There are aus where Zuko ends up going on his search for the Avatar without Iroh. Whether it’s because Ozai forbid it or because he was ‘taken care of’ while still in recovery. Either way, there’s not a lot of incentive for the less honorable Fire nation soldiers to keep him around.
He’s alone in the Earth Kingdom. Barely able to stand with his mind fuzzy from trying to recover and fight off infection at the same time.
He’s so out of it that he barely even notices when he collapses. In his mind’s eye, he’s still moving because he can’t afford to waste a moment. Get healed. Find the Avatar. Go home. He has to.
He couldn’t hear anything other than soft muffles. Gentle hands prodding and examining him. He could feel something soft underneath his head and he realized that there wasn’t dirt in his mouth anymore. Someone had placed him on his back on some soft surface. Not as soft as his bed in his room, so he must’ve messed up during training and lost his bed privileges again.
The smell of flowers.
He wonders who it is. Father hated flowers, called them frivolous nonsense that would stop themselves from catching on fire if they were worth anything. Azula only liked flowers when they were in the oils the servants put in her hair. Aside from that, she only liked them for target practice.
Only one person smelled like flowers in the palace and that was-
“Mom?”
The soft hands stroking his hair jerked back and he let out a soft whine. Apologies fell out of his mouth. He’s sorry, he didn’t mean to mess up. He’ll practice his tsungi horn, he’ll play along with Azula’s games. Just please don’t leave again, Mom.
The soft hands returns and an unconcious soft noise left his lips. He would be good so that Mom would stay this time.
“That’s it, sweetheart. Get some rest.”
“Lily? Did he wake up?”
“Shh, Chong, you’ll wake him. Get some more hot water for me?”
You get the calm before the storm of the next adoption my lovely anon! ; )
The Singing Nomads Adopt Zuko! (The written version of this one was left behind in the move, so I will redo it here.)
Zhao had blown his ship up, and his uncle thought him dead.
Zuko trekked through the woods of the Earth Kingdom praying to Agni that he would find help before his burn got infected. And well, Agni must have heard him, because he passed out and woke up in a camp that was the temporary home of a small group of nomads.
A woman, his mother’s age, was the one to welcome him into the waking world.
“Moring, kiddo, you feeling alright?”
Zuko found that while he still hurt he did feel somewhat better.
So he answered, “Uh... Yeah, who are you people?”
“My name is Lily, and this is my husband Chong, my sister Meihua, and Moku,” She explained. “We are nomads, what is your name?”
“Zuko.”
“Does your scar hurt?” She asked, looking concerned. “It looked pretty bad when I was changing the bandages.”
“No, I’m fine,” He snapped, as he got to his feet and looked around the camp.
These people looked happy and at peace... There was a pang of longing in his heart at the sight, but he had to... He had to find the Avatar and bring them to his father.
The Avatar who likely had been just as at peace as these nomads, before they had gone into hiding... For one hundred years. Not seen even once...
It was an impossible mission, but he had to do it.
“Where are your parents, Zuko?” Chong asked as he handed Zuko a bowl of stew.
Well, they were nomads, so if he stuck with them he would come across the avatar anyways...
And three years later he did, long after he had quietly given up on his mission in favor of being with his new family.
The avatar was a kid and Zuko sighed, looking over at his mom, Lily, and she smiled back with understanding.
“Appa hates going underground and we need to do whatever makes Appa most comfortable ”
Thank Agni, he didn’t have to leave his new family.
“Secret love cave. Let’s go.”
Shit.
“Looks like I’m going to be teaching the Avatar fire bending...” Zuko muttered as he followed the Avatar and his friends into the cave with his family.
It wasn’t like he was going to have to help the kid defeat Ozai or anything.
The secret tunnel hippues are not stupid nor fools or naive. They just took one look at Sokka and realized how easy it would be to mess with him.
Chong was having the time of his life. He and his small family may be a bit eccentric but it was nothing extreme. This guy though, man was he a high strung and easy target.
His sister and buddy were pretty chill though, so they settled down with them. Chong kept an eye on the other though, just waiting for the opportunity to mess with him.
He made it too easy but sadly the group left before Chong could really get into the groove. Then they came back.
