As there was still no real port, the ship crashed into the soft, snowy shoreline nearest the wreck. Zuko was jolted forward and Lu Ten chuckled as he plucked his hapless cousin back onto his feet. They both waited for the soldiers - for now Zuko could see them for military folk - to put down the gangplank and secure it in the slush.
"I think this ship is two generations old, at least." Lu Ten remarked as they started down the metal ramp. He was speaking of ships, not human lives, but it still made Zuko unsteady on his feet. He had almost forgotten how long the war had been raging, having been at its end.
"How do you think it will all end?" Zuko asked. Lu Ten shrugged easily.
"With our dominion over all the world of course." He answered and then glanced at Zuko. "But don't worry, the North Pole won't be so bad."
Zuko's face knotted in fresh confusion but he said nothing. Following Lu Ten silently, they picked their way through the snow toward the rusting carcass of an early Snapper ship. A trio of soldiers went poking through first, severing trip wires and clearing debris, before they all let Lu Ten pass. Zuko found himself stumbling around his cousin, having spent years being the Crown Prince and the one everyone else always let through. Now he was tagging along, walking at Lu Ten's right and just a little behind.
It was an odd feeling lost in the sea of competing weirdness.
The inside of the ship felt dry, but was dusted in ice and snow. Drifts of both had swept in through open portways or through the broken windows of the bridge. It had never been a living thing, but it still felt dead.
Picking up an abandoned helmet, Zuko wiped futility at the years of grime. They looked strange, as the helmets hadn't looked like this in his lifetime. It almost felt like they were looking at the remains of a different war. One he could perhaps excuse himself of the responsibility.
Dropping the helmet back onto the ground, he wiped his hands on the front of his coat.
"Isn't this amazing? Look, you can see where the initial repulsion pierced the hull." Lu Ten said as Zuko approached. Lu Ten stood on a slope of snow that had fallen through a puncture in the side of the ship. Other massive ice spears had trapped the ship, pining it in the air like a butterfly to a board.
Standing on the bridge, Zuko looked up through an escape hatch in the roof. The cold summer light illuminated small snowflakes and he shivered. Katara and Aang had come through here, tripping a wire that shot a flare and caught his attention. From here he had followed them to Kyoshi, meeting them again and again.
Zuko looked down and saw he was gripping the front of his coat, right at his midsection.
"Come on Zuko." Lu Ten said and slapped his back. "They should have unloaded the supplies by now. Let's go introduce ourselves to the villagers."