With sunrise, feeling of fire catching on to his chi woke the prince up. He waited for a moment for his brain to catch up to today. For a change, first thing to come to Zuko's mind wasn't recent news of the avatar, or the ship's newest problems, or even home.

Zuko looked at the round object. He really shouldn't have taken it. It was dishonorable. No member of royal bloodline should stoop to stealing.

Not that he had meant to bring it. With all the booby trap, he had panicked, grabbed it without thinking and ran. He was too busy outrunning traps without thinking about what kind of junk he was holding at his hand. Or maybe it wasn't just that? After all, the object was a strange thing. It had the scalding heat that pulsed like heartbeat, and sometimes he thought he saw something shifting inside the gold. When he touched it, he felt something strange. A pull, if you liked using that kind of word. It was kind of like holding real fire, the small flame swirling his chi.

His heart told him it was a trap.

It wasn't all that ridiculous. He thought about all the pointy contraptions and disgusting liquids. He had seen at the temple. It wouldn't be too farfetched to think that the sun warriors were kind of people who would think it was a great idea to devise some kind of trap that would brutally kill anyone who dare steal their holy ball or something. Or it could be a spirit object. He knew they were out to get him. If it concerned spirit, he would have to talk to uncle about this. Although he probably would just give some advise that made no sense at all. Oh well. A cup of tea possibly couldn't be worse than a bloodthirsty spirit.

He entered Iroh's room, to find him... drinking tea.

'My nephew, sit, sit. I brewed some Jasmine.'

Zuko sat down. He never understood uncle's obsession with tea. It was just … leafy hot water.

Zuko held up the thing. Iroh looked surprised. Huh. His uncle never looked surprised. Even when Zuko had lashed out to him the first time. After the Agni Kai, when he asked Zuko if he was alright, Zuko had shouted that it was none of his business, and uncle Iroh just looked deeply hurt. Zuko regretted it immediately, but he just looked away back then.

'Would you like to tell me where you've got them, my nephew?'

'I, uh, bought them from, what is it, pirates.'

Iroh only gave him a look then spoke again. Zuko frowned. There was no way Iroh had fallen for that lie.

'The red stone here is what's commonly known as the sunstone. It played a important role in the sun warrior's religious events, and even now, the fire sages use them. They normally are triggered by sunlight or fire bending.'

Zuko sipped his tea. His uncle was surprisingly helpful. He was going to try that later. But for now, he drank his jasmine. Uncle quietly sipped his tea, a large grin on his face, even big for Iroh's standard. Maybe Zuko should drink tea with him more often.

'Uncle, where is the map?'

'I believe it is somewhere on the second cabinet, my nephew. Why do you ask?'

'I thought that the building we've passed yesterday was another air temple, but-'

'It could be sun warrior temple. I recognized the style of the architecture, you see.'

Zuko pulled out a map, unrolled it and frowned.

'And I think this area originally had a large population of sun warriors.'

Zuko said, remembering his disdain at finding out he was learning about primitive fire benders. He had thrown a tantrum about leaning about these useless things, and when it actually turned out interesting, he secretly snuck in to the royal library to find out more about them. No one caught him, or he probably would have died of embarrassment. Azula would have never heard the end of it.

'Yes, actually. I am glad to see you still remember your tutor's teachings, my nephew.'

Zuko squirmed uncomfortably at that.

"One of the original temples is in earth kingdom territory. Why don't we take a short stop at these temples? I believe you will find the temple interesting. And we might learn something about ancient fire bending techniques!"

His uncle was trying to distract him again. Iroh had done it a hundred times since he had joined in Zuko's quest, offering spa and tea and other distractions to Zuko, probably because he thought that Zuko couldn't capture the avatar. Zuko spoke before his uncle could sprout proverbs about importance of side trips.

'I need to concentrate on finding the avatar and regaining my honor, uncle! I have no time for field trips.'

He took another look in the map. Zuko might have felt a bit of guilt at uncle's downcast look. He snuffed it out.

Zuko lay in bed, holding the jewel aloft. It had gold veins covering the oval shape. At the top was a red gem, one he'd seen in the temple, crested with tendrils of gold. He pushed it below his bed-it looked like gold, He didn't trust the crew- and walked away. He couldn't let things distract him. The ship needed direction.

Zuko stared at the map. At this rate, he was going to memorize the whole map before the year was over.

No, he was going home before the year was over. He just had to work harder.

'We'll look for trail between northern and southern main temple and few minor temples in the mountain area. Have I made myself clear, lieutenant?'

Jee's glare was too open, he sounded unwilling, but he nodded, if only after a pause.

Sometimes, it seemed like they were always on the edge of full out mutiny. They grumbled too loud, sent him angry glances. But frankly, they were not here for their outstanding performance, except for maybe the cook. His uncle, it seemed had picked the most idiotic, disobeying crew with terrible reputation.

He inwardly sighted. If he couldn't control his crew, how was he supposed to rule a whole nation?

How was he supposed to rule the nation when he had no honor?

He really shouldn't have been sidetracked with the sun warriors and left the moment he saw that the avatar wasn't here. But he believed that nothing in his life was coincidence. It was either because Zuko was spiritual chew toy, or Azula Did It, or it was his destiny.

But the avatar wasn't there, and he shouldn't have wasted his time. Still, Zuko couldn't help it. He silently stalked back to his chamber.

Zuko felt his hand hit the cold surface. He grabbed the artifact, digging it up from under his bed. He had waited long enough to do this, and he was curious. He laid his thumb on the red gem and breathed, feeling the warmth trickle in his chi. he pushed it out. He waited for a few minutes. The red gem shifted in a way Zuko couldn't quite define, and the golden tendrils loosened or maybe the gem shrunk. They fell from the egg with soft clank, the sound was too loud in his tiny quarters.

He glanced up once, in surprise and looked back at the egg.

Zuko held it in firelight and thought maybe it was a platypus bear egg. But the colors were all wrong. It had a strange leathery surface. It was warmer than before. And the golden texture seemed to glow in strange places.

A small rip appeared on the egg

He settled the egg on the bed, somewhat panicking. A small head wormed out the egg. Small, angular head and wide golden eyes peeked out. It stared at Zuko, and flicked his tongue around green scales.

"Hey."

It cocked it's head. Hours passed with Zuko staring at the small thing.

"Are you planning to come out today?"

The dragon squirmed and pulled out his front leg, then the back and finally trailed out his tail.

Zuko had somehow ended up with one thought-to-be-extinct-mythical-being that he wasn't looking for, and it had decided to hatch on his bed.

Zuko couldn't help smiling.