AUTHOR'S NOTE
For ATLA, this story takes place before the eclipse, but after Zuko joins the Gaang. They are all currently on vacation, though it's short enough to be called a break more than an actual vacation, attempting to get a few more good memories before the eclipse and to clear their minds in order to function better later. The BOTW timeline is a bit trickier, since it depends on how you play it, but assume for now that Link managed to leave the Great Plateau about a month ago. He hasn't freed any of the Divine Beasts yet, nor does he have the master sword. He has been trying to remember stuff about himself and learn more about what's been happening in Hyrule. He's made it as far as Kakariko and owns a house in Hateno, but he is also exploring the world around him to get more information and better his skills. Link is currently roaming the area around Necluda and Lanayru.No knowledge of Zelda: BOTW is required to understand this story, but I do recommend having finished Avatar before reading.This story will be based on the ATLA t.v. show, with maybe a few details sprinkled in from the extra material, but unless I hint at it heavily or outright mention it, assume that everything outside of the show is not true in this story. Zelda will be based mostly on BOTW, but you might find a few hints to some of the other games.
I am getting too old for this. Thought Zuko, jumping over a fallen tree and dodging just in time to avoid a low hanging branch.
"Come on Sparky, they're gaining on us!" Toph tightened her hold on him, almost making him lose his balance and run into a tree.
"Gah! Toph, not so tight!" He managed to growl, dodging yet another piece of wood. "I can't run if you won't let me breathe!"
"At least you can see where we're going!" She said, digging into his stomach with a frustrated jab of her heel.
"Ow! Stop doing that!" He said, barely refraining from cursing as she jabbed him again, but stronger.
"I can't see! I'm not doing anything!"
"Exactly!" He ground out. "I'm the one who's running through a forest with an annoying earthbender on my back!"
"Oh you are so paying for that later!" She said, kicking him again. "And you forgot about the pack of ravenous wolves!
"Cut it out!" He said, giving her foot a light slap in what he knew was a futile attempt to stop her frustrated kicks.
"Remind me to kill twinkletoes once we find him." Toph said, "This is not the fun trip I was promised."
"I thought you didn't mind danger." Zuko said pointedly, referring to what she'd said when she decided to wander into a forest full of wolves.
"It's not fun if I can't see it." She scowled, "Besides, if Mr. I-want-to-see-the-pretty-flowers hadn't rushed off into the forest we wouldn't even be in this situation right now! Therefore: twinkletoes is dying. Soon."
They kept on running for what felt like an eternity. Or at least it felt like it to Zuko, whose legs had long since started to burn with the effort, and whose skin was full of scratches from stray branches and near stumbles.
"Uh… Sparky?" Toph's voice broke through the monotony of footfalls, snarls and panting. "I know I can't see or anything, but I'm pretty sure there was some kind of mountain in the general direction you're taking us."
"Right" He acknowledged, much too worried with evading the various obstacles to formulate a proper answer,
"It should be pretty near, by now, actually." she added "And it wasn't the climbable type, you know? So maybe we should just change-" However, she soon had to stop talking at the command Zuko issued, concentrating instead on not losing her head.
"Duck." Said Zuko, twice already in as many seconds. "Allright, hold on tight… and keep your head down." He added, spotting a series of branches and rocks ahead of them that might turn out to be their salvation. He couldn't think on what would happen if he failed. Toph was right on one thing at least, it wasn't a very climbable piece of rock.
A few hundred yards away from the wild chase taking place in the forest, an old man sighed for what felt like the hundredth time in the last hour.
"Young man, I really don't think that stick is going to be tough enough for your current plan..."
Sokka ignored the older man, gripping the piece of wood tightly and swinging it with all his strength towards the tree in front of him. When the branch met the trunk, his arms reverberated with the force of the swing, causing some slight pain to the water tribe teen, but the tree trunk didn't even tremble.
Iroh hummed thoughtfully. "Perhaps if you were taller…"
"Damn it." Grumbled Sokka, throwing aside the now broken branch. He looked up at the bright blue fruit, glaring at it as if it were to blame for the toughness of the tree trunk. If he couldn't shake it loose, he'd have to think of something else. He was somewhat aware of the retired general muttering under his breath, but paid him no mind, already preparing his next attempt to grab the delicacy that was skypeak fruit. Of course, it was aptly named, for the fruit only grew in the furthest branches of the tallest trees of Gentu Forest.
"...As I was saying…"
Sokka wrapped a piece of cloth around the palm of his hands, looking at the tree trunk with a determined air. So he started climbing. Inch by inch, he moved up, slowly advancing towards the prized fruit.
"...brute strength is really not…"
It wasn't nearly enough, he realized, when he looked down to find he'd only managed to scale a dozen feet. He looked up again and swore that the skypeak fruit was mocking him from a hundred feet up. With a defeated sigh, he started climbing back down, suddenly aware that Iroh had stopped talking. Less than a second later he had to refrain from letting go of the trunk when he heard the tell tale crackle of fire behind him. He climbed down the rest of the way as quickly as he dared, turning around to look at the older man.
"What the bleeding hogmonkeys are you doing?!" Sokka most definitely did not squeal.
"Forgive me if I'm wrong, young warrior, but I seem to be under the impression that you want the fruit." Answered Iroh with a nonchalant smile.
"We're in a forest! With trees! Wooden trees!" Sokka said, waving his arms around a bit to emphasize his point.
"Ah, that." Said Iroh, as if with a sudden understanding. "You would do well to remember, young Sokka, that a mind free of chains makes up the true happiness of men."
