Man, I feel like such a slacker. At the moment I am going to blame my school for my lack of updates. I'm sorry if the story seems to be going rather slow and the chapters are quite short. Anyways here's another chapter out (yay!). I really hope you all enjoy it, even a little bit.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this

Chapter 9

I knew I couldn't stay here. In a couple hours it would be dawn and Imata would be up preparing for the say. There was no way to interrogate the Aranian inside the inn. I would have to take him outside. But that was the simple part.

The hard part would be deciding what to do with Zuko and his guards. I could very much just leave them and be on my way with their attacker or I would have to wait for them to get up. I knew I should not wait around because if I did and they woke up they would most likely demand to have the Aranian and I really wanted to keep him.

Another problem was I had no idea when they would wake up and I suspected it would be after the Aranian woke up. I had my doubts that he would be a quiet prisoner when he woke up.

No. I couldn't keep him here. I would have to leave Zuko and his guard to wake up on their own. Leave them to fill in the gaps to the best of their ability.

I thought hard as took the Aranian's possessions and placed them into one of my bags.

I needed to go now. There was no way that I would be able to sneak out the window like I had previously planned. I would have to drag him down the stairs and out the back door; the front door would be too obvious for my liking. But there was another problem.

I had no idea if he was alone in his attack or if there were others waiting quietly outside the inn. Inside the inn I had a certain level of protection, but when I went outside I would be very vulnerable. I would have my arms full with carrying him and my bags. It was another risk I needed to take.

I could muscle my way out of the inn and into the forest, but how long would my strength actually last. Could I take the time to make a makeshift sled or something out of cloth that I could use to drag him? It sounded appealing, but I didn't want to take the time. I would have to toss him over my back, or drag him by his arms, risking dislocation, or by the legs.

What I really needed to do was to just shut up, stop thinking, and get a move on it.

I slung my bags my shoulders and I grabbed the man to heft him up. Well that's what I tried to do at least. What really happened was basically a balancing act as I tried to straighten the man out from his arched position because I had stupidly, in the dark, grabbed his waist band and pulled him up. He slipped from my grip and a stumbled back and tripped over a hard lump, Zuko.

I grimaced, feeling guilty at first, but then I realized that he would have no idea what happen anyways. I could probably shave him bald if I wanted to and he would have no idea it was me. That had me cracking up. The image of him bald kept me going for a few seconds more before I sobered up. I blamed it on the stress, because no sane person would find amusement with what I was doing at the moment.

Well, I didn't really consider myself sane anymore at the moment.

I was probably the least sane out of everyone in the inn at the moment. I sighed, resigned to it, and tried to grab purchase on the Aranian again. This time I found his arm and pulled it toward me while I kneeled down. After a bit of a tussle I managed to get him at least partially over my shoulder and on my back. I wiggled a bit more and settled him and then I walked ungracefully towards the door and turned the knob.

I thought the situation through again. Maybe this guy was alone after all. For one, he had been here for an awful while and nobody had burst through the doors to help him carry bodies away. For another, I couldn't shake that since of cleanliness I had sensed earlier. He was fresh, new. There was no way they would let him try to take Zuko all by himself.

No. This guy must've been cocky, heard about Zuko from his superiors, and thought he could impress the more experienced ones if he got the Fire Lord all by himself.

So I assured myself, when I finally came down the steps and reached the back door. Nobody would be there, waiting to answer me.

I opened the door and walked outside.

The breeze was cool and refreshing. I wished I could stand there and enjoy it, but that seemed impossible, unpleasant, and just stupid when I had at least a two hundred pound man on my back. Walking forward steadily as possible, I glanced around to see if anyone was actually out here. Unrelenting suspicion. Which was pointless, both the glancing around and suspicion, not because I thought no one was out here but because I couldn't even see my hands in the darkness.

Which seemed to only be a mark against my decision.

I still walked forward, gingerly enough to not trip, but something was nagging at the back of my mind. It was a stray thought, one that was important enough to bug me but I couldn't seem to grasp it.

What was it that I had thought earlier?

He was inexperienced, sure trained, but nonetheless inexperienced. Yet he wanted to prove himself by taking on the biggest fish in the sea.

What was it?

Oh, right. He heard about it from the superiors. Now why did that bother me. Because…

"It was just the first attempt."