Avatar Zuko

Chapter 11

The group had finally passed through the first massive chunk of land in the Earth Kingdom, and now, three weeks after they'd begun their journey, they were flying over water once more. Though, they were in no way out of the Earth Kingdom yet; the sea they were travelling over was also Earth Kingdom and, if they travelled far enough north, they'd end up over Earth Kingdom land once again. Or at least that's what Sokka had tried to explain to Zuko, who already knew all of it since he'd spent three years scouring the globe for the avatar- but he chose not to mention that, not wanting Katara to throw him overboard.

“We should be almost there!” Promised Aang, who was sat on Appa’s head with Katara. Sokka was sat on the saddle with Zuko and they were meant to be in control of the map, but neither could figure out where Aang was taking them.

“Are you sure, Aang? We've been flying over water for days.” Asked Katara, who was in the middle of some sewing and looked pretty concerned as to their whereabouts.

“Yes! I went to this island a whole bunch of times with Arianna, the Great Koi are incredible to ride!” He said happily, patting Appa’s head.

“What island is this anyway? There are three different ones on this map!” Complained Sokka tiredly, he was currently without pants since Katara was fixing them. Zuko was trying ignore that detail and was instead focusing on how mind numbingly slow Appa was flying.

“Kyoshi Island, of course! It's-” Aang began explaining, turning to face where Sokka and the Prince were sat.

“It's Avatar Kyoshi’s home island, she was the Earth Avatar, the avatar before Roku, the first and only ever recorded lavabender and… What?” Zuko had interrupted Aang and was now receiving confused stares from his companions.

“How do you know any of that?” Asked Sokka, gazing at the firebender intently.

Zuko hadn't really considered that. How did he know who Kyoshi was? He'd never heard of her, he was sure of it, and even if he had why would he feel compelled to interrupt Aang in his explanation? It didn't make any sense unless… No. He couldn't think about that right now.

That was when the Prince realised he'd been silent for a few moments too long and decided to cough awkwardly and redirect the conversation.

“So you came here with Arianna?” He asked, hoping Aang would be too wrapped up in talking about his old friend for anyone to be able to address Zuko’s blatant avoidance of Sokka’s question.

“Uh, yes. We came a few times, only once after she realised she was the avatar though. The monks thought it would be good for her to visit the homes of past avatars… Though they never did allow her to go to the Fire Nation… I guess they knew a war was brewing…” Aang trailed off and Zuko immediately regretted triggering him to talk about Arianna and his old home.

“Hey! At least the, uhm, those Koi thingies are fun! Right?” Sokka attempted to lighten the mood and Aang did perk up a little, nodding with a small smile.

“Okay, if you're all done discussing where we're going, could we please figure out how to get there? Since, sorry, Aang, we're definitely lost.” Katara’s voice broke them out of their musings, but she had lost concentration on the sewing and her stitches were now unravelling quickly in the sea breeze.

“We know what we're doing, Katara! Just let us men do our work and you do your girly sewing.” Argued Sokka sexistly, to which Zuko averted his gaze and allowed Katara to chew him out.

“You men?! You're a twelve year old, an emo and a guy with the mental capacity of a two year old! (That one is you, Sokka!). And ‘girly sewing’?  What does that have to do with anything?! You know what, you can fix your own pants!” She threw Sokka’s pants at his head, and crossed her arms, turning away from him. Zuko scowled at the emo comment, but couldn't really argue.