Zuko jogged alongside the puffing older man as he made his way along the shore of the lake, their sandals leaving prints that were soon washed away by the rhythmic tides.

He had given up questioning the man after a solid fifteen minutes of travel, no answers were forthcoming and none were likely to come until they got to their destination.

Reaching a bend in the beach, where the great river joined the West Lake, the man turned left and carried on a couple of minutes more before veering into the woods. Zuko almost missed his companion turning off the beach and had to turn sharply to maintain line of sight with him.

It was not long until they came upon a simple log cabin, an area cleared for several yards in all directions from it. A man with a shock of thick white hair and a thin moustache and beard sat to one side of the house, opening his eyes at the sound of approaching visitors.

“Ah, Chey. It is unusual to see you at this time of the day, and with a guest as well. What is the occasion?”

Chey tried to appear casual as he spoke, though the effect was ruined by his slight panting, “Master Jeong, I met this young pai sho player today. I believe you are a friend of his Uncle’s”

Jeong stood smoothly and approached the pair, Zuko looking on slightly nervously. Jeong eyed Zuko, taking in his worn clothing and his weary look before his eyes widened slightly in recognition of who was standing before him.

“Young Prince, welcome to my little home away from home. Is your Uncle well?”

Zuko startled slightly at the salutation until he saw the faint smile on the elder man’s face and his inquiry about Uncle Iroh. “I,” he swallowed thickly a moment to maintain his suddenly shaky composure, “I don’t know. He disappeared two days ago, and I cannot find him.”

Jeong frowned thoughtfully, “Odd. Did he tell you where he was going?”

“Not a word, sir.” Zuko explained, “We were in the middle of a conversation, walking along the North Gaipan Trail when he just vanished. One second he was there, the next, I turned, and he was gone.”

Chey and Jeong both frowned at this. Iroh was not known for disappearing suddenly and for no good reason.

“Do you think it could have been earth benders?” Chey speculated.

Zuko shook his head. “That was the first thing I checked for. No dirt puckering, no usable rock faces nearby, nothing to indicate earth bending at all. There wasn’t even a sound to indicate something happened, and you know how noisy earth bending is.”

Jeong frowned in thought, “Did you track his footprints?”

“Yes, they got to a certain point and then they just faded away. I spent a whole day searching for him and the next night. I spent most of yesterday and this morning getting into the village where I met Chey here.”

At this Chey spoke up. “Speaking of meetings, you said your uncle taught you pai sho. Did he ever tell you anything about the game we played this afternoon?”

Zuko shook his head, “Only that board design and the words. He told me if he was ever captured or killed, to find a pai sho player in a tea house and use that to get help. I assume you are a spy ring of some sort?”

Jeong chuckled at the guess, “You could say that. We are part of a group that seeks balance within the elements, often training in the other styles for insight that allows us to expand our abilities. Iroh was one such person.”

Zuko was now slightly wary, his hands twitching as if he wanted to grasp at the twin dao swords strapped to his back “You are both benders?”

At this both men grinned before holding up a hand, each had a small ball of fire crackling over their palms. “Young prince, you are either incredibly lucky or incredibly unlucky.”

Jeong’s voice was jovial, even if his face was stoic. “You managed to meet the only two of your uncle’s colleagues who are also fire benders. From the sound of things, he was grooming you to join our ranks at the very least.”

Zuko scowled at the pair, not impressed in the least. “I don’t have time for spy games. I need to find the Avatar.”

As Zuko turned to stalk away, Jeong spoke harshly. “Finding the Avatar will not restore your honor you know?”

Zuko halted, his back turned to the two and his body stiff. “What would you know about honor, deserter?”

“I know that bringing destruction and pain down upon entire peoples is no way to bring honor to yourself or your Nation. I know that sacrificing the lives of hundreds of loyal men just to provide a distraction is foolish and a betrayal of their trust in every sense of the word.” Here, Jeong stepped forward and placed a hand on Zuko’s shoulder as the young man bowed his head, somehow knowing what was coming next.

“I know that scarring your own son and sending him on a fools errand is beyond heartless and displays a lack of integrity that few can mistake.”

