Chapter 10: Song
"I can't live like this! I wasn't meant to be a fugitive! This is impossible!" Zuko yelled. I rolled my eyes. I should have known this was going to happen. Zuko couldn't last five minutes in the wilderness by himself. I looked over to Uncle Iroh to see how he was doing and found him transfixed on a plant.
"Uncle, what are you doing?" Zuko asked. I walked over to Uncle Iroh.
"...either that or it is the white jade, said to be poisonous..." Uncle Iroh said.
"I'm going fishing," Zuko said and he walked off. I decided to follow.
"Uncle Iroh, please try not to do anything stupid," I said and I walked off. I needed to wash off anyway. I found Zuko trying to catch fish without any success. I rolled up my pants and took off my long sleeved shirt, revealing another sleeveless shirt. I made my way into the water.
"What are you doing?" Zuko asked.
"I'm washing up, what does it look like I'm doing?"
"You're going to scare the fish away."
"I'm not scaring the fish away, you just can't fish if your life depended on it," I said as I rung my hair out. Zuko chose to ignore my comment and still attempted to fish. It was hopeless. Zuko couldn't catch a fish bigger than a worm but I didn't say anything.
After countless attempts of catching fish, we walked back to Iroh coming back with but one microscopic fish. We found Iroh still hovering over the plant.
"Zuko, Belle, remember that plant I was telling you about?" Uncle Iroh asked. Uh-oh.
"You didn't," Zuko said.
"I did and it wasn't the white dragon," Iroh said and he turned around to reveal that his body was covered with a rash. Zuko jumped back in either surprise or disgust or both. I just gasped. Didn't I tell him not to do anything stupid?
"When the rash reaches my throat, I will stop breathing. But look at what I found!" he said and he held up some berries, "these are bacui berries said to cure the rash……either that or they are macahoni berries that cause blindness." Zuko, frustrated, grabbed the berries from him and threw them on the ground.
"We're not taking any more chances with these plants!" he said, "We need to get help." Then he turned to me.
"Don't you have something that could help him?"
"All I have left are bandages. I don't have anything else and I don't think that's going to help. We have to go somewhere else," I replied.
"But where are we going to go. We are enemies of the Earth Kingdom and fugitives to the Fire Nation?" Uncle Iroh said.
"If the Earth Kingdom discovers us, we'll be killed," Zuko said thoughtfully.
"But if the Fire Nation finds us, we'll be turned in to Azula," Iroh said. They both paused for a moment and then nodded to each other.
"Earth Kingdom it is," Zuko said and they started to walk off.
"You know, I just love how we come to these decisions together," I said and followed them.
We cautiously made our way towards an Earth Kingdom village. Not to far from it, I saw a wanted poster with Iroh and Zuko's faces on it. Where the heck was I? Hello! I was the one who pushed Azula off the boat and I didn't even get on the poster! I grabbed the poster off the tree that it was hanging on.
"Can you believe this? I was traveling with the Avatar and I helped you guys get away and I don't even get my face on the poster! What do I have to do, sing and dance to get some recognition?" Zuko immediately grabbed the poster from my hand and crumpled it up. He then cast a glare at me.
"Be quiet about that! Do you want to get us killed?" he said. I bit my lip. Of course I didn't want to get him killed; I would do anything to prevent that from happening even if it meant losing my own life. We brought Iroh into a hospital. Zuko felt the need to get hats for everyone so it would be harder to recognize us. I didn't take one; after all I wasn't even on the wanted poster. A girl about my age ended up treating Iroh. I didn't like her though. I'm sure she was a nice person but I kept seeing her take glances at Zuko. We sat down while she healed Uncle Iroh.
"You must not be from around here. We know better than to touch the white jade. Much less make it into tea and drink it," the girl said. Thank goodness we had gotten Uncle Iroh here in time.
"Oops," Uncle Iroh said and I giggled a little.
"So where are you traveling from?" she asked.
"Yes we're travelers," Zuko said and he quickly got up. Oh, yeah that was so unnoticeable.
"Real smooth," I whispered and he lightly nudged me to be quiet.
"Do you have names?" she asked.
"Yes, we have names…….I'm …Lee," Zuko said and as soon as I heard that I shot a glare at him, "and this is my uncle……uhh….Mushi." Uncle Iroh frowned at this. Zuko looked back at me apologetically.
"Yes but my nephew was named after his father so we just call him Junior," Iroh said. Zuko made a face at Uncle Iroh and I began to laugh. Zuko nudged me again to stop.
"Mushi and Junior huh," the girl said. Oh yeah don't even bother to ask my name.
"What's your name?" the girl finally asked me.
"Belle, nice to meet you," I said with a little bitterness in my tone. I didn't like the fact that she was asking so many questions and she couldn't take her eyes of Zuko. But Zuko didn't notice this; he was too busy glaring at me for using my real name.
"My name is Song. Hey, why don't you stay for dinner?" Song asked.
"Sorry, but we need to be moving on," Zuko said. Yes! We need to be moving on, sorry.
"That's too bad, my mom always makes too much roast duck."
"Where do you live, exactly?" Uncle Iroh asked. I sighed. There was no way we weren't going to stay for dinner now.
We followed Song to her house where the meal was being cooked. Zuko was still angry with me for not making up a name.
"What were you thinking?" he whispered harshly.
"What? I'm not on the wanted poster, therefore I don't have to make up a name," I hissed back.
Song showed us in and we sat down for dinner. The whole entire meal I watched Song out of the corner of my eye. The only time I actually took my analytical eyes off her was when Zuko was talking about his father.
After dinner, I saw Zuko go outside. I knew it was best to leave him alone but of course Song went out there. I wasn't going to let her be alone with him so when she shut the door, I kept it opened just a bit and watched.
"Can I join you?" she asked gently as she seated herself next to him, "I know what you've been through, we've all been through it...The Fire Nation has hurt you." I then saw Song reach out to touch her scar and my face immediately turned red with jealousy.
Zuko grabbed her wrist and she put her hand down.
"It's okay, they've hurt me too," she said and she lifted up a part of her dress revealing a scar. I saw Zuko's shocked expression and then I walked away, my face still red.
"…the Fire Nation has hurt you…..they've hurt me too," I mimicked as I walked somewhere in the house. I didn't even know where I was going and I didn't care.
"What did you say?" Uncle Iroh asked. I hadn't seen him there and I jolted at the sound of his voice.
"Nothing," I said lightly. He eyed me suspiciously.
"It seems to me that you are a bit jealous," Iroh said wholeheartedly.
"I'm not jealous," I snapped but I quickly said "sorry" after I realized what I said.
"Belle, I know that you have feelings for my nephew. I see it every time you are with him."
"You're not going to tell him are you?" I asked quickly.
"You're secret is safe with me," he said and I smiled.
"Can we please leave now? I don't want to end up snapping at Song too," I whispered. Uncle Iroh nodded and we walked outside.