ACT ONE. a game of cat-deer and mouse!
CHAPTER xi. ❛ AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH! ❜
bamboo forest,
southern united
republic of nations.
"SO...WHY RHINOS?" JING-HAI ASKED THE PRINCE from behind, mounting his noble steed: a gruelling rhinoceros with a grudge against waterbenders. It had taken them nearly an hour just for her to have climbed atop of the beast.
"Would you shut up? I'm trying to concentrate," Zuko snapped quietly.
Together, the pair had rode the pet along a trail within the woodland. They were on a quest to find his stolen uncle without any men to help. Zuko was already in a bad mood as it is. He didn't have the strength to hide any snide remarks he had for his army. Instead, he saved them all for his darling enemy. Jing-hai sighed from behind him and averted her eyes to the dusty trail ahead. That was when she spotted it. It was small and brown and hardly even noticeable ━━━━━━ until they grew closer, that is.
A sandal.
And most importantly, retired General Iroh's sandal.
She smacked Prince Zuko's back excitedly.
"Oh! Stop the rhino! Stop the rhino!" she cried and hopped off the animal anyway.
Instantly, her weakened limbs flopped to the ground and she smacked her head off the floor.
"Ouch," she groaned.
Zuko rolled his eyes and slipped off of his transport with effortless grace. "What is it, Princess?"
Jing-hai scowled and brushed herself off.
"Don't call me that!" she snapped.
He raised a wicked eyebrow. "Why not? That is what you are, isn't it? The Lost Princess?"
Jing-hai shuddered. "Not anymore."
Storming away, the waterbender marched over to the object and smiled, feeling accomplished. A tattered sandal abandoned on the trail. Zuko joined her side and picked up the shoe with a stick, daring to lift it to his face. A terrible odour plagued the air and the teens recoiled in disgust.
The sandal dropped back into the dirt.
"Yep. That's Uncle Iroh," Zuko confirmed with a grimace.
Jing-hai turned to him. "I guess we've caught scent of his trail."
The Prince fought back a smile and turned from the girl he hates, striding silently back to his Rhinoceros. He chose against humoring nor insulting her pun. And instead, her quip fell upon a more than tough crowd.
"What? That was funny!" Jing-hai called after him, giggling in glee.
"Come on. That was funny!"
∘₊𖦹─── ·࿐࿔· ───𖦹₊∘
mountain trail,
southern united
republic of nations.
"HEY! YOU BETTER NOT BE DROOLING ON MY SHOULDER," ZUKO GRUMBLED into the midnight sky ━━━━━━ feeling the rise and fall of Jing-hai's chest on his back. Quietly, she let out a little murmur in response. And for some strange reason, he couldn't bring himself to wake her. Perhaps because he hated her constant complaining all the time. Yes, that was it. The complaining. Because if the girl had been awake, she'd be a x1000 more annoying than she already was.
With her stubborn mouth and her ridiculous...hair.
It looked even more absurd right now, beneath the moonlight. Bone-white and sparkling amongst the stars.
He turns over his shoulder and watches her sleep into his arm. Her face squishes and her long eyelashes tickle her cheeks.
In her sleep, she mumbles and squeezes around him like he's her pillow.
Zuko only rolls his eyes.
As the moon goes down and the sun rises once again, the Banished Prince struggles to stay awake. The morning hit him like the blunt of a sword but, like the good little warrior he was, he soldiered on. But his rhino would be slowing down soon and he was losing track of the trail. For all he knows, his Uncle could be long gone by now. All he had left was hope. Hope that Iroh was still alive and hope that Princess Jing-hai would stop waking the jungle with her snoring. But before the Prince could shake her and order this himself, a loud gust of wind flies overhead. The pair are almost blown back off of their steed.
A flying bison zooms by.
"The Avatar!" Zuko cries out suddenly.
Jing-hai groggily sits up. "But what about your Uncle?"
The rhino turns in pursuit and Zuko hesitates.
Seizing her opportunity, Jing-hai puts her hand on the Prince's. He looks at her strangely and she puts on her most sympathetic gaze. The time for theatrics was now. A performance of a lifetime.
The things she does for her friends.
"Zuko, the Avatar can wait. You'll find him again. But your Uncle's in trouble. If we don't help him, he may die. You know what you have to do."
Before the boy can think it over, a naked old man rolls down from the mountain before them. The rhino comes to a halt as three Earthbenders chase him down ━━━━━━ one with a hand of melted skin. Iroh had certainly done a number on them. But before he could escape, they grab the shackled prisoner and force him to his knees. Then, slamming the man's hands onto a slab of stone, they raise a boulder in the air. The Earthbenders intend to break his bones. Iroh would never be able to bend again.
"Zuko," Jing-hai pleaded again.
Groaning in frustration, Zuko leaps off of the rhino and snatches his hand away.
Before Jing-hai can even follow, he breaks the boulder in two and severs Iroh's chains. A fight ensues and all the waterbender can do is watch in awe. As uncle and nephew work together, they move gracefully in sync. When one raises their arm, the other lifts their leg, destroying their opponents as if it's the easiest task in the world. And before she can even help out, the earthbenders are put to rest beneath their own diabolical landslide.
Jing-hai cheers.
Zuko ignores her and turns to his Uncle.
"Now can you put on some clothes?"
∘₊𖦹─── ·࿐࿔· ───𖦹₊∘
zuko's ship,
earth kingdom waters.
AT SOME POINT DURING THEIR JOURNEY BACK, Jing-hai collapses in exhaustion. It appears as though her date with death, however brief, had quite literally sucked the life out of her. Zuko claimed she was being melodramatic. Even still, she was slumped across him on the rhinoceros whilst Iroh rode at the back. And when the trio finally arrived back at the ship, he was happy to rid his hands of her. Well, almost. Catching the unconscious girl before she toppled off of the animal, Zuko passes her over to the closest man he could find.
"Prince Zuko, you're back!"
He grunts in response. "No thanks to you."
It was true.
His men had been too tired to soldier a mission only two teenagers could carry out. It was pathetic.
"Take the prisoner to her chambers. Have her seen to by a medic. She needs her wounds cleaned and bandaged," Zuko orders reluctantly. Though he would need her awake and healthy if she was going to help him find the Avatar.
"Of course, my Prince," the man bows and takes the waterbender away.
As Iroh and Zuko load back onto the ship, another of his crew step forward. "Sir, we've been interrogating an earthbender from the Senlin Village. He claims to know where the Avatar is heading."
The Prince grows alive with ambition. "Well? What are we waiting for?"
His men hesitate. "Well, Prince Zuko, the, uh, the problem is-..."
"What now?" he groans.
"The Avatar. He's heading to...for Winter Solstice-..."
"Where is he going?"
The penny finally drops.
"The Fire Nation, my Prince," his lily-livered soldier spits out.
"He's heading to the Fire Nation."
✧ ▬▭▬ AUTHOR'S NOTE! ▬▭▬ ✧
hi! omg it's been so long since I last updated this book but I'm lowkey back in my atla phase so I had some inspo to finish this chapter! idk if anyone is still here to read it but oh well! I hope you enjoy if you are!!!