Book 1: Fearless
Chapter 13: Whispers in the Dark
As they traveled across the country, Zuko and Iroh began their training again. Iroh was trying to teach Zuko how to bend lightning again, but just like last time, Zuko couldn't do it. There was still the turmoil in his heart that would not let him perform the technique. His form was flawless, yet he couldn't separate the positive and negative energies. Yet he kept trying.
After traveling for days they reached a forest. The road led through it, so they stuck to the highway and entered the trees. As the day went by, the clouds began to gather and, by nightfall, the rain had begun to fall in sheets. The two travelers ran through the forest, seeking any kind of shelter they could find. When nothing presented itself, they found the closest knit set of trees they could find and sat under them. The branches didn't provide much relief from the rain, but it was better than nothing.
The rain stopped in the middle of the night, and Zuko and Iroh were able to get some sleep before daylight broke upon the land. The morning light was not welcomed cheerfully by either of them.
The travel this day was abnormally quite. As they walked along the path, Iroh began to notice this. The birds were silent, almost like they weren't even there. Other wildlife also seemed to be absent from the area.
After walking for about an hour, the two travelers started to hear voices. At first each thought that he was becoming delusional. But when the voices didn't go away, they began to give each other tentative looks, wondering if the other was hearing the voices too. After a few minutes of this behavior, Iroh could not stand it any longer.
"Zuko. Do you hear voices."
"Yes," Zuko replied. "But where are they coming from."
They began to veer toward the direction the voices were coming from. After walking for about half an hour and still not getting to the source of the voices, they began to wonder if there really was anyone out there. Yet there was no escaping the fact that they were both hearing the voices.
Their walk became slower and slower as they traveled, for fear of accidentally falling upon the source of the voices. Eventually they saw what looked to be a clearing in the trees. They approached the area and peered through the underbrush surrounding the clearing. They were astonished by what they saw.
There sitting in the middle of the clearing was the Avatar's sky-bison, and on the ground next to him were the Avatar and his friends. The voices seemed to be coming from the group, but their mouths were not moving.
Zuko and Iroh both sat back, completely caught off their guard by this sudden and unexpected turn of events. They looked at each other wide eyed and wordless. After a few minutes they slowly crawled away from the clearing to talk out of hearing range of the Avatar.
"Uncle, how did this happen?" Zuko exclaimed. "How did we end up running into the Avatar in all this open wilderness. That's...impossible."
"Apparently not, Prince Zuko. But I wonder how we were hearing their voices when they were not talking. That is what seems difficult to believe to me. Perhaps we were hearing their thoughts or the cries of their spirits, although why we would hear them is a mystery."
They just sat there in silence, once again pondering how this had come to pass. But their thoughts were interrupted by a sudden turn of events. As darkness completely covered the land, a bright light erupted from the clearing behind them.
Hope you enjoyed that chapter. I said before that chapter 13 wouldn't take as long as 12, and I kept my word. I will definitely not take as long as chapter 12 did ever again. Well, be on the lookout for chapter 14 in the not too distant future. And now I leave you with a quote.
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:) Author of Fearless :) marquee
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Aang: Master. I need to learn firebending.
Jeong Jeong: Only a fool seeks his own destruction.
Aang: I'm the Avatar. It's my desti...
Jeong Jeong: DESTINY!!?? What would a boy know of destiny? If a fish lives its whole life in a river, does he know the river's destiny? No! Only that it runs on and on, out of his control. He may follow where it flows, but he cannot see the end. He cannot imagine the ocean.