AN: Okay, so I really thought I wasn't going to go through with this fic after I decided to start my other Kag/Sess thing. But here we are! Switched! Okay, so see if you can figure out what's going on! It'll be exciting. And it's AU, I guess, because it takes place before Ba Sing Sae and after Zuko Alone and The Chase and Bitter Work. It'll be good. I promise. After this first chapter, it might be drabble like, though, and I can't say how committed I am to the whole thing, but I will try to finish it. It might not be horrendously long but I could have so much fun with this. Oh gosh... Okay! Let's get on with it!
"Aang, do you ever see an animal and think to yourself: 'Maybe I shouldn't touch it. It might be dangerous.'?"
"Nope!" Aang chirped as he walked ahead of Sokka.
"That's what I thought," Sokka said to himself.
The day was bright and cheerful, shining through the tall trees of the spacious forest and creating green patterns of light on the ground. Aang led the group of benders (and Sokka!) on their perpetual trip to master the four elements and escape the crazy members of the Fire Nation royal family. The recent addition to the group, Toph, had settled in with only a few bumps and things were actually going peaceful and well for once.
Which of course meant something bad had to happen. It always does.
Currently, this bad thing was in the form of an as-of-yet unidentified woodland creature. It looked like a cross between a large chipmunk and a beaver. Its tail was flat and broad while its cheeks were cute and chubby. It rested in the crook of Aang's elbows and cooed as he tickled it under its chin.
"Aw… come on, Sokka," Katara tried to appeal to her older brother. "It's just a cute little animal." She scratched it under its chin and the creature made a happy squeaking sound. "Yes, you are! Yes, you are!"
"Katara, there is nothing 'cute' about wild animals." Sokka sliced his hand across the air in front of him as if to slice away her protest. "Need I remind you of Foo Foo Cuddleypuffs?"
"Just because you got stuck in a crack and almost got eaten by a Sabertooth Moose Lion doesn't mean this little guy's ferocious," Katara shot back at him over her shoulder.
"Heh heh…" Aang chuckled. "Sokka got caught in a crack."
"I didn't get caught in a crack!"
"Yeah, Sokka, how did you get caught in a crack?" Toph asked.
"I don't know," Sokka replied in a mysterious voice. "That was all a part of his plan. Foo Foo Cuddleypuffs' plan."
There was a silence while a far off cricket chirped.
"You need to plan to get your head checked," Katara retorted. Toph and Aang laughed.
"Well, this guy's just a cute little chipmunk beaver," Aang decided. "He's the first of his kind! What should we name him?"
"Buttons!"
"Tiger!"
"Dinner!"
"Uhhhn!" Zuko moaned. "Where are we going, Uncle? We've been in this forest for days…"
Uncle shrugged. "I do not know, Zuko. I was following you."
Zuko stopped walking immediately but his uncle continued past him, seemingly unconcerned.
"Uncle!" Zuko protested. "You didn't even ask me where I thought I was going!"
"I didn't think it was my place." Uncle stopped and regarded his nephew seriously. He had come back from the mountains unharmed and for that he was grateful, but his nephew's attitude seemed to have changed very little. There was a small difference, but it was so minute (especially under all his frustration) that only one who knew him as well as Iroh did would see it. They had set off in the direction of more fertile land, in hopes of finding better water sources. They had quickly followed a stream until it had dwindled into a spring somewhere deep in this forest.
Zuko sat down on a boulder a short way from his uncle.
"I don't know what to do anymore, Uncle." He put his head in his hands. "I don't know what to think anymore."
Ahh, Uncle thought to himself. This is not just frustration with this forest, he is frustrated with himself.
"What do you mean, nephew?" Iroh moved to place a hand on Zuko's shoulder, which the boy, for once, did not shake off. He's changed on that mountain.
"I mean about Azula. About Father. My banishment." Zuko looked up into the canopy. "The Avatar. Is it worth it? I mean, what do I have to go back to? What kind of father sends his son out on an impossible mission?" this last phrase was whispered mostly to his shoulder.
"I think these are answers you will find in yourself when the time comes and you are ready." Iroh advised him. "There is no denying who you are or who your family is, but it does not mean you must behave like them."
Unfortunately, this sage moment was broken by a fiercely rustling bush and muffled shouts becoming louder.
Zuko jumped up into fighting position, Uncle by his side. They waited for whatever was approaching to come crashing through the brush.
A strange creature unlike any the two benders had ever seen before bounded out, chittering away happily. It looked like an overgrown chipmunk that got its tail run over by a wagon wheel.
"What the-" Zuko began when a more familiar sight sailed over the bush, following the freaky thing. "You!"
"Come back, Muffins! Sokka was just kidding! He doesn't want to really eat you! That whole stuffing-you-in-a-pot thing was just a joke! Come on, Muffins!"
"Avatar!" Zuko growled.
Aang froze where he was and "Muffins" followed suit.
"Oh…" Aang gave a weak smile. "Hey there, Zuko. Long time no see." He waved.