The caves of Omashu were admittedly cursed, but it wasn’t as serious as most people thought. Chong and his family had made it through the cave several times, though never with the Fire Nation on their tail.
The cave in was unexpected but there was an easy enough way out. Still, that Sokka guy was still freaking out and Chong nearly lost it when Lily lit all the light sticks at once.
The Water Tribesman stamped them out, leaving only one lit. If he knew what he was doing he’d put the other one out too. Instead he wanted to make a map, so Chong followed the funny man’s lead, only really butting in when they were led in a circle one too many times.
He was ignored, then another cave in happened and Chong was re-invigorated now that Sokka was stuck with them. He thought the light would go out and reveal the cave crystals eventually but they ran into the badgermoles first.
Badgermoles loved music, so it was simple enough to get them to help.
Chong couldn’t resist one last dig at the high stung lad.
Seeing the red mark on his forehead he leaned in. “I think that kid might be the Avatar,” Chong said, fully aware the Avatar was standing across from him with a blue arrow on his head.
Sokka facepalmed again and Chong added another point to his score before he and his family left them be.
---
Chong is fun to write, this is the second time I’ve written him but the first from his perspective.
Note: Prompts still closed, these were already there before I closed them. The last six prompts in my Inbox will be filled this Wednesday.
This hot mess of a fic is brought to you by this hot mess of a discussion.
Azula lays in the grass, staring up at the sun...the moon? She isn’t sure what she is staring at, but it is an orb and it is in the sky. What she is looking at is neither the sun nor the moon, but a paper lantern that sways in the breeze. This is boundlessly alarming for the princess because she has never seen the sun move like that. Usually the sun sits in a fixed position. Perhaps, she decides, she isn’t looking at the sun at all. Perhaps she is looking at Sozin’s Comet coming back because it too knows that she has been cheated out of her crown. Azula grins, this time, she will have victory! But then it dawns upon her that she has never seen a comet hang in one place for so long.
She rubs her head, it is beginning to ache. She takes another hit from her cactus juice joint. It has been prescribed to her to calm her anxieties and alleviate her stresses. Though they advised her to use it only in moderation. Which had been going well until she’d met that weird flying monkey thing. She should have known not to trust it, it is after all, the Avatar’s pet. But she had run out of her medicinal cactus juice so she didn’t refuse when the creature perched itself on the window and said in a voice that was alarmingly deep for a creature so small, “five gold pieces and I’ll get you the stuff.”
“Just this once, lemur.” She had vowed.
“You can call me M0m0. But with two zeros instead of O’s.”
“Just this once, lemur.” She had repeated as she fished out five gold pieces.
As fate will have it, the lemur’s cactus juice is much stronger than the medically regulated joints she is used to. And so the princess finds herself unfathomably and helplessly high as fuck. She flops down and tries to remember where the hell she is and how the hell she has managed to free herself from that institution again. Especially considering how heavily they have cracked down since her last escape.
She wracks her brain but each blade of grass around her has something to say.
“You’re pretty, Azula.” “You have nice eyes!” “Those asylum robes look great on you!” “You deserved to be fire lord.” “You are the fire lord.”
At this, Azula perks up. “I am?”
“You are to me.” That particular strand of grass gushes. She smiles at the strand and plucks it from the ground. It grows silent.
She has killed it.
She begins to cry softly to herself.
Another friend lost.
.oOo.
“We’ve decided to try something different with her.” The head doctor speaks.
“What are you trying?” Zuko asks.
“Medicinal cactus juice.” The man replies.
“And…” Zuko prompts.
“It was going well.”
“Until…”
“It stopped going well.” The doctor smiles nervously.
“Can I see her?” Zuko asks.
“Ah...well, that’s part of the problem. You seeeeee….she...uh...she escaped.”
“Escaped!?” Zuko throws his hands up. “Have you started looking for her.”
“We have not. But we think that we know where to start.” He pauses. “The princess has grown quite fond of Chong & The Singing Nomads.”
