You know when you don't touch a fic for a thousand years and have to skim old chapters because you can't remember how you characterized anyone? Yeah, it's a pain with longer fics BUT I'M JUST GETTING STARTED WITH THIS ONE SO LET'S GO! YOU THOUGHT IT WAS DEAD? THINK AGAIN I NEVER ABANDON A FIC - IT AIN'T GONE TIL I'M DEAD AH
I had debated starting the stronger divergence of the episodes from the original show in this chapter; but by the time I'd started to seriously consider it, I'd already written a good portion of this chapter, and I liked it, so it gets to stay. In the next chapter I'll start to diverge from the original series' episode plots more. I have it outlined, and it takes a pretty hard turn out from the original episode plots pretty much immediately. So, I took this opportunity to explore more of Zuko's character, and some Fire Nation head canons, as a treat. It's a long one, b/c I wanted to get a lot of stuff in on this one, so I hope you don't mind the word count lol (13,500+)
Enjoy!
Chapter 8: Fire and Family
Aang was hunched over a slab of ice he'd made (rather clunkily, but he was learning so the fact he'd made ice so quickly was impressive itself. He and Katara had been practicing new moves and improving their skills rapidly since using the scroll) and shaving what little hair had started to grow from his scalp. Zuko had stared at him as he'd done so, mentally face palming that he had just assumed Aang was bald naturally, so hard that Aang's question had at first completely passed over him.
"What?" Zuko asks.
"Do the Armadillo Bears come towards towns?" Aang asks, shaking the sharpened bone piece in the water.
"No, Armadillo Bears don't come near people. Why would they?"
"I don't know. You're sure they don't?" Aang asks warily. He tilted his head around, feeling the back for any stray lines of hair.
Zuko shot him a tired look. He should have told him a different "fun fact" about the Fire Nation. Armadillo Bears were formidable, but they didn't typically eat people. Seeing one was usually a freak encounter if you were dumb enough to go off-path between towns. He should have told him about the trees that were red year-round instead.
"Yes. I'm sure. The only way you'd come across one is if you walked into its territory. They avoid people," Zuko explained. "You can't easily get lost into their territory, either, they have a tendency to mark the trees, so it's easy to see when you're getting into their range."
"How do they do that?" Katara asks idly.
"Dragging their claws along the bark," Zuko said absently, mimicking the motion with his hand.
He'd been trying to read this map for almost an hour now (in small part his own fault for letting himself get distracted) and none of the landmarks looked familiar. He was probably looking in the wrong place. He flipped it upside down, hoping that would somehow tell him something new. If this was a sign of insanity, he'd rather not think about that.
"Are they as big as Armadillo Lions?" Aang asks, bending the ice back into water and tossing it into the river. Sokka ducked as the splash of water flew past him.
"Hey!"
"Sorry, Sokka!"
Zuko hummed, trying to recall if he'd ever seen an Armadillo Lion. He had traveled far enough south with the ship, hadn't he? He could recall staying on board most of the time when they only stopped on the shorelines to resupply on their way to different Air Temples. He hadn't been given maps dedicated to any single travel line when they'd initially left. He hadn't gone off the boat until they'd reached the first Air Temple that first year, as he hadn't felt a need to. But, he could recall a day that they'd spotted an Armadillo Lion and its cubs on the shore of the coast.
"No," Zuko says slowly, mentally guessing the size of the last Armadillo Bear he'd seen. "I think they're bigger, actually."
"Bigger?!" Sokka shouted, almost slipping and falling completely into the water.
Zuko rolled the map up with a huff. He'd gotten far better at reading nautical charts, clearly. He'd have to practice reading maps in his off time. He packed away his things and glanced up at Aang to find he'd started to weave something.
"What are you doing?" he asks.
"Hm? I'm making a bracelet!" Aang announces. "If we wanted jewelry at the temple, we made it. It was great practice for patience and diligence, according to the monks, but I think it's just fun."
"They taught you how to weave with…. Is this the fishing line?" Zuko asks.
He held the end of the line that Aang was carefully weaving around a flower. It was an impressive weaving pattern, he'd give him that, and one that he could tell would hold the flower in place for a long time. He hadn't seen intricate weaving like this since his time in the palace, with baskets weaved to hold heavy loads, but also serve to be decorative when they were set in the halls of the storage rooms and the kitchens. He'd always wondered how the weavers managed to get the pattern just right, failing spectacularly when he'd tried by candlelight in his room on sleepless nights.
"Well, Sokka wasn't using it," Aang says sheepishly.
"Okay, but. This isn't going to be usable again," Zuko points out. "Unless you want to unravel it."
"No!" Aang says hastily, pulling the line close to himself.
Zuko paused before gently taking the end of the line in his hand again, holding it aloft as Aang finished the weave and tied off the end. He bit the end of the line off with his teeth, finishing off the bracelet. Sokka rushed past them both, grabbing the fishing rod, and then rushing back to the river's border. He swung the line a few times before pulling it back and gaping at the rod.
"Wh—where's the fishing line?" Sokka asks.
"Uh…"
Sokka turned to him expectantly. "I, uh… I didn't think you'd need it," Aang admits. He held up the bracelet proudly. "So, I wove it!"
Sokka regarded the line. Zuko stood and patted his shoulder reassuringly when Sokka seemed stuck in place.
"It's not viable," he says. Sokka groaned, throwing the rod and instead grabbing his spear. Aang turned to Zuko, holding up the line.
"Do you want to give it a try?" he asks.
"The weaving?" Zuko asks.
Aang nodded enthusiastically, starting to straighten the line between his fingers. He handed the line off to Zuko, who sat beside him, and started to unwind the rest of the line. Katara took up the spot on his other side, watching as Aang held the line so it didn't drag along the dirt while Zuko would be weaving. If Zuko were frank, he wasn't very confident in his skills. His attempts were laughable when he was a kid, and he doubted that his coordination had improved much. He wasn't exactly practicing calligraphy in his off time on the ship.
"Let's try a fishtail bracelet," Aang begins. He measured out the line, biting off a few equal lengths and stretching them out. Sokka was shouting from the river, grappling a fish now.
"Should you help him?" Zuko asks, leaning around Aang's shoulder to Katara. Katara smirked, watching Sokka struggle in the water.
"He'll get it eventually," she says. "Besides, if he gives up, I'll just bend it out of the river for him to spear. Aang, you have enough food for dinner, right?"
"Yeah! I found some berries earlier this morning I can have with it instead," Aang says. he clenched the ends of the fishing line in his fingers, dangling the ends at Zuko until he grasped them all. "Okay, so I'll be the anchor—"
A loud roar ripped through the air behind the camp. Aang abandoned the weaving lesson, Bending up to a rock to survey the land. Zuko sighed, dropping the line in defeat.
"Someone's being attacked by a Platypus Bear!"
Katara and Sokka rushed down the pathway along the river where Aang was pointing. Zuko ran his hand through his hair. Of course it had to be a Platypus Bear. It just had to be a Platypus Bear. At least it wasn't an Armadillo Bear, but it was still a huge animal, and this one was apparently violent. He trudged up the path towards where Aang had finally stopped atop another rock, almost moving around it before he stopped short.
He was getting far, far too comfortable with them to forget who he was to everyone else. His face wasn't exactly mundane. He wasn't eager to be recognized by a stranger before he could get a good grasp on how much the locals knew about "the banished prince". They were somewhat inland, though, so perhaps he was in the clear? He didn't have a way to hide his face aside from the hood patch-worked onto his shawl, or the Blue Spirit mask he'd stowed away from the ship.
He quickly abandoned that idea. There was no natural way to explain away wearing that casually. Maybe one day he'd be desperate enough to try and come up with a story for why, but he wasn't that desperate yet. It was so easy to just say he was burnt in an accident. It was his own anxiety that kept him from believing that'd work. Iroh always told him to expect the best of people. The best for him would be people blissfully believing what he claimed without question. How convenient that'd be.
He heard laughter from around the bolder and peered around it. The man was laughing as he barely dodged the swings from an animal three times his size. Yes, this is clearly a sane person, Zuko thinks.
