p class="MsoNormal"Sky's POV/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"We rode on the ostrich-horse through a small cleft in the valley. Iroh was clearly in discomfort. He kept groaning and moan as we kept travelling. I could tell it was getting on Zuko's last nerve. I was really uncomfortable from ridding for so long and the fact I kept getting kicked in the gut by my baby(ies). Unlike Iroh though I knew better than to annoy Zuko by 'hinting' about it continuously. I was biding my time before asking for a rest stop… or on second thought a potty break. Before I could even open my mouth Zuko started to take the hint and asked, "Maybe we should make camp."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""No, please, don't stop for me!" Iroh replied in a pain filled voice. We continued our during again. Though Iroh continued to let out several more pained groans. Zuko pulled the reigns of the Ostrich-Horse, stopping it. He and Iroh dismounted. Iroh groaned and took a seat on a large flat rock. The Ostrich-Horse perked up, pricking its ears. Clearly, it detected something unusual. Zuko took a defensive posture and I hugged myself into the Ostrich-Horse's neck, hiding my bump and reassuring myself a bit. "What now?" Iroh asked annoyed./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"The ground rumbled sightly as the Rough Rhinos approached. Colonel Mongke's rhino stamped the ground forcefully, breaking the surface crust. Colonel Mongke pulled back on the rhino's reins stopping it. Zuko continued his defensive posture. Iroh brightened and placed a hand on Zuko's shoulder, seemingly happy to see them. "Colonel Mongke! What a pleasant surprise!" Iroh said pleasantly./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""If you're surprised, we're here then the Dragon of the West has lost a few steps." Mongke said sneering. Mongke looked stern. He emphasized his remarks by making sparks with his bracers. His men readied their weapons. "You know these guys?" Zuko asked Iroh as I tightened my hold of the Ostrich-Horse. "Sure. Colonel Mongke and the Rough Riders are legendary. Each one is a different kind of weapons specialist. They are also a very capable singing group." Iroh said rubbing his shoulder. "We're not here to give a concert. We're here to apprehend fugitives and rescue our princess from traitors!" Mongke stated./p
p class="MsoNormal""Would you like some tea first? I'd love some. How about you, Kachi? I make you as a jasmine man. Am I right?" Iroh asked continuing to rub his shoulder. "Enough stalling! Round 'em up and get the princess unharmed!" Mongke ordered./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"The dark skinned, pony tailed fighter swinged his ball and chain at Iroh. Iroh kicked the ball away. The ball, redirected, wrapped its chain around the foot of another warrior's rhino. Iroh dodged the fire blasts by tumbling along the ground. He raised back up to swat the rump of the rhino that had been chained. The rhino ran off, yanking the dark-skinned warrior who had one end of the chain attached to his belt as well as its own rider. Iroh waved as he watched them go./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"The archer shot a lit arrow at Zuko's back. Zuko sensed the arrow, turned, and broke the arrow apart as it approached him. Zuko then let a fire blast loose, which burned a hole in the archer's bow, a hand's width above the archer's hand. The blast passed through the bow and broke the string./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Mongke was letting loose fire blast after fire blast at Iroh. Iroh deflected each. Zuko ran up and jumped on the back of Mongke's rhino behind him. A brief duel ensued, with Mongke quickly being kicked off the rhino by Zuko. Iroh ran up to the ostrich horse, jumped up on the saddle behind me, and we rode to Zuko. Zuko jumped from Mongke's rhino into the saddle as we galloped by./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"The armoured warrior, rode in pursuit, through a grenade at our fleeing ostrich horse. The grenade exploded ahead of our ostrich horse, but we were able to ride through the explosion. "It's nice to see old friends." Iroh said as Zuko and I looked at him./p
p class="MsoNormal""Too bad you don't have any old friends that don't want to attack you." Zuko stated causing me to giggle. "Hmm... Old friends that don't want to attack me..." Iroh wonders looking ahead causing me to have giggle fit./p
p class="MsoNormal"Once I stopped giggling, I asked, "Can we make a pit stop soon please?" They both looked at me weirdly at my sudden question. "Why?" Zuko asked style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanA giggled a little before replying, "Nothing is wrong I just rely have to pee… and eat… and drink… and sleep…" I listed now thinking about it, the list went on and on./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"~Time skip brought to you by Cactus Juice, It's the quenchiest ~/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Still Sky's POV/p
p class="MsoNormal"Zuko and Iroh were sitting at a table as I came out of the toilets that was at the Bar ice spring place thingy. I sat with them at the table as Zuko said, "No one here is going to help us. These people just look like filthy wanderers." Zuko complained. "Sorry for having basic bodily functions." I said in a huff. Zuko sighed and pulled me onto his lap hugging me to his chest. span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal""So do we." Iroh said before pointing to an old bald man playing Pai Sho, "Ah, this is interesting. I think I've found our friend." This annoyed Zuko, "You brought us here to gamble on Pai Sho?" To which Iroh replied, "I don't think this is a gamble."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"We got up and walked over. We approached the Pai Sho table. "May I have this game?" Iroh asked the man. "The guest has the first move." The Pai Sho Player stated as Iroh placed the lotus tile in the middle of the board. "I see you favour the white lotus gambit. Not many still cling to the ancient ways." The Pai Sho Player noticed./p
p class="MsoNormal""Those who do can always find a friend." Iroh stated almost mysteriously. "Then let us play." The man stated./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"The old Pai Sho player placed another tile on the board. Iroh quickly placed another tile as well. Zuko and I sat down and watched intently as the two men placed tile after tile on the board in rapid succession. When they were done, the tiles formed the shape of a lotus, with the lotus tile in the centre./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""I Welcome, brother. The White Lotus opens wide to those who know her secrets." The man said with respect. "What are you old gasbags talking about?" Zuko asked confused causing me to giggle as he seemed to be the only one to not know what had just happened./p
