Dedicated to Molly,
A minority and a target of insult and slander, you are the personification of perseverance, strength, and love.
All that I am I owe to you.
A Quick Note From The Author:
This book goes back and forth between our time and the Avatar's. In our time (being the present day here and now) there are benders also. None of them are Mary Sue's. Good day.
"Funny, the damage a silly little book can do, especially in the hands of a silly little girl."
Tom Riddle, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (movie)
Chapter One: Taking an Actual Liking to Libraries and Its Consequences
Lily Bontecou found the book in the very back of the reference section in the library, a section where no one else dares to tread due do certain rumors of what goes on back there. The main rumor was that sex went on back there, and/or weed. Either which way no one wants to walk in on someone smoking weed or having sex. Or doing both at the same time for that matter.
Lily didn't care. She didn't believe the rumors first of all, and secondly, if they were true, the young water bender could simply step over them while searching for her needed books. It was simple as that.
"You can't just step over them Lily," Sara, explained impatiently to Lily. "They move around a lot and start having random spasms. And you being, well, you, you'll more than likely trip over them."
But since no one was doing it on the carpeted floor (at the time at least) Lily was free to scan the shelves for something, anything, on Prince Zuko. The project wasn't due until two weeks time, but that didn't stop the aspiring scholar to send a silent prayer asking for a really good reference.
Which is when she found the book.
It was like any other book in the world, leather bound, rectangular, and for the most part intact. The cover was beautifully red with the emblem of the Fire Nation shining in gold and black. Lily slid down the length of the wall and opened it.
It isn't just a book, she soon realized. It's a journal! His journal! Excitement filled Lily like no other, and without noticing the dejected couple who were disappointed to see her sitting on their spot, she began to read.
Day Twenty-Five—Hour of the Rat
The dream. Just once more.
She's standing on the shores of the ocean, the beautiful water bender, but I cannot make out her face. When I come close to her she dissolves into the sand and suddenly I myself am sinking into the watery depths.
I hear my mother's voce, her righteous tone. What can a prince do to win his father's love back? Did he ever really love me at all? I know there is no point in asking myself this…but still. It's getting late. I should go to bed.
Lily stared at the page of the book. This was certainly a more…romantic…Zuko then the one she was used to reading about. She flipped forward a few pages and looked at a different logging.
Day Thirty Six—afternoonI am a monster. After all I have fought for they banded me from their village, like a plague. This is all the Avatar's doing—I will catch him. I will win back my father's love.
I know who I am.
"That's more like it," Lily said standing up. She turned to put the book back on the shelf—and stopped. The shelves were no longer there. They had been replaced with an open dirt road, blue sky, and far off mountains. Lily panicked. Where was she? Was this the book's doing?
Someone was approaching up the road. Lily squinted her eyes hoping it wasn't bandits. She had read about them in many books—plundering rich men, and doing worse things to their women. It wasn't bandits, however.
It was the Fire Prince himself.