Boss

I had told them what to do. It was simple. I told them to go out, find that fishing boat, and find out if there was any civilization nearby. It should have taken them 15, 30 minutes at most. Instead, they spent the entire day, going into the late evening, coming back just a few minutes ago, with food, water, and a random ass person I had never met before.

I had no idea what to think whatsoever. I didn't even know where to start my questions.

"I can explain," Zek said at that very moment as though he knew the fog of confusion that was my mind in that moment.

"I would really much appreciate that," I responded with.

"Well. Huh. Didn't think you'd keep me here long enough to explain. Well. First off. This is Jaduh."

"Jadoh," the boy corrected. He was young. Younger than me for sure, but that was a given. He was older than Luke for sure, but I didn't know where to place him in relation to Zek. Something about the look in his eyes said he was older, but his stature said younger.

"Jadoh," Zek acknowledged. "Right. Sorry. Anyway, we went to that boat. It was a fishing one. They had been part of a larger fishing group from a nearby town but were attacked. Jadoh and his dad were the only survivors."

"Where's the dad now?" I looked over to Jadoh, and his lack of reaction made me believe this alleged father was still alive, but Zek's answer said otherwise.

"He didn't make it," Zek answered.

I looked back over to Jadoh, surprised, wondering if even he knew, but no reaction again. He knew, but he was unaffected. I looked back to Zek, clearly waiting for clarification which he promptly gave.

"He was killed by pirates."

"They came back to finish them off, then?"

"Yeah."

"So you held them off."

"Yes, well," he paused. "Luke did."

"Luke? Where were you?"

"I was going to the town with Jadoh. We didn't know the pirates would come back soon. We were going to offload cargo from the boat since it couldn't move and see if we could get some help, but, when we came back, the dad was dead."

"Why didn't you just tow their boat. Couldn't have been larger than a small fishing boat, right?"

"Yeah, but it was loaded to the brim. Too heavy and too much to tow."

I sighed. It was one thing that somebody had died. I didn't know the man. I would have offered condolences to the boy, but he didn't appear to be needing them. What worried me more than anything else was that Zek and Luke had apparently gone off on their own on a whole grand adventure without even letting me know what the hell was going on. For nearly the entire day, I thought they were dead, but we stayed put for fear of leaving them behind. An entire load of coal had been wasted as we idled, waiting for them to return, which they had, eventually, but there had been no warning, no alert that they'd take a while. They had just left. And that's something I wasn't comfortable with.

"Jadoh," I said, turning my attention to the boy without tears. "Few stories down, there's a barracks. Chose a bunk and offload your stuff if you really want to stay. If you don't, we'll take you back to your town."

"Thank you," he said "But it's not my town anymore.

He left, presumably to his bunk, but Zek remained as I had hoped he would, as he knew he would have to. He also knew he couldn't get away with this scot free.

¨Look,¨ he started. "I know I-"

"You left for something that was meant to take you 30 minutes so we could get food, water, and fuel, but instead took the entire day doing what? Helping fishermen and fighting pirates?"

"Okay. Well. When you put it like that, it sounds dumb, but you told us that we're here to help people. That's what we did. Helped people."

"Come on, Zek. We both know this wasn't just about that. You wanted out. You saw this as a chance to get away from this ship and I don't blame you, but what you did, not telling us, going off on your own, leaving Luke to fight against, how many raiders alone?"

"We didn't know they were coming."

"That doesn't matter. You run things by me. Like it or not, I'm in charge here and there's a system to the way we do things. You run it by me, or people get hurt. You should have come here first, warned us, we could've come 'round to help out, but instead, you acted out of mere excitement, and people died."

Zek didn't seek to make and counterclaims to that. The mane as dead. That much was apparent. I had expected him to defend his complicity in the death, or rather, lack thereof, but there was no argument to be made from him. Rather, his head sank, and he made no effort to deny what I had said. I wondered what to do with him for a while. I knew he was loyal. I knew he'd never betray us and I didn't want to bring him to the point where he may consider such a betrayal, but sadly, things were turning out more like the military than I would have hoped for. Before, I had informally been put in charge, but now it was in an official capacity. It was in the name they had given me—"Boss." There was no avoiding the label I had been given anymore. What I was was apparent, and whether I liked it or not, I'd have to go along with it.

