Chapter 3 – Return
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Merchant Li Zu was just about to close down his store when a cold and strong autumn wind blew his way, sending dust into his eyes and a single nightshade blossom to his chest. He caught it and realized that he was not aware that there was a nightshade bush nearby. Shivering from the appetizers of cold winter this Fire Nation autumn breeze advertised, Merchant Li Zu hastened his work.
His humble store below his small two-storey house he secured with planks aligned on a pair of long notches at the floor and ceiling right in front of his front door, providing better protection against the element and thieves. He fixed the planks, stopping briefly to greet Blacksmith Bai Zu, his brother who lived next door. Reminding his elder brother about a medicine he had to take to treat his lingering wet cold, Merchant Li Zu fixed in the last of the planks. The whistling of the wind died down suddenly.
Sighing, he stepped in and closed his front door. It was barely nightfall in the City of North Chu-Ling, better known as the Fire Fountain City due to its iconic gigantic firebending statue of Fire Lord Azulon, but Merchant Li Zu thought that no one should want to buy his merchandise at this hour.
He smiled contentedly as he closed his front door and locked his store. He walked back inside through bolts and folds of silk, satin, cotton, and brocade, to his counter where he picked up his ledger, and inside to the small comfortable kitchen on the first floor of his house.
Merchant Li Zu snapped a small flame on his finger and lit a candle on a circular dining table to provide better lighting since he had closed all windows earlier. He made himself a pot of warm oolong tea, the best kind for autumn, as he had always said. Sitting down with his tea, he studied his ledger, stroking his thin well-groomed moustache.
He made quite a profit that week; the Colonies were buying in bulk since the autumn that year was harsh on them and they feared what winter might bring. Cotton and wool were high-sellers. He closed his ledger, thinking of ways he could get in on the next trade again. He remembered a newspaper article he had read that morning about the Colonies pushing the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom to grant them autonomy and count them out of the War. It would be bloody, Merchant Li Zu predicted.
But, it would be profitable. Fire Nation would want to send more soldiers to the front to either man their defenses during winter or to subjugate the rebellious Colonies. Either way, silk, brocade, and cotton would be in demand to make soldiers' and officers' clothes and uniform.
Merchant Li Zu sighed deeply. Not really how he would want to make his profit but he would take all he could get. It was an honest living, he would often said, and there is something in this honest life. He had told his sons that repeatedly. Now all grown and living their own lives, his three sons had become merchants of their own rights. His wife had passed before him years ago and now the old weary him lived alone.
He did not realize he was looking at the nightshade he had found earlier. Soft purple under the orange of the candle light looked particularly gentle. A draft of wind flew in from Agni-knows-where and blew the candle out. Merchant Li Zu put down his cup and conjured up a small fire on his palm.
Shadow at the corner of the room he was in materialized into a man; a dagger of black ivory handle and ornately engraved blade, with flames that ran along the two sides just behind the cutting edge, framing the fuller that traced to the tip like a pillar. Orange light danced along the silvery blade, showing of the keenness of the edge.
Armored the man was under his robe. Plates of lightweight rattan laminar with black ironpine resin embossed on hard leather formed the breastplate and single pauldron on his left shoulder, a single spaulder of lamellar plates on his left upper arm, and belt fitted with holsters for throwing knives both hidden and visible. Vambraces of identical plating to his armor, with fingerless gloves on the right hand and full one on the left cast no reflected light as the man's hand moved to the blade to hide the gleam.
Merchant Li Zu relit the candle, thinking of how ungrateful the colonials were. Demanding autonomy to form a fifth nation? Unheard of! The reign of Fire Lord Azulon had been going on for close to five thousand years and the ancient Fire Lord had brought prosperity. Merchant Li Zu was in the middle of predicting how bad it would be should the Colonies entered the War as a third power when his head dropped to the table with his throat slit open and thick red blood pooling on the table, staining his ledger, teacup, and nightshade flower.
Had he known that it would be the last of his thought, he would have chosen a more peaceful one. Of his departed wife, maybe. Or his sons. Or his store.
But, no matter, he thought as he welcomed the dark embrace of Death. It could have been worse.
The soft purple of the nightshade looked particularly gentle still despite the dark stain of blood on the petals.