Zuko curses to himself. He and Mai have had several discussions already and they have already decided that they would be staying far, far away from that crowd and their bad hair and lack of hygiene. And their overly lax mannerisms and their constant spouting of peace and love bullshit. Both he and Mai are well aware that peace is for Air Nomads and love is dumb. They do not love each other, they simply not hate each other. “You don’t really think that she went there do you?”
The doctors trade glances. “We think that she did.”
.oOo.
“Do it, Azula, follow your dreams.” The remaining blades of highly motivational grass chant. “Achieve your goals!”
Azula, feeling highly lethargic, stands up anyhow. With each enthusiastic encouragement, the princess finds herself feeling more inspired even if she’d rather lay back down and stare at the swaying sun.
“You can do it!” Shouts a blade of grass that sounds like it belongs to a burly earthbender. It sounds that way, because it had come from an earthbender. The Boulder to be specific, he is shouting at Toph as she tries to deadlift Appa who is being ridden by Raava. But Azula does not know this, so she attributes it to the blades of grass. And she decides that she will. She will go out and do what she had escaped to do.
What she had always wanted to do.
What she had been born to do!
She is going to meet her favorite band and she is going to join them!
She supposes that this is much easier said than done considering how many bands are in attendance.
.oOo.
The scent of incense hangs heavily in the air. A breeze rustles the beaded curtains that act as the tent’s door. Moku leans back, humming to himself.
“C’mon man.” Chong drawls. “We just need one more good joint, man. And we’ll write one more jam it’ll be totally groovy, man.”
“I don’t grow for free.” Momo scowls. “Do you know how hard it is to ditch that bald headed, twinkly toed, monk?”
“It’s godda be tough, man.” Chong admits.
“I gotta act like a muffin...a complete square. If my homies saw me prancing with that loser they wouldn’t ride with me anymore. So when I grow, I gotta make bank. I ain’t makin’ bank with you.”
“Bummer, man. Listen, just hang tough and in the mean time pass us another joint and you can jam with us.”
Momo pulls out a glock. “You pay up or Imma cap yer ass.”
“What a downer.” Says Lily.
.oOo.
Azula wanders aimlessly, she has been wandering for some twenty minutes now. Though she has not made it very far. She circles the same tent for the fourteenth time now; she does not realize that it is the same tent because every time she makes a lap around it the design shifts.
Azula frowns and folds her arms over her chest. And then she extends her arm. She crosses them over her chest again. She extends her arm once more. “Arms are weird.” She says to herself. She bends and unbends her arm several times. “We-eird.” She whispers in a lazy sing-long.
She shakes her head, she has to stay focused.
She looks around.
The place is disorientingly crowded. People sit shoulder to shoulder on checkered blankets. They braid each other’s hair and weave flower crowns. Some make bead jewelry and others make love.
Azula narrows her eyes, just who makes love while wearing socks. She tip toes up to the woman and tugs her socks off.
“Hey! What are you doing!?” The woman shouts.
Azula bolts.
Bolts meaning lightning bolts. She does not run. Running is for lil’ bitches. And Azula isn’t a lil’ bitch expect for when her therapist brings up her mother then she is kinda, in fact, a lil’ bitch. At the very least, she cries like one.
Having freshly charred a woman, Azula wanders off. She is carried on a cloud of music.
Music! Her objective comes back to her.
.oOo.
“Welcome to Fyre Fest, the Fyre Nation’s most far out festival!” Guru Pathik greets. “Onion and banana juice?”
“No thanks.” Zuko grumbles. He wishes that Mai would have come along, but he could convince her to ‘enter that hippie hell land’. He’d even snagged some My Chemical Romance tickets from another dimension entirely and she still sent him off on his own.
He looks around. In ever direction is some new monstrosity and none of them are Azula. He sees men and women running around with their bits exposed, the more conservitive of them place leaves and flowers but just enough of them to cover what needs covering. He sees men with long hair staring into lava lamps that they heat and bend themselves. Across the way a woman offers to predict the future via seeing it in smoke. Zuko is certain that a helping of cactus juice is involved with those visions.
But it isn’t what he sees that horrifies him the most; it is what he hears. Pan flutes and harps play out of sync to a singer who may very well be tone def. She bellows a ditty about loving one’s self and loving one’s potted cacti.
He covers his ears.
