Call of the Tsungi Horn
A/N: this idea just wouldn't leave me alone ahahahaha! told in short drabbles cos i'm currently experimenting with different writing styles...
—
1.
They are standing back-to-back under a burning hot sun; terrified out of their minds and surrounded by red and blue bodies of dragons supposedly long dead.
Despite his fear, however, Aang retains enough sense to look around them, and gathers that the master's movements hold a specific pattern. Ran and Shaw possess no limbs, but manage to mimic human motions extremely similar to the statues he and Zuko had discovered the day earlier...
"Zuko, I think we're supposed to do the dragon dance with them!" he whispers urgently.
The fire prince snaps his head back, hissing:
"What? What about this situation makes you think they want us to dance?"
"Well, I think they want us to do something!" Aang retorts testily. "Let's just try it!"
In another universe, Zuko sets aside his pride and believes in his blue-tattooed friend, and together they learn the secret of fire in a blaze of rainbow prism.
...In this universe, however, Zuko still thinks that dancing is a stupid idea when they were quite possibly about to die. In his mind he tells himself that he would rather not provide a monkey show to sun warriors he knew were probably snickering at them down below. He's horrible at dancing anyway and looks suspicious enough hanging around a twelve-year-old boy—Avatar or not—without the added tango.
"No." he says decisively.
Aang bristles, but before the airbender has a chance to protest, the masters stop flying and perch against the stone walkway before each of them. He shuts his mouth but cannot shut his eyes. The red one, Shaw, is staring straight at him. With Zuko, Ran's blue muzzle snarls with intelligent contempt.
The youngsters shiver.
Ran and Shaw very briefly look over their heads, at one another, before focusing their "judgment" once again on the duo.
They open their mouths and breathe fire.
Aang and Zuko scream,
And the boys disappear in a vortex of pitch-black flames.
—
2.
When they awaken their limbs are draped over each other, and a headache rules over them both as they slowly drag themselves off. Aang's face is smudged with dirt. Zuko has twigs and leaves in his hair—along with a creepy-crawly or two—and Aang finds himself thankful that he regularly shaves his head.
"Where are we?" he moans groggily.
Zuko blinks and takes in their surroundings. Piercing gold eyes narrow at the darkness and dank.
"I don't know." he says honestly. "Looks like some kind of forest."
'Some kind' meaning 'I've never seen anything like this before.' The trees are eerie, gargantuan, and almost barren until they crane their necks up to look higher. Their feet rest atop a layer of moss that is gray and wet and smells of decay. There are no signs of life around them, and thick white mists drifts in and out of their vision. The airbender begins to feel a vague sense of panic sink in.
This place is weird, and also all-too-familiar...
Aang tugs on the older boy's sleeve and whimpers softly.
"Zuko. I think...I think we're in the spirit world."
"WHAT?"
—
3.
Aang stands by his belief that Zuko is not-as-much-of-a-jerk-as-he-could-have-been, but remembers the fireballs that had been shot at him earlier and shudders nonetheless. (1)
"Sorry." Zuko mutters, noticing the bald boy shiver. He feels like a bully, and supposes that this is just what he gets. "I just can't believe that I'm dead."
"We don't know that for sure..." Aang says cautiously. "I've been to the spirit world before, and my physical body was still alive in the real world."
"Yeah, well was your physical body engulfed in flames before you went?"
"No." he gulps.
"Then shut up." sighs Zuko, trudging on.
If there was one good thing about dying, it was that his bending still worked and that his swords had somehow gone with him. He slices through the gloomy foliage and motions for Aang to stay close. The air nomad looks young and helpless, and Zuko feels a surge of pity well up for the boy who was supposed to save the world. It's his destiny, after all, and while Zuko wants to believe that they'll both be alright, he can't help but feel pessimistic at the odds of their future...or lack thereof.
But teenagers tend not to hold as much faith as children, and after nearly an hour of walking, Aang manages to regain his voice.
"Hey, Zuko. You...didn't feel any pain when you died, right?"
He cocks an eyebrow.
"No." he answers slowly. "Why?'
"Well..." Aang fidgets. "If we died, then we would've felt it, right? I mean, when Azula shot me with lightning it was the most pain I've ever felt in my life."
"You really died that day?" Zuko asks, shocked.
Aang nods.
"Yeah. Katara was only able to bring me back because we had water from the spirit oasis."
Zuko touches his scar unconsciously.
"Sorry." he says again.
