Hey reader, I'm participating in the pro bending event going on at forum/Pro-bending-Circuit/164505/ and this is my submission for Round 2! My story had to be set where there was a different Avatar and my prompts were aqua, Fire Lord Ozai, and the quote "Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better" - Albert Einstein
"Now love, just because someone looks nice doesn't mean they actually are. Take the ground we're sitting on." A tiny Prince Zuko nods, trying to wrap his mind around his mother's words. "The grass is nice and soft, right?" He nods enthusiastically. "That's the outside of a person, that's what they show you and what they want you to believe. It's what's underneath that counts though." A very pregnant Lady Ursa grabs a handful of grass and with a quick yank pulls it out, hoping her destruction of the beautiful gardens will be enough to help her son remember this lesson for at least awhile. His eyes go wide and his little hands grasp blades of grass around him and he begins happily yanking them up. Ursa smiles and takes his hands after a moment, "Good, good you see the dirt now, right? That's what people are really made of." She picks up a handful of dirt and lets it sprinkle down between her fingers. "If you want to know what someone is really like, you have to get past the grass and into the dirt, love."
Zuko smiles and digs his hands excitedly into the ground beside him until he stops, confused. A frown adorns his face as he picks up a rock and asks, with all the seriousness his three years gives him, "What about rocks, Mommy?"
"Well, the rocks all the way under the dirt, deep, deep down are like the soul and the little rocks mixed in with all the dirt," She pauses for a moment, stumped by her smart baby boy, "The little rocks are reminders that even if a person's personality might seem to change their soul doesn't and it will always be spread out inside of them. Souls don't change, just like the rocks don't change."
"Ursa, what are you doing?" A cold voice calls out from the terrace. Dread washes over Ursa, he is the last person that she wants here now. Surely she'll get some kind of reprimand - that's the nice word for it - for tearing up the grass next to the turtle-duck pond. Ozai hardly ever comes here though and so she had assumed it would be safe. Obviously she was wrong.
She turns and throws a smile at her oh so loving husband, "Nothing, I was just teaching Zuko some life lessons is all."
"What, like gardening or perhaps skipping straight to making a mess of everything?" Ozai retorts. Zuko turns his head away from them both, looking at the pond. The turtle ducks are swimming peacefully, unaware of the tension outside of their aqua home. Zuko listens silently to the snide comments thrown at his mother wondering why his father says things that only make his mommy cry when she thinks no one is around. His life would be happier if his father weren't around. The mix of anger but mostly sadness reveals itself as a thin layer of ice coating the pond that no one, not even Zuko himself notices. It creeps out over the water, surprising a fish that tries to surface, thinking there might be food. The yelling starts and Zuko tries his best to ignore it, knowing that the less he moves, the less attention he draws to himself, the less likely he is to get hurt. It's not until a baby turtle duck squawks loudly does he look up.
He gasps, not even thinking about his fighting parents at that moment, "What is it!" Zuko cries.
Ursa looks over, then at her son, her heart falling into her stomach. Ozai looks at the pond, then at the boy, a cruel smile forming on his lips. "So," he hisses, "I guess a Water Tribe and and Earth Kingdom brat have already died."
Zuko reaches out to touch the ice but his mother snatches him back, cradling him to her chest. "What is it, Mommy?"
Ursa doesn't answer but instead pulls him closer, tears springing to her eyes. "No Ozai, it might not have been him! It could be anything, maybe a water bender snuck into the palace, maybe-"
"Quiet woman! You should be ecstatic, you gave birth to the Avatar for me. This is the best news of your life! Fire Lord Azulon will be more than pleased with this. Perhaps he'll even make me the next Fire Lord because of it at the very least it'll make it easier to get rid of Iroh!" Ozai's grin grows even more fierce as he fixes his gold eyes on his son who can only tell that something terrible just happened and it has to do with him. "Zuko, you're going to help me take over the world."
Ursa watches her monster of a husband walk away with their crying child and looks down at the ripped up grass by her knees. "Zuko, my child, no matter what is on his outside, know that your father is a cruel and vicious man," she whispers. "Don't ever trust him. No matter what he says or how much he tell you he loves you or is proud of you he's only in it for himself. Remember, Zuko, Ozai always lies."