When the Wind was Reborn

Chapter Eight

How to lure the Avatar back into the arms of Lu Ten and the Fire Nation? Zuko was at a loss. Aang was naïve but he wasn't entirely stupid, it wasn't like Zuko could just tell him to fly the bison back to Lu Ten's cruiser. Instead they were flying steadily north, further away from his cousin, and Zuko didn't know how to get him to change course without giving himself away.

The journey wasn't too uncomfortable to begin with. It was nowhere near as bad as Zuko's short voyage on the skiff when he had been pursuing Aang - the stolen Water Tribe parka kept him warm, there was no seasickness, seawater wasn't splashing up at him every other second and he didn't have to row, instead he just lazed about in the back and slept while Aang manned the reins. After a while, though, things started to grate on him. The smell of the bison and of the stale sweat from his stolen parka, the constant sound of wind rushing in his ears, the relentless, blinding light from being up so high, the way the air felt thin and reedy. It wasn't long before Zuko's patience had run so very, very thin and he was snapping at every other thing Aang said.

Every so often, through the thick mists and the flurries of snow, Zuko thought he could see a flash of dark sails on the sea below, the ship bearing a familiar and fierce seabird - the waterbender girl and the one-eyed warrior. Or, perhaps, it was Zuko's imagination.

"Hey, the Southern Air Temple isn't far from here!" Aang chirped happily.

"Oh?" Zuko couldn't say he was interested.

"The Air Nomads, they'll help us!" Zuko looked up at that, squinting at Aang.

"The Air Nomads?"

"Yeah, at the temple," Aang said, as though such a thing was obvious.

"The temples are Fire Nation colonies," Zuko snapped.

"No, you're mistaken," Aang said, frowning with confusion. "Why would they be Fire Nation colonies?"

"Because of Sozin's..." Zuko trailed off, understanding coming to him. "Aang, how long do you think you were in that iceberg for?"

"I don't know," he replied with a shrug. "Not long."

"So before the iceberg you visited the Southern Air Temple?" Zuko asked.

"Uh-huh."

"And the Air Nomads were there?"

"Yep."

"Aang...the Air Nomads were driven out of the temples one hundred and two years ago." The Avatar's face went slack.

"No, that's not right," he said quietly, voice warbling as the implication began to dawn on him.

"You've been in there for over a hundred years, at least," Zuko told him, and he felt bad for the child - Zuko wouldn't know what to do if one day he woke up and his country was gone - but there was little to be done but face the truth.

"What about the Air Nomads?" Aang asked, tears in his eyes. "They can't be..."

"They survived," Zuko said quickly. "Many perished, yes, but...some fled and survived."

"Where are they now?" Aang asked, angrily wiping tears from his eyes. The news of their survival didn't seem to have consoled the Avatar particularly. Zuko just shrugged.

"They're refugees. They wander. They're no longer nomads in name only." A long pause as Aang digested this information.

"It was the Fire Nation?" Aang's eyes were still red and raw with tears, but his face was drawn and tense with restrained anger now.

"Yes," Zuko admitted, unable to meet his eyes.

"Tell me what happened." The Avatar spoke quietly but, for the first time since Zuko had met him, with authority. And so Zuko did, he told him of the Great War and the Massacre of the Air Nomads, of their subsequent refugee status, of the Water Tribe raids, of the warring expansions of the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, of the former's greatness and the latter's terrible tyranny and their many civil wars.

"It sounds like every nation is falling apart," Aang sighed, his voice somewhere between sadness and anger.

"No, the Fire Nation is strong," Zuko told him. "The Water Tribes are savage raiders who don't understand the rule of law, the Earth Kingdoms are nests of corruption run by despots and dictators, and the Air Nomads have nothing, they've been reduced to wandering beggars, but the Fire Nation? The Fire Nation is a great and proud nation still, more now than ever before."

"I don't...okay," Aang said with a defeated sigh. He was leaving something unsaid, Zuko thought. Perhaps he was too saddened by the fall of the Air Nomads to make conversation. It must be hard, he supposed, hearing that the Air Temples were now colonies, but the colonies had brought progress and greatness to the world. It was a necessary sacrifice, even the Avatar had to recognize that.

