Chapter Four: Tracking Iroh
Makki |~|
A little over a week has passed since our last encounter with Aang on Kyoshi Island. I've continued to practice water bending when no is around on the deck, and occasionally, Iroh will come out and comment on my technique and help with learning new tricks that I can develop into actual bending that can help me in the future. Prince Zuko has been as angry and Avatar-hungry as ever. Although, I'm happy that it's rarely targeted towards me. 'Rarely', I emphasize, because it still happens. But after all the times that it has, I've learned how to counter his anger with sarcastic remarks or even friendly comments, just to make him angrier and eventually have him storm off.
I guess I really am my brother's twin, huh?
Nonetheless, things have gotten easier on the Fire Nation ship. I can even call Iroh a true friend since I can tell he cares for me and he protects me from Prince Zuko's rage. And whenever we leave the ship for repairs or errands and such, which is rarely, Prince Zuko doesn't feel the need to cuff my wrists unless he believes the Avatar is in the same location.
Currently, Prince Zuko and I are waiting for Iroh to come back from a little 'vacation' he took from the ship when we stopped to get some supplies. We have been waiting for almost an hour and I can tell that Prince Zuko is getting restless.
"Where could he possibly be in the middle of nowhere, like this?" Prince Zuko growled as the two of us traveled through tall grass and reads.
I simply shrugged my shoulder as I followed Prince Zuko, careful not to get lost in an unknown land.
"Iroh!" I called through the thick reads.
"Uncle! It's time to leave!" Prince Zuko yelled after we escaped the reads. "Where are you? Uncle Iroh!"
"...Over here," Iroh calmly answered from his natural hot spring.
Iroh was relaxing in a hot spring that was at the bottom of a hill. His clothes hung on a low hanging branch on a tree just in front of the spring.
"Uncle?" Prince Zuko questioned before we both walked up to the hot spring. "We need to move on. We're closing in on the Avatar's trail and I don't want to lose him."
"You look tried, Prince Zuko," Iroh smiled. "Why don't you join me in these hot springs and soak away your troubles."
"Hmm. You could use a good soak, huh, Prince Zuko?" I teased, knowing that his patience was thinning.
"My trouble cannot be soaked away," Prince Zuko growled. "It's time to go!"
"You should take your teacher's advice and relax a little. The temperature's just right. I heated it myself," Iroh explained before putting his hands together and blowing steam through his nostrils.
"Enough! We need to leave, now," Prince Zuko commanded. "Get out of the water!"
"Very well..."
Just as Iroh began to stand up, Prince Zuko turned his head while at the same time placing a hand over my eyes, protecting me from Iroh's nakedness. I would usually get slightly mad at the sudden contact from Prince Zuko since it's never in a polite manner, but this is something I certainly won't complain about.
"On second thought, why don't you take a few more minutes," Prince Zuko suggested. "But be back at the ship in half an hour or I'm leaving without you..!"
Prince Zuko slowly took his hand away from my eyes as Iroh entered back into the hot spring. Prince Zuko began to walk away, with me trailing behind, as we walked back through the tall reads to get back to the ship.
"Do you really think he'll be back or are we gonna have to come back and get him?" I ask him.
Prince Zuko sighed, "We're gonna have to come back and get him, knowing Uncle."
I lightly giggled at Prince Zuko's response since he threatened to leave Iroh but we all knew that that would never happen.
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It's definitely been over a half an hour since we left Iroh to soak in his self-heated hot spring. The sun was already set and Prince Zuko and I decided to take a few soldiers with us to see if Iroh had gotten himself into some trouble.
"Uncle!" Prince Zuko called as he marched up to the hot spring. "Uncle, where are you?"
As I caught up with Prince Zuko, I noticed that the hot spring was now deprived of water and had large, pointed rocks in the place of Iroh. It looked as though the ground came up on its own.
"Sir, maybe he thought you left without him," one soldier suggested to Prince Zuko.
