Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender or any of its copyrights, though Lin Zu is mine.
Hey those of you who still read this story! This has taken a while to upload, and I apologize, but these were a hectic few weeks. I am also very sorry that this chapter is so short, but hopefully the next one will be longer.
Please, please, I am shamelessly begging for a review! Just one would be fantastic, just to let me know that there's someone out there who is enjoying this!
Ok, enjoy the story
Falling into the familiarity of sparring did wonders for their nerves. They could forget about everything except for the task at hand. There was no worrying about what would happen if Uncle didn't come back, and definitely no worrying about whether Commander Zhao was bearing down on them, ready to take them back to the Fire Nation and most likely to a dark cell somewhere.
They switched between Fire forms and martial arts forms like they had earlier that morning. And they went on for a long time before someone from the village dared to go near them to call them back to the village. It was the man, Bato.
Zuko and Lin Zu stopped sparring upon seeing his approach. Both were breathing heavily and a bit sweaty despite the chilling temperatures of the South Pole.
"Hey, you two, there's some food waiting for you in the village," he said.
"Thank you sir," they said respectfully. They followed him back to the village and tried to pretend that they couldn't feel the eyes of the entire village on them. They joined Chief Hakoda in his home for dinner. Bustling around the cooking fire was an old woman, even older than Uncle she looked; she was assumedly Chief Hakoda's mother. Sitting on Hakoda's right was his son Sokka, and next to Sokka was the girl Lin Zu had seen before, the one who had been looking at her when they first brought her to the village. Hakoda looked up when they entered.
"Ah, there you are. Thank you, Bato. Here Zuko, Lin Zu why don't you join us?" Hakoda said, indicating they should take seats next to the girl while the old woman doled out bowls of stew and fish, and Bato took a seat on Hakoda's left.
"Zuko, Lin Zu, this is my mother-in-law, Kana," the old woman gave a grunt and a nod, "my son Sokka, who you've met, and my daughter Katara." Katara simply looked at them.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all," Lin Zu said, accepting a bowl from Kana. In it were a couple pieces of fish floating atop some sort of brown broth with strange dark purplish colored things in it. As Lin Zu was just about to ask what it was, Sokka had finally taken notice of his bowl and exclaimed,
"Alright! Stewed Sea prunes!" and begun eating with gusto and thus answering her question.
Lin Zu and Zuko looked at each other, then shrugged, deciding that they were pretty hungry, so they might as well try some. The broth was thick and oily; the sea prunes had a weird texture, and the fish was well cooked, but bland. Overall, they could see how this would be appropriate fare at the South Pole, but it definitely did not fit their palates. Still, they sucked it up and ate their fill, all the while thinking in their heads that this was important to their survival to get them through.
After dinner, the dishes were cleared away and they were all sitting around the fire listening to the men exchange increasingly embarrassing stories about each other. Afterwards, Zuko and Lin Zu were led to a small ice and animal pelt structure that was like a small storage shed to sleep in.
As the meager sunlight faded for the night, the temperature dropped drastically. Normally, the wouldn't have felt it on their insulated metal ship full of fire benders and a coal driven engine, but lying there in the ground, with nothing but an animal pelt and a thin bed roll between them and the ice, it was cold. To keep warm, they combined their bed rolls and cuddled together practicing stoking their inner flames while not melting their shelter.
The next morning, Zuko and Lin Zu joined Hakoda and his family for the morning meal. However, they were interrupted by a scout.
"Chief Hakoda! There is a Fire Nation ship just north of here, and it's heading this way!"
