Feeling. There was feeling coming back into my body.
Cold. Frozen by who knows what, my body searched for some form of heat. I breathed, allowing my inner core to heat up the coldness around me.
Light. Light seeped in through some translucent wall around me. My eyes could barely open, so the light must have been strong enough to seep even through my eyelids.
Finally, this icicle prison was melting, and after who-knows-how-long, I would finally be free. I could go home and…no, I couldn't go home. Not after what happened. Not after what I did, what they did.
Cracking. Something was cracking. At first I thought it was my bones, but suddenly I fell onto a lump of broken rocks and snow. No, not broken rocks. Ice. My eyes opened, and the sunlight blinded me temporarily. My eyes adjusted and I looked around at my surroundings.
All around me for miles was a blanket of snow. So I was still in the South Pole. But how long had I been trapped? And what set me free?
"Roku." The name escapes my lips like a curse, but I couldn't keep myself from smiling. My past life looked after me well.
A crashing sound echoed across the snow, startling me. And soon after it, the snow shuddered, and shifted slightly to the east. My butt landed in the snow, and it was then that the realization of how cold I was hit me. Dressed in my fire-nation cold-wear I was still freezing, and it didn't help that I had lost my platypus-bear skin lined cloak when I fell into the water. I wrapped my arms around myself and blew little puffs of steam out of my nose to heat me up.
"UNCLE!" I heard a voice call out, male by the deepness of the tone, in the distance. The accent sounded faintly fire-nation, but from here, I couldn't tell. I decided to follow the shift of snow, which would ultimately lead me to what caused the shift, and presumably the voice.
I stepped lightly on the snow-who knew how deep it was- and climbed up a slight incline for about a hundred feet. Then I was forced to stop. The incline dipped into a diagonal drop that would've sent me rolling right into a river of freezing water. I wasn't falling for that twice.
In the water, a fire-nation ship greatly remodeled and in good condition sat half-covered in about two tons of snow. What caused the avalanched, I could not tell. From the angle of the ship's position, it did not seem that it struck any large land mass. Perhaps a tremor caused the snow to fall-and release me.
In my idiocy, I took a step forward, carefully-or so I thought- so as to get a closer look at the ship, and fell straight into a sinkhole, which caused me to trip. Well, instead of landing on my face, I turned my body so that I landed on my side, which resulted in my rolling along down that slope at too great a speed for me to try to stop without breaking a limb. Screaming the whole way, I bumped, rolled, and slid down that slope until…PLOP!
Freezing cold water slapped against me, and I immediately started to sink. Stupid metal tipped shoes! I kicked my shoes off and started kicking toward the surface. My body was starting to freeze up, and I didn't think I was going to make it. Just as my arms started to stop moving, arms grabbed them and hauled me up out of the water, and onto the snow.
My whole body shivered from the cold, my wet clothes clinging to me, and my hair sticking to my face. The arms then lifted me up against a warm body and carried me somewhere, and finally I was placed on a wooden deck of the ship I just been spying on.
Slowly opening my eyes, I saw that about six men in strangely-made fire-nation uniforms were staring down at me. Four were wearing the usual guard mask, but the two in the middle caught my attention.
One was short, old, and fat, with graying hair tied back, a beard, and a concerned look on his brown. He reminded me of one of the old temple sages that I used to take lessons from, always kind and laughing. He wore the status of an actual fire-bender, and the status of royalty. Funny, I didn't recognize him from the royal family.
The other was younger. Much younger. He looked to be about my age, maybe a year older, but there was an air of maturity around him and in the look he gave me. His hair cropped off except for an area that tied back. His face was good-looking, strong chin, good eyes. His eye. Never before had I seen a burn mark so filled with pain and betrayal. I could see that his mark was special, but not in a good way. It had been delivered without defense, and by someone the boy used to trust. He too, wore the status of both fire-bender and royalty. But who was he?
"Who are you?" His voice was sharp, and caused me jump a little. After regaining my poseur, I squinted up at him and gave him a stern, stubborn stare. I didn't care if this guy was the fire-lord himself, no one snaps at me!
"Don't talk to me like that," I stated calmly. "Don't you know it's rude to snap at a stranger? And you could be a little sympathetic. I mean, I did just come out of that freezing, icy river." A blanket was placed around my shoulders by an unseen person, and I thanked him, then looked up at the boy and smiled at his frustrated, awe-struck face. It was apparent that this young man was not used to being talked back to. Time for a little wake-up call.
"I think what my nephew means to say," the older gentleman said just as Temperamental was about to blow, "we were wondering who you are. It is not common to find a fire-nation woman in the South Pole."
