Path Ahead

Race to Destiny

They were not coming back. Zuko came to this realization shortly after he awakened in the first light of dawn. He could not actually see the sun from his location on the island, but as a firebender, he was sensitive to its rising and setting. He looked across the ocean spread out before him to the horizon and confirmed that the island he'd seen vaguely the night before was no longer there. He might have thought the whole thing was a crazy dream, but Aang, Katara, and Momo were all clearly absent as well.

"All right, Appa, wake up," he urged his one remaining companion. "We have to get going." A shadow passed overhead, and Zuko looked up to find its cause. He stood paralyzed with awe as two dragons flew over him, one red and one blue. Naturally, he'd never seen a dragon in the flesh before, and their dangerous beauty was beyond description.

Uncle Iroh was clinging to the spines on the red one's back, and Zuko instinctively raised a hand to him, even though he was almost certain Iroh couldn't see him. His interview with the dragons had obviously gone well. All that remained was for Zuko to get on this flying bison and head toward the Fire Nation.

"Appa!" he shouted, adding a slap to the side of the bison's head. When Appa still seemed reticent, Zuko said the only thing he could think of that would get the beast's attention. "Aang needs us!"

That got results. Appa raised his head, yawned, and got ponderously to his feet. Belatedly, it occurred to Zuko that he would have been better off getting onto Appa's head before he stood up. The prince quickly scrambled up one leg and onto the saddle, making his way from there to the head. He took up the reins firmly in his hands. He wasn't entirely sure what to do with them, but he hoped it was fairly similar to guiding an ostrich-horse.

"Off to the Fire Nation we go," he muttered. Then, in a stronger voice: "Yip yip."

Riding a dragon was not as easy as it looked, and truthfully, it didn't look all that easy. Iroh clung to the red dragon's spines for dear life, locking his legs around the sinuous body as tightly as he could. He was extremely glad that he'd worked himself into shape, but he was still guaranteed to be stiff by the time he reached Ba Sing Se. He could only hope he would arrive in time to walk around and loosen up a bit before he had to jump into battle.

As exhilarating as it had been to ride Appa those first few times, Iroh discovered that transport via flying bison was calm and sedate compared to this new experience. He'd only looked down once, and his stomach lurched at the ocean speeding by. He now spent most of his time with his eyes squeezed shut. When he did dare to open them, it was to either look straight ahead or gaze with appreciation at the blue dragon by his side. He did enjoy watching their movements, knowing that the firebending he practiced was but a pale reflection of them.

There was no communication during this journey, which added to Iroh's discomfiture. Dragons were telepathic, but they needed to touch one of their antennae to a person in order to speak that way. It might be different if you were bonded to one dragon for life, as Roku and Sozin had been, but Iroh emphatically was not.

Therefore, their mode of communication was impossible while they moved at breakneck speed with Iroh on the back of one. That meant he had to trust them implicitly, and considering that he hardly knew them and his family had attempted to wipe out their species, this made him understandably nervous. Even assuming that he could trust them completely, it would have been more reassuring to be able to make rapid suggestions as they approached Ba Sing Se or to ask questions. As it was, there was nothing but his own mind to distract him from his precarious position.