11
Zuko rode along the path ahead of him in silence. About a week ago, Zuko left his uncle, and he had been traveling alone. Well, if you don't count the ostrich horse he rode on as a companion, then he was alone. The horse swayed slightly to the side as it kept going, it had been a few days since either of them had had any real food. When they rested, the ostrich horse always took to grazing before lying down and curling its clawed feet underneath itself before going to sleep. Zuko hadn't had anything to eat, and he knew that grazing wouldn't be enough to keep the animal satisfied for very long. Not eating anything had already begun to take a toll on him, his eyes looking tired and sleepy, his body becoming thinner, and his cheeks sinking into his face. Give him a month, and he'd probably look like a skeleton.
Zuko looked up as they approached a bridge that went over some fast rapids in the river beneath them. He pushed the horse onward to cross it. The bridge creaked with every step they took. One of the steps made the horse's foot go through the boards, scaring it out of its mind. Zuko pushed the horse onward to cross the bridge, and it obeyed him.
As he went further down the path, he caught the scent of something being cooked. He stopped the horse to see it was a man cooking a good looking brisket over an open flame. His stomach growled painfully at the thought of receiving food. He took a second look at the man, he looked to be somewhere between his mid to late twenties, and Zuko didn't see any weapons on his person. It would be easy to steal the brisket from his clutches. Zuko's hand went over his two Dao blades in preparation to attack. Then he noticed the man's companion, a woman of similar age, but with a large, swollen belly resting against the trunk of a tree. The man came over to her and rubbed her belly with a smile. Zuko took his hand off his swords and kept going, leaving the couple alone.
As he kept going, soon he came across a battlefield that had taken place between earth benders and Fire Nation soldiers. He could tell from the giant stone coins that had been thrust into the ground and the scorch marks on the grass. Zuko slouched against the saddle of the horse as he rode through it, his eyes slowly falling, begging for him to close them. Every time he blinked, he had to force his eyes back open so he could stay awake. He reached for his water canteen and opened it to take a drink. When he tried to take a sip of water, he found air, and realized he had no water. His fatigue began to catch up with him more, his vision becoming slightly fuzzy as he began to fall asleep. He jerked his head up to try and look on the path in front of him, but he found his eyes closing again. He saw the face of his mother flash in front of him when he did.
He was almost tempted to stay asleep, but a sharp pain in his shoulder made him wake up. He stopped the horse and looked around, seeing if anything had happened.
"Hey!" He turned and saw a boy no older than him wearing a dark green cloak over a blue tunic and white pants. He wore a straw hat on his head, like Zuko, and his eyes were an incredibly sharp grey, his left eye having a single vertical scar slashed across it. His hair was stark white and in a tiny ponytail, and behind him, Zuko saw a grey and white wolf tail sticking out. The boy called to him again, "Hey, stranger!" He tossed a small pebble at him and it hit the middle of his back.
"What?" Zuko asked, annoyed. The boy grinned, showing his elongated canines and walked over to him, pulling something out from his belt. Zuko was about to reach for his weapons to stop him if he was a thief, and was surprised to see the boy hold up a water canteen.
"Need a drink?" He asked, "You passed by me and I noticed yours was empty." Zuko nodded and took the canteen from him, drinking about two gulps before giving it back, "You know, there's a town not too far from here. You could probably stock up on supplies there if you need it." Zuko nodded in thanks. He gave a slight whip of the reigns to make the ostrich horse keep going, he was surprised when he heard footsteps coming after him. He turned and saw the boy was walking in step with his ostrich horse. A pack on his shoulder. "Do you mind if I come with you? They say it's better to travel in groups than alone." Zuko turned away from him, ignoring his question, "I'll take that as a 'go ahead'." The boy said with a grin.
"How do you know about the town?" Zuko asked, his voice was hoarse and he cleared his throat.
