Still don't own LoK!
"Whoa! It's huge, isn't it?" Toph asked as they reached the edge of a large lake.
"I don't believe it!" Iroh yelled with a grin. "They found me!"
"Who found you? The army?" Toph asked, and he put a hand on her head.
"Toph, our first place that we're going to is to the Fire Nation. After that, I'm taking my wife to the Southern Water Tribe to see if her family resides there, and then we'll be taking you to Chief Bei Fong in Republic City! The sooner you start metalbending the better," he said happily.
"General Iroh!" his waterbending lieutenant said as he rushed forward. "Thank the spirits that you're alive! We've been looking everywhere for you! Where have you been?!"
"He's not a wayward child, geez!" Toph yelled and went to earthbend.
"At ease, lieutenant and Toph," Iroh said calmly, and Toph let out a low grumble. "We're fine. I had a bit of an amnesia problem, but that's over now. I'll tell you about it more in detail once we're on the ship. And Toph and Ikari are coming with us."
"Yes, General," the lieutenant said saluting before waterbending his way back to the ship.
"We'll take the boat," Iroh said grinning. "Come on. Relax, Toph, you'll be on the United Forces boat before you know it and your parents won't be able to do a thing."
"Now that's what I like to hear! No more coddling, here I come!" she yelled fist pumping and jumping onto the ship excitedly.
"Hooligan," Kailee laughed.
"Sayuri!" Asami yelled excitedly as the shirshu tamer arrived in Republic City. "It's been too long! You didn't tell me you were a shirshu tamer!"
"Sorry," she grinned as she jumped down. "Now, what can I do for the only person who would stay my friend in school? Tracking the Avatar? A boyfriend? Your dad?"
"Actually, that last one is tempting, but we'll have to save him for later," Asami said nodding as Korra came up behind her.
"Is this the shirshu?" Korra asked looking at the large mole-wolf-anteater like creature.
"You bet. Sayuri, meet Avatar Korra. Korra, this is one of my school friends, Sayuri," Asami said gesturing between the two. "Korra's going to be following you and the shirshu with benders from three other elements."
"Right. So, who needs tracking?" Sayuri said putting her hands on her hips. "Boyfriend problems, Avatar Korra?"
"Actually, no," Mako said defensively. "I'm right here."
"Lin, Mako, Ikki, this is our tracker, Sayuri," Korra said smiling. "We were actually needing help to find General Iroh the second."
"Ah, the missing United Forces General. That'll be tricky," Sayuri said rubbing her chin. "If he goes out over water I'll need to have some sort of transportation method to get Leila across. But aside from that, do you have something of his to smell?"
"As a matter of fact," Lin said pulling out the bandages that had been on Iroh's arm after the war for Republic City. "It may have another scent on it, but it's the best that we've got."
"Old, but it will have to do. Can you track him, girl?" Sayuri asked her pet, and the Shirshu sniffed the air before snarling in the earth kingdom's direction. "Looks like he headed towards the Earth Kingdom."
"Yes! Thank you so much!" Korra yelled excitedly, and Sayuri rolled her eyes.
"Just be careful up on that bison," she called up to the four benders, who were now hitting high fives amongst each other with Lin driving.
"Ah, home sweet naval fleet," Iroh breathed after taking in a deep breath. "I never thought that the smell of an army ship would be a relief."
"I'm having a hard time getting my bearings," Toph whined, "What's with all the rocking?"
"We're on the water, of course we're going to be rocking," Kailee shot back, before laughing her head off.
"Why do I put up with you two?" Iroh muttered. "Bolin had more sense than the two of you do put together."
"He does not! He never knows when to shut up or stop joking! He can't even go an entire day without joking or goofing around!" Kailee yelled defensively.
"Fine then," Iroh snapped, "Go an entire day from dawn to dusk without making a joke or goofing around in any way to prove me wrong."
"Fine! Starting tomorrow!" Kailee yelled back, "No joking! No goofing off! Just you and me training, mono a mono! Chi blocker versus chi blocker-slash-firebender!"
"You're welcome to try," Iroh laughed.
The soldiers around them stared at the trio, not fully comprehending how Iroh could be so carefree with her. What was even more confusing to them was why Iroh had brought not one, but two females onto the ship alongside him. When one daringly asked about it, he'd snapped that it was as a trio that they'd been able to survive without proper food shelter and clothing for seven months while he had had amnesia.
At which point the soldiers quieted down and decided to trust their General and hope that he didn't blow a gasket while on the week-long trip to the Fire Nation.
"So, here's the town that we visited before," Mako said nodding.
"Yeah, but why are we going through here?" Ikki asked confused.
"Iroh stayed here for a while," Korra replied simply. "The shirshu must still smell Iroh inside the abandoned building. Hey look, it's heading towards Omashu!"
"Was it possible that we just barely missed him?" Mako murmured.
"We'll have to rest for the night," Sayuri called up at dusk. "Leila's tired, and to be honest, I don't think your flying bison wants to go through the cave that leads to Omashu."
"Sayuri's right, we should camp for the night," Lin said bringing the bison down. "Appa needs to rest as well. We won't be much good falling asleep when we're trying to search for Iroh."
"What about Kailee?" Sayuri asked curiously as she walked up to them. "She could be anywhere. Dead or alive, my Leila can track her. I'm one of the few trackers left, but nobody's hired any of us to look for her. Her parents are dead, and the world thinks that she is, too."
"No, we think she's alive," Korra argued, "She's just out there somewhere trying to figure out where to go, I'll bet."
Ah, if only they knew!
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