He has to find Azula fast, before she can do something that will have the nation talking. Because if the Fyre Nation citizens get to talking then word will get to his father. And if word gers to father…
Zuko shudders, the man is a week away from getting out of prison and if he comes back to his perfect, can-do-no-wrong daughter completely stoned…
.oOo.
Azula wanders towards the music. There are, in fact, many songs playing all at once--most of them come from the various stages or from within the tents. But there are at least two songs that play in Azula’s mind only; these songs are indescribably horrifying they are played at a frequency very low so as to induce a sense of horror and foreboding. But Azula is used to them and has actually taken a liking to them.
She ignores these songs for the time being and tugs open one of the tent flaps. She pushes the beaded curtain aside. It is vacant except for an air of failure and a perfume of incense. Azula can see the failure, it is all around and there is so much of it.
So, so much failure.
She stumbles back and out of the tent, she trips over a bong and falls on her ass, this doesn’t deter her any. She continues her hasty retreat away from the failure before it can latch onto her again.
It chases her clear across the field. She is so busy looking at the failure behind her that she doesn’t notice the failure in front of her until she collides with him. “Oh, hi Zuzu.” She greets before remembering that it is probably not a good thing that he has found her. Before he can turn around she picks up one of the rugs, lays down, and throws it over herself. It is only large enough to cover her face.
“Azula...” Zuko says through gritted teeth. “What are you doing here?”
“I am not here. I am back at the institution where you left me.”
“You’re right here, I can see you.”
“No you can’t.”
“Yes, I can.”
“No you can’t.”
“Yes I--okay, no, I’m not doing this with you again.” Zuko hisses. “You’re right here in my field of vision.”
Azula does not understand, she is perfectly hidden. Zuko snatches the blanket from her face and she screeches. Zuko winces at the hideous noise. She seizes the opportunity to dash.
.oOo.
“Wait, no!” He hollers.
But Azula is fast, she has always been fast. Why the hell can’t she be clumsy and uncoordinated like every other stoner he has met.
“Hey, man, you need some chase music?” Chong asks. He still has plenty of time before his performance.
Zuko is about to say no, but Chong plucks at his dramyin and begins a fast paced and frenzied tune. As Zuko persues Azula, Chong persues him. Lily chases Chong and chasing Lily is Moku who is being chased by Momo, who is chased by Zhao, who is chased by Vaatu who is trying to drag him back to the depths of hell where he belongs.
Zuko doesn’t notice any of this for he is hyper fixated on Azula who has flung herself into a pile of flower petals and is army crawling towards one of the stages.
“I did it!” Toph shouts loudly. Zuko looks away momentarily to see Toph standing proud, holding Appa above her head, arm pit hair blowing in the breeze. Zuko gags, he has only heard legends about armpit hair that long. He wants to cry. Even if Mai would let him, he couldn’t even grow his pit hair out that long.
.oOo.
Azula smirks to herself, she knew that it was a good idea to sprint past Toph! With Zuzu well and distracted she makes her get away. It is time to begin phase two. Looking back at her brother, she knows that she doesn’t have much time, the shock is already wearing off.
She snatches up a flower crown and a peace sign necklace and takes a seat upon one of the quilts. She gives a loud and forced laugh, “yeah, I totally get it.”
Chan and Ruon-Jian turn to look at the weirdo who has just invited herself into their circle. They don’t remember her arriving at the festival with them, they aren’t even sure if she is real. “What are we doing?” She asks.
“Oh, we’re just hangin’ loose, ya know?” Chan says.
Azula nods but she does not understand. She has not immersed herself in enough Fyer Festival culture to know what that is supposed to mean. She watches Chan pass Ruon a joint. He takes a puff and passes it to the girl next to him.
“You want a hit?” Chan asks when it gets back to him.
“My therapist says that partaking in acts of violence is detrimental to my healing process.” Is what she would have said if she weren’t so high. What she does say, because she is high, is, “yeah, sure man.”
“Far out.” Chan nods with a smile. He gives her the joint and then gives her finger guns.
Before she can bring the joint to her lips, Zuko snatches it. Azula frowns. “How did you find me so quickly?”
