The Boy with the Golden Eyes

Book One: The Beginning

Chapter One: The Airbender

The wind ruffled the young man's parka as he stood sentry with a whale-tooth spear in hand outside the small snowy village. He had been out there for hours, seemingly waiting for someone's impending arrival, staring off across the vast and icy ocean. As the oldest man currently in the Southern Water Tribe, it was his duty to protect it. The chief and his father would be disappointed if something bad were to happen to the Tribe while they were gone fighting in the one hundred year war.

"Zuko, you should come in for a bite to eat. You've been standing out here for far too long," said a kind voice.

Zuko turned and looked at the woman behind him and offered her a soft smile. She stood with her hands clasped before her, her large blue eyes gazing worriedly at him. She was a petite woman, short in stature and slim in figure. To Zuko and the entirety of the Tribe, she appeared fragile in appearance, but he knew better. To Zuko, she was the strongest woman he knew.

"I have to wait for them to return, Mother," he said.

His mother sighed behind him, "They wouldn't want you to freeze to death, you know."

He hung his head low and gripped his spear tighter in his hand. "I'm fine."

"Well, then maybe a bite to eat, then? You never got a chance to eat lunch today before Katara and Sokka wandered off to go fishing."

Zuko rolled his eyes and sighed. Katara and Sokka were the ones he was waiting sort of patiently for. Sokka had come out of his grandmother's animal-skin tent earlier in the day declaring that he was to bring in a major haul for dinner. His loud declaration had caught the attention of Sokka's younger sister Katara, who wanted to help her brother.

To Zuko, bringing Katara along spelled trouble. Not because she was a girl or anything, but because Sokka had a tendency to say something idiotic or rude that would rile up his little sister. Which tended to cause a massive display of destruction that could possibly alert a nearby Fire Navy ship.

"Yeah, and that is exactly why I can't eat now. You know how they are around each other."

His mother raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. "And how are they?"

"They're terrible, Mother. Just last week Sokka made Katara so mad that she made a huge crack in the best igloo the village had."

"Oh, dear, I do remember that. Kanna was not very pleased with her grandchildren."

Kanna was notably the mother of Chief Hakoda, and also notably the grandmother to Katara and Sokka. Kanna was actually the leader of the Tribe at the moment, though Sokka liked to believe it was him due to being the only son of the chieftain. Zuko thought Kanna was an excellent grandmother to let Sokka continue to believe this.

"But you have to understand, Zuko. They will be fine. Come now, I have a pot of sea prunes cooking and I would rather not leave it unattended for much longer."

Zuko turned away. "I'm not hungry, but thank—."

His stomach growled. Loudly.

His mother laughed in equal volume as his stomach. "You're not hungry, you say? Well, more sea prune stew for me!"

Zuko grumbled out a low response to his mother and gripped his spear tightly once more. He tried to ignore the sound of her walking away in the snow back toward the village and toward their warm tent.

The cold didn't necessarily bother Zuko. He just found it rather annoying. His body temperature was always a little higher than that of an average person, which was something he found to be rather useful when he would watch for any incoming ships from the sea.

Zuko had a little secret, and that secret was that he was a firebender.

When he first firebent, Zuko was three and terrified. And he certainly wasn't the only one scared, either. His mother was equally frightened by his sudden ability, but his father appeared unsurprised. They made him swear that he would never tell anyone about it nor would he firebend where people could see him unless he was absolutely sure that it was a life or death situation. And so far in his sixteen years of life, he has never had to firebend in order to protect his life, but he came close when he was ten. That was when the Fire Nation arrived violently on their shore, and that was the day when the chief lost his wife to a firebender.

After that, Zuko was afraid to firebend. He hated his ability and wished that he could waterbend like Katara. Firebending was too violent and too harsh. Every time he sees the angry flame in his hand, he thinks of the men raiding his small village and causing so much terror and pain. It also reminds him that his father wasn't really his father, because the only way a man of the Water Tribe could firebend was if he were born of mixed parents.

