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Chapter Two

Zuko's Lie

"Hi-ya!" Aang pushed his fist outward towards Zuko, who stood nearly ten feet away, releasing a small ball of fire that wavered and went out not even halfway across the space.

Zuko hardly noticed this feeble attempt at firebending, nor did he hear Aang's ninja-like yells as he tried each move his instructor had given him. His mind was far above them, where he was trying to give himself a bird's-eye view of the surrounding land. When he had been following the group to the Temple, he had hardly ever looked down below his war balloon, a mistake he now sorely regretted. And yet it would look too suspicious if he flew up to look by himself on Appa . . . Toph was blind, she wouldn't be able to tell what he was doing . . . He could tell them he was looking for something he dropped on the way . . . It was a feeble lie, but could work . . . He would ask Toph–

"Take . . . that!" A blast of fire came from Aang's direction and Zuko barely snapped from his thoughts in time to bend it back towards his pupil. To his great shock, Aang was standing only a foot away, looking surprised with himself while staring in disbelief at his smoking fist.

"Good job," Zuko said, hoping he sounded convincing enough to belie the fact that he had not been paying attention.

Aang grinned. "Cool! So, can I try it again? Huh? Please? I really, really want to!"

"No," Zuko said, with such finality that Aang's face fell but he persisted no more. "Okay, well, tomorrow, then?" Seeing his teacher nod, he snapped open his glider and jumped off the balcony, calling behind him, "See ya!"

Zuko, however, was already walking down the tall stone hallways, marching purposefully as if on a world-saving mission. He passed an open room full of glittering fountains where Katara was practicing waterbending, and another, stone room where Sokka was fighting an invisible enemy. Neither seemed to notice as he walked by.

Toph was sitting alone in the kitchen area, which Zuko was thankful for, soaking the remaining tender areas of burn from her feet.

"Toph," Zuko said to her, restraining from whispering so as not to sound suspicious. "Since, uh, you seem to not be doing anything, uh, really interesting, I was wondering if you wanted to take Appa on a brief flight with, uh, me."

Toph looked at him suspiciously.

"I, uh, think I left something up there when I was camping . . . Or, ummm, dropped it when I was flying."

The young earthbender shrugged. "Sure."


"So . . . What are you looking for?" Toph asked when they were flying.

"Oh, uh, something." Zuko replied. He wished he had thought this plan through a little better.

"Like . . ." Toph urged.

"Something I was going to give to Katara," He invented wildly. "A . . . a necklace that was, um, all blue and, um, stuff."

Toph snorted. "Well, at least you can remember what color it is."

Zuko looked over the saddle in an attempt to map the land below him, but the trees blurred with lakes and lakes faded into meadows and the meadows melted into more trees.

"I guess I'm never going to find it by flying around," He sighed.

He must have sounded as dejected as he was, because, in a voice that carried what might have been pity (although Zuko hardly dared to believe it, coming from Toph), she said, "I'll walk around with you, if you like. I bet I'll be able to feel it, especially if it has stones in it."

"No," Zuko said quickly. "It doesn't. I might have dropped it in the Temple somewhere."

His companion looked dissatisfied with this answer, but said nothing.


"Katara," Toph said in a low voice over dinner. "I need to tell you something."

Katara stacked the bowls and walked away from the small crowd, into the shadows.

"Zuko is planning something stupid," Toph rushed.

"Isn't he always? Last time I checked, chasing us around the world wasn't exactly smart–"

"No," Toph interrupted, in attempt to save herself from another one of the waterbender's anti-Zuko rants. "He hasn't been himself today– "

"You mean he hasn't been a cruel, evil–"

Toph ignored her and continued, "I told you at breakfast, today's his uncle's birthday and I think Zuko is going to try and find him. He's been in a thoughtful mood–"

"Yes, I noticed, it looks painful."

Toph, finally tired of Katara not listening to her, stomped her foot (which shook the floor) and shouted," FINE! IF YOU DON'T WANT TO LISTEN TO ME, THEN DON'T! JUST DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU!"

A sudden hush fell over the group, and everyone's eyes fell on the pair. Katara brushed herself off and said loudly, "It doesn't matter, Toph, nobody will care if he leaves."

Zuko, who had been sitting closest to the group but hadn't been paying attention to the conversation until now, quietly got up and left without a word. Katara, who had practically not realized what she had said until then, covered her mouth with her hands, her cheeks turning red. Her eyes looked almost like they were brimming with tears. "Oh, no," She muttered.

"S'okay," Sokka said casually. He was the only one of the main group who had heard her comment. Everybody else had gone back to eating and talking. "He probably didn't even hear you . . . He's been acting strange lately." He joined the conversation without another word to his sister.


The moon rose as a tiny eyelash sliver that night, hanging on heaven's invisible string while traveling slowly across the sky. The stars around it flickered and winked, as if they were the eyes to the smile, watching with amusement as Toph crept into Katara's room in the dead of night.

"Psst," She hissed.

Katara jumped and pulled a knife-sharp string of water from a small bowl on her bedside table. "Toph," She whispered, letting the water fall back into the bowl. What in the whole nation are you doing?"

Toph sat on the bed, casually, and said in an even voice, "Zuko's gone."

"What?" Katara yelped.

"I told you," Toph whispered. "Thinking seems kinda unnatural for him, you know, and yet he was doing it all day. He asked me to come with him to look for something he lost, but he was anxious about something–"

"Why didn't you tell me this?" Katara hissed, following Toph's example and speaking in a whisper.

"I tried Sugar Queen, but you were so obsessed with insulting Zuko that you didn't listen!"

Katara disregarded this. "So what do you want me to do about it?" She asked, although she had a growing feeling of dread as to what the reply would be.

"Come with me," Toph said, and Katra's stomach felt like it had dropped to the floor. "We have to go find him!"

"No! That's just stupid! We have no idea where he is or what he's doing!"

Toph sighed and replied in a voice that suggested she was talking to a stubborn two-year-old, "He can't be far, he just left under an hour ago. And he's going to find his uncle, I bet you anything."

Katara was quiet. Toph could almost hear her brain working, weighing the options.

"Fine," She said quietly, standing up and pulling her blue watertribe robes over herself. "We'll go look for him."

And together they stole into the darkness.

A/N: Okay, the last line's a bit cheesy. But, hey, I'm tired. I can't update this coming week . . . maybe later. I'll try. This chapter was a little slow-moving, I know, but at least I managed (somehow) to get the plot revealed. Part of it, anyway. :D.