Avatar: The Last Dragon Prince

Chapter Six: Behind the Power

Here's an extra long chapter to (hopefully) make up for my extensive hiatus pls y'all don't know how badly online school kicking my butt :)

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The whole point of Zuko deviating from Iroh was to forge his own path. And now here he found himself gallivanting an Earth Kingdom village with two people who put the "strange" in stranger.

Somehow after feeding his ostrich horse, the little troublemaker – whose name was Lee – someone managed to coerce him into fixing their roof. Zuko figured that since he couldn't pay their kindness forward with money, a bit of physical labor would do appropriately.

But even as he banged away at the roof joints, he couldn't help but eye the two strangers below him at ground level, who were filling the cow-pigs' troughs with feed and water. Not that he had any basis for these feelings but they just seemed suspicious in a way.

What business did they have butting into his? The little tiff with the soldiers was his problem, so why did they feel inclined to make it theirs too? Plus, as the storekeeper said, these people were clearly not from around here; asking basic questions about the war. He wondered what brought them out here.

He and Iroh were wanted fugitives of the Fire Nation. Then these strangers suddenly target him soon after parting ways with Iroh? Unfortunately, assuming they were Fire Nation spies was not out of the question. He needed to be done and be gone ASAP.

"How are you doing up there?" the girl – who introduced herself as Claudia – yelled.

Zuko's jaw ticked with annoyance. "I'm fine."

"You really stood up against those soldiers who outnumbered you," she went on, which only annoyed him more. "You must be either strong enough to be brave or brave enough to be strong in the face of danger."

"Right."

Zuko noticed her brother Soren's eyes on him and pretended to ignore it. They were both suspicious of each other and Zuko refused to be the first one to address it.

Another silence dominated by the clanging of metal ensued as they all went about their tasks wordlessly. Then Lee, ever the enthusiast, asked, "How did you get that scar?"

The question threw Zuko off so much he accidentally hammered down on his finger. This kid was more trouble than he was worth. His throbbing finger was proof of that.

"Lee, don't pry," Lee's father Gansu scolded. "It's not nice to bother people about things they might not want to talk about."

Lee pouted and Claudia felt for him. He was just a curious kid, not unlike Ezran. But this war, whatever was going on... it hardened his father, his family. Then again, she supposed, it wasn't that different from their own situation with her dad and the Xadians back home.

Besides, she was also curious herself. What hardships did this boy go through to be a victim of whatever that scar was about?

Their labor was soon finished, and at the perfect time too since Sela, Lee's mother, had just finished making dinner. Lee's family wasn't rich at all but according to Claudia, nothing could beat a farm fresh home cooked meal. Not that she'd know – Viren didn't exactly have the time to do that for them.

Besides, she and her brother couldn't exactly be picky. They were starving for days.

"This," Claudia said with her mouth full, "is really good."

"Thank you," Sela smiled warmly. "Please help yourselves to more if you'd like."

"Don't mind if I do," Soren said excitedly, eagerly serving himself a second helping.