"Well, when you put it that way…"
I trailed off in my sentence, a thought having just occurred to me. I did not know how long I had been gone. And I wasn't allowed to tell anyone of my secret, but that didn't mean I couldn't give my name. But I had to have a story, a reason for being so far from the Fire Nation. A visit to granny? No, no one from the fire nation would willingly go live in the South Pole. Got lost on an excursion. No, they would probably have heard word of a missing person.
"My name is Alexandra," I stated. "I came here to visit an old friend of mine who was very ill. She…passed away recently, and no ship has come in since I left."
The boy eyed me suspiciously, looking me once over. The older man gave a sympathetic look when I mentioned the death of the imaginary friend. Truth be told, I knew no one from the Water Tribe, so I couldn't have a guilty conscience of using the death of someone I knew.
"You were brought here from the Fire Nation?" the boy asked.
"No," I said. Time for at least a little truth. "I caught a ship in the Earth Kingdom which brought me here. I've been here about…three months."
Scar-face frowned as he seemed to buy my story. Much more believable than the truth-that I came here to search for my lost-brother who disappeared three years ago.
"Well," said gramps, "now that that has been taken care of, let me offer our services to bring you back to the Fire Nation."
Scar-face froze up and hissed, "Uncle! No!"
The elderly man just smiled, and discreetly elbowed his nephew in the ribs. He looked at me, waiting for my answer, while the boy rubbed his ribs like they were sore.
"I would greatly appreciate it," I said, "but I insist that I chip in somehow. In any way…really."
A thoughtful look crossed the old man's face, and he pulled at his beard, until finally he said, "Well, we could use a new cook. If you're up to that. Our present cook is, well, awful."
Bingo. Cooking. Something I was actually good at-surprisingly.
"It's a deal." I stood, put my left hand in a fist below the palm of my right hand, and bowed. "Thank you…uh…"
"General Iroh," he replied after bowing in return. Then he pointed to Scar-face and said, "This is my nephew, Prince Zuko."
I looked at him oddly. Prince Zuko? Prince of what? Prince Azulon has no brothers that I know of. Maybe he's considered a Prince in the colonies. That's it!
"I am pleased to meet you both." I reluctantly bowed to the so-called prince, met his gaze only for a moment, then turned back to the general. It was then that I noted their uniforms. They were made differently. The shoulders were lower, and the blades not so sharp. The boots were made of different material. What was going on here?
"Is something wrong?" At the sound of Prince Zuko's accusatory tone, I snapped into a glare. Truthfully I was embarrassed that he had caught me staring like an idiot at something so unimportant. Or was it?
"I was just noting your uniforms." He looked down at them, then back at me, while I continued. "They're different than I remember."
Both General Iroh and Prince Zuko looked at me oddly. Then I saw both of them observe my attire quickly, then look at me.
"Where did you get those?" the prince asked me.
"My grandmother lent them to me before I left," I lied. What else was I going to say? Although, truthfully, I shouldn't have had to have made up an excuse. This uniform was the style last I checked. But, I wasn't about to get any more on this guy's bad side.
"Hmph," was his reply. He turned, started to walk away, then stopped, and said over his shoulder begrudgingly, "Just stay out of my way."
"I apologize for my nephew's behavior," General Iroh said. "He just has those days when he can't be happy." He sighed, then replaced his temporary upset expression with a giant toothy grin, and said, "Now, let's see about your living conditions, some new clothes, and your station."
General Iroh led me down a few floors of the ship until we reached a floor with only a few doors on each side. Upon opening one of the doors I was surprised to find a bed, a dresser, a table, a lamp, and a fire-nation banner hanging on the wall above the bed. It was an overall nice room.
"This shall be your room." I entered the room and overlooked it carefully as Iroh continued with the details. "It is normally a guest room for any guests that should board-not that we've had any recently…or ever- but now you can have it."
Iroh then took me back up the ship to a supply closet where he handed me some clothes- the smallest he could find- to wear. I took them gratefully, then followed him again through the ship. Finally I was brought into a steam filled room poorly equipped for a cook. Something that somewhat resembled a stove sat against the opposite wall of the room, a table for chopping and mixing stood on wobbly legs in the middle of the room, and dirty, rusty pots and pans hung from the ceiling across the room. Completely unacceptable for my standards.
"This the galley." Oh no, this was a catastrophe.
"Well," I said as I ran a finger along a rusted pot, "this sure is, um, adequate. But, uh, when was the last time this place was cleaned? Or update the equipment?" The last words were somewhat whispered, but Iroh heard me.
"I suppose it is a little run-down," he said. "Perhaps when we came into the first Earth Kingdom we can buy a new stove, a new table, and new pots and pans?"
"Perfect!" I clapped my hands together and ran my fingers through my long, black hair. "I might as well get started with dinner. Is that ok? I'll use what I can to make something."
The general smiled at me before leaving me alone in the kitchen. Once the metal door was closed, I fell leaned back against the table, my arms resting on the top.
The next thing I knew, blackness surrounded me.