“First of all, I know that laugh anywhere. Second of all, you walked like two feet away from where you were before!”
“Can I hit you?” She asks.
“Wh-what?” Zuko sputters as Chan leans in and whispers something in her ear.
She nods and says, “oooooh,” and turns back to Zuko. “Do you want a hit?” She holds out the joint.
“No!” He throws his hands up. “I’d rather let you hit me in the face or something.”
Azula frowns to herself, she has to ditch him somehow. She steals another blunt from Chan and takes a drag, in the hopes of getting a burst of inspiration. She watches the smoke trail up to the clouds. She snaps her head back down, she knows that if she looks up now that the clouds will begin to take shape and that she will end up watching them for hours. The smoke alone is hypnotic. She sways drunkenly back and forth with the smoke.
The smoke…
Her lips curl back into another wicked grin.
She lets a burst of fire erupts in her palm. Zuko gives a jolt and she does to. She thrusts the flame much too close to his face. “Look at this!”
“I see it.” He carefully pushes her hand away, the grimace never leaving it.
“LoOk aT It!!!” She repeats.
“I see it!”
“Why is my fire water?”
“What?”
“Why do I have fire that is water???”
“It’s…”
“wHY DO I HAVE FIRE. THAT IS WATER!?” She asks with more volume. Now she is holding the fire too close to her own face.
“Throw me.” The fire crackles. “Throw me and I’ll set you free.” She launches a ball of fire, it lands upon a tree and bursts into song. Azula gives a lopsided smile. “My fire can sing.” She declares.
“Why don’t we go home where it’s quieter and you can hear it better?” Zuko offers.
Azula chuckles. “I know what you’re trying to do Zuzu. But it’s not going to work because I’m smarter than you.”
“Maybe when you aren’t high.” He mutters.
Without warning she catapults herself into the air using twin jets of fire. She gives a yelp that is equal parts elated and fearful. She has never felt so free. She lands relatively gracefully and continues her mad dash away from her overbearing brother.
Her excitement subsides and she resumes her aimless wandering. She gets the feeling that she has strayed far from where Chong & The Singing Nomads are performing. She is growing anxious, if she misses them then she will miss her chance to make a name for herself. If she can’t sing then how the hell will she leave her mark on the world. If she can’t sing then she will be forgotten by society.
“You can do it.” A blade of grass reminds her.
“I can do it.” She whispers back.
A pungent spicy odor wafts in on the breeze. She doesn’t know where it comes from but it is rather enticing.
.oOo.
Zuko races through the crowd, people try to sell him banana juice, scented candles, butt scratchers, and something that looks curiously like his father’s favorite left sock.
“No thank you!” He says before the next merchant can speak. He is not interested in band T-shirts--he doesn’t even like this kind of music.
“And here I thought that you’d like some honor.”
Zuko comes to a dead halt. “Honor?” he asks. He clenches his fistrs. No. He doesn’t have time for this. He has to find Azula, if he doesn’t than he will lose more honor than he can ever hope to buy.
He makes his way around another tent as the man calls, “wait! It’s buy one get one free.”
He finds his nose graced with an absolutely heavenly aroma. It is strong and spicy and he follows it to a tent brimming with all sorts of luxurious foods. The meats go mostly untouched. That’s how he knows that Azula is not yet fully immersed in Fyer Fest culture, there is still hope for her. She stands by the roast duck with a fist full of fire flakes in her mouth.
He never imagined that her downfall would be a case of the munchies, but he will take a victory where he can get it. She looks up from her snack and makes eye contact. He isn’t sure if the look of horror in her eyes is because he has found her or if it is because he has caught her doing something far less than dignified. She finishes stuffing the flakes into her mouth and darts off.
.oOo.
The sun is on its way down and she knows that she is running out of time. But she no longer remembers what she is running out of time for. She doesn’t think that it matters. Why would it? She has water fire and encouraging blades of grass that say kind things to her in spite of all of her flaws. They also don’t seem to judge her for eating fire flakes in such a barbaric manner.
“Hey, man, you’re gonna miss the show.” Chan says.
“The show?”
