Wandering Prince
Avatar the Last Airbender, Zuko SI
14
----------------------------------------
“Ugh,” one of the men I’d captured groaned pitifully where he lay on the ground. The other was completely insensate, staring up at the sky with a sort of broken look.
“That’s… mildly terrifying,” Yue murmured.
“Yeah, kinda,” I admitted, looking down at the two in disgust. “Come on, let’s go.”
“Mm.” Yue followed me the short distance back to the shore and we climbed onto the boat. I got it moving, pointed southwest.
In the distance, we could make out mountains covered in forests. To the left, east, the river leading back to West Lake emptied out into the ocean. I estimated we were maybe a day’s travel from where the coast in front of us would turn south. According to my newly updated map, the nearest town was Senlin Village, maybe a day and a half to two days away. The map seemed to indicate that it was either haunted or home to a spirit. Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember which one, if any—but I was very interested in meeting my first spirit, so I wanted to go investigate.
“So…” Yue spoke up after some time of riding in silence and simply sitting at my side. I glanced over at her and sent her a raised eyebrow. “Where did you learn to do that?”
“The lion turtle I met, I think. I’m still figuring out energybending, but that aspect seemed kind of… instinctive?” I hummed, scratching my head. “It felt natural. I felt their chi. I felt my own. I reached out with mine, grabbed the part of theirs that felt like either water or earth, and pulled it out. Then poof, no more bending. They still have chi, but no ability to bend elements.”
“And giving them the ability to bend fire?”
“Just shoved a bit of my own fire chi in there and it sort of lit up. To make a comparison, it was like lighting a candle with one I already had lit.”
That was perhaps the most unsettling part of the whole experiment—just how simple it was to remove their ability to bend. The mechanics of it was simple, anyway. Actually doing the deed required me to overpower them. And while I was fairly strong as a bender, I didn’t have as much raw metaphysical strength as a lion turtle, or the Avatar, or even Yue, blessed by the moon as she was. I could do it, but my playing around with a couple of random pirates to figure it out had shown me that it was likely never going to be truly easy. Not unless I became some monster bending prodigy on par with the Avatar in my own element.
Which, if I don’t have to worry about getting old, might actually be within reach. Eventually.
“So you could turn me into a firebender?” Yue asked, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Sure, maybe. If you didn’t fight me taking away your waterbending. And assuming I even could, miss blessed by the moon spirit.” Yue giggled and I added, “It’d be easier to make you an energybender.”
Yue blinked, before raising an eyebrow. “You can do that?”
“Maybe. Want to try?” I offered, and the girl nodded. Reaching out, I took her hand and focused on trying to pass on that particular skill.
After several minutes, Yue said, “I don’t feel any different.”
“It’s not working. It feels like I should be able to, I’m just not there yet.” To put it in more mundane terms… it was kind of like being spiritually constipated. I knew I could, it just wasn’t coming.
Yue hummed, before smiling. “We can keep practicing until you get it.”
I nodded, before letting go of her hand and putting my arm around her, earning a happy sound from Yue. “I’ll try again later. Don’t want to try to force it and get something wrong.”
“Mm.”
We settled in and enjoyed the ride as we grew closer to the opposite shore, and the Earth Kingdom’s mainland. As we went, I wondered how everyone else was doing. What my sister and our friends were up to in the capital. I hoped uncle Iroh was keeping Azula out of trouble, but somehow, I doubted it.
----------------------------------------
June considered the bank and the two men laying there, insensate. Nearby, there was sign that a boat had landed briefly, before pushing off again. Judging by the way Nyla acted, the cues the well-trained shirshu was giving off, they weren’t far behind. Their quarry had been here as recently as only a few hours ago.
“Hahn,” one of the waterbenders called as he checked out the two other men. “Something’s wrong with these guys.”
“They’re pirates. Who cares?” June asked, rolling her eyes. “We’re close. I would say half a day, but…”
“But?” Hahn demanded, and June pointed south.
“They’ve got a boat and your guys are tired.” Whoever this Zuko guy was, she had to admire his stamina. He had enough to outlast four waterbenders trying their hardest to close the distance between them. “There’s a bridge not far from here. We can go up, cross over, and follow the shore. From there, it’s a couple of days on foot to the nearest village. If you’re planning to fight them, it may be best to take some time to rest first. I can scout ahead with Nyla and see if they decided to stop or move on.”
