I don't own Avatar The Last Airbender
Chapter 10
"Mom?!"
He would never forget her voice, the same voice that calmed him down after he failed or told him a story before bedtime. But what in Koa is his mother doing here in all places? Is it where she disappeared all this time?
"Where are you my little duckling?"
"Mom! I'm here!"
"Oh, there you are, sweety~"
They ran towards each other and Zuko prepared to hug his mother. When they touched, however, all he could feel is nothingness as his mother literally walked past him.
"What?"
Then suddenly it came down to him, Sai told him that the swamp shows visions of people that are believed to be lost or gone. Whatever was before him, no matter how identical it was, wasn't his mother. The face, the skin color, the hair, even the eyes and lips, all of it was the same as he remembered… the same as he remembered, but also not.
She looked a bit older, not that someone would have noticed it if they weren't her son, she looked like she should be now, and not as he remembered her from childhood. Isn't the swamp supposed to show specters of visions past? It concerned Zuko more than he expected, illusions of the past are hurtful but easy to distinguish, but this? Is it another vile trick of a treacherous swamp or a vision about his mom?
"There you are, my little duckling~"
"*giggle*"
"What?!"
Before he could finish comprehending what was happening, the giggle of a little baby distracted him. As he turned to face his mother, the baby in question suddenly appeared next to his mother. The baby had some resemblance to his mother, which left no question about the relationship between the two.
"Noriko!"
A new voice called, this one was that of a man.
To Zuko's astonishment, his mother's appearance changed. Her face grew plainer and uglier, her figure changed as well. The strange thing was that her original appearance still floated over her face, like a semitransparent mask.
"Dear, how are you?"
"DEAR? Who is this guy mom!"
The man that walked in had the same condition as his mom, both had the same kind of masked semitransparent faces floating above their heads.
"Good, I just finished work, so we have the rest of the day for ourselves. How is little Kiyi?"
"*giggle* As you can see, she's a very active baby. it's already a starting to be a burden to look after her. It's good thing she doesn't have any brothers or sisters."
"Mom… What are you talking about…"
The entire thing was surreal for him, he couldn't take it much longer. Why did the swamp show him this? Why does mom have this strange condition with the face? Did she even remember him?
The baby giggled again.
"Yes~ who's my only child? You are~ yes, you are~"
This was the last straw for Zuko, he couldn't except it. The thought that mom ran away to be with someone else and either forgot or didn't care about him (he couldn't decide which was worse) was to much for him. Illusion or not, real or not, he wouldn't except it!
"Three years! You were gone for three years! One night you say goodbye and leave, never to return, and now you have a new family and act as if we, as if I never existed?!"
Zuko ranted to the specter, tears started to form in his eyes as he continued.
"Do you know how hard it was? The entire family was in shambles, Lu-tan dead, grandpa dead, half or the family gone! And what did you do? You left! And now you replaced me with this fat-ball!"
Zuko angerly pointed at the thing in his mother's hands.
The people before him seemed to take no notice of his presence, as if he was the ghost. Zuko couldn't take it, he ran away crying and wailing all the way.
Mi-Dved had a very unpleasant time in the swamp so far. Between the usual nature and the monster, it was quickly growing to be one of his worst days in life. The bright side was that at least the rumors about spirits in the swamp were confirmed, so other rumors are probably true as well.
After his desperate swinging of his axes caught a root, he was able to tear himself away from the swarm of vines. He found himself lost and alone, not unlike how he felt when the pirates first caught him. Is this his fate? To stay alone forever? To open himself and befriend someone only for them to betray him of for a tragedy to strike, leaving him hurt and alone once again?
He suddenly heard a splash of water. Immediately, he was on guard with weapons drawn. He scanned the environment for threats and noticed some disturbance in the corner of his eyes. He may look like a brute, but he had experience in a dirty fight, from both sides. You don't survive in the streets of Amora without having a sense of danger that lurked in the shadowy slums.
"Come out, cowered!"
He heard a giggle, a very familiar giggle, before a figure jumped high from the shadows. Id did a complete three hundred and sixty degree spin and faced him a dozen feet away from him.
