Author's Notes: Hey everyone! Have you seen the NYCC trailer on YouTube? It is really good. There are also some other clips on . Anyway, here is the next chapter. It's pretty short, and the title of the chapter pretty much explains what it's about. Please read and review.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar The Last Airbender. It is the property of its creators and Nickelodeon.

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Chapter 11: The Dragon

"AAAHH!" yelled Aang as he ran away from the dragon as it charged at him.

Once he got far enough away, the dragon stopped, turned around, and returned to its resting spot. Aang sighed with relief, and then all of a sudden, Toph hit him in the head.

"You idiot!" she yelled, "If that dragon hasn't let anyone near it, what made you think it would let you?!"

"Well…"

Just then, Zuko, Katara, and Sokka ran into the campsite.

"We heard you scream Aang! What happened?!" asked Katara in a worried voice. Aang was about to answer, but Toph did it for him.

"Twinkletoes here thought he could make nice with the dragon, but the dragon had other plans."

"Aang, I thought I told you not to go near it!" said Katara.

"I know Katara," said Aang looking away in shame, "but I thought that since I was an air nomad, and that I'm good with animals, I thought I could calm it down. And besides, I've spent a lot of time with Roku's dragon, and it's not even as big as Ran and Cha."

Zuko took another look at the dragon. The chains were still on, as well as the muzzle, but he could figure out how large it was. It was definitely smaller than the masters. The masters were as long as the old fire nation temple of Roku was tall, maybe even longer. Its size told Zuko that it was still young.

'How can it still move? Those chains are still on. Plus, it should be as injured as me,' thought Zuko.

He looked again; the chains that were still on its limbs weren't tightly bound. They were hanging like velvet ropes, allowing the dragon some movement for walking, but not a lot. And even 

though it was tired, it was still strong and not willing to allow anyone near it. Its years of constant abuse indicated that it had a deep mistrust toward humans.

"So what should we do?" Katara asked Zuko.

"What?" he asked.

"What should we do?" she repeated herself, "It looks hurt, but it won't let us near it. Do you have any ideas?"

"Well I say leave it," said Sokka.

Everyone turned to Sokka.

"What did you just say?!" said Zuko angrily.

"Look, it obviously doesn't want us near it, and we need to get going," reasoned Sokka, "I mean we already lost two days because of…"

"What?" interrupted Zuko sternly, "My injuries?! Well sorry for being such a burden."

"Look, that's not what I meant," said Sokka, "but we need to go, and soon."

Zuko looked sadly at the dragon. Katara looked at Zuko's expression, and felt sympathetic. But Sokka had a point.

"Zuko," began Katara, "I know how you must feel, but Sokka's right we have to go."

"You don't," said Zuko.

"What?" said Katara.

"You don't know how I feel," repeated Zuko, "Do you have any idea what it must have been through? All those years in the care of a man who delighted in seeing it suffer, and it didn't even do anything to deserve it! And to make things even worse, my family is the reason it has almost no one to turn to!"

"Zuko, I…I…"

"Go if you want, but I'm staying," said Zuko, "I'm going to try and help it. I owe it that much at least."

"What?!" yelled Sokka, "Zuko, you're wasting your time, and ours too."

"I didn't say you had to stay," said the prince.

Sokka began to babble angrily before slapping his forehead.



While Sokka had been babbling, Zuko went into the direction of the dragon. He had all sorts of thoughts in his head. He wondered how he was going to clam the dragon down. Decades of abuse at the hands of humans had made it very clear that it had no intention of trusting them anytime soon. He would have to take his chances however slim they may be.

As he approached the dragon, the dragon became aware of the exiled prince's approach. It reared up from its resting position and spread its wings. Zuko immediately stopped in his tracks. Though the wings were spreading, Zuko could see the dragon struggling. The wings were bound by the chains for such a long time that they were shorter than normal. Realizing that the dragon was exerting itself because of his presence, Zuko took a few steps back. Once it saw Zuko step back, the dragon began to lie down again, but kept its eyes open.

'This, is not going to be easy,' thought Zuko before giving a sigh.

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It was nightfall. Zuko had barely moved an inch. He was meditating, thinking how he was going to calm down the creature. The dragon had been watching Zuko ever since the afternoon he had tried to approach it. It remembered Zuko, and his attempt to free it, but it still mistrusted humans. The dragon had decided to simply observe Zuko for the time being.

