Chapter Text
The young girl's skin was far colder than should be possible. Iroh curls her small form closer to his chest to better shield her from the icy wind that sweeps around them. Since he has found the little girl, he has brought forth a constant amount of heat to the surface of his body to help warm her.
He looks down and watches her chest rise and fall in small bounds. Her lips are scarily blue, and any color has seeped from her face. Her pale face is tucked into his chest, nearest his left arm and her eyes flutter under her eyelids as if she was having a bad dream- which isn't too far from the truth.
Iroh and his group of men have been traveling through the glacial environment near the Southern Water Tribe's lands for the past several moons. Although they had just been scouting, correcting, or updating any maps involving these lands, Iroh did not expect to find anything significant. This includes the small bundle currently enveloped in his arms.
Their battleship had stopped on the eastern coast of a significant spread of snowcapped mountains and lands near the water tribe. The fire nation's scouting regiment is nowhere near where the tribe is mapped to be located. Iroh and his men want no occurrence with them, for they want no conflict.
They docked the ship, and the members willing or wanting to depart to explore the icy landscape before them were free to do so. Iroh emerged from the steel shelter into the bitterly cold air that contrasted with his body, already emitting significant amounts of heat.
"General, will you also be setting off from the ship?"
He turns towards the inquirer to find one of the expert cartographers assigned to this job.
Iroh puts his hands behind his back, "Yes, I need to stretch my legs for a little and allow myself to build up my appetite again." Iroh gives him a deep smile before walking towards the plank, allowing him to venture down to the snowy ground.
Approximately an hour later, Iroh finds himself near a river between the base of two mountains. Hills buried in snow decorate the entirety of the landscape, but the area where they docked is swallowed by many mountains. Nothing but ice, white, and grey boulders can be found in places like this.
Iroh squats down at the river's edge and cups his hands in the water to bring the refreshing liquid to his mouth. No other water from any other lands is as pure as what is stored here.
A small rapid can be heard up the river as the water rushes down through the mountains. The river is high this season, considering the snowcaps would melt slightly more than any other season. The flow of water near where Iroh is currently situated is much calmer than where the water comes from.
He sighs as he takes out a small canteen attached to his belt. While sailing around this part of the world, Iroh was searching for this clean water since he had found that this water pairs best with his favorite tea. As he becomes lost in thinking about how he could store large amounts of water, a flash of dark blue, darker than the flowing, clear water, catches his eye.
Iroh caps the canteen and puts it back on his belt as he realizes it's a small bundle, possibly a young child. Arms float around the body that lies face first in the water. Iroh bends over to hover above the water to try and get a closer look.
Without mistaking it, Iroh reaches over to try and bring in the small child. He grabs the elbow of one of their arms and flips them over to reveal the pale face of a young girl.
He pulls her to land and lays her on her back to resuscitate her. The thought of hurting her is fleeting in his mind, as his only goal is to make her breathe again. He brings his hands to rest above where he believes her breastbone to be, but it's hard to accurately determine that due to her thick robes that stick to her body.
As best as he can, he begins pumping his hands into her chest at a steady rhythm before pinching her mouth and breathing into her. He hopes that due to the heat within his body, the breathes will help to warm her from the inside out.
After a few short moments, Iroh almost starts to wane in ambition. There might be no way anyone, let alone a child, could survive the brutality of a powerful and cruel rapid of these harsh rivers. That fact, coupled with the freezing water, makes it horrifically slim to live from.
Before he can stop again and breathe into her, she coughs and sputters up a small lungful of water.
Iroh sighs and brings his hands to her face to try and make her focus on him.
"Hey, hey there. Can you open your eyes for me, small girl?" Iroh says in a patient and painfully calm manner.
He can't deny that he was scared for her. Iroh doesn't want to know what he would have done if she hadn't come back from that. A child should not die that young.
She doesn't open her eyes immediately, but he watches as she continues to gulp air hungrily.
Iroh warms his hands and moves his hands from her cheeks to her forehead down to her neck, trying with all his might to warm her, but what he really needs to do is get her back to the ship.
He brings his hands to her shoulders to carefully lift her into his lap. As he does this, her eyes gingerly open to reveal two spearing blue orbs that were once hidden away. Her eyes match more of the river than her garbs of deep blue.
She opens her mouth as if to speak before Iroh raises his hand to cover her lower face. The heat of his hand on her cold skin makes her sigh in contentment, making him relieved that she can still feel anything.
"I'm going to take you to my ship, where a doctor can look at you. I'm surprised you lived through that."
The girl's body is wrapped in a blue, fur-lined robe with long, heavy sleeves. Even though her whole body is sopping wet, she weighs no more than forty lbs. As light as she is, Iroh has no problem bringing her back to their battleship.
The walk to the river from the ship only took about twenty minutes. Although Iroh doesn't know what damage could happen by keeping her in her wet clothes, he doesn't know any other solution as he obviously didn't bring a change of clothes. There also isn't anything he's wearing currently that could aid in getting her any comfort except for his warmth.
As they come near the beginning boarding of the ship, Iroh calls out to any of the crewmembers or soldiers aboard who might hear him. "I need somebody to get the doctor! I need him ready immediately!"
He watches as somebody registers his request immediately and rushes through the open steel door that leads into the ship's main hull. The doctor is kept on the first floor of the ship as it's the quickest and most easily accessible area.
Iroh finds himself standing in the room with the doctor on board. The doctor asks him, "What happened? She obviously looks like she might freeze to death, but other than that?"
The only woman on board, the doctor's assistant stands next to Iroh, "Let me get her out of these wet clothes while you explain to the doctor what happened, General Iroh."
He releases his hold on the small girl and lays her on the small cot. Even though the bed isn't that big, it still seems to swallow her petite form.
Iroh turns and exits the room with the doctor in tow.
He answers the question as the door shuts to the room, "I found her face down in a river I stumbled upon."
The doctor nods as he listens to what Iroh explained to him. When Iroh finishes, the woman opens the door to allow him and the doctor back into the room.
The small girl still has her eyes closed and is lying on the cot, like Iroh left her.
"I will monitor her before she wakes up. I'm worried about her temperature. We don't want her catching hypothermia, but you might have kept her core warm long enough that she will be fine. I will also check for broken bones and internal injury as best as possible." The doctor explains as he moves around to gather bandages if he finds any surface-level injuries.
Iroh's gaze has kept on her small face. A small amount of color has returned to her pale face, and her lips aren't as blue anymore.
"Come to me once she wakes up," Iroh tells both of them before he turns to exit.
What am I to do now?