Duh-claimer: As you know, Avatar:TheLastAirbender is (c) Mike (person), Bryan(person), Nick(kid's tv thinger), and this company… Vi-blahsomethingorother.
Also this has tiny hints of Zutara if you are Zutara-biased, but does not have any explicit romantic shipping.
Blue Dragon: Its getting late, are you planning to retire soon, My Lord?
Fire Lord Zuko: I'm not tired.
Blue Dragon: Relax Fire Lord Zuko, just let go. Give into it, shut your eyes for a while.
Red Dragon: No Fire Lord Zuko! Do not listen to the Blue Dragon. You should get out of here, right now. Go! Before its too late.
Blue Dragon: Sleep now Fire Lord Zuko…. Sleep… JUST LIKE MOTHER!
Lady Ursa: Zuko, help me!
Fire Lord Zuko: Mom!
-Ep 38, 2:18, The Earth King (Zuko's freaky scarless Dream)
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The Gaang hid in the caves after their recent attack on the Fire Palace, once again forced to retreat by the Fire Princess.
"I can't stand her! She's such a… Blue Dragon!" Katara shouted in frustration, all the water in the cave freezing in the suddenly chilly cave. Sokka nodded in agreement and tried to break his water flask into pieces of ice that he could suck on. Iroh bent some warmth towards Sokka, heating the flask that was at this moment upside down, causing its contents to splash onto Sokka's head. Aang and Toph were sliding a large stalagmite back and forth across the cave floor.
"Blue… what?" Zuko asked uncomfortably.
"The Blue Dragon?" Katara asked more calmly, noting the unsure wabble of his voice.
"Yes, what did you mean by that?
"Its just a fairy tale that Mothers tell their children before bed," Sokka said with a yawn.
"I've never heard it…" the banished prince said skeptically.
"Don't you think you're a little old for bedtime stories, Smokey?" Toph smirked.
Now curious, Iroh chimed in. "Nobody is ever to old for a story."
"Well… okay then," Katara agreed, trying to recall the story her mother had told her so many years ago… before- she shook that thought out of her mind and dove into the tale. "The Blue Dragon lived long ago… uhm… before the times of Avatar Kyoshi?" She said, unsure.
"Longer than that," Sokka criticized.
"Well you tell the story then!"
"Ok, I will!" He drummed his hands against his thighs, poorly mimicking a fast beating drum, "Maaaaaany Moooooooooons Agoooooo…"
Whack! Katara had smacked him upside the head and continued the tale. "Ok so… Once upon a time, there was a cunning Blue Dragon. He traveled from the freezing south pole up to the center of the world, where a tribe of light hearted, dark skinned people lived."
"Waterbenders!"
"Sokka! You ruined the surprise!"
"Oh well, a group of people who may or may not have been water benders…"
Katara continued, "…who lived scattered across many small islands. They loved the water, and water loved them. It sustained them: bringing them buck-whale to eat, and winds that kept them cool in the blazing sun-"
"Waterbenders living along the equator?" Zuko said with disbelief, "Where are the fire benders?"
"Oh! Tell him about the fire benders!!!" Sokka shouted excitedly.
"I was getting there! The Blue Dragon had traveled a long way… all the way from the south pole, where his small tribe of people lived in cold rocky mountains-"
"Don't tell me…" Zuko groaned.
"They were well suited to the amount of light in the south pole, but without the dragon's gift they would have froze to death. The Dragons taught the people how to fire bend. And the people were able to keep themselves warm in the harsh enviroment."
"That's bull," Zuko declared.
"Its true," Iroh and Aang said in unison, both being very well versed on mythology.
"Well I've never heard fire benders like that," Zuko countered.
"Well maybe you should listen to the rest of the story," Aang cut in, annoyed.
"Aang is right nephew, this story, although rarely told accurately in our nation, is one of great significance to many past agressor Fire Lords."
"Well Sweetness? On with the story!" Toph's attitude toward bed times stories was forgotten to her.
"The Blue Dragon flew over many thousands of miles of ocean, until he reached a place warm enough for the children of the fire benders who could not bend the warmth needed to live comfortably. The children were used to the warm tempertatures inside the caves, created by all the fires and fire benders around them, but they couldn't last very long out side by themselves. So the people had pleaded to the Blue Dragon to help them, and now he had found the perfect place for them to live.
"The Blue Dragon landed on the largest island, and was greated kindly by the Chief of the frolicking water people. The Chief thought that because the Dragon was Blue, the color of the water people, that he was a friend.
"But the Blue Dragon had other ideas… that he kept to himself. At first he was the embodiment of friendship, he chased a large buck whale onto the shores of the island and roasted it for the water people. The water people came from all of the islands to partake in the great feast.
"But while the feast was cooking, the Blue Dragon was cooking something up his sleeve-"
"Wait…" Aang interrupted, "dragons don't have sleeves."
"It's a figure of speech Twinkle-Toes."
"Did he eat them all?" Zuko asked excitedly.
Katara wasn't sure she'd heard correctly, "What?"
"Did the Blue Dragon eat all the water benders?!?!"
Iroh slapped his head with his non-tea ladden hand. Katara glared at the Banished Prince, he could be really dense sometimes.
