Hey everyone! Wow, been a long time since I last updated Madoka Ame huh? I'm sorry, all. I had writer's block for a long while, and I'm not sure if I'm really over it, but thanks to my Avatar: TLA obsession, and my motivation and determination to keep writing this, I finally came up with something while watching "Zuko Alone" on Nick. Also, college is biting me in the ass *cough-midterms-cough*, and I don't really have much time for ANYTHING these days, so it's really amazing that I can even spit out THIS chapter.
I would very much like to thank my reviewers, razzledazzle41191, PoeticLover4u, Hiko-chan, and Ali. Thank you all very much, and I am very sorry for the long wait. Thanks for being so patient with me while I try and keep you all interested and entertained. Your support is AWESOME! Thanks so much! Here is chapter 7 for your reading pleasure. Happy Reading!
Note: This chapter takes place during some of the frequent flashbacks that Prince Zuko has during season 2 where he befriends a young Earth Kingdom boy named Lee. I'll let you guess as to which flashback it is.
Never Give Up without a Fight
It was early afternoon, and young Prince Zuko lay on his back, staring up at the clouds that passed by. The sun's rays warmed him and filled him with energy and the gentle breeze caressed him as the swaying of the trees added to his relaxed atmosphere. He took in a deep breath and inhaled the smell of the grass and let it fill his nostrils and wake up his senses. He enjoyed lounging around on a day like this; he had no training, none of his sisters' friends were coming over; he had the day to himself.
The young Prince folded his hands behind his head and watched as birds flew across the sky. He followed them with his eyes, until his mind began to wander. He thought about his uncle and his cousin Lu Ten in the Earth Kingdom fighting in the war. How long has it been since they left? A really long time, he thought. He missed them. But then he imagined them coming home with wonderful stories to tell him and his sister about how they had fought two-hundred Earthbenders and they were outnumbered two to one.
He was exaggerating of course, but it made him feel better about their absence and not so lonely. Zuko and Lu Ten were very close; whenever Zuko was feeling down, he would go to his cousin and in a matter of seconds Lu Ten would be able to cheer him back up again. The elder Royal child would also try and teach him some new bending moves he had learned from Iroh. Zuko loved those times; he would always keep the moves he learned from Lu Ten a secret from Azula so she wouldn't show him up. It was like having his own little secret weapon.
Cicadas buzzed around him as he reminisced and he felt himself growing sleepy underneath the warm sun. He yawned and rolled over on his side and started picking at the grass when he heard someone call his name. He flipped over on all fours and looked up to see his mother coming towards him. As she strode closer in robes of red silk, the young Prince sat up on his knees and dusted himself off and picked out pieces of grass from his hair. He smiled at her when she was in front of him.
"What are you doing out here by yourself?" she asked.
"Thinking," he answered, "and enjoying the sunshine."
A cool breeze swirled around the two, lifting up bits of Princess Ursa's robes and hair and Zuko watched as they fluttered gently in the wind as his own hair in his topknot whipped around his face. His mother smiled lovingly at him then looked up at the sky.
"It is a beautiful day," she said, then looked back down at her son. "But unfortunately you have calligraphy lessons with your sister right now. Shi-Ru and Azula are waiting for you in the study."
The Prince's face fell; he had forgotten about that. He sighed dramatically.
"Do I have to?" he whined. "I write better calligraphy than Azula anyway, she's the one who needs lessons not me." His mother smirked and her eyes twinkled with laughter. It was true that her daughter was gifted in the art of Firebending—she and Zuko both knew that—but calligraphy was one of Zuko's strong points as well as weaponry. He could write beautiful sentences, poems and haikus in the most elegant handwriting that even Shi-Ru—a master calligrapher as well as their teacher—was amazed by.
"Can't I skip it just this once?" pleaded the young Prince. Ursa smiled and kneeled down to his level and playfully shoved his forehead with her index finger, careful not to scratch him with her long nails.
"No," she said and grinned. "I like you going to your calligraphy lessons because then I can read the wonderful poems and haikus you come up with. And you can show Mai and Ty Lee-"
"They're here?" exclaimed the Prince in horror. He had hoped they had decided to stay home today. Not that he didn't like the fact that they…no, wait, he pretty much hated the fact that they were always here.
