This is a requested fanfiction about Lee's thoughts after Zuko leaves. And just because the user who requested it was the first to review my first piece, his/her other suggestion of one about Zuko returning after the war will be fulfilled later. Enjoy, and please review.
The dust is spinning about me, grit stinging my face and the hybrid pigs' skin. Squealing and grunting, they move to find shelter in the mud around them. My father always said that I had to take the utmost care of the hybrid pigs. Not only were they the essential components of our family business, hybrid pig farming, but all living things have worth and should be cared for well.
"Even the Fire Nation?" Sensu would ask.
My father would stop to think, as he did each time we asked. "Before the war, they may have had worth. But when the Fire Nation broke the peace, they gave up their honor and humanity. All living things have worth, but the people of the Fire Nation are dead inside."
Sensu and I used to care for the hybrids together. He carried the heavy slop bucket, and I cleaned their pen. Sometimes I'd beg to carry the bucket and claim to be big enough and strong enough, but he'd just laugh and tell me that I wasn't tall enough yet.
"Let your elders teach you the proper ways to do things, and trust that they know when you've stopped being a shrimp and are a man," he'd say laughingly, in a mock-wise way.
Even though Sensu was kidding, I did look up to him. There was nothing my brother couldn't do. When he left to be a soldier, my dad was the only hero I could aspire to for a while. Then a sand-scoured, silent stranger came stumbling into our town. I saw the soldiers gambling on some die and noticed how they took an instant dislike to the wanderer, so my friend Yan goaded me to toss an egg at the soldiers when the shopkeeper turned his back. It was perfect. Those thugs would think that the mystery man had thrown the egg and pick on him. And of course I went through with it and chucked the egg in their direction. It had the misfortune to hit the leader, who growled and wiped it off his face.
I don't recall what was said between them, but I know that the stranger stood up to the bullies. They had him marked as a target from day one. Yan ran away, but I went up and dragged the stranger's ostrich-horse in the direction of our home. It was the least that I could do for a guy who saved my skin. He accepted my offer of dinner, apparently hungry from his travels, and together we went back to the farm.
We didn't find out my savior's real name until later, but he helped my father fix the roof before dinner. I asked a few questions as the men worked, until my dad said that if our visitor wanted to be private, I should let him be. There was a reason for his privacy, we would learn, but he was a curiosity. I tried, honestly, but it didn't work for very long. He just screamed unsolved mystery, and I'm too curious for my own good. So says my mother Sela, anyways.
I took our visitor's swords in the middle of the night, and snuck out to the field to practice with them. The Stranger, as I thought of him in my head, followed me. Instead of getting mad, he taught me a little about using the blades and gave me a knife inscribed with the words "Never Give Up Without a Fight". I liked him, and told the Stranger about my brother Sensu. He went a little quiet at that.
The next day, soldiers came to take their tribute from us. I told them to back off and showed the goons my knife. Instead of taking the tax, they took me and tied me to a pole in the village center. If my mysterious friend didn't show by sundown, the soldiers said that they would kill me. As the day dragged on, I wasn't sure if he was coming. Would a man I had met only yesterday come to save a scrawny kid?
Just as the sun had begun to set, he rode into town on an ostrich-horse. The Stranger had his swords in their sheaths, and he looked ready to use them.
"See! I told you he'd come!" I cried. And I had, countless times that day. More for myself than anyone else, I guess. The bullying thugs wouldn't listen to some kid.
They exchanged some words that I couldn't really hear from where I was. I couldn't hear Stranger's side, in any event. His opponents were loud enough for people miles away to hear. They charged one by one, easily defeated by the Stranger. All except for the gang's leader, a hammer-wielding Earthbender. That meant he was gifted with the power to move stone, dirt, and sand, according to my mom. I hadn't actually seen him do that, but according to her, he could. I thought of him as Hammer, since I had no other name for him. None that would fit. Hammer suited this guy. He was strong, and hard, and pain-causing just like the tools he wielded.
Now I saw him put that ability to use. He hurled rocks at Stranger who did his best to deflect them with his swords. My messiah couldn't even get his balance. A swordsman he might be, but the Stranger didn't seem like the kind of guy who could deal with Earthbending. I was more and more frightened as the fight went on, not sure if Stranger could save me. Not sure if I would live or die. The final blow came in the form of a massive stone chunk, propelled with a particularly violent swing of Hammer's war-hammers. All at once, my attempted rescuer was lying on the ground, unconscious. I knew for certain that all hope was gone.
