The Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation - Jun hailed them as the lands of opportunity these days.

She sat upon a grass-covered knoll in the more obscure regions of the Earth continent, generally in the less military-infested regions none-too-distant from the shoreline where peaceful townships reigned... although were not destined to do so long. The smell of chicken and ginseng root wafted into her nostrils - it came from the bowl set upon the small bamboo tray before her, and it wasn't necessarily her favorite choice of cuisine. She had instead occupied herself with the green tea, but in all fairness she didn't want to be sitting enjoying a casual meal at all.

On the other side of the miniature table, sitting on his own legs was a man in his early-thirties. He was an attractive man in the rugged essence of the word - he looked like the type of person who had seen his way through a great deal of dangerous situations on a daily basis up until now, not to mention lithe physique inclined one to think he had an abundance of acrobatic feats available to him. Of course, while Jun made this observation, she was easily detached from them. Such was the nature of one who was paid to capture all manner of people - at least, usually the goal was to capture... but not always.

In any case, her gray and attractive eyes - or rather the one eye that wasn't concealed by her long, black hair - were set impatiently upon the man, fixated and narrowed in slight annoyance. They weren't just acquaintances, necessarily. On the other hand, they were both mercenaries who may or may not had engaged in a few business forays together. In any case they were now on opposite sides of the trade, and therefore she was looking not upon an old friend, but competition. The presence of competition, to Jun, was a void in which much coin that could potentially be hers was lost. Thus even an old friend, given the right circumstances, earned a less-than-appreciative glare or two during a casual meal.

Not to mention she had places to be and wasn't eager to watch him finish. They had business to conduct, or so he claimed, but he was always one to take his time for the finer things. Jun rolled her eyes at that thought, as it played in her head more as a snooty quote than the product of her own opinions. Jun was, by any right and perspective, a 'looker' so to speak. She was inherently beautiful, having an athletically toned body and a natural radiance that went unscarred by her trade - a sign of her renown efficiency. Of course, between her neatly styled black hair and full lips constantly curled in a condescending smirk, her beauty could only go so far with her nostrils steadily beginning to flare and her eyebrows curling inward in annoyed, steadily building rage.

Jun was a calm person, sure - once she had her job set out before her and a good percentage of her pay on hand, her mind was set and focused on her objective and nothing could avert her gaze from her prey - she was an owl descending upon the rodent, there was no escape and no distraction. Many who had witnessed her terrible ruthless nature during her missions would later claim she were no woman, no human - and this observation made plenty of sense. Few things set her emotions off.

One of those few things happened to be forced to wait - especially for something that, if she knew the man before her correctly, would be fruitless in the end. Finally, she questioned why she had held her tongue patiently in the first place, and opened her mouth to speak, "Are you just going to eat all day or can we get down to business?" The rage and annoyance was absent in her voice, as she was inherently able to restrain it. Emotions would always exist, but no point in wearing them on one's sleeve. That's giving an upper hand to potential opponents, especially to men.

The man looked up. Aside from the more attractive, albeit it unalluring to Jun, features of his body and face, there was another thing that paved his rugged look quite well. He was well-equipped - scalemail pauldrons and tasset, plate greaves, and other means of armor and equipment on his torso and legs that weren't quite symmetrical but hinted at some sort of intentional placement. A leather strap across his chest held the metal round-shield on his back, and by a leather strap on his belt he also possessed as a jagged blade of a shape Jun described mentally to herself as 'inefficient.'

"Rushed as always Jun. You certainly were a pushy child."

She smiled, not in agreement but more in arrogant reminiscence of her childhood. She was what one would call a tomboy - she played with boys, not the girls, and she was the pushiest of them all. She was a bully and a loner, but some of the older boys were appreciative of her nature. Perhaps it amused them, or perhaps there was a secret appreciation and admiration there - like they looked up to her, even if they made it out to be the other way around. Yanying, the man before her, was one of those older boys. He was a quieter sort, and Jun noticed him in that group of boys - and he noticed her back. There was a mutual unspoken curiosity between the two of them, perhaps adoration, but Jun grew to understand that such feelings weren't a part of her. She had put them to bed for the most part - they weren't dogmatic, they just didn't last long. She simply wasn't interested in anybody.

