A/N So, I did decide to remove all the chapters after this to rework them, to keep things less confusing for any new readers while I get everything to match up right. I hope this makes everything a little easier to read now. It was really starting to bother me in the previews. lol!
I have this all set up and a Mai chapter coming soon! It's still something of any experiment.
As soon as Zuko ties up all his gear and secures Rina to a tree at the start of the mountain path, he and Lee head up the little trail.
"So," Zuko starts, trying to get the angry boy to talk. "What did you want to take with us?"
There is no response from Lee. He keeps his eyes firmly planted on the road ahead.
"Ok, whatever you want, buddy." Zuko says, as though Lee had provided him a list. "Nice scenery around here. Have you ever been out of the area before?"
Lee's only response is to glance at something off the path.
"I see." Zuko tries to think of something else to say.
"Have you ever ridden an ostrich horse before?"
Lee stops and examines a few bushes by the trail, presumably checking to see if he recognizes the berries on them. Deciding that he doesn't, he continues on.
"A komodo rhino isn't much different. They're a little wider, but you should still be able to stay on. If not, maybe I can find some weights for your feet or something."
Silence.
"Ok," Zuko sighs. "So, you don't want to talk. Maybe you'll want to later. I'm good at listening. Not too good with advice. But good at listening."
What good is listening if you can't advise on a solution to the problem?! He wonders, facepalming. This kid probably thinks I'm an idiot. A very big, menacing, stupid, idiot.
They reach the cave and Zuko opts to wait outside, to give Lee some time to himself.
Lee only takes a moment to retrieve some clothes that look like they were meant for a slight older kid, although they are torn and dirty.
Lee dumps them unceremoniously into a heap at Zuko's feet then trudges back inside. It's very clear that he expects Zuko to carry them.
When he emerges again, he's carrying as many scrolls as he can without dropping any from the chests inside.
"Hide it." He says, walking down the path and not looking back.
"What?"
"Hide. It." He enunciates.
"What about the pictures of your family?" Zuko starts to walk into the cave, certain that he can carry the pictures and the clothes.
"They're gone, Ashmaker. Pictures don't change that." The boy spits.
"You may want them later."
"I won't!" He shouts, bitterly. "Now do what I say, and close it up! There are still valuable scrolls in there. I don't want anyone else finding this place!"
"Alright. Run on down and check on Rina. I'll be along in a minute. I can help with those when I get there." He points to the boy's arms full of paper.
Lee doesn't respond, just turns and walks down the path.
Zuko sighs and walks inside the cave. He finds some empty paper, feather pens, and ink. He gathers these up, takes one more look around, picks up a few more little items, then walks back out, and sets about hiding the cave.
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"Took your sweet time, didn't you?" Lee comments in a bitter tone, as Zuko emerges from the trees.
He's dangling upside down from a branch about fifteen feet in the air, munching on some of Zuko's cured fish.
"Hey! That's not safe!" Zuko shouts, running forward.
"Relax! I've been doing this since I was a kid!" Lee shouts back.
"You're still a kid!" Zuko retorts.
Lee pauses for a moment.
"Yeah, maybe, but I survived pretty well alone for two months, right? Doesn't that kind of make me an adult?" His tone suggests it's a statement of the obvious, rather than a question.
"No, it doesn't. Now get down before I decide to tie you to the rhino!"
Lee sighs. He mutters something about "all burn and no fun".
He trudges over to where Zuko is beginning to pack up his meager belongings.
"We'll need to make a quick stop in Chin Village. I need to write a letter and send it to my Uncle." Zuko says, as he secures the saddlebag on Rina's back.
"Whatever." Lee responds.
Zuko looks over at him and isn't too surprised to see dried tearstreaks in the grime on the younger boy's face.
His irritation eases a bit.
"Hey," He kneels down in front of Lee, so they are eye to eye. "I know it's been rough for you. And I won't lie: Long journeys are not always fun. But I'll try and find some fun for us along the way, ok?"
Lee just glares at the ground, refusing to meet his eyes.
"Do you know how to swim? I found this awesome little lake on the way in. It's a few hours from here. Maybe we can stop for quick swim, get all that mud off of you." He tries again.