-B-L-O-O-D-
Mako leaned back on his seat, looking up to the midday sun above. He ignored the waiter coming to his table on the sidewalk café outside Flamey Sid's Coffee and Tea Shop. He closed his eyes and fleshy red on the inside of his eyelids lit up under the bright sunlight. The weather had cooled down lately though the sky was still bright. It would not be long before the blue would turn cloudy and gray as winter approached.
He felt a pair of cold hand covering his eyes, a smile graced his face as a reply.
"Who is it?" a female voice asked playfully.
"Uh… Mei Ling?" Mako joked, earning a slap on his chest.
Asami landed a peck on the firebender's forehead and sat on the seat next to him, claiming his untouched cup of tea immediately.
"How'd it go with Tenzin?" Mako asked, hailing a waiter to their table.
"He's going to the Western Air Temple in an hour to get permission from the Head Abbess", Asami sipped her tea calmly. "He might even try to get some reinforcement from the Air Nomads."
"Why is he still requesting permission for our extermination?" Mako muttered gruffly as the waiter came with a second cup of tea. "I thought Tenzin is excommunicated."
"That's just a rumor", Asami waved it off lightly, leaning back on her chair and crossing her legs. "One that Tenzin apparently takes advantage of. That makes the Unnatural underestimate him. They think that he won't get any backing from the Air Nomads."
"I bet Chief Bei Fong's not so happy about it", Mako commented severely. "It's like he's drawing vampires to us."
Asami reached to his hand and smiled kindly; her stare was rather stern though. "It's not Tenzin's fault, you know?"
Mako scowled and looked away.
-B-L-O-O-D-
"Can't sleep, Zuzu?" Azula asked without turning back. The Princess was standing tall on top of the airship tallest platform, enjoying some night air. Her twin bang flipped around her face wildly but her top-knot stood its ground.
Zuko approached and stood beside her, leaning on the railing like a peasant; Azula herself stood with regal posture like a warrior princess she was. Azula did not know why this bothered her so much.
"You're up late", Zuko commented back, his untied hair waved wildly on his head like flaming fire.
"I can't sleep", Azula shrugged and then her face fell. "Ty Lee kept hugging me."
"Don't you have your own bed?" Zuko frowned at his sister.
Azula shivered. "Don't ask."
-In the girls' bedroom-
In the large bed of Princess Azula's…
"Zzzzz… Azulaaaaa…"
Breath hitched in Mai's throat as her lady parts were, once again, violated by the acrobat's gropey hands. Removing the other girl's hand of her breasts, Mai edged away to the far side of the bed. Finally, she knew why, despite Azula's inborn inclination towards proper decorum and division of castes and classes, the Princess let her and Ty Lee sleep in her bed. Mai had to admit there were times she fooled herself thinking that it was purely a sign of Azula's appreciation of their friendship. Now, she suspected that there was more to it than just that. Azula was not the kind of person who did something that did not benefit her in some way. Mai was, in this case, a meat shield against Ty Lee's gropey hands. After all, Mai was taller and more… endowed; she would make a better target than the Princess' petite form.
The gloomy vampiress let out another gasp as a pair of strong slender arms snaked their way around her torso and, as they secured a tight grip, began exploring her well-curved and –endowed body.
She thought of Zuko all night long.
-Back to the top of the airship-
"Let's just say that Ty Lee is…" Azula cleared her throat uncomfortably. "…experimenting… with her sexuality", she winced and added under her breath. "For the good part of this decade."
"And… you left her in the same room as my girlfriend?" Zuko wanted to be sure.
Azula shrugged lightly. "Ty Lee's just excited she's finally grown", she said nonchalantly.
Born vampires, or pureblooded, grow in a peculiar pace. There is no set pace in which they grow physically. Their Uncle Iroh was only five years older than their father Ozai but the former had the physique of a sixty something old man who looked old enough to be the latter's father; Ozai looked like a man in his prime forties. Their mother Ursa was only a century younger than their father but she still retained a youthful look of a woman who's knocking on thirty but not yet there.
