A/N: This is an idea I came up with while reading a bunch of Zutara stories. Yes, before you ask, they are my favorite pairing. Anyway, back to the story. It is set TWO generations AFTER the Avatar gang. The war is ended; Zuko is Fire Lord, and so on. All will be explained in the prologue.

After the Fire Lord's death, the war came an almost swift and abrupt end. Fire nations soldiers bended easily to the new will of Fire Lord Zuko and everyone seemed happy to make the transition into peace. Well, on the outside. But there was still hostility towards firebenders and no one could blame them. One hundred years of terror and pain could not be forgotten over night. The Avatar had his work cut out from him. But he had his friends, all very important. And he had his new wife, a waterbendering master and delegate to both tribes of the Wolf and the Owl.

Zuko, even after years of happy marriage with his own beautiful wife, couldn't help but wince as he recalled the thought. Katara had been so happy when her and Aang's first-born had come, baring the tattoos of the airbenders, the first in a hundred years. Back then, he could never understand what had gone wrong, but he had let go, like he had learned to let everything go, and moved on. But some part of his heart still belonged to that waterbender with eyes like the ocean, the only one ever to best him in combat.

As Zuko looked out the window and down at the garden, he couldn't say he wasn't happy with his own life now. He had two handsome sons to take up his mantle, a beautiful granddaughter, and a troublesome grandson, who now busied himself by playing in the garden below the Fire Lord's window.

Ryuu, Zuko's youngest son and the new dragon of the west, was attempting to teach his nephew some restraint with his fire bending. Even at the tender age of 6, Zuko's only grandson, Akihiko, showed great promise in his bending abilities. Granted, not as much as Azula.

Zuko frowned. That was the only dark mark on his new life. Azula. Even now, he dreaded her, and her promised revenge. Even now, two generations later, he still feared what her anger would drive her to do. With her incredible bending power, she had been able to escape and now, she was hiding, biding her time, he knew, till she would strike when it hurt him most. Even in her old age, she would still bring about her revenge.

Katara was happy. She had to frequently tell herself that when she first married Aang. She wouldn't go around missing what she never had. She was stronger than that. Sometimes, she would believe it and would be happy. But other times, a pair of amber eyes haunter her memories, taunting her and tormenting her.

But now, as she watched her four-year-old grand niece bend water from her cup, she didn't have to tell herself those words. Sokka's granddaughter was beautiful and, even though she was parts water and earth, she looked like she belonged more with the water tribe that in the dull browns and greens of the earth kingdom. Katara felt a small twinge of regret. None of her own children were waterbenders. None of her grand children either. They were all airbenders. Not that she wasn't happy about that. She was, but she missed having someone to teach, to pass on her ways to.

But here was her chance. Her grandniece, Miyako. Katara smiled. She would be a waterbending mater, like her great aunt.

Miyako sat in her mother's lap, brilliant blue eyes gazing up at her mother adoringly. Her mother smiled as she finished the last of her sewing and set it down on the table next to her. Miyako smiled excitedly, knowing that this gesture meant a story.

"Tell me a story," she asked uselessly, in case her mother should forget.

"Alright. How about the Wolf?" her mother suggested.

The mocha-skinned child tilted her head to the side, confused by her mother's question.

"The Wolf is the symbol of your water tribe. There are many stories about her," Miyako's mother explained.

Miyako seemed to think this over for a moment and finally, she nodded her consent.

"Alright. How about the night the Wolf met the Dragon," her mother started.

Miyako tried to act bored, but just the mention of dragon caught her attention and she shifted closer to hear well.

"That night, the moon was full and the Wolf protected her territory while looking up at her first love, the moon. So distracted by its loveliness was she, that the Wolf did not see a shadow descend upon her. Only when a cloud covered the moon, did she feel the presence of other. Angered that one would get so close, she spun, teeth and claws ready to battle the ignorant fool. But when she turned, what she saw froze her. A handsome dragon, red and gold in color, lying in the snow, smolding bronze eyes following her. It was so different from anything she had seen in the South Pole that it startled her. Neither could say anything, only gaze at one another, as if confused by each other's very presence. Then the dragon spoke:

'Please. I am hurt.'

The wolf looked now at the rest of his body and saw the red snow under his belly.

'Please. Kill me.'

Appalled the wolf looked back at the dragon's eyes, now seeing the deep pain and nobility there. But she couldn't complete his request. There was more to those eyes, she knew, and she wasn't about to let such a handsome creature die at her claws.

'I will help you.'

And so, the wolf built a den around the dragon, as she was not strong enough to move him. She scratched the snow away from his body and curled around him to keep him warm. She licked his wounds to make them heal faster and brought him food to replenish his strength. This went on for so long that the Wolf had gotten used to the dragon's presence, craving it even. So, it came as a shock when on day she came to the den and found him gone. She gave a cry to the moonless night sky and laid her head down on her paws, tears falling into the snow.

'Why did you leave?' she asked the air.

'But I didn't.'

The wolf raised her head to meet the bronze eyes of her dragon. He curled around her and rested his head against her cold fur.

'You didn't leave.'

'I didn't leave, my savior.'

The spirits looked down upon the two strange creatures embracing, finding it quite a strange sight indeed.

'But it is a true love.' The spirits told one another."

"And the next day, the dragon left, telling his wolf good-bye and that they'd see each other again some day," the mother finished.

Her mother looked down at Miyako to find a semi-disgusted expression on her face. She could help but laugh.

"Why did he just leave?" she asked, as if confused by the whole matter.

"Because he had to go back home, sweetie. They had their own worlds to live in," her mother tried to explain.

"But it just doesn't make any sense," Miyako complained and, without another word, she crawled off her mother's lap and off to bed.

"Good night, my wolf child," her mother called to her.

And like the wolf of her tribe, Miyako looked back with solemn brilliant blue eyes, and smiled.