Chapter Ten
Zuko wasn't sure why he was surprised when the girl took off. Wasn't that the story of his life: a constant struggle to achieve what should have come easy, what should have been his by birthright. But that's what made him strong. These low-life pirates were about to learn that the hard way. And some day… his father would realize it too.
With a sharp exhale of breath, Zuko sent two quick fire blasts towards the Captain, forcing the older man to dodge for cover. Without pause he dropped and whirled, a low arc of fire shooting out from his foot in an attempt to drive the pirates back. Unfortunately the nautical bandits were agile by nature, most choosing to jump over his attack rather than retreat from it.
The First Mate closed ground quickly, dodging another fireball while drawing his twin swords. Sparks flew as Zuko blocked a thrust with his iron wrist guard. Allowing the over confident pirate's own momentum to assist him, Zuko grabbed the man's wrist and pulled him off balance, taking possession of one of the Mate's swords in the process. The green-clad man turned his fall into a controlled tumble, striking out with a kick at Zuko's shin that forced the teen to jerk backwards awkwardly in order to avoid it.
The clang of metal against metal rang through the air; his wrist suddenly went numb and Zuko dropped the captured sword. Glancing to the left, he saw a burly, shirtless pirate twirling a weight on a chain. Already off balance, the fireball he shot at the man went wide and he knew he wasn't going to be able to dodge the lead weight's next strike.
The pirate, smirking, obviously knew it too. He twirled his weapon faster, then lashed out.
The high-pitched keen could have been easily overlooked, if Zuko hadn't already been a victim of what it portended. The weighted chain, speeding towards his head, reversed direction in an instant. The pirate stared stupefied at the white-fletched arrow that pinned the chain to a nearby crate. In quick succession two more arrows struck home, each splitting the last and locking the chain in place. As the cursing pirate reached to pull the arrows out, three more missiles pinned his sleeve to the crate, causing the man to turn pale and freeze.
Feeling a flash of relief, Zuko regained his balance in time to dodge a spear strike. Grinning fiercely, he set the wooden shaft on fire before tripping the lunging pirate up and sending him head first into the harbor. Another fire blast was enough to drive away a nunchuk wielder, while his unseen yu-yan ally pinned the sandals of another pirate to the dock. The man swiftly threw away his weapon and raised his hands in surrender.
"Enough of this," the Captain barked.
Several small black balls were tossed towards Zuko's position; he recognized them instantly, but there was nothing he could do as they exploded upon impact.
-------------------------
One eye closed, Shiori sighted down the shaft of her arrow, unaware of the small, satisfied smile adorning her lips. From her position on top of a nearby building, she could pick and chose her targets with ease. It was the chance she had been waiting for; an opportunity to prove her worth as a future yu-yan archer. Of course, the first order of business had been to distance herself from the actual combat, an act she realized belatedly that may have been misinterpreted by Prince Zuko. Still, she believed that she had been redeeming herself nicely. Each arrow struck its intended target; even Shi-Yun wouldn't have been able to find fault in that.
She fired three arrows in rapid succession, successfully pinning a pirate's sandals to the wood planking of the dock. Eyes wide, the man discarded his weapon. Shiori's smirk widened.
Searching for another suitable target, it was the archer's turn to be startled when a couple of the pirates reached into their pockets and started throwing small black balls towards Prince Zuko. With no time to think, Shiori shot a few of them in mid-air; blinking in surprise as they exploded into clouds of thick grey smoke. The balls tossed towards Zuko exploded too; the whole area became swiftly engulfed by the impenetrable haze.
Mentally uttering a few choice phrases she had recently acquired from the local populous, the girl opened her closed eye but did not relax the tension on her bowstring. She couldn't risk shooting blindly into a cloud of smoke occupied by the Fire Nation's crown prince; however, any pirates caught outside the smoke were fair game.
Biting her lip in frustration as the spreading smoke obscured more and more of the dock, she shifted her weight impatiently. There had to be something she could do, but what?
