"I wonder if they would let us catch them if we had a sign of some sort." Iroh pondered as then stood at the edge of a cliff watching the flying bison shrinking in the distance. They were both panting, trying to catch their breaths.

"Yes, we'll write, 'This isn't a trap, I swear!' on it. It's genius." Zuko deadpanned. Iroh cracked up and Zuko marveled for a moment at how much easier things were between them, now that Zuko was learning to control his temper. There were still times when fire shot out of his nose and he envisioned tossing Iroh in a lake, I mean honestly, claiming fatigue when the Avatar was an hour away! But on a whole, things were better. Now if only they could get the Avatar to slow down and hear them out.

"Hello there." Iroh said suddenly, drawing the Prince's attention to a little white thing. Isn't that the Avatar's pet? "Momo, is it? Did you get dropped?" The old man held out a hand to the rumpled form of the Avatar's fuzzy shoulder ornament. Zuko wondered how his uncle managed to remember so many names. He even remembered that Water Tribe boy's name…Sucker? Sock? Slugga? Zuko was good with faces, and he was even then entertaining visions of the Avatar's perpetually dramatic companion, but Zuko was horrible with names. Zuko turned his attention to the white bison that was suddenly growing larger as the others realized that their fuzz ball was missing. A glance showed said fuzz ball was now perched on Iroh's shoulder eating a piece of fruit that Zuko had been saving for lunch. He sighed. Having won over the animal, Iroh came and stood beside him as he watched the bison approach.

"Momo!" the Avatar called, as soon as the bison was in range. The beast stopped, hovering ten feet from the cliff edge. The avatar stood on its head and Zuko wondered idly if it felt odd to the animal. The Waterbender and Slugga stood on the broad saddle, glaring at the Firebenders.

"Give Momo back!" The girl demanded, uncorking her water-skin.

"One moment, please, he's still eating." Iroh requested politely. I looked back to the Avatar.

"Avatar, we need to speak with you. We have a proposition." I called. The boy looked suspicious, but intensely curious at this.

"Why should we trust you?" He asked. His eyes were focused on the lemur that was now lying in my Uncle's arms, practically purring as the man scratched under his chin.

"Momo trusts us." Iroh pointed out. A loud snort drew our attention to Slugga. He stood with him arms crossed, glaring at us.

"Momo is a fruit whore. He's like a bomb if it had fruit tied to it." He argued. Zuko startled everyone including himself by snickering. He hadn't meant to…he'd just seen a mental picture of a lemur kissing a bomb and it struck him as funny.

"What can we do to make you trust us?" Iroh asked after a moment in which everyone stared at the possessed Prince.

"Stop trying to catch us." The girl suggested.

"Of course."Iroh answered with a friendly smile.

"And let us have Momo back." She added. The others made noises of agreement. Iroh looked at me then, still smiling, tossed the lemur into the air. The animal chirruped as it glided across the space to land in the Airbender's open arms.

"Thanks!" The Avatar grinned at his little friend and waved at Zuko as the bison wheeled around and headed out again.

"If you ever need our help we will be staying by the old dock to the east!" Iroh called at the last second. Only Slugga seemed to hear, giving them a skeptical look over the back of the bison's saddle. When they were far enough away Zuko turned to his uncle.

"We failed! We finally had a chance to talk to him and we accomplished nothing!" Iroh hmmed and turned to start back the way they had come. Zuko followed him, feeling wretched. Like he'd just lost the war.

"Battles are not won in only one skirmish, Prince Zuko. They take careful planning and a solid strategy." Iroh said after a moment. Zuko figure that they were headed for the shack that they'd been hiding out in when they heard the Avatar was close. The shack was a decrepit old boathouse that lay beside an abandoned dock. It hadn't been used in ages and Zuko figured the Earth Nation's fisherman had been driven out by the fleets of Fire Navy that harried this coastline.

"But how are we supposed to help him when he's halfway across the world?" Zuko pushed, trying to keep encroaching despair from his voice. Helping the Avatar was now the only thing he could do and Zuko had to do something or he would start to think about his exile and how the world would end when the comet returned and augmented his father's already considerable power.

"We have laid the foundation of trust. He knows that he may have an ally in us. We must trust in his wisdom. If the world truly needs our help, the Avatar will return." Zuko stopped as the boathouse came into view.

"So we just sit and wait for him!" He snarled. "We should at least follow him!"

"If he thinks we are chasing him, it may lead him into more trouble than he would find otherwise. One does not always think clearly when being threatened." Iroh continued to the boathouse and stood surveying it. It was lopsided and in poor repair, but it was a decent size shelter. "Trust in the Avatar to know what is best."

"He's a little boy!" Zuko sputtered. Iroh gave him a sly look.

"So were you not long ago. When you were a boy I heard you speak great wisdom to a council of power-mad generals." The old man smiled wryly. "The timing and presentation were perhaps not so wise, but you have learned much in your exile. Trust that young Aang has learned as well. Life lessons are learned best when life is at its most difficult." Zuko thought hard, eyes looking inward. "In the mean time, you will repair this building so that we may wait more comfortably. There is much work to do, and when we have moved on, perhaps an Earth nation fisherman will think more kindly of us when he returns. The people's hearts can be won by small acts of kindness." Zuko stared while Iroh calmly sat on the edge of the dock and started humming cheerfully.

"R-repair this hovel?" Zuko stammered, still catching up after all the heavy philosophy. Iroh nodded. "A-and wait?" Another nod. "That's it?" He felt lost, but his uncle seemed to have a plan.

"And trust in the Avatar."

"Trust in the Avatar." His eyes slid to the sea and the sky where the Avatar had vanished. "And hope his friends are as insane as mine." He mused.

"Of course they are! You've met Sokka, have you not?" Sokka? So that's his name. He'd not really met the other in the traditional sense of the word, but he'd fought him. He remembered fighting him in Kyoshi and being glad that the boy was not a bender. Sokka as a bender might have been a threat.