"Don't they ever go home?" he said darkly, glaring at the grass. "Why do they always have to come here anyway? Can't they go to each other's house for once?"
"They like coming here, and Azula likes having them over. Besides they won't be here for a while, so you have nothing to worry about," answered his mother.
"Yeah, but they always bother Yu-Lin whenever they're here. Ty Lee's gotten better, but Azula and Mai always do mean things to her. I don't know why, she's really nice."
"What do they do to Yu-Lin?" asked the elder Princess, concern in her voice laced with thinly veiled annoyance. Her son looked up at her, hearing the tone of her voice and hesitated. She saw the expression on his face and relaxed and assured him that she was only going to have a talk with Azula after their lesson was over as well as Mai's mother when she came to pick her up.
"Well," started the Prince, "Mai doesn't really do anything…but she doesn't really stop Azula either. Azula's the one who always starts it. She always calls Yu-Lin names; mean names like 'filth' and 'garbage' and she's always firebending at her too. For no reason."
He watched his mother's face as it darkened into an expression of anger. Azula knew better than to treat people that way; she had told her that. But still…it didn't seem like she was listening to her at all. The elder Princess stared at a spot away from her son's face, deep in thought then got up and beckoned for her son to follow.
"Come Zuko, you don't want to keep them waiting for much longer," she said and the two of them went to the study for the Prince's lesson. When they came to the large wooden doors of the study, his mother left him to go and have some time to herself and told him that she will be near the turtle-duck pond when his lesson was over.
"When you're done, you may come and keep my company if you'd like," she suggested to him, smiling. "And bring your sister with you, I have to have a talk with her," she added sternly as an afterthought. He nodded and said he would and waved goodbye to her as she disappeared down the hall. When she was no longer in sight, Zuko looked at the door ominously, mentally bracing himself for when he had to see his sister.
Taking a deep breath, he steadied himself and placed a hand on the large, brass knob and turned. He pushed the door open and stepped inside and was greeted by Shi-Ru and Azula sitting at a large table in front of him. The study was an enormous room filled with numerous shelves packed with scroll after scroll of anything one could imagine. Mostly the scrolls were records of the Royal Family through the centuries (excluding Fire Lord Sozin's…those scrolls were in the Dragon Bone Catacombs), but there were also some on firebending techniques, weaponry, cooking, and even sleep remedies.
Sunlight bathed the room in warmth and as Zuko walked to take his seat, the lavishing Oriental red carpet—emblazoned with gold dragons—spewed small dust particles which lifted into the air with every step he took. He saw his younger sibling along with Shi-Ru stand and bow to him as he entered.
"Welcome, Prince Zuko. How nice of you to join us," greeted the Calligraphy Master, as the young Prince took a seat opposite his sister. After Zuko had sat down, the other two relaxed and followed suit and Shi-Ru gave him a piece of rice paper, various calligraphy brushes, an ink stone, some ink, and water. The Prince looked at Azula's paper and saw that she had scribbled her name in tiny characters in the upper left hand corner. She was getting better, though some of her lines were a little shaky, he thought. And she still needed a lot of work.
"Now that Prince Zuko has joined us," started Shi-Ru, breaking him from his thoughts. "Let us begin our lesson. To get us started I would like you to write down the characters you have learned from the last time we gathered." And so, the lesson commenced and the two Royal children were in the study for the next two hours practicing and trying to come up with interesting poems and sentences. As they were nearing the end of the lesson, they were asked to write a small poem about what inspires them, using the characters for "beautiful, heart, sky," and "love."
When the lesson was nearing its end, Shi-Ru asked if he could read what they had come up with. The children handed him their papers and he read Azula's first, eagerness clearly shown on his face. He cleared his throat dramatically, and began reading.
"The sky is blackened by your smoke
My heart beats with excitement at the beautiful fire I have caused
I feel the heat in my hands, knowing that I can cause you fear just by expelling the flames.
O, how I love this power."
Shi-Ru and Zuko were both stunned into silence. Well, Zuko wasn't especially surprised—he had expected this from his sister, but he saw a bead of sweat slide down from his teacher's brow and saw Azula looking pleased with herself. Nonetheless, the Calligraphy Master put a smile on his face and handed back the Princess's paper.
