Chapter 3

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Today Zuko decided that he wasn't going to stay in his room any longer. It had been weeks since he had last felt Agni's soothing rays.

"Uncle?" he called out as he sat up in the bed. He got no reply, which meant one of three things. He had walked out of the room for a while, he was asleep, or he had drunk so much tea it killed him. He had a feeling that it wasn't the latter.

Slowly, Zuko stood up. He stumbled a bit but quickly grabbed onto a wall for support. Okay... he could do this! Who needed sight! This was easy! He took another step, tripped on a box, and immediately face-planted.

At that moment, Iroh walked back in, "Are you alright?" he quickly helped him back to the bed.

"I'm fine..." he mumbled. "I just... I just wanted to walk around a bit..."

"Then let's go." He helped him off the bed. They walked through the door, and down a couple hallways before arriving at the upper deck.

Zuko took in a deep breath, soaking in the sun, "This is nice..."

"Good morning General. Prince Zuko."

Zuko froze as someone walked past them. "Do... do they know I'm blind?"

Iroh chuckled a bit, "Yes I believe they do. It's fairly obvious."

Zuko tightened his grip on the railing, "This is humiliating! I'm like a child that hasn't learned to walk!"

Iroh put a hand on his shoulder, "Zuko... you are a child..."

"I'm a soldier!" he yelled. "And soldiers are of no use if they cannot fight!"

"Then we shall teach you to fight," Iroh stated plainly.

"What?" Zuko said with confusion.

"There are many people out there who can't see but are still very capable. It will just take some getting used to. Luckily, hunting for the Avatar will take time." he explained, "This will give you the time to become acclimated with your new life."

"I... suppose you are right..." he turned towards the ocean. "I'll find the Avatar... if it's the last thing I do..."

~line break~

Several more weeks had passed, and there had been no new progress. Iroh had tried to show him around the ship, but he just wasn't getting it. none of it was working.

Today, he had a specific goal in mind. Relearning how to walk. Well... more like, relearning how to walk without bumping into things.

He had asked his uncle to leave him be for today. He loved his uncle, and he knew he was trying, but he wasn't getting it. Uncle had never been blind, so he could only help so much. If he was going to become strong, he would have to do it on his own.

He started by feeling his way around the room. He quickly memorized the layout. there was a bed in the corner, and a desk in the middle, several bookcases were pushed up against one wall. There were also several torches lining the walls.

When Iroh had agreed to let him explore the room on his own, he had specifically warned him about the torches. He was afraid that Zuko would be feeling his way along the wall and would accidentally burn himself on one of them.

Zuko scoffed as he continued to feel his way around. How ridiculous! He could obviously feel the heat coming from them! He was a fire bender after all!

Zuko grunted as he bumped into another table. Was he kidding himself? Maybe all of this was pointless. Maybe he wouldn't be able to do this after all...

Zuko walked over to one of the torches. At least that's something he knew the exact location of. He left out an angry huff. Suddenly, the torch flared. This was nothing new. Ever since he was a kid, he was able to manipulate small flames like this. However, what surprised him, was that he could suddenly feel the presence of something else.

He slowly moved the fire out of the container, and into his hand. He stretched out his arm, and without touching it, he could tell that there was a shelf in front of him. The heat was transferring from the flame to the objects around him. With fire bending, he could sense this heat, and tell what the object was.

"Yes!" he put the flame back, and this time tried heating the air in the room. Once it had become warm enough, he could picture where every object was. He could easily maneuver through the room without tripping. He had to tell uncle!

He ran out of the room and went towards the main deck. When he got outside, he could feel the sun beating down on the ship. If he concentrated hard enough, he could sense anything that the sun was touching.

"Zuko?" he felt someone walking towards him. In fact, he felt around him and could sense several people on deck. Each of them was putting out their own unique heat signature.

"Uncle! I can see!" He said excitedly. "Well, kind of... I can sense things though! And I can tell what people are doing! I'm using fire bending!"

Iroh hugged him, "I'm so proud of you!"

Zuko smiled, finally, things were looking up...


(A/N - Hey guys! Thanks for reading! I hope you like it so far! Flamio Hotman!)

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