Jeong breathed heavily through his nose, his sorrow clear in his voice. “As I told a young water bender I met once; Fire can only bring destruction and pain. It forces those of us blessed, and cursed, with its burden to walk the razor's edge between humanity and savagery. It can and will tear you apart eventually.”

“And I suppose you want to teach me?” Zuko’s voice was at the same time sarcastic and hopeful as if he dared not hope that the former admiral of the Fire Nation Navy would deign to teach him.

Chey smiled widely at his friend, Cheong glanced harshly back at him a moment before smirking at Zuko who was now looking back over his shoulder with his good eye narrowed.

“I don’t need to teach you fire bending and I don’t intend to. Of course if in the course of my teachings you should happen to pick up a skill or two, I won’t protest.”

Zuko’s eye widened first in surprise, then narrowed in thought at the implications of the man’s proposal, but his next words nearly stopped his heart.

“No, I intend to instruct you in how to teach the young Avatar.”

Iroh blinked at the retreating form of the pony who had called herself Vinyl Scratch. ‘What an odd name, and certainly an interesting young… lady?’ He had no idea what to call the pony who had interrupted his rest.

‘Well, now that I’m up, it is probably best that I find something to eat.’

Stretching as he stood, Iroh stowed his tea cups and evaporated the leftover tea in his teapot before hanging that on the side of his pack on its dedicated clip.

He hefted his pack before looking up at the clear sky. “Need to find a new hat too…” He grumbled to himself.

He noted what appeared to be several very large birds high in the sky. Deciding they were too high and too fast moving to shoot down, he climbed on top of a pile of firewood near the shed to get his bearings now that he could look around in the daylight.

The town before him seemed to be made up entirely of cottages and houses in a myriad of colors, no single color seemed to be dominant, and he could see no flags from where he stood.

Turning to look the other way, he noted that the town petered out only a few houses away, giving way to rolling green fields with mountains in the distance. A river flowed past the last of these houses with several bridges dotting its length for the locals to cross.

To both the left and the right of the fields were forests, one relatively young looking, with trees much more widely spaced, the other with dense, tall trees and a thick canopy. The darker and more tightly packed forest gradually gave way to a swamp in the distance.

Iroh studied the two forests at a distance, wishing he had a spyglass with him. The lighter forest seemed to be mostly inhabited by small birds at this distance, possibly the odd burrowing animal given that the widely spaced trees would allow for looser, more easily dug soil.

The darker forest echoed with the sounds of wildlife within, the howling of a wolf echoing from the forest telling him that not all animals in that region would be prey.

Looking at the swamp further down, he quickly dismissed it, not only for the extra distance he would have to travel, but also because he had no interest in finding out whether or not it was infested with catigators the hard way.

Deciding the dark forest would likely provide the best opportunities for catching some lunch (and possibly some dinner too), Iroh climbed down from the top of the wood pile and started making his way out the front of the home in front of the shed he had hidden in last night, marking its appearance in case he needed to come back later for a bolt hole, as dubious and possibly known as it was.

‘It never hurts to be thoughtful as a guest.’ He thought as he was closing the front gate behind him.

Iroh turned to head towards the nearby bridge and out of town when he heard a high-pitched voice, “Hello mister, are you our new neighbor?”

Iroh twisted to look behind himself and then back again to look in the other direction, before looking down. Barely more than an arms length away, was a two-foot tall lavender filly with a turquoise mane looking up at him curiously.

“You’re tall!” she said as-a-matter-of-factly.

Chuckling gently, Iroh knelt down to get a closer look at the youngling. “I am merely a guest,” he said, “however, it is very nice to meet you little one.”

“What’s your name?”

“I am called Iroh, my lady.” Iroh gave a playful courtly bow, making the filly giggle.

“I’m Aura! Nice ta meetcha!” The filly sprang about a little, a bundle of barely contained energy.

“A pleasure, miss Aura,” Iroh’s stomach growled, “However as you can hear, it is my lunch time, and I must go gather my food.”

“OK mister, Buh-bye!” The filly waved with her foreleg before springing off back towards town, humming as she went, much to the amusement of the old man. It seemed kids everywhere were pretty much the same.

“It seems to be a day for surprises,” Iroh said as he stood up and started walking, “I can only hope any more surprises are as pleasant as that one.”

