6. Monsters (1.04 "The Warriors of Kyoshi")

Note: The recalled line from the first scene is from Chapter 43 of Shadow of the Dragon King. The reference to Tamalan is from the first major story arc of Shadow, running from about Chapters 1 through 14. A minor OC makes a reappearance here, if you can spot him.

"Prince Zuko, how can you even be sure the Avatar is on Kyoshi Island?" Uncle followed Zuko down the corridor, the smell of baked rockbass trailing behind them.

"It's the first lead I've had in weeks." He turned to Uncle, the foolish plate of fish in his hand. "I have to take the chance that it's true."

"Kyoshi Island is neutral territory. Given its location off the Earth-held coast-"

"It would be catastrophic if it turned to the Earth Kingdom, yes." Zuko looked away.

Uncle's voice rose. "Have you thought of the possibility, Zuko, that you might be walking into a trap?"

A vise gripped Zuko's chest. Can't you see, she sets traps for you and waits for you to stumble into them. What, did he need an exorcism now? Why did have a dead man's voice stuck in his head?

"I hardly think our Assistant Ship's Cook is an agent of hostile forces, Uncle," he managed through gritted teeth.

"You made that mistake before, I believe."

Lights flashed before Zuko's eyes and his hand jerked forward. He would have struck an elder of his House in anger for the first time in his life if the hand had been empty. As it were, he ended up thrusting the baked rockbass dish toward his Uncle, making him catch it by reflex.

"Fine, I'll prepare the rhinos. Enjoy your dinner, sir." He walked away, trying to control the shudder in his breath and ignoring Uncle's stammered apology.

The old man was wrong, thought Zuko as he went to his chambers to put on his armor. As though he would go attack neutral territory, like some belligerent child! It would not be a repeat of the last time, he would not let Father down, he couldn't...

With horror he noticed tears welling in his eyes and channeled his fire and rage through himself, willing it to burn away the chaff of old sorrows and childish fears.

From his seat on top of his rhino Zuko looked up at the village, with its two rows of houses leaving a rising street in between. The houses just had to be wood, of course, making this operation a nightmare for both sides if the locals were not cooperative. The statue of Avatar Kyoshi, its paint job newer than anything else in the village, loomed behind him. It was the only human figure to greet his party thus far, and in the late afternoon light the silence felt unnatural.

He took a breath and raised his voice.

"People of Kyoshi Island, I am Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. We have no quarrel with you, and honor your neutrality. We are not here as aggressors, but are on a mission for the survival and safety of our Nation."

No answer. The suspense as much as the discourtesy pricked at Zuko's temper.

"We only wish to find the Avatar, the Airbender who threatens the security of the Fire Nation. If you harbor him, or hinder our attempts to find him, you will have broken your own neutral status and we will act in self-defense. Will the Elder of the village come to treat with us, or shall we conduct a search ourselves?"

Nothing. Zuko let out a smoke-tinged breath. Again, the coward hid behind the skirts of superstitious women without lifting a finger to keep them safe.

"Is this how you want it, Avatar? To hide behind the common folk and force them to suffer? If you have any honor left you'll face me like a man."

The silence only seemed to deepen, and it occurred to Zuko this was a stalling tactic. His benders' fire would fall with the sun, and for all he knew the Avatar was making a stealthy getaway even now.

"Come out, Avatar! You can't hide from me forever."

He thought he saw movement around the houses. Whether this was a trick of the shadows or his own apprehension, he could not afford to give these people or the Avatar any more time.

"Find him."

Sergeant Yang and his men moved forward up the path between the houses; Zuko stayed at the entrance to direct the action and cut off the Avatar's escape. He had a feeling about what would come next, assuming the stories about this village were more than fodder for filthy books sold on Colonial street corners.

Shadows flowed along the tops of the wooden roofs. Before he could shout out a warning three figures flew down and knocked his men from their rhinos. More green-skirted girls leapt in, forcing the soldiers to engage. So much for neutrality.

