It had taken a little over a day for both siblings to recover from the sickness brought on by the storm. Granted most of that day was spent lamenting at Zuko for having them suck on frozen frogs but once the verbal lashing had petered out it was time to get a move on. Knowing Zhao it wouldn't be long before he decided to back out on his half of the agreement and go after them again. They would have flown for longer than only half a day but the dwindling supplies and falling sun was evident that they needed to make a stop for the evening. Zuko and Sokka head out to set up an overnight net in the nearby stream while Katara collects firewood and Aang attempts and fails to set up the tents. After some... less than constructive criticism from Sokka, the water tribe warrior ends up setting up the tents with the help of Zuko as they attempt to teach Aang how to do so for the umteenth time.

As the morning sun peers in through the tree line, Zuko is already awake doing some meditation and restarting the fire. He lets the others get their sleep as he goes to check the lines from the lures and the net that was left out overnight. As he's doing so he thinks back to what his uncle had told him before he left to learn the elements. "Be careful on your journey my nephew, many people will not trust you because of being a firebender but if you learn the elements you can regain your honor." Iroh's words echo in his mind but he can't help but think it was a lie. He knows that his uncle had said this out of concern for him but with the firenation now after him Zuko wonders why Iroh lied saying that he would regain his honor by becoming a fully realized avatar. Each day now is seeming like that is becoming more a boyhood fantasy, but before he could finish his thoughts a faced river mahi catches his attention as it thrashes about in the net.

"Sokka are you awake?" Zuko asks as he draws in the nets and rakes up a few freshwater crabs, trout and the faced mahi onto the shore. He sighs hearing the watertribesmen snore louder. "Ugh. Wake up!" Zuko shouts stomping on the ground which sends a slight tremor at Sokka's bed startling him.

"HUH?! WHAT?! WHO'S THERE!!!" He yells popping out of his tent with his trousers over his eyes. He lifts it from over his eyes before spotting Zuko holding the nets and trying to drag them ashore. "Oh! You caught meat! Why didn't you say so!" He yells excitedly before jumping out of his tent to go and help Zuko.

"Put your pants on first damnit." Zuko yells and turns away prompting Sokka to do as asked. "Do we still have the smoking rack or was that turned into firewood like last time?"

"No we still have it, I'll get it set up after we gut and clean this morning's catch. Hey Aang! Katara! Wake up, breakfast just got pulled in!"

Zuko rolls his eyes at the fact that Sokka completely forgot that Aang doesn't eat meat, well except for eggs. With breakfast and their next few days worth of meals taken care of, Zuko goes about taming the flames so that he can smoke the fish over. Katara draws up water from the stream and sets it in a pot to boil before throwing in the crabs that were brought in. They were lucky to find some wild buckwheat as well as some potatoes that were shredded and fried on a stone. With breakfast now in their systems, the Gaang get ready packing up their things to get a move on. All the while Aang finds himself taking glances at Katara as they do so which also catches Zuko's attention to what Aang is doing. Though the firebender pays little mind to it, returning to the thoughts he preoccupied himself with earlier. But this doesn't go unnoticed by Sokka who proceeds to poke fun at Aang for it but before Katara can discipline her brother for being mean to Aang the growl of a large animal catches their attention. Aangf quickly jumps up the hill above the river before spotting a traveler being attacked by a grizzly platypus-bear.

"Quickly! Play dead!"

"No! Fight it, punch it in the bill!"

"Run down a hill and climb a tree!"

"Oh! Good morning." the traveler greets before narrowly dodging a swipe from the platypus bear. "Oh that was a close one, Ha ha ha!" he chuckles before dodging another strike. Zuko in a huff of annoyance jumps off the hill and lands in front of the platypus bear before raising a wall of flames taller than it. "Oh, I've never met a nice firebender before. What is your name my young friend."

"Lee." Zuko responds before stomping hard on the ground and raising a boulder and punching it into the platypus bear pushing it backwards. As the bear recovers from the boulder, Appa sneaks up behind it and roars, causing it to let out a small quack before laying an egg out of fear.

