DISCLAIMER I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!
Hi people! I'm starting a new story despite everything going on and this time it's an Escaflowne/ Avatar the Last Airbender one! Woooh, I certainly hope to update this story regularly. My other stories, someday, I might finish them because they are now on hiatus.
On with the story! And please RAR! Favorite, follow, and review!
Azula signed with exhaustion. She had been having nightmares about her defeat at the capital ever since she had arrived to prison from the asylum a few weeks ago. She still was a bit unstable and she knew that but she also knew that she could handle it as long as she didn't have any breakdowns. She gave a weak smirk, how humiliating it was now that everyone knew about her insanity. Pathetic.
She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned her head against the hard cold stone wall of her cell. She could and would not think about it. The defeat against her brother... her brother... how dare he! She twitched at the mere thought of him. It's all his fault! She felt herself grow angrier like she had never before. She could've be comed firelord. She could've had the power. Shaking silently in fury, she created a small blue spark of fire at her fingertips. She calmed at the sight of it, like a storm disappearing as the sun appeared. Just as she was about to create more sparks of blue fire, footsteps very close towards her cell appeared and walked past. Quickly as it came, the fire from her hands dissipated leaving nothing but cold air behind.
Drip-drop-drip-drop
She crawled towards the bit of water dropping from the ceiling. It created a small puddle. A mirror, she thought. She looked at herself.
The once beautiful princess that she was before did not appear on the face of the water. Instead it mirrored the image of a thin, pale, gaunt face before her. Her hair was all scraggly and dead looking. Her lips, once a beautiful shade of crimson red were now the color of a sort of purplish color. Worst of all, her eyes. Though still a bright amber color with fire in them, they now contained a sort of dead look in them. How gruesome, she thought, touching her face.
" Here's lunch." a sneering guard appeared, dropping a bowl of grayish slop, perhaps a sort of bland rice mixture with water? She did not know nor did she want to know so she looked up from the puddle to stare at the guard right in the face. He looked at her with contempt,
" You used to be one of the greatest figures in the fire nation...Azula, the fire nation princess! Now look at you, in rags and filth in a prison. " she said nothing. She didn't even have to think to know it was true. The guard shook his head with disgust before walking away.
Why, her mind marveled, why did she have to go through this? The pain was too unbearable for her and slowly, but surely, she started breaking down. A lump grew in her throat and before long, she was sobbing like there was no tomorrow. She sobbed about her defeat, she sobbed about her insanity, and most of all, she sobbed about her pain. She wanted to get away from it all, away from her cell. Start anew, start a new life, start over.
Anywhere is better than here, she thought in her mind after wiping her tears away with the rags she wore called clothes. Then Azula reached out for her cold, slimy, and bland "lunch" and ate it with her bare filthy hands. Father would be disgusted with me if he saw me in this state, she thought.
Before, she couldn't imagine living in a dirty cell, wearing rags, and eating cold slop with her bare hands, and yet here she was, doing just that, living like a savage.
" Please... someone... anyone, just please help me out of here. Let me have a second chance..a second life...please." she whispered hoarsely, her beautiful amber eyes , though broken but still had fire in them held a sort of pleading expression. And before long, she fell into a deep, and finally, in over weeks, dreamless sleep.
Meanwhile, Fate and Destiny looked down upon her with pity. After her defeat, they decided her fate was to live in her cell for the rest of life. Now looking back, they decided it was time to change her fate and destiny.
" Destiny, where should we send her now? Obviously to another world, but which one?" Fate asked curiously to her companion.
" To Escaflowne? There is a certain silver haired man similar to her. Perhaps let her coöperate with someone like her? " replied Destiny. Then slowly, Fate nodded her head.
" Well then, Escaflowne it is!" And then Fate and Destiny set to work, pushing their magic to its limits so that they could send a broken princess to a new world, a new life.
Azula slept for hours that day, all the way until the next day when something woke her up.
" What's going on?" She whispered groggily as she sat up. When she opened her eyes, she found in her cell...wait what? What was that light? The bright light invaded her quickly before...wait...she was floating? Higher and higher before she was swallowed up by it! Where was she going? she tried screaming but her throat was so too dry and cracked. She tried firebending but it didn't help at all. She gave up and allowed the bright light to take her wherever it was going to take her. To lift up her spirits, she thought that she at least was away from her cell.
" Perhaps I can start a new life, wherever it may be." She whispered before closing her eyes and letting the dark void in her mind to swallow her up.
Azula appeared in a sort of green meadow spreading miles from there. She was unconscious and as she laid there, her clothing and hairstyle changed. It changed from her old worn rags back to her original clothing and hairstyle, the one she wore while hunting the avatar.
A few hours later, Azula woke up with a start.
" Where am I...?" she groggily said while sitting up. Upon sitting up, she realized she was in different clothing, the one he wore before Sozin's comet.
She looked around and concluded that she was in a meadow of sorts. A few trees stood tall proudly a few yards away and there was a small pond full of fresh water near the trees too.
She weakly got up and walked, wobbly, towards the pond and drank what water she needed. When she was done, her throat did not feel as dry and cracked as before. Looking upon the few trees that littered the meadow, she walked up to one and lightly tapped it. It had a strong trunk and she concluded that it perhaps, didn't hurt to set one tree on fire.
Standing a few feet away, she resumed a fighting stance. Narrowing her eyes slightly, she studied the tree from different angles before, without hesitating, fired a few quick blue balls of flame at the tree. The flames quickly engulfed the tree and before long, the tree was toppling over from the intensity of the fire. Azula stepped back and without glancing back at all, she quickly walked away with a smirk. Her new life was perfect.
