Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, because if I did, Zuko wouldn't have a lisp.
Chapter 2: The Pain
"Uncle, are you sure this is going to work?" Zuko looked dubiously at the shaggy pile in front of him.
"Yes, yes, I looked it up in all of my scrolls and this is very much what a female bison looks like."
Zuko raised a skeptical eyebrow at his uncle. The pair had worked long and hard through the night on their project, all thoughts of sleep forgotten. For Zuko, his energy came from the hope that their plan would work and he would finally have his honor restored; for Iroh, arts-and-craft time always refreshed his senses. Uncle and nephew, powered with their respective motivations and even a little of Iroh's favorite ginseng tea, had completed their work near dawn.
A massive, woolly, six-legged pile slumped messily on the main deck of Zuko's ship. Crafted out of Earth Kingdom sheepskin, hay, and wood, the "female bison" was held up by a skeleton framework of lumber and covered by the sheepskin-and-hay "hide". The monstrosity had the broad paddle-tail (Zuko sacrificed a tapestry from his room), "horns" (two Sungi-horn players for Iroh's Music Night would have to find themselves new instruments soon), and arrow markings (taro root juice personally finger-painted gleefully by the retired General) characteristic of the practically-extinct species. Two spheres of paper with a dot of black ink each served as eyes.
Inside, a small seat jutted out of the woodwork where a real bison's first stomach would be, allowing one person to hide inside. A system of ropes and pulleys snaked from the jaw hinges, ear flaps, and each leg towards the seat, where one could manipulate the controls to move the bison. Iroh had added the rope system, in spite of his nephew's protests, to "make her seem sassier!"
Uncle Iroh looked at the blueprints the two had painstakingly drawn up, and then at their creation. Somehow, things always look better on paper...oh well, there was no use crying over spilt tea. He noted his nephew's skeptical facial expression. "Desperate times call for desperate actions, Prince Zuko."
Zuko's gaze lingered on the bison decoy's eyes. One of the pupils was accidentally painted slightly off-center, giving the viewer a sense that this poor bison was a little lazy-eyed. "I agree Uncle, but I'll have to say that the Avatar's beast will have to be extremely desperate to fall for her."
"He's the last of his kind; he must be lonely."
"Ah well, yes, I suppose."
"She needs a name!" Uncle Iroh exclaimed cheerfully. The decoy was no beauty, but it had been a long time since he had worked on his sculpting skills and Iroh was still proud of his work.
"A name! This is a decoy Uncle, not your new pet!"
"Didn't you ever hear that it is bad luck to have a ship without a name? Well she's almost as big as a scout boat! Besides…she's art! You cannot have an untitled art piece! Except for maybe 'Untitled,' but how sad would that be?"
Zuko's left eye decided it would be a good time to develop a twitch. The decoy, with her googly eyes, patchy coat, and general ragtag appearance could hardly be called "art." He examined the decoy's face again; a discrepancy in carpentry prevented the jaw from closing completely. She looks a few antennae short of a Flying Chon-giraffe. "Bison's Worst Nightmare?" he suggested.
"No, no. She deserves a real name!" Iroh paused. "Nekko!"
"No, Uncle."
"Mei Li!"
"No."
"Joi!"
"No."
"Zongzi?"
"Isn't that something the cook makes every Autumn Festival?"
"I've got it!" Iroh spread his hands in triumph. "I christen you, dear bison decoy, Keeli!"
Zuko sighed. Well, his uncle had helped him greatly; letting him name their project wasn't a big deal. However, time was a big deal, and it was important to put his plan into action as soon as possible. They had to find the Avatar, keep him and his companions from noticing their approach, and set up their trap. Fortunately, recent reports had indicated that the Avatar was headed south, along the coast of the Earth Kingdom, and would probably stop at the Earth city of Omashu to visit and possibly learn from King Bumi. He couldn't have had more than a day's head start ahead of Zuko's ship. The Avatar will be found.
"Mmm hmm hmm, doobedoo…" Sokka hummed to himself as he combed the bushes where he had found a new, succulent berry. He had to harvest the precious berries before Momo discovered them and stuffed them all into his cheek pouches. Oh delicious berries…you deserve to be with someone who appreciates you for your juicy sweetness, not that greedy lemur who would just gobble you up, not taking the time to savor your delectable innards. You must come with meee.
A rustle sounded in the bushes nearby. Sokka stiffened. Was it Momo, come to pillage his valuable berry stash? "That monkey's getting what's coming to him," Sokka muttered under his breath. "Stupid Momo, always taking my food."
He pulled a small net used for fishing out of a pocket in his parka and crouched down in the bushes. Hoo boy, will that critter get the scare of his life! Maybe he'll stop taking my things! The rustling came closer, accompanied by a few snaps of twigs being broken. Rustle rustle…crunch… The noise approached until it stopped a few feet away from Sokka's hiding place, where the source of the noise had presumably noticed the gleaming pink berries and was now hoarding them in his greedy little lemur cheeks.
"GWAAAR!" Sokka bellowed as he lunged out, snapping the net forward to have it wrap around…
…the head of a startled (and quickly afterwards, grumpy) Fire Nation soldier. "Urk," Sokka squeaked. "Um…sorry?"
He bolted.