"Now that's no way to talk to your little sister, is it~"
The girl before him was indeed very familiar to his own sister, at least in voice and body. It had a green kimono and a strange half-circled hat, as well as painted face and twin fans on each hand. One hid her face up to her eyes in the same manner he saw the women of the night do when they were hunting for targets.
"Goodbye~"
The thing quickly ran away with giggles following it. he silently thanked Zuko for preparing him for that, if hadn't known beforehand he may have gone to some shock and maybe even believe that this thing was his sister. Whatever that thing was, it was his only chance to find some information about the whereabouts of Jasmine, he couldn't let it get away.
"Come here!"
"Catch me if you can~"
The thing sure had his sister's annoying attitude when she was feeling like it…
Zuko ran for what felt like hours sobbing, he didn't keep watch on the time. Really, how pathetic he was, he can't even stand up to an illusion. His father was right, he really is a failure. He found a tree that looked clean enough and sat there to rest and cry.
Suddenly, he heard a bark. When he looked to see what it was, he saw the same puppy he saved earlier looking back at him. He forgot all about the creature in his hast to flee, now he felt even worse.
Luckily, the animal didn't seem to mind as it got closer and rested its head against Zuko's leg. He rubbed its head affectionly, which seemed to calm him down.
"You're very cute, you know that?"
The puppy barked happily, its tail shook from side to side.
Zuko stayed like that for some time, the animal slowly cured him of the vile feelings he had earlier. He decided to take it with him, at least until he could find it a good home. He owned it at least that much.
"Now what to call you…"
"Zuko tried to find a fitting name but no matter what he thought of, it just didn't seem right. The animal had an otherworldly feeling about it, not the holy or spiritual kind, but that kind of a stranger. But he couldn't call it that, it would be extremely rude.
As he was thinking, the puppy suddenly growled at something in the distance. He decided to trust the animal's instinct and rose to prepare himself for battle.
The puppy continued barking, sometimes at the same spot, sometimes at a different one, Zuko stayed in alert. Then, he noticed the vegetation moving around him, not unlike what happened with the plant monster, he immediately knew what is going to happen.
He caught the puppy with his arms and remembering what Sai said about the top of the trees, he used his bending to fly there. From there, he rained explosions and fire upon the newly constructed swamp monster.
One good thing that came up was that he now had a big target to direct all his rage, sadness and aggression on without the need to hold back. He saw the thing as a part of the conspiracy of the swamp, and held it responsible for his newly acquired trauma as well.
"You shall suffer as I have!"
By Toph's calculation, it was a day after the "initiation". Luckily, she "merely" broke the kid's arms and bluffed something about a fitting punishment for the crime. To everyone's relief, Mi-Sha seemed to buy it and let the kid go.
Now, she was in her new uniform that supposedly made her look like the rest of the bandits that are under Mi-Sha. She didn't miss the irony of the situation concerning her stage title.
Anyway, she was moved with other bandits by some man she didn't know. Apparently, she was now a cadet, whatever that means, and is now under the surveillance of her operator. They moved to the south and went around a few villages along the way.
They continued to do so, until the operator stopped at one of the villages, she remembered passing near it when she ran away from home.
The operator turned to her and spoke in a quiet voice.
"Listen kid, remember what the boss told you? To listen to my commands as if they were his?"
"Yes…"
"Sir, you're suppose to say 'yes sir'. Just remember that the boss will know everything that happened here, something to think about."
"Yes… sir…."
She said while grinding her teeth.
"Much better. Now listen, this area is late in protection money. They think that just because those snobs at Gaoling sent a few pretty boys to the villages around here, they are suddenly above payment. Crazy, right?"
At her silence the operator continued.
"Anyway, after I'm going to offer a very generous offer to the boys at the gate, they will say either yay or nay. If they say yay then all is good, if they say nay? Oh, then it's your turn to return something for the boss's generosity and trash the village, make an example out of it. Kapish?"
"Yes… sir…"
"Good girl."
The thug then went to the gate, after some commotion he sent a signal of nay and Toph sighed. She hated everything as she started earth bending.
Mi-Dved started to get tired from the run, it appears that the thing he was chasing had much more stamina than his sister. Which to be fair, he should have expected. Spirits don't need to breathe after all.
"Come here and tell me where is my sister!"