"I stayed there the other night." The boy replied, "There was a nice family there that let me stay in their barn. Maybe they'll let you stay as well." Zuko didn't reply. He couldn't stay at the town for too long, he needed to keep going, but he didn't feel the need to tell the strange Shinjun that.
As they came over a hill, Zuko saw the small Earth Kingdom town the boy had mentioned. They walked down the path and began going through the streets, looking for a vendor that could sell Zuko the food he and his ostrich horse so desired. They went past a group of men wearing the uniforms of Earth Kingdom soldiers. They sat in a circle, one of them shaking a pair of dice in his hand.
"Come on," The soldier said, "Spider snake eyes!" He rolled the dice and came up with a pair of two fives. He raised his arms in victory, "Ha ha! Yeah!" He was quickly punched by two of his subordinates in the stomach. As Zuko and the boy went past, one of the soldiers eyed the two, and Zuko sent a cold stare in return, the Shinjun ignored it as they went up to the vendor. Zuko jumped off the horse and pulled out what little Earth Kingdom money he had left and held it out to the vendor.
"Could I get some water, a bag of feed, and something hot to eat?" Zuko asked. The vendor looked down at the money he had.
"Not enough here for a hot meal." He said, he looked back up at Zuko, "I can get you two bags of feed." They both looked up in surprise when the boy put down a couple more coins.
"Now he can get a meal, right?" He asked the vendor nodded and took the coins from him. The boy smiled and walked off, "Hope you get to where you're goin'." He waved and began to walk away, heading in a different direction from where they came from. Zuko shrugged it off and waited as the vendor went into the building behind his stand to go and get what Zuko had asked for. He noticed something out of the corner of his eye and saw two boys hiding behind the stand, mischievous smiles on their faces as they looked at the Earth Kingdom soldiers. He saw them go back and one of them handed an egg to the other. He threw it and it hit one of the soldiers in the back of the head. The boys ran off so they wouldn't get caught.
The soldiers turned around to see who threw the egg and only saw Zuko's back. They all stood up, weapons in hand, and marched over to him.
"Hey!" One of the soldiers shouted to him, "You throwing eggs at us, stranger?"
"No." Zuko answered, not turning around.
"You see who did throw it?" He asked. Zuko turned around to face him, he was a middle-aged man with a beard and balding head. He didn't wear any shoes and he had two large mallets resting on his belt, he looked at Zuko with a cold and harsh stare. He was obviously the leader of the group.
"No." Zuko answered again. He put his hand on the handle of his Dao blades in preparation for a fight.
"That your favorite word? No?" One of the other soldiers asked dryly.
"Egg had to come from somewhere." The leader said, glaring at Zuko. He turned back around.
"Maybe a chicken flew over." He suggested, one of the soldiers laughed at his joke and stopped once the leader gave him a cold glare. The vendor came out from the building carrying two bags of feed with a bento lunch box resting on top of them. He placed them on the counter in front of Zuko, and as he reached to grab them, the leader came over and took them.
"Thanks for your contribution." He said in a bitterly sarcastic tone, he threw the bags and the lunch box to one of his men, "The army appreciates your support." The group began to walk away, but the leader turned around, "You better leave town. Penalty for staying is a lot steeper then you can afford, stranger." He patted the handle of his metal mallet in an ominous way, "Trust me."
As the soldiers walked away, the vendor spoke, "Those soldiers are supposed to protect us from the Fire Nation." He said to him, "But they're just a bunch of thugs." Zuko didn't reply as he walked back over to his ostrich horse. When he reached it, the head of one of the boys he saw before popped up on the other side.
"Thanks for not ratting me out." He said with a smile. Zuko said nothing as he mounted his horse and began to walk away from him. The boy ran up to him and stopped in front of his horse, grabbing the front of the reigns. "I'll take you to my house and feed your ostrich horse for you!" He offered, Zuko said nothing as the boy began to run, pulling the horse along with him, "Come on, I owe you." Zuko let him lead the horse to his home. He knew the horse could use the food the boy was offering, and it was going to need energy for the journey ahead. At the thought of food, Zuko gripped at his stomach as it growled painfully again. He needed food, too.
