A. N. : As I begin my 4th notebook, I start to wonder if I'll ever reach Book 3. Maybe there is no Book 3. Maybe I just imagined it. I take a look at the calendar. The year is 2006. There is noo Book 3. There never was.
The Duke doesn't think he likes ships.
They move and stink and make him sick. Not to the point of throwing up – not too much – but sick enough to make him believe these Water guys are crazy.
Dressing up is fun though – he was the one to find all the clothes so they let him keep a helmet. The armor is too big, but he likes to go around wearing it sometimes – just not when Jet is looking at him, which is not too often because he gets sick a lot.
One more reason not to like ships. At least Pipsqueak and Toph are still playing with him.
Toph is awesome. She's like Smellerbee, but less serious. And she makes this really cool metalbending thing – once, she got angry with a guy and she locked him up in a closet and Zuko had to convince her to open the door.
He's a funny guy, that Zuko. Snarky and awkward and easy to anger – and that's fun – and more importantly he's friends with Toph. The Duke thinks Jet would like him, but they never talk together. They never even stand in the same room if they don't have to.
Jet always messes up Zuko's name and calls him Li. And then he gets angry. And then he puts his head in his hands and makes a noise like a chicken-cow. It's really strange.
The adults are being strange with Zuko too. They call him The Prince and act like he's going to hurt someone. They look scared.
Zuko is a firebender, that The Duke knows. It was surprising at first, because Jet always said firebenders are mean and monsters and Zuko is nice – grumpy but nice – but Lin makes sparks too and she's a baby and Earth, so now The Duke thinks it's not the fire that's mean, it's the people. If he can understand that, the adults should get it too, right ?
Adults are dumb. The Duke never wants to become like that.
The thing is, Jet is neither dumb nor an adult and The Duke very much wants to become like him once he grows up – but he looks scared of Zuko too. And Jet is never scared so it really doesn't make sense.
Maybe Zuko did something bad then ? But he seems scared of Jet – ugh, it's all so strange –
Toph said they should lock them up in a room and wait until they either solve things or die. The Duke mostly agrees – except for the dying part – but then Sokka's dad would probably make them clean up afterwards – Jet get really sick when he's inside the ship – and The Duke hates cleaning.
He also hates it when Jet is acting strange though, so he's not really sure of what he should do.
Pipsqueak said to leave Jet alone with his problems, that he trusts him to solve them on his own, but The Duke knows it's a lie. Pipsqueak doesn't trust Jet anymore, not since they blew up the dam and they watched all the water come down on Gaipan.
Well, it's true that Jet looked scary then – terrifying when they found him frozen to that tree and he kept screaming – but The Duke thinks Pipsqueak is going too far and just being mean. Jet saved them after all.
Sometimes, The Duke likes to imagine Jet is his real dad. It's not quite the same as when mom was here, but it's the next best thing.
It's a secret though. The others would laugh and Pipsqueak wouldn't agree, not anymore, and The Duke love Pipsqueak almost as much as he loves Jet.
It must be nice, not having to imagine you have a dad. Even Longshot and Sneers more or less know where they come from, even if their father is Fire and mean. The Duke doesn't, not at all. Mom never wanted to talk about it.
He hopes his dad was as cool as Jet. Or like Sokka's dad, strong and nice – he even talks with Zuko a lot, even if he's an adult. Or like Zuko, caring and soft and always doing his best – even when Lin set Sokka's arm hair on fire during lunch and everyone was panicking.
The Duke giggles. That was fun. Especially when Katara waterbended the fire away and Sokka got completely soaked. His face was hilarious. And the way he said thanks Katara was even better.
Zuko got really angry at the adults after that though. Something about Lin's parents, The Duke didn't really understand. Just that Zuko was angry, the room was horribly hot, and Jet looked like he was feeling bad. Not sick, just – bad. Toph was angry too.
After that, Zuko was a bit cold to everyone except Toph. It was then that she sticked a guy into a closet.
She got angry at Zuko when he told her to free the guy, but in the end she did it.
Adults aren't the only strange ones.
That's another thing The Duke doesn't like with this place. It doesn't make sense, not like the forest. Everything is complicated. Firebenders are nice too, some people don't like their dad even when he's nice, people are mean for no reason, Jet is scared.
The floor moves and the air stinks because of the coal.
No, definitely, The Duke doesn't like ships.