Paradox Book 2: Earth

Chapter Ten: Tales of Ba-Sing-Se, Tale of Kiara

I wandered down one of the many streets of Ba-Sing-Se. I was taking the day off. Zuko had went on a date with a girl that kept coming into the tea shop, Jin, yesterday. I had been asleep by the time he had come back. I didn't want to sleep in on my one day off.

I wondered vaguely if the date had gone differently than canon but pushed that thought away. It wasn't like I liked Zuko, right?

I shook that thought away. I couldn't like Zuko. Sure he changed but he wasn't one to like someone like me. He got together with that emo girl. What's her name? May? Mei? Mae? Mai? Something like that.

I smoothed my shirt down feeling my pocket as I did so. I didn't want to make it obvious where I kept my money but I wanted to make sure I had it with me.

I wondered what Iroh was doing currently. He had been working at the shop when I last saw him. I had remembered the talk we had after Jet had been taken by the Dai Li. Iroh had told me that Jet must have seen the warm tea in his hands and assumed he had heated it himself, or had seen me heat the tea and assumed that they had taught me. Which made me vaguely think of the saying about what happens when you assume (you make an ASS out of U and ME.)

Iroh, or rather Grandpa Makoto, had said I should take a day off. He had taken one off at the beginning of the week and came home with red puffy eyes and I remembered it was Lu Ten's birthday. I had given him a silent hug, a promise I would be there for him, and left him to do as he wanted. I had sat at the table, reading a book while keeping one eye on my pseudo-grandfather figure the whole night. He had noticed and made my favorite tea for me while we sat together.

I sighed softly and began humming under my breath. The words slipped out of my mouth without permission and soon I was singing the song that had been in my head.

"When you're sad

When you're feeling low

When you're hurt

and don't know where to go

Think of me

There I'll be

Anytime you need a friend.

When you're down

And your luck runs out

Or if you're in trouble or in doubt

It's okay

Turn my way

Anytime you need a friend.

When you're scared

I will stay with you

If you feel you're falling

I'll lift you

When your heart breaks

I'll ease your aches

Whatever it takes I'm in

Anytime you need a friend.

la la la la la la

la la la la la la"

(Anytime you need a friend - Mariah Carey)

I was startled out of my singing by a round of applause from some surrounding shoppers. I blushed in both pleasure and embarrassment. I loved compliments but I wasn't good at taking them gracefully.

Several people threw several coins at my feet. I bowed as gracefully as I could with my burn scar and picked up the coins I had received.

I moved away from the area humming to myself. Now I had more money to shop with at least.

What to do first? Maybe some new clothes? It couldn't hurt.

Unfortunately the only colors they sold in the Earth Kingdom were green, brown, white and black. Apparently the other colors were claimed or something.

I bought two outfits, both had black pants but the shirts were black and green respectively. I bought a pack a few shops down and quickly packed my clothes into it.

I spent the rest of the day just wondering around the town. Nothing really significant happened...

A/n: Okay this is too short for my tastes so I'm going to give every Kovu fan a little treat...

Chapter 10.5: Kovu's Days

It's been quite a few moons since I've seen my alpha. I knew she was still alive. I could feel it. Alpha bonds are much deeper than most realize. I could feel the bond. She was so close half a moon ago. I could've ran to her. But she told me to protect the rest of the pack.

The little furless one seemed to get in trouble the most. He was the cub of the group. He seemed more powerful than the other two though, even if he was more trouble. He would probably be the alpha of his own pack one day. He seemed to have the sort of wisdom an alpha needs, even if he didn't have the aggressiveness to keep his pack in line yet. He'd grow into it.

The oldest male and the female seemed to be able to stay out of trouble better but they still acted like cubs sometimes. Both me and the not-prey beast had our paws full trying to take care of them.

The furless cub invited another cub to the pack. I allowed it. After all, Alpha left me in charge. I think she'd like the newest cub. After all, they were a lot alike. Head strong, confident, powerful. Even if the sightless cub hadn't grown into herself as much as Alpha had.

I was sad after we left the area where Alpha was, but the furless one seemed excited about something and his excitement leaked over into the rest of the group...

I almost caught one of the singing rats. Furless stopped me. Said they weren't food. Just like Alpha told me some of the four-legs and their young weren't for food back home.

I miss my mate. She was near due when I left. I wondered if she had the cubs yet. How many were there? Were they all strong? Or did one take after me and become a runt? I hoped my mate would take care of all of them, even if one was smaller than the others. After all, I grew to be a nice and healthy size even if I had been a runt at birth...

I hated the desert. The sand got everywhere. Under my layer of guard-fur, in between the pads on my paws, in my ears, nose, mouth. How it got to me when we were flying over the desert I had absolutely no clue... Then the sun made the whole ordeal even more miserable. It pounded down on my dark fur, making it hotter than it should be. I needed water. Or shade. I wasn't going to be too picky right at this moment. The only other pack member that seemed to share my pain was the little flying rat-that was also not food. He laid in the saddle arms with their wings outstretched panting like his little life depended on it.

I would've panted too, but it would just be inviting more sand to make it's home in my mouth. So I suffered quietly.

Furless seemed to sense our joined discomfort and made a small breeze to blow the sand out of our fur and cool us off slightly. I was grateful.

When we got to the human settlement they wanted we landed outside a building. I hurried over to the melting iceberg and managed to snatch an chunk about the size of a four-legs leg. I hurried over to what was left of my pack. The rest had gone in the building. I broke off a piece for flying-rat, and myself before giving the rest to fuzzy the flying beast. He groaned, it sounded almost like a thank you. I nodded briskly before moving back to my chunk licking it and gnawing on it to get shavings into my mouth so they could melt. It felt almost like paradise in the middle of hell.

