Lightning & Boomerang - The Bounty Hunters

by Chaosconetic

Just an idle what if short story of how Sokka and Azula might forge a partnership as Bounty Hunters; set after the series ends and an alternate outcome in the search for Ursa concludes.

2. Chapter 2

(The Churl March Inn: Early Morning, Sunrise)

Azula had been up for an hour, she'd woken at sunrise like any Firebender, donned her usual princess attire, paid for breakfast downstairs, eaten after checking for poison and returned within that time to run through the coming day's preparations with the peasant only to find the idiot still sprawled snoring on the wooden floor with a puddle of drool collecting by his cheek.

At first she ignored him and took the basics of her new hunting outfit into the bathroom to change, snapping at him to get up and opening the shutters to let in the morning sun as she passed. But when she emerged, he still hadn't moved, even the daylight beaming through the open window wasn't stirring him. Azula shook her head, strode over and jabbed a bare foot into his ribs "Up, we've a bounty to collect." She ordered, voice sharp, but he just grunted and rolled over in a tangle of blankets, folding the pillow over his ears.

"Ugh, five more minutes Katara; I just need-ta….." He slurred, yawning groggily, already getting started on a second drool puddle.

Azula scowled and stepped over him to the bed where her provisions lay ready to be neatly compiled, categorized and stored in her backpack which already contained her tent. She started arranging things in appropriate order, which didn't take long, then before packing them she glanced back at the fool; he'd not budged an inch. Would she have to put up with this every morning?

Annoyed, Azula turned, marched over and made to give him another toe jab, but this time Sokka was ready for her and grabbed her ankle, pulling her half way off balance. Azula's arms shot back to break her fall and save her the humiliation of landing on her backside, yet Sokka felt daringly compelled to exploit her disadvantaged position, because unlike his own common sense, Sokka still held the ankle he'd groggily mistaken for his sister's and bravely ran the fingers of his other hand over the bare soles of her foot, irrationally satisfied when she gasped in shock.

"Tickle-tickle-tick…" Was all Sokka got out before her other foot flashed out of nowhere and clipped him in the temple; he let go of her ankle and rolled away groaning as little dots of light danced a dazzling dance behind his eyes "Owww! What did you do that for?" He whined, wondering why Katara would kick him like that, tickle attacks were a perfectly legitimate counter to her Waterbending wakeup pranks and she knew it, so why...then reality dawned brighter than the rising sun outside and recollections of the present penetrated his waking haze to chill his blood; Spirits, he'd just tickle attacked none other than the Fire Princess herself.

Well, that was it, he'd had a good life, short, but good; he curled up, wondering why his fiery demise was so cursedly tardy; maybe death himself was still in bed and Azula had to wake him up too. Sokka waited another few seconds, but nothing happened. Warily, he cracked an eyelid, staring through a mixed haze of sleep and pain then cringed, his gut twisting in dread. Azula loomed over him with hands on hips and a murderous scowl, trying to salvage her dignity by being scary and succeeding fantastically. Why wasn't she killing him? Stupid question, her deal with Zuko of course, a deal she looked to be seriously weighing the consequences of violating.

"I don't like being touched," Azula finally hissed through clenched teeth, making a visible effort to stifle the unhinged fury smoldering like hot coals behind her eyes "Least of all by filthy, pusillanimous, malodorous savages."

"Really?" Sokka sputtered indignantly, pain making him reckless "Oh wait. Who was kicking who again? Remind me cause I seriously can't remember on a count of some crazy Firebender I mistook for my sister just kicked my brain upside down!" Azula didn't respond, but her scowl deepened, those cold gold eyes narrowing to angry slits while Sokka glowered right back, rubbing his new bruise and complaining "You know when normal people get tickled, they usually just laugh and roll around and curse some; they certainly don't start dealing out instant concussions."

"Whatever gave you the impression I am anything approaching, normal?" Azula spat as if the word itself tasted foul on her tongue "The muck I clean from under my fingernails holds more value to me than the worthless lives of commoners such as yourself; if anything you should be grateful little Water Savage, this was a cheap lesson, now maybe in future you'll remember to keep your filthy barbarian hands to yourself." She snarled and Sokka raised his hands in defensive placation.

"Ok, you hate being touched, that's fine; but maybe you should take some of your own advice too and stop kicking people, especially while their trying to nap; I swear you're as bad as my sister dropping cold water on me with her Waterbending every morning. I mean is a little empathy too much to ask?"

Azula's face told him how much she loved being compared to Katara, but then she gave him an evil grin "I may not be a Waterbender but I do have all the beautiful blue fire you could possibly need as a motivator."

"Yeah," Sokka drawled, jumping up with a calculatedly challenging expression "And I have an Avatar friend with all the Spiritbending your –beautiful blue fire- doesn't need for a de-motivator; so there." He poked his tongue out at her childishly, but seeing the unexpected hurt and fear in her now vacant golden eyes, Sokka instantly felt rotten; of course Azula knew Aang could spirit away her bending at a whim, he didn't need to rub her nose in it "Sorry; I-I didn't mean it like..."

"Don't apologize peasant, it's a sign of weakness;" She admonished feebly, her dejection startling him "You said what you had to say to win, I don't resent you for exploiting the only real advantage you have over me, I only resent that your threat itself carries the full weight of consequences it implies," She had a glazed hollow look in her eyes which she tried to hide by staring at the floor, then she took a breath and reestablished eye contact "Never be sorry for having the strength and resolve to take victory however you must; your threat was well played; just : just don't abuse it." She whispered either in warning or entreaty, looking more fragile than ever he'd seen her.

Speechless, Sokka could only nod, thinking, Wow, that was an uncharacteristically human admission, honest even. The Loony-Bin's influence? Has to be; the old Azula would've deep-roasted him till he resembled a soggy walking carpet of hairy red blisters for his insolence. Oh she still spoke with the old Azula's icy logic and ruthlessness, but now he detected a timidness in her that didn't keep with her usual persona; if anything this Azula was even scarier. What the heck had they done to her in there?

Wordlessly, Azula resumed sorting her gear into her pack with an exaggerated concentration Sokka assumed was meant to hide the embarrassment flushing her cheeks red. She'd shown emotion, something she likely wasn't used to doing, especially considering the disastrous revelation of her mother's new life and her rejection from it. Sokka began to see this girl in a new light, there was more to her than just the psychotic Firebender and cold hearted princess, a normal girl was hidden in there, somewhere in that new hunting outfit. What, was she wearing?

Sokka rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked again; he'd expected Azula to don her usual princessly armor like he was his own Water Tribe Blues, but he'd assumed wrong. Azula cut a strikingly intimidating yet attractive figure; Sokka couldn't stop gawking. She wore a long sleeved hunter's shirt and pants, both dark Dai-Li green with black fingerless gloves. He also noted the belt around her waist boasting pockets and buttoned pouches and the weapon straps of black leather crisscrossing her chest bristling with all manner of knives, complimenting the other black weapon bands encircling her thighs which matched seamlessly with the black knee-high steel-capped tracking boots she was just now pulling on, boots with their own weapons sheaths.

Overall a decidedly male outfit, dramatic, versatile, intimidating, yet somehow it didn't at all detract from her curvaceous figure; not so tight fitting as to restrict movement, but enough to accentuate her lethal beauty, especially with her hair down, and the knives just multiplied the effect, though what a Firebender of her callabre needed with those knives he wasn't sure. Even so, Sokka couldn't help feeling the ensemble ill-suited her; perhaps he was merely accustomed to seeing her in her Fire Nation armor, but whatever the case it was clear she'd spared no expense outfitting herself today, and looked good besides.

"Eww, what are you doing Sokka? This is Azula you realize? Quit ogling the murderous Firebending Princess" He scolded himself "You're just missing Suki, that's all, yeah, just think pro-Suki thoughts." He chanted "Think Pro-Suki thoughts, Think Pro-Suki thoughts, Think Pro-Suki thoughts...yeah, that's the stuff."

Azula just shook her head at his ogling and attempts to cease said ogling, both amused and irritated "Hurry up and get dressed, then start packing, and make sure everything's accounted for, I don't want to waste half the day hiking only to discover you've forgotten some essential bit of kit;" She commanded "incompetence is one thing I cannot tolerate in anyone, on any level. Is that understood?"

"Yeah-yeah," Sokka waved, not really listening as he riffled hiss belongings on the floor.

Azula glared at his back "Well see to it then, triple check everything if you must, just do it right, then head downstairs and order yourself some breakfast otherwise you'll be whining about your empty stomach all day; I'll meet you in the taproom when I'm done, so eat quickly." She lectured, shouldering her pack and walking to the door.

"And where are you going?" Sokka asked over his shoulder, still trying to fit his unadorned camouflage net into his pack with one hand while massaging his throbbing head with the other.

"For additional supplies," She answered bluntly "There's a market store just across the way, I'll see to acquiring us some additional rations there since our loving siblings didn't leave us nearly enough to get by on."

"K, just go easy on the price range with mine," He replied distractedly, pausing briefly to dig around his pockets for his money pouch "I don't have as much coinage as Your Royal Highness."

"Nevermind the cost, these I shall pay for from my own pocket; I will not be blamed because you starved yourself to death on an insufficient budget."

"Yeah, well unlike you Azula, us –peasant folk- don't have gold falling out our..." Suddenly realizing she was doing him a kindness, Sokka clamped down on his annoyance "Uh sorry; thanks, I think..." Azula nodded, turned and moved off "Oh, and pick up some meat rations too; saves us a day's hunting." He called after.

Azula looked back, scowled "You get what you get, and don't concern yourself with hunting animals, we'll be hunting more challenging game; and besides, you'll be the one cooking anyway." Azula declared, lips quirked smugly.

"Me? Why do I have to cook? You're the gir..." Seeing Azula's raised eyebrow and widening smirk, Sokka wisely shut his mouth before delivering the final syllable that would seal his fate forever "I'm not your servant boy." He grumbled instead.

"No," She replied shortly "You're too incompetent for that job; a point in your favor as it happens; the dumber people seem, the less other's ask of them, a technique I see you yourself have mastered and implemented to avoid unwanted responsibilities."

Sokka grinned sheepishly "Huh, you're the first person to ever catch me out on that one; never thought anyone would see past all the excuses." He murmured "Rats, guess this means I've actually gotta pull my weight now."

"Yes, it does, so don't waste your time with those silly fronts, they won't work on me."

Sokka shrugged "Hay, apathy kills people; you won't get an argument from me there, but there's nothing wrong with cutting a few corners to make life easier either."

Azula frowned but her face softened slightly "Don't misunderstand me, I'm as averse to wasting energy on frivolous tasks as you are, however I'm not your gullible sister peasant, nor am I as feeble minded as Zuko; you may perceive me as a spoiled child, but understand this, I never -cut corners-, and neither, will you;" She warned, amending "I can carry my own weight and see to my share of the work; so provided you operate on an equal basis, we'll get along –famously-." She lied.

