Disclaimer: No, I don't own the Avatar or any of the main characters, just the story.

The heat from the embers of the fire intensified and then receded. This repeated in the rickety shack several times, though it became increasingly more difficult to do so, as the fire was running dangerously low on the fuel it needed to keep on burning.

Another branch was added to the dying flames, this one still had green leaves. The heat intensified and the flames rose, illuminating the face of Prince Zuko.

His amber eyes stared into the flames, darting occasionally to the sleeping form of his Uncle, only to return to his original point of interest.

He inwardly groaned in annoyance and anger as he glared at the ever-changing flames. Meditation was supposed to help him, not make him feel even worse. 'It's supposed to be clearing my mind, not filling it with MORE unwanted nonsense!' he thought in anger.

The fire leaped and the heat in the poorly made building increased. Zuko sighed and closed his eyes, inwardly commanding the flames and his tireless mind to calm down.

For a few moments, nothing new popped into his head, and then everything bombarded right back, that and more. Unwanted memories, old dancing lessons (A/N: Yes, dancing lessons. You can't expect anyone of royal lineage to not know how to dance!), something about tea leaves…

'Arg! Stop it! That only reminds me about-'

His thoughts were interrupted at the sound of loud footsteps and heavy breathing. He turned towards the entrance and he took in the sight of his 'visitor'.

He could tell just by giving her a sparing glance that she was in fact a woman. She was doubled over, her right hand gripping the wall, or what was left of the wall, and her left hand, which was wrapped up in what appeared to be a long leather strip, was pressed against her stomach. She was, in a word, filthy, but that didn't prevent him from seeing that she wore men's clothing, not did it hide that they were Earth Kingdom clothes.

"Hello," she said quietly, not bothering to bring her face up to make eye contact, something that the ex-prince had gotten used to in his exile. "Mind if I crash here until I feel well enough to find a river?"

"No," Zuko said bluntly.

She took her right hand off of the post and promptly did exactly what she said she would do; She, quite literally, crashed there, hitting the wooden floor with a thud and a short grunt. Almost immediately afterwards, Zuko heard her breathing slow, and he took a few more seconds to study her features. (A/N: Not like that! Head out of the gutters, people! whacks pervert-minded heads with a baseball bat signed by Drew Carey)

He discovered that, especially in the firelight, she looked a lot like that waterbending peasant that traveled with the Avatar. Her skin was dark, much darker than anyone in the Fire Nation, though it was considerably lighter than the peasant's. He also guessed that she was taller than his uncle, but then again, so was he.

"Why does she need to find a river?" he wondered aloud. He stood up and walked over to his supply bag and brought out his water skin. His excuse? She might've just been thirsty, and if he shared, she might leave faster.

As he was deciding this, his foot stepped in a puddle. He looked down at it, followed the trail of its origins, and he confirmed that whatever it was, the woman was lying on the wood floor in a puddle of it. Out of curiosity, he reached down and ran his fingers through the puddle and brought them up.

His fingers were now stained with the liquid, which was red.

Red with blood, he realized.

And with this much blood in puddles around her, Zuko was, put lightly, amazed that she was still breathing regularly.

He groaned and threw his water skin back to his pack, but, unfortunately, he didn't have very good aim. He ended up hitting his uncle in the head. (A/N: Which made a comedic sound, like when you'd get bonked on the head with a coconut.) The retired general snorted in his sleep before rolling over, and Zuko let out a breath that he didn't even know that he was holding.

Dismissing what happened, he picked her up bridal style and got his mind back on track by making a mental list of what he needed to do. First, he had to find a source of water. Then he had to find some way to do… whatever it was he had to do.

He found a source of water as he was debating whether he helped heal her or make sure that she had a proper burial. It wasn't quite a lake, but it was too big to be a mere pond.

He walked into the water with the girl still in his arms until he was waist deep and he lowered her in. Her blood immediately flowed in thin, long ribbons from her body to the far reaches of the lake, to the other side. He followed with his eyes one of the ribbons until he saw something on the other side.

It was a white stag, and from Zuko's perspective, even across the little lake, it was a big one. But what startled him more was that it was slowly coming towards them.

It walked into the water until it came within range of one of the blood ribbons. Then it lowered its head to the water and touched its nose to it. The said ribbon of blood, as well as all the other ribbons, flowed back to the girl at a surprising speed, and went inside the open wounds as though they never left.

Then the water around them suddenly rose and intertwined around them, covering them completely aside from their heads with water. That water began to glow an extremely light blue, almost silvery in color, and Zuko suddenly felt the strength that had slowly left him after the first confrontation in years with his sister return to him at am alarming pace. He then looked down and saw that the girl's complexion had darkened slightly, a minor indication that her once pale-ish skin was now healthy.

Then the water receeded off of them, and Zuko walked out of the water, pausing to look back at the strange deer. What was stranger, if that was even possible, was that it had lowered its head in what apparently was a respectful bow, to which Zuko returned to the best of his abilities. He DID, after all, have a girl in his arms.

Then the deer lifted its head, turned around, and started back towards the forest…

…And disappeared!

