It was the middle of the night. Masaru slept with his hand on the egg, subconsciously bending heat into it all through the night. He and Izumi were special benders, Izumi for her fine temperature control, and Masaru for his ability to bend consciously while subconscious. He always had the dragon at night. Movement inside the egg jolted him awake. His amber eyes sprung open and he saw a crack, and fluid leaking, then the bed caught flames.
He grabbed the egg and leapt off of it. The fluid coming out of the egg was like a flammable oil from a lamp or something. "Seku!" Masaru screamed, holding onto the egg, absorbing the fluid with his clothing.
The maid on night duty rushed in and bent water from the bathroom onto the bed.
"What happened?!" Seku asked, inspecting Masaru for burns as he clutched the egg.
"It's the egg! I have to wake Zumzu!"
"Should I wake the Fire Lord and Lady?"
"No! They said the egg is OUR responsibility! Besides, the Fire Lord needs his rest. He leaves tomorrow for Ba Sing Se!" Masaru replied, running to the Princess's Room, leaving a trail of flammable fluid for the waterbending maid to clean.
"ZUMI ZUMI WAKE UP!" he yelled, jumping onto her bed with such a force that flung her into the air. .
"What? Is it handoff time already?" she asked, rubbing her eyes groggily.
"The egg is breaking!" Masaru yelled, placing it Izumi's crimson blankets.
"WHAT?!" Izumi sat up and pushed the mess of black hair out of her face. She lit a flame in her hand to see better.
"No! Don't bend near it! The fluid is extremely flammable! Even exposure to the smallest amount of heat ignites it!" he said, smothering her hand with his. He lit every torch in her room for light and then they watched as the egg kept cracking.
"Let's move it to the stone floor so it won't burn," Izumi suggested.
"Or the fireplace," Masaru offered.
"Or we can go outside," Izumi added.
"At this hour?" Masaru questioned.
"Right, probably not a good idea."
They moved to the floor and watched the egg, both folding their arms on the ground and leaning over, Masaru in a shirt and pants and Izumi in a little night gown.
Then the egg structure completely collapsed and fluid spilled out. They both slid back. Then it all caught flames and they heard crying….or… screeching, for Help. Masaru reached in first and pulled out pieces of egg shell and revealed the dragon.
"It's too hot! Grab it!" Masaru yelled, reeling back.
Izumi reached into the flames and the burning fluid and lifted out the little reptilian thing. It was slimy and burning. She extinguished the flames with her hand and stroked what she presumed was its head.
"It's not a blue spitfire!" Masaru said immediately.
"What is it?" Izumi asked.
"Something I've never seen before in ANY of the books!" Masaru replied.
"How are we supposed to know what to feed it then?"
"Even though it is not a species we've seen, it is still a dragon, so chances are it eats meat," Masaru reasoned.
They went to the kitchens immediately, but their dragon rejected all of the meats they offered to it from the freezer.
"Maybe it needs something fresh?" Izumi suggested.
"Where would we-"
"The forest outside the city?"
"NOW?!"
"Saru we HAVE to feed it! I'll go! I run faster than you, and I can bring my mother's knives!"
"You're a girl! If someone sees you, they'll kidnap you! I'll go!"
"No! I'm not going to let you have fun alone!"
"Hunting is not going to be fun, ESPECIALLY at night!"
"Then we go together!" Izumi decided firmly.
"Fine!"
They ditched the guards that escorted them to the kitchens and climbed through the vents back to their rooms. Izumi got a couple of her mother's old throwing knives that she gave to Izumi for practice, and Masaru grabbed a dagger he got for his sixth birthday and they sneaked out of the palace, running the entire way out of the city. They firebent themselves over the city walls just as the guards turned away. By the light of the moon, they found their way into the forest. Saru raised a hand to light a flame while Izumi carried the baby dragon.
"NO! You'll scare any potential game!" Izumi hissed smothering his hand as they continued to walk quietly. They stopped once they could no longer see the volcano that enclosed the capital city and waited with their backs to each other.
"My three o clock," Masaru whispered. Izumi drew three knives in her right hand with the dragon in her left. Masaru took out his dagger and they both threw their blades as hard as they could and they heard the yelp of an animal in pain. Their dragon looked up at the sound.
They both ran to inspect it. "We should cut a piece and leave," Masaru suggested, yanking his bloodied dagger out of the small beast's chest as Izumi yanked her three knives out of its neck.
"Why?" Izumi asked running the blade down the animal and tearing back the flesh.
"It's a baby dragon moose, and its mother is probably…" There was a roar. "... nearby." Masaru said nervously. Izumi slowly turned and lit her hand to come face to face with the angry beast.
"Flee to the trees! It can't fly!" Masaru said.
Izumi blasted blue fire in its face to make it back away as they both shot themselves into the trees.
"Should we just kill the mother?" Izumi asked.
"I'd rather not have to!" Masaru replied. "I'll distract the mother! You get a piece of the baby!"
"It doesn't feel right!" Izumi said, looking down at her own baby in her arms.
"It's an animal of prey, just like us! We're all born to die eventually. It is just a matter of time! Go!" Masaru yelled, jumping out of the tree and kicking a stream of fire towards the grieving mother dragon-moose.
Izumi jumped down after the two went running and dug her throwing knife into the side of the dragon and ripped off the skin as the dragon curled around her arm. She accidentally cut herself.
"Ugh!" She ripped out a lump of fat and grabbed a wooden branch and coated it in the fat then lit it like a torch so she could see. The baby dragon snorted on the exposed flesh but couldn't burn it.
