Shui could feel her eyelids becoming heavy as she held onto the reins of Mizu, her Mongoose Lizard. She and her trusty mount had been travelling longer than expected through the charcoal remains of what used to be a wonderful forest filled with many herbs she needed to collect for her mothers tea shop. Shui's eyes snapped open as Mizu stopped in her tracks. There it was, the untouched forest.

Shui rode Mizu all the way up to the edge of the forest. This was an area she had never ventured before. What was now the beginning of the forest used to be the deep middle. Shui had no idea what lay ahead of her and her trusted companion. All she knew was that they were in need of a place to rest. She knew to keep a keen eye out as a lot of the forest had been disrupted. A lot of creatures were on edge, angry and scared. Usually peaceful creatures could lash out at anything or anyone.

As Shui and Mizu quietly and slowly crept through the forest, Mizu came to a sudden halt. Shui had heard it too. Tiger Monkeys. Shui got her flask of water and got ready to bend. She was rather fatigued and her vision was a little blurry from the long ride. It had taken rather a big toll on her stamina as their usual resting spot was scorched.

Like lightning, she didnt see it coming, an orange flash and she was flung from Mizu and she smashed into a tree back first. Shui let out a scream. She was heavily winded and couldnt breath properly never mind bend. Mizu did her best to step between her owner and the enemy. Shui tried to shoo Mizu away, she didnt want her to get hurt, however she could barely breath and moving was painful.

Tao had been studying and following different animal tracks for hours now and frankly had gotten tired of it. Sure a guide must able to accurately identify an animal just by it's tracks but they all headed in the same direction; namely out of the burned down part. By sheer coincidence he came across tracks that ha had often seen back in the Fire Nation namely those belonging to a Mongoose Lizard. He hoped that animal's rider was aware of the dangerous condition of the forest, but that hope was quickly dashed when he heard the sounds of a Tiger Monkey attack.

He really hoped he was wrong about what was happening as he had no interest in playing hero, but he still ran toward the origin of the sound. Luckily for the blue skirted girl in danger, he already was close by. Unfortunately for him though he wouldn't be able to fight the carnivore off with just his dagger, so he had no choice but to bend if he wanted to save her.

With a quick punch of his left arm he shot of a weak fireball at the Tiger Monkey hoping to scare it off before it hurt the girl any further, but he only managed to make the animal angry. Now seeing Tao as a threat it ignored the girl and her Lizard and instead charged straight at him, the only reason he didn't end up with it's claws in his neck was because he barely managed to put his right arm in front of their intended target.

Shui watched on as a someone came to her rescue. She managed to get her breath as she made her way over to Mizu who after checking her over was thankfully not injured. Shui saw her saviour use fire bending, this rang alarm bells in her mind. Then seeing the Tiger Monkey go in for a killing blow she gasped and began to water bend. Thankfully he managed to block with his arm. She turned her water into ice and shot them at the Tiger Monkeys feet. She didnt want to kill it, she knew he was just as frightened as her with everything going off in the forest of late. She needed to scare it off but wasnt sure how.

She created a two whips out of water attached to her hands and began whipping the floor by its feet getting it to step further and further back before finally it got too scared with the flurry of water whips hitting the air and ground around it that it jumped up into a tree and ran off. Shui put the water back into her flask and looked around ant the fire bender. She quickly made her way over to him and knelt by his side. "Are you okay?" She asked him in a worried tone. Right now he was injured and she needed to help him. "Do you mind if I use my water bending to heal you?" She asked kindly. Fire benders seemed to hate everyone but fire benders, she didnt want to force her bending on him if he didnt want it.

It took a while for Tao to realize why the Tiger Monkey fled, but when he saw the ice the girl had created it became clear. "Guess I didn't have to bend after all, just distracting it might have been enough. Damn! Better hope she doesn't go blabbing to people about fire benders." He was half expecting the girl to see him as a bigger threat than the animal he tried to scare off so her offer to heal him was quite unexpected.

At first Tao wanted to refuse if only out of pride but he reconsidered. The wound might become infected and his right arm was in bad enough shape as it was. "I'll live but I won't say no the healing." Grimacing he moved the wounded limb so that the waterbender could get a better view of his injury, the bandages hiding his scars already coloring red around the nasty cut.

Shui looked over the boys bandaged arm. "I'll have to take off the bandages" She said softly as she began to unwrap them gently. She was quite shocked to see the burn scars underneath the white bloody material. She kept her face kind and didnt show any sign of shock. She had seen burn scars many many times, she was from the fire nation after all. By the looks of the scars he had had them years. She concentrated on his open wound.

