ATLA: Book Two: Earth {Makki}

Chapter Four

Chapter Four: The Town Run by Thugs

Makki |~|

Zuko and I have been traveling for days. Very rarely do we stop and make camp, and we haven't had any food for a while. I don't know why, but Zuko doesn't want to stop or even rest. From time to time, I'll take a nap while holding onto Zuko to make sure that I don't fall off the horse. But Zuko won't take any time to sleep at all. It's starting to worry me.

Suddenly, Zuko stopped the ostrich horse. I went to ask him why he stopped when the delicious smell of meat hit my nose. My mouth immediately started to water and I followed Zuko's eyes to see a man setting up a small camp. I continued to take in the scene and noticed the pregnant women sitting against the tree. In the corner of my eye, I saw Zuko reach for his broadswords. I gently placed my hand on top of his to stop him from unsheathing the swords. Zuko looked over his shoulder at me.

"Don't. She's pregnant," I told him.

Zuko looked back at the small camp and noticed the woman. Immediately, he released his grip on the broadswords and grabbed the reins of the ostrich horse to have it continue down the path to nowhere.

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Zuko and I continued to ride day after day with no proper rest. I still took short naps on the back of the horse, but Zuko took no time to even rest his eyes. I tried to convince him to let me take the reins for a bit so he could rest, but, of course, he refused. Luckily, we did find a small town down the path. Having no choice, we had to stop to feed our horse and ourselves.

We casually rode our way into town, but when we found a shop where we could purchase some food, there was a group of, what I guessed was, Earth Kingdom soldiers opposite the store. They glared at me and Zuko as we hopped off of our horse and approached the merchant in the store.

"Could we get some water, a bag of feed, and something hot to eat?" Zuko asked the merchant as he held out our only coins.

"Not enough here for a hot meal," the merchant frowned. "I can get you two bags of feed."

"That'd be fine, thank you," I said as Zuko handed the coins to the merchant.

While we were waiting, Zuko and I watched as two young boys laughed before chucking an egg at the group of Earth Kingdom soldiers. The egg exploded all over the head of one of the soldiers and he exclaimed in pain and surprise. In fear, the boys quickly ran away.

"Hey! You throwing eggs at us, strangers?" the soldiers approached us.

"No," Zuko responded.

"You see who did throw it?"

"No," Zuko said again as we both turned halfway to face the soldiers.

"That your favorite word, 'No'?" another soldier asked.

"Egg had to come from somewhere," said the first soldier.

"Maybe a chicken flew over," said Zuko, causing me to stifle a laugh.

The second soldier to speak even laughed at his response, but quickly stopped when the first soldier, who I believe is the leader, glared at him. Just then, the merchant returned to the front of the store to deliver our feed. Zuko went to grab it but the leader of the soldiers quickly ran up and grabbed it before Zuko could.

"Thanks for your contribution," said the leader. "The army appreciates your support. You better leave town. Penalty for staying's a lot steeper than you can afford, strangers. Trust me."

The leader tapped the hammers at his sides before walking away with the rest of his group.

He must be an earth bender...