Chapter 2

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"Almost"

"Is that it?"

"That's a tree." This had been going on for almost the entire walk back from the beach. Admittedly it was a bit of a walk to the old house, but it had never felt as long as it did today. Finally the two came to his home, nearly invisible in the growth of plants and trees, though massive as it was.

"Are we there now?" Aang asks, clearly exhausted.

"How can you be tired? We've only been walking for fifteen minutes."

"Yeah but I had to run full speed across the beach first, and you didn't answer my question,"

"Yes Aang, we're here." With that, the young air bender leaned back on his heels until he fell flat on his back.

"Walking sucks," Aang said from the ground. "I wish I still had my glider."

"Your what?"

"My glider, it's how I fly. Well, I used to fly, but then admiral Zhao broke it so I guess I'm grounded." Aang said laughing, Zuko wasn't so amused.

"Whatever, do you want to stay or not?"

"Okay!"

Quick as a flash Aang jumps up sprints into the house, leaving Zuko choking on a cloud of kicked up dust. Waving it away from his face Zuko follows Aang, worried the hyperactive little knucklehead might break something.

Zuko finds Aang moments later, once again flat on his back. He's in the inner courtyard of the house which now looks like a small jungle. The old, dried fountain was cracked and had vines climbing over it, drinking from the rain water collected in the basin. Crab grass and other weeds were growing in the cracks in and empty spaces of the tiled floor. The latticed ceiling was now overgrown with hanging lilac vines, letting only patchy sunlight filter in.

"You're house is amazing." Aang says watching the lilac flowers swaying in the breeze. "Where'd you get all that stuff anyway?"

Thinking it better than to ask how Aang managed to see his entire home in all of thirty seconds, Zuko leans over to look Aang in the eye.

"You'd be surprised how much stuff stays intact after it washes up on the beach after a tropical storm. The sun's setting, you planning on coming inside anytime soon?"

"No that's okay. If you're sure it's not going to rain, I think I'll stay here tonight."

"You want to stay outside. Here. The outside that's no different from the outside on the beach where I should have left you?"

I know, I know, but...this place reminds me of my old home. It's really peaceful. So can I stay?"

Zuko considers this for a moment. At least he'd be out of the way and he wouldn't be able to do much damage out here, hopefully. "Alright then, but that's it, you can't come inside."

"Fine,"

"And this is only for night!"

"I know. Night, Zuko." Aang says rolling his side giving Zuko his back. He's puzzled by Zuko, he seems so mean and nasty but also...kind. Giving it no more thought, Aang drifts off to sleep listening to Zuko's retreating foot steps.

-Later that Night-

Zuko is awakened from his light sleep by the sounds of something moving in the next room. Panicking momentarily, Zuko remembers that he has a "house guest", Aang.

He gets out of bed, mumbling to himself, and opens the door to his room and shouts down the hall, "I thought I told you to stay outside!"

"I am outside!" Aang shouts from the other end of the hall, the direction of the court yard. 'But if Aang's outside, who's in the other room? I thought I was alone'

Now, more than a little wary, Zuko picks up an object sitting beside the door, a sheath containing twin broad swords. Taking the swords, he cautiously walks out into the hall-there's not one there. Transferring both swords to one hand, Zuko slowly reaches out for the door handle and viciously yanks the door open, on an empty room. Puzzled, Zuko walks inside and turns about, looking around the room. It's completely empty, with no furniture or places for anyone to hide, so what had made that sound he'd heard?

Again the shuffling sounds can be heard, but this time they seem to be coming from the ceiling. As the night sky was clear Zuko had been relying on the moonlight coming in through the window to see, now that did not seem like such a good idea as there was not enough light for him to see the low ceiling.

Holding his hand out flat, Zuko produces a small flame and the room is set a glow and a silhouette is revealed. There, in the far corner of the room, there is a strange dark shape. Walking towards it Zuko sees that it's somehow attached to one of the exposed ceiling beams, and its breathing! At the realization that there was a living, breathing, possibly dangerous creature in the room he stops and backs away slowly, but the floor creaks under Zuko's weight and with a screech the creature flies-FLIES!-at his face.

Caught off guard Zuko throws himself to the ground and the creature glides harmlessly over his prone body and out the door. Now angry at this strange creature Zuko jumps up and pursues it. Determined to catch the creature Zuko focuses solely on it and not on where he's going. Finally cornering it in near the front door, Zuko leaps and grabs the creature out of the air by its long, lemur-like tail. It lets out another shriek at having its tail pulled but then it just folds its little arms in and looks up at Zuko helplessly, swinging upside down.

