What did you guys think about the last chapter? I picture Suki getting pregnant by Sokka at a young age. Suki, being the independent bad-ass that she is, decided not to bother Sokka with the fact and raised her child on her own. That child grew up on Kyoshi Island where he or she had Sakari at a young age so that we've got a low-20's grandchild of Suki! Bam.

Considering we don't know anything about what happened to Suki or Sokka, I took some liberties and created last chapter's back story.

Chapter 11: Gilded Cradle

I went to Iroh's room, as I had every morning, and stood outside. Minutes passed and he hadn't come out. I started to fidget in place, rocking back and forth on my toes and smiling awkwardly at the officers who passed me with confused looks on their faces. Even the second shift bells rang and still he hadn't come out of his room. It wasn't normal for him to be late. Last time I was late I was made to hold the "Sunrise Dragon" form for three hours.

Finally I gave up and knocked on his door. When no answer came, I pushed on the door and it just opened. I figured that Iroh normally kept it locked. I peeked around the hallway and, never thinking I'd get the chance again, I went inside and closed the door behind me. His room was huge. It was bigger than my house in Jang-Hui had ever been! On the right was a full kitchen with a breakfast nook (he doesn't even eat food in his room, why does he need a kitchen?) and to the right of that was an office space filled with books, scrolls, and a desk where I was sure Iroh did all of his important general stuff. To the left was his bed and a door, which, propped open, showed a personal bathroom. I pursed my lips and though of how unfair it was but then got over it.

I got over it because I hadn't seen a book in years and Iroh had what looked like hundreds of them! I browsed through his collection and stared in awe at the titles.

'History of Dragons in the Fire Nation; the Last Dragon of the West'

'The One-Hundred Year War; Avatar Aang's Return to Power: Book I - Water'

'The One-Hundred Year War; Avatar Aang's Return to Power: Book II - Earth'

'The One-Hundred Year War; Avatar Aang's Return to Power: Book III - Fire'

'The Principles of Engineering, Physics and Materials Science for the Design, Analysis, Manufacturing, and Maintenance of Mechanical Systems' (This one threw me for a loop.)

'Calculus—the Mathematical Study of Change'

I grabbed the last one. When my mother had taught me math before she'd died, it had been my favorite subject. As I flipped through the pages, though, the problems seemed a little outside of my knowledge-set. One day I'd be able to master it. Until then, I put it back and picked up the first book on Avatar Aang. Then, I sat down at Iroh's desk and opened up to page one.

I was instantly engrossed in an amazing story about how Avatar Aang was locked in an iceberg for over one-hundred years and found by Katara and Sokka, brother and sister who were a part of Team Avatar. I read about their fights with Prince Zuko, grandfather to my commanding officer, and how he tried to regain his honor by capturing the Airbender.

The Avatar's story took me along on the boy's journey through Kyoshi Island (I've been there!), the Northern Water Tribe, and even Ba Sing Se—all places I figured I would never be able to visit. Still, the book engrossed me and time passed.

The last part I got to read was on how Zuko got his scar. I already knew the story from my grandfather's view, but I wanted to read it for myself.

The then-retired General Iroh allowed a persistent thirteen-year-old Zuko into a war council with then-Fire Lord Ozai and some of his generals. The young prince was instructed by his uncle not to speak during the meeting; however, when one General Bujing Gao outlined a plan to sacrifice and entire division of new recruits in a diversionary maneuver, Zuko fiercely spoke out against Bujing's suggestion, seeing it as a betrayal of the recruits' patriotism. The insubordinate outburst was seen as a grave insult and Ozai demanded the prince participate in an Agni Kai.

The young prince agreed, unaware of the reality that it was his father and not the general whom he had insulted. Upon turning to face his opponent, Zuko surprisingly found himself against his father. The prince immediately became penitent and fell to his knees, refusing to fight and tearfully begging for his father's forgiveness. Ozai declared Zuko's refusal a sign of cowardice and another display of disrespect, affirming that "[he] will earn respect and suffering will be [his] teacher".