Fire balls and arcs of crimson light still emerged from the center of the haze, indicating Zuko fought on. They seemed random shots, rather than the controlled and directed blasts he had been using. One struck the rolled sail of a nearby anchored ship. A tendril of black smoke began rising from the highly flammable canvas; as Shiori watched, it swiftly became a column. That, in addition to the sounds of combat, began to attract unwanted attention. Remembering Zuko's words about the town being a firetrap, the girl grimaced as the fire started to spread and the shouts of the watchman arose. As indifferent as the town populous had seemed to the various fights that broke out randomly around them, they would not ignore a fire for long.
From atop the roof, she could hear doors slamming shut, and a buzz from within the buildings near the harbor that she identified as trouble. Shifting her bow to her shoulder, she grasped the spider-monkey rope that had assisted her ascent of the building. Shiori slid to the ground. She imagined that she could hear the pounding of footsteps, or was that her heart? They had to get out of here!
Dashing across the street and into the opaque, pirate created smoke, the teen ran smack into a seafarer, hard enough to knock her on her bottom. The bare-chested man gave her a gap toothed grin.
From the beginning of her training, Shiori had been taught to avoid close quarters combat. That didn't mean she was completely defenseless. Snatching an arrow from her quiver, she jabbed it into the pirate's shin. He let out a howl of pain as she used his distraction to regain her footing and scramble back into the surrounding haze.
Although still thick and obscuring, the cloud was beginning to dissipate enough to enable her to make out vague forms moving within it. But which one was Zuko? A second later and her question was answered by the sound of a familiar authoritative and demanding voice expressing the desire to know who had hired Captain Makai's crew to spread rumors. The indistinct, slim form held a bulkier one pinned to a stack of crates, one fist drawn threateningly back.
The grey haze swirled and eddied in a suspicious way to the Prince's left. Now that she was aware of Zuko's location, Shiori could take the risk. A loud cry confirmed her instincts as she sunk an arrow into the mist. Unfortunately, it distracted Zuko enough to allow his detainee to wiggle free. Not pausing her forward progress even to make her shot, Shiori clapped a hand on his arm as he made to pursue the lithe sailor.
The intense fire bender swung around, glowing red flame following the course of his fist. Shiori froze, eyes fixated on the impending blow. Thankfully, the firstborn of the Fire Lord had excellent reflexes. Not bothering to pull his strike, he instead redirected the blast to shoot directly to the girl's right, nearly catching a certain hobbling pirate unawares. Even with his perforated shin, the man managed to narrowly dive out of the way.
"What? What do you want?" the Prince asked crossly in response to Shiori's incessant tugging on his sleeve.
"You've set a ship on fire. The whole town's coming. We've got to get out of here!"
For a second, it looked as if Zuko was going to argue or outright refuse. But then a look of resignation crossed his face.
"Fine. Let's go."
Their escape from the smokescreen did not go unnoticed. Shiori wasn't the only combatant who had sought a bird's eye view of the proceedings; a crossbow wielding buccaneer had partially scaled the mast of a nearby docked vessel. Firing two crossbows simultaneously, he ensnared the Fire Nation teens in a net, all while alerting his shipmates to their attempted flight. After a brief moment of struggle, Zuko burned their way free with ease and in a manner, much to Shiori's relief, which did not injure them in the process.
Hearing the nasally voice of the First Mate closing in behind them, the teens fled, pushing their way past the first of the town residents who were beginning to gather ashore. Once free of the crowd, they broke out into an all out sprint down the curvy street towards Zuko's unseen boat; Captain Makai's crew in tenacious pursuit.
Shiori was surprised to find out that Zuko was in relatively good shape for a boy who spent the majority of his time on a ship. Still, she took pride in the fact that his physical prowess paled in comparison to a girl who had spent the last four years of her life in constant training. Outpacing both the Prince and the pirates, Shiori nimbly leapt to the top of a local merchant's cart, pausing only long enough to launch several arrows at Zuko's pursuers before hopping back down.
And just in time, as her crossbow bearing counterpart skewered two of the merchant's vegetables in her wake. Leaving the distraught man to wail about his cabbages, Shiori took off again.
Camped on her heels, Prince Zuko shoved the green-clad merchant out of his way before tipping the cabbage laden cart over, hoping the barrage of round heads would slow down or trip up the pirates. Following up on the earthbound assault with a head-high arc of fire, the teen put on a burst of speed to catch up with his borrowed archer. An archer, he noted with disgust, who wasn't even slightly winded yet.