"Come here and make me~"
Damn thing continued to be annoying all the way. He would have gone mad from all the taunting, but then again, he was chasing a spirit in a haunted swamp to make her tell him where his sister is. He suspected that that line was already crossed.
After some time of running, tripping and getting branches smacked on his face, he was reasonably tired. But it seems that his target had some sadistic side to it, because it kept itself just out of his reach to taunt him.
He had to stop to get some air, it seemed like the thing copying his sister found it as grand opportunity to run circles around him, literally.
"Come on! That can't be it!"
"Tired already? Is that all you have for your poor sister?"
"You now I'm just a few feet away, right? Are you really such a fat loser?"
It seemed that running around him did nothing to stop her taunts.
Suddenly, an explanation was heard to his left.
"What…"
That could only be Zuko, no other creature could make that sound.
"What's wrong? I'm here, you snooze you lose, sucker!"
The thing started running in the other direction while laughing.
He was about to chase it but stopped himself for the last moment. What was he even thinking? The thing obviously wanted him to follow it away from Zuko, who was obviously in trouble. Without sparing a glance in the other direction, he ran towards the explosions.
When he got to the battlefield, he saw the same swamp monster attacking Zuko. This time, however, the fire bender jumped from tree to tree to avoid its tentacles and sent blast after blast at the thing. After a look closer, he saw thar Zuko had some animal in his bag but decided that now wasn't a time for questions.
It seemed like the swamp monster had its entire attention on the prince, so he had time to think about his course of action. The face was a no-go, they experienced firsthand that attacking it didn't do much damage. So maybe it had some other weak spot, but where?
Maybe there is some spot in the middle of the infested vines, like a heart of sort. Something had to command all those vines. It had many holes, he admitted it himself, but he didn't have many choices. It was do or die, he had to cut his way into the beast ant kill it from inside.
And so, with new resolve, he jumped on the swamp monster from behind. He used his earth bending to create a rump and jumped right into the middle of the monster's back. This time there was more ground and less vegetation, so he could use his earth bending much easier.
He nailed a piece in the beast, which gave no indication of noticing. Apparently, a rain of fire and explosions had higher priority than being nailed in the back, although, to be fair, Zuko did make a very good distraction. Mi-Dved believed he lost his hearing a few times with how the explosions shook the thing.
Anyway, it gave him the perfect opportunity to cut into the swamp monster. There were a few scary times when he thought he was going to fall, but thankfully he held on with his earth bending.
After what felt like an hour (although he knew it couldn't be more than a few minutes), he finally felt like he was hitting something harder than vines. With new resolve, he let a mighty blow enhanced by earth bending the rocks on the axes and broke through the harder plants. The rays of sunlight tore apart the vale of darkness that was the swamp monster's core and revealed… the face of a man?!
Said man looked back frightfully and used his plants to expel the invader.
"A man! There is a man inside controlling it!"
He yelled to the prince.
Lieutenant Jee was glad the prince had a good relationship with the lieutenants of the port, as he was quick to secure a meeting with lieutenant Shen. The cause of the meeting was about the progress of the decryption of the pirate messages, or rather lack of progress.
Most of the messages were of lesser concern like reports of attacks committed, loot on the ship, and so on. But the important things like meeting places and hiding spots were still unknown.
There was also this problem with the skin strips. When he and the men raided the captain's cabin, they found a few strips of animal skin with letters on them. He ordered to take them in any case because he thought that it was some kind of encrypted code, but for the love of Agni, he couldn't figure it out!
It also wasn't just in the first ship they hunted. They managed to catch another two pirate ships, and all of them had those weird strips of letters in their cabins. So at least he knew that they were important.
They tried putting the strips together, they tried to turn the strips around like a circle, but nothing worked. Any decryption they knew also didn't solve the problem. So eager for results, and a little desperate for progress, he hoped the old lieutenant could shed some light on the mystery.
"Thank you for seeing me in such a short notice, lieutenant Shen."
"Think nothing of it, lieutenant Jee. The prince made many aspects of my work easier, so we both should thank him instead. How is he by the way?"
"The prince is investigating a lead on the mainland, he will be back in a few days. I'm here because the prince ordered us to hunt down the pirate remnants and gather as much intelligence as possible. We had a drawback, however."
