The Highest Bidder

Chapter Seventeen: Strong Minds

"You have quite a temper for being girl with a strong mind," said General Iroh as we set a course to follow the Avatar, who flew so diligently on his bison several feet above our ship. Iroh had me lay down on a cot, and he tended to my lacerations that I had obtained from fighting the Kyoshi Warriors. He placed a warm washcloth on my forehead, intending for the heat to cure the incessant pounding in the upper back part of my brain. He managed to stop the bleeding from the wounds on my arms. His gaze upon mine was partially disapproving, though something told me that he was awe-inspired as well.

"What did you hear?" I asked. When I spoke, I felt instant pressure in my head. The pain was evident, as Iroh pressed a finger to my lips and urged me silently not to speak more than what was needed.

"It's not what I heard, Commander. It's what I saw." Iroh retorted. "What I saw was a very powerful woman taking out her irritation for a combative Fire Nation prince on a village whose houses were destroyed in the aftermath."

"I did it to prove a point," I murmured.

"You did it out of anger," he reprimanded. "Even if Zuko irritates you, you shouldn't take your wrath on those who don't deserve it. They were hiding the Avatar, but he was long gone before you took out their houses." He bandaged my arm with a delicate touch. "Mura, I think you have a marvelous gift, but even a thing so rare and beautiful can be deadly and dark if it's used for the wrong reasons."

"You don't plan on how to react to anger," I snapped.

"You can if you actually meditated," Iroh said with much conviction.

I stared at him.

He didn't back down.

"Mura," he said calmly, "what if there were children in those houses? What if there were women? You shouldn't crush more lives than you should; if you do, it burdens your soul."

I frowned.

"But the Avatar got away?"

"You may think that my nephew is an aggravating man, Mura," said Iroh, rising to his feet, "but he is quite honorable when it comes to family. He may not show it so well, but when the situation calls for it, Zuko is very sensitive and affectionate. He has formed a hard shell around himself so that he won't get hurt. He left himself open when his mother was banished from the Fire Nation."

I nodded in understanding.

"And he cares about you," Iroh continued. "He was worried when he saw you come aboard the ship with these flesh wounds covering your body. I have seen my share of war, and I'm not so flinching when it comes to changing bloody bandages."

Iroh removed the rag from my forehead, for it had chilled. Steam compressed from his palm, and heated the washcloth again. He resumed it on my forehead as before. Heat eased the pressure inside my head, and I felt extensively better than I had a few moments ago.

General Iroh smiled at me. I assumed he noticed that I looked as better as I felt. The door to the entrance of my quarters opened steadily. Prince Zuko came inside, wearing a scowl on his face. Iroh gave me an affectionate, furtive nod for a goodbye and a good luck then he passed by Zuko with only a few words to say, which he uttered in a tone that only he and his nephew could hear.

Zuko waited for Iroh to close the door then he sat down beside me.

He continued to look at me as if I had done something wrong. Immediately, I attempted to sit up, and uttered in a desperate tone,

"Zuko, I tried…"

He held up a hand to stop me from saying anything more.

"Mura, let me ask you something. And just nod your head if the answer is yes, and otherwise if it's no."

"Why can't I just open my mouth and talk?"

"Because when you do, you have a habit of distracting me from my point." Zuko answered flatly.

"Oh…Okay…"

"On Kyoshi Island, when you pulverized the houses, was that because you wanted to distract the Avatar?"

I shook my head.

"Was it because of me?"

I nodded.

"I did that?" asked Zuko softly.

"Zuko," I began gently, "I was helping you, and I was concerned. I thought that when the Avatar threw you through a wall, you were unconscious. Clearly, I underestimated your recovery time."

Zuko's eyes glanced guiltily toward the bandages on my arms, stomach, and legs.

"Well," he muttered, "it was impressive what you did back there. I sometimes forget how strong you are until you actually make something happen."

"It wasn't just you," I said, straightening up in bed.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I don't like my ass getting kicked by a group of girls," I explained, smiling. "Also, I've spent quite a long time on a boat, Prince Zuko. I'm used to freedom. And although this isn't captivity, and the present company is sweet"—Zuko's cheeks blushed—"I do like being around other things that aren't made of metal."