Zuko stared in amazement at what he saw. He then looked back down at the woman in his arms in realization. That stag was, in fact, a spirit, and it had intentionally helped her. 'But for what reasons?' He didn't know, but he was determined to find out…

'Pocky… faceless monkey… soldiers... OH NO! Soldiers! I gotta get up! I gotta get-' The rushed thoughts of the young woman ceased when she realized that she had sat up on the lakeside, and found herself unscathed!

"I'm okay…" she whispered, surprised.

"You almost weren't," a voice she didn't recognize said, not too far from her location. As though instinctive, she shot to her feet, assumed a dragon stance and stared at Zuko with calculating eyes.

"Relax," He said, remaining seated and leaning against a tree. "I'm not here to fight you, only to question."

"Don't you mean interrogate?" She retorted in a strong voice, free of fear, yet also free of any malicious tones that Zuko had expected from her.

He responded with a light chuckle, which he rarely did anymore. "I no longer have the authority to do that."

"Huh?" She slacked her stance a little and stared in confusion at him.

It was then that she noticed his scar. Her eyes widened in surprise and her stance was dropped entirely.

"You used to be an officer?" She asked, her voice now conveying interest.

Zuko shrugged. "Something like that…"

Her eyes looked like they had glazed over for a second before returning to normal. "No, not an officer," she whispered. "The top of the line." She sat in front of him. "You're Zuko, aren't you?"

Now it was his turn to look surprised. "How did-?"

"News travels fast in this region," she said, looking slightly guilty. "That and I had to sneak in a fire nation camp to get an antidote for some poison that someone in my surrogate family had ingested. You'd be suprised at how much the lower class men know."

"Surrogate?" He raised his right eyebrow in confusion.

She simply shrugged. "My real family's dead."

She looked down and noticed how badly in shape her shirt was, particularly her sleeves, which were practically shreds. "Aw, for the love of… You wouldn't by any chance happen to have an extra shirt, would you?" She asked. He shook his head.

"Didn't think so…" she muttered, reaching into a pocket built into her pants, pulling out a dagger.

Zuko tensed up instantly. She noticed that, and smirked. "Relax, I'm not here to fight you…" she said in a deep tone, mimicking Zuko's in a playful way.

She then used the dagger to cut off the remains of her sleeves, fully exposing small, yet firmly built arms. She put the dagger back in her pocket, bunched up the clothing scraps, and shoved them in another pocket.

"Oh!" Her head shot up. "You wanted to ask me something! Sorry that I got distracted." She sat upright in a lotus position and folded her hands together. "What did you want to know? But make sure that they're within reason…"

Zuko gave her his no-nonsense face. "'Who are you?', 'How were you injured?' and 'Why did that spirit help you?' will suffice."

She looked confused. "Spirit?"

"A white stag."

Her facial expression morphed from utter confusion to realization, to a faraway yet thankful look. "Yasuo…"

"What?"

"Yasuo," she said, a little louder. Then she paused, chuckled, and shook her head. "I have no idea why I'm telling you this, but he's my guide."

"What?" She was starting to bug him.

"My guide. My spiritual guide. And to answer your previous questions, my name is Astrid and I'd rather not tell who did it, although I can tell you that it wasn't the fire nation, so rest easy."

"Why won't you tell?" Zuko asked in an even tone.

"Trust, Prince Zuko, is not something that is given freely. It must be earned." She got up and knelt by the river. She wordlessly began to bend the water from the small lake, lost in thought.

Zuko watched Astrid with interest. 'So she is a waterbender after all. A waterbender that accepts my presence. Fool. I could easily-' His wagon of thought stopped there. 'Yet, she knows that I'm the prince of the nation that she's against. That her nation is against.' These thoughts and many others entered his mind. Possible explanations of how it could've happened, meaning her injuries, also were sorted through. He finally resigned to the fact that he couldn't figure it out on his own and looked in the opposite direction.

"Perverted earthbenders," she suddenly said, not stopping her bending.

"Excuse me?" He was not prepared for that answer, let alone an answer at all.

"That's who did that to me. A bunch of perverts from an earth kingdom town. They injured me terribly but I managed to narrowly get away, at the near cost of my life, which you helped me regain." She turned her head and locked her eyes, rather interestingly colored eyes, with his amber ones. She smiled. "Thank you."

(A/N: For the benefit of the readers, Astrid's eyes are tri-colored. The outer part of them are a pure blue, but it changes to a soft golden brown, more brown then gold, as the colors reach the center.)

She dropped the water she was bending back into the lake and turned her body so that she was squarely facing him, as though out of respect. 'Wow, no one's done that to me since before the North Pole…'

"Per chance, would you happen to know where I could find some food?" She asked politely. "I haven't eaten in three days, being on the run and all, and it won't be long before I get a migraine or snappish. Neither of which are pleasant for anyone." As she said this, she bended water from the lake and sipped it out of the air as though from a cup, with her pinky finger up.

She then smiled a goofy smile, one that rivaled the Avatar's. "That was aweful!" she said, though still managing to keep that stupid grin on her face.

Zuko couldn't help but let one corner of his mouth twitch into a ghost of a smile.

She was definitely an odd one…

My sincerest appologies for updating so late. Me and the 'Parental Unit' went to Disneyland and came back to find that the computers crashed after a power outage. Plus, my e-mail doasn't work.

But I still love reading reviews...