Dragon At Heart

Chapter 21

21. New Friends, Old Enemies

"So, we've located the Avatar's secret lair. Now what?" Seaman Oki whispered.

The young soldier had a hopeful and expectant look on his face as he turned to look at Iroh. All the three crew members were looking at the old General with looks that represented varying degrees of hopes and expectations.

They are counting on me to know what to do, Iroh realized, Hopefully I won't let them down.

Prince Zuko had left in such a hurry to liberate the Avatar that he hadn't truly given them instructions other than 'you'll figure something out' kind of statements.

Iroh peeked one more time over the large boulder they where all huddled behind.

Avatar's entourage was still in the cave surrounded by ruins, still exactly where they had been when Iroh and his men had found the place almost half an hour ago. Two people-sized sleeping bags, a lemur cleaning its fur and a ten-ton airbison. The usual group minus the Air Nomad himself.

Now was, indeed, a good time to get creative.

Iroh tried to recall of that he knew of airbison. Admittedly, he had never spent a great deal of time studying the supposedly extinct species, nor had he had many opportunities to do so.

Still, Iroh considered himself quite knowledgeable a man. Surely he knew something that would help them solve this situation peacefully.

Airbison were considered docile creatures. When faced with a threatening situation, their go-to reaction was always flight, not fight. Being the original airbenders, flight was certainly almost always an option for an airbison.

The animals avoided conflict, but not to the point the Air Nomads had. If a bison couldn't escape, or if it wouldn't escape because it needed to stay to protect kin or people it was attached to, it would fight. Considering the creature's size and airbending capabilities, having to fight an airbison was no small effort.

This particular bison, Appa, was certainly so attached to the Avatar that it would, if need be, fight for its owner. It had proven as much on their first encounter by taking down most of Zuko's crew to get to the Air Nomad.

Iroh presumed that Appa was also loyal enough to extent his caring to the Avatar's companions.

The real question was whether the bison would perceive Iroh and his men as a threat or not.

How smart was it, anyway? Smart enough to recognize them as enemy by their uniforms? Sensitive enough to realize some of them were firebenders? Reasonable enough to be reasoned with?

Iroh just didn't know.

Iroh wasn't in the habit of underestimating beings just because they weren't human, though. He had, after all, met dragons, and knew they were at least as smart as humans were.

Still, presuming an animal was smart wasn't to say it thought or behaved like a human would. Intelligence and a certain type of understanding of what rational behavior was didn't always go hand in hand.

Appa might be smarter than we all know. Probably not smart enough to understand speech, though. Bison probably have their own, non-verbal ways of communication.

Well, it seemed Iroh wasn't getting any wiser by contemplating further. It was good to theorize before acting but there always came a time when the only way to see if those theories were correct was to test them.

"I have a plan. If I'm right, this shouldn't be too much of a problem", Iroh informed the crew.

"And if you are not, sir?" Seaman Juva didn't look convinced.