Disclaimer: Do I really have to say it?

Greetings everyone!

Well, I have had my wisdom teeth pulled out, and…yah. I haven't been talking (or singing, much to the happiness of my families ears) as much lately, cause it hurts.

I can also only eat with baby spoons, because my mouth won't open large enough for a real spoon.

Pity me.

Zuko: Absolutely not.

:sigh: Well, anyway, I hope I can get this chapter up before I leave on a forced vacation with my father.

Zuko: Oh just suck it up you wimp.

…oooooooook. On to typing (for me)/ reading (for you.) Yayyyyyy

Ps. I don't know what the city's name is where Jet's hideout is located around, so I made one up. Please don't kill me. If you know the name, just tell me and I'll change it, ok? Kewl.

7

"DOES ANYONE ON THIS SHIP USE A RAZOR?"

Both Prince and General looked up as Kila had kicked the door to the helm open and had stormed in, a very dark shade of red. She plopped down in a vacant seat next to Iroh and banged her head on the tabletop a couple times, then let it sit there motionless.

After a few silent moments, Kila then explained "I feel like an orangutan."

The helmsman, in hopes of suppressing his chuckles, instead concentrated on staying in a straight line. Every now and then Kila would come in with an absurd remark, and it was all he could do to keep himself from falling over laughing.

Iroh looked at Kila silently for a couple seconds, wondering if it was safe to ask the question that was brooding in his mind. "Kila," he said calmly. She rotated her head from the downward position to looking at Iroh. "Why would you need a razor?" he asked.

Kila raised an eyebrow, and then replied curtly "To shave."

"Ah". Iroh breathed out. Taking a sip of his tea, he still had no idea why she would need to shave. Yet, he figured it was safe to not ask, because he would learn soon enough.

Zuko placed his chin on his knuckles and sat still for a second, pondering. Then, he bravely asked "You have a secret beard, or mustache?"

Kila reached up a hand and smacked Zuko's cheek, not moving her head from its original position. "You are such a jerk sometimes." She said slowly.

"And you piss me off most of the time." Zuko said slowly, rubbing his cheek.

"I need to shave my legs retard." Kila said acidly, head still facedown on the tabletop.

"Sooner than I thought." Iroh thought to himself.

"Why? You always wear pants, or long skirts. We never see your legs…thankfully." Zuko explained, craning out of the way to avoid another missile from Kila's fist.

"It's not just my legs. It's my arms also…and my underarms. I feel like a man." Kila groaned into the table.

"You look like a man as well."

Kila looked up at Zuko, fire in her eyes. He just raised an eyebrow, and stood up. Walking over to the helmsman, he began "I believe that we need to head-"

WHAM! Zuko was slammed into the wall on the other side of the room. Kila was now sitting up straight, a very triumphant look on her face.

Iroh leaned in and asked in a whisper "We didn't learn a new airbending trick now, did we?" Then he chuckled and took another sip of his tea. Leaning backward, he tallied in his mind "Kila-7, Zuko-2."

"I'm so sorry sir!" the helm's man apologized. "I guess I lost control of the wheel, and we hit a wave…"

Zuko growled and pushed himself back into a standing position. Waving his hand, he walked back over to the controller and continued with his directions, acting like nothing had happened.

Kila smiled inwardly to herself. It was true, she had figured out how she had made that large gust of air that had once previously hit Zhou during their fight. Whenever she was alone in her room, she practiced that one trick on her chest containing her clothes, and eventually her bed. Sadly, it was the only trick that she really understood (besides pushing a tiny air funnel a few inches) but it would do for now.

"Do you at least have a small dagger?" Kila asked Iroh, now eyelevel with him.

"I do not have any daggers lying around…" Iroh said mostly to himself. "But I do believe that Prince Zuko has some on display in his room. You may use those in substitute, until we reach another port."

"No she may not. Those are mine, and therefore-" Zuko began, but was cut off by Kila jumping up and saying "Thanks a million Uncle!" and running from the room before Zuko could finish his sentence.

The next day there was a large congregation forming in front of the kitchen, where Kila usually served the men. This mob-like gathering disrupted Zuko's own meal, because he wasn't going to get any food until they did; it was a strange custom of Kila's.

After about ten minutes of no serving, Zuko stood up out of his seat and stalked over to the counter.

"What's going on?" he questioned the nearest solider.

"There's no food sir." He replied. Zuko raised his eyebrows, let out a large groan, and began pushing and prodding his way into the kitchen.