SHRRRK! SHRK SHRK SHRK! Circular blades of ice, deadly in their frozen edges and frightful speed, flew off of the rapidly-diminishing sphere of ice in front of the Avatar and embedded themselves into a tree, several hundred paces off. With a quick swipe, the young boy melted the remaining hemisphere of ice and threw it forwards, refreezing the flying water right before it hit the tree trunk in pointed daggers of ice.
"Nice work, Aang!" Katara applauded. "Where'd you get the idea for that last bit?"
Aang rubbed his head, pleased at his teacher's praise. "I dunno, it just came to me."
"Well whatever it was, it was nea-"
Katara was cut off by a far-off wailing that drew increasingly closer. "KataraaaAAAA! AAAAAANG!"
Aang grabbed his staff. "Sounds like Sokka!"
Indeed, Sokka burst into the campsite at that very moment. "GUH…bluh…F-fff-fire Nation! C-coming this w-way!"
"What did you do! I told you to stay close!" Katara yelled at her brother.
"I…I…there were these berries! And, and..I…bluh!" Sokka sputtered, still trying to catch his breath.
"Guys! This is no time to argue! Let's get moving!" Aang reprimanded as he fumbled through his pockets for his bison whistle. "Grab our sleeping sacks and let's get outta here!"
Aang blew on the whistle as Sokka and Katara scrambled for their belongings. With a low GRRUMPH! the last flying bison lumbered into the clearing, Momo perched on his head. The trio threw themselves into the saddle and with a resounding "Yip yip!" from Aang, they took to the skies.
Just then, dozens of Fire Nation soldiers poured into campsite, led by Prince Zuko. Zuko spotted Appa, still in the laborious task of gaining altitude, and yelled, "STOP THEM!"
Fire began raining to the sky, heating the air and making it difficult to see through the smoke. Aang leapt from his place on Appa's head to the base of his tail and let loose a powerful blast of wind that knocked the fireballs back to the ground and cleared some of the smoke. In desperation, Zuko breathed in deeply and launched a particularly scorching attack on the bison's rapidly ascending form.
NWARRGH! Appa groaned. Zuko blinked; his uncle's advice about firebending and breath had paid off. The beast's tail was scorched badly, and the giant bison rocked unsteadily in the air with the loss of his rudder. He dipped, and began to plummet towards the ground.
"Aang, do something!" Katara yelled.
"I can't! We have to land!" Aang called back. "Are you okay, buddy?"
Appa moaned, a heartbreaking sound of pain and fury at the Scarred One, the one who was always after his human friends and who had burned him just now.
"Don't worry Appa," Aang stroked one gargantuan ear. "Just find a way to land and Katara will heal you. Katara, can you heal him?"
Katara nodded. Appa must be hurt bad, she thought. They were dropping towards the ground at a terrifying velocity. The land rushed up to them in a dizzying spin, and just as Katara thought she was going to be sick, Appa thudded to a jarring stop on the ground and rolled over, lowing in distress.
The riders jumped off of their wounded companion and crowded around his burnt tail. Katara, wasting no time, pulled water from her canteen and began to cover Appa's tail in its soothing coolness. "There isn't enough! The stream we camped by can't be far, someone please go get another canteenful!"
"I'm on it!" Aang dashed into the woods.
"It's okay, Appa, it's okay," Katara soothed. "Shh…I'm trying…oh, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry you got hurt helping us!"
Appa could only groan some more, shifting his weight in discomfort. He knew the girl would help him, make the hurt go away so he could fly some more, keep his human friends safe. He let out a huge sigh. His friends…his human friends. They were all he had, save the small lemur that made Appa chuckle when he fought with the human Water boy. There had been a time, long ago, when Appa had many friends, human and not. When he had lived with Aang in the Air temples, there had been many bison friends to play with. They would fly together, soaring through the air in astounding acrobatics, or spend many a happy hour munching on the savory clovers that grew in patches on the mountaintops.
Appa blinked one pain-hazed eye. As much as he loved his human friends and the lemur, he missed his own kind. He missed seeing his other six-legged brethren, hearing their contented lowing as they roamed the land, cuddling with other large, warm bodies in the cold of the night. He understood that his primary allegiance would always be to his bald, orange-garbed human, but he missed the companionship of his own kind. He missed knowing that he wasn't alone, but now he was, in a sense no one could understand.
The bald human child, he still had other humans. Appa did not. He was the last of his species, the last airbison.
"Got it!" Aang rushed back. "Hurry Katara, Appa looks like he's in a lot of pain!"
As Katara began healing his tail, Appa closed his eyes. Pain. Physical yes, but more than that. Appa hurt inside, too.
"We have him, Uncle." Zuko gloated. "He couldn't have landed far from here."
Iroh stroked his beard. He secretly hoped the bison was okay. It was one thing to capture the Avatar, but hurting such a magnificent creature to do so? He knew his nephew would only explode in anger if he let his feelings about the bison show, so he kept his thoughts to himself. "Shall we prepare then?"
Zuko was practically vibrating with excitement. "Yes. Bring out the dec- Keeli. Send the men to the closest patch of open grass."
His golden eyes gleamed. "Bison, let's see if you can escape this."
A/N: Aiee! What's going to happen? Poor Appa.
Thanks for the reviews everyone, you don't know how squee-ful and encouraging it is to have all these happy little comments pop up in my inbox. Maybe you do. Either way, I really appreciate it!
And now, TO THE SYMPHONY! bellows Beethoven's 5th