Hello few but hopefully devoted readers, I've got some news that might interest you. My Youtube Alter Ego "TheShockaholic" has posted a trailer/sneak preview video for Zhrek. Any of you interested in it just google "TheShockaholic" and you'll find it, it's not too hard the Zhrek video's my only one. Anyways I'm hoping the video will generate some more interest in Zhrek so email your friends, tell you neightbours distant family members, I'm excepting all takers!

And of course don't be afraid to comment on anything you read; good or bad I will always read and respond to any and all comments :)

And I own NOTHING! Shrek is property of Dreamworks, Avatar is property of Nickelodeon, and direct quotes from the film come from the Shrek Script at (Internet Movie Script )

Enjoy! ;P

Chapter 6

-Dawn-

"The sun's rising Zuko, how much farther?"

"Aang, we're right here, all we have to do now is get Ozai's princess and get out." The two had been walking since the sun had dipped low in the sky and the blistering sand had turned cool being deprived of the sun's heat. They had finally reached the gorge where the Dragon's keep rested, and as they continued to draw closer Zuko noticed that it was getting increasingly warmer the closer they got.

Puzzled, Zuko went ahead to investigate, "Aang when you saw the castle you forgot to mention the boiling lake of lava surrounding it!"

"What-I thought you knew you saw it as clear as I did!"

"Yeah, for all of three seconds before we started plummeting to our doom, look we can get across that way," Zuko points farther down the edge of the gorge where a rope bridge had been built across it leading to the Dragon's keep. It was a rickety looking rope bridge, but it was whole and that was all that was good enough for Zuko.

"Let's go."

"Um Zuko, remember what you said before about you having layers?"

Yes,"

"Well I don't have layers, I wear my heart-and my fear- on my sleeve."

"But you don't have sleeves." Zuko replies drolly stepping onto the bridge.

"You know what I mean."

"Aang you're an air-bender, you can't seriously be telling me that you're afraid of heights?"

"Hey normally I have my glider to help me fly when I'm air-bending. Besides, it's not so much heights as it is falling to a quick and painful death."

"Oh come on," Zuko grabs Aang by the arm and drags him in front of him on the bridge. "Just take it one step at a time, and whatever you do-don't look down."

"Okay, okay," moving at a snail's pace Aang starts walking across the bridge, Zuko right behind him, all the while Aang's muttering to himself "don't look down."

It seems to be working when one of the boards underneath Aang's feet gives way and his legs slips through the space causing him to land face down on the bridge...and starring directly at the lava below.

Righting himself Aang turns to go back across the bridge only to find Zuko blocking his path.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asks angrily.

"Back,"

"Oh no, you're either going across or over the side, your choice."

"Come on Zuko!"

"Hey, you could have gone back to wherever you came from but you didn't, so now you're stuck with me. Now get your ass across this bridge or I'll throw you over the edge!"

He'd do it too; Aang could see it in his eyes. So, mustering up all his courage Aang squeezes his eyes shut and takes off like a shot. Zuko watches as Aang runs blindly-screaming all the way-right across the bridge...and slams into a rock. He winces as Aang groans and falls back onto the ground curling up in the fetul position.

'We're going to frickin' die in this castle, I just know it.' Zuko thought as he went to make sure Aang hadn't hurt himself too badly.

"Aang, are you okay?" he asks, nudging Aang with the toe of his boot.

"Yeah," Aang answers weakly after a moment.

"You going to be able to keep going?"

"Yeah, I just need to get up and I'll be fine." Aang slowly gets to his knees and begins to rise, but before he can Zuko grabs him by his collar and stands him straight up, sending a jolt of pain down his spine.

"Can we go now?"

"Sure," Aang says in a high pitched voice, then clearing his throat he answers normally, "Sure."

-Inside the Castle-

Though seemingly intact on the outside, the castle's interior was...less than welcoming. Everything is crumbling or decaying and covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs. Along with this cheery decor, the castle's main hall is littered with skeletons each in different armour from the various nations. Each poor soul appears to have been crushed in some way, and by something very large...and very, very heavy. All of which is having a bad effect on Aang,

"Hey Zuko, are you afraid?"

"No."

"But..."

"Sh."

"How can you not be scared? There's a reason they call this Dragon's keep, what if a dragon is what killed all these people, and it could come after us next. We could really die here, and I don't want to die-I'm too young to be eaten!" Zuko throws his hand over Aang's mouth.

"Aang, two things okay? One please shut up! And two, dragons are the noblest and rarest creatures in the world, I'm sure they have better things to do than guard some silly princess. If it makes you feel any better dragons only live in the Fire Nation archipelago, not the Earth Kingdom desert okay? Now go look for some stairs," releasing Aang's mouth Zuko goes over and inspects one of the skeletons wearing fire nation armour. Thinking it might be useful Zuko takes the helmet off, causing the rest of the skeleton-and all the fabric parts of the armour to disintegrate.

