8

As my village burned and the screams dampened to whimpers, I believed my freedom nearing. A thicket of coarse brush a few hundred feet off would provide cover for me to run, if only I could reach it.

By the second night my lids grew heavy from lack of sleep. The Fire Nation soldiers had taken their time, after the initial attack, to abuse the survivors and rummage through our meager stockpiles. Muscles aching and stomach empty, I wished for peace, for some semblance of the world before this mayhem, before all those horrible sounds and sights. I wished for escape. And before I knew it, I had drifted off. Minutes or hours later, I awoke to that man, face all clean slopes and fine lines. He said he had been looking for me, like we knew each other, like he meant only the best for me.

First, I ran. The coarse stalks slashed at my arms and face. As I brushed past the last stalks, heard the man fast behind me, I jumped from the earth, spun my body in a tight circle, and flooded the field behind me with fire.

The dry stalks took immediately, and I expected cries from the man to spill across the air. Instead, I fell to the ground, still unpracticed in my bending, and when I faced the sky, I found the man standing over me. He applauded me, knelt down, and extended a hand.

"There's no need for that, child. Fear not. I am taking you home."

I screamed and lashed flames at him and tried to escape, but in the end he caught me. As he and his men escorted me back to their ship, I noticed a scar, two half-moons just below the man's right ear. I knew then what I had suspected before.

This man was my father. He was the reason my bending was cursed with fire, destruction, instead of the steadfast earthbending of my mother's mother, and those small scars along his neck were the remnants of my mother's brief, awful encounter with him.

When they hauled me onto the ship and toward what would become my bedchambers, I spotted a young man glowering at me, eyes fat with white and black-brown pupils. His tar-like hair was too short to gather into a top-knot, and hung in waves around his ears. He wore the vermillion robes of the wealthy, striking in contrast to the unwashed soldiers around him. Before my escorts pulled me away, the boy's mouth peaked into a smirk, and he mouthed something I couldn't make out.

They locked me in that bedroom, ignored my protestations, and before long, the ship set sail.


Dawn quick behind me, I followed after Zuko's trail. It was clear from his tracks that he was injured. The old woman had sent him out a window, so this was expected. But more than that, his steps seemed erratic. I'm sure he felt panic after his encounter with Hei Bai. Even after all these years, I couldn't stop myself from worrying, fretting over whether he was well, whether he was safe. Had he descended into madness, like his sister? Or would I find him content in his exile? I didn't know what to look forward to.

The tracks led northwest, deep into the woods. After nearly an hour, I came upon a river, rushing wild from the recent rain. Zuko's tracks approached the river head on, and so I used my firebending to propel myself to the other bank, as I assumed he had.

When I landed on the other side, I searched for his prints. The grass and mud were undisturbed. I wandered along the bank for a hundred feet one way, then the other. I strayed farther from the river, and still could find no trace of him.

Confused. Concerned. I leapt back to the other side of the river, which was a good hundred or so feet in length. The earth showed no sign of struggle, or some unexpected give in the soil. He hadn't fallen, it seemed, but he hadn't made it to the other side. A boat? The waters flowed northeast, and I vaguely remembered a village cropping up not far from here, as Ba Sing Se had opened up to the rest of the country again. This river fed into another which pooled into the western lake bordering the Capitol. And so, I followed the river toward Ba Sing Se.


In the years following my departure from Zuko's counsel, he and the avatar had pursued several projects across the Earth Kingdom, from reinstating the young Earth King who had reigned before the comet, to supporting a burgeoning city in Yue Bay.

The last months of my time with Zuko had been a shadow on his recovery from the angry, banished prince he had once been. Even as I packed my bags and boarded a ship for the Earth Kingdom, I knew I should have been more patient with him. I should have forgiven him. He had been under immense pressure, troubled by talks of a coup, disappointed by a lack of interest from his military in helping to rebuild the Earth Kingdom. If his mind had been troubled, his heart had been well-placed.

Five years had passed since I left him, and for much of that time I coasted, drifting across the continent, never feeling at home. Never finding a purpose.

Then, nearly a year ago, nationalists staged the coup they had been grumbling about since the end of the war. They had chosen the proper moment, as the avatar was occupied in Ba Sing Se and Zuko had relieved much of his staff for a national holiday: Sozin's birthday, a holiday he knew he couldn't revoke. They swarmed the palace, whisked him away, and installed a young man, his name new to my ears, on the throne.

They were reports that Zuko was being held on an isolated island north of the Fire Nation, others that he was held near Kyoshi Island, or in a deep underground prison fifty miles from the Fire Nation Capitol. But after nearly eight months, news broke that Zuko had escaped. No one knew how, only that the nationalists were desperate to find him.

And so my search began. Propelled by guilt and the keen desire to reconnect with someone, anyone, from my past, I journeyed across the world to find Zuko. After months of nothing, I came across that same port where Zuko and I had first seen each other, and heard of his recent passage through there.


Now, as I neared that new village along the river, I noted black smoke rising in pillars toward the sky. I picked up pace, quickened to a jog, worried that destruction lay ahead, that everywhere I traveled, chaos and fire followed.

The trees along the river bank cleared, and instead of burning buildings, I came upon a massive steel building. A factory, encircled by homes fresh with paint. Along the river, I noticed an anchored boat constructed of steel, too.

Before I could approach the small port, a hand wrapped around my arm and pulled me back.

Steaming, I turned to slap whatever rogue had saw fit to grab me. I found black eyes looking back at me, that familiar curve along his upper lip.

"Hui?" I asked, heart stuck in my throat.

He let go of me and for a moment I was frozen, caught between waves of confusion, anger, and relief. I hadn't seen him in ten years, since that rain-swollen day I abandoned our ship and washed up in that Earth Kingdom port. Even now, he dressed like an aristocrat, sleek robes.

Finally, I embraced him, forgetting about my mission, the world, for just a moment. I settled, for just a moment, in the comfort of holding someone dear to me, someone I had loved.

"It's been a long time, brother," I said, feeling his heart beat against mine.