He loops his arm in hers and leads her towards the main stage. Azula grins, she will finally get to see Chong & The Singing Nomads and she is going to do it with an absolutely gorgeous hunk of a man. He pats the grass next to him.
Azula takes a seat.
“Fire flakes?”
Decidedly, she still has the munchies, so she takes the bowl.
.oOo.
Zuko doesn’t find his sister again until Chong & The Singing Nomads begin singing their most popular hit. It is at this time that Azula rises. Like a phoenix out of the ashes, she propels herself up on a wave of blue fire. But only until she notices and gets startled by the color of her fire again. “If I’m a waterbender then why am I at Fyer Fest?”
“Because everyone is invited to Fyre Fest.” Chong calls up.
“Everyone?” Azula asks.
“Everyone.” Chong confirms as he plucks his instrument. “We’re all one, man. We’re all the same.”
The crowd claps.
Azula claps.
Mai does not clap, because she hates this band and she is enraged that Zuko has been gone long enough for her to grow concerned enough to arrive at Fyre Fest and find him.
“You are terrible at this.” She remarks. “It has taken you all day to find Azula and I’m able to find both of you in under ten minutes.”
“Just...just help me get her home!” Zuko practically begs. “She’s a mess and…” His eyes grow wide when he turns his attention back to her.
“Azula, don’t you dare!”
She halts, mid pull, with her hands gripping the hem of her shirt.
“Father will kill me and then he’ll kill you, and then he’ll resurrect me with spirit water and kill me again!”
.oOo.
Azula’s eyes glimmer with delight, she loves a good murder! With that threat in place, she hastily tugs her shirt over her head and tosses it to the side. A steady stream of fire, from her feet holds her up right.
Zuko’s mouth hangs open in shock and horror. “Azula, put your shirt back on.”
She spares it a glance before lighting it on fire. She hated that uniform anyways. She feels so liberated! Everyone else at the festival is naked, she doesn’t know why she shouldn’t be! She has always wanted to feel the heat of her fire upon her bare skin. She is about to pull her pants down when a tendril snakes over her arm. “Don’t do it, princess.”
“Raava?” She asks.
“You will regret this later. Get down from there and go find yourself a shirt.”
She narrows her eyes, “don’t tell me what to do you gaudy, glowing, kite...thing.” She sputters.
Rava, growing tired of the princess’ antics, and already peeved from having to chase Zhao down, swats Azula out of the sky. She lands with a thud and Chong’s drummer plays a quick ‘bu-dum tiss.’
“You’re ruining my dreams!” She shouts at the offending god-kite. “I just wanna be free and no one wants to let me.”
Raava pets her head. “Shhhh...it’s okay. Have some…”
“More cactus juice?” She asks hopefully.
Raava sprouts herself a pair of eyes so that she can shoot the princess a judging stare.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Azula folds her arms across her chest. “You’re just jealous.” She doesn’t know what she thinks Raava is jealous of, but she knows that she is right in her assumption.
.oOo.
Zuko wraps a blanket over Azula’s shoulders. “Let’s get you home.” She allows him to walk her towards the festival’s exit. Now that she is thoroughly exhausted, she is a lot easier to manage. The biggest hassle she puts up is leaning into him as she walks. She does so until he is pretty much carrying all of her weight. “A little help, Mai.”
“Nope.” She replies. “I just came here to watch you struggle.”
“Come on, I have to get her out of here before father finds out.”
Mai shrugs. “Sounds like a you problem.”
.oOo.
“I saw Raava.” Azula murmurs sleepily.
“That’s what happens when you accept drugs from questionable lemurs.” Zuko replies.
“That lemur is the Avatar’s pet.” Azula defends. “I thought that I could trust him. It’s like Mai and TyLee all over again…”
“Don’t make me get your therapist.” Mai threatens.
Azula waves her off. “Raava was really there…”
“And you’re really a waterbender.” Zuko grumbles.
She crosses her arms and pouts. “I hate you.”
“I saved you--both of us--from dad’s wrath!” He declares. “I chased you all over that hippie…”
“Hellscape.” Mai fills in.
“I chased you all over that hippie hellscape, had my eyes assaulted by Toph’s free flowing armpit hair, and denied a chance at buying my honor to save yours.”
