June

Gosh darn it! (did I seriously just write that?) It's the first time in forever since I updated! I'm so sorry, I just didn't have any inspiration, and homework, and school was sucking all my energy away from me, and I kept getting distracted by deviantArt… GAH!

Very unoriginal chapter title. I'm sorry. I was lacking creativity. And I'm sorry for the wait. It was an awful case of writer's block. ^^"

Sorry if the beginning is terrible.

Disclaimer: Don't own it, never did, and most likely never will.

I steadied my blade, keeping my eyes trained on my formidable opponent. He was a great swordsman, no doubt about it - but he had kept his left side wide open! The fool! He gave me an easy way in.

With a loud, triumphant laugh, I lunged forward, jabbing my sword into the man's armour. As I pulled it free from his stomach, now bleeding its contents onto the ship's deck, I raised my blade over my head, ready to bring it down onto my enemy's shoulder, and amputate his arm.

At least, that was my plan. A blur of silver suddenly caught my sword in mid-stroke, catching me off guard and knocking my sword out of my hand. Another sword. "Katsu! You jerk!" I yelled furiously as the soldier laughed at my irritation. I stormed over to where my sword had fallen, picking it up off the ground and inspecting it for any chipping.

"I was just trying to keep you from mutilating that poor training dummy." Katsu said, raising his hands up in surrender.

I scowled and aimed a kick at the stuffed dummy. It was the only thing that I had to train with me at the moment, since everyone else was busy doing their job. I had nothing to do other than stab straw dummies, one after another. The current one's straw filling was spilling out across the floor. "I already mutilated the others; one more isn't going to do any more harm."

"It's unnerving to see a fifteen year old girl being so cheerful while chopping apart things made to look like human beings."

"It's not like I'd do it to a real person." Again. I leaned down and picked up the dummy's helmet, inspecting it in my hands. "And I'm bored. Where I'm from, when teenagers are bored, they start killing animals."

Katsu froze just as he had begun to walk away from me. "Really?"

"Well, Sokka did, anyway. Or at least he tried. And that wasn't when he was bored. Only when he got hungry." I paused. "Which was often. Spirits, that boy was like a bottomless pit…" I didn't even notice as Katsu began to walk away from me again. Not that I really cared. He had his own things to do. Lucky him.

"Boredom sucks." I said out loud, not caring who heard me. "I wish something would happen."

Coincidentally, the moment I said that was right before something smashed against the side of the ship, knocking me onto my back. I TAKE IT BACK! BORING IS GOOD! HAVING NOTHING HAPPEN IS GOOD!

The soldiers all rushed to the edge of the deck, looking over the railing to see what had hit us. Before I could even blink, a giant four-legged monster, probably only a little bit smaller than Appa, with light brown fur and darker fur running down its back from its nose to its tail, crawled over the railing and onto the deck of the ship, snarling viciously as the soldiers ran away from the beast. I just sat there, staring with a wide open mouth and big eyes, completely stunned. I then noticed a young black-haired woman sitting on the back of the monster, a long whip in her hands. "Get back! We're after a stowaway!" She snarled, cracking her whip a few times.

Then Zuko came along, Iroh beside him. "Don't be ridiculous! There aren't any stowaways on this ship!" Zuko yelled furiously, clenching his fists and glaring at the woman.

The creature suddenly clawed at the deck, tearing through the metal just as easily as my sword could. It ripped out a chunk of the deck with its teeth, and then tossed it over the railing without a care. With that barrier out of the way, it stuck its nose into the hole, the woman looking impatient the whole time. After a moment, a man dressed in green crawled out of the hole, and sprinted away as fast as he could.

In a flash, the creatures tongue had appeared out of its mouth, whipped through the air like the woman's whip, and made contact with the back of the man's neck. The stowaway fell instantly, his body tensed and his eyes wide. But he was still conscious. I continued to stare. "He's paralyzed…" I mumbled.