The boy, who introduced himself as Lee, brought Zuko to his home. He lived far out from the village, on a farm with cow-pigs and sheep-pigs and other animals galore. All the animals made loud oinks, moos, and squeals as they approached the pen and went closer to the house. Lee looked up at Zuko.
"No one can ever sneak up on us." He said, offering a bright side to all the noise the animals were making.
Zuko 'tsked' at the boy, "No kidding." He said. Lee took the horse to the barn near his house and Zuko waited for him. He turned his head and a rooster pig crowed at him. A man came out from the house and looked at him.
"You a friend of Lee's?" he asked. Zuko looked in surprise when the Shinjun boy from before followed him out. He smiled at Zuko, but he didn't smile back. Lee came running out from the barn house to his father.
"This guy just stood up to the soldiers!" He said, "By the end, he practically had them running away!" The boy's mother came up to the group, wiping her hands on a cloth.
"Does this guy have a name?" She asked.
"I'm… Uh…" Zuko looked down the ground, trying to think of a name to give.
"He doesn't have to say who he is if he doesn't want to, Sila." The father said, "Anyone who can hold his own against those bully soldiers is welcome here. Those men should be ashamed to wear Earth Kingdom uniforms."
"The real soldiers are off fighting in the war," Sila said, "Like Lee's big brother, Sen Su." Zuko stole a glance to the boy, who smiled at his brother's name. "Supper's going to be ready soon, would you like to stay?"
"I can't." Zuko replied quickly, "I should be moving on."
"We already have one guest," The father said, trying to get him to stay, "What's one more?" Zuko looked over at the Shinjun, who smiled back at him.
"Gonzu could use some help on the barn, and our other guest is already helping us." Sila said, telling him he was staying whether he wanted to or not, "Why don't you three work for a while, and then we'll eat." Zuko didn't protest. The sound of food was enough to convince him to stay, if only for the night.
Zuko stood on his knees on the roof of Gonzu's barn with him and the Shinjun he met earlier. Lee stood on the ladder behind him, watching them work. Gonzu and the boy both had experience as working men, because they were able to nail in the plates with expert hands, or one expert hand. Zuko, however, had no experience in labor of any kind, so he held his hammer with both hands and hammered in nail after nail on a single plate to make sure it would stay there.
"You don't seem like you're from around here." Lee observed as he watched Zuko work.
"Mm-mm." Zuko confirmed, shaking his head.
"Where are you from then?" Lee persisted.
"Far away." Zuko said, pulling the hammer back to hit the nail with the proper force.
"Ohh." Lee murmured, "Where're you going?" Zuko stopped mid-swing when he spoke, glancing at the young boy.
"Lee, give it a rest." Gonzu ordered, "Stop asking the man personal questions, got it?" Lee let out a disappointed sigh.
"Yes." He groaned out. Zuko pulled the hammer back again and just before he nailed in the hammer, Lee asked, "So how'd you get that scar?" In his surprise, Zuko's hand went slightly off the course he had set for it, and hit his thumb.
"It's not nice to bother people about things they might not want to talk about." Gonzu said, "A man's past is his business."
"I'm with you." The boy said, pointing to Gonzu.
"You're just saying that because you wouldn't tell me about your scar!" Lee accused, the boy rolled his eyes at Lee.
"The past sounds like 'The passed' for a reason." The boy said, "That's where it belongs." He went back to hammering in the nails, as did Zuko.
Zuko looked up as the boy he had met in the village earlier came and sat next to him at the dinner table.
"And here we thought you were leaving tomorrow." Sila said with a teasing grin on her face as she looked at him. The boy let a small blush come onto his cheeks and he smiled sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head.
