Zuko's Betrothed

Eleven Years

When I finally leave my room, I find a grumbling sulking Zuko walking down the hall. "What's wrong?" I ask him and he nearly growls "Uncle missed your deadline. Then I give him a half an hour extension and he misses that one too. Now I have to go get him," Zuko grumbles as if this is the worst thing to ever happen. I put a hand on his shoulder "let me come with you, I can be a bit more persuasive than you," I inform him before following him off the ship to locate Iroh.

"Uncle! Uncle where are you!" Zuko shouts as he pulls back a tree branch "maybe he thought we left without him," I wonder aloud as I look for any sign of Iroh. "No, something's not right here. That pile of rocks," Zuko points out and I move closer towards them examining them. "It looks like there's been a landslide, sir," a guard offers as an explanation. I turn my head to look at the guard "land doesn't slide uphill," I tell him "those rocks didn't move naturally, my uncle's been captured by earthbender!" Zuko claims. 

"Guards fetch us a rhino, immediately!" I tell them before we begin looking for any clues as to which way they're taking Iroh. "What if we can't find him..." I say looking out into the wilderness, Iroh was part of my family, even if Zuko and I never get married. Iroh has been there for me longer than my own parents at this point. "We'll find him Honna, don't worry," Zuko tells me as the guards return with a rhino for us. We jump on and head down the path along the trees, and as we ride I feel anxiety fill me. 

We rode all through the night and by morning we finally found some trace of Iroh. Zuko jumps off the back of the rhino and picks up the lone sandal. He brings it to his nose before aggressively pulling it away "Ugh! Yep, that's uncle Iroh," he announces and I stifle a laugh "you couldn't just recognize the shoe?" I ask. He sends me a glare "shut it, let's keep moving," he tells me before jumping on the back of the rhino with me and snapping the reigns. We hurry forward and I begin to have hope of finding Iroh.

As we continue forward I can hear a commotion in the distance. "Sounds like Iroh is stirring up trouble. Head that way," I point out to him and Zuko nods heading in that direction. "The Avatar!" Zuko begins pulling the reigns slightly in the direction the bison was flying. My mouth opens to speak but I can see the silent war going through Zuko's head as he turns to look back at our current path to Iroh. He looks back towards the bison one final time before returning to our previous path. We ride for another ten minutes when I begin to hear voices, "there!" I point out to Zuko.

Five ostrich horses, but no riders up ahead on the road, we stay quiet and see down below all five earthbenders surrounding Iroh. They're getting ready to smash Iroh's hand when Zuko knocks the rock out of the way swiftly. I then snap his chains free with a strong swift kick "Excellent form, both of you," Iroh praises standing for a fight "you taught us well," Zuko responds keeping his eyes on the earthbenders surrounding us. "surrender yourselves! It's five against three, you're clearly outnumbered," one of them says to us.

"That's true, but you are clearly outmatched," I answer before firing the first shot knocking out the guy who had just spoken. This sent us into a whole-out brawl, Iroh was our defense using his chains to break apart any and all rocks coming towards us. Zuko and I were the best offense I like to think. Training together for years definitely came with some advantages. The earthbenders definitely underestimated us. "Now can you please put on some clothes!" Zuko asks Iroh once the fighting ends.

We make our way back up the hill and Iroh grabs his clothes that the guards had put in a satchel. I waited on the rhino as Iroh dressed. I smiled at him "I'm glad your back, I was worried you'd miss my birthday," I told him laughing. "Happy early birthday Honna," Iroh says "thank you sixteen, I've been with you guys for eleven years now," I say leaning back against Zuko's chest as he continues riding forward. "I guess you guys are more my family than my real one," I say trying to sound light hearted but it wasn't very convincing.