Honor, Love, and Dragons (Zuko x OC)

Zuko Alone (Part Two)

Older Brothers

~~~

"Here. This ought to get you through a few meals," Sela said, handing Ivana a bundle of food. Ivana and Zuko were on top of the ostrich horse, getting ready to leave.

"Thank you so much," Ivana said sincerely. Their goodbyes were interrupted by a cloud of dust coming up the road. It was the Earth Kingdom soldiers.

"What do you think they want?" Gansu asked.

"Trouble," Zuko concluded.

The soldiers stopped in front of them. "What do you want, Gow?" Gansu asked bitterly.

"Just thought someone ought to tell you that your son's battalion got captured," Gow said with malice. He turned to his friends, "You boys hear what the Fire Nation did with their last group of Earth Kingdom prisoners?"

Ivana turned to see Sela and Gansu's looks of shock and pain as another soldier answered Gow's question. She thought back to her own brothers. She gripped Zuko's shirt tighter. Lee must be so scared.

"You watch your mouth!" Gansu shouted angrily. Gow tried to ride forward, but Zuko pulled their ostrich horse between them.

"Why bother rooting around in the mud with these pigs?" Gow concluded, not wanting a fight at that moment. He and his soldiers left the farm.

"What's going to happen to my brother?" Lee asked. Sela and Gansu hugged each other, fearing the worst.

"I'm going to the front. I'm going to find Sensu and bring him back," Gansu said. Sela and he walked away to discuss it further. Sela had tears pouring down her cheeks.

Lee ran up to Ivana and Zuko. "When my dad goes... will you stay?" Lee asked them.

"No. We need to move on," Zuko said. He took out the dagger that his uncle had given him long ago. He leaned down and handed it to Lee with a small smile. "Here. I want you to have this. Read the inscription," he said.

"Made in Earth Kingdom," Lee read aloud after unsheathing it.

"The other one," Zuko said.

"Never give up without a fight," Lee said in awe. With that, Zuko steered the ostrich horse away. Ivana waved at Lee as he followed them for a few yards.

After getting a mile or two from the farm, they stopped for a break. Zuko laid in the grass, closing his eyes. Ivana laid down next to him, staring up at the bright blue sky. "Are you thinking about Lu Ten?" she asked.

"Yeah. Are you thinking about your brothers?" he asked, keeping his eyes closed.

"Yeah," Ivana said quietly.

~~~

"Where are you going?" Ivana asked her oldest brother, Quin, as she walked down the steps of their grandfather's house. Her grandfather and brother stood by the front door, her brother carrying a pack with him.

"I've been enlisted, Ina," Quin said softly, kneeling in front of her. Her family called her Ina after her brother, Botan mispronounced it so many times when she was an infant.

Ivana's eyes widened. "But you're only seventeen. They can't do that!"

"With dad gone, there's no one in our family to fight. They would have had me go sooner, but grandfather fought it as long as he could. I have to go, Ivana," Quin said gently. Ivana looked up at him. He was the spitting image of their father, even starting to grow a beard like him.