"Wads of wet fur. How delightful."
"Hmmm ... they're not wads, they're more like bundles, or bunches? It's got an "uh" sound."
Most days, Tanya would have been happy to let the back-and-forth banter between Mai and Ty Lee be as it was. Their opposite natures made for the sort of mildly entertaining drama that fuelled good workplace relations.
But today was not like most days for Tanya. Today she had been involved in a heated argued with a literal princess, and then only minutes later been outwitted and bodily smacked into a hedge by an overgrown, hairy, stupid fucking fly cow!
And so Tanya had glared at Ty Lee and Mai. It was nothing compared to the glares she'd given to some of her soldiers back in her second life, but it was enough to make the both of them shut up very quickly. Tanya was not in the mood for their comedy routine right now. The only thing that could possibly lighten her mood right now was a serving of delicious pan-fried sky bison.
"The Avatar's trying to give us the slip." Azula announced from ahead of them, pointing to the broken treetops that contradicted the trail of fur left for them to follow.
The Avatar had been clever to figure out what method they were using to follow his bison, and even more so to try and use the fur to lead them along a fake trail, but the Fire Nation's elite weren't so easily fooled. "You three head in that direction and keep your eye out for the bison." She looked down at the line of too perfectly spaced out fur. "I'll follow this trail."
Tanya questioned the wisdom of that decision. They already knew that The Avatar was the only one amongst his little fellowship that possessed the ability to fly across such long distances, so he must have been the one spreading the fake trail.
As he was the only one in his group that the Fire Nation actively cared about capturing, it would be logical for them all to pursue that trail, gang up on the silly sod and leave his friends wondering what had become of their leader. But alas, Azula was in no mood to hear anybody else's opinion. She wanted the prestige of capturing The Avatar for herself.
"She's no different from Zhao." The treacherous part of Tanya's mind whispered.
No, that wasn't fair. Azula was still young, and didn't have the experience to handle a position of command responsibly. Zhao had had years to learn, but had chosen to allow his ego to rule him. They were not the same, and they did not need to be handled the same way.
With that in mind Tanya said nothing as Azula darted off in pursuit of the Avatar. If she succeeded then great, but if she failed, as Tanya suspected she might, then Azula would be forced to recognise and learn from her mistakes.
"So… what's the plan of attack for us?" Ty Lee asked her, defaulting to Tanya's lead now that Azula was gone.
Tanya considered their options. Assuming that earthbending girl they'd spotted in the last encounter was a new member of The Avatar's team, it would be the three of them against four warriors of mixed abilities and one large beast. Not the most favoured odds, but far from the worse she'd ever worked with.
"We split them apart. Fight individually." Tanya answered. "The Avatar's team are untrained soldiers and held together through sentimental idealism. It is unlikely that they'll flee as long as even just one of them is left behind. We're going to exploit that; put the Avatar in a position where he can't run away without abandoning his companions."
"A capture mission then." Mai inferred. " I'll take the one in the mask."
Ty Lee's hand shot up like a student at school. "I'll take the cute one then!"
Mai raised an eyebrow at her.
"I mean, the one who was throwing the boomerangs about."
"Which leaves me with the new earthbending girl and the water-skank." Tanya cracked her neck. "Fine with me. But don't feel like you have to pull your punches ladies: technically we only need one alive."
...
They were only minutes away from reaching Appa when Toph felt the thundering vibration of the tank train drawing closer once again.
"The firebenders are back! Hurry!" She yelled, grabbing Blue by the wrist and roughly yanking him along and she broke into a run. It only took Blue a second to catch on and then he was running on ahead, able to sprint faster than her due to his unfairly longer legs. Before long they crashed their way into a clearing beside a river, where Katara had stopped to try and heal Appa's burn.
"Blue! Toph! What's-…" Sokka began.
"No time! Get ready, that tank is about to appear again any second!" Toph commanded. As if heralded by her words, it was at that very moment that the ominous sounds of snapping branches and screeching iron became audible from somewhere in the distance.
Sokka scowled. "Damn it! They didn't fall for Aang's trick!"
Blue tilted his head questioningly at him.
"After we washed the shedding fur off Appa, Aang had the idea to use it to make a fake trail to draw them away. He flew off towards an abandoned town nearby and scattered the fur behind him."
Blue nodded to show that he understood, then nodded towards Appa.
"Katara's been doing her best, but Appa's wound is still too painful, and him too tired, for anything more than a short journey. I think we're going to have to stand our ground this time."
"Good!" Toph declared, a grin spreading across her face as she slammed her foot down into a defensive horse stance. "Let them come! All this running away isn't my style anyway."
Katara didn't comment, but drew a long strip of water out of the river and coiled it around her as she sunk into a stance of her own, showing her own silent support for the idea. Sokka held his boomerang at the ready, and Blue unsheathed his blades and gave them a test swing.
Seconds later, a huge spear of iron burst through the trees.
The tank train quaked and rumbled, spewing thick black smog into the air as its wheels screeched to try and bring it to a halt. Rubber tyres burned under the strain of bringing such a heavy beast to a sliding halt, filling the air with a sharp, acrid smell that made Toph want to cough. Even before the train had come to a complete stop one of the doors hissed open, and three of the lizard mounts leaped out, bearing aloft three riders.
"Hey look! The one that throws around that crazy blue fire isn't with them." Sokka noted. "Tanya's the one leading them this time."
"She must have gone after Aang alone." Katara realised.
Sokka hummed worriedly. "Which means she's confident that she'll be enough to capture Aang on her own. After hearing about their fight back in Omashu, I can't say that confidence is unwarranted. Then her minions are here to keep us occupied and prevent us from joining the fight."
"Big deal." Toph scoffed. "That just means we need to crush them nice and quickly then fly to Aang's rescue. No problem. We outnumber them."
Across the river Tanya gave a hand signal, and Ty Lee and Mai split off from her, taking their mounts to the left and right respectively in slow canters.
"They're going to encircle us." Katara warned.
Sokka frowned at the sight. "Yes, and they're being unusually blatant about it too. Strange; if they make their intentions so obvious they know that we'll counter it by- ..." Suddenly his eyes lit up in realisation. "Separating! They want to split us up!"
Toph frowned. "But we outnumber them! That means one of them has to fight two-on-one! That's a crazy disadvantage! And as soon as they lose, whoever's fighting them can rush to help someone else."
Across the river, Tanya dismounted from the lizard and walked towards them in slow, measured steps. She stopped at the point where the stream water lapped gently at the toes and waited at attention like a soldier, staring unblinking at Katara. The unspoken challenge was clear, and Katara bristled with cold fury in response, her whole body tensing like a snake getting ready to strike.
"Unless one of them is confident that they can win a two-on-one fight." Sokka figured out. "I hate to admit it, but looking at our history we've yet to actually defeat Tanya in a straight fight."
Toph pounded her fists together and grinned. "You didn't have me before."
"You're right, we didn't." Sokka conceded. "And that makes you our best shot against her. Tanya has only seen you in one small skirmish so far. Other than that you're an earthbender, she can't know much about you. We'll need you and Katara to face her together."
Blue pointed his sword off to the right, tracking the slow progress Mai was making.
"You want to take on the gloomy one again?" Sokka interpreted. "Okay, then I'll face the cute- I meant the acrobatic one again!"
...
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