She gathered some water from her water bottle and closed her eyes. Placing her hands inside a ball of water she made, her hands lighting up. Shui placed her now wet, cool, glowing hands on the boys wound. The wound slowly began to heal. Once healed she inspected it further. It healed nice and clean, very minimal scarring. Though she didnt think he particularly cared whether it scarred or not. With a smile she stood up and held a hand out for him to help him to his feet. "All healed. Are you okay?" She asked him with concern lacing her voice.

Tao didn't hide the fact that he was bit surprised the girl didn't show any reaction to the state of his arm after removing his bandages. Maybe she had seen similar scars before, she did have healing powers after all. He just hoped she wouldn't ask any questions, he still hadn't made the fake story about how he got them completely airtight.

As the wound closed Tao was surprised the process didn't hurt at all, despite what he had heard about the Waterbenders' way of healing. When she was done the girl offered her hand to help him get back of his feet, something he ignored. While he was grateful for her help he felt humiliated enough already and at least wanted to get back up using his own strength. "I'm fine. Thanks." As he answered her question he also covered his arm back up with the still dirty bandages with an ease that showed this act was basically a routine for him by now.

Shui frowned slightly 'typical fire bender' she thought as her hand was ignored. "Well. Youre welcome." She spoke softly. She wasnt going to ask questions about his arm. It was obvious it wasnt something he wanted to talk about due to it being bandaged. To be perfectly honest she didnt particularly care either. He was a fire bender. The only reason she healed him was because he tried to help her. Which was bewildering to her. Then something clicked in her head. This boy was not wearing fire nation clothing. She was in her water tribe clothes. Whenever she was away from the fire nation she embraced her water tribe roots. He could be a spy? Perhaps she should tell someone.

She narrowed her eyes at the boy fanally. "Curious. Why is a fire bender wearing earth kingdom attire? Spy? Or on the run?" She questioned curiously, folding her arms. Mizu slowly walking up behind Shui and giving her arm a nudge to be stroked. Shuis gaze softened as she petted her steed gently.

Of course she had to ask, well Tao couldn't exactly blame her for being curious. Rather then lie he decided to tell the truth without going into specifics. "I left the Fire Nation after the incident with my right arm and am now training to guide people around this forest." As he mentioned his arm his expression made clear he didn't like to talk about what happened to it.

He decided to change the subject in a way she hopefully wouldn't notice, by asking her more or less the same question. "And what is a Water Bender doing in a Earth Kingdom forest accompanied by a Mongoose Lizard?" Of course he was actually a bit curious, cause it didn't make sense for her to use a mount from the Fire Nation. She could have only just gotten the lizard but the two of them seemed too close for that.

Shui looked at him blank faced. No one had ever asked about Mizu before. Well he wasn't lying so he shouldn't either. "I am ...from the fire nation" She said begrudgingly. She was native to the fire nation. She was conceived there and born there. Her mother was also native fire nation. "Every few months I leave to collect herbs for my mothers tea house... Its actually quite famous, people from all over the fire nation travel just to taste her tea." She said softly. "I ...er, my father, he was water tribe. My mother and him had a secret love affair and I ended up being the result of that. My father was murdered by fire nation. Not because they found out, simply because he was water tribe. No one knows who my father is in the fire nation. I intend to keep it that way... This" She gestured to her clothes. "was my fathers, I made a few alterations to make it my own, so when I am away from the fire nation, I dress this way, people are much more nicer with you when they don't know you're fire nation...I prefer blue to red anyways" She said softly once again, this time trailing off a little bit. "Mizu, she was given to me as an egg, I hatched her and looked after her. She's my baby girl." She said smiling as she gave Mizu a kiss on the nose.

Tao was glad the girl took his bait about the lizard but he kinda felt bad that she trusted him with something that big while he still kept his secrets." I see. You have chosen a bad time to come here though. As I'm sure you have noticed this forest isn't exactly safe. You saw the burnd down part didn't you?" He was reasonably she did given where he found the tracks. "That was the work of Fire Nation soldiers and as a result many animals have been driven out of their territories, in some case making them desperate for food like that Tiger Monkey probably was. But I'm sure you realized at least some of that."

Tao wondered if he should offer to bring her to the other guides for help, he didn't want to accidentally insult her as she did heal and she had proven not to be helpless. He decided to risk it though, as he didn't want anything to happen to her. "Don't take this the wrong way but if you want I can bring you to the headquarters of the Guides and see if anyone is willing to help you with those herbs."