Gaang POV:

"Matthew."

"Maithyu?"

"Matthew."

"Maaaatyou?"

"Matthew."

"...Matthew?"

"Yes. Matthew."

Sokka smiled triumphantly. "Matthew! Your name is, Matthew!"

"Yes."

Toph brushed her nails against her tunic. "What a weird name."

"What a weird guy," Sokka responded thoughtfully. "The only things we've managed to teach him so far are, 'yes' and 'no'."

"Well, it's kind of hard to tutor someone in the air," Katara defended. "Besides. You haven't tried to teach him a thing this whole hour. That was all me."

"Hey, I can teach!" Sokka scoffed indignantly. "Watch this." He took out his boomerang, and held it out to Matthew. "Boooomeeeraaang."

"Boooom-er-ahng," Matthew managed, his accent garbling most of the word.

Sokka thought about it for a long moment. He shrugged and sheathed the weapon. "Meh, close enough."

"How far is the next town anyway, Twinkletoes?" Toph demanded. "We should've run into something, by now!"

"I don't know," Aang answered. "What's the map say?"

Sokka rummaged around in his bag. He pulled out the map and unrolled it one smooth motion, laying it flat over the Appa's large saddle. "Well, let's see here..."

Katara studied the map as well. "There's no towns nearby..."

"Well, let's land somewhere," Toph grumbled. "I can't teach Aang earthbending without earth!"

Matthew peered over Sokka's shoulder and looked at the map. "...No."

"No, what?" Katara asked. "What's wrong."

"As if he can answer," Toph giggled. "And I thought it was bad to have you forget my blindness!"

"Hold on," Katara implored, "I think he want's to tell us something." She looked at the fair-haired teen and gestured to the map. "No? What's 'no'?"

Matthew tapped the map, and then spread his hands as if to say, 'I don't know. I'm confused.'

"So he doesn't even know where he's from," Sokka sighed. "Great."

Appa groaned, causing Momo to stir in his sleep and chatter. Aang rubbed the bison's white fur. "Okay, buddy."

"Care to translate for us who don't speak bison-ese?" Sokka requested, rolling up the now useless map.

"Appa's tired," Aang supplied helpfully. "And hungry. We should stop for now."

"Yeah!" Toph yelled enthusiastically, cracking her knuckles. "Time to get back to business, Twinkletoes! I'm gonna do the job I was hired for and pound you into the-I mean, teach you earthbending!"

Zuko's POV:

"So..." Alfred said into the tense silence. "Where are we going?"

"That way," Zuko answered tersely, wondering why this blue-eyed nuisance was still present in his life.

The blond shoved his hands into the pockets of his strangely marked jacket. "Oookay, then...why are we going that way?"

"I haven't figured that out yet," Zuko answered. Weren't they supposed to ditch this guy in town after breaking camp? Whstever happened to that idea?

"Well, at least you have a plan," Alfred sighed. He fell silent.

One blessed minute of silence. The best minute Zuko had ever had. But it was over so fast.

"What is this thing?" Alfred asked, gesturing to the ostrich-horse he was leading by the reigns. Hey, if he was going to stick around, then he was going to help, damn it.

"It's an ostrich-horse," Iroh answered patiently. "You don't have these where you're from?"

Alfred shook his head. "Nope...ostriches and horses are completely unrelated animals, as far as my homeland is concerned."

Zuko frowned at what was possibly the oddest statement he'd ever heard. "That...is really weird. I don't even want to imagine what such a creature would even look like."

"Hey, I just wanna know when an ostrich decided to find a horse attractive enough to conceive this thing," Alfred said with a shrug.

Iroh smiled. "Ah, Alfred. You are proving to be the most...interesting person to hold a conversation with."

"'Interesting' as in, ridiculous," Zukko grumbled.

Alfred's indignant reply was cut off by rustling in the bushes ahead.

Bandits.

Zuko stopped in his tracks and mentally prepared himself to draw his dao. He glanced out of the corner of his eye to see his uncle's stance subtly shift and balance itself. "Alfred, keep back," Zuko ordered.

A man in ragged clothing and mismatched armor stepped into the path, his confident swagger probably having something to do with the large sledgehammer strapped over his back. "Why hello, there, folks! Care to spare a few coins for some weary travelers?" At his words, several other men in threadbare rags and patched armor crawled out of the bushes. Zuko counted six bandits total-five armed in some way, the skinny one was probably a bender.

"Alas, we have no coin to spare," Iroh said, immediately taking the role of diplomat. "For we are as needy as yourselves. Could you perhaps tell us how far it is to the next town?"

"Won't matter to you," said the thinnest one in a reedy voice. So there was a woman behind all that grease and dirt! "If you ain't got coin, then we'll just have to accept some other form of payment. How about your travel packs and the ostrich-horse?"

"No," Zuko said simply. He resisted the urge to draw his weapons...he needed to keep the element of surprise here.

"C'mon," the ringleader coerced. "We're being nice, here! You can keep the clothing on your backs."

"No," Zuko repeated flatly. "Take your business elsewhere."

"Well, we tried," the leader sighed with false reluctance. "You leave us no choice-"

Zuko leapt into action, darting towards the leader and drawing his dao. He was forced back by a wall of solid earth. He dodged away just in time, only to be met with another bandit, this one holding a dented short sword. He parried the heavy swing, and ran his shoulder blade into the man's stomach. The grimy bandit went down, and Zuko suppressed a smile. No one ever sees that one coming. Having a brief reprieve from the action, he marked his allies positions.

His uncle was fine, of course. Even without bending he was a force to be reckoned with. He advanced on his enemy, disarmed him, and tripped him all in one move, throwing the knife away into the bushes. Alfred was...actually doing quite well. He actually grabbed one bandit's head, twisted around, and threw him into the other bandit that was trying to sneak up from behind. They fell, and didn't look like they'd be moving again any time soon.

