Chapter 37: The Vulture

I did not disturb the spirit, which could have crushed me with little effort. Not yet. I now had other sources of information regarding magic than unverified spirits.

My journey with Princess Azula continued. With each day we spent in the desert, she grew more and more displeased. I decided to ask her directly what the matter was. The princess admitted honestly, albeit with noticeable reluctance, that she was slightly nervous and worried about time slipping away like sand through her fingers. She said that if we continued wandering like this, nothing would remain of her year. She would have to carry out the Fire Lord's will. At that moment, her gaze, fixed on me, became uncharacteristically pitiful and sad. It seemed as if all the pain and bitterness of this world splashed within it. Whether the princess herself realized what kind of eyes she was looking at me with in that moment was unclear to me. Most likely not. For she did not like to show weakness in front of people.

I was graced with such looks several times. True, they were quickly replaced by others. Determined ones. The princess was set on executing her plan and winning her father's favor. But in the meantime… Azula wanted to be prepared for various situations. The desire to control her fate spilled over into several contingency plans. Once, I even heard the princess speculating on whether Ozai would be terribly upset by a coup staged by his own daughter. I heard it, but pretended nothing had happened.

Thoughts of a coup d'état had to be set aside by Princess Azula. Far ahead, incomprehensible black dots appeared. This immediately attracted our attention. It is difficult not to notice something new when for days on end you see only sand and the boundless sky above.

"Is that… a mirage?" Azula asked with doubt in her voice.

"No. A mirage wouldn't get closer when we stopped."

The black dots on the horizon were approaching, and their number was gradually increasing. I threw the bag off my shoulders and took out the binoculars. My eyebrows shot up to my forehead. Almost directly towards us was moving one of the apex predators of the Si Wong Desert: the buzzard wasp. But their home should be far away? Why were they here in such a large group? Did they fly out to hunt?

The buzzard wasp was on average slightly smaller than a horse, but some individual specimens could easily grow much larger than their brethren. Four transparent and thin-looking wings were quite strong. If it wished, a buzzard wasp could lift a human into the air. Although the word "buzzard" (vulture) is present in the species name, this predator only inherited the head and long neck from that animal. The rest of the body was insectoid. Just a giant insect.

The wasp was omnivorous. It did not disdain the sparse vegetation of Si Wong, the carcasses of other animals, or fresher meat. This species regularly reduced the desert's population. For this reason, nomads seriously feared buzzard wasps. Also, they never fly alone… Usually, if a desert dweller sees one wasp nearby, there is a whole swarm somewhere close.

"They noticed us," I noted with a grim look, realizing the wasps had slightly changed their flight path and were now moving in our direction. "Princess, be ready to give battle."

I hurriedly began to bury our bags in the sand. Wasps have a habit of dragging everything to their hive. I wouldn't want to lose our provisions in the middle of the desert.

Not waiting for the wasps to approach, Azula formed a fire blade and sliced part of the group into two halves, which fell to the mortal earth and stained the desert sand with their blood. Realizing the enemy had teeth, the wasps chose to scatter around us. Azula and I stood back-to-back, covering each other.

"They have stingers!" shouted Azula, sending waves of fire into the air and driving the wasps away from us.

"Vestigial. They don't use them," I replied, sending rare fireballs but with good accuracy. Knocking down every wasp that wanted to fly up to us. "Beware of the beak, ramming attacks, and attempts to grab you to lift you into the air and then drop you to the ground."

Suddenly, one of the wasps I had shot down rose to its feet, shook the sand off like a dog, and directed its maw in my direction, narrowing its eyes maliciously. Some kind of dirty mass burst from the wasp's mouth. A wave of fire was sent in response immediately. Just a second of confrontation, and I realized the incomprehensible mass was somehow extinguishing my ordinary fire. I tensed up at once, trying to increase the amount of chi released, and turned the fire slightly blue. The amplified attack suppressed the buzzard's technique and incinerated it along with the sticky mass.

The other wasps I had previously shot down with fireballs began to rise to their feet. This was an unpleasant discovery. Their resistance to flames turned out to be top-notch. I had to use intensified flames to finish off the enemy.

"Princess, they can shoot some strange mass from their mouths," I decided to warn Azula.

"I already know," I heard the princess's irritated reply.

I turned around for a fraction of a second and realized Azula had already encountered this attack herself. Now she was simultaneously fighting off the enemy and burning that very mass under her feet.

"It's viscous. Similar to glue," the princess shared.

Three wasps at once were cut by a horizontally launched fire blade, and then predators flying right behind each other were split into two halves by a wheel of fire.

My back felt the heat of Azula's flames more and more intensely. The wasps somehow realized she was stronger than me in firebending, so most of them swarmed the princess. Or perhaps her first attack had simply angered them.

Distracted by Azula, I missed a ramming blow to the side from one of the wasps. Emitting a nasty chirping sound, the wasp was about to strike my neck with its powerful beak when that very neck (only its own) was severed from its body by fire daggers. I didn't have time to get to my feet before I was knocked off them again, but this time, right during the impact, I managed to rip open the buzzard wasp's belly. Jumping to my feet, I leaped aside with powerful jets of flame so as not to get covered in natural glue. And then, using a flame whip, I yanked a wasp, and it collided with another in flight. They both fell to the ground, where I covered them with my flames.

I glanced at the princess again and noticed things were going poorly for her. Her arms and legs were covered in that sticky mass, and several wasps were rushing at her with a ramming strike all at once.

I appeared right in front of her and pointed two fingers at the sky. The buzzard wasp that had almost touched my hand blew apart into pieces the next second, followed by the remaining opponents.

"But lightning works much better on them than fire," I noted, shaking my hand, which ached a little due to the somewhat hastily used advanced firebending technique.

I helped Azula get rid of the sticky wasp substance, which reeked of rotten meat.

"I got distracted for a moment because I noticed burns on the abdomen of one of the wasps, and then on the next one," the princess explained how the predators had managed to catch her.

"Do you think Zhao climbed Si Wong Rock, the habitat of these buzzard wasps, for some reason?"

"Not 'some reason'… In search of the knowledge spirit's library. We should check that rock as well."

"First, it is still necessary to visit the settlement we were heading towards earlier. The amount of drinking water might not last until Si Wong Rock."

"Fine."

…

The settlement met us with silence and empty streets. Passing the two-meter stone fence, we did not discover a single living soul. But I felt the intent gaze of several people on me at once. For this reason, I abruptly stopped Azula, putting my hand out in front of her.

"Not safe."

"Did buzzard wasps fly through here too?" asked Azula, examining the few stone houses.

"Unlikely. The people living near Si Wong Rock definitely know how to defend themselves from wasps."

A light wind blew, lifting sand from the central path. Azula and I immediately assumed stances, ready to attack instantly. The wind brought us the smell of something burnt and recently spilled blood.

Immediately, the sound of a released arrow rang out, followed by several more. I grabbed Azula, and a dense ring of fire flared up around us, knocking down all the released arrows. In the next second, the fire disappeared, and we jumped in different directions, hiding behind the houses.

"Firebenders? What are you doing here? Who sent you?" I recognized the surprised voice immediately, even though I had spent little time with its owner.

"Captain Zhao, your greeting is extremely nasty."

"You recognized me by voice? Who are you?" Zhao's voice became wary.

"It doesn't matter who he is," the princess was displeased that her own subjects had nearly killed her. Unwrapping the cloth from her face, she appeared from the corner of the building and walked out into the middle of the street. "What matters is who I am."

"Princess Azula?" Zhao's voice became even more surprised and wary. "Is that really you?"

"Me. And I do not like that you have not yet decided to show yourself to your princess and fall to your knees before her."

After a second of silence, Zhao replied:

"I apologize, Princess. I did not mean to offend you."

The sound of a door opening was heard. It seemed Zhao had emerged from his cover. I did the same and stood slightly to the side behind Azula.

Along with Zhao, whom I would not have recognized if he, like the princess, had not removed the covering from his face, moved about thirty fighters in loose black clothes. I didn't know he had such a large group.

"I am glad to welcome you, Princess Azula," stopping three steps away from us, Zhao knelt. All his fighters repeated this gesture after him.

"I have already noticed how glad you and your people are at my appearance," Azula's voice sounded ironic. Contempt froze on her face.

"Your disguise, Princess, is so good," Zhao immediately began to make excuses, "that my people confused you with members of a nomadic tribe."

"I see. Have you carried out the Fire Lord's order, Zhao?" Azula decided to get to the most interesting part right away.

Zhao swallowed and, shifting his gaze, uttered:

"In process, Princess…"

"If you failed to carry out the Fire Lord's order in such a long time, perhaps you should be demoted to lieutenant? Or better yet, straight to private?" Azula raised her voice and spat out simply a whole ton of venom.

"I beg your pardon, Princess… I can outline all the details of the library search in a more convenient place for conversation. You and your people are probably tired from constant exposure to the sun. You and your group should rest, and then I will gladly tell you what I have achieved during this time in Si Wong."

"Fine. I accept your offer… But choose your words carefully during the report. If I do not like them, you will indeed become a private today or be kicked out of the army altogether. You may rise."

"Thank you, Princess," Zhao rose and gave a slight bow. "Please, follow me. My people will escort the members of your group to the rest quarters."

"You need not worry about that. Only the two of us came to check on you."

"Is that so…" Zhao's voice sounded cold. His gaze became the same.

I immediately sensed something was wrong. And Azula noticed something strange.

In the next instant, two things happened at once: Zhao shouted to kill us, and I created a rotating sphere of flame again.