authors note: okay people... i was supposed to be back two days ago, but what was supposed to be two flights from Belize to Miami(2 hours) and then from Miami to New York(another 2 hours)took two fucking days... OMFG! Lol, everything that could've gone wrong went wrong... anyways, you prob don't want to hear about it, so i'll give you your chapter lmaoo. oh yeah, and I realized that theres no such thing as a "Black Puma" so Kala is supposed to be a "Black Panther" XD simple mistake. fixing it now.


CHAPTER FOUR :
Wandering

I took a deep breath as the camp of the Fire Nation Soldiers came into sight. All of the soldiers were fast asleep in their tents right now... a scene that I was seeing for the second time.

"You're really stupid for doing this. You're going to get both of us killed. What the hell are you planning on doing? Just barging into their and telling them who you are...?"

A smile cracked on my lips as I answered her back in my head. "Yep... You forgot the part about me telling them to come and get me though."

Zhu fell silent... For once. If I died, she went with me. With my ring blade resting on my right shoulder and my left hip, and my sword sheathed in my right hand, I rode into the camp. Kala crawled through it without making a sound or being seen by using the shadows. This camp was set up exactly the same as the last one; All the soldiers in rows in the front and a big tent for the general in the back.

"You ready for this...? This is the official turning point in our life."

"Whatever..."

Once again, a small smile cracked on my lips from Zhu's reply... Was she possibly scared? No matter.. I reared Kala and he ripped through the thin sheet of the tent. The general sat up from his futon. Kala and I were lit up by the few candles that made light in the tent.

"Who the hell are you? What is the meaning of this?" General Luu Ten demanded. His hair was down and he was in nothing but an under robe with red trims and a pinkish hue.

I unsheathed my sword, pointing it at him with my right hand. "My name is Shen. I am the assassin that killed General Sho Wei and wiped out his batallion! I decapitated him and poisoned the water of his batallion. If you want me, come and get me!"

With that I resheathed my sword, putting it back into Kala's bag, and took out two small smoke bombs with one hand. Kala sprinted out of the tent the second they hit the ground. At the center of the camp, I threw a flash bomb on the ground in an attempt to wake some of the soldiers up.

I looked back at the camp, waiting about 100 feet away from it as I heard the General's voice yell. "EVERYONE GET YOUR ASSES UP RIGHT NOW! SOUND THE ALARM! THE ASSASSIN OF GENERAL SHO WEI HAS BEEN DISCOVERED!"

I scoffed a little. "As if he did any of the work... I came up to his face!"

I leaned back on Kala, my head resting on my hands. "I think you should get going now..."

"Aw, that's cute. Is lil Zhu-zee scared of the big bad Fire Nation?" I said in a baby voice. I paused a little to chuckle. "Don't make me laugh."

I stay laying there for a few minutes until fire was blasted at Kala. He reared, almost knocking me off of him. With some momentum from him I threw myself forward and hugged his neck. "Woah! Calm down there, Kala! Sorry, buddy... It's okay, let's go!"

The giant black panther roared at the soldiers coming our way before I gave his reins a tug and we sped off.

"You got any idea where we're heading now?"

"Anywhere! There's no water in the earth kingdom. Kala can run faster than they can."

"Not too bright. How long do you think you can run from them? You can't keep doing this forever."

"You're being as sour as a skunk bear right now! Usually I'm the one trying to stop what you're doing! Why do they scare you so much?" I argued with Zhu. She didn't answer.

"Fine, be like that! I like it better when it's just me in my head anyway!" I let out a little yelp as I ducked under another fire blast. I looked behind me to see that it was no longer men on foot. They were now three armoured tanks following me. Where they had gotten those, I had no idea...

"Ugh, so stupid! Why didn't I see those stupid shits before! I could've woken them all by blowing those stupid things up!" I yelled.

I pet the side of Kala's neck, staying low to avoid getting hit by more fire. "C'mon boy, you gotta speed it up!"

