Iroh didn't have much experience with animals, but he had always found them interesting all the same. He reached out a hand and tentatively gave the sky bison a pat. The huge beast's fur was thick and coarse, and reminded Iroh of nothing so much as a giant hairbrush. It was also deep; he was able to sink his hand in to the wrist before touching what he thought was flesh. Iroh wondered idly what Oogi would look like if someone shaved him, then smirked at the idea that the mostly bald men and women of the Air Nation had bonded with possibly the hairiest creature on earth.
He stood in the street outside Katara's house and turned over his options in his mind, hoping the night air would help clear his head. The obvious choice was to start making his way north as soon as Asami left to collect the rest of Team Avatar. He couldn't ask her to fly him back to Republic City, not with the immediate danger over, although a quiet voice in the back of his mind whispered that she might offer anyway. In reality though, he'd have to take one of the ships. His hope was that, out of uniform and with no one expecting him anywhere near the South Pole, if he was careful he could pass as just another passenger.
Another part of him was reluctant to let Asami fly back to the spirit portal alone. What if something went wrong along the way? Defeated or not, there was still a camp full of Northern Water Tribe soldiers, and Iroh also wasn't at all sure how the dark spirits might react to the closing of the portal, either. There was no guarantee that they'd simply retreat back into the Spirit World, and they had already shown the ability to bring down a sky bison through coordinated activity.
On the other hand, going with Asami on Oogi would mean revealing himself to the rest of the team, and that carried its own set of risks. He didn't think any one of them would intentionally give him away, but in his experience people were careless a lot more often than they were malicious, and it would only take one slip to land him in quite a lot of trouble.
The right thing to do, the rational thing, was to leave now. But if anything happened to Asami because he wasn't there…
"What should I do?" Iroh said, turning to the bison.
Oogi made a soft grunt and leaned into his hand. Iroh made what passed for a scratching motion under the thick coat. He had no idea how the animal could feel him under all the fur, but it was clear that the bison enjoyed the attention.
"I'm sorry," he said, "I'd give you a treat, but I'm not sure what you eat." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the crumbled remains of Katara's cookies. "Want these?" he asked. He held out his hand, palm up, and offered them to the bison.
Oogi turned his giant head to Iroh and tried to lick his palm. His tongue was the size of a small table, and his lick coated Iroh's whole forearm in drool.
"Ugh!" Iroh said, pulling his arm back. He wiped it vigorously on Oogi's fur. "That's the last time I share with you," he growled, but he was smiling. It felt nice to focus on something simple, even if only for a little bit. He turned to scratching the buffalo again.
The ground shook slightly. At first, Iroh thought it was only Oogi shifting his weight, but his hand hadn't moved. Then he felt it again, faint but clear. And again.
Iroh glanced up and froze. At first, he had absolutely no idea what he was looking at. A colossal shape, as tall as the Southern Mountains themselves, was walking through the pass that led to the spirit portal. It came slowly, shaking the ground with each enormous step. Like the dark spirits he'd seen before it was utterly black, but streaked with a glowing deep red that reminded Iroh of the lava flows of the Fire Nation. It was roughly man-shaped, but also like the spirits it was oddly flattened, as if somehow drawn in two dimensions. Long, tendril-like appendages sprouted from its face, shoulders, and sides like fiery whips. Two luminescent red eyes pierced the darkness.
There was only one thing that it could mean. The Avatar had failed.