The first thing Zuko noticed as Appa was swimming up the big river with the team on his back was the water started to look strange.
Normally the waters around the fire nation and the nature itself was beautiful. Just like Katara had commented back when they had been camping near Piandaos mansion.
Then the further they travelled up the river against the stream. The murky and strange the water became. And the nature next to them thinned out and then just vanished.
What was going on? Now when Zuko looked around, this barely looked like his beloved nation. And then he leaned over to scoop up a bit of the water up in his hand.
Only to be greeted with what felt more like a strange oily substance that slid through his fingers and it smelled.
"What's wrong with this river?" Katara asked as she wide-eyed looked down at it as well.
"I don't know." Zuko replied as he turned to Katara. "I've never seen anything like it before."
"Fish aren't even biting." Sokka mutered from where he was sitting with his fishing route. "Which is pretty weird. Every where else we have tried to fish in the fire nation there was lots of biting."
"Maybe we should turn around." Aang commented. "The further we are moving in the worse it seems to get. We can continue with another route."
Zuko turned to Aang and then he swallowed. "I… I want to know what this is. Where it's coming from." he said. He looked at the cliffs next to him which looked strangely bare and devoid of nature. It looked like the land itself had gotten sick. "Please." he asked returning to Aang. "I need to know what the problem is so I can figure a way to fix it in the future."
Aang nodded. "Sounds like a good idea. At least to find out what this is." he said. "I mean how can we fix it if we don't even know what it is."
"Why does it smell so bad though?!" Toph screeched as she covered her nose. "It makes me want to vomit."
Zuko rubbed that had touched the strange water and tried to rub off the oily substance that now seemed to be stuck to his hand in a thin layer. And it just wouldn't come off. "Urgh." Zuko hissed as he now tried to use the edge of his own tunic to try and get it off.
Then suddenly a squawk sounded from down the river and Zuko gasped as he launched over the saddle. "LIN-LIN!" he shouted terrified as the turtle duck was basking it wings but was unable to move and the disgusting gunk just covered him more and more.
"He's stuck!" Aang shouted and Zuko had already jumped right in after the turtle duck.
Quickly did Zuko manage to pick up the turtle duck in his safe arms only to cough as he tried to make his way back to Appa.
"ZUKO HOLD ON!" Katara shouted as she raised her arms to create a wave carrying Zuko with turtleduck back on Appa… and that wave hit everybody who was now covered in mud.
"Ew. GROSS!" Sokka shouted. "It's everywhere!"
"Normally I love a good mud bath but this is disgusting." Toph shouted.
Zuko wiped his own face as clean as he good as he shook his head. "Aang I think we should get Appa out of this river. It seems to only get worse the longer he swims. He might end up getting stuck too!"
"You heard him boy!" Aang exclaimed. "Let's get you out of there! Come on." he directed Appa to turn left and crawl up the shore. Only for the Bison to now be standing there dripping.
And as everyone else slid down from the bison they were all covered and dripping in disgusting muddy river water that smelled like rot and lots of other things.
"Those who vote we all take a bath before going any further says I." Sokka shouted and all reached their hands up into the air.
"I."
Quickly by working together did they manage to create two separate pools. Toph opened up the earth and then moved boulders to the surface of her two holes making them water proof. Then made a wall to keep the two pools out of view from each other.
Katara managed to separate the clean good water from the muddy gunk and in a flowing motion she transported them to the two new pools.
And it was all topped off with Zuko dipping a hand into one pool and then the other to heat up the water for a nice temperature.
"Here's the soap." Katara threw a bar at Sokka who just managed to catch it in his hands.
"Man are we going to need this." Sokka groaned.
Zuko didn't even say any more as he had all ready gone behind the wall and stripped out of his dirty clothes to jump right in. Just wanting this entire layer of oily filth to go away.
They only had two bars of soap though. One for the boys and one for the girls. So while Sokka was aggressively soaping himself in Zuko grabbed Lin-Lin and carefully started to try and preen his feathers.
"Appa needs a bath too." Aang pointed at the big bison standing next to them dripping from the gunk.
"When we are done we'll connect the two pools into a big one and he can have it all to himself." Sokka said.
Zuko looked at the big bison and sighed deeply. Even with all of them working together it was going to take at least an hour to clean the big animal.
Then Zukos heart churned. Poor thing! This had to be hell for Appa. His fur being all oiled in and caked like that.
After they had all finished bathing and rinsing indeed it was Appas turn. It took all of them working together but they got it down and with time enough to continue a bit ahead to see what could be hiding at the end of this river.
They decided to walk though and just allow Appa a bit of rest. They didn't have to walk far though. Until the muddy river opened up to what looked like a massive lake… Or… what had formerly been a lake.
Aang gasped. "There's a village out there!" he pointed as true enough. Right in centre of all the mud there seemed to be what looked like a collection of wooden houses.
"It's a fishing village." Zuko blinked.
"Oh?" Katara looked at Zuko.
"Yeah we have a couple of those. Both at the sea shores and in the larger rivers." Zuko said. "Their entire income basically comes down to fishing and shipping fish to cities which are more centre of the islands."
"Hullo there strangers!" An older man came walking towards them. "It sure is rare to see visitors these times! My name is Dock. Can I offer you a lift?" he asked gesturing at his boat. "Of course it'll cost a copper coin. A man needs to make a living."
