Chapter 11: Tasks from the King

One more chapter before I take a small break to focus on final exams. For those in school and have exams too, study hard and good luck!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Boku no Hero Academia (My Hero Academia) or Avatar: The Last Airbender. It belongs to Kōhei Horikoshi, Shonen Jump, Funimation, Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko, Nickelodeon, and any other of their partnered companies.

When Izuku was unshackled and looked around, he notice that it would be near impossible to wash it all in time. Izuku walked around the to take note of the plenty of soap and washboards, muttering to himself as he went. Then something clicked, what if the drying technique that he' seen in the air temples be used to also wash the clothes.

He rolled up in sleeves and got to work. He took all the washboards and lined them up sideways in the giant wash basins and filled them with soap and water. Once he put all the clothes in there, he jump above the basin and made an air scooter to stir the clothes against the washboards. By the time his scooter started to shrink, he jump out and made a next scooter in another basin. He did this until he stirred and scrubbed in each basin and when he checked the clothes, they were all grim free and took care of most of the clothes. He put the wet clothes on the lines and blew them dry with a gust of wind. By the time he took all the clothes down, he'd washed all the clothes in less than an hour.

"Quick & Efficient." the King gave an impressed tone, despite his straight face. "I would like to know how you came up with all that."

"With all due respect sir, I would like to do the next task as soon as possible." Izuku emphasized with a glance to his friends whose crystals rings were creeping up their arms.

"Very well."

With a snap of the King's fingers they were brought onto a carriage with a collapsible top that led them out of the castle walls, to the west. With them hitting the chutes as soon as they entered the city, they didn't take the time to look at the city. When they passed citizens waved to the King in such a casual and neighborly air that even kids were allowed to chased and What were areas that had abandoned buildings, now are parks for children to play earth ball and exercise or plazas with zen gardens for yoga and meditation. It was oddly peaceful alongside the high speed chutes that zigzag around the city.

It wasn't too long until, they stopped in front of an area that was - - - different than the ones they passed earlier. The area was bar of any structures with the only other features being the holes that dotted the ground.

"As you may have noticed, I make sure that any open spaces in my city at least serve the purpose of community recreation. This area has created more of a problem than others. It originally was supposed to be a community petting zoo being cared for by a local farming club, however these animals have gone rouge after not being fed enough and going after neighboring gardens and pets."

One of the guards stomped it's foot, forcing something out of the hole. The ball of fur shot in the air and landed in the King's hands. The animal was like a groundhog or a prairie dog that been stretched out from a taffy puller with several pairs of legs going along it's long body like a caterpillar, a prairie-pillar (*1). The creature growled until it was let go and as it crawled back into the hole, baring its buckteeth that fold into its mouth like snake fangs.

"You are to collect them all so that we can put them in a less free-range environment where they can live peacefully without endangering anyone else." The King concluded.

Looking over the area that had more holes than a strainer, Izuku tried something similar to what the guard did. He went up to the nearest hole and blew a gust of air into it. Nothing happened immediately at first, then a few popped out of the holes and squirmed as they hovered. When he stopped to collect them, they scurried back to their holes as soon as they hit the ground.

He held his chin as he muttered aloud this thoughts. "Let's see, I can't just weed them out. I need some way to make them come willingly otherwise they'll just scatter and run away. What's something that can attract prairie-pillars?" it was then he remembered something about sound frequency from an animal index that his mother showed him during their travels.

He pinched his bottom lips and tried to whistle with his 2 front teeth. As goofy as he may have looked, the low volume but high frequency whistle made the prairie-pillars came pop their heads out from their holes, and crawl to the source of the whistle. As they came to him, he could pet their necks until he finds a dip near one of their shoulders that had an interesting pressure point that could knock them out if the right pressure is applied. As he moved, they moved. So, as he led them into the carriage, he would push that point to make them sleep until there was a pile of snoozing pillars.

"Alright all done." Izuku said turning to the King. "What's next?"

The King glanced at the pile before saying, "Where's the mother?"

"The what?"

As if uttering its name summoned it, a low rumble started to ripple through the ground. A column of fur the size of 4 holes combined burst from the ground. A prairie-pillar the size of a boa constrictor towered about 12 feet from the ground. The creature looked around frantically until it spotted the other prairie-pillars in the carriage next to Izuku. It zeroed in on Izuku and lunging at him before anyone had enough time to move and dodge it. The mother of the prairie-pillars started him down with a hissing-growl

"Izu-"

"Shu!" Izuku hushed them before they spoke too loudly.

When Izuku tried to whistle he couldn't, because his mouth became too dry to get the right frequency. Either that or it didn't do a damn thing based on the hissing-growl only increasing. Or maybe she could smell her pups' scent on Izuku, he was a bit more focused on keeping the angry mother's attention away from the others. Izuku stared down the creature with the calmest expression that he could muster without coming off as hostile and threatening. The feat was pretty daunting when it opened its mouth to a pair of buckteeth bigger than your head, with a jaw strength that you didn't want to be the test subject for. It felt like the staring match went on forever until mother's growling started to decrease after hearing her pups whimper in their sleep and knocking Izuku out of the way to see that they were fine.

When Izuku gathered his senses, he was once again face to face with the mother prairie-pillar. However, unlike the protective posturing from before, the mother was crouching down to his level with a soft expression that was almost kind, thankful even. Before he knew it, she was rubbing her head against him while giving a weird purring/yipping noise.

"So, what's next task?"

(*1) The Prairie-pillar babies would probably be double the length of a ferret.

Thanks for all those that reviewed, every little bit helps. If you're new to the story, please let me know what you think with a review. Constructive criticism is accepted, but no flames please. And don't be too shy to check out some of my other stories.