“What makes you think they stopped?”
“You said this guy was some kind of scholar or something.”Hahn scoffed. “Or something,” he agreed. “I think he’s a grave robber who can tell a good story.”
June shrugged. “Either way. A place like Senlin would likely be on his list, if he knows about it.”
Hahn looked confused. “Why’s that?”
The mercenary grinned, shifting in her saddle as she recalled the tales she’d heard in the bar, the few times she’d passed through. “Forest’s haunted. They say a spirit protects it.”
The water tribesman rolled his eyes. “Sure.”
“Hahn!” one of the men called, and he and June looked over to see one of the pirates sitting up.
Hahn stomped over and crouched down to the pirate’s eye level. “We’re looking for a guy. Fire Nation. Black hair, gold eyes. Traveling with a water tribe woman with white hair.”
The pirate’s eyes went wide. “D-d-demon! Evil spirit! You can’t! Stay away from him!”
June frowned at the rambling, wondering what could have turned a hardened killer into a blubbering child. Hahn reacted by slapping the man across the face. “Talk sense, or I’ll put you out of your misery now!”
The pirate focused on Hahn and nodded shakily. “We, our port was attacked in the night. There was a fire and we,” he gestured between himself and the other man, who was still staring blankly at the sky, “were called to put it out.”
Hahn looked between the two, clearly recognizing as June did that the one still out of it was water tribe. “Benders?”
“Y-yeah. He’s water, I’m earth,” the pirate confirmed. “We was in the middle of putting it out before it spread when there was this crack like thunder and I felt like I’d been kicked by an ostrich horse. It knocked us both on our asses. I was too out of it to fight back. Someone carried us out and threw us on a boat. Then,” he trembled, clamming up for a moment before Hahn laid a hand on his sword. “The guy did something. He put his hand on my head and reached inside where he shouldn’t’a. I tried to fight it, but it was… it was like trying to fight a landslide. He grabbed something inside me and pulled it out, and I couldn’t sense the earth anymore. I can’t bend! He took my bending!”
Frowning, Hahn stood up and looked to the four benders in their group, who all wore disconcerted looks. “Is that even possible? Or is this guy just nuts?”
“Ehh,” one of them hemmed, before answering, “You know those old stories about how we used to live on the back of a lion turtle?” When Hahn nodded, he continued, “Supposedly, the lion turtles gave men bending when they went out to hunt and took it away when they came back.”
“But those are just stories,” another of them murmured.
“So he’s crazy.”
“I’m not crazy!” the pirate roared, surging to his feet—only to get a spear through the heart an instant later as one of the water tribe warriors reacted.
As the Earth Kingdom man fell onto his back, Hahn nodded to the other pirate. “The traitor too. Then we’ll start walking.” He looked at June and asked, “Which way to the bridge?”
June gave Nyla a nudge and started the shirshu moving, following the bank at an easy pace the men should be able to keep up. As she went, she hummed quietly, turning over the pirate’s words.
Sure. Maybe he was crazy. But… I’ve seen weirder shit. Spirits and bender shit are all kind of out there, so why not a bender who can remove someone’s ability to bend? Maybe I’ll ask when I run him down. Not like it can hurt me if he can somehow do it.
It was nearly noon when they made it to the bridge and began to cross. June whistled quietly as, below them, she spotted a Fire Nation cruiser puffing along at full steam down the river. “They’re in a hurry.”
“Not our problem,” Hahn grunted, before seeming to reconsider. “But if the opportunity arises, maybe we can steal their ship. If we can figure out how to get it to move, it’d make an excellent prize to cement my position as the next chief when I return with Yue, and Zuko’s head.”
“I’m not being paid enough to assault a Fire Nation cruiser,” June shook her head. When Hahn looked to one of his men, who began taking out another pouch of beads, June cut them off. “Nyla’s not fireproof. You can’t pay me enough to risk her.”
“Tch. Fine.”
----------------------------------------
“Come on, Mai~! You can’t still be mad we missed him!” Ty Lee sighed, leaning against the railing beside her friend.
