A/N: This is a Zutara fanfiction with Taang and Sukka.
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender
The exiled Prince Zuko watched as the snow capped mountains of the south pole came into view. How did these peasants survive in this God-forsaken wasteland anyway? That too with none of the waterbenders being alive, the waterbenders who his father had had executed in one of his raids.
His father…. Thinking of his sire made Zuko automatically lift a hand to his scarred face before, he stopped himself. His father who had given him his mark of shame as well as a way to regain his honor and his father's love, his only remaining parents love. The capture of the avatar
The avatar who supposedly could only be found by the last water bender of the South Pole. The reason that his father had slaughtered the waterbenders in the first place- The water bender who was said would grow into the most powerful water bender of all time.
He unrolled the scroll that he'd taken from the palace from where it had been discarded by his father, after the raid, secure in the knowledge of the elimination of one of the threats to his rule.
After searching for almost three years for the avatar the only clue to the avatar's whereabouts had been in his library all along- hidden beneath some of the other books that he'd taken before his exile
He unrolled the scroll that he'd read so many times
'Hope lays submerged, the last of his kind
Fear not oh oppressed for its deliverance's time
In the darkest days when redemption seems lost
She who controls the element of life, child of north and of south shall rise
The greatest of her kind in power strength and beauty
That shall be ever be seen
Shall release the hope and restore the balance
Guide for the one who can control all four and healing angel
She shall help bring down oppressions rule
And bring peace and harmony once more.'
The reason that father had attacked the South Pole had been because it was said that it was where a South Pole woman had married a North Pole warrior had resided. Maybe he could ask that old woman to release the hundred year old avatar instead of her child who had perished.
As he was imagining the welcome and love he'd receive from his father on bringing home the avatar a shadow fell over the scroll. He blinked up at his uncle Iroh's smiling face. "Reading the scroll again, nephew?"
Zuko nodded stiffly, not in the mood to answer his uncle's attempt at small talk. Iroh who was formerly known as the Great Dragon of the West sighed "Go to sleep Zuko, you need the rest" and held up a hand to stall the protest that he could see forming on the boys face. "We'll be reaching the South Pole only by tomorrow morning and even you need your rest if we need to fight. Sleep and I shall wake you well in advance."
Zuko opened his mouth thought better of it and closed it before going down to his room to sleep while the soldiers scrambled out of his way.
Above on the deck his uncle sighed and looking at the sky above said "Agni help that boy"