"HEY! Where's the-" he began, but then was cut short when he saw the emptiness of the room. "…girl" he finished quietly to himself. For it was true, there was no soul in the kitchen, except for him. There was no faint waft of breakfast being cooked, or pots of pans containing a sticky mess.

Annoyed by her sudden disappearance, Zuko stalked out of the kitchen and down the deserted hallways toward Kila's room.

Upon arriving at her door, he threw it open, only to kind Kila lying on her bed, starring at the ceiling, unmoving. She had her left hand lying across her stomach and her mouth was contorted into a very straight line.

"Just what do you think you are doing?" The angered prince asked.

"Dying." Kila replied.

"Yes, well I am dying of hunger. Now get up and make our breakfast." He began to walk over to her bed, when he noticed that her face was shimmering again, but this time from sweat.

"Bite me." Kila replied with a very sharp tongue.

"Excuse me? I said get up." Zuko was now used to this term she used, and stayed firmly planted.

"I can't move." Kila replied slowly.

"Oh yes you can. Stop being so dramatic." Zuko said, grasping her right arm and pulling. But the minute he pulled, Kila took in a loud deep breath of pain and whimpered.

Zuko turned around and dropped her arm. "What's wrong with you?" he asked, although the tone was much to be desired.

"I'm so glad you're worried." Kila replied sarcastically. She put her left hand back on her stomach and straightened herself out again. "I just have really bad cramps, that's all. They should go away in a few hours…if I don't die before then"

"Cramps? What do you mean? I usually get them in my legs, not my stomach." Zuko said, raising an eyebrow and folding his arms across his chest. "I don't believe you."

"Believe it bucky." Kila said, and then closed her eyes. "I can barely move. I usually have a heating pad that I put on my stomach when this happens, but-" Kila raised her right arm and waved it around in a circle. "Seeing as I'm not home, I had to make do."

"…a heating pad." Zuko said slowly.

"Yes. I just heated up my hand, and voila! Heating pad. Even on my bed of pain, I am full of wisdom."

"Has the definition of wisdom changed in the future?" Zuko asked slowly.

Kila glared at him. "You should have sympathy for the ill." She replied.

"You aren't ill. You're just pathetic."

"No, I'm in pain. Difference."

"And you should be cooking for us. Now get up."

"Just reheat some food. Or get the original cook to make you guys something. I can't do anything right now except lay here."

"I will not eat that slop that Mao made before."

"Oh, so my cooking has spoiled you? Or it's just so good you don't want to eat anything else?" Kila raised her eyebrows a couple times, and then furrowed them again out of pain.

Zuko glared at her. He would not break his promise to himself that he would tell Kila that her cooking was good, so he just sat down on her bed and folded his arms.

Kila sighed. "Close, but no cigar." She thought to herself, and concentrated on warming her hand up again.

A few silent minutes passed, and then Zuko broke the silence by saying "I want my dagger back."

"No chance. It works perfectly. See?" Kila raised her right arm in confirmation. Zuko just starred at it. "Feel it." Kila said, bringing it closer.

"No." Zuko replied.

"Oh come on. You know you want to. It's so smooth! I'm not a monkey anymore!"

"I beg to differ."

"Just for that, I won't get up and make your breakfast."

"You said you weren't going to anyway."

"Then why are you still sitting here?"

Zuko again was taken aback by her remark. He didn't know why he was still sitting there. Probably because if he stayed around her long enough, she would do what he wanted. And right now, it was cook.

Kila rolled her eyes. "If you feel my arm, then I'll get up and cook."

Zuko looked at her wearily. "I'd rather starve thanks."

"Fine." Kila let her arm drop back to the bed, then muttered to herself "and I was gonna make pancakes today too…"

Zuko's ears perked up. Pancakes? He did like pancakes…

Taking in a deep breath, he poked Kila's arm. "There, I touched it. Now get up."

"That wasn't touching it. I told you to feel it. Come on, there's nothing wrong with that." Kila said, raising her arm again.

Zuko glared at her, then swiped his hand across her arm, just barely grazing it. "There. Now come on, I'm hungry."

Kila rolled her eyes. "Fine, help me up." Propping herself up on her elbows, she reached out her left hand, which Zuko reluctantly took. (Actually, he grabbed her left wrist, but that was the same thing to him. It got her off the bed, and onto her feet.)

As he began to walk out of the room, he turned around and looked back. Kila was slowly shuffling towards the door, her right hand now on her stomach. "Oh come on!" Zuko complained.

