The Origin of Roh-Shan

Komodo Rhino

Roh slowly became aware of daylight pushing against her eyelids, patiently waiting to be let in. She was surprised it was already light out, considering she didn't feel rested at all. The next thing to register were that her muscles were sore, and she inhaled deeply, a vague memory of last night's events rising to the surface.

Wait.

She opened her eyes fully and let out her breath quickly so she could inhale again. There was an undeniable odor in the air. Smoke.

She sat up quickly, startling Kota next to her. Kota's eyes were open in a flash, always a light sleeper and ready to force her mind to a 10 on a moment's notice. She bolted upright, though faltered as a wave of dizziness slammed her.

"Do you--" Roh started, but she didn't need to finish that sentence. Kota smelled it too.

They both looked quickly toward the spot their fire had been, but it was soot-smudged and long-since extinguished. Roh crawled to the edge of the loft to check the barn, but already knew based on the lack of heat that it wasn't coming from inside.

"It's outside." She reported. "Maybe someone's just having a bonfire, or firebending."

"How late did we sleep?" Kota rubbed her head and pulled her uniform sleeves back over her shoulders.

Roh peered out a particularly large space between the plank walls and checked the position of the sun. "Holy shit... I think it's past noon."

Kota bolted toward the ladder, and Roh followed close behind. "Our one day off out of the whole week, and we sleep til noon. Crap. Crap."

"Daycare's open on the weekend, can't relate." Roh muttered.

They reached the bottom and that's when they heard shouts coming from the street. The smell of smoke intensified as they neared the door. Kota burst out the door and froze.

Roh pushed through to see what she was looking at, and instantly turned to run back inside but the door had already shut and locked behind them.

"Kota, RUN!" Roh grabbed her frozen friend's arm, but it was futile. She felt a hot breath on the back of her neck. Gripping Kota's hand, Roh turned around to come face-to-face with the komodo rhino in front of them.

It snorted again, its massive eye staring right at her. It looked predatory, but also frightened. Ultimately, predatory won. It reared back, three sharp horns lined up to impale both girls.

Instinctively, Roh raised her arm and punched a fireblast at it, which of course was useless because komodo rhinos are impervious to most flame.

More enraged, the animal thrust its largest horn forward and the two girls jumped to opposite sides as the horn slammed into the barn wall right between them with enough force to shake the entire structure. Both girls screamed but it only joined the chorus of cries from the street. Roh dared a glance and saw a cabbage merchant being chased by an elephant rat.

Roh tried to quickly recall everything she learned about self defense in a komodo rhino attack. Play dead? No, that's an armadillo bear. Komodo rhino. Never get low to the ground, that was rule number one. The sheer power in their feet would stomp you in an instant. Don't run, never run. Only prey runs.

But there didn't seem to be many other options at that point, as the animal ripped his horn out of the wood and reared back again.

"Roh! Blast it away!" Kota shouted.

"Fire doesn't work!" Why didn't Kota know that?

"No, air!"

Oh.

Roh glanced toward the street again. There were so many people out, running, yelling. There was way too high a chance someone would see her airbend if she did right now.

The komodo rhino took another stab and the next thing Roh processed was that its large horn violently collided with the barn wall where Kota had just been. Roh didn't even have time to process that Kota had ducked out of the way, but not before being clipped by one of the beast's smaller set of horns. A dark bloodstain spread from a tear in her uniform arm.

That wasn't even a concern on the map though, because the dive had put Kota on the ground, right next to the animal's powerful foot.

Its sharp claws scraped the ground as it raised its foot. She wasn't gonna be able to roll away from this one.

"Airbend!" Kota shouted.

Ignoring her request, Roh shot a narrow beam of fire from two fingers right at the animal's eye. It reared back in pain and turned its attention to Roh.

Safe from the beast's foot, Kota sat halfway up and froze in fear, seeing the telltale raising of the animal's tail. It signaled it was about to charge, and komodo rhinos never back down from a charge.

Roh was completely stuck. Either she was about to airbend or she was about to die. She raised her open palm to the beast lamely, cowering behind her hand as if telling the animal to stop. Even if she wanted to, nothing was coming out. She thrust her arm again, nothing. She knew it was because deep down she still didn't want to airbend with the chance of someone seeing, and aside from last night's fall, fear has never motivated her like it has other people.

The komodo rhino leapt off its back feet, only two steps away from Roh's cowering form.

All she heard was Kota screaming and blood rushing through her ears.

No, not blood. Water.

A massive wave of water flooded down the street and filled alleyways with violent rushing force. The rhino let out a primal cry of fear as a much, much louder, piercing screech shook the trees and echoed off the mountain. The rhino wisely gave up its fight and ran in the other direction as a flash of black swept through the street.

Roh dove and grabbed Kota's arm, intending to yank her up but instead falling next to her as a wave of water took their feet from under them. The small wave soaked them, but it was the last of the water as the Unagi slipped helplessly down the hill. Barely an adolescent, the beached Unagi writhing in the street was already nearly as long as the street itself.

But it wasn't the predator here either. Kota staggered to her feet and ran toward a nearby hill to get a better view of what the hell was happening uptown. They crested the large hill, taking in the sight.

Animals of all shapes and kinds rampaged through the streets, as smoke cloaked much of uptown.

But they could still see exactly what had happened. The zoo, pride and glory of the city and possibly the best in the Fire Nation, was engulfed in flames.

Green flames.

~//~