He shook his head, looking past the gang and surveying the area. The leaves of the trees were high enough above the Platypus Bear he didn't feel he had to worry about them. The water of the river was well within Bending range for Katara as well, so the moment he took his stance and sent off the flames, he wasn't surprised to see Katara shift into a Bending stance herself.
The flames wafted slightly over the Platypus Bear's head. It wasn't close enough to catch its fur on fire, but it was effective to make it rush towards the river and dive under the water with a whimper. The man remained crouched at a nearby tree, watching Zuko. Or, equally likely, watching the massive Sky Bison lumbering up behind him. Appa gave a lumbering grunt, something between a yawn and a growl—but Zuko couldn't really tell—and huffed, blowing Zuko's shawl over his head. He tore it off, shooting Appa a glare as Aang leapt off his boulder.
"It's okay," Aang says quickly. "He's a friend. He's with us."
"And it's lucky for you that we came along," Sokka says. "That Platypus Bear almost killed you! Like, a dozen times!"
"…I see. Thank you, but I was perfectly safe. Aunt Wu had predicted a safe journey," the man said, bowing in thanks.
"Safe?" Sokka asks incredulously. "May I remind you of the platypus bear?"
"Um, who is Aunt Wu?" Katara asks.
"She's the fortune-teller from my village."
"I guess that explains why you were so calm," Katara says.
"No, it doesn't!" Sokka shouted. "Plus, she was wrong! You were almost killed! Multiple times!"
Zuko refrained from rolling his eyes. Uncle Iroh would no doubt be begging to meet the woman himself if he were with them. Fortune-telling was considered a spiritual ability within the Fire Nation—they were held in high positions, and highly sought after—unless proven a fraud, that is. Regardless, he'd never seen much use in meeting one. Even Iroh hadn't suggested seeing one in their years of travel. Spirits or not, future telling wasn't something he felt was particularly feasible.
"But, I wasn't!" the man says proudly. Sokka groaned, slapping his hand to his forehead. Zuko patted his shoulder again.
"Not worth it," he whispered.
"Ah, Aunt Wu said if I met travelers that I give them this," the man says, taking a wrapped item off his back to hand off to Aang. "Alright, have a good one."
The man bowed once more and started down the path. Zuko watched him go until he'd disappeared around a corner. He turned back to Aang, raising his brow. "Is that… normal in this part of the world?" he asks. Aang shrugged.
"I don't know. I didn't leave the temple very often except to visit some friends in other nations. But, I've never met a fortune-teller. I kind of want to," Aang confessed. Zuko turned to Katara and Sokka next for an answer. Sokka simply shrugged, uninterested.
"We don't have any fortune-tellers at home, so we've never met one, either," Katara admits. "She must be right often enough if he was so calm even after meeting a platypus bear."
"He's placing too much trust in someone's words," Zuko says, a twinge of bitterness to his voice. He shrugged Sokka's hand off his shoulder when he felt it ghosting over the fabric. "I meant the lack of self-preservation."
Sokka snorted, slapping his knee. "Well, at least I'm not the only one who sees something weird with the 'fortune-teller this' and 'Aunt Wu' that."
"Sokka, you can't just assume that he was lying," Katara scolded. "What if he really believes she's a fortune teller?"
"Even if he does, he's probably getting scammed," Sokka grumbled. "And it almost cost him his life!"
"Running from a platypus bear isn't the best idea, anyway, they can catch up pretty quickly. His best bet would have been to climb these rocks," Aang says. "But, I'm interested! I wonder what my fortune would be…"
"We should go and see, it could be fun!" Katara suggests with a sparkle in her eye.
Zuko grimaced. Aang was already nodding along as he unwrapped the parcel he'd been handed, so convincing him otherwise seemed unlikely. He popped the umbrella open, throwing it over his head with a smile. Not moments later, Zuko felt rain starting to fall on his shoulders. He had enough time to throw his hood over his head before it started to rain heavier, eat least. If worse came to worse he'd sidle up close to Appa and use his fur to block some of the rain. Katara Bended the water off her clothes into a small arc above her, rushing under the umbrella to huddle next to Aang. Sokka stood soaking in the rain alongside Zuko.
"Want a hood?" Zuko offered.
"Or want to join us?" Katara asks, gesturing to the umbrella.
Zuko looked to Sokka, raising a brow at him when he raised the egg over his head to try and block the downpour. It did absolutely nothing for him - the rain simply rolling down the sides and draining on his head regardless. Zuko drew his hood further over his head, shaking out his hair from under the flap.
"I'm fine," he says. He pointed to Sokka. "He could use a water umbrella, though."
"I do not!" Sokka shouted. "Screw this. If it's pouring rain, we might as well pack up and go to town."
"If we'd known there was a town we wouldn't have stopped," Katara mumbled.
Since most of the camp hadn't been set up past the tents it didn't take long for them to tear it all down. Katara Bended the water out of all their supplies, using it as the base for the water umbrellas to keep it all dry until Zuko and Sokka could store it all on Appa's back and cover it all. Zuko couldn't help but notice that if Appa was just a little taller, he might have been able to take shelter under the bison's chin rather than keeping the bison's tail aloft as a cover. Sokka was trudging beside him, soaked through his clothes, and looking about as annoyed at the universe as ever, but no longer getting poured upon. He caught sight of some familiar orange and yellow in his peripheral and turned to see Aang, practicing the water umbrella as he slowed down to match their paces instead of Katara in the lead.
"Zuko, aren't you cold?" Aang asks.
"Not really. Firebenders naturally run hotter, and Uncle Iroh taught me breathing techniques if I do get cold," Zuko says. He readjusted his cloak hood, quick to put his hand back up to keep Appa's tail aloft. "Mostly for when we were sailing in colder waters."
"That's how specified you can get with it?" Sokka asks.
"It's more than that," Zuko says idly. "I'm sure Katara could Bend some ice to cool herself off in hot weather."
"Oh. That's a good idea…" Aang mumbles, looking out at the rain. He ran up to Katara. "Hey, Katara! Have you ever Bended water into ice to cool off?"
"H-huh?"
"We didn't really have a summer," Sokka muttered.
Oh. Right. Stupid question, Zuko thought, sighing.
They stopped short of the village, leaving Appa to rest under a canopy of trees as the rain started to let up. After entering the gate, Katara was the first to ask about where Aunt Wu would be. In hindsight, they could have guessed where she was, as it was the only building on or near the entire central square of the village with someone monitoring the door. The man guarding the door beckoned them inside with a wave.
"Aunt Wu is expecting you," he says. Zuko gave him a quick nod on his way by. Once the door was shut, however, he threw off his cloak.
"You know he says that to everyone, right?" he asks.
"What, really?" Aang asks.
"…Aang… that's part of his job," Zuko says. He took one of the cushions from the large couch along the wall opposite the door and threw it on the ground to sit on. "It sells the whole premonition thing."
"Hello!" a young girl calls, entering the room. "My name is Meng, I'm Aunt Wu's assistant."
Sokka took a seat next to Zuko, ignoring the introductions. "So," he begins. "Did you have fortune tellers where you grew up?"
"Well. We kind of did," Zuko admits. He waited until Meng had left before starting again, keeping his voice low just to be safe. "Uncle believes in spirits more than a lot of people in the palace ever did. Fire Nation fortune tellers had to prove they had a connection to spirits to avoid being ousted as frauds."
"What happens if they can't?" Sokka asks. He gestured around them. "Like this house of lies."
"Try to have a more open mind, Sokka. Some things you can't explain. Plus, wouldn't it be nice to have some insight to your future?" Katara asks.
"It'd be nice, but don't rely on it," Zuko says, crossing his arms.
"Why not?"
"They can only tell you so much, even if they're really psychic. Besides, fortune tellers aren't necessarily going to know about your future. Sometimes the present takes precedent in their readings."
"How do you know so much about it if you never met one?" Aang asks.
"Like I said, Uncle really believes in the spirit world, and we do have fortune tellers in the Fire Nation," Zuko says. "Not sure I really believe in spirits, though."
"Oh, they're real," Sokka says, stretching out on the pillow.
"…I feel like that should be explained," Zuko says, poking his arm.
"I got spirit-knapped once," Sokka says, waving him off. "Aang got me back. I don't remember any of it, though."