"I'm coming as fast as I can. I told you: I have cramps!"

Zuko rolled his eyes and left the room, walking a tad faster than usual.

Kila smiled to herself; it was quite fun to torture him like that. She didn't know why she got such a joy out of it, seeing as he usually made her angry. Yet, she still liked to do it. Maybe it was just because it meant spending time with the cranky prince, who was the only person remotely around her age on the ship. Shrugging her shoulders and dismissing the matter, she concentrated on walking towards the kitchen, which was getting increasingly more difficult with the twangs of pain emitting from her lower stomach area.

Another week passed, and Kila's cramps didn't come back for another visit, much to everyone's delight. Kila's because then she wasn't in pain. The crew's because then they could eat.

Kila again spent most of her time in the helm with Iroh and Zuko. But mainly because Iroh was there, and she was still trying to master Pai Cho. It had gotten to the point where Kila begged Iroh to not play for money, because she A. didn't have any and B. would usually loose it all on her first or second turn.

"Do you want to play checkers?" she had once asked after a quite embarrassing game, Iroh winning on the third move. "Or even chess? I hate chess, but anything other than this torture."

Iroh chuckled and fingered his tiles.

Zuko stood at the other end of the room, looking down at a pile of maps strewn across the table. Suddenly, a solider ran into the helm with a scrap of paper and handed it to the Prince.

Zuko read it quickly, then turned to his uncle and repeated "Another troop near the Kuzo region has suddenly 'disappeared'."

"Meaning the rebels again attacked?" Iroh asked calmly, re-arranging the tiles for another game.

"Exactly." Zuko said, crumpling the paper in his hand.

"Their leader, I believe his name was 'Jet'…he apparently is quite a fighter. Yet he holds quite a grudge against our nation." Iroh said, moving a tile. Kila randomly moved one, not paying attention to the game, but the conversation.

"Correct again." Zuko said. "I have heard from random passerby's that it's just a group of kids…"

"Remember Prince Zuko, you are a 'kid' yourself, and you are quite a fighter." Iroh said calmly, moving another tile. "Don't let age blind you."

"Don't say that, his head won't be able to fit through the door." Kila said, moving another tile. Iroh grinned at her move, and Kila winced as he overtook it.

Zuko swelled with pride at his uncle's statement, and continued. "Someone said once that it would be wise to try and get this Jet fellow onto our side, to fight alongside us."

"That wouldn't work very well if he holds a grudge, now would it?" Kila said, jumping into the conversation.

"There is always a way to persuade people…" Zuko said coldly. Kila turned toward his direction and starred up at him, an eyebrow raised. Shaking her head slowly, she began to stand up.

"I'm going outside." She stated, and walked past Zuko, not looking at him. She didn't even know why she was angry, but she had to get some fresh air.

Walking out to the front deck, she leaned up against the railing and took many deep breaths, counting to ten in her head.

Far above the ship, there were some other travelers, carefully scouting the waters below.

"Aang! Fire nation ship!" A young boy called toward the one steering the giant flying mammal.

"And by the size of it, it looks like Zuko's!" exclaimed a girl, who had crawled over to the same side as the boy to look over the saddle.

"Good job Katara, because you can really tell it's his ship from this height." The boy said sarcastically. The one he called Katara just stuck her tongue out at him, then crawled over to the one named Aang, who was sitting on the head of the animal and was steering.

Aang had squinted his eyes, and looked toward the ship. Suddenly, he made a motion with the reins, and the large animal slowly descended from their original height.

"What is it Aang?" Katara asked, concerned.

"Yes, why are we getting closer to the enemy ship?" Asked the boy.

"Because Sokka," Aang answered. "I think I see something…"

"Yes, that would be a boat." Sokka replied.

"No," Aang said slowly. "I see…someone with long hair at least."

"A girl?" Katara asked, taken aback.

"Well, that's why I'm going down, to check."

"Ew, why would Zuko have a girl on his ship?" Sokka asked, making a sick face.

"Exactly. I want to know what's going on." Aang replied, continuing to descend. "Come on Appa, down a bit farther buddy."

Kila kept looking out towards the vast sea, when she began to hear excited voices behind her. Turning around, she saw most of the crew had gathered on the front deck and were pointing towards the sky. Looking up herself, Kila was perplexed to see a large animal, flying.

"It's the avatar!" cried a random crew member.

Zuko ran out onto the deck with a telescope in his hands. He wrenched it open and began scanning the sky. "It's him…" he said in a deadly tone.

