My dignity is worth more than my life

Thalia dumped food on everyone's plates; Zuko had significantly more than the rest, and Zuko knew it. He had heard Thalia and Mikael arguing in the trees,

"We have to give Zuko more food, he needs it a lot more than we do."

"We need food too, any less and we'll be crawling with hunger on the forest floor, Thalia!"

"I don't care. Go ask Fayer what he thinks, I'm still giving Zuko more."

It was a pretty obvious fact that Fayer, Thalia, and Mikael were struggling to get along, but Zuko said nothing and accepted his food. It comprised of mainly nuts, and some meat that Fayer was able to catch the other day. Zuko ate his food slowly, listening to conversation between Thalia and Mikael. He was able to sort of glean that Fayer, Thalia and Mikael were escaping from the Fire Nation, and they wrote novels and tried to get them circulated.

Novels that weren't very pleasing to the Fire Lord, it seemed.

Zuko, however, was curious about Fayer. He was from the Fire Nation, Zuko could tell by his eyes and hair, but was he doing in the woods?

"What are you and the rest doing in the woods?" Zuko asked Fayer.

"Well, we write novels and newsletters, we try to get our voices heard in the Nations worldwide."

"Haven't the Fire Nation found you yet?"

Fayer smiled. "No, they are coming for me, I know. Last I checked, they put a huge bounty on my head and my face was plastered on all the walls."

"Oh. I see." Zuko said. Fayer and the rest had stopped calling Zuko 'Prince' already, they just weren't used to it. Zuko himself did not really notice it.

"I will be going now, thank you all for your help," Zuko said as he stood up.

Fayer looked up. "Why not come with us for a while, at least till you reach the next market?"

Zuko smiled at them, a rare smile, he was truly glad for their help, but he just couldn't go with them and infringe on their food and friendship.

But, the past few days had been lonely by himself, and, he didn't have to take anything from anyone.

After a few minutes of hesitation, Zuko nodded. "All right."

Iroh trudged along with Aang and Sokka while Katara rested on Appa's back as they traveled through forests, hills, cliffs, and as Iroh muttered under his breath, more earth than I have ever seen in my life.

Iroh was once again chained up; Sokka insisted that if Iroh and Aang weren't doing firebending he would have to be chained up. Sokka did not really get along with Iroh, but Sokka did, to the surprise of his own self, kind of respect the old man for his cheerful optimism and never-say-die spirit.

Iroh's eyes narrowed, he had caught a glimpse of a black, charred ground ahead. Fire Nation.

He glanced back at his fellow companions. Too late. They had seen the ground, and within the barest seconds had come to a conclusion: the Fire Nation must have attacked. Aang's eyes were fixed on the area they were coming to and steering Appa in that direction.

Iroh groaned inwardly. All the time I spent building up their trust, it's going to be gone when they see that place, he thought disappointedly.

Katara jumped off Appa's back and together they went to investigate the area. Aang's eyes were clouded in grief and Sokka was fuming. Katara was silent, but sadness was reflected in her eyes.

"You know, not all Fire Nation do these things," Iroh said slowly.

"Oh yeah? Well look at what the goody-goody Fire Nation has done to them!" Sokka yelled at Iroh furiously.

Aang remained silent. Katara caught a glimpse of something shining beneath all that ash, and shouted out,

"Look Aang, it's two bracelets!"

The bracelets were pure gold, and reflecting the sunlight. After brushing away the ash that was covering it, Sokka held it up in the sunlight.

"Pure gold," he marveled.

Iroh frowned at the bracelet. The bracelet had a menacing aura around it; he strained to recall something from his mind. Somewhere, back in the Fire Nation, I think we made those things.

Seeing the frown on Iroh's face, Aang turned to Iroh.

"What's wrong, Iroh?"

Shaking his head to clear his doubts, Iroh smiled at the rest. "No, nothing at all. Are you going to wear that bracelet Katara? A beautiful lady should wear fine things." I probably remembered wrongly, he told himself, and I am getting old.

