p class="MsoNormal"Fourth chapter/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Traveling in a fire nation's ship by themselves was both hard and dangerous, so they abandoned it in at the earliest chance, and the got themselves a small wooden boat and even bought some goods for the travel, since both Zuko and Iroh were traveling without their fire nation's ship, they were easily mistaken for wandering merchants but if that was the case why they were so far in the south? Perhaps they were fleeing form the fire nation or maybe they were just sightseeing?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"At least that was the assumptions the people have when they saw them, but both of them just ignored them, Iroh was already someone that was able to ignore to some degree mundane things while Zuko have long detached himself from that./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"While they were traveling Iroh was wondering how this nephew of his seemed to mature overnight and even have a deep comprehension of this so called "concepts" in the shor time they were together he noticed that Zuko was proficient in all four elements and was even capable of use many sub arts, he was suspicious but tactfully he didn't ask./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Zuko was in the middle of meditation when he felt a familiar energy signature, he couldn't be more familiar with it, without a doubt it was Aang, immediately he was happy since it has been a few months since he last seen him, but he swiftly repressed it, if possible he wanted to keep some things as they were in his timeline for example Katara being the first one that Aang meet after awakening./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"In a few minutes he locked on his position so he could come a few days latter with Katara and Sokka./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Nephew how do you plan to bring these people to our side? They are from the southern water tribe so we can be considered enemies."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""I will introduce myself as a wandering earthbender." Zuko answered with confidence./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""And how will you train them without exposing yourself?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""I will just gain enough trust for them to teach me some of their traditions, then I will guide them subtly to find the avatar, then I just need to introduce myself as his servant."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Servant? Why?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""So, I can explain why this… "fateful" encounter was so convenient, at the same time I can start instructing both Katara and Aang."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Katara? That's the person that have some ties with the laws?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Zuko then realized that he said more than he should, but with so much experience under his belt he managed to calm himself down and with a stoic expression he answered./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""I think so, also she have an older brother… I think his name is Sokka"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Iroh inspected him with suspicion "How do you know"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""With a high enough achievement your perception becomes far stronger and eventually your spiritual awareness, like than you came to just know some things"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Although the explanation was far fetched it had some sense but it was a half lie, even if it was true that practicing the laws strengthened the user's spiritual awareness he was not a god, even Aang at his peak was unable to do it to such a fine scale as he was pretending to do./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Iroh was somewhat disappointed but he had some spiritual awareness himself, so he knew that some thing simply just came by serendipity, perhaps Zuko was one of those cases?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"While he was thinking the boat finally stopped at the shore, without a second of delay Zuko jumped and landed in the slippery ice and snow shore, Iroh followed suit and in a few seconds, they were going to both Katara's and Sokka's house./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"While they were walking many people saw them with some apprehension, but seeing their goods on their backs they relaxed a little, it seemed they were just wandering merchants, Zuko was hardly containing his impulse to run directly to them and just say hello but he repressed that thought./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"He sat in the center of the village and put his items on display and with the kindest smile he was capable of, tried to lure the villagers. In a few seconds an elderly woman approached them, and asked how much for that one?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The item she was asking for was a hairpin from the earthen tribe, it was both beautiful and well made, the material was a precious metal and it was somewhat expensive but was part of his plan. Instead of answering the question he feigned ignorance and asked./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""And who this lofty lady might be?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"After pondering for a while, she answered that she was the current matriarch of the village since usually that would be somewhat strange but Zuko already knew that every men in the tribe left sometime ago so he was able to ignore it./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""I see, then I want to ask you to accept it as a gift of my humble self"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Although he matured a lot in the last fifteen years, he was still somewhat cold, so just pretending to have that awkward personality has extremely hard but he managed to do it in a flawless way./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Kaana accepted the gift with a smile since she had a granddaughter that surely would like the hairpin and speaking of the devil in that moment two teenagers came ot of the biggest house of course they were Sokka and Katara./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Sokka put himself between his grandmother and Zuko, while Katara stood behind her with a somewhat childish attitude./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Who are you?" Asked Sokka rudely./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Wandering merchants" Answered Iroh./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Why are you here" Asked him again./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"But before Zuko or Iroh were capable of answering Kaana just pulled Sokka back./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""They are our gests so don't pester them alright?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Gran gran they are trustworthy" Asked Katara with concern./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""They probably are my little girl, by the way the just gave us a gift." Then she put the hairpin on Katara's hand and seeing it she was elated./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""There's any gift for me?" Said Sokka with anticipation./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Of course!" The Zuko pulled out a wooden sword and gave it to him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The wooden sword was not a regular one, Zuko spend some time using the laws that Sokka practiced on his timeline so in this life he would be capable of sensing the laws far earlier, of course at the time he was incapable of that./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"[Page break]/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"It's been a long time since I published something (almost two years) but I was somewhat busy, with my book, it'll probably be the work of my life so… I had to put on hold this fanfic, but I will try to publish more chapters and hopefully end the whole series./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"In a way this is a form of practice for me (I finished the first book almost a year ago but still need some practice to continue the story well in the second) but also is somewhat of a distraction, also I want to see if my plots are enough to entice people hahaha/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Traveling in a fire nation's ship by themselves was both hard and dangerous, so they abandoned it in at the earliest chance, and the got themselves a small wooden boat and even bought some goods for the travel, since both Zuko and Iroh were traveling without their fire nation's ship, they were easily mistaken for wandering merchants but if that was the case why they were so far in the south? Perhaps they were fleeing form the fire nation or maybe they were just sightseeing?