Jin…Jin… his greatest treasure… his beloved son! He'd been so happy when Leela told him that he was going to be a father! Soon after he'd stood by her bedside holding her hand and mopping her glistening forehead with a cool cloth. It was a long and difficult birth! He'd begun to worry about her when at last the baby came! The midwife then wrapped it in a blanket and handed it to him announcing that he had a son. Oh how happy he'd been! He'd never felt a thrill quite like it in all his life! This was his son, his own flesh and blood! He kissed the tiny infant and then turned to his wife. "What should we call him?" he asked and then stopped suddenly. Something was wrong! She wasn't moving or even looking at him! Her eyes were closed and her body was limp! She was dead…
He never quite got over the loss of his beloved wife. He'd mourned her loss for months, speaking to no one, eating nothing, and barely sleeping! The only thing that could seem to bring him out of the deep pit of grief that he had fallen into was his infant son whom he'd named Jin which means "treasure".
Iroh blinked back tears that were now trickling down his finely wrinkled cheeks. He'd lost both of the loves of his life, one to his brother and one to the angel of death. He sighed heavily as he turned his gaze back out to sea.
The old man then leaned against the iron railing and closed his eyes to picture the face of his only child. A slim, angular face with pale skin and dark hair tied back in a long ponytail that was typical of firebender youths, an aquiline nose, full lips, and a mischievous smile, that was what he saw when he thought of Jin, the face of a young man of eighteen.
Then his mental picture moved past the boy's face. He was wearing a suit of armor and a glistening sword hung at his side. He was standing in a row with dozens of other soldiers all waiting for instructions from one man… a general they called Iroh.