Hello again… I didn't think I'd finish this chapter today but I got an extra spare at school with no more work to do so I wrote some more and considering how slack I've been I figured you deserved it. :) Enjoy.
ShellyMay
Book 1 Chapter 9: June and the Shirshu
We sat around the Pai Sho table as Iroh poured cups of tea before taking a sip. "Ahh! See, Prince Zuko, a moment of quiet is good for your mental wellbeing."
As we go to take a sip a huge jolt rocks the ship causing us to spill our tea, I bended mine back into its cup while Zuko's splashed all over his face. He wiped it off angrily and stood to go down to the deck leaving Iroh and I to follow in his wake.
A huge monster with a threatening woman riding it were on deck. The monster was sniffing the air and swatting at crew members while they scrambled out of her way.
"Get back! We're after a stowaway." Shouted the woman as Zuko ducked out of the way of her beast.
"There are no stowaways on my ship." Zuko yelled at her. The monster ripped up a chunk of metal deck and tossed it overboard before a man crawled out of the hole created where the thing's tongue whipped out across the back of his neck. Instantly he fell to the deck paralysed.
"He's paralysed." Zuko said mildly surprised.
"Only temporarily. The toxins'll wear off in about an hour. But by then he'll be in jail and I'll have my money." She stated matter-of-factly as she got off the monster and picked up the man slinging over the monster's back behind the saddle.
"But how did you find him on my ship?" Zuko demanded.
She petted it's neck before getting back in the saddle. "My shirshu can smell a rat a continent away."
"Well, I'm impressed." Iroh said admiringly. She cracked her whip and the shirshu bolted off the ship and down the dock. "Very impressed."
"It doesn't matter if you're impressed. We need to get this deck fixed or someone will hurt themselves and we won't be able to train or operate the ship properly." Zuko said coldly, "foreman how long until we can get it fixed."
"A few hours to get the needed material and then a day or two until we can sail again." The foreman informed Zuko nervously from the damage.
"Alright. Uncle, Sesi, come with me. We're going to find the Avatar." Zuko said walking back to the control room. Zuko told us his plan to use the shirshu to find the Avatar before telling me to go and collect my weapons. I met him on the dock a short while later where he told me that there was an inn that the woman often drank at when she was in town. It was a few hours away where many people stopped overnight as they travelled between towns. He had two rhino's ready for the three of us. Iroh already sat atop one.
We set to riding and as darkness fell we approached a three story building with many lights on and a lot of people. We dismounted and tethered the rhinos before going into the packed building. I felt overwhelmed, this was the most people I'd seen in one building before and it terrified me making me feel smaller than ever. Zuko and Iroh shouted things as we shoved through the crowds to where the woman was arm-wrestling with a man three times her size.
"I need to talk to you." Zuko demanded.
"Well, if it isn't my new friends, Angry Boy, Uncle Lazy and Silent Girl."
Iroh laughs before she easily beats the man and a pile of money appeared in front of her. "Your beast trashed my ship. You have to pay me back."
"Aww, I'd love to help you out, but I'm a little short on money." She replied sweetly before bellowing. "Drinks on me!"
The crowd roared as she went to take a drink. Zuko grabs her wrist and I felt a small not start to form in my stomach. "Money isn't what I had in mind."
The woman led us back outside where Zuko held up Katara's necklace. "I need you to find someone."
"What happened?" She asked. "Your girlfriend run off on you? Apparently not from the look on you Water Tribe pet's face."
"It's not the girl I'm after," Zuko retorted as I blushed and looked at my boots. "It's the bald monk she's traveling with."
"Okay." She said disinterested.
"If you find them," he continued. "I'll consider the damage to my ship paid for."
"Heh! Forget it." The woman laughed us off and began to climb into her saddle.
"Plus we'll pay your weight in gold." Iroh cut in.
She smiled, climbed back down and poked Iroh's chest. "Make it your weight and we got a deal."
"You got it!" Iroh laughed.
