Rewrite, Rewind
Chapter 38
She heard voices outside her nook, loud and angry, mixed with the snarling sounds of beasts. She felt so tired, her body stiff, her fingers and toes cold, her eyes heavy. She didn't want to wake but knew she had no other choice. Breathing heavily through her nose, Azula struggled to open her eyes, staring at the small hole in her protective nest of branches. She could see the trickling stream from the waterfall, the silver stones that were once bathed in moonlight, the walls of the small place were still high stone and tangled tree roots. A little world all of its own on an island isolated from the rest of the world.
"Her sent ends here," the voice was male and gruff, Azula wanted to shiver at the voice sounding so close to her; almost as if it were right above her. She looked up, through the branches and saw where earth curved over the Dragon Tree, there she could dust trickling down onto the broad leaves of the Dragon Tree. "the Shirshu can't find the girl."
"I thought that ugly animal could find anything, anywhere?" another voice hissed and snarled angrily, like snakes threatening to strike to kill.
"The Shirshu can only track living creatures," that voice was soft and feminine, a young girl maybe a few years older than herself. "If that creature is no longer apart of the mortal realm, there is nothing we can do about it."
"Are you saying the princess is dead?"
"I'm saying she's not a part of the mortal realm," the girl snapped back. Azula remembered what Yang had called the tree, her hiding place. It was a tree that sprouted wherever a dragon slept eternally and it was connected to the spirit world.
Agni! Azula screeched in her mind, praying the divine creature of fire would hear her. Save us! Save us, please!
"Well spill it you ungrateful peasant!" she heard a yelp, shuffling feet and pained sounding groans, "Where is she?! Where's the princess?"
"I'm right here," the voice was weak and pain-filled, sounding so different from what Azula knew her mother's voice to be.
"You're no princess," the angry-sounding man snarled. "You're just a commoner that managed to steal from the royal family!"
"They're my children," her mother's weak voice sounded, "The same ones you call royalty. They are my flesh and blood."
"Silence you insect!" Azula flinched at the sound of smacking flesh, did that man just hit her mother? "It is only because you still have a use that I haven't killed you yet."
Agni, save them! Azula curled away from the opening, stuffing her fingers into her mouth to keep herself quiet. Agni save them!
"Don't," that sounded like Yang but just as weak as her mother's voice. "Don't you… you dare…"
"Ah so you are awake," this voice was different, cold like the water at the top of the mountain. She didn't like it, it sounded too much like a monster from a nightmare. "Good, I wanted to show you what happens to those who betray me."
"what do you want to do with the women?" someone overhead asked, his voice sounding sickening sweet to Azula who shivered in its wake. "Can we keep them?"
"You've got the town to feast on," the man with nightmare voice scoffed. His cruel words brought about a ring of sadistic laughter from the men with him. The sound of heavy beasts moving together as if putting distance between them and the strange men.
Agni, if you're real, save them, Azula begged. I don't know what they're planning but-but it can't be good. So please, please Agni, you have to save them. Save my island home!
"You'll sacrifice a city for your reign?" Yang's voice was clear like she wasn't afraid.
"You monster," her mother sounded, her voice breaking in a way Azula had never heard before.
Agni save them, Azula heard the heavy sounds of bodies hitting the earth.
"Do you think your father will accept this?" Yang asked.
"How did you get here?" her mother's voice shook, but not with laughter that Azula knew best. It was a strange, strangled sound of emotion that made her feel afraid; afraid of her mother's wrath. A notion she's never had before, she's never been afraid of her mother's wrath because her mother has never been angry. the strange tone of voice made Azula curious as to the details of what was happening above her hiding place. "You're supposed to be in the Imperial Palace!"
"You underestimate me," the nightmare voice mocked. "Father is in his rooms, 'recovering' from the news of Lu Ten's death."
"…What did you do?" Azula couldn't name what she heard in her mother's voice, a mixture of anger and fear but something else, something that made her insides freeze with ice.
Agni, please, save us.
