The pain wrenched at his heart, his eyes stinging. Deep hushed breathes whispered quietly along of the cold iron walls, sending shadows flickering across the room from the single candle on the table in front of him.

It was laughable! A joke played by the gods and as always it was directed at him!

Every fibre of his being screamed in conflict with his morality, putting Everything he was taught into question.

His uncle would have said that all things in life played out like a game pai-show, that all the pieces of the game had yet to be pulled into play. Life, he would tell him. was like a great tree with many branches reaching in different directions. Each branch separated and yet connected with the same roots, all stretching to meet the same sun.

But how? I'm not a tree and if so then my own roots have abandoned me, a branch torn away and cast aside.

His hope was gone, taken by the very same "tree" he had come from.

No

the avatar was still alive. Still running, hiding in the fire nation.

The nation of my blood, my family...home. And one that I'm was no longer welcomed at.

So deep was my fathers shame he had renounced me altogether, publicly.

How do you tell someone that you love them? How do you show you care?

How do you gain the trust of those you have hurt and betrayed?

You can't, and he new it.

Standing up and with a quick snap of his wrist he put out the last candle in the room.

With only the light of the moon to guide him he made his way to his bed, now stripped of its fire nation reds. Simple white sheets was what he slept on now, thrown over a old beaten straw mattress. Closing his eyes he reached into his pocket and pulled out a worn leather strip with a small moon stone hanging from the centre of it. Lightly tracing the now smoothened surface, he let his thumb wander over the pattern.

Zuko, no longer the prince but a prisoner on his own ship fell asleep dreaming of better days and blue swirls.

...…...

Deep in earth kingdom territory near the walls of ba-sing-sei dark clouds opened to reveal the bright sun once more. the storm had battered the land scape and created a muddy range for a farmer and his son who hurried home after waiting it out in the field house.

Passing under the peach trees the boy stopped and stared in wonder at a massive fallen tree.

" wow dad look at that thing! I didn't know they got that big! But how come it fell over? All the smaller trees are still standing"

With a sad smile the farmer reached over and picked up a broken branch with a few buds from the now dyeing tree " because son, not everything lasts forever. This tree has stood it's time and now it must make way for new generation, tho it will need some help"

Taking the broken branch he trimmed the bottom and gouged out a small hole in the old tree base and placed it inside.

"But won't it just die like that father?"

Chuckling the old man ruffled the boys hair " maybe, but its roots are strong and if the branch is to grow we must hope it is strong as well"

Later the next day as the workers returned home from their fields a few stopped to laugh at a young boy who had raced down to the well and had returned pouring water on a broken down old tree.

After all, the boy thought. A little water goes a long way.

End-