Summary/disclaimer: Time for another chapter of Burning Fire. Enjoy the 900-word chapter. I don't own Avatar, Nick, Michael Dante DiMartino, and Bryan Konietzko do.

Kei entered the royal palace and knocked on the door briefly.

"Princess Izumi?" Kei questioned as he stepped backwards. "It will be time for the crowning ceremony soon." Kei said while he started to pace.

He couldn't tell what the princess was doing. That wasn't what his place was. His place was to defend her and escort her around their homeland.

"Princess?" Kei questioned while brushing off his armor as he turned and leaned on the wall.

"I'll just be a minute, captain." Izumi answered Kei who stopped pacing for a moment. "I didn't expect for it to be soon." Izumi stated as Kei hummed to himself.

He didn't know if her father neglected to tell her that the crowning ceremony… The very transfer of power from him to his daughter.

Still? Kei was assigned to the princess. That had been his orders from the Fire Lord, everyone knew Zuko could and would defend himself. You'd have to be either brave of foolish to try and kill the Fire Lord on his own land.

But his own daughter? Nobody knew if she was a firebender. They didn't know if she could fight to defend herself at the moment. Even if she could? The Royal Procession was sworn to protect the royal family.

Then again? Kei knew the last leadership was not good for the land. Kei knew just how horrid Azula and Ozai were. Their predecessors were even worse, starting a war which consumed the rest of the land.

"Captain?" Kei heard which caused him to look up as the armored warrior who was busy blinking. "I'm done." Kei heard which caused him to look to the side.

In front of him was a black-haired girl. The formal dress she wore was a far cry from the rest of the armor that most future rulers in the fire nation wore.

Then again? Most of them were people who would rather burn people for simply looking at them.

"Sorry, I was busy thinking, your highness." Kei stated which caused him to look to the side. "And your father wanted it to be early in the morning. He figured that you'd get nervous if it was done early in the day." Kei added and brushed off his armor.

"Well, it would help." Izumi said as she walked towards the throne room of the palace. "I should point out that my father has been thinking to himself a lot recently." Izumi added as Kei and the rest of the guards continued to follow after her.

"Since the general…?" Kei started to say before noticing Izumi was deep in thought. "A thousand apologizes, your highness. I didn't mean to pry." Kei added as he crossed his arms with a sigh.

Izumi wasn't mad. She was quite curious as to what Kei wanted to say. She had only met her Great Uncle a handful of times. Izumi turned to Kei who was busy trying to think of an apology good enough to please the princess.

"Kei?" Izumi questioned which caused Kei to raise an eyebrow as he turned to his charge. "What do you think of things? The new era, I mean. There will be quite a lot of changes obviously." Izumi stated and was greeted by Kei rubbing at his chin.

'Like how their ruler is an 18-year-old girl with only the faintest grasp of politics.' Kei thought to himself as he turned and looked to the side.

"It will be different," Kei stated which was greeted by a sigh. "But changes can bring good. Your father brought the end to 100 years of war…. The Fire Nation will remember him as a hero long after he's gone." Kei added while humming.

"Great pep talk, captain." Izumi put in which was greeted by Kei shaking his head.

"I don't know how best to pep up the future leader of the fire nation." Kei responded before he cracked his fingers. "I do know that your going to do great. You've been going over the lines to me and the others for months. If your nervous? Then you haven't planed for something. That's not the princess I got assigned to guard 2 years ago." Kei put in as he lowered his hands to his sides.

Izumi started to hum. Kei could only ponder what was going to happen next. He had to focus on other things, to focus on the protection of his charge first and foremost.

He couldn't understand what was keeping him on edge, but he knew very well this wasn't going to stop anytime soon.

What he did know was that this wasn't over. And this wouldn't be over for a while.

He hummed once more and started wringing his hands once more. This was tiring.

"Is it going to be interesting as you think?" Kei hummed as he put his hands in his pockets.

Author Notes

Phew. Another chapter done! I want to point out that next chapter will be 2-14 weeks and will show Kei and Izumi talking and such along with set up the coronation and all that. Next chapter will be 1200 words or such. Until then, Lighting Wolf out!

P.S: Ty and Kuvira and such will be 900 words and such and hopefully soon.