Apparently, I had said it louder than I thought, because the woman shot me a glance, before seizing the stowaway by his shirt collar and lifting him off the ground easily. "It's only temporary. The toxins will wear off in an hour. By then, I'll have my money, and he'll be in prison." She spoke quickly, like she didn't expect to be around long enough to speak slowly. With that, the woman tossed the man over the back of her monster, and pulled herself into the saddle. Zuko demanded to know how she and her pet had found the man.

"My shirshu can smell a rat from a continent away." The woman said with a smirk. With a crack of her whip, the shirshu (which I now realized was what the creature was) and the woman ran over the railing and down the dock.

Woah… that was cool.

Suddenly, a pair of rough hands seized me by my shoulders and pulled me to my feet. "Get up, will you?" Zuko grumbled.

"Thanks." I muttered, brushing imaginary dust off my shoulders. Then I walked over to the giant hole in the ship's deck. "That's gonna be fun to fix." I said, planting my hands on my hips and observing it.

"It's not like you're going to be the one who has to pay for it." Zuko snapped, coming and standing next to me.

"Yes, but I'll have to listen to you complaining about it until you actually get it fixed."

~~Water~~

With that, Tora turned and walked away from a fuming Zuko and a gaping hole in the ship's deck. Zuko didn't watch her leave, instead continued to glare daggers after the woman, who had already left with her shirshu and disappeared from sight.

Suddenly, he recalled what the woman had said. "My shirshu could smell a rat from a continent away."

Slowly, Zuko's mind began to formulate a plan - one that would hopefully, finally capture the Avatar. A plan that involved a necklace made of a scrap of silk and a carved blue stone.

~~Water~~

"I'm coming with you." He stated, holding his sleeping pack over his shoulder firmly, staring defiantly at his father as the older warrior approached him with a saddened expression.

"You aren't old enough to go to war, Sokka. You know that."

His breath hitched in his throat, and the look in his eyes became desperate and pleading. "I'm strong enough, and I'm brave enough! I can fight! You showed me how! Please, Dad?"

His father placed a hand on his shoulder, and stared right into his eyes. The Chief told his son the true meaning of being a man - he hadn't understood, and he still didn't understand. But he understood a little better than he had then. He voiced this statement out loud, his eyes watering, though he denied this vehemently.

"Someday you will." The Chief said softly, before his son dropped his sleeping pack and threw his arms around the older man's middle. His father placed a hand on his head as he cried. "I'm going to miss you so much…"

Even though it had been two years, Sokka remembered one of the last few private moments he'd had with his dad like it was yesterday. It had been one of the few times he had ever cried - he was a man, of course, and men weren't supposed to show weaknesses like girls did. But it had been a "special" occasion, so he allowed himself to do it - just once.

The teenage boy stared blankly at the flames in the center of the camp. Ever since the time earlier that day - or late yesterday, he had no idea what time it was, except that it was probably later than he should have been up - when they had found the Water Tribe boat, all Sokka could think about was his father, or the other men of the Tribe, and he wondered where they were, what they were doing, how they were doing, if any of them had been injured or killed (most likely some of them had been killed, this was war after all, he had to remind himself), if it was possible his dad had been -

Sokka cut himself off as soon as the thought began to cross his mind. His father wasn't dead. His father was just fine. He was positive.

Sokka poked at the fire for a moment, keeping it from getting anywhere near to close to dying out. He absentmindedly wished that Tora was here - she was, admittedly, better with fire than he was. But she was a firebender, after all. Sokka was positive that if she was just a waterbender, she wouldn't know the first thing about tending a fire.

The sound of a twig snapping jolted Sokka out of his thoughts. Instantly, he looked up from the flames and into the darkness. He saw a figure coming closer to the group's camp, and instinctively, he grabbed hold of his machete and pointed it toward the stranger. "Who's there?"

The stranger emerged from the shadows and came into the firelight. It was a man, with brown skin, long dark brown hair, wearing a Water Tribe blue tunic with only one sleeve. The man's left arm and shoulder was entirely wrapped in bandages. The man's blue eyes widened upon seeing Sokka. "Sokka?"