Hold on, this was perfect, Zuko thought.

"Should we go to Nan Ko?" He asked - that was what the Fire Nation had named the colony in question, it meant southern port. "The temples are still there, they can still be visited."

"I don't know..." Aang was unconvinced.

"Okay, no pressure," Zuko said. "I just thought maybe it would make you feel better." The Avatar didn't answer him.

They rode in silence for an hour, and then two, and Zuko could do nothing but watch the clouds pass overhead and grow ever more miserable. He had slept so much already that he couldn't possibly sleep again, he was starting to ache from not moving and to make matters worse it had started to snow again. He was a lord! He wasn't supposed to live like this, he was supposed to live like a nobleman! He should have comfortable quarters, good food, a warm bed and a ship full of people who would look to him for guidance.

"Okay," Aang said, speaking for the first time in hours. The sun had already begun to set.

"Okay what?"

"Okay, we'll go to the Air Temple," Aang said with a deep sigh. Zuko resisted the urge to grin. This was perfect! He could send a hawk to Lu Ten, get him to come to Nan Ko and in the meantime distract the Avatar with the Air Temple and all the rest of it!

"Maybe we should camp for the night?" Zuko suggested, eye on the darkening sky. The sun was just a burnt orange smudge behind the curve of the horizon now, and before long it would be too dark to navigate at all.

"Alright," Aang said, downcast. He muttered a command to the bison and it began to sink towards the earth, giving Zuko a sick and sinking feeling in his gut that made seasickness on the skiff seem like child's play.

"I'm going to be -!" Zuko leaned over the rim of the saddle, near pitching himself over the edge and into the open air on accident, and vomited the contents of his stomach out into the ripping wind. He sat slumped over in a heap, wiping the gritty film from his lips with the back of one hand and wincing as the wind blew flecks of his own vomit back into his face. He whimpered pathetically, closed his eyes and tried to ignore the descent. The Avatar didn't even to notice.

They landed in the snow and tromped a little ways away until they found a narrow cave that was big enough to sleep in. Aang traipsed in wordlessly after Zuko, and the bison placed himself outside, blocking the entrance and therefore the wind - his fur seemed to be enough, he didn't seem to need the shelter. Zuko started a small fire and settled back against the wall, warming his hands by the flames. The Avatar just stared directly at it, the reflected flames dancing in his wide, innocent eyes.

"By the flames of..." Zuko cursed as he realized that they were out of food - in their haste to escape the Water Tribe duo they had left the skiff behind, and all their belongings, including food, with it. All they had were the filthy clothes on their back and the weapons they carried in hand - Zuko's swords, his knife and Aang's staff. "We can do without for today, but we'll need to find some food," Zuko told Aang. The kid didn't seem to even hear him.

"The world is out of balance," Aang lamented. Zuko nodded his agreement - the world needed stability, prosperity and peace, and the Fire Nation could provide that. The sooner they were free from resistance and could provide that to the other nations, the better.

"It is," Zuko agreed. "But it's not like it was you who threw it out of..." Oh. Zuko cringed, he had put his foot in it. "...balance."

"It's the Avatar's job to keep the world in balance," Aang said quietly. "I wasn't there for a hundred years, and now look at the world, it's in shambles."

"There was nothing you could do, you were trapped in the ice," Zuko said, trying his best to console the kid but feeling more awkward than anything.

"But I'm not anymore," the Avatar said, brows drawn together in frustration. "I should be restoring balance to the world, not hiding in some cave."

"Restore balance? But you can't even bend the other elements!" Zuko reminded him, then kicked himself for it.

"Yeah, I know," Aang said sourly. What Zuko had meant was that the Avatar was being too hard on himself, he was just some airbender kid and couldn't be expected to bear the weight of the world on his shoulders. That wasn't how it had come across.

"Well, uh, maybe I can help you with that," Zuko offered with a weak smile, then held out one palm and summoned a tiny little flame, like a candle.

"You could teach me to firebend," Aang breathed, eyes wide.

"I'm not a master, but I'm considered to be pretty good at it," Zuko said with a shrug. "I could teach you a little about it." Aang's face lit up. "Face me." The two sat on the ground with their legs crossed, facing each other by the fire and there was silence for a long while. Aang's eyes flickered about as he waited for instruction but none came for long minutes.