"You can bend fire and earth? You must be the avatar."

"He is, and you almost got yourself mauled by the platypus bear." Katara says rushing up to the two of them.

"But I didn't, Aunt Wu predicted that I would have a safe journey." The traveler responds before removing a wrapped parcel on his back and handing it to Katara.

"Who's Aunt Wu?"

"She is the fortune teller in my village Matupaku at the base of the volcano it was named after."

"Aunt Wu didn't predict you were gonna be safe, you were almost killed." Sokka argues but the man just laughs. "But I wasn't." He says before carrying on his way. "She also said that you may need that package today." Almost on queue just as the traveler makes it over the hill and out of their sight it begins to rain. This prompts Katara to unwrap what she was handed, which is an orange umbrella which she quickly opens and shields herself and Aang from the weather.

"Well this is bothersome." Zuko laments before creating a small vortex of air above himself to protect from the rain.

"Of course she predicted it would rain. It's been gloomy all day."

"There weren't any clouds when I woke up."

"Well they must have rolled in then." Sokka responds before continuing to talk just to hear his head rattle. "Look, now I'm gonna make a prediction. It's going to keep raining." Which it immediately stops once he says this.

"I kinda wanna see if she can read my fortune." Aang responds before turning in the direction of the town and heading towards it.

"Do you want to?" Zuko asks Katara to which she rushes off to follow Aang. "I take it you don't?"

"They've already wandered off so we might as well follow them. Besides, they might have food there." With that the two make their way towards the small town.

As morning passes to midday the four make their way into the town, the small village seated at the base of the volcano is surrounded by fertile farmland perfect for cultivating. As they pass through shops, the little money that they have is put to use buying more fruits, rice and vegetables to be frozen and or stored. Painted ducks dot the street as they make their way towards the town center. The large building is shielded by a circular gate where an attendant is standing beside the sliding rice paper doors. "Aunt Wu has been expecting you." the man says in a mystical voice as he slides the doors open. As the doors close behind them they come to a traditional reading room with kneeling tables and pillows on the floor. Across from them in front of a pulled set of folding doors is a young girl with large pigtails that arch upwards similarly to that of a V shape.

"Hello. My name is Maang and I am Aunt Wu's assistant." She greets before laying eyes on the young airbender, as she sees him her face shifts to that of infatuation upon seeing him. "Well hello there." She greets in a happy tone.

"Hello." Aang responds completely missing any of the queues that were present on the other girl's face.

"Would you care for some tea and beancurd puffs?"

"Yes please!" Sokka announces but he's quickly shushed by Maang saying "Just a second." as she inspects Aang closer. "So what's your name?"

"Aang." Maang gasps when she hears this. "That rhymes with my name! And you have some really big ears don't you?" This statement catches Aang off guard at the randomness of it all.

"I-I guess so."

"They only look big because you're bald." Zuko responds but Sokka isn't exactly on Aang's side on this one.

"Oh don't be modest, they're huge!" He says but only makes Aang self conscious.

As Maang leaves the room to go fetch the tea and beancurd puffs, the others hear a conversation between Maang and another woman where she declares that Aunt Wu had predicted that she would meet her true love soon. Maang hushes the woman before rushing back with their tray of tea and puffs, tripping only to be caught by Aang stopping her from dousing him in the tea. Maang blushes slightly when Aang touches her fingertips gripping the tray before Maang scampers off. As Aang takes the tray, Sokka immediately confiscates the bean curds for himself leaving Zuko to test the heat of the tea before warming it up more in his hands. Just as the small amount of fire touches the base of the kettle a golden robed woman enters the room.

"Hello young travelers, are you the good firebender I've heard so much about?" She asks seeing Zuko firebend to which Sokka kicks him in the ribs to answer her.

"Y-yes." He stammers before sipping the tea bashfully.

"I have heard stories of the good firebender, I would like to read your fortune first. It's the least I could do for the Avatar." Zuko promptly stands as she beckons him with her hand to follow her to the back room.