"Very…well done, Your Highness," he said with a strained smile and handed the poem back to her. The young Princess had a smug grin on her face, obviously quite pleased with her poem. Her brother resisted the urge to roll his eyes and waited for the teacher to read his poem. He was quite proud of it to say the least; he had written it from his heart. When Shi-Ru took his paper to begin reading, he seemed to swell with pride and anticipation. The Calligraphy Master cleared his throat once more and began.
"I look at the stars in the night sky,
Blazing brightly like beautiful tiny fireflies.
A gentle wind blows as I listen to the beating of my heart
I feel at peace, I feel safe.
I close my eyes and I listen to the chirping of crickets and think,
'I love nights like this."
Azula's face fell into a scowl. Of course he would write something like this, she thought in disgust, so nauseatingly angelic.
Their teacher praised the young Prince for his eloquent writing style and descriptive phrases and how he could say so much about the setting in so few lines. Zuko blushed with embarrassment as Shi-Ru handed back his poem and dismissed the two of them while he packed up their brushed and various tools. The two Royal children leapt off their chairs, and ran out the door carrying their poems, all too eager to leave their lesson.
Once outside the study, the Prince and Princess stood outside for a moment and read their poems to themselves, each smiling proudly. Zuko then rolled his up, and looked at his sister stating, "Mom wants to talk to you, she's at the turtle-duck pond." Unsure of why her mother was summoning her, Azula racked her brain to see if she had done anything wrong in the past few days; to the best of her knowledge, she hadn't. However, the way her older brother was staring at her made her feel uneasy; his eyes hinted that something was wrong.
"What did you tell her?" demanded the young Princess, glaring at her brother and instantly on edge. The Prince shrugged, and started walking away carrying his poem to his chest and saying nonchalantly, "Nothing that she didn't need to know."
"Like what?"
"Go talk to her and find out!" Zuko turned and glared at his sister, matching her tone of voice exactly as she yelled at him. He didn't feel like explaining to her what he had told their mother, and he realized if he did she wouldn't even bother going to even see her. He turned once again and started walking away from her, having no intention to stay in her presence any longer.
Azula stared at his back while he retreated from her, her arms crossed and crushing her poem in her hand. It was no surprise to both her and her brother that she felt uneasy about this meeting with their mother, but she wasn't about to say it out loud. Instead, she huffed and started her walk to the turtle-duck pond her mind racing with unease.
Meanwhile, while his sister went to meet with their mother, Zuko went to his room to hang his poem on the wall. He had accumulated many, and the ones he liked most, he posted on the walls of his bedroom; now he was eager to add this new poem to his collection. He went to his room, sat at his desk and carefully pasted his poem on a wall scroll and pinned it on a space above his bed. He stood a couple steps back to admire his handiwork with a grin, then decided to go and meet his mother at the turtle-duck pond.
As he was heading to the pond, he crossed paths with his sister, who looked quite miserable, as she walked passed him and shot him a hateful glare. Zuko saw that his younger sibling's eyes were slightly red…she had been crying. Judging from the intensity of her gaze, he deduced that she had just been punished—either by being spanked by their mother, or severely scolded. Zuko secretly hoped it was the former, but he wasn't about to show the smirk of satisfaction that was tugging at his lips to his sister, in case he managed to make her angrier as she wallowed in her misery.
Instead, he looked away and went to find Princess Ursa without a second glance back at his sibling.
"Hey mom, you want to see how Azula feeds turtle-ducks?" questioned Zuko as he sat with his mother at the pond. They were sitting together peacefully outside the courtyard of the Royal Palace, and feeding the creatures when the young Prince offered to show his mother the demonstration. Without further adieu, Zuko then hurled a large amount of bread at a small turtle-duckling, submerging it completely under the water.
"Zuko! Why would you do that?" stated, alarmed by her son's actions. The young Prince stared at the spot where he had hit the turtle-duckling; fear spreading through him as he thought that he might have killed it. Much to his relief however, the little animal surfaced and its mother quickly swam over to it and nuzzled it lovingly. Suddenly—as though something had turned a switch within its brain—it swam towards Zuko, leapt out of the pond, and bit him on the ankle.
"Ow! Ow, Ow!" cried the Prince in pain as he flailed around in agony. He was spared however, when his mother came to the rescue and wrenched the creature from her son's ankle and placed it back in the pond where it gathered its offspring and swam off. Zuko scowled as the family swam away, seemingly offended that they all acted as if nothing had happened.