When his stomach growled once more, Zuko sighed and turned back toward the village. He knew he could stand out in the cold for a few more hours, but he knew that he really needed to get food in his belly. And with a resigned sigh, he headed toward the tent he shared with his mother where she accepted him with a warm smile and a large bowl of sea prune stew.

Zuko didn't know that he had started to nod off until he heard a long, loud groan come from the outside of the tent. He snapped awake and searched the tent for his mother, but she was nowhere to be found.

"Mom?" he asked.

With no reply, Zuko pushes himself on his feet and grabbed his boots and spear. He only pushed one foot in before he was outside the tent and he stopped in his tracks.

Before him stood the biggest and hairiest six-legged beast he had ever seen before in his life with long horns.

Zuko took a tentative step back and dropped his other boot. "What in spirit's name is that thing?" He held on tighter to his spear and raised it up in hopefully a threatening manner.

"Zuko!"

He paused at the sound of Katara's voice. She was home!

"Katara, where are—."

He stopped when he saw her come out from behind the beast. She beamed at him and flicked her long braid over her shoulder and came up to him. Behind her, he saw an extremely displeased Sokka come out from around the beast mumbling something grumpily. A young boy jumped down from the top of the beast and Zuko could have sworn that he felt a gust of wind brush him as he landed.

Zuko narrowed his eyes. "Katara, who is that? And what is that thing?"

Katara looked over her shoulder at the boy and her smile grew larger. She turned back around and was about to answer when the boy bounced up to him.

"I'm Aang!" he announced.

"He's an airbender, Zuko! Show him, Aang!" Katara said.

Zuko sighed. The existence of airbenders was just an urban legend. A fairy tale, so to speak. No one had actually seen an airbender in years. Ever since Fire Lord Sozin started the war nearly one hundred years ago when he launched a deadly attack on the Air Nomads.

Zuko watched Aang get into what he assumed was a bending stance. The boy shifted his feet and moved his arms along with his body, and before Zuko could make a counter argument about the existence of airbenders, he felt a moderate gust of wind brush past him and push some loose snow on the ground into the air.

Was that…airbending?

Nearby children had ceased their playing and had run up to them. Some clapped their hands with glee and exclaimed for Aang to airbend again. Aang obliged them, twirling around lightly on his toes before he was moving around on a what he called "an air scooter."

Zuko didn't loosen his hold on his spear. "What's he doing here?"

"Y'know, I asked the same question! It seems like he's a bit far away from wherever the airbenders are!" Sokka piped up, crossing his arms over his chest.

Katara whirled around with her hands on her hips. "Sokka, we don't even know where the rest of the airbenders are! Just rumours that they—."

"Yeah, yeah, they live somewhere in the Earth Kingdom in hiding. Look, Katara, we can't just—."

She cut off her brother. "We can't just leave him alone out there! He was lost and we found him! And besides, Aang can teach me how to bend."

Sokka waved his arms around in the air. "Katara, he's an airbender."

"So?"

"You're a waterbender."

Zuko rolled his eyes at the sibling's quarrel and thanked the spirits that his parents never granted him a sibling, and with a sigh, he stepped forward.

"Guys." The siblings stopped and looked over at him. "What is that thing?"

Katara's eyes lit up at the question. She smiled and moved to pet the thing. "Oh, this is—."

Aang stopped playing with the children and whirled around at the teenagers and smiled. He shot forward until he landed before the beast and pat him on the nose.

"This is Appa! He's my flying bison. I named him after my great-grandfather's bison," he said.

"Flying…bison?" He lowered his spear when he sensed that he no longer needed it.

Sokka rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I don't believe it either, buddy."

"Sokka!"

Sokka looked back at his younger sister. "What? Things that big just don't fly. I'm sorry, Katara, but you just gotta believe me on this one."

"Oh, he flies," Aang interjected.

Sokka let out a frustrated groan. "Aang, things this big don't fly!"