"What kind of stupid question is that?!?!" Sokka seemed to have read their minds, "If he had eaten all the water benders, none of us would exist!" Sokka motioned to himself and his sister, "Of course he didn't eat all the water benders! He just-"
"Sokka! I'm telling the story remember? While the Waterbenders had gathered on one island, the Blue Dragon made the volcanoes on the other islands erupt! All at once! It filled the sky with ash and caused great tsunamis, and turned the summer heat unbearably hot. The water people, convinced that the Blue Dragon was still their friend, did not suspect that he was responsible, even though those volcanoes had long been dormant.
'I't so very hot, aren't you hot water people?' the Blue Dragon cooed.
'We aren't hot,' the Water People said, for they could cool themselves with the water.
'Wouldn't some ice feel more comfortable?'
So the water people created a giant iceberg, and everyone got on it played in the snow. But then, when they least expected it, the Blue Dragon sent a fiery blast the middle of the iceberg and erupted the last volcanoe.
The people cried, 'Why Blue Dragon?! Why did you betray us?'
And the Blue Dragon Replied, 'Betray You? I never betrayed you because I was never on your side. My People of Fire need this land, and because Fire is stronger than water, it will now belong to them and their children'."
"I like this Blue Dragon Guy," Zuko admitted. Whack! Although four hands had gone out to smack him, Iroh's reached his head first. His nephew was obviously not getting the point of this story.
"I believe the story is not over, nephew."
"Yeah!" Sokka defended the tale, even if he didn't thing it was exactly true.
"So what happens?" Toph pushed impatiently.
"So the water people drifted apart, one ice berg flowing north, one being swept south. Family units had been broken apart, and a sense of unity was created among the people of each iceberg that had not existed among the people of the islands. The water people were now two Water Tribes. On their journey apart, they each came to pass Air Temples. The well traveled Sister Monks in the high mountains of the Western Temple told the Northern Tribe about the giant icecap near the north pole. The adaptive Water People had grown used to life on their iceberg, and decided to settle on the ice cap. The Northern Tribe arrived at their new home without incident, and set about making it a wonderful metropolis.
The Southern Tribe however, was told by the Southern Monks that the horrible tsunamis that had swept them south had also flooded the cold rocky island near the south pole. The caves that the people lived in to keep warm were now full of icey water. The Southern Water Tribe traveled the short distance to the southern island, unsure of how to treat the people of the Blue Dragon who had deceived them, destroyed their home, and separated them from their families."
"Did they kill all the fire benders?!" Zuko interrupted, eager for some action.
Sokka glared, "Once again-"
But Katara prevented the argument from starting again, "The Southern Water Tribe was prepared to go into battle with the Blue Dragon for what he had done, but when the tribe saw the small freezing children of the Fire Benders, they were filled with compasion. They loaded the fire people on their iceberg and many strong benders gave up their lives with their new tribe to return the fire benders to the warm islands that had once been their home. The Southern Tribe was left with very few benders, not enough to create another moving iceberg, but enough to turn the small flooded island into an ice cap large enough for them to live comfortably on.
At first, the Water People were cold, but unlike the fire children, the water non-benders could survive in the harsh enviroment. The Southern and Northern Water Tribes grew, and the Fire Nation was established among the volcanoes that are were kept active by the Blue Dragon, in an attempt to ward off any homesick water benders. But even that tactic failed, for the strong water benders who had brought the fire people home had married into their lines... Forever lost to the Fire Nation, their blood entwining with the blood of the people who are now our enemies." Katara ended profoundly, wondering if the moral would be lost on Zuko.
"Why would any water tribe mother tell that story to her children?" Zuko asked, confused. "A Blue Dragon tricks you, then you help his people, and then you marry into them? What's the moral? 'Everything works out pretty good as long as you listen to fire benders?' I can't say I disagree, but if that's the story Southern Water Tribe children heard, then no wonder there's like, what, twelve of you left?"
Whack! This time Sokka's boomerang had reached Zuko first.
Katara held back a threatening tear, "That was uncalled for Zuko."
Feeling emotions start to go haywire, Toph intervened, "But the Blue Dragon was wrong, wasn't he Katara?"
Katara had her face turned away from the group, so Iroh answered for her, "Yes, he said that fire was stronger, and deserved to take the water people's land. But the Water Tribe knew the truth, the fire people needed that land because they were weaker than the Water Tribe."
"What?!" Zuko laughed, "But the Blue Dragon completely beat them!"
Regaing her composure, Katara tried again, "The Blue Dragon tricked the Water People by pretending to be their friend, but was actually just using them. He wouldn't have been able to beat the water people with force… he had to trick them into beating themselves."
"Sound familiar nephew?" Iroh said quietly. Silencing his nephew.
At first Zuko glared at his uncle for that low jibe… but then he figured he probably deserved it and more for all he'd done in the past few months, "…yeah. In more ways than you know."
"So whats the moral?" Toph asked into the sudden silence.
Sokka held up a finger in his imataion of a genious, "You can't judge a scroll by it's seal!"
Aang smiled and offered his own moral, "You can always trust Air Monks!"
Katara sighed, apparently Zuko wasn't the only one this story had been wasted on, "Love your enemy… because they're no different from you. They have weaknesses and poor leaders and innocent children… and love."
AN: It's an Avatar Fairy Tale! …kinda. Was originally going to be just the tale, but the Canon characters kept interrupting my thoughts so I through them in their too. I tried to make the setting during the invasion of the Fire Nation, and for some reason or another Iroh and Zuko have joined the Gaang. I really enjoyed writing this, and would like to thank two peoplez for motivating me to write this: gojira007 . deviantart . com and DamageCtrl