The Ruka Wild ↠ Book 2 > A:TLA

17

Ruka (2)

Our ferry had just departed from the Full Moon Bay station. Being on the ferry gave me some sort of nostalgia. It feels like it's been years since I've been on Zuko's ship, but really it's only been a few months. It's crazy how time flies.

"Who would have thought after all these years, I'd return to the scene of my greatest military disgrace," Iroh says in a serious tone before putting on a straw hat and grinning at his nephew and I. "As a tourist!"

"Look around." Zuko frowned. "We're not tourists. We're refugees."

I crossed my arms, "Well if you say it like that, it doesn't sound any fun."

He gave me a side glare, "It isn't." Zuko took a sip of some soup from a bowl that a lady passed around earlier. He spit the chunky water out of his mouth. "Ugh! I'm sick of eating rotten food." He scowled. I gave him a sarcastic smile, "Here's a thought, don't eat it."

He rolled his eyes and continued on with his complaining. "Sleeping in the dirt. I'm tired of living like this."

From behind us, a voice agreed. "Aren't we all?" That voice...

I turned around and widened my eyes. "Jet..." I muttered. He was leaned back on a wooden pillar with his eyes closed, a smirk on his face. I quickly turned back around, hoping he wouldn't know who I was if I was turned around.

"My name's Jet, and these are my Freedom Fighters: Smellerbee and Longshot."

There were more of them.

What are they doing here?

"Hey." I heard Smellerbee say. Of course, nothing came from Longshot. "Hello." Zuko said in his raspy voice.

"Here's the deal, I hear the captain's eating like a king while us refugees have to feed off his scraps. Doesn't seem fair, does it?" Jet said. "What sort of king is he eating like?" Iroh asked. "The fat, happy kind." Jet replied.

"You wanna help us liberate some food?" Jet asked. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Zuko looking down at his chunky, rotten bowl of soup. I grabbed his arm to get his attention. He turned to me and waited for me to say what I wanted to say. I slowly shook my head and whispered, "We shouldn't. We can't afford to get into trouble. Plus, we don't know these guys."

It's like he completely ignored what I said. That's because he did, Ruka. Zuko threw his bowl into the sea and turned around, "I'm in."

I couldn't care less about the trouble. I don't need to be associating with Jet.

"Is she with you guys?" Smellerbee asked. I'm sure she was asking about me.

"She is." Zuko responded. They waited for me to turn around and reveal myself, but I stayed still.

"Meet here when the sun goes down. We'll start then." Jet said before I heard their footsteps fade away.

I sighed in relief before turning around. 

I feel sick. The memories of my sister and brother made me feel nauseas.

"We'll get a decent meal tonight. Something we've not gotten in awhile. Why would you want to pass that up?" Zuko asked with his brow furrowed.

There was no point in defending myself. A good meal sounds great right now. "Whatever. I guess I'll help out."

"I didn't-"

"Iroh, let me see your straw hat." I said, cutting off Zuko, which earned me another glare. Iroh took off his tourist hat and I quickly grabbed it from his hands. Putting it to my mouth, I vomited into the straw hat.

Iroh and Zuko looked at me in disgust. I wiped my mouth before pointing to the hat. "I'm sorry."

With a forced smile, Iroh took the hat from my hands and threw it down to the water below us. "I'll get another one in Ba Sing Se."

>>>

Once the sun went down, we met up with Jet, Smellerbee, and Longshot. When I saw the trio start to approach us, I went behind Zuko.

"Ready?" Jet whispered. Zuko nodded and they began to hurry off. I followed behind them.

We ran up the steps that lead to the upper deck which had the Captain's private food storeroom that Jet had found earlier today.

Smellerbee and Longshot went to go do their own thing while I stayed with Zuko and Jet.

I could see Jet glancing at me every so often, which made me a little uneasy.

When we reached the storeroom, Jet, Zuko, and I quickly put our backs to the wall. Jet was on the other side of the door and I stood with Zuko on the other. He got his dual swords ready while I opened up my water skin. Using one of his hook swords, Jet unlocked the door.

Zuko pushed open the door and we looked inside. When the coast was clear, we ran in. We immediately started to gather all the food we can.

I ran to the stove and looked inside the giant pot that stood on it. Inside was a delicious looking soup with various chopped up vegetables.

With bowls next to me, I bent out the soup and evenly poured it into the bowls. I covered them before stacking them up and putting them in a bag that Zuko had given me before we left.

"Guards coming!" Smellerbee called. We all ran out of the storeroom with our full bags over our shoulders. We ran to the edge and waited for Longsahot to shoot up the line from the lower deck.

Once he did, we slid down our bags of food first. Using his hook swords, Jet slid down the line first. Zuko wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me to him. "Hold onto me."

I did as he said and wrapped my arm around his torso. Using his dual swords, we slid down the line. When I let go of Zuko, I stumbled. While doing so, I bumped into Jet. He grabbed onto my arms to keep me from falling.

When our eyes met, I tensed up. What I thought was going to be the worst, didn't happen. He simply smiled at me before letting go of my arms and bending down to grab my bag of food. He handed it to me before grabbing his own and throwing it over his shoulder. I did the same and we ran off.