"Yeah, well, I'm not very good with long distances." He said before letting out a small chuckle. "I didn't get too far from the village before I had to rest, then I saw this guy come along, with no water in his canteen," He pointed his thumb at Zuko, "And, I guess I just got caught up in it all. Thanks for letting me stay another night, by the way."
"It's our pleasure." Gonzu said, "Alright, everyone dig in!" Everyone but Zuko gave a blessing over the food before eating. Zuko was hesitant about eating the food, but he was so hungry he didn't really care anymore. Sila was a good cook, he had to admit. It had been a very long time since he had eaten food this good. All throughout dinner, light conversations were made. Lee still bugged Zuko about his past, and his father would scold him. He would do the same to the boy, and he scolded him again. The mother made conversations a little less awkward by asking less personal questions. Simply asking how their travels were going and what they thought of the farm.
When dinner ended, they told Zuko and the boy that they would be sleeping in the barn since they had no spare bedrooms to offer either of them. They both accepted the terms and the boy bid the family goodnight before going after Zuko, who had started walking over to the barn without a word to the family.
Zuko lay in the hay a few feet away from the boy, unable to find sleep.
"Hey." The boy whispered in the darkness, "You awake?"
"Yeah." Zuko replied. He heard the sound of the hay moving, meaning that the boy was shifting positions.
"I never got your name." He said, Zuko didn't reply, keeping his mouth shut and acting as if he didn't hear him. After a beat of silence the boy continued, "If I tell you my name, will you tell me yours?"
"No." Zuko muttered in the darkness, trying to get the boy to leave him alone.
"It's Kotaro." The boy whispered, "Of the Rakurai clan. Though, I doubt you've heard of us." Zuko didn't reply, trying to find sleep, but still finding himself listening to the boy's story, "We were kind of killed off when the Fire Nation took over the village we had on Wale Tail Island down south. My family managed to escape, and we came to the Earth Kingdom, and found a new village to stay in." Kotaro smiled as he moved to lie on his back, "I was just a little kid back then, and I met the most amazing girl… We ended up becoming more than just friends, and performing the hanbun tamashi ceremony."
"The what?" Zuko asked, unfamiliar with Shinjun terms and traditions, so he knew nothing about Shinjun ceremonies.
"It's a ceremony that bonds two souls together for eternity." Kotaro explained quickly, "I did that with the girl, since we weren't old enough to get married yet."
"Of course you were going to marry her." Zuko muttered, it was a love story. Why did this Shinjun suddenly feel the need to tell him a love story he had no interest in hearing about? He decided to make him shut up as quickly as he could, "So what? Did the Fire Nation raid your village and kill her?"
"No." Kotaro said, "We survived, the both of us, and we were taken to the Fire Nation as slaves." Kotaro's smile disappeared from his face, "That was the last time I saw her, actually…"
"Is she dead?" Zuko asked.
"No." Kotaro replied instantly, sounding certain of himself, "She's still alive. She's run away from the Fire Nation and escaped to the Earth Kingdom."
"How do you know?" Zuko asked snappishly, starting to wonder if he would ever be quiet.
"I don't." Kotaro said, "Well, I don't know for sure, anyway. But I know she's still alive somewhere." He unconsciously put his hand over his heart, "If she died, I would feel it, deep inside myself. Half my soul would be gone, because she would have died with it. I once met a man who lost his best friend, who had done the hanbun tamashi ceremony with him, and died a few months later. He said he always felt like there was a hole in his chest because that other half of him was gone."
"Okay, Kotaro?" Zuko said, turning to face him in the darkness, "What can I do to get you to stop talking?" He sent him a fierce glare that made Kotaro grimace a bit.
"Sorry, I'll stop talking if you tell me your name." He said, Zuko groaned and turned onto his side, his back facing the wolf-boy.
"Lu Ten." He said, he couldn't tell him his real name, so he picked the name of his dead cousin instead.
"Nice name." Kotaro commented, "Well, then goodnight, Lu Ten."
