Yay! First published fanfiction!

Roku, Ursa, Feng, and Zuko © Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko

Avatar Roku bend over his work. When he was 16 years old, he had no idea that being the Avatar would involve so much... writing. Even after 60 years, he still disliked all forms of written correspondence. He especially hated it when every town, tribal, and nation leader decided to send him news and ask for advice at the same time. When his granddaughter, Ursa, was visiting. She was four years old, the spitting image of his wife but, sadly, did not have her attention span. Ursa, as a rule, refused to sit still for more than two minutes.

Speaking of Ursa, Roku was supposed to be watching her. But with so many letters piling up, he had told her to go explore the island and he'd join her later. He had not heard from her since; that was a good twenty minutes ago. Roku decided that as soon as he finished his current letter, he would go find her. What an excruciating letter it turned out to be. He tried to turn his attention back to it, but for all the world, he could not focus. Oh for goodness' sake, he thought, couldn't he read letters in the Avatar state? Then at least he could focus.

"Gramparoku?" a loud, high-pitched voice called, all in one word, from outside the open window. Well, at least he'd found Ursa. Out of his nine-hundred-ninety-nine-nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine problems, at least he could check off that one.

"Yes?" he asked, looking out the window. Even though the bottom sill was only three feet off the ground, his granddaughter only just peeked over the top. Ursa looked around sheepishly.

"If I found a dragon, could I keep it?" she asked.

Roku cocked his head slightly. There weren't many dragons around to begin with, never mind the population after Sozin decided to kill every last one he could find. It would be nearly impossible for her to find one, let alone get it to follow her home. The Avatar cleared his throat.

"Well, if it's trained, I see no reason why not," he said, "but I'm not sure I would suggest taking it home with you..." Ursa's face broke into a huge grin. She shrieked happily, then paused.

"Could it live here?" she asked.

Roku laughed. "I suppose Feng would enjoy the company," he said. Ursa grinned, then did some sort of victory dance.

"I'll go get him!" she cried.

"Get... him?" Roku repeated, now thoroughly confused. He walked to the window. What he saw made him climb over the open window and stand in silence. Thunderous footsteps sounded in the distance.

Cradling his granddaughter like a baby was a fully grown, fire breathing, dragon. His luminescent red scales reflected Ursa's pink dress as it held her tenderly in its (in Roku's mind) dangerously over-sized claws. It snarled at him, then put Ursa down. She looked up at him and said something. It cooed at her, then spit up a half of a fish.

"It's okay!" she called, "He's trying to feed me! But... I don't like fish..." her voice trailed off, then she asked innocently, "Do you want it?" She held out the regurgitated fish.

"Feed you? Ursa, get away from that thing! It might kill you!" he gasped. The little girl's face fell. She looked from the Dragon to Roku.

"But... but..." she protested. Her worry was set in hard lines on her face. "I promised Zuko that he could live here! With me!" she cried. "Zuko" bent his neck at an unnatural angle so he could see her face. He used the feathery end of his tail to wipe dirt off of her clothes. She slowly backed away from him and walked sadly to her grandfather. She stood next to him, head bowed, tears dripping off her nose. Roku sighed. He didn't know how she could have made him feel any guiltier. Ursa wiped her face on his robe and looked up at him pleadingly.

"I... suppose it wouldn't hurt... if you kept him here," Roku said.

Ursa threw her arms around him, then ran to the dragon. It blew a ring of smoke around her; she hung onto his nose. It blinked, then lightly shook her off. Roku had walked up behind Ursa. He faced the dragon (Zuko, he reminded himself) and with as much dignity as he could muster, he bowed to it. The dragon nodded proudly, then brought his head to his humans. He nudged the fish, which had been conveniently sitting on a palm leaf, to Ursa. Before Roku could make his retreat, the Dragon hacked up another fish and dropped it unceremoniously at his feet.

"That one's for you!" Ursa cried happily.