Azula and Zuko were two full centuries apart but they looked like an average brother and sister with mere two years between them. When Azula was born, Zuko was already two hundred years old but he still looked like a chubby five years old. Their cousin Lu Ten, only five years older than Zuko, was already breaking out at the time baby Azula came into their lives.
Azula and Mai had started to assume the physiques of young teenagers' last century while Ty Lee sort of lagged behind. It wasn't until last decade when she finally had her growth spurt and started to look more like the other two girls' peer and less like their younger sister.
Nobody knows why pureblooded vampires physically age this way. Some theorized about something they call physical peak, a physical form where a vampire's Life Blood power is supposedly at the most powerful, a form that enable a vampire to harness their power more easily. Some say it is part of their curse. No pureblooded vampires pay attention to them, of course. Most pureblooded vampires are nobilities, surrounded by security and stability the wealth and status their families provided. It mattered little what kind of bodies they had.
"Relax", Azula waved Zuko's concern off uncaringly. "They'll be fine."
Zuko did not reply. The ensuing silence between them was awkward, to say the least. Zuko and Azula were not really… well, they were unique siblings, even for vampires. Vampires live long; deep bond could grow so close or bitter between siblings. Zuko and Azula were simply awkward and frosty.
Zuko was an epitome of hard work and perseverance. He was born with a wealth of talent and potential in the fields he was expected to excel at as a Fire Prince. But, being to a family of talented and born-geniuses, his talent did not seem like much. He had to struggle with everything to get where he was now and even now he still amounted to little in his demanding father and grandfather's eyes.
Azula, on the other hand, lived up to their family's name and expectation. She was a prodigy; the best in firebending, academic studies, and Ancient magic. Everything came easy for her. She was doted on by their father, to the point of being overprotected and spoilt, and hence Azula found the idea of struggling to get what she wanted foreign and strange.
Zuko thought of Azula as a cold condescending individual; Azula believed Zuko was simply weird and foolish.
They got along just fine but they were not close. Or maybe they were and they just had their own weird way of showing it. Zuko knew of Azula's penchant for offending the wrong sort of people, the wrong sort of powerful people, and had been shielding her for centuries; Azula knew of the affection Zuko and Mai shared for one another and, despite the amusement of watching them trying to figure things out like rats running around in an endless labyrinth box, she set them up and made sure they stayed together by scaring off potential suitors seeking approval from both Mai and Zuko.
Just two months before, for example, when Azula had, in the process of defending her father's decision to send more soldiers to the colonies, insulted the intelligence, and for good measure, personal hygiene of the head of the House of Zang, a writ of assassination was issued on her and the Blue Spirit ravaged the headquarters of the Zang Hei Sect, a personal assassin guild of the House of Zang. Also, when the young master of the Reen Family came up with a rather incriminating but fake evidence that would tipped Mai's favor towards him, Azula had personally visited the clan, somehow baited the young man into saying something rude about Fire Lord Azulon, and challenged him to an Agni Kai in which Azula pretty much destroyed him and his family standing in the Royal Court.
Azula finally turned around and leaned back on the railing, mimicking her brother. She looked up to the sky above and she could not wait to get home. She liked her duties well enough; she had spent the first millennium of her life being confined to the Royal Palace by her overprotective father and the only chance she got to get out was during their annual summer vacation to the Ember Island, which they did not do so much anymore, and even then she would not be left alone or given much freedom or space. She was the first female born to their family in quite a long while she suspected that they did not know what to do with her.
"Dad sent a hawk", Zuko said suddenly, arms crossed.
"Yeah", Azula asked with piqued interest. "What is it about?"
"He won't be welcoming us home", Zuko replied gruffly. He did not need to turn back to know that Azula's face had fallen. The girl adored her father.
Azula turned back around if only to ease the pang she felt in her chest. She leaned on her arms and Zuko somehow felt like he had to try to comfort her. He might not like it but he was still her big brother. "Mom will be there, though."
Azula simply snorted and Zuko felt irked.
Before he could say anything else, Azula climbed up the railing and jumped over it, freefalling through the empty sky. Zuko did not even flinch; the Azula he knew would never commit suicide or something. She was a creature of comfort. Zuko was still unfazed when a female Royal Vampire flapped her leathery wings and flew along the airship, framed by the bright waning gibbous moon.
