Black Jade - Zuko X OC

The Stranger in the Garden

It was late morning when the stranger appeared in the garden.

Zuko wasn't expecting to run into anyone at all. His mother had been one of the few to stroll through the little contained patch of nature. But for six months his mother had been gone with nothing to suggest she would ever come back. The only people he'd see here would be servants cutting through to get somewhere a little faster. But even they didn't come here during the rainy season, when the ground was perpetually muddy. It was cold, unpleasant, and ugly without the flowers that would bloom later this year. Zuko had just realized how dirty his shoes were getting and that he was going to track mud inside and then get probably get scolded when he finally noticed the man there.

Zuko hadn't noticed him until he was only a few feet away. Partially because he was preoccupied with his own thoughts, but mostly because the stranger was dressed in green. A warm dark green almost the same shade as the plants around them. He was large and broad shouldered. His head was turned in the opposite direction, serenely looking over wet clumps of foliage as if this wasn't the most miserable place in the world to be.

The man seemed to sense someone looking at him and turned to meet Zuko's gaze. His skin was dark, and his eyes were green just like his robes. Zuko took a step back automatically, gripping the basket in his hands a little tighter. The stranger bowed his head, very slightly. Not low enough for a normal citizen or even a government official, definitely not low enough for a servant. "Hello, Prince Zuko, what are you doing?"

Zuko startled a bit at being addressed suddenly. He glanced around. It figured, the one time he was out of sight from any guard is when he'd run into some weird guy who clearly didn't belong here. But the stranger didn't make any move or expression that suggested he meant the prince harm, so Zuko answered him.

"Uh, I'm moving these turtle ducklings so the cat owl doesn't get them." Zuko looked down into the basket, where four little turtle ducks huddled together in a blanket nest. He took a cautious step toward the man and tilted the basket just enough so the stranger could see them too.

"Where are you going to keep them so that they will be safe from the cat owls?" He asked.

"I asked Mira- she works in the kitchen; I asked her to help me make them a house. She keeps a seed mix for me whenever I want to feed them so I thought she might want to help. She didn't know how to make a house, but she said her cousin was a carpenter."

"Hm." was his only response.

They stood for a moment, before Zuko's need to fill the silence took over. "So, she asked him to make the house for them. I put it between the tree and the flower bushes over there. So it can't blow away, but it's also hidden. It's a little farther from the pond than their last nest was, but close enough, I think." He'd already made a plan to return the next morning, before firebending training, so he could lead them to the pond with a handful of seeds. He'd do it over and over again until they learned if he had to. He wasn't sure how good turtle duckling memory was.

"I see." The man said. He paused for a moment as if to think. "Where's their mom?"

"She's gone, the cat owl ate her."

The man didn't say anything else. He just looked down at the small creatures in the basket contemplatively. "I was going to ask if you wanted help, but you seem to be doing fairly well by yourself, so instead I'll ask, 'Would you like some company?'"

Zuko shrugged, not finding any reason to say no. It was only a few steps until he found the little house. It was clearly made out of scrap materials, as each wooden piece was a different, clashing color. The roof was metal and already a bit rusted on the edges, but it would keep water away from where they slept, more importantly it would keep them away from the eyes of the predator that made them orphans.