Ozai then burned Zuko by permanently scarring the left side of his face, stripping him of his birthright, and exiling him from his homeland, declaring that the prince could only return after having found and capturing the Avatar who had—

I slammed the book shut, tears streaming down my face. My great-grandfather had always been so unrepentant that I'd just assumed that his charges of treason had been misconstrued. Rather, he'd told me nothing but lies. He'd completely ruined Zuko's life and changed the fate of the entire world! And for what? A cowardly maneuver that would have killed hundreds of innocent men? I'd always known that he was a conniving bastard, but to see it written down in a history book made my heart ache.

I realized that this was the reason that I would never be able to tell anyone of my true identity. Bujing Gao had really been a terrible man and traitor...not to mention great-grandfather. He'd never shown any hint of remorse or guilt for what he'd done. And I was sure that his list of infractions was much more than what I read in the book. What did he do before this? How many innocent lives did he take?

I didn't hear the door opening because I was still lost in my own sorrow. I stared at the book, the tears mostly gone, and was surprised to hear the clearing of a throat. I looked up into the pained eyes of my commanding officer. I jumped up and hid the book behind my back. "G-General Iroh! I-I'm sorry, I just came in and you weren't here so I thought—"

He reached behind me to pick the book out of my hands. He used his right hand, which I thought was strange because he was left-handed. Rather than concentrate on that I looked at my feet, caught with my hand in the proverbial cookie jar. "'The One-Hundred Year War; Avatar Aang's Return to Power: Book I - Water'...that's some heavy reading, Huo."

I'd gotten through at least one-hundred pages of the two-thousand page book. "I-I was just bored waiting, sir. It won't happen again."

Iroh opened the book—hopefully not to the page that I'd been on—and read it for a moment. Then he got this weird determined look on his face that I wasn't used to seeing. "Alright, that settles it. You need to start your schooling."

Sneaking into the General's room led to me starting my schooling? I'd expected a scolding or a punishment of swabbing the deck for the next eight hours. "Oh...okay, I guess."

"Doctor Mizan will be your teacher. His son is learning the basics—history, mathematics, engineering, geography...many more as well, I assure you." He looked a little smug, like this was a punishment or something when in fact I was overjoyed to be learning something! Learning under Kojo's dad would be amazing!

"Thank you!" I exclaimed with a smile. He looked a little taken back. I lowered my enthusiasm and said, "Um, I mean...I'll learn as much as possible, General!"

Iroh just smirked and turned around. That was when I noticed his shirt was covered in blood on his left shoulder. "Good, I'm glad. Now it's time to learn some medical skills, though. The kit's in the kitchen, go and get it."

He took his shirt off and I could only blush and stare at his back as the muscles rippled underneath taught skin. The only thing that marred it was the large red gash on the upper right part of his shoulder. I'd only seen a few men without their shirts off (always on the ship) but I knew that this had to be perfection. He turned and I had to swallow a few times because my mouth had gone dry—his front was even better than the back.

"Huo, the kit?" Iroh asked with a raised eyebrow and a rather knowing smirk. I scurried to him and had him sit. Thankfully, I couldn't see his front and he couldn't watch me because I was as red as a dull fire.

"Are you sure we can't call for the ship's doctor?" I asked, my voice cracking as I dabbed at the wound with a wet washcloth. I didn't want to mess up and the man be scarred for life. I should have listened to Kojo when he asked me if I wanted to learn some medicinal skills...

"The ship's doctor may not always be available," he said simply. "In battle, you will always be by my side. With small wounds like this, you can practice for the times when the doctor can't get to me."

I'd dealt with small wounds in the village before. I hadn't had as good of equipment, but it was basically the same. The antiseptic was alcohol, the gauze was cloth, and the tape was tree sap. It didn't take long to disinfect the wound and tape it up. "I'll have to change this in the morning. What time would you like me to be here?"

"Before sunrise, as we will have practice directly at."

