After resting up for a few hours, it was now later in the evening as Korra, Asami, Mako, Bolin, Opal, Naga, and Pabu sat together in the lounge area outside their rooms in the palace. To pass the time, they had decided to tell stories of events from their childhoods, and Korra had just finished telling everyone story of how she had first met her animal companion Naga.
"We had to spend the night in an igloo to avoid the blizzard, and then my dad found us the next morning." said Korra. "He took us home, and after some discussion with Katara they decided to let me keep her. Since then the two of us have been inseparable. Every Avatar has an animal guide, and Naga become mine."
"So you were the first person to ever tame a polar bear dog?" asked Bolin. "That's awesome!"
"So what about you Mako?" asked Korra. "You got any interesting stories from when you were a kid?"
"I think I have one." said Mako. "Hearing about Meelo running off in the supermarket earlier today reminded me of something similar that happened with Bolin when we were kids. He gave our mom quite a scare too. She took us shopping with her one day, and somehow Bolin got lost and separated from us. We were both freaking out trying to find him, and our mom was thinking that he might have even gotten kidnapped by the Triads. Eventually, we did end up finding Bolin. He was playing around on top of some crates, and when we called out to him he slipped and fell off. He hit his head on the way down and was knocked out cold for a while."
"Wait a minute, did that really happen Mako?" asked Bolin, a shocked look on his face.
"Yeah, it did." said Mako. "You're lucky it wasn't serious too."
"How come I don't remember it then?" asked Bolin.
"It's because you hit your head dummy." said Mako. "Maybe that's why you're so stupid sometimes. You almost scared mom to death, and I thought you might have actually died for real."
"Sorry I scared both of you like that." said Bolin, feeling embarrassed now that Mako had told that story in front of everyone.
"Alright, your turn Bolin." said Korra. "What have you got?"
"I've got a really funny one." said Bolin, smiling. "Back when we were kids, we used to live in an old apartment building with our parents. One thing I'll always remember about that apartment was how there was a series of old speaking tubes that ran throughout the entire building. Being kids at the time, Mako and I had no idea what they were for, and to tell you the truth we were actually kind of creeped out by them. It didn't help that our parents would sometimes scare us by telling us that monsters lived inside them, but the real reason was probably to keep us from playing with them. Once I figured out what they were really for, I decided to have a little fun with them without telling anybody. I would sometimes sneak down into the boiler room of the building where all the pipes converged would use them to play pranks on some of the other people living in the rooms above. There was this one time where I scared some little kid real good by pretending to be a ghost, and he believed me. I wish I could have seen the look on his face. I was laughing my butt off the whole time."
"So that was you Bolin!" said Mako, an angry look on his face. "I can't believe it! The whole time it was just you playing a joke on me!"
"Oh, now I see..." said Bolin, coming to the sudden realization that Mako had been the boy he had played the prank on.
After hearing all of this, everyone in the room burst out laughing, with the exception of Mako.
"Guys, it's not funny!" said Mako. "I had nightmares for week because of that. I even begged my mom and dad to let me sleep in their room with them."
"Don't feel bad Mako." said Korra, trying to reassure him as she laughed. "I sometimes have nightmares too, but they're about Zaheer instead of ghosts."
"How about you Opal?" asked Asami. "Do you have any stories about growing up in Zaofu?"
"Nothing too interesting." said Opal. "Whenever my grandma Toph came over to visit though, she would always have some pretty wild stories of her own."
"Oh yeah, Toph!" said Bolin, getting excited at the mention of her name. "Tell us a story about her! Like who's Su's dad? I never got to ask her that time we met."
As soon as Bolin mentioned the subject, it grabbed the attention of everyone listening and they all gathered around Opal like eager children.
"If that's what you want to know, then I've got the perfect story." said Opal. "It's a story my mom once told me, about how she found out who her father was."
"What happened?" asked Bolin, eager to hear more. "I'm dying to know."
