Summary: To get to Ba Sing Sei, Zuko must cross the expansive desert, but it is impossible to walk across it and survive. The sandbenders are their enemies, and they have no way to fly… Wait. Uncle Iroh tells his nephew of a wind spirit, living in a cave on the edge of the desert. The wind spirit Feng Jie, however, is weak, having been banished from the spirit world by the other spirits. If Zuko could somehow bring the spirit some power back, perhaps she would help them cross the desert.
A/N: This story I wrote maybe... oh, two years ago... Wow, that sounds longer when I put it in print. Like most things, sadly, I lost ferver in writing, and stopped, and the story never got finished. I would like to attempt to finish this story. However, for people returning who have read this story before, I will be editing every chapter to fix any mistakes and update everything to my style and current liking. I should also give a bit of a more practical setting, since this is DEFINATELY pre-third season. I started this story right after the Gaang lost Appa, and you see Zuko and Iroh being smuggled out of the desert village inside pots. Well, I had thought that was irresistably LAME, so I came up with my own story about how they crossed the desert to get to the big city of Ba Sing Sei. So, to sum it up, Zuko and Iroh are still close, Azula has yet to conquer Ba Sing Sei, and Zuko's lustrous hair is still kind of short...
The desert's hot sun was setting, and its fading rays danced across the horizon and played with desert sand storms. The temperature started to drop rapidly, and as the two figures moved through the sands, the cold followed them, teasing their cloaks to be wrapped around tighter, for their hands to be covered, for cloth to cover their faces.
"Uncle, are you sure that this beast can help us?" Zuko's golden eyes looked to the sand, concentrating on moving forward.
"She is not a beast, Zuko, but a spirit. And yes, I believe that Feng Jie will help us if we help her." Iroh had once met the same spirit, and still the memory haunted him. But he had seen the need in her eyes, and this spirit will help them... for a price.
Iroh looked north, and he saw the small cave. It was small, and very decrepit. It no longer resembled a cave, but a hole in the ground. Sand had blown around the entrance, and the red stone had eroded. It was no longer as resplendent as it once was. Two dragon statues stood at the entrance, guarding their mistress, but one had toppled over, and its eerie stone grin was buried in the sand. The other was covered in dry, brown brambles.
Zuko looked at the sad scene with disdain, but he turned to the cave entrance, where stairs curved downward into darkness.
"Are you really sure, Uncle?" he asked once more, looking downward warily.
"Stop asking that, Zuko, and come on. She know's we're here already."
Iroh was already heading down the stairs, one hand lifted above his head with a tongue of flame resting in his palm. Zuko quickly followed, keeping close to his uncle.
As they went down, the dusty dryness of the desert disappeared, and the cave was wonderfully cool and damp. The stairs were old, but rough enough so that they were not slippery. Zuko found that he could breath easily, and that the silence, followed by the occasional drip of water, was very relaxing and peaceful.
They seemed to descend for hours, when finally the staircase widened from its narrowed state, and it became an underground cave. But, it was not just any stinking, bat's cave. The ceiling reached to the heavens, being more than a hundred feet high. The walls and ceiling were painted with glowing dyes, depicting images of the blue sky, birds, trees, and two dragons frolicking in the clouds.
"It's… beautiful," whispered Zuko, unable to hide his awe.
"Very," agreed Iroh, who had, once before, visited the cave, but never tired of seeing the paintings. The detail was so exquisite and breathtaking, any artist would bow to the creator of this work.
"I am glad you like them, Iroh, son of Xi Tei, and guest." The voice pierced through the gloom, echoing against the walls and shimmering through the still air. Zuko jumped, looking everywhere for the source of that beautiful, yet horribly sad voice. In the relief that the shadows made from Iroh's fire, he couldn't see anything that resembled a person.
"I'm glad you remember me, Feng Jie. It's been almost forty years since my last visit."
