Finding Ursa

Finding Ursa

I.

"One more story! Please!" I heard my little sister's voice call out as I rounded the corner of the long hallway.

"If its okay with your mother, I don't see why not," my father's deep voice responded to her with a chuckle.

"Okay, fine," my mom responded, chuckling as well, "but nothing scary, okay, Zuko?"

I heard my little sister cheer and I rolled my eyes. By this time, I was outside of Zuni's room. Since I had nothing better to do, I decided to listen to my father's story as well. For a firelord, he told pretty good stories. I guess that's reasonable, considering his past. I peered into the room.

"Which story, Zuni?" my dad asked her.

Zuni's eyes glanced from our father to our mother, whose lap she was resting on. She looked back at my dad, who was eagerly awaiting her answer, and replied, "I want to hear one about your mom."

I narrowed my eyes. Dad never talked about his own mother. I looked over at my mom, whose expression changed completely.

"I don't think it's a good idea, Zuni," she told my little sister, who immediately became disappointed.

After a moment of silence, my dad responded by saying, "It's fine. It's about time the kids learned about their grandmother." He paused for a moment then looked into the doorway. "I know you're there, Oroh," he said to me, "you should come in here too. This one's a good one."

I walked into the room and nodded my head. I sat down on the chair next to the bed that Zuni and my mom were laying on. I got comfortable when my father started his story.

"Since the day I met her, my mother and I were as close as mother and son could get. She loved me more than she loved your grandfather; and I loved her more than I loved anyone else.

"When I was about ten years old, I lived with my mom, my dad, and my little sister - Azula."

"I never knew you had a sister, Daddy!" Zuni inturrupted her. "You guys were just like me and Oroh!"

My mom chuckled. "You'd better hope that you and Oroh aren't like your father and his sister."

Zuni looked confused but my father continued his story.

"Anyway, Azula and I weren't what you would call "close" to one another. She had two best friends - your mother being one of them - and I had no friends. I would sit by the pond in our courtyard and just talk with my mom.

"Until one particular day when everything changed. We went to a meeting with my father to talk to my grandfather. After I showed him my bending and Azula showed him hers, we were asked to leave.

"Why, Daddy?" Zuni inturrupted again. "Why couldn't you stay?"

My mom shushed her. It was quite apparent that she wanted to hear the story, too.

"Of course, Azula, being the rebel that she was, pulled me behind one of the curtains in the meeting room so that we could hear what my father needed to talk to my grandfather about.

"Their conversation talked about the heir for the throne. You see, kids, your great uncle Iroh had just lost the war to conquer Ba Sing Se. Even worse, he lost his son. My father thought it was unfair because he had lost his only son, so the bloodline would end there. He begged my grandfather to let him take the throne instead.

"My grandfather was outraged by this proposal. He demanded that my father did not know the pain of losing a son. In other words, my grandfather was going to kill me."

"No!" Zuni cried. She bundled up closer to my mom.

"Maybe we should continue the story another night," my mom suggested, "It's late and Zuni needs some rest."

"No! Daddy! Continue! Please!" Zuni yelled.

"Okay, okay. My mom found out that my father was going to kill me and she was outraged. She plotted very treacherous things, to save my life. Because of her wrongdoing, she was banished.

"I've yet to go one day without wondering where she is." I noticed that my father was beginning to tear up as he was talking. "A few weeks after I took the throne from my sister - which is another story - I went to ask my father where she was. But he refused to answer me. He told me that I was a failure, a traitor, and a mutinist. He has not talked to me since."

"Daddy, that's so sad," Zuni hopped off the bed and gave him a big hug. She was crying as well.

My mom just looked at them. Then she turned to look at me.

"Nothing from you, Oroh?" she asked me.

"No," I replied.

I stood up and walked into my room. I put on my hooded cloak and went for a walk outside. I grabbed my lantern off the hook by the back door and lit it. I walked for about two blocks before I got to my clubhouse that I used to hang out in when I was little.

I climbed the metal ladder that one of my friends had bent a while back and entered the small metal shack that he had constructed. On the wall in front of me, there were all of our names carved into the metal sheet. The first on the list was my name. Then was my best friend, Koda. Then Kya. Then Dente. And last, scribbled at a different time, was Tera.

I put my back against one of the walls and closed my eyes. I began to think about my dad and his mother. I could not even imagine the pain of losing the only person that I loved.

After about an hour of alone time, I looked up at the moon. I figured it was about midnight so I walked back to the main part of the palace. I crept into my room and went to sleep.

That night, I had a lifechanging dream. In my dream, I was walking down the shaded pathway in the courtyard with my mom. Suddenly, she vanished. I spent the rest of my dream either crying or looking for her. Nobody knew where she went and nobody would help me find her.

I woke up that night sweating like crazy. Within a few minutes, my mom came in and felt my forehead.

"Oroh! Are you alright? You don't look so good," she told me.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I responded. I hugged her, even though I was really sweaty. I was just so glad to have her right now.

The next morning, the cook served us some breakfast and I was very quiet. Which seemed to be okay, because Zuni talked double that morning, which allowed me to not say much.

By that afternoon, I was done thinking. I knew exactly what I had to do. I went to talk to my dad that night.

"Dad?" I asked as I opened the large doors to his throne room.

"Oroh?" he responded.

I walked farther in, "I have a proposition for you."

"A proposition?"

I made a fist and bowed to him. "Yes. It was actually inspired from your story last night."

He rose his eyebrow, "You want me to kill you?"

"No," I laughed, "I would like your permission to go on a trip. I'd like to find your mom."