Author Notes: On to the second chapter (vignette, really) of the story I didn't intend to write. Thanks so much to my reviewers so far: Death Fox of Chocolate, Random Stuff About Stuff, and Ethiopia P.M. Noctra. I managed to make this a double drabble- 200 words on the nose (including the title). I'm a fairly wordy person, so that was very difficult for me.
The Komodo Rhino
Zuko liberated the rhino.
What self-respecting officer's war-rhino could suddenly decide that it really did enjoy the company of an enemy – if not an enemy, then at least a traitor and failure- over that of its rightful owner and master, who had raised it from calfhood? And when the rhino came with strings attached- namely a fancy saddle, bridle, pack, and purse containing roughly a half-year's wages from the Fire Nation's Army, Zuko couldn't allow the creature to follow him. Someone would be looking for it, and might find more than they expected.
So, it was with a few choice curses that Zuko emptied the purse into his pockets and left it behind, crumpled on the ground. The rhino was remarkably docile and light-footed, and had a smooth, easy gait quite unlike the lumbering charge he remembered from brief rides he had been allowed.
He later learned why the rhino probably had been left free to roam. It was under the mistaken impression that it too was a human and of course it wanted to be with its own kind- namely inside the small, fancy, expensive, silken tent that it had been carrying.