Iroh rubbed his bearded chin in thought while observing the tree before him, he'd never seen anything like it. Ashy-white bark, blood red leaves and most strange of all, an almost horrific face that seemed to grow from the trunk; silently weeping blood coloured tears of sap.
The tree was certainly off putting to look at. It was something he'd place in the spirit world rather than on some strange island.
"This is but one of many of these trees father." Lu ten said from behind him.
Iroh could feel the eyes of his son on the tree as well.
"All of them have these........... faces?" he asked as he focused on the strange feeling he felt from the tree.
"All the ones I've seen. "
"Hmmm." He hummed in reply.
Yes, the tree looked disturbing but he could feel the spirituality coming from it. It was faint and subtle, like most spiritual things..... however, it certainly was there.
"Are these trees spirits, father?" Lu Ten asked.
"Is that why you used your Royal position to order everyone not to harm these trees?" He asked while looking up as the wind shook the leaves.
"Partially.......... I'm getting a strange feeling from them..... I also had a feeling you wouldn't want them cut down."
Iroh allowed a smile to slip onto his face as he turned around.
"You were right. I'm glad you used your power rightly." He patted his son's shoulder before turning around he felt almost mesmerized the longer he stayed.
"I don't know if they are spirits themselves. But they're certainly spiritual. The feeling they give me, reminds me of a place I visited long ago...." He reached out to touch the bone-white bark.
"The great forest with the massive spirit tree?" Lu Ten asked.
Iroh almost chuckled. He told his son of his marooning inside strange swamp within the southwestern region of the Earth Kingdom many years ago. 'To think he remembered....'
"Yes that one adventure I had within the Great Swamp."
He was glad his son stopped the cutting down of such trees. He didn't know what would befall them if he hadn't. The fire nation had lost it spirituality long ago.
When exactly? He didn't know.
When his grandfather struck down the last Air Nomad and ended the millennia long avatar cycle? When he militarized the nation and corrupted the fire sages? When he slaughter the southern water tribe?
His Grandfather, Father and even himself would bring the world to ruin and imbalance if the wars and genocides continued. This was why he wished to conquer Ba Sing Se.
With the prestige gained from that battle, he'd been uncontested when he began his decolonization efforts after his ascension to Firelord.
'Perhaps I was too hasty, could it be the spirits thought I would upset the balance of the world further if I did sack the city? .......'
His fleet was possibly in this situation due to an angered spirit. If they angered anymore.......
"Come son, we both have much to do." He said as they walked from the tree and walked back to base with his royal guards and attendants.
It didn't take long to reach what was the village. The tents of the natives had been taken down to make way for the larger, more sturdier crimson tents were erected; and of course each of them were embezzled with the fire nation sigil were . In the efficient manner his people were known for, the fledgling base was well on its way to completion.
"Go report to your commanding officer. I'm sure you're wanted for some form of manual labour." He sent his son off to his tasks and grifted over to a rather large tent. Multiple tables dominated the space. upon them were the bodies of the inhabitants who tried to charge his men.
Physicians of various levels moved around the tables, examining the burnt or slashed bodies.
"Ah! General! Please, come in I have much to show you!" Iroh nodded to the man who came up to him. It was the Head Physician of the Prancing Dragon.
They walked over to the body of a rather large specimen. This body had some burn marks and and slashes, but it was mostly intact.
When Lieutenant Gin sent a dragon-hawk informing him of the inhabitants, he wondered if the man was purely being derogatory.
Discrimination against other nations and peoples is heavily encouraged within the Fire nation and he knew some citizens seemed to think the people of other nations as less than human. But when he actually saw these people, he really wondered if they were human.
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He never seen anyone on his travels to look in such a way. The strangely coloured hair, the facial structure, the hairiness..... it was quite odd to look at. But he could tell these were people in the end. They weren't spirits that was for certain.
"Dr Xing, what have you discovered?"
"Quite a bit General! I've truly never seen something such as this before. when I first looked at these individuals, I assumed they were suffering from some strange disease possibly due to inbreeding." Xing's gloved hand moved the singed hair from what appeared to be a man.
"These people have facial features which may be strange to us but in reality seem to be just the general phenotype of those living here and not due to diseases or bloodline abnormalities." The physician traced a finger down the man's face.
"The common facial features of these natives are more pronounced three-dimensionality with larger, more deeply set eyes, greater anterior projection of the brow, nose, maxilla, and chin than those of our lands. For the most part, the proportions of their bodies and faces are symmetrical."
Iroh remained silent as the man's attention turned from the face to the body. "The bodies of the males are far more larger and hairier than the female natives and us. Though it seems the hair of these people are far more wavy or curly than the straight hair of our people."
Iroh looked at the red coloured hair covering the large man's chest. "It seems they tend to have more varied hair colour as well."