Zuko looked to his Uncle, who was peering into one very dark corner of the cave. Squinting his topaz eyes, Zuko was able to make a throne cut out of the stone, and a figure that he had mistaken as a shadow moved slightly.
"Indeed it has. Who is this that you bring in before me? Why have you come back?"
Zuko would never have admitted it to his Uncle, but that voice and its lonely echoes pulled at his heart strings, and he felt as if there was no hope on reaching the Imperial City. That's what it was saying. No hope. No hope. No hope.
"I have another favor to ask of you, Feng Jie." Zuko was awoken from his painful reverie to hear his uncle respond to the creature. He could here a depressing note in his uncle's voice too. So, he was affected as well.
"Tell me what you wish, Iroh." The creature shuffled on its throne, and Zuko stepped closer, hoping to get a better look.
"Me and my nephew need to cross the desert to the city of Ba Sing Sei. We were hoping to have a winged escort to --"
"Silence!" rasped Feng Jie, and she moved forward, slightly. Zuko tried to see her, but it was too dark.
"You know I cannot help you! You know what has happened to me, why I cannot go to the surface! You expect me to fly you across the desert in my current state! Leave me, Iroh and nephew, I cannot, will not help you!"
Zuko couldn't believe his ears! All this way they had traveled, but only to be rejected by a spirit he couldn't even see!
"You will help us!" he yelled, staring blindly ahead. His eyes narrwoed to slits in hopes of seeing this creature, but still no luck.
"You will help us, or I will kill you!"
The spirit was silent for a moment, as if she was thinking. Then the shadow stood, moving forward. Zuko saw that she did not have just the body of a human, but something else.
But she laughed. Her laugh sounded false, but she was harsh and kept laughing, chuckling and chortling at the hilarity of Zuko's threat. However, she stopped abruptly, and her breath hissed through her teeth.
"Your voice makes me wish I was a mortal human once more, nephew of Iroh. You sound handsome and pure, if not a little arrogant. Let me see your face."
Zuko felt fear as the spirit moved closer to him, but that pleading, sad voice made him comply with her wish. If he lit a fire, he would also be able to see her as well. With that Zuko lifted his hand in front of him, and a hearty, warm blaze lit up the cave, and the shadows it threw made the dragons on the ceiling dance. He gasped at what he saw, and sub-consciously he heard Feng Jie gasp as well.
The creature in front of him obviously used to be beautiful, but her strange golden hair was thin and tangled, and her white dress was stained and dirty. Her face was sunken in, but her eyes stood out brilliantly. They were a magnificent shade of emerald. However, besides her voice, that was all that was beautiful. Long, black, twisted horns reached out of her head, and her hands and feet were clawed. A long dragon's tail twisted and writhed at her feet. Zuko found her repulsive, but could not look away. He heard his uncle sigh sadly. What had happened to this spirit?
"I will help you, but you must do something for me first," whispered Feng Jie, breaking the shocked silence.
"I have seen something in your eyes, young firebender, that I see will be very useful. What is your name?"
Zuko looked at the spirit, and saw that she was indeed going to help, and he sighed in small relief. This monster was so close, he could smell her rank breath. This used to be a human?
"My name is Zuko, son of firelord Ozai, and I am at your service, Feng Jie, spirit of the wind." He had no idea where the words had come from, but he somehow knew what to say in the presence of the spirit.
"Wonderful," exclaimed the spirit, sounding almost excited. There was hint of a smile on her fanged mouth when she said, "For me to lend you my power, you must retrieve a Dragon's Tear, an emerald that can often be found in the desert. I will accompany you on your journey, to offer you guidance and any advice you may need. But I cannot absorb the Dragon's Tear outside of my cave, so I need you carry it. Are you ready?"
Zuko looked to Iroh, who smiled at him. He knew something that he didn't. But what? The spirit's voice still echoed around the cave. No hope. No hope. No hope.
"We'll do it."