She walked for a while, giving a few flames along the way before coming upon on a small village. There were a few houses, some farmhouses, a small general store, and an inn. She strutted arrogantly to the inn, and opened the door. In the inn was a small room with a counter for visitors to check in and a couple of comfortable chairs here and there. There was also a small wooden staircase leading to the inn rooms. She quickly walked up to the cashier register and ordered a room.
" That will be forty silver pieces." The cashier register estimated. He held out his hand.
" Forty silver pieces?! I haven't the time to give you such a large bounty for a room!" She seethed at him. He was visibly trembling at her hissing tone.
" It includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner to miss. Plus, we're going through hard times too." he added hastily. Azula's eyes still held rage in them. She lifted him by the collar and said to him in a deadly whisper,
" You know, I could burn your face now until you give me the room and suppers for free." she growled, and to confirm she would do just that, she lit a small blue spark at her fingertips. The cashier register was sweating now and as quickly as he could manage, he snatched a random key from a small selection on a bulletin board behind the counter and gave it to her shakingly.
Azula snatched up the key and stalked up the stairs to her room. The cashier register twisted his collar in a frenzy, shakingly calling out to her,
" Your dinner will be up there shortly!"
According to her room key number, her room was number 009. She walked up and down the hallway which included various doors on either side of the walls with a room number above them and small little flaps at the bottom so the staff could deliver their food.
" Let's see... 007...008...009... here we are!" she quickly unlocked her door and walked into her room. It was plain and quite bare to describe it overall. There was a small bed with a blanket and pillow, a small wooden table and chair in a corner, a closet door, and a bathroom door. The bathroom was small and held a toilet, shower, and small counter and mirror for washing your hands, and placing your cosmetics and hair accessories. And laying on the toilet cover were a few towels.
Azula immediately went to the bathroom and looked at her face again. Her hair looked better now. Her face still looked thin and gaunt but held a bit of color in them now. Her lips were back to their usual color and her eyes now held a bit of life in them now, still a bit dead looking but more livelier.
Satisfied, she turned around and walked out to her bedroom. She laid on her bed for a couple of minutes before the effects of hunger took place. Her stomach began growling and she had to place her hand on it hard to stop it from growling even louder. She waited a couple of minutes before she became irritated.
When are those people going to come up here with my food? she thought hungrily, they said it would come shortly, I might as well go down there and knock some sense into them.
Sighing, she turned on her bed to lay on her side for a few minutes. About ten minutes later, she heard a knock on the door,
" Dinner's ready," a small, female voice said. Whoever that female was, slid a steaming tray underneath the flap that was on the door. Finely, she thought grumpily before getting up to place the tray on the table. She sat down on the hard chair before inspecting her food.
On her wooden tray, there was a couple of chicken legs, some steamed vegetables, and a few boiled eggs with black pepper. ( AN: I love that! ) There was also a cup of water. She picked up her knife and fork and began eating.
I wonder where the rice, fish, and noodles are, she chewed thoughtfully, this place has some strange food combinations. She finished up her drink and dinner before getting up to fall into another dreamless asleep on her bed.
The next morning, Azula woke up early at the sound of the same female's voice, saying her breakfast was here. She decided to take a shower first before eating breakfast. Azula stripped, and turned on the faucet to take a nice, warm, long shower. After drying and getting dressed, she ate what was on her food tray which consisted of a bowl of oatmeal and some apples. As she turned to leave, she slipped the red fruit into her pocket.
Downstairs, Azula tossed the key to her room back to the cashier register and left the inn. She began wandering around the village until she came upon one of the farmhouses. She tried opening the door but it wouldn't budge. Left with no choice, she burned down the door with her firebending. As she walked in, the first thing that flooded her vision was a handsome blackish, brownish horse in a stall. She took it in greedily before opening the stall and releasing the horse from its chains. It gave a few neighs when she tried getting on it. Just as she was about to urge the horse to go, a voice appeared,
" Hey! Don't steal my horse!" a strange man shouted from the entrance. Azula began panicking when more people from the village came to help the man get his horse back. The people scattered when Azula threw a few quick fireballs before slapping the reins on her horse,
" Come back horse thief! Horse thief! Horse thief!" their chant followed her until finally, it stopped as she escaped from the village and the poor man whose horse was stolen by her.
Azula rode on her horse for many miles after the horse thief incident. She stopped a couple of times to drink water from some sort of water source or gave her apples to the horse who neighed each time he ate one.
A few hours later, Azula was feeding the horse, who was now named Lee, an apple when the smell of smoke washed up into her nose.
How strange, she thought. Perhaps she was near another village or town? Only one way to find out, she thought before getting on Lee. She rode towards the smell, sniffing every once awhile before she came upon another village being burned up.
Screams and crys were heard from every direction and as she came close, big metal matchines, the size of giants and the color of a blueish gray, were shooting out fire and throwing around strange metal strips, the size of pipes and the shape of noodles.
"What is going on?" she whispered to herself before debris came flying towards her. She cut it with her fire before quickly getting off Lee. She ran towards the village and began rapidly shooting blue flames at the metal giants. She dodged and deflected their attacks as they began shooting fire at her. One particular giant, a crimson color was particularly vicious and soon, Azula was panting. Beads of sweat lined her forehead but she smiled. This was definitely exciting. She quickly shot fire to a giant who deflected it. As she began falling back, pretty soon, she was surrounded. She raised her hands in defeat and gave them a smirk,
" Fine, you've got me. A princess surrenders with honor. I know when I'm beaten." And then she quickly threw a fireball at one of the giants before using her firebending to run away faster than her normal speed. She could definitely hear the giants coming after her and ran as fast as possible.
She quickly spotted Lee near the outskirts of the village before she jumped on him. Just as she was about to urge him to go, something hard, something big, knocked her on the head. She blacked out before she even hit the ground.