"What?" Zuko asks. Meng returned with the tea, serving Aang first. Zuko shook Sokka's arm. "Hey, what did I just hear? You got taken. By a spirit. And you're just fine with that?"
"Like I said," Sokka says, grabbing his cup. "I don't remember any of it, so I'm not going to worry about it. Not worth the energy."
"He kind of just… walked out of the trees when Aang helped the spirit reconcile its rage," Katara explained, rubbing the edge of her teacup. Zuko looked down at Sokka with a mixture of awe and befuddlement.
"That might explain some things."
"Hey!" Sokka shot up, shooting him a glare. Zuko forcibly turned his head around when an older woman came out of the back room towards them.
"Welcome, young travelers. Now, who's ne… you," Aunt Wu pointed to Zuko. "Would you like to be next, young man?"
Zuko stared at her. Anxiety was already forming in his chest, growing with each silent second, until eventually, he stood and set his cup on the tray that had been left by Sokka. "…Sure."
"Don't get too cozy in there, Katara might drag you out to go herself," Sokka teased.
Katara threw him an embarrassed glare. Zuko rolled his eyes. Like hell he was staying back here longer than he had to. He closed the door behind them once they'd enter the room. Maybe he could make an excuse to leave halfway through. Or, if he was lucky, before she even began. Aunt Wu gestured to one of the cushions, sitting on the one beside him as they settled over the fire.
"Now, young man, you've become very traveled over the last few years, yes?" she asks nonchalantly.
"That's one way of describing it," Zuko deadpans.
He folded the shawl in his lap, lightly fidgeting with the fabric. Aunt Wu held her hand out, beckoning he do the same. Zuko hesitated a moment before holding his hand out, palm up. She looked it over, pouring her attention over the lines of his palm.
"Your Fate Line is very prominent, but patchy. Not surprising, though."
And just what does that mean, lady?
"Hm… your Head and Heart Lines are crossed. You're irritable. But they're faint. You're balancing yourself out, good boy, that's exactly what you need."
"…Thanks?"
"Let's see… and you've had to make some harsh choices in your time. That's a shame, you're too young for all of that."
"My Uncle would agree," Zuko mumbles. Aunt Wu hummed, the shadow of a jovial smile on her face, spreading his palm to see the lines better.
"My, my…" she lets his palm go, gesturing to the pan of bones behind them. "Pick a bone. One that feels right. And toss it into the center of the fire."
Zuko grabbed a rib bone, holding it in his palm and feeling the grooves in the surface. It would probably be a bad idea to light a flame with his own fire—even if the woman before him was a fortune teller, there was no telling if she actually knew. He tossed it into the flames. Aunt Wu watched as the cracks began to form.
"Oh, my… you will be met with struggles, but you've found people who can help you. You're to be a part of a great destiny! You are at a crossroads, with perils down each path," Aunt Wu leaned back, looking over to him. Zuko hadn't bothered to watch the bone. He'd zeroed in on her instead, watching her reactions. He hadn't been able to find any indication that she was pulling it all from thin air, but rather some actual contemplation in her words.
"Can you elaborate on that?" he asks.
"Your choices will shape your future, though I'm afraid to say that they will carry more weight than you think," Aunt Wu rested a finger on her chin. "Young man, you've been to a fortune teller before, haven't you?"
"No," Zuko admitted.
"Never? Even inside the Fire Nation?"
Zuko's fidgeting of the fabric halted. He stared at her, looking for any sign she'd either call for help or strike him herself. What did he know? She could have also been an Earthbender who just settled with fortune telling. Instead, Aunt Wu grabbed another bone, twiddling with it.
"Young man, I understand why you're cautious. You're not in a familiar land, but you're with a good group of friends. Don't waste that blessing."
It hadn't felt like a blessing at first. It was full stop just a kidnapping. And on a whim. Now, though, he was enjoying the freedom. It had been years since anyone treated him so equally aside from Iroh, he'd started to forget what that was like.
"Thank you," he says, hastily standing.
"I didn't mean to scare you off—"
"I think my friends would like a turn more than I would, ma'am. It's not that you scared me," Zuko assures her.
Contrarily, his hand was shaking a little under the fabric of his shawl. Maybe he should just toss all his Fire Nation garb, regardless of how dark the red or brown or black was, and just buy some random Earth Nation clothing if Katara couldn't make him anything else to wear like she had with the shoes. Once he was out of the room, he nodded his head towards the door a little more harshly than he'd intended.
"One of you go," he said, walking out of the Fortune House as fast as possible.
Once he was out, he started towards the gate. He could just rest on Appa for a while. Maybe bring him into town, even, and take a nap outside the Fortune House. The streets were a lot larger than he'd first thought, once you were past the gate. He reached Appa, climbing onto the saddle after greeting the bison, and paused at the edge.
The messenger bird was perched on one of the lumps that made up their belongings under the tarp. Zuko finished climbing into the saddle, undoing the tarp and pinning it to the side of the saddle to hang dry off Appa's side. The bird hopped onto his arm, holding his leg out as Zuko untied the small scroll, unfurling it. Confusion blossomed in his brain. It was just… tea recipes? Iroh had sent him tea recipes alongside an actual letter. Surely, he didn't think that Zuko missed his tea that much—actually, no that made sense. He sighed, running through the various teas he saw, pausing when he noticed a repeated discrepancy. Strokes were missing on some of the letters. He looked at the first few lines, picking them out and slowly recognizing the hidden code. Now that he was paying attention to them, the missing marks were deliberate. He'd helped Iroh create this system of coded message when he was a young boy. One simply had to build the characters using the missing strokes of paint. It took a long time to make even a short message out of it, so they'd never tried to implement it on the ship, but instead just to each other for practice when they got bored on long passages between ports.
"Wait outside town until I come back to give you the letter," he orders. The bird stared at him a moment before taking flight, resting within the branches of a nearby tree. Zuko patted Appa on the side. "And you can go into town, so let's go wait for the trio of idiots, yeah?"
Appa yawned, stood and headed for the gate. Zuko dug out his writing kit, only pausing to wave to people passing them by who stopped to stare at the wandering bison. Zuko grabbed the reigns, pulling lightly on the side to indicate where Appa had to turn. He pulled them taught to get the bison to stop in the square outside the Fortune House. Appa wasted no time in laying down with another yawn, curling up next to the central gazebo.
It was no more than ten, or perhaps fifteen, more minutes before the trio had exited the Fortune House. Zuko was almost done deciphering the tea recipes by the time they'd seen him. He ignored their talking of their fortunes while he focused for just a few moments longer. From what he could read, their letters were likely being intercepted. That wasn't a huge issue—but it was very annoying.
Zhao came to mind first. No doubt he was still around the same route as Iroh and the ship were. If he wanted to, he could easily intercept the letters. Zuko folded up the tea recipe, starting on his own response. Should he add the fortune teller? He wasn't sure it was necessary—and doubtless Iroh would probably question every coastal village about a fortune teller if he did, just to come and test her himself.
No, he wasn't going to subject her to that. As of yet, no guards had come rushing out for him. He hadn't been accosted by anyone. Even if he was on top of Appa, guards or whomever was the muscle in town would at least shout at him, yet it had been silent. He could probably start to relax a little. It was, however, growing a little harder to focus as more and more people were starting to gather in the square. Oddly enough, it didn't seem to be because of Appa, either. He glanced up, spotting the trio in the crowd. Momo caught his eye, launching off Aang to fly to him instead. Once he'd landed, he started spinning on the saddle, looking around for something.
"The messenger bird is outside of town, Momo."
Momo chirped at him, taking flight towards the gate. Zuko watched after him, a little stunned. He wasn't sure how smart the flying lemur was supposed to be, but that seemed… smarter than normal. He would come back to that later. He'd just about finished his response when Aang came rushing up to Appa.
"Hey, Zuko, want to hear our fortunes?" Aang called up to him.
"Not yet, I'm writing to Uncle Iroh."
"Oh! Tell him about my weaving technique!" Aang says, Bending his way up to him. Zuko gave him an almost fond look.
"Mhm."
"Can I draw how to do it?"