Sokka doubted Azula would ever consider him her equal in any sense of the word, but that new respect he held for this crazy girl kept growing; she was cold but efficient, he could admire that. So he nodded and got back to packing, hearing the door click closed as she left. Maybe this trip wouldn't be so bad after all "Careful Sokka, she may have mellowed some, but that don't make her trustworthy by any stretch..."

Sokka tisked and closed his bag without triple or even double checking like miss know it all instructed; unlike her, he didn't need to be obsessively retentive with preparations, he was too good an adventurer for such nonsense and didn't appreciate her condescending lectures. How dare she question his competency? Well he'd show her. Sokka hoicked his pack off the unmade bed over his shoulder while straightening the covers with his free hand. For a girl obsessed with cleanliness, Azula was still very much the princess expecting others to tend her chores, like making the bed; but then he supposed that's what the inn-maid is paid to do anyway.

Sokka left, closing the door behind him then heading to and down the creaking spiral staircase to the first floor, nearly tripping and breaking his neck more than once under the weight of his pack before reaching the taproom and approaching the counter to be greeted by the same curly brown haired scoundrel from yesterday who'd thought he was doing Sokka a favor lying about there being only one room for rent so he could bunk with Azula. Sokka and his aching spine weren't particularly grateful for the sentiment and the barkeep picked up on it.

"That bad huh?" He murmured.

"She made me sleep on the floor. What do you think?" Sokka grumbled sullenly, but the apologetic look the guy offered dulled his anger somewhat and he just asked "You got any bacon or anything cooken back there? I'm pretty hungry."

"Yeah, we can whip some up. Want eggs and toast with em? Got some marinated mushrooms too if you want."

"Yeah eggs on toast sounds great to me, though I'll pass on the mushrooms;" Sokka answered politely, he didn't know why but ever since his stint in the desert he had been inexplicably distrustful of mushrooms; then he grimaced, remembering his partner's tyrannical impatience "Oh and, um, while I'd never normally rush the perfection of food, I've kind of, got to eat quickly." He mumbled, shuffling awkwardly.

The barkeep gave him a quizzical look, then understood "Ah, so the She-Beast's coming back then?" Sokka nodded tiredly, appreciating the man's sympathetic smile "Don't worry pal, I'll tell the cook to double time it, he's excellent at his job so the food will still taste good." Curly Hair tallied up the cost, paused thoughtfully, then said "Look, to make up for the, uh, room mix-up yesterday, breakfast is on the house, just a misunderstanding you know, nothing the boss need hear about."

"Thanks."

"Hey, no problem, besides, I overcharged your –not girlfriend- for her breakfast anyway;" The guy grinned roguishly "A little payback for all those names she called me yesterday."

"D-d-don't say that so loud, she might hear." Sokka hissed through his teeth, scanning the taproom anxiously even though Azula was shopping over the street.

"Yeah good point, she is kinda scary ain't she?" The barkeep admitted in a whisper, also glancing about warily.

"Your preaching to the fat singing quire conductor guy." They both laughed nervously and parted, he to relay instructions to the cook and Sokka to find a table.

Sitting, Sokka wasted the proceeding minutes wait gazing about the relatively unoccupied taproom, an old warrior's song he and a long lost childhood friend used to sing as kids looping about in his head, an exiled friend, wrongly accused and dearly missed by Sokka and Sokka alone. The sad memory drew his hand to his chest to touch the broken half of an old boomerang hanging on a necklace hidden under his shirt, idly wondering if his friend still possessed the other half, they had, after all, been like brothers...once.

The taproom was nice and quiet this morning, hardly anybody was awake yet, the shutters were open to let in the gentle morning light and fresh country breeze that coalesced into a relaxed ambience. The same barkeep placed his breakfast before him minutes later, Sokka thanked the man and got stuck into both the food and contemplation of how the day might play out.

Azula returned when he was about half done eating, she handed him his share of the rations which Sokka placed carefully in the special pocket of his pack reserved for dry foods. She sat down, patiently waiting for him to finish his breakfast; he could see her face scrunch up in revulsion at his wolfish table manners and insistence on savoring every bite.

"I'd tell you to eat faster but I fear the resulting carnage of haste pressuring your already piggish gluttony. Is dining with a modicum of decorum really such a handicap with you people?"

Sokka glanced up, grinning with egg yolk dribbling off his chin "The ancient art of food appreciation and consumption is a sacred practice one should –never- rush, so I'll thank you not to disrespect the divine process;" Sokka admonished, pompously mimicking her uncle's wise old man tone to irritate her "Plus my head's pounding so bad thanks to you that I couldn't eat any faster if I wanted to."

"If you weren't so lazy waking up this morning you wouldn't be having either of these problems, idiot; oh and for the record, the head trauma was your own fault"

He couldn't argue her logic on the latter, but the former "Well maybe if you'd taken the hard floor and let me have the bed I wouldn't be suffering right now, I mean just look at this splinter I got." He held up his hand, indicating the culprit buried in the side of his thumb "It's huge."

Azula tutted "Let me see," She said, snatching his hand before he could pull away and using her log sharp nails to pluck the splinter out with quick merciless precision.

"Yow!" Sokka yelped, making the bar tender and two nearby patrons jump; he stuck his thumb in his mouth and in a word Azula accurately summed up how he must've looked.

"Baby." She chided and he glowered at her over his hand "Crying over a splinter, it's not even bleeding."

"How would you know?!"

"Because I'm the one who removed it; check." She ordered, and he did, surprised to see the only broken skin was where the splinter had resided "I'll take your stupefaction as a thank you."

"Yeah, thanks; though a little warning would be nice next time." Sokka complained.

Azula ignored him and said "I suggest you eat faster, your sloth has already placed us an hour behind schedule, we're losing the morning."

"It's only seven in the morning," Sokka argued "There's plenty of time, and it may shock you to hear this, but I didn't even know there was such a thing as seven in the morning before twenty minutes ago." Azula just made an exasperated noise, mumbling about incompetent underlings never ceasing to plague her life.

Sokka was still too disoriented to bother taking offense, though he was still mad at her for kicking him in the head. Couldn't this girl take a harmless prank? It felt like a band of drunken drummers were having a tribal dance party in his skull and he briefly wondered how they'd gotten in there before shaking the delusion, thinking it best to eat the rest of his bacon then discard the fork he was holding before the urge to jam it in Azula's eye grew too appealing "What did you expect moron, trying to tickle the scariest Princess who ever lived; not your finest moment." Sokka mentally scolded himself, but aloud he merely grumbled "I am not a morning person."

"I noticed." Azula stated dryly.

They sat in silence for the next few minutes until Sokka licked the greasy dish clean, then they made a prompt exit before Azula electrocuted the grouchy old farmer in the corner for giving her the stink-eye; man these people didn't like her "Gee, I wonder why?"

---

(Jin-Sing Streetside of the Churl March Inn: Early-Mid Morning,)

Outside in the cool morning air, the streets gradually took on life, it was the beginning of another routine Jin-Sing work day from most, and while the term –routine- couldn't be applied to the unlikely bounty hunting duo who stood the cobbled path fronting the inn, they certainly had a hard couple of days work ahead of them; yet all they did right then was heckle and harass oneanother, mostly out of habit.

"Well; where shall we start oh great and mighty hunter?" Azula prodded, teasing.

"Me, I thought you were supposed to be the Fire Nations master huntress?"

"Master huntress of Avatars and rebellious rabble-rousers perhaps, but I'm more intrigued as to these godly warrior's instincts your so fond of bragging about, so, lead the way." She gestured "Show this poorly educated princess where to start."

She was trying to make him embarrass himself, well that wasn't going to happen, and there was only one guy who could help him "Hmm, this conundrum is a bit too tough for Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe; oh yeah, this sounds like a case for...DETECTIVE SOKKA!" He exclaimed, fist in the air, a ridiculous looking dark blue hat materializing atop his head. The hideous monstrosity even had an attatched adjustable monocle-magnifying glass hybrid that hung over his eye and squeaked as the idiot experimentally extended and retracted it with an eggadorated frown of professional determination "Fret not my dear apprentice! Compared to The Avatar Day case, solving this bandit related mystery will be a breeze. Let the sleuthing commenceth! COME!"

Azula paled, self-conscious of being seen with this buffoon. Where had the hat and magnifier come from anyway? Azula got the feeling he'd been planning this idiotic roleplaying skit for a while now, waiting for the right moment to bellow that awful line, and luck, that capricious whore had cruelly designated her the sole audience of this madman's lunacy "Whatever did I do to deserve this?" She moaned despairingly, mercifully unheard as the fool sauntered off whistling a merry tune.

Numbly Azula followed him on the short walk to the town gate, keeping a dissociative distance from him as the fool constantly peered at everything and everyone they passed through that stupid magnifier, always making the same idiotic "Ah-huh." noise as if gathering vital clues from all he examined. Azula had just made the decision to kill the imbecile and end her public torment when he briefly paused at the bounty board, scratched his head in confusion, then recalled he'd pointlessly stolen the poster so no other bounty hunters would poach they're game "Hehe, clever me." He chuckled, dialing down the detective nonsense much to Azula's relief, though she swore to burn that ugly hat of his first chance she got.

"I trust you still possess that bounty poster, I wish to examine it...Now peasant!" She snapped when he didn't respond, annoyed at herself for not having studied it yesterday to learn exactly who they were going up against; she had to reestablish her old mindset as this sloppy inattention to detail was just unacceptable.

Wordlessly Sokka withdrew the furled parchment from his shirt and handed it to her so she could study the sketch and accompanying information, both limited in their usefulness. Finished, Azula handed the poster back as they passed out of town and Sokka wasn't sure he liked the glint of excited malice he saw in her eyes "Phew, glad I'm not Bogar; poor guy." Indeed, since finding her mother, Azula had shown little inclination to do anything, but now the Fire Princess was back and rearing to fight "Poor, poor Bogar."

They walked the rocky dirt pavement out of town which snaked between fields of yellowing autumn grass, leaves of similar hues fluttering and rustling all about them on the wings of a gentle breeze. In the radiant morning sunlight the scene was beautiful, worthy of an artist's brush. Sokka was so mesmerized it took him nearly a minute to notice Azula giving him a sidelong glance so drawn out that he immediately started fidgeting, uncomfortable under her scrutiny.

"What?" He demanded.

"That's what I was about to ask."

"Huh?" He mumbled, confused.

"As in; what, no compliments or adoration for my new hunting Outfit? I spent a lot of time and silver selecting these garments. Is a little positive input really so much to ask?"

"Why would you care what I think? Or have the opinions of –savages- suddenly become important to you?"

"Don't get snippy, I only asked for your opinion, on a strictly professional basis of course; though considering the looks you were sending my way earlier, the outfit must already have won your approval." She teased "Am I right?"

Blushing, Sokka looked away and kicked a clod of dirt as he shuffled along, inwardly cursing her incessant need to torment him "Yeah, its ok I guess." He muttered and Azula feigned an exasperated sigh.

"Really peasant, you do know how to treat a lady."

