The Legend of Arin

CHAPTER TWENTY: ODD

"I DIDN'T FIND ANYTHING to eat. I can't live like this. I wasn't meant to be a fugitive. This is impossible!" Zuko kicked the bush and screamed in frustration. "Uncle..." He turned to the older man who was sniffing a red and white flower. "What are you doing?"

"You're looking at the rare white dragon bush. Its leaves make a tea so delicious it's heartbreaking. That, or it's the white jade bush, which is poisonous."

"It's a white jade bush, Iroh." The two males turned to Arin who had emerged from a nearby lake, her body dripping with water, her hair wet. Zuko coughed at the sight of her in her undergarments, that being shorts and a tubed top, and turned to his Uncle.

"We need food, not tea. I'm going fishing." Zuko stormed off and Arin turned to him.

"Oh, let me help."

"I got it!" He yelled, continuing his angry stomping. It had been two weeks since Iroh and Zuko had become fugitives to their home Nation. In total, Arin had spent nearly two months with these guys, and Zuko didn't seem to be getting any kinder. She and Iroh were already on a good page, their personalities combining finely, but Zuko... his natural anger and her temper when provoked didn't go together very well.

"Hmm... Delectable tea or deadly poison?" He continued to think hard and Arin sighed, he had to be smart enough to not take the risk. She squeezed her hair, using her air bending to dry it swiftly as she followed behind Zuko.

"What is your problem?" She said as she neared him sitting on the river's edge. He glanced at her, quickly turning his head away.

"I don't have a problem!"

"Uh-huh, and I'm the Queen of Ba Sing Se. Seriously, what's your issue?" She stood behind him as he eyed the water.

"Why don't you quit being concerned about me and put some clothes on?!" She paused and thought for a moment, a devious smile on her face and she used her air bending to jump in front of him, his head turning away quickly.

"Are you nervous to be around a half-naked girl?" Zuko said nothing and Arin laughed at his shyness. "Who knew Prince Zuko, nearing his adult age would be nervous around a girl." Zuko crossed his arms, his head snapping to her.

"I am not nervous! You just don't know boundaries." Arin sighed amusedly, her eyes darting to a fish swimming past her. She used her bending to trap it in an air bubble, lifting it from the water.

"My apologies, your highness. But, hey, look, I caught a fish." She raised it to Zuko's face and he held up a bucket.

"One fish isn't going to feed us all." He grumbled and Arin grinned.

"Good thing I'm a master at air bending. One fish-" She raised a bigger air bubble, taking 1/4 of the lake into the air, "Isn't all we're gonna get." Zuko grumbled and Arin chuckled at his annoyance.

Arin ended up catching a total of six fish, Zuko attempting and only successfully catching one puny baby fish. They neared Iroh and Arin for a bad feeling in her gut as they stared at the older man's back.

"Zuko, Arin, remember that plant I thought might be tea?"

"You didn't," Zuko said incredulously.

"I did. And it wasn't." Arin gasped in horror as Iroh's face was swollen and red. "When the rash spreads to my throat, I will stop breathing." He stood up, scratching his back with a stick simultaneously scratching his stomach. "But look what I found! These are pakui berries. Known to cure the poison of the white jade plant! That, or makaola berries, that cause blindness." Zuko quickly snatched the bushel of berries.