A/N: Wow! I finally sat down and did something towards this story! Miracles do still happen! :)
Disclaimer: Still don't own Avatar the Last Airbender…*sob*
It was a rather dejected fire prince who sat at the campfire with his uncle. Umi had been gone over a month and he had all but given up hope that she would return. Just once Iroh had mentioned possibly rejoining 'the world' and Zuko had all but exploded at him. It was 3 days before he even spoke to the old man again and Iroh, in his wisdom, promised himself to allow the young man to choose when to leave the safety of the forest and not speak of it again.
In the calm silence of the night with the fire crackling gently the two men, the young, and the old, were slowly aware of a presence around them in the form of a gentle mist that seemed to come from nowhere, yet everywhere. Zuko stiffened and sat up straight from where he had been hunched staring at the fire and looked around quickly. Iroh froze, ready to attack if need be. Suddenly the mist began to be sucked into a swirling center vortex and a form began to take shape. In moments, instead of the mist there was a very lovely young woman standing in front of them, the flickering flames of the warm campfire causing her dewy skin to sparkle gently.
Neither Zuko or his uncle could find their voices to speak, it was as if they were afraid to make a noise, afraid they might frighten off the enchanting vision that stood before them in the firelight