doing to watch. "We've only been together for like an hour and you're already cheating on me with a cripple?" Hahn's brother and friends laughed. Teo's smile disappeared and lowered his head. Teo had been in a wheelchair for nearly his whole life and because of it he couldn't do a lot of things the other kids could do including dragon training. Teo tried to not let it bother him but when people like Hahn made snide comments about him and his wheelchair it would show that he didn't like being in one as much as he made people think.
"I'm so sorry..." Katara said to him quietly.
Teo looked up at her and tried to smile but it looked more like a grimace.
"Hey whatever, it's no big deal. I'll see you around..."
"Bye..."
Teo wheeled away to a food stall where his father was. The Mechanist saw where Teo was coming from and smiled at Katara who smiled halfheartedly back. She glared at Hahn and his friends who were still snickering. She noticed a waterbarrel nearby and smirked. In one quick movement she had the morons frozen where they stood from the neck down.
Ignoring the stares she got once again, Katara made her way home with a little more spring in her step. She didn't see Sokka when she went inside and she was just fine with that. After what happened she was not looking forward to seeing him or talking to him any time soon. She went upstairs and into her room to go through to the window to climb onto the roof. She sat down and stared out at the forest with only one thing on her mind; that Comet Eye Dragon. She kept wondering if that dragon still had trouble flying or if it was still stuck in that cove. She couldn't help but feel...guilty...Even after everything that dragon had done to her village. Katara hugged her knees to her chest. She didn't regret letting the dragon live but she did wish that she didn't hurt it so badly it couldn't fly. And she wished she didn't have to fight dragons. Though it was her dream ever since she was a girl after seeing the Comet Eye Dragon looking so weak and helpless while tied up in that bola because of her...She just couldn't bring herself to do the same thing to another dragon. She could distinclty hear a roar coming from the forest; something told her it wasn't an approaching dragon raid. She sighed and hugged her knees tighter. She knew she had to do the right thing no matter what the rest of the village would think if they found out.
Katara went back into her room, rushed out of the house and to the nearest meat stall, and ran into the forest at full speed. Remembering the way to the cove, she made it there in quick time and squeezed through the little opening. She looked around for the dragon before climbing down into the cove. Holding the meat tightly in her hands, Katara looked around warily for the Comet-Eye Dragon, waiting for it to jump out and attack her.
"Who are you?"
Katara jumped almost three feet in the air and shreeked in shock. She looked around and saw a boy she had never seen before who looked to be two years older than her leaning against the side of a large rock with the left side of his face covered in shadow. She took a deep breath to calm herself.
"Oh I'm sorry," she said, "I wasn't expecting anybody to be in here..."
The boy smiled gently at her. "I didn't mean to startle you." The smiled disappeared and he scowled at her. "BUT WHO ARE YOU!"
"Sorry, my name is Katara. I live in a village nearby. I've never seen your around her before, are you new in this area?"
"You could say that..." The boy picked at the rock he was leaning on before glaring at her again. "But what are you doing out here? These part of the woods can be very...dangerous."
"Well it's funny you mention that because um..." Katara looked around warily again for the dragon. Why hadn't it shown itself yet? Did it finally get out of the cove? "I'm looking for a dragon I saw in here yesterday."
"Really? Why would you think such a rare dragon be out here in the middle of the woods?"
"My village is threatened by dragon raids nearly every night." explained Katara. "During the last dragon raid, I shot down that rare dragon with a net. I found it and let it go. When I came here yesterday I saw it in here."
"What kind of dragon?"
"I don't know if you heard of it, it's so rare. Like one of a kind rare. The Comet Eye dragon."
"Comet Eye Dragon huh?... It's been said no man has ever been able to accomplish such a feat."
"I actually wanted to be the first to take that dragon down. Nobody believed that I could be a dragon killer because of my gender so I wanted to prove them wrong..."
The boy smirked and chuckled. "Well congratulations. 'dragon hunter' Katara." He sighed nasally and Katara glared a little at him. "Comet Eye dragon...never seen one before...but I did see a strange dragon roaming through here not to long ago."
Katara felt some excitement from this. "It might have been! What did it look like?"
"Did your dragon...I don't know...have red scales?"
"Yeah..."
"Black claws?"
"Yes..."
"Gold eyes?"
She started to get even more excited. "Yes, yes! You know where it is?"
"Yeah...It's dead..."
Excitement was replaced with shock. The Comet-Eye Dragon was...dead? "what?..."
The boy started to look smug. "Saw that dragon Yesterday...Killed it...ripped it's heart out...Dead"
Katara started to feel sick to her stomach hearing this. The scared look the dragon gave her when she almost killed it came into her mind and she almost teared up. She didn't want to believe it; that dragon couldn't be dead. It couldn't! "How could you have been able to though? No one's ever faced that dragon and lived."
"Well it's gone now...so I'd stop trying to look for it."
She sighed and rubbed her eyes with her finger and thumb. "Great...just great..."
"Yeah...with that injury it sustained from that giant bola it went pretty easily."
Katara felt even more sick to her stomach. It was her fault the dragon was killed. "Oh...that was my bola..."
The boy's glare hardened. "So it WAS you!"
"What?"
He cleared his throat. "I mean...so it was 'you'?"
"Yeah...wait...how did you know he got hit with a bola?..."
The boy sighed. "I 'really' wish you didn't notice that." The boy came out of the shadows, still glaring at her. Now that the left side of his face wasn't covered in darkness she could see the large ugly burn scar covering almost the entire side. Katara noticed it was comet shaped...but that could only mean...She gasped in realization
"You...you're the Comet Eye dragon."
The scarred boy grit his teeth "That net you shot at me really hurt by the way."
Katara took some steps back. "This can't be possible."
"Not possible?" His voice became draconic. "It is VERY POSSIBLE!" He suddenly got on all fours and his skin started to turn dark red. His hair shrunk into his head and his cloth sank into his skin as it sprouted scales. He grew claws and fangs as his face became enlonged and his nose turned into a snout. His whole size grew as two wings sprang from his body and his tail shot out from behind with a missing fin.
The girl stood in horror as the boy that stood before her had become the Comet Eye dragon. It glare at her with it's big gold eye through it's scarred face, teeth bare, and let out a mighty, angry, echoey roar!
CLIFFHANGER! :D MWAHAHAHAHA!
Btw, I'm putting up a new poll "What story would you like me to update next?" so please vote on which story you'd like me to update and it will help me know for sure which to work on next and (hopefully) I'll update quicker :) I mostly worked on this one because I love this one scene so much and my co-author is in love with this story :P lol jk
I hope you loved this long-ass chapter and please review :)