Zuko paused and looked up at Aang. He was leaned forward, hands clasped eagerly before him, with wide eyes. Zuko sighed. "…Grab a page."
"Yeah! Thank you!" Aang eagerly retrieved a new page, drawing quickly over it with notes for each step.
"I can't believe all these saps," Sokka grumbled. He climbed up Appa's tail, falling over into the saddle. "She just looked at some clouds and read from some pages! That's it!"
"Why do you care?" Zuko asks.
"Because it's nonsense!" Sokka shouted. Zuko raised a brow at him. He rolled Aang's addition to his letter up with it, fitting it into the scroll roll. He paused, looking at Aang.
"You didn't sign it, right?"
"I signed it 'from Lee'?"
"…Yeah, ok, that works," Zuko sighed. It wasn't going to hurt if Iroh thought he'd made a new friend for a while, anyway. He looked around, tucking the letter into his pocket. "Where's Katara?"
"She went rushing back to Aunt Wu," Sokka grumbled. "She's as brainwashed as the rest of these people, and we've been here for less than a day!"
"Hm. I take it you didn't get a good reading?" Zuko asks.
"She didn't even try," Sokka says, sitting up. "I bet she was vague as ever with Aang and Katara, too."
"Actually, she predicted I was part of a destiny with the fate of the world on the line, but I knew that," Aang says nonchalantly.
Way too nonchalantly for a twelve-year-old, in Zuko's opinion. He should probably try asking Iroh for some advice on that… in hindsight, concerning… behavior later. He'd probably had to deal with it on some level with him, anyway. After three years on the ship, no doubt, he'd reacted to something concerning with far too much apathy at least once.
"So, what did you end up asking about?" Zuko asks.
"What everyone asks fortune tellers about," Sokka says, looking at Aang teasingly. "Love~."
"Don't make fun," Aang says. "She said to follow my heart and I'd find the one I love."
"See? She keeps it vague, or open-ended, and it's sure to come true eventually. That's not real fortune telling!" Sokka says. Zuko hummed, slipping over the edge of the saddle and sliding down Appa's side, leaving them to it.
He wasn't sure, completely, if Aunt Wu was really a fortune teller or not. But, that she pegged him as Fire Nation was a little concerning. He wasn't exactly happy with her 'predictions', either. Not that he could do much about it, either way. He found the bird not far from where he'd left it, preening its feathers in a tree. He whistled, holding his arm out for it to land on. Once he'd secured the letter he let it off, watching it fly for a moment before turning back into town.
He couldn't help but overhear everyone. Aunt Wu predictions were the topic of conversation for so many villagers. So many of them doing certain tasks specifically because of a prediction. So many refusing certain tasks due to a prediction. He hummed, scowling around at the village. Did they all rely on Aunt Wu this much? She didn't even charge for readings, what was she making any kind of living off of, donations? Now that he was thinking about it, that might very well be it, actually. If one could get a free reading any time of the day, donations would probably be common just to keep that service going. Especially if they asked her about everything. Just how often was she right that they held this much belief in her words? This had to be some kind of bias he was seeing in action.
When he'd reached Appa again, he couldn't see Aang or Sokka atop him, nor were they milling about around the square anymore. Katara was similarly nowhere in sight. He'd been gone for a good half an hour, taking his time walking back and forth between the gate and woods. Appa yawned at him, laying against the building's wall. A few kids were watching him, probably deciding if they should approach or not. Given that Appa hadn't left yet, Zuko could make a guess where at least Katara had gone again. He walked into Aunt Wu's Fortune House, noting that Meng wasn't anywhere in sight to greet new customers. He could hear Katara's voice from inside the chambers.
"And how many great grandchildren will I have? Will I be alive long enough to spoil them?"
Zuko refrained from banging his head on the door, instead sliding it open, foregoing knocking at all. Katara and Aunt Wu both turned to him, the latter with a small sense of relief and the former with a shocked glare.
"Lee, it's rude to interrupt a reading," Katara chastises.
"It's equally as rude to take up Aunt Wu's time with readings you don't need," Zuko says, hefting Katara up by her arms. He ignored the embarrassed protesting she shouted at him as he carried her out into the entry area. He let her go, shooting her a tired sigh. "Katara do you really need to know how big your family is going to be in fifty years? Really?"
"It's nice to have some insight to it!"
"No. That's too much insight. Leave something to surprise you, at least."
"Young man, since you had found yourself back in my Fortune House, perhaps you'd like another reading?" Aunt Wu offers, lingering at the doorway.
"I just came for this one," Zuko says, pointing at Katara.
"Excuse me!?"
"Now that I have, we're leaving," he says, dragging her out of the Fortune house.
"Hey! Um! Thank you, Aunt Wu!" Katara shouted after her. She shook herself free once they were past the front doors. She huffed, crossing her arms at him. "That was rude."
"You don't need to bug her about a thousand small things," Zuko snaps back. "IF she's really a fortune teller, that's a waste of her time and yours."
"But… oh, I guess you're right," Katara sighs, slinking down to sit on the step. Zuko stood there uncomfortably for a moment before he turned away, spotting the rising level of smoke from the volcano's mouth and frowned. The cloud cover wasn't great, so he could see the small plume of smoke steadily growing wider as it left the mouth of the volcano.
Was that… always there?
"What's wrong? Aren't they supposed to smoke?"
"There's lava somewhere in the mouth of it," Zuko says. He turned back to Katara, who was looking at him with a tilt to her head. "The Fire Nation is full of them. It doesn't smoke unless there's active lava somewhere near or at the surface. Maybe it just has a vent somewhere up there."
"It's—wait, really?"
"Did you forget how volcanic the Fire Nation is?"
"Uh… maybe. So… is it not dormant, then?" Katara asks.
"Not a chance."
"Katara!" Sokka's voice suddenly shouted. Katara jumped, turning to see Aang and Sokka soaring towards them on Aang's glider. Once they'd landed Sokka almost crashed into the wall trying to untangle from Aang. "The volcano! It's going to erupt! Aunt Wu was wrong!"
"What?!"
"The lava is filling the mouth of the volcano," Aang says. "We saw it ourselves."
"Z—Lee was just saying the same thing."
Zuko looked back to the volcano, where the smoke was growing denser and darker by the minute. A rumble hit their feet, throwing them off balance briefly.
"Um, so, is there a way to stop it from erupting?" Aang asks hopefully. Zuko shot him an exasperated look. "Was that a stupid question?"
"Yes."
"Hey.."
"Checking volcanoes is something Fire Nation villages do all the time for potential eruptions," Zuko admits. "But, no, we can't ask nicely that it doesn't. It just does. I'm not sure how soon, though."
"You're not? But the ground just shook!" Sokka says, his voice breaking. He cleared his throat, brushing off the embarrassment as he continued. "If that's not a sign, what is?"
"It is a sign, but they could have tremors for weeks before they erupt."
"Oh… can you Bend it to calm it down?" Aang asks hopefully. The group fell silent. To Zuko's utter dismay, the three were looking at him expectantly. He just stared at Aang for a moment before resting his face in his palm and taking a deep breath.
"Aang… that is not how it works," he says, trying to speak as evenly as possible. He didn't want Aang thinking he was stupid for asking something like that; but honestly, he wasn't sure why the boy thought that would ever be possible in the first place. Lava Benders just didn't exist - the Fire Nation would ensure any of them would be gainfully employed for just this occasion if that was the case.
"But it's lava and lava's like fire, right?" Aang insisted.
"What do you think lava is made of?"
"I don't know, I just know it's hot?"
"IT'S MOLTEN ROCK, AANG!"
"But isn't it also fire?!"
"That is not the same thing! Aang, I can't bend lava, I can barely bend the latent heat it gives off, there's no true flame to Bend!" Zuko says wryly. He rubbed his eyes, sighing. "Look, we do have a few options. The lava will naturally flow downhill and with your guys' luck it probably will straight for us. It'll be fast. You can't trust how fast it's moving based on what's on fire or not."
"Why..?"
"Because by the time the treetops are on fire, it's already long past it," Zuko says. "Villagers burn because of that misconception."
Sokka gagged, looking away a moment. He composed himself, clearing his throat. "Okay, so what are the options? If you can mess with the latent heat, can't Firebenders cool the lava?"