"Stupid turtle-duck," he exclaimed, bringing his knees to his chest. "Why'd she do that?"
"Zuko, that's how moms are like," reasoned Princess Ursa, kneeling down beside her son. "If you mess with their babies…HAUM! They're going to bite you back!" As she explained she pretended to bite her son as they both laughed and sat underneath the tree, and gazed at the water shimmering under the sun's reflective rays. They were silent for a while, mother and son lost in their own thoughts until Zuko asked another question…one that he was dying to know the answer to.
"Mother?" he said tentatively.
"Hmm?" she answered back, still looking at the pond. Her son looked up at her for a while before finishing his question.
"What…uh…what did you say to Azula about…what I told you earlier?" the Prince finished, unsurely. The elder Princess looked at her son, a hint of sternness in her face.
"Zuko," she stated softly, "As you grow up, there are some things in life that will involve two people, and two people only. What happened between me and your sister just happens to be one of those cases. Do you understand?"
Zuko was silent for a minute as he gazed up at his mother before saying "So…basically you're telling me to mind my own business?" He smiled widely, feigning innocence. Ursa laughed and lightly bumped his head.
"Yes," she answered as Zuko pouted. He was disappointed that he couldn't get details of the extent of his sister's punishment, but he knew his mother was right and said nothing more about the subject. The pair continued to stay by the pond, until Ursa decided it was just about time for lunch and suggested that they move to the dining hall to eat. Famished, Zuko got up and followed his mother back to the Palace grounds.
"I wonder what's for lunch today," exclaimed the young Prince as he and his mother crossed through the open-air hallway that cut through the courtyard.
"We'll just have to wait and see what the servants have prepared for us," replied Ursa cunningly with a smile. Zuko grinned as his stomach growled with anticipation at the thought of food and he and his mother were silent as the made their way through the hallway. They heard laughing, and out of the corner of his eye he saw his sister, her friends Ty Lee and Mai playing in the courtyard next to the fountain. Azula and Ty Lee were doing cartwheels and Mai was sitting off in a corner by herself underneath the shade of a tree.
Zuko forced himself not to look up, so he didn't see Mai turn away and blush nor did he see his sister turn and whisper something to Ty Lee. The next thing he knew, Azula came up to them and innocently asked their mother if she could make Zuko play with them.
"I am not cartwheeling!" exclaimed Zuko furiously. He glared angrily at his sibling while she answered back to him.
"You won't have to; cartwheeling's not a game…dumb-dumb," she added under her breath, narrowing her eyes at her brother who glared at her in return.
"I don't care!" he shouted, "I don't want to play with you!" Scowling, Azula changed tactics and quickly became the sweet little sister that she portrayed to the world when she wanted something to go her way.
"We are brother and sister," she began in a sickeningly sweet voice. "It's important for us to spend time together. Don't you think so, Mom?"
Oh great, not that. Mom's totally going to fall for it! Though Zuko, dread sinking like lead in his stomach. Don't fall for it, don't fall for it, he prayed to the Spirits.
"Yes, darling, I think it's a good idea to play with your sister. Go on, just for a little while," said Ursa as she patted her son's head. Zuko felt like his insides vaporized as he stared at his sister, whose eyes were narrowed dangerously and a sinister smile plastered on her face.
"Consider this payback," she whispered threateningly as their mother retreated. Zuko's stomach sank at the sound of those words and he—very reluctantly—followed his sister to the courtyard where the other two girls waited.
"Mai, come here," ordered the young Princess as she beckoned Mai towards the group. "Go stand by the fountain for a minute." Her friend frowned, wary of why she was being ordered to stand there, but obeyed nonetheless. Azula then smirked, and went to go and get an apple from the nearby tree.
"The rules of the game are simple," she began explaining, "All you have to do is knock the apple off the other person's head." When she was finished, she placed the red fruit atop Mai's head, where it contrasted dramatically against her dark hair, and with a flick of her wrist and the accuracy of a Master Firebender, she lighted the stem of the apple aflame on the young girl's head.
Sneering, the young Princess watched her brother to see what his reaction would be. Not wanting to appear like a coward, he steeled himself and ran at Mai, who screamed in shock making the Prince trip over his own feet and slam into her, making the two of them tumble into the fountain and soaking them both. Behind the pair, they could hear Azula and Ty Lee laughing hysterically.
