Final Round- "Contemplations"

Manager: Prompts: dialogue "Were you expecting someone else?" 1 point, emotion surprise 2 points, character Ursa OR character Unalaq 3 points. Round element: Any except Fire, Water, Earth or Air

Tasks: Beginning: The leaves from the old tree in the backyard fell in soft spirals before landing on the water's surface. Ending: Maybe someday, he would get the courage to actually say something instead of just admiring from afar. Object: an uprooted flower.

Word Count: 1,108

The leaves from the old tree in the backyard fell in soft spirals before landing on the water's surface, and Ursa tried to let that peaceful sight overtake her after what had just happened: she knew Ozai was not a gentle man, but to think of doing that, to his own son, just because he didn't seem to be a bender, was monstrous.

Theirs wasn´t a marriage she could call happy, at the most it was one of contempt: she would do her duties as a Fire Nation Princess and he would simply be a second son and a politician. But then one day, he changed.

It was a late party with some "friends", if by friends of Ozai you understood his party of politicians, and Ursa knew they had been drinking enough when one of them said:

"You would make a better Fire Lord than your brother! He's a pacifist! He's been avoiding going to combat all the times he's been asked to take command of something. He's a coward!"

Ozai didn't have the habit of drinking his fill while around people for good reasons: gossip about him being a drunk could spread like wildfire if he slipped, but he believed that old saying about a drunk man's honesty.

"And I went on a full tour to the Earth Kingdom. Almost got killed near Omashu," cried Ozai, smashing his cup and releasing lightning into the sky, a drunken man against the universe. He had done everything a proper Fire Nation Prince should do and yet Iroh was to hold supreme power for being the first born. It wasn't fair. It should be about who is more committed to do what is necessary. Not who came first.

Ursa had Iroh in the highest of ranks in her ranks of esteem. He was a kind man with a golden heart and if there was a person she could see ending the war, either by the sword or by the pen, it could be him. She had lost friends to the war and had heard awful stories of it. It needed to stop. And Iroh could do it; it would just be a little while more. Azulon was an old man and could die any day now.

"Yes! You know the sacrifices that come with spreading the glory of the Fire Nation to the other nations. The price every day hundreds of soldiers pay for their country. Iroh would most likely have peace with the Earth Kingdom the moment he's given the Fire Crown."

Ursa giggled inwardly; that was true, and this warmongering politician could do nothing to stop it. Azulon was nothing but a man of traditions; and traditions dictated the crown went to the eldest son when the Fire Lord died. Iroh could be all the peaceful man he wanted to and expect to keep his crown since he was the oldest son. Ursa for one was glad things were like that.

"But father, unfortunately, won't listen. All he keeps saying is 'You´re not the rightful heir to the throne' like if I was some bastard he had with a servant girl. I´m his son, who´s proven himself over and over capable of leading the Nation. But no, Fire Lord Azulon shall be succeeded by Fire Lord Iroh."

The rest of that night was just drunk rambling of battles they never fought and women they never had. Ursa knew she was the first woman Ozai ever had, he was married to her on his father's insistence. For all Ozai cared, he could've lived childless.

The problem was ever since that night, Ozai had been obsessed with taking the throne for himself. It got to the point gossip was going around that he was planning an assassination; either Azulon's or Iroh's, the target changed with the teller. But Ursa knew her husband, she knew he would do it if he had the chance to get away with it.

Fortunately, Azulon was well guarded and Iroh was far away from his brother's reach, and there was no way Ozai could kill him without getting caught; Azulon had made sure of that since Ozai wouldn't be the first second son to try to kill his older brother for the crown.

Ursa decided it was time to pay a visit to a friend of sorts, though she never met her, she must have been quite a person. She uprooted a flower from the gardens and made her way to Iroh's private quarters, where there was a small garden, and in it was whom she wanted to see.

Iroh's wife, by all tales had been an amazing woman who had departed this world leaving a shroud of sadness not even Iroh had been able to stand. While in the public eye he was the strong man he needed to look like, but many had been the times she had seen him do everything: from lightening bending to crying, just because of her absence.

Ursa used the walk to reflect on things: her marriage, her life, the "letters to her family" she had been sending, and much more until she arrived at Iroh's quarters and heard sounds coming from the inside.

Ursa was surprised to hear this since Iroh wasn't expected to come back from his journey for another week; she ran to the door and was even more surprised, and quite disappointed, when she saw Ozai there.

"Were you expecting someone else?" Ozai said curiously, noticing Ursa's apparent disappointment.

"No. I'm just surprised to see you here," Ursa said, looking away.

"I'm here on…private business. And you?"

"Likewise," Ursa said without any desire of talking to Ozai after what he tried to do to poor Zuko.

"You better be right about him. Or else I will do it, no matter what you do. If he's 14 and hasn't bent yet, he won't turn 15," Ozai said before leaving Ursa to her disgusted feelings towards her husband. He could've shot as many lightning bolts at her as he could muster, but never would she allow anything to happen to her son.

Yet, when she got to the garden, she was once more surprised: near the shrine Iroh had set up in memory of his wife, a handful of Fire Lilies had been placed, and they were fresh.

Ursa had heard the stories about Ozai and Iroh being together all the time when they were kids, but she also had heard how Ozai skipped his sister-in-law's funeral and had never said anything about her passing. Ursa considered this. Maybe someday, he would get the courage to actually say something instead of just admiring from afar.