Lee looks at him, and despite his glare, his eyes are still watery. With sad tears, angry tears, scared ones, or all of the above, Zuko isn't certain.
The impulse hits him to hug Lee, and this time, he doesn't resist it. He throws his arms around the boy's skinny frame, pulling him close.
"Get off me! Get off me!" Lee shouts, struggling to get free. "I hate you! You're the reason this all happened! And you know it! Get away from me!"
Zuko jumps back, surprised.
"Look, I'll go with you until I can find my brother, or someone else to help me look for him. But don't even think that I will ever be your friend. And I don't need you! You've just made it clear that you won't let me leave. I'll go with you, because you're making me go. But don't you ever lay a hand on me again!"
"I understand." Zuko stands up stiffly, and gets onto Rina. He waits, staring dead ahead, waiting for Lee to realize that he can't get on the rhino without Zuko's help.
Lee walks out ahead of Rina. And keeps walking, like he doesn't intend to wait for Zuko.
"Where do you think you're going?" Zuko demands, after about ten seconds.
"You didn't seem to know where you were going, so I picked a direction and started walking. My brother would have been heading towards Ba Sing Se to defend it after Omashu fell. That's where I'm going. You can't stop me." He continues to walk as he speaks, not bothering to turn around to converse.
Zuko just sighs and urges Rina into a very slow walk. It's going to take them forever.
I guess that I'll have to wait and see if he gets tired enough to head for Chin Village soon.
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The air heats up quite a bit by the time they've reached level ground. Lee slumps and trudges wearily up ahead.
Zuko figures they can make the lake by tonight if he can just nudge the kid to turn South.
But he isn't sure about how to do that without being overly obvious.
"Are you tired?" He decides to ask.
Lee offers no response.
"I have some water." He tries again. Rina's ear flicks back at the word. He puts a hand on her skin and knows she needs to get to the lake too.
When Lee's only response is silence once more, Zuko urges Rina ahead to get in front of him.
"Lee, I asked you a question. I need an answer." He states clearly.
Lee looks up at him and glares.
Annoyed, Zuko takes a waterskin and tosses it to the ground at the boy's feet, then wheels Rina around and heads for the lake, assuming Lee will get scared and catch up to him.
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Lee's pov
Lee can hear Zuko getting more and more distant. He decides that he doesn't care. He doesn't really want to walk all the way back up the mountain now though, in the cold and the dark. At least down here, it's still warm. The sun is disappearing rapidly over the horizon and he knows he won't be safe out in the open.
He thinks about the leaving the waterskin behind, just to spite Fireboy. But he realizes that he would just be spiting himself. He picks it up and continues on, keeping the sun and the mountains to his left.
He isn't sure how long he's walked for when he notices a boy following beside him.
"Where did you come from?" He asks.
"Oh, I've been waiting for you all day. I'm living in Gao Ling at the moment. My father is a farmer there. Do you remember me, Lee?" The boy gently removes the waterskin from Lee's hand and takes a sip.
Lee looks hard at him.
"Yeah. Yeah, I think I do!" He says, after a moment.
"You're the Kyoshi kid! The guy who could predict the future!"
"Not so loud, please." The waterskin is shoved roughly back into his hand. "I don't need the whole world to know!"
"Oh. Right." Lee lets the words hang empty in the air, like question marks.
"I knew you were going to be here tonight. I know you're going to get lost after I leave." The boy offers by way of an answer.
"I know which way I'm going!" Lee says, irked. "My dad taught me how to navigate with the Sun and the stars!"
"Then it isn't the Sun or the stars that will help you to find your way again." The boy picks up a shiny little white rock and throws it, skipping it over the ground like it would move if skipped over water. Then, abruptly, it disappears. Into thin air.
"Wow! How did you do that?" Lee shouts. He rushes over to where the stone disappeared.
"Simple. It was never really there." The boy shrugs.
"What? How could it not be there?" Lee brushes his hands around in the dirt, looking for the pretty stone.
"I have to go now, Lee. I was only here to tell you that you have a long road ahead of you. That Firebender? You don't have to be friends with him, if you don't want to. But you do have to cooperate with him. Your paths run together for now. They'll go different ways later, but for right now, you need each other." The boy turns to leave.