"Kala's gonna get tired after a while, but those tanks won't..."

"Shut up! I got this covered!" I answered her as I shook my head once. She fell silent once again. I had to out maneuver them somehow... My answer came to me as we approached a forest.

"Up, Kala!" I said. Kala growled a little in response. He sprinted towards the tall tree in front of us, picking up speed. Then he jumped about half way up the tree and ran up it, digging his claws into the trunk of it for leverage. When we got to a high point, we ran on tree tops. It took a while, so the tanks were closer to us, but it was harder for them t reach us. They couldn't burn us because of the limited view of things above the tank. They would have to burn the base tree we were in so it would fall, but Kala would just jump to another one long before that would happen. Even though he probably weighed a little less than those tanks did, he was quick on his feet and broke barely any branches. He knew the trees, so he knew exactly where he could run and where he couldn't. They were still after us after about an hour and a half of running through the tree tops. I knew where I was going, though. Those tanks couldn't run across water... I hoped. I came across the river I was heading towards within twenty minutes. Kala leaped out of the tree, into the water and we dove under. I tugged on his reins twice when I was running out of breath as we swam underwater and he surfaced. I turned around on him, sitting backwards, and disspelled the fire blasted at us until we safely got across. As I pressumed, the tanks could no longer follow me. The soldiers on the inside would have to get a boat... or swim if they were that desperate to catch me. So far, no one had made any moves. I had picked the perfect spot since the only way they could get to me was going through the river. I would be long gone if they tried to go around it. I watched as the tanks reversed away when I was about three-forths of my way across the river. I sighed in relief and Kala slowed down his pace of swimming a little.

"Alright, we made it, boy..." I said, giving him a well deserved ear scratching. He purred as he continued to swim.


I eventually found out that I didn't know the Earth Kingdom like I thought I did... I mean, I knew a good amount of it, but the place was HUGE! I had been aimlessly wandering about the Earth Kingdom with Kala for about three weeks now. We'd get attacked by Fire Nation every now and then, but we always got away. I'd been "alone" since we first left... Zhu's last words were "Kala's gonna get tired after a while, but those tanks won't..." It was starting to prove true. I was exhausted and weak. I could only imagine how tired Kala was, especially since he was carrying my weight and the weight of my remaining stuff. Most of the time, I'd try to give him a break by just walking beside him and even taking some of the load, but right now I was too tired, and we had to reach cover by nightfall. We were walking through an open plain right now. Fire Nation would be able to spot us easily and surround us... Both Kala and I ran out of food and water four days ago. We couldn't stop in any of the town since we had wanted posters put up from the Fire Nation and most of the towns surrounding us in this area were full of greedy men who were just looking for ways to get extra money without working. Even if their pictures of me weren't accurate, a giant black panther is a hard thing to miss or mistake as something else. I didn't want to risk leaving Kala on his own either. I was starting to wonder if what I had done was a mistake, but everytime I thought that, I thought of Jun, and I was reminded that it wasn't.

I reached down and pat Kala's side. "I'm sorry boy, just a little bit further. We'll make camp in the first forest we see, okay?"

Kala made a noise in reply as he kept on walking. I took a deep breath in, closing my eyes. As I exhaled, a large grappling hook came out of nowhere and pierced through Kala's right side up through the front of his chest. He roared loudly in pain.

"KALA!" I yelled. I can't believe I didn't notice the hook coming... I can't believe I didn't notice them coming! The closed hook hit the floor about two feet in front of him. The four claws opened as it was pulled back, piercing into Kala's chest again and getting a good grip on him. I looked back in the direction where the hook came from as it was being reeled in to see five tanks in a "V" formation. The one in the middle was larger than the other two on its sides and was the one that had shot out the hook. I took out my ring blade and tried to hack at the thick chain reeling us in as Kala roared and struggled against it, but it was no use. As tears rushed down my cheeks, I slung the ringblade around me and unsheathed my shirasaya. The results were the same. I resheathed the shirasaya and clutched my head, unsure of what to do. There was no way in hell that I could take down five Fire Nation tanks by myself. I was useless in this situation... but maybe she wasn't.