"Are the stories people know Lee as saying that the good firebender is the avatar? I haven't actually heard about them." Katara asks, turning to Aang and Sokka, her statement is overheard by Maang coming back from the kitchen with more bean curd puffs that Sokka will probably scarf down.

"The stories of him freeing the earth kingdom slaves, stopping a village from being destroyed by firebenders and running a firenation blockade single handedly have traveled far and wide. The kind hearted firebender, the last Avatar. He's the one that'll save us from the firenation." Maang recounts the story that she knows explaining what has come through word of mouth.

As Zuko and Aunt Wu walk into the backroom, Zuko feels the nostalgic warmth of his home as the open flame in the middle of the room is surrounded by candles. A pot of bones sits behind the flames. "Seeing as you are the avatar of fire, I will read your destiny in the flames. The bones are the most reliable way to do so and have always worked. Go ahead and choose one before throwing it on the fire." Zuko does as he's told, picking up a palm sized bone and tossing it into the flames. "As the heat bakes the bone it cracks and I read the message hidden in them by reading the cracks in the bone."

Zuko stares into the flames watching as the dim slightly as the bone enters it, embers flare up as the logs are disturbed. As the heat bakes the bone, the fire continues to dim until it becomes mere embers, Aunt Wu looks perplexed about the state of the fire but Zuko doesn't say anything. Suddenly the bone cracks down the center and the fire kicks back into life with more ferocity than it had when they entered the room. The bone cracks and splinters as it cooks before splitting in half. "It's ready, can you snuff out the flames please." Wu asks and Zuko does as he's asked, yanking the flames upwards with a flick of his wrist. He holds the ball of fire in his off hand away from Aunt Wu allowing the fortune teller to retrieve the bone from the ashes. Once she has it in hand, Zuko returns the flames to the embers as he turns to face Aunt Wu.

"I can tell that you are conflicted, that you doubt whom you can trust. The pieces of the bone show that the way forward will be difficult: your power will wane before it waxes, you will have to wage a great battle with yourself, your family and with those who will become your allies. You will have to come to terms with what you had will never be yours again, but you can have more than that when you return balance to the world. The split is the divide in your family, those that you cannot make amends with, those who are lost, and those who have lost their way without you. You will find allies in those you least expect and the one you will spend the rest of this life with will betray all she knows and holds dear just to be with and protect you, when you need it most." Zuko listens intently on what Aunt Wu states, remaining completely silent pondering what she can mean.

"What do you mean... who can I trust and who can't I?"

"That is a hard thing to discover, but know this young avatar, oftentimes lies are told in good faith, to protect someone from the harsh truth if they're not ready to hear or accept it. I know someone you know lied to you, since the doubt is written in the creases and wrinkles of your face and expression. Lies are often bad, but there are ones said to hide the knowledge that the one who lied thought would bring more harm than good." Aunt Wu explains, but with Zuko seeming pretty distant at this point, lost in thought, she beckons for him to leave the room following behind her.

"Alright youngin's, who's next?" Aunt Wu announces as she leads Zuko back to the waiting room, there he sees Sokka has cleared more than 5 bowls of the bean curds and is well on his way to finishing his sixth. With Aunt Wu's return, Katara immediately perks up and follows the fortune teller to the back leaving the three boys behind in the waiting area.

"So what did she say about your fortune Lee?" Aang asks as Zuko grabs a piece of curd puff from the 7th bowl brought by Maang.

"Avatar stuff." He answers, but his listless answer leaves Aang perplexed as to what they could have talked about.

"What do you think they're talking about in there?" Aang continues, Zuko doesn't answer instead opting to focus on his thoughts as he slowly chews his food but Sokka decides to Answer for Aang.

"Probably girl stuff, like who she's gonna marry, how many babies she's gonna have." Sokka says before turning his attention to Zuko. "She say any of that stuff to you?"

"Yes." Zuko answers but doesn't continue with the conversation prompting Sokka to ask him what was said.