"Oh? It's good to hear that the young prince takes seriously the safety of his territory, it's a good sign for the future. So how can I help you?"
Jee showed his fellow lieutenant the strips he found.
"The ships we raised had those things in the captain's cabin. We're sure that they have encrypted messages, but we can't figure out anything. We tried any decryption we knew, even putting together the strips, but nothing worked. I hoped that with your experience we may find some clue."
Shen looked at the strips with interest for a few minutes.
"Hm… May I take one for a minute, lieutenant?"
The old man asked.
"Sure, feel free to look for however long you need."
Shen took one strip and felt it with his fingers. He then looked on both sides of the thing for a few moments, stating his curiosity. Finally, he addressed the younger lieutenant.
"If I'm right, I may have found a solution to our problems. Look at this letter here and that one there, you see that both are unfinished?"
Jee looked at it and noticed it.
"Yes, we thought that it may be some code, but nothing stood out, they also belong to different letters from what we gathered."
The older man nodded at Jee's words.
"Yes, it's hardly something that can be reviled by wordplay, and that's where you went wrong. There is no clever wordplay at work. Now see this, those two signs seem unrelated, right?"
"Yes, sir."
"But now if I warp them around my hand like this… Suddenly they complete each other to the letter 'g', right?"
"By Agni!"
"Yes, messages like this one are written on a skin strip that is warped around a pole in a particular way, therefore making it unencryptable when the message is finished. That is, unless the other side has the same pole. Even a change of a hair width in the diameter of the pole can make the message unreadable."
"Amazing… So all we have to do is try to warp them on different pole like objects we confiscated from the captain's cabin?"
"Certainly looks like it, lieutenant. I wish you luck in your endeavor, may Agni shine on you and yours."
"And may he shine on you and yours as well, sir. Thank you, for everything."
"Think nothing of it, it's the least I can do for the prince after all. Please send him my regards."
"Will do, bye!"
Jee left the office in lifted spirits, he now knew exactly what to do. He's just glad that the prince ordered them to take anything from the captain's cabin, no matter how trivial it looked. They may have been in a bit of a pickle trying to find the pole otherwise.
He just hoped that the prince was doing as well as he is right now.
Zuko wasn't doing great now, at all. While he had to admit that the swamp monster was an excellent punching bag, it was maybe too good at absorbing his hits.
All the emotions from his encounter with his "mother" fueled his Sozin style bending, making it ten times stronger. The problem was, he was losing energy almost as fast, soon he wouldn't have enough chi to fire bend.
The monster also didn't seem to take any notice of all the vine tentacles he blasted off as it immediately replaced them with new ones. He was starting to suspect that it could regrow them much faster than he could destroy, with much less problem as well.
He jumped from tree to tree as he evaded the vines, the puppy in his bag squirmed as result. He was afraid a few times that it may fall off, but he had more pressing concerns at the moment.
After some time, he happily noticed that Mi-Dved was back, quite frankly, he was afraid that the earth bender was lost forever. He noticed that his friend was trying to cut a way to the monster from behind, so he took initiative, and focus on keeping the monster's attention on him while Mi-Dved did his work.
After a few minutes he heard his friend scream.
"A man! There is a man inside controlling it!"
What! It was a man all along? But how?!
Then he remembered that Sai told him that some water benders of the swamp may be able to control the vegetation by water bending the water inside. Now he felt stupid for not considering it before.
Nevermind, at least now he knew what they did wrong the entire time. They thought the plants were sentient and therefore could feel pain, instead, it was some fat water bender that merely laughed and replaced the vines he destroyed while he himself was out of danger. So all he had to do now was…
"Attack the belly!"
A new bombardment was directed at the belly. Now that the tentacles were mostly ignored, the focus of the attack was the water bender inside. Results were showing, as the water bender was forced to defend himself.
The plants were rarely attacking, almost always on defense. The monster's form was starting to deform as well, it seems that the constant attacks on his person made the water bander lose focus on his monstrosity.
At long last, they were able to get rid of enough vines so they could see a small part the man inside the, now it looked more like a cocoon then a monster. Zuko knew that they would win, and the man knew it too, his attacks became more desperate, his control on the, now much smaller, plans mass was more aggressive.
