Hello again! Wondering why I'm updating so soon? Get used to it! Nah, well... really get used to it. Anyway, I decided to update the rest (four) of the chapters before the ninth when airgirl is going to be without internet for a month! Yes, I'm sure we can ALL understand the immense pain that's going to bring her. Well, seeing how she's not going to have internet, she ever so kindly requested (if possible) that I somehow manage to get the chapters up before she leaves. Therefore, I decided to comply and be nice, and all that.
So... here's the plan. This update is going to count for tomorrow (the 4th) , I'll update another chapter on the 5th, skip the 6th ('cause that's just a really busy day for me), and update again the 7th and 8th, wraping up the story with the Epilogue on the 8th and giving everyone time to read and give feedback. Okey, that's settled... now read the story! Oh and the only thing about Avatar that I own is... nothing. Just this story.
When I finally woke up, pale sunlight was streaming through a part in the tent door. I was still wearing my pants, thankfully, and my camisole but the tunic wasn't anywhere around. I stirred softly, examining the results of the surgery. The injury was closed over, the skin growing again nicely, and the shoulder skin around it had regained its normal colors.
I sat up slowly, feeling very weak but well rested. After waiting a few minutes to see if anyone was going to come in, I decided to check things out on my own and got out of bead, heading for the light shining through the door flap. I pulled it aside and stepped into the fresh, clear morning. It was still very early, and the soldiers were still sleeping in tents and on the ground beside their cold fires. I walked around the outside edges of the camp, watching the day grow brighter and the men begin to wake slowly.
After my second circuit of the small camp, I encountered Zuko coming back from what looked like a bath somewhere. His hair, though it was up like always, was wet and he had that freshly cleaned look about him.
"Morning!" I called out cheerily, startling him.
"You're awake!" He looked at me, surprised. Then his eyes traveled down to my camisole and he looked away, embarrassed. "You should really put some clothes on."
I looked confused. "I am wearing clothes." It suddenly clicked in my head what was causing him the embarrassment. "It's just a camisole! Trust me, where I come from some people wear far less."
"Well here, we wear more." He argued back, stubbornly looking into my eyes. I smirked.
"Well, maybe I would have put something more on if I had found a shirt in the tent."
"Ah…" Zuko looked at a loss for a comeback. I laughed.
"Come on, I'm starving!" I headed back to the fire where a cook was making some sort of porridge. "So how did the 'operation' go last night? Looks like you guys did fine. I feel much better, if a little weak."
"It wasn't last night…" Zuko sounded almost guilty. I stopped cooling my porridge and looked at him, but he wouldn't meet my eyes.
"What?"
"That was three days ago."
All I could do was sit there and stare at him. He finally looked back at me.
"It turns out the arrow had some sort of poison on it. Whoever shot you would need to administer an antidote after a few days to keep the poison from slowly killing you. The Doctor had seen this before, and knew how to treat it… but it was close." He looked back down to his breakfast, stirring it absentmindedly.
"Wow… it kind of makes sense now."
"What does?"
"I guess I should start from the beginning… I'm sure you want to know." After I said this, I paused.
Should I really tell him I was traveling with the Avatar this whole time? That wouldn't be the best idea… as far as he knows, I escaped and was captured by the bandits or pirates…
"After that day on the river, with the pirates and all, I escaped them when they tried to drag me off and sell me. But I kind of got lost and couldn't get back to y'all. I walked around for a while, then decided to head the same direction the Avatar had been going in case I caught up with you. I hitched rides along the way… lots of farmers and stuff. Anyway, a group of bandits ambushed me one day when I was on my own. Caught me by surprise, but I tried to run away. This one guy, with a bow and arrow, shot me. Turns out he was a freelancer they had hired to help, but they didn't really like the fact that I was 'damaged merchandise' and I guess they killed him or injured him… Either way, they sold me to that man and when you got there I had just been sold to another old, bald, greasy, fat guy." I shuddered a bit, thinking about it. "Anyway, the freelancer's plan of payment does seem logical: Shoot prisoner with poison, make sure I stick around long enough to get my money and then cure the prisoner."
"I'm glad that you… that the Doctor managed to stop the poison in time."
"Yeah… me too."
We sat there in silence for a minute. By now the whole camp was up and going about its business. I spotted the Doctor on his way to his tent and smiled at him. He looked pleased I was up and doing well.
"Say, where's Iroh?"
"Oh, he managed to find another hot springs. Left early this morning." I chuckled softly.
"He's hilarious." Zuko grinned faintly. "So what's the plan now? You've kind of lost a lot of ground on the Avatar."
"We're heading back to the ship. It's much quicker to travel by boat than by land, and we'll catch up in no time."
"That's good…" I felt awkward, or guilty that I had befriended Aang and the others, without Zuko knowing. I wondered if they had finally left when I never came back that day… I hoped they did. "You planning on leaving soon?"
"Almost as soon as Iroh returns. I'm going to tell my crew to pack up camp in a few minutes."
I nodded, and finished my porridge. "Well, I'm gonna go… um…. Read for a bit."
"Very well."
That was a kind of awkward ending conversation. I just can't help feeling a little messed up still… I sighed and fished through my bag, looking for something to read. I couldn't decide on anything to read, so I looked around for something else to do. My eye landed again on my sword and I smiled. I never would have thought I'd have the opportunity to have a sword of my own and practice with it whenever I want. So I intend to make the most of it while I still can.
I stepped outside of camp some short distance and started again with the usual routine of stretching, stances, and lunges. After some time, I spotted Iroh coming back looking clean and fresh, and I smile at him. He looked relieved and very glad to see me back on my feet and smiled widely at me.