For a moment she considers thanking him, he truly didn’t have to go that far to save her dignity. But he is still Zuzu. And she is still his younger sister so she instead replies, “I didn’t ask you to do that.”
“Dad would have killed both of us and you’re not even going to thank me?”
Azula sighs, she supposes that it is good that he didn’t let her embarrass herself and that her reputation and relationship with her father will remain unblemished. “You let me yank my shirt off.”
Zuko sighs. “Okay, most of those people were so high that they won’t even remember…”
“I remember and I was high.”
“Honestly, they’ll probably think that it was part of their trips. As far as they know, you’ve been here the whole time.”
A wave of relief comes over her. “Which means that dad will never find out.”
Little do they know, Ozai has already escaped prison and has been Chong’s drummer the whole time.
.oOo.
Ozai takes a long hit of his cactus juice joint. What a night that had been! And here he had thought that he would disguise himself as a nomad, escape prison, and resume his quest for world domination. And that is just what he intends to do. He is going to conquer the world with far out music and a funky fresh beat.
In his wildest dreams he had never imagined that the singing nomad life is for him. He has already grown the beard and long scraggly hair for it!
“So, man, you gonna talk to that lemur for us?” Chong asks.
Ozai shudders. He has faced the Avatar and has had his bending yanked away from his very soul. He had been given a vision of his death and an afterlife in the most horrific end of the Spirit World. But the fear he had felt then doesn’t compare to how looking into Momo’s eyes makes him feel.
“Nah, man. We’ll just pay up.” Ozai shrugs. “I’ll just get some gold pieces from the palace treasury.”
He makes a note to do that after he yells at the absolute messes that he has for children. It is the only way to ensure that they never find out that he had attended Fyre Fest and will attend it again.
He doesn’t want to think too much about that right now. Instead he takes another hit of his joint as Moku threads another daisy into his beard.
Happy Aang headcanon time! Post-war, he meets the singing nomads again and this time they’ve got another folk song about a different city. Whether god rest of the Gaang is there is up to you. (It’d be entertaining to see Suki, Zuko, or Iroh’s reactions to them.)
@alynnl Thanks for the question, and sorry it took a little longer. I didn’t have a HC ready, but as I was thinking about it, I realized that this is a perfect scene for the upcoming second story of my post-war gaang adventure series, about a field trip featuring Zuko and Aang looking for the lost airbenders. They have been following a lot of vague clues when they run into the singing nomads, out in the woods, in the middle of nowhere.
Here is an early draft of the scene:
Zuko kept turning the map around in his hand, squinting at it, not wanting to admit the truth; they were lost again. “It’s supposed to be right here.”
“Maybe we took a wrong turn somewhere?” Aang suggested looking around. They were in the thickest part of the forest, with nothing but trees and bushes. “There is nobody here.”
As if to prove the Avatar wrong, a weird-looking fellow dressed in colourful clothes and wearing a flower necklace popped out from behind a tree-trunk. “Not quite true Little Arrowhead. If you keep your eyes open, you’ll meet fellow travelers who can lead you exactly where you are meant to go…”
“Little Arrowhead?” Zuko frowned at the guy who was soon joined by two companions dressed in similarly ridiculous outfits.
Aang broke out in a wide smile. “Chong? Moku? Lily? What are you doing here?”
“You know these people?” Zuko asked Aang. He seemed to befriend the weirdest people. He was worse than Iroh. Maybe it was an old-people thing.
Aang nodded. “They helped us find a secret tunnel near Omashu.” He turned back to the vagabonds. “I don’t suppose you have a song about a hidden village with airbenders.”
“Well, we can always make one up,” Chong replied, strumming a chord on his guitar. “Flying high, flying high, swirling and twirling on the blue skyyyyyy…”
“That’s not bad…” Moku nodded, starting to beat the rhythm on his lap. Lily span around.
“All together now…” Chong started again the annoying song; this time his companions joined in. “Flying high, flying high…” They all danced; Druk and Momo flew around them in excited circles.
Zuko blinked. He pinched himself. No, it was not a weird dream.The situation was getting out of control, as Aang started to bop along to the tune. It was a warning sign. “Stop!” he yelled over the noise. “We don’t have time for this Aang.”
