Burning Souls - Book 2 // Zuko

chapter 3

Zuko came trudging back into the camp, having managed to catch nothing for dinner. This had become his usual routine the past few weeks. Try to find something to eat, return and make sure his uncle hadn't done anything stupid before he would go and stay by Raven's side for most of the day. His uncle had allowed him to change her bandages after the extent of the wounds had digressed so that Zuko didn't have to see the extent of what some of them were. That was the main reason why he had insisted on Zuko not tending to Raven's wounds the first few days because he knew that it wouldn't help the fury that was bubbling in his nephew's heart.

"Zuko," Iroh said as his nephew returned to the camp. The old man was squatting near the ground with his back to Zuko. "You remember that flower I told you might be made into tea..."
Zuko froze, "You didn't."

"I did," Iroh replied. "And it wasn't."
He turned around to reveal that he was covered in red rashes and Zuko jumped in fright.

"When the rash spreads to my throat, I will stop breathing," Iroh concluded. "But look what I found!"
He pulled out a branch full of berries, "These are supposed to cure the poison of the jade plant.... Or they will cause blindness."
Zuko groaned and snatched the branch away throwing it into the bushes, "Please tell me you didn't act so stupid as to give some of that tea to Raven."
"No," Iroh replied. "Luckily I noticed my rashes before I did."
Zuko sighed. Of course, he was worried about his uncle's condition but if Raven got poisoned as well in her state, unable to eat and barely drink, it could be fatal.

"We need to find a village to get you treated and hopefully Raven," Zuko decided. "Pack up camp."

Zuko didn't trust walking into a village with a half dead girl in his arms so until they found a healer, he was going to leave Raven where she would be safe. Hiding her in a clump of bushes where nothing could get to her, Zuko took his uncle into town. It didn't take long for them to find a nice little house where a mother and her teenage daughter lived who knew how to cure Iroh's condition.

"You must not be from around here," the girl remarked. "We know to not touch the jade flower... let alone make it into tea and drink it."
Iroh chuckled sheepishly, his face already puffing up from the poison.

The mother looked up from where she was preparing more paste to apply to Iroh's rashes only to see Zuko look out the window again as if he couldn't wait to leave.

"Are you in a hurry to get to someone?" she inquired.

Zuko snapped his head in her direction before looking over at Iroh who nodded to him in encouragement.

"My friend is unconscious," Zuko explained. "She was hit by lightning and has been unconscious for days."
Both the mother and daughter looked up in shock.

"Where is she?" the mother asked urgently.

"In the woods," Zuko replied. "I hid her where no one would find her."
He looked over at Iroh who nodded again. "I'll go get her."
The mother nodded but the moment that Zuko left, she looked at Iroh, "Attacked by fire benders?"
Iroh nodded, "the girl is strong, but this is beyond what she can handle on her own."

About half an hour later, Zuko came walking briskly into the house, Raven carefully cradled in his arms with her head against his chest, her eyes still closed and her limps limp.

"Oh heavens," the mother gasped, seeing the state the pale girl was in. "Bring her in here."
Zuko followed the woman into an adjoining room where there was a bed, obviously either her room or her daughter's.

"Lay her down on her stomach," she instructed.

Zuko carefully knelt down next to the bed before gently laying Raven on the bed and rolling her over so she was on her stomach, her hands laying limply off the bed and her cheek pressed against the mattress.