Karyuudo collected his reward from the guards outside of the throne room; he received 200 gold pieces, an un-worthy prize in his eyes, as it took two weeks to track down the location of his prey. As he walked back through the city, he heard a familiar voice say, "You weren't goin' to leave without sayin' goodbye, were ya?" Karyuudo turned around and saw Haruki. He was an inventor a bit older than Karyuudo, with grey hair; he wore regular Fire Nation clothes that any citizen would wear. He always supplied Karyuudo with the latest weaponry. Haruki grabbed the bounty scroll from him and looked at it. "The Avatar, eh?" he said, "Finally, the Fire Lord gives you somethin' worthy of a hunt."
Karyuudo took the scroll back and replied, "I'd really better be going."
"Well, you know nothin' about your bounty, and yer not properly supplied. Come on in!" Haruki led Karyuudo into his home. It was a bare room, but his real space was in the basement. They walked down a flight of stairs into a large room, filled with tables full of weapons, scrolls, and money. "You're goin' to need somethin' good to get the Avatar…alive. I've got yer ideal weapon right here." He searched around the various tables for whatever weapon he was talking about.
"So, you know where the Avatar is?" asked Karyuudo.
"Yes, I was just informed of an escape," replied Haruki as he continued his search, "Admiral Zhao…"
"Admiral?"
"Yes, he's been promoted. Anyway, he had the Avatar as a prisoner, but some thief came an' broke him out! They escaped just in time."
"Where was this?"
"North of Ba Sing Sei," he paused and picked up a box, "Ah, 'ere it is!" He handed the box over to Karyuudo. "Well, open it!"
Karyuudo nodded and took a strange weapon out of the box. It was crafted from a fine wood and metal in a cross shape. There was a stretchable string on one end, and the longer end was a handle. A small shaft on the top was holding an arrow in place, and the string was locked onto the end of the arrow, ready to launch it. "What is it?" he asked.
Haruki smiled and said, "I call it a crossbow. You load the arrow into the shaft on top, makin' sure the string is pulled back all the way. Then ya pull back this trigger right 'ere," he pointed to a small trigger on the bottom near the middle of the weapon, "An' it launches the arrow with greater accuracy an' force. Try it out!"
Karyuudo held up the crossbow in front of his face. Using the shaft as an aimer, he aimed at the metal wall; he then pulled the trigger, and suddenly the arrow flew into the wall at an incredibly high speed. There was a dent where the arrow bounced off of the wall, which was now on the ground broken into two pieces from the impact.
"Yer gonna need this too," said Haruki as he handed Karyuudo a quiver full of arrows.
"Thanks," replied Karyuudo as he began to walk out, but Haruki stopped him.
"An' some of these!" he gave Karyuudo a few metal shurikins.
"Thanks." He continued to walk out.
"An' this." Haruki gave a bag of smoke bombs.
"Is that all?"
"Yep."
Karyuudo nodded and left Haruki's house with his new equipment. He put the quiver over his back, the shurikins in his pocket, and he placed his crossbow on his right leg. When he exited the city, Karasu came down from the sky and perched on his shoulder.
Karyuudo reached the coast just before dusk, in a small merchant town with several piers. There were no inns, so he would have to find a good ship. He saw a pretty small wooden one and knew that there would not be many people aboard. He silently walked up the ramp and into the boat. When he got inside, he looked around and noticed that he was in a room full of various merchandise: weapons, food, scrolls, art, and much more. "Well, what do you want?" said a voice from the darkness.
Karyuudo saw a man with matching clothes and hat, and a reptilian bird on his shoulder; it squawked at Karasu, who squawked back. "Go," said Karyuudo, and Karasu flew out of the ship and back into the sky. "I was just looking to buy something."
"Well, you've found the right place. Look around!"
He nodded and looked around a bit. When the man turned his back, Karyuudo quickly threw a shurikin at him. He missed, and it killed the reptilian bird instead. The man turned around and drew a sword, "So, you're here to kill me?"
Karyuudo drew a katana from the sheath strapped to his left leg. Three more strangely dressed men ran into the room, with weapons raised. "I hate pirates," said Karyuudo as he threw a smoke bomb down, caused the whole room to become full of smoke. He rushed out of the room onto the outer deck of the boat; the pirates followed him. He kicked one overboard immediately and pushed another one back into the wall. The third minor pirate rushed at him with a club, but Karyuudo dodged the swipe and spun around, cutting the pirate's lower back.
The pirate cried out in pain and fell to the deck, holding his back. The leader rushed Karyuudo, who block the sword with his katana. They took a few more clashes before they stood on the deck, staring at each at each other and breathing deeply. The pirate noticed steam coming from Karyuudo's nose before he rushed and jabbed with his sword. Karyuudo dodged the blow and ran a short distance from pirate. He sheathed his katana and drew out his crossbow. As the pirate rushed him again, he pulled an arrow from his quiver and loaded the crossbow. A split second before the sword hit Karyuudo's face, he pulled the trigger and sent the arrow straight into the pirate's chest.
The pirate staggered backwards until he fell overboard too. Karyuudo raised the ramp of the ship and sailed away from the town, towards the last sighting place of the Avatar. He found a small bedroom and took of his cloak and weapons, then lay down in the bed and tried to fall asleep.
He had been lying in bed for an hour when the rain started. The sound of rain or any other form of running water always calmed him down; it created a soothing melody that helped him get to sleep.
Review Response:
forgetfulallthetime - Thank you! Yep, you're supposed to think he's a scary guy.
StreetCornerProphet - Okay, I'll keep writing! Thank you!
For those who are also reading "Advent", I'm working on the next chapter of that, but I had a writer's block moment and got stuck on it, so it might take awhile to post the next chapter on that one.