Mai shot her a look out of the side of her eye. “I’m not.”
“Hmm,” Ty Lee hummed skeptically, before smiling. “Then it’s because of this fiancee.”
Mai’s hands clenched on the metal railing and she felt her eye twitch. “No.”
“But think about it! Isn’t it romantic?! A prince in self-exile. A sheltered princess. Both from nations at war with each other. Then, they run away together because her tribe wouldn’t approve and his father would see them both executed before allowing anything to come of it! Huge star-crossed lovers vibes there!”
“Would you shut up?” Mai sighed, looking up at the sky and sending a silent prayer to her ancestors to give her patience to deal with Ty Lee for another day without smothering the girl with a pillow. Blinking, she spotted a bridge crossing the canyon they were passing through and some kind of large animal with a rider. Squinting, she could make out what looked like a group of water tribe traveling with the rider. “What is that?”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Hm?” Ty Lee blinked, tilting her head back and following her friend’s gaze up. “Oh! That’s a shirshu! They’ve got a reeeally long tongue that can paralyze if it feels threatened.” Humming, she tilted her head slightly. “Those guys look like bad news. Water tribe though.” Perking up, her eyes went wide and she grinned. “D’ya think they’re looking for their lost princess?!”
Mai hummed. “Water tribe, in the middle of nowhere in the Earth Kingdom, heading the same general direction we are and we’re following what we believe to be Zuko’s most likely route, and he’s got their princess with him. What do you think?”
“I think this is going to be fun~!”
Sighing, Mai shook her head. “Well, there’s nothing we can do about it for now.” Glancing at Ty Lee, she asked, “What makes you so sure that Zuko’s going to stop in the next village? Aren’t you usually the one asking me what I think?”
Ty Lee’s head tilted slightly and she grinned at Mai. “That’s easy. He’s here for that,” she pointed ahead, to where the canyon they were in fell off and a forest came right up to the shore. “You can’t feel it?”
“Feel what?”
“There’s a powerful spirit in that forest. It’s protected! You know Zuzu’s always had a thing for stuff like this! The map says that village is the closest, so he’ll probably stay there for a few days to explore the forest and try to meet the spirit.”
“You sure he wasn’t just humoring you?” Mai sniped cattily.
Ty Lee stuck out her tongue. “Unlike someone, our Zuzu has an open mind!”
“Uh huh,” Mai sighed. Standing up, she stretched and headed for the ladder. “Come on. We should get some practice in while we can. Just in case he doesn’t want to come with us and this… fiancee wants to put up a fight.”
“And in case we have to fight the water tribe,” Ty Lee nodded, hopping up onto the railing and launching herself onto the ladder, before sliding down. “Race you to the deck!”
“Cheater.”
----------------------------------------
I considered my clothes for a moment before hanging my jacket up and deciding against it. Right off the ocean, and further south as we were, the temperature had gotten much milder. The nights were still cold, but days were warm enough that I could do without—especially given that I planned for us to do some hiking. Yue was wearing one of her new silk outfits in Earth Kingdom colors and had been since we torched the pirate town, as she had started feeling uncomfortably warm during the days. I almost felt sorry for her, knowing that it was only going to get warmer from here.
I left the cabin and took my seat at the tiller as Yue moved aside. Sending me an excited look, she asked, “Is there really a spirit in the forest?”
“Maybe. That’s what the map says. I guess we’ll find out.”
“I’m so excited! I’ve never seen a spirit before!” Yue gushed, and I turned an amused look on her. Blinking, she giggled. “Outside of the Water and Moon spirits, but those don’t count! I saw those every day!”
“I’ll make sure to tell them they don’t count next time we’re up north.”
“Don’t you dare!” Yue pouted and I chuckled. Turning her attention forward, she eyed the village ahead of us. “So, where do we go after this?”
I hummed, thinking it over. We had some time before we needed to be in Omashu to see if we could arrange seeing Bumi, to let him know about the visitors heading his way.
On the one hand, I don’t like doubling back. It kind of annoys me. On the other, it’s not like we’re on a time crunch. Yue doesn’t mind and we’ll be flying that leg of the journey so it won’t take long anyway. I want to see if we can find Toph and convince her to come with. So…
“Gaoling. Stop off for coal, then we’ll fly for Gaoling. But first, let’s see if we can find a spirit.”
