Wandering Prince
Avatar the Last Airbender, Zuko SI
23
Commissioned by darkestcalling.
In the short time Toph had been able to use her eyes, she had seen so many new things and made so many new, happy memories that it was hard to say which was her favorite, behind the very first—that being the day she was healed and saw her friends for the first time. Since then she had seen trees, mountains, rivers, animals, the sky, huge clouds and lightning dancing in the distance, the moon and stars, sunset and sunrise—but those were all apparently mundane, normal things. Things normal people just took for granted.
Today however, things had taken a more fantastical turn—the sort of things her former maid had read aloud to her from books. She had joined the ranks of only a handful of people alive today who had seen the view of the world from the sky—something no one had seen in the last almost hundred years, since the death of the airbenders. Sunset over the ocean from so high up that animals looked like insects moving around below was right up there in her top five favorites, but being able to take the blindfold off and look out over the land and water under the cool, blue light of the nearly full moon was right behind it.
Looking down over the water, glittering silver in places, and the coast, Toph grinned as she held onto a rope tightly and leaned a bit further out over the edge of the flying boat. Off to the side, she heard Yue yawn before speaking up. "What do we want to eat tonight?"
"What are you feeling like?" Zuko asked, before adding, "You too, Toph."
"I don't really care. Whatever you're having," she shrugged, not looking away from the sights below. Along the dark line of the coast, the orange light of numerous fires glowed in the dark, stretching nearly as far as she could see. They were fairly spaced out, but there were a lot of them, and Toph had seen maps of the Earth Kingdom before rendered in stone at scale—because Earthbenders loved doing that kind of thing and her parents kept a few on retainer just for that sort of service. To her knowledge, there weren't that many villages along the coast.
"That's weird, right?" she asked just as Yue ducked into the cabin.
"What's weird?" Zuko asked, and Toph gestured off the side of the boat with her free hand.
"That. There are lots of camp fires along the coast. I count over thirty."
"Let me see." She felt his footsteps through the metal of the deck approaching, before he stopped beside her. "Huh. That's weird."
"Right? I told you! What do you think it is?"
He pulled out some kind of tube that extended when he pulled on it and brought it to his eye. "Lots of camps and a lot of people. But they're… under-provisioned for any kind of trip. Just the clothes on their backs, maybe a few bags. A few wagons and animals here and there. Look kinda ragged, too."
"You can see all that? How?" Toph asked.
Zuko pulled the tube from his eye and sent her a smile as he offered it to her. "It's a spyglass. Or a telescope if you wanna get technical. Have a look for yourself."
Toph took the spyglass and held it to her eye as she'd seen Zuko do. "Whoa!" she yelped, reflexively taking a step back and nearly stumbling, before Zuko's hand on her arm caught her. "They got close! No, wait," she pulled the spyglass away from her eye and looked again, before putting it back. "Ooh! I get it! Neat!"
"I thought we could have stew— What's going on?" Yue called as she stepped outside, carrying a lidded pot and a metal stand to put it on.
"Remember the smoke we saw earlier in the day? I think we know what was burning now," Zuko murmured, waving Yue over.
The princess quickly set up the stand and hung the pot on it by the handle before moving over to stand beside them. Toph offered her the spyglass but Yue waved her off, instead drawing water from her bending pouch. A couple of large blobs of water formed in the air as Yue held them up and Toph realized she was making her own, much larger version of the tool she held. Zuko took back the spyglass instead and they crowded in around the smaller sheet of ice as Yue fine tuned things, creating an icy shell around the outside and attaching the whole thing to the side of the boat with more ice.
"It's upside down," Toph complained.
"You need a mirror angled at forty-five degrees to flip the image and a smaller lens to look through on the back end. Here, narrow it down," Zuko directed and the water flowed as Yue followed his instructions. A few moments later, he was looking through a much smaller eye hole. "Alright, yeah, that did it. Have a look."
Yue took Zuko's place as he moved out of the way. Studying the ground below she frowned, before moving away and letting Toph have a look. What she saw was much closer and in better detail than the spyglass had been. The people she made out around the camp fire looked only a few yards away. As Zuko had said, they looked pretty rough to Toph's eye. Some were covered in some black or gray substance that looked like the soot and ash that came from the coal engine keeping the ship up. Some wore bandages and had big stains of what might be blood, but it was hard to tell in the moonlight.
"We have to go down there," Yue spoke up as Toph turned away from the telescope. A gesture from the waterbender had the ice turning to water and flowing back into her bending skin.
Zuko considered Yue for a few moments before he smiled. Letting out a sigh, he nodded. "Alright. Tomorrow."
"We should go now. There are injured—!"
"They've clearly been on the road for a couple of days. Anyone who was going to die of immediate, life threatening injures has likely already done so. Anyone with an infection can probably wait for sunrise." When Yue crossed her arms over her chest and frowned, Zuko continued, "Besides, let me ask you something. Suppose you've been on the run for a few days after some tragedy forced you from your home. It's the middle of the night and some strangers approach your camp. How do you react?"
Yue looked away. "I would see what they wanted before making up my mind."
Moving over to the pot and taking off the lid, Zuko checked its contents for a moment before closing it up and sitting down in his seat. Putting his hand under the bottom, orange flames spilled out of his hand and cast a warm glow over the boat's deck. "You really would, wouldn't you? Toph?"
"Hm?" she asked, looking away from the fire coming from Zuko's hand. "Oh. Middle of the night? Yeah, they're definitely there to fuck around and cause trouble. I'd bury them up to their necks first and go from there."
Zuko arched an eyebrow and Toph blushed as she remembered that was pretty much exactly what she had done to him on their first meeting—except she'd also caught him by surprise and broken his hip first, for good measure. When he only chuckled, she looked away and held in the apology she kind of almost felt obligated to give again. She didn't though, because if he had wanted to hold it over her head, he would have before now.
Making a frustrated sound, Yue dropped into her seat beside Zuko and propped her elbows on her knees, before dropping her chin in her palms and pouting. "I hate it when you do that."
"Do what?" Zuko asked as Toph joined them on his other side. Grabbing the lid, he opened the pot for a moment and Yue flicked a finger in its general direction, making the contents swirl.
Toph leaned in to see what it was and sighed at the smell of meat and vegetables in soup. Zuko covered it again and Yue answered, "Making me feel bad for wanting to help people." He started to open his mouth and she cut him off. "I know that's not what you're trying to do. I know you're looking out for me. I'm not as worldly as you, or as jaded as Toph. One day, giving someone the benefit of the doubt is probably going to come back to bite me, but I would rather that than treat everyone as a potential threat."
Turning, her eyes bored into Zuko's and at that moment, Toph felt like an outsider—like she was intruding on something private. But it would be awkward to get up and leave, or otherwise draw attention to herself and break their moment, so she kept silent.
"If I did, I wouldn't be here today. With you."
Yeah, definitely feeling like I should make a hole and crawl into it for a while—
Yue leaned around Zuko and sent Toph a smile. "Or you."
Toph couldn't help the smile that came to her lips, so she turned away to avoid embarrassing herself. Beside her, Zuko reached up and rubbed at the his forehead. "You can do that and minimize risk and potential conflict, just by being aware of the situation. Like this," he gestured with his free hand towards the side of the boat and presumably to the coast down below. "Look before you leap. That's all I'm asking. You don't have to change who you are and honestly, I don't want you to. Just be aware of the risks and be more careful."
Yue bit her bottom lip and nodded. "I guess it can wait until morning. But we'll go at first light!"
"We will," Zuko agreed. Opening the pot again, he considered the contents before nodding. "Looks done to me."
"Toph, come help me get everything?" Yue asked and Toph nodded, following her inside and grabbing their dishes and the tea pot while Yue brought out a pot of leftover rice and a blanket.