Aang put his hand on Zuko’s shoulder. “Just wait a little. Last time they were right. At least they got us to the tunnel. We were led here for a reason. They must have the next clue.”
“They seem completely clueless to me,” Zuko grimaced.
Chong put his arms around both of them. “You should listen to your little arrowed friend, Brother. He knows that love will take you to places.”
Zuko tore himself out of the weird guy’s embrace. “We don’t want to go to places, we need to find a hidden village, and we should be on the move.” He gave a pointed look at his friend with a penchant to get distracted by song and dance.
“Zuko, you promised you’ll listen to my instincts. I feel strongly about this,” Aang looked at him pleadingly. Zuko sighed in defeat. It was not crazier than all the other random clues that led them here. Maybe Aang was right, maybe the weird dancing nomads were the key. He gave a little shrug. Aang smiled and turned back to Chong. “Right. Let’s try some tunes for clues. Do you have any songs about the sky?”
“Oh, do we, my friend? The sky is an inspiration for everyone with poetry in their hearts,” Moku nodded. Zuko cringed. He knew from experience that people with poetry in their hearts were excruciating. Listening to these people sounded worse than Uncle Iroh’s music nights.
“Underneath blue skies, I wander with my love…” Chong started a lyrical song. Lily hummed along to the melody.
“That doesn’t sound right..” Aang interrupted them. “I don’t think we want a love song. Anything else?”
“What else is there?” They talked in hushed voices for a little while and seemed to come to a decision. Chong strummed a more upbeat chord. “We’ll shout, shout, shout to the sky…” They all danced and swayed to a raucous song that sounded like the stuff the sailors used to sing at the bars whenever they stayed at a port.
Aang’s smile started to fade. He seemed a bit less sure of this strategy. “Maybe something about flying bison?” He asked hopefully, not ready to give up yet.
“I know a song about a flying pig chicken.” Chong offered gleefully.
Moku snorted. “That’s a good one.”
“There was little pig-chick, over the hills, it was a little pig-chick, bip-bop-bip…” They all danced making flapping wing movements.
“I can’t take this anymore…” Zuko groaned and walked away on the narrow, overgrown path deeper into the forest, until the sounds of the guitar faded. Both Druk and Momo seemed to have had enough of the music as well; they chose to follow him searching the trees for bugs. Zuko fumed. It was becoming a pattern; they would find a clue, Aang would get his hopes up, they would hit a dead-end. Rinse and repeat. They were going around in frustrating circles and nothing to show for their efforts.
A loud shriek interrupted his thoughts. Oh, no, not again! Zuko leapt through the bushes to rescue Momo. He found the lemur and the dragon entangled, fighting over a small cylinder-shaped object.
He split up the fight, holding up both animals by the neck. “Get along, please,” he scolded them. A pair of green and a pair of gold eyes blinked apologetically. He took the mystery-object from Momo. Inside the casing, he found a small scroll. He unrolled it, revealing drawings of a familiar airbending form he had seen Aang use many times. Zuko gasped. Maybe they weren’t lost after all.
“Can you show me, where you found this, Momo?” he asked the lemur. Momo led him to a cave. Lighting a fire on his palm, Zuko looked around. There were strange signs painted on the wall. This had to be the clue.
He ran back the path to Aang. The strange group was still singing, this time about heart-shaped clouds. Aang was lying on the ground with a resigned expression on his face.
“Aang, I think I found the clue,” Zuko pulled him up, grabbing his wrist.
“You see, Brother? Music will lead the open hearts…” Moku smiled.
“But I was not led by your music, I was chased away by it,” snapped Zuko.
“And yet, you ended up exactly where you were meant to go. It sounds to me that we have led you there after all.” Chong said thoughtfully. “Good-bye, little Arrowhead. I hope you’ll find what you are looking for. And you too, Brother. Let the music into your heart.”
“Safe travels,” Aang returned their greeting.
“A song for the road?” Lily asked with a smile.
“No!” Zuko and Aang yelled at the same time and hurried down the path, Aang using his airbending discreetly to get away from the group.