-B-L-O-O-D-
A single arrow with brownish red fletching sang through the air; a guard was pinned down by his sleeve to the wooden wall in front of him. Before he could regain his composure, a flash of light that followed a blunt blow on his head brought him to the state of unconsciousness.
The last thing he saw was a male youth with shaggy brown hair and a blade of grass in his mouth. The last thought he had was 'who the hell would attack a clinic?'
-B-L-O-O-D-
Tyro strugglingly straightened his torso. The bandage around his midsection and chest felt tight under his light garb. Not that he was complaining. King Nara of Tianshui was generous, probably because the venerable king still had use of him and his hunting party. They had nabbed the wrong werewolf.
Haru entered the clinic room without as much as knocking with Toph in tow. Haru's bare feet made no sound on the earthen floor while the rim of Toph's metal gaiter clanked with the ground softly.
"Dad", Haru called, bowing. "How are you doing?"
"I'm fine, son", the old man grunted as he stood up; he did not wobble and his footing was surer than he had anticipated. "How are the men?"
"They've mostly recovered", Haru replied as they sat at a small round table; Toph promptly cranked her chair back with her feet on top of the table pointing at Haru's direction.
Tyro nodded and turned to the youngest earthbender; he smiled even though he knew Toph would not see it. "And how are you doing, Toph?" he asked kindly. The last time he saw her in the fight, the werewolf was on top of her, ready to devour her.
Toph blew her bang and scowled, crossing her arms. "I'm fine", she muttered, ignoring the cup of tea Tyro poured her. She instead pulled out a rolled up scroll tugged on her sash and handed it to the old man.
To answer Tyro's raised brow, Haru said desperately. "She doesn't believe me."
Snickering, Tyro unfurled the scroll and read it through. "Hmm… as usual, your parents are demanding your return."
"I know that much", Toph shrugged uncaringly. "It's the next part that I'm unsure about."
"The part about them sending bounty hunters on you?" Tyro asked casually. "Toph", he began with a mellowed fatherly tone.
Toph halted him with a hand. "I'm not going home", she decided bluntly. "And bounty hunters? Really? Hah! I'd like to see them try!"
Tyro felt like he should do or say something. Before he could though, his door was burst open by a member of their party. The man was sweating river and heaving. "They escaped!"
Haru and Tyro stiffened up; Toph snorted. "Told you we should've killed him."
-B-L-O-O-D-
"That's going to bruise", Mai commented dryly at the feral vampire Azula had just clobbered.
"I know she's my little sister and all", Zuko sighed. "But, I swear, sometimes she's just a little—", whatever obscenity that escaped the Prince's lips was drowned by the scream another vampire let out as he was engulfed by a flame of bright blue hue.
"Ah…" Azula sighed contentedly as she watched Ty Lee pounced at the last of the vampire and blocked his chi with her lightning fast jabs. "I feel better", she turned to Zuko and Mai who had not involved themselves in the already unfair fight of Azula and Ty Lee versus a pack of wild vampires; a Fire Princess and a master chi-blocker of the Ty Family versus a bunch of thin-blooded bandits-turned-vampires. "Oh, lighten up, Brother!" she exasperated under Zuko's withering stare. "This is still early in the morning. The sun's shining, the air's fresh. The best time for exercise."
Zuko clenched his jaw tightly. When he woke up that morning, he found out (too late) that Azula had pretty much commandeered the airship; the right belonged solely to him as the firstborn but the crew did not know any better. Apparently, his little sister had decided to take a more scenic route and had stopped at Shen Ji Island, one of the middle islands knows for its active Tratakoa Volcano, its lust ash banana grove, and its reputation as a place of banishment for feral vampires. In some of the more modern maps, it had been renamed Exile Island.
The Island attracted the worst of the worst. Vampires that had relinquished their humanities altogether and surrendered to their blood thirst. They had become little more than animals and sadly they numbered in many. They wore their fanged form with pride and preyed upon the innocents without restraint.
While Fire Nation human denizens knew of the vampires, they had a rather neutral perspective of them. Fire Nation Royal Family had embraced vampirism since the very beginning and vampirism was considered a sign of nobility. The vampires treated their human counterpart with respect, as their Law proposed, and were forbidden to feed or to turn them without consent or permission from the government. They actually had paperwork for this.