"Appa does! He's just tired, is all!"

When a cold gust of wind blew over, Zuko gave the boy a glance-over. He lacked a parka or anything warm, wearing nothing but a threadbare tunic and a pair of thin-looking trousers and boots. How he survived this long out in the South Pole, Zuko would never know.

"Aren't you…a little cold?" he asked the boy.

"Not really. It's a little brisk, though," Aang said.

Katara rushed to Aang's side and grabbed onto his arm. "Let's get you inside! I'm sure that Gran-gran—."

"Kata—no! He's not coming inside our tent!" Sokka sputtered.

She huffed. "Well, he's not staying outside tonight."

Katara held onto Aang's arm tightly and dragged him toward her tent until it was just Sokka and Zuko. The children had long since gone back to their mothers and respective chores once Aang had stopped airbending and became no longer of interest to them. That…and their mothers really wanted them to resume their chores and remain a far away distance from the stranger to the village.

"You're just gonna let him stay?" Zuko heard Sokka start after him. "Zuko, we don't know where he came from. He's an outsider, we can't—."

"Your sister's right, Sokka. We can't just let him stay outside tonight," Zuko said.

"But what if he brought the enemy here, Zuko? What if the Fire Nation is on our doorstep tomorrow?"

Zuko stiffened, but didn't stop moving toward the tent.

When he pulled back the flap into the tent, he nodded his head respectfully at Kanna as she sat stiffly in the middle stirring a boiling pot of what smelled like whale. Her face was pinched into a frown directed toward the animated young boy sitting on one of the furs with Katara as she explained to him each of the tools and ornaments hanging from the ceiling of the tent.

"Zuko, Sokka, what is this?" she asked.

Zuko looked to the boy on the pile of soft furs and moved to sit across from Kanna. Sokka remained standing by the entrance of the tent with his arms crossed over his chest. Katara stopped explaining everything to Aang at her grandmother's tone and glanced over at them.

"Gran-gran, it wasn't me, it was Kata—."

"Sokka!"

Kanna held up a hand to silence her grandchildren. "Zuko, who is this?"

Zuko opened his mouth and was about to explain when Katara rushed over next to him and sat on her knees beside him. "Aang's an airbender, Gran-gran!"

Kanna stiffened and looked back over at the sleeping boy. "An airbender? I don't believe it."

Zuko could tell that Kanna was having a difficult time that Aang, a stranger who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, was an airbender. Without a doubt Zuko was sure that Katara had introduced him once she and Aang had entered the tent, but ignored the tension that had coiled up within her grandmother at the sight of a stranger. Strangers weren't a good memory for the tribe.

"But Gran-gran, we saw him do it! We saw him airbend!" Katara urged.

Aang looked over at Katara and then at her grandmother and nodded unhelpfully.

"Katara," Kanna sighed. "Very few airbenders survived at the beginning of this war, and they have been keeping to themselves since. No one's seen an airbender in one hundred years."

"But the avatars could still airbend—."

"The avatar is born with the ability to bend all four elements, Katara," Kanna replied softly. "The avatar is an airbender and has been since birth."

"But—Show her, Aang! Show her that you can airbend!"

Aang lifted his hand and flexed his wrist, but nothing came out when Kanna held up her hand. She turned to Zuko and Sokka and sighed. "Is he alone?" she asked.

This time it was Aang who jumped up. "Yes, I'm alone! I didn't bring anyone with me! No one in the Air Nation knows I'm here because I left without telling them!"

Kanna turned her eyes onto Aang. "Then what are you doing here?" she asked him sternly.

The young boy backed off slightly and shifted. "It's—it's for a special reason," he said.

"A special reason?" Kanna raised her eyebrow.

Sokka moved forward and grabbed Aang by his thin shirt and pulled him forward. "You better tell us your special reason, air-boy!"

Katara reached out and grabbed her brother's wrist and tried to push him off of Aang. "Sokka, stop!" she cried. "You'll hurt him!"

