ATLA: Book One: Water |Makki|

Chapter Nine

"I'm not his girlfriend..!"

"She's not my girlfriend!"

The lady simply laughed at our reactions before winning the arm-wrestling match. Over half of the tavern began to cheer as people threw money onto the table.

"Your beast trashed my ship," Prince Zuko stated. "You have to pay me back."

"Well, I'd love to help you out, but I'm a little short on money," the lady smiled as she collected all the money thrown onto the table. "Drinks on me!"

The tavern cheered.

If I'm being completely honest, I kinda like her.

The lady went to take a drink from her cup but Prince Zuko stopped her.

"Money isn't what I had in mind," he growled before dragging her outside. "I need you to find someone."

|~||~||~|

Outside the tavern, Prince Zuko brought out my mother's necklace and showed it to the lady, who we learned was named June and her beast is named Nyla.

I'm still really mad at him for not giving me that necklace, but after burning me, I've learned to be more cautious when speaking to him... but not fearful.

"What happened?" she asked. "Tracking down an ex of yours?"

"It's not the owner I'm after. It's the bald Monk she's traveling with," Prince Zuko explained.

"Whatever you say," June shrugged.

"If you find them, I'll consider the damage to my ship paid for."

"Forget it," June scoffed before climbing on Nyla.

"Plus we'll pay your weight in gold," Iroh added.

June hopped off of Nyla, smirked, and walked up to Iroh.

"Make it your weight and we got a deal," she said.

"You got it!" Iroh laughed.

"Get on," June ordered as she ripped my mother's necklace out of Prince Zuko's hand.

"Be careful with that!" I exclaimed as she held the necklace up to Nyla's nose.

"Before you get on," Prince Zuko gripped my shoulder to stop me from climbing on.

I turned to face him and saw that he was holding out some rope, indicating that my hands had to be tied.

"How did I not see this coming?" I sighed.

"If you refuse, I can just leave you here," said Prince Zuko.

"Are you crazy?" I glared holding my hands out to him.

Prince Zuko quickly bound my hands before helping me onto the shirshu and climbing up after me. After us came June, and once she was on top of the shirshu, she whipped the reins and the beast shot off into the woods.

|~||~||~|

On our way toward my siblings and Aang, we found ourselves in a small Earth Kingdom village where the shirshu slowed down.

"Why're we stopping?" Prince Zuko complained.

"Because the girl must've spent a lot of time here," June explained.

"We have no time for this," said Prince Zuko as he took the necklace from June.

"Seriously, don't just toss that thing around!" I yelled.