In the northern area of the earth kingdom

[Kimiyo]

This is not my day, Kimiyo thought to herself as she faced off against an angry club-tailed urisaur.

She was between assignments within the spy network, and had been travelling by herself in the northern region of the Earth Kingdom, and had been about ready to start a campfire to cook dinner when she'd heard the deeply rumbling roar. The urisaur had appeared seconds later. Initially, Kimiyo's response had been to throw the fish she was about to cook over to the massive club-tailed beast. Unfortunately, it wasn't her paltry dinner that it was interested in eating.

Presently, she was attempting to fend off the violent animal. It was considerably larger than the fire nation's tanks, and nearly as well armoured. Its body was covered in armour, aside from a few vital points that the club-tailed urisaur kept well protected. Striking it with her sword seemed to be only succeeding in irritating it, and blocking and avoiding attacks that were surprisingly fast for such a massive animal only increased its determination to hunt her.

Kimiyo very narrowly avoided a critical attack from the beast's claws. Her long and loose sleeve, rather than her arm was slashed wide open, exposing her entire upper arm. The long, sharp claws only scratched the flesh, but the tiny bit of blood seemed to encourage the animals frenzy. The young Fire Nation spy moved in a rapid dance of slash, block and avoid, praying for an opportunity to strike one of the club tailed urisaur's precious few vital areas that weren't protected by armour.

Suddenly, the urisaur changed its pattern of attack, and charged directly at her. Kimiyo adjusted her stance to a defensive one, and pierced it in the eye as it dove towards her. The scaly armoured beast roared in rage, then began attacking her wildly. Whirling it around like a weighted whip, it struck her with its armoured, clubbed tail. Although Kimiyo brought her sword up to defend her body, that didn't save her from the overwhelming power and force behind the blow. It sent her flying back, where her body slammed roughly against a tree, followed by her head, before she slowly crumpled.

Vision blurring, she fought to stay conscious. It was a losing battle.

[Iroh]

((OOC: Other characters can probably show up to hang later, although what that'd accomplish, I really don't know, but for now this is really just a little bit of a sortie between some badass fire nation elites, and a mutated bear dinosaur....Thing.))


Iroh walked cheerfully through the slightly chilled forest of the Northern Earth Kingdom, Prince Zuko in tow. His young charge was still a tad morose from yet another one of the Avatar's escapes, but the wiley old general had high hopes.

No matter how quickly the Avatar mastered water bending (and with the boy's surprising talent, it would probably only take a couple weeks), he would still have to come south; into the Earth Kingdom. Hell, he needed to learn how to manipulate that rocky element somehow, and nobody up at that wasteland could teach him even the basics.

So as soon as Zuko and Iroh had made it back on to their flagship, they set off for the Earth Kingdom, leaving the North Pole, and Zhao's death, behind them. At least for now.

This does, of course, bring a certain firebending pair to the routine matter of scouting out one's perimeter. While the young prince might be a decent warrior one on one, he had no idea that soldiering entailed more than just armed combat. He'd be shown wrong, soon enough, and he'd learn to do this kind of thing on his own. But for now, Iroh enjoyed the company. Scouting was lonely, and normally boring, business.

Today's boring business, however, was puncuated by a very deep roar, likely coming from something very big and very nasty. Nasty things always had a habit of wandering too close to a camp at the worst possible moment, so they were a threat best eliminated as quickly as possible. Nodding once to Zuko and giving a silent order to follow him swiftly, Iroh set off towards the beast.

Of all the...

A club-tailed urisaur. Basically a big, ornery grizzly with a tank on it's back. Of course, you could only really hit it after it reared up, but it only did that when it was about to smack the hell out of you. And naturally, in accordance with the divine rules governing all things big and nasty, it was faster than it had a right to be.

And this one just happened to be looming over a badly beaten woman. The time for silence had passed.

"Zuko! You take care of the urisaur, I'll tend to the woman!"

Without waiting for any hint of compliance or defiance, the retired general made a mad dash to the woman's aid. If Zuko didn't cut in soon, the beast would tear right into Iroh's exposed back.

((OOC Take Two: Sorry I powerplayed you a bit there, Zuko, but given the circumstances, I don't think it's that big a deal. And it's not like I'm putting words in your mouth, or anything. Still, if you have a problem, tell me, and I'd be happy to fix it.))

