Renegaded Spirits

River village

Days later Zuko traveled through his home nation no longer as a prince but as a refugee to others and not as commonly as a spirit.

Zuko thought about his uncle and his wisdom again and again as it was almost like a puzzle, in every situation he'd think of a WWUD to make it better, what would uncle do? He grunted frustratedly when it didn't work out the same way as if his uncle was there...

He looked at the map next to a mucky river, tried figuring out if he was heading north or south.

But he still had no idea where he was.

"I was just over here!" He yelled at no one throwing the map on the ground as he stormed near a river. Suddenly his foot slipped and slid down the side of the river only for him to fall into the mucky polluted waters.

He gagged and coughed at the water as he burst to the surface. Zuko swam back to the land and grabbed the ledge to pull himself up, he got half his body out but let out a loud squawk falling back in backwards.

Zuko grumbled as half his head popped out of the water and his nose created steaming bubbles from the water.

"Well hey there stranger!" A joyful voice chuckled behind him and zuko turned to see an old man on a raft.

"Great..." Zuko mumbled to himself.

"My names dock, mind if I ask your name?" He offered his hand and helped Zuko on.

"Lee," he lied and evaporated the mucky water off him with warming his body heat.

"You look like your a fire bender,"

"Lucky guess," Zuko raised an eye brow shaking out some gross water from his hair.

"Better keep that to yourself, we aren't to big of fans of fire benders," dock told him and Zuko nodded.

"Do you have a village?" He asked.

"Sure, up ahead, in the middle so we could fish but since the fire nation factory our river doesn't have much fish left due to the pollution," dock explained as Zuko looked at the water.

"You should do something about it," he told the man.

"We can't, the fire nation army is the one running that factory," he shrugged.

"But you can't just wait around here for someone to just save you, this is a war, you have to fight for yourself," Zuko snapped irritated.

"That'll be the day won't it," dock chuckled waging Zuko off. He grunted and sat back down crossing his arms waiting for this village to arrive.

---

Zuko walked through the village as the wooden floor boards creaked under his feet. He heard someone yelling from behind and felt a kid crash into his legs. Zuko turned to him slightly annoyed from the lack of sleep but saw the kid terrified as other boys ran after him.

Zuko stepped in front of the small boy making the others stop as well panting.

"Give us the runt mister!" An older boy, who seemed ten almost, looking angry.

"Not going to happen kid," he glared as the boy hugged his leg fearfully.

"We'll get you runt! Can't hide forever!" The boy yelled as they walked away and Zuko knelt to the kid.

"You okay?" He asked gently.

"It's always like this, thank you mister," the boy whispered.

"Where's your parents?" Zuko asked.

"It's just me and my mom, she's really sick," he hugged his arms together and Zuko stood up with his hand on his back.

"Here, go buy something for the two of you, get some clean water and food, maybe some herbs to make tea, it helps trust me," Zuko handed him a small sack of silver and gold coins.

"How'd you know if tea helps?" The boy asked not taking the bag.

"My uncle taught me, he's all I have too," Zuko smiled and the boy slowly took the bag of money and looked inside it. He grabbed all the gold coins from inside and have them back to Zuko.

"You travel, you need money too," he smiled brightly and Zuko took back the gold coins. He gave two back to the boy.

"Take care of your mother buddy," Zuko smiled back gently and the boy ran off to a shop.
Zuko later followed the boy to the shop and recognized the man who ran the shop.

"Hey dock, is this the only shop?" Zuko wanted to punch himself for the rhyme.

"Hey stranger, you must mistake me for my brother, my name is shoe!" Dock beamed and Zuko looked at him unamused.

"You literally just gave me a ride..." He said flatly.

"My brother works at the dock, that's why we call him dock, and I work in the shop, that's why they call me shoe!" He explained with a goofy smile.

"That makes absolutely no sense but I just need to know what kind of supplies you have," Zuko shook his head giving up.

Suddenly a box of supplies was dropped in front of him and Zuko saw it was some bolts and nails with tools and grappling hook and a knife.

"What can I get for the grappling hook and the map?" Zuko asked knowing his was now destroyed from the water he fell into before. 

"Five silver pieces," he smiled and Zuko put six on the table for him.

"Next time that boy comes around for his ill mother, this is his discount," he said and walked away.