A/N: First submission for the week! AU, heavily inspired by How To Train Your Dragon. Just to clarify, there's no bending in this one. Hope you enjoy!

*I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender, How To Train Your Dragonor any of the characters! Swordtooth is mine, but nothing else.

Dragons

The wind was cold against Zuko's face as he flew through the air, not too cold though. It was refreshingly cold. But that was probably because it was only early autumn. He could imagine these northern isles were freezing during winter. The landscape beneath him had a rugged kind of beauty to it; high trees in deep forests, even higher hills sticking up here and there and streams of water in all sizes flowing from the land and out into the sea. And then there were rocks, a lot of rocks. The coasts were all in stone, no sand like there was in the west, where Zuko came from. In fact, this island had more rocks than Zuko had ever seen before, and of course there was no ignoring the monstrous cliff making out the entire northern part of he island. Zuko couldn't even see the top of it, he was flying considerably lower than the almost mountain before him.

A frustrated growl interrupted Zuko's musings and he leaned down to the side to properly look at Swordtooth. "Are you hungry, is that it?" The dragon growled once more and turned his gaze toward a small lake currently beneath them.

"Alright, let's take a break," Zuko said and shifted his weight on the dragon's back to steer down towards the ground. Swordtooth landed gracefully as always but then threw Zuko off and trotted over to the lake.

"Hey!" Zuko rubbed the spot on his back on which he had landed. "You know I'm better at catching fish than you, so be nice!" Sometimes Zuko wondered how Swordtooth had survived before he had found him, because someone who's even worse at catching fish than Zuko couldn't possibly stand much of a chance at survival. Though, the dragon had only been a few months old after all so maybe he still hadn't learned. After Zuko had found him and started feeding him, Swordtooth hadn't had much reason to learn how to catch his own food. It was something they needed to work on, Zuko thought, just in case they got separated.

This, however, wasn't the time for that since Zuko himself started to work up quite a hunger. He threw a last glance at the red-scaled reptile, currently looking intently into the water after fish, before he walked into the woods to find a stick to turn into a spear. It took some time before he found one that was thick enough and started walking back.

Just as he reached the treeline around the lake, he heard a war cry that was definitely not Swordtooth's. He immediately started sprinting towards the lake, pushing a few branches out of his way as he went. Then he saw her. A dark-skinned girl with dark hair pulled back in a thick braid. She had an axe in one hand and some sort of long dagger in the other and her strangely blue eyes shone as she charged headlong at Swordtooth. It was only thanks to the extreme adrenaline rush that Zuko made it to her before she got to Swordtooth. He threw himself at her and toppled her to the ground. She released her weapons in the fall and Zuko was quick to grab her wrists and pin her to the ground.

"What in the Gods' name are you doing?!" he shouted down at her.

"What are YOU doing?! That's a dragon right there, do you want to get killed?!" Her eyes were vivid with fury. Now Zuko was just confused. What kind of people lived on this island? They didn't have dragons of their own? Were they still fighting the dragons, like in the century-old tales of the Western Isles?

In this moment of confusion, Zuko's grip on her wrists loosened ever so little and she took advantage of that. Without him realizing what was happening, she twisted her body out from under him and at the same time flipped him over on his back, throwing her legs around his torso and arms in a lock. She took hold of his hair, pulling his head back with one hand and reached for her axe with the other and then put it against his throat.

"Now, listen to me closely," she hissed in his ear. "You are going to tell me who you are, where you're from and what you are doing here. And I want to know how you are able to control this dragon."

Zuko's eyes landed on Swordtooth, who was crouching a few arm lengths away. The dragon was prepared to strike at any moment, but he was an intelligent creature and he understood that Zuko would be in danger if he attacked now. This girl was also intelligent and she had picked up Zuko's relation to the dragon, which was why she had positioned Zuko between her and the beast. Not only was she intelligent, but she was also an exquisite fighter. Zuko was stuck. So he figured he might as well answer her questions. If he just kept it simple, he wouldn't reveal anything that could endanger him.

"My name is Zuko, I'm from the west and I'm just passing through. I didn't even know there were people here."

She was silent for a while but she seemed to accept his answer. "And the dragon?"

"He's my friend, been with me since I was a child. I don't control him, he's just loyal to me as I am to him."

The girl made some kind of snorting sound. "That's ridiculous. Dragons don't know any loyalty to us, they kill us as soon as they get a chance. Now, stop lying to me and tell me what you did to the dragon!" She yanked hard at his hair and pressed the blade harder against his throat, almost drawing blood.

