Chapter 1

His dream had started out peacefully, with his mother cradling him in her arms at the turtleduck pond in the royal garden, but soon it changed. His mother was grabbed by guards and thrown off the cliff into a stormy sea below, his father laughing. The sky turned red, then he saw his father's shadows sending hot fire in the direction of his face. Pain and fear took over him…

Zuko rose with a start. He rubbed his eyes and threw off the sleeping bag. He slowly rose and walked to the railing of the ferry. He looked out at the deep purple sky above. He heard the ferry cutting through the waves and felt the wind flowing through his hair.

Ba Sing Se, the Impenetrable city. He looked at Uncle, peacefully sleeping in his sleeping bag. To think that that peaceful old man had once dreamed of taking the greatest stronghold in the world. He chuckled quietly to himself. He then heard the tapping sound of someone running on the upper deck. The sound stopped for a moment, He followed where the sound had stopped. Then he saw someone as nimbly as a cat jumping from railing the railing down on the ferry. The person landed with a soft thud on the wooden planks. The figure stood up quietly. Zuko could see that her backpack had bowls of rice, turkey, chickens and many different kinds of vegetables. Zuko moved forward a step and the board creaked just the slightest bit.

The girl, (he could definitely tell it was a girl) whirled around. She was wearing a black cloak. Her hair was tucked into the cloak, but he could tell she was not from the Earth kingdom. In the moonlight, Zuko could see that she had shockingly bright green eyes. The girl looked directly at him. Zuko put his hands up in a mocking surrender, she frowned and silently sprinted away. Zuko jogged to see where she could have gone, but she seemed to have disappeared.

Zuko returned to his sleeping bag sulking. Who was that girl? And why wa she sneaking food? Her eyes she's definitely not Earth kingdom, but she can't be from anywhere else either!...Whatever.

He slowly fell asleep to another nightmare, but this time, he forced himself to stay asleep.

…

He woke up at the crack of dawn, after all, firebenders rise with the sun. As the day progressed, He looked around, the ferry that was usually filled with sad looking refugees seemed happy and giddy. Children were eating bowls of… rice. That girl! She gave all the food away to the poor. The people were all smiling and laughing, watching their kids run around, pointing at the horizon and talking about their new lives in Ba Sing Se. Zuko wandered the ship amazed by what the girl had done. Then he ran into Jet. The kid was right about some things, like how the fire nation had destroyed these peoples lives, but he had the wrong way of going to solve the problem. By flooding an Earth Kingdom village he had wanted the clear the firebenders out from a valley, even Zuko knew that was wrong. Uncle did not trust Jet, but Zuko didn't mind him, someone to talk to other than Uncle was just fine to him.

"Can you believe it?" Jet asked. "Someone took our plans to break into the captain's kitchen and take the food," Why? So you could keep it for yourself? Zuko just nodded silently and looked away imagining the girls face.

"Lee, did you see who did it?" Jet asked, he was on Zuko's case.

"Yea, some girl" Zuko smiled as he watched Jets mouth tighten into a thin line, "She had an entire backpack full, but I guess she dealt it out to the refugees." Jet scowled.

"Whatever, better she went through the work than us… I guess," Jet said. Then Zuko saw her, the girl from last night. She was wearing green pants covered by a tan colored long top, classic Earth kingdom atire. Behind her a caramel and white colored dog followed. As she met his gaze she looked down and quickly changed direction. Zuko followed her, he heard the chuckles of Jet and his gang behind him, "Yea go get her lover boy! Before someone else does!" Jet yelled. Zuko clenched his fists as he tried to maintain control of his temper.

Zuko followed the girl and her dog across the ship until he was grabbed by the shoulder. He turned to face Uncle Iroh, "Oh nephew! I was looking all over for you he said," as he lead Zuko to the railing of the ship, "There, nephew, is the great city of Ba Sing Se."