(Both Masaru and Izumi are 7)
Eiko's Development - Day 354
Eiko is exactly a year old. She measures approximately two feet long and can coil my entire arm now. She can run and is starting to fly but only lasts a few seconds before tiring. Great Uncle Iroh tells us it is because she is not yet properly proportioned. She's a much less picky eater now. We go hunting on sundays and then bring the catch back to the palace where Eiko will nibble away at it whenever she's hungry for the entire next week. It's been an adventure for Saru and Me, Mother and Father, and all of the palace staff, really. We still don't know the species of dragon that Eiko is so we don't know when she will start flying long distances or breathing fire or trying to breed, but it doesn't matter. She's still wonderful to me.
"Eiko! EIKO NO! YOU CANNOT CHEW ON THE TAPESTRY!" Izumi yelled, pulling the young dragon away from the wall.
It blew smoke in her face with a grumpy little sigh.
"Don't yell at her, Zumi! She's only teething! She needs something to chew to ease the pain in her mouth," Masaru offered.
"I have an idea, wait here, and hold her," Izumi said, sprinting off to her room to get something.
"Here, Eiko, chew these," she offered, placing two objects on the ground. They looked like flat Sikh sandals but with a rather large toe box. "They're new so they shouldn't smell bad yet."
"What is it?" Masaru asked, peering over his argumentative essay to watch Eiko eagerly accept the offering.
"My new dance shoes," Izumi replied, with her arms folded across her chest, leaning her weight on her back foot.
"But… aren't they like… expensive?"
"So? They hurt when they're new and stiff. Why not let Eiko break them in for me?" Izumi asked.
"Alright," Masaru replied, leaning back, worrying for the next dance and gymnastics class Izumi had with the former acrobat and Kyoshi Warrior, Ty Lee. Masaru offered Eiko and old training sword that had been broken and when Eiko rejected it, tried covering it in fabric and she accepted. It was the trade to get Izumi's nicely chewed dance shoes back.
"Will they still work?" He asked.
She bent the sole of the shoe and inspected the fabric. There weren't too many holes in it. "Should," Izumi shrugged.
That afternoon, Masaru went to watch Izumi's dance class out of curiosity. Eiko sat across his shoulders also watching her mommy dance.
"Posture, Zumi! You're a dancer! Chin up. Smile! You MUST appear happy even if you're dying inside—" Ty Lee instructed as she performed a pass of jumps and turns across the diagonal of the floor.
"Well that's not very genuine," Masaru thought to himself as he watched. She looked amazing yes, but all those complicated movements did look incredibly difficult. She finished the routine with a perfectly centered series of at least thirty turns without putting her free leg once. Then she fell with a sickening thud.
"Oof!"
"Zumi!" Ty Lee rushed over and inspected Izumi's ankle which appeared to roll on the way down.
"It's fine," Izumi lied, wincing.
"Should I go get Akira?" Ty Lee's assistant asked.
"Yes please," Ty Lee responded, straightening and bending the girl's knee without moving her ankle. Akira rushed in and Ty Lee removed the shoe.
"Zumi, what happened to it? I thought we told you to wear the new shoes," Ty Lee asked upon closer inspection.
"I did. I only let Eiko play with them first since the stiffness hurts so much when I first put them on," Izumi explained as Akira worked on healing her ankle.
"It's just a pulled tendon. I managed to reset it to an extent, but no pointe for the rest of the week," Akira said, replacing the water in her skein.
Izumi pretended to be disappointed while Masaru hid his laugh, wondering if this was part of her original plan to let Eiko chew her shoes.
"Zumi, the stiffness in the shoes is necessary to provide you with the support you need to keep your foot straight so it doesn't tilt too much and roll your ankle like we've just seen. I know it hurts the arch and the heel a little, but it is something you need. Please find something else for your dragon baby to chew after I order you a new pair of shoes," Ty Lee asked.
"Yes, Aunt Ty Lee. I'm sorry," Izumi sighed.
"Akira, can she still do takeoffs and landings in acro and gym?"