"It's okay. It wasn't you."
"Still..."
"I said it's okay! Besides, you're on our side now."
"Uh-huh."
"Anyway," Aang continues. "I really do think we're still alive, Zuko."
"Yeah? Then how do we get out of here...?"
Aang shrugs helplessly.
"I don't know. But, maybe we can find Avatar Roku and ask him!"
Zuko nods stiffly, deciding, this time, to actually follow the Avatar's lead. He can't help but think that, maybe, if he had just danced before Ran and Shaw...
He shakes his head. He doesn't want to think about it.
"You know," Zuko says casually, wanting to distract himself. "Avatar Roku was my other grandfather."
Aang is silent.
"...what?" he asks finally.
They are as awkward as baby turtle-ducks for another half-hour.
—
4.
When Zuko finally gets Aang to stop calling him 'whippersnapper,' they come-face-to face with a giant spider-cat missing the ears and the tail.
Aang is a hippie and thinks it's a spirit. He bows to it while clutching onto Zuko's robes.
"G-greetings great spirit...do you k-know where Avatar Roku is?"
The creature chuckles deeply, amused, and answers with venom dripping from its fangs.
"My, my, my...I have never heard a human address me so formally. But I must answer, unfortunately, that I know not of this 'Avatar Roku.'"
"O-okay." he stutters. "T-then I guess we'll just be going..."
"Not so fast." says Aragog. "Polite as you are, I cannot deny my children fresh meat."
Aang shrieks as the acromantulas swarm. Zuko pries his hands off and jumps into action immediately, flipping onto his palms and flaring his legs out like a spinning top. Aang blows himself into safety as fire erupts from the soles of his friend's feet.
The monsters closest to them draw back; but they retain the advantage of numbers and the swarm keeps advancing nonetheless. Aang begins to help and blasts chunks of the horde away with air, but it is futile. There are too many and both benders are quickly growing exhausted.
So Zuko does the only thing he can think of: he sets the whole forest on fire.
"AANG!" he shouts. "FLY US OUTTA HERE!"
"WHAT?" Aang screams back, as the pyre spreads quickly from tree to tree. "BUT I DON'T HAVE MY GLIDER!"
Whatever curse words Zuko fires back with are drowned out by the squeals of panicked acromantulas.
—
5.
By some miracle of fate, Aang and Zuko make it out of the burning section of the forest alive. They look behind themselves—at the not-so-distant red-orange glow—and pant heavily.
"We made it." Zuko gasps, hands on his knees. He is glad that he has managed to get away from the fiasco with no new scars.
"Yeah." replies Aang, relieved. "We did."
That relief soon dissipates, however, upon hearing a stampede of hooves their way. Soon, man-horse hybrids come into light, and the duo pales upon seeing their new enemies.
"INSOLENT HUMANS!" roars Magorian. "YOU WILL PAY FOR TRESPASSING OUR TERRITORY!"
Ronan glares. Although the centaur dislikes humans too, he would've spoken out for Zuko and Aang, seeing as they were still foals. But, these two had also set the forest on fire, and so instead he shoots the first arrow.
Aang slices the weapon in half with a blade of air.
All doubts that Firenze and Bane have about their threat level are abandoned as soon as Zuko follows the defense with another fireball.
Minutes later, the human pair are scurrying frantically through Forbidden Forest, with arrows raining down on their backs.
"THESE THINGS ARE EVEN WORSE THAN THE YUYAN ARCHERS!" Aang shouts.
Silently, Zuko agrees.
—
6.
It is by another miracle of fate that Aang and Zuko manage to lose the furious centaurs and safely crawl out of the forest altogether. Once a sizable distance is finally put between themselves and the edges of the dark woodlands, they allow themselves a break and collapse onto nice, soft grass.
Running his hands through blades of green, Aang closes his eyes and breathes deeply. Zuko does the same. It is fast approaching nighttime now and the stars are beginning to come into view.
"We have to find shelter." Zuko says after a while.
"How 'bout those ruins over there?" suggests Aang.
The firebender takes one look at the decrepit, decaying sign ahead of them that says 'KEEP OUT' and blanches.
"Aang...what makes you think that place is safe?"
"Nothing can be as bad as that forest." the monk counters defensively.
Zuko groans and refuses to get up until Aang blows moist air into his ears.
Fireballs, of course, soon follow.
—
7.