"PAH! Some lady!" Sokka snorted before he could stop himself; he tensed, expecting to be reduced to his base components in a deluge of superheated azure flames, but to his surprise Azula just gave him a comradely punch to the bicep, a hard yet playful punch that made his arm go all tingly, it was just like being with Toph, she enjoyed giving him dead arms too.

"Flatterer." Azula laughed.

"Did she just laugh like, like normal people? Alright, who is this girl and what has she done with the real Azula?" Sokka thought, then it hit him "Oh, now I get it, Zuko had her cloned; yeah, that's gotta be it, the real Azula's still tied up in the loony-bin and this Azula is some freaky mutant copycat lady from the Blue Lagoon...oh no, she's staring at you again, quick, say something clever, don't let her know you know."

"You look like you've just unlocked the secrets of the universe, and they weren't what you expected." Azula probed, eyes piercingly intense "Care to share?"

"Oh crap, she's getting suspicious, distract her." Gathering the full power of his razor edged intellect, Sokka replied with "Uh...nope, sorry, no super-secret plots unraveled here; just hungry." He smiled "Swish."

Azula frowned "But, you just ate;" She shook her head, exasperated "Honestly, I'm starting to wonder what goes on in that coconut head of yours; here I am making a special effort to ease your discomfort around me with some intelligent lighthearted banter, learning to get along with -normal people- as my sweet benevolent brother instructed, and this is how you repay me?"

Was that true he wondered? Was her current polite sociable attitude Azula's attempt to hold up a normal conversation free of malice and threats, or at least using him to practice that normalcy? It's what Zuko says they were trying to drill into her at the nuthouse, proper human values. That's good isn't it? Still, Sokka honestly preferred the old Azula; at least he knew where he stood with her whereas this new unpredictable Azula was freaking him out. So far she'd kicked him in the head, complimented him for threatening her with Aang's Spiritbending, paid for his rations from her own pocket and now she's, just...

"Your messing with my head, aren't you?"

"Yes I am." Azula confirmed cordially, grinning a cocky grin as she strode on ahead, leaving behind a very confused Sokka.

"Bitch." He grumbled then ran to catch up.

Sokka leading again, they crossed the grassy fields to the edge of the woodland's lining the western boarders of town and outlying farmlands where beyond Bogar The Bandit was rumored to hide in wait to ambush travelers. Sokka meandered along the tree-line for five minutes, eyes scouting, studying, until...

"Ah-Ha!" He halted with an exclamation, crouching and fiddling with his magnifier "A footprint, and look; its direction says the walker was leaving the woods." Sokka examined the mud imprint through his trusty magnifier while repositioning his slipping detective's hat on with his other hand.

Amused, Azula shuffled closer, her shadow falling over him as she glanced over his shoulder "This is your great start to a successful bounty hunting career, playing in mud? Do you even know what you're looking at?"

"Why yes, it's a boot-print, I can tell cause it's shaped like a boot." He simpered in childish sing-song condescension.

"An anonymous boot-print," Azula corrected "As in imprinted by an indeterminate owner; a forester, a farmer perhaps, we know nothing of this area, its inhabitants or this bandit's favored apparel. So unless you have developed some sixth sense for identifying a party's name, mind, spirit and location merely through examination of their various engendered leavings..."

Sokka scoffed, sarky retort coiled on tongue "Well I did take a few clairvoyancy classes from an accomplished cloud reading fortune teller; footprint interpretation was one of them."

"Really?" She drawled, just as sarky.

"No...Now do you mind, your sunlight's blocking my shadow...Uh-no, I mean-de...j-j-just go sit over there and quit hassling the expert while he does his magic."

Azula guffawed, rolling her eyes as she sat astride a nearby rock cluster, not because he told her to but because her legs needed a rest, not having gotten much exercise in the Asylum she was still out of shape.

Oddly the topic of footprints started Azula reflecting on her old childhood lessons with Fire Nation Special Forces. She leaned forward, her chin resting in cupped hands, musing aloud "The print, its Earth Kingdom Military, standard issue infantry, reinforced sole, it's a distinctive pattern even distorted in mud." She recited from memory, knowing the military procedures, counter measures, budgeting and intelligence networks of both Northern Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom by heart through relentless study.

"Yeah," Sokka agreed, as group scout back during the war he'd learned to identify what signs soldiers had passed through an area by the distinctively patterned bootprints and garbage they left behind and said as much to Azula "I've seen boots like that back in the war, and also when we went shoe shopping for Toph."

"Why in the world would the blind girl need to go shoe shopping?" Azula blurted, having studied the Earthbender's strengths and shortcomings like with any enemy.

"Meh, no reason, we were board one day so we decided to start messing with the salesmen guys in different shops; you should have seen their faces when we asked if we could cut the soles off so she could try them out, I swear this one lady nearly fainted." He laughed and Azula rolled her eyes but hid an amused smile, having enjoyed messing with people similarly herself, give or take some malice.

Further examination of the immediate area revealed nothing and poor Sokka's detective persona deflated under Azula's humorless judgmental gaze and he got serious about things, ditching the childish shenanigans. Putting his years of actual experience to work he did a proper examination of the treeline and further in around the area of the footprint. He did find a small few signs that someone had exited and entered the woods, but the trail was days old and his instincts told him that if it really was the bandit, he'd also have at leat some experience covering his trail, hell this could even be one of a few dummy trail to mislead those looking to bring him in.

Azula herself was slightly less adept at this sort of thing than him, though she pretended otherwise. Even so, she agreed they'd find little else in this area, especially with no recent sign of an attack here. If the bandit had been here, he was probably just scouting, or leaving dummy trails like Sokka opined, or, hell, just taking a stroll. The print being from a military boot was a start but it didn't tell hem much either. They spent a few minutes throwing around some theories and educated guesses about where to look next.

Navigating the woodlands would be relatively simple, they stretched vast lengths along and beyond Jin-Sing's western reaches but were only kilometer or so thick between town and the Krovine Slopes, those slopes were the real problem, too many hiding places, one glance over the treetops told them as much; plus charging into the woods short a map and a plan would be plain idiotic Azula pointed out.

Finally Sokka conceded the poster didn't provide nearly enough information; Azula surmised it's likely why the bounty was so old. Sokka suggested they head back into town for some information gathering, like where the bandit was last sighted, and reluctantly, Azula agreed, opining they should also gather more personal info about Bogar to root out exploitable weaknesses; Sokka concurred, though he rolled his eyes at her methods "Same old Azula." He mused as they crossed the field and took the road back.

Sokka insisted he do all the talking since nobody here trusted Azula "All I'm saying is you can be a bit, scary." He explained defensively when he really meant "If you value your freedom you're not allowed to bully people into compliance anymore." Yeah, spineless, but Azula caught the unspoken message and shot him a nasty look before nodding her agreement, knowing that, without fear the tool, she hadn't the social capacity to show courtesy to peons she considered beneath her.

---

(Jin-Sing, mid-late morning)

Inquiring with the townspeople proved a mistake, oh they were friendly enough, but they were also simple folk with short attention spans. Instead of offering the information they sought, one old lady who owned a bakery constantly talked their ears off about the sacred art of baking Marble Sweet-Cakes, a subject Sokka, food lover that he is, listened to with rapt attention, even taking notes he only half finished before Azula forcibly dragged him out of the bakery with the old woman tottering after them with Sokka's recipe notes which she'd hastily completed and handed over to him with a free marble sweet-cake to boot. He thanked her while Azula huffed impatiently, though it amused her seeing Sokka's chagrin over discovering the senile old baker's hurried handwriting was more legible than his own careful script.

After that bit of nonsense, Azula insisted they actually seek out someone in charge, like the Militia Captain, or the jail warden. Sokka had considered that and agreed they might at least glean a little more insight, but he doubted it'd be much more than was on the poster which the Melitia Captain himself may well have order put up. Azula shared his doubts but also pointed out it'd be a better alternative to asking the average townsfolk who knew little outside of the town walls. Sokka couldn't argue the point, the baker and other they'd spoken to knew nothing and he lamented there being no recent living victims of their target to interview. But they'd both nurtured past successes from less than they had now and weren't at all discouraged.

So in search of the Militia Captain and Warden they went, both of whom were conveniently stationed in the headquarters neighboring the surprisingly large town lockup.

A twenty minute dialogue with Militia Captain Vaize gleaned only minor helpful tidbits about the area and the timing of Bogar's machinations. Still, Vaize was a decent guy, helpful, polite, proper, even unintentionally funny at times unlike the warden, a fat little man named Craiza, who aside from being a greedy, ill-mannered pig-hog, was absolutely useless.

Little was deduced about Bogar on a personal level either, apparently Bogar wasn't even his real name, just one of those silly titles townsfolk typically use to humanize the intimidating anonymity of the villains haunting the peripheral shadows of daily life through application, a coping tactic the weak and mentally fragile employ to denigrate unfamiliar monsters Azula calls it, but to Sokka the title's merely an identification method used to archive recurring nameless criminals.

Regardless; Bogar's predations stretched back months, and what little that passed for authority in Jin-Sing, being the Militia, had failed repeatedly to track the bandit, and anyone who presumably befell success was never heard from again. According to some of the townspeople and the Militia Captain, Bogar limited most of his banditry to the three main roads branching in and out of the settlement. Sokka and Azula had just returned from Jin-Sing's northern road, but there were two other roads forking out the southern gate.

It didn't take long for Sokka and Azula's experienced eyes to determine the attack patterns on a map of the countryside, fast discovering a sort of twisted textbook militant triangular grid reference to Bogar's three main ambush zones, two of which were equidistant on a diagonal trajectory with a superbly serviceable lookout point which had full spyglass range visibility of said zones where the tree-line was lower and didn't obscure view of the roads. The lookout was a seemingly innocuous rock spire sitting a ledge about a third of the way up the greater bulk of the slopes which loomed imposingly over the woods footing them; from there Bogar could watch, wait, and once a target was sighted it would be a small matter for him to use his supposedly formidable Earthbending and knowledge of the terrain to rock-sled down the slopes then take the quickest pre-designated rout through the woods in quick Earthbender fashion to each ambush zone in time to rob his unwary victims.

Sokka and Azula confirmed this by further investigating the areas from a distance, making sure not to actually enter the line of visibility and tip off Bogar that hunters were stalking his trail. If anything Aang's visit yesterday would have the bandit keeping his head down; Appa isn't exactly inconspicuous and it's worldly fact The Avatar rides a flying bison, plus it's almost certain Bogar would've been watching yesterday, it's how he makes his living after all. Because really, what else is there for him to do up there anyway?

As to the second southern road which veered sharply west a mile or so along, they theorized it wasn't wholly visible or swiftly reachable from the sloaps. There had been confirmed sightings of a dirty bearded ruffian skulking about there, but attacks on that road were rare and yielded little success as only commoners from the farming colonies traveled that rout and offered Bogar little in the way of worthwhile booty.

