I tugged at my end of the rope again, eliciting another grunt from the cereal rapist I was dragging behind me. I would have killed him when I found him, but the person who put up the bounty wanted him alive. No reason stated.

He was a fire bender so he was a little trouble for me. I had to capture him without injuring anyone else, and that made it hard for me as an earth bender to attack, and even harder to defend in the small crowd of people I found him in. But eventually, I was able to put him in an earth prison, cuff his hands, and cover his mouth with a metal muzzle.

I couldn't help but feel proud at another success. I was doing quite well for myself. I lived in a small earthen shack on the edge of an equally small village that I didn't even know the name of, if it even had a name. I had really hoped to find honest work, but what work could there be in such a small village. Especially for someone trained in nothing but battle. So, as a person with a very specific set of skills, I found work as a bounty hunter. And I hadn't gone hungry once since I left the general.

A lot of people with bounties on their heads came to the small village to disappear, and that was when I would swoop in and claim their reward. Of course I sometimes traveled to hunt down bounties, but there was a sense of satisfaction in catching the criminals that thought they had gotten away. It was even more so when they found out at the collection office that I had a bounty myself.

My charges? Desertion of the army, and use of the army's earth bending forms for personal gain. This meant that most of my friends tried to kill me, or have me killed on a regular basis. But what kind of friends would they be if there wasn't some hint of malice in our relationship?

Knowing glances and grins were shared every time my charges were mentioned. For them it was because I was a bounty hunter with a bounty, a pretty damn high and difficult to collect bounty. I laughed because it was because either some idiot official thought I was was a member of the army, or the general was lying. I understood their motivation, of course. If you spent resources training someone in a specific form of earth bending, meant to do the most damage and be the most lethal, then desertion should be a crime. It would prevent people with dangerous abilities from being released into the public. But my case was different, I shouldn't have been charged for leaving because I technically never joined

"Be a good boy now" the rapist gave me the best scowl he could with half of his face covered and number of muffled curses as I stepped through the curtain that hung in the doorway of the bounty office.

"Cheng! Come to turn yourself in?" I grinned at the clerk sitting behind the solid stone desk. With the next step I took I bent the counter into the ground so he'd fall a bit "fug! You ath hole!" I tugged a bit harder and the man came stumbling through the curtain. He went from checking his tongue for blood to raising his eyebrows in surprise. After a double take at a sketched photo he smiled wide at me. "This guy's been missing for months! Where'd you find him?"

"I made a friend on the road who had a thing for sketchy brothels. Saw this bastard in the first one he took me to." I kicked him over to the two earthbenders who secured the bounties, and picked up the small sack of coins from the counter.

I really didn't have much to say to the clerk, he really did wish I'd turn myself in so the office could cash in a government bounty. So I left as soon as I had the money.

I was back home after passing through the market within a few minutes of walking. When I was sure that there was no one lurking around, I kicked my belongings up out of the ground. Along with a couple of pots and pans, and some spare clothing, a heavy bag of coins flew up into the air. I caught it from the bottom and dropped the bag of coins I got from clerk into it. I really had no goal, I didn't know what I was saving for. But when the time came that I needed a large sum of money, then I'd be fine.

Just after I hid my belongings again, I heard a knock at my door. At least the slab of stone that served as my door.

I bent the slab out of the way to see one of my friends. Xun, A real friend. I trusted this man more than most, even if he was a bounty hunter. It may have been because he looked a lot like Lee, even fought using the same style, although a less refined one. Or that he had yet to show any interest in my bounty. But he was still the person I had come to trust the most.

"You come to collect?"

He faked a laugh at the old and overused joke and stepped into the small stone shack. "No, the opposite actually. A... friend... told me about a bounty that was posted a couple towns over. She says she was the first to see it and took the poster down. It's a pretty big reward, a group of about four benders that camp out near a remote trail. We're both nonbenders so she was worried, but luckily I know a badass earth bender. You'll get the bigger cut of course. Only fair if you do all the work."

"This is perfect. I was just in between bounties too. Where is this friend?"

"She's actually waiting outside, figured we'd leave now and get it done in a day. They're two hours from here if we ride her shirshu."