"Wait!" Lee calls out. He turns back.
"You said I would get lost, and that I wouldn't find my way back. How do I get back when that happens?" He asks.
"The way back will find you. Remain calm when it appears." The boy says it as though it's common sense, not a sentence that Lee could have placed in a mysterious fairy tale.
"How will I know it when I see it?"
"You'll know. Come and see me when you get to Gao Ling. My father wants to speak with the Firebender." He pauses for moment, seeming to think.
"My name is Weilai. All your other questions will be answered in time. I don't have the answers for you anymore. It's up to you now."
"Did you just read my mind?" Lee can't help the squeak in his voice.
"I see the future, remember?" The boy smiles, then continues on his way.
Lee watches for a minute, waiting for him to disappear like the stone had, but he doesn't. His form recedes, steadily but predictably into the distance.
Lee wants to run after him, but he realizes that his waterskin is dry. He sees a pool of water off to his right, and starts heading towards it. The pool seems to get smaller as he gets closer.
He stops and studies it, thinking that it may be a mirage created by the setting sun.
After a moment, he realizes that it's gotten larger. He steps forward, tentatively. It doesn't change. He steps forward again.
Resuming his previous pace, he's irritated to realize that it's resumed it's own, steadily shrinking in time to the rythyme of his steps.
He stops and watches it again, and it expands a bit as before.
He takes a few steps, it slowly shrinks. He stops and waits, it slowly grows. It seems to be luring him across the open field.
He cautiously follows it.
It recedes to a a little hole next to a tree. Then, it doesn't move again.
When Lee reaches it's edge, he's puzzled by what he sees.
His reflection in the water morphs into a burning village. His village!
He sees flickers of faces of the people he knew. His father, his mother, his brother, the kind old lady who ran the tea cottage just outside of town, the man who ran the produce stand, and more.
Then, the Firebender's face appears before him, but as a younger boy. There are people in the background, but Lee can't make out their faces. A shadow falls over the scenes, darkening them. The water turns black.
The sudden sounds of screams fill the air.
Lee screams with them, and runs. He drops the waterskin, and runs for all he's worth. The world seems to change around him, from the open field in front of him into a place that's as dark as the oncoming night. Wind seems to howl through the trees, although he can't see any trees.
The more panicked he gets, the more the world spins.
I'm lost! He realizes. How do I get back?!
"Weilai!" He yells. "Weilai! Where are you?!"
He crashes through shadowy underbrush, hoping to find some way out of this mysterious place.
He looks for the moon or the sun or the stars, and finds that there is no sky above him at all. Just Nothing.
What's going on?! He wonders.
"HELP ME! SOMEBODY!" He screams, feeling his throat go raw.
"Anybody!" He feels so tired. He can't run anymore. He just can't.
He notices that he isn't out of breath though.
He sits down, wondering how he even got into a forest or jungle or whatever it is to begin with.
"Lee?" He hears Fireboy's voice calling. "Lee? Where are you?"
"I'm over here! I can't see!" Lee shouts back hoarsely.
"Lee! This is not funny!" He hears worry very clearly in the Ashmaker's voice.
"I'm over here!" He repeats.
The guy continues to call for him as though he hasn't heard. But he doesn't sound far away.
Lee starts to follow the sound of his voice, through the darkness. He takes deep breaths to help fight off the panic rising once more in his chest. The forest seems to open up a path for him, but the air feels tense, like everything could snap back to where it was before and lock him in forever.
He forces himself to think of something good. He thinks of Dad and going starwatching. He looks up and sees a single star overhead.
The sky is brighter now, and he can see the color of the forest around him. It looks like a normal enough forest.
He takes a deep breath and looks for the sun, or what's left of it. He sees a break in the trees, with the last of the sun's rays just disappearing behind them, the sky still a dim orange color.
Suddenly, he can see the Firebender in the distance. He's a lot farther off than the sound of his voice would suggest. He can still hear him calling as though he were next to him, but he looks to be almost a mile away.