Zuko couldn't help releasing a pained sound. This girl was dangerous, he didn't know if she would actually kill him but he was pretty sure she was willing to take him prisoner and kill Swordtooth. She was probably capable of taking out the dragon, she had been fearless as she charged earlier and Swordtooth had never been much of a fighter. Zuko needed to get to Swordtooth and get out of there.

"I'm not lying to you! Where I'm from, we befriend dragons." At least we used to. "If you earn a dragon's trust, there's nothing they won't do for you. I can show you."

Silence again. It bothered Zuko not being able to see her face. Then suddenly the lock on his upper body was gone and he was being pulled upwards. He had to scramble to his feet and stagger backwards in order not to slice his throat against her axe as she began walking away from Swordtooth. "I don't trust you," she said close to his ear. "I don't know what else to do with you than to bring you back to my village. Tell your dragon to stay where he is." She yanked at his hair again to put emphasis on her words.

He had to do something now. "Wait, slow down a moment!" he improvised. "There's a special whistle in my right boot. That's how I control the dragon. I can't tell him to stay without it." He knew she probably didn't believe him and she wouldn't release him but all he needed was for her to lose focus just one second.

"Fine," he heard her say after a moment of consideration. "Reach for it yourself but I hope for your sake you're not lying." Zuko felt the pressure on his throat disappear as she removed the axe just an inch and he immediately gave the signal.

It was a bird-like sound he had picked up years back and just for fun trained Swordtooth to roar at. Swordtooth's roars weren't like most dragons', his roars had an overtone to them that was almost unbearably high to most people. After years and years of enduring it, Zuko was practically immune but the girl wasn't. Her only instinct was to cover her ears and in doing so, she released both the axe and Zuko's hair. By the time she did that, Zuko was ready. He swept a leg under hers and knocked her to the ground before sprinting towards Swordtooth.

He was, however, not ready for her counterattack. How could she already be on her feet? She had managed to run after him and throw herself over him, bringing them both to the ground. Somehow, she got him on his back so she could straddle his chest, pinning his arms to the ground with her knees. Her eyes were even more furious now than before. There was something in the way she placed her hand under his chin and pressed his head into the dirt that told Zuko that she was angrier than before. But anger makes you reckless, Zuko knew all about that one. And by the time she remembered the dragon, it was already too late.

In one swift movement, Swordtooth had jumped towards them, fitted an unclawed foot in the girl's chest and thrown her off of Zuko. Zuko got to his feet quickly and saw the girl caught between Swordtooth's foot and the ground, punching and clawing at the dragon to get free. Swordtooth was watching her closely with narrowed eyes, the kind of eyes he only directed towards enemies.

"Swordtooth!" Zuko called and the dragon turned his head towards him, eyes immediately changing. "No." Zuko looked sternly into those eyes. Swordtooth didn't generally hurt humans, but when someone threatened Zuko, there was no telling what he would do. He would never do anything to make Zuko unhappy though, so he just kept the girl where she was but stopped looking at her like he was about to bite her head off.

Zuko walked over to Swordtooth and climbed onto his back. Then he leaned his body to the side and looked at the girl. "I don't want to hurt you. We are going to leave now. Just let us leave and I promise you we won't be back."

With that, Zuko signalled to Swordtooth to release the girl and prepare to take off. The dragon always needed to run a shorter distance before he could spread his wings and push off into the air. Just as they had left the ground, Zuko heard a frustrated outcry and the next moment, a small rock hit him in the back and then graced Swordtooth's side before it fell to the ground. It was probably not meant to harm, she was just angry, so Zuko didn't think to do anything about it. Swordtooth, however, seemed to have had enough because he circled back around and flew right at her.

At this point, Zuko had no idea what Swordtooth would do, so he was relieved when the dragon simply picked her up with his front feet and then started flying upwards. He wanted to scare her. Or prove her wrong. Or both. Probably both, Zuko thought. But he knew Swordtooth wouldn't drop her so he let the dragon be for the time being.

The girl screamed and screamed in horror. Eventually, Swordtooth grew tired of it and threw her up in the air before him, timing it perfectly for Zuko to catch her. He placed her on the saddle behind him. "What are you going to do to me?" he heard her ask and there was almost a tremor in her voice. Zuko allowed himself some satisfaction at this, she had been awfully rude to him after all. Had he not had Swordtooth to worry about earlier, he probably wouldn't have controlled his temper.

"I'm not sure what he intends to do but I suggest you stay quiet and hold on tight," he said over his shoulder and reached for her arms to pull them around his abdomen. But she swatted his hands away and settled her hands on the sides of the saddle instead. "Suit yourself," Zuko muttered and turned his attention to Swordtooth.