Zuko was about to move in to support when one of the fighters shot between the combatants toward him, face lurid in the failing light and frock flapping with the force of her run. At least she was a sight more practically dressed than the cover of Kyoshi Kitty Kats that he had glimpsed on a Dao Ling bookstand and had looked away from, blushing for the artist.

She sidestepped the first of his fire blasts, leaped over the second. Then she dropped from the apex of her jump, to throw him from the saddle no doubt. As if! He reined sharp to the right so his rhino's tail whipped out, throwing her to the dirt. She had no more sense than the Water Tribe boy; here were more painted peasants masquerading as warriors.

He blasted fire at her sprawled form to keep her down, only to be blocked by another of her comrades. Just as he focused on this new threat a weight slammed into his middle, and Zuko realized he was flying through the air. A hard blow met the back of his head, exploding into darkness behind his eyes.

Dragging himself from oblivion and back to reality, he found himself on the wooden porch of a house. The green-robed forms closed in from all sides, looming over him. Stay back! He lashed out in a spinning kick with the reflex of panic, clearing them away, one of them sounding almost male as her legs were knocked out from under her.

Zuko stalked out to the street to take in the sight of the village, the combatants shadowy among the flames that licked over the wooden houses. Frustration pounded at his head: His sister and Mai would have had these girls chopped and fried by now. What was he doing, wasting time with the Avatar's human shields?

"Nice try, Avatar! But these little girls can't save you."

None of this had to happen. His fight was never with Kyoshi Island, any more than with the villagers at the South Pole. It was the Avatar, inducing these people to risk their own safety. This was all the Avatar's doing.

"Hey! Over here!"

And there he was, up the length of the village street, a steadier orange against the fires that bloomed around him. Zuko could have wept with relief. "Finally."

The Avatar dodged the first jet of fire, struck away a second, and leapt into the air to land just paces away. Zuko knocked the boy's staff out of his hands, the memory of its deadliness in his bones. Before he could press the advantage the boy was gone, and landed clear across the street with some Warrior's fans in his hands.

Whatever he was planning, Zuko would not give him the chance. He charged, fist raised, ready to blast apart the childish facade and end the menace. The boy spun, a wind picking up around him.

The blow struck Zuko in the chest and flung him back. The whole world rang as though he had his head stuck inside a bell. He heard breaking wood and his own cry, then nothing.

"Sir! Sir?"

He struggled to open his eyes, and felt like closing them again when his field of vision sloshed around like weak broth. He forced himself to focus and made out the figure of Private Tan leaning over him where he lay sprawled, he realized to his shame, like a drunkard across some villager's porch.

"Are you all right, Prince Zuko?"

Tan reached out to help him up, and Zuko found himself recoiling from the touch to sit up unaided. His head spun for a moment and he trained his eyes on the crest of Tan's helmet to orient himself.

"The Avatar?" He raised himself to his knees and then his feet, letting his head and stomach settle at each stage.

"He's, uh-"

"Appa, yip-yip!"

Zuko looked up to catch sight of the sky bison's underbelly, the hated voice of its owner giving him a new burst of energy.

"Back to the ship! Don't lose sight of them." He started running after the Avatar, ready to race him on foot to the ends of the earth if necessary.

"But our rhinos, sir!"

He looked around to see a lone rhino in the street, two young men drawing it by the reins into a space between two houses and luring it with what looked like meat on a skewer.

"Hey, you! Get out of here!" Sergeant Yang blasted fire at the ground between the rhino and the would-be thieves, and footsteps scrambled away. That probably explained what happened to the rest of the animals. If the villagers thought these petty distractions could slow him down...

Zuko vaulted onto the recovered rhino, ordered the others on behind him, and spurred the animal forward. If the village wanted to keep the other three, they could forget about their compensation. Three military-grade riding rhinos should be more than enough for a few burned huts.

