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Chap. 4
"You'd be surprised," Ty Lee said after she finished giggling, and waved off the laughter of her three companions for the evening. They had left Birdfox Company behind two weeks earlier after they had arrived at Qiquan City, and had moved a lot faster without the slow men's army holding them back. The Kyoshi Warriors could walk further in a day than any regular army could march. Suki, their commander, had made sure of that. "Further, harder, faster," was her motto, and it showed in their training.
Training that every Kyoshi Warrior, from the newest recruit to the oldest veteran, took very seriously. Ty Lee made sure of it, especially in the squad she and Mai led. Between her and her companion's training, there wasn't a woman-warrior among them that couldn't hold their own against even Suki herself. That was saying something as, during the war, Ty Lee had reason to go up against Suki once. It was... well, frankly, the worst beat-down of her life, and had made the otherwise flirty girl redouble her own training afterward. True, she had badly underestimated the girl, who was already the commander of the Kyoshi Warriors at seventeen, but she was still sixteen and should have known better.
Now... well, Ty Lee could hold her own once more. Enough that they stalemated more often than not on the rare occasions they got to spar together. Mai? Well, she cheated. She was just so fast, and so accurate with those knives, even Ty Lee couldn't always get close enough to win. Still, with their only opponents lately being bandits and each other, she was starting to feel... stifled.
Things had been more fun, at least from a combat standpoint, during The War. The Avatar's friends (Suki and Katara in particular, though that cutie Suki had ended up marrying was a fun match too) were a challenge. Even the Dai Li, back when they had been more active, were a little bit of a threat.
Ty Lee felt like she and Mai alone could have handled all of Boshi's camp. And they wouldn't even have had to worry about infiltration or seducing anyone.
... Though Ancestors knew, Mai could use a bit of seducing herself. The girl was as uptight as ever. She was walking ahead of Ty Lee at the moment, on her way to the stream near their current camp for a quick bath. Some of the girls would only bathe every three days or so, but both she and Mai, raised in the company of nobles or nobles themselves, were a little more fastidious about hygiene.
Not that Ty Lee minded, a little bit of odor or musk from a girl only added to the fun at night. The smell of sweat, even of road-dust in an armpit or between a pair of legs as her tongue went to work added a certain...
Depth. Yes, that was the right word. It added depth to the occasion, a sense of history, of place, that just sex didn't always do. Meaningful relationships were rare for her, and most of the Kyoshi Warriors. They were a sharing lot by nature, it was part of their sisterhood. Boys were common among them, and tended to get shared around. Sokka had loved it when he found out Suki fully intended to let any of the other Kyoshi Warriors bed him if they wanted to. She'd loved it, too, he was quite well endowed and more skilled than she would have expected for a Southern Water Tribe man who hadn't even had the benefit of parents to teach him what was what.
Sex was great, sex was fun, but she didn't just want to fuck boys the others were fucking. In fact, as time went on, Ty Lee herself spent more and more time in the company of the other girls, the ones who preferred girls. She didn't think she was 'changing over', or anything. She'd always been attracted to both, after all. It was just that casual sex wasn't as good, and she had more steady friends and longer relationships with the other girls in her squad.
Mai was a bit more straight, but Ty Lee was firmly convinced that could- and would- be rectified sooner or later. As soon as she got over him.
Fucking Zuko, Ty Lee thought with some aggravation. He had changed. Changed a lot, perhaps more than any of them, after The War. Grown up, yes. Matured, absolutely. ... Gotten boring? Yep, that too.
Mai was... well, she was quiet, stoic, hard to read (for everyone except, apparently, Ty Lee herself). But she did like adventure. She liked traveling. She liked... well, being one of them, a Kyoshi Warrior. It was why she'd joined up in the first place after Azula had gone 'round the bend in a floating hand basket, giggling about poppies and rainbows coming out of that Water-Tribe girl's ass. Or something, she'd stopped paying attention to the once leader of their three-girl hit-squad weeks before that event.
Mai was quiet, but she wanted something out of life. Not sitting on a throne next to Zuko, being bored all the time.
He relished in it, considered it problem-solving, something he was good at. Helping people, something he was getting better at. But it was still sitting on a throne, in the end. So, before his actual coronation, Mai and he had spoken about it, and she'd left.
Left for Kyoshi Island, and the rest was, as they said, history. Her skill had overridden their lack of trust, not least of which was because of Ty Lee's own efforts to persuade the others that Mai was sincere, and now she was one of them. Even a leader, like Ty Lee herself (Who would have thought? Certainly not Azula!).
This life, though, was everything Mai wanted. Travel, adventure, meeting new people... it was almost all Ty Lee wanted. She just wanted a someone.