"So you're just gonna say yes and not explain it further?"

"I thought you said it was girl stuff." Zuko responds bluntly, causing Aang to chuckle slightly. "But in answering your question, she said the one who would spend the rest of this life with me would sacrifice everything she knew to protect me when I needed it most."

"That's cryptic."

"You said it."

"Well, I'm gonna go find a bathroom." Aang announces before heading towards the fortune room rather than to the exit to find an outhouse.

"He's gonna go spy on Katara's fortune isn't he?" Zuko asks with Sokka nodding in affirmation.

"Yeah, he went the completely wrong direction."

"Think he's into your sister?"

"It's written all over his face, though I'd rather it be him than you Ashbreath." Zuko mocks offence at this statement from Sokka.

"Ashbreath? Here I thought we moved past the petty insults phase, Blubber Muncher." Zuko half smirks on the delivery of the return insult prompting Sokka to chuckle slightly.

With Aang snooping about in the other room, he presses his ear against the rice paper walls of the main room. He overhears part of the conversation about the palm reading and Aunt Wu making a comment on Katara's soft hands. Aang sighs knowing that Sokka was right but his attention perks up when Aunt Wu shifts the focus of the conversation to Katara's love line on her palm. "This line here is your love line, and I can tell what kind of man you are going to marry." Aunt Wu says which gets Katara much more excited about the fortune. "I can see that the man you will marry is a very powerful bender." This statement makes his blood run cold, the first thing that ran through his head was a name "Zuko." he thought, but he decided to keep listening. "You don't mean Lee do you?" Katara asks which gives Aang a bit of relief. "He has his own destined soul mate, but the man you will marry is the last practitioner of his bending discipline." This instantly makes Aang as happy as a clam to which he cheerfully marches back to where Zuko and Sokka were sitting.

"Well someone had a good trip to the bathroom." Sokka says with a smirk on his face knowing exactly what Aang was up to. "U-uh yeah... when I was in there I." "I don't wanna know." Sokka stops Aang from speaking as Aunt Wu returns with Katara.

"Who's next." Aunt Wu asks, prompting Sokka to stand. "I don't need to read yours, your future is filled with strife and trouble. Most of it is self-inflicted."

"B-but you didn't even read my palms or anything."

"I don't have to, it's written all over your face." Sokka glares at the fortune teller when she says this before Aang happily jumps up and goes with Aunt Wu to have his fortune read.

"You kind of walked yourself into that one Sokka." Katara jokes at her brother but Sokka just returns to gorging on the last of the bean curd puffs as Maang just cut him off. "What did she talk about with you Lee?"

"According to prince, cryptic and secretive over here, Avatar Stuff." Sokka mocks, causing Zuko to deadpan at the son of the water tribe chief.

"She said that my power will get weaker before I get stronger, that I will basically fight everyone, allies and enemies and that the woman I'll spend the rest of this life with will betray everything to protect me." Zuko responds, finally satiating Sokka's curiosity.

"What did she mean by that? I've never heard of Avatars getting weaker before becoming strong." Katara questions but Zuko just shrugs his shoulders.

"My uncle once told me of a soldier that he commanded during the battle of Ba Sing Sei, during the battle he saw someone close to him die and his fire suddenly vanished and he wasn't able to bend anymore... but why did he lose his bending?"

"Well from her fortune she said that it'll get weaker before becoming stronger right? So it probably won't go away completely. That might just apply to firebending though since what little I know of waterbenders is that you don't lose your bending unless it's a lunar eclipse."

"Same with firebending and a solar eclipse." Zuko responds before grabbing the pot of tea and heating the base before pouring himself some more. "I'm not sure whether or not to believe her on this."

"I for one think this is a whole lot of malarkey." Sokka responds, prompting Katara to roll her eyes. "What? I'm just saying I think it's a load of crap, where is the proof?"

"The guy with the platypus bear?" Katara retorts, arching an eyebrow.

"He was only safe because we intervened and Appa roared at him." Sokka reasons.