Loyal military officers and nobles were often rewarded with the gift of vampirism and the immortality it carried. Vampirism had become a symbol of prestige. Vampires and humans had even started intermarrying since time immemorial; a fact that the other three Nations would skeptically dismissed as an act of vampires taking advantage of human weakness by using guile, coercion, or magic. Vampirism is, however, a recessive trait; the offspring of a human and a vampire parents would always be full untainted human.
Very rarely did these 'natural' vampires succumb to their thirst. The Afflicted and the thin-blooded -Fire Nation humans who were turned, often forcibly or accidentally-, however, were different. To conquer their thirst, vampires trained their mind with discipline, usually guided by their parents or sires. The Afflicted and thin-blooded rarely had such guidance. They only knew that they must feed to survive, as dictated by their instinct.
Fire Lord Sozin had been unforgiving in his crusade against the bestial nature of their kind. He had formed in his time the Blood Guard; elite firebending soldiers, the precursor of the Royal Procession, whose sole duty is to patrol their soil and get rid of the unwanted thin-blooded. Fire Lord Azulon then took charge and formed the less humane but more strategically advantageous protocol. He would round up the thin-blooded and set them loose in the warfront or in hostile Earth Kingdom cities, effectively using them as weapons. It was said that Fire Lord Azulon's method was responsible for the creation of the Afflicted.
Fire Prince Iroh, a more humane vampire than his legendary father, had relentlessly fought against the protocol and had persuaded his father to abolish such practice. Furthermore, the Prince had also established numerous rehabilitation centers where the thin-blooded might receive help and training. Iroh had also been the one responsible for the creation of the Exile Island, a place where the most dangerous thin-blooded who were beyond help could be confined. It sure beat outright execution.
The Tratakoa was a large and active volcano that would wipe the population of the island from time to time and the Exile Island also serve as some sort of a deterrent for criminals. Fire Prince Ozai had recently passed a law that sanctioned the Island as an exile place where high-profile criminals would be sent to die. Humans and vampires alike feared the place; the thin-blooded were not beyond cannibalizing their own kind.
The Royal Procession sent their new recruits on an eight-day intensive survival camp as a part of their initiation test. Prince Lu Ten often wandered here when he felt like killing something. Azula and Zuko sometimes tagged along and were familiar with the Island as the result. It is pretty simply, said Lu Ten once. Just step forward and burn anything that comes at you.
Zuko and Mai were sitting on a beach blanket that, until a couple hours ago, before Mai laid eyes on it, had been a curtain on Zuko's window. Azula smirked and Ty Lee whooped as more vampires emerged from the darkness of the woods ahead of them. They moved sluggishly as they sniffed the air, tasting the smell of the two girls who were the nearest to them, and Zuko and Mai and about a dozen Royal Procession who had been ordered to stand in the sideline under the threat of death by their Princess.
The thin-blooded had the mannerism that was more animal than human, further emboldened by their pasty pale skin and yellowed and chipped fanged teeth. Their heads snapped to the direction of the waiting Azula and Ty Lee and they snarled, fanged faced showing off their sharp and yellowed incisors.
Ty Lee winced at the sight and Azula shot a lightning bolt at the nearest target's face. It took awhile for the thin-blooded's deteriorating wit to notice that the first blow had been thrown. Once they did, they raced towards the two girls. Some, much to Zuko's disgust, leaped at Azula and Ty Lee's earlier victims and started biting on their flesh and sucking at their remaining blood until the carcasses dried up and turned to a lump of dust.
"Why are we here again?" Mai sighed deeply.
"Because Azula's bored and upset", Zuko replied just as dryly; after almost three centuries of romance, he knew that Mai would always be a mystery to him although he had deciphered some of her mystery. He knew that Mai knew the sight of cannibalistic hematophagia disturb him.
"You're her brother."
And sometimes, she could be infuriating.
"So?"
"So, do something. Make her stop."
Zuko let out what might have been a growl as he got up and stretched his back. He moved to the battle scene where his little sister and her little friend were bullying a horde of thin-limbed and emaciated-looking feral vampires. The Fire Prince shot a flame blast powerful enough to incinerate a vampire Ty Lee was holding out by the collar, making Azula's fire blast that was aimed at it hit nothing but an already dead burning corpse.
