Zuko's point of view

I felt the horrible fever overwhelm me. My head was fuzzy and my vision was fogged. I swallowed hard and fell onto the floor, knocking over a vase. "Zuko," Uncle Iroh yelled and ran over to me.

He carried me over to my bed. I shook with fever and illness. I'm not sure how long I was sick. It felt like years. I woke up and then slipped back under. It was horrible. I couldn't focus on anything. I just slept, and then every time I woke I was drenched in sweat.

"You should know this is not a natural sickness," Uncle told me, pulling me up and handing me a cup, "But that shouldn't stop you from enjoying tea."

"Wh-whats happening," I asked him, drinking the cup. Suddenly I started coughing. My throat burned from heat and coughing. Why am I so sick, I thought.

"Your critical decision, what you did beneath the lake," Uncle told me, "It was in such conflict with your image of yourself that you are now at war with your own mind and body."

"What's that mean," I asked. A sudden wave of fever fell over me and I lay back on my bed, hot and heavy with sickness.

"You are going through a metamorphosis my nephew," Iroh told me, dabbing my face with a cloth; "it will not be a pleasant experience." Great, I thought. "But when you come out of it you will be the beautiful prince you were always meant to be."

I couldn't help but doubt that. It was horrible. I'm not sure how long I stayed sick. It felt like years and years. Uncle took great care of me, serving me tea, feeding me, keeping my fever down.

Uncle told me I'd been sick for three weeks when it happened. It was in the middle of the night. My fever had been going down and I was staying awake longer and longer. However it must've not have been for good, because in the middle of the night my back exploded. I screamed and curled up in pain. It was excruciating. I screamed and begged it to stop. It felt like someone was stabbing my back, from the inside out. I couldn't feel Uncle caring to me, although I had no doubt he was. He was probably out of his mind with worry. This didn't help my pain.

The stabbings continued, but it seemed different. I seemed to know it was happening and live with it. I opened my eyes slightly and found a wall, scorched and burning. Small flames were spouting out of my hands and I guessed when the first explosion happened, my flames had gone crazy and caught fire to the wall. Iroh was, at the moment, pouring water on it.

The different feeling began to fade and I was overwhelmed by the pain again. I screamed and shook and flamed and ached. Tears fell down my face, a never ending stream of pain and unbearable turmoil.

All of sudden, I felt the pain become white hot, burning deep, deep inside. I then began to slow. My mind, body, heart and soul were slowly shutting down. My shaking stopped and my body went still. All I could hear or see or feel was the inconstant beating of my heart and Uncle Iroh's voice slowly fading while calling, "Zuko, zuko! Please, don't…die…"

I woke up, surprised. I was amazed I was alive. I was in a small cave. Not again, I thought, thinking we were on the run again. Uncle was nowhere to be seen, though the tea was almost done so I doubted he was far. I slowly sat up, my head and back protesting. "Uncle Iroh," I called. All of a sudden, he came bursting in from outside.

"Zuko!" He cried and ran over to me. However he didn't hug me, like he normally would. He just stared at me, a look of amazement, fear, and, wonderment passing over his face.

"Uncle Iroh, what's wrong?" I asked. He walked around me and gasped when he reached my back. "Uncle, what is it!" I asked forcefully.

"They're done, they've been developed," he nearly whispered.

I knit my eyebrows in confusion, and then I felt them. Two long, wide objects protruded out of my back, connecting at my spine. They felt like folded papers, and I complete control of them. I slowly unfolded them and gasped. Protruding out of my back were long, dark, black and auburn streaked, 15 feet long, at least. They were beautiful, the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. And they were my own; I had literally gone through a metamorphosis.

I had grown wings.