"Oh there's this wonderful little 'tea' in Earth Kingdome, drink it long enough and you'll…" the nightmare voice trailed off, a hum and the feeling of snakes crawling over her skin accompanied the end of his words.
"You're a monster," her mother's voice was breathless, more emotions Azula couldn't identify overflowed her mother's words.
Agni save them! Azula thought again. Save my family! Save my people!
"You shouldn't have run from me Ursa," the nightmare voice hissed, her mother made a strange choking voice. "You could've been Fire Lady." Azula looked up again, staring at the edge of earth drooping over the leaves her hiding place. She could see bare feet, milky white and ringed with bright scarlet vines, intertwining with pink leaves and black flowers. As she stared at the dangling feet near the earthen ledge, she realized that those were her mother's burned feet. "The woman married to the king who ended the great war! Someone this nation would know till the end of time! You could've been someone great!"
"I… I … al-alre-dy… am!" her mother's voice was full of wheezing and gasping breaths, was the stranger holding her mother by the throat?
Agni save them! She watched as the man with the dark voice stepped forward, just enough for her mother's flaying feet to be replaced with the sure black and gold shoe of the man holding her up.
"What? You think you're so great with what you've done to this island?" the nightmare voice asked her, laughing in a strange dark way that Azula had never heard before. It frightened her, she didn't like it, this person with laughter that would surly make death cringe. "Don't think that it'll keep standing. Without you, it'll burn itself out by the end of next year. That's when all your cute little contracts end right? At the end of summer and throughout winter? One after another, like a domino effect. Quite the cute little system you built but you didn't think about what would happen should you step away from the maintenance of this island."
"Let go of her! you're going to kill her!" Yang's voice cracked in the dark air.
"Ya-You… ki-kill all…th-th- these pe-people… f-for you-or ga-gain?" her mother sounded breathless, gasping in as much air as her throat would allow.
Agni, save them, Azula thought in horror and terror. Azula has lived on this island for as far back as she could remember, yeah she used to visit the palace but that was visiting. Her life was here on the island, with her friends, family, her teachers. The remainder of Jeong-Jeong put a cold chill down her spine. Jeong-Jeong warned her that some Fire Benders had fallen to savagery, that the fire had burnt through the recess of their mind that contained their 'humanity'. This man with the nightmare voice, he spoke as if everyone on this island was going to die. Was that his true goal? Kill everyone on the island?
"It'd be quiet easy," the nightmare voice answered dully as if the answer was obvious itself. "Hirahara Island is far to the south of the Imperial capital, sitting on the once boarder of Fire Nation and the Southern Air Temple. As soon as word gets out about your death and all your 'deals' end in the coming months, this island will be 'raided' by a very much rouge team of Earth Benders."
"You'd dare to blame another nation for your sins?" Yang snarled the question, already knowing the answer.
"of course," the nightmare voice chuckled. "not as if they'll be any survivors. Other then your capital city, the rest of the island will be left alone… for now at least."
"Wa-wrong," her mother gasped, Azula could see her mother's feet, they were flaying less as if she were losing strength to struggle. "My home… will… will con-con… tea-new…" she was struggling, her voice cracking and shaking as the man who held her in the air tightened his hold on her.
"Release princess Ursa!" Yang ordered loudly, "you're killing her!" her words were followed by the sound of a heavy thud and then Yang was coughing and gasping herself.
Agni save them, Azula thought, fighting back her tears because she didn't want her vision to cloud over.
"That is the point," the man holding her mother up scoffed. "but first, tell me where my daughter is!" his dismissive tone changed to demanding, making Azula jump in her little nook of branches.
"Ne-ver," her mother's voice sounded amused, despite its chocking strained sound. Azula could almost see her mother smiling in her mind's eye. "St-ong… my daughter," she coughed wetly, a weak sounding chuckle, "My… Ar-tic Ah-Azul."
"Mommy! What's this?" Azula was in her mother's room, holding a thick white wood decorated with delicately carved bright blue gems and silver threads. Her mother looked at her, set down her pen, stood up and approached the box Azula pulled out of her mother's closet
"This is mommy's marriage crown," Ursa said with a smile. "Your daddy made this for me."
