Chapter 16

"That treacherous, impudent, cowardly little weasel!"

Tanya sighed in exasperation as Zhao ranted and raved. The Commander was many things, but gracious in defeat was not one of them. She'd used to take it as a sign of his determination to win, but after today's showing she'd have to rethink that.

While normally she was far from the first one to advocate doing the 'honourable' thing, Tanya had to admit that Zhao's behaviour in an Agni Kai, which was supposed to be all about proving your honour, had been unseemly. Striking at the back of an opponent who'd spared you? That was low, even for her.

"The next time I see him I'll decorate the other side of his face the same way his father did!" Zhao continued, before rounding on her with a pointed finger. "And you, Captain! What do you think you were doing sabotaging my efforts! I had him on the ropes until you offered your vaunted advice!"

Oh, so it was her fault now was it? They must have very different recollections of what happened, because it looked to Tanya like Zhao had been on the doorstep of failure before she'd called out to him.

Yet she'd learned well enough in her first life that superiors didn't want the facts pointed out to them when they were in a mood like this. They wanted to feel like they were in control again, and there was no better way to feel authoritative than to berate a few subordinates.

The best way to soothe their anger was to bow your head, tell them what they wanted to hear, and file a record to the human resources department as soon as possible in case they genuinely tried to pin their failures on you.

"My apologies commander." Tanya replied dutifully, bowing lowly in a sign of subservience. "I only wanted to help. I should never have presumed to offer advice to someone as knowledgeable as you. Please forgive my impertinence."

Zhao snorted grumpily, but it was clear that her prostration had taken the white-hot edge off his anger. "See to it that you don't, Captain." He spat her rank out venomously, and turned his back on her to face his fleet of ships.

"If you want to redeem yourself then personally see to it that every ship in the fleet is stocked and ready to depart at sunrise tomorrow. I don't care if the troops have to work through the night; I refuse to let the prince get a head start on capturing The Avatar!"

"Right away Commander." Tanya snapped a crisp salute, and marched away to leave Zhao to his brooding. Great, now Zhao was letting himself be caught up in a personal vendetta as well. Thanks ever so much for that Zuko.

This morning she'd been relaxing at her desk enjoying a nice, peaceful assignment, and now she was preparing to get dragged across the world hunting the most powerful and dangerous bender on the planet.

Even if they were a twelve year old boy who only seemed able to control one element, the fact that he could trash an entire steel warship firmly placed him in the category of someone who she did not want to tangle with.

Yet orders were orders, and complaining about them had never done anything before. She'd just have to play things smart and capture The Avatar outside of combat, or at the very least keep a nice, thick wall of soldiers between her and him.

Maybe she'd see if she could even wrangle Zuko into an important assisting role somehow so that his father would finally have an excuse to let him come home?

Her expressions sharpened as her mind turned to schemes and plans for the future. The emergence of this Avatar had thrown a wrench into her carefully constructed plans for promotion, but also provided her with an opportunity.

If Zhao captured The Avatar with her help then she'd be a shoo-in for his position as Commander when they made him an Admiral. Or perhaps The Firelord would make her an Admiral himself? Yes, one way or another The Avatar stood between her and the nice, peaceful life she dreamed of.

Better watch out Avatar. The Devil of the South Sea is coming for you!

...

Weeks of searching, and nothing to show for it.

Tanya's frown was beginning to become permanently etched onto her forehead. No wonder Zuko had ended up looking so mopey after dealing with this frustration for years.

A heavy sigh escaped her lips as she sorted through sheet after sheet of intelligence reports sent by scouts and spies scattered across the Earth Kingdom.

The last confirmed sighting of The Avatar had been by their agent in Omashu, who revealed that a young air nomad had been a guest of Mad King Bumi. After that however the trail had gone cold.

Everything since then had just been second-hand sightings of bison-shaped clouds in the sky, and reports of suspicious activity that might be Avatar related.

'Might' being the term to stress, since apparently the Fire Nation soldiers in the local area had interpreted that as an excuse to send her reports about every ridiculous little thing that happened to them, claiming it was The Avatar's handiwork. A steak goes missing from a man's plate while his back is turned? Must be The Avatar.

The mould on a wheel of cheese grows in the approximate shape of an arrow? Must be The Avatar. A patrol swears they see a monkey-lemur earthbending? Must be The Avatar. It was ludicrous!

Nonetheless, Tanya had to concede that it hadn't been an entirely wasted effort. After having discovered rumours that The Avatar had visited Kyoshi Island a few days before Omashu, Tanya had been able to plot a flight path of The Avatar's journey so far from the South Pole.

This map indicated that The Avatar seemed to prefer sticking to coastal areas rather than journey through the middle of the Earth Kingdom, and if he followed Tanya's predicted course would soon be nearing the stretch of ocean where the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation landmasses were closest: Crescent Isle.