"Alright calm down, here it is." said Opal, smiling at their enthusiasm. "When my mom and Lin were growing up in Republic City, they lived with just my grandma Toph. At that point they didn't know they were only half-sisters and thought they had the same father. Since they had never met him before, they were really curious and would always ask Toph about him, but she would never give them a straight answer. One day though when she was at work and they were home alone, my mom decided to dig through some of her mom's old stuff. She found a box under Toph's bed that had a bunch of old pictures and letters in it from someone named Satoru, and from she found out that he was her dad, and that Lin was actually her half-sister. She showed it to Lin, and they kept it a secret between the two of them instead of confronting Toph about it. My mom was ecstatic to finally know who her father was, but Lin still had no idea about hers. That must have made her feel jealous of my mom, because that's when the rift between the two of them first started to form. Knowing that her mother had been keeping a secret like that from her probably made Lin feel really hurt on the inside, because she just couldn't understand why Toph would do something like that."
"I see, that makes sense now." said Bolin. "That night we went to go rescue Opal's family with Lin, Toph told us about her dad and that he was some guy named Kanto. Lin seemed pretty angry and upset when she mentioned it, so I'm guessing that must have been the first time Toph had ever decided to talk about it in front of her. When I joined the Republic City Police Force a few months later, I remember Lin was trying to look up any information she could on this Kanto guy in the city archives, but she came up empty. I didn't think it would bother her that much."
"So Su Yin's father was someone named Satoru?" asked Asami. "That name sounds kind of familiar."
"It should." said Opal. "Apparently Satoru was some big-shot engineer and businessman who owned a huge factory in the United Republic."
"Your grandfather was "that" Satoru!" said Asami, a look of amazement on her face. "He was one of the chief architects and designers of Republic City. My dad got his first job working for him. Satoru taught him everything he knew and was like a mentor to him."
"I didn't know that." said Opal. "What ever happened to Satoru? He's the only grandparent I haven't met."
"He's dead now." said Asami, a sad look on her face. "According to my dad, there was an accident one day at the factory and he was killed. The world lost a great mind that day."
"How sad." said Opal, feeling a sense of mourning for the grandfather she never knew. "My mom told me that she remembered Toph would sometimes come home from work crying. I wonder if it had something to do with Satoru's death."
"Toph was crying!" said Korra, shocked to hear this. "I never thought Toph had it in her to cry. She always struck me as having the sensitivity of a boulder. I guess it's easy to forget that she's still only human, just like us."
"Even though she never talked about him, he must have meant a lot to my grandma." said Opal. "I bet Toph really loved him, but just didn't know how to show it."
"Who do you think your mom takes after more; your grandma or your grandpa?" asked Korra.
"Probably a little of both." said Opal. "One thing's for sure, she definitely inherited her dad's love of machines and technical know-how. Maybe that's why she ended up falling for my dad. When she was still living with my grandma, she even found some of Satoru's old maps and sketches and was able to learn all the ins and outs of Republic City from them. That's how she could get around so quickly back when she was still a brat getting into all kinds of trouble. That was until Toph sent her away to live with her grandparents."
"I wish I knew who our other grandparents were Mako." said Bolin. "What if they're someone as cool as Toph and Satoru, and we just don't know it?"
As they continued to chat, Iroh walked into the lounge area to greet them.
"Dinner is almost ready." said Iroh. "If you're hungry, come down to the dining hall. Everyone else is already waiting there."
"Finally, I'm starving." said Korra.
Feeling just as hungry as Korra was, everyone got up and began to follow Iroh to the dining hall.
Everyone was now seated and assembled in the dining hall of the palace, with Korra, Asami, Mako, Bolin, Opal, Iroh, Izumi, Zuko, Azula, Kiyi, and the other members of the royal family seated on one side of the large table while Tenzin, Kya, Bumi, Lin, Pema, Rohan, Meelo, Ikki, Jinora, Kai, Varrick, and Zhu Li were seated on the other side. On the floor beside the table was Naga, who was eating her meal out of a bowl, as well as Pabu, who did not seem too keen on sharing his food with her. Once the servants had finished setting all of the food onto the table and left to go eat their own meals in the servant quarters, everyone began to eat.