Before Sokka could process the slightly cryptic frase, Iroh created a needle-thin thread of almost invisible fire that extended like a whip and cut down the thin twig-like stems that held the fruit up. Sokka could feel the heat emanating from it even as it faded away into nothing. Half a dozen blue tinted spheres fell from the sky and would have splattered against the forest floor in a brightly colored mess if Iroh hadn't been ready with a large piece of cloth, catching all of the fist-sized treats.
"...it also makes bending much more precise." Added Iroh with a mischievous smile, when his gaze finally met the teen's gobsmacked look. Slowly, the look shifted into a very pleased looking smile.
Firebending was one of the most dynamic bending styles, making use of feet, hands, and every other mean possible to spout fire. This meant that unlike earthbending and waterbending, firebending included many different sets of jumps and kicks. Zuko had never been as grateful for that fact as he was when after a complicated combination of jumps and flips, he managed to get out of the wolves' reach and onto a protruding ledge that granted Toph much needed relief.
"Finally! Rock sweet rock!" She proclaimed, throwing herself onto her back and sighing contentedly, feeling the ledge beneath her with her outstretched hands.
Meanwhile, Zuko was also laying on his back, but with a different kind of relief altogether. "Spirits, that was close." He panted, then closing his eyes with a wince, "I never… ever… want to do that again."
It was several minutes later when Toph stood up and walked over to Zuko. "Come on Sparky, much as I love you, I'd rather get back to Appa."
When she received nothing but a muttered answer, she nudged him with her foot, frowning when he recoiled slightly and gave a slight hiss. "You okay?"
Zuko exhaled slowly as he stood, wincing a bit. "Don't worry about me, just a few bruises and scratches from the forest." He said, stretching a little in an attempt to alleviate his sore muscles.
"Well good," she said, though her frown didn't completely go away. "I need you in top shape for when we get to twinkletoes. After all, being the avatar's teachers has its advantages. We can gang up on him and call it a training exercise." She finished with a smile that looked anything but innocent.
Zuko rolled his eyes at her words, but couldn't the amused smile that slipped out at the image her words provoked. "Well then, honored earthbender and teacher to the avatar, lead the way." He said, gesturing to the wall of stone beside them.
"Gladly, your sparky-ness, do try to keep up." She declared dramatically, opening a tunnel on the side of the mountain with the accompanying shift of her foot.
They weren't even fifty feet in when something started feeling awfully wrong.
Sokka was happier than he expected to be when he got paired up with a retired fire nation general to go look for food. He never really minded Iroh, he wasn't that bad, truth be told, but it was the principle of the matter. After all, he had helped his nephew chase them halfway around the world. Right now though, his arms were laden with a sack full of delicious and exotic fruit, and it was all thanks to Iroh, who was carrying a couple of squirrel toads they'd hunted along the way.
"Spirits, I wish we had skypeak fruit in the South Pole. It has got to be the most delicious fruit I've ever had!" Sokka mused, as he took another bite of the blue fruit.
"It is indeed very delicious." Agreed Iroh, staring thoughtfully at the fruit. "I wonder if I can add it to my tea, somehow."
And so they went, discussing the merits of skypeak fruit and its many possible uses, until conversation, as it oft tends to do, drifted off into comfortable silence as they were walking back to camp.
"Hey… Um… General Iroh?" Spoke Sokka, a few minutes after the silence had started. "What you said earlier, about a mind free of chains, does it also apply to me? To fighting and strategy, I mean."
Iroh eyed him for a few seconds before smiling softly. "Indeed it does, young warrior." He answered, finally. "A free mind makes for freedom of thought, which suits strategic thinking quite well, I would say. It also allows you to fight creatively and, to a point, more wisely. However, freeing your mind is as delicate a process as brewing a cup of tea. If it does not find a balance, the sweetness that is found within perfect equilibrium, then it will taste bitter and be nothing but a pale imitation of what it could be. You must find balance first, if you seek to reveal what it was meant to be."
"I think I understand" Said Sokka after almost a full minute had gone by. "It's almost like… the ocean and the moon. Push and pull. A balance found... between... " He trailed off, suddenly. Shivering as a chill seemed to suddenly creep into his bones.
Iroh, too, felt the chill, and for a moment he could have sworn he was back in the spirit world, but he could something inherently different from the spirits he knew and respected. No, he realized, with simultaneously growing dread and curiosity, this is not a child of the world spirit.
When Aang fell to his knees, Katara was worried. When he started mumbling about the others, their friends, even more so. When he got back up in a panicked frenzy the likes of which she hadn't seen since Appa was captured, she was terrified.
They went back to camp, and Katara was unsurprised, but still disappointed, at finding it empty. They then decided to search the forest. They looked everywhere, by every tree, rock, and spring that they could find, but they found no sign of their friends.
About an hour before nightfall, Toph found them. She was obviously scared, and more importantly, alone. She had been searching for Zuko, and found them instead. News of Sokka's and Iroh's disappearance were met by silent anguish and a crater the size of a house being created near the same moment. By the time they called off the search, if only for the night, and got back to camp, Sokka, Iroh, and Zuko were long gone.
Well, that's it for now. I hope the guys weren't too OOC, but be sure to tell me if I got something wrong. Any criticism is appreciated as long as you are polite. I should warn you, this story is not going to be updated regularly, and though I do have some stuff planned, chances are most of it will be made up as I go.
This story does not have a beta, but if you are interested, you can PM me. See you next time,
-GMR