"I'd stay away from hard impact activities. She can still do the contortion and balances maybe," Akira suggested.
"Awwwww!" Izumi groaned.
"Go stretch! I'll set up the apparatuses we'll use in the gym."
"Mother, we're going out!" Izumi called to her mother in the parlor as she and Masaru went to change into their new hunting clothes.
"Where?" Mai asked.
"The sector of the forest about twenty degrees south west of here!" Masaru answered.
"Be back before dark," the Fire Lady ordered.
"We will!"
The two children had leather boots, dark crimson pants and a shirt, and a deep brown leather shoulder and hip armor with a hard breast plate that left their stomach exposed for easy mobility and ventilation.
Masaru wore full leather gloves while Izumi wore fingerless gloves and a band of three dozen darts around each forearm and a dozen knives up her sleeves. Masaru carried a broadsword across his back, a set of Dao swords on his right hip and his dagger on his left. They were escorted to the edge of the city by carriage so they weren't seen by civilians, then they raced down the slope of the volcano with a Eiko bounding between them.
"Come on!"
"Faster, Faster!" they ran through the trees to a river in a clearing that they liked.
Eiko jumped up onto Izumi's shoulders, wondering what they were going to do that day. Swim, hike, climb, hunt?
Izumi pulled Eiko off her shoulders and bent down in the grass to face her.
"So you can puff smoke in our faces, but can you breathe fire?" Izumi asked the one year old dragon.
Izumi pointed at Masaru, who roared and blew a blast of fire from his mouth and both hands.
"Fire comes from the breath," Izumi explained.
"I can't believe we're teaching a dragon how to… be a dragon!" Masaru said.
"Well unless you find a mother dragon, we have to," Izumi replied.
The dragon ran in circle then opened its mouth and coughed up a spark with a cute little screech. Both children rolled over laughing.
They walked around talking; there they had complete privacy from their parents, teachers and servants.
They discussed their journal entries on Eiko and plans to possibly record a new species of dragon as they went. They passed through a few bushes when they saw some berries had been laid out in the center of leafy arrays.
"Traps," Izumi growled.
"Eiko, up," Masaru said, holding his hand out. Eiko jumped and curled around his arm. Izumi looked up and saw a couple of animals already hanging from traps. She firebent herself up to them and slowly lowered the cages down to set them free.
"If you're not brave enough to catch your kill yourself, you don't deserve to eat it," Izumi said to Masaru when she returned.
Masaru agreed. They hated animal traps. So many traps were forgotten in the woods that many animals starved to death before being collected. They went around the trap laden clearing and continued to explore the woods.
They reached a nice grassy meadow where Izumi taught Masaru how to cartwheel and walk on his hands while Eiko rolled around with them in the grass for a few hours.
They took the usual path back towards the capital city as the sun began to set, always slaying their catch then so it would be as fresh as possible for the week. They rounded the same tree that they always did, passed the same boulder, then there was the sound of a spring loosing.
"No!" Izumi screamed as she was yanked up into the trees by a rope net.
"Don't burn yourself out! You'll fall and get hurt!" Masaru yelled.
"I won't." Izumi replied holding onto the rope. Masaru tried to see where the trap was tied off but couldn't tell with all the foliage, then there was another snap and he too was pulled up into the tree.
"Eiko! Here!" Izumi called. The dragon flew up to her net. "We need you to get back to the palace and get Mother and father. Don't touch the ground. I know you can't fly long distances but you MUST, Eiko. Use the leaf cover and stay hidden. Go!" Izumi ordered.
The dragon jumped off the net just as the sound of an air gun rang out and a metal net flung over the one year old dragon.
"BASTARDS!" Izumi screamed.
"See Father? I told you I saw two kids with a dragon. And you didn't believe me," a young man said, reeling Eiko in by a chain.
"What shall we do with the kids?" another brother asked.
"Leave then to rot. I've no use for them,"
"What about the weaponry they wear?" the first young man asked. The father looked closer with his beady black eyes and crazed beard and hair.