"Zhu! Zhu, do something! I need you!" I yelled out loud. After a couple seconds that passed by like hours, I felt that familiar pain in my head. I didn't fight it this time. When I opened "my" eyes, they were the color of Zhu's; golden with red flakes. She had taken over my body and now I was playing spectator in the prison of my own mind. I watched as she flipped off of Kala and ran along the chain of the tank. She swung herself underneath it and reappeared on top of the tank. She unscrewed the main hatch on the top of it and then grabed the inner wheel to open it. Zhu dropped down into the tank, still holding the wheel, and closed the hatch, letting go of the wheel before she landed. She extended both of her hands out from her sides, releasing the fire that had been compressing in her body. She was consumed in fire as it expanded through the rest of the tank. The inside and outside of the tank were built fireproof, but the soldiers, the general inside and their armour weren't. Most, if not all firebenders usually didn't go around setting themselves on Fire and causing explosions similar to bombs. That was one thing that was weird about Zhu's firebending; She was a walking bomb. She had the ability to compress flames inside of her and then let them all out at once, making an explosion similar to a bomb. She had learned how to control fire from examining and observing the behavior of bombs. She didn't understand the chemistry of them, but had learned to firebend by watching them. Zhu's fire didn't harm her or me. I remembered once that what she just did happened to me when I got scared of something. I couldn't control it and burned down hundreds of gold pieces worth of crops in our old village. My father, Jun, and I had to move after that... Zhu reached down at the controls and gripped a stick and pushed it forward, making the chain that was reeling in Kala stop. She jumped and kicked open one of the other hatches, closest to the the front, landing on the chain. Zhu put both of her hands on the chain, releasing the fire inside of her once again and burning the chain in half. She rolled out of the way, dodging a blast of fire and got into a fighting stance as the tanks began to close in and circle her. Kala's collapsed and weakened figure was outside of the circle. Kala looked at her, realizing that it wasn't me who was doing all of this. His crystal blue eyes locked with her gold ones.

"Go... Now..." she said, barely above a whisper. Kala slowly and wearily got up and ran off. The tanks stopped when the circle had a radius of about fifteen feet and, in unison, backed up until they were all facing her, then moved in closer. Their turrets pointed at Zhu. A smile slowly wiped on Zhu's face as the tanks started to shoot flames at her from their turrets. She danced around, dodging them, and shot small compressed balls of fire that were about the size of a pool ball into the turrets of all the tanks. Within seconds of contact, they exploded and the tanks stopped moving altogether. To her dismay, more tanks, as well as men atop komodo rhino's surrounded her.

She laughed, menacingly. "You think I can't take you all!"

No reply from any of the men as they surrounded her, weapons ready to fire and hands ready to bend. She chuckled a little to herself as she peered down at the ground for a couple seconds. All was silent until she lifted her head, glaring at everyone around her. "Well, this is the last thing you're going to see..."

Zhu waved her hands in the form that one would use to summon the powers of lighting, but instead of lighting, a sparkig flame illuminated her hands and trailed behind them as she moved.

"Fire!" was heard, but Zhu stood her ground, both of her hands tightly clenched in fists and arms crossed on her chest, her knuckles facing outwards and her eyes closed. She opened her eyes after enduring the compression and build up of fire inside of her and forcefully swung her arms out to both sides of her in the air, opening her hands. A huge explosion blew back and obliterated everything within a sixty-foot radius of the woman. A cloud of smoke shot out in the form of a mushroom. As the dust fell out of the sky, clearing a little, all that was left was a huge circle in the dirt and a girl standing exactly in the middle of it. She laughed to herself a little and then collapsed, both of us falling into darkness.