Someone like Sokka to Suki, or the Water Bender... Kathra? No, Katara. Yeah, her, the one that learned to Blood-Bend. Her, and the Avatar. She didn't want to settle down, of course. Maybe not ever, and certainly not until she was older by at least a decade. But she wanted more than just casual sex with any old handsome boy or man she happened to run into in their travels.
Someone like that handsome soldier Mai had given the kill to two weeks earlier. The one she'd trusted a copy of the Dai Li's correspondence with the bandits Boshi was leading to.
What was his name? Rin? No... Lun? No, Lin! That was it. Good kid. Smart enough- not every soldier could read and write. Most couldn't, in fact, at the lower ranks. And he was peasant-born, if she wasn't wrong, too. Like her. Which made him even more of an anomaly.
But he was cute, strong, tall, handsome, dark-haired... that mess would feel amazing in her hands as she rode him!
If only Mai wasn't eyeing him. If only Mai had the stones (heh, Earth Bender joke there) to take him. She needed to get laid! And if not Mai, then Ty Lee herself certainly did. And by a man, too. Not that the girls weren't satisfying (they certainly were), but she needed a dick, too. A big, smelly one. Mm... that was just the thing.
That night, she and Mai were given the first opportunity to use the stream they had scouted nearby for a bath while the others cooked dinner or set up their watches. She was grateful, because all the girls bathing in a slow stream tended to make it muddy.
As she walked, remembering her earlier train of thought, Ty Lee looked down at herself, then rolled her eyes. She was growing a wet patch in her underclothes already, before she even got to the stream. Oh well. It wasn't like it was something new for her, she thought about sex a lot. If only Zuko hadn't ruined things with Mai, and kept things interesting. Let her be who she wanted to be, instead of trying to tie her down to the Fire Nation's throne.
Heh... speaking of tying a girl down... maybe she should break out the shackles tonight?
Mm... focus, girl. Mai.
Mai needed her help. And Ty Lee thought she knew just the way to do it. Slow, carefully. With some suave technique. Ty Lee knew how to be circumspect.
"So, that guy we gave the scrolls too, he was pretty fuckable, right?"
Yep, slow and careful does it.
Mai had, predictably, stopped walking mid-step. Slowly, her pale face turned into view behind her raven-black hair.
If Azula were still around, Ty Lee was sure even she might have flinched at the glare her taller friend gave her. Ty Lee herself only grinned as she took the four steps necessary to catch up. "I mean, I sat on his lap when I was inviting him to the camp. You know, dressed like this to make sure I caught his attention."
"Who?"
Ty Lee rolled her eyes as Mai turned forward once more and resumed walking. "You aren't as subtle as you think you are. I know you know who I'm talking about."
" You are as subtle as the island's statue of Avatar Kyoshi."
"Aww, that's sweet, Mai! It's very nice of you to say!"
One eyebrow rose. Ty Lee's smile rose with it.
"Anyway, the soldier you gave the kill to. Boshi's. The one with the Dai Li scrolls?"
"What about him?" Mai muttered.
Ty Lee's grin faltered, but only briefly. She was going to make it difficult, huh? That was alright, she was used to doing hard things. "He's quite fuckable."
"If you say so."
The fact that the words were delivered in a dry, nearly toneless voice was not unusual. That was just how Mai talked, most of the time. But this dry, toneless voice was different in a subtle way. Like the yinlong point's difference between yinlung. Only a fraction of a centimeter separated the two spots on a body, but their effects when struck were drastically different. "When I sat on his lap- you know, to get his attention-"
"As you've said," Mai interrupted, proving that she was, in fact, paying attention despite her distracted air.
"Yes, that. Well, it did. Get his attention, I mean. I felt him through his pants and mine both- kid's pretty hung. I wanna say... like a Tiger-badger."
"Tiger-badgers have tiny penises, Ty Lee. That's not something to be proud of."
She actually stopped while Mai continued on, unabated. She ran to catch up after forcing her brain to restart, "Okay, okay, first, I didn't know that, so maybe bigger. At least as long as my hand. And second- how do you know that? Have you been holding out on me, girl?"
Mai snorted, which was about as much as she ever expressed amusement these days. She'd always been hard to read, but after breaking things off with Zuko, she was more closed-off than... well, while they were hunting the Avatar. Before she'd gotten back together with the man who was now Fire Lord.
"Oh, wait, didn't your parents have one in their menagerie?"
"Yes. I also read. You should try it sometime."
"Boooring... Anyway, that's fine. Maybe like a Boarmoose? At least as long as my hand." Of course, Ty Lee had to hold up a hand for emphasis, not that Mai looked. "Maybe like, three fingers thick, too."
Mai blinked, which was... well, not much. She blinked like everyone else. But it could have been in surprise. That was how Ty Lee chose to take it anyway. She smiled and skipped ahead a couple of paces so she could turn and walk backwards, despite the ground being unfamiliar and uneven. It wasn't like her reflexes would fail her, anyway. "And he got really hard, really fast. I bet he's a virgin."