Sokka surmised that Bogar was merely being an optimistic little brigand stalking that road in quieter times when wealthier victims were scarce, but Azula half agreed, but also argued that Bogar struck her as being more intuitive than some simple dirt farmer. Sokka had one of his enlightened moments and, expanding on his preivous theory of dummy trails, proposed that Bogar might be staging occasional ambushes on the third road to scramble the rational bearings of capable hunters like themselves to keep said hunters from reaching the very conclusion she and Sokka had with the initial two roads being in correlation with that lookout on the slopes backing the woods. Seeding doubt and possible discord among his pursuers. Azula pondered it, nodded, calling it a textbook diversionary tactic, thus hinting at Bogar's possible military background. They both tossed some similar, functional variants of Bogar's stratagy bakc and forth but were ultimatally on the same page.

After some consideration, and given the repute of Bogar's Earthbending skills and his wild merciless nature, Azula did her creepy psychological analysis stuff she was so good and deduced that based on what they knew, little as it was, they may be dealing with a potentially traumatized war born man, though to speculate further about what drove him would be premature. If her deduction was at all accurate, this Bogar was nothing either of them hadn't already faced a dozen times before. Still, being the boot print's connection to the Earth Kingdom was one of the cornerstones of their estimations, Azula naturally couldn't resist teasing.

"Unbelievable, you might have actually stumbled onto something here peasant; seems those footprint interpretation classes are paying off."

"Never, doubt, The Detective." He shot back in a playfully grave tone and an absurdly mock-serious scowl.

Since what passed for law enforcement here weren't apt tacticians, it wasn't a surprise they'd not figured out the simple relation between the bandit haunt on the slopes and the two main roads in and out of town, but it was surprising the guards didn't at least suspect there was a lookout post somewhere, enabling them to stage a fake convoy for Bogar to target. Or perhaps they'd already tried and were too ashamed to admit Bogar was clever enough to see through the roués.

Even so, Sokka proposed he and Azula set up a similar ambush, but Azula disagreed, stating there was no guarantee Bogar would bother rushing to rob two insignificant, wagonless travelers, and even if he did take the bait, either he'd smell something fishy or he'd attack and the town militia would surely intervene to simultaneously settle their grudge against Bogar and steal the credit for his capture, thereby defeating the point of the bounty hunt. No, if they wanted Bogar, they'd have to go get him themselves, that way they needn't worry about the militia interfering, they'd already lost several Militiamen trying to catch Bogar in the baron rocky highlands he's called home for months, and Azula surmised they'd be too cowardly to try again.

With the bounty semantics settled, Azula demanded a map of the woodlands from the Militia captain, the kind of map local hunters of foresters might have sketched up; Captain Vaize didn't appreciate her attitude, let alone her mere presence, but he dug up an old copy, saying it was a year or so outdated as nobody dares the woods now with all the Bogar related murders, but that didn't matter, the map was good enough and they departed Militia headquarters slightly better prepared and, informed.

...

(Jin-Sing, local tea & brunch shop, an hour past midday.)

After mapping there stealthy approach to Bogar's most likely hideout, they now sat outside a local teashop nursing a steaming cup each while waiting for their ordered lunches to be served, after all, one last civilized indulgence before roughing it for a day in the woods wouldn't hurt. Still, compared to Iroh's exquisite product, this blend was flavorless enough to flatten their taste-buds, but neither complained. Why bother? The sky was clear, the breeze cool and the sun pleasantly warm as it ascended towards its midday throne; so contented, they drank in companionable silence; until Azula broke it.

"I've a curiosity peasant, one that has occupied my thoughts the past couple of days."

"Curiosity huh," Sokka drawled "You sure it's not jealousy over my winning personality?"

"No, definitely not that."

"Aww." He moaned, disappointed.

"Tell me, where is that extravagant black sword of yours? I haven't seen it with you this whole trip."

"I, uh," He looked away, sad features downcast "I lost it in the final airship battle during the comet."

"So you aren't certain what became of it?"

"Why? What's it to you?"

"You could say I have a fondness for fine swords, and that blade of yours is a masterwork in craftsmanship matched only by Master Piandao himself, perhaps even better; I ask only because if I were to lose such a blade, I'd be as ashamed as you now look."

"Maybe; but at the time I was forced to choose, save the blade, or save Toph… I chose and I stand by my decision."

"Yes, the Wrong decision." Azula muttered.

"Pfft, what would you know? You don't even have any friends left to save, so your opinion doesn't exactly count for much now does it." He should have felt bad for saying it, but he didn't, if anything her lack of emotional reaction to his comment only irked him more.

"It should, I offer it from firsthand experience, and I'm telling you you'd have been wiser to save the sword, at least it will never betray you as Mai and Ty Lee did me."

"That's not how I heard it; the way they told it, you turned on them and they did what only best friends do, they stood up for eachother, Zuko too, and by extension everyone else in that cable-car you were about to send into that boiling water, including poor old me I might add."

Azula merely shook her head disapprovingly, repeating "You should have kept the sword; friendship is blindness to treachery, it is vulnerability second only to love."

"Says you, but I say Space Sword has a way better chance of surviving a fall from that height than Toph, no matter how good an Earthbender she is, and her life means way more to me than Space Sword does. Besides by then the Airship Slice was already in effect and I was too busy holding Toph with one hand and fighting of supercharged Firebenders with the other to catch it."

"Airship Slice?" Azula asked, leaning back and crossing one leg over the other, the curiosity in her amber gaze disconcerting him slightly.

"Wait, Zuko didn't tell you about the Airship Slice?"

"Zuko and I haven't exactly been on a terribly –communicative- basis of late, save for trading insults; so come on, out with it. What is this Airship Slice you speak of?" She pressed and Sokka couldn't resist slouching in his chair with a cocky grin, boastfully answering.

"Only my greatest display of genius and ingenuity, EVER!"

"Oh mercy, the suspense is –killing- me." Azula sighed only half sarcastically; so he put her out of her professed misery and rehashed a dramatic telling of his heroic scheme that saved the whole Earth Kingdom, and while Azula disdained his irrepressible pride at foiling her scorched earth plot, she had to concede the imagination of it "Hmm, I'll grant you that was quite inventive; crude and reckless, yes, suicidal, most definitely; but for a spur of the moment situation, the overall tactic was well executed and you accomplished what you set out to do; not that it's says much for your sense of self-preservation."

"Yeah, guess I was acting a bit crazy that day; the tension was so thick I was practically chewing on it." He chuckled, scratching his head awkwardly.

"Good for you, it didn't snap back in your face."

"Yep, it snapped back in your old man's instead." That one had them both laughing as Azula had about as much respect for her father now as his enemies did, probably less given the way he'd treated her as a weapon and not a daughter all those years. How had she not seen it earlier Sokka wondered, could it have been any more obvious?

They were getting strange looks from other tea-drinkers at nearby tables, but Azula cowed them with glowering eyes of amber, Sokka tried to do the same but it was clear who was the more menacing, even Azula raised an eyebrow at his expression.

"What? This is my fierce face, it's not as good as yours but it's still pretty intimidating." Azula just rolled her eyes and shook her head, two gestures she'd already exhausted in this peasant's company; she was actually starting to worry all this repetitious eye-rolling and head shaking would inevitably do her grave injury.

"Incidentally, you should consider purchasing some green apparel; you're going to stand out like Ty Lee with a pimple in those hideous blue rags." Damn subject changes between them were jarring, Azula remained socially awkward and Sokka himself wasn't that much smoother. Guess they'd just have to get used to conversing with eachother, a prospect Azula seemed as averse to as Sokka felt.

"Hay, these –rags- happen to be my favorite outfit. And why bother anyway? If camouflage is what you're after then we should be wearing gray robes or something to blend into the rocky slopes, cause that's where Bogar's hiding ya know, not the woods."

"Perhaps, but we will be camping in the woods and it is well known this bandit regularly stalks those trees. We're the hunters remember, not him."

"Actually, if we make ourselves easy to see, it'll lure Bogar to us."

"Oh yes, very clever, gifting our enemy the element of surprise, absolutely ingenious peasant."

"Not if we know he's coming and we aren't obvious about it. I've been setting traps most of my life, first for animals, and then people. Just trust me."

"Oh trust me, I trust you as much as you trust me."

"There's no need to be sarcastic about it." Sokka grumbled, crossing his arms.

Azula laughed derogatively "Of all the things I never expected to hear you say, you, the self-crowned idiot king of sarcasm."

"I am merely humbled by your superior wit, my queen." He teased, bowing mockingly in his seat; Azula replied with a disgusted noise, making Sokka snicker and smirk "By which I mean go teach your granny to suck eggs."

"My grandmother's dead." She said ever so casually.

"Mines not, and she already knows how to suck eggs."

"Do you ever think before you speak?" Azula groaned, recoiled away from him, suitably horrified.

"Oh come on. Egg sucking is a perfectly normal part of cooking egg-n-meat sticks. What did you think I was talking about?" Shokka grinned evilly and in the face of her utter speechlessness he went on to explain between snickers at his carefully selected words "See, you boil the eggs and peel away the shells, but before inserting the meat stick, you've gotta suck . . . "

"If you do not desist in this grotesque, poorly disguised attempt at degenerate innuendo this instant, I will . . ."

"I'm doing nothing of the sort." Sokka insisted, feigning offense over his poorly concealed mirth"This is very educational, nay, life saving!" Sokka raised a finger like n elderly lecturer "A poor education in cooking can bring about catastrophic, even fatal results." His enthusiastic teacherly voice.

"I already know how to cook. It was a tedious and mandatory subject for all second years at Fire Nation's The Academy For Girls." She proclaimed with a peculiar sense of pride despite having denoted the subject as tedious.

Sokka breathed out of his nose and puffed up his cheeks, an expression that turned his smile demented as she spoke, then he gasped, wrung his hands together and in his squeakiest, squirmiest Ty Lee imitation, gushed "The Fire Princess can cook WITHOUT, burning the food. Awww, that's, just, PRECIOUS!"

Their insane banter continued until the waitress deposited their delightful smelling meals on the table where it took a twenty minute hiatus while they ate with gusto, the food being too damn good to spoil with neutrally hostile repartee; Sokka didn't even burp this time by urgent insistence of his bruised shin. But of course once the food was gone they were back at it again, all through the tea drinking then on from the café right out of town.

" . . . Still don't trust you." Azula quietly chirped in the same sing song voice he'd sung those very same words to her yesterday afternoon,

In reply Sokka began to slow clap his hands "Oh; and she brought it back! Touche Princess, touche."

She offered him a shallow, mocking bow and a politic smile in response.

The treeline was where their antics concluded. From that point on, it was all business; well, mostly.

---

(Jin-Sing, outer woodlands, two hour past midday.)

Since the roads in and out of town were too visible from the slopes, they took the least visible rout, which basically meant cutting through several residential backyards and shimmying up onto the town walls to jump down among the clustered trees, Azula landing nimbly unlike Sokka who landed on his butt, Azula ridiculed him for it, Sokka pouted then they set off.