"See, I told you it would work!" shrieked Azula, as she watched her brother step out of the fountain, his cheeks searing red with embarrassment and anger.
"Aww, they're so cute together," stated Ty Lee, adding insult to injury. Zuko stormed away, sopping wet as he heard Mai stand up in the fountain and proclaim that Azula and Ty Lee were "such…ugh!" in her exact words. As the young Prince stomped off, his mother was coming towards him, looking quite excited.
"I was just coming to get you," she stated, with a smile. "Uncle Iroh just sent us a letter from the war front." When she saw her son up close however, her smile instantly faded and was replaced by an expression of bewilderment. "…You're soaking wet," she stated slowly watching Zuko walk away from her, seething mad.
"GIRLS ARE CRAZY!" exclaimed the Prince in outrage. His mother didn't make any move to stop him, which he was more than glad about, but as he marched off he heard her ask the girls what had just happened in her absence…and she didn't sound pleased. The Prince blocked out Azula's explanation—which he was more than sure was full of lies—and made a beeline to his room, but not before stopping for a moment from hearing laughter coming from his right.
Zuko turned his head and saw Yu-Lin, a servant girl two years his junior as well as good friend and Ming another servant girl about a year his senior, in the middle of a fit of laughter. Apparently they had just witnessed his utmost humiliation and were blatantly sharing in his sister's joy out of it. Zuko saw tears of laughter run down their faces, as he scowled at the pair of them.
Ming was the first to stop, having managed to open her eyes and saw the young Prince standing there near the end of the open-air hallway, glowering at them. She instantly stopped laughing and elbowed Yu-Lin in the ribs, making the young girl come to an abrupt halt as well. The two quickly regained their composure and bowed at the Prince, and looked away in shame.
Yu-Lin, however, stole a glance at Zuko who was still scowling. At the sight of her unease however, his expression softened and a smile spread across his face as he also giggled slightly. Yu-Lin smiled at the Prince as he waved her goodbye and went to his room to change clothes. When he was out of sight, the girls saw Princess Ursa come from the courtyard and they instantly bowed again when she saw them.
"Do the servants have lunch prepared, girls?" asked the elder Princess.
"Yes, Your Highness," said Ming. "We were just coming to find and inform you. Lunch is served in the dining hall, if you are ready." The elder Princess smiled and thanked them, and headed on her way to the dining hall when she was stopped by Yu-Lin who asked her a question.
"Um…Your Majesty," she stated, tentatively, "If I may ask…um…what is that you have in your hand?" The young girl pointed to the scroll Princess Ursa had clasped tightly in her hand as the elder Princess regarded the young servant girl with a smile.
"It's a letter from Uncle Iroh," she said. As soon as she said that the two girls' faces lit up with a smile; no one had heard from the General in months, so this bit of news was more than exciting.
"The honorable General Iroh? And his Royal Highness Prince Lu Ten?" the two girls said in unison, identical smiles of glee on their faces. They looked at each other in excitement, and then back at the Princess.
"Are they coming home?" asked Ming, her eyes brimming with excitement.
"Are they alright?" questioned Yu-Lin, her enthusiasm tinted with worry.
"Did they win?"
"When are they coming back?"
The questions were asked in rapid concession, and Princess Ursa had to hold up a hand in order to make the two girls stop and calm down. They instantly quieted and bowed their heads slightly and looked away.
"We sincerely apologize, Your Highness," said Ming somberly. "We overstepped our boundaries. We ask your forgiveness."
"You are forgiven," replied the Princess, "And as for answering your many questions," the Princess smirked in amusement at this, "the truth is I don't know; I haven't read the letter yet."
"Oh," replied the two girls, slightly disheartened. Silence passed between the two servants and the Royal, but it was broken by Prince Zuko running towards them, having changed into dryer clothes.
"What does the letter say?" he questioned immediately. Princess Ursa chuckled, and answered, "As I was saying to Ming and Yu-Lin, I don't know; I haven't read it yet. I was hoping to read it with you and your sister after lunch so we can all find out together." Her son nodded excitedly, saying that it was a great idea and then as soon as Azula and her friends joined the two of them, they headed into the dining hall for lunch and the two servant girls were left alone as the higher authorities left to eat.