Zuko bit his inner cheek. He was overcome with the desire to bang his head on something, again, but refrained. This was a test of his patience, but he wasn't going to fail. He'd survived countless days of Uncle Iroh being irrevocably aggravating - he could keep his head about him with this much at the very least.
"Firebenders have been known to do that to try and build walls from the lava itself to redirect it in the past, but that's with multiple Firebenders at once. I doubt even with the Earthbenders here, I'd be able to pull enough heat to be of much help."
"What if we bend water into it and turn it into rock?" Aang suggested. Before Katara or Aang could get too ahead of themselves, right as they were starting to goad each other into the plan, Zuko shouted.
"NO!"
It wasn't a restrained shout. It was the loudest he'd been since joining this trio built on reckless abandon. All three jumped and turned to him. Aang almost looked like he'd kicked him, he was sulking so heavily. Zuko took a deep breath and rested his face in one hand. He had to remind himself, these three have likely never seen a volcano, much less read about them. They clearly had nothing to go off of. Aang, he was a little iffier on. Whether he'd ever seen a volcano Zuko couldn't just assume - the kid had a flying bison, he could have flown to the Fire Nation at some point before he froze. It wouldn't be entirely out of the question. But the siblings he knew probably hadn't. There was nothing but ice in their Nation, and what volcanoes they might have had were probably buried under miles of ice or water. With that in mind, he slowly shook his head and pinched his brow.
"If you did that," he says evenly, "And even if you might be able to bend enough water to do that, which you can't; you might just cause the eruption from the imminent reaction."
"…..Oh….." Aang mumbles.
"It's fine," Zuko sighs. "None of you know about volcanoes."
"Hey, we aren't totally clueless!" Sokka snapped back. He huffed, folding his arms and looking around the square. "There's got to be a few Earth Benders here. We can dig a trench and divert it towards the river."
"That has worked before," Zuko murmurs slowly. "But the volcano is huge; it's bound to overflow before we can make it deep enough."
"Then… we could make walls, too!" Aang says, standing with a gust of wind to further illustrate the idea. Zuko shook his head.
"It's not like water, Aang. Lava is molten rock, it'll knock them down. The best course of action is to evacuate the town until it hardens. Maybe a few days?"
"What?! A few days?!" Aang collapsed to the dirt, his shawl covering his head. He threw it back, looking up at Zuko with pleading eyes. "But their homes! The whole village will be destroyed, they'll have nowhere to live!"
"Look, I hate to break it to you, but there's not a lot to be done about it," Zuko says sternly. "In the Fire Nation, a lot of towns around the volcanoes have a lot of Benders in them, but we still evacuate everyone, because there's no stopping the lava flow. We don't have the Earth Benders to do anything about it. If they're near an active volcano they sometimes dig massive trenches with bridges over them, and let the lava overflow and redirect with those, but that's not common. The water is too far away sometimes. It's not like we have Earth Benders to do it - it's cheaper and quicker to just rebuild. If we don't have the time for the trenches, we don't have the time, that's how it is."
"Wait, seriously?" Katara asks. "Whole towns just… disappear?"
"What are we supposed to do about it?" Zuko asks. He pointed up the mountain to emphasize his point. "It's a massive, exploding, force of nature set up in our backyards. Move it?"
Aang sinks back to sit, sighing dejectedly. He rubbed his scalp and tapped his knee as he tried to think. "What if… we cool the lava flow before it reaches town? That way it'd stop on its own and make its own wall?"
Zuko hummed. It wasn't a terrible idea… if they could keep up with the lava flow long enough to build up the walls, they were more likely to hold once it hardened. The flames that followed it he could feasibly try and keep in check, at least. Luckily the area was freshly doused, so much of the lower foliage and denser tree branches were probably still fairly drenched. Maybe he would only have to keep an eye on a few rooftops near the heat.
"How would you do that?" he asks.
"Airbending, duh." Sokka pipes in.
"Oh! Yeah, Aang could bend the air to cool the lava until it hardens! It won't react like it would with water," Katara says, smiling triumphantly.
"Well, maybe water, too, since it's already flowing at that point," Sokka says, scratching his cheek. "Would make a lot of steam, though."
Zuko hummed. It might work. Even if air didn't cool lava that quickly, Aang was the Avatar, so even if he was the only Air Bender left, he was an undeniably strong one. He might even be able to use a Waterbending technique to cool the air and harden the lava faster. That wouldn't make a tornado, would it? Zuko shook the thought from his head. Aang would just displace it, anyway.
"We can try it…" Zuko relented. "But, we should still evacuate, just in case. Everyone can move across the river down the mountain, and by then the lava will be slowed down considerably before it reaches the river, if it reaches it at all."
"Is it possible the town could still be destroyed?" Katara asks.
"Looking around, it looks like most of the buildings are built out of stone or rock. So long as the foundations hold, the roofs and doors will probably burn, but the structures should be fine. Any Earth Benders should be able to Bend the hardened lava away once it's cooled down," Zuko surmises.
Uncle Iroh might have been able to tell if that was actually possible. Even with all the travel that Zuko had experienced after his banishment, he hadn't been particularly inclined to stay anywhere long enough to learn anything that wasn't related to his quest for the Avatar. Iroh, by contrast, would freely indulge in the local culture as much as he could at every stop. The man had amassed a lot of random knowledge in his years even before coming with Zuko, he was doubtless filled with knowledge on something as local to the Fire Nation as volcano damage. He regretted not listening to his long conversations after each stop. Even if he sent a messenger bird, it would take too long to reach Iroh, much less return in time with any useful advice.
"We'll have to start evacuating them now. There's no telling when it'll blow," Katara says, glancing around at the dozens of villagers going about their business. "How long has it been smoking like that that they're so calm?"
"Sometimes volcanoes smoke and never erupt, so who knows," Zuko shrugs. There's a volcano near the palace that's been smoking intermittently for years and hasn't come close to erupting, yet. As for the villagers leaving… they're not going to take your word for it. I walked around earlier and they take Aunt Wu's words like gospel. If she predicted no eruption, you'll need to find another way."
"Well, she predicted the town wouldn't be destroyed," Katara muses. "So, technically she didn't say there wouldn't be an eruption..."
Zuko scoffed, smirking. Clever. "But would they believe you?"
"…What if they hear it from Aunt Wu?" Aang asks. "We can use the clouds. Just like before when she read them today. But I would need her cloud book."
The group looked uncertainly to the Fortune House. Aside from the fortune room and the waiting area, the size of it suggested there were many rooms they hadn't seen as of yet. If Aang was lucky, he'd find it right away. If he was lucky. Zuko sighed heavily, hanging his head. Sending Katara back in might prompt Aunt Wu into rushing a reading to get her out the door again. Sokka might just get kicked out.
Damn it.
"I'll distract her," he grumbles.
"Really?" Aang asks. "You're sure? You didn't look comfortable after your reading."
"She's been eager to get me back in, so it should distract her long enough for you to get the book. Besides, it's not like Sokka was going to volunteer," Zuko reasons.
"HEY!"
"But, the cloud book is probably in her reading room. How will we get her out of there?" Katara asks. Sokka was already scratching his head, glowering at the back of Zuko's head, trying to form an idea. Zuko looked at the Fortune House door. There was the makings of a plan forming in his head. He wasn't sure it'd work, but he could at least try. If he failed he wasn't exactly losing anything for it.
"Hold that thought. I've got it covered," Zuko assured them. He waved them down when they started up again, slipping through them and pushing the door to the Fortune House open. Meng came around the corner, the greeting halfway out of her mouth before she stumbled on her words.
"O-oh! Hello, again!"
"Hey. Is she inside?" Zuko asks. Meng nodded, rushing over to the door and knocking before poking her head in. Zuko could hear a quick whisper before she stepped aside, holding the door for him, smiling warmly.
"Come on in."
Zuko sighed one last time. He could ditch this plan. He could just leave and come up with something else, but he wasn't keen on possibly waiting for Aunt Wu to leave on her own. He slipped past the door, spotting her resting on one of the pillows around the hearth. Meng bowed and shut it behind him. He could hear her scurry off to the front, no doubt where the rest of them were mingling.