But in those days, Yanying struck her as an interesting one. Now here they were again - she in her mid-twenties and him about thirty, but both on equal ground in similar work. It was an odd coincidence they would both grow to be mercenaries - and both skilled ones although in different versions of the trade (her being more of the tracking and capturing type, and he being more of the underground, illegal bounty hunting type). She had once thought of the possibility that they influenced each other into entering the trade, but it didn't make since. Neither of them knew they pursued the same 'career' until long after it had started. A coincidence, one could suppose, but Jun didn't like to attribute anything to mere coincidences. Luck didn't exist - only precision and motivation. She was precise, so could Yanying motivate her?

"Save it, Yanying, what do you want?"

She noted that Yanying smiled at her harsh words, not even wincing slightly. To her understanding, he was used to the name 'Boss Yanying' rather than his name alone, so she assumed to him it was amusing she would call him otherwise. Perhaps it was an unintended hint at a frank nature between the two of them, something she would never admit, and something that was probably merely a minor thing of amusement to him. She could had been a friend, but there was no room for friends in the business, so why allow him to even begin the struggle to gain her respect? Generally an effort that didn't prove fruitful, in any case.

"We're after the biggest quarry of the century."

Those words alone set Jun off already into a skeptical tangent. The war had been going on for a long time now, since before she entered the trade by a long shot. She had pursued many-a-prey and heard tales of bounty hunting endeavors from those that came before her. Bounty Hunting was a rewarding albeit less viable trade prior to the war - you were paid a lot to deal with someone who perhaps got in the way of another's business. Now, it was always taking out criminals and escaped convicts, as Fire Nation officials called them. It paid less, but there was more business - these were the effects of the war. Bounty Hunting was more widespread and accepted, and Jun wasn't one who would had liked it the way it had been story-told before the war in the Earth Kingdom. So, she found it rather unlikely the 'scum' style of bounty hunting as she so called it (if not murder) could offer her a better quarry than she had seen, let lone heard of.

"A firebender who deserted, after waylaying a bunch of nobles, commoners, and whatnot in one of their home cities. A true naughty boy. They're paying good coin for his head, no capture necessary... and supposedly given his skill, no capture recommended either," he continued. She raised a brow, not having heard of this contract. "And who is paying you for this?"

"Three separate employers that don't know of each other. I've worked out a means of presenting evidence to all of them without raising questions. We've had a run-in already, he's a real challenge, I think you might like it."

She shook her head, not one for that sort of business practice. Money was great and all, but she didn't like to turn over heads and deal with criminals - she just wanted to turn in her shackled and bound prisoner and take the rest of her promised sum. Ethics didn't bother her if the pay was right, but even she had a certain degree of tolerance for getting her hands dirty. In the end, sometimes blood money is more expensive than it is made to be worth. The deal looked bad; in fact the only appealing aspect was the 'challenge' he mentioned. If he had already faced and failed to take the man down, he certainly would prove a fun play-thing for Jun. However, it just wasn't enough to convince her.

"I'm not interested," said she in a cool voice. As always, though, Yanying had to finish even when the answer was made early.

"Come now, it won't take a lot of time and you don't have to get any blood on your dress sweetheart." She winced at this, but the man continued. "I just need your little pet there to track him down and there rest I can handle."

She smirked, although there was a bad taste in her mouth left by his manner of speech. "If that's all you want, why don't you just find and train your own shirshu?" She looked with triumphant amusement to Zen, who couldn't see but still sniffed appreciatively, as though there was some bond between them and he knew. Yanying shook his head. "Some of my other business partners said that too, but I didn't think you would. You know better than anyone how impossible that is."

She rose to her feet - she was all out of tea and interest at the same time. She approached Zen and stopped with her hands on his pelt, casting her chillingly attractive stare over her own shoulder at Yanying. Still he sat there, watching her go.

"It's not impossible... you'll just have to deal with a lot of scratches and bite marks, not to mention the paralysis cramps you'll be dealing with every night before you go to sleep." She grinned, affectionately remembering her earlier times with Zen. Yanying rolled his eyes and said, "So that's a no then?"

With one graceful and easy movement, she pulled herself onto her shirshu mount and grasped the reins. "It's a no," she said pulling up next to him so that she was, intentionally so, looking 'down' at him.

"And I'm not your business partner... nor am I your sweetheart." She mockingly blew a kiss, and then spurred her mount, disappearing into the forest line in a shortage of time, leaving Yanying to shrug and thumb his reminder-bracelet in search of another alternative.