Lee's throat is too sore to call out again, so he just keeps walking in the direction of the setting sun.
"Oh no! Lee!" The panic is clear in the Ashmaker's voice.
Lee can see him kneel down to look at something on the ground. The forest is suddenly gone. He looks around in shock, wondering where it went.
He's suddenly standing next to the older boy, looking at a still form on the ground.
It's holding a full waterskin. It's himself.
Darkness consumes Lee as the sky finally turns black for the night, but he can't see any stars.
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Zuko's pov
It's still dark when Zuko rises, due to the mountains off in the near distance behind him. Dew soaks through his clothes and he shivers. The nights are getting colder, even though the days can still be blistering hot. He vaguely realizes that yesterday was the Autumn Equinox. It's officially autumn.
He joins Rina in the little lake to warm up a bit. He has a change of dry clothes in his saddlebag, which is made out of a treated leather to keep moisture out.
Once he is warm and changed, he takes some dried seaweed and more cured fish out of his pack.
His stomach twists a bit at the thought of eating more of the same food. He places a hand over it, silently telling it to be grateful as he remembers starving around four months ago.
He sets up a little tin plate for Lee and sets it next to the boy's head.
Zuko had been absolutely panicked when he'd found Lee lying prone in the fields with the full waterskin clutched tightly in his hand.
He'd wondered why Lee hadn't drank it if he was so dehydrated. At first, he'd thought it was just Lee being stubborn, but if that were the case, then why hadn't he left the waterskin on the ground where he'd thrown it?
He'd tried to wake the boy several times on the ride back to the lake, to no avail.
Once he'd finally gotten Lee's face clean and settled him into the sleeping bag, he'd pinched his nose and tilted his head back, pouring as much of the water as he could safely get into the little mouth and throat.
Then, exhausted from losing half the night for the second day in a row, he'd collapsed on the ground next to Lee and fell asleep, not caring if the boy shouted at him when he woke up.
Done waiting for the kid to wake up on his own, Zuko starts to gently shake him, hoping that he isn't in a coma or something.
Lee's eyes snap open and he bolts upright.
"I'm here! I'm here!" He shouts, at the top of his lungs, and as though shouting from a great distance.
"I know." Zuko says, pushing him gently back down. "Take it easy. You were dehydrated. I found you collapsed out in the field last night. I gave you as much water as I could. Just settle down."
"You mean I wasn't in the woods?" Lee asks, groggily.
"What woods? You were in an open field. Remember?"
"I was lost. I couldn't find my way out. The woods kept getting thicker. It wouldn't let me go! You sounded so close, but you were way far away when I did finally see you!" The boy rambles.
"Lee, it was just a bad were pretty out of it. Here," He props him up on a saddlebag and puts the plate of food on his lap. "I have more water for you when you're done with that."
He starts securing the other saddlebag to Rina's saddle.
"What about Weilai?" Lee asks, shoving the fish into his mouth.
"Who?" He turns around sharply. Had someone attacked the kid? Zuko had forgotten to check for bruises or other signs of a struggle.
"Weilai. The boy from Kyoshi Island. He was sort of a friend of mine. He said he'd been waiting for me. He can see the future, you know. He said that he knew I was going to be there. He said I have to cooperate with you, even if I don't like you, because our paths cross or something. I don't always understand what he says. He was always a bit weird like that." Lee puts the plate to the side, leaving the seaweed on it alone. He gets up and heads for the water's edge.
"It was all a dream, Lee. Kyoshi Island is far away from here. How would your friend get here from there without his parents knowing about it?" Zuko follows him, in case the kid can't swim. Lee just sits down and drags a stick through the water, watching the ripples.
"He says he lives in Gao Ling now." Lee continues, as though he hasn't even heard Zuko's question. "He said his dad wants to talk to you. They're farmers there now. He said he knew where and when to find me. I told you he can see the future."
"Lee, nobody can see the future. Not even the Spirits know what's going to happen for sure." Zuko rolls his eyes and reaches for Lee's half empty plate.
"How do you know what the Spirits can see? Have you ever been to the Spirit World?"