Mai grunted.
That was it. Ty Lee grinned. "I know you were upset that Zuko wasn't."
"I don't care about Zuko and his exploits," Mai growled, proving that she did, in fact, care.
But that was fine. Ty Lee had expected that. "But this guy is, I'm sure of it. He sure acted like it, anyway. All stuttering and embarrassed that a cutie like me was sitting on his lap! I wasn't even naked. The guys around him all seemed to think it was something special, too, now that I think about it. So maybe they just aren't used to girls as cute as us."
"Lucky them," Mai drawled.
Then they arrived at the steam, and both young women went quiet for a while as they went about bathing. Ty Lee would have kept up the chatter for sure if others were around, but Mai preferred to clean herself in peace. It had been her way at home, too. Either bathe by herself, or with one or two servants who knew better than to talk.
Once they were done, Ty Lee wasted no time in picking up the subject as they started getting dressed once more. "Anyway, why him for the scrolls, though? I mean, I don't mind, but what made you pick him? Or for Boshi, for that matter."
Mai sighed, "You aren't going to let this go, are you?"
"Nope!"
Another sigh, this one deeper and longer, one that made Ty Lee smile happily. She'd won! "Fine... can we drop it if I tell you, at least?"
"No promises," the busty acrobat giggled.
"Tch... Whatever. I picked him to finish off Boshi mostly because he was there, and I was already bored. As for who we gave the scrolls to, well... it had to be someone who owed us. Someone who wasn't likely to turn us over, and we know they prefer people of influence. A backwoods farm-boy like that? Why would they ever take him? Most people probably don't even know he can read or write. I'm surprised he can."
"I snuck into his tent before we left. His handwriting is terrible, but his report wasn't bad."
If Mai thought anything wrong about her breaking into a soldier's tent and looking at things that were definitely none of her business, she didn't say anything about it or give any sign that Ty Lee could detect. And she was really good at reading Mai.
"Okay."
That was it for a while, Ty Lee let the subject drift (under her own power, of course, since Mai was perfectly content to let her only conversation partners be the growing cricket songs) to other, lighter topics.
At least, until that night when they were the last two to enter their tents aside from those on watch. And Ty Lee followed her best friend. "What?" Mai grumbled, annoyed already. Their tents would sleep two, and as the leaders they had one to themselves, but it was a lot more crowded with both of them in there.
"Tell me the real reason. For both."
Mai sighed once more. "Fine, fine..."
Dukashi Lin turned every way he could, but there was nothing left for him to do. All the sacks of grains, flour, beans, rice, wine, and beer that had been ordered were already counted. He'd done that part, and made sure it was all there. In fact, he had (wisely) not told the supplier that there was an extra cask of fine Huhe pí jiǔ on the carts. Apparently the beer seller's boys had not been very careful when they loaded it up for the Army's soldiers. He wasn't going to complain, though, especially since it was the sort of thing that would endear him even further to Jo Gai. And, if he was generous, maybe even Captain Taijin, who was a bit of a beer drinker himself, according to the gossip.
But there was nothing to do. There were five crates, sixteen barrels, and twenty-four various bags still to load, but he couldn't get into any of the lines to actually help load them. Even the teamsters had their animals, mostly Mud Oxen from the foothills of the Xueling Mountains to the north of Qiquan, hooked up and ready to go.
"Alright, Sergeant, if you'll just stamp here, you're good to go," the man who ran the warehouse announced. He coughed politely a few seconds later, and Lin jumped. He flushed red when he realized he was the one being addressed. Two full weeks, and he still wasn't used to being addressed that way. Him, a Jūnshì! His father would be horrified, his mother unbearably proud and smug. "Look at my boy," he imagined her saying to anyone that would listen, "Look at him! A leader! My fourth son!"
His father? Well, Lin the Elder would... mope. Mostly, he was sure, because after all the work teaching Lin to read and write that they'd paid the most educated woman in their village to do over years while he was young, they had to do it again for one of his siblings. Well, he'd probably be happy that Lin sent a third of his wages back home.
... Had they even noticed the amount of coin had gone up with his new pay rate? No, that would be silly. They wouldn't even get the coin for another week. It wasn't like he could afford a carrier bird.
Well, maybe he could now, but his parents would probably rather there was a delay in getting it to increase the coin by a few Zhu. Especially since a courier regularly made the route, so he could send his remittance for the low price of a single Qing, just five Zhu. If he had it carried by a bird, it might take only four or five days instead of a few weeks, but it would cost three Qing. That kind of money, sadly, made a difference in his home village. It had been half a weeks' pay as a recruit, too. He made a lot more now, twenty-five Qing per week, but still, habits were hard to break and he liked being frugal.