"Eh, I guess we could take em back to camp," the father grumbled. "Pilfer what we can."
Eiko whimpered from her metal net.
Izumi thrust an arm though her rope net and struck one of the sons with just enough lightning to stun him unconscious. Eiko tried to free herself but the other son took up the net.
The father lifted another, smaller airgun and pointed it at Izumi and shot her with a dart and she went unconscious. Shirshu toxin.
"No!" Masaru screamed, shooting fire and lightning out of his net only to also be shot.
It was complete darkness when they woke again, chained to separate posts in a tent.
"Zumzu! Did they hurt you?"
"No."
"Did they touch you, anywhere?!"
"No," Izumi replied. "Relax. I'm fine. We just need to find Eiko!" Izumi replied.
"Well well well, so it isn't two boys after all," the father of the two young men said, entering the tent.
"Nor just two random kids," one of the dons said throwing Masaru's dagger into the dirt before him.
"Where'd you two kids come across such nice steel and armor."
"We stole it!" Masaru answered quickly.
"From who? The Fire Lord?" one of the sons asked.
"No one else in the country can afford to have forged a steel so fine," the other son said throwing some of Izumi's knives at her feet. He bent down before her and touched her face. She bit him and he slapped her.
"DON'T TOUCH HER!" Masaru yelled, trying to firebender the ropes off but the shirshu toxins were still in his body.
"Aww is she your girlfriend?" The other son asked.
"We'll take good care of her!" the son said, leaning forward to press his smelly head into Izumi's neck as he reached around her body to unie her wrists. Masaru thought fast. His dagger. His leg would reach. He kicked it up by the hilt then to the side, sending it spinning with a deadly accuracy, right through the space between the man's neck and Izumi's legs, slicing through half his throat while leaving her legs unscathed, just as the ropes fell away. She grabbed her three throwing knives, ducking under streams of fire and pinned the father and the other son to a support wall of the tent and fetched Masaru's dagger. She cut clean through his rope bonds as the father lit the tent on fire. They ran out anyways sustaining only minor burns while their bending was disabled only to find them in a rather massive rebel camp.
Their weaponry hung conveniently on a nearby post leading them to assume they were taken and stripped by the leader of this group. They quickly strapped everything on them and ran, Masaru drawing his broadsword from his back to leave one hand free if he needed to. Izumi drew four darts in each finger. And through the hoard that rushed to see the burning tent they sprinted, calling.
"Eiko!"
"Eiko!"
"Eiko!"
Finally they heard her screeching. She was in a cage.
"It's just some low grade steel. I can cut through it," Masaru said, sheathing his sword and drawing his dagger. "Hang on girl," he said, cutting through the lock. Eiko wrapped around his arm and shoulder. There were other animals. Masaru turned to Izumi with pleading eyes for permission to take the detour.
"Just hurry!" Izumi hissed. Soon enough the entire camp would be on their tails. Saru freed all of the other dragon hybrids, then they ran.
"Do you recognize this part of the forest?" Masaru asked.
"No, you?" Izumi replied.
"We need the stars," he said, stopping and looking up only to see more leaves.
"We need to get up," they both climbed. They were in deep in the forest. The volcano of the capital city barely a speck on the horizon.
"They'll never find us," Masaru realized.
By the phase of the moon, they'd been out a few days.
"Shit!" Izumi cursed.
"We can just start heading back, and we get there when we get there," Masaru suggested.
"I have a better idea. Hold me. Make sure I don't fall," Izumi suggested.
He wrapped an arm around her feet while his other hand held onto a branch of the tree. She stood up and generated a massive amount of lightning, the most she had ever produced and struck the sky creating a blinding bolt and a subsequent thundering boom that echoed across the entire island. She was panting. "Hopefully that got their attention," she gasped.
"But what if they weren't looking in our direction,"
"Then we'll do it again?" She said, charging up for a second bolt powerful enough to reach the sky.
The energy cracked the branch they were standing on and they fell, fortunately catching another one shortly below before tumbling all the way down.
"Should we stay up here? Or go to the ground?" Masaru asked.