But all of a sudden, he was stirring. Revived already? Impossible, unless you were seriously tough. No one was that good. Except for the Stranger, apparently.
And then-the unthinkable. Stranger was surging to his feet, surrounded by-fire? A raging inferno, so blazingly hot that I could feel the heat from where I stood. Then that meant he was a firebender. One of the despised, feared warriors of the cruel Fire Nation able to turn life-giving fire into a deadly weapon. Probably separated from his war band, using Earth Kingdom peasants to stay alive while searching for them. Or maybe a scout, sent ahead to infiltrate my homeland and learn its secrets. In that instant every feeling I had possessed for him changed. Adoration to loathing, admiration to scorn. One of those-those murderers had been in my home! He had eaten my family's food; given me a knife that had likely been snatched from the corpse of an Earth Kingdom soldier. With a fell shout, the firebender spun and let a streamer of flame roll off one blade, morphing into a blazing orb that smashed into his foe. Time after time, he attacks the soldier, who is helpless against a bender of this strength. Hammer attempted to defend himself one last time, but another barrage of fire shattered his defense and hurled him into a wall, bricks raining down upon the unfortunate thug. The firebender-all that I know for sure about this man, who is less than a man-stalked towards him.
"Who-who are you?" he whimpered pathetically. I am torn between sympathizing with this terrified man, despite what he has done to our town, and contempt for his defeat. There is no room for the feeling of gratitude anymore, not towards one of the hated Fire Nation troops.
My so-called rescuer took a deep breath, almost looking as if he doesn't want to reveal his identity. Everyone knows him for what he is now, I suppose, and there has to be at least some pride in his roots and squadron factoring in here. So what's different here?
"I am Zuko, crown prince of the Fire Nation." He took both blades in one hand, sheathing them once more. "Son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai, and heir to the throne." There's a certain odd quality to his voice. Zuko-for that is the only name, whether true or not, that I can call him by-said the words loudly enough for all to hear, but flatly and bitterly, as if he wishes it were not so. Crown prince? Son of the Fire Lord? How could we let the future leader of our enemy just waltz in to our homeland like this? I suppose I should have known. No mere wanderer would wield dual blades and carries an expensive knife.
"Liar!" someone cried. "I heard of you! He's nothing but an outcast! His own father burned and disowned him!" I too had heard legends of the exiled prince Zuko. For committing a crime in his homeland, the crown prince was scarred and swore revenge, hunting the Avatar and burning any town that dared to resist him. Fresh tales of him have slowed and gradually stopped, but I remember these things well. And yet, even now, that doesn't fit. Not with the persona I knew when he came to the village. Why would a prince be riding an ostrich-horse around a dusty, arid part of a foreign land alone? Why would he help some commoner family and not just burn our farm to the ground? I guess I'll never know if it was just an act or genuine.
Zuko removed the knife from Hammer's pocket almost delicately, taking care not to touch the bully. And then he turned that haunted, smoldering stare towards me. The firebender strode, as he always has since I first met him, over to me. But my mother Sela stepped defiantly in front of me.
"Not a step closer," she told him. An unarmed, nonbending, Earth Kingdom woman has no chance against a sword-wielding, firebending prince. It's just like with the hybrid sows at the farm. They'll protect the young at all costs, whether it will hurt them or not. Surprisingly, Zuko obeyed, kneeling as if in submission.
"Take it," he said, extending the knife to me. "It's yours."
"No! I hate you!" I yell at him. The words were out before I know what I have said. There's a bit of hurt in my former savior's eyes, but only briefly. At once it was replaced with an indifferent mask, perhaps with the ease of long practice. Only a short while later, the ex-prince Zuko rode off towards a setting sun on an ostrich horse. The entire town came out to make sure that he leaves. No one will take any chances after a scare like that.
Now, I am not sure what I feel for him. He helped to fix our roof, came to rescue me, saved me from the thugs when I threw an egg at him, gave me a knife, and taught me how to use dual blades. But Zuko is-or was- also a firebender, one of the Fire Nation, a murderer, and a hunter of the Avatar. Who is he really? Has he changed, and is that the reason new stories have stopped cropping up? Or is it simply a façade. Someday, I'll make sense of it all. But for now, all I can do is continue to feed the hybrid pigs, and hope for my father and Sensu to return from the war.
Alright people, I hope that you enjoyed this one. Review if you feel like it.