Sokka's eyes widened as he recognized the stranger. "Bato?"

There was a rustling as Katara and Aang both woke up, Aang rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Who the what?" He asked, disoriented.

Katara had thrown her blanket off her and was on her feet before you could blink. "Bato!" Both the waterbender and her brother ran up to Bato and hugged him.

"It is so good to see you two! You've both grown so much." Bato said, hugging them back.

Aang walked over to the group, and bowed respectfully. "Hi, I'm Aang." Bato smiled at him in return.

"Where's Dad?" Sokka demanded.

"Yeah, is he here?"

Bato then explained that Hakoda and the other Water Tribe warriors were probably in the eastern Earth Kingdom by that time. Both teens looked down, saddened by the news, when a sudden gust of wind made them all shiver. "Well, this isn't the right place for a reunion. Let's go." With that, Bato turned around, and led the kids away from the camp.

~~Water~~

My door flew open, revealing a furious Zuko standing in my doorway. I looked up, watching him silently.

"Give it back." The prince snarled.

"Give what back?" I asked, raising one eyebrow.

"The necklace - the Water Tribe necklace I took from your friend. Give it back!" He yelled, clenching his fists and walking until he stood directly in front of me.

I paused, rubbing my chin thoughtfully. My eyes widened in fake remembrance. "Oh!" I stood up and walked over to my pile of belongings in the corner of my room. With a flourish, I held up Katara's missing necklace in my right hand, the choker dangling from my fingers. "This what you're looking for?"

Zuko made a grab for it, but I pulled it away just seconds before his fingers could even graze it. "How did you get it?" Zuko demanded. "It was in my room!"

"Your door was unlocked, I happened to be passing by, and I thought, 'hey, Zuko wouldn't mind if I took a look around, right?'"

"You had no right-!"

"Are you kidding me? You have as much right to have this necklace as I do to go into your room! It isn't yours!"

"It's not yours either."

"It belongs to my friend, so I have more right to it than you do." I dangled the necklace in the air, almost tauntingly. "Tell me why you want it, and I'll give it to you - if your reasons are good enough."

"I could just fight you right now, take it from you, and then lock you in a cell until my plan has been carried out." Zuko pointed out, glaring.

I paused, lowering the necklace a little bit. "True."

"So hand it over." The prince held out his hand expectantly.

I shook my head, holding Katara's necklace to my chest protectively. "Tell me why you need it first."

"Why should I?"

I paused again, thinking about it. "Because it probably concerns my friends, and I'm concerned about their safety, and you kind of owe me because you forced me to dance on music night?" I offered.

"That isn't a good reason."

It's the only reason I've got. Suddenly, a new idea popped into my head. "Because if you don't tell me…" I held up my left hand and lit a small fire in it, before dangling the necklace an inch away from the flames. I would never, ever burn Katara's necklace, but I think that she'd rather have it be burned than let it be in Zuko's possession. Besides, I was just bluffing.

Zuko raised an eyebrow. "You wouldn't."

"Try me." I hissed, beginning to lower the necklace into the fire. "Now, unless you want to see this destroyed, tell me why you need it!"

Zuko's eyes narrowed even further than they already had. I didn't break eye contact for even a second.

Finally, Zuko broke the silence. "Put the necklace away. I'll tell you."

"And you have to include me in whatever plan you have." I stated, closing my hand and putting out the fire. "Those are my terms."

Zuko scowled. "You are just…"

"I know. Now tell me."

"Hand over the necklace."

Without a word, I placed the choker into his palm. I didn't want to make him angrier than he already was - no matter how fun it was. Instantly, his hand closed over it, and he tucked it into his belt. "Do you remember the woman with the shirshu earlier today?"

How could I not? "Yes."

"She said that her shirshu could hunt down someone a continent away." Zuko stated. "My plan is to have her hunt down the Avatar's friend with this necklace - and that will also lead us to the Avatar."