"The rebels are down there and they're probably looking for the two rotten kids who killed one of their own and set free their animal inventory."
"You're right."
"Perhaps we should just wait here."
They moved a few trees closer towards the volcano in the distance and waited. Masaru tied his swords and dagger to his waist with his fabric band and then used the three leather belts combined to tether himself and Izumi around the waist to the trunk of the tree so they could sleep.
A few hours later, they woke to the sound of an airship engine hovering above. A couple of war balloons had been deployed to search the area.
"Here! We're here!" They yelled. Izumi unclipped the belt and Masaru re-looped the holsters of his blades onto each. Izumi sent up a bit of lightning as a signal to the nearest war balloon and they were pulled aboard.
"What happened?" the soldier, Mishka, asked,inspecting both of their faces and bodies quickly for any injury. They had only minor rope burns on their wrists and minor burns on the sides of their faces-that would heal easily even though it had been hours since they ran out of the flaming tent. "You two have been gone for six days! The Fire Lord and Fire Lady have been beside themselves!
"We were heading back from our meadow at sundown when some forest rebels or something caught us in nets and shot us with darts laced with shirshu poison. We spent most of the time knocked out apparently." Masaru replied.
"They wanted Eiko," Izumi explained.
Mishka's search partner signaled to the other war balloons and at least a dozen ascended out of the forest and returned to the airship. "Well I'm glad you're all safe. Let's get back home, shall we?"
"Yes," the kids said. Once on the airship, Masaru pulled out his dagger and looked at the blood on it. For the first time ever and probably not the last, he thought, it wasn't just some animal victim of the hunt. It was a fellow human's blood. He looked over at Izumi who was wrapped in a blanket and being served tea. He pulled out a rag from his pocket and wiped the blade clean and went to join her and eat.
Eiko slithered from Masaru's shoulders to Izumi's arm.
"Mister Lee," a servant said, offering Masaru tea and soup.
They both ate in silence during the ride back to the palace.
"Zumi! Saru!" Mai bent down to embrace them both.
"Glad you're both okay," Zuko said, standing above them looking relieved.
"Mother! Are you crying?" Izumi asked.
"Forgive me for being human. Just don't tell anybody!" Mai said, squeezing Izumi for just a little longer with shaking arms and visible fear on her usually stoic face.
"Mishka, your report?" Zuko asked the soldier who delivered them.
"A wayward tribesman saw their dragon one day and wanted it, so they set traps for the kids, took the dragon, and became interested in their blades. They probably were going to demand a ransom once they identified the babes, but never got that far." Mishka reported.
"Thank you for your report," Zuko responded. Mishka bowed stiffly and then dismissed himself and left the family to resume his regular duties. Zuko turned his attention to his young ward. The boy was paler than a fresh sheet of parchment right after being bleached. "How are you feeling?"
Masaru looked up with his amber eyes looking unusually dark even in the bright morning light.
"Uncle," Masaru said looking down at his feet. "I think I killed one of the tribesman. He got too close to Zumi so I aimed for his neck, and- got him before he- could do anything," Masaru said sadly. "At the time I felt I had to but now… I feel so… confused!"
"Masaru, while killing is wrong and should always be avoided at all costs, I understand why you did it," Zuko said, bending down to take his hands. "I would have done the exact same thing for my lady." He said looking at Mai. "Thank you for keeping my daughter safe this whole time, and for being her friend."
Masaru fell into Zuko's arms and started crying.
"Why don't you two stay with us tonight, okay?" Zuko suggested.
Mai personally bathed the two children and stood by while Akira tended their wounds and burns. Whenever Mai slept with her daughter, it was in Izumi's room. This was the first time ever the children saw her parents' spacious chambers.
Mai laid down on her end on the edge spooning her daughter with Saru on the other side and later, Zuko would take a place behind him.
A/N
Yes, Masaru killed someone to protect his best friend. And yes, I am a thousand percent certain Izumi trained some form of ballet/dance/acrobatics with Ty Lee. Up next: Blue Pineappleberries
Have a great weekend!