Hey ya'll! My name is Cherish and this is my first fan fic ever! I love Zutara so I thought, why not write one. Anyway this is my first, so could you guys write some great reviews to tell me what I did wrong. That would be great. Thankx ttyl.


Dislaimer: I don't own Avatar, though I wish I did. If I did I wouldn't be writing fan fiction but I would be writing the episods with much more Zutara action.


It was a cool, quiet day flying above the clouds over the ocean. The ocean, that some how new that everybody needed a calm day to recover from the battle that had just taken place. Two teenagers from the water tribe, one a powerful bender and the other a determined warrior, and a 12 year old air bender who was also the Avatar, had just finished one journey and started another.

They all sat in silence thinking about what had happened over the course of the last few days. Aang had driven of an entire fleet of fire nation war ships away while in the Avatar state, and Sokka had lost somebody he loved to the moon. Nobody had talked for what seemed like hours. Finally, Katara broke the thick silence that surrounded them.

"Um… so… Aang, do you think you are ready to learn earth bending? Aang and Sokka both jumped at the sound of anything after the long silence.

"Er… I think so.", replied Aang nonchalantly, " It couldn't be that hard could it? I mean I have mastered it a thousand times before now."

Aang was secretly scared that he might not be able to master all the elements in time to defeat the fire nation. Quickly, not wanting to think about mastering the new element, Aang worked on changing the subject.

"Do you think we lost Zuko?", he questioned. This was not the best thing he could think to change the subject to, but he had to work with what he had.

"Are you kidding?" Sokka simply replied, " He has the tracking skills of a… a… forget it! He's just dumb."

What they didn't know that directly under the clouds that Appa flew over, Zuko was quickly tracking them and planning an attack as soon as they landed.

"Zuko, what is your plan of attack?" quizzed Iroh who was Zuko's shopoholic uncle.

"We will sail strait toward the nearest port, dock the ship, and then wait for them to land." The thing was that Zuko was really fresh out of ideas and was making it up as he went. It seemed like a pretty good idea so far to him though. But that wasn't good enough for Iroh ,"And then what?" Zuko quickly thought of a logical answer. "We will hide and then ambush them to scare away their bison away to demolish any plan of escape." This, to Zuko, seemed to be enough for his Uncle, for he nodded slightly and slowly turned to leave.

"Uncle?" Zuko had been continuously pondering this question in his mind for some time now. He needed an answer.

"Yes, Zuko?" Iroh stopped and pivoted to face Zuko.

"Do you believe that I will ever catch the Avatar?" Zuko didn't like to much conversation with his uncle because most of it was just crazy talk. It was hard to get him to be serious. Zuko hoped that this once he could be normal.

Iroh turned away from Zuko and frowned. And after pondering the question for a few minutes, he finally answered. "Even the most beautiful butterfly can not be kept for it will die, but if captured by the right person, and then kept for that right reasons, it can continue to thrive and live its life to the fullest."

Zuko's face had changed from a look of determination to a look of rage. He never new what his uncle meant when he talked like that. He because angry because it was, to him, an easy yes or no question. But really it was so much more. He turned to yell at his uncle but realized he had gone.

Zuko went to the Capitan, told him to dock at the next port, and decided to go meditate in his room. In the dark with no light other than the candle that's flames licked the air, Zuko sat silently. He would not lose the Avatar this time.


So, howd you like it? I thought it was good though it was kind of short. The next one should be longer! TTYL