Aang and Zuko are muggles but possess enough spirit energy to—just barely—resist the muggle wards set up around Hogwarts. They push through despite the nagging feelings in the back of their minds that they forgot something and needed to be somewhere else.
The spirit world is a funny place, Aang decides, because once they march past the scary warning sign, a great castle comes into view.
Aang and Zuko stare in awe.
"Well...l-let's go in already!" Zuko stammers. "I'm getting cold."
Aang snickers upon remembering that firebenders are sensitive to temperature change. He wonders how Zuko ever survived the siege of the North pole with no Water Tribe parka.
"Okay okay! Let's go."
The massive stone doors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are closed. Aang simply earthbends them in.
—
8.
"This place is creepy." Zuko complains.
"But it's cool!" Aang replies cheerfully.
The castle is illuminated by dull candlelight secured above them on stone walls. Portraits of pale people in foreign garbs move about their frames and gossip eagerly about the strange newcomers. Empty suits of armor clink and cock their heads to the side examining them.
Aang offers them all friendly waves. Zuko offers them all ugly scowls.
"No it's not." Zuko growls. "It's like we're stuck in some sort of nightmare."
"You're silly." chuckles Aang, and the older boy shoots him a fearsome death glare. "Anyway, I smell food! Do you?"
Zuko stops and sniffs the air.
"Now that you mention it...I kinda do."
"And," Aang continues. "Is it just me, or do you hear people too?"
Zuko's eyes widen.
'Yeah...I do!" he says.
"It's coming from that direction!" Aang points.
He runs ahead. Zuko squints down the narrow hallway Aang scuttles into. There are enormous wooden doors at the end with light streaming out from the bottom. Faint noise is buzzing from the inside. The door handles are not out of reach, however, and after Aang grabs onto them and jiggles them about, he shouts excitedly for Zuko to hurry up and come over.
The fire prince only slightly increases the speed of his steps.
Losing patience, Aang goes in without him.
—
9.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione are having dinner when a bald boy with a blue arrow on his head bursts into Hogwart's dining commons.
All four houses, along with the table of professors, simultaneously grow silent as the boy looks around himself, eyes wide. He is dressed in muggle Tibetan monk robes, says Hermione, and Ron asks her where Tibet is before Harry shushes them both.
The boy's roaming, dark-gray orbs wander about until they settle on Dumbledore. His confusion seems to fade visibly on his sight, and Dumbledore quirks a bow in surprise when he beams excitedly. Eyes sparkling, the monk grins before suddenly making a wide sweeping motion with his arms: a spinning ball of air materializes below him as he jumps on it and flies over to the old man.
Harry's jaw drops along with those of his peers.
"AVATAR ROKU!" the boy shouts happily.
"Excuse me?" Dumbledore blinks.
McGonagall lets out an indignant 'Why, I never!' when the boy's air ball drops and he lands atop her Yorkshire pudding. Snape merely sneers and makes an unpleasant face at his arrival.
"I've been looking everywhere for you!" Aang babbles, oblivious to the meal he had just ruined and the dining room's incredulous stares. "You gotta help me and Zuko get back to the real world, Roku! We have to make it back in time for the comet!"
"AANG!" a new voice shouts, and students and professors alike temporarily tear their attention away from the bald boy.
At the entrance, a heavily scarred teenager in clothes of Chinese dynasties long past stands massaging his temple. Despite his rather frightening aura, however, Hermione—as well as every other Hogwarts girl—find themselves staring at the teen's exotic features. He really wasn't all that bad looking. Despite the slight disfigurement, there was something about the second newcomer that was oddly appealing. He had a roguish, bad-boy look about him wholly unlike any other boy there…
Ron doesn't like him already.
Harry rubs his forehead, thinking, for the first time, that his scar isn't so bad.
At the Slytherin table, Draco straight-up mutters that he's 'an ugly twat.'
Pansy tells him to be quiet for once.
Everyone agrees.
"Zuko...?" asks 'Aang.' "What is it?"
"That's...not Avatar Roku." he grits.
'Aang' looks stricken. He glances back and forth between Dumbledore and 'Zuko' before asking shakily: "H-how do you know?"
'Zuko' pinches the bridge of his nose, irritated.
"Firebenders don't wear purple." he replies.
"Oh, yeah." 'Aang' says lamely.
—
A/N: (1) let's just pretend that Aang's too overwhelmed here to remember that you can't bend in the spirit world LOL! of course, he will realize that later in upcoming chapter-drabbles...
please review! ^^"
EDITED: 11/2/2014