"The avatar is that large thing?" Kila asked, walking over to him. "I thought the avatar would be a human…like me."

"The avatar is riding on the flying bison, do you know nothing?" Zuko asked, still looking through the telescope.

Kila took the telescope from his hands and looked through it herself. "That's not a bison" she replied.

"Yes, it is." Zuko said curtly, grasping his telescope and cramming it back into its original small shape.

"No, bison are brown animals that live on the prairies and eat grass. Plus, they can't fly. Ergo," she pointed towards the animal. "Not a bison."

"That's what it's called." Zuko said slowly, getting more annoyed by the second.

"Well, all I'm saying is that it should be renamed, that's all." Kila said shrugging.

"It has a fine name." Zuko said, then finally turned around and stalked off towards his catapults.

"Not really…" Kila said mainly to herself, but turned back around and stayed at the front of the ship, looking toward the great flying 'bison'. "Maybe calling it the flying woolly mammoth…that name seems to suit it better." She mused to herself, and then chuckled.

"AANG! We're getting dangerously close to the ship! Maybe we should pull up!" Katara screamed, extremely frightened.

"That girl isn't wearing fire nation clothes or the same colors! I want to know what's going on!" Aang replied back quickly.

"So what are you planning to do? Grab her right off the boat?" Sokka asked, clinging onto the saddle side for dear life. Aang merely turned around and smiled toward Sokka. "You are. Dear Gods, we are going to die."

"READY THE CATAPULT!" Zuko commanded to the men. They began cranking and a large catapult was raised out of the floor of the ship. Kila stared at it then ran towards Zuko.

"What are you planning to do with that?" she asked quickly.

"What does it look like? Shoot him down. Now go away." Zuko said even quicker.

"But if you want him alive, then why shoot him down?" Kila asked, trying to work it in her mind so it made sense.

"Because then once he's in the water, we can fish him out." Zuko explained through gritted teeth. "My patience is wearing thin. For once, PLEASE do as I command, and go away."

Kila was taken aback. He had said please! Muttering a "sorry" she retreated back to the front of the ship to continue gazing at the bison that was steadily growing larger.

"If the avatar is trying to get away from the fire nation…" Kila pondered in her mind. "Then why is he getting so close to the ship?"

"FIRE!" ZUKO commanded, and a large stinking fireball whizzed into the air, directly towards Appa.

"LEFT!" Katara screeched and Aang veered Appa more to the left.

"Well, at least this is much easier than the last time we were being shot at." Sokka said in a shaky voice. "The last time there were multiple ones. Now it's only one."

"But it still reeks!" Katara said in a muffled voice; she was covering her mouth with her hand.

"Hopefully she's going to stay at the front of the ship" Aang said mostly to himself. Then craning his head around towards his companions, he screamed "KATARA! Once we get closer, hold Sokka's feet so he can dangle off and grab her!"

"GOTTCHA!" Katara replied back, saluting Aang.

"So I can dangle off?" Sokka cried, his face draining of any color.

"FIRE!" Zuko commanded, and another large stinking fireball was sent flying. Yet the avatar dodged it again, flying closer and closer to the ship.

"HE'S GOING TO RAM US!" screamed a random solider.

"No he's not…" Zuko thought to himself. But he was puzzled…why was the avatar suddenly getting so close to him? Why had he not ascended his height when he had seen the ship? The many times the prince had encounters with the young avatar only explained one thing: The avatar was not stupid. So why was he making this horribly risky move?

When the flying bison was only a couple hundred feet from the side of the ship, he saw the one warrior boy was hanging down from the saddle. And then it hit him what the avatar was doing.

"No." he quietly said to himself.

For at that moment, the bison had flown right over the front of the ship. He had seen Kila's eyes widen in terror, and then he just saw a blur. But he knew that the boy had grabbed her right off the ship, and was not climbing back to its original height.

"The avatar has taken possession of Kila!" Screeched Iroh, now standing next to Zuko. But he just watched the bison climb higher.

"No…" he muttered to himself again.

Wow, long one: 10 pages. :pats back.:

Finally, Sokka, Katara and Aang are mentioned! And now part of the story!

Sokka: Well it's about time.

Yes, so sorry about the delay, oh supreme one.

Sokka: I forgive you.

Katara: rolls eyes

Alrighty, so the next chapter should be up soon!

Thanks for reading! And please review! The button is right below these words! Very easy to access!

SeethingxShadows