Katara blushed. "Yes, I'm going to wear it. It's lovely!" She slipped it on, and smiled at the rest. "At least coming here wasn't a total loss!"

Sokka snorted and Aang quickly changed the subject.

"Come on guys, let's move on. We've got a lot of ground to cover."

Zuko and his companions made their way through the forest, traveling like they did for the past few days when Zuko had accepted their request to travel with them. In that time, Zuko had shared their food, and watched them work and sometimes hunted for them with his swords. They did not question him, rather they accepted him, and Zuko liked the relationship between them.

Fayer, Thalia and Mikael had told him of how they had met and Zuko found himself slowly warming up to them. He liked their simplicity, and he especially got along well with Fayer, who was from the Fire Nation like him. He talked more freely, and often couldn't help smiling at their antics. Though they were significantly older than him, they still were fun to be around with, and their optimism was infectious.

"So, are you going to stop at the next town?" Zuko asked while leading his horse through the forest with them.

"Yups, we're going to smuggle our writing stuff in, hopefully people will read them and we'll bring forth a revolution," Mikael joked.

"Yes, we'll bring them in and place them inconspicuously in the racks on stalls, and Zuko do you want to see them? Read them and tell us what you think, won't you?" Thalia said, reaching into her pouch which contained all the manuscripts Fayer, Mikael, and herself had written the past few days.

Thalia groped at the insides of her pouch. Nothing! Horrified, she turned to her friends.

"There isn't anything inside! The articles aren't there!"

Fayer looked at Thalia, his face having desperation written all over them. The past month's work had been entrusted to Thalia to keep, and he had personally sweated blood to come up with the pieces he had.

Mikael grabbed Thalia's pouch, searching through it.

"She's right. It isn't there."

Fayer's face crumpled, and for a second Zuko thought Fayer was going to break down. And then, to Zuko's utmost surprise, Fayer's face brightened up, it was filled with hope.

"Never mind. An animal probably stole it, I doubt Thalia would have lost it seeing that she is so conscientious with her belongings. We'll just have to write everything over again."

Zuko watched them, and he could see that though something very important and dear to their hearts had been taken away, they hadn't given up hope.

Was that how others felt when I took things from them?

Pushing that thought out of his head, he felt annoyed with himself. He had been thinking about that for a long time already, and he was angry with himself. I am from the Fire Nation. We cannot be weak. I may have been nice to these people, but inside my heart is still with the Fire nation.

Zuko turned to them. "Fayer, Thalia, Mikael, I think I should leave you now. You can continue writing your pieces without me around to distract you, and I think it is better for me to move on to the next town first."

Though Fayer was upset, he had grown to like and respect the Prince of Fire for his maturity and responsibility, he smiled and accepted it.

Thalia and Mikael nodded mutely as well, they understood the reason behind the statement.

"We'll miss you, in that short time we've known you still."

Fayer offered his hand for Zuko to shake, and this time, Zuko shook his hand firmly without hesitation like the first time they had met. Impulsively, Fayer drew Zuko into a hug and though Zuko was not used to the contact at first, he relaxed. In spite of everything, the peasants had been generous, kind, and compassionate. Whether they knew of the Fire Nation now hunting him down he did not know, but these people had offered him something he did not really know other than from his uncle Iroh.

Straightening up, Zuko looked at them. "Goodbye, and I wish you good luck."

Zuko made his way through the forest. He covered more ground without his friends by flitting through the trees. Soon, in no time, he heard sounds of a bustling market. Peeping through the trees, he saw that they were as yet not taken by the Fire Nation.

Placing a hat above his head, he gracefully jumped from the trees and blended into the crowd. He looked straight ahead, avoiding all possible eye contact as he walked past merchants selling their merchandise with vigour.

A girl stepped in front of him, and called out, "Lee!" Zuko recognized that voice. Looking downwards, his eyes widened in shock.

The girl in front was Song.

End of chapter.

Zuko will meet Katara and the rest in chap 5, this is the longest chapter I've written up to date. Please review guys, it is important I get feedback from you all. I hope you've liked what I've written, and continue checking this back this story.

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