Miyuki is the Herbalist's cat in The Blue Spirit, and Ying is the woman in The Serpent's Pass and Zuko Alone. Nobody actually guessed in a review, so virtual cookies to everyone in general.

I'd just like to add that I changed Sela's ages, partially because, as MormanMaiden pointed out, she married much later than she could have in their world, but mostly because I realized that I had said Sen Tzu went off to war at age eleven. Oopsie on my part.

This is a follow-up to the last chapter, and I have the next vaguely planned out, which won't have anything to do with these characters, unless I really can't finish the story in two chapters.

A special note: my brother and I were each born the day before or the day after what was or what would become the anniversary of an American tragedy: the assasination of a president, and 9/11. That's what gave me the idea of Lee and Sen Tzu's birthdays. A lot of their bad luck has happened to me or people I know.

Also, this chapter contains the only dedication that I'll tell you who it's to, because it's dedicated to someone who many of you know:

Dedication: to my reviewers, Jess Readin', MormanMaiden, Jesus.Lives, KelseyAlicia, Welikemilk, Zelscar, Bad Hallelujah, zoorhlm13, AvatarWolf, WolfZuko, Inumaru12, FieryMetis, loalaa, Rose Ellen Marsh, and loaned, for telling me to keep going with this, and for brightening my spirits everyday with a kind review. Without you and my other reviewers, I'd probably never write anything outside of school.


When Lee was born, his mother hid him away all night until the morning came and she could tell her friends about his birth. She told them all that he was born the day after he actually was. The day after the anniversary of the Fire Nation's invasion of their village.

It wasn't true. From that day on, Lee was branded as a bad-luck child. His whole family was. His mother had broken three mirrors when she was younger, so they were all cursed. Sen Tzu, Lee's brother, was born on the anniversary of the Fire Nation striking the first blow against the rest of the world.

Even their father, Gansu, seemed to have the worst luck in the world. Everything around their farm was always breaking, or burning down. Especially burning down. From a very young age, Lee learned to hate fire.

That was the reality of their world. Fear the flames, young children were taught. They will burn you. The Fire Nation is in control, and you must fear them.

Fear the ones in command. Fear the ones with power. And most of all, fear the ones who are stronger than you.

Lee was never much good at the fear stuff.

When he was four, he was told that the barn was getting old and needed fixing. He should beware of it. So, naturally, by the end of the day he ended up unconscious underneath a fallen bean in the barn. Of course.

But his brother, Sen Tzu, found him under there and, together with his parents, dug the little boy out.

From then on, Sen Tzu would always be a hero in Lee's eyes. The two brothers were inseparable for six years. After that, Sen Tzu went to war.

Lee's habit of getting into trouble continued unchecked. But now, Sen Tzu wasn't around to get him out of trouble.


A year after his brother's departure, Lee and a friend decided to throw eggs and Gow and the other soldiers 'protecting' their village.

It was Lee's crazy luck that they just so happened to blame it on a passing stranger with a scar and an ostrich horse. It was beyond even his style of getting out of trouble that the stranger not only didn't alert the soldiers to Lee's presence, but also stood up to them.

"You see who did it?" Gow snapped at the stranger.

"No," replied the man. He placed his hand on something out of Lee's vision strapped to his waist. Lee bet it was a sword.

"That's your favorite word, no?" snarled Pell.

"Egg had to come from somewhere," the leader pressed.

"Maybe a chicken flew over," the swordsman deadpanned. A soldier found this funny. Gow didn't.

The thug stole the man's grain, and warned him off. "The penalty for staying is a lot steeper than you can afford," he threatened. "Trust me."

Lee waited until they were gone, and then beckoned at his friend Chan to come with him. Chan turned and ran. Anyone who could stand up to the soldiers was undoubtedly stronger than them, and they were stronger than the two boys. The stranger was to be feared.

"Thanks for not ratting me out," Lee told the stranger, grinning. The man (now that he could see him, he didn't seem much older than Sen Tzu) grunted and hopped onto his mount. Lee grabbed the reigns. "I'll take you to my house and feed your ostrich horse for you."

The man hesitated.

"Come on, I owe you," Lee prompted. The man nodded sharply and followed him.

For a while, Lee thought he had found a friend in the stranger. He reminded Lee of his brother, strangely enough. That was a role nobody had filled. He thought for a while that maybe things might seem better to everyone else. Life sure seemed great to him.

But things don't always work out the way we want to, and before long, Sen Tzu was reported captured so Lee's father had to go after him. Soon the man was revealed to be a Firebender, and Lee and his mother had to flee the village for harboring an enemy.

They decided to travel to Omashu. It was the nearest large city, and where Gansu and Sen Tzu would probably travel when they found their family gone.

There was an unspoken 'if' in the air. Sela wasn't quite sure that they would survive.

Lee was.


They were halfway to Omashu when they ran into a group of refugees from the once-great city. They told the travelers that the Fire Nation had taken over another place, and the survivors had fled after the Avatar had gotten them out.

Now there was nowhere to meet Gansu and Sen Tzu. But they had survived.

The Fire Nation seemed unstoppable. Wherever they went, war was sure to follow. And they were always just ahead of the pair, keeping their path a constant trail of misery and defeat.

But among the refugees from Omashu, they found a young woman named Panya. As it turned out, she was Lee's sister, a year younger than Sen Tzu, who had been living in Omashu to escape the ruffians who controlled their home.

"I'm sorry, little boy," an old woman told Lee one day as the refugees traveled together towards Ba Sing Se. "You must be terribly upset that your father and brother are missing."

"But my sister is found," Lee reminded her. "And I'm alive."

"Growing up in the middle of a war..." she began, preparing to launch a speech.

"Is still growing up in the first place," commented a voice from behind them. Lee turned to find his sister watching with a small smile on her face.

"And wars don't last forever," Panya said comfortingly. "The Avatar has returned, we all saw him. Things will change. Soon."

And they would.


GAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!! NOOOOOO! I wanted to end it NOW! But I didn't get the part I really wanted in there. So there'll be another bit about this family in the next chapter. I swear, that's where it'll end. Sorry, this wasn't too great, consider it a plot advancement segment. If the writers can do it, I can.