Chapter 5 - Rescuing Iroh

It's been 2 weeks since we fought the Kyoshi Warriors and nearly destroyed their village. Again, why do we always have to demolish everything around us on our hunt for the Avatar and almost kill someone.

Anyways, Zuko and I are walking in the forest, looking for Iroh. Apparently, Iroh decided to relaxed somewhere here while we take a stop.

"Uncle! It's time to leave! Where are you? Uncle Iroh!" Zuko yells.

"Over here!" Iroh calls outs to us and we walk to him. He's relaxing in a hot spring.

"Uncle? We need to move on. We're closing in on the Avatar's trail and I don't want to lose him." Zuko tells him.

"You look tired, Prince Zuko and Akira. Why don't you two join me in these hot springs and soak your troubles?" Iroh asks us.

"I would love to but I'm on a tight schedule here." I tell him.

"And my troubles cannot be soaked away. It's time to go!" Zuko shouts at Iroh.

"You should take your teacher's advice and relax a little. The temperature's just right. I heated it myself." Iroh breathes steam through his nose, heating up the water.

"Enough! We need to go now. Get out of the water!" demanded Zuko.

"Very Well." Iroh gets up, exposes himself to us. Me and Zuko cover our eyes in disgust.

"Actually, you can continue relaxing in the hot springs for a few more minutes if you want?!" I ask Iroh while still covering my eyes.

"But be back at the ship in a half-hour or we're leaving without you!" Zuko informs.

Iroh sighs and slumps back into the water. Zuko and I walk away to give Iroh time for himself. I give the Prince a death glare as we are walking through the forest.

"Seriously?! 'But be back at the ship in a half-hour or we're leaving without you?!' I asked him angrily.

"It was a way to get him back to the ship as quickly as possible." Zuko replied.

"But tell him that we'll leave him behind?!" I asked/yelled at him.

"I really didn't mean that. I would never leave behind Uncle or you." Zuko tells me and I smile in return.

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Half-an-hour later, Zuko, two of his soldiers, and I went to go get Iroh from the hot springs, only to him not to be there. We began to search for Iroh.

"Uncle! Uncle, where are you?!" Zuko called.

"General Iroh! Are you there?!" I also called out.

"Sir, maybe he thought you left without him." the soldier suggest to Zuko.

"Something's not right here. That pile of rocks." Zuko noticed.

"It looks like there's been a landslide, sir." the soldier tells him.

I analyze the rocks next to the hot springs. "Land doesn't slide uphill. These rocks didn't move naturally. Unless -"

"My Uncle's been captured by earthbenders!" Zuko realized.

"Then what are we waiting for? We have to rescue Iroh!" I yelled and we head off to save the retired General.

While we search for Iroh through the forest, Zuko sees one of Iroh's sandals and picks it up. He sniffs it and gives out a disgust look. I also sniff the sandal and stop myself from puking.

"Yeah, that's Uncle Iroh." Zuko tells me and the two of us re-mount on our rhinos, proceeding the rescue mission.

As we follow the ostrich horse footprints, Zuko noticed a horned creature flying past us.

"The Avatar!" he turns a slightly, but turns back at the footprints. I'm glad that he's focused on saving Iroh.

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At the bottom of the hill, we see Iroh with his chained hands on a large stone, surrounded by soldiers. An earthbender brings a boulder in the air, preparing to break the former General's hands.

"These dangerous hands must be crushed." the earthbender proclaims as he brings up and prepares to drop it.

However, Zuko jumps in and kicks the rock away before I breaking Iroh's chain with the heel of my boot.

"Excellent forms Akira, and Prince Zuko." Iroh complements.

Zuko and I get into a fight stance. "You taught us well." he replies back.

"Surrender yourselves. It's five against three. You're clearly outnumbered." the earthbender tells us.

"Yeah, that's true, but you are clearly outmatched." Iroh retorts.

The soldiers fire rocks, but Iroh destroys them with the chains. Two soldiers send rocks in my direction, but I kick out away and use a fire kick to smash the second one into pieces. The soldier on my left aims a bigger rock at me, but I jump over it and roundhouse kick him in the face, knocking him down. I dodge another attack from the 2d soldier to my right. He earthbenders to wall to shield himself. I direct two streams of fire at him out of my index and middle fingers. The power from my attack breaks his defences and sends him unconscious against a rocky wall in the process. Zuko takes out two soldiers with fire. A rock is fired at him, but Iroh catches it and throws it back at the soldiers, knocking them down. The Captain fires three rocks at Zuko, which he dodges. Zuko counters with fire blasts that are dodged. The captain brings up a large mass of rock, however, Iroh throws his chains around his ankles, knocking him and causing the rocks to fall on top of him. The soldiers groan underneath the rocks.

"Now would you please put on some clothes?" Zuko asks Iroh, noticing that he's only wearing a loincloth.

I snicker and hug Iroh. "I'm just happy that you're okay." I tell him.

Iroh hugs me back. "I'm glad the two of you came back to save my life." we break the hug. The three of us began walking to our ships location.

A successful rescue and a victory worth reminiscing.