"Something's not right here," Prince Zuko argued.
"Prince Zuko," I pointed at the rock-filled hot spring. "This wasn't here before."
"It looks like there's been a landslide, sir."
"Land doesn't slide uphill," Prince Zuko countered. "Those rocks didn't move naturally. My uncle has been captured by earth benders."
"...All right, so what do we do?" I asked. "Look for a trail and follow it? But it's already sundown, how're we supposed to see?"
"We'll set off in the morning," said Prince Zuko. "Prepare a rhino for me. I'll be going alone. Everyone else will stay back at the ship to protect it from any other benders."
Prince Zuko then quickly set off back towards the ship with all of his men following him.
I'm gonna have to convince him to let me come along, huh?
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"What do you think you're doing? You're staying on the ship!"
Yep. I knew he'd yell at me.
"Look, Iroh is the only one I can stand on this ship. So, I want to help rescue him," I explained.
"...You're an idiot," Prince Zuko shook his head as he climbed onto a rhino.
Before he could take off, I quickly climbed up behind him and wrapped my arms around his torso.
"Just get the rhino moving," I told him.
Prince Zuko angrily growled before whipping the reins of the rhino, making it run off the ship and into the vegetation. We soon found a trail of ostrich horse prints that led away from the hot springs. We found the trail at dawn and have been traveling since then. We haven't found anything other than the prints until later in the day. It was a random sandal that had blocked our path. Prince Zuko simply hopped off the rhino and walked over to the sandal. He brought it to his face and sniffed.
"Yep, that's Uncle Iroh," Prince Zuko's face contorted at the smell of the sandal.
"You can tell just by smell?" I asked as he made his way back to the rhino.
"Trust me. When you've you spent as much time with Uncle Iroh as I have... you can tell," Prince Zuko explained as he sat in front of me.
"That's sweet," I smiled. "...I-I think."
Prince Zuko scoffed before continuing down the trail of ostrich horse prints. Somewhere along the way, just a few hours after the sandal, a large groan was heard. Prince Zuko and I both turned our heads and looked over our shoulders to see Appa flying through the air away from us.
"The Avatar!" Prince Zuko exclaimed as he went to turn the rhino around.
"Don't!" I yelled as I grabbed the reins. "Leave it be. Don't you think your uncle is more important?"
Prince Zuko glanced back at the road covered with ostrich horse prints, then back at Appa.
"...Yeah. He is," Prince Zuko said quietly before having the rhino continue down the road.
I smiled to myself, happy that I stopped Prince Zuko from hunting down Aang, even if that would mean I wouldn't be seeing my siblings again.
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"He's just up ahead. In that small crater, along with the earth benders," Prince Zuko pointed at the crater in the ground ahead of us.
"Right," I nodded. "What're we gonna do?"
"Stay here, I'll rescue Uncle," he said as he hopped off the rhino.
"I would argue but there's no water here for me to fight with," I shrugged.
"That, and you can't fight."
"I can fight!"
"Shh! Be quiet..!" Prince Zuko shushed me. "I don't want them to know I'm here. Just stay put."
Prince Zuko quietly made his way over to the crater just as a large rock lifted out of it. As the rock came down, Prince Zuko jumped into the crater. I could hear the action coming from the hole, and my curiosity soon made me move the rhino over to the edge of the crater to watch as Iroh and Prince Zuko kicked earth bender butt. Prince Zuko was trying to fire bend at the last remaining earth bender, but the earth bender brought a large number of rocks above his head to bury Prince Zuko with. But before the earth bender could bring him arms down, Iroh used the chains around his wrists to trip the earth bender, making the rocks fall on him.
"Amazing, Iroh!" I yelled.
Iroh looked up at me and smiled, "Yes, thank you, Makki."
Prince Zuko smiled down at Iroh before placing his hand on his shoulder.
"Now would you please put on some clothes!"