"Okay, what do I do?" Aang asked.

"Nothing," Zuko replied, a smile teasing the corners of his mouth. Aang tilted his head at him and squinted.

"I don't understand."

"You will," Zuko said, enjoying himself a little too much. "Just sit there and breathe, in through your nose and out through your mouth, as deep as you can." The Avatar didn't understand but he did as he was told, staring straight ahead he breathed in a deep and focused fashion. It was just as his uncle, the Fire Lord, had taught Zuko when he was a child.

Long minutes passed and the Avatar copied Zuko with long, steady breaths in and out, in and out. Zuko could almost see the boy's patience wearing thin and inside of ten minutes he was complaining.

"Zuko, I know how to breathe!" He groaned. "I want to make fire! How do I make fire?"

"The power in firebending comes from the breath," Zuko told him, something of a smug smirk on his face. "The best firebenders aren't the ones with the biggest muscles, they're the ones with the best lungs."

"Really?" Aang gave him a look of surprise with those great big eyes of his. "But firebending is..."

"What? Aggressive?" Zuko supplied. "Offensive? Reckless?"

"Well..." The Avatar trailed off, at a loss.

"My uncle is the greatest firebender in the world," Zuko told him proudly. "He's not a big man, he's old now, and short and a little overweight, and his firebending burns brighter and hotter than the biggest and strongest of our generals', or anyone else's," he went on. Almost anyone, but Zuko didn't say that part out loud. There was only one whose fire burned brighter, he thought, images coming to him unbidden of tongues of blue fire licking at him. He remembered the duel, he could still feel the heat of the fire singing his arm hairs when it got too close.

"Firebending isn't what I thought," Aang admitted, brows knit together in thought. "Monk Gyatso always taught me that big muscles were no substitute for proper technique. I suppose that's not just true for airbending, huh?"

"I suppose not," Zuko agreed. "Alright, Avatar, hand out, like this." Zuko held one hand out, palm up, as though he was holding an imaginary cup of tea, and the Avatar copied him. He clicked his fingers, just for show, and produced a small flame, then flicked it towards Aang. "Catch."

"Ah!" The avatar did, though, he caught the little flame in his open palm. It flickered uncertainly and sputtered, nearly going out, but after a moment it stabilized and sat there swaying, the fire no bigger than the flame of a candle.

"Fire is the element of passion, will and drive, you need to feel it and use your inner fire to fuel your firebending," Zuko explained to him. "Do you understand?"

"I think so," Aang said, eyes focused on his tiny little flame. That was good enough for Zuko.

"Now, breathe in, then out, and when you breathe out try to grow the flame, just a little," Zuko instructed.

"Okay, here goes..." Aang pulled in a breath through his nose, exhaled through his mouth and fixed his eyes on the little flame with much intensity. The flame grew, just the slightest bit, and Zuko smiled.

"Well done -"

"Ah!" Aang's flame erupted into a roaring inferno and he fell back with wide and panicked eyes, thrashing and flailing in fear. The fire was so wild that Zuko could feel the heat on his face and it grew so tall that it licked at the ceiling of the cave. How had he managed that? With no experience and just a single moment of effort? "Help!"

"I'm trying!" Zuko snapped, palms out as he tried to control the flame, but it was hard - the Avatar hadn't yet let go of it and was feeding it accidentally. With a great effort Zuko cowed the inferno, brought the fire under his heel and crushed it down to nothing, until the only light came from their little campfire.

"Sorry," Aang muttered, eyes downcast.

"No, the fault is mine," Zuko said. "I shouldn't have had you actually use fire so soon."

"I'll practice my breathing more," Aang said, and bowed his head.

"That's a good idea," Zuko allowed. "Come on, let's get some sleep, it's late."

The hard earth made for a poor bed and Zuko couldn't sleep. He stared at the cave of the ceiling, and listened to the crackling of the fire, the howling wind outside and the quiet snoring of the Avatar, all making for a dissonant lullaby. All Zuko could think as he lay there awake was that he'd never seen such raw firebending power than he had from Aang just there. There was only one other who could rival it, and she was out there in exile somewhere. The thought of her filled his dreams with dread.