"Zuko plans on leaving soon, so you better have all your stuff together!" Iroh nodded and set off to gather his belongings as I started my routine again.
I hadn't been practicing long when Zuko spoke from a few feet away.
"Your form has gotten better." I looked up and smiled.
"Yeah, well… I've been practicing. And improvising a bit since I haven't had my spectacular teacher around." I grinned jokingly.
"I apologize for that… would you like me to start instructing you again?"
"Yeah! Any time. I'm not learning anything new on my own, so I can't kick any really tough guys' butts." Zuko just looked at me oddly, but I think he got the point. "Yeah I know, I talk really weird don't I?"
"You do, but I can only assume everyone where you come from talks like you do."
I chuckled. "Yeah, and weirder!"
"What do you mean?" The two of us were walking back toward the rest of Zuko's soldiers, crew, and Uncle where they waited by some strange… lizard looking creatures.
"Heh, well… it's something that you would only understand if you saw it for yourself. It's too hard to explain in words. What the heck are those things!" I stepped away quickly as one of the tails nearly hit me. Zuko smirked.
"They're called Komodo rhinos. You ride them."
"Like horses?" He peered at me strangely.
"Horses?"
"Ah nevermind." I looked suspiciously at the giant creatures. "So… how do I ride it?"
Zuko scoffed. You know, an amused, ridiculing laugh? "You, ride it? It would take far too long to teach you. You're just going to ride with someone else."
I glared at him. "You'd be surprised. If it's anything like a horse, I can handle it."
All I got in response was a condescending look. He really looked evil, especially with his scar. Hm… I hardly even noticed it anymore except when he was angry or glared.
With hardly any effort, Zuko climbed on top of one of the large lizards and reached his hand down to me. I looked at him oddly.
"Come on, grab my hand!"
"Oh!" I grasped his hand, and pushed myself up while he pulled, resulting in a suddenly quick climb up the animal's side and nearly toppling over onto the other side. I balanced myself, barely, crouching in front of Zuko.
"Um, do I sit in front or back?"
"Back."
I nodded. "Sure thing…" I peered around him, trying to figure out how best to get behind him without falling off. "Mkay, how 'bout you stand up."
He watched me oddly, but complied as I stood up myself. I slipped around him, and sat down behind Zuko's spot. Zuko again sat down and surveyed everyone around us.
"Let's go!" He swished the reign things against the sides of the Komodo's neck and the others followed suit. Soon we were raising a huge cloud of dust behind our group, Zuko and Iroh leading the way as I sat behind.
It took a little while to adjust to the wider pace, being used to a horse's stride, but I eventually got the hang of it and relaxed enough to watch the scenery passing by. After an hour or so I started to get a little bored of the silence so I dug my iPod out of my bag.
"Hey… you want to listen to music?" Zuko started, and looked over his shoulder at me.
"How? You don't have an instrument."
I laughed. "I don't need an instrument, I have an iPod!" I showed it to him. I get to do the whole show and tell thing again! Awesome! "Here, you put t his part in your ear…" I handed Zuko the right ear bud and put the left one in my left ear. "Put that in your right ear, and… let's see what to listen to."
I scrolled through my playlists and decided to play it safe. Turning down the volume quite a bit, I selected some instrumental Chinese music from Hero, House of Flying Daggers, and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Didn't want to scare him with Rock or Jazz yet.
Of course, the music I had selected startled him enough as it was. He looked at me, eyes wide in surprise as he listened. I laughed at his expression.
"It's pre-recorded music. And it's a Chinese style, so it shouldn't be too weird."
"That's not it… the music is beautiful, but…" He took the ear bud out of his ear and looked at it strangely. I laughed.
"It's an ear bud. The sound is transferred through the wire and into the bud so you can hear it. And trust me, it's waaay too confusing to explain how it works. I don't even know all the details. I just know we use electricity to power it."
"You don't even know how your own tools work?"
"Hah! Trust me, I don't know how half the things I own work! And there's the fact that I'm not smart enough to really know."
Zuko looked confused. "How smart do you have to be?"
"Well… since they're working with nearly microscopic machines here… I'd say pretty smart!"
"Amazing…" He put the bud back in his ear.
"What do you say to a little more modern music? Stuff that people my age from my world listen to?"
"Sure." I smirked.
"Alrighty then… how about some… Gorillaz! Haha."
As soon as the song, Feel Good Inc., started Zuko's eyes got even wider. I laughed so hard, I nearly fell off the Komodo rhino.
"What are they saying? I can't understand him…"
I forced the words out between laughs. "It's… called rapping! They talk really… fast. Oooh man."
"That's a really strange instrument… what is it?"
"It's probably digitalized… or a computer sound. It's not really an instrument you can play like the guitar."
"Guitar?"
"Y'all don't have guitars? Oh I have just the perfect song for you then!"
I quickly selected Mario Takes a Walk by Jesse Cook, an amazing guitarist by the way, and pressed play.
"That's a guitar. He plays it sooo fast!"
Two hours later, we were listening to some Jazz by Madeleine Peyroux, and were still riding. I was sooo tired, sore, and bored.
"So… when are we going to get there?"
Zuko groaned in frustration. "Tomorrow morning. We have to camp tonight, unless you want to ride this thing all night long until it collapses from exhaustion!"
"Alright… fine." I turned off my iPod so it didn't die, and sat still again. Eventually my head began to droop and without realizing it, I rested my forehead against Zuko's back while we rode. I was too tired to sit up straight. It wasn't long after that I started to doze and became unaware of my surroundings.