Zuko watched the siblings as they struggled over the airbender boy. He felt utterly hopeless in situations such as these. His mother had told him many times over to never get involved with their sibling quarrels ever since Katara accidentally froze him to the ground.

"Guys, stop it!" Aang cried out, pushing out a gust of wind to push both siblings away from him and snuffed out all candles in the tent. "I'm here…looking for the avatar."

Katara and Sokka both gave Aang great perplexed looks that Zuko knew matched his own.

"The avatar was reborn into the Fire Nation," Kanna sighed. "Our chances of winning this war now are slim to none."

Aang leaned forward toward the older woman. "No, they're not! The avatar's not in the Fire Nation, and he hasn't been since he was born! I know so because my grandfather told me!"

"And you think the avatar's just hiding out in the South Pole?"

"Sokka!"

Aang sighed. "Well, I kinda got lost on my way to the Southern Air Temple," he said. "I guess I went too south, huh?"

Zuko watched as Sokka visibly deflated. "You're kidding me, right?"

The boy sighed again. "No, I really was looking for the Southern Air Temple. I figured there I'd get some clues because I really have no idea where to find him."

"Are you certain that you weren't followed?" Kanna asked Aang.

"Ye—."

"Though, he did come with this huge monster with six legs and horns," Sokka mentioned.

"His name is Appa, Sokka, and he's a flying bison," Katara shot back at her brother.

"Yeaaaah."

"Enough," Kanna said. "He can stay the night, but the boy will need to leave tomorrow."

Aang smiled. "Really? That's great!" He bounced up onto his feet and bowed respectfully at the older woman. "Thank you, ma'am."

There was silence after that, and the only one in the tent who made a noise was Katara. She moved forward until she was very close to her grandmother. "But Gran-gran, can't he stay longer? He can teach me how to bend!"

"He's an airbender, Katara," Sokka stated plainly with a sigh.

Katara shot a glare over her shoulder. "I know, Sokka."

Aang beamed over at Katara. "He's right!"

Sokka let out a groan of displeasure.

Zuko sighed and got up from where he sat. For all he knew, he was done in the tent. He only meant to see what would become of Aang and see that he was settled. With Kanna allowing the boy to stay the night, Zuko felt like his presence was no longer needed.

And with a polite bow toward Kanna, he left the tent and walked out into the frigid air.

Katara grumbled to herself as she readied herself for bed that night. For the first time in her life she has met a bender that was not a firebender and she found that she would like to learn from him more than anything. But of course, her brother, grandmother, and even Zuko just had to agree that he was a threat and couldn't stay in the village. He was just a boy! What harm could he bring? It's not like Aang was Fire Nation!

With a frustrated huff, Katara grabbed her brush and began going through her freshly unbraided hair almost viciously. She winced when she hit a snag and stopped her movements. Deciding that she'd spare her poor hair from the anger directed at her family and Zuko, Katara decided it was best that she take a quick walk to vent off anger. And maybe practice some waterbending, too.

Mindful of Aang's sleeping form, Katara stepped out of the tent as she pulled her parka over her head. Sokka sat outside the tent sharpening his boomerang.

"And where do you think you're going?" he asked.

Katara huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "What're you doing out here?"

Sokka stopped his sharpening. "I'm the one asking questions," he said, his voice cracking slightly.

"I'm going to go practice my waterbending, if you really wanted to know!"

"This late? Katara, stay in the tent!"

"Why? So you can watch me?" she challenged.

"Yeah, because Dad told me to take care of you!"

Katara recoiled and chose to remain silent. She knew her brother was tasked with keeping her and the village safe. Sokka had tried so hard to go along with the rest of the men to war, but their father refused.

"I thought Zuko was supposed to keep watch tonight?"

Sokka sighed. "He is. I just can't sleep because Aang's snoring so loudly. Of all the outsiders that had to spend the night in our tent, it had to be the biggest snorer in the entire world."

She smacked him on the arm.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"He can't help it, Sokka!"