"The ship should be… just around… that corner," he panted. The girl nodded, and then frowned slightly as a crossbow bolt splintered a nearby crate. Zuko could almost swear he heard her mutter something about sloppy marksmanship as they ran, but with the chaos around them it was impossible to be sure. They had almost reached the last bend in the road before a horrible thought almost stopped him dead in his tracks.
"Oh no! My Uncle!"
---------------------------
General Iroh hummed the melody to an ancient Fire Nation love ballad as he casually strode back to his nephew's boat. Jangling cheerily alongside his ample belly was a coin purse that had nearly doubled in size, despite the fact that one of his pai-sho playing opponents had kept a few tiles up his sleeves. Also within his possession were a bag of fresh fire flakes, a small, whimsical gold statuette depicting two platypus-bears playing shoji, and a collection of Earth Kingdom potpourris that he hoped would aid some of the more unpleasantly 'fragrant' areas of the ship.
Zuko should be pleased, Iroh mused, that he had shown such restraint at the local market. Of course, the teen was bound to be disappointed in the fact that Iroh had discovered little news about the Avatar. It was the one downside to what had otherwise been a most peaceful day.
Iroh took a deep breath and let it out in a satisfied sigh. The sun was shining, the gentle scent of potpourri lingered in the air; there was no such thing as a wasted day in Iroh's book. Pondering on how he might appeal to the young Prince's better sensibilities to allow the overworked crew a short shore leave; the retired General was caught off guard as he rounded a corner and had a familiar brown and tan clad form bounce off of him. Staggering back a step from the impact, Iroh offered a gentlemanly hand down to the shocked Shiori, who was blinking up at him with her mouth agape. The girl's eyes widened; she seized the offered hand and pulled down hard, forcing Iroh down just as a few throwing knives came streaking by.
"Uncle! There you are!"
"Prince Zuko? You made some new friends, I see."
The out of breath Prince fired a few blasts at the group of buccaneers chasing them. "No time for jokes. Get to the ship, now!"
Lurching back to his feet, the retired General made a break for the small boat while the younger fighters exchanged volleys. Scrambling inside, he put his fire bending abilities to good use, bypassing the smoldering coal fire to directly convert the water in the boiler into steam himself. As the gages trembled their way closer to the green zone, he heard two thuds as the teens made it on board. Iroh threw the boat in gear, backing them away from the dock as fast as he dared.
"Ha, ha," he heard Zuko call out to the cursing pirates. Shaking his head at the teen's audacity, it was then that Iroh realized that something large and jingly was absent from his waistline. Tching his tongue in disappointment, the Dragon stuck his head out of the cabin just in time to see a pirate hoist his purse aloft triumphantly, whilst one of his shipmates turned around and dropped his pants.
Zuko shot an errant fireball at the bare-bottomed man; Shiori's nimble fingers swiftly tied a length of rope to an arrow. In a matter of seconds, the white fletching was drawn back to her cheek, one eye closed as the girl sighted along its length. Shiori maintained her concentration even when an inexplicable, feather light touch brushed across the back of her neck. The sudden, excruciating bite on her thumb was not so easily ignored. With a startled yelp, she released the arrow, which, by some miracle of yu-yan training, managed to make it to its intended target.
The pirate holding Iroh's purse aloft lowered it with a curse as the anchored arrow pierced the upper part of the leather pouch. He grasped the shaft, determined to pull it out, but the reptile-parrot made his haste unnecessary. With an ear piercing squawk, it followed up on its attack on Shiori's thumb with a clawed scratch to her cheek. Then, as she clamped her bloody hand to her bleeding face, the Captain's pet winged out over the harbor water, severing her thin rope with its beak as it went.
An uproar of cheers rose from the gathered crew on the dock as the reptile-parrot returned to its master's shoulder.
"What do you think, Captain?" the First Mate inquired. "Should we go after them?"
Absently stroking the brilliant green plumage of his pet, the grey-haired man shook his head. "Naw. We'll catch up to our friend, the banished Prince, someday. Til then, drinks are on the Fire Nation!"
The raucous cheer that arose from the dock at the Captain's proclamation could be heard even from Zuko's rapidly retreating boat.
