OK. I don't own any of these characters or places. I quickly walked around the outside of the room, trying to hold my head high and ignore the obvious stares of the men (all wearing more Chinese clothing and armor) who were looking where they really should not be looking. I could just tell this wasn't going to be good: lots of lonely men and a female in an enclosed space.

Recipe for disaster.

My face was already turning a light pink from embarrassment as I knelt at the table as far away from the boy as I could. The old man motioned to someone who looked like a cook and asked him to bring me some weird sounding Chinese food. At that moment I didn't really care, I was starving!

"How was your sleep, Kristen was it? Have you recovered well?" He asked politely.

"Um, yeah I slept good. Thanks. But I never got your name." Uncle. I smiled at my own joke. I also smiled to be polite, as I always do.

"Oh how rude of me! I am retired General Iroh, of the Fire Nation. And this young man," here he pointed to the boy who had done a swell job of ignoring me so far, "is my nephew, Prince Zuko." My eyebrow shot up in surprise (yes eyebrow, I'm so good at doing the one eyebrow thing). Prince. Well that's a new twist.

Prince Zuko nodded his head slightly in my direction to acknowledge that his name had been mentioned. I couldn't help but get the sensation that he was feeling guilty about something.

It's probably about before… I know I would be. I smiled kindly at him, but of course it was lost on him because he continued to poke around his rice bowl with chopsticks. At that moment, someone placed a similar bowl of rice in front of me, accompanied by chopsticks and a bowl/cup of water. I smiled appreciatively and picked them up, adjusting them in my hand so I could eat. Of course, I couldn't eat yet because General Iroh was still naming off all the old men around me at the table, and they all nodded their heads in my direction.

Finally, the introductions were done and I set to work eating. Of course, Prince Zuko decided at that moment to look at me, and obviously thought it was funny that I could passably eat with chopsticks. Not expertly like someone who's used them their whole life. His mouth turned up in a smirk, and he caught my eye as I put another small bite in my mouth.

I just couldn't help it. I set the chopsticks down and started laughing softly, trying to keep rice from falling out of my mouth. Surprisingly enough, his smirk turned into a small smile and he turned back to his food. Iroh had noticed my laughing and looked at me for an explanation.

"Sorry, it's just I can't use chopsticks that well. I only use them when I eat Chinese food." He looked confused about the Chinese food thing, but he let it slide as he smiled good-humoredly. Iroh also caught the smile on his nephew's face and looked surprised.

"So young lady, tell us a bit about yourself. Someone with such an exciting past few days must certainly have an exciting life story to tell." I laughed.

"Not at all, my life's been pretty boring really. But anyway, um, I'm 18 years old, and I've lived in Texas my whole life. I have two younger brothers, and two cats." Iroh nodded wisely, but I could tell he didn't know what a cat was. Or Texas. Where on earth am I? I thought everyone knew about Texas! "I'm going to college now, this is my first year, and I work at a bookstore. You don't know where Texas is do you?" I peered at him over my bowl of rice.

"Well, no actually. I've never heard the name. Is it some small village nearby?"

I almost choked on my food! Small village! "Um, no. Not a village. Texas is one of the largest states in America!" The name didn't ring a bell to them. "You know, the United States of America? The USA?" still blank stares. "One of the world powers? 'Land of the Free'? Oh God, where am I?" I said this quietly to myself but Iroh apparently thought he should answer my question.

"I'm afraid to inform you I have never heard of this America of yours. And if it were a world power, as you say, I am sure the Fire Nation would have heard of it. As for where you are: you are still on my nephew's ship as we sail North along the coast of the Earth Kingdom as we track the Avatar's movements."

"Yeah, what's this whole Fire Nation Earth Nation thing? Are those like, countries? Wait, you wouldn't happen to have a map of the world I could look at? I'm sure I could fine America for you."

Yeah you guys might want to check your map too if you've never heard of America. IT'S STINKIN' HUGE!

"Of course! We have a map in the Navigation room. If you would like, we can go there after we finish our meal. And if you would like, we could find some spare clothes for you to change into." Here he looked over my perfectly fine ensemble like it was … I don't know, something really weird.

"No I'm perfectly alright with my own clothes, and I had a few changes in my bag. I was on my way to staying at my grandpa's house when I … got lost. And going to the Navigation room sounds great."

"Ah yes, getting lost. Please, do tell us how that happened. I am still baffled about that subject." Wow this guy talked weird. Almost old fashioned.

"Heh, well… I drove to their house and parked my car out front. But it turns out they weren't home from wherever they had gone yet, so I decided to go for a walk until they came back. I'd only been walking for 5 minutes or so when I wandered into a forest right in the middle of their neighborhood!" They looked nonplussed. "Ok well, there just aren't forests in the middle of neighborhoods anymore. And this was in a suburban area. The only "forests" are little parks. Anyway, um, I just kept walking and I wandered into that little weird village and I thought for a bit that I'd been dropped off in Mexico or China or something. I mean, you saw! The houses were all mud or something like that and the roads were dirt. That's how I knew I wasn't in my grandparents' neighborhood anymore: their houses are two stories, brick, and have paving and gardens and mailboxes out front of them."

I sat back content in my explanation, while everyone else just looked around with blank stares or those "you're crazy" looks. I sighed.

"I'm not crazy. And I really don't know how I got here. I have this feeling I'm not anywhere near home anymore, but it's just not logically possible." I propped my head up in my hands, leaning forward on the table. "It's not possible to be in Dallas one second, and then be somewhere else entirely the next. I just want to go home." I whispered to myself.

Zuko had stopped eating, and sat watching me. A flicker of understanding, and maybe compassion passed through his eyes before they were covered again in a hard, unfeeling mask.

"If you like, we could go to the Navigation room now. Maybe we can find your home."

I looked up at him gratefully, smiling lightly.

"That would be great, actually."