Little Soldier Boy (Iroh II)

Chapter 9

Iroh ducked as a rock discus flew over his head.

He flipped in the air, bending a stream of fire from his heel.

The girl bended a discus between her head and Iroh's flaming foot.

Iroh's heel hit the stone, causing it to shatter. He landed on his feet, extinguishing the flames as they hit the deck.

He felt pain course through the ankle he had made contact with, but refused to show it.

The Earthbender looked at him, tilting her chin towards her shoulder, "Are you okay?"

The girl's name was Nin, an Earthbender from the inner circle of Ba Sing Se, she had joined Iroh and the others the night of their Unity toast.

They had done the same toast to welcome her.

Nin had quickly noticed the segregation among all the soldiers and refused to be apart of it. She was happy to realize there were others who thought the same as she did.

"Never better," Iroh lied.

Nin sighed, "Kay! Iroh hurt himself again!"

Iroh groaned in annoyance and purposely collapsed to the floor.

Kayoda snickered.

The rest of the group was sitting on the staircase, watching the sparring match. They were all wearing parkas, colored as their nation's primary color.

Sin was holding Iroh's parka in her lap since he had taken it off to train.

The fleet had left the earth kingdom two weeks prior and sailed into the Arctic within the second week.

Growing up, Iroh would accompany his grandfather to the Southern Water Tribe to visit Chieftain Sokka, so snow was nothing new to the prince, but he had to admit, it felt magical experiencing it with his friends who never had.

Iroh stared at the clear sky, which allowed the sun to warm up the deck and his freezing face. The rest of him was warm due to the breath of fire, breathing exercises his grandfather would teach him when they were in the South Pole.

Kayoda stood up and walked to Iroh, bending water around his ankle and foot.

A faint glow emitted from her hands and she bended the water away.

"Better?" She asked.

"Yeah," Iroh nodded. "Thanks."

"No problem," She stood up, holding her hand down to him.

Iroh accepted the help.

"You need to stop hurting yourself," Pelo yelled from his seat on the stairs behind Chi.

"Why does he need to stop?" Sin asked. "It's funny."

Cho jabbed his knee into her back.

"I'm kidding," Sin muttered, slapping his leg.

Kayoda and Iroh made their way to the group.

Iroh glanced down to his chest, making sure his medals didn't fall off in the fight.

He had already earned two more medals, giving him a total of five medals in five weeks.

Everyone in the group had been joking with him, saying he'd outrank them in no time. He didn't believe it.

"Who's next?" Nin asked, walking to the staircase. "I'm getting tired keeping Fireworks entertained."

"I'll go," Sin stood up.

"No need," Kayoda said, looking past the bow of the ship and seeing the ice walls of the Northern Water Tribe. "We're here."

The others stood up to gawk at the humongous wall.