Dragon At Heart

Chapter 14

14. Lonely

Zuko was soaring over snowcapped mountains and green valleys. His keen eyes could distinguish great many details even from this distance. A predatory instinct focused Zuko's attention to all sudden movements; making him constantly notice suitable prey.

Zuko knew the sun would rise soon. An ancient knowing told him so. Also, the morning mist was beginning to form with clouds of moist swirling all around him.

Zuko had a destination but he did not have a plan. His actions were based on the hope that the Order would take kindly to a dragon, but he had no guarantee. Since there was not much else he could do in the way of taking precautions, he decided to at least approach the place carefully.

Uncle would have been very disappointed in him. The old man always scolded Zuko when he acted before thinking or devising a proper plan. But perhaps even Uncle would have agreed that the highly unusual and time-sensitive situation called for swift action.

In his paws Zuko was carrying the worryingly limb body of a young earthbender. He tried to hold her gently so as not to cause any extra damage. Zuko did not know what exactly was wrong with Ilya, but moving her like this probably did her no favors.

Zuko did not know much about the girl, but the little he had learned from Sokka's and Ari's conversation had told him she was responsible for saving an enemy soldier for the sake of doing what she thought was the right thing.

Weird and treasonous, yet oddly honorable all at once. I guess if one of my crew helped an enemy of mine like the Avatar to escape, I would be furious, but even then it would depend on the circumstances. More importantly, Ilya is just a kid, and kids do and say rash and stupid things.

So what if she screwed up this time? She should not have to pay for it for the rest of her life.

In the end, there weren't enough people who stood up for what they believed in these days, and Zuko was not about to let one quite literally die in his arms.

As Zuko scaled one last hilltop, the monastery came into view. A less educated eye would not have been able to tell there was a building there at all, but Zuko had the advantage of knowing where to look.

He flew a little higher, letting a thin cloud cover him from possible spectators. It was most likely an unnecessary precaution. Odds were no one was watching up, and even if someone was, they probably could not see a black dragon against the still dark sky. Nonetheless, Zuko could always breathe a bit easier knowing he was in a sound hiding place.

Zuko could tell there were two guards at their usual posts on the monastery's wall. They would have been invisible to anyone on the ground level, but from a bird perspective, Zuko had no trouble seeing them hiding atop the wall.

Zuko circled around one more time to make sure there were no other beings on the monastery's grounds. He would have preferred to have more time to study his surroundings, but as an experienced infiltrator Zuko knew that in every mission there came a time when the only way to precede was by taking a small leap of faith.

Zuko swooped into motion. Following a cold wind current heading down the mountainside, he rushed down. He was moving so close to the rocky cliffs of the mountain that he needed to serpent around few tall trees to avoid hitting them.

In mere seconds Zuko was close enough to catch the guards' scent. Soundlessly, he landed on three paws, steading his claws on a mountainside that would have been too steep for a human to climb. Well, at least too steep for any reasonable human being to climb on; Zuko himself had been just crazy enough to enter the monastery from this direction the first time he had broken in there.