I snarled loudly when a group of two-legs with brown coverings came towards us. They backed up cautiously. Apparently they didn't want to risk my fury.

Another two legs came out with my pack and shoo-ed the other two-legs away. I huffed slightly as he was allowed to board fuzzy. I didn't like him much. He smelled of musky tree pulp and dark spaces. He wasn't fit to be in our pack.

The rest of the pack smelled good.

Furless smelled like spring air and fruit. Sightless smelled like clay, earth and cool caves. The oldest smelled like metal and smoked meat. And the other one smelled like fresh water and ice after the first day of summer.

Alpha had always smelled like the ocean and pack. Always pack. She smelled like home. And I missed the smell.

I whimpered lowly to myself, putting my head down on my paws. My chest hurt thinking about my missing Alpha.

We flew for a long time. I dozed. The heat making me feel lethargic.

I woke only when we landed with a jolt.

Everyone went in but me, Sightless, and Fuzzy. Fuzzy wouldn't fit. I didn't want to go climbing up a straight wall, and Sightless couldn't do anything in there anyway.

Sightless chattered on in her language. I didn't understand most of it. I recognized some of the sounds as the way they addressed each other. Ang was for Furless. Kahtarah was the name of the oldest female. Sockah was for the oldest male. Appah was the name of Fuzzy. MohMoh was the name of the flying rat. Kovu was what Alpha had called me. So I knew that sound too. I think the others called Sightless Tough or something like that. Why they got such original sounds and she got a more common sound I had no clue. Maybe it was a way to distinguish her as a new member of the pack. What did I know about two-legs pack practices?

We sat together before I heard someone trying to sneak up on us. I snarled loudly. But a rumble from behind was distracting Sightless. The building the rest of the pack was in was sinking into the sand. I growled at her to tell her to keep it from sinking before attacking the interlopers.

They had chains they quickly tried to tie Fuzzy down with but I dodged around them sinking my fangs into one's arm. He screamed in pain. Something hit me on the flank and a blinding pain dazed me for a second. I was quickly back on my paws. Well most of them, one hurt whenever I set it down. I launched myself at a different attacker. The first one I had attacked yelled out something. And several of them struggled to tie Fuzzy's muzzle shut so he couldn't make noise or attack with his fangs.

I managed to bite two more of the attackers before I was hit alongside the head and thrown into Sightless. I whimpered in pain as I struggled to get up as they drug Fuzzy away. Trying to get back up to protect him. After all, Alpha left me in charge of the pack and Fuzzy was part of the pack. I yelped and sank back to the ground before howling my grief. I failed. They took part of my pack. I was practically useless.

Sightless whimpered too. Liquid pouring out her eyes to show her sadness. She buried her head in my shoulder and I moved my muzzle so it laid along her shoulder to let her know I was there and sharing her grief.

Furless was furious at both me and Sightless. I didn't object to the snarls and growls he pointed in our direction. As far as I was concerned I deserved it for failing.

Oldest female noticed my hurt leg and bound it with a piece of fabric and something straight so it didn't go crooked. I grit my teeth and bared the pain. I knew she could heal with her magic water but there wasn't much water left and we would need it to get out of the desert. I walked as fast as I could on two legs but I was constantly slowing the group down. I tried not to let it discourage me. I was once again the weakest link in the pack. I hadn't felt like that since my mother pushed me away from her side because of my size compared to my brothers and sisters and my Sire stood aside and didn't stop her.

The journey was hard on me particularly. I was used to four paws. It would be like making the two legs jump around with one instead of two. It was extremely difficult to move the way I wanted to.

Furless didn't sleep the first night. I heard him growl under his breath the whole time the rest of the pack slept. I went to apologize for my weakness but he wouldn't even look at me. Almost like he was disgusted to be in my presence. I made myself scarce after that.

I hoped he would forgive me for my weakness soon though. It was hard to protect a pack that wanted nothing to do with you. Not that I had done a particularly good job protecting the pack before. After all those two-legs got away with Fuzzy. That was a failure. But, I tried to defend myself from myself, there were almost twice as many in their pack as there was in ours and we didn't have the whole pack with us.

It didn't work all that much. I still blamed myself.

So when we met the pack that had stole Fuzzy I nearly finished off the one I had attacked first previously. But Furless gained the aggression I thought he didn't have and nearly killed him himself.

We were going to a big city. At least that's what I gained from the little bit of two-leg I understood. The oldest female healed my leg for me with he magic water. It was still sore, it ached when I walked on it. She seemed to sense this and told me the pain would lessen as it finished healing itself. I didn't protest. She wouldn't understand me anyway.

We had to run from this giant water snake beast with another male and his mate- who was carrying and near due by the smell of her. Only one cub though. I felt sorry for them. She must not be very fertile. They were probably lucky to even get one. Even the least fertile females of my kind usually have at least three cubs. So I was sorry for the man. He wouldn't have many cubs to carry on his genes.

She seemed over joyed when the cub arrived though. And it smelled healthy. So that was something at least. She smelled nice. Not quite like a real cub, but it was close. A mothering one of our kind would probably take care of it, if she wanted more cubs than she had or if she lost her cubs recently and wanted something to care for until she could try for more pups of her own.

They named it in their language. "Hoep"

I liked the sound of it. Much simpler than the ones the rest of my pack had. Shorter, at least. Which was something. I felt a pull. Alpha was near. But I wouldn't be able to go to her. I had to protect the rest of the pack as much as I could.

Furless looked at me again. He no longer had that look of disgust. I was happy about that. I didn't know what else I could've done to earn his forgiveness for my weakness.

I had a good feeling. I was going to see Alpha again really soon...

A/n: Okay, that part was much longer. How did that sound guys? Review please? I'll try not to have the next chapter take so the way the name misspellings were on purpose. That's how they sound to Kovu.