"Get on." She ordered snaching the necklace and walking to the front of the shirshu to hold it up to the beasts nose. She leapt onto it's back with the rest of us and the shirshu took off. We travelled well into the next day and eventually I feel asleep kept in place by Zuko's arms around my waist while we rode. When I finally blinked my eyes open we were in a deserted town with an old lady and very fat cat, quickly I fell back asleep. The next time I woke up we were at another village that looked like it had, had melted stone poured over and around it. People ran away from us but I strange old woman stood at the door to a building. The shirshu approached sniffing around the door to the building.
"Why are we stopping?" Zuko demanded.
"Because the girl must of spent a lot of time here."
"We have no time for this!" He snatched the necklace and made the shirshu smell it again then narrowly avoided it's darting tongue. "Hey, watch it!"
The three of us still on the shirshu laughed and June cooed, "Oh look, he likes you."
The strange woman approached us as Zuko climbed back onto the shirshu behind me. "Care to hear your fortune, handsome?"
"At my age there is really only one big surprise left," He smiled at her. "And I'd just as soon leave it a mystery."
June whipped the shirshu again and we raced along a path. "We're getting close!" She yelled after we sped up once more.
After a short amount of time we caught up to Katara and Sokka. "So this is your 'not' girlfriend." June smirked as Zuko dismounted and approached her. "No wonder she left. She's way too pretty for you."
"Where is he?" Zuko demanded ignoring the teasing. "Where's the Avatar?"
"We split up!" Sokka yelled back defiantly. "He's long gone."
"How stupid do you think I am?" Zuko growled at him.
"Pretty stupid." Sokka informed him before grabbing Katara's arm and yelling. "Run!"
The shirshu tongue darted out quickly and they both thudded with their impact with the ground. Zuko was clearly unimpressed. "What are we supposed to do now?"
"It's seeking a different scent – perhaps something that the Avatar held." She said as the shirshu sniffing around Sokka where a scroll fell out of his pack. We quickly draped my siblings over the monster's back and mounted again before the shirshu bounded towards a small abbey. Once we reached the court yard we started going around in circles.
"What's it doing?" I yelled clutching tighter to the saddle as Zuko's grip on my waist tensed.
"It's just going around in a circle!" He yelled as the shirshu switched and reared up to snap at Aang whom was flying around us. We crashed to the ground as the shirshu lost balance and tumbled to its back.
I groaned as Katara yelled, "Aang!"
June and her shirshu got up and charged after him while I stood up and wiped myself down. I turned to Zuko and asked. "What do you want me to do?"
"Get them out of the way!" He yelled pointing to Katara and Sokka. "They don't need to get hurt."
He darted off to do something as I picked Katara up and carried her to the side of the courtyard. I put her down then went and dragged Sokka over to her as well. Looking across the yard I saw Zuko advancing on an unsuspecting Aang, his hands blazing with fire. I watched my chest constricting as I watched them spar. Aang blocking blasts of fire with his staff and slamming air back at Zuko. After a few perilous moments both of them were blown back onto opposite facing roofs.
Appa's roar broke through the air as the shirshu repeatedly lashes at him with its tongue causing him to crash to the hard packed earth of the courtyard. My eyes were drawn back to Zuko as he charged along the roof toward Aang whose movements were slow and groggy. I couldn't take my eyes off the two figures dancing gracefully through this attack and avoid sequence. They leap from the roof after causing a lot of destruction and ended up dancing on the lip of a well. Zuko still held onto Katara's necklace and it appeared that Aang was trying to take it back. Zuko leapt across the well at the Avatar only to miss him as Aang jumped over his head snagging the necklace with his foot and tumbling into the well flame shooting after him. After a few seconds Zuko was launched into the air landing near my feet while Aang reappeared on top of a huge water jet.
As he stood to continue fighting Appa advanced growling at Zuko. I ran up just as he was about to strike however the shirshu lashed him repeatedly with its tongue paralysing the huge bison. The shirshu walked around threateningly. It sniffed the air searching for Aang just as it was about to strike a huge wall of perfumed liquid splashed all over the shirshu making it crazed as it lashed out repeatedly. Zuko got struck by the monster and fell back second before the same thing happened to me only I landed on top of Zuko instead of just next to him. June was struck as well and Iroh moved to catch her before pretending to be paralysed as well.
"Uncle? I didn't see you get hit with the tongue." Zuko said questioningly.
"Shh!" Iroh retorted quickly.