Soon enough, they had set up together on the blanket outside, Zuko locking the tiller into position and joining them. Toph was all smiles as she happily shared a meal with her friends. After, she and Yue laid out on the blanket, the taller girl pulling her in close as they looked at the stars, while Zuko stood and made his way over to the railing, looking out below while sipping another cup of tea.
Toph had nearly drifted off when Zuko spoke up. "Well, looks like I was right."
"Hm?" Yue asked, stirring Toph slightly as she shifted to look at Zuko.
"Just spotted the remains of a coastal village. I say remains because it's been burned to the ground. There's a little smoke, but it looks like it's been days. It probably happened that day we had that big storm move through."
"You think it was lightning?" Toph yawned, and Zuko shook his head.
"Doubt it. Not with that many people moving and apparently more than one village affected. Could be…"
"Fire Nation," Yue murmured, and Zuko nodded.
"Maybe, but I doubt it. This isn't their usual thing. The navy doesn't tend to burn random villages down, especially when a lot of these villages on the coast were originally founded by the Fire Nation and trade with us. No, this is something else. Pirates, maybe. Earth Kingdom getting it in their heads to do another purge. This many, across this large an area, means it's coordinated either way. We'll find out what it is tomorrow."
Toph felt through the metal of the ship as he moved around to the front and swept the spyglass over the water. After a few moments, he returned. "Spotted a boat. They're not flying any flags and hauling ass west."
Yue sat up. "Where do you think they're going?"
Zuko thought about it for a minute, taking Toph's hand and pulling her up when she reached out for him. "That's the general direction of Kyoshi Island, I think."
"So, if they're pirates, think we should follow?"
Zuko opened his mouth, then closed it with a click. "Might have just been a merchant trader. I'm not one hundred percent sure. It was pretty far and running dark, so it's hard to make out."
"Running without lights is usually a sign of a pirate. Or at least, that's what the warriors who dealt with the pirate raids said," Yue hummed, gathering the blanket in her hands. "Oh, but sometimes, traders run without lights on the deck if they suspect there are pirates in the area."
Zuko shook his head. "Doesn't help us make a decision then. We'll go check out the refugees and see what's going on. In the meantime, I'm going to put us down and set the tiller to follow the coast, so we can get some sleep."
"Can I watch?" Toph asked, and Zuko nodded. She joined him at the helm as Yue made her way into the cabin. Zuko adjusted things and pulled a couple of cables, and Toph felt as they began to slowly descend. Eventually, they touched down with a soft splash and Zuko pulled a lever to shut off the vent leading up to the balloon, before locking the tiller into place.
"Come help me roll this thing up and put it away, would you?" he asked, and she followed him up to put away the balloon.
Once they were done, they made their way into the cabin and climbed into bed. Toph went to sleep with a grin on her face as she once again found herself the meat in the middle of a Zuko and Yue sandwich.
"Hello the camp," I called as we approached the group of people sitting just off the beach, under the trees. They eyed us with suspicion and had been watching us since Yue beached the boat.
"Good morning!" Yue called, hurrying ahead, while Toph and I hung back a bit. "Is anyone injured? I'm a healer."
The people all looked at each other before one of them waved her over. "Yeah, I got cut real bad. If you could do something about it, I'd appreciate it."
"Of course!" Yue nodded, pulling her bending water from her water skin as she took a knee beside the injured man and began to unwrap the makeshift bandages around his chest. "How did this happen?"
"Pirates, that's how," an older woman spat. "They took everything we had. Took the young women and children onto their ship and killed anyone who tried to fight back. Then they burned the village to the ground when they left."
A man nearby sighed as he nodded. "We ain't the fist and we won't be the last. We've met a couple of other groups. All got the same story. Pirates are going all up and down the coast from the far southern coast to Yu Dao, looting everything that ain't nailed down and burning what is. Lot of 'em are taking slaves, too. Some are killing everyone they come across. It's like someone picked the bunch hornet nest and pissed 'em off, but usually when the Fire Nation Navy comes along and clears out a bunch of pirates, they keep their heads down for a while."
