I'm really gonna need more ideas soon, because canon is getting less and less helpful as a guideline. If anyone has suggestions or concrit please tell me. And does anyone know female Inuit/Water Tribe names not used for characters in the show?
Oh, by the way, sorry in advance. I really should've said that last chapter, too. When it happens, please forgive me. (It does not happen in this chapter. Just an advance apology.)
I got sick of Indi bugging me, so I kinda gave her access to my account. If she reviews anyone without logging out, sorry. Good news: Brave Soldier Boy updates might actually be on schedule- I freely admit that most of that (most, not all) is my fault. Anyway, that happened, and please check out my website, worldofdedanan dot wordpress dot com! Thank you, and happy reading!
Chapter 10: Kidnapping
(Is Usually Hostile)
"Go back to the ship," Zuko orders. "Gather supplies and bring them in the morning. I don't know how long this search will take."
Firebender Kayao salutes and turns Agni's Glory back along the trail. They quickly disappear into the dark forest.
Corporal Taiyo, the only person on the crew who doesn't make fun of Zuko, hesitates. "Sir…"
"What?" Zuko snaps.
"What about you?"
What about Zuko? He's going to keep looking. It's not like he'll be missing much sleep anyway.
"I'll continue-" Zuko begins, before he hears a whoosh behind him. He turns, scanning the trees. And a brightly-colored blur hurtles out of the woods and knocks the air out of Zuko.
"Ineedtoborrowyourprincerealquicksorrybye!" Zuko hears, and then he's careening through the forest, into the night sky, closer to the stars than he's ever been before.
And Uncle has been kidnapped by earthbenders so put him down-
"Stop it!" the Avatar cries, grabbing Zuko's hand before he can fall. "I really need your help."
"Too bad." Zuko continues trying to get free.
The boy swoops down to catch Zuko's arm again. "If you drop from up here you'll splatter."
…Zuko holds on for dear life. He can't help Uncle if he's dead.
"Thank you." The airbender sounds relieved. "I just need your help to figure something out really fast. It won't take long."
"It better not," Zuko growls, because there's nothing else he can do right now. "And afterwards, you will take me exactly where I need to go."
"Sure!" He is entirely too cheerful about this. And everything.
Taiyo would like to resign now please. Because the Avatar just captured Prince Zuko.
Taiyo stares up at the still-darkening sky till he can't see the orange dot anymore. He notes which way it was heading. Then he takes Fire Flake's reins and turns Thunder Strike back along the trail. He has to get supplies before he can go after Prince Iroh.
The airbender takes Zuko to a bear statue. When he sets him down in front of it, Zuko looks at him.
"My friend disappeared here," the Avatar says. "A spirit took him."
Zuko just. Has no idea.
So he glares at him. "What do you expect me to do about it? You're the Avatar. Take me back!"
"See, I'm not so sure about the whole Avatar thing," the boy says, completely ignoring Zuko's very reasonable demand. "You can airbend, but I still can't get waterbending, and I've been practicing for weeks."
"I'm not the Avatar!" Zuko screeches. Declares. He doesn't screech.
"I didn't say you were," the airbender points out, completely unreasonably. "I just want you to sit here and meditate for a bit. Just in case your spirit problem is giving you Avatar abilities. Temporarily, of course."
"… Fine," Zuko grumbles. He doesn't have time for this, but he has even less time for arguing. He has to rescue Uncle. "But I still don't like you, and I'm still going to capture you as soon as this spirit stops messing with me."
"That's the spirit!" The Avatar is annoying.
"Hey. Katara." A hand on her shoulder.
Katara's eyes flutter open. "Aang? Where's Sokka?"
"I think he's in the spirit world."
"Well, go find him!" Katara bursts out, getting to her feet. "You're the Avatar, right?"
Aang looks down. "Actually, I'm not so sure. The monks told me I was but… Katara, I can't bend water. At all. And… there's someone else who can bend air."
"Aang, that's great! That means other airbenders might have survived!"
"No," Aang replies. "It doesn't. Air isn't the only element he can bend."
"So maybe he's the Avatar. Just go get him, and he can fix this problem!" It seems obvious to Katara. She'll go make the Avatar get her brother back if she needs to.
"I did." Aang pauses. "He's working on it."