Zuko blinked at the strange looking man. Then quickly grabbed his hair and pulled it over the left side of his face effectively covering his scar.
"Yes please." Katara spoke for him as she pulled out a wallet offering Dock a coin.
"Thank you young miss! All aboard!" Dock grinned as he jumped down the rocks towards a little boat and jumped on.
All looked at each other and then sighed deeply as they climbed down and settled in the boat to allow Dock to set them out.
The smell was incredible… Incredible bad and Zuko had to fight not to pinch his nose. It helped to have Toph cling unto his arm.
Wooden boats didn't really agree with her. Not that Zuko blamed her.
"So erhm…" Zuko hesitated. "Strange place to make a fishing village isn't it?" he asked.
"Oh it used to be very nice around here. Plenty of fish to catch and sell." Dock said. "How-ever the number of fish has dwindled a bit since that came here." he pointed.
Zuko turned his head and so did all the others as his eyes widened… How hadn't he noticed.
On top of a mountain there was a massive factory. Black smog billowing out from the tall chimneys and pipes running from the massive building and down into the river releasing mountains of pure gunk.
"What… Is that?" Sokka asked as Zuko swallowed.
"It's a factory. They make a lot of steel for the fire nation army and even some tanks and different ship parts in there." Dock explained. "They moved in a couple of years ago."
Zukos heart seemed to fall all the way into the pits of his stomach as he swallowed and Katara turned to Zuko.
"Did you know?" She asked in a low whisper.
"No…. I didn't." Zuko whispered back. "Believe me I…"
"I believe you." Katara whispered back. "How could you know."
As they moved unto the fishing villag. Walking over the wooden blanks and with Toph firmly on Zukos arm so she wouldn't ram into a wall or worse yet. Fall off.
Things really didn't look any better.
There were people here. And they all looked sickly thin and just… Sick in general.
No wonder. Living in the middle of this poisonous swamp would do that to you. And of course to end this miserable picture there was a kid who ran up to Katara looking up at her with begging amber eyes.
"Do you have food you can spare?" The boy asked in a pleading voice.
Katara just melted at the spot and didn't hesitate to buy a fish she handed to the kid… And where did the kid ran. To what very much looked like his sick mother laying on a futon out in the open.
"Look… I know what you're thinking." Sokka stepped forward. "But we can't safe these guys. Our best way to help these people would be to defeat the fire lord. Make Zuko new fire lord and then Zuko can fix it."
"When would that be?!" Zuko asked in a hiss. "It looks like these people are dying now!"
"They need our help." Katara pleaded.
"We can't compromise our location." Sokka hissed.
"These are my people." Zuko hissed back. "How.. How could I call myself a prince. Or accept the title of fire lord if I just left them behind like this?!"
"Zuko. Listen to me." Sokka hissed as he grabbed his shoulders. "If you get caught here you wont be able to help anyone."
Zuko swallowed as he looked at Sokka.
"So what's better?" Sokka asked. "Risking it all here to maybe save one village. Or concentrate on defeating the fire lord and save all of the fire nation. Including this village?"
And Zuko glanced down. "Yeah… You're right… Sorry Sokka."
Sokka nodded. "Good. Glad we are all on the same page. Right Katara?" he asked.
"Right." Katara muttered as she looked down.
"Now let's back to shore and set up camp. The sun is about to go down." Sokka said and both Katara and Zuko had a similar pout on their faces as they walked out.
There was an awkward silence among their group in the evening as they settled to make food and settled for the night and Zuko hissed.
That village! All the people there. Those were his citizens. He was supposed to be their prince right? He could he just leave.
And in the night Zuko was laying on his futon. Listening to the other people breathing… Waiting… Toph as usual was sleeping next to him and then. Her breath had slowed down and she breathed deeply… She was out for the count.
With incredible silence and stealth did Zuko stand up and then as quietly as he could moved towards their pile of luggage. Quietly Zuko pulled out items.
His dual blades… Black clothes… And a blue mask grinning like a devil.
Zuko glanced over his shoulder and then snook as quietly as he could away from the camp. Only to almost walk right into another person and Zuko jumped back.
"Argh!" Zuko exclaimed and the girl screamed to.
"Ka-Katara?!" Zuko gasped and then quickly hid the items behind his own back.
"Zuko?!" Katara asked as she stood in front of him also with her hands behind her own back. "What… What are you doing here?"
"I was erhm… I needed to pee." Zuko exclaimed. "What are you doing?"
"I also needed to pee!" Katara exclaimed.
"Great. There's nothing weird about that. We both just needed to pee." Zuko said.
"Yeah! Must be all the tea." Katara said.
And then they just stood there. Awkwardly. Both with their hands behind their backs.
"So erhm… Let's just… Go and do our business… In private. Like adults." Zuko said.
"Yes." Katara stepped backwards. "Far away from each other!"
"Yup." Zuko also walked backwards as the to moved further and further apart still wide-eyed looking at each other.
And then they both opened their mouths as they exclaimed. "Goodnight!"
And they both turned around and darted away.
Zuko gasped as he was finally in the clear out in the bushes. Wow… He couldn't believe he had gotten away with that!
Then he looked at the mask in his hands. That sure had been a while. Lucky for him Zhao had been to arrogant to give away his identity to anyone. And quickly Zuko changed clothes and put on his before heading back towards the village.