"Well—."

She started to run off, and when she began to hear her brother protest she looked over her shoulder and shot, "I'm just going to go practice some waterbending moves. I'll be back in about an hour!"

The only reply she received was a grumble that sounded like "such a pain."

Katara giggled and turned back to continue on toward her usual little practice spot. It was her personal haven in the South Pole. Sure, everyone knew about it, but everyone also knew it was where she liked to practice. Her people have told her that they thought of her as their hope, and that made Katara want to become a master waterbender more than ever. What good was she if she couldn't control her abilities?

She looked over at the sentry standing guard. He was standing stiffly and looking out toward the sea, and Katara wondered how he could do that for so long. Even Sokka wasn't disciplined enough to do that.

The two boys would switch off every few hours to take watch. Zuko, because he couldn't sleep very well with the sun out, will take watch for the majority of the night to give Sokka time to get a good night's rest. Zuko would always be dead on his feet once Sokka was awake in the morning, and there have been times when Kanta, his mother, would have to come out to drag him back to his tent because he'd be so set on sleeping where he stood. How Zuko could stay out as long as he does during the night without dying of the cold, Katara would never know.

Zuko was…different compared to the other guys in the South Pole. Unlike the other men, when they were around, he was pale. Unlike the typical Water Tribe blue eyes, his eyes were the colour of molten gold. She had heard whispers of fear from the other young women in the Tribe, and it was no secret that Zuko was half Fire Nation. Sokka once told her that that was why Zuko was left behind in the South Pole, and the thought that the boy who had grown up a few tents down was part Fire Nation gave her an uneasy feeling in her stomach. But at the same time, Katara knew that he couldn't help it. It wasn't his fault who his biological father was.

With a sigh, Katara stepped in a bending stance and focused on the water before her. She raised her hand and smiled as the water rose with it, and then she lowered it. She took a step back and pulled the water close to her, then pushed it outward. Then she moved her hands up to call forth a globe of water from the ocean. She smiled and pulled it toward her, only to see it begin to wobble and shake in her grasp.

"Come on," she murmured.

Katara adjusted her fingers and the quivering water fell onto the snow. She clenched her hands together and groaned before she raised her hands once more to call up more water from the ocean, only to have it splash up and leave her thoroughly soaked.

"You need to loosen up."

She whirled around at the sudden voice behind her. Zuko stood behind her, arms crossed over his chest with his spear in hand. He looked vaguely amused.

"I am loosened up!"

Zuko shook his head. "No, you're not," he said simply.

"And what do you know about bending?" she shot back.

He ignored her. "You're too rigid. Water isn't rigid, it flows."

Her eyes widened and she glanced from Zuko to the water. She watched as the water moved in, but then bounced back once it hit the ice. It flowed back, it wasn't stiff.

"You're right," she said softly, annoyed that she hadn't thought of hit first. "And aren't you supposed to be standing watch over the village?" she said hotly.

Zuko nodded and turned to walk away, and she felt a wave of guilt wash over her. He was no doubt bored and jumped at the idea that he could talk to someone while he was "on duty" as Sokka called it. Sokka also mentioned that he didn't sleep at night, which she found weird. She assumed that it was because he was being nice and letting Sokka sleep at night.

She shifted her eyes to her feet and shivered when she remembered that she was covered in saltwater. She wrapped her arms around herself and shuddered again, this time more violently.

"You should get back to your tent," he spoke quietly as if sensing the chill that wracked through her body.

"Why can't you sleep at night?" she asked softly. "Whenever the sun is up, all you do is keep watch over the village at night."

He paused and looked over at her and scratched the back of his head. "I don't know, I've never been able to really sleep with the sun out."

She nodded at him and watched as he continued on toward his sentry post. With a sigh, she headed back to her tent, stopping to glance over at where he stood.

AN: Hey guys! I'm currently re-entering myself into the fanfiction world and I would love to hear your opinions on this insane AU! :)