When he opened his eyes, the open plain had disappeared. Instead, he was sitting on the floor in a dark and unfamiliar room. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, Iroh saw that it appeared to be some kind of living room or parlor. It was huge, its vaulted ceilings rising at least 20 feet above the thick, plush carpeting. Heavy velvet curtains obscured nearly floor-to-ceiling windows on the wall to his right. An enormous stone fireplace fixed into the wall in the center of the room faced a long striped silk couch set between two carved oak end tables. The remaining walls were lined with bookshelves and cabinets, all made out of dark, heavy wood. Above them, a variety of oil paintings sat in fat gilded frames. The entire room gave the appearance of having been decorated by someone older, and with far more money than taste.
He got to his feet and walked over to the couch, then touched it tentatively. It felt real enough, cool and smooth under his fingers. Iroh could hardly believe it. As far as he could tell, he was back in the physical world. The question was, where exactly was he? This wasn't anywhere in Republic City that he was familiar with, though he supposed he could be inside any one of its hundreds of buildings. He glanced around the room, hoping for some indication of where he may have landed, but he came up short. Nothing looked familiar, and there were no family photos of the kind that had crowded the walls of Katara's house.
Iroh decided that it didn't matter. The house had a slightly stuffy, empty feel, but there was too much at stake for him to get caught up explaining why he was breaking and entering. The quickest way to get his bearings would be to get outside. He made his way out of the living room into a tiled entryway, then quietly let himself out the large front door.
The first thing he noticed was the heat. After so long at the South Pole, the outside felt like a sauna. Iroh hurried down a short stone pathway and on to the street before he ventured a look around. It was still dark, but it certainly looked like Republic City. He breathed a sigh of relief. As long as he was somewhere in the city, he should be able to orient himself and get back to his ship.
Iroh glanced back at the building he'd exited and frowned. It appeared to be an enormous townhome of the type owned by the city's wealthiest residents, and though they all looked about the same to him this particular building didn't seem familiar. Iroh had no idea why he'd wound up in this particular place, let alone inside some rich person's living room. Perhaps, for whatever reason, this was simply where the boundary was thinnest.
Iroh turned back to the street and took off at a run.