Zuko was afraid that the enemy may stall for reinforcement to arrive, which he and Mi-Dved didn't need as all. The both of them were tired enough as it is, he didn't believe they would have many, if at all, chi after the fight.
Surprisingly, salvation came from his bag, as the puppy jumped out of it. It ran across the vines and with great agility, it jumped right through a hole that was created and mauled the water bender.
Whatever was left of the monster was dissolved with a scream, as the water bender tried to get the animal off him.
A quick hit from the flat side of Mi-Dved's earth bending directed axe was enough to knock the fat man to the ground. His friend then continued by throwing his two axes at the water bender's hands, immobilizing them by pressing them to the ground by earth bending the rocks in the axes.
Now that the man was trapped and not a threat anymore, Zuko could get a good look at their assailant. He looked like a stereotypical homeless person that you expected to find living in a swamp.
"Ok, you have ten seconds to explain yourself!"
Zuko said as he knelt and stabbed his sword near the left ear of the man.
"I-I…"
"Talk!"
Zuko set his sword on fire for extra effect.
"I just protected the swamp! You hurt it, cutting it with your swords and axes! I was only going to scare you! I swear!"
"And look how that went."
Mi-Dved said while kicking the man in the side.
Zuko held his other hand at a stop sign.
"Look, as you can see, my partner here didn't appreciate your monster thing. Neither am I to tell you the truth. Quite frankly, I can say that the swamp left us both extremely pissed, and you are a very tempting target to let our frustration out. You see where I'm going?"
The water bender stayed quiet.
"But if you answer some questions of ours, we may look past our differences. Do you understand me?"
"What do you want?"
The man asked with a little defiance in his tone, which Zuko ignored. He pulled his sword and returned it to its place before asking.
"The visions the swamp showed us, what do they mean?"
"The swamp shows us visions of people we believe are lost, to remind us that they aren't really lost as long as we remember them. For time is an illusion and so is death."
"What does a semi transparent face mask on another face mean?"
"I don't know."
This frustrated Zuko, he needed to know what his vision about his mother meant. No way this man, who were raised in the swamp (and had its blessing if he could control plants) didn't know what his vision meant.
"I'll ask again… What does it mean?"
He asked more forcefully now.
"I really don't know! Every vision is unique."
Zuko lost his patience.
"ANSWER ME!"
"Please! I don't know! I don't know!"
"Zuko."
He felt a hand on his right shoulder, when he looked up, he saw Mi-Dved looking at him in understanding. He found himself with a flaming sword near the water bender's ear again, he noticed that he was crying as well.
"It's enough, he really doesn't know."
Zuko took a few breaths to calm down.
"You're right, sorry. Anyway, I have last question before we walk away. Unless Mi-Dved, you have something?"
The earth bender shook his head in denial.
"Alright, anyway, I felt something in my head, a foreign presence that wanted me to do something. Do you know something about that?"
"Oh? Well, sometimes, the swamp sends a warning to people before they do something terrible, and I can guess the reason why…"
The water bender looked down distastefully at the little animal at Zuko's feet. The animal returned a growl in response.
"Why does the swamp want it dead?"
The swamp man was silent for a moment.
"You, me, the animals and the trees in the swamp, we're not different. We all came from the same seed, we have the same roots. Even if most people don't act like it."
The "like you" was left unsaid in the air.
"But this thing?"
He looked at the puppy again.
"This thing doesn't belong here, it's not part of our roots. It's an outsider, an invasive species that will ruin us all if allowed to fester. That's why the swamp wants to get rid of it, that's why you must get rid of it."
Zuko looked at the cute animal next to him, he remembered how it tried to cheer him up. Then he looked at the man that attacked him, his decision was an easy one.
"Knock him out."
"What?!"
Mi-Dved kicked the man in the head, knocking him out.
"You could have asked him about the way out, you know."
Mi-Dved looked at Zuko.
"You actually trust him to tell us that?"
"No, I suppose I don't . So what now?"
Zuko thought about Sai, suddenly he felt something in his head. It was a nagging feeling that pointed him in one direction, like a compass. Looks like Sai finished his business as well.
"We pick a random direction and stick to it, the swamp must and somewhere. From there we can ask for directions or buy a map. You did see something about your sister, right?"
