Homeless Dragon- Zuko

Ch. 3 Visits from Spirts

Zuko ran frantically through the woods. The rain pounded against the muddy ground and against his armor like a drummer. Around him he saw soldiers of various ages running with him all clad in armor, with handkerchiefs identical to Zuko's tied around their arms.

A piercing whistle ripped through the air, and a man's screams rang out.

Zuko didn't look.

He couldn't look.

He could only run; run to live.

Another whistle, another scream. It was the same process for the next agonizingly long minute. The running footsteps eventually came down to just him and another person. Zuko looked behind him. He barely got a good look at the person, but caught the person's attention.

"What are you doing? Keep moving! We gotta get-"

The whistle ended his words.

"Commander!" Zuko shouted as he shot up from his sleep with an outstretched hand.

He breathed heavily, wiped his now sweaty hair out of his face, and collected his thoughts for a moment all at the same time.

After taking several minutes to calm down, he took a deep breath, and looked up at the sky of the forest that he was sleeping in and saw that daylight was veiled by the trees and a thick layer of cloud. He threw off the blanket that covered him, tied his hair into its low ponytail after getting some of the leaves out, and immediately got his stuff ready.

Zuko stretched his legs and arms to get the rest of the sleep out of his system. When he felt ready to go, he gathered his stuff and went off into the forest, looking for a trail that could lead to the main road so that he could get to an herbalist on a nearby mountain and replenish his medical supplies. He looked around him constantly on alert for the slightest disturbances, but it was difficult as the wind began to pick up speed.

Zuko felt lost, and he went to pine tree and climbed it. When he got up high enough, he could see the mountain he had to get to, and went back down before going in the direction it was in. For close to an hour, Zuko felt he was making good progress toward his goal until he heard birds take flight hurriedly, and turned in the direction of the noise and crouched down. Zuko wanted to get to the mountain quickly without distraction, but he couldn't risk getting caught by bandits or a predator either. He figured it was best to investigate what drove the birds away just to be on the safe side.

Zuko stalked from tree to tree, keeping his body low to avoid detection. He focused on the sounds around him for any hints as to what was responsible for the sudden sounds, but could hear nothing because of the wind.

He crept closer, and when he began to hear the uniform marching of armored boots, then the clanging of metal, he slowed down. His suspicions began to grow, and curiosity demanded he keep moving to confirm. He continued until he heard and remembered the loud roar of a komodo rhino.

"Fire Nation," he whispered.

Zuko's mind immediately told him to go the other way. He suspected a war caravan, with soldiers that were heavily armed and protecting vital supplies for the war. However, he realized that if there was a war caravan, then they had to be using a supply line, and supply lines meant a road of some kind. All he had to do was to get to it, and wait for the soldiers to leave the area, then he could use the road to get to where he needed to go. He started to once again head to the direction he remembered the sound coming from.

Even though he was far away, Zuko kept a low profile and treaded carefully, in case there were any reconnaissance teams in the area. He was careful to watch where he took his step, and looked at the ground in front of him from time to time in order to avoid twigs and anything else that could make a loud noise. He eventually left the wooded areas, saw a cliff edge, and when he checked to see if there was no one in the area, he got on his belly. He squirmed his way to get a good look, and when he got there, he noticed a komodo-rhino pulling a very heavy, iron cage. But that didn't get his attention as much as the men that were escorting it: the Yu Yan Archers.