"Good night." Zuko said stiffly, finally glad to have some peace and quiet. When he heard footsteps outside the barn, he inwardly groaned. When the door opened, he carefully cracked open one of his eyes and saw it was Lee, sneaking into the barn. He tiptoed past Zuko and Kotaro, who both feigned sleep. Lee walked over to where Zuko had hung his Dao blades and picked them up off the wall before tiptoeing out. Zuko waited a moment before going after him, fearing that he might steal away his swords to sell them.
He went outside and found him in their family's sunflower patch that grew outside the pig pens. He sliced at one flower and another, pretending to fight an enemy. Zuko allowed himself a small smirk. Lee must've been only, what, eleven-twelve maybe? Of course he had no interest in selling them, just using them. Zuko noticed the way Lee used the blades was the wrong way, typical of any amateur who fought with Dao blades for the first time. As Lee began to stab the hollowed out tree trunk in the fields, Zuko decided to let his presence be known to him.
"You're holding them all wrong." He said casually, his words sent Lee flying back in surprise. He came up, one of the chopped off flowers resting on his head. He had a guilty look on his face as he handed the swords back to Zuko. He took them from his hands and kept speaking, "Keep in mind, these are dual swords." He brought the two swords together, "Two halves of a single weapon." He stepped back and began showing him the right way to use them, "Don't think of them as separate, because they're not. They're just two different parts of the same whole." He turned and slashed a flower cleanly off its stem. He walked back over to Lee and handed him the Dao blades. Lee took them and began using them as Zuko had said, as a single weapon instead of two separate ones. He slashed at the flowers some more before running for the tree trunk and slashing it as he jumped off it. He looked to Zuko for approval, and Zuko smiled, nodding his head. Lee smiled back.
"I think you'd really like my brother, Sen Su." Lee said as he and Zuko began walking back, "He used to show me stuff like this all the time." Zuko listened as Lee began to talk about his older brother, waving goodbye as he headed back into the barn, and Lee went back to the house.
In the morning, Zuko sat atop his ostrich horse, looking at the family that had taken him in, as well as Kotaro. Sila walked over to them and held out two bento boxes.
"Here," She said, handing them to both teenagers, "These ought to get you through a few meals." Kotaro smiled, taking off his hat and bowing in thanks. Zuko noticed his two white wolf ears as he did so.
"Much obliged." Kotaro said, "I promise, I won't come asking to burden you again tonight."
"I should hope not!" Gonzu laughed as he came over. Kotaro stood up straight again and smiled sheepishly, showing his elongated canines in his smile, "We may have food, but you eat as if you're three times your size!"
"Really?" Kotaro said, "I always thought it was for only twice my size." The family laughed, but Zuko's face remained emotionless and silent. Zuko looked up as he heard the sound of rumbling and saw dust rising in the distance. The soldiers who had seen earlier were coming to the farm on armored ostrich horses. Everyone else noticed as well. Gonzu regarded their presence with distaste.
"What do you think they want?" He asked aloud, looking at the soldiers.
"Trouble." Zuko answered. The soldiers rode closer to them, catching the attention of all the pig animals on the farm, making them squeal and oink loudly. They stopped a few feet away from them.
"What do you want, Gao?" Gonzu asked the leader.
"Just thought someone ought to tell you your son's battalion got captured." Gao began with a sick grin, Zuko heard Lee's breath catch in his throat at the news. Gao turned to the other soldiers, "You boys hear what the Fire Nation did with their last group of Earth Kingdom prisoners?"
"Dressed 'em up in Fire Nation uniforms and put them on the front line unarmed way I heard it." One soldier responded, before spitting out onto the ground beside his ostrich horse, "Then they just watched."
"You watch your mouth!" Gonzu growled at him. Gao, not happy with the way his subordinate had been addressed, began to move closer to him. Zuko moved his horse out in front of Gonzu and blocked Gao's path. The two glared at each other for a moment before Gao spoke again.