Iroh bolted through the trees, his arms pumping hard as he cursed the temerity of his luck and his earlier words which some wretched spirit had obviously overheard. Behind him, a trio of wolves made of wood loped easily through the underbrush, clearly having no trouble keeping up with him.

Glancing carefully left and right as he (LOG!) dodged through the trees, Iroh looked for (BRANCH!) a more open area where he could make use of his fire bending without potentially setting (BRANCH!) half the forest alight.

‘There!’ Iroh shouted in his mind, his lungs burning too hard to do so physically.

Barreling his way into what he thought was a clearing, but was in fact a curve in a well travelled path within the forest. Iroh startled a black and white striped pony who was only yards away from the place he entered the clear area.

Iroh spun, placing his back against a large tree on the other side of the path even as he inhaled deeply, preparing for the first of these wooden horrors to follow.

‘Good thing about a wooden monster? It burns!’ He reflected as he exhaled powerfully, a cone of intense flame beginning just in front of his mouth and engulfing the foremost of his pursuers instantly, its yelps of pain shrill and short-lived.

The other two timberwolves burst into the path on either side of him, one right next to the pony who was now staring at him with enormous eyes, frozen in place.

A punch to the right sent a bolt of flames from the now-smoldering remains of the first wolf powerfully into the beast that was in the clear, sending it tumbling head-over-heels, yelping its distress as it fell to pieces.

An acrobatic arching kick fired a second bolt streaking over the head of the onlooker to strike the rear of his third and final assailant, causing the wolf to shatter on impact, some of it’s pieces smoldering and vibrating on the forest floor.

Landing slightly awkwardly, Iroh stumbled, before straightening and proceeding to extinguish the flames and embers that were still alight with a rapid clenching of his fist.

Iroh put his back to the tree again and slumped slightly, winded from excessive running for an old man. As he absentmindedly groped for a waterskin with one hand, the zebra overcame her shock.

“Taller than a minotaur you are not, but your breath is most decidedly hot.”

Iroh looked at the rhyming pony quizzically. “Ah, thank you, I think.”

The zebra watched Iroh carefully as he took a swig from his waterskin, trying to decide if he was dangerous to her or just to timberwolves.

“If I pass you on this path, will I need to face your fiery wrath?” She asked, her head tilted to one side, smiling slightly.

“Hm? Oh no, of course not. I am merely out hunting for my lunch, I am sorry for having disturbed your travels.” Iroh bowed slightly to her, gesturing with one hand and spilling some of his water in the process.

“If it is your stomach that needs some filling, to provide a meal, Zecora will be willing.”

Iroh was a little confused, would this one speak only in rhyme? “Thank you, would you be able to point me in the direction of this ‘Zecora’? I’m afraid I am not from around here.”

“You do not have to look far you see, for that is I, Zecora of the Everfree!” Zecora tossed her head at her pronouncement. “Come, follow me stranger. More for meal, less for danger.”

Iroh smiled as she brushed past him and carried on up the path, her saddlebags piled high with vegetables, herbs and flowers.

Deciding to try and get a little into the spirit of the encounter, Iroh tried his hand at mimicking Zecora’s verbal quirk. “My name, just so you know, is short and sweet Iroh.”

Zecora laughed gaily at his attempt at rhyme. “Short you are not, and sweet maybe, but your toasty breath marks you as spicy.”

Their banter carried on, fading into the distance as Iroh followed Zecora down the path to her home and a meal.

Deep in a cave, two voices rumbled through the darkness.

“I cannot feel him, Shao, our light of life amongst the dark fires is gone.”

“Soon dawns the third day since he has vanished, Ran.”

“If he cannot kindle the fires of purity, who will?”

“We must watch and wait. I do not sense his spirit, so he has not been extinguished yet…”

“So we shall find him?”

“And those who have hidden him.”

“And when we find them, we shall Ignite.”

“We will Burn.”

Twin sets of red eyes flared to life in the darkness.

“WE WILL IMMOLATE THE INTERLOPER!”

Author's Notes:

Thanks once again to Avatar of Madness for his mad editing skills!

A very human heavy chapter this time compared to the last few.