[Prince Zuko]

"Take care of the- Uncle!"

His call going either unheard or ignored, Zuko watched in alarm as his uncle threw himself into harm's way without even a moment's pause for thought. Or at least that's what it seemed to Zuko...Iroh might have analysed the situation in the short moment they'd viewed it, but to him everything was just a blur of action and Giant Ugly Bear Thing.

Giant Ugly Bear Thing that was about to tear his uncle in half if he didn't do something, Zuko realised a split-second later than he probably should have. He cursed himself for still lacking in mental discipline and threw himself out of the trees.

The urisaur reared up at Iroh, making it almost too easy for the knife shaped flames dancing in his hands to lash out and slice through the exposed skin that was unprotected by armour. Almost. The urisaur was, indeed, quicker than it had any right to be, and Zuko's blow didn't hit as close to home as he would have liked. Instead it cut deeply into the right side of the beast's chest, causing it to twist sideways and lash out at him with its left forearm. He leapt back, making sure to draw the animal's attention away from Iroh and his new charge, but still felt the urisaur's claws rake across his right shoulder and arm.

Overconfidence he hissed mentally, again cursing his inability to curb his unthinking nature. The wound hurt like hell, but even without peeling away cloth he could tell that it was little more than painfully deep scratches.

"Uncle, get back as far as you can!" he called, drawing his hands together.

There was one advantage to lacking control when it came to advanced Firebending, and that was that the attacks were unfocused. If he put all of his concentration into just forming the fire and little to none into actually controlling it, the entire area around them should end up burnt to a cinder...including the urisaur's delicate, unarmoured flesh.

((OOC: Bah, I don't consider that little bit of mention to be power playing. ^^ Besides, what's an uncle for if not to tell a bratty nephew what to do?))

[Iroh]

((OOC: I've always loved you. <3))

Iroh knelt next to the comatose girl. She was still breathing, though it was shallow. A quick examination revealed no broken bones, but a minor concussion and several bruised ribs. There might be some internal bleeding as well, but right now Iroh wasn't equipped to see that, let alone treat it.

Still, it would be reasonably safe to move her, and that was all that mattered. With Zuko's current 'strategy', getting the hell out of there was probably a good thing.

Iroh couldn't fault him for his tactics, though. Sometimes a wild, uncontrolled attack on the surroundings is exactlly what's needed to achieve victory. Zuko learned long ago to force the enemy to play on his terms, and only his terms.

Gingerly, the old general lifted the comely young woman, nearly double taking when he saw what was tattooed into her exposed shoulder. That was a matter to be taken care of in it's proper time. Iroh had all kinds of questions blazing through his mind as he jogged back out of the clearing.

The idea of anybody from the Fire Nation this far north unsettled Iroh greatly. She probably wasn't a soldier from the North Pole invasion fleet. Women were benders, but normally they didn't really serve.

Iroh cursed as he smacked his head on a branch. That's what he got for not paying attention to his surroundings.

Turning back towards Zuko, he issued quick instruction. There was only one sure way to deal with a club-tailed ursisaur.

"Be careful, Zuko! Fire attacks to it's belly and chest just anger it! Cover his armored shell in flames, and bake him from the outside!"

[Kimiyo]

The sharp pain of having her injuries touched woke Kimiyo briefly. Her hand fumbled around, until it finally touched upon her sheathed sword. Her yellow eyes hazily fell on the colors of the fire nation armour as she was being carried. Being carried off by an ally (no matter if the only reason the person was an ally was because of being from the same nation) was infinitely preferable to capture.

She tried to offer what she knew about urisaurs to help her rescuers defeat the violent and armoured beast, but it came out as incoherent mumbling as the darkness took her again.

[Prince Zuko]

His uncle's words, though wise, were easier said than carried out. Not that Zuko would ever admit to that, death was sometimes preferable to admitting incompetance.

The main problem was that the urisaur refused to stay still, thus making it hard for him to channel flames anywhere but wherever they damn well wanted to go. After dodging two more very nearly wounding attacks he simply gave up and unleashed everything he had, letting it all go where it would. He heard a bonechilling screech from the beast as they were both enveloped in one huge fireball but ignored it, concentrating instead on fanning the flames higher and trying to keep them from cooking him too. The tingling scar on his face made it all too clear that even firebenders could burn.