'What on Earth are you?' he thinks to himself and the creature's eyes seem to say the same thing. It's a small thing, a kind of cross between a lemur and a bat with huge ears. It doesn't seem dangerous or wild, just curious-if not more than a little stupid. It reminds Zuko of someone...

"Aang?" he calls for the boy turning to go and get him, accidentally walking into a wall; a large, breathing, feathery wall. Slowly Zuko looks up, and up, and up, until he's looking into the white face of a giant owl.

"Hello," The owl says, Zuko is too stunned to speak. "You wouldn't happen to have a book or two lying around would you?"

After a moment of stunned silence Zuko screams and stumbles backwards, falling out the door and landing face first on the ground. But the dirt meeting his face is not his biggest problem. Raising his head Zuko notices that the land right in front of his house is suddenly very bright, and noisy.

Clustered around his home are various campfires and tents, and among those a vast array of strange people and animals, all in varying shapes, sizes and colours all milling about like they had any right to be there. Getting to his feet, Zuko is both shocked and outraged. This was his home, it was bad enough having to deal with one annoying kid now suddenly a whole village worth of people were showing up at his door. Now was the time to draw the line in the sand. Taking a moment to center himself, he draws a deep breath and lets out a roar of outrage and breathes a steam of fire up into the air ten feet tall.

At the sight of the flames and the sheer volume of Zuko's roar, everyone freezes. Zuko faces the mob; a glare pasted on his face and asks,

"What do you think you're doing on MY Island?"

"Zuko, Zuko are you okay? I heard you shouting and, and...whoa!"

Aang stops dead in his tracks, he'd known something was wrong when Zuko had woken him up and demanded he stay outside when he already was, but that roar...Aang thought the whole Fire Nation Navy was invading. He never suspected the large camp that had assembled in front of the house. As Aang is thinking these thoughts Zuko turns to face him.

If looks could kill... "Don't look at me, I didn't invite them."

"I don't care, I want to know what they're doing on my island. Period."

"Hey, it's not like we asked to be sent here."

Both Aang and Zuko look to the strange woman dressed in black with dark, heavy makeup.

"what?" they ask in unison.

"We were forced to come here."

"By who?" Zuko asks.

"Some guy calling himself Prince Ozai. He set bounties on anyone who didn't conform to his crazy standards, and locked up everyone that got caught by the bounty hunters. Then, he locked up the bounty hunters. Anyway about a week ago we all got carted onto the prison ships and the next thing you know, we're here."

"well go home!"

"Excuse me? Do you have a couple hundred boats we can borrow Captain Cranky, cause otherwise we aren't going anywhere. Besides, even if we do leave we'll just get caught and sent back here again."

Zuko seemed very frustrated, clenching his fists until his knuckles turned white. Aang couldn't understand this frustration though, the island wasn't exactly small- he'd seen most of it when he'd jumped earlier. There was plenty of roomfor everyone to live comfortably, so what had Zuko so mad?

Zuko was at the end of his rope, Aang was one thing but this? This was too much,

"Alright, attention all...just everybody pay attention! Do not get comfortable, I'm going to see this "Prince" and get you off my island and back wherever the hell you came from!"

Following Zuko's speech was absolute silence, and then...everyone was cheering and applauding, even Aang was joining in. Turning on the young airbender he points an accusatory finger at him, "You're coming with me!"

"Um...okay? So how do we get off the island?"

Zuko says nothing for a moment, thinking. He then turns on his heel and starts walking to the beach calling back over his shoulder for Aang to follow him. Aang does, leaving the outcasts to congregate in front of his house. Once on the beach Aang wonders what exactly Zuko has planned. "So, Zuko, do you actually have a boat?"

"Something like that." Zuko says walking into a sea cave, wary Aang follows him. The cave turns out to be more than it appears, inside it can be seen that the cave has no roof, but it open to the night sky allowing silvery moonlight to fill the cave. In the middle of the cave a large red hot air balloon is slowly inflating, Zuko already in the basket, working the controls.

"Whoa..." Aang says in shock and awe. "Where...where did this come from?"

"You'd be amazed at the things that wash up on the beach during a storm. Get in." the balloon now full Aang steps inside and the balloon slowly lifts into the sky. On the ground the outcasts watch the balloon rise out of the cave and into the sky with the rising sun, cheering on their would-be heroes. Aang and Zuko fly into the sunrise towards the Fire Nation Capitol.