Hey just wanna quickly say to go check out my original story over at Wattpad! I plan to make it into a book and could use all the fan support I can! If you've made it through 45 chapters of this you probably like my writing well enough, so why not give it a shot? Thank you!

Link: 589473477-a-brewing-storm-chapter-1-hunting-the-beast

Chapter 45 - Ember Island

Iroh glanced around Omashu, casually walking the streets. It was a fine, beautiful day. He began to wonder why he was here but something within him said that it did not matter. Iroh saw a crowd a little ways down the street, with raucous cheering. Iroh joined them curious as to what they were so enveloped by. He found the crowd too thick to see through, so he pushed his way to the front.

Surrounded by this crowd was Mylo. She seemed not to notice anyone else but Iroh. Her eyes were on him from the moment he pushed into view. She said something, but Iroh couldn't hear what it was over the loud cheering of the crowd. He moved into the open circle the crowd surrounded, approaching Mylo.

"What did you say?" He asked when he was close enough.

"Why didn't you save me?" She asked hauntingly, staring into his eyes.

Suddenly he noticed the hole in her throat, and the blood that poured down her front.

Iroh stumbled back, terrified. This couldn't be happening again. He glanced around, noticing another familiar face. The former Earth King, Ghul, grinned maliciously, a massive boulder hovering beside him. With a punching motion the boulder soared at Iroh. He flinched, before-

Iroh awoke to the gentle swaying of the ship. He rubbed his eyes, sitting up. "How long was I out?"

The sun was out bright through Iroh's window, and if he had to guess it was morning. He didn't think that many people were expecting him this morning, so Iroh took the time to enjoy some Jasmine tea.

When he was ready, Iroh exited his cabin and made his way to the deck.

As he made his way up, he was immediately spotted by Master Kuzon. The old Firebender greeted him with a smile. "I was beginning to think that you'd never wake up, Prince Iroh!"

"How long was I out?"

"About two days. Which was timed pretty well, as it lined up with us arriving here, to our destination."

"And where is that?" Iroh asked.

Kuzon waved his arm out. "Welcome, Prince Iroh, to Ember Island."

Iroh looked out to see an island, covered in lush trees and sparkling beaches. The water around the place was an incredible blue, clashing beautifully with the emerald green of the trees.

Iroh knew all about Ember Island, of course. It was considered the greatest place on the planet even before the Fire Nation became the great nation it was today. Before the war benders would come from across the world to enjoy the clear air, pure water, intense sun, and volcanic earth. Of course, now only the Fire Nation enjoyed its spoils.

The Fire Lord had maintained a place here for several generations. Iroh had never come before, as his family was usually very busy. Part of him wanted to visit his family's vacation home, but he knew that his first priority should be his training.

"Why are we here, Master Kuzon?" Iroh asked.

"To train, of course."

"But this is a getaway island." Iroh said, feeling like he was missing something here. "People come here for vacation, not to train."

"Can we not do both?" Kuzon asked. "They don't have to be mutually exclusive."

"Relaxing isn't training!" Iroh said.

"Perhaps you need to relax more than you need to train."

"No, I need to train!" Iroh exclaimed. "I need to be strong enough to-" He cut himself off.

"Strong enough to what, Iroh?" Master Kuzon asked.

Iroh didn't answer. This had been on his mind for a little while even if he was disgusted with himself for it. The reason he wanted to train with Kuzon.

Kuzon seemed to sense that this was something personal, and beckoned Iroh below deck. Once they were away from the sailors, he said simply, "You want to be powerful."

"Yes."

"Why is that?" Kuzon asked.

Iroh couldn't bring himself to answer.

"It's for the Earth Kingdom, isn't it?" Kuzon asked gently."

Iroh nodded.

"Iroh, you can't let yourself go down that path. You aren't the type, and more importantly, you have responsibilities."

Iroh glared. "What do you know?"

"I know that no matter how many enemies you kill, whether it be one or an entire nation, it won't bring that girl back. And it won't make you feel any better, either. Revenge is a lonely path, and it leaves you more broken than when you start. You weren't meant to be a warmonger, Iroh. You're kind, intelligent, and willing to give anyone a chance. Those are good qualities that shouldn't be wasted. You're meant to lead us to a better world, not a darker one."