"Wow! Really?" Azula asked excitedly, "it's so pretty!" It was a white wood, she's never seen white wood before, that was carved so expertly that the piece of wood itself was a work of art. Twining through the carefully carved holes in the white wood was a thin silver wire strung with bright pale blue stones.
"Do you see the shape of this white wood?" her mother asked, "it's our home island. See? This here is the shape of the peak from the eastern side, where our village sits. And these blue beads? They're called Artic Azul."
"Ar-tic… Ahhh-zzzul?" she stared at the crown, the gasped and looked up at her mother with a big smile. "Azul! Like Azula! that's me!"
"but of course," her mother laughed at her discovery
"My Artic Azul," Ursa's voice was a gasp of air in the dark cool night, "my ah-zzul."
"My lady!" Yang called, the sound of struggling increased, more men were cursing.
Agni, Azula thought, feeling safe and calm in the warm branches of the Dragon Tree. I know you can save them. So please, save my mommy.
"She's not strong right now," The man snarled angrily, reminding Azula of an angry beast. "But she will be. I assure you of that."
"What?" Ursa gasped, her feet dangled lifeless, their previous struggle to help free her gone like the warmth of Ursa's voice.
"Princess," Yang gasped, sounding weak somewhere overhead.
"Her attachment to you is a weakness," the man said, "I'll make sure to burn that away." It was quite a moment, nothing made a sound, the wind was still and the insects were silent. A burst of warmth filled Azula and she knew in that moment that the sun was rising, the flame in her chest that always wanted to be set free threatened to burst out of her in the excitement of a new day. Azula bit down on her fingers, keeping herself silent as all forms of exhaustion faded and her strength amplified with the rising sun. She breathed, trying hard to calm the flame in her chest that wanted to burst out. She looked again to the leaves above her, they were not a warm orange glow of dawn but a pale yellow-green from a light source she didn't recognize.
"NO!" Yang's voice sounded like broken pottery, cracking through the air like a whip. "Princess Ursa!"
"Worthless," the nightmare voice growled, he brought her mother close to the edge then thrust her out away from himself. Azula watched as green light seemed to follow the pink robes of her mother's summer dress. She watched, through the hole where only a single leaf obscured her view, as her mother landed beside the tiny stream from the waterfall.
"Princess!" Yang cried, the sounds of thrashing limbs nearly deafened the grunts and hisses of men in pain. For a moment Azula didn't understand. It was her mother laying on those silver stones but the green light she had seen before, seemed to be immitted from her mother. Azula pushed herself closer to the hole in the branches, staring intently at her mother, wondering why she wasn't moving and why her voice had fallen silent. Then she realized that bright green light on her mother's clothes was moving. Azula didn't get it, how could green light be moving? Before she could ponder more about the strange green light, the dark voice over head was speaking again.
"Kill the hag and let her burn with her mistress. Your reward will be the capital city. Everything in it is yours to keep." The man with the nightmare voice ordered, his answer was deep dark laughter. "You, trackers, get me back to my ship." She heard the sound of monsters moving overhead, the click of tongues followed by a sharp whistle, a man's low rumble followed by the beasts overhead moving.
Agni, save my mommy, Azula thought.
"Alright hag!" the men overhead were laughing, "Go join your commoner princess!" Yang yelled as she was kicked into the hole. "Alright, fire barrage on the count of three!" Azula looked at Yang, praying the older woman would get back up and water bend, she didn't know why the woman hadn't done so before. But Yang wasn't moving, she was still against the rock she landed against, a trail of blood stained the silver stone and began to pool around her gray-stripped mud-brown bangs.
Mommy? You're okay now, Agni has to have saved you by now! Azula turned her attention away from her unconscious nanny to her mother's body. It was then she realized what was wrong with the green light on her mother's clothes. The green light was flame and it was turning her mother's pearl-white skin into black and silver ashes. Azula watched as the black scorched bones of her mother remained strong against the green flame.
Her mother was burning in green flame.
Her mother was burning in green flame.
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