Avatar the Last Airbender: Lake of Still Fire

Chapter 6

Book 1: Prodigy
Chapter 6-Contract

"What makes you do street performances like that?" Shisui asks as the two walk through the busy streets of the Fire Nation capital. Shisui wouldn't call their day yesterday as a date but as more of a hangout. They became good friends. He found that she was the easiest person to talk to that he'd ever met. It was probably his reason for liking her as much as he did.

She shrugs. "I'm from... a family of stuff like that. I get bored and still do it as a hobby."

"Wow! Can't you teach me to dance like that? I'd love to try it sometime."

"Really!" Starstruck, she grabs ahold of his shoulders and shook him. "Of course I'll teach you! What's your schedule like?! I'm pretty busy during the day but I can teach you at night! I'm going to need an empty space with a lot of room! Oh and a fire place! It gets cold during the night so your joints need to be as loose as possible!"

Shisui sweat drops. He didn't know she was going to take it so seriously. In mid-sentence of one of her many concerns over his training, her mouth was covered by a gloved hand and Shisui only briefly saw the mask the attacker wore, vibrant but only using dark colors. He was kicked in his stomach and sent flying into a bystander as the masked man ran away, cutting through a nearby alleyway.

A pain grunt come out of him as he forces himself to his feet and gives chase. He cuts through the same alleyway seconds later, but the man has nearly escaped the alleyway. Damn he was fast. Using whatever chakra he could muster, he races forward. He had to get her back!

He isn't long behind the man as he turns from the alleyway and onto another busy street. Shisui searches before looking up, seeing the ends of the cloak the man wore disappearing behind the building. With a single leap, he's atop the building as the man leaps on another.

"Tch, Dammit!" He was fast.

Shisui never caught up to him. No matter where he gave chase, the man was faster and seemed to know every nook and cranny. Shisui was able to keep up with him and he soon found himself in a forest outside of the capital walls, tired with sweat dripping off his face in droves.

The man had finally stopped, turning around to face him, but no longer holding TyLee in his arms.

"Where is she?!" He demands. "Where'd you put her?!" He's vaguely aware of the fact that this was some sort of trap to draw him in.

His question only gets silence as a response. Similar looking figures all with differently shaped masks surrounded him, appearing in blurs beside the surrounding trees of one would barely call a clearing. He was completely surrounded now, and no immediate solution came to him to fix that.

So this was a trap. "You've got me where you want me, right? How about you tell me what you want? Clearly, it's not my friend you want to hurt."

He stiffens when a inhumane sound echoes throughout the area. He's glad it's soon over.

"You are correct in your assessment."

Shisui freezes, fear just set in. He can't tell which one of them is speaking. His head swivels to each of them. No jaws are moving but he can hear clearly. It's it all of them? The voice sounds like one, not of multiple individuals.

"You are our target, not the girl. But you will only receive her back once you complete task set by us. Until then she will remain with us. If you are unable to complete a task given to you, we'll send you a piece of her, as a reminder of your failure and what you are fighting for."

"What the hell is this?! Who am I talking to?!" Shisui demands, frustrated of the paranoid feeling taking over his nerves.

"Your next Fire Lord. You will receive your next instructions via mail that will be slipped through your bedroom window. Follow these instructions and we will give you your first hints of where we've hidden her."