As the animal trundled forward, Zuko willed himself not to look at the fires eating into the houses on either side. None of this would have happened if the village had kept its neutrality. Wood was plentiful on this island and these people would rebuild. He and his men didn't have time to stay and put out the fire, that would only be playing into the Avatar's stalling tactics.

"What's he doing?" murmured one of the men. Zuko flinched, taking it to mean himself, but realized the men were looking in the direction of the bison floating off the shore and the little orange figure that had dropped from it. As they watched the Avatar dove into the sea, raising a small plume of water.

Zuko's heartbeat quickened. What was the boy doing? Could he mean to attack their ship while its defenses were low? A memory of glowing eyes rose up. Uncle. This beast was too slow, he had to get off and run ahead. If the Avatar so much as touched a whisker on the old man's head-

Just then a giant of column of water arose, no, not water, a snakelike being of unimaginable proportions, raising itself as tall as the island itself and each eye as big as one of the houses in the village. It tossed and reared over them, unfolding a crest taller than a sloop's sails.

"The Unagi!" several of the men at once, too loud in Zuko's already ringing ears.

Before Zuko could ask what in Agni's name that was, or think of what to do before the thing killed and devoured them and not necessarily in that order,the monster opened its maw and spouted out a jet of water that arced like a glass rainbow over the beach.

And straight into Zuko's face, or so it felt. It felt like the worst torrential rain he had been caught out in, the pressure trying to bear him down to the ground. The water forced its way between the joints on his armor and soaked him underneath. He even thought he tasted its salt no matter how he pursed his lips, and tried not to think of how much of the liquid was snake-fish saliva.

When the onslaught was over he looked up, wiping the streaming seawater (not fish spit, not fish spit) from his face, just in time to see the Avatar make one of his terrific leaps from the head of the Unagi back to his waiting bison. The monster fish slunk away below the water as though fed up with the surface world. Zuko sympathized, having had more than his share of run-ins with its tormentor.

Zuko spurred the rhino down the slope and away from the village as the sky bison turned and floated away. Its owner was no doubt thrilled at his delightful prank. Everything always seemed so easy for that child, his glide through the air effortless even while Zuko made his way through the mud and muck on the ground.

He refused to look back at the village and confirm with his eyes what the lessening of the heat at his back told him, that the Avatar had put out the fires. Zuko crushed the absurd longing for their positions to be reversed, for there had been a time when he would have stood against the destruction of homes and livelihoods.

But this was nothing like Tamalan, he told himself. These Earth Kingdom villagers had proved themselves enemies of the Fire Nation when they harbored its enemy. They had betrayed their own neutrality, trapped in their superstitions. He was doing this for the greater good, he had a duty to his Nation and his people I am not what I once stood against shut up SHUT UP.

The Star-Seeker waited on the shore for its less than triumphant landing party. Zuko felt lighter once the boarding ramp slammed behind him, closing him off from Kyoshi Island. The ship was gliding out of the bay by the time he was back on deck, the sky bison a distant dot on the horizon.

Ji greeted him with a bow, which Zuko answered with a snarl: "Why aren't we going faster, Lieutenant?"

"We will pick up speed as we leave the bay, sir."

"I told you to be prepared to leave at any time!"

"We were-" Ji's jaw clenched. "I will see to it that we follow with all dispatch. Sir."

"The lookout had better be watching the Avatar's path."

"Of course, sir. Course corrections will be called down until we lose visual on the target."

Until, of course, not unless. Zuko kept himself from yelling at the man for stating the obvious and turned to watch the ever-receding form of his quarry, his head pounding and the rest of him shivering at the unpleasant sopping under his armor. Just once he wanted to come away from an encounter with the Avatar wearing dry underwear, was that too much to ask?

He did not look back at Kyoshi Island and the smoke of burning that must be lifting on an evening breeze. He imagined that the acrid taste remained on his tongue, however, long after the white speck of the Avatar's sky bison was gone from his sight.

Next: Zuko has his own sources, and Iroh worries.