"Why bother rooting around in the mud with these pigs?" Gao said, turning his ostrich horse around and leading the troops back into the village. Once they were gone, Zuko looked back to the family to see Gonzu embracing his wife, who looked close to tears.
"What's gonna happen to my brother?" Lee asked worriedly.
"I'm going to the front." Gonzu said firmly, pulling away from his wife, "I'm going to find Sen Su and bring him back." Sila let out a few tears and Gonzu began to lead her back to the house. Lee ran up to Zuko.
"When my dad goes, will you stay?" He asked, looking up at him. Kotaro looked at the young boy sadly and turned away from him, starting to walk back to the village.
"No." Zuko said, not looking at Lee, "I need to move on." He reached into his pack and pulled out a pearl dagger and handed it to him. "Here, I want you to have this. Read the inscription." Lee took the knife and pulled it out.
"'Made in Earth Kingdom'." He read.
"The other one." Zuko said. Lee flipped it over and read the inscription that Zuko had wanted him to read.
"'Never give up without a fight'." Lee read. It was then that Zuko decided to take his leave, whipping the reigns of the ostrich horse and making it go towards the village so he could leave. He didn't see Lee run after him for a few feet before watching him ride into the distance.
A little while later, Zuko saw that Kotaro had left the village, waving goodbye and wishing him luck on his journey, and Zuko did the same.
Kotaro stared blankly at his compass. It was nothing more than a magnet that he suspended on a string in the air. He chewed on the inside of his cheek as he thought.
"Okay, if north is that way…" He mumbled to himself, "Then east is this way… No, wait, that's west isn't it?" He huffed out a groan, "Okay, east is right and west is left, so…" He groaned to himself, "I really need to get a map." He looked back to the village and put the magnet away in his pocket. He got up and went back to the village to look for a vendor who sold a map of the Earth Kingdom. As he walked further into the market place, he saw the soldiers standing around something. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the group. When one of the soldiers moved to the side, he saw that they had Lee tied up against a pole. He growled at them, his mouth curling into a snarl, the hairs on his tail bristling at the sight.
He heard the steps of clawed feet and turned to see the young man he had come to know as Lu Ten riding in on his ostrich horse. Lee looked up as he walked by the Shinjun and closer to them, and smiled.
"There he is!" Lee exclaimed happily, "I told you he'd come!" The soldiers around the kid stood up and walked forward, making sure Zuko didn't go past them. Zuko dismounted from the horse and walked closer to the soldiers, glaring at the leader.
"Let the kid go." Zuko said in a dark voice. Gao burst into laughter.
"Who do you think you are?" Gao demanded of Zuko, "Telling us what to do."
"It doesn't matter who I am." Zuko said, "But I know who you are. You're not soldiers, you're bullies. Freeloaders, abusing your power. Mostly over women and kids. You don't want Lee in your army. You're sick cowards messing with a family who's already lost one son to the war." There was a beat of silence before Gao turned to his men.
"Are you gonna let this stranger stand there and insult you like this?" He asked of his men. One of his soldiers took the hint and held his bisento out and ready. He charged at Zuko, who sidestepped his attack and sent him back by hitting him with the hilt of his Dao blades. The soldier crawled away in fear as another one charged at Zuko. Zuko nimbly avoided the blow and knocked the bisento to the side as he pushed his hand against the soldier's forehead and pushed him to the ground. The soldier ran away from him as soon as Zuko released him. The last soldier charged at Zuko and before he even had a chance to land his blow, Zuko kicked up his foot and broke the blade of the bisento off of the stick. The soldier stood there for a moment, dumbfounded, before running away like the others. Kotaro looked at the young man, impressed at the fact he was skilled enough to send three Earth Kingdom soldiers running with their tails between their legs without even drawing his swords.
