Book 1: Fearless

Chapter 10: The Coldest Heart?

As Zuko approached the inner wall of Ba Sing Se, he glanced at the upper-most portion to see if any guards or Dai Le were in sight. When he didn't see anyone, he began to run around the wall, looking for any kind of entrance. Nothing. He ran off and on all day, with short rest periods interspersed between the runs, yet he didn't find anything. By the time twilight fell across the land, he hadn't even run a quarter of the way around the wall.

"How am I supposed to save Uncle if I can't get into the city?" he thought.

Zuko looked up. A single star shone in the sky. It made him think of his mother. She had loved the stars. A tear fell down his face. He missed her. Even if he wouldn't admit it to others, he truly did.

As these thoughts of his mother passed through his mind, he fell into a gaping hole in the ground. He let out a short yell, then immediately silenced himself. Glancing up toward the top of the wall, Zuko noticed that a guard had stopped to look over the edge of the wall, searching for the source of the sound. Luckily for Zuko, it was dark enough for the guard to not see him.

He looked around at his new surroundings. The hole seemed to be a tunnel leading into the city, but whether or not it actually did was unknown to Zuko. He was faced with a difficult decision. To follow the tunnel and risk the possibility of becoming hopelessly lost, or continue on his trek around the wall of Ba Sing Se with no hope of ever finding an entrance.

After a moment of indecision, he decided to follow the tunnel. He lit a fire in his palm, just as Iroh had taught him. The light from his flame illuminated at least five yards in all directions around him. There was nothing to see. Just rocks and tunnel walls. Then the tunnel split off in two different directions. Zuko had no idea which path to take. Beside the path to the left there was a statue of a dragon, painted blue, and beside the path to right was a dragon painted red.

Zuko sat down. He had no hope now. There was no way for him to decide which path to take. He decided to take a nap. Maybe after some sleep, his mind would clear and he could choose which way to go.

SLEEP.

Zuko's thoughts raced to a nightmare he had had during his sickness after letting the Avatar's sky-bison go. He was the firelord and two dragons were around him. One, a blue one, to his left, and one, a red one, to his right. The two dragons were each trying to convince him to take their own advice. The blue dragon had a voice like Azula's and the red dragon had a voice like Uncle's.

"Could it possibly have been a prophetic dream," thought Zuko.

He had heard of times when sages would have dreams foretelling the future so they could help the Avatar, but never of someone like him having one.

He had nothing else to go on, so he decided to take the path to the right, the path with the statue of the red dragon. He walked for a long time. Minutes turned to hours, and still he didn't reach the end of the tunnel.

"Maybe that dream wasn't prophetic," he began to think.

Then he saw a new light, much brighter than the one put out by his own small flame. He let it go out and advanced toward the new light. When he reached the source, he gasped and fell to his knees.

I'm gonna leave it at that for now. Don't worry. The next chapter will continue with Zuko's story. I'm not going to be home for the next couple of days, and I might not have internet access where I'm going. So don't fret if I don't post for the next couple days. I haven't forgotten about this. Chapter eleven should be out by next tuesday, february 13 at the latest. Hope you can wait that long.

Random quote from the show

Aang: "No worries. I clean up easy."

Airbends fruit drink off him

Professor Zeah (or something like that. The professor from Ba Sing Se.): "Uhh. Your a living relic."

Aang: "Thanks. I try."

Professor: "An air nomad. Right in front of me."