Avatar: The Last Airbender: Reemergence

8

"The Dragon of the West," Tau smiled knowingly, eyes on the older man before him, "With your high status and all, it's only fair for me to assume that you are the Grand Lotus that Fei mentioned I would be meeting."

"Mmm," Iroh hummed in confirmation, looking passed Tau to Fei in slight disapproval.

Fei just smiled apologetically and Tau could only assume that the Firebender wasn't supposed to have told him as much information as he had. Tau kept that in mind. That meant that he had more knowledge of the situation then he was supposed to have. He could use that to his advantage if he needed to.

"You know," Tau spoke up again to break the silence that had fallen onto the small group, "I would think that you would be a little happier to see me General Iroh. Being the leader of the White Lotus, this whole thing must have been your doing."

"It wasn't my choice to free you," Iroh stated clearly, keeping his voice steady and even, "In fact, if I had it my way, you would have never gotten out of there."

"So there are others in charge then," Tau speculated, "Others that must have wanted me out and you were simply overruled."

Iroh didn't say anything, mentally cursing himself for saying too much. Tau's speculation was completely true and Tau had learned that from just a small comment Iroh had made that was supposed to make Tau feel a little on edge. In reality, it just gave Tau what he wanted...more information.

"I can't blame you though for being against my freedom," Tau continued, smile mischievously, "If I recall correctly Fire Lord Zuko is your nephew and surly you heard about the little run in I had with him. How is he by the way? Last time I saw him he seemed a little...distressed."

"He's fine, no thanks to you," Iroh answered back evenly, narrowing his eyes at Tau in order to intimidate him into keeping his mouth shut.

"Actually, if it weren't for me he'd be dead," Tau told him, not fazed in the slightest, "You see, one of my partners was prepared to shoot down the war balloon that rescued him straight out of the sky which would have resulted in his death. I stopped that from happening. If anything, you should be thanking me for saving your nephew's life."

Iroh tried to keep his emotions at bay, seeing that Tau was trying to bait him. He took a few deep breaths before addressing the Waterbender sternly.

"I know what you are trying to do Tau," he said, "Apart from your waterbending, manipulation has always been your strong suit. I'm not falling for it," he paused, motion to the open door of the carriage, "If you would please just get inside, we can be on our way."

Tau stayed still for several moments, weighing his options, before conceding. "This should be interesting," he stated, climbing into the carriage.

Once he was in, Iroh turned to Fei, who had been keeping a few respectful feet away during the whole discussion, "Fei take the reins, you know where we need to go," Iroh told him, "make sure we get there by midday."

"Yes sir," Fei said distractedly, thoughts on the conversation he had just heard but nonetheless he climbed up onto the front of the carriage and took the reins to direct the Ostrich Horses.

Tau watched Iroh climb inside of the carriage while closing the door behind him. The inside of the carriage had two rows of seats, one on each side. Iroh sat down opposite of Tau and a few moments later, the Waterbender felt the carriage lurch forwards.

"Where are we going?" Tau asked.

Iroh was silent for a couple of minutes and Tau just assumed that the elderly Firebender didn't want to answer him. However, after those couple minutes of silence, the Grand Lotus finally spoke up, seemingly deciding that it would be best to play nice with Tau.