"So, where are you all going?" Toph asked, moving over and making herself a stone seat to sit in as she dropped down near the group. I moved away a bit, taking in their supplies and ration situation versus how many people were there, and coming up short with a wince.
"Most of us are heading for the fishing villages near Omashu. The city sends people out to protect the coastal villages because that's where they get a lot of their food, so those have always been safe from raiders. Some are willing to stop and stay if we find a place what ain't been raided yet, but I told those idiots it's only a matter of time before they'd get raided too," the man pitched his voice at the others, some of whom looked surly and like they didn't want to believe it.
"I'll be back in a few," I called to Toph and Yue. Yue sent me a quick look and a nod. Toph made to stand but I motioned for her to stay and nodded towards Yue. She nodded and turned her attention back to the group around them.
I made my way back to the boat and slipped inside the cabin. Grabbing my bow and quiver, I took the bow from the case and strung it, before settling it into place on my back and heading out. Then, it was up the beach and into the forest. The hunt didn't take long and within the hour I was back with a fresh boar. The people on the beach perked up as they saw the cleaned animal and those who could move quickly began gathering more firewood and setting up a spit to roast it. Together, we got the skin off and put it over the spit.
"Listen," I spoke up, drawing the refugees' attention. "This isn't going to last forever. A few days at most. Who among you can hunt?"
"Lad, we're from a fishing village. Pirates burned our nets and boats," one of the older men spoke up, drawing nods from several of the others.
"Okay, I think I've got a spare net," I nodded. "As for a boat, that's doable, and it's be faster to travel by boat. How many do you need? And how large?"
The fishermen discussed for a few moments before coming to a decision. They drew out the rough length of the two boats they'd need in the sand and I walked it off, before writing everything down in my journal. Once I was finished, I looked over to Yue, working on an old woman. "Yue, you finished with that?"
"Nearly," she confirmed.
"Alright. Toph, want to help?"
The earthbender grinned and hopped up, following me as I headed back into the woods. "So, what are we doing?"
"Cutting down a tree." I pointed to one in particular, "That one. I'm going to cut it. I need you to lift if off the ground with stone so I can work on it."
She nodded and we got to work. Considering how to do what I wanted without giving away that I was a firebender, I eventually came up with an idea. Summoning a sphere of chi to hand, I reshaped it, stretching it out and making it thinner, until it took on a vaguely sword-like shape. Then, I began oscillating the chi along the edge, giving it a bit of a spin as well. Pressing the bar of chi against the tree, I felt the movement of it slow down as it bit into the wood and sprayed sawdust. Adjusting the speed upwards, I pushed it deeper into the tree until it cut through and the tree cracked as it began to lean. Eventually, I felled it entirely.
"Gonna have to remember that one," I mused, eyeing the quietly humming blade in my hand, before moving up the tree and beginning to cut the limbs off.
It was the work of a few hours to cut the limbs off, section it how I wanted, and then remove the bark. I felled a second tree and began working on it for the second boat. Yue finished with her patients during that time and rejoined us, and I had her remove the water from the wood to cure it. Then, between the two of us, we began using our bending techniques to start carving.
While she had never actually built a boat from wood, Yue was a proud member of the Northern Water Tribe, and I was pretty sure she would die of shame if she couldn't make her own boat out of ice now that she could use waterbending for something other than healing. She had lived her life in a city which was heavily dependent upon fishing and hunting for its food, so she had seen the sorts of boats her people used for fishing, hunting, and traveling. With her water acting as a saw, her boat quickly began to take shape.
