THE AIR MASTER {LOK/ATLA}

(XI)

We had been scouring through the desert's blazing heat for a very long time now. But I didn't even let the rising temperatures bother me, when I had only one goal in mind: to catch the traitor, Aiwei, and to use him to stop Zaheer from ever trying to hurt Korra again.

Suddenly, Naga stopped to sniff the ground in a nearby desert village. Asami immediately pulled the jeep up right behind her.

"Aiwei has definitely been through here," Korra said, before turning to Naga briefly to praise her. "Nice tracking, girl."

"Let's ask around. Maybe someone's seen him," Mako suggested, and we did just that.

We entered the nearest pub. The minute we walked inside, we got served a dozen dirty looks from the locals. They were clearly not very nice to foreigners. I suddenly noticed the reason. On the wall, there was a very detailed picture of Bolin on a wanted poster.

"Oh look, they have a mover poster of me. Must be big Nuktuk fans,  yeah, I should go out and say hello..." Bolin began, before Mako stopped him on his tracks.

"No. Those are wanted posters, and there's one for each of us" Mako said, as I suddenly noticed the other four posters beside it. I wasn't even sure where they had gotten a picture of us for the mugshots. "Wanted by Her Majesty, the Earth Queen, for crimes against the Kingdom. I'm guessing this is because we took her airbenders."

"Definitely. I swear, that lady acts more spoiled than my little cousins—"

"Uh, guys... We should get out of here," Asami said, and I noticed from the corner of my eyes that the men in the tavern were starting to take their weapons out.

I followed the others and hurried outside. Even though it was tempting to show these guys what we were capable of, I knew that it wouldn't be wise to make a scene, especially if we wanted to keep looking for more Earth Kingdom airbenders in the future.

We decided to continue our search in the desert. Naga led us to a small slope. She stopped to sniff around pretty extensively, so I took that as a sign that she had probably sensed something we didn't.

"Naga found something," Korra said, before Naga nudged her, probably in search of a reward for her hard work. "Oh... Sorry, I forgot to bring treats but, good girl."

"That's alright. I brought some lychee nuts with me," I said, taking them out and offering them to Naga.

Korra smiled at me warmly. "That's really sweet of you, Zaya, but Naga is a polar bear dog. They are fierce carnivores and—wait—"

Naga interrupted her by gobbling all the lychee nuts with ease. I giggled as her licking tickled the palm of my hand. "Actually, they are omnivores, like dogs. Besides, who doesn't love lychee nuts?"

Korra simply rolled her eyes playfully and proceeded to use earthbending to move aside the giant boulder Naga had been sniffing previously. We saw a jeep behind it, obviously left behind by someone in a very convenient hiding spot.

"This must be Aiwei's jeep. He can't be far," Asami noted.

"Bolin and I will investigate the Misty Palms Oasis, and see if he's hold up there," Mako offered.

"I'm coming," Korra said, but Mako shook his head.

"No. You and Asami wait here in case he comes back. Besides, we don't want to call too much attention to ourselves. And no offense, but Zaya's tattoos are a dead giveaway."

"Hey!" I complained. "I don't think they should go there on their own."

"I agree. I'll go and keep an eye on them," Asami volunteered, and the three of us girls nodded.