"I can't just ignore what they did." Iroh said.

"You're going to have to, my lord." Kuzon said gruffly. "I brought you here to heal, and healing takes time and it takes peace. Only then can you become the Prince you are meant to be."

"What if I don't want to become the Fire Lord?" Iroh said angrily.

"Then that's tough luck. You were born to become the Fire Lord, and I'm going to make sure you're a good one."

"That's not fair! I didn't ask for this!"

"Life isn't fair." Kuzon said. "Thousands, if not millions of people starve every year. Would they not wish to give anything to be you? Would you complain to them about life being unfair? Whether its fair or not, you were born to become the Firelord. Your people are depending on you to do a good job. So that should be your focus, not revenge."

Iroh took a a deep breath. Kuzon was right. He couldn't get caught up in something that would only serve to erode himself away.

And yet he couldn't bring himself to move on.

"So what training will we be doing today?"

"Actually, today I just want you to spend some time on the island. Use it however you like, except that I do want you to spend some time getting to know the people here. Be back at sundown."

Iroh was surprised. This was it? "We really are just here to relax, aren't we?"

"Things will toughen up soon enough, my Prince. Besides this is its own sort of training. The beach has a way of smoothing even the most ragged edges." Kuzon laughed as though he had made some sort of great joke.

So Iroh set out to get to know Ember Island and its people. He introduced himself to the people of the nearby fishing village, who were starstruck when they discovered that he was the Prince of the Fire Nation. He made friends with many of them fast, and did his best to try to keep track of who seemed to be trying to impress him and win favor and who was just genuinely friendly. It was a skill he had needed to work on over the years, as practically anyone could use the Prince of the Fire Nation as a friend. Iroh had to be wary of being used. Thankfully, these people seemed mostly harmless, even the greedy ones.

It was late afternoon when Iroh finally managed to get away. He was enjoying his time, but after a while it became exhausting talking to so many people. That, and he still had something he needed to check before the day ended.

"You sure you can't stay longer, Iroh?" Asked Lo, brushing his arm.

"Yeah, please, stay!" Li said on his other side.

The twin sisters had stayed within ten feet of Iroh ever since he had met them. They were both incredibly attractive, especially in bathing suits. They were both already masters at holding a man's attention, and Iroh had only survived their charms because they were busy fighting each other much of the time.

"I'm sorry, its getting late." Iroh said. "I need to be getting back. It was great getting to know you, maybe we can talk more tomorrow."

They both fumed at this answer, turning their backs to him.

"Sure we will." Lo said.

Li added, "that's what they all say."

They then stormed off, leaving Iroh on his own, confused.

He spent a while searching around, hoping to find a particular place. There had to be some sign of it, something that would reveal if for what it was. Its owners were too vain to not have a bold declaration of ownership. Of course, just as Iroh suspected, it ended up being painfully obvious, with the Fire Nation royal family emblem plastered all over the building.

He arrived at his family's vacation home. He had expected some sort of guard, but no one was around. Judging by the tall and uneven grass, no one was maintaining the place, either. Iroh checked the door, finding it locked. It might have stayed that way for years.

Iroh searched around the fancy but unkempt beach house, hoping to find a way inside. Be discovered a tree that hunga bit over the beach house, an a deep lean that if Iroh moved fast enough, he might be able to launch himself over.

Taking some deep breaths, he got to a running start and launched himself up the tree. He ran up, sending concentrated flames from his hands to give him an extra boost. It ended up being just enough to get Iroh up to the roof, as he grabbed on. He hoisted himself up, and then walked over to the open courtyard, dropping down.

Iroh looked around, seeing his family's vacation home for the first time. The door inside was open. If this place hadn't been stepped in for months or even years, there was every chance some of the wildlife had taken up residence. Iroh moved in cautiously, looking around.

Things inside were mostly untouched and rather dusty. Iroh looked around, trying to find interesting. He didn't know why he even cared about seeing this place. They hadn't even come here themselves in his lifetime. Why should he care? But yet, he was drawn on, to find... something.