As for myself, I knew boats well enough, especially given just how much time I had spent recently living in one. There wasn't really enough material to make anything big, but it didn't need to be—nor did it need to be complicated. I didn't worry about any of the frills or details Yue was putting into hers. It needed to float and seat four people, and that was it. A dugout canoe was simple, quick, and left me with plenty of material to work with to make enough oars and seats for everyone. When I got the interior finished, I took a few minutes to have Toph flip it over and smoothed out the bottom, before calling it good enough.
The two boats Yue floated down to the beach on a stream of water were very different, in terms of looks. They were both roughly the same size, but Yue's looked like she had squeezed in an extra two seats. One of them was covered in intricate little Water Tribe carvings and even had a figurehead in the shape of a dragon. The other was plain, with a smooth surface and no frills at all.
"This uh, this thing looks fit for royalty," one of the men complained, running his hand over the figurehead on Yue's boat, earning a smile from the girl. "Almost afraid to take it out on the water."
"It's actually very sturdy!" she assured them, lifting it with a bit of water and moving it out into the waves. "Please, go ahead."
Chuckling, I left her to try to convince them to actually use the work of art she'd given them and made my way back to my own boat. A few moments of digging later and I had a large, rolled fishing net tossed over my shoulder. I made my way back out and dropped the net off over the top of the boat I'd made. "That should do it. Good luck, folks."
"We're leaving?" Yue asked, and I nodded. She quickly said her goodbyes and joined me and Toph as we climbed up into our own boat. "You're sure we can't stay a while longer? Just to make sure they're okay?"
"You saw how many people just like this there were last night," I reminded, and she frowned, but nodded. "So, princess." Yue perked up and her face turned serious as I used her title. "We now know what happened: they were raided by pirates and their people taken. We know where they're going: up the coast, to some villages near Omashu. We know that Omashu is interested in keeping pirates away from their easy food supply and the people that work to supply it. What do you think we should do?"
I held out one hand for emphasis. "We can stop and help every group of refugees as we did here, tending to their injuries and giving or making them whatever they need. I estimate, based on just how many lights we saw, that could take a month or two if we take a day to stop and help every group—if not more, since the horizon cut off the view further up the coast, and there are little villages all up and down the coast that could have been hit or are currently being hit."
Holding out the other hand, I continued, "Or we can make for Omashu and get there in a few days by air. Seek an audience with the king there. Let him know what's going on. Ask him to send aid and people out to escort those who need help. This frees us up to go hunt down the pirates and maybe rescue those people who have been kidnapped before they can be sold off as slaves."
Yue bit her lip as I moved my hands up and down, visibly and metaphorically weighing her options for her. Eventually, Yue asked, "Toph, who's in charge of Omashu? Could they help? And would they even be willing to?"
"King Bumi," the earthbender answered after a moment of thought. "He's an old guy and kind of crazy from what I've heard, but a good king. He'd definitely do whatever he could to help."
"Nnn," Yue made a frustrated sound, but finally nodded. Letting out a defeated sigh, she gave her decision. "A good leader has to know when to delegate, and when to ask for help. And, and a healer has to know when it's time to triage and focus on the most important things first. We'll hurry to Omashu."
Even as she said it, I could tell that Yue didn't agree. That she knew what she needed to do, but felt like she was making the wrong choice. It hurt and left her feeling conflicted, and I could tell she hated it. Nothing I said would make her feel better about it though. So instead, I got to work. We got the fire lit and the balloon out, and lifted off, turning for Omashu.
To my surprise, Yue didn't take her normal seat beside me. Instead, she wandered off to the front of the ship and made herself another telescope of ice, looking out over the beach and the surroundings. I frowned, unsure whether to go to her or give her space. Toph made the decision for me as she sat down beside me and leaned against me. Taking out a lump of metal from the pouch at her belt, she began playing with it, shaping what had been a set of cuffs between her hands.
"She'll get over it," she murmured.