So now as part of that responsibility came determining what to do with Zek. I knew he had been actin gin our best interests. And what he had done had likely yielded more positive results had he not done what he did. I would tell him that, soon enough. I didn't want to make him too a ware of his successes just yet, however, lest he forget the consequences of what he'd done, but I didn't want him to find out on his own and believe that there was praise to be found that I hadn't acknowledged. I would tell him how I felt soon enough, but not yet.

I decided soon enough that he had enough of a punishment as he needed. He had a man's death on his conscience. I didn't need to hammer the point home any further than had already been done. "You can go."

He surprise didn't show in any obvious matter, but it could be read in his eyes for the split second that they widened, blinked, and returned to their standard state.

He left shortly after, nodding at me and retreating down the ladder that led to the command bridge where the debriefing had occurred. Damn, I was even using military terminology now. It was like nothing was changing. I mean, I wasn't going to deny it. I was trying to start an army of sorts. I had no intention of fighting this war, no, but there was a reason that professional armies succeeded where local militias failed. As much as the plays and books sought to glorify the strife of the armed farmer, the abused factory workers, and their capabilities of organizing and fighting against the system, this just wasn't how reality worked. They got discovered, they got disorganized, and they got crushed, or they turned on each other.

At Ba Sing Se, Iroh had spent months trying to ready the rioters in the city. He attempted to send arms, supplies, other necessities, but the rioters had failed at one key thing. Organization. And so, the Dai Li crushed them, leaving behind nothing but the bodies of starving men, women, and children littering their streets.

Ba Sing Se would likely be depopulated for months if not years to come. The only hope the urban center would have of recovering its populace would be large scale migration, likely from the renewed front of the war. For the last 2 years, Ba Sing Se had been the target, the source of the war's biggest struggles. To be safe was to be as far away from Ba Sing Se as physically possible, but now the war was no longer on the Earth Kingdom's doorstep. Kuei and his forces were advancing once more. The front was moving, and as time passed, more and more would be caught in its hellfire.

That's how we'll survive.

There's two struggles worth fighting in this war. The struggle in the field and the struggle at home. These past few weeks, our efforts had bee focused on those at home, those abandoned by local security, abused by their garrisons, you name it. But while there had been some luck in the past, it wouldn't sustain us. Not for long at least. We had to get involved in this war whether we liked it or not.

But on who's side?

That, again, was the question. Both had their upsides and downsides. We'd deserted from the Fire Nation for all intents and purposes even if the paperwork said otherwise. We were traitors though we all still loved our countries. And what of the Earth Kingdom. There were rumors of what happened to Fire Nation POWs. Rumors of all manner of things from having limbs crushed to being brainwashed by the Dai Li and sent against your own comrades. And rumors didn't spontaneously appear out of thin air. They had their foundations. I only prayed that, should we get caught, the truth was only as bad as the rumors, as opposed to the more likely possibility of worse.

And then there was the third option. Taking no side. Right now, the Fire Nation army was retreating, consolidating hard points and regrouping in the homeland. Soon enough though, they'd advance once more, contest the front, and make their advance. Then the real fighting would begin, but until then, we had other threats to consider. Threats that the Earth Kingdom posed. Where our own country lacked the "kinder" disposition of say, the Air Nomads, the Earth Kingdom lacked discipline. They targeted who they could when they could. Their soldiers were no better than disorganized militias in most cases. Local garrisons were corrupt to the bone, only after their own wealth, and the army that fielded them had no safe measures to prevent this degree of insanity.

But that's what all of this was about, was it not? Stopping these kind of people from getting their way, going from town to town, extorting, raping, killing.

So sides did have to be taken, but it wasn't a matter of Fire or Earth, but of bully or bullied. And we had made that choice a long time ago.

I stood up from where I was sitting on the bridge with a renewed sense of purpose. We had put off the fighting for long enough, and we needed supplies, and I think I had a good notion as to where to get some.

What Luke and Zek managed to bring back would keep us afloat for now, but little more. We had enough fuel to last us a few more runs on the skiff. Until then, we needed to find a port, but more importantly, we needed to find a target. And I think I had finally found one nearby. I turned to the map in the center of the room and searched for the where the city would be on this unlabeled sea chart, scouting for its characteristic geographic traits. I still had my memories here from my time with the Southern Raiders. There was always a specific part of the region we had been ordered to avoid. That was Kyushu Island, and a larger city that lied near to it by the coast, a city known as Chin.

Perfect.