Written for the Pro-bending Circuit | Semi-Finals
Team: Laogai Lion Vultures
Position: Earthbender
Task: Write about how your actions and interactions with someone can have positive or negative effects on you in the future.
Prompt:
Easy (object) a faded photograph
Medium (plot point) someone is ticklish
Medium (plot point) someone has to use the bathroom really badly
Bonus: Use of element
Word Count: 1854
AN: This is part two of a four part series, using the characters Sun Warrior Chief (A), Zuko (B), Sokka (C) and Chong the Nomad (D). The other parts are as follows:
Part 1 (A&B): Double Date of Dragon Destiny by FictionIsSocialInquiry (With special thanks to Zentauria :D)
Part 2 (B&C): You are here!
Part 3 (C&D): Of Prickle-Snakes and Armadillo Lizards by misszeldsayre
Part 4 (D&A): Nomad Discretion by FictionIsSocialInquiry
I'll add the links in my profile. Definitely give them a read!
You ever lose a dragon before? You'd think it'd be a hard thing to do, but a baby dragon was quite a slippery little thing in reality, capable of wiggling out of your arms, slipping under a door and scampering out of your sight before you even had time to register the bite it gave your thumb on the way down.
Not to say that Zuko had lost a dragon before. Except, yes, he's scurrying around the palace with blood leaking from his thumb, and he'd definitely lost a dragon. Until, at least, he heard Sokka shout from somewhere across the garden.
"Prickle-snake! Really big prickle-snake!"
Zuko followed the sound, waved off the guards that tried to investigate the accused 'prickle-snake,' and burst through a line of bushes to a thankfully secluded patch of garden.
A prickle-snake was a native species of the Earth Kingdom plains, a serpentine creature usually colored a stony gray, grew to about two feet in length, and was named for the hundreds of thin spines armoring its body. Though about the same size, Druk boasted a scaly, deep red coat, a golden mane, four clawed feet, and a set of wings. He was also growing a row of teeth, which he showed off to Sokka as he hissed.
Sokka was drawn up like a housemaid who'd found a spider-mouse in the pantry. As Zuko snatched the dragon by its tail, Sokka yelped, "Ah, don't touch it! You don't know if that snake's poisonous!"
"It's not a snake," Zuko said as he tried to stuff the creature into the folds of his tunic. "It's a… it's a… dragon." His words stumbled into a whisper. Of all the people who knew about the dragon's existence, of course it was him who let the secret slip.
Dragon, Sokka silently mouthed, then louder, "How did you get a dragon!?"
"Quiet," Zuko seethed. "Tell the entire country, why don't you?"
"Dragon," Sokka said, quieter this time. "How did you get a dragon?"
"It was… look, I shouldn't even be telling you this!" Zuko wanted to smash his head into a boulder, right after he threw the little menace of a dragon into an earthen pit, where he'd never cause any trouble again. "The fact that you found out this quick... It's ridiculous!"
"The fact that I had to find out at all is ridiculous! How long have you been hiding this? Why didn't you tell me?"
"Look, I don't need this getting out of hand. I didn't want the news that the dragons are still alive to blow up." Druk poked his head into the air and stuck his tongue out, as if to say yes, he was very much alive. "This world's still in a delicate state. If the news gets out, at best, we'll set off a dragon craze with everyone scouring the Earth looking to meet the next dragon. At worst, we'll have a new generation of dragon hunters on the prowl."
"So you think I'd go blabbing on about it. I see how it is," Sokka tried to make his voice stony and unforgiving, but the pout just made it childish.
"Sokka, you're being ridiculous."
"Am I really?"
"Look, I'm sorry, okay? I do trust you. That's why you're here in the first place, because I trust you to help me with all of this." Zuko waved his hands all around him. The five years since his coronation had been hectic but Sokka had been stone in his support for Zuko, from the creation of Republic City to the dissolution of Earth Kingdom colonies to cooperation with the Southern Water Tribe. Except for that one time at Yu Dao, but even Zuko didn't trust himself back then.
Eventually, Sokka sighed, "Alright. So how'd you get the thing in the first place?"
"I was… having nightmares. About Fang, Roku's dragon. When Aang was having the same dreams, we knew something was up with Ran and Shaw."
"Who?"
"The dragons who showed us the Dancing Dragon."
"Oh yeah, I remember that. Still light on your toes, Firelord?" Sokka gibed, before dancing around in what might've been a mockery of the firebending form.
Zuko just sighed before continuing. "So, we went to the Sun Warriors—"
"Wait," Sokka interrupted, stopping his dance. "We?"
Zuko was suddenly caught between a rock and a hard place. The truth was, sure, they'd thought about bringing Sokka — for maybe a second before everyone silently agreed that he'd never be able to keep his mouth shut. He couldn't exactly tell him that, though.
"It was just me and Aang." Zuko shuffled his feet in the dirt. Sokka huffed through his nose, miffed, but somewhat resigned to the fact that, yeah, it made sense for the Avatar to join the Firelord in receiving the first dragon in recent history. When Zuko continued, that acceptance was wiped clean off Sokka's face. "And Katara… and Mai."
Sokka's eyes bugged out of his head. "You went on a double date to pick up a baby dragon? And you didn't invite me!?"