"Young man, you've returned. Did you want a reading, after all?" Aunt Wu asks.
"On one condition. We go for a walk instead," Zuko says flatly, pushing the door back open. He held it there, waiting for her answer. Aunt Wu blinked at him for a moment. But, to his relief, she huffed fondly and nodded, standing.
"I don't understand why, but I see no reason we can't," she admits.
Yeah, if it gets me to say yes to a reading you'd do just about anything, Zuko thought bitterly. Maybe Uncle Iroh's weird spirit energy nonsense had started to rub off on him and she could smell it.
Zuko led the way out of the Fortune House, choosing to take her on a walk around the square. Katara and Sokka were busying themselves messing with something in Appa's saddle as they passed. Aang was trapped in a conversation with Meng near the entrance. Zuko held up a hand to them behind Aunt Wu's back, halting Aang's attempt to enter the Fortune House. No way in hell was he going to do that so blatantly in front of the only employee there, good Spirits what is that brat thinking.
Aunt Wu didn't pressure him as they walked. While he was grateful for that, it still put him on edge, like she knew what he'd do next, so didn't have to do any prompting at all. Once they were far enough away, he offered his palm to her and Aunt Wu took it, looking over his hand lines once more.
"So, what changed your mind?" she asks idly. Zuko pouted, wanting to rip his hand away already, but he had to play nice here if he had any shot at this.
"The volcano about to erupt was a big factor," Zuko says flatly. Aunt Wu stopped, taking half a step back to look at him, confused. His hand slipped out of her grasp, falling back to his side. Zuko nodded his head towards the volcano.
"You know where I grew up," he says. "It's covered in them. You learn how to read their tells, and you learn fast."
Aunt Wu looked up to the volcano, with the billowing smoke growing larger and larger before them. It was beginning to look less ominous, and more overbearing. There was the slightest tremble under their feet, shaking for only a moment, but it was enough to get Zuko's attention. He'd seen worse, even from the palace walls, once, when a volcano erupted when he was a child and the smoke was seen from islands away. It was miles high, whereas this volcano's smoke plum was dissipating quickly, in retrospect. If nothing else, it may be a comfort that alluded to the possibility that the eruption would be short.
It was somewhat humbling, looking up at something so still, yet so powerful. It was little more than a dangerous mountain, yet it was something that could destroy your entire life at an instant, and completely at random. He was sure people who lived in areas with tsunamis probably felt the same when the tide randomly started to recede. If nothing else, at least they still got a warning sign. A volcano sometimes didn't even grant that. He'd heard stories of stories of a particularly large volcano spontaneously erupting in his grandfather's era. The history was spotty at best, but the accounts of the villagers who'd lived had remained, and the lack of warning had been what stuck with them more than the lava or the lost homes.
At Aunt Wu's continued silence, Zuko moved to stand beside her to watch the smoke. "As it stands, your cloud reading isn't going to come true," he says. "Doing nothing will result in the village getting destroyed. None of the villagers will listen to us, so for anyone to help Aang with protecting your village, they have to hear it from you."
"I see," Aunt Wu sighs. "I cannot argue with that. I suppose even my own predictions come about in a way I cannot see."
Zuko lifted a brow at her. She shook her head and turned to lead him back to the Fortune House. They had barely made it halfway around the square, so the trio were still outside, thankfully staying in place. Aunt Wu slipped inside, and Zuko held a finger up to the trio waiting in Appa's saddle until she returned. Once she did, she was flipping through the cloud book. She held up a page to the group. "Make this cloud in the sky, and I will announce the prediction."
"Oh. Thanks," Aang says, smiling brightly at her before using the reigns to turn Appa away from the Fortune House towards the gate. He would find somewhere else to lift off, hidden by the trees until he was far enough away to climb vertically into the clouds.
"He's going to thank your ear off later," Zuko warned.
"Oh, I look forward to it," Aunt Wu says with a chuckle. "Now then… what question did you really have for me, young man?"
Zuko bit his cheek. Aunt Wu began to walk back towards the center pavilion, keeping her eyes to the ground. "Well… so, I have a sister…"
"Um, are you guys sure you can make this?" Sokka asks, looking at the hastily drawn sketch he'd made of the page in the cloud book.
"It's pretty recognizable," Katara says, slight irritation in her voice. She re-braced her stance. The saddle was steady, but that never really took away the anxiety of falling off, especially when she wasn't seated and readily able to grasp one of the holes on the side. To make matters worse, the smell of ash and sulfur was getting worse closer to the volcano. It was starting to prick at her eyes, threatening tears. "Aang, how you holding up?"
"I'm okay!" Aang shouted, flying past them and bending the clouds in an arc.
Sokka readjusted the reigns, flying just far enough away to get a look at the cloud shape. "I think that does it!" he shouts, waving Aang back. Katara immediately dropped to grab a hand hold. Aang landed beside her, anchoring the folded glider under their duffle bags.
"This was easier than I thought it'd be," Aang admitted.
"Yeah, well, asking for the book instead of stealing it probably helped speed things up," Sokka says, sarcasm dripping from his words. Aang gave a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of his head.
"I, uh, didn't think she'd let us have it," he admitted.
"Zuko must be more convincing than we thought," Katara mused. Sokka handed the book off to her.
"Yeah, well, it wouldn't be smart to ignore the volcano expert, would it?" Sokka asks.
He started banking Appa down in a narrow arc behind the trees. They glided along the road until they saw the town gates in sight. Appa landed, walking into town just as Aunt Wu was finishing her prediction with the villagers. Sokka waved for Katara and Aang to go ahead, walking Appa on the outskirts of the square until he could stop in front of the Fortune House. Zuko was stood under the Fortune House awning. Sokka slid down Appa's side, landing beside him.
"Hey. How did it go?" he asks.
"Everyone agreed to evac..uate…? What are they doing?"
"Hm?" Sokka glanced over to see Aang and Katara wrangling up a group of the villagers, corralling them towards the back of the village to the mountain base. Sokka looked away as Zuko slowly turned to him. Sokka's response was a bit too high-pitched. He looked a little too guilty. Zuko could see sweat beading his brow.
"Sokka."
Sokka cracked immediately. It was almost impressive how quickly he caved, honestly.
"Well! You said we could redirect the lava, you said that was possible!" Sokka whined.
"If you had days, not a few hours!" Zuko shouted, thrusting his hand in Aang and Katara's direction. The ground shook, and he quickly glanced their way, relief briefly overtaking the exasperation when he realized it was the Earthbenders starting the trenches.
"We've got help!" Sokka assured him. When Zuko turned back to yell, his palms already feeling hot, Sokka thrust a shovel in his hands (where the hell did he even grab this from?), setting his hand on Zuko's back and shoving him in the direction of the trenches.
"No time to waste! Got a trench to build, after all!" Sokka says, practically pulling Zuko along beside him.
"Seriously?! What is the matter with you? Just evacuate!" Zuko shouted.
"Everyone else is evacuating; it's just us and the Earth Benders," Sokka assured him. "Now, come one, Fire Boy, we got work to do."
"Do not call me that," Zuko snapped. He shook Sokka off when they hit the trench, sliding down into it to get started.
He would rather just get on Appa and leave, but that bison was currently getting strapped for boulder relocation. Gods, he hated these three sometimes. It was god damn illogical, was what it was. For Spirit's sake, they'd have better luck flying over it- Zuko froze. He dragged his hand down his face, groaning. He was an idiot, sometimes. Missing the forest through the trees, Uncle Iroh would say. Maybe. He could never actually predict what kind of weird, obscure, saying his uncle would pull out for a quick anecdote. He climbed back up the trench, spotting Aang down the length of it and ignoring Sokka shouting after him. If this worked, they wouldn't have to worry about the trench at all. He had to find Katara next and commandeer Appa back, as well. Once he caught up to Aang, he hooked his arm in his, scanning the trench for Katara.
"Whoa! Hey, what's wrong?" Aang asks, hopping to keep up with Zuko without falling.
"Where's Katara?"
"Um, down the way, I think, drawing the water out of the mud for a few Earth Benders."
Zuko let him go, directing him towards Appa. "Get your bison and meet me at the river."
