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Zuko was missing.
After the meeting with the representatives of the other three nations concluded, he left the room, and no one had seen him since. About an hour had passed since then.
"Has anyone seen Zuko?" Katara wondered as she, Aang, and Sokka entered the Sun Room. Zuko had told them once that his ancestors had named this room as such because of all the large windows which the sunlight seeped through nearly the whole day. Toph and Sokka, though, still refused to call it that and just said 'the lounge room'. It drove the council crazy, but Zuko never minded, so there was nothing they could do.
Aang shook his head. "No, last I saw him, he was leaving the meeting room."
Sokka threw himself onto the couch in one of the room's corners, sprawling like a starfish. "Relax, Katara, he's probably just in his office doing some paperwork or something. You know what he's like," her brother said, dismissing her worries.
She bit her lip as she looked outside, staring at the setting sun. "I hope you're right."
------
Zuko kept running around the garden in a state of panic. Something was wrong . Something was very, very wrong. Everything was huge.
Zuko had no idea what was going on, but he knew that , in between him leaving the meeting room and going into the garden, something had happened to him .
Did he shrink? Was he just incredibly tiny now? Was he the only one that was affected by this ... this spell? Or were other poeple also tiny now?
He needed to find his friends. If anyone would be able to figure out what had happened to him, it would be Aang.
Aang was probably somewhere inside the palace, and so Zuko beelined towards the archway, leading indoors. He thankfully had the direction memorized because the giant blades of grass were really obstructing his view. He needed to tell the gardener to make the grass shorter next time he would shear it. His poor turtleducks couldn't see anything; it was like being inside a jungle with how dense it was.
Zuko really hoped he would run into someone on his way inside. Even if he wouldn't be able to find his friends himself, he could look for a guard or a member of staff. They could help as well. They could take him to Aang.
Halfway towards the archway, though, he was already tired. He guessed that this tiny body didn't have as much endurance as his other one, but he kept going. He couldn't stay in this state forever. He had a nation to run; he couldn't do that if he was minuscule.
Once he managed to reach the archway, he started looking around. There had to be guards patrolling the hallways, so he chose a direction and ventured down the left corridor.
------
Aang was running down the corridor towards Zuko's office. It had been well over two hours since the meeting ended, and Zuko needed to take a break from work. He was going to overexert himself if he kept pushing his body like this - and his mind.
Aang wished Toph was here. She could have easily forced Zuko out of his room, no persuasion, just pure force.
Once Aang reached the offie's doorway, he stopped and lightly knocked on the wood. He waited for a couple of seconds, and once he hadn't received a response, he knocked again. It wasn't unusual for Zuko to not immediately respond to their knocking; he could get sucked into his work incredibly easily.
But then, once Zuko hadn't answered for the second time, Aang decided to open the door himself. Maybe Zuko just fell asleep or something. It sure wouldn't be the first time.
But once he opened the door, he realized the room was vacant. He furrowed his eyebrows. He was certain he was going to find Zuko inside. "Zuko?" He called his name, but there was no answer.
Aang looked around, trying to wrap his head around this discovery. He noticed that the papers on Zuko's desk remained untouched, meaning he hadn't even entered his office once in the past two hours. He also noticed the notable absence of a note.
Aang took a deep breath to compose himself. "Okay, Aang, don't panic. Zuko could just be in his bedroom." he tried to reassure himself, but his mind was reeling with countless possibilities.
Aang turned around, still unsure of where Zuko could have gone. Maybe he had gone for a walk or taken a detour to clear his head. But Zuko hadn’t been acting out of the ordinary at the meeting, at least not enough to make Aang think something was wrong. His thoughts suddenly decided to take a darker turn. Maybe Zuko had been kidnapped and was trapped inside a cave somewhere where he was being tortured - Aang shook his head to make those thoughts go away. Zuko was perfectly fine. He had to be. He'd gone through worse.
He sighed and made his way toward Zuko’s bedroom, trying not to let his worry get the best of him. As he walked through the corridors, he kept an eye out for anyone who might have seen Zuko. He passed a couple of guards, but none of them had seen the Fire Lord.
He really hoped that Sokka was luckier and managed to find their friend.
------
Zuko had been walking down the corridor for what felt like forever, but he could tell just by the decor that he had barely taken 10 steps - this applied to his normal-sized self. He was standing near one of the vases Katara had bullied him to put around the palace and the one he had just passed was positioned incredibly near the garden.
"Hey, there, little guy. What are you doing in here?" A voice startled him. People's voices were much louder in small form as well , but when he went to cover his ears, he realized something was wrong with his hands. Why did they feel soft?
Zuko turned around and found a guard speed-walking towards him. Zuko's heartbeat spiked up with both excitement and relief that suddenly overcame his body. He finally found someone!
The guard ducked next to him and slowly extended his arm. "You shouldn't be in here, little guy. The pond's that way."
Zuko cocked his head, not understanding what the guard was saying. "What?" Zuko tried to ask, but he quickly placed his hands - or soft limbs - in front of his mouth because what came out of his mouth wasn't a word- it was a quack. And that was when he suddenly felt something soft and rubbery attached to his face.
But that feeling wasn't what spooked him. No, it was the fact he could see some yellow, fuzzy things where his hands were supposed to be. This was getting weirder by the second.
"You're a cute little guy, aren't you?" The guard cooed at him while gently patting his head.
Zuko stared at him as sudden realization hit him. In the span of an hour - an hour was his best estimate- he had taken notice of many things:
- He was small
- His hands were soft and yellow
- There was something soft and rubbery on his face and
- He couldn't talk, instead, he was quacking.
All of those things meant only one thing. He had been turned into a turtleduck.
The guard in front of him stood back up while Zuko remained cupped in his hands. "C'mon, let's get you back to your family," the guard told Zuko as he turned around, taking Zuko in the opposite direction of where he needed to go.
Zuko's frantic mind realized that he needed to stop him. He somehow needed to tell the man that he wasn't an animal. He needed to let him know that he was the Fire Lord. "No, stop! I'm not a turtleduck! I am Zuko!" Zuko tried to shout, but the only sound that escaped him was a strong quack.
His mind raced as the guard only continued cooing at him, completely oblivious that the little creature he was holding was the missing Fire Lord. Zuko flapped his tiny wings in annoyance. "Don't worry, little guy, we're not that far."
If Zuko was an actual turtleduck, he would have been really grateful that this guard cared so much about the palace turtleducks. But unfortunately for the man, he wasn't. He was a human being trapped inside an animal's body. And he was about to lose the ground he gained in the past hour or so. It took forever to walk from the pond to where he had been now, and he wouldn't go back - he couldn't.
Zuko flapped his wings aggressively, trying to fly out of the guy's grip, but his efforts only made the guard use his other hand to fully encompass him, preventing him from abrupt movements. "You're an impatient, little fella, aren't you?" The man questioned, voice gentle.
Zuko stared at the darkness surrounding him, trying to think of a way out of the man's clutches. He could only come up with one idea. He slowly opened his bill and bit the finger closest to him.
The man yelled in pain and instinctively let go of Zuko.
Zuko quacked in triumph, and he started flapping his wings, trying to get away. Though, with every flap, instead of getting farther from the ground, he was descending towards it. Flying was hard. He eventually managed to make his wings cooperate just long enough to land without hurting himself. "Hey! Get back here!" The guard yelled, and Zuko started running away.
He knew he could never outrun the man; therefore, he needed a way to slow him down.
He quickly came across the vase he had seen earlier. Zuko, acting on impulse, body-slammed into it, and it slowly toppled over. "C'mon little guy, I was only trying to help - " the guard's words got cut off as he slipped on the water that was now covering the corridor. "Ow, that hurt."
Zuko smiled at his small victory and took a run for it. He needed to get as far away from the man as he could.
------
Sokka was assigned to look for Zuko in his bedroom.
He was confident there was a bigger chance for the cranky teenager to be in the office than in his bedroom. Still, it didn't hurt to look.
By now, Sokka was so used to coming and going from Zuko’s room that he strolled right in without knocking. "Hey, Fire Lord Grumpy, you in here?" Sokka called.
"Get out of here, you idiot!" Someone shouted before a knife was thrown in his direction, missing him by an inch and embedding itself into the door. Sokka's gaze moved to the knife, and his eyes widened before he looked towards the girl who threw it.
Once his eyes landed on Mai, he blushed and immediately covered his eyes with his hands. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he apologized as he tried to find the knob to exit the room. That was an image he would never be able to get his mind to forget. He was going to need to bleach his eyes after that. "Just get out of here!" Mai shouted again, and Sokka finally found the knob and scurried out of Zuko's bedroom - Zuko and Mai's bedroom. That would have been a nice piece of information to remember before he barged into their personal quarters. At least he knew that Zuko wasn't in there.
He waited outside the room for a minute, willing his heart to calm down.
Tui and La, what was he thinking just barging in there? He was lucky that Mai had only been getting dressed. What if Zuko had actually been in there, and he and Mai had -
Sokka shivered, not even able to finish that thought. Yeah, from now on, he was knocking.
He looked at the door before calling towards Mai, hoping she could hear him. "Maybe you install a sign or something saying 'occupied' for next time. Just a thought!" Sokka said, trying to laugh off the predicament.
Mai's only response was to yell. "Go away, Sokka!"
"Sokka!" Aang yelled once he noticed the older boy. Sokka looked up, his gaze locking on Aang. " Please tell me you found Zuko," Aang said, his gaze pleading.
Sokka had honestly forgotten for a second that he was looking for the teenager. The events of the past minute left him momentarily discombobulated.
"No, and I'm guessing this means you haven't found him either." Sokka bit his lip worriedly, his mind swirling with all the possibilities of Zuko's whereabouts.
It wouldn't be the first time Zuko had just left the palace to have a moment to themselves, but he always - always - left a note for them on his office desk.
"C'mon, let's go find Katara. We need to inform the guards that the Fire Lord is nowhere to be found." Sokka declared, and Aang nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you're right."
The two walked in silence towards the guardroom, but then Sokka broke it by sighing. "I wish Toph was here."
"Yeah, me too," Aang agreed as they continued walking.
------
Zuko ran down the hallway. He had no idea where his friends were, and the palace was huge. But firstly, he had to get the guard off his tail. He needed to find a hiding spot.
He took a right turn at the intersection where an old grandfathered clock was stationed. Zuko ran towards it and hid behind the wooden structure.
He tried to remain quiet so the guard wouldn't be able to find him.
"Hey, where'd you go, little guy?" Zuko heard the guard's concerned voice mere seconds later, indicating he had hidden just in time.
"Hey, little fella, I was just trying to help. There's no need to hide." Zuko heard the guard's boots scuffling as he searched around the corridor, trying to decipher where the turtleduck had run off to. Zuko hoped that he wouldn't be here for much longer.
He waited for a couple moments, waiting for the sound of retreating footsteps. His hopes came true about a minute later as he heard the guard walk further down the hallway.
Zuko smirked. Finally.
Now, he needed to find Aang. He just hoped that at least Aang would recognize him and wouldn't try to take him back to the pond like the guard did.
------
Once Aang and Sokka had filled in both Katara and the Captain of the guards that their leader was missing, the palace was sent into an uproar. The Captain ordered all the guards to check every inch of the place. There had to be some type of clue somewhere that would help them track Zuko down.
"Guys, we should look for him as well," Katara declared.
"While I would normally agree with you, sis, you heard the Captain; we should stay in here so we don't interfere with the guards' search," Sokka said. He was sitting on a nearby barrel while Katara and Aang sat themselves down on the sofa.
Katara crossed her arms and scoffed, frowning at him. "Katara, I want to look for him too, but the Captain has a point. We have no idea what we're doing while the guards do. It's their job to keep Zuko safe."
Katara moved her gaze from her brother to her boyfriend. She rolled her eyes at his explanation. "Yeah, and it seems like they're doing a great job protecting him," she muttered sharply. Aang and Sokka exchanged glances, not sure why Katara was suddenly so tense.
"We could go look in the garden if it makes you feel better?" Aang suggested, and Katara's animosity suddenly dissipated. Sokka also froze, hopping off the barrel and smiling. "Oh, yeah, the garden. We didn't even check there."
Katara raised an eyebrow at him. "You didn't check the garden?" She moved her gaze between the two boys, who suddenly looked incredibly guilty. Katara placed her hands on her hips. "You mean to tell me that you told the guards that the Fire Lord had gone missing without even checking if he might be outside feeding his turtleducks?"
"Ugh-" They both started saying, but Katara didn't even wait for either one to answer her question. She just stood up, scoffing at their stupidity, and walked out. "I can't believe you two."
Katara exited the guardroom with Sokka and Aang trailing behind her, looking like a pair of kicked puppies.
------
Zuko came out of his hiding place and slowly waddled through the hallway. His friends had to have realized he'd gone missing by now, right? They were probably looking for him. Though, if that were true, tracking them down would prove to be a bit more challenging.
He decided he would check the Sun Room first. The group loved hanging out in it whenever they visited.
Zuko had to go down the opposite hallway than the one the guard was currently checking, which meant that he wouldn't be spotted - at least not by him.
He managed to make only about 15 steps before he was once more lifted from the ground. "There you are," a familiar voice said.
Zuko tried to flap his wings to fly out of the guard's hold, but this time, the man was smarter and placed his hand directly over his wings. This also meant that his fingers weren't anywhere near his bill. Zuko snapped at the guy repeatedly, but his efforts were futile. The guy laughed as he carried him down the hallway - the one that led back to the pond. "You're a feisty, little fella, you know that?" The guard murmured absentmindedly.
Zuko tried to get out of the man's hold, but eventually, he realized that he couldn't. He would just have to succumb to his fate and restart his journey from the pond again. He just hoped the guard would leave and not stay and watch over him.
But Zuko had no idea what to do now.
Now that he was no longer high on adrenalin and wasn't in full action mode, he was finally able to think.
No matter where he went or what he did, he would always end up back at the pond. He remembered he had drilled it into his staff's heads that the turtleducks needed to stay in the garden, and any strays had to be brought back. Anyone he ran into would just pick him up and return him to the pond.
And even if he did find his friends, there was no guarantee they would recognize him. He was a turtleduck. He looked nothing NOTHING like his normal self. And to top it off, he couldn't talk.
He was doomed. He would stay like this forever -
Zuko gasped as his eyes flew open. He clutched at his chest as he tried to calm down his breathing. He moved his eyes frantically around, trying to decipher his surroundings. He was back in the garden, meaning that the guard had brought him back, but - but everything was its normal size again.
He finally looked down and saw that there was a turtleduck sleeping in his lap, cuddling into his leg, while a half-eaten loaf of bread was placed on the grass on his left side.
And then he remembered. After the meeting ended, he decided to go out into the garden to feed the turtleduck so he could clear his mind for a bit. He must have dozed off.
'It was just a dream' Zuko realized. He never became a turtleduck; he was just dreaming about it. This was one of the best pieces of information he had gained all day.
He brought his hands to his face and breathed in deeply before he burst into laughter. But the shivers racking his body woke up the turtleduck, and it quacked loudly in protest.
Zuko looked at it and smiled. "Oh, I'm sorry," he said, grabbing the half-eaten loaf of bread lying on the ground. "Here you go." He broke off a small piece and handed it to the animal.
The turtleduck quickly forgot about its anger once the food was in front of it, and immediately gobbled down the piece. Zuko smiled slightly at the animal and rubbed his finger over its head. The duck leaned into his touch, causing Zuko to continue the administration.
"Okay, let's check the garden, and then we really need to head back before the captain - ZUKO!" Sokka's voice pierced his calm and quiet silence.
Seconds later, a pair of arms were wrapped around his middle, squeezing him to near suffocation. "You're okay," Sokka said.
Zuko remained frozen, unsure, and confused about what was going on. "Zuko, we've been looking everywhere for you," Aang said before joining Sokka in hugging the older boy. "Um.... thanks?" Zuko replied awkwardly, not knowing how to respond.
"Have you been out here this whole time?" Katara asked as she joined the three boys by the pond.
Zuko furrowed his eyebrow. "Uh... I think so?" he huffed, frustrated that he couldn't give her a proper answer - also, he was currently having trouble breathing. "I don't know, honestly. I fell asleep," he explained, and finally, Sokka and Aang let go of him, allowing Zuko to take a proper, deep breath.
Katara moved her gaze from Zuko to the two other boys who were now staring sheepishly at her. "I'm not gonna be the one to tell the Captain that he sent out a search party for no reason."
"Wait, search party?" Zuko asked as he stood up to be at eye level with Katara - well, close to eye level - and dusted his robes. "We thought you were missing," Sokka explained, but all Zuko could think about was the irony that while he was dreaming about his being missing - though under strange circumstances - his friends had actually been searching for him.
Zuko chuckled at himself. "I'll tell him I'm fine," Zuko told them.
"Thanks, Zuko."
Zuko started walking towards the archway so that he could resolve this mess as quickly as possible, and he was so thankful that he was normal size. "Hey, Zuko?" Aang called for him as he ran up to his side. "Did you dream about anything while you were sleeping?" The Airbender asked curiously.
Zuko smiled, before responding, "Yeah, I dreamed I was turned into a turtleduck or I guess it was more of a duck since I could fly." Sokka scowled. "I think you spend a little too much time at the pond, buddy."