"I'm sorry! I would've told you eventually, but then this happened!"
The news was a hard stone to swallow, but eventually, after a lot of grumbling, Sokka asked, "Why haven't you told anyone? Why didn't you tell me?"
"I'm telling you now, aren't I?" Zuko said, but guilt settled like a rock in his stomach. He trusted Sokka, he did; he just didn't trust his mouth sometimes. "Look, we promised we'd keep this hidden until Druk could defend himself. Besides, we need to keep the Sun Warriors secret, and this'll bring unwanted attention."
The Sun Warriors had made that painstakingly clear. They'd been reluctant to let him take Druk at all, but for Zuko, there had been no question. He still remembered meeting the dragon for the first time, how the earth had practically shook under his feet when the egg had started hatching before him. Sure, the dragon had turned out to be quite a hassle — the situation they were in was an example of that — but he and Druk were connected, for better or worse.
Suddenly, Druk jumped out from between the folds of his tunic and landed on the earth. His claws clicked as he scrambled onto a stone for a better perch. A curious thing by nature, the baby dragon thankfully didn't run off again, instead choosing to study Sokka as if he were a peculiar gem. Sokka and the dragon had a short staring contest before Druk stuck out his tongue and leaped forward.
"Uh, get it off!" Sokka yelped, trying to brush the beast off like dust. Druk was stubborn though, and latched on for a good while before he jumped off onto the dirt, having tracked muddy footprints all along Sokka's clothes. The glorified prickle-snake sat up on its rock, watching in interest as Sokka fumed.
"Scared of a baby dragon. Really?" Zuko mocked.
"I'm not a fan of pets, okay? Most animals, really, unless I can eat them," Sokka griped as he tried to rub the mud from his shirt. "Appa sneezes on me, Momo steals my food, and Toph took Hawky before I could even get to know him."
"Hawky?"
"See, even you didn't know he existed. And you were like, a god-tier stalker back then."
"I was not," Zuko said. He would've argued that he'd been a little busy at the time, but then he noticed that Druk was chewing on something he probably shouldn't be chewing on. Zuko wrenched the paper from his mouth, but Druk nipped and hissed and bit off a sizable chunk, which the dragon chewed on happily.
From the shreds he could still make out, it must've been a faded family portrait Druk had apparently found and dragged outside. The thing about such a slippery creature was that it tended to slither into long-forgotten crevices and dig up whatever it found there. The picture might've slipped behind a dresser or under the floorboards years ago, left to collect dust. Nobody from his family probably cared enough to miss it at that point.
"Ha, it's chewing Ozai's head! Thing has good taste at least." Sokka's voice brought Druk's interest back to him. The dragon clambered back up on him, curling around the man's arm, and this time he wasn't shaken off. "You know, it's kinda cute. Just a little."
Bringing a hand under the dragon's chin, Druk squeed a very un-dragonish, but happy, sound. How a dragon could be sensitive enough to be ticklish under all those scales was beyond him. Sokka laughed at the ridiculousness of it, Druk opened his mouth and squeaked as if trying to mimic him, and even Zuko had to smile.
A stream of liquid dripping onto the ground stopped their antics. Sokka groaned, "Aw c'mon, I get drooled on enough by Appa."
The liquid wasn't coming from Druk's mouth, though. Zuko deadpanned, "That's not drool."
Eyes filling with horror, Sokka shook his arm up and down, trying to throw the dragon back on the dirt. "Not cute! Not cute! Forget I ever said that!"
"So that's why he wanted to go outside," Zuko mused.
One good shake from Sokka, and Druk leaped back onto his rock, but not before giving Sokka's hand a good nip. The smell of dragon urine, by the way, was extremely pungent.
Sokka looked to his wet sleeve, then to the bite on his hand, then to the dragon on the ground, and finally, to Zuko.
"You…" Sokka never finished his sentence, just twisted his mouth and stormed off to get himself cleaned up. Once Druk was finished his business, Zuko hid him under his clothes and slipped back into his chambers.
Well, he thought, I guess that could've gone worse.
"I can't believe you let your dragon just…" Sokka announced as he crashed into the room a few minutes later, now sporting new clothes.
"I didn't let him do anything," Zuko said, "You're the one who wanted to know about him."
Sokka muttered obscenities to the Firelord that might have constituted treason if he was a Fire Nation citizen. Despite the fuming, Druk jumped across the room and onto Sokka's shoulder.
Zuko smiled, "I think he likes you."
"Great," Sokka leaned away, but Druk cranked up his baby dragon charms, whining and lolling his tongue out and rubbing up against him. Deciding that Druk probably wouldn't defecate on him this time, Sokka slowly brought a finger under the dragon's chin. "You have a name for him yet?"
"Yeah," Zuko answered, "Druk."
"Druk," he tested out the word, patting the little guy's head. "One day you'll be cool. Once you can fly and eat people and get housebroken. You sure you got the little guy covered once I high-tail it out of here?"
"Yeah. I'll start blocking the space under the door. Maybe I'll get him a leash," Zuko half-joked, "Just don't go spreading the news all over Earth Kingdom when you leave, ok?"
"Hey, my lips are sealed. If you let that snake slip again, I'm not gonna be the one breaking the secret."