"A shirshu? Are you sure she couldn't handle the four of them on her own. Those things are expensive. Hard to catch, hard to tame. But they're worth the trouble, four people should be no problem, benders or not.."

"I don't know, but she asked for help." He turned to the doorway and put a hand beside his mouth. "June! come on in!" He stepped aside to leave room for a person step through.

Before I could protest someone I didn't know coming into my home, a woman just a bit shorter than me walked into my shack with an almost invisible grin on. I looked her up and down quickly, and she was actually really attractive for a rough and tough bounty hunter, in an alternative kind of way.

She wore black hair in a top knot held up with a ribbon and skull pin. Her skin was pale white, something pretty rare in the working class, and the makeup she wore contrasted with it very strongly. Black eye and lip paint.

I noted her odd mode of dress when I checked her for wepons. She wore a vest, and sleeved fingerless gloves that covered her arms until just below the shoulder.

I offered a handshake with a smile that felt a little awkward. It took a while a but she accepted my hand "Cheng. Nice to meet you."

"Yeah. So you're the earthbender..."

I raised an eyebrow at a shrugging Xun. "...You saw how I opened my door, right?"

"It wasn't really that impressive. Any bender can move a big rock."

"Actually, no they can't. That comes with practice, like working a muscle" I flexed both of my arms at her.

I watched her look me up and down one more time before she turned around and I let my arms down "Let's go. It's still early so we should be able to make it back by dinner."

I stepped out of the shack, working my bending into my steps to move my belongings to another corner of the room. In case they had seen me put them away.

We turned the corner of the shack and I saw a huge animal lounging like like a cat under a tree. I had heard people talking about shirshu's and how useful they were, but this was the first time I had actually seen one. It was incredible, and very large. Any doubts I had about the three of us riding were gone when I saw it's size. Suddenly it sat up and started sniffing the air in front of it. June calmly walked up to the mouth of this giant beast and started petting it's snout. I felt my respect for her shoot up quite a bit upon seeing that.

"Come on, she needs to smell you with me so she doesn't try to kill you" it growled at both me and Xun when we got close, but June stood next to each of us individually and made different sounds.

"Giving us names?"

"Something like that..."

We were off shortly after. I had ridden ostrich horses and camelephants, even a mongoose lizard a friend stole from a fire nation colony. But none compared to this thing. I couldn't contain a laugh as we flew through a path that would have taken me a day on foot. "Where the hell do you get one of these things?!"

She looked back at me, past xun, with a grin. "You'd have a hard time finding one. I don't even know where they come from. My dad got her as a baby in exchange for a bounty. And that guy disappeared after the bounty was settled."

To my disapointment, Xun started speaking. "Hey, let's have these conversations when we're not riding. June leaning back is pushing me into Cheng's chest and that's not a place I want to be."

Everyone fell silent after that. I smiled every now and then at Xun's struggle to stay ballanced. I was at the back so I could put my arms behind me, and June held the reins and had stirrups on her feet, so Xun had to balance in the middle without risking touching June.

It didn't feel as long as two hours when we got there, but the sun looked about noon so it must have been.

"So, where are they?"

Xun spoke up after stretching his legs out. "I did some asking around first. I was told they normally camped about 20 minutes north of the only lake on this path."

I looked to the north at my left, saw the large body of water, and flung a pebble at his head. "Why the fuck didn't you tell us this earlier! It's gonna be another hour rounding the lake instead stopping on the western edge and following the shore."

June pat my shoulder "calm down boys, Nyla can swim. Let's go"

I reluctantly hopped on the beasts back again, this time I sat in the middle and Xun behind me. I was about to reach down to hold onto the saddle when June took one of my hands and put it at her hip. I looked back at Xun to see him wearing a scowl.

I had a smile on my face up until we made it to the middle of the lake. We had been riding quietly, and I was getting quite relaxed despite the fight that was about to come. I thought Xun was just fidgeting behind me to get better balanced, but just as I was about to tell him to sit still, he wrapped an arm around my forehead and pulled back, exposing my neck. "June!" His shout rung in my ear.

I heard June give Nyla a command and felt a wet thud on my neck. I was going to try and throw Xun into the water but June had both my arms clamped at her waste. Soon after, my arms and legs stopped responding, and my body slumped against June's back when Xun let go. I finally realized that she had paralyzed me.