I rolled my eyes, planting my hands on my hips. "That is…" I began, before I stopped, mid-sentence, with my mouth open. "... actually… a good plan." How did he think of that? How did I not think of that first?

"Now, if you excuse me, I have a woman and her beast to find." Zuko said, turning around and heading for the door. He paused for a moment, before turning his head and looking at me over his shoulder. "Are you coming or not?"

I blinked in surprise. "Wait, I can actually come? You're not worried about, I don't know, me escaping or anything?"

As an answer, Zuko scoffed. "The only reason I have to use that woman is because ever since that night," Referring to rescuing Aang from the Zhao's prison. "We've lost track of the Avatar. Really, I have no reason to keep you on this ship, because the Avatar hasn't attempted to rescue you even once. If you escape, it's none of my concern."

Ouch. Harsh. And here I was thinking that we had been bonding. I tried to think of this, instead of focussing on the hurt that I felt when he basically said I was useless to him. It stung, more than I felt it should have. It came from Zuko, after all.

"Now hurry up! We have to get uncle and leave, before she moves on." Zuko then walked out of my room. I stood still for a moment, before rushing to the corner of my room. I scrambled to grab my few possessions. I strapped my sword to my belt, threw my wolf fang necklace over my head and around my neck, and quickly put my white shell earrings. (I had abandoned my wolf cloak in the forest the night we had freed Aang, since it would most likely be a dead giveaway if anyone ever saw me with it. It was bad enough I already had the exact same clothing as the girl who had rescued the Avatar from Zhao. I didn't need to make it completely obvious.) With my possessions on me or attached to me, I ran after Zuko.

Maybe this was my chance. My chance to be reunited with my friends - my family.

~~Water~~

"This is the place." Zuko stated, crossing his arms. Iroh stood next to me, his hands hidden in his sleeves like usual. We were standing in front of a three story tall Earth Kingdom tavern with lot of windows, orange light shining through every single one of them. The bounty hunter's shirshu was lying on the ground outside the tavern, waiting patiently for its master to finish whatever she was doing. The sound of loud cheering reached our ears. I let out a small squeak when a man suddenly came crashing through the wall above the door, landing on the ground a few feet in front of us. After a moment or two, he got up and ran past us, yelling, "Don't go in there if you know what's good for you!"

"Weakling." Zuko muttered. With that, he began walking to the door, followed by Iroh and me. I placed a hand on the hilt of my sword, instinctively clenching it tightly in my hand.

As soon as we walked through the door, we saw exactly how many people were in the tavern. There was about fifty, maybe more. They were all men, clearly, and they were all yelling excitedly and crowding around something in the center of the room. Zuko instantly began shoving through the crowds, yelling at them to get out of his way, and calling them 'filth'.

"So sorry about my nephew's manners." Iroh apologized to several of the men as we both followed his nephew.

"Sorry about his bad attitude." I said to the other men.

As we finally reached the edge of the crowd, I saw what they were all cheering for. The female bounty hunter was sitting at a wooden table in the center of the room, arm wrestling with a man that was a lot more muscular than she was. Despite that, she looked like she wasn't even trying. Her lips were pursed, and her dark eyes were staring straight at the man - who was currently working up quite a sweat.

"I don't know who this lady is, but I like her." I stated, grinning. With that said, Zuko, Iroh and I walked right up to her.

Now that I was closer, I could get a better look at her. She had long, black hair, hiding her right eye and some of it pulled into a topknot, held in place with a skull-shaped hair piece. She was entirely dressed in black, a black sleeveless tunic over black leggings, a pair of black boots, and two belts wrapped around her middle, one around her waist and the other just under her chest. In the place of sleeves were long fingerless gloves that went up nearly all the way to her shoulders. Her lips were ruby red, and her eyes were lined with black makeup. I noticed a red tattoo in the form of a snake on her right shoulder. All in all, she was a very pretty woman.

"I need to talk to you." Zuko stated bluntly to her.