p class="MsoNormal""I always tried to tell you that Pai Sho is more than just a game Zuko. It seems only Sky had picked up on it." Iroh said chuckling at the end as he rolled a tile over his knuckles and clutched it./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""I'm not waiting all night for these geezers to finish yapping! It's over! You two fugitives are coming with me!" Xin Fu shouted suddenly as he and Master Yu approached us. "I knew it! You two are wanted criminals with a giant bounty on your heads!" Shouted the Pai Sho Player loudly as he stood in the way of Xin Fu and Master Yu./p
p class="MsoNormal""I thought you said he would help!" Zuko asked Iroh as Zuko pulled me closer to him. "He is. Just watch." Iroh said placing a hand on his shoulder./p
p class="MsoNormal"Pai Sho Player then shouted, "You think you're going to capture them and collect all that gold?" To which a man in the bar asked, "Gold?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"All of the men in the bar looked up at the mention of the word 'gold.' Several of them pulled out knives and approached the group around the Pai Sho table. "Uh... Maybe we shouldn't." Master Yu stated meekly./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Two men jumped in front of Xin Fu. The earthbender spined around and delivered a reverse roundhouse kick, bending a rock from the ground which knocked the two men away. Master Yu entered his stance and bent the earth underneath one of the assailants, causing him to sink into the ground up to his neck./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Xin Fu fought a group of sandbenders. He had one lifted in the air with one hand and held back another sandbender with the other hand. Xin Fu promptly kicked any other sandbender that came near. He twisted his waist and through the two sandbenders he's holding. One went flying and smashed into the wall behind the bartender./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"We used the fight to escape out of the bar with the Pai Sho player running out of the building. I could not help but giggle that it actually worked./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"~This time skip is brought to you by missing the taste of mud~/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Zuko's POV/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"The Pai Sho player made sure than no one was watching before shutting the door. Inside it became apparent that the building was a flower shop. Why the Agni were we in a flower shop. What was happening./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""It is an honour to welcome such high-ranking members of the Order of the White Lotus. Being a Grand Master and Master, you must know so many secrets." The Pai Sho player stated about Uncle and my fire-lily Sky before we walked further into the flower shop. This annoyed me further./p
p class="MsoNormal""Now that you played Pai Sho,are you going to do some flower arranging, or is this club going to offer some real help?" I asked with my arms crossed./p
p class="MsoNormal""You must forgive my nephew. He is not an initiate and has little appreciation for the cryptic arts. He is also very protective of Master Sky here, especially in her delicate state." Iroh stated as we reached a door at the back of the shop./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"The Pai Sho player knocked on a door in the back. A small window in the middle slid open and a man peeked through and asked, "Who knocks at the guarded gate?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""One who has eaten the fruit and tasted its mysteries." Uncle replied. The door was opened and Iroh, the Pai Sho player and Sky entered. As I attempted to follow them, but the door was shut in my face. Uncle slid open the door's window. "I'm afraid it's members only. Wait out here." Uncle answered my unasked question. How come Sky is a member and not me. This thought caused me to chuckle because it was obvious to me why. But still I was upset that I couldn't join them. I frowned and crossed my arms. I leaned over to a nearby plant and sniffed it, it smelt ok. Not as good as my fire-lily though but nothing could compare to her./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"~This time skip is brought to you by Sokka putting anything and everything into his mouth~/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Sky's POV/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"The meeting went on through the night. To be honest I slept through most of the meeting as I was exhausted. Pregnancy was hard. It took a lot out of me. Meaning I needed all the rest that I could get especially as I progressed with my pregnancy./p
p class="MsoNormal"As we left the meeting room, we saw Zuko suddenly awoken and got into a defensive stance. "What's going on? Is the club meeting over?" Zuko asked getting out of his stance as I walked to his side. "Everything is taken care of. We're heading to Ba-Sing-Se." Iroh said smiling. "Ba-Sing-Se? Why would we go to the Earth Kingdom capital?" Zuko asked confused as to what was happening./p
p class="MsoNormal""The city is filled with refugees. No one will notice two more." The Pai Sho player. "We can hide in plain sight there. And it's the safest place in the world from the Fire Nation. Even I couldn't break through to the city." Still smiling Iroh stated./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"The door opened and a man stepped inside the flower shop. "I have the passports for our guests, but there are two men out on the streets looking for them." The man stated. We looked through the window of the door to see Xin Fu and Master Yu were standing outside. Xin Fu held up a wanted poster to a man walking by and asked aggressively, "You seen these guys?" We turned to each other and gave each other questioning looks. Now how will we leave for Ba-Sing-Sae./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"~This time skip is brought to you by guilty, defensive sandbender almost giving away their guilt ~/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Still Sky's POV/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"I was dressed in full sandbending gear and outfit to hide my face and pregnant stomach as I left with the man who pulled along a cart with two giant pots of flowers. We walked right past Xin Fu and Master Yu./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Once we were out in the desert Zuko and Iroh pushed up the flowers that hid them in the pots to check where we were and that I was alright before resuming their position in the pots causing me to break into a giggle fit next to the man pulling the cart./p