Flames of Destiny

3. PATIENCE IS NOT HIS CUP OF TEA

Zuko was slowly losing his patience. He just lost count of the number of times his uncle had theatrically whined in pain as they passed the line of trees.

It's been over three hours that the pair have been riding, having left their temporary shed when the sun had just started rising in search of the nearest village to re-provision. Their stranger-guest, 'Zhang', had opted against following them according to Iroh having collected his weird looking clothes. The old man had seemed slightly disappointed that the stranger did not wish to tag along, a sentiment that the exiled-Prince did not share with his uncle.

He turned his head to look at Iroh as the older man let out another whine and watched as his uncle clasped his left shoulder while recoiled in pain. Though his face showed it was more of an exaggeration.

"Maybe we should make camp," Zuko suggested. For all one knows his uncle was playing around, but the teen did not want to take the chance that Iroh's injury was being aggravated from the travel or the heat.

"No, please," the older man pleaded, forcing out the words between gritted teeth. "Don't stop just for me."

Heeding Iroh's words, Zuko kept their ride moving forth. There had been silence for a mere minute before he heard his uncle groaned in pain again. The firebender had enough of Iroh's shenanigans and pulled the reins, forcing the ostrich-horse to halt at a nearby rock.

The former general saw the small stop they made and hopped off their mount to sit atop the rock. Zuko also dismounted, walking towards his uncle as he watched the older man massage his shoulder.

A small whine escaped the ostrich-horse throat, which made Zuko turn and inspect the cause of the sound. He noticed the animal was looking behind them, its eyes wider than normal. Seeing their ride acting up and feeling the small tremors on the ground, Zuko entered his battle stance as he prepared for an ambush.

Iroh too felt the tremors, which were getting stronger by each passing second but merely let out a weary sigh while looking in the same direction as his nephew and the ostrich-horse.

"What now?"

As if answering the former general's question the tremors stopped for a moment, then five komodo rhinos in red armour jumped out of the thicket surrounding the duo. Each komodo rhino had a rider on it, who spotted different looking armour but all had a similar colour scheme - red and black of the Fire Nation.

The komodo rhino standing in front of Zuko and Iroh stomped its left foot onto the ground, creating cracks on the surface.

Zuko's eyes narrowed and steadied his stance, raising his hands to the same level as his head as he eyed the rider that towered above him.

The rider spotted a black armour that adopted red accents across it. His head was clean-shaven bar the man bun tied at the top along with the long, straight moustache that originates on the corners of the mouth and beard.

"Colonel Mongke!" Iroh greeted happily, taking Zuko aback with the excited tone his uncle had used to greet the rhino rider blocking their escape. "What a pleasant surprise!"

Colonel Mongke maintained a straight face. "If you're surprised we're here, then the Dragon of the West has lost a few steps." With that, he clanged his bracers several times, and Zuko realized that the other riders drew their weapons. One held a guandao, one notched an arrow onto his bow and pulled the string, one pulled out a stick of dynamite and another started swinging his chains.

Zuko took a step back but did not lower his guard as he whispered to Iroh.

"You know these guys?"