The earth bender nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, saw my sister with makeup and green kimono. She had a pair of metal fans and dis some acrobatics that I know she can't do in real life. Got any clue?"
Zuko thought about it as he started walking in the direction Sai was pointing, it did sound familiar.
"Your description matches a Kioshi warrior to the point, they are an all female fighting force that upholds the legacy of Avatar Kioshi. They are native to Kioshi island, so at least we have a starting point. I will tell the crew about our next destination."
Mi-Dved looked extremely happy.
"Wait, Kioshi warriors, Kioshi island? Someone had an ego."
Zuko shrugged his hands, he didn't have any answer to this.
"Can we take the monster mask as a trophy?"
"Of course, you will carry it thou, you're the stronger one here."
"By the way, what to do about this guy?"
Mi-Dved pointed at the unconscious water bender.
Zuko thought about it. The man attacked them and made an attempt on their lives. No matter what the man said, a good hit from one of the vines it lethal. But he only tried to protect his home, Zuko could relate to that.
It didn't excuse his actions, however, he could easily just come and ask them and attack only if being attacked. This entire incident could have been easily avoided. Then there was the whole root thing that just rubbed him wrong, it also showed how cruel and merciless the man could be with things that are out of his philosophy.
Zuko decided the course of action.
"Leave him, we'll be long gone by the time he wakes up."
"And if some animal finds him?"
"The swamp will decide his fate, we have 'the same roots ' after all."
Zuko began to walk.
Mi-Dved shrugged his shoulders and followed, he had no problems with leaving the man to his fate.
And so, in this cheery note, they began their track back to civilization.
"Black Koi fish."
Lieutenant Jee repeated what the soldier before him said.
"Yes, sir. The messages tell that the organized piracy in the region is controlled by the 'Black Koi Fish' group. It mainly mentions routes of both earth kingdom's patrols and Kioshi warrior's patrols. We could definitely use it to our advantage."
"Very well, I will inform the prince. What can you tell me about the group itself? What are their areas of expertise?"
"From what we gathered, they are mainly extorting the local fishermen for a share in the elephant-koi market. Therefore, they have complete monopoly on the elephant-koi market, probably also the source of the name."
"Besides the usual piracy, they also engage in what must be the most complicated and expensive makeup in the world."
"What do you mean by that? How expensive are we talking about?"
"Every operation with 'makeup' needs at least one hundred thugs to participate. Even the cheapest 'makeup' is sold for no less than two hundred gold pieces, and it's only a 'raw' product."
"Dear Agni! With that sum you could think that they sell… the Kioshi warriors… themselves…"
"That's the conclusion we reached as well."
"The prince must know as soon as possible! When will be the next operation?"
Iroh waited for a day and a half for the boys to return. Thankfully, he had enough food for himself and for the tree mounts to last this long. He still remembered young Mi-Dved's words about the birds and quite frankly, he didn't want to test the theory. While he would sooner fry the birds than be a human sized appetizer, he was glad that the two came when they did.
He had mixed feelings about the trip. On one hand, it was good for Zuko to have a building spiritual experience to mature. On the other hand, he was afraid that his nephew wasn't ready for such a thing. It was clear that he would get visions of his mother, but Iroh didn't know how the boy would respond. He could have had visions of his father's love, but the swamp grants visions of the lost, not the non-existent, so he didn't have to fear anything on that front.
Either way, he was glad to see the boys return. They both looked like they had a tuff trip, but they had smiles as well. He also noticed some kind of animal resting in Zuko's bag, he was eager to hear the story of that one.
"Nephew! I'm glad you came back! I hope your trip was fruitful. And who is our new friend here?"
It was hard to tell with the helmet, but Iroh was sure that Zuko was smiling underneath.
"Hi uncle, glad to be back. The trip was… something. But what's important is that we now know our next course of action."
"Really? Then what is it?"
"Mi-Dved saw his sister dressed as a Kioshi warrior, so we thought it would be our next stop. I may also find some information about the Avatar there, it was the home of the last earth Avatar for over a century."
"Hm… a sound decision. But how do you plan to get there? It's a natural island after all."
"We… still haven't decided. We wanted to talk with you and lieutenant Jee first."