"Wh-? Okay?"
Zuko turned away, rushing down the hill to the riverbed. Katara had just finished pulling as much water from the ground as she could, loosening the soil and making it far easier to move for the Earth Benders slowly and methodically starting the trench towards their direction.
"Hey."
"Hey. Something happen?"
"You and Aang are coming with me," Zuko says, hooking her arm like he had Aang. It was crude, but he'd lie if he didn't say it was effective in forcing someone along before they could protest and waste his time. Protest she did, for a moment, swatting at him.
"I can walk!"
Zuko only let her go when he saw Aang coming over the hill, steering Appa to them. When they reached each other, Zuko lifted Katara up, getting her in the saddle and situated before he started to climb in himself.
"Would you mind explaining what you're doing? We're not leaving," Katara says. Zuko didn't doubt that for a second. Even if he tried to convince them, he'd be outvoted.
"Aang, you're going to use your glider and fly over the lava to cool it. Think you can use your breath to do that?" Zuko asks.
"Yeah, totally! I do it all the time!" Aang says eagerly.
"Ok, great," Zuko turned to Katara, swiveling Aang's head back forward. Aang pouted, but steered Appa back up the hill regardless. "Katara, how much water can you bend at once?"
"Um, I'm not sure. A lot?"
"Grab as much as you can from the river now. Can you keep it together until the volcano explodes?"
"I can try, but why? I thought the steam was a problem," Katara says.
Regardless, she started to bend water towards them from the river. It got easier once she had some closer to her, linking the rest of it to flow their way. The mass of water kept growing above them, Katara concentrating to keep it in place, unlike when she'd first started to learn. By the time the last of the water started to break away and splash onto the ground as they got out of range of the river, the mass of water was Appa's size. It wasn't a lot, it was less than Zuko was hoping for, but it would do. They could try and grab more when they needed it.
"Hold onto it," Zuko stressed. "When the lava gets down the mountain, we're going to divert it instead of block it near the village. I can bend the latent around us so we don't cook alive, but Aang, you'll cool the top layer to make a cover, and the side to build the wall."
"Oh! Okay! Like making a pipe," Aang says, smiling wide.
"Can we make that fast enough?" Katara asks. "What if we can't keep up?"
"That's why we're starting up high," Zuko explains, digging through his duffle bag for some paper and a pen. He started drawing out the mountainside he could recall from when he was studying it in the square. He drew it out haphazardly, drawing the hopeful pathway of the lava. "Halfway up the mountain, there's a ledge. The lava will have to split there, so we can start the wall up there, and slowly divert it down the mountainside towards the river. The trench should still be dug as much as we can, just in case it gets over the wall, but if we start that high up, we can miss the village entirely."
Katara glanced down at his drawing. "Oh, I see. I can grab more water, just let me…"
Katara shifted her stance, clenching her hands a little as she shifted the water, slowly freezing the outer layer. Once they'd returned to the back gate of the village, she set it in the shade of the wall. Zuko gave a little 'huh', nodding in approval. Katara shrugged, looking it over. It was shoddy, at best, and if she'd had time to actually learn from a Master she could've done it in seconds rather than almost a minute; but it would do the job.
"I'll grab as many as I can before it erupts," Katara says, sliding off Appa and running back down the hillside. Aang held the drawing, looking back and forth it and the mountain.
"I think I see where you mean," he says idly. "I can cover a pretty big area and make the initial bend."
"Alright, then, it's a plan."
The digging of the trench took hours. The volcano would occasionally rumble and shake the ground beneath their feet. Zuko busied himself by helping dig and drawing out the direction of the trench with his shovel for others to follow. Katara passed him multiple times, bending large amounts of water up the hillside to stack along the village wall, freezing a few in place as the land started to slope. By the sixth orb she sat against one of them, exhausted. Zuko came up to her, handing her a cup of water.
"Thanks…"
"I'm surprised you grabbed so many of them," Zuko says, looking up at the massive orbs set in a line. He turned back to her, resting the shovel over his shoulder. "Who taught you?"
"Myself," Katara sighs, setting the cup aside. "I practiced when I could."
Zuko hummed, returning to the trench work. He had never had to even consider trying to learn Firebending without a teacher. Firstly, he had never been without one; but secondly, and more importantly, he probably would have burned half the palace down if he'd tried. Regardless if water was dangerous to learn to bend or not, he couldn't help but shiver at the thought of accidentally bending the water in his own body. He shook himself out, psyching himself up to get back to work and assess what he had to do.
It was getting dark quickly, making the light of the volcano all the more prominent as the lava neared the top. The shakes had gotten closer and closer together as the hours wore on, fueling a more rapid work speed of everyone in the trench. A quick glance down the hill granted him the opportunity to see the Earthbenders finalizing the trench to connect it to the river. It was perfectly timed, too, as the volcano started to erupt. It was subtle, at first. It felt like any other shaking of the ground, until the top exploded. Molten rock and globs of lava spewed out of the mouth of it, black smoke engulfing the sky and blanketing the landscape with a grey snow. Zuko pulled his top up, covering his mouth so he wouldn't breath any in. He could hear Appa roar from his right as he approached. Aang was already handing the reigns over to Sokka and grabbing his glider as Zuko climbed into the saddle with Katara. Zuko grabbed a spare top and started to tear it apart, handing off pieces to each of the Gaang.
"Cover your mouth and nose to keep ash out," he instructed, tying off the makeshift bandana.
"I'm going to start as high up as I can," Aang said, watching the lava as it came down the mountainside. As Zuko said, the trees caught fire after the lava passed, making it difficult to gauge just where the lava actually was. He launched off Appa, riding the hot air up the mountainside.
"Appa, yipyip!"
Sokka whipped the reigns, steering Appa across the trench and high into the sky. Katara pulled one of the large orbs behind them, keeping it aloft above Appa's tail. Zuko shimmied to the side of the saddle facing the lava as Sokka banked down the mountainside, flying Appa parallel to where Aang was starting to hyper-cool the lava flow into a thin wall. Katara bended the water down, forming a thicker wall along the lava flow. It didn't cover nearly as much of the wall Aang had been forming that they'd been hoping for, but it was working. Zuko shrugged off his poncho, shifting the heat in the air away from Appa as they started to dip lower to the lava. On their track back to the village for Katara to pick up another orb, he extinguished what fires his Bending could reach. Patches of leaves and branches were blackened, but didn't appear to be catching again when they flew back to the lava flow.
Aang was flying up and down the pathway, cooling the lava in layers as it flowed down the mountainside. Cracks formed in the thin layers almost as quickly as he could form a new layer, until Katara could form the thicker walls. Zuko couldn't pay that much attention to the situation, however. He was too focused on not cooking to death above the lava flow. Bending away the heat was more of a challenge than he had expected. Keeping the heat off himself wasn't that much of an issue - he'd do it all the time on the deck of the ship on particularly hot or sunny days in the southern regions, or even when he was in the Fire Nation during summer. It was a second nature kind of bending that Firebenders learned since childhood. He hadn't even considered trying to bend the heat away from a mass as large as Appa before. It was tiring, to have to constantly move his arms to keep the heat at the very least rotating around and away from Appa so that new, cooler air could find its way in. Is this what Waterbending felt like? How strong must the upper arms of Waterbenders be if they're moving as constantly as Katara has been for the last few hours. Earthbenders he's seen were bulky throughout their whole body - their element necessitated it. Waterbending, he was noticing, required far more arm motions.
His arms were starting to get tired. They were more than halfway done, blessedly. He wasn't sure his arms would actually be able to hold out much longer. Katara had two orbs left to use, and while it looked like the actual length of the lava flow could use three, he wasn't that worried about the village catching fire if the lava spread out a bit when hitting the river. They might start flooding the other side of the bank, but redirecting a river like this was hardly a consequence if the whole village survived. He was having trouble keeping up with extinguishing the flames from the tree tops as they passed them at a faster pace, in a race to bulk up the lava wall before it could break from Aang's attempts. He had to give up by their final pass. The trees were so green from the recent weather that he wasn't too concerned the whole forest would catch flame. Once Katara finished with her final orb, and they banked far away from the heat, towards the village, he fell onto his back with a load groan.
"Are you alright?" Katara asks.
"I'm dying."
There was a soft kick at his hip. "Be serious," Katara says, hands on her hips.
"I am serious, my arms are going to fall off," Zuko says, tossing what little hair was in his eyes away. It'd been growing a little long recently; he'd have to debate cutting it soon. Katara collapsed beside him, laying on her stomach and sighing heavily.
"You know how I feel now," she grumbles.
"You could kill a man with a good punch," Zuko mumbles. Katara laughs, rolling over as Appa landed in the village center. Sokka swatted each of their legs.
"I'm headed off. I'll be back once I can see if the wall will hold," he says, hopping off Appa as Katara lifted a sore arm to wave him off.
Zuko couldn't even must that much motion out of his arms. His entire upper torso was sore from the constant movement. He wasn't sure he ever had to brace his legs that hard and keep his upper body moving that constantly. He had tensed up the whole time - a mistake in hindsight. He could have just roped himself through one of the saddle's anchor holes. If he ever had to do this again, he could give that a try. God, he hoped he never had to do that again. He wasn't an Airbender - that was stupidly difficult. Why did he say he could bend the heat in the air so confidently? He was secretly a moron, that was why. Uncle Iroh would be laughing at him right now. It'd be a proud and hefty belly laugh, but he would be laughing. He glanced over to Katara, who he could have mistaken as asleep, if she wasn't scowling.
"Did I even do anything for you two?" Zuko asks.
"Hm?"
"With the heat."
"Oh! Yes, it would have been unbearable otherwise," Katara says. She cracked an eye open with a smile. "Thanks."
"Welcome."
The air spun around them, whipping Katara's braid into the air. Zuko bend his head up to see Aang had landed at the back of Appa's saddle. "Hey, guys! Are you okay?"
"Aang, can you imagine how much we had to be moving just now?" Zuko asks flatly.
"Oh, right. Um, do you want massages? We had to do them a lot at the Temple after Bending practice."
"Later," Zuko groaned, turning over to lay on his stomach as well. Both Aang and Katara were chuckling at him, but he couldn't even bother with a scowl in response. His arms were so sore he couldn't find it in him to care. "Did it work?"
"Oh, yeah! It worked great! The lava is moving away from the wall instead of over it, so I think it'll stay on that side until it's done… how long until it's done?" Aang asks.
"Be more concerned about the ash we'll have to clear away," Zuko says, blowing the thin layer of ash already forming on Appa's saddle away. It wasn't as much as he'd feared would fall. He had heard from soldiers returning from disaster relief duty how buried a village could become by the ash. He'd never learned how much ash was typical; but the village being buried had seemed atypical.
"It doesn't look like that much, actually," Aang says, setting his glider back into its sheath.
"Great," Zuko sighed.
When he opened his eyes again, it was dawn, and the sun was starting to glint over the edge of the saddle and into his eyes. He rolled over and sat up in a start. Appa had moved to Aunt Wu's Fortune House at some point in the night. A blanket had been draped over him and a pillow set under his head. He rolled the blanket up, feeling the soreness in his arms had lessened but had by no means left him. The other three were scattered about the saddle, with Aang snoring on Appa's head. Zuko shook out his hair, flakes of ash falling out. He took a quick look around, noting that the ash hadn't piled up hardly at all, actually. Most of it had been blown away by now. A quick check on the volcano confirmed it had finished erupting as well. One good blast was all it had in it, apparently. There was a soft caw to his side and he turned tired eyes to see the messenger bird perched at the back of the saddle.
He blinked several times. It hadn't even been a full twenty-four hours and it was already back, a new message on its leg. He took the message, trading it for some spare seed from a bag. The bird gently pecked them out of his palm as he stowed the reply away for now. If the bird was back that fast, and with an eruption no less, then Uncle Iroh must have made land recently. He couldn't recall how far from the coastline, or large river, they were. If he could figure out a location to meet up with Uncle Iroh, though, this made things a lot easier for him. Aang yawned, standing and stretching before he floated off Appa's head.
"Morning," Zuko grunted, sliding down Appa's side.
"Morning! Are your arms better?" Aang asks, poking at Zuko's bicep. He spun away, shaking out his legs.
"Yeah, sure. Breakfast?" Zuko asks, gesturing to a small restaurant - the only restaurant he'd found in his little patrol of the village the prior day - down the block that was just opening.
Frankly, Zuko was starting to think that he should have gotten Katara and Sokka up as well so they could leave immediately. He'd been sat on Appa's saddle for the past few minutes waiting for Aang to finish thanking Aunt Wu so they could leave. His temper was starting to slowly petter out. He slid down Appa's side, waving Katara and Sokka to board Appa. Sokka shook his head with a sigh at Aang as he left, waving Aunt Wu off alongside Katara. Zuko met Aunt Wu's eyes as he neared them. He grabbed the back of Aang's collar.
"Thank you," Zuko says, bowing his head. "And we're leaving now."
"Huh?! Wait, I wasn't done-!" Aang flailed his arms as Zuko dragged him towards Appa.
"Yes, you are, we've been here 'thanking' her for almost ten minutes!" Zuko snapped. He threw Aang up onto Appa's saddle, a yell preceding Aang's harsh landing, and then climbing up by the tail himself.
"Thank you for saving the village!" Aunt Wu shouted up at them. "And please, come by again some time. You're always welcome."
"Right," Zuko called, slapping the base of the saddle. Sokka took the reins and set off into the sky. "Finally."
"Zuko, I was still saying thanks!" Aang whined, rubbing his back as he settled on the saddle.
"We were going to be there all day if I didn't grab you!"
Zhao looked around the bar with a scowl of disgust. The building was two levels, with the second floor only amounting to a bordering platform, leaving the center open for the hanging lights and the upper levels free to peer down at the tables below. He and two of his men shoved past the patrons to where a mass of them were scattered at the center around a single table. A woman, in the midst of an arm wrestling matching, was seated at the table. Pushing through the mass of patrons, Zhao came up to the table, making brief eye contact with the woman.
"Are you June the Hunter?" he asks.
"Depends on who's asking," June says. She didn't appear to be struggling at all against the larger man she was against. Zhao slammed an informational poster onto the table with bounty hunter rates and names down a list, her name circled alongside the animal companion listing - Xierxu.
"You use a Shirshu to scent track, correct?" Zhao asks.
"That's right," June says. "What about it? Got a job for me, Army-Man?"
"Yes, and one that will pay you quite well."
June slammed her opponent's hand down against the table. The roaring cheers of the crowd almost drowned out her next words as she gathered up the winnings being thrown to her. "Sorry, Army-Man, I'm not strapped for cash just yet!"
Zhao scowled, leaning down to speak lowly for only her to hear. "Even for your weight in gold?"
June paused, twisting a copper piece in her hand. "DRINKS ON ME!" she shouts, accompanied by another roar of applause. She turned to Zhao with a smirk.
"Make it the weight of your heaviest man, and you've got me interested."
"Fine. Follow me," Zhao ordered, turning to leave the building. June split her winnings between her satchel and the bar before following him out. She waited beside Xierxu until Zhao returned, carrying a scrap of orange fabric. "Follow the owner of this."
June took it, holding it down for Xierxu to scent. "Got a missing lover, or something, Army-Man?"
"No. The Avatar."
"Ha! Sure," June pocketed the clothing scrap, climbing on top of Xierxu. It was itching to run in the direction of the scent, moving eagerly in place.
"Another thing," Zhao says. He tossed a flare up to her with a box of matches. "When you find them, shoot the signal into the sky. The rest of my men won't be far behind. And watch yourself. There's a companion he's travelling with, dubbed The Blue Spirit. If you can, you can hunt him, too."
Zhao flicked his wrist and two Fire Nation soldiers, each on their own Mongoose Lizard, flanked either side of the Shirshu. June had to fight to keep Xierxu on task, holding the reigns to keep it from swinging its head back and forth to growl at the newcomers.
"Heel, Xierxu," June says sternly. She looked down to Zhao. "If I catch the Blue Spirit, that's double!"
She whipped the reigns, dashing off in the direction the scent drew her Shirshu.