Getting a little bit of extra booze for either the garrison or its commanders would maybe help him in getting a few of the older soldiers to lay off of him, too.
It was always "Kyoshi Warriors this," or, "Kyoshi Warriors that," these days. Like he didn't know he acted like an idiot and fool, flirting with them in his own terrible, stupid, bumpkin way.
Like any of those girls would really give him the time of day.
They were using him, and he knew it.
Curse Ty Lee and her gorgeous body, and grinding up on him publicly. Curse his reaction to it, which too many men had seen! It wasn't his fault that was the closest he'd ever been to a woman, much less a barely-clothed one!
And curse Mai, too, for thrusting those scrolls at him. He didn't want or need their scrutiny, and he didn't want the officers over his head knowing anything about it, either. So far, it seemed Lieutenant Jo Gai had kept quiet, because no one had said anything except for that one word of caution two weeks ago, but still.
He really, really didn't need or want the scrutiny of the Dai Li if they found out he had them!
Still, what he did need was simple. At least, for now. Training had been done, and Sandseal Platoon was near full strength again, thanks to the Lieutenant's (and his) hard work. Rumor had it General Quon had received orders from Ba Sing Se a few days earlier, so there was a chance they would be sent out on another mission.
With any luck, he and the rest of Birdfox Company would be sitting garrison duty. He was a soldier, and that was fine, but he preferred the quieter life overall. Didn't he?
Yes, of course he did. He didn't crave the thrill of battle- that was ridiculous. He wanted to live. He had been terrified at Boshi's camp in the Hibonyi Valley!
And every day since, come to think of it.
Yes... he could just do his job. Get the men back to the fort safely, get the supplies unloaded, and go about the rest of his workday. Then he could go to sleep, safe in his bed, and...
Hands roamed over his body. Several of them- many, even. Lin, born to a no-name family in a no-name village in southeastern Dukashi Prefecture, which was also in southeastern Jiuquan Province in the central part of the western Earth Kingdom, had been touched suggestively by a woman precisely one time. Well, on one night, but it had happened a few times that night.
He'd never had sex.
He'd never even kissed a girl.
But he sure was dreaming about it a lot, lately. Ever since that night one of the Kyoshi Warriors had sat on his lap, grinding herself subtly against him while half-dressed, and then coaxed him to her own camp.
The men had jeered and laughed and congratulated him as they had walked through the Birdfox camp.
They had really laughed and congratulated him when he'd returned, with the painted markings of no fewer than two dozen lips all over his face and neck.
"A man now," most of the veterans had said.
He was no such thing. He was a killer- well, a soldier, but one who was blooded- now. Yes, sure, that. He was an adult... sort of. Old enough, anyway. He earned an adult soldier's wages, and then some. An officer... hah! An officer, him. But he got paid like one, and for some strange reason, people listened when he talked. His friends were now his subordinates. It was strange, off-putting. Even upsetting. They fell quiet when he walked by, unless he inserted himself into their laughing conversations in the mess.
Even then, things were different, and he didn't like it.
But this dream was more different still.
Hands. So many, he couldn't keep track. Touching here, there, everywhere. All at once. Roving over each other, but mostly him. Hands with no arms attached, he was sure. Just fingers and palms, stroking, caressing, rubbing. Pumping.
Yes, two- or was it three?- were definitely working his cock. Fingers played around his lips, making him almost imagine he was being kissed, so light were the touches. Along the shell of his ear. Beneath his ball-sack, the sensitive flesh there no one ever touched but him, and that probably not often, so it must stink. Maybe he should bathe more...?
Hands on his nipples. Rolling his testicles in them...
The scent of a woman's body, just over his face, with all the touches, was too much. He climaxed, and...
"Captain Taijin."
"Sir?" Lin stiffened slightly, subtly, at General Quon's word, and more as the commanding officer of Birdfox Company saluted the bear-like figure of their fortress' General.
"We have a report of two more bandit camps in southern and south-eastern Jiuquan. Birdfox will assault the western one first, then cut through Anchang Province to Pingjin City. From there, you'll cross the Pingjiang river and head north-northeast to Dukashi Prefecture. There's a village there that's said to be housing several bandits. You'll use those to track down the camp's exact location. Oh, and you'll meet up with a bit of reinforcement in Pingjin, too. Your code-phrase will be, 'Earth Kingdom Prospers.' The response will be, 'Eternally.' Do you understand?"
"Yes, Sir," Taijin replied quickly.
"Good," General Quon huffed, then glanced around the staff meeting room where Lin was currently acting as Jo Gai's scribe. "The reinforcements asked for him specifically. I suppose he might know the area, given his name."
Lin swallowed deeply when she looked at him, then gulped again, audibly, when he realized she was probably right. The nearest village across the border from Pingjin was... his.
There were bandits hiding in his home village? That... was not good. Not good at all.