"Uh, you're not wearing any perfume or soapy shampooy stuff are you?" sokka asked, not smelling any but wanting to be sure "Cause I heard stealth in forests isn't possible while smelling like strawberries in a puke puddle. You know? Disturbs the wildlife and alerts the enemy."

"Eloquently put peasant," Azula praised wryly "And yes, it's stone solid fact that if one wishes to navigate a habitat undetected, one must embrace the habitat, hence adopting its natural odors to camouflage, that's why I bathed without soap last night instead of this morning." She spared him a critical glance "What about you? Shampooed your ponytail recently?" Azula needled, recalling Katara and Toph's teasing yesterday.

Sokka reddened, growling "It's a warriors -wolf-tail-; and nope, cept for last night I haven't bathed in days, I'm probably more earthly smelling than you." He stated, amused at her revulsion.

"If your definition of -earthly- is representative of an open sewer, then sure, you're as earthly as a weed sprouting from a mound of compost."

"Has anyone ever told you you're not a very nice person?"

"Why never;" Azula gasped, feigning hurt "If anything I'm a very loving, compassionate person, just ask me."

"I would if I wanted a purely biased endorsement of your non-existent benevolence."

"Bias is the only kind of endorsement there is, and self-endorsement is the only kind that's worth anything; if you want something, just take it, if people are smart they'll keep their complaint holes shut, and if they aren't," She shrugged "Then squash them."

Sokka found a billion things wrong with her statement but didn't reply, knowing by her superior smirk that arguing the point would be an exhaustive and fruitless endeavor, plus he had a niggling suspicion that her comment was purely hollow posturing, or so he hoped.

They pushed on without further discussion, an amicable truce settling between them...For about ten minutes.

"There are no words to describe what an incompetent boob you are!" Azula scolded after Sokka confessed to a –slight- packing error.

"Hehe, you said boob." He snickered, making Azula's scowl deepen."

"I mean really," She continued, ignoring his giggles "What kind of moron plans to go trekking through the wilderness and forgets his compass!"

"Hay, you try remembering stuff to do five seconds after you wake up, BEFORE THE BUTTCRACK OF DAWN!" He ranted.

Azula almost snapped back with another insult, but she paused in thought and her eyes narrowed at how unnaturally straight faced he was being. His little outburst came from a genuine place but veiled something else ". . . You didn't actually forget it."

"Nope." He grinned, pulling it out of his pocket and presented it,

He'd never actually forget his compass, even when it isn't required, and especially not this one which was a gift from his father. When she brought it up and saw him hesitate, Azula mistook it for the ineptitude she seemed to habitually expect from anyone who isn't her. So, vexed at her attitude, he played along; playing the fool was a talent of his, and the fun part wasn't being underestimated, nope, the fun part was always when he brought down the hammer of truth.

Azula pinched the bridge of her nose "Can you not take anything seriously? How old are you? Five? Its appalling that I have to quote your insufferable sister of all people but . . ." She faced him fully and jabbed a sharp nailed finger at him "Grow up!"

"Ah nag-nag-nag;" Sokka falsettoed, making a chatterbox sign with his hand as he turned to consult the map, mumbling "Sheesh, if this is anything like being married, I might just swear off women forever..."

Azula went deadly still, a terrible shadow settling behind her eyes urging old impulses so violent that resisting them physically hurt. Was this a joke to him? She didn't dare even breathe lest the slight shift in her composure unleash the roaring fiery beast within. Oh the things she could do to this snide, incompetent, insolent, hapless, brainless, careless, gluttonous, slimy, corpulent Water Tribe savage excrement eating puss-worm...Oooohhh-Agni the things she –could- do. If he just turned around, if he just looked in her eyes, he'd see the possibilities; he'd know…..oh Agni he –would- know.

Lucky for both of them Sokka didn't turn; oblivious to his mortal peril he just kept mumbling about possible routes, defensible campsites stationed in accordance to distances paralleling probable bandit haunts among the Crovine Slopes whereupon a trained sentry might spot trouble approaching from the woods below. He rambled just long enough for Azula to reign in her overwhelming desire to spill some primitive blood.

"Fair warning peasant, if you ever direct that chatterbox gesture my way again, I will rip your arm off and beat some manners into you with it, which would likely be an exercise in futility given your culturally circumscribed brain capacity, but I'd happily give it a try regardless." She proclaimed with a nasty lopsided grin and Sokka found no cause to doubt she would "In the meantime," Azula amended "Give me that map. I have a thought."

"Oh, uh, excellent. Yeah, good thinking Azula." Sokka babbled over his words, something about her warning reminded him of Katara when she got mad, only worse.

"You don't say." She replied dryly then made to unfold the map.

"I do say. No, actually, wait, I don't say." He forgot that he was still mad at her "You stay on point and I'll do the map reading. After all, navigation is a man's responsibility, which I am..." He knew that comment would annoy her, sexism always irritates Katara, but Azula has better self-control it seems, to Sokka's disappointment.

She pulled the map from reach, turning away to consult it "Oh no little Eskimo, this is -My- map. Use your own; oh wait, my mistake, seems you'll just have to find your own way." She smirked, addressing him as if he were a simpleton, and technically she had paid to loan the map, but still.

To her annoyance, Sokka wasn't so easily bated either "Oh really, and what would a prissy spoiled princess know about reading maps." He argued stupidly, the times she'd harried their group never registering in his bravado spewing mind "All that time being pampered and mollycoddled, having your pillow fluffed and wearing girly make up and lipstick..."

"Do you think so?" Azula asked slyly, lips quirked, her simmering rage succumbing to amusement "I'd have figured you'd be more sensitive to a woman's vanity, if there's any truth to the reports I read about your first visit to Kioshi Island." Azula let out a deranged little giggle at the stupid, pale, slack-jawed expression that suddenly froze on the peasant's idiot face "Did you really wear that ridiculous face paint?" She needled.

Sokka flushed, stuttered "Who told you...but...yeah...well, you wore it too!" He deflected, hands on hips, finding the art of forming intelligible words very difficult right then.

"Indeed, but I adopted the costume to conquer a city, whereas you were probably just sating some flaky cross-dressing fetish."

"Cross-dressing!?...Why, you!" Sokka growled throatily, his balled fists shaking and his face turning beat red with embarrassment and anger.

Azula guffawed, letting go her anger, it wasn't the peasant's fault he was born an idiot, that honorific goes to nature "Oh settle down, I promise the secret of your creepy fetish is safe with me;" She waggled her eyebrows at the fuming fool "And nevermind the map; seeing as this is you're first time hunting actual people . . . "

"I already told you that I've tracked people. Don't you listen?""

"Playing hide and seek doesn't count. But don't worry. I am a compassionate person. I will compensate for your shortcomings and forgive your cruel insults."

"Aw how SOOO gracious of you." He abashedly, sarcastically grumbled; ignored.

At this point he knew her she was just playing stupid games poking at his pride. He'd learned through Zuko that back when she was hunting them, she'd used The Fire Nation intelligence networks and her own talents for psycho-analyzing her prey to compile complete profiles on each member of team Avatar. The creepy part was that she'd written more notes on him than any other member except Aang himself, and for Aang it was much more basic, observations on powers and his pacifist nature, whereas for him, well, it got a bit unsettling to say the least. He could only deduce that since he was the strategist of the team, she considered him competition. Her research had certainly paid off in spades during the Day of Black Sun. He would make damn sure she never found out that he'd read those papers.

"But fine, I shall take your input into account, as well as any survival tips you may have, even if your every decision screams a lack thereof. After all, we're a team, partners, collaborative on equal terms remember."

Bait or not, that one irked Sokka big time "Hey, that is so untrue, you might have had all your fancy secret army training, but I was surviving nature, hunting and tracking and learning to boomerang things before you were born; can you boomerang things? No, you can't; and for your information, I was also the primary food gatherer for The Boomer-Aang squad."

"That's a terrible name; and yippee for you, but I've no doubt the professionals I learned from know much more about such matters than whatever meager knowledge your pitiful tribe has scrounged together."

Sokka sighed, suddenly indifferent to her childishness, she who had told him to grow up. He hadn't missed her earlier self-mocking use of the word –collaborative- either "Look, I'm sure you know plenty, but so do I, so let's just exercise a little professional curtasy, drop the cultural superiority crap and just, be this team your so fond of reminding me of us being. Equal terms, right?" He almost smirked, almost, but just shrugged, Azula huffed, evidently bored of her game and neither said anything more.

Sokka went back to minding his footing rather than contriving suitable jabs at his partner, they had to get along out here or else Bogar might get the drop on them while they distracted eachother with this nonsense. He adjusted his pack which was moderate in size but heavy even so; he'd never had this problem last year, peacetime tends to do that, impose stagnation. Crazy as it sounds, he agreed with Azula, conflict keeps the mind sharp and the body fit, a shamelessly selfish view perhaps, but no less true. Making a mental note to formulate a new exercise routine, Sokka shifted his pack again, grumbling "I miss Appa."

---

(Deep woodlands, approaching the foot slopes, Early sunset.)

The next hour was slow going, the terrain grew denser, rockier and bumpier than Sokka like while burdened with his pack; worse still, Azula refused to take a much quicker straight line trajectory to the lookout spire, insisting they get to know the terrain comparative to their outdated and increasingly inaccurate map by tediously zigzagging; he understood her logic, but would've preferred to just find and nab Bogar without the time consuming presedural stuff, but then it was that lazy attitude that proved he had grown lax in peacetime. It's not that it wouldn't have been a nice hike under different circumstances, and in better company, the woods weren't dark or gloomy, the sun still shone; it's just Sokka felt a bit out of shape, well that and he refused to dwell on the coming nightfall. The last night he and the gang camped in the woods telling scary stories was when that demented wrinkly old Bloodbending lady had hobbled into the firelight; that'd been about the freakiest blood-chillingest moment of his life, and more so now that he knew she'd been a Bloodbender. Obviously he'd never let his fear show around Azula though, he'd never hear the end of it otherwise.

Thankfully he and Azula had ceased their bickering and gotten serious about things, speaking only to confer about directions. Though Sokka's experience better suited arctic climates, Azula was glad he'd lived up to his boast and proven himself about as well educated as her. Indeed Sokka's time traveling with Aang had taught him plenty about woodsy stuff, and even if he were incompetent, Sokka would never admit ignorance to Azula, ego can be a killer that way. Besides, why give her the ammunition? She doesn't exactly appreciate humility unless it's worn while cowering in her shadow, which he'd never do.

So Trading speed for stealth they picked their way quietly among the dying autumn brush, the woods might've been gloomier if not for the staccato insects, foraging wildlife and chirping birds among those trees still hording their greens, stubbornly defying the seasons. Eventually though the foot of the Krovine slopes peaked into view between the trunks ahead.