"It's understandable, we'll talk back at the ship. But for now, please, tell me about your trip."
And they did. As they mounted their beasts, the two told Iroh about their adventures. They told him about their frustrating start, to which Iroh related. They told him about the swamp monster's attack and how they got separated. Iroh immediately recognized Huu the swamp bender and while not appreciating scaring his nephew like that, he could understand the swamp bender's motives. He just hoped that Zuko would be more considerate to the nature around him as a result.
Then Mi-Dved talked about his vision and Zuko talked about how he met the small puppy, a hellhound he called it. He agreed that they should head toward Kioshi, and the experience may help point Zuko to the right direction. Hearing all the good Avatar Kioshi did may cause doubts inside him about the rightfulness of his mission.
He also was extremely curious about the hellhound, he had never seen something like that in all his travels (which means a lot). While a little concerned about the species name, he could hardly fault the creature. But he did wonder how it would look as an adult, saber-toothed-moose-lion look cute as well as a cub.
When they talked about the part where they reunited and finally defeated the monster, he was proud of the progress his nephew showed in his fire bending (even if he had little part in it, much to his carnage), as well as the teamwork he and Mi-Dved had. But the next thing they said ruined everything and left him in much distress.
"You left an old man to his fate in a swamp filled with dangerous creatures?! We have to go back now!"
"He should be already wake up by now, or dead."
His nephew shrugged.
"Either way, it's useless to go back now. Besides, you can return to the swamp if you want, but there is no way I'm going back there. Let the savage test his 'we are the same' theory."
His nephew continued to walk as if nothing happened.
He couldn't believe it, never was he so ashamed of his nephew. How could he himself, as a mentoring figure, allow his nephew to become such a person who leave his fellow men for dead. No, this will stop. Now!
He moved his mount and stopped before the duo, cutting off their advance.
"No nephew! We will return to the swamp, find the man you left for dead, and you will apologize for your actions. You have lost yourself completely, nephew. You are starting to act like-"
"My father?"
Zuko answered back.
"I wouldn't go out of my way to help someone who attacked me! And in case you didn't notice, dad it the fire lord! While you are a fat lazy tea addict!"
There was a silence.
"You are out of line, nephew. You will go back with me at once. I'm done letting you throw your morals away!"
"Make me!"
The tension was high as the two eyed each other, it pained his old heart to see that things came down to this. Just as it looked like they were going to blow, relief came from an unexpected source.
"Is that smoke?"
Mi-Dved said while pointing at a point where they were heading, where the village they dined in was. Wordlessly, he and his nephew quicken their respective mount's pace toward the village.
"What happened here?!"
His nephew asked in an enraged tone, it seems the boy hadn't lost all sense of decency just yet. Maybe there is hope yet, as opposed to the rest of the village.
What was once a small but flourishing village is now a wreckage of stone and wood, with fire here and there. The stone gates from which they came and went last time were now merely piles of stones, the guards nowhere to be seen. As they went inside the village, they saw that no building was left standing. There were no people in sight, or at least Iroh didn't see any.
They were near the inn where they ate last time as suddenly the hellhound cub (they really needed to find a name, if they were going to keep it anyway) jumped off Zuko's bag and sniffed at the entrance of the building. It ran to some pile of stone and wood and barked at it.
His nephew jumped off his mount and ran towards the same place.
"Come on! There is someone trapped in there!"
Mi-Dved and himself followed the young prince.
"Help me move this beam."
Zuko ordered the earth bender.
Together they moved the beam to discover the hand of the same waitress that fed them. Iroh pulled her out of the wreckage as the two teens held of all the obstacles in the way. After checking her pulse and confirming she was just unconscious, Zuko made electricity in his hand (Iroh still didn't understand how it was possible, it's not how lightning bending worked) and shook the waitress. She woke immediately with a jolt.
"What!? Where!?"
After explaining her about the state they found her in, as well as asking about the events that led to the state of the village, she told them all she knew after the initial shock.
Apparently not long after the trio left, a small group of bandits came, saying that they came to make an example of the village. This village as well as other villages were under the protection of guards from the Beifong family to secure the routes of trade, effective troops that held back the thugs and ruffians. At least they did.