"Hm?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It sucks now, but she's going to realize it's the best decision eventually." The metal between Toph's hands twisted and stretched as she played with it, not looking up. "It's like… You own a company, right? If somebody robs one of your stores, you go to the city guard and maybe hire some mercs for protection. If someone robs all of your stores, you go to the king. If they hurt your people when they were doing it, you send them to a healer, but you don't wait around to make sure they're okay—you go try to stop it from happening again. You've got a duty to look after your employees and if you leave the people hurting them out there, running around free to do it again, you've failed them. Because they'll definitely be back. Maybe tomorrow, maybe in a year or two, after you've had time to rebuild and make more money and stuff for them to steal. Pirates are a fucking scourge and every one you kill saves someone else from them in the future."
"Yeah, but Yue doesn't like fighting. She really doesn't like killing," I pointed out and Toph nodded.
"She's soft. It's not bad, but sometimes… sometimes, you just don't have the luxury to be soft. That's why my family hires guards for caravans and ships, and they've got orders to handle bandits and pirates one way. I've heard the reports. Some years it can get pretty bad—"
Crack-boom!
Toph and I both flinched and I heard Yue yelp from the front of the boat. My head jerked towards the source of the sound as I stood, looking behind us—towards the southeast. Down on the water a few miles out, I spotted a Fire Navy cruiser burning hard towards us. A moment later, a streak of fire shot into the air above it.
Crack-boom!
"What is that?" Toph asked, lifting her blindfold and shielding her eyes from the sun with her hands as she squinted at the water.
"Zuko?" Yue called as she hurried up, stopping beside Toph. "What's going on?"
"Signal flare. Shit," I sighed as a third flare went up and detonated. Looking around, I didn't spot any other Fire Navy boats, which meant that those flares were meant for us. "Maybe I can convince them to go away."
Remembering my lessons on signaling, I shot off a flare of my own in answer to confirm I'd seen their flare and get them to stop sending up noisemakers. The sound from those things carried for miles and miles, and there was a chance that while I might not see another Fire Nation Navy boat, one over the horizon might have heard. They were entirely distinct and couldn't be mistaken for thunder or anything else, and if a boat heard one, they were obligated to respond unless running under orders to the contrary—which they were required to signal.
As I watched, a series of smaller fireballs shot up into the air before going off—these not making any noise. Yue frowned, asking, "What are they doing?"
"Communicating. It's code. Hang on," I told her, taking a moment to decode it from what I remembered. "It says 'unknown vessel, identify yourself and state your purpose for being here.'"
"All that from a few fireballs?" Toph asked, sounding impressed.
"Individual words and phrases. What they actually sent was unknown, identify, purpose."
"So, what are you going to say back?"
I considered for a moment before sending a reply. "Secret. Research. Identify. Identity is secret, we're here for research, you identify yourself because I don't believe you have clearance to know who I am and why I'm here. Basically, anyone below admiral can go blow smoke and doesn't need to know why we're here, and they'll know it. Given that we're on a flying ship, that should convince them we're legit and likely working for War Minister Qin. He's the guy in charge of projects like this. They've got no way of verifying or denying that, so standard operating procedure would be to send us on our way. Unless there's an admiral on that boat—"
Signal flares went up and I blinked as I decoded the message. "Or a general."
Shaking my head, I laughed and sent off a return message. "Heave to and prepare for boarding," I translated for Yue and Toph, before hurrying to the helm. Cutting the throttle back, I turned the ship towards the Fire Navy boat and began dumping altitude in a fast but controlled descent.
"Why are we going towards the Fire Nation boat?!" Toph yelped, grabbing onto the railing and holding on for dear life. "And don't drop so fast or I'll puke!"
"Zuko? What did they say?"
I turned and sent Yue a grin. "I got to meet your family. Now it's your turn."
"Are we gonna have to fight our way out?" Toph asked as she sat down. "Because I don't do so well on boats. Sure, I can bend the metal now, but I don't think I'm ready to use that for fighting."
"No fighting, I promise," I chuckled. "Well, I take that back. I might have to fight, but you two should be fine."