Only a few minutes later, I was lowering the sails and cutting the engine, and the boat eased up onto the sandy bank, before Yue gave us a push—bending the water under us to send us further up the bank, well out of the reach of the water at high tide. I lowered the mast and took a few moments to tie off to a tree as a force of habit, then we collected our bags from inside the cabin. Grabbing a spare bit of metal, I took a moment to spot weld the cabin door shut to keep out unwanted visitors, then we left the boat and started up the beach for the village.
The gates were open and unguarded aside from a man standing in a watchtower, so we made our way inside and started looking around. The place was a tiny, walled in village—the walls clearly erected by an earthbender. There couldn’t have been more than thirty buildings total, including the big one on the far side of the village. Walking up the streets, we saw there was a general store, a smith, a carpenter, and a small bar with the rest apparently being homes.
Yue smiled at an old lady walking down the street carrying a basket full of bread. “Hello! My name is Yue. I’m a healer. Do you know if there’s anyone in need of aid?”
“These old joints could use some care. Beyond that,” the old woman jerked a thumb back behind her, towards the largest building in town, “why don’t you go ask the headman?”
“Mm! Thank you!” Yue smiled and gave a little bow, before taking my hand and dragging me along. It wasn’t long before we had spoken with the headman and Yue was set up in his front room, with a line of villagers coming in to have their bumps, scrapes, aches, and pains soothed away. While she did that, I politely interrogated the headman about the spirit in the forest.
According to the headman, the spirit in the forest was a forest spirit. I contained my eye roll as he went on to tell tales of how it looked after the forest, supposedly showed them which trees to fell, and generally peacefully coexisted with the village. From what I gathered, it was benign and generally kept to itself, unless it got curious. There were rumors that it took the form of a panda, but no one could truly confirm that, according to the chief.
Once the well ran dry on information about the spirit, I checked in with Yue and saw she would be a while—the rest of the day, most likely. Seeing as she was occupied and I didn’t think there would be any trouble in this small town, I made my way outside and down to the beach to get in some practice.
I fell into my usual routine, doing my standard physical exercises first, before moving on to my swords, then on to bending. When I finished my run through of the standard firebending katas, I began on a new one I’d started putting together based on what I had seen of waterbending and how my fire-as-water bending worked.
Arcs of fire rolled out over the water, hitting the surface and spreading as they quickly burned off. Fireballs went out over the water with the same launch velocity as my normal fireballs, only to explode either on impact with the water or after a short distance, spraying the area with flaming sheets and droplets of fire. Large waves of fire moved like oil over the surface of the water, several feet tall but growing shorter the further out they went, spreading in a wide arc from where I’d launched them and engulfing a large area in front of me.
Once I was satisfied with my practice with fire-as-water for now, I moved on to my latest project. I didn’t have an airbender to study from, but I did have copied scrolls in my journal, detailing their forms and bending style. Without someone to observe, I’d have to make it up as I went along, but honestly that was half the fun. Now that I had some experience with water, I was trying to move on to air to see what I could do there.
The simplest use was, ironically, something I had figured out ages ago. Blue fire was really just getting fire up to the right temperature to shift to blue. This could be done one of two ways. The first was simply adding more energy—which is what Azula did. She had burned way more chi to get her fire hotter, until she figured out the other method. The other method being, using chi to draw in more fuel.
So, I practiced drawing in more fuel, then producing jets with my strikes. I already did similar when I wanted to cut something. It was basic, but as I practiced, I slowly gained more of a feel for how fire and air interacted, now that I was looking for it. As I worked, I began experimenting. Trying to cram more fuel into fireballs without burning it until I was ready. Trying to increase the velocity of my fireballs, or even find a way to launch them further. If I could mimic a cannon using air and fire, I thought that would be ideal for launching fireballs at range.
Eventually, as it got dark, I moved on from fire to energybending. Practice there was much slower than it was with fire. I was still trying to figure out what it could do, so I was pretty much just throwing things at the wall to see what would stick. Today’s experiment? Cramming as much chi as I could into a ball and flinging it out over the water like a fireball.
