By the time Prince Zuko and Uncle Iroh got back to the ship, the sun had already halfway set over the purple-orange sea. They had silently walked back, not speaking the whole way, each lost in their own thoughts. Zuko finally spoke up. "Uncle, I have an idea."
Iroh blinked. "Yes?"
"You know where the next town is."
"Mmm-hmm."
"There's no doubt that Water Tribe peasant has eaten all of their food."
Iroh chuckled.
"...So, maybe we should ambush them. You know, since most of the time they're expecting us."
Uncle Iroh considered this. And Zuko thought of this all by himself, he thought. He chuckled again, then nodded. "That's a good plan. We should be there by morning."
Zuko smirked his normal, venomous smirk. A good plan. "I'm going to go on to bed. Wake me up when we get there."
Uncle Iroh was plainly shocked. "You? Sleep? On a mission? Uh... Okay. I guess you need some rest, after that long walk." Iroh felt silly for being surprised; Zuko didn't really have the greatest stamina... Physcally, or mentally.
When Zuko reached his quarters, the room farthest up from the deck, he decided to meditate, at least for a few minutes, before taking his nap. He set out his candles by the wall, and, using his fingertip, lit each one carefully. He then sat, concentrating on keeping the flame of each candle steady, unwavering. Then, a loud noise came from below. It was that blasted horn that Iroh had bought from the market that day! Oh, how he loathed music night. His face tensed with discontent, and the candles wavered. Thank the gods there are no woodwinds, he thought to himself, thinking of how Iroh wanted some woodwind instruments. It would only add to the hideous noise.
Giving up, he took off his heavy armor and slipped on his sleeping clothes; a burgundy shirt and plaid pants and a pair of socks of the same color. Zuko splashed some water over his face before falling asleep, and he looked over his face in the small mirror. Unaware to it himself, any young lady would have deemed him handsome, had it not been for the coincidentally flame-shaped scar that obscured most of the left side of his face.
When he finally slipped into bed, the music night was hardly over. Several hours passed before he finally found sleep.
Sokka happily muched on a piece of bread as they walked back from the village to their campsite. Katara absentmindedly looked around. Aang led the group. Finally, they got back to the campsite. Aang lit a fire, and they cooked a meager amount of the meat they bought, and settled aound the campfire to talk before they went to sleep, as they always did. "So where do you all want to go tomorrow?" Aang asked.
"...How much longer will it take to get the the North Pole? We almost forgot about that. We've just been town-hopping lately"
said Sokka, unaware that he was part of the reason, eating all of the food all of the time.
Aang pulled out a wrinkled old map. "Uhh... A few more weeks, maybe."
Katara brushed off the comment. "And we can still practice on the way there."
Aang smiled and nodded. "I don't mean to brag, but I think I'm making pretty good progress. I'll learn the other three elements in no time."
Sokka begged to differ. "...What about Firebending? All of the Firebenders have been enlisted in their army. There's no way you could learn that, without losing our heads," said Sokka, distressed.
Well, all the Firebenders... but one..., Katara thought to herself. She was going to say something, what she thought they should do about it, but she decided to wait and cross that brige when they came to it.