The Dragon of the West
Before the events of Avatar: the Last Airbender. A story of Iroh during the siege of Ba Sing Se when he finds out a tragic truth.
"Our progress into the Earth Kingdom Capital is going well, general Iroh" The captain reported "Ever since we've breached the outer wall their defenses have increased drastically, but our companies are slowly but surely advancing. We are starting to set up our camps inside of the wall, and even though there are occasional ambushes they are holding up quite well. We have a heavy invasion force that should be arriving here within a few weeks which will expedite the siege. At this rate we should be at the inner wall within five weeks' time. Soon this war will be over, and the fire nation will be victorious."
"Thank you for your report, Captain." General Iroh said. He was sitting in his command tent with all of his highest ranking officers forming a circle with Iroh at the head. They were having their weekly debriefing and planning council. The meeting had been going on for a while and they were just wrapping up. The siege of Ba Sing Se had been going on for over two and a half months. Every now and then the soldiers would start to lose morale, but Iroh would rally his men and make great strides as they fought their way closer to the heart of the earth kingdom.
"What do you have to report, colonel?" Iroh asked as he picked up his warm cup of Jasmine tea.
"Thank you General, our armored tanks are starting to file through the outer wall, they are giving us a large combat advantage and at the same time crushing the spirit of the defending earth benders, and at night we raid and burn what we can to demoralize them. As we speak our teams are out on the offensive. For the Earth Kingdom capital things could be going a lot worse. If you ask me general, the hardest part so far was getting through the wall." Short chuckles scattered the room. The colonel continued "In terms of our army, we are beginning to overflow on injured soldiers and are running out of tent space. However we have plenty of food and supplies to sustain the wounded and our invasion force for quite some time. That is all from me."
Iroh gave a nod of appreciation and respect to the officer as he put his tea down. "Make sure that we have more than enough space for our wounded should anything happen. I want three extra med tents set up as soon as possible. Keep on doing what you have been doing and we will be victorious. Remember gentlemen, the future of the fire nation rests on this siege, you are all dismissed, thank you."
Everyone slowly arose, bowed, and made their way out of the tent until it was just General Iroh. He looked at the portrait of his family hanging up towards the back of the tent and walked over to his desk. He began to read military reports about battles and skirmishes that were going on from inside of the wall, trying to detect chinks in the Earth Kingdom's armies.
A few reports later a foot soldier entered the tent. His face was very solemn, his uniform was covered with dirt, his skin covered with bruises. General Iroh looked up and rose from his seat.
"Are you okay soldier?" Iroh asked with sympathy "What is wrong?"
"Sir," The young man paused. "Your son. He's been killed in combat. I'm so sorry General. We did everything we could. They attacked us from behind. We didn't even see it coming." The warrior was as respectful as he could possibly be.
Iroh looked down at the ground. "It will be ok," the general reassured him. "Report to the med tent, go and make sure you are alright."
The soldier bowed and exited the tent. Iroh went back to his desk, looked at his family portrait and began to sob uncontrollably.
This is what I imagined how Iroh found out about Lu Ten's death, very sad and sudden. I have a boatload of other short stories in the queue! They vary from romance to the characters feeling's during the series to just goofy fun! Stay tuned for more, thanks for reading :)