Crouched low among the tree-line scrub they studied the tent-like rock spire sitting the first level ridge roughly twenty meters above, the very spire they'd earlier pegged as Bogar's spying point overlooking the treetops onto Jin-Sing's distant main roads. From this angle it loomed high over the woods, forcing them to crane their necks uncomfortably, and that wasn't counting the next two levels the slopes boasted about twenty and forty meters above the spire, their jagged, uneven white-gray stone peeks titanic, ominous and resplendent in the gentle tangerine light of the slow setting sun which even now was bowing ponderously toward the horizon beyond their silent worshipful ovation, a passage made more beautiful by the shifting golden beams piercing through the gnarled claw-like tree canopies overhead, causing the breeze blown leaves to dance gracefully through radiant shimmering golden mists of swirling pollen and dust to cast a mesmerizing saltation of light and shadow upon the autumn strewn ground which even the brooding princess was helplessly captivated by.

Both knowing how sound carries in these places, Azula leaned over and whispered in his ear "Reconnaissance first; agreed?" Sokka nodded "Good; first we should scout along the base of the slopes for quicker less problematic routs up and identifiable landmarks or potential hazards to dot on the map. It also might be wise to seek potential hideouts, caves and whatnot; it's possible this bandit might even live down here just to mislead fool hunters into daring those cliffs while only using the slopes himself to keep watch."

"Good point." Sokka said, receiving a look that said –of course it is, I'm the one who made it-, she didn't say it though, too intent on the matter at hand "So which way to we head first?" Sokka whispered, decidedly repressing irritation at Azula's sudden bossiness and accepting her game plan based on its merits. He'd have made similar calls himself anyway.

"We'll get this done faster if we split up, I'll scout to the south, you take north."

"But, I'm from the South Pole, I should have south." Sokka complained.

"Fine, you take south, north suits me better anyway, being high born and all." She smirked "Go as far as you can and be sure to move quietly, tread carefully, cover your tracks, and most importantly, keep low, those blue rags practically scream -Earthbend your boulders this way-;" Azula's eyes sparkled meanly at his glower "That being said, if you find anything resembling an occupied hideout, memorize the location then return and wait for me, don't attempt anything by yourself, your no match for this bandit alone and I refuse to be blamed because your own stupidity got you killed. Understood?"

Sokka's scowled, he knew all this stuff but kept his sarky cool "Sure thing. But how do I know you'll do the same and not steal the bounty for yourself, huh?"

"Don't you trust me?" Azula smiled sweetly at him, head tilted.

"I'm not dignifying that with a response." He grumbled.

"I'll take that as a maybe."

"Take it how you like, doesn't change anything...So when and where do we rendezvous?"

"Rendezvous?" Azula cocked an eyebrow, Sokka's knitted together "Huh; we'll meet back here in an hour; if you get lost, use the lookout as reference to find your way back."

Sokka rubbed his chin "Uh-OK. But what if that doesn't work and I still get lost?" He quipped, knowing it'd never happen.

"Then you'll die an idiot...now go." Azula ordered, Sokka glowered, she smirked then they crept off in their assigned directions, moving carefully through the surrounding scrub.

Half hour to scout, half hour to return Sokka decided and over that time he moved carefully, making sure to step on solid ground, preferably rocks, or layering loose brush over any footprints he did leave on softer terrain while trying to avoid brushing against and snapping twigs or knocking down spider webs as doing so would inform any tracker worth his weight in salt someone had passed through recently, and Bogar sounded like a pretty smart fella in the tracking trade. Still, Sokka managed despite it being different to scouting the southern tundra's, because the essential logic remained the same; be patient, be covert, be the predator.

His eyes scanned the slopes and surrounding woods for anything of note as he skulked. There was no rush, Bogar wasn't going anywhere; better to do this properly he thought since rushing up there bellowing challenges would only complicate things. Firstly Bogar will have better knowledge of the slopes geography than them. Secondly they didn't know whether or not Bogar has any accomplices unknown to the Militia. Although, the idea of catching Bogar by himself just to spite Azula was mighty appealing, she'd certainly do the same given opportunity. But no, just this once he'd try it Aang's way and give her a chance, if she proves untrustworthy, a lone wolf career suited Sokka fine.

A rustle of foliage, Sokka went to his stomach. Footfalls nearby, crunching leaves; paused, the sound of...of chewing? Sokka blinked, yes chewing, eating, he knew the sound intimately. Was Bogar down here for a snack? Stupid notion, he'd eat in his hideout. Someone else? Perhaps; best find out. Slowly, quietly Sokka crawled, placing limbs carefully between noisy crunchables then peered between a brown tree-trunk and a shedding gray bush and saw a...A hoof?

It was a rain-doe, munching on what little there was left to eat. Sokka considered boomeranging it, but no, he had scouting to do, plus the usually beautiful creature looked terribly malnourished, as did the cute little younglings hiding behind her legs, staring upwards with those giant naively curious eyes as their mother poked around. Recalling the day Piandao once had him paint the scenic view of a beautiful valley, and while his painting hadn't been up to the master swordsman's standards, the scene before him now tempted him to try his hand at painting again. But that would be a project for another day.

Quietly Sokka backed up and slunk away with a warm smile, leaving the adorable, hungry family to their foraging.

His scouting mission continued, his eyes open for a number of things, one of which being the least treacherous way within the designated search radius to ascend these steep, jagged, rocky heights. Too bad the actual ramp connecting the first rampart to ground level was so far away. Sokka swore these cliffs must have been altered by Earthbenders in some ancient battle, they had multiple levels rising higher and higher, paths zigzagging upward then back on themselves like the walled battlements and ramparts of some ruined fortresses he'd seen while traveling. If these slopes were actually hospitable enough for civilization, it'd be an absolute nightmare for an attacking ground force to capture without air support. Basically defensively similar to the mountains The Air Temples straddled only nowhere near as tall.

And so stealthily he pushed, taking mental notes and running hypothetical scenarios for various situations and strategies as he went. Eventually the time to finish up arrived and Sokka returned to the meeting point to find his annoying so-called partner waiting for him.

"Your late." She hissed angrily under her breath.

"Only by five minutes," Sokka protested with equally whispered irritation "And that's because I found something interesting." He added haughtily.

"That's no excuse for tardiness, be more punctual in future. Now what's so interesting that you kept me waiting here five damned minutes?"

Swallowing his biting repartee, Sokka reported "I think I saw where our guy's living."

"And..." She coaxed, raising an expectant eyebrow.

"I couldn't see anything specific, but there was I think a sort of cave, real high up on the second level rampart, but I only saw the arch shaped top of a dark opening, the cliff ridge cut the rest from view and I only saw that because the sun's angle brightened the greeny-brown vines hanging over the entrance."

"Vines? Strange, our intelligence states nothing grows up there. And brown vines you say?"

"Greeny-brown, yeah."

"Hmm; perhaps an attempt at camouflage." Azula mused.

"Could be;" Sokka agreed "And while certain plants can grow in real plant unfriendly caves with a little dampness to live on, Bogar could also use the vines not just for camouflage but also to keep the lousy weather outside and the heat and light of a fire trapped inside."

"True, such tactics are textbook for experienced outlaws, multi-purpose tools are better..."

"Not to mention it'd be pointless having both his hideout and lookout on the second levels when it'd be more sensible keeping them separate, otherwise it'd take him longer to reach his ambush points when that rock spire on the first level cliff has a way better, equally distant view of both Jin-Sing's roads, I mean look at the grooves in the cliff here going way up to that spire thing, if this isn't Bogar's lookout, I don't know what is."

Seeing for herself the vertical grooves and also faint evidence of fairly well concealed Earthbending tracks leading into the woods, Azula simply nodded in agreement, thoughtful "Did you find anything else in the cave's general vicinity?" She eventually asked.

"Not much as I didn't climb up there, but I did come across some old bones belonging to animals in the grass at the base of the cliff, but that could've been anything and I doubt ol-Bogar is silly enough to toss evidence like that away so close to his hideout, or maybe he is," Sokka shrugged "Sometimes even experienced people can slip up with small details like that, especially when long running success makes them complacent."

Azula actually blinked "Why, that's very insightful peasant; well-reasoned;" She seemed genuinely impressed "Perhaps you're not completely useless after all."

"Uh, thanks, I guess..." He decided not to react to that barbed compliment lest it get her ranting about uneducated savages again "So, what about you? Find anything interesting?"

Azula's lips quirked "A mass grave of about a dozen human carcasses rotting in a latrine, but otherwise, nothing of practical use."

It was Sokka who blinked this time "A, a mass grave; are you serious?!" He blurted too loudly, utterly stupefied.

"Shhh, don't get excited," She soothed, mistaking his horrified reaction for eagerness; weird girl "It's likely just the highwayman's dumping ground, most of the skeletons had several crushed and broken bones, you know, typical Earthbender savagery; he didn't even bother to bury them;" Azula snorted derisively, continuing "I'd say a couple of the cadavers are recent victims too if the flies buzzing around the pit are any indication; the stench isn't too appealing either." She added as if a dozen dead people were nothing to her. Or were they just dirty savages in her eyes? The thought again reminded him of who he'd partnered with.

"Lovely;" Sokka groaned "Any clues to who they were?"

"I believe they're what you call, people," Azula condescended, Sokka rolled his eyes "Who is irrelevant at this stage of decomposition, though you might be interested to know that most of the old tattered garments clothing the cadavers are Fire Nation red; if this is bogar's dumping ground, it's clear he has an axe to grind with my former people, and these one's weren't quick in dying either, as I explained, skeletons broken and fractured in very specific ways, administered while living, torture is a certainty" Azula's creepy smile gave Sokka the shivers.

"That's messed up. How do you know stuff like that?" He gulped.

"Why the practical way silly; learn by doing." Suddenly her sick uncaring smirk fueled his anger to the point it overshadowed his disquietude.

"Your unbelievable, you know that?" He hissed, still aware enough not to shout "You just stumbled on a latrine full of your murdered countrymen and your treating it like a museum exhibit. Shouldn't you be outraged or something."

"Why?" Azula guffawed "The mere fact that they're dead and rotting in that shit pit proves they were weak, they wouldn't be there if they weren't; and secondly, they're not my people anymore, after shunning my patronage, losing the war and disgracing themselves, their Fire Lord and their Nation. Why should I give a damn?"

"Uh, how about because every Fire Nationer who fourght and died in the war did so on behalf of your screwy family's even screwier ambition?"

"Fought, died, and failed," She spat coldly "I devoted my life to making my country great, and now its people howl for my blood."

"That's unfair..."

"Yes, it is..." Azula cut in, twisting his words.

"Not for you, I mean unfair for..."

"It doesn't really matter anyway, they sealed their fate, let them burn, let the whole world burn for all I care." She muttered, she had that dark, distant crazy look in her eyes.

"Oh wonderful, your still a raving lunatic." Sokka grumbled uneasily.

"Not at all," She guffawed, her impassive countenance instantly recomposing "In fact I couldn't be more lucid."

"Great, you have no idea how comforting it is to hear you say that." Sokka warbled then galvanized himself, straightened and said "I don't know what's going on in loopy land, population the contents of your scrambled brains, but there won't be any world burning while Aang's running things."

