(A/N: For those who knew me before I went on an EXREMELY extended hiatus, I apologize for not continuing my stories. Many I think I will delete. I may, however, come back with my Artemis Fowl story. God, it's been a long time.)
Feng Jie did actually smile when Zuko promised his services, though it seemed kind of hollow and empty. Taking a few shuffling steps back she sat back again on her throne, and emitted a deep sigh.
"I will be waiting for you at the entrance to my cavern. My appearance will be… different, so do not be surprised when you see me. Go now." Her thin and mangled frame seemed to deflate at she closed those luminous eyes and released all the air in her body. And before Zuko's and Iroh's eyes she disappeared, fading into the darkness.
"Hurry," her voice echoed through the cave, "I do not wish to be kept waiting."
Iroh was already heading to the stairs when Zuko collapsed against a wall, simply awe-stricken.
"Uncle, what the hell is that thing, really? Should we be dealing with such magic?"
Iroh kept ascending the staircase slowly and at his own pace, until he got so far ahead Zuko was forced to run and catch up. Once he did, he kept his silence as his uncle was reserved in his own thoughts. The silence was heavy for a few minutes, until finally Iroh turned to the one young man he now considered a son.
"You wouldn't know of how a mortal human became a wind spirit, would you?" he asked quietly, his deep baritone voice stiff in the still air.
Zuko shrugged, "No, I wouldn't," he admitted after a while.
Iroh nodded. "She has gone through a lot, and once she was even a very powerful spirit. Too powerful for the other spirits, I suppose. When I was a young lad, and still only a lieutenant in the firelord's army, the other troops would tell stories by the firelight at night to keep our spirits up. We were going to try and invade Ba Sing Sei that very next morning. This was before I tried it as a General. I was lucky to survive that siege. Anyways, one of the stories that a private told the score of soldiers I was leading was the one of Feng Jie.
"Long ago, before we had conquered over the airbending temples, there was once a young maiden by the name Jie, who lived in the Eastern Temple as an airbender, learning from the monks their secrets. She was able to master any technique the monks showed her, and create a few of her own, as it were. She was also an inventor. Do you remember the staff the Avatar carried along?" Iroh asked, pausing his story.
"Very well," mumbled Zuko, remembering the countless whacks and bumps to his head from that contraption.
"That was her creation. A way to let the airbenders fly for a long period of time. She enjoyed the idea of flying so much she rarely came down. Her father, however, hated the idea, not being an airbender himself. After seeing his beautiful daughter remain in the skies for hours at a time, he commanded that she come back down.
'What do you wish of me, Father?' she asked sweetly once her feet had touched ground. Quickly her father seized her and threw her into a locked room, with no windows to look out to the sky.
'I wish of you to stay upon the ground so I may find you a proper husband,' he declared to her, locking the door and asking a guard to watch over her."
Iroh here paused, and looked to Zuko. The young man was looking to the stairs, climbing them slowly. "That's…" he did not finish. He had never known the horrors of captivity, not for any long period of time.
"It was worse for her," Iroh continued, "She had never known captivity, and every night she would desperately try to escape, like a songbird in a cage. One day, she realized that escape was quite impossible. So, placing her hands against the walls of her cage, Jie prayed to any spirit and any god that would answer her pleas for escape. She prayed for hours, until, one moment, a voice replied.
'I can set you free, make you immortal, make you one with the wind,' it said. Jie jumped up and cried aloud to the mystery voice, shouting out that she would do anything to be free to fly once more.
'Then it shall be. Welcome to the spirit world, Feng Jie,' cried the voice, and Jie, now christened Feng Jie, collapsed to the floor. When she awoke, she was no longer human, but a wind spirit, in the form of a long, snaking dragon, with a golden mane and blue markings shimmering all over her scaly body. At first, Feng Jie was horrified at her new body, but then she realized what power she had when she raised herself to all fours, and her long tail smashed through the walls of her cell. Sunlight poured through, and with that Feng Jie was off, flying through the sky at such a speed she had traveled the world over four times before she realized that she was full of tremendous power. Quickly she flew down to the ground, where a large tree stood tall. Using her claws the tree was felled to the ground in one slash. The wind followed her where ever she went. Feng Jie loved her power so much, she traveled to the spirit world just to challenge the other spirits. After defeating another wind spirit as well as a wood spirit, she grew arrogant with her power, and challenged any spirit to come and face her. She got her wish, and the king of all the spirits, the same one that had given her powers, came and vented his wrath upon her.
'I would strip you of your power, except that would not be punishment enough!' he roared, 'So I will simply weaken you, until you can no longer fly, and no longer destroy. You will live between the two worlds, theirs and the spirits', and every day will be anguish for you. Now, be gone!'
And with that, he cast her back down to earth, and she landed exactly where we found her. She has lived in that cave ever since, neither maid nor dragon, surviving simply off her own energy."
Iroh finished his tale right as they saw the light of day at the entrance to the cave. Zuko breathed deeply the fresh, dry air, and squinted as his eyes adjusted to such brilliance.
"But, Uncle, what about when she said you have met her before?" Zuko breathed in, and coughed as sand flooded down his throat.
"That's a story for another time, Zuko," he replied gruffly. They were now outside, standing near one of the dragon statues. Feng Jie was nowhere to be seen.
"Where is she?" growled Zuko under his breath as he started to feel the heat of the desert once more. It was nearing dawn. Had they been in that cave all night?
"Over here," cried a weak voice from the cave's entrance. Zuko spun around, and saw nothing.
"Over where?" he cried, looking left and right. Still no Feng Jie. He stepped closer to the cave. He was about the take another when the voice cried out once more.
"Wait, wait! Stop walking, and look down!" Zuko froze, and looking down as he was told, he was mortified to find a small… snake? Lizard? What the hell was that thing?
Iroh laughed, stepping up next to Zuko and looking down at the little creature that was hiding in the shadow of one of the dragon statues.
"Only a fraction of your power is left, eh, Feng Jie?" he asked coyly, kneeling down to look at the creature. Zuko did the same, and saw that the horns and claws that he had seen on the wind spirit below were the same.
"I… I cannot go out there," whined the wind spirit, looking fearfully to where dawn's rays splashed against the sand.
"I… haven't been outside in… so, so long!"
Zuko looked at Feng Jie, thinking hard, before reaching down and grabbing her by the tail. She looked just like the dragon in the story, except smaller.
"Hey, hey, what are you doing!?" she squealed from Zuko's grasp. She squirmed and clawed at his hand and even bit him, but it was no use; he wouldn't let go.
"Taking you outside," he said with a malicious grin on his face. He stepped out into broad daylight, and stuck out the hand that held the little dragon into the light.
"Ah! Okay, okay! Head west until you see a vulture-bees' hive, then head north until I say, just let me get somewhere dark!" Zuko laughed and tucked Feng Jie under his shirt, where he could feel the little spirit squirm around until she was comfortable lying on his shoulder. Iroh made a glance at his nephew, before heading in the direction Feng Jie had instructed.
"You can be persuasive when you want to be, Zuko," he chided gently.