It was well past dark when Yue stopped behind me as I threw out one last ball, watching it zip over the water before exploding in a concussive blast that rattled my teeth in my skull even from this distance. Soft, warm hands landed on my bare shoulders and she pressed herself against my shirtless back.
“The village is throwing a feast as payment for healing everyone. Come eat with us.”
“Sure,” I agreed. “If you’ll give me some water to wash off. I worked up a sweat.”
“It doesn’t smell bad,” Yue chuckled, but did as I asked. Once I felt clean, I dried off and pulled on my shirt and joined her on the walk to the village. They had roasted something that looked vaguely pig-like and it smelled delicious.
----------------------------------------
So, that’s the boat, June mused as Nyla stopped beside it, sniffing around.
It’s got one of those bending engines on it, like Hahn said. And a coal engine. Must be new, because he didn’t mention that. But what’s the rest of this crap? Mounting point on the top that ties into the drive shaft… Why would you put a screw on top? Something big in that case along the left side of the top. Some kind of… smoke stack coming from the top? Why would you route it through the cabin, then have it come up there? Seems like it’d just get in the way of the sails and whatever is in the case. Sails aren’t painted black from soot, so it’s obviously not actually smoke coming out of there.
Sliding off Nyla, June dropped into the sand and climbed onto the boat. Finding the latches on the tube shaped case along the top, she popped them open and lifted the case open. “Cloth?” she murmured, fingering the blue material she found inside.
Spare sail maybe? No, doesn’t have the same consistency as sailcloth. It’s lighter. Thinner. Ropes over it, too…
Moving down the tube and getting ready to close it, she paused as she spotted something near the ‘smoke stack’ on top. Pulling out the material, she found a hole that roughly corresponded to the location of the stack and was just a bit wider.
So, this goes over the hole. Why? It’d just fill up with smoke. …Or hot air.
Slowly, an idea began to take shape in the bounty hunter’s mind, as memories of the Fire Festival held in some colonial villages surfaced… and the lanterns they lit and released, that filled the sky. June’s eyes widened as everything fell into place. How they had crossed the land with the boat. Why there would be a screw on top of the boat. Why they would route hot air up into a balloon the size of a boat.
Is that even possible? she wondered briefly, before shaking her head. No, it must be, otherwise there’d be no point to all of this and they couldn’t have crossed miles and miles of forests, even with a waterbender moving it over the land somehow.
Carefully putting the balloon back in, she closed everything up and left it as she’d found it, before climbing back into Nyla’s saddle. She kicked the shirshu into motion as she turned over what she now knew. Nyla circled the village, then took off heading north, following a trail into the forest—and from all the signs she was giving off, the trail was fresh.
Air travel hasn’t really been a thing since the airbenders were killed off and the flying bison went into hiding. If someone’s figured out how to do it with mechanical power, the same way the Fire Nation moves their ships, then this is big. As big as coal engines and steam powered ships. Haven’t seen the Fire Nation flying around in big fucking war balloons, so it’s new. Either this Zuko guy stole it, bought it, or he came up with it. First case, there’s someone else out there who knows how to make flying balloons. Last case, it’s just this guy. There’s going to be a lot of money in this. A lot of power, too. Do I really want to piss off the guy who’s probably going to be some rich lord very soon?
Nyla slowed and June walked her into the forest a few yards before she eased back on the reins, bringing the shirshu to a stop. “Stay here,” she murmured, slipping out of the saddle and moving silently through the forest while following the trail. It wasn’t long before she heard voices and shortly after, she got her first look at her quarry.
That’s definitely a water tribe princess, June mused, crouching in the undergrowth as she watched them stop to gather edible plants. The girl she assumed to be Yue picked a large mushroom and offered it to the man, Zuko, who made a disgusted face and offered a bag for Yue to toss it into with a giggle.
Cute. Shame I have to break this up, she mused, silently following them as they moved.
She followed for over an hour as they moved through the forest, before Zuko made some hand signs and Yue nodded, falling silent and crouching. Zuko jumped into a tree overhead and moved along above the trail, silent as a ghost as he drew an arrow and disappeared in the canopy. A few minutes later, an animal squealed. Shortly after that, June heard a whistle and Yue stood, following down the path after Zuko. June caught up in time to see them enter a clearing with some sort of statue depicting a family of bears in the middle and stream off to the side—Zuko carrying a freshly killed fox deer over his shoulder.