"Don't count on it." She retorted dryly, Sokka bit his tongue, he wouldn't dignify that with the heated reaction she was fishing for.

Dammit, with allies like Azula, who needed villains like Bogar. That thought brought him back to the present; clenching his fist Sokka swore when he caught this jerk bandit he'd throttle the bastard "A dozen innocent people, maybe more, I should just kill him, damn the bounty."

Azula, completely dispelled of her previous morbid fancies, seemed to read his thoughts in his body language "Ah, so you're allowed to kill people for the Avatar's self-righteous peace crusade but I need special permission to vent my frustration on the lawless dregs of savage society out of therapeutic necessity." She complained "Where's the fairness in that I ask you?" She smiled innocently at him, snapping him out of his vengeful rut.

"Huh?" Sokka mumbled distractedly, having lost himself in fancies of visiting justice upon this sick bastard bandit, Azula's griping had been filtered out.

"Nevermind;" She hissed "We should move further back into the woods and find a suitably defensible campsite before it gets too dark; then we can discuss matters in more detail and plan from there. I'm assuming you remembered to commit the area to memory and scan for a less troublesome way up the cliffs?"

"Yeah, got it all up here," He boasted, tapping his head

"That's encouraging." Azula drawled sardonically, rolling her eyes.

Sokka let her remark slide and reported "I found a few fairly non-treacherous ways up; what I'm wondering though is why your so concerned about easy climbs, I'm the one who has to climb whereas you can simply shoot a bunch of flames out your legs and fly into the clouds and never come back."

"You wish;" Azula guffawed, amending "We're a team you and I, we are only as effective as our weakest link, hence allowances must be made on my part to compensate for your many, many shortcomings."

'Azula refusing to lord her superiority over a non-bender…..your still crazy aren't you?"

This time her smile was genuine and mirthful "Why, yes, you may be right, I must be." She laughed, it sounded strange, not quite unhinged, but not quite sane either, but he forced a stupid grin of his own that was more grimace than grin "Come, I saw a serviceable enough location to put up camp a few hundred meters back the way we came." She moved off quietly and Sokka, nonplussed at how fast his anger toward her had vanished, numbly followed.

---

(Jin-Sing deep woods, Camp: Sunset)

"And here I thought you were a seasoned adventurer thoughtlessly capable of attending a task as trivial as pitching a tent, yet you continually disappoint my expectations." Azula taunted, having pitched her own tent in under five minutes, having finished three minutes ago.

In fairness the tribesman had exceeded her expectations in most other ways, showing his skills in the wilderness weren't just idle boasts, nor in setting up camp. He'd done everything with an experienced hand, everything except pitching a simple tent. Watching the stupid savage scrabble about inside the thing as it kept collapsing around him had proven amusing so far, though if it went on much longer it'd grow tiresome.

Sokka's head poked out the wobbling tent's triangular peek like the ugly jewel glorifying the foldy patchwork pyramid of leather and green canvas draping his body like an oversized ball-gown. Ignoring Azula, he inwardly cursed himself for buying this cheap lousy tent that couldn't even stand up right, even the canvas was cut wonkily shaped. He now regretted his "Bounty Hunter's humble beginning" mentality from yesterday and wished he had the superior quality tent stored on Appa's saddle, but taking it for himself wouldn't have been fair to his sister and friends, well that and its too big from one person to easily carry. The tent's quality aside his failure still stung his pride. Not since he was a child had he struggled to pitching a tent, it's an essential skill all Water Tribe people learned young and learnt well. Had he pissed off The Tent Spirits recently or something? That seemed likely, the long list of spirits who had it out for him grew longer every day after all.

Suddenly a thought hit him and his frustration ebbed, Looking down, Sokka turned slightly, squinted at the ground and spotted the problem. So it wasn't just the Tent Spirits screwing with him but rather an inconspicuous, thin tree root half-hidden beneath the crappy tent. In other words it was The Tree Spirits conspiring with The Tent Spirits to mess with him this time. Damn spirits, what did he ever do to them? Luckily a little improvisation sorted the whole issue and Azula, who'd also overlooked the sneaky root, mercifully heckled him no further as he worked.

Moments later his collapsed crappy tent was a standing crappy tent.

"Finally." Azula chided, though less critically since she hadn't spotted the tree root either and had simply made assumptions about him "Would that you were the Avatar instead of your arrow headed friend..." She reflected aloud, not needing to finish, after all, letting his mishap slide wouldn't be any fun.

"If I were the Avatar, I'd Airbend your pampered backside into one of these trees and leave you stranded all night, your just lucky I'm such a nice guy."

"Oh by all means, you're welcome to try, don't let your gentlemanly conscience temper that overinflated ego." Azula challenged, then as an afterthought added "Actually, you'd best dispense with conscience altogether if you've bounty hunting on the brain, it'll only burden your judgment with frivolous nonsense like mercy and other equally crippling emotional sentiments."

"Is that really how you see the human conscience?"

"Idiot, a conscience is a conceptual flaw in the soft and weak like your Avatar friend, and your sister." Azula scolded sardonically.

"Nice Segway there princess, rather than being obvious and changing the subject, you just shift it in another more argumentative direction by ridiculing Katara; very subtle;" He congratulated only half sarcastically "But you can't fool me though, you know exactly what I meant."

"And you know that I know exactly what I meant." She mimicked, twisting his words some.

"That's what I said, you know I know that you know...wait, what?" He blurted, confused at her odd wording, then he realized she'd derailed the topic again, sneaky little monster "Hay, quit it, your fancy wordage won't confusify me, I'm an old pro at this mind-game stuff." He smirked and she smirked back, a challenge gleaming in her eyes, but he ignored her baiting, sighing "Come on, is it really that bad answering a simple question."

"Questions of conscience are -far- from simple peasant;" She sneered in condescension "Particularly so when you enquire after my perceptions regarding something I do not possess, so just drop it already, because you're really starting to irritate me." She warned, her tone saying the subject was dismissed and further pursuit of it would be...inadvisable.

"Fine." Sokka muttered, setting up the circle of rocks for their campfire; he wasn't stupid, he knew when to back off, but unfortunately, his knowing when to do something rarely implied his doing it; indeed he'd be pushing his luck, certainly Wisdom hounded him to drop the subject, but seldom a subject to wisdom himself, drop it Sokka did not; so, fiddling needlessly with a tent peg to look casual, Sokka swallowed a nervous spittle build-up, took a breath and spoke carefully "Not to pry…."

"You're prying." Azula stated flatly, tiredly.

"Okay, I'm prying." He admitted "But only with benevolent intentions, honest."

Azula scoffed "Liar, not a single thing about you could be described as benevolent, deceit and misdirection colour your every word and action, even your buffoonish personality and idiot smile cannot be taken at face value; at least not entirely." She muttered darkly

"Aww ouch, you wound me;" Sokka feigned hurt feelings, offended anyone would think such about him given that he's always been a –what you see is what you get- kind of guy "And who are you calling liar, Liar?

"What was it you once said peasant? Takes one to know one? Never have truer words left your mouth than those. Sad isn't it?" She sniffed, thumbing her nose at him.

"Okay, just for that I'm not going to be tactful about my question; your glass ego really isn't worth the effort of tiptoeing round anyway."

"Maybe not, but my sufferance, is." She hissed

"Unlike mine right? I'm just returning the favour, quid-pro-quo princess." He retorted tartly.

"Oh spare me," She waved a dismissing hand as imperiously as a queen on a throne "Whatever your question, I don't want to hear it."

"Well too bad, I'm gonna ask it anyway cause your mood swings are seriously starting to piss me off and the reason behind them is blindly obvious."

Azula sighed with rapidly thinning tolerance "As you like, but remember, last words are very precious things, so make them count." A threat wrapped in a warning wrapped in the riddle that is Princess Azula's confounding mind, Sokka, perhaps foolishly, wasn't deterred.

Throwing aside all caution, he simply came out and breached the subject she and Zuko had been avoiding "Why do I get the feeling all this stuff about conscience has something to do with your mother not wanting you anywhere near her new family." Silently, slowly, Azula's eyes found his, froze him in place; cold-cold drops of water trickled down his spine, such a look did she give him, he felt himself shrink and his balls try to climb up into his stomach for refuge "Thoughtless stupid idiot." His sensible side chided, too late, what was said could not be unsaid.

Azula's response, though soft and mild, didn't fool him, he'd just placed himself in imminent peril "No peasant, it is I, who am getting a feeling; and I -think- it's telling me that you want to take a walk."

"Huh?...No I don…"

Her jaw tightened, teeth grinding, strain attenuating her calm, unemotional tone "Yes, I'm certain of it now, I have a most urgent feeling that you really –Really- want to take a walk; a nice, long, healthy, walk…..You don't want to neglect your health; or do you, peasant?" Okay, couldn't get more overt with a veiled threat than that, the frowning bow of her blood red lips and the frightening focused intensity of her gleaming golden eyes slicing into him was simply overkill on the intimidation front.

Though obviously not exercising an iota of the exertion Azula bore over her self-control, it took all the backbone Sokka possessed to manage a calm reply "You know now that you mention it, my health is very important to me;" Knowing he'd touched a nerve and was now standing on very thin ice which even now cracked beneath him, Sokka stood and made a dignified retreat "Yeah, very, uh, intuitive of you princess, I do want to go for a walk, aaaand, collect some firewood."

"Then by all means, don't tarry on my account, indulge yourself….." Her voice didn't shake at all, bad sign, she wasn't containing her anger, she was riding it like a wave, mastering it and, most importantly, she was actually giving him enough warning to move clear of where that wave was about to break instead of making him that breaker; not very Azula characteristic admittedly, yet Sokka was thankful all the same as he half jogged half sprinted from the camp, composure finally cracking under her frosty unblinking glower, feeling her scowling at his back even after he'd vanished well out of sight into the afternoon tree-shade, though as he left he didn't miss her grumbled warning that he should return via an easterly approach to avoid the poison traps she'd be setting.

Sokka knew he wasn't unharmed due to any merciful inclinations on her part, all that stayed her hand was her agreement with Zuko and naught else. Very aware of that fact, Sokka decidedly took his time collecting the firewood, plus he had to familiarize himself with the area surrounding their camp anyway before the gradually fading afternoon sunlight gave way to night, that way he'd have an idea of what's where should circumstance push him to running blindly about in the dark, not to mention the shallow latrine that needed digging too. Oh-yeah, occupying himself with all that stuff should give Princess Cranky-Pants time to cool off, or so he hoped "Serves you right for prying into stuff that's not your business."

Briefly Sokka debated ignoring Azula's advisement of a easterly return in case it was that very approach she'd set her spike traps for him to bumble into, but he quickly dismissed that paranoia; if she wanted him dead, she'd kill him with her own bare flaming hands, not with booby-traps. So, over half hour later, an eastern approach was exactly what he took, if in cautious fashion, his every step expertly silent thanks to years of experience. He did stray slightly north where, after brushing away some leaves with the toe of his boot, he found two thin sharpened wooden spikes, their vicious points damp with, something, jutting mere vertical inches from the dirt. She'd concealed them fairly well, but with a few adjustments he improved on her work. The years of catching dinner for the tribe, and later Team Avatar had given him an eye for comoflaging traps extremely well, maybe a little too well once or twice.

