ATLA: Book Two: Earth {Makki}

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven: Iroh's Many Friends

Makki |~|

Iroh had decided that our best course of action was to keep moving. He said that it would be best if we tried to find people who could help us instead of waiting for people to come find us. We took off on our ostrich horse this morning. Zuko took the reins of the horse, Iroh sat in the back, and I was stuck in between the two. After riding for a few hours, Iroh started to groan very obnoxiously and complain about how his wound hurt.

"...Maybe we should make camp," Zuko suggested.

"No, please, don't stop just for me," said Iroh.

"Are you sure? If we stop I can give you another healing session," I told him.

"No, no. I'll be alright," Iroh said before groaning very loudly.

...Then don't sound like you're in pain!

Annoyed, Zuko pulled on the reins of the ostrich horse to stop it and we all dismounted. Iroh took a seat on a flat rock nearby and I took some water out of my waterskin to start healing him. But before I made contact to Iroh's wound, the ostrich horse perked its ears at a sudden noise that came from the woods.

"What now?" Iroh asked as Zuko and I stood ready to fight.

From out of the woods came five men in Fire Nation attire all riding on their own rhino. Zuko and I continued to stand defensively as Iroh stood up from the rock with a smile.

"Colonel Mongke, what a pleasant surprise," Iroh greeted.

"If you're surprised we're here, then the Dragon of the West has lost a few steps," Mongke glared before bringing his arms together a few times to show off the sharp metal that was around them.

At the movement of the Colonel, all the other men rose their weapons up, ready to fight. One had a spear, the other had a ball on a chain, one had a bow and arrows, and the last just seemed to have a helmet on.

"You know these guys?" Zuko asked.

"Sure, Colonel Mongke and the Rough Rhinos are legendary," Iroh explained. "Each one is a different kind of weapons specialist. They are also a very capable singing group."

"Well, I don't think they want to sing for us," I said.

"We're not here to give a concert!" Mongke exclaimed. "We're here to apprehend fugitives."

"Would you like some tea first?" Iroh asked. "I'd love some. How about you, Kachi? I make you as a jasmine man. Am I right?"

"Enough stalling, round 'em up!"

The man with the ball and chain whipped the ball at Iroh who spun and kicked it away. The chain wrapped around the leg of the rhino that the man with the spear rode. The archer fired lit arrows at Iroh.

Iroh just ducked under them and hit the rhino of the spearman to make it take off, which made the man with the ball and chain get dragged along. From there, the archer fired at me and Zuko. I whipped the arrow away while Zuko shot a small blast of fire to counter. The blast shot through the archer's bow and broke the string.

Then, Mongke went to attack by using fire bending, but Iroh was there to block each attack. While Mongke was firing at Iroh, I used my water bending to pick Mongke up, off of his rhino, and threw him into the woods. Quickly, Iroh grabbed our ostrich horse, mounted it, and rode towards me and Zuko which allowed us to mount without stopping the horse.

Chasing us was the man with the helmet, who I learned threw bombs, because he threw one that exploded right in front of us. The bomb didn't hit us but it did have us run through some thick smoke.