"You need it cooked or something?" Izumi asked. She cut a piece of bloody meat out and barbecued it. The dragon bit but didn't like it. "Too cooked or not enough?" She asked only to get a confused look from the baby dragon.
Izumi cut another piece and cooked it less and a third and cooked it more.
The dragon went for the rarer dragon moose steak. She made an incision in the side of the animal and peeled the skin back on the top and bottom and stood up.
"Get ready to feast," Izumi said. She raised her hand at the exposed flesh and zapped it with lightning to the same cooked consistency as the steak the baby dragon had already finished.
The dragon uncurled from her arm and dove into the carcass, ravenously.
After about a minute, Izumi heard Masaru screaming.
Izumi bent down and clicked her tongue, and the dragon wrapped around her left arm again. She took her knife and sliced a rather large piece from the animal and held it in her left arm so the dragon could continue to eat while she went to find Saru. He was on the ground, his knife sunk into the neck of the beast.
Without a second of hesitation, Izumi sent lightning its way. Masaru rolled to the side as it fell where he was seconds ago. The dragon fell from Izumi's arm and raced towards the fresh corpse, but was too small to bite through the skin. Masaru yanked his dagger out of the beasts neck and sliced a bit open and the dragon dug in.
"He likes fresh meat cooked medium rare, apparently," Izumi said with a sigh, relieved to see her best friend was okay.
"Good to know," Masaru commented, panting slightly as they watched their dragon burrowing itself into the flesh of the dragon-moose.
"How much can a half pound newborn dragon eat?" Izumi asked with slight disgust.
There was the sound of a horde of eelhounds and the yelling of men.
"Why don't we take the carcass with us?"
"Where? Back to the palace?"
"No! To a hiding place! I stumbled upon a cave not far from here," Masaru suggested. Izumi nodded in agreement and they both bent down to drag the beast away when they heard the voices of the eelhound riders become clearer.
"ZUMI!"
"SARU!"
"ZUMI!"
"SARU!"
"My Lady! One of your knives!" a soldier yelled.
"They both woke up?!" Masaru gasped, turning to Izumi. They froze, petrified by fear as the light of an oil lamp turned their way. They shielded their eyes as the eelhounds drew nearer.
"Seriously?!" Zuko gasped incredulously as he appeared leading the search.
"The dragon hatched!" Izumi said with a nervous smile.
"And didn't like the meats we had in the kitchen," Masaru added hesitantly.
"And you didn't think to wake us?"
"Well, I thought you could use the rest since you're leaving tomorrow... "
"Today, actually, Saru, it is four AM!" Mai asked appearing absolutely livid atop her mount.
"Ooops."
"Do you know how far you ended up from the palace?!" Mai asked.
The two children looked up for the moon and stars which they were taught to use to navigate, but the tree cover was too thick here.
"A mile maybe?" Masaru guessed.
"The City gate is already eight miles from the palace, and the trip down the side of the volcano sixteen. How fast were you running?" Mai asked with exasperation.
"I guess… really fast?" Masaru shrugged, laughing nervously.
"We wanted to feed Eiko!" Izumi insisted, motioning to the dragon that her parents still hadn't acknowledged. The tiny reptilian creature showed its face out of the hole of the dragon-moose's neck that Masaru carved out for it.
"Eiko?" Zuko asked.
"It's what I've decided to name her," Izumi explained innocently.
Zuko ran his fingers through his hair, clearly still distressed from hearing his daughter and his ward were nowhere to be found in the castle, or the capital city.
Mai slid off her eelhound and strode over to the two children, cupping each of their faces in one of her hands to check for physical injuries. Masaru's arm looked like it got hit with one of the dragon moose's claws, and Izumi's hand was nicked by her own knife but they were otherwise unharmed.
"On a more positive note," Great Uncle Iroh said, appearing on an eelhound. "Both of your stamina is improving greatly! To run that far and still be breathing is absolutely unheard of!"
Zuko and Mai both frowned at him. "Don't encourage this behavior please," Mai asked of her in-law. "Come on, bring Eiko, we're going home," Mai said, picking up one child on each hip. She handed Masaru to Zuko and perched Izumi on her own eelhound, and they all rode back to the Palace while some of the palace guards cleaned up the two rather impressive kills.
They were greeted by Akira, Iliana, and Seku.
"They're covered in blood," Akira said, noticing the two children flanking a very displeased Fire Lady. "Why are they both covered in blood?"
"Somebody decided it would be a good idea to go hunting in the dead of night to feed their newborn dragon," Mai replied, handing them off to be cleaned and inspected.
"It finally hatched?" Iliana asked ecstatically.
"I told you!" Seku hissed.
Izumi raised her left arm and pulled back her sleeve, revealing the tiny dragon coiled around it. It burped and released smoke and steam.
"Next time you want to go on a midnight hunt, you don't have to ask, but please at least TELL US so we know where you are!" Mai growled at both children. They nodded furiously. "I'm going back to bed."
Masaru and Izumi looked down at their minor injuries and then at the dragon as they were lead to the bathroom to be bathed. They smiled. So worth it!
Masaru reached out his left hand and took Izumi's right hand as they walked. Eiko seemed to notice them connecting and wanted to join in. Eiko craned her neck over and pulled Izumi's left hand towards Izumi's right, silently asking to be closer to Masaru. Izumi moved her hands together so the dragon could loop itself halfway around each of their arms, as if binding them together in an eternal alliance.