Chapter 25

Gyirong Town was a large town situated in the middle of the Gyirong Valley, though, unlike Khamdo City, it wasn't built up so much as it was spread out. Wide districts of one-to-two-level Dzong-style Houses filled the valley floor, with only a few places being more built up than that. Here and there, dirt roads crisscrossed the place haphazardly, belying a lack of Civic Planning on the part of the Town Elders.

Once again, Bikki noticed a lack of fighting-age men out and about on the streets, though there were some as compared to what had been in Nyeri Village. It was decidedly less than a town of this size should have, however, and Bikki wasn't fooled, nor were any of his companions, he'd imagine. General Iroh clicked his tongue from the front of their column, clearly unamused at how little the opposition thought of them to put up such a poor camouflage.

However, the sun was almost finished setting, and they needed to stable their mounts and find a place to bed down. The group turned onto the main street of Gyirong Town, one of the few places that had buildings that were three stories or more, and headed for the Joyful Cranefish, one of two buildings in the town that was a proper size by Fire Nation Standards.

The Joyful Cranefish stood at the edge of Main Street, just before the dirt road took one up into the mountains again toward the mines. At six stories, the Joyful Cranefish was the second-tallest building in Gyirong Town after the Wangchuk Palace, which sat on a rocky outcropping on the side of the valley and seemed as fortified as any Earth Kingdom Castle, though there weren't any Earthbenders here to turn the very grounds against an attacker. It was more colorful, however, as the tans and grays of the stone that predominated the Wangchuk Palace were replaced by reds and blues on the facade of the Joyful Cranefish.

If Bikki had to guess, the Wangchuk Palace was built primarily for defense, which wasn't a consideration for the Joyful Cranefish. Idly, he wondered just how formidable the Wangchuk Palace Defenses actually were, but if his suspicions were correct, it was likely that he would find out soon enough when whatever rebels were pretending to be Snow Lions and stopping the ore shipments to the smelteries played their hand.

For now, the group simply stabled their mounts in the attached stables of the Joyful Cranefish and prepared to wash the taste of the road out of their mouths with some tea, or possibly baijiu, in the Joyful Cranefish's common room. Bikki, as always, insisted on stabling Ayai himself.

"Why do you do that? You know they have stable hands for that, right?" Questioned Prince Zuko as Bikki began to lead Ayai to the stables himself.

"Because Ayai and I have a special bond. I was literally raised with her. I don't know what you know about how the Nobility of my people is, but it's a tradition that every Chief or Lord's Son be gifted a Reindeer Goat Foal when they're children. It gets the foal used to us and also teaches us how to care for our mounts, plus it creates a bond." Explained Bikki, beginning to brush down Ayai's Coat.

"You know, that's not too different from how things are in the Water Tribes." Mused Deniigi.

"I would hazard a guess that some of the Yonbanjin's traditions bear similarities to Water Tribe Traditions. A people cannot spend so long raiding and trading with another without a certain amount of cultural osmosis." Pointed out General Iroh.

"That seems logical. I don't know what sort of a bond such an ill-tempered beast could possibly have, however." Scoffed Fei-Yan.

"Give it a rest, Fei-Yan. So she nipped you once, big deal!" Huffed Deniigi.

"Yeah, besides, she can sense when you don't like her. Going on about that is only going to get you nipped again." Pointed out Bikki.

"Whatever. I need something to eat, let's leave Bikki to it." Grumbled Prince Zuko.

"Indeed. Besides, a spot of that Jasmine Tea that they had at the Saffron Lemur would not go amiss, either." Mused General Iroh.

As the rest of Bikki's group went on ahead, Bikki brushed down Ayai and made sure she had her feedbag of greens and barley strapped on. He made his way over to the water pump attached to the stables and pumped a bucket full of fresh water, dragging it over to Ayai's stables and putting it down in front of the Reindeer Goat. Then he rubbed alongside her neck gently.

"I'll be back soon to take the feedbag off and check in on you, Girl. I'm gonna eat my dinner first." Promised Bikki.

Ayai just made a soft, low-pitched, bleating noise. Bikki grinned because he knew that was the sort of bleat Ayai made when she was happy. Nodding to himself, Bikki patted Ayai on the flank once and then headed inside for his own dinner.

As he did, he once again failed to notice the same Girl from Nyeri Village watching him from a hidden position. . .

XXXX

Dichen was many things, a Scout, a Warrior, the Bastard Daughter of Lord Dete Wangchuk, and many other things besides. What she was currently, however, was curious. When her father had come to her, offering his formal acknowledgment of her as his daughter in exchange for helping to aid him and his Lord in their rebellion, Dichen had thought that she had finally found something that would make her father recognize her.

Oh for certain, she had trained in the Martial Arts, learned the Ral Gri sword and the Mdung Spear, picked up tracking and the arts of stealth, and even studied the ancient Assassin's Arts of the Dim Mak which could stop the flow of Chi to various points on the body, always a vital art for confronting Benders. She had done all this to impress on her father that she was his daughter, worthy of acknowledgment and a place in the line of succession.

Her father, for his part, had been more than happy to arrange for instructors, though always he had done so at a step removed, through middlemen and patsies. It wouldn't do for the Lord of Nyeri Village to be so associated with a peasant girl. What would the court say? More to the point, what would her father's Lord, Lord Dhundup, say?

Now, Dichen had been given the opportunity to finally claim her rightful place in the family and seized it with both hands. Of course, it had begun small, simply ferrying messages from her father or uncle to the hideouts in the mountains. Running supplies to those same hideouts had also been a frequent mission, and that had included supplies of things such as the Bullroarers used to simulate Snow Lion roars or the blasting jelly charges that had been liberated from Khamdo City and used to mimic the wrath of the Snow Lions.

She had only ever been asked to take part in battle once, slaying her first person after some of the local constables had unknowingly stumbled upon the conspiracy during a routine patrol of the mountain paths around Gyirong Town. It had not been a pleasant experience, but she had learned to deal with it in the weeks since. Compared to that, simply watching the Fire Nation Prince and his retinue and reporting on their activities to her Father and Uncle's Men in the mountains was a simple task.

At least, it would have been had not the odd Yonbanjin been a part of the retinue. Dichen had watched him and noticed that he had managed to put at least some of the pieces together of her Father and Uncle's Conspiracy. She had expected as much from the Dragon of the West, especially after her father had told her of General Iroh's deeds in the ongoing War in the Earth Kingdom, but now it seemed as if she would need to watch more than just him.

Dichen had taken to watching the Yonbanjin as a priority, staying behind to watch him even as he stabled his odd-looking Reindeer Goat while the others went inside. Fortunately, though the Yonbanjin was sharp, he wasn't situationally aware enough to notice her when he had his Reindeer Goat to stable. She had just watched him stable, brush down, and feed his mount, while the other mounts had been seen to by the Joyful Cranefish's Livery Staff.

Now Dichen was faced with a dilemma. Her Uncle had arranged for a debilitating poison to be slipped into the food that was fed to the Komodo Rhinos and Wold Squirrels of the rest of the group, but the Yonbanjin's Insistence in stabling his mount himself had meant that the Reindeer Goat wouldn't be sickened by the poison and kept in the stables while the ambush was set up in the mountains. Dichen didn't have any of the poison on hand, which meant she would have to move in and try to kill the Reindeer Goat the old-fashioned way if she truly wanted this operation to be a success.

Unfortunately, that would tip the Fire Nation Party off that something was actually wrong. The poison was meant to mimic the effects of food poisoning and to keep the Fire Nation Party in Gyirong Town for longer than the single night they had been planning, while an ambush with Blasting Jelly was prepared in the mountains to bury them in a 'freak avalanche'. However, going in to kill the Reindeer Goat by hand was not something that could be covered up as a quirk of fate.

"I need to speak to my Uncle." She decided.

She would abort this mission and go straight to the Wangchuk Palace to inform her Uncle Kalden that a complication had arisen. He would make a decision on how to proceed after she'd reported in. The leather-armored guards let Dichen through and ushered her into a small antechamber where her uncle was sipping on tea to give her report. When it was finished, it was decided that the Ambush Option in the mountains was no longer feasible. Instead, he would send a few of his men to the Joyful Cranefish while the Fire Nation Party was asleep to assassinate them.

Dichen had frowned at that. There would be no way to hide such a move. It would be open rebellion and this would be the point of no return for them. Unfortunately, it was not her place to question her Uncle. He had made a decision and now they were committed to seeing it through. The assassins were going ahead. All Dichen could do was see the plan through to the end and hope that it was successful. Her Uncle had her pick the best men she could for the job, a task meant to show trust in her abilities. Instead, it simply made Dichen worried. In the end, she could only hope she had chosen well.

If she hadn't, then they were all doomed. . .

XXXX

Dinner had been a more subdued affair, though still lively enough. Fortunately, General Iroh didn't attempt to sing, and the proprietor of the Joyful Cranefish was a man, so there hadn't been any flirting to fluster or gross out Prince Zuko. They had largely simply eaten and then turned in for the night after only a brief discussion where they had all agreed that yes, there was something fishy and possibly seditious going on here.

Their room was set up with a small common area and three smaller rooms with two futons each. Prince Zuko and General Iroh shared one, as did Bikki and Fei-Yan, leaving Deniigi to have her own sleeping room as the sole Woman of the Group. It wasn't something any of them begrudged her. All of them were soldiers or had been trained to be a soldier, after all. Unfortunately, there was no attached bathroom, meaning that if they wanted to use the facilities, they would need to head to the bathroom down the hall.

It was the middle of the night when it happened. Bikki had been sleeping only to feel the call of nature, waking up to head to the bathroom. He pushed himself off the futon provided for him and headed out into the common area of their room. Prince Zuko and General Iroh were in the small sleeping room to his right, and the General's snores sounded out as if the Dragon of the West were actually a sawmill in operation overnight.

He had just made his way into the small common area when, curiously, the door to the hallway opened from the outside with a click. There were only two types of people who would have a key, one of them was Bikki's Group and the other was the staff of the Joyful Cranefish. Puzzling at this, Bikki idly wondered just what was going on before a trio of men in leather armor with short, single-edged fighting blades, who were masked up to hide their identities entered the room. Bikki knew what this was, almost immediately, he punched out with a fireball that slammed into the frontmost man's face, sending him to the floor with a strangled cry.

"Assassins! Wake up!" Shouted Bikki, ducking under a thrown, secondary, knife from one of the other Assassins. The third engaged him with his fighting blade and Bikki took a shallow cut to the meat of his right bicep in the close-quarters of the fight before his imitation of the Dragon of the West sent that Assassin reeling to avoid being immolated by Fire Breath.

Suddenly, Deniigi appeared, coalescing an icicle out of the moisture in the air and flinging it at the Assassin that had cut Bikki. The Assasin cut the Icicle out of the air with his fighting blade but was forced to duck as a second icicle flew at him, made from water that had been in a nearby basin meant for the guests to be able to wash their faces in the mornings. With Deniigi dealing with that Assassin, and one already down, that left the Third to be dealt with by Bikki.

The third and last Assassin charged Bikki with his fighting blade and Bikki was forced to pivot to avoid being impaled, unable to shoot fire without potentially hitting some furniture and setting the room aflame. As Bikki pivoted, he scooped General Iroh's Travel Tea Kettle up with his unwounded arm and swung it into the Third Assassin's head, cracking the man's skull as the heavy metal of the travel kettle smashed into the Man's Temple. He crashed to the floor with a grunt and went still, knocked unconscious.

"My Tea Kettle! Don't treat it so roughly!" Snapped General Iroh, exiting his sleeping quarters.

"Deal with the Last Assassin first!" Insisted Bikki.

As he did so, both Fei-Yan and Prince Zuko came out of their sleeping quarters. Now with the odds being five against one, instead of just Deniigi, the Last Assassin sought to make a break for it, ducking under a water whip sent his way by Deniigi, and dodging a burning punch sent his way by Prince Zuko to leap through the outside window. He plunged his fighting blade into the stone of the outside wall of the Joyful Cranefish, hoping to use it to slow his descent. Instead, it simply allowed Fei-Yan to lean out of the broken window and sweep his arms out. That, in turn, caused the stonework of the exterior wall of the Joyful Cranefish to clamp down on the would-be Assassin's arm, holding the Man in place like a trap.

In response, the Last Assassin pulled out a throwing knife and tossed it at Fei-Yan who was forced to pull back away from the window, stomping the bottom of his foot against the wall and launching the Assassin away to land thirty yards away in the street, breaking his neck with a thud.

"Well, it certainly seems like someone doesn't want us getting too close to these mines. I doubt that Spirits such as Snow Lions would send Assassins after us in such a manner." Mused General Iroh.

"It seems so, once we take care of Bikki's arm, I say we head for the Mines. Nobody attacks us and gets away with it, wasn't that the whole point of the Waegu Archipelago?" Demanded Prince Zuko.

"It's just a scratch, I'll be fine." Waved off Bikki.

"I'm on it." Sighed Deniigi, moving water to Bikki's cut arm and infusing soothing Chi into the water to heal the gash.

"I'm already packed up. I had a feeling something like this might happen at some point, though I don't like being right." Grumbled Fei-Yan.

Of course, in worse news, it seemed like the majority of their mounts were sick with some sort of stomach bug. Deniigi, however, seemed to know better. She began drawing the poison out of the mounts as soon as they'd discovered the animals were sick.

"I guess they didn't expect us to have a Waterbender with us." Mused Prince Zuko.

"Who would? Fire and Water are opposing elements, after all." Shrugged General Iroh.

"In fairness, without having been to the Waegu Archipelago, we wouldn't have had a Waterbender like Deniigi either." Ponted out Bikki.

"It's nice to be appreciated." Grinned Deniigi as she worked.

"How soon until we can head out? I don't trust that to be the last batch of Assassins we'll face if we stay here." Intoned Fei-Yan.

"Patience, Fei-Yan." Insisted General Iroh.

"Yeah, don't rush me." Added Deniigi.

"No, Fei-Yan's right. They had to be working with the locals to get access to our room and mounts." Concurred Prince Zuko.

"At the very least, the Joyful Cranefish is suspect." Nodded Bikki.

"That being the case, I'll keep watch." Offered Fei-Yan.

As it happened, Deniigi managed to finish up in the next few minutes, her experience with battlefield healing allowing her to get their mounts up and about before any other assassins could arrive. Soon enough, Bikki and Company were headed into the mountains. By the time the first rays of dawn broke over the mountains, the Gyirong Mines were finally in sight.

They would hopefully put an end to this there. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here we see Gyirong Town, a bit of the conspiracy, and an assassination attempt. It turns out, the Wangchuk Family has seen their carefully laid plans be picked apart by interlopers and Kaldan Wangchuk panicked and sent assassins after Bikki's Group. That easily could have gone very poorly for Bikki and Company if Bikki hadn't been awake and heading to take a piss.

Now they're headed to the Gyirong Mines to put an end to this, but it likely won't be fully over with unless the Wangchuk Palace is stormed and Kaldan and Dote Wangchuk are taken out of the picture. If that happens, you can expect Dhundup Dorje to throw the Wangchuk Brothers under the bus to save his own skin, not that it's likely to help him all that much if Namri Tsenpo sends a request to Ozai for judgment. Ozai isn't the type to brook such treason lightly and is likely to order a purge of the entire Dhundup Family.

At any rate, the next chapter will be the mines, where there will be another fight against rebel forces, and some investigation on top of that to boot.

Stay tuned. . .