Zuko only had time to catch a mischievous glimpse in the dragon's eye before he turned his body and dived straight towards the sea beneath them. Oh yes, he was definitely out to scare her. And it worked, she was once more screaming at the top of her lungs – in Zuko's ear, at that. "Swordtooth!" he shouted. "Stop!"

It didn't make it any better though as the dragon just started flying up and down, here and there instead with the same speed. Now he was just being mean, almost throwing the girl off with every sharp turn of his body. It made her get over herself and curl her arms tightly around Zuko's torso. "Please, stop!" she yelled."I'll do anything, just STOP!"

And suddenly, as if he'd been waiting for her to surrender, Swordtooth stopped moving erratically, stretched out his wings and started flying straight. They flew peacefully through the air now, Swordtooth even took them through the thick layer of gray clouds. Up above, the afternoon sun shone brightly but not too brightly. It created shadows among the clouds underneath them, making it look like a sea of white. Zuko felt the girl relax as she took in the view. Her arms around him loosened, but she didn't remove them.

"I don't understand..." she said quietly after a long while. "Humans and dragons are natural enemies. How is this possible?"

Zuko didn't say anything at first. He didn't know if he was supposed to answer that. "What's your name?" he finally decided to ask.

A few silent seconds passed. "Katara."

It was a pretty name. "Well, Katara, my people used to be like you – we used to fight the dragons. But then one day, a woman came flying from the mountains on the back of a dragon and she showed us that dragons are actually kind and loyal creatures. For the last hundred years, we have lived side by side with them." He leaned down and stroked Swordtooth's neck.

"But how can you do that? Just look at what they did to your face."

Zuko froze. Then he slowly moved his hand to his scar. "Dragons didn't do this. My father did." Sure, he had used a dragon to do it but that was besides the point. Sure, dragons had been used as weapons since Zuko's grandfather's time but not all people agreed with the war chieftains of the Western Isles.

This silenced her. She let her arms fall away from him. "I'm sorry," she whispered after a while.

Once again, Zuko wished he could see her face. "It's alright. How would you have known?"

They kept flying in silence after that. Zuko figured this must be a lot to take in for the girl – for Katara. The clouds beneath them had started to clear, he noticed. They were just flying above a large crack in the sea of clouds when Zuko heard Katara gasp slightly. He looked down and saw the enormous cliff of the island and a group of houses at the northern base of it.

"Is that your village?" he asked. He felt her nod against his shoulder as she stretched her neck to look down at her home. Zuko signalled to Swordtooth to fly down through the crack toward the cliff.

Before they could get close, Katara's hand closed around Zuko's. "Keep your distance. We have lookouts on the top and I don't want them to see us. They... they wouldn't understand..." She paused. "Could you maybe set me down where we took off? I need to get my weapons."

Zuko found himself getting more and more intrigued by this girl. Only half an hour ago, she had been ready to knock him out and possibly kill Swordtooth. Now she was like a different person, her voice was so warm. As he watched her climb down from Swordtooth's back when they landed, he couldn't help noticing how gracefully she moved.

Katara seemed hesitant once she got to the ground. Both Zuko and his dragon were watching her intently and her eyes shifted to meet Swordtooth's. Carefully, she moved over to him and then raised her hand ever so slowly to place it against his neck, all the while looking into his eyes. When her hand made contact with the dragon and nothing bad happened, a smile spread across her face. Then she turned her wide eyes to Zuko. Gods, she was beautiful.

"You said before that you are just passing by. Are you going somewhere in particular?"

Zuko tore his eyes away from her lips and cleared his throat. "No, not really," he said and patted Swordtooth's side, "we're pretty much going wherever the wind takes us."

Katara nodded slowly and then averted her eyes. "Do... do you think we could do this again?" If Zuko wasn't mistaken, there was a tiny blush on her cheeks. But then she turned her eyes back to him and they were filled with determination. "I don't understand all this, but I want to be able to. I've never felt the kind of freedom I felt above the clouds before, it's truly amazing up there." She looked at Swordtooth and stroked his neck. "He is amazing."

Zuko was completely taken aback. Only when she turned a questioning gaze at him did he pull himself together. "U-um sure! Whenever you want..."

The smile returned to her face. "Meet me here tomorrow at noon. And uh," she said just as she was turning away, throwing a last glance at him, "thanks for this. And sorry I threw that rock at you."

Zuko didn't move an inch. He just watched as she picked up her axe and her dagger and then disappeared into the woods. He hadn't thought much of this island, apart from its rugged beauty. But by the gods was he happy Swordtooth had decided this was the right place for lunch.