"Hey! I was about to get that one!" Azula protested loudly; Ty Lee yelped and let go of the burning corpse that was rapidly turning into dust.
"Stop fooling around!" Zuko snapped back. "Get in the airship and let's get out of here!"
Azula harrumphed. "No", she said flatly with crossed arms.
Zuko bit back his response and, with narrowed eyes, went back to Mai. "I tried", he reported.
"I'm worried about you sometimes", Mai said as she pushed Zuko aside with her foot so she could get a full view of Azula using Ancient magic to create a force field dome that trapped about six feral vampires before she shot lightning at them one by one.
By the time Azula, whipping her signature blue flame, was chasing around a screaming vampire that scampered around on four like some kind of rabid simian, Zuko voiced his concern: "She's gonna have a hard time finding a husband, isn't she?"
-B-L-O-O-D-
"In all honesty", the man began. "I don't think we should be letting him walk around freely, even if he is a kid."
In response to the amber-eyed man, the larger tan-skinned and emerald-eyed bearded man delivered a stern stare.
"Yeah, yeah, you're right", the slim paler-skinned man sighed, stroking his bow. Hidden inside the thick foliage of the old tree, they looked down on the three teenagers. Jet led Smellerbee and Longshot through the forest, heading west.
-B-L-O-O-D-
The Royal Procession set up a camp on the shore. Their currently-rowdy Princess had decided to venture deeper into the woods with her bubbly acrobat friend. Despite her warning, they had sent a dozen of their most experienced and, more importantly, stealthy members into the forest to keep an eye on the Princess and her friend. Prince Zuko and the other girl, the gloomy one, had retreated back to the airship a while ago and had not come out ever since.
They were preparing to roast a pheasant-flamingo for the royals and the nobles, the airship cook was in the middle of sharpening her knife. Despite popular belief, vampires eat. At least, the civilized ones. Some of the Afflicted and all of the thin-blooded survive solely on blood; they felt hunger like any other vampire but their thirst drown it out.
Fire Nation vampires trained themselves since they were young to rely on calories like normal people to do menial daily activities. They achieved such feat by indulging in intensive meditation and sometimes harsh and brutal physical conditioning. Only when they firebend or when they were in a fight-or-flight response did they instinctively let go of their inhibition and draw upon their Life Blood. It took years, even decades of practice but a state where they could retain their Life Blood almost indefinitely, making them seemingly able to survive without feeding, was possible. It was said that the last Fire Lord Azulon fed was when he was still a High General under his father Sozin.
This skill was taught to the populace and the Royal Family, with the duty to set an example, were expert of this particular art. Zuko and Azula were taught the exercises by their uncle as soon as they could walk and it had become a daily routine for them. The act of feeding, contrary to popular perception, was considered brutish and barbaric by the Fire Nation royals and nobility. They preferred to drink from a cup.
Fire Nation people sold their blood for this purpose; they thought that it was better than being involuntarily mugged by blood-craved vampire and sucked dry. Convicts on death row were often executed by 'draining'. Imprisoned criminals and prisoners of war were siphoned once a week. Fire Nation scientists had also succeeded in creating blood substitute but many complaint that it tasted like a copper piece dipped in mud so it had not caught on yet.
Fire Nation Royal University had proposed that with routine extensive meditative exercise, a vampire could lessen the loss of Life Blood during chi-draining activities and enhance their digestive system to extract and store energy from food, especially from simple sugar. This finding bolstered the enthusiasm for meditative exercises in the last few centuries.
A thunderbolt shot upright from the forest at the foot of the mountain; a flock of charcoal colored bird flew out to avoid certain death that seemed to follow at the wake of a cranky Princess Azula. Any Royal Procession worth his blood knew of the tribal camp that the thin-blooded had established for themselves. They held their daily rumble there where they fought and fed on each other.
The Royal Procession do not speak much. They are silent protectors, sentinels whose existence solely is to protect. They do not speak, they do not think, they simply do. Even so, they each silently agreed with Prince Zuko's earlier remark; it would appear that Princess Azula would have a hard time finding a husband.