"What do you think the letter says?" asked Ming as they made their way back towards the kitchen to eat their lunch.
"Hmm…hopefully something good," replied Yu-Lin, "Like maybe they've broken through one of the walls of Ba Sing Se!"
"Or maybe they've already broken through both walls and the honored General is writing about their victory and how they'll be home in a few weeks!" speculated Ming, enthusiastically.
"Yeah! But wait…" Yu-Lin hesitated, the expression on her face clouding over with doubt and unease, "…what if it's bad news? What if something bad happened? What if they don't come back? What's going to happen?" The young girl stopped walking and wrung her hands together and stared at Ming, fear clearly shown in her eyes. The elder girl frowned at her and put her hands on her hips.
"Don't talk like that!" she yelled, offended. "They're all right, I know they are. How could you even think of saying something that awful! The honored General and his Royal Highness Prince Lu Ten will come back as heroes; I know they will. So don't even think about jinxing their return!"
"You're right…I shouldn't have said those things," answered Yu-Lin piously, and looking away at the floor. Ming playfully bopped her on the head and replied, "Pray to the Spirits for their safe return. Now, let's go eat lunch; I'm starving."
After a filling lunch with Mai and Ty Lee, their parents came to pick them up and Azula, Zuko, and Princess Ursa all went to the common room to have tea and read the letter their Uncle had sent them. Princess Ursa sat in one of the many chairs, and unrolled the letter and began reading aloud to her children.
"Dearest Family,
How are you all doing? I pray to the Spirits that you are all well and healthy. Lu Ten and I miss you all very much and we cannot wait until we are back home and can see your smiling faces again. Ba Sing Se is a magnificent sight to behold. I hope you call can see it someday…if we don't burn it to the ground first."
At this, the Royal Family laughed at their uncle's joke, and Ursa continued reading as two servants seemingly appeared out of nowhere, each holding a box in their hands.
"I have sent both Prince Zuko and Princess Azula gifts that I am sure they will love; for Zuko, a pearl dagger from the General who surrendered at the Outer Wall. Lu Ten was the hero that day and it was his idea to give this to you as a gift. Note the inscription and superior craftsmanship."
The two Royal children then flocked to the servants who each opened the boxes and Zuko grabbed his gift and, unsheathing it, he read the inscription on the front of the weapon.
"Never give up without a fight," he read in a hushed voice. It was a beautiful dagger, seeming to sparkle as tiny pearl fragments in the weapon caught the light of the lanterns as the young Prince tossed it in the air and pretended to fight Earth Kingdom enemies with it. His sister eyed his gift with a jealous eye as his mother kept reading the letter and she got to the part where Azula was to be presented with her gift.
"And for Azula, a new friend, she wears the latest fashion of Earth Kingdom girls."
As Azula reached inside her box, she made a face as she brought out a hand-woven Earth Kingdom doll. Zuko had to refrain from laughing hysterically; he had never seen Azula play with a doll in his life, and just the fact that she had gotten one as a gift, was quite humorous.
Sticking out her tongue in disgust, Azula questioned rather ominously, "If Uncle doesn't make it back from war, then Dad would be next in line to become Fire Lord, wouldn't he?"
"Azula, we don't speak that way. It would be awful if Uncle Iroh didn't return," retorted Princess Ursa, slightly alarmed by her daughter's words. Zuko then added his own remark, his voice defensive.
"How would you like it if Cousin Lu Ten wanted Dad to die?" he questioned, a hint of anger in his voice.
His sibling sneered back at him with a final, "I still think our Dad would make a much better Fire Lord than his Royal Tea-Loving Kookiness," before squeezing her doll and alighting the head aflame. Zuko stared at the doll, watching as its flaming head darkened as the cloth burned, and a sinking feeling settled in his stomach. How could she speak that way about Uncle? And with such little remorse or guilt in her voice while she spoke those words? As the dolls head became completely black and fell to the floor, Zuko looked away, unable to watch as the charred fabric fell into a dark clump on the carpet.
"Azula!" cried Princess Ursa, stunned at her daughter's actions, "Why would you do that to your Uncle's gift?" Zuko tuned them out and while his mother and sister argued over Azula's actions, the young Prince snuck away from the common room, wanting to find a quiet place to be and not think about what Azula had just said or done. Those words sent an ominous chill down his spine, and what she did didn't make him feel any better. It was as if she hated their uncle and wanted nothing to do with him and actually wanted him not to come back.
"She's sick," he muttered to himself as he walked to Spirits-knows-where. He wasn't paying any particular attention to his surroundings and kind of just allowed his feet to take him wherever they felt like. It wasn't long before he bumped into Yu-Lin—literally since he was staring at the floor as he walked and he walked right into her.
"Oh, sorry Yu-Lin," he apologized, "I didn't see you."
"It's fine, Your Excellency," said the girl with a smile. Her friend smiled too, but his facial expression soon changed into one of gloom. Yu-Lin looked at him for a while before speaking again.
"Your Excellency," she spoke, tentatively. "Is something wrong? Why do you look so sad?"
Zuko blinked once in surprise; he hadn't even noticed that his expression was so obviously one of sadness that her question threw him off guard. He tried to laugh it off and tell her he was fine, but the way she was staring at him made him feel even more depressed, so he finally gave in and told her the truth about what happened in the common room with his mother and sister.
"Why would she say things like that? The Spirits might make it come true, doesn't she know that?" inquired Yu-Lin, her eyes wide and fearful. Throughout the Fire Nation is was cultural not to wish ill on those around them—one can never know when the Spirits might be listening and take their threat to heart; everyone knew that. The superstition ran deepest and strongest amongst the servants of the Royal Palace and the peasants of the Fire Nation however, and they took it rather seriously.
"That's the thing," replied Zuko, slightly shaken by what his friend said, "I don't think she really cares." They were silent for a while before Yu-Lin reassured him that she will pray to the Spirits for the General's safe return as well as Prince Lu Ten's.
"Thank you," said Zuko humbly, as he tried to think of something that would change the subject. "Oh! Check out what Uncle got me!" He then brought out the dagger he had received as a gift and unsheathed it, with the inscription in view.
"He got it from the General who surrendered at the Outer Wall! Read what it says," he said, excitedly with a huge smile on his face. Yu-Lin looked at the small weapon, its metal gleaming in the light of midday.
"Never give up without a fight," she read aloud. She then looked at her friend, and smiled warmly at him before saying, "That sounds a little like you." Zuko blinked and raised an eyebrow and read the inscription again.
"It does?" he asked, looking back at the servant girl, confused. She nodded and stated, "Mhm! You don't ever give up on something when you really want it. You have a fighting spirit. Mother says that's a good quality to have, because then you'll be a great leader in whatever it is you choose to do."
The young Prince's cheeks flushed slightly with pink at her words, but said nothing as he sheathed the dagger again and tucked it away in his waistband for safekeeping. Silence passed between the two children again for a long time, each one lost in their own thoughts, and staring at the sky in the open air hallway.
"Yu-Lin?" asked Zuko breaking the silence, still staring at the sky as a gentle breeze came through the hallway.
"Hm?" acknowledged the servant girl, looking at the Prince. Zuko didn't look at her and continued to stare out into space while he said, while he said, "Do you think my Uncle will come back from the war alive?"
"Of course," replied Yu-Lin without an ounce of hesitation and doubt in her voice. "The honored General will come home a hero, I know it. And His Majesty Prince Lu Ten too." Zuko finally turned his gaze towards her in a warm smile.
"Thank you," he said, sincerely. "You're a good friend." Yu-Lin smiled at him and they watched the clouds for a bit longer before the servant girl had to bid him farewell and return to her work.
It was no more than a few weeks later however, that another letter was sent to the Royal Palace from the war front of Ba Sing Se. Zuko and Azula were playing outside in the courtyard with their mother keeping a watchful eye under the tree while she sat on a bench. A servant then came up to the elder Princess and handed her a scroll, and then left hurriedly.
Unrolling it, the Princess read it and started to weep, and called her children over to her. They rushed to be by her side, for they saw that something was wrong. It was then that she told them the horrible news. Their cousin, Prince Lu Ten had died.
Chapter 7 everyone! I hope you like it! Again, I'd like to thank my reviewers for their ever-awesome support and encouragement! I really like how this chapter came out, and I think because of it, it's strong enough to go along with what I have planned for the story! By far, this was the hardest chapter to write, but I think to get the story to where I wanted to go, it was worth it. I hoped you all liked it and I'll see you all in chapter 8!
