"We're off to see the Fire-Lord, the Fire-Lord of err… fire" Sokka sang, leaning from side to side and annoying his big furry seat.
"Sokka, we know who we're going to see", Toph nearly growled.
"Fine." He spoke, but sadly began to sing again "We're off to see the Fire-Lord's newborn daughter, the wonderful child of fire!" He sang the last word in a deep voice and drew it out. "Babies are so cute, as long as they're not being born" Momo chirped in seemingly agreement.
Everyone groaned, including Appa. Sokka stopped rambling about how he got boomerang back last week, now he's singing about someone he's never met.
Katara glared at her brother "Appa's working hard to fly us there, can't you just get off the cactus juice?
"Hmpf" Sokka snorted "You're just jealous of my musical abilities. I'm going to make sure little Ursa learns it from a true master."
"I wonder how Zuko will feel about that" Katara joked looking up at the sky with her head leaning against her finger.
"I don't wonder what Mai will think" Toph answered
#####
Team Avatar arrived at the Fire Nation Palace and was greeted by one of Zuko's many servants, Pachi, a middle-aged man with a long bead and a strange accent. "Fire-Lord Zuko is in one of the inner rooms. Go down the hallway five doors, make a left, then a right, then two lefts, then a right then go past two hallways before making a U-Turn when you see the opaque statue with exactly twenty-seven point two arms, take five lefts turns, two right turns, then go up the stairs to your left, go down seventeen dorrs until you reach the cross-hallways in which you should go to the fourth one from the right, after that - Oh never mind, follow me."
They followed Pachi down an extremely complicated path that made Toph wonder how long he could gone on explaining how to get to Zuko. Sokka and Aang were wondering if the palace's kitchen were stocked with fire candy. Katara was excited to see the new baby; it had been a year and a half since she'd delivered one herself.
They caught Zuko by surprise. He was working in a dimly lit room on a book with magnifying glasses and plenty of other small gadgets scattered across his desk. "Uh hello. I guess you're here to see Ursa?" He stood up from his chair rather clumsily "Sorry, uh I just lost track of time" His hair was disheveled and had nothing holding it up, and his robes were on the back of his chair wearing nothing but an undershirt and pants. He was not the happy new father image.
"Zuko, is something bothering you?" Katara asked, preparing to try to argue it out of him
Zuko looked to the side, but then turned his head to talk with them "This book is my mother's. I was looking for an old scroll that my mother used to read to me for Ursa, but instead I found this, but I can't open it" he began to yell "no matter what I try!" He took a deep breath and started to pace "I know she wants me to read it" he grabbed the book off the table "Her note says: Zuko, Azula this world is taking a turn for the worse, whether you can open this or not is directly related to if it gets better, I bet this will tell me where she is. "
Zuko sat down once more and rubbed his temples "I should be happy. I'm the Fire-Lord, I have a beautiful wife and kids"
His friends looked concerned, except Sokka who had something else on his mind and this time it wasn't fire candy. "Zuko, let me see that book"
"What do you think you can do about it?"
"Just trust me"
Zuko handed the book over and Sokka took an odd looking key out of his left shoe.
"Sokka that's..."
The key fit.