Katara pulls him into a hug. Sokka is going to be ok! "Oh, Aang, you're the best! Thank you!"
Zuko has been meditating for… for a while now, and nothing's happening, this is stupid. He stands up. "Avatar!"
Nothing.
He told the kid to go away near the start because he can't meditate with someone breathing down his neck and now the airbender is gone. Of course.
Zuko sighs and starts walking down the path the airbender took, away from the burnt ground the statue is on, and into the forest. Either he has to find the kid quickly, or find his uncle on his own. The Avatar is probably closer.
Sure enough, soon Zuko reaches a village. It isn't yet dawn, but it will be soon. Not too soon, since he can't feel the sun yet, but soon. The eastern sky is beginning to lighten.
The Avatar is standing with the waterbender next to the sky bison, the waterbender's braid messy and her blue tunic rumpled. Appa is as fluffy and white as always.
"Hey!" Zuko calls. "Avatar!"
No response.
"Your stupid meditation thing didn't work."
The kid slumps against the bison, sitting on the ground. And looks away.
"Well if that's how you're going to be I won't try to help you next time!"
The stupid airbender is still ignoring him. So is the girl. Weird.
Zuko walks closer. "I'm going to steal your bison. I'll rename him Honor."
Not really. Zuko's lost honor is too painful for him to name a pet- transportation animal- after it. He'd end up trying to avoid the creature. And he doesn't want to avoid Appa.
The kid doesn't react. So Zuko reaches up to run his fingers through Appa's fur- just to prove he means it- and he can see it. The fur, that is. Through his fingers.
What.
At dawn, the squad that captured Iroh gets back into their saddles after a few hours' rest. Not long, but long enough. His nephew will catch up sometime today.
Particularly with the clue Iroh left behind. A sandal, their agreed-upon indicator of which way Zuko should go if Iroh got captured.
Taiyo is riding Lightning Claws, their fastest komodo rhino, when the sun rises. Taiki and Arata are somewhere behind him on the trail, on two of the other rhinos.
He's not as far as the prince would have been, but he's doing his best to make up for lost time. They will get the general back from those earthbenders.
In honor of Prince Zuko.
Zuko is in the spirit world.
He's tried to firebend and windguide, but neither works. For the first time in years he wishes Uncle had told him more about it.
The sun peeks over the horizon and Zuko doesn't feel a burst of energy.
This is weird.
It gets weirder when a light appears in the forest. And when the light is a spirit dragon. Is it going to eat spirit-him? He didn't kill any dragons, but maybe it can tell his family has.
(I want to see dragons)
Zuko backs away. He doesn't want his spirit to get eaten. He wouldn't be able to save Uncle.
The dragon comes closer. And… touches Zuko's head with one of its whiskers? Zuko sees an old man riding a dragon. Avatar Roku. Riding this dragon.
"You're Avatar Roku's dragon?" Zuko asks. He gets a feeling of yes from the dragon. Which doesn't make sense. But he does. So.
The dragon bends his- how does Zuko know he's a him?- neck and he thinks he knows what the dragon, Fang maybe, wants him to do.
But why would the dragon want Zuko to ride him, no one wants Zuko.
Fang flicks his tail impatiently.
"O-ok, then I'll just… ride you," he stutters. Princes are not supposed to stutter.
Zuko carefully clambers onto the dragon, holding his breath. Just in case.
Fang takes off, and Zuko forgets to hold his breath. He whoops with pure joy, because flying is better than he imagined even without a rush of wind stealing his breath. The world is spread out below him, far enough he can almost see Crescent Island in the distance, but not so very far either.
(I'm so close to home (but so far))
And then the dragon flies lower and Zuko sees Uncle, chained up and captured by Earth Kingdom soldiers.
"Go back!" he demands, tugging at Fang's ruff. "They have Uncle!"
(What if they hurt him)
Fang, climbing higher in the sky, duly ignores him.
"Didn't you hear me? Go back!" Zuko cries frantically, raging at the most amazing thing he's ever seen. "I need to save him, you stupid animal!"
(What if they kill him)
The dragon snorts and bucks, sending Zuko flying over his head. For three terrifying seconds he plummets toward the ground. He's about to splat, or whatever it is spirits do, when Fang catches him in his jaws. Surprisingly gently.