Gao was the last one standing to face him. He pulled out his mallets and got into a fighting stance. Zuko pulled out his own blades in preparation for his fight against Gao. Gao plunged one mallet into the ground and made a rock come up. He hit the rock with his mallet and made it go flying at Zuko. He cut the rock away with his swords before it ever hit. He glared fiercely at Gao as he made more rocks come up and sent each one of them at Zuko. It was easy for him to block them at first, but as more rocks came in larger numbers, it was more challenging. It was hard to fight against an earth bender when you can't even use your own bending. One of the rocks knocked Zuko back, when he stood he wasn't facing Gao, so he didn't see him get ready to attack him again.
"Look out!" Kotaro called from the crowd that had gathered.
"Behind you!" Lee called. Zuko heard them both but didn't turn in time to properly defend himself from the attack. Gao brought up an onslaught of rocks and sent them at Zuko, he was able to block most of them before they did any really bad damage, but they kept pushing him back until Gao brought up another boulder that knocked him down onto his back. In his pain, he felt his eyes shut and he lay there.
"Get up!" Lee whispered as Gao came closer to Zuko's body, ready to deliver the final blow. Zuko's eyes shot open and grabbed his swords, fire bursting out from his fists, knocking Gao on his back. Everyone gaped at the sight of the young man surrounded by flames. Gao jumped up and got into a fighting stance, ready to defend himself as Zuko came running towards him, shooting waves of fire at the Earth Kingdom soldier. When Gao brought up a stone to defend himself against the blast of fire coming towards him, it was broken off by the sheer force the flame gave and pushed him back into a building, making all kinds of rubble fall on top of him and trapping him there.
"Who… Who are you?" Gao rasped as he saw Zuko walk over to him.
"My name is Zuko!" He declared proudly as he sheathed his Dao blades, "Son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai! Prince of the Fire Nation and heir to the throne!" Kotaro felt his eyes bug out of his head. Prince Zuko? The Prince Zuko? The prince of the nation who imprisoned and enslaved his people? Murmurs of shock pulsed through the crowd as they took in this information.
"Liar!" An old man called from his place in the crowd, "I heard a' you! You're not a prince, you're an outcast! His own father burned and disowned him!" Kotaro looked back to Zuko, specifically the scar on his face. He had heard the rumors, but he never thought them to be true. His master never spoke of the prince, so he never really knew the truth. When he had heard the rumor about being burned and disowned at thirteen, Kotaro wouldn't believe it, saying no father in his right mind would burn and banish his own son. He watched as Zuko took a step closer to Gao, who cowered in fear. Zuko pulled something from his belt and Kotaro saw it was pearl dagger. He walked over to where Lee was being untied by his mother. When she realized he was coming to them, she stepped in front of her son in a protective manner.
"Not a step closer!" She warned. Lee looked out behind his mother and saw Zuko kneel down, holding out the dagger.
"It's yours, you should have it." Zuko said.
"No! I hate you!" Lee said before turning around and leaving him there. Kotaro offered no words of comfort to the prince or any words in his defense to the crowd. He hated his people and his family for everything they had done, but he couldn't find it in his heart to hate the young prince.
He watched from the shadows as he rode out of the town, some of the villagers giving him hateful looks as he passed them. He saw Lee was one of them, but didn't look directly at the fire bender. He glared at the ground beneath his feet instead. Kotaro moved silently through the streets, quickly purchasing a map and walking away from the city. He wouldn't trouble Lee and his family again, he would camp out under the stars tonight instead. He looked up into the darkening dusk sky, seeing the first stars beginning to shine through the sunlight. He let out a small sigh, his hand resting over his heart. How he missed his beloved Hoshiko. He knew, though, once he reached the Shinjun encampment near Ba-Sing-Se, it would only be a matter of time before he was reunited with those he loved.
Hey peoples! I saw this episode and I was inspired to put in a little story. So I decided to make Zuko meet Kotaro and all that stuff.
Please review! I feel so unwanted when people don't review.