Right on cue, Katara and Sokka burst through the brush, admittedly less gracefully than Aang.
"Stupid, ugly, branchy-"
"Zuko!" Katara gasped. Sokka stumbled forward, still shaking stray leaves from his legs. "What are you doing here?"
"What do you think?" Zuko smirked as he lit both his outstretched palms on fire. "Chasing the Avatar."
"Can't you give that a break?" Sokka complained. "I mean, doesn't it get old?" He stopped, glancing at Zuko's shorn head. "By the way, nice haircut. Almost didn't recognize you last time." He gave other boy a thumbs up.
Zuko growled and lunged forward.
"Run!" called out Aang and the three took off, Zuko quick behind, with Muffins in the lead.
Iroh stood in the middle of the small clearing wondering what just happened. He knew something did, but darnit if he wasn't getting old.
"Ugh! You guys!" a younger and familiar voice called out from behind the bushes. "When I find you guys, I'm gonna…" mutter mutter "Just leave a girl by herself… Don't even know why you just ran off… Stupid Sokka…"
The girl finally pushed through the undergrowth only to have it trampled by a large, overgrown beast being ridden by a winged monkey.
"Oh," she said, noticing Iroh. She turned her face in his general direction, pale blue eyes wide open. "It's you. Are you feeling better?"
Iroh chuckled. "Oh you mean from Azula's attack? Ah yes, much better. Thank you."
"Well, I guess we got a wait." She sat down where she stood, falling gracefully to the ground. Iroh sat on the rock his nephew had only just abandoned.
Toph tilted her head towards Iroh in a considering manner. "So Prince Zuko's your nephew," she stated.
Iroh nodded. "Yes, though he is not much of a prince now. We are both wanted criminals by the Fire Nation."
"Then why's he still chasing Aang?" Toph wanted to know. "If you're criminals, it doesn't seem like they'd take you back just for capturing the Avatar. More like they'd just arrest you all."
"Yes," Iroh agreed, sighing heavily. "I am wondering when my nephew will see the error of his ways."
There was a small silence while the two considered everything in their situations and its implications.
After a while, Iroh spoke.
"So… would you care for some tea while we wait?"
"Muffins!"
"Aang!"
"Sokka!"
"AVATAR!"
Aang was standing in a large clearing near a large cliff when he turned around at Sokka's voice. Sokka stopped to rest, his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his racing breath.
"Shh! Sokka!" Aang whispered loudly and flapped his hand at the older boy. " If you're too loud, you'll scare Muffins again!"
Sure enough, Aang had some how managed to trap Muffins. The poor thing was huddled near the side of the cliff, shivering with fear as its gaze darted from side to side, searching for a way to escape.
Sokka straightened. "Yeah," he replied to Aang's "whispering". "Because I was being reeeal loud. And by the way? You whisper like an Ox Elephant with a cold."
"Come on, Muffins," Aang coaxed. He walked slowly towards the animal, his hands out in what he clearly thought to be a non-threatening gesture. "I'm not gonna hurt you, buddy. I just wanna be your friend."
"Uh, Aang?" Sokka looked at the terrified creature warily. "I don't think that's such a good idea."
Aang shot Sokka a grin over his shoulder. "Why? What could go wr-"
A loud crack sounded and a burst of purple smoke puffed up. Sokka and Aang were thrown across the clearing and unceremoniously dropped to the ground. Their eyes were closed and their bodies limp when Katara and Zuko burst through the brush once more.
Before either one of them could open their mouth another crack went off and more smoke appeared as their bodies were flung across the grass. Zuko's body slammed against a boulder while Katara's skidded to a stop against the ground.
There was a long silence during which none of the teens moved.
Muffins broke away from the wall of rock in front of which he had been huddled. He cautiously made his way over to the orange and yellow form of the Avatar and sniffed tentatively. Satisfied when the boy did not move, Muffins chirped happily and trotted off into the wilderness.
About an hour later, Katara woke groggily. Raising a hand to her head, she was disturbed to find her hair shorn off.
Her fingers shaking, she brushed at the spiky shortness of it. Kami… it felt like it was only two inches long!
To her despair, she felt tears rise behind her eyes and she moved to brush them away before anyone else saw them – crying over a haircut!
But to her further shock, when her fingers reached her left cheek, instead of the smooth skin she normally felt, it was the rough, craggy skin of an injury.
Katara's hands flew to her face to check for any other injuries.
Oh, something was wrong, something was very seriously wrong. Her entire face was messed up. Instead of her cute button nose, there was a long, straight one. Her face was longer and more sharply angled, her chin rough with hair, her eyes smaller. In fact, one eye was almost completely shut, surrounded by the disturbed flesh of an old, flame-shaped scar.
Trembling, Katara turned to look around her, hoping against all hope that this was a dream.
When her eyes fell on the crumpled form of a waterbending girl with a long braid and blue clothes, she hissed with the sharp intake of breath.
"What's going on?" she asked.
What's going on? Who knows! I hope it gets even more exciting... yeah! I bet it will!