Loyal (Male!Azula X OC)

5: The Chase

"Hmm..." Azulaan said pondering over his dinner.

"Is something troubling you, Prince Azulaan?" I asked, refilling his tea cup.

"It's this whole tracking business. Tracking something that flies can't be easy. And my brother is going to do everything in his power to avoid us..."

"The easiest way to track Zuko and Iroh may be to track the Avatar. If you're both after the same thing, your paths are sure to cross."

Azulaan sat back in his chair. "You may be right, Reen. Now how do I track the Avatar?" He thought to himself for a moment.

"We don't," I said abruptly.

"Oh?" Azulaan said, a curious smile playing on his face. "What do you propose instead?"

"Spring is here and the Avatar has already mastered air," I said. "I know from history that only master air benders received the blue arrow tattoos. He has a water bender with him. She's rather good too so I can assume he's working on water. The next element in the cycle would be earth, which is why he was in New Ozia. He likely hoped the crazy old king would teach him. So we have our place to start. Now a way to track becomes easy once we find it. Earth Kingdom Springs get rather warm and fuzzy animals shed winter coats. They're flying on a bison."

"We simply need to track the animal," Azulaan smiled. "Very well done, Reen. I'm actually impressed."

"Thank you, Prince Azulaan."

***

It wasn't long before we were hot on the trail of the Avatar in a war tank. Eventually we came to a stop at the foot of a mountain.

The door opened with a loud air lock release and the four of us rode out on the back of our giant lizards. With a small grunt from our lizard mounts, we started up the mountin at remarkable speed.

As we rode upward a small figure on the edge of the cliff hit the ground. A large amount of earth was disturbed as large rock formations rose to impede us. We simply rode over each one.
The next obstacle was a sudden wall of earth. I watched from my mount as Azulaan moved his right arm under himself while blue electricity sparked around it then brought his left arm over and across his chest. He released the blast of lightning which destroyed a portion of the wall. We rode through unimpeded and continued our pursuit.

Mai who raised her left arm and released four arrows from her wrists directly at the earth bender. The small figure shot into the air, propelled by earth and landed in the saddle as the bison took off once again. The arrows embedded themselves in the rock that had propelled the earth bender.

I released the rains long enough to send a double blast of reddish purple flames, the hottest I had ever been able to master, at the bison. When the smoke cleared, the bison, and in turn the Avatar, were far out of my reach. I lowered my arms with a scowl.

***

We continued tracking them, haulting out lizards at the side of a river. Wet fur clung to the rocks.

Mai picked up a bit of the fur. "Wads of wet fur. How delightful."

Tye Lee put his hand on his face thoughtfully. "Hmm... They're not wads, more like... bundles." Azulaan stood and looked around. "Or bunches... It's got an "uh" sound."