Iroh searched through the first floor, with no idea of what to look for, and found it fairly normal. Some things were definitely luxurious items that wouldn't have been found in other vacation homes, but besides that there was nothing all that out of the ordinary. Or rather, nothing that felt that personal. Iroh made his way upstairs, hoping for better luck. He entered what he believed to be the master bedroom.

The bed had very expensive looking, if dusty sheets that had a very large Fire Nation emblem. Iroh almost wanted to laugh. His family was so predictable. He glanced around, noticing a picture frame.

It was hard to see the image through the thick dust, so he wiped it off on his sleeve. There appeared to be a painting of two couples, one of which had a teenage boy with them. One couple he did not recognize. The other seemed familiar, but Iroh couldn't place their faces. These two seemed to be the parent of the teen. The teen also seemed familiar. Iroh sat down on the bed, trying to place their identities.

Then it hit him.

How had it taken him this long? In their own vacation home no less. There in the painting were Fire Lord Sozin, Iroh's grandfather, although he already looked quite old, and a much younger woman that Iroh guessed to be his grandmother. Iroh had learned that Sozin only had Iroh's father, Azulon, once he was eighty-two years old. Indeed, The teenager seemed much closer in age to his mother than his father was. Iroh could see the familiar face he had grown up with in Azulon, but younger. Iroh had always known his father as a strict and driven man, always concerned with the efforts of the war he headed. As a teenager, however, he seemed surprisingly aloof. He had changed a lot since then.

Azulon had been roughly the same age Iroh was now. Iroh probably had much longer before he inherited the position of Fire Lord than his father had had, but still, he was following an identical path. Would he become like that? Was it unavoidable?

Master Kuzon didn't seem to think so. Just earlier he'd been talking about Iroh's kindness, and even though training had barely started Iroh was already getting the impression that he would be working on Iroh's heart and wisdom just as much or even more so than his Firebending. Perhaps he could be different.

Did he want to be different? Was being a kind Fire Lord the right thing for his country? Was it even the right thing for him? How could one be wise, and forgiving, and kind while also leading the largest war the world had ever seen? Would he need to continue it or perhaps he could do the unthinkable, and make peace? His family would keel over just at the mention of peace.

The memory of Mylo with a hole in her throat, choking on her own blood flashed through his mind.

Did he want peace?

He wasn't sure.

Iroh placed the framed painting back where he had found it. He needed to get back before sundown.

Would just like to add that when I looked up Sozin on the Avatar Wiki to find out his wife's name (which I couldn't, guess that's not important at all for some reason, it's only Iroh's grandmother!) I found out about that waited until he was in his eighties thing.

First, THAT'S CRAZY WTF WHY DID HE NEVER HAVE KIDS BEFORE THAT! ESPECIALLY AS THE FREAKING FIRE LORD HE KNOWS EVEN IF ONLY FOR DUTY REASONS HE'S SUPPOSED TO HAVE AN HEIR WTF.

Second, I always thought that it was really weird that over a two hundred or so year timespan there were only 4 generations in the Fire Nation royal family. I realized in the first few chapters that the ages were weird with everyone, and this is the reason why I suppose.

Third, I think it goes without saying that this makes the timeline of my story weird. I try to be consistent with canon, but mistakes happen, and I've had several over the course of the story. A lot of it has just been me making guesses with things or trying to be clever with how I fit in certain characters (Kuzon, Bumi, Jeong Jeong, etc) without actually checking where they fit. Basically didn't do much research, but oh well. It's fanfiction. It's not like it matters that much if I make a few mistakes. Also, this required me to look back at the Omashu stuff for the dream sequence at the beginning and how the hell did I not see all of those spelling/grammar errors, I thought I was better than this!

Sorry to rant a little bit.

Anyway, be sure to check out the original story I'm working on! It's on Wattpad (or on this site's sister site Fiction Press, although that one is a bit behind) and has thirteen chapters up as of writing this, so it's got a fair share of traction built up. I hope to get it published and all that once it's finished, so please go give your support! Even just giving it a read is super helpful.

Link: 589473477-a-brewing-storm-chapter-1-hunting-the-beast

See ya'll next time.