The Burning Truth-Peace

Part 64~Koh

Stepping down the path, Zuko looked at the giant tree. Creepy noises echoed from the cave in the tree, making Zuko pause. He didn't want to go in there.

Glancing to his left, Zuko sighed, spotting the source of the sound. "You're just a curly-tailed blue nose." He smiled as the monkey turned its head, making Zuko jump back. That thing had no face. Stumbling back, Zuko was caught by Isu who pushed him back onto his feet.

"Yeah, good luck."

"You're not coming in with me?!"

"Have you met me? I can't keep a straight face at all. I ain't even straight!"

"I'm not straight either, does that mean I don't have to go in?!"

Isu paused snorting. "Nope. Good luck, and remember, no emotion! That includes anger!"

Zuko gulped, taking a deep breath and forcing his face calm. "Hello? I'm looking for the great spirit Koh."

Shifting, the root began to move. Zuko spun around, shivering as he failed to see what had moved. Forming behind Zuko, the white face appeared, grey patches around its eyes and deep blood-red lips.

Grinning, Koh drew closer to Zuko, the centipede-like body arcing around Zuko and stopping his face just in front of the poor avatar. "Welcome!"

Zuko continued to stare into the distance, his face straight. "Thank you." Zuko bowed, silently replaying what Isu had told him in his head.

"My old friend, the avatar. It's been a long time."

"You know me?"

"How could I forget you?" Koh's face changed, becoming a mad-looking, middle-aged man with thick eyebrows and a long moustache and beard. "One of your previous incarnations tried to slay me! Nearly eight or nine hundred years ago."

"I didn't know that. Why did he or I try to kill you?"

Koh changed again, becoming the face of Ummi, scared and sad. "Oh, it was something about stealing the face of someone you loved." Koh's face changed, becoming a mad baboon, laughing loudly as Zuko continued to remain blank. "Of course, that's all behind us. Why should I hold a grudge against you for something in a past life? After all, you're a different person now. You've come to me with a new face."

Zuko closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, unknowing that in the physical world, Yue, Katara and Sokka were closing in on Hajime.

"It's been a long time since I've added a child's face to my collection." Koh became an owl as he surrounded Zuko who fought back the urge to say he wasn't a child. "So, how may I help you?"

"I need to find the moon and the ocean."

"Their spirit names are Tui and La, push and pull. And that has been the nature of their relationship for all time."

"Please. Help me find them. An entire culture could be destroyed if I don't get their help."

"Oh, you think you need their help." Koh chuckled, backing up slightly. "Actually, it's quite the other way round." Koh charged at Zuko, stopping just short of the young avatar with an angry, ogre-like face. Zuko didn't even flinch. "Someone's going to kill them."

"What do you mean? How can I find them and protect them?"

"You've already met them, actually. Tui and La, your moon and ocean, have always circled each other in an eternal dance. They balance each other, push and pull, life and death, good and evil, yin and yang."

Zuko shifted his eyes for a second, a tiny flash of confusion on his face before he forced himself neutral again. "I better be going."

Turning into a bald, young man, Koh grinned. "We'll meet again." Koh recedes into the shadows as Zuko left the cave.