"As you can see, I've got a large family." said Iroh, introducing his family to Korra and her friends. "There's my mother Izumi, my father Zhen, my sister Ursa, my grandfather Zuko, my great-aunt Azula, her husband Akairyuu, and also my great-aunt Kiyi and her family."
"Are you expecting someone else?" asked Korra, noticing an empty chair next to Zuko. "There's an extra chair beside Zuko."
"That's where my grandmother Mai used sit." said Iroh. "She passed away a few years ago."
"I'm sorry to hear that." said Korra.
"There's no need to be." said Zuko. "She lived a long happy life, and I loved her dearly, but sooner or later our time in this world comes to an end."
"I still miss Mai-Mai." said Kiyi, feeling saddened by the memory of her passing.
"My mother was a very remarkable woman." said Izumi, sighing. "Whenever I was too busy to look after him, she would often take this overly attached son of mine off my hands while I worked."
"It must feel lonely without her." said Korra.
"Not too terribly." said Zuko. "I still have my sisters around, as well as a few old friends."
"Like Katara?" asked Korra.
"Yes, Katara as well." said Zuko. "Now that you mention it, how is your mother doing these days Tenzin?"
"She's doing fine." said Tenzin. "She's been really happy and content these past few years."
"That's good to hear." said Zuko. "I sometimes visit her at the South Pole and we have tea together."
"Is that really the reason you visit her Zuko, or is there something more?" asked Azula, a playful smile on her face.
"It's not like that at all Azula." said Zuko, turning red. "We're just friends."
"Ah yes, two old friends who find comfort in each other's company after having both lost their spouses." said Azula, still poking fun at him.
Many of the members of the royal family began to quietly chuckle at Azula's remarks, having a pretty good idea as to what was really going on.
"I used to love someone too, but then they died." said Kya, bluntly.
"Korra, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to open up that can of worms." said Mako, whispering to her.
"So Azula, we met earlier today when we helped you carry those bags for you." said Bolin, looking for a way to change the subject. "One of the things I was looking forward to on our vacation was meeting the three of the legendary Dragon Siblings. I've always been a huge fan of you guys, but my brother Mako is probably an even bigger fan than I am. He won't admit it, but the three of you were his idols when he was a kid. You were his favorite though Azula. He even had a poster of you up in his room."
"Bolin, why do you have to go and tell her that!" said Mako, turning red with embarrassment.
"How sweet of him." said Azula, smiling. "I feel honored."
"I've heard so many crazy stories about your life Azula." said Bolin. "What were your younger years like? Were they anything like the stories say?"
"My younger years were quite tumultuous." said Azula. "As a teenager, I often felt lost and confused, unsure of my place in the world. My brother and I were not on the best of terms, and admittedly I was not all there in the head either. Our mother had left us when we were very young, and for the longest time I had believed that she did not truly love me, but that changed when I helped Zuko to search for her. We were reunited with our mother and I learned the truth of what had really happened. At first I was angry and ran off, and after that Zuko and I clashed many more times. Eventually however I began to see how fruitless it was and I just gave up on wanting the throne for myself. I left the Fire Nation in search of a new path in life and traveled the world of a journey of self-discovery, learning many new things about myself along the way. Over time I mellowed out and became much more stable, and the whole experience changed me for the better. Upon my return to the Fire Nation, I reconciled with Zuko and my mother and we were able to mend our broken relationship. I also reconnected with some of my old friends, such as Mai, who by that point had become Zuko's wife, and Ty-Lee, who had gone to live on Kyoshi Island with the warriors there. For the first time in my life I felt as though I was truly at peace with myself, and then one day I found something I didn't expect, my other half."
"Your other half?" asked Bolin. "Do you mean..."