Useful after all?

The ground beneath him shifted. Zuko jumped away just in time to avoid falling into a jagged crevasse as it formed in the ground. He barely had time to regain his balance before having to duck a small boulder that whizzed by his ear. That was when he decided that the earthbender had to go.

He ran, and sliced with his right, using his the edge of his left to break another rock. The tip snagged the woman's clothes. He twisted the blade and pulled left, throwing her off balance. She was now on the ground, and he was standing over her, one tip over her heart and the other at her neck. "Stay down."

He heard uncle's voice, "Zuko, look out!" He saw the bandit leader rushing towards him, the hammer high over his head. Zuko prepared to dive out of the way.

The man's hammer was ripped unceremoniously from his hands. Everything seemed to go in slow-motion as Zuko registered the shock on his face, and the stress of fabric over his built chest indicating someone grabbing his robes from behind, and the narrowed blue eyes of his savior as the man was pulled back, spun around, and whipped across the face with the end of the hammer's cloth-wrapped metal shaft.

The bandit crumpled, and Alfred looked at the weapon in his hands. "You know what? I like this hammer. I think I'll keep it."

"You...you do that," Zuko managed, still a bit surprised.

The earthbending woman let out a terrified squeak beneath his sword. Zuko returned to the matter at hand.

Gaang POV:

"Stick."

"S-stick..."

"Good, Matthew! Now use it in a sentence."

"The s-stick is...broan."

Katara shook her head patiently. "No, no, no. Brown. Br-o-wn."

"Brown."

"Aaaaalright, Aang," Toph's voice echoed cheerfully in the distance. "I sure hope you remember the stuff from last lesson, 'cuz this is a pop quiz!"

Katara nodded. "Right. Now try the sentence again."

"The stick...is brown."

Stone shifted-OUCH!-and Aang was thrown backwards, skidding into view across the ground. He struggled to his feet and ran forward again, disappearing behind the cluster of boulders again.

"Hey, I have a word!" Sokka said. He leaned forward. "Repeat after me, Matthew. Beat down."

Matthew frowned concentratedly. "Beeeet dowun."

Katara rolled her eyes, and used a small splash of cold water from the nearby still pond to douse her brother. "Don't teach him slang!"

"That's not slang!" Sokka huffed indignantly, wringing out his clothes. He returned his attention to Matthew with a sly grin. "Beat down."

"Beat...down."

"Good!" Sokka encouraged. "Now try this." He pointed to his sister. "Katara is bossy."

"Katara is boooo-"

"No, Matthew!" Katara cried, waving her hands frantically in a canceling gesture. "Don't repeat that!"

Matthew titled his head slightly. "It is...bad word?"

"No, it's just-" Katara sighed and cut herself off. "Never mind. Let's just move on to numbers."

The ground shook. "Don't dodge it, Twinkletoes! Stop it! Earth doesn't run away!"

"But that rock was bigger than Appa!" Aang's dismayed voice rang out. "How do I stop that?"

"You were doing great just a minute ago!" was Toph's response. "Go with that!" The ground shook again. Stone cracked and earth rumbled.

Matthew winced sympathetically, and returned his attention to Katara's lesson.

Zuko POV:

"Please don't kill me," the bedraggled woman pleaded pathetically.

"I don't want to kill you," Zuko answered honestly, still not removing the sword from her neck.

"I'll go 'way," she promised. "You won' see me again."

"Forgive me for not trusting the word of a bandit," Zuko said neutrally.

His uncle joined them. "It seems that this is the only one left that's not unconscious."

"What do we do with her?" Alfred asked.

The woman blinked. "W-what did he just say?"

Uncle Iroh sighed. "Oh, yes. I forgot that Alfred only speaks High Court. He probably doesn't know what we've been saying."

"What did he say?!" the woman cried. "Did he say to kill me?"

"No, no, nothing like that, Ma'am," Iroh reassured. "He's just wondering what to do with you."

This did not make the earthbender feel any better, apparently. She whimpered. and shrunk in on herself, her oily hair falling over her dirt-streaked face. Zuko almost felt bad for her.

"Let her go," Iroh said quietly. "She won't bother us anymore, I'm sure."

The scarred teenager sighed and stepped away. The earthbender scurried off and disappeared into the trees.

"An earthbender, who didn't think to take advantage of the earth's ever present presence beneath her?" Iroh wondered aloud. "She lacks ingenuity. This woman could've given us a run for our money if she looked past her fear long enough to think."

Alfred rested the hammer on his shoulder, apparently not bothered by it's weight. "What was all that about?"

"Bandits," Zuko answered, switching to High Court and sheathing his dao. "They wanted money."

Alfred nodded slowly. "Oh...are they a big problem in the Earth Kingdom?"

"You could say that," Iroh sighed. "Times have been hard lately. And hard times make for desperate people."

"'Desperate people'..." Alfred echoed thoughtfully. "I get the feeling there's a lot of those around these parts."

THERE IS AN IMPORTANT POLL ON MY PROFILE REGARDING THIS STORY. WHAT ELEMENTS WILL ALFRED AND MATTHEW BEND, IF ANY? GO TO THE POLL AND CHOOSE, PLEASE!

Alright, got that out of the way. All caps and at the top, for those who don't like reading the Authors Notes I put at the end of every chapter. So anywho...

Second chapter! Yay! And I'm getting the feel for this story, and I also got a little bit of an idea as to what I'm going to do with it. In mine eyes, this is good.

Thanks for everyone who's already favorited, followed, and reviewed this story, right off the bat! It gives me a super-awesome ego/writing boost when I see my inbox filled with so many Fanfiction notifications. So please review, and tell me what you think.