Prince Zuko would appreciate the thought, jaw hardened as he watched the lightning bolt piercing to the sky above. He sighed inwardly. His great age had little to do with his temper; he might have lived longer than any human alive but he spent most of it in isolation and he was still in the body of a hormonal teenager. Azula had better control of her temper, he knew, and it was mostly due to the fact that she was better at meditation. It was almost like a second curse for vampires like him; to have to struggle so hard to reign in their emotional state. The fact that he could very well remain in this teenaged body for centuries to come, or even forever, made the matter a lot worse.
"Did you say something to her?" Mai spoke without a preamble or announcing her presence in Zuko's room; Zuko never knew his heart could pound this hard. "Did you do something?" Mai trailed off as she sat on the bedside.
"No", Zuko said gruffly. Mai stared at the Prince with those still and distant amber eyes of hers, scrutinizing his face. She then shrugged and draped herself in his arms.
It was not Mai's problem anyway. Azula's a big girl, she told herself.
Even if she and Ty Lee did came back screaming half an hour later as they ran away from a full tribe of feral thin-blooded at their tails. If poking a hornet nest is a gift, the Fire Princess was a godsend.
-B-L-O-O-D-
Azula crossed her arms, pouting under Zuko's stern stare sitting in the lower bunk bed. At the corner of the girls' room, Mai and Ty Lee were sitting on the large bed, pretending to be too busy with their Pai Sho game to notice the Princess being scolded by her older brother. It was quite an occurrence, once in a hundred years (literally), and Mai and Ty Lee were not about to miss it.
The last time this happened, Azula had (again, literally) used Zuko as a meat shield when they were hunting a rabid dragon that ravaged the countryside. Zuko was badly wounded and nearly used up all his Life Blood to heal his extensive burn and reattach his severed limbs and almost dried up and fell into blood coma.
It was more a century ago, shortly after Ty Lee was finally allowed to join them.
And despite what people thought of her, Azula did have a heart. Shriveled, black, and pumping noxious sludge it might rumored to be, it was a bleeding and beating heart. Her father would rather her be evil and strong than weak and taken advantage of but her mother was a good influence. Like many girls, Azula idolized her father and her front was all Ozai taught her; intimidation, cunningness, wit, power, and superiority.
Even so, underneath all that, Ursa and her ways reigned supreme. Mai knew she was a big softie inside, often awkward and haughty rather than the cruel and heartless front the Princess preferred. Ty Lee knew that underneath the bright royal saffron of her aura, Azula was a soft pinkish red fluff; it was just too faint to stand up against the bright eye-blinding exterior. To Zuko, Azula was still a child inside.
"How should I know those savages have formed a village with structure and actual social construct?" Azula huffed, pouting in a way the three other in the room could only described as irresistibly cute. Ty Lee and Mai knew the Princess would hate being described as such; Zuko would rather cut his tongue off, reattach it, and cut it off again than to describe his little sister as such.
"You drew about fifty of them onto our ship", Zuko growled through his gritted teeth, and bandaged neck (a feral vampire bit him and vampire bite on other vampires heals slowly), as he braced through the guilt inducing pout of his little sister by focusing on the girl's top-knot rather than her slightly puffed cheeks. "Ten of our guards were injured and three almost died. What did Mom tell you about causing problem for the Royal Procession?!" and me, Zuko added mentally.
Azula mumbled something indistinct, fixing her glare at the buckler of his brother's armor; Zuko said sternly in reply. "What was that? Louder!"
"She said they are not toys and they can snap and left us stranded in a remote island somewhere if we push hard enough", Azula mumbled begrudgingly. Ty Lee snickered softly and Mai kicked her foot.
Zuko raised his brow, he only had one, the right one, sharply.
"If I push hard enough", Azula barked indignantly. "Happy?"
"For now", Zuko resigned coldly. "We'll need another night to get back home and no more detour, is that clear?"
Azula breathed out a loud 'humph' as she turned to the window.
"I've ordered the captain to ignore any directions from you", Zuko added. "So, don't even try."
With that, the Fire Prince left, rueful of the day his parents opted to have a second child instead of adopting a puppy.
