Eleven Months Later
Zuko
"Come on, Stryder!" I encourage the young Wolf Horse under me, putting a little more pressure into his flanks and he takes off into a full gallop. "Whoooooo-hoooooo!" I yell as he hits his stride. I grip my rope in my hand, ready to throw it as soon as we're close enough. When Stryder closes the distance between us and the filly we're chasing, I throw the rope and grip tight as the filly tries to pull it away. She bucks and rears, and waterbends at me, but I dissipate it with Fire Breath before it can reach me. I lean backwards on Stryder's back, and he stops in response, making the filly stop with us.
"Alright, Girl." I smile. "Let's go. Don't worry, you're going to love your new home." I tell her, and Stryder turns around and we canter back to the corral with the new Filly reluctantly in tow.
Eleven months ago, Katara and I got betrothed and I told Sokka by our wedding day I wanted to have thirteen Wolf Horses to give Hakoda, honoring an old tradition not really in use anymore, but is from Katara's favorite Tribe story. I want to make our wedding day special for her, and I hope this is something she'll remember forever.
The last eleven months, Sokka and I have captured twelve wild Wolf Horses and tamed them. We even built a wooden corral and round pen for training. Now, there's only one horse left: A pure White Wolf Horse. I was close to giving up. But by the will of the spirits, I was looking for the last time today before I was going to throw in the towel and just get a regular one for the thirteenth, I saw it in the wild herd. A beautiful pure white Filly. Now she's mine.
"Alright, Stryder." I pat his neck as he slows to a trot and we enter the corral, me opening and closing the gate carefully from his back. "That's a good boy." I take the rope off the filly's neck and watch as she whinnies and gallops in the corral, bucking and rearing. She's beautiful, Spirited, and wild. Katara's going to love her. "We did good today, Stryder." I smile.
Stryder was the third horse we captured. By then, Sokka had taught me how to ride. He's a four year old pure black stallion, and my bond with him has grown strong over the last year. It'll be hard to leave him here in the Southern Water Tribe, but it's for the best. Yes, Wolf Horses can survive if they need to outside the Poles, but it's not where they're supposed to be. He'd miss the ice and snow, and his herd. So he'll stay here and I'll see him whenever I come back.
This is also why I got Katara a winged Phoenix-Horse she'll have as a wedding gift when we go back to the Fire Nation. She doesn't know anything about me and Sokka's project, but she's been working with Bato over the last year, helping him tame and train the already captured Wolf-Horses. She absolutely loves them. She may not be able to have a Wolf Horse in the Fire Nation, but she'll have a Phoenix-Horse that hopefully she'll love just as much. And unlike Wolf-Horses, Phoenix-Horses are winged and can fly.
I watch as the white filly settles down and goes over to the rest of the herd. I pat Stryder's neck and exit the corral and he goes over to her. It doesn't take long for everyone to start biting and kicking at the new filly. That used to make me super nervous, but Sokka explained to me that it's simply how Wolf-Horses establish a pecking order. Their skin is so thick it takes a lot more than what they're doing to get hurt. Within ten minutes of me watching, everyone settles down. The new filly didn't succeed in taking over Stryder's place as leader of the herd, but fought everyone else tooth and hoof, earning a respectful second. Impressive for a filly that can't be more than three.
"Hey Zuko, did you catch a thirteenth?" I hear Sokka call as he walks up. I smile. He didn't think I was going to find a white one.
"Yeah. Take a look." I say as he hops onto the fence with me. I smirk as he scans the herd until he sees her, and his jaw drops.
"No spots anywhere? A pure white one?" He asks.
"Correct." I smile. "Now your Grandmother can see three in her lifetime."
"That's incredible. How's his temperament?"
"It's a Filly, maybe three years old. She's Feisty. But she submits to Stryder."
"Well, we've already done what I would've thought was impossible: Caught and trained thirteen Wolf Horses. You've got a month to tame her. Think you can do it?" He asks. I smile.
"If I can tame Stryder, I can handle it. What should we name her?" I ask, right as she sneezes and makes mist surround her with her bending, giving her a silver sheen. He smiles.
"Silvermist."
"I love it. I think Katara will too. Alright, Silvermist. Today get used to the herd. Tomorrow, the work begins."
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