Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar the last Airbender. No matter how sad that is!
~.+.~Sightless~.+.~
Cell
I rushed back and groped for the exit, the bars of the cell door cold and hard under my hand. In a fit of anger I kicked to bars with the last of my strength. I felt the shock waves through the steel. I had let myself be locked up, but that didn't make it any better! Where are they taking us?
"I would sit down if I were you boy." Someone warned from behind, I cringed at the use for boy. I would be seventeen in a few months.
Nevertheless I plopped down gracelessly to the metal floor right in front of the door. I had to brace myself with the one of the door bars. I had completely forgotten about back injury until then. I reached backward and gently touched the gash, flinching at the contact.
"This is depressing. Let me help you." It was the same man. I heard shuffling toward me and could only assume he scooted over. "Well it's not deep, but it could still get infected." He said after lifting the back of my shirt. He poured water over it and began to wipe the wound with a piece of cloth. I let out a pained breath.
"Water?" I asked. We are in a prison cell right?
"There's a small bowl of it in the corner." He said, tying the cloth around the gash tightly. "And no I didn't use all of it. I'm not an idiot."
"Yong!" Someone shouted over from the left, they sounded much older than the man. Yong as I now knew him released me and shuffled a far distance away.
"Yong, you are not t-"
"Oh let him help a disabled kid! He might even get a good word in with Oma and Shu for it!" An old woman interrupted her voice loud and obnoxious. My head snapped toward the direction of her voice.
"Don't take it that way Prince I meant nothing by it. Tao, Yong is old enough to know who he does and does not want to associate with. I predict his earthbending mastery test should be pretty soon." She finished smugly.
"Yong is only nineteen it will take him a few more years until he is ready for the test" Tao said to the woman, I could hear Yong groaning in the back ground. "I will not help the Fire Nation Prince away from the presence of Grand Lotus Iroh. He cannot be trusted. But I suppose Yong can be a fool if he wishes."
"I don't need your help!" I snap, turning to his direction. "I don't know who you are or why you would even think I want anything from an earth peasant!"
"Ah, I will forgive your insult this once for my robes are invisible to those useless eyes. But I'm sure you can tell Yong's silk sash is what binds your wound." Tao said. Slik? I rubbed my hand over the fabric covering my abdomen as well as my back. It was indeed silk. I didn't even notice.
"My family was quite poor living off farming, until my sister and I pulled up precious metals and minerals playing with our earthbending. Everything we found was essential to the war effort. Our father sold the farm land to the army immediately and made a large sum of money. We moved to Goaling where my father doubled his assets through trade. " Tao explained.
"Why are you telling me this?" I hissed.
"Because you are arrogant and foolish believing yourself an exile above me."
"I'm PRINCE OF THE FIRE NATION!"
"Yet you are here among the 'earth peasants' in a cell on a ship steered by your own countrymen. Grow up."
"I'm no traitor."
"Exactly why I will not help you." A silence followed Tao's statement, which only the creaking of the ship could break. I balled my hands into fist and turned my self away. Laying my right side I faced the door, as if I was keeping watch and let my eye lids grow heavy.
~.+.~Sightless~.+.
My back was sore after sleeping. I hadn't really expected to get any sleep, around strangers at least. But it seemed Zhao and all his idiocy had tried me out, sending me into a dreamless rest. I was hesitant to move at first, but slowly got to a sitting position, wincing with every strain of the muscles. Once in the position I truly had nothing to do, the other inmates snoring loudly behind me. Firebenders rise with the sun. Trying to listen outside the cell I heard nothing. Maybe no guard?… No this is Zhao, he doesn't trust us.
I decided to mediate. Focusing on my breath I created a space with no thoughts, a perfect picture of darkness, no sound, no taste, no touch, no smell and no vision. Then I called to my inner flame. In my mind I saw it instantly millions of shades of red, orange and yellow, twisting, growing and waning constantly. I played with the flame making it into shapes, connecting with it. Listening to it crackle and feeling its heat. In the world was there was nothing but me and this flame, my flame.
Fire is to be feared, it destroys and consumes. A mountain lionpuma that's always hungry. A monster. But in that world it's not like that. It's little and weak and wants nothing more than to stay alive.
After a long while I closed my mediation with a sigh, feeling calm and revitalized. Stretching tenderly I loosened my stiff lotus position. Uncle had always said morning mediation was better than morning firebending practice. In such a stressful situation I supposed he could have been right. Then I faced the worse part of finishing mediation, opening my eyes. It wasn't hard per say but it was crushing all the same. Slowly I lifted my eye lids and revealed the black and gray shadows of the outside world. The loss of color has always sudden and tragic; it revealed the other part of fire Blindness.
Fire doesn't know what it hits and what it destroys. It's blind.