"I can't believe he said those things to me," said Katara, "I was only trying to cheer him up."

"Come on Katara," said Aang, "I'm sure Zuko didn't mean it like that."

"So, Zuko is ok?" asked the Duke.

"Yeah," said Sokka angrily, "He still has a short fuse, an angry jerk-face, and a stubborn attitude."

Haru and Teo giggled at Sokka's remark.

'Don't know how he feels,' muttered Katara in her head, 'I can't believe he'd say something like that.'

"So what are we going to do?" piped up Teo.

"Well Sparky's made it pretty clear he doesn't want to leave, so I'm guessing we're staying for a while," said Toph.

"Why doesn't he want to leave?" asked Haru angrily, "The world, our family is in danger, and he wants to stay?!"

"I know!" agreed Sokka, "I don't get it!"

"He just wants to help the dragon," said Aang, trying to defend Zuko, "I would too."



"But we haven't been able to get close to it for the past two days!" yelled Sokka, "What makes him think he can do any better?!"

"Maybe he can," shrugged Toph, "He is a firebender after all."

"Yeah," agreed Aang, " Besides, I want to explore more of the temple. Everyone wins!"

Sokka, once again, babbled and complain at Aang's reasoning. Katara just looked into her bowl thinking.

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Zuko's stomach began to grumble.

"Great, now my stomach is acting up," he mumbled to himself.

"Maybe this will help."

Zuko looked behind him. He saw Katara with a bowl of porridge.

"I thought you'd be hungry, so here," she continued. She extended the bowl toward Zuko, and he accepted it.

"Thank you," said Zuko as he took the bowl and began to eat.

Katara sat down next to Zuko. She looked at him, and watched him eat his food. He was quiet, unlike the others who would scarf everything down. Zuko noticed that Katara had been sitting next to him, and stopped eating. He thought about earlier, and spoke up.

"I'm sorry about earlier," said Zuko.

"About what?" asked Katara. She knew why he was sorry, and she knew it was a stupid thing to ask, but she did it anyway.

"For blowing up on you like that. You were trying to make me feel better, and I yelled at you. it was out of line, and …I'm sorry," said Zuko.

It's ok," said Katara.

"No, it isn't," said Zuko, "You apologized to me, and well, I didn't act in the best way."

"Well, I still say it's ok," said Katara, "but if it makes you feel better, then I forgive you."

"Thanks," said Zuko.

They looked at each other for a moment, and then at their bowls. They ate quietly, keeping to themselves. Just then, the dragon shifted, trying to lie down in a comfortable position.



"So…" began Katara, "How are you going to help the dragon exactly?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure."

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The next two days were the same thing. Toph and Haru practiced earthbending, the Duke practiced with his wooden swords, Aang flew with Appa and explored the temple with Momo when he wasn't practicing, Teo made final modifications and repairs to his wheelchair, and Sokka, as always complained about something.

Zuko was still where he was. He spent most of the days meditating, thinking about how he was going to deal with the dragon. The only time he would move, or couldn't think was when he was hungry, tired, had to relieve himself, or if Sokka annoyed him with his complaints.

"Any luck?"

Zuko looked behind him and saw Aang.

"Not really," replied Zuko, "I can't think of anything at the moment."

"You'll think of something," said Aang, "I know you will."

Zuko grinned, feeling a little better from Aang's encouragement. Toph then walked it on the two.

"So Sparky, how's 'Operation: Tame Dragon' going?"

"Not so good," said Zuko, feeling like he repeated his answer, "however, there is something strange going on."

"Like what?" asked Aang.

"Well, I've noticed that each day the dragon is closer to where I sit. And at night, when I'm asleep, I feel like it's watching me," answered Zuko.

"Wow, that's pretty creepy," said Toph.

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Zuko was sleeping where he was sitting. He was satisfied with the bowls of porridge that Katara had been giving him for the past two nights. She had been starting to warm up to him, but there was still an air of caution about her.

'At least she doesn't come after me anymore,' h thought in his sleep.

Suddenly, he felt something; a warm wind was blowing on him. He groggily opened his eyes, but they shot open at the sight he saw.



The dragon was looming over head, a foot away from Zuko.

Cliffhanger! Stay tuned for the last chapter. Thank you for reading, and please review.

Announcement: The title will change the next time I update it, as well as the summary.