Avatar The Legend of Aang Book 4: Time

Chapter 3: Back to the old roots

After a day and a half of traveling on Druk, his newly acquired dragon, Zuko was able to finally see the greatest city on the entire Earth Kingdom, its capital, Ba Sing Se, no time to go to visit the new earth king, that can happen later, he wanted to visit his uncle as soon as possible

-It isn't great Druk?- the dragon just baffled -It is going to be the first time you are going to see my uncle.

The citizens were able to see the dragon flying, surprised or smiling after looking at it, the reptile landed in front of the Jazmine Dragon Tea Shop, it was open, and everyone inside went out in order to see the creature

-Is the fire lord Zuko, he arrived- someone said as everyone was happy to see him

Zuko was only smiling, but then he saw him, Iroh came as fast as he could in order to receive him

-Welcome back, fire lord Zuko.

-Is nice to see you again, uncle- and both hugged each other, Iroh then noticed the dragon -Isn't it beautiful? The two masters of the sun temple had a baby months ago, his name is Druk

-Oh, long time no see another one, is so beautiful- the dragon smelled at him, and gave him a hot breath in response -And needs his teeth brushed, come on Zuko, is time to celebrate your birthday.

Everything inside was decorated, the citizens then received him with... -Happy Birthday Zuko!

He smiled because of that gesture -Thank you all, is nice to see you again.

-Come on, I have your present on the other side of the bar- Zuko followed Iroh, his uncle stopped him for some seconds in order to try to find it -Oh, where I just left that thing?

Waiting on the other side, Zuko was caught by surprise by someone who said -Is nice to see you again Lee, or you prefer Zuko?

-Who is...?- he recognized the face pretty fast, it was the same lady he left 3 years ago on that date, things were totally different now, as both of them are now young adults, at that was a little more noticeable on the lady, most on her body than on her face -Oh Jin, jeje, long time no see... how did you know about my real name?

-Well, I come here frequently, and you're rarely here, your uncle told me the truth.

-Aren't you angry about that?- Jin negated it -I see... I'm trying to stay a little more, is not easy when you're the fire lord and a lot of things happened two days ago, but promised my uncle to be here at least a week.

-That sounds nice well, nice for you.

After some seconds of silence, Zuko decided to say something -Look Jin, this is not the best place to talk about what happened before but, would it be possible on another moment?

-Su... sure, I wanted to talk with you long time ago, but the circumstances were not the adequate so, see you later?

-Sure- Jin then gave him a piece of paper and left the place, Zuko was paying attention to her a lot -How she changed...

-There it is! - Iroh presented a small golden statue about a dragon -What do you think?

-Eh?- and he looked at the statue -it looks beautiful.

...

On the ship that Ozai stole from the Fire Nation, both him and the "future" avatar were talking, it was already at night but the stares were not appearing on the sky

-So not only the ship, but also some soldiers, 10 but that's enough for now

-That were still loyal to me, I know them, fighting is something that you can't get out of a warrior, promising them the glory of a great battle was more than enough to convince them and helped me to take this ship with me.