He knew Azula only had a half dozen of those nasty spikes but he didn't like her employing them at all because they'd be as much a hazard to themselves as to attackers in an all out fight. Azula progably figures she can fly into the trees and rain fire down on hostiles from above, clever but also vexingly selfish, nevermidn the fact that laying such nasty traps wasn't how he or his team usually operated.

Wearing a pained expression, Sokka carefully repositioned the concealing foliage and headed for camp.

When he finally returned with an armload of fire-fodder and settled nerves, he found Azula meditating cross-legged on a small thin black mat before a modest, low burning fire upon which a supplement of their rations was stewing in a cooking pot. Astoundingly, she was cooking.

Skeptically, Sokka turned to Azula who sat lotus style, eyes closed, withdrawn into herself, yet when he took a breath to thank her, not out of gratitude but as a peace offering.

The princess softly, distantly murmured "Shut up peasant; I prepared the evening meal in your absense for the sake of campsite efficiency, nothing more. Now take over tending the cookfire and be silent." Azula never opened an eye as she spoke, her voice as tranquil, fluid and enervating as the shadows and firelight dancing across the soft porcelain skin of her perfect emotionless face. She'd calmed down, but not exactly in the way he'd hoped, she seemed withdrawn, disposition darker, more menacing for its blankness...or maybe she was just meditating. What did he know?

"Man, forget Bogar, I'm gonna have to watch what I say around her, otherwise this is gonna be one dangerous, depressing bounty hunt." Wisely, he remained silent and approached the fire to tend their meal, giving the emotionally ambiguous princess a wide berth; then he noticed the fireplace itself wasn't where he'd started building it, rather it was now burning in a shallow hole close to some trees which they could easily fill back in with dirt after using, thus leaving behind minimal evidence they were ever here provided they cleaned up properly. Sokka spotted the small steel foldup shovel from his backpack leaning against a nearby tree which explained how she dug the hearth "Huh, guess she really does know her stuff."

While he thought it a bit unnecessary in this densely tree covered location, a fire pit would indeed further reduce a fire's visibility to an eerie orange glow that placates to their night vision while still being serviceable enough to cook over. She'd also dug it nearer a tree since the tree canopies would better disperse the smoke so it's harder to see from up-high and afar, particularly at night. Azula had even bought a few small cooking utensils and was already stewing up something. But wait, hadn't cooking been his job? Oh well, he certainly wasn't going to complain about it. Maybe this was her reenforce her earlier claim that she could cook.

Absently, Azula grabbed a broken bit of branch that rolled off the pile and, slid it with deliberate care into the hearth without even opening her eyes "Astounding, you got it in one, why Zuko hasn't hired you as his personal advisor I will never know; pure genius." Azula patronized thoguh he voice remained flat, sedate, completely missing Sokka's eye-rolling due to her own remaining shut "This position defensible enough I suppose," She stated, talking business again "There's too much dead foliage to navigate a silent approach in darkness, especially among the thicker trees, but just in case this bandit is an experienced night stalker, which I doubt as such behavioral patterns defy his statusquo; I've set a number of early warning tripwires and other nasty little surprises in all but the rout I advised you return via;"

Tripwires huh? She couldn't have set many given limited backpack space, but overall not a bad idea for an early warning system, albeit a touch on the paranoid side, plus the bother of having to disarm and repack them tommorow. Still, he preferred them to poison spikes, though both were a hazard if a fight broke out and he had to run out of camp. Team Avatar never really bothered going that far to secure their campsites, what with Appa and Momo's great hearing to pick up on sneaky unwanted guests, and later with Toph joining the group it became nearly impossible to sneak up on them. He supposed he took their presence for granted after awhile.

Azula's eyes snapped open and she was on her feet in the same blink, stating "A rout I shall cover while -you- cook."

Her movement snapped him from his musings "Huh, you did all that in the short time I was gone?" Sokka approved, well except for the spike traps.

"Naturally, and I'm deeply offended that you'd expect anything less from me;" Azula crooned, thumbing her nose at him with a cold humorless smile "What was it I told you yesterday? That you'd be wise to broaden your expectations lest my constant defiance of them drown you in your own veneration. Oh, and you've got first watch, so try not to slack off."

"Yep, she's back to her bossy, conceited self again; yippee." Sokka thought sardonically, aloud though he was indignant "Me? Slack of? Why I never!" Sokka crossed his arms and scrunched up his face, irked she'd accuse him of inattentiveness in the face of possible danger. His curiosity over her doing work even while in a foul mood he kept to himself.

"Hopeless." Azula guffawed, shaking her head as she moved into the dimming light beyond the fire, her predatory footsteps as silent as his own earlier had been despite the dead leaves scattered everywhere "Utterly hopeless." Her voice slithered softly from the darkness before vanishing entirely to attend her stated tasks.

Shivering, Sokka glanced back to the fire-pit, not far from it he spied her alchemy supplies; nothing much, a small mortar and pestle, a short, thin vile of something, probably poison purchased earlier, and a small pouch of leaves and herbs he'd probably recognize if he bothered to look closer. So she knew her poisons too, perhaps that's what coated those spikes he examined earlier. He wasn't unfamiliar the subject of poisons himself, but preferred to avoid such methods when he could. Poison could ruin meat and should only be used for specific wildlife encounters.

"Oh, she's a poisoner too; how fitting!" Sokka grumbled inwardly, thinking "Guess she wasn't joking about her old man sending her off with those special forces guys, this is exactly the kind of messed up shit their known for;" He shuddered "Yep, and just when I didn't think she could get any scarier, next thing she'll be telling me she's some cloak and dagger assassin leaping from rooftop to rooftop cutting throats and erasing names in the dark . . . Gah, what am I saying? She probably is an assassin."

He sighed and hobbled to the cooking pot above the glowing embers, distracting himself with meal preparations to dispel his uneasy concerns about his bounty hunting partner. Just what had he gotten himself into? Still, at least he had Hawky, though that being said, Hawky hadn't checked in since yesterday morning, but that wasn't anything new, mostly cause Sokka, eiter too soft-hearted or too lazy, or both, refused to maintain discipline over his winged companion the way the birdy trainers showed him after buying Hawky. Ever off on some grand adventure in the skies, hunting food, harrying pigeons and pooping on people and stuff, Sokka felt he was missing out and often wished he had wings too; if he did he'd fly away from this nutty princess with a suitably witty verbal jab of farewell.

"And she'd just shoot you out of the sky; feathers vs fire? Uhhh-duh! Honestly, the mental gauntlets you subject me to running through; do you –ever- listen to your own thoughts; seriously?" Admonished his brain "…Huh? Oh sorry, I wasn't listening."

Sokka was spared the dubious joy of starting an argument with himself when Azula returned from securing the perimeter, stalking from the darkness into the subdued campsite firelight on silent feet and in most timely fashion too as he was just now dishing up the potatoes, vegetables and, to his delight, dried beef sides. Unlike their silent breakfast they brainstormed strategies over a surprisingly tasty dinner, pausing only while they washed their dishes and fussed about the campsite before sitting by the fire again to resume their tactical debate.

Ultimately it was agreed that a night raid on the cave Sokka saw would be pointless due to lack of confirmation their target lurked within, plus climbing the slopes in the dark would be crazy and Azula Firebending to illuminate the way would give away their presence should Bogar be sitting sentry somewhere up there. Instead they decided to let Bogar wake up tomorrow thinking it just another ordinary day of wanton murder and plunder, he'll disappear off to his lookout post leaving them free to investigate the cave and, should it show signs of habitation, either wait in ambush for Bogar's lunchtime return, surprise then capture him with little struggle, or, ambush him at his lookout post, which might be tricky with him astride that spire.

Sokka took first watch as arranged; he sat with his back to the fire, irksomely reassured by Azula's perimeter traps over those uneventful four hours, feeling oddly peaceful back among nature. He'd really missed camping out, the only thing missing were his sister and friends, though he hated sentry duty before Toph joined; three people, three shifts and the poor basted who took second watch had to sleep, wake up, stay awake three hours then fall back asleep again, and yes, second watch was always Sokka's rotten luck back then, and while it was just him and Azula, meaning less sleep, it still beats second watch any day.

Unlike last night, Azula didn't snore, an example Sokka hoped his sleep self would follow while out here, probably not though. Thirty minutes into the third hour Sokka almost dozed off; pinching himself awake, he sat out the remaining half hour. Astonishingly he didn't need to wake Azula for her shift, she emerged from her tent right on time and they swapped places without a word. Sokka entered his tent, wriggled into his sleeping-bag, cuddling his thin pitiful excuse for a pillow close. His last thought before plunging into dreamland was of how weirdly comforting it felt having The Fire Princess herself standing guard just outside.

"You just looove messing with me, don't you world?" Sokka inwardly griped.

The distant eerie hoot of an Owl-Bat echoing through the still, cool night, as if answering on the world's behalf, it sounded mocking, Sokka pouted; the nocturnal nuisance hooted again, it's tone almost amused this time, at least until a sudden flash of subdued azure flared through his tent canopy, shortly followed by a pained far off screech, the ensuing silence that of sudden death, broken only by Azula grumbling something unflattering about nature.

"Well how about that?" Sokka thought drowsily "Azula don't like birds." No more epic daydream episodes of Sokka and Hawky's winged adventures for him anymore, not after hearing that death cry; with any luck Bogar hadn't heard it, or if he had, would jsut assume a hungry cat responsible; besides, the obnoxious Owl-Bat had it coming for mocking him; -hoot- indeed "Stupid Nature." Sokka grumbled into his pillow.

Azula's soft feminine snort scarcely phased his weary mind "You can say that again peasant." But Sokka didn't say it again as he was already fast asleep.

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(This chapter was edited, Guest reviewer had a point, Sokka didn't get nearly enough credit for being experienced with surviving in nature, I got too carried away angling for comedy I forgot the important details; so thanks mr guest.)

Sokka might come off as a bit of a jerk here since he doesn't know how to deal with Azula, they are genuinely trying to get along, but being who they are, they can't help but be jerks toward eachother, yet in an odd sense the jerkyness balances things out in a way false friendliness couldn't, they vent frustration through conflict, they've simply not yet discerned how far they can push eachother, especially Sokka who can't anticipate an asylum altered Azula's turbulent moods and he is wavering between guilt over enjoying her company, respecting her intellect and habitually despising the person she was and partly still is while Azula is similarly conflicted and is also new to this form of socializing; thus their banter fluctuates between grudgingly playful, awkwardly uncertain and willfully insulting.

Yeah their out of character in plenty of way, I know, but it is what it is. Also note I know crap all about hunting, rock-climbing, tracking, camping, strategic planning and especially emotionally in depth dialog; it's all just guesswork on my part. Still hope you enjoyed though.