Commander Zhao had set up a blockade of the area to prepare for the possibility that The Avatar would pass by, and so the past three days had been the world's longest, wettest and most boring stakeout: floating still in the middle of the sea, scanning the empty sky around them for any sign of movement.

Yes, hunting The Avatar was a truly exciting adventure alright. Half the crew were already displaying the first symptoms of cabin fever, and Tanya wasn't sure she'd be too far behind them.

"Captain!"

Tanya was startled out of her thoughts as a soldier burst hurriedly into her office. She drew in a sharp breath, ready to give them the verbal thrashing of a lifetime, but was cut off by the soldier's next words.

"Movement in the sky to the East!" We think it's The Avatar!"

"Finally!" Tanya all but screamed, jolting up from her chair and pushing the soldier aside in her hurry to get to the deck. This was perfect! Forget fighting The Avatar in some epic duel for the ages. With the fleet of ships lined up here they could blast the sucker out of the sky with a hail of trebuchet fire before he had so much as a chance to fight back.

Commander Zhao was already waiting on deck when she arrived, staring into the distance through a spyglass.

Tanya took out a spyglass of her own and turned it in the same direction. It only took a few seconds of searching before she spotted a creature matching the one Zuko had described: a huge, beefy ball of fur that somehow paddled through the air like an enormously fat bee.

"The Avatar!" She muttered triumphantly, a feeling of excitement budding in her heart at the thought of her quarry being so close.

Zhao's hand reached out to push her spyglass slightly downward, fixing it upon a familiar ship of wrought black steel that chased along the sky bison's trail. "And the banished prince." He muttered darkly. "This must be our lucky day."

Oh dear. It seemed that enough time had yet to pass for that grudge to settle. "What are your orders?" Tanya asked tentatively.

Zhao grinned wickedly. "Shoot the bison down, Captain."

"But sir, that's Prince Zuko's ship out there, and he's positioned for a better shot. What if we hit him by accident?"

"So be it." Zhao's grin seemed to show a hint of teeth. "It belongs to a traitor."

Behind them soldiers scurried around, preparing the trebuchets for a first volley. "Ignite." Zhao called, and in a flash a hundred sparks produced from a hundred hands fell onto a hundred boulders of coal, setting them alight into blazing meteors.

"Launch!"

There was something eerily beautiful about seeing such a wide volley of fireballs launch into the sky in unison. It was like seeing a cluster of shooting stars, except that they left trails of acrid black smoke in their wake.

The flying bison began to swerve in the sky, and Tanya smirked as she spotted a few close calls brush fire against the creature's fur.

"Fire at will!" Zhao called. With the constant pressure of so much ammunition, it would only be a matter of time before one lucky shot hit the creature.

At first the bison tried to go high, hiding amongst the clouds. But what good was hiding when the fleet was able to pepper the entire airspace for miles around with burning boulders? All it did was hinder the bison's ability to react, and unsurprisingly it wasn't long before they dropped back out again and instead sped down to the surface of the ocean.

Taking twisting, snake-like paths, the bison swerved and swayed across the surface, narrowly missing each shot that crashed against the water.

It was impressive it had held on for so long, but the closer it came to the blockade, the more accurate their shots became. Zhao held a hand up in a silent instruction for the trebuchet on the flagship to hold for his signal as the bison straightened into a last, desperate charge.

"Steady…" Zhao muttered. The bison was close enough now for Tanya to make out three blurred figures on its back: two in blue clothing, and one in orange.

"Fire!"

The moment the fireball was sent soaring through the air, Tanya already knew it was going to hit. It was too fast, too precisely aimed, and the bison had not demonstrated the agility needed to avoid it earlier. With an ever-growing smile, Tanya watched as the fireball sped forward, barely noticing the orange blur begin to move before the fireball enveloped them.

Bang!

The fireball exploded with a rumbling crash. Yet not in the way Tanya had expected. With growing shock, Tanya watched as a ring of empty space was blasted through the cloud of fire and ash, allowing the bison to pass through the middle unharmed. So that was airbending?

The records she'd read suggested it was an almost entirely evasive style of bending, but it seemed that in the hands of a monster like The Avatar even a gentle skill like that could be twisted into something destructive.

The bison rocketed over the blockade, and for just a second Tanya was able to catch a glimpse of the figure sitting atop the bison's head. Zuko hadn't been lying when he said The Avatar was a young boy.

He was short with a thin, acrobatic frame, which added together with his bald head and childishly round face made him seem naturally innocent. But Tanya was not fooled for a second. She knew better than anyone that looks could be deceiving.

"Avatar…" She whispered to herself as the bison soared just a few feet above her head, kicking up a squall of wind in its wake that buffeted her golden hair into a wild mess. "This isn't over."

...

if you want to read ahead of the public release you can join my p atreon :

p atreon.com/Rimanovi