"We're pulling the ship for a day so the crew can rest." Zuko informed me.

"So soon?"

"Yes. The Rhinos are becoming a bit…well, you know how they are."

"Rambunctious?"

"Yes." Zuko answered shortly. "Anyway, Uncle is going to take some kind of nature walk or something. You seem to share that kind of thing with him, so you might want to take that little hint."

"Why won't you come along for the walk?" I asked curiously.

"I stay with the ship. I'm doing this for Uncle. If it was entirely up to me, I wouldn't take any pit stops." Zuko said, rising to his feet. "Take a few minutes to relax. No rush."

He headed for the door, but he halted in mid-step. He turned around to face me.

"You are okay, right?" he asked cautiously.

"Of course," I said, though I winced when I tried to get out of bed. "I'll be dandy as soon as I get to walking again. No worries." He didn't look convinced, so I said with more conviction, "Honestly."

Zuko still didn't look persuaded; however, he gave me a slight smile and walked out of my room, closing the door behind him.

When I finally obtained enough strength to emerge from the ship, I had enough pain tolerance to pull over a Fire Nation cuirass, trousers, and a robe and boots. My arms stung from the ointment that Iroh had used on my wounds, and the similar pain scurried through my stomach and legs.

I might have taken down the village, but my physical prowess suffered from Suki's successful targets. As I always told Iroh, and I tell you: although I was able-bodied, and could hold my own in an escape route, my abilities to actual fight were limited. I was more brain than brawn. And Zuko was a bit of both.

General Iroh met me on the shore of a beautiful landscape: lush vegetation, a glistening beach, and green canopies provided the perfect paradise for a banished prince and a traveling uncle. It was actually not too different from the island I had inhabited previously. General Iroh wrapped a delicate hand around my waist as we walked through a cleared thicket of bamboo. We waved goodbye to Zuko, who—despite the frown on his face—waved back.

"So tell me, Mura," said Iroh conversationally, "what exactly do you think is going to happen if you and Zuko manage to capture the Avatar? You can't possibly have believed me when I said that Fire Lord Ozai would simply forgive you for resisting arrest."

"I did," I admitted, "but that was before I learned of what happened to Zuko during the war meeting."

"I thought you would have found out eventually from travelers on your island."

"I hadn't had contact with a traveler, merchant, nomad, or spirit when I left the Fire Nation. I ran into a few travelers in Ba Sing Se, but I don't think I made too many friends there, either."

"Because of your gift?" asked Iroh understandably.

I didn't reply.

"Ba Sing Se is supposed to be a place of safety, a haven for those who want to make a fresh start." Iroh said. "I know that you want to help Prince Zuko find the Avatar, but what will happen when he does, and he wants to go home?"

"I already discussed this with him." I said shortly.

"He wants you to come with him if he does," Iroh guessed correctly.

"Yes."

"And you won't?"

"No." I said. "I can't believe that a man like Fire Lord Ozai would give me a second chance if he won't even let his own son return without a price. In the eyes of the Fire Nation, I'm still the little girl who couldn't use her powers when she should have."

"That's not true." Iroh said. "I know what happened that day, Mura. And it wasn't your fault. Your mind judges your character before you do. It knows your morals. At the time, Azula was your friend."

"She was."

"If she appeared to you now, would you forgive her?" Iroh asked curiously.

I looked at him questionably.

"General, why are you asking me all these things? Are you wondering where my loyalties lie? Do you doubt me like all the others?"

Iroh stopped walking and turned to me coolly.

"Life gives us meaning, and we give it back by understanding the world around us. You have developed a belief that most of everyone in the Fire Nation is bad, but it's not true. The world isn't made up of Fire Nation and good people. Azula is wrapped around her father's finger; she might be just as confused as Zuko."

"So," I said, attempting to weed his meaning, "you think I should…like…her?"

"Well, no, that would be stupid." Iroh said, smiling. "I'm saying that in our family—in the family of Fire Lord Ozai—not everything is as it seems. You have a very strong mind, Mura, and you're tremendously capable of great loyalty. I just don't want to see those two things be turned against close friends."