The woman didn't even glance at us. "Well, look who it is. My new friends - Angry Boy, Uncle Lazy, and the Weakling."

I blinked for a moment. Then I realized she was talking about me. "Weakling?!" I yelled, slamming a hand down on the table. "Do you know who you're talking to?!" I take back what I said about her!

"No, and I really don't care."

"I'm the best swords-woman you'll ever see!"

"Hey, I just call 'em like I see 'em, kid."

"You don't know what I can do!"

"Nice sword. Your daddy let you borrow it?"

"Why, you-!" I was completely and utterly ready to strangle her with my bare hands.

"Enough!" Zuko snarled at me. "Get over it!"

The woman finally ended the arm wrestling contest. She brought down the man's arm with a slam! The crowd erupted into cheers - cheers of both despair and joy, depending on who had bet on who. A large pile of gold coins started appearing on the table in front of the woman. I bit down on my lip, still glaring at her. Now I'm a little conflicted of what to feel about her…

"Your beast trashed my ship!" Zuko said to her. "You have to pay me back."

The woman smiled at him as she began pulling all the coins toward her. "Well, you'll have to excuse me, but I'm afraid I don't have that much money." Looking away from Zuko, she shouted to the crowd, "HEY! DRINKS ARE ON ME TONIGHT!" As the crowd began to cheer, Zuko's scowl deepened, and my eye twitched. Now I am very conflicted of what to feel about her.

The woman began to take a drink of whatever was in her cup, when Zuko grabbed her wrist. Instead of flipping him over, like I expected her to do, she merely raised an eyebrow as Zuko said, "I wasn't talking about money."

After some coercing from Zuko, which I'm sure amused her more than frightened her, the woman finally agreed to hear Zuko out, and came outside with us. She leaned against her shirshu, while Zuko reached into his belt and pulled out Katara's necklace. "I need you to find someone for me."

"Your girlfriend disappear on you or something?"

I let out a loud "HA!" at that, before quickly standing up straight and crossing my arms behind my back when Zuko turned and gave me an angry look. I saw the woman's lips twitch slightly, before the angry prince turned back to her. "It isn't the girl I'm looking for. I'm after the monk she's travelling with.

"Whatever you say."

I coughed into my hand, hiding a smile.

"If you find them for me, then I will consider the damage you caused paid for."

The woman snorted. "Forget it."Turning around, she began to climb back up onto her shirshu's saddle. Zuko opened his mouth to argue with her, but Iroh quickly stepped forward. "We will, of course, pay you for your efforts. Your weight in gold, if you wish."

The woman instantly froze. She glanced over her shoulder at us, before smirking and climbing back down. She pointed one sharp fingernail at Iroh. "Make it your weight, and we have a deal."

Iroh let out a loud laugh. "Alright!"

The woman pointed over at the shirshu. "Get on." Without a word, she snatched Katara's necklace from Zuko's hand, and brought it over to her shirshu to smell. Iroh managed to get onto its back with a small amount of struggle, while Zuko and I both got on without a problem. Iroh sat right behind where June would be sitting, with Zuko behind him and me at the very back. After a moment, the shirshu raised its head and began snarling, saliva dripping from its muzzle. The woman quickly leapt onto the saddle and held up her whip.

Instantly, the shirshu took off running, sprinting through the trees at breakneck speed. Instinctively, I wrapped my arms around Zuko's waist.

"What, exactly, do you think you're doing?" Zuko demanded over his shoulder.

"Not falling off." I replied, before leaning over slightly. "Hey, bounty hunter!" She didn't turn around, but I presume she heard me. "What's your name?"

"Why does it matter?" She asked.

"Well, I like to know people's names when I have to work with them."

Still not looking back, the woman answered, "June."

And that is the end of the chapter. I'm sorry for ending it so suddenly, but it needed to be ended now, and at least I updated.

Hey, I actually liked this chapter! What do you know? :)

I can't wait until next chapter. :D Hope it won't take as long to finish it.

See ya later!