"The umbrella?"

"Like I said earlier it's been gloomy all day."

"She never said that there wouldn't be anyone to help the man on his journey in order to make it safe for him, only that he would have a safe journey. She also told him to hand the next person he saw the umbrella which was us, and despite you being the only one who got wet we still needed it." Zuko reasons which causes Sokka to stop and think for a moment. As Sokka goes to try to argue this further Aang returns from the back room with Aunt Wu and the assistant escorts them out and allows them to continue the rest of their day.

"You make a good point but I'm still skeptical of all of this fortune mumbo jumbo. I'm gonna go find evidence that proves it or not." Sokka declares before running off shortly followed by Aang leaving Katara and Zuko together to peruse the shops.

"What did the fortune teller say to you?" Zuko asks as he ruffles through his pocket looking for the coin purse he has elected himself to tend to. "I don't care about the love or anything of that sort she talked about but, was there anything important that pertains to our future?"

"Yeah, she said that the cold comes with great trouble but the hearts of the inhabitants can be warmed... whatever that means."

"Well we are headed to the north pole aren't we?" Zuko asks, causing her to nod. "You remember what my uncle had said about them right? That they don't allow women to learn water bending, well I think we might be able to get around that."

"What do you have in mind?" Katara asks before they pause their conversation to purchase several mangos, dragon fruit, pears and a pineapple before continuing on to a vendor who sells grain.

"You mentioned when we first met that you were the only waterbender in the entire south pole, well they can't in good conscience allow their sister tribe's entire bending discipline to die off. I know my people were the cause of this but since you are the last waterbender the northern watertribe may be more accepting of the idea of teaching a woman waterbending." Zuko ponders, causing Katara to go silent. "Not to mention it'll take years for me to fully master water bending and we don't have nearly that much time before Sozin's comet returns and I need a water bending teacher that can travel with us."

"I hope so, if that doesn't work though then what then?" She asks, causing Zuko to ponder this for a moment.

"I have an idea, excuse me, is there a shop where I can get Pai Sho tiles?" Zuko asks the butcher the two had come up to.

"Not in this town unfortunately, though Kai Dao has all sorts of little game shops like that but unfortunately it's under firenation control." The butcher responds, causing Zuko to grimace at this statement. "Now can I interest you two in some rabaroo filets and duck breast?"

"Sure." Zuko says before handing the butcher a couple pieces of silver, after putting the meat in their bag (After it was frozen by Katara). "Well crap, means we need to go there next."

"Why do you need a pai sho set?" Katara asks before Zuko produces a white lotus tile. "Isn't that the same piece your uncle gave us when we went to your ship?"

"Yeah, he sent me a message when I was captured by Zhao via messenger hawk and he sent this piece with it. Maybe before we get to the north pole we can go and get my uncle. He said to challenge a man named Pakku to the game and play that token first and that he'll know what it means but I think we might need the full set to be safe." Zuko responds before watching Sokka and Aang continue their little journey asking about the fortunes.

"Can you bring what we bought over to Appa and put it with our stuff? I'm going to go talk to Aunt Wu again." Katara asks, causing Zuko to nod affirmatively as she leaves.

"Hey, Lee, wanna come with me and Sokka up the volcano to get a panda lily?" Aang asks running up to Zuko. the young firebender giving the air nomad a look that asks 'are you completely insane?'.

"Yeah, I looked at him the same way. Apparently he wants to get it for my sister since he saw some guy give it to some lady." Sokka explains prompting Zuko to arch an eyebrow at Aang.

"So you're convinced that giving her some silly flower is gonna make her fall in love with you?" Aang nods his head naively at this prompting Zuko to shrug and toss up his hands.

"Welp I've got nothing better to do so I guess I'll come along. I was getting bored anyways." Zuko responds before following Aang's lead out of the town. The energetic airbender sprinting off as fast as his feet can carry him. "You were right about something today." Zuko comments to Sokka as the two begin following in the direction of the dust that Aang kicked up when he ran off.