I absorbed his words.

"Now," continued Iroh, continuing our walk, "Commander Zhao is a whole 'nother story. He is exactly as he seems: ruthless, unyielding, and he doesn't respect the four nations as a unity. Like my brother, Commander Zhao believes that the Fire Nation is the supreme nation, and he wants expansion."

"Then why didn't the nation just make him Fire Lord?" I retorted involuntarily.

Iroh gave me a slight smirk.

"If the Fire Nation made Zhao Fire Lord then it would be easy for Prince Zuko to kick his butt, don't you think?"

We laughed together.

"I watched you during his Agni Kai with Prince Zuko," said Iroh thoughtfully. "You show absolute passion for my nephew. It's almost admirable. You help him in many more ways than just commanding the recruits, Mura. I think that you could help him in life, if ever he chooses his own path."

"You think Zuko is misguided?"

"I think," sighed Iroh, "that Zuko is following a path that was set for him by somebody else. His destiny is linked with the Avatar, of course. One-hundred years ago, Avatar Roku should have dealt with this problem, but this new Avatar—this boy—inherited a war."

"Avatar Roku…" I muttered. "He's the Avatar that was born into the Fire Nation, right?"

"The very same," Iroh confirmed.

"So you think Zuko and the Avatar are fighting a war, but they're pretty much on the same side?"

Iroh nudged me in the ribs,

"What are you doing, Mura? Trying to confuse me with a proverb of your own?"

He laughed.

I winced slightly from the pressure on my stomach; however, the idea was funny, nevertheless.

Iroh and I came into a clearing.

We came upon a beautiful hot spring, which pooled into five various canyon tubs; each was fed by a steady, flowing stream coming out from the rocks behind it. It was quaint.

General Iroh saw the landscape to be a potential hot bath, which he made it up himself as he breathed steam from his nostrils and heated the water, creating foggy bubbles on the surface. He wasn't the most embarrassed man of the Fire Nation Naval Service, so I turned just in time before I could see him strip down to nothing and he climbed into the tub with nary a worry or care in the world. He had laid out his clothes on a nearby tree branch which laid low to the ground. Iroh treated our time away from the ship like an extended vacation.

"My nephew," said Iroh as if this was a normal thing to do, "is very high-strung, as you could tell by now. He doesn't know a life of peace and prosperity when he sees it."

Iroh leaned back into the hot bath, cradled his head in his hands, and sighed peacefully.

He smiled widely at me. I chuckled out of the situation itself.

"What?" he said. "I'm a man of simple taste."

I crossed the clearing and sat on the edge of the hot spring.

"So," I began quietly, "did Zuko have anybody before he was banished?"

Iroh gave me an absurd look at first. Then his expression softened.

"Yes," he answered truthfully. "A young woman named Mai."

"Is she pretty?"

"Stunning." Iroh said. "She's quite a gloomy girl, though. She sighs a lot. Her uncle is the warden at the high-security prison on the Boiling Rock."

"Well, it's a good thing I don't know him personally," I chuckled anxiously.

"They wouldn't send you there," said Iroh as if he had read my mind. "The warden only takes Firebenders. They put people like us in coolers."

"Like jail cells?"

"No, actual coolers. Like freezers…coolers." Iroh emphasized. "It can deter a Firebender's spirit, but if they learn how to use their breath of fire, it's not a big deal." He paused. "Why are you asking me about Mai?"

"I was just curious…"

"Well, he hasn't seen her in two years," Iroh reassured me. "I don't think he even remembers her face."

I shrugged.

Then from the bamboo thickets that we had crossed, I felt a familiar pressure in the frontal lobe of my brain start to twitch. We weren't alone.

Iroh jumped slightly when I stood up immediately.

"What's wrong?"

"Someone's—"

Before I could say that we were being followed, I was calmed when I heard Zuko's voice calling from the general direction.

"Uncle! It's time to leave! Where are you? Uncle Iroh!"

Zuko pushed through the bamboo stalks and entered the clearing.

"Over here!" Iroh said happily.

"Uncle?"

