The pack strapped to Zuko's back felt heavy, despite the fact that its weight was slight. Every step took severe concentration. Leaving Iroh behind without any sort of aid was really doing a number on Zuko's conscience.
Zuko hadn't wanted to leave his uncle. Iroh had chuckled weakly, "You're leaving the bird here, aren't you? See now, I am not so alone." Then he had coughed so violently that blood was left on his handkerchief. Iroh's affliction had begun almost four days prior, but with each passing day it grew worse.
To avoid Azula's wrath, the pair had skirted around villages, and unfortunately, the last town to have any medicine to cure Iroh they had passed two weeks ago. Finally, after seeing his uncle faint and slip from the bird, Zuko decided they had to find him some help. Iroh had agreed reluctantly, but was in no condition to travel anymore. He could barely sit up without huffing and wheezing, let alone ride for miles on the back of a stolen bird.
Zuko tried to assuage himself by remembering that he had left a large pot of tea boiling for Iroh before he'd left. He tugged his straw hat further down over his face, to try and hide his identity marker: the scar.
xxx
Aang hated the ground. He longed for the air, to feel the breeze rush over his shaven crown, and ride the currents from the glider. He glanced around him with increasing dissatisfaction. It seemed he'd seen the same tree pass him over and over for the past hour.
Katara caught Aang's frown. "Hey," she said to him cheerily, "Just think of how great it's going to be once we get out of this forest." She looked to her brother, a few feet ahead, who was pretending not to listen, "It is a shame we can't fly."
Sokka sighed, "If we fly, we could be seen. And unless any of you want to fight that fire bending girl again, I suggest you stop complaining and keep walking."
Aang nodded, "Yea, she was pretty bad. I wonder who she was."
The gang shrugged, and each wandered back into their own thoughts once more.
xxx
Zuko wished he had a rhino. He couldn't remember a time when his feet had hurt so badly. It felt as if his stomach was collapsing in on itself. He paused beside the road to rummage through his pack for something to eat.
His hand brushed the cold steel of his swords.
'Do you think we could have been friends?' the Avatar's words echoed through his mind, completely blocking out the other traveler's voice.
"Excuse me, sir? Could you tell me where Nishe is?"
Zuko jumped, cursing himself for being caught off guard.
"Nishe?" he asked, double checking his pack to make sure his sword hilts were not visible.
"Yes, the town of Nishe?"
"It's up this road, northward."
The boy's face brightened, "Oh good! So you're heading up this way as well?"
Zuko's heart fell; the last thing he wanted was to travel with this earth kingdom boy. "I guess I am." He muttered.
The two kept walking, now side by side. After a while of not speaking, Zuko was starting to feel a little relieved; at least the boy wouldn't talk.
"My name's Haru! What's yours?"
Zuko groaned inwardly. "My name is Li."
"So why are you going to Nishe?"
"I need to go there."
"Oh."
The silence was fleeting. Just as Zuko was settling back into his own thoughts, the boy broke the gentle hush.
"I'm going to the earth bending tournament."
"You're an earth bender?" Zuko couldn't help but to have a mild interest. He'd fought earth benders only twice before, and the second time was with his half-naked uncle, and that he didn't count.
Haru nodded. "I sure am! Boy, that's a story, 'cause a few months ago, I wouldn't have been able to even tell you that!"
"Oh, good. A story."
Haru plunged on, oblivious to the stinging sarcasm just thrown at him, "It's a good story! See, fire benders took over my town a few years back, and they took all the earth benders away, including my father. So my mother made me swear never to earth bend, so I wouldn't have to get caught, too." Haru was quiet for a moment, and then he said quietly, "I can't even describe what it feels like to not be able to bend, to know that your abilities could end up killing you."
Zuko didn't know what it felt like, and hoped he never had to experience the feeling.
"Anyway," he continued just as brightly as before, "I began to sneak away and earth bend in the woods. I did this for a few months, until finally I got caught. You'll never guess who caught me!"
"I don't suppose I will." Zuko was wondering if he should get some new shoes at Nishe as well.
"Guess!" Haru demanded.
"Your mother caught you?" How expensive were shoes, anyway?
"The avatar!"
Zuko tripped, catching himself just before he hit the ground.
"You okay?" Haru moved to help him up.
Zuko jerked himself upright. Emotion twisted his gut, and he swallowed the urge to yell at the helmsman to turn the ship around.
There was no helmsman. There was no ship. Zuko was out of the race to get the avatar.
"The avatar?" he asked, trying to regain his nonchalance.
"Yea, and his friends too." Haru looked away, grinning to himself. "He had nice friends."
"I suppose he does…" If you call a misshapen soldier with a beat-up boomerang and a mediocre water bending peasant girl 'nice friends', Zuko supposed.
So the water bender wasn't that mediocre…
"So Katara, she's a water bender, convinces me that I should earth bend a man from a cave. You'll never guess what that man did next!"
The water bending peasant had a name.
"He died?"
"No, he went and told the fire nation soldiers that I was an earth bender! They took me to the prison camp where my father was!"
"Prison camp?" Zuko said aloud. He remembered that place. That was where he'd found the necklace…
"Yea, it was really big, and there was no earth, so we couldn't bend our way out! So I was there for a day, when guess who shows up?"
"Katara."
"Good guess! How did you know?"
Zuko shrugged, "I'm beginning to see a theme."
"So she says I have to go, but I don't want to leave my dad. So she stays! She pretended to be an earth bender! Isn't that crazy?"
"Crazy. Yes." And brave, honorable.
"She's amazing, Li. She really is."
Zuko glanced over at Haru to see his dazed, love-struck look.