Disclaimer – The characters that you do not recognize as characters from the show on Nick are mine, and the ones you do recognize are not.
I returned to the palace with Ursa. She wouldn't stop asking where I was taking her. I just ignored this. I looked around for Shang He, the supervisor of the royal family's transportation. I spotted him talking with one of the palanquin bearers. I called him aside and asked for a wagon to our destination. He submitted immedeately and Ursa and I entered the wagon. After nearly fifteen minutes, during which Ursa was giving me the silent treatment, she spoke.
'"Well, Ozai, we must be out of the city now. Where are we headed? If you don't answer me, I will order the driver to stop and walk home if I must."
Well, this impressing Ursa thing is harder than Chou made it out to be. Maybe I was being a little too secretive. She must feel like she's been taken hostage. I finally decided on an answer.
"It's a surprise! I promise you'll love it. Trust me."
She gave a small sigh and smile.
"I guess I have to, don't I?"
_Ursa POV_
Finally the carriage came to a halt. I started to stand up but Ozai stopped me.
"Wear this" he said.
I gave a sigh, "Must I?"
"Yes. Now hurry up. We're burning daylight."
He tied the bandana around my head so I couldn't see and led me out of the carriage. I walked a short distance, being led by Ozai. We stopped and I heard something that sounded like a door unlocking. We walked into what I assumed to be the door and stopped. I felt Ozai untie the bandana, and I looked at my surroundings.
The first thing to cross my mind was wow. We stood in a garden, it was more than huge, it was the biggest garden I had ever seen. Ozai and I were on a path that was made out of gravel and went on straight beyond hedges, and beyond those I could see more plants, trees, and shrubs. The area we stood in was square, and on either side of us were Fire Lilies. Ah, my favorite. In the center was a large circle made out of wood, nearly 20 feet in diameter. I walked up to it and gasped. It was divided into four sections. The top left section was filled with more Fire Lilies and to the right of those were large green Zinnias. Below the Fire Lilies lay Yellow Sparaxises, and below the Zinnias were Blue Roses. In the very middle lay one of each flower, and, somehow, the stems had grown and intertwined together.
"Ozai, this is beautiful" I said finally and turned to look at him. He smiled, almost sheepishly, and answered.
"I'm glad you like it. It's the Fire Nation's Internations garden. There's one in each of the capitals of the four nations. I've never seen any of the others, but there's one in Ba Sing Se, one in the Northern Water Tribe, but I have no clue how it grows up there. People used to think that it was Spirit's doing, but now the spirits have left us, so it's a mystery. And I think there was one in the Eastern Air Temple, but since my grandfather Sozin wiped them out, who knows now."
"Wow, thats fascinating. I love it! It shows how the four nations live, well, used to live, in harmony."
I chose my words carefully when I said this. I knew that Ozai wanted the Fire Nation to conquer the world, but I wanted him to realize that it would throw the whole world out of balance if we did! This was our one big difference ; how we saw the war.
_Ozai's POV_
I could tell by the look on Ursa's face that she loved the garden. One point for Ozai, I thought. After I finished explaining the garden, I looked at her again and took a step closer to her. She glanced at me and smiled. I was extremely nervous. Part of my brain was screaming Kiss her! But the other, more sensible part was saying No! Suddenly, like my body had over powered my raging brain, I cleared my throat, causing her to look at me, and leaned in.
A/N Ok, so in this chapter you get a look at how each of them feel about the war. And I put the part where Ozai says "...the spirits have left us" in there because the Avatar is gone (well, for now) (: