(A fictious take on another work of fiction)

Peace was finally restored to the world. After ruling the fire kingdom for over fifty years, Zuko was visited by the spirit of Avatar Aang to join him in the spirit world. Zuko’s position was going to be unique in the spirit world. He was not a discontented soul anymore. He was invited to join the ranks of spirit gods and the Avatars as a guide for future generations.  In his time as Fire nation’s ruler, he ruled with pride, compassion and single minded focus. After his uncle Iroh passed away in his sleep, with a cup of his favorite Jasmine tree by his side, Zuko was shattered. Iroh was his father figure. Iroh always reminded Zuko to focus inward and look at what he was rather than what he thought he was. 

 “No matter what you do Zuko, never stop finding out who you are. Only then, you can find happiness”, Iroh would remind him several times over their times together.

Zuko had thought several times of the moments where he screamed at his uncle, without pausing to understand the wisdom he was trying to impart in him. More than wisdom, Iroh was trying to provide the key to the cage that Zuko had imprisoned his soul in. Even after, Zuko had won his father’s approval and his perceived honor, Iroh’s teachings appeared were his guiding principles. His uncle’s impact was the most instrumental in Zuko not losing his hunger to find himself. Iroh was very proud of his nephew and the path he chose for himself. After Iroh passed away, Zuko continued ruling the fire nation along with his friend Avatar Aang. Together, they rebuilt the world as they saw fit for the future generations. After Aang passed away, Zuko had started becoming lonely. He missed the conversations he had with Aang on maintaining peace in the world. Aang had finally found inner peace during his fight with Zuko’s father, the fire lord, Ozai. 

“Believing that who you are is not your weakness is inner peace. When I decided not to kill fire lord Ozai, I realized that is what I am. I do not need to kill him to make the world happy. Once I achieved that state, I became one with the world”, Aang told Zuko.

Zuko’s struggles were always within himself. His turmoils were flared by his quest for understanding who he was. The same nature also never allowed him to truly find his self. He had kept searching but never stopped to immerse and find himself. It was his nature. He was like the fire that had to consume something. Inertia was his enemy. He fought with every setback. He associated progress with momentum. His peace for a long time was to immerse himself in action towards his pursuits. That was no peace. He was cooling the fire burning in his insides from consuming him by pursuit of something, which he was also not sure of. The fire kept burning in him to find his destiny. The harder he tried chasing it, the further it eluded him.

Iroh fondly remembered the story of his destiny. The story of his vision where he took over Ba Sing Se. For a long time, Iroh taught that it was his destiny to capture Ba Sing Se and felt silently disappointed about his misunderstanding  of what his destiny should have been. However, on the day of Sozen’s comet, a realization dawned on Iroh that it was indeed his destiny to capture Ba Sing Se, not as an enemy, but as an ally.

Zuko never felt as strongly as his uncle that he found his destiny. He was still not sure what his destiny was. His soul would never accept an answer so easily. When he challenged his father and left him to join the Avatar, he acted on his heart’s calling. He had responded to a calling without worrying about his destiny. At that moment, the throne and his father’s approval were no longer important to him. 

Several years had passed and several hearts healed after the war. Zuko ruled the fire nation but also gained respect and trust from the other nations. Recently, a voice that was familiar yet subdued had started speaking loudly. His dreams were taken over by that voice. He was old now. He was no longer interested in the throne and the affairs of the state. He had been feeling a same old feeling and was scared to admit it. He felt that...his destiny was calling to him again.

Today, the spirit of Aang appeared before Zuko. It was not common for somebody from the mortal world to connect with the spirit world. But, this was different. Zuko had been called to serve the spirit world. His knowledge and wisdom was needed for the next Avatars when peace and harmony in the world gets disturbed again. 

“Why me?”, Zuko asked Aang.

“Who else understands strife better than you, my friend? You relate to an Avatar’s struggle better than anyone”, Aang replied.

“Strife...a familiar friend...or a familiar foe?”, Zuko chuckled.

“Zuko, your strife was your compass. Without it, the world would not have been a better place”, Aang replied.

“The world is a better place now, Aang. The world is peaceful. Isn’t it?”, Zuko asked with his eyes closed.

“Yes it is”, Aang nodded. “Thanks to you, Zuko.”

“But, you know that I am not peaceful from within. How can I guide the seekers of peace?”, Zuko responded.

“I have always sought something...something I never understood. In that process, I understood that I could shape my destiny. I made peace with that thought. But, it was nothing like what you or my uncle described. I am still not one with the world”, Zuko said as he pondered into a deep thought.

Things did not come easily for Zuko. He was a powerful firebender but was not a prodigy like his sister Azula or his father Ozai. But if there was one thing he was good at, that was, not giving up. He trained harder and mastered advanced fire bending techniques. His power always came with effort; he had to work for his power. When he taught Aang firebending, he was amazed at how natural he was. Aang was in many ways like his sister and dad, a prodigy, a destined soul that had come to bend all the elements. His uncle Iroh had talked to him of inner peace and coping with grief. Iroh was one of the greatest firebenders and his strength came from inner peace.  

Inner peace was the thing that Zuko never truly understood. For him, peace started and stopped at thought. He made peace with his thoughts and limitations. He made peace with how different he was and the hard yards he had to run. He made peace with the thoughts of not truly discovering inner peace. It was unusual. 

Aang replied, “Zuko, mind is nothing but thought. Peace with thoughts are peace with mind.”

Zuko did not reply. He knew what he had to do. He realized that his state was a state of inner peace. When he realized that, the swirling vortex of turmoil dissolved to reveal a shining lotus. He nodded courteously to Aang. It was time to put his affairs to order and join him in guiding other Avatars.

A man was reading an unopened letter on his deathbed from his long lost father. It read like this -

"I am not a builder of bricks but a creator of houses. I need to identify the bricks I need to construct my world renown houses, but not build them myself. For, when I try to build the bricks, my houses don't get built because there is no one else to build them. I need to choose the bricks wisely and understand why they are good for my houses. That knowledge is important. But, I really don't know how to build those bricks that withstand my houses. That understanding is also important. This is the biggest thing I leave you and I hope you don't read this on your deathbed, where you can do nothing but pass this on to your son."

He heaved a sigh and put it in an envelope and addressed it "To my son".

When the sun was ready to rise, the clouds moved away from the horizon to make space for the king, who wanted an unobstructed view of the world to see if it was in perfect order. On the other side of the horizon, the people clapped.

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The entire sky started getting brighter in chunks of minutes. It was as if somebody in the sky was holding onto a dimmer and increasing the brightness by one point as the sun got ready to resume his duties.

When the sun walked the carpet of clouds at the horizon to resume his duties for the day, his guard of honor formed a chain bearing orange flags that could be seen at the tip of the clouds near the horizon.

The ocean reminds me of myself, brilliant in nature, shackled by something unknown, bursting to express itself more, constrained by poewrs it doesn't control.

Perhaps concerned by the amount of insanity it would cause to the already insane minds, the ocean and the sky decided to seperat themselves  by couple of shades of blue to show the limits and also to highlight the transition into oneness.

Every person standng on the balcony to catch the sunrise doesn't realize that your feet has to feel the sand and your breath, the smell of sea, and your ears, the excited chatter of waves before the heart can truly capture the beauty of rising run.

We went to the eastern most point in Mexico. They say the sun's rays touch there firsst. It was surprisingly lonely and empty there. As if, the holyness of the place scared people away.

There is nothing more joyful than the uninhibited expression and dance of the ocean and waes. There are few things more sensual than the way in which the rocks at Punta Cun hold the waves ever so gently by heir waist and show the world of the best tango.

It was matter of minutes before the sun became authoritative and forced you to bow your gaze down. The king might wave at his subjects from his balcony or courtyard, but he is still an aristocrat and an elite.

The sun stayed for exactly seven minutes in the horizon waving at the world, giving them th ehonor of watching him adorn his most pleasant orange robes. Perhaps he was doing it merely as a duty because he was eager to shed off those robes for the robes of fire and light.

The biggest difference between the rulers of night and day are that the ruler of the day stays in the dark to create enormous light in the world while the ruler of the dark stays in the light by keeping the place around him dark.

The destiny of sun is not public adulation. Once he sought it by burning more brightly. People ran away from him. Once he sought it by hiding behind the clouds. People became depressed. For the welfare of his subjects, he chooses to just provide light and life while having nobody to look at him.

There were times when the sun rules the world in orange robes. Every hour of the day, he shone in orange. He graced the sky in peace while the people below on the earth bathed in those rays. The oceans looked serene, the breeze was cooler and people were more peaceful. Then something happened. He got angry. Everything changed.

A man went to the ocean everyday. He would sit on the sands watching the waves pound each other with great energy. He always used to wonder whether the ocean reminded him of himself, always full of energy and waiting to burst out, without really understanding the powers that were restricting it.

He spent several afternoons staring at the ocean and losing himself in this thought. When he had a child, he did not go to the shore for a few months. Then, he started missing the ocean and paid the shore a visit again.

This time, everything looked different. The waves still had the same energy but they appeared content in a mesmirizing tango with other waves. The waves were dancing joyfully and did not want to break free. They forgot what was holding them back but were dancing to a limitless joy. The man smiled. He said, "Finally. It is about time. The ocean must have had a son at last".

He walked back stronger in thought about the similarity they shared.

A man started as an average player of chess. He spent time playing with people who were smarter and needed ego boosts by winning. He honed his craft and slowly climbed the ranks. He was hailed as a genius and a person born to play chess.

He had a son who turned out to be brilliant player of chess. He intuitively understood the moves, landscape and the game. He was so good that he was sometimes rightfully arrogant. His father believed that he was born to play chess. But the boy, mocked at the books and teachers who offered to hone his skills as a chess player. In a few years, he faded into oblivion. 

The dad was still hailed as a genius while ironically, the boy was only an idea of a genius in his dad's head.

A bird boasted of the limitless freedom it had to fly. It said, "I can fly to anywhere my eyes can see". The wind chuckled and brushed his feather gently and moved on.

A handsome stallion came into a farm full of pigs. The pigs looked the stallion in disgust. They said, we don't approve you. You look ugly. 

The stallion looked at itself in the mirror. It had always admired its handsome looks. Now, it was unhappy about its looks because the pigs didn't approve of it. It ran away from the farm.

When the spring set his heart to it, he overflowed the lake. The lake became a river and touched several people's lives before becoming one with the sea. All he did was to continuously flow.

Real freedom exists without rules. But, it is hard to experience such a freedom. Freedom, which is limitless in its original form would drive a man crazy. For humans, who don't know how to experience the limitless freedom, other humans have created rules that restrict the space while still giving an illusion that it is limitless. We are happy with that.

Nothing has given me a greater focus than anger. Pity, nothing has fully drained me of my energies either. Several times, I wish anger just comes to give me focus and goes back before draining my energy. I think the one who can manipulate anger to give focus and later turn it into a flower or a bunny would be a great warrior monk.