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"At least that was the assumptions the people have when they saw them, but both of them just ignored them, Iroh was already someone that was able to ignore to some degree mundane things while Zuko have long detached himself from that./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"While they were traveling Iroh was wondering how this nephew of his seemed to mature overnight and even have a deep comprehension of this so called "concepts" in the shor time they were together he noticed that Zuko was proficient in all four elements and was even capable of use many sub arts, he was suspicious but tactfully he didn't ask./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Zuko was in the middle of meditation when he felt a familiar energy signature, he couldn't be more familiar with it, without a doubt it was Aang, immediately he was happy since it has been a few months since he last seen him, but he swiftly repressed it, if possible he wanted to keep some things as they were in his timeline for example Katara being the first one that Aang meet after awakening./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"In a few minutes he locked on his position so he could come a few days latter with Katara and Sokka./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Nephew how do you plan to bring these people to our side? They are from the southern water tribe so we can be considered enemies."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""I will introduce myself as a wandering earthbender." Zuko answered with confidence./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""And how will you train them without exposing yourself?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""I will just gain enough trust for them to teach me some of their traditions, then I will guide them subtly to find the avatar, then I just need to introduce myself as his servant."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Servant? Why?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""So, I can explain why this… "fateful" encounter was so convenient, at the same time I can start instructing both Katara and Aang."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Katara? That's the person that have some ties with the laws?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Zuko then realized that he said more than he should, but with so much experience under his belt he managed to calm himself down and with a stoic expression he answered./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""I think so, also she have an older brother… I think his name is Sokka"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Iroh inspected him with suspicion "How do you know"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""With a high enough achievement your perception becomes far stronger and eventually your spiritual awareness, like than you came to just know some things"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Although the explanation was far fetched it had some sense but it was a half lie, even if it was true that practicing the laws strengthened the user's spiritual awareness he was not a god, even Aang at his peak was unable to do it to such a fine scale as he was pretending to do./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Iroh was somewhat disappointed but he had some spiritual awareness himself, so he knew that some thing simply just came by serendipity, perhaps Zuko was one of those cases?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"While he was thinking the boat finally stopped at the shore, without a second of delay Zuko jumped and landed in the slippery ice and snow shore, Iroh followed suit and in a few seconds, they were going to both Katara's and Sokka's house./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"While they were walking many people saw them with some apprehension, but seeing their goods on their backs they relaxed a little, it seemed they were just wandering merchants, Zuko was hardly containing his impulse to run directly to them and just say hello but he repressed that thought./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"He sat in the center of the village and put his items on display and with the kindest smile he was capable of, tried to lure the villagers. In a few seconds an elderly woman approached them, and asked how much for that one?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The item she was asking for was a hairpin from the earthen tribe, it was both beautiful and well made, the material was a precious metal and it was somewhat expensive but was part of his plan. Instead of answering the question he feigned ignorance and asked./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""And who this lofty lady might be?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"After pondering for a while, she answered that she was the current matriarch of the village since usually that would be somewhat strange but Zuko already knew that every men in the tribe left sometime ago so he was able to ignore it./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""I see, then I want to ask you to accept it as a gift of my humble self"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Although he matured a lot in the last fifteen years, he was still somewhat cold, so just pretending to have that awkward personality has extremely hard but he managed to do it in a flawless way./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Kaana accepted the gift with a smile since she had a granddaughter that surely would like the hairpin and speaking of the devil in that moment two teenagers came ot of the biggest house of course they were Sokka and Katara./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Sokka put himself between his grandmother and Zuko, while Katara stood behind her with a somewhat childish attitude./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Who are you?" Asked Sokka rudely./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Wandering merchants" Answered Iroh./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Why are you here" Asked him again./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"But before Zuko or Iroh were capable of answering Kaana just pulled Sokka back./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""They are our gests so don't pester them alright?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Gran gran they are trustworthy" Asked Katara with concern./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""They probably are my little girl, by the way the just gave us a gift." Then she put the hairpin on Katara's hand and seeing it she was elated./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""There's any gift for me?" Said Sokka with anticipation./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Of course!" The Zuko pulled out a wooden sword and gave it to him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The wooden sword was not a regular one, Zuko spend some time using the laws that Sokka practiced on his timeline so in this life he would be capable of sensing the laws far earlier, of course at the time he was incapable of that./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"[Page break]/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"It's been a long time since I published something (almost two years) but I was somewhat busy, with my book, it'll probably be the work of my life so… I had to put on hold this fanfic, but I will try to publish more chapters and hopefully end the whole series./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"In a way this is a form of practice for me (I finished the first book almost a year ago but still need some practice to continue the story well in the second) but also is somewhat of a distraction, also I want to see if my plots are enough to entice people hahaha/span/p