"Yes, my husband here." said Azula, smiling. "All the men here in the Fire Nation seemed to be much too intimidated by me, and for good reason too considering past reputation, but there was one who didn't seem to fear me at all: Akairyuu the Red Dragon."
"I still remember when we first met." said Akairyuu, chiming in. "I was a fearless daredevil in search of mythical beasts and creatures. It was my passion to document and study them all, and I encountered many throughout my life, including the last surviving dragons Ran and Shaw. In fact, I was the one who discovered Zuko's dragon mount Druk as a hatchling and raised it to adulthood. I had told my family that I was going to find the biggest, meanest, scariest dragon out there and prove to them that there was nothing to fear from it. Well, I didn't quite find a dragon, but I found something pretty close, and I must have been a little crazy in the head too because I fell for her."
"I'll admit, I didn't see it coming either." said Azula. "It caught me completely by surprise. No matter how fearsome I seemed, Akairyuu could always see right through me and peer into my very soul. He saw me for who I really was on the inside, and we completed each other, like two halves of a whole. In time we got married, which came as a huge surprise to both our families, and eventually we even had a daughter."
"You have a daughter?" asked Bolin, surprised to hear this. "That's news to me. Is she here too?"
"Sadly she is no longer with us." said Azula.
"Did she go somewhere?" asked Bolin, completely misunderstanding what Azula meant.
"She and I were... estranged to say the least." said Azula, trying to find the right words. "I suppose she had too much of me inside her, because she would often behave much like I had towards my own mother when I was younger. Like mother, like daughter I guess. She could be very rebellious at times, and he two of us would often fight and argue with each other. After one particularly bad argument, she decided that she had had enough and ran away to the Earth Kingdom, and that was the last time I ever saw her in person. The funny thing is, I don't even remember what the two of us were arguing about to begin with. It was probably something silly and trivial. I wanted to go find her and apologize so I could bring her back home, but then the civil war happened here in the Fire Nation and had to focus my attention on helping to resolve it. To my surprise, once the war was over I began receiving letters from my daughter, telling me about the new life she had started in the Earth Kingdom. I was so happy to finally hear from her again, and she even expressed a desire to reconcile with me, but one day something terrible happened. I received a letter not from her, but from the Earth Kingdom authorities, telling me that she had been killed."
"I can't even imagine what that must have felt like." said Bolin. "No parent should ever have receive news like that."
"I was so heartbroken and didn't know what to do with myself." said Azula. "For a long time I blamed myself for her death, and to a certain extent I still do. If I had never driven her away in the first place, then my daughter might still be alive today. The wound may have healed, but the scar is still there."
"I've lost family too." said Bolin, sympathizing with her. "When I was only a child, my mom and dad were both killed in front of me and my brother Mako by a criminal on the streets of Republic City."
"It seems I've prattled on quite a bit about my life." said Azula, trying to lighten the mood. "My Uncle Iroh used to bore me and Zuko with stories of his own life, just as I'm doing now. To tell you the truth, I used to despise him when I was younger, but ironically I find myself becoming more and more like him the older I get."
"I've actually met your Uncle Iroh before in the Spirit World." said Korra. "He gave some great advice that really helped me out."
"I'd really like to know how to reach his spirit to communicate with him." said Zuko.
"You should visit the spirit portal in Republic City sometime Zuko." said Korra. "That would be the easiest way to reach him."
Over the next hour or so everyone continued on with their lively discussions, until they had all finished their meals.
"This has been a pleasant evening, but I think it's time I retired for the night." said Zuko. "We old timers need our rest, and I'm sure you youngsters must also be getting tired yourselves."
One by one everyone began to leave the dining hall, until only Korra, Asami, Mako, Bolin, Iroh, Naga, and Pabu remained.
"I'll see you guys in the morning." said Iroh. "Don't forget, tomorrow night is the festival."
With that Korra and everyone else left the dining hall headed off towards their rooms for bed.