"Stairs? Shouldn't we figure out where the princess is first?"

"The princess will be up the stairs in the highest room of the tallest tower, now get looking." Placing the helmet on his own head, Zuko rummages through the pile of metal and bone dust for something else salvageable.

"How'd you know that?"

"I read it in a book once."

"Okay...wait, what are you going to do while I'm looking for stairs?"

"I am going to figure which one of these towers is the tallest, now go find some stairs."

"But..."

"Just GO!"

Going off on his own, Aang soon finds himself in a crumbling hallway and at the end of this hall lays a large, ornate looking staircase. Excited that he's found what he needs Aang runs to them only to see that they only go up about five steps before they disappear leaving a large black void between them and the back wall.

Feeling rather put out, Aang sits down to contemplate his situation.

In the distance something crashes to the ground out where he came from causing Aang to jump, once again on edge about the Dragon despite what Zuko said.

"Okay Aang, there's nothing to be scared of. It was probably Zuko messing around with the armour like before," he says trying to calm himself down. "That's what it is, besides there couldn't possibly be a dragon here-Zuko said they only live in the fire nation."

Content with his explanation, Aang gets up to leave when from behind him he hears a deep rumbling. Petrified, Aang slowly turns around and comes face to face with a big, yellow eye.

Putting the face shield on, Zuko is now outfitted head to toe in Fire nation armour. This is in no way to protect himself from Aang's "dragon", it's for the princess. Zuko knows what he looks like, and he also knows that any woman would run in the other direction if they saw him coming. He also knows there's no way to get his island back without the princess, so for the sake of his home Zuko desecrated a man's corpse, and donned his armour so he could haul the girl back to Caldera and get on with his life.

Making some final adjustments, Zuko walks through what was once a wall, exiting the castle and looks around. There, in the very far right corner of the castle, is the single intact remaining tower that appears to touch the clouds themselves.

"Well now I know where the princess is, all that's missing is the..."

"DRAGON!" the scream erupts deep from within the castle, followed by a terrifying howl.

Imagining what monstrous creature Aang's managed to disturb thinking it was a dragon, Zuko rushes to Aang's rescue. It's not hard to find the little knuckle-head as he's constantly screaming at the top of his lungs, and when he finally reaches Aang, Zuko finds him cowering before a hulking creature with large horns, six legs and a thick flat tail. This was no dragon...but what the hell was it?

Just the creature leans in to supposedly devour Aang Zuko shoots a fireball at the it's head, getting its attention.

"Hey over here, look over here you stupid...thing!"

"Who are you?" Aang shouts, finally noticing Zuko motioning frantically to get the dragon's attention.

"What? Aang it's me, it's Zuko!" Momentarily caught off guard the creature whips its mighty tail and flings Zuko into the air...straight through the roof of the tallest tower, where upon hitting the stone floor, he falls unconscious.

"What? Aang it's me, it's Zuko!"

Aang cringes as he watches Zuko get thrown through the air by the monster, but knows to get moving before it directs its attention back at him. As quickly as he can Aang runs to a long bridge that connects the two halves of the castle, but just as he reaches the halfway point the monster appears from nowhere and smashes the rest of the bridge nearly missing Aang. He tries to turn back but it destroys that portion of the bridge as well.

Now it's just Aang and the monster.

Trapped on an island of stone, Aang cowers as he faces the dragon. It slowly closes in for the kill and in a moment of hysteria Aang utters the one thing that probably should have gotten him killed,

"My w-what large t-t-teeth you have," the monster snarls in indignation. "No I mean what big, shiny, w-white teeth. But you probably get that all the time from your food."

expecting instant pain Aang covers his face with his arms ducking his head, and as he does so he notices something...two something's actually. The first, that this thing could fly, and the second that there was something jabbed into one of it's huge paws. Seeing that the creature has made no move towards him and was now regarding him curiously he lowers his arms and tentatively moves towards the thing's paw, whispering reassuringly.

As he pulls object, a buzzard-wasp stinger, from it's paw the creature gives a mighty howl, strong enough to knock Aang off his feet. Flat on his back the creature moves over him once more. Thinking that now would be the moment that he dies Aang watches in terror as the beast leans in...only to lick his face. Shocked Aang looks up to see the beast panting happily, and laughs as it continues to lick him.

"Well, this has been fun but I really should check on my friend. You know that guy you...swatted." he says getting to his feet and petting the beast's nose. Using his air bending Aang leaps gracefully from his island back to the castle, which is a lot closer than it appeared when he was fearing for his life. As he moves to help his friend the beast flys over, landing in his path.

Suddenly, Aang didn't like the "friendly" attitude towards him anymore. "I know you want me to stay but...really, I shouldn't. ZUKO!"

As Aang turns his back the beast picks Aang up by the back of his robe and lumbers into the castle, away from where it had flung Zuko. Aang tries to break free, but hanging by the waist of his pants doesn't leave him with many options...