I nodded. I'd been getting used to life on the ship, from waking up early to the rowdy off-hours. My only fear still was being found out. A well-placed sock and a tightened breast binder had kept me safe so far, but I didn't know how long that would keep me. The other younger boys were growing and their voices changing. I was still the same. I also wasn't growing facial hair like the others—told them I had to keep it shaved but I couldn't really give them a reason why.

Being a boy is difficult, I huffed. But something was bothering me. He was schooling me, teaching me Firebending, and eventually he said that I would be learning etiquette and mingling skills for when we met distinguished peoples from all nations. All of that for what? "Why...why are you training me?"

He looked up and cocked his head to the side. "Why?"

I didn't realize that I was rubbing my arm until it was an irritated red. "Well, you're a General. Why are you taking so much time out of your day to train a simple peasant kid? Seems like you could be doing a lot more with your time. Like training all kinds of troops rather than just me. I'm nothing special."

Iroh smirked and pulled his shirt on over his head. I thanked the spirits that that distraction was put away. Iroh was always a distraction but taking his shirt off had only amplified it. "It's tradition for a general to take a second. To train them up...to one day replace him."

The thought that I could one day be a general was one that shut me up completely. I looked around the room and wondered if I even belonged in a place like it. Pure gold, inlaid ceiling. Mahogany floors covered in furs of exotic animals I'd never seen. His bed was even bigger than my bedroom in Jang-Hui had been and was covered in silk and other expensive fabrics.

I don't belong here.

"Your hands are incredibly calloused. What did you do before you joined me?"

His question caught me off guard. Flashes of life before popped into my brain but I snuffed them before they could do any harm. "I-I was a worker. I helped build, farm, protect—whatever was asked of me. That's why I knew how to patch you up—I worked as the town doctor, sometimes. Same concept here but different tools. Yours are fancier, obviously." That at least wasn't a lie. I'd done lots of things to make money for our family, to keep us from starving.

Before my mother had died, she'd been the town's doctor. Being a doctor put you around sick people, though, and during the last outbreak, she hadn't been able to shake it. A cold. A simple cold took out my mother, one of the strongest women I'd ever known.

"I see. And have you gone hungry before?" Again, the question caught me off guard. His eyes looked haunted. He sat down on his bed and held his head in his hands. "I'm sorry, I only ask because—there was this town, right before we set sail. It was so poor, so desolate..."

"What do you want me to tell you?" I asked, feeling a little defensive and angry. Partially because I was hurt that I would never be able to have even a percent of what he'd had. Partially because working with his wound reminded me of when Mother had asked me to help her sew up some minor wounds. "Something that will make you feel better? I can't do that. Because, yes, I have felt the pangs of hunger. The nicest thing in our village was an ancient tea set that some old man owned from when he used to be a noble." I didn't say that that man was my great-grandfather. "Do you want me to tell you that children never went hungry? Because I've seen them die in winter from malnutrition and the cold because we couldn't get food or blankets. I've seen our town healer die from a simple cold because she was too busy taking care of others to fend for herself!"

His haunted eyes looked up at me and I only felt bad for a second. This man had grown up with everything—from the fancy room I was in to his gilded cradle at the Fire Nation capitol, he was rich and pampered. He needed to know the truth. "That's why you were so excited when I said that you'd be getting schooled. You've never had it, have you?"

I just grit my teeth and kept silent. I don't need your pity.

Iroh sighed and ran a hand through his hair. This messed it up and suddenly I didn't see my commanding officer. Suddenly I saw a man who was tired of holding up a facade—something that I knew all too well all of a sudden. All I wanted to do was take off my breast binder and dive off the ship, that way at least I'd get to choose how I die rather than execution after being found out for being a woman. Instead, I was doing the same thing that he was—holding on to the fake person we'd both created so that no one could see who we really were.

"I'll be back tomorrow morning," I said softly, wishing suddenly that I could show him that I was a woman and comfort him like I wanted to. That idea, though, was snuffed out when that book came back to mind. Rather than give up three months worth of hard work, I patted him on the shoulder and frowned form all the negative thoughts running through my head. "You should get some rest."