Zuko's voice went high-pitched slightly when he saw General Iroh in the bath. Zuko glanced at me with a stunned expression on his face; I merely waved.

Zuko gathered his composure and continued with a frown on his face,

"We need to move on, we're closing in on the Avatar's trail, and I don't want to lose him!"

"You look tired, Prince Zuko. Why don't you join me in these hot springs and soak away your troubles."

Zuko grew angry,

"My troubles cannot be soaked away! It's time to go."

"You should take your teacher's advice and relax a little. The temperature's just right. I heated it myself."

Iroh steamed the water again; Zuko swatted the steam away and approached the hot spring.

"Enough! We need to leave now! Get out of the water!"

Iroh rose from the water—

"Whoa!" I cried out, laughing; in order to avoid looking upon the Iroh's soldiers, I fell off the side of the hot spring and landed on the hard rock. Zuko flew a hand up to his face to shield himself from Iroh's nudity.

"On second thought," said Zuko, "why don't you take another few minutes, but be back at the ship, or I'm leaving without you! Mura, I'll need your help getting the supplies on board."

"Yes, sir," I said cheerfully.

Iroh leaned back in the water,

"Aaah."

He waved to me as I retreated with Zuko.

"Why the rush, Prince Zuko?" I asked, catching up to him.

"The Avatar is heading for the North Pole to find a Waterbending master; so that's where he is headed. It took me three weeks to track him, and I'm not going to lose him this time." He looked at me strangely. "If you're so smart, I'd have thought you would have realized that."

"Zuko, there is such a thing as working too hard." I said, taking Iroh's side. "You're an amazing tracker. At any rate, it's not like you'll never find him again."

We reached the shore.

"Why do you need my help, anyway?" I asked. "Your men are quite capable of lifting fifty pounds."

He stood in front of me with purpose.

"I wanted time alone with you."

"What? Why?"

"Because we need to talk."

"About what?"

"We're comrades-in-arms, Mura," Zuko explained delicately. "If we let our emotions get the better of us, neither you nor me will be thinking clearly if the other is in trouble. We can't be together."

"Is it the girl from the Fire Nation?" I asked despairingly.

He looked a bit shocked from my reference to Mai, but he held his ground.

"This has nothing to do with her. We make a good team," said Zuko, "but we can't show the soldiers that we're…interested…in each other."

"You have a brutal way of explaining things, Prince Zuko," I retorted apathetically.

Zuko said nothing in response.

It was hours later that we started the boil makers in the ship's engine room when the soldiers pointed out that General Iroh had not returned on Prince Zuko's deadline. Worry entered my mind, and I anticipated the worst thing. Zuko was alarmed, and he took me with several other soldiers back through the bamboo thicket and into the clearing.

"Uncle! Uncle, where are you?"

Iroh was nowhere in sight, and my stomach churned unpleasantly as I looked upon the ruined hot tub that Iroh had been resting in; stone projectiles were embedded in it. I gestured to Zuko.

"Sir," said a standing soldier, "maybe he thought that you left without him?"

"Something's not right here," Zuko said, and he followed my gaze. "That pile of rocks."

"It looks like a landslide, sir."

"Land doesn't slide uphill," Zuko retorted. "Those rocks didn't move naturally."

My heart sank unhappily, and Zuko spoke my thoughts,

"My uncle's been captured by Earthbenders!"

The soldiers reacted with united shock. I stared at the spring, intrigued.

"He couldn't have gone willingly," I said quizzically. "You're uncle's the Dragon of the West, a fighter. Why—How could he let this happen?"

"You can ask him yourself because we're going to find him," Zuko retorted darkly. He passed me and entered the bamboo thickets again.

I expressed daunted pleasure at the look of his determined expression. I glanced uncertainly at the soldiers who didn't know what to do, as they gazed with lingering surprise at the ruined hot bath. Zuko's voice snapped from the distance,

"Mura, come with me!"

"Yes, sir!" I replied. I turned to the soldiers.

"Return to the ship; Prince Zuko and I will reconvene in the morning once we find General Iroh. Whatever you do, don't let anyone take it."

"Yes, Commander," they said.

Zuko mounted a Komodo Rhino; he pulled me up with him, and I wrapped my hands around his waist as we headed off to a similar direction that the Earthbenders could have gone. There was one place that Zuko and I had in mind that a few Earthbenders would take a retired General of the Fire Nation. Ba Sing Se had been Iroh's most unsuccessful mission; it seemed only poetic to bring him to the great Kingdom.

Since Kyoshi Island, we hadn't run into too many rebellions, and it had been the last time that I had actually lost control. Although I scorned myself for taking my temper out on the houses, I didn't blame myself for showing Zuko just how powerful I could be. It had might have been for that reason that Zuko took me along for the journey instead of a whole fleet of warrior Firebenders.

We came across something lying in the dirt road. Zuko dismounted the Rhino and investigated the lost sandal on the ground. Zuko picked it up, sniffed it, and a look of disgust spread over his face.

"Yup," he turned to me, "that's Uncle Iroh."

I smiled hopefully as he pressed on the Rhino, and we continued our trail.

"Every time that we get closer to the Avatar," I said gently, setting my head on Zuko's shoulder, "something gets in our way, and it delays us."

"We'll find him," said Zuko reassuringly.

He seemed to know what was bothering me, and I anticipated the worst. General Iroh might not have been my father or my uncle, but he was more paternal than the other older gentlemen in my life. He seemed to know the secrets to the happiness of life. And as I imagined scenario after scenario of what the Earthbenders were doing to Iroh, the angrier I started to feel.

By daybreak, Zuko and I had found a trail of scorched earth and a purposely-ruined edge of a cliff where it looked as if General Iroh had Firebended, and it had shocked his captors. Below, at the edge of the cliff slope, earth crumpled where a body had been lying.

Zuko and I walked the edges of the cliff to search earth pits; and my stomach jumped with hope and uneasiness when I saw General Iroh stretched over a large rock in the center of the pit; his hands were spread before him, cuffed in shackles made of rock.

Prince Zuko and I frowned as the leader of the band said with finality,

"These dangerous hands must be crushed."

Zuko grabbed my hand and we slid down the slope with appropriate grace, landing in a bush just above the pit. The captain who had spoken cried aloud as he raised a huge boulder from the ground and moved it to hover over Iroh's hands. He dropped it; a moment before it could crush Iroh's hands and arms, Zuko flung himself into the pit and kicked it out of the way. He landed on the ground and broke the chains holding Iroh's hands with a kick. Iroh rose with a smile.

"Excellent form, Prince Zuko."

"You taught me well."

The Captain approached them with his buddies.

"Surrender yourselves, it's five against two. You're clearly outnumbered."

"Five against three," corrected Zuko. "I brought a friend of mine."

Iroh looked around, momentarily confused.

The captain cried out in surprise as he rose into the air; his friends backed up, stunned—they found me standing above the earthen pit.

I flew a hand to the ground, and the levitating Earthbender dived—nose first—into the earth with a loud thud. I slid down the wall of the pit and joined Zuko and Iroh.

"That's true," said Iroh, glancing at me with approval, "but you"—he turned to the Earthbenders—"are clearly outmatched."

All five Earthbenders launched stones at us; Iroh swung his chains and broke them into pieces mid-flight; Zuko blasted the two nearest him with fire. Three large boulders bowled toward Zuko as he turned to see them; they turned on my command away from him, and they exploded on cue.

The captain launched several rocks at Zuko, who dodged them and returned fire. The captain raised two sheets of rock; Zuko was shadowed by the towers, and he looked afraid—Chains wrapped around the Captain's feet, and his feet were pulled to the ground by Iroh. From the left and from the right, recovering Earthbender soldiers came at me with wielding rock shields.

Zuko appeared by my side.

"This is starting to get old," I said angrily.

With a forced grunt, I shot back the Earthbenders off their feet; they rose into the air, and I slammed them hard into the ground with an almighty pull. Their bodies dented the rock, and they cried out in pain.

Zuko placed a hand on my shoulder to stop me from hurting anybody else.

Iroh smiled proudly.

"Now," said Zuko calmly, "will you please put on some clothes?"