Zuko wants to retort that, no, he hadn't been himself, but that his Uncle had. And how about Lee? Had he ever been there? Zuko opens his mouth with the intention of saying just that, but Lee doesn't give him any opening to do so.
"Anyway, Weilai could. He's the one who told me the story of the Fire Lady. He's the one who came up with the story. And then the adults thought it was cool and wrote it all down. But they got all the dates wrong. Weilai wasn't happy about it. Said it was making destiny harder to find or something. But that was a few years ago that he told me that. I was...eight maybe. Dad used to take me to Kyoshi Island when he went to sell meat every year. We would stop to drop off my brother at school in Chin Village on the way. It was the best time of the year! I got to go see the world and meet new people. But anyway, Weilai said there was a lady and that she'd go through all Four Nations by the end of her journey." Lee laid back and gazed into the sky. "He said she might be in an Air Temple somewhere. He said there had to be at least one Air Temple left."
"Here. You need to eat this. It'll help put meat on your bones." Zuko shoves the plate in his hands, angry that one of the two leads he has from Kyoshi Island turns out to have been invented by some child.
"I don't wanna eat that! It's gross." Lee complains, sitting up and dumping the plate in the pond.
"Hey! I worked hard for that food!" Zuko groans.
"Everybody knows that it's meat that puts meat on your bones." Lee states, matter of factly.
Zuko facepalms and grabs the plate.
"Don't get mad at me when you get hungry." He grunts.
Lee hops to his feet and starts to run ahead.
"Where do you think you're going?" Zuko asks, tying up the last saddlebag, plate tucked inside.
"To Gao Ling. It's where Weilai said to meet him." Lee says. He's not as angry as yesterday. It almost seems like a great weight has been taken off his shoulders.
"Lee, for the last time, there is no way your friend met you last night and then disappeared. It was just a dream." Zuko says.
"But he said his dad wants to talk to you!" Lee insists, getting angry.
Zuko sighs and rolls his eyes.
"We'll get to Gao Ling soon enough, Lee. But we have to stop in Chin Village to get you some new clothes and some more food for us."
"Can I get an ostrich horse to ride?" Lee asks, somewhat interested.
"No. I'm going to teach how to ride Rina." Zuko says. He lifts the kid up and hands him the reins. Lee wobbles around a bit. His legs don't reach very far down the komodo rhino's sides.
Zuko reaches up to steady him as he lays himself on his stomach in an effort feel more secure.
"Wow! The world looks so different from up here!" Lee shouts, right in Zuko's ear.
"Just sit up straight, and keep looking straight ahead." He orders.
Lee straightens up and tries to do as he's told. When he stops wobbling around, Zuko leads Rina forward at a nice slow walk.
"Whoa!" Lee shouts, as he starts to slide off. Zuko catches him at the last second, before he can send both of them tumbling to the ground.
Rina stops dead in her tracks and looks at the two as though asking herself a very important question. Evidently finding her answer after a few seconds, she starts eating grass.
"I think I'm too short to ride your rhino." Lee comments, starting to walk once more.
"You don't say." Zuko replies, dryly. He mounts up onto Rina and submits to the fact that his travel time will be doubled for the forseeable future. He does not feel like getting his guts squeezed out in the kid's effort to stay aboard behind him.
Lee obediently follows him, occasionally wandering out ahead to look at something of interest. He doesn't respond to any further attempts at conversation.
It must have been one really bad dream. He definitely still hates me, but he sure believed that little friend of his. And he's not going anywhere. Zuko muses to himself.
A/N So, when I looked up equinox events in Avatar, I did come across the fact that the Spirit World is at it's farthest from the Human World. I don't think the it's shown in the series whether or not the Avatar can get thee during an Equinox or not, but for the purposes of this story, certain people can get into the Spirit World during the Equinox if they grew up in an extremely spiritual or intuitive way (so Iroh can't, because he found it later on in life). Supposedly, this means that the Air Nomads could have as well. Anyway, Lee didn't get there on his own, of course. This will all be explained eventually. But if it later turns out to be silly and not at all in line with the Avatar world, please tell me! I will fix it! I just didn't find a lot of information on this online, so I went ahead and made up some rules as I went along. Let me know what you think! :)