"Not to mention their large bodies...... General, if these people were brought back to the Royal University, they'd open new discussions on the nature of human beings and our adaptability to the environment!"
Iroh nodded, while he was fascinated by the features of these people, he felt the conversation was moving away from his main concern.
"From the reports I've received, it seems there are no benders in the group."
"Ah Yes! that is so..... Our preliminary examinations aren't too deep yet but I believe these people have rather malformed Chi points."
"Hmm? How so?" Iroh asked.
"Where a nonbender such as myself my have similar chi points such as benders, my own are usually atrophied and thin. the chi points for these natives are in different places from ours and they seem to lack certain chi points all together!" The physician was rather excited.
"Continue your research and write up a report. I'll review it another time." Iroh decided he heard enough and left, barely hearing the words of affirmative from the man as he got back to obsessing over the native corpses.
He didn't have to walk far to reach another tent. Similarly to the previous one, it also had large tables. However, instead of dead bodies, these tables were filled with item of interest taken from the village.
Various weapons, such as arrows, spears and clubs. All of which were made using stone, wood or obsidian. Not one weapon was made with metals.
There were also the clothing and accessories of the dead; all of which seemed to be made of animal hides, bones and teeth of sea creatures.
"I must say general..... in all my travels, I've seen such intriguing, yet mundane things." Iroh regarded the merchant Uzo as he rubbed the animal hide between his fingers.
"At first glance, the belongings of these natives seem normal, yet whenever I take a closer look, they keep shocking me.
"What do you mean?"
"Take this primitive cloak for example." The man held the tanned piece of clothing to him.
"The fur is too long to be from a tiger-seal, but its too short to be from a tiger-gorilla ...... but it has similar stripes with them though the thick black fur has white stripes." The man scrunched his face up in confusion.
"Couldn't it just be from an arctic tiger-orca?" Iroh asked.
"No the fur is too thick rough." The merchant placed the the skin down and grabbed the twisted horn and held it aloft.
"Look at this horn"
"..................Isn't that the tusk of a Dolphin-Narwal?" Iroh asked, he wasn't as well learned in beast hides as the man but he knew his way around animals.
"That's what I thought as well! Looks are extremely deceiving. It even has the same yellowish colouration, but look closely at the base."
Iroh leaned forward and noticed the edges of the supposed tooth. It was there he could see the tell tale signs of a growth plates; something teeth didn't have.
"You see it don't you. But what I've noticed in another less damaged one is that the connection was made to the base of whatever animal's skull it was connected to."
"Or observe this!" He placed the horn and excitedly ran over to an old wooden box. Slowly, he opened it and removed piece of animal-skin which was covered in marks, it looked to be a relic.
The Bhati islander carefully unveiled the cloth, tracing his fingers over the strange markings that looked to be a primitive language of sorts. "I have never seen such symbols before. But it isn't the writing that has most intrigued me. Look at this skin, it's seal skin."
"Yes, Seals are a strange animal but they live in the northern and southern water tribes." Iroh recognized the odd creature's skin, it was one of the few animals with singular traits.
"They do, but this one has no spots on it." There are no seals without spots in either polar hemispheres!" The man was almost hysterical at this point.
"We truly are in strange lands." Iroh shook his head.
"I'll leave you to your work." He said as the man turned away to pick up another bone to examine.
Iroh walked to a rather large area, one under heavy guard and fenced. This was the space housing the natives of this land. There were various tents set up to isolate and process these people.
This method was made specifically for conquered peoples. It involved separating men and women. The army carried out light physical checks on each individual and created some form of documentation for them as well.
The process was moving quite slow from what he could see. He couldn't do much about it. They were understaffed and his own people needed to be settled as well.
He entered the area and immediately the smell of unwashed bodies hit him. He passed through the stench and entered a rather large tent.
There he saw a thin, lanky young man approach him.
"Mr Xiao, how goes the communication efforts?"
"I'm ashamed to say it's been rather slow, General. I've studied the different accents and common vernacular of different nations. Never have I seen such a difference in language before. I could write a massive case study on this new language." The man seemed just as perplexed as Uzo was with the animals and artifacts of these strange lands.
"While the meaning of their words remains incomprehensible to us, I can say, the language, whatever it is has intelligence to it and is fairly complex. It is wildly different to ours, but there is structure to it."
"I bet the demeanor of these people make it hard for you as well." Iroh said as he watched the timid people being herded around.
"That is the case. They seem most fearful of us." Mr Xiao sighed.
'We must find a way to make common ground and communicate with these people.' Iroh thought as he watched the chained people herded around like circus animals. He couldn't do mush for the situation. There was still a security and orderly risk.
'The elderly and children at least don't need to be chained. Not since they're all non-benders....'
He truly had his work set out for him. From managing a military base on some frozen island, ensuring the protection and survival of his people and trying to prevent the whole remanent fleet from collapsing.