A/N: The observant will notice a sudden huge shift in the numbering of the years of Azulon's reign in this chapter. (And now that I have mentioned it, everyone will notice.) The reason for this is that new official information concerning the timeline of the Fire Lords has come to light in an interview with Avatar co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino. According to them, Azulon reigned for a whopping 75 years, not the mere 23 quoted in his eulogy in "Zuko Alone." It was also revealed that it has been only five years since Azulon's death and Ozai's usurpation of the throne, making Zuko 11 at the time, rather than the 9 or 10 I think most of us were assuming.

Anyway, I consider Mike and Bryan to be definitely more authoritative sources than a writer who may not have had access to the official timeline when drafting the script for "Zuko Alone," and am changing my dates accordingly. In fact, I have gone back and re-uploaded all the previous chapters with the necessary corrections. It has no real bearing on the 'fic, of course, but I'm a perfectionist that way.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.


16th Day, 3rd Moon, Year of the Serpent (Azulon 66)

Learning Iroh's name seems to have inspired in Zuko a general curiosity concerning the names of people and objects alike. For the former, he has developed a practice of pointing to servants and guards and asking "Mama, who that?" Since I, unfortunately, do not know many of their names, it has been rather unsatisfying for both of us. For the latter, he has invented a new game to be played whenever we are out in the gardens, or indeed anywhere he can walk about freely and pick up small objects. He will go off a short distance, find something he can carry, and bring it back to me or anyone else who happens to be around. That person then has to say what it is called, such as "pebble" or "leaf." He repeats the word as best he can, and then starts over again with a new object. It is both charming and annoying, because while his eagerness to learn is an endearing trait, he can keep it up for hours, and there are only so many times I can "That's a pebble" before it becomes tiresome. There are a great many pebbles in the gardens! Sooner or later, I suppose he will figure out that no matter how many small stones he brings me, they will always be pebbles.

Iroh takes a more one-sided view of the new game, but then he has the luxury of knowing that he must deal with Zuko only as much as he chooses. He has fully embraced the designation of "Unca Yi-yoh," to the point of referring to himself as such when speaking to Zuko…and half the time when speaking to me as well! I don't know how he expects my son to learn to speak properly if the adults around him indulge his mispronunciations, but of course that is another aspect of Zuko's upbringing that is not really Iroh's problem.

Speaking of indulgences, Iroh has promised all of us that presents from the Earth Kingdom are on their way. I can hardly wait to see how the dear man intends to spoil us this time.

On another subject, I also finally got him to tell me how he came by his injury. I confess to being a little disappointed—I had hoped to hear a grand tale of courage in the face of flying boulders, but it was nothing so thrilling. Some earthbenders created a disturbance in the ground under Iroh's rhino, the beast tripped and threw him, and he wrenched his elbow catching himself. I think he should count himself lucky that the elbow is the worst of it; a fall like that could easily have broken his neck!

I'm feeling a bit scatterbrained, so I'll close before I ramble too much.