The small group that came, not even close to be a threat to the professional guards, proclaimed that the entire region must pay protection now. That the complete destruction of the village will show others what happened to those who resist.
The guards of course were ready to lay waste on the criminals, but then out of nowhere there was an earthquake and the entire village just crumbled. She lost consciousness when the inn fell on her and didn't know what happened next.
His nephew agreed to help look for survivors and with the help of the hellhound cub they managed to find and rescue most of the villagers. The puppy proved to be a great stress relief for the children, as they played and petted it.
Once finished, Zuko addressed the people.
"Listen up! For all who are interested, I have a new place for you to live in. far from bandits and outlaws. The catch is, that it's an island colony of the fire nation."
The villagers were concerned, to put it lightly. They were thought to fear the fire nation since birth after all, in fact some were starting to think of conspiracy.
"You are a fire nation spy!"
"Do you plan to enslave us?!"
"Get away from my kids!"
"You brought the thugs here, didn't you?!"
"SILENCE!"
Zuko shouted as arcs of lightning shot a dozen feet around him and the helmet produces a main of fire that rose twenty feet high, rest assure there was silence after that.
"I may be a fire bender, but I'm the one who got you all out of the rubble! I deserve at least the benefit of doubt!"
His nephew continued.
"I have no connection to the tragedy that was here! I came here because I had to deal with something in the swamp!"
He pointed at Mi-Dved, who got the clue and showed the human sized mask they took as a trophy from Huu. It seemed to awe the people, as they were superstitious about the swamp that was near them, and outright believed that it was some skull of a swamp monster.
"I have personally cleared the south-eastern seas of piracy, you will have no problems like that there. I'm building a factory there, and I will need a village to support its workers. You will be treated fairly and live peacefully behind the safety of the fire nation's strong navy. I wouldn't force you to do anything but consider alternatives."
He moved his right hand in a semi-circle motion, addressing the entire ruined village.
"Either or, I'm giving you this letter I wrote and sealed. With it you can go south to the now fire nation controlled port and they will allow you a free pass to a ship that will bring you to the island, your choice."
With that Zuko signaled Mi-Dved and himself to move out.
Just why did his nephew had to be so complicated, one moment he left a man that didn't deserved it for dead, the other he saves an entire village and gives them a new safe place to live. He didn't know how to act with such a switching personality.
AN
Chapter 10 is finished!
so far the story has 10 chapters with 69,387 words of pure story, 19 reviews, 20 followers and 14 favorites.
Firstly, I only now noticed that none of my horizontal lines was excepted in the story! I'm very sorry for the inconvenience. after I publish this chapter I will do some house cleaning and update the chapters with their lines.
So as people guessed, Zuko had his long overdue meeting with his "mother". I sticked to the cannon about Ursa changing her face and identity by going to a spirit, I hope I portrayed it well in Zuko's Vision, it was hard to write the entire scene and emotions as a whole. No doubt he will have some serious things to think on.
I had some other scene in mind for Mi-Dved's vision, but I decided to change it because I want to keep the surprise for later.
Toph finally had her first "job" as a true blind bandit. Don't worry She will cross paths with Zuko soon enough.
We have some insight on the actions of the crew while Zuko's away, they will also play a much bigger role in keeping his empire as the time will pass. The "Black Koi" pirates are actually cannon, by the way, although I may have made them more dangerous.
The encryption of the pirates is actually something I learned about an a lecture and it's a real encryption people from the past used, I found it fitting for the story so I added it. The more you know...
I hope I wrote the final fight with the "swamp monster" and the conclusion of it to your liking, as well as getting the picture of an emotionally distressed Zuko and a "we are the same" Huu right.
as for the puppy... we at least have the animal kind now, we will learn more about in in the next chapter as Sai will explain exactly what it is, why the swamp (and Huu by proxy) wants it extinct and it's connection to the overlords.
And Last but not least, the constant struggle between Iroh and Zuko, as well as inside Iroh himself about Zuko.
By the way, what do you think the puppy's name should be?
Now for the reviews:
deniswanheda:
You were obsoletely right!
and as you can see Iroh has an up-heel battle in front of him.
Anyway, be sure to write what you think about the chapter and the story. Don't be afraid to share what you think could and should happen.