One shot, clean kill.
Over the course of the next few minutes, the pair cleaned and prepared the animal, then broke up to begin setting up camp. They were quick and efficient about it and it wasn’t long before they had the animal over a spit, roasting over a fire Zuko lit.
The longer she watched, the more she felt certain that Hahn was trying to bite off more than he could chew. But that wasn’t her problem. June wasn’t being paid to fight or advise, she was being paid to track—and she had. And from the looks of things, her quarry were making camp for the night, which would give her client an opportunity to ambush them.
June followed her trail back through the forest, then once she was certain she wouldn’t be heard, stepped out onto the trail and started jogging back to where she had left Nyla. It wasn’t long before she was riding her mount back out of the forest and down the beach beside the treeline. Eventually, she found Hahn and his band walking up the beach towards the town.
“Well? Did you find them?”
“Yeah, I found ‘em. They’re in the forest, camping for the night. It’ll be easier to head up to the town then take the trail straight to them.”
Hahn leered and started marching just a bit faster. “Finally, some good news! We’ll get close and set our own camp and get a few hours of sleep, then attack in the middle of the night.”
There were rounds of agreement from his men and June nodded, following along. “Then this is where we part ways. I’ll be in town, spending some of my hard earned money.”
“You know,” Hahn sent her a considering look, “the north could use someone like you.”
June shook her head. “Thanks, but no thanks. I’m more of a come and go as I please kind of girl. When you get to the village, cut east along the treeline and you’ll find a path heading north. They’re a few hours’ hike in, camped in a clearing. Less if you run.”
With that, she kicked Nyla into action and took off, not wanting to spend another unpaid minute with Hahn and his tagalongs. Behind her, she faintly heard Hahn grumble something along the lines of, “What a bitch.”
----------------------------------------
“Ahh, it’s locked,” Ty Lee sighed.
“Welded shut,” Mai shook her head, pointing to the join Zuko had made to keep the door to the boat’s cabin closed. “Come on, let’s—”
“Oh hey, it’s that shirshu!”
Mai paused, watching as the big animal and its rider approached from the north. Remembering who they had seen that rider with last, she leapt off the boat and motioned for Ty Lee to follow as the big animal slowed and leapt over the gate leading into town, ambling down the street. They watched as the rider dismounted and led the big animal into a small side street beside what looked like the local watering hole.
“Nyla, stay,” the leather-clad woman ordered, heading into the bar.
Mai and Ty Lee exchanged a look before Mai pointed up the street, towards the largest building in town. “Ask around. See if anyone’s seen Zuko. I’m going to go keep an eye on the mercenary and see what I can learn.”
“Right. If she’s here, those Water Tribe guys won’t be far. We need to find Zuzu before they do and warn him!”
Mai nodded and the pair split up, Mai making her way into the bar. Looking around, she spotted the older woman sitting on a stool at the small bar itself. Making her way over, Mai dropped into the seat beside her.
“What’ll it be?” the man behind the bar asked, and Mai shrugged, opening her coin purse and producing a gold coin.
“What will that get me?”
The man quickly swiped it and bit into it, before nodding. He pulled something down off the top shelf and dropped the dusty bottle on the counter with a glass. “Enjoy.”
Beside Mai, the older woman turned an amused look on her. “Let me guess… Rich noble girl and this is your first trip away from home? Fire Nation too.”
“Maybe,” Mai shrugged, pouring herself part of a glass. “Do you know anything about the area?”
“Heh. I’ve come through here a few times. I’ll tell you what I know if you’d be willing to share,” she nodded at the bottle. “It’s always more fun to drink with company than alone.”
Considering for a moment, Mai nodded. The older woman stood and nodded her head towards a table in the back and she followed. They sat and the older of the pair finished off her glass before holding it out for a refill. “June.”
“Mai,” Mai introduced herself as she sat and poured.
“The first thing you should know is to stay out of the forest at night. There’s a spirit that doesn’t like to be disturbed…”