And Zuko was not freaking out because he thought the dragon had decided to eat him after all.
Fang continues carrying Zuko, but by the scruff, like a puppy-kitten or something.
"Please," Zuko begs, even though royalty doesn't beg or plead, royalty commands. Royalty doesn't apologize either, but Zuko will even do that if it means helping Uncle. "I… I need to save him. I didn't mean the stupid animal thing. Just take me back."
(I don't know what I'd do without him)
The dragon keeps flying. A minute later, Fang sets Zuko down on his back. Just in time to fly him through the Fire Temple's roof, into the inner sanctuary.
It is surprisingly empty. There's only a celestial calendar with a larger-than-life statue of Avatar Roku. A small circle of light from the tiny window lands on the statue's right shoulder. Fang whisker-thought-talks to Zuko again, showing him that the light will hit Roku's forehead on the winter solstice.
"Why does this matter?" Zuko asks. "This seems like an Avatar thing. I need to save my uncle."
The dragon grunts, nudging him toward the statue.
"Oh. Do you want me to come here on the solstice?"
Fang does the weird yes thing again.
"I can't. I'm banished."
The dragon pointedly doesn't let him back on.
"Fine," he agrees reluctantly. "Whatever. I'll figure out a way. Just take me back." He knows what earthbenders do to firebenders who don't cooperate. What they might do just because, to Uncle Iroh.
Fang flies him back. Zuko doesn't see Uncle.
Iroh sees the spirit of a dragon fly past, with what appears to be his nephew's spirit on top.
"What's the problem?" the squad captain asks.
Iroh schools his expression into mild discomfort. "No great trouble."
He needs to bide his time a while longer, till he can roll away downhill. Zuko isn't coming, not soon enough. So Iroh will just have to get free by himself.
It's past sunrise and the Avatar hasn't saved Sokka and the villagers yet. Katara makes breakfast for herself and Aang to give her nervous hands something to do.
Zuko is still gone and Aang doesn't know if the prince will yell at him if he checks on him. He'll wait till breakfast is over.
"Besides, Katara needs someone to comfort her," he says aloud.
Appa eyes Aang and snorts.
Li enters Prince Zuko's room whistling, dustcloth at the ready, for the day's cleaning. The Royal- the prince doesn't have many decorations, just a Fire Nation flag hanging on one wall and two swords crossed over the head of his bed, and of course the meditation table, which doubles as a sea chest.
Li dusts the swords off, careful not to knock them down, dusts the large, undecorated sea chest, then moves on to the table.
Which is bolted to the floor. Not sliding around.
Li finishes cleaning and immediately goes down to the rhino hold.
"Kazuki?"
His friend's head pops up from behind one of the creatures. "Li? What is it?"
"I need to talk to you."
Half a degree later, Kazuki has all the rhinos locked in their stalls.
"What is it?" he asks, sitting next to Li by the wall.
"Prince Zuko said his meditation table slid into the wall, but it's bolted to the floor."
"Oh." Kazuki tilts his head. "So he lied. And you're worried."
Yes, that sounds about right. Li nods. "Have you noticed anything strange going on with him?"
Kazuki hums. "Well, he comes down here sometimes. And I saw him doing a weird circley thing a couple times. Once he made a mini tornado. I think he was airbending."
That… that. What.
"Do you think he's the Avatar?" Kazuki is looking at him curiously.
"What? Uh, no, that- that wouldn't- he's not- it just-" Li stutters. Prince Zuko can't be the Avatar, because… because. Actually, he can't think of any other reasons.
He's saved from having to when Sergeant Hijiri walks into the room.
"I suggest you boys keep quiet about this," she says. "We wouldn't want anyone like Zhao to get ideas about the prince."
Li shudders, agreeing. No one should have to put up with Zhao coming after them.
"Lieutenant?"
Jee turns. Hijiri snuck up on him. Again.
"The prince airbent. I heard it from one of the younger crewmen. Asked his friend if he thought the prince was the Avatar."
Lieutenant Jee does not want to hear this. He does not want this to be his life.
The universe continues to not care.
Guest: to be fair, it's not always a new injury. But yes, new record, go Zuko. I hope this lived up to your expectations and continues to do so.
Mr. Haziq: the epiphany isn't supposed to be a surprise. What he does with it is. Were you surprised?