After what seemed like an eternity the shrieks died down to soft cries, and the smell of burned flesh filled the air. His own wound was starting to smart from exposure to open flame, but that was nothing compared to the plight of the urisaur. It was lying on its side, smoldering, still alive even as its insides slowly burned. As tempting as it was to simply walk away, the animal's cries made it clear that it was suffering. No matter what kind of tactics Fire Nation soldiers were taught, he did not torture.

He picked his way over to its head, careful to avoid the sharp teeth even though it was obvious the thing wouldn't be able to move even if it had wanted to, and drew his sword. He raised up with both hands, holding it blade down over the urisaur's head, but hesitated. He knew he shouldn't leave it there in pain but he also didn't think he could look it in the eye and kill it while it was helpless. And his arm was starting to stiffen up from holding up the sword.

Finally, as the urisaur gave another agonised cry, he brought the blade down with as much force as he could muster. Then, leaving it there and pretending he needed to lean against a tree for support for his wound, he turned away and tried not to throw up.

((Yes, even Big Kids get squicky when it comes to killing aminals XP))

[Iroh]

Iroh watched impassively as Zuko more or less dealt with the beast. Sometimes, the only viable move was to heedlessly throw all your might into the opponent. The young exile recognized this, and used it at what he felt was an appropriate time. But still, the lack of control irritated the old general. The urisaur could have been dealt with in a far less flashy manner. In this case the results were what mattered, but that wouldn't always be so.

The Fire Bender sighed to himself at the thought of more training for Zuko as he shifted the comely young weight in his already tiring arms. She wasn't that much to hold on to, but he wasn't as young as he used to be.

The fight was finished, the area could be considered scouted successfully. When they returned to the ship, the woman could be interrogated, and Zuko could have something to help his stomach. The animal's death disturbed him, but it was far better than prolonging it's suffering.

"Zuko, we're finished here for the day. Clean your blade, and then head back to the ship when you're finished."

Iroh decided to give the young man a bit more time to compose himself before heading back. It wouldn't do to have Zuko snapping at the other soldiers simply because he was disturbed by what he'd just done. The soldiers would understand, certainly, but it was always best to avoid that type of thing.

Iroh sighed to himself, udjusted the weight of the girl again, and headed off to the ship.

[Kimiyo]

A while later, on the ship

(OOC: You guys can decide exactly how much time has passed. To Kimiyo it just feels like a little while. Oh, and I'm also going under the assumption that someone would have bandaged her arm instead of leaving the little gashes to bleed)

Kimiyo's yellow eyes slowly fluttered open as the pain snapped her out of her slumber and forced her to be at least halfway alert with a dull throbbing ache in several areas on her body. As much as it hurt, she decided she ought to at least try to assess her surroundings. Firstly, the place on her arm where the urisaur had clawed had a cloth tied around it. She was still wearing the same clothing as before, with her long flowing sleeve torn wide open.

Further looking around told her she was indoors somewhere, and though the decor was sparce, it appeared to be of the fire nation. Vague memories of two people coming to her aid came back to her, though the only things she could really distinguish were the specific quality of the voices. She was confident that she'd recognize those again if she heard them.

The fact that her sword was nearby and that the room she'd been placed in didn't appear to be a prison cell were also promising things, despite how unfortunate her injuries were. Even if nothing was broken, she was probably still too bruised and battered to effectively move around and function in a combat situation for several days at best.

"Is anyone there?" she asked, wincing at the sound of her own voice. It felt too loud for the moment.

[Prince Zuko]

Zuko had just finished getting cleaned up from a series of intense exercises in control and settled down to meditate in his room when the voice reverberated through the wall. The female voice he had never expected to hear aboard his ship.

Because women shouldn't be on this ship, he thought darkly. It had been almost a day, they should have done as Zuko wanted and just dropped her off at a port healer somewhere. But no, Uncle just had to insist it was dishonorable to leave a young lady unconscious in a place she didn't know. Like the ship was any better.

He grimaced as his bandaged arm was pulled when he rose and let himself out of his room, reluctantly making his way over to the door next to his. There was a reason he kept the rooms on either side of his own empty, and that was so he wouldn't be bothered like this. But again, he'd been overruled.

He opened the door without bothering to knock and stood in the doorway, arms crossed. He'd been tempted to ignore her until his Uncle wandered down below deck, but if she got impatient she might start shouting. That would be even more annoying. He eyed her for a long moment, deciding that she didn't look as if she was going to drop dead on the spot.

"What were you doing alone in the Earth Kingdom wilds?" he asked sharply, belatedly realising he probably should have asked how her injury was. Ah well, this wasn't a hospital and he wasn't a nurse, he didn't have to be polite.

[Kimiyo]

Kimiyo winced from the sharpness of the voice, recognizing it as belonging to the oh-so-cheerful person in the doorway. Her vision was blurred and she didn't feel well enough to rise and face him with that pulsating headache and his harsh intonation. Though, she supposed he had a right to be annoyed with her. Urisaurs, as she knew from first-hand experience, were a royal pain to fight. Fighting one on behalf of a total stranger would have put plenty of people in a bad mood. For the moment, she decided to reserve judgement.

She slowly turned her body in his general direction so that she was at least facing in the correct direction. It was about as respectful as she could manage so soon after waking up.

"I was travelling to Shibachi village," came the quiet answer. Not everyone in the Fire Nation was aware of the Shen clan's spy network and who was in it (particularly since it had only officially existed for less than two years), and she'd been dressed in the attire of a person from the Earth Kingdom, so omitting details was best for now. "How long was I out?"

[Prince Zuko]

"And what business does a Fire Nation lady have that's so important she would cross through wildlands unattended? Even well seasoned travellers travel at least in pairs." Zuko asked, ignoring her question.

It was as nice a way he had of asking what's a girl doing travelling alone? Perhaps things were different with other barbaric races, but the Fire People did not raise their children to do rash things out of some twisted sense of equality. She was a warrior, that much he could tell by her well-used blade and accoutrements, but some member of the party she'd left behind at one point should have had the propriety and decency to offer her an escort.

Unless, of course, she was somewhere she didn't belong, doing something she shouldn't have been doing. In which case he definitely didn't want her on his ship.

[Kimiyo]

This was one of the few places that Kimiyo actually welcomed being identified as being from the Fire Nation, though pride made her inwardly wince that she'd been discovered. Judging by what sleeve was torn, they must have seen the small branding on her shoulder, marking her not only as being from the Fire Nation, but also as a woman who had been authorized to be a part of the army, rather than an imposter. The mention of Fire Nation "lady" made her ears perk up, in particular, and Kimiyo silently hoped that her full identity hadn't been *that* obvious.

She racked her brain, trying to think of the nearest village to Shibachi village that was occupied by the Fire Nation. She'd had the information just the other day...but with her head throbbing so much and her vision still blurred, it was a little harder to think. At last, she came to her answer.

"I was travelling with a couple of relatives," she said, beginning her explanation. "One was another woman, the other, her uncle. Her uncle fell ill near Bunta village, which was low on medicinal supplies. Shibachi village has the best medicine available in the surrounding area, and so they sent me to go and retrieve some. Unfortunately, Shibachi village hasn't been occupied by the Fire Nation yet, so I bought some clothing from the village to look like I belonged in the Earth Kingdom. I didn't want to risk that they wouldn't give me any medicine because I was escorted by soldiers, so I went alone."

There were enough elements of the story which were true, minus the fact that she, and the other members of her clan, were headed towards Shibachi village because they were spies. Her other fellow female spy, Reiko, was a firebender, but not fully trained in combat as Kimiyo was. The elderly man, Zhang, was Reiko's uncle and had actually fallen ill. The only real crucial difference was that his illness wasn't quite serious enough to run off by herself to the village for medicine. Zhang and Reiko had urged her to go on ahead and begin information gathering.

"It was probably very hasty of me," she added, "to not wait and see if any soldiers could get ahold of some Earth Kingdom clothing to join me...but they had their duties to attend to, and I had duty to my family."

[Prince Zuko]

Zuko narrowed his eyes slightly, but didn't reply. He had his doubts about the honesty of the girl's statements but obviously had no proof. And it was not his place, of all people, to start poking for holes in the claims of one doing something out of duty. Even if that something was stupid.

"My room is next door," he said instead. "Try to be quiet, I prefer peace when I meditate. If you're hungry, a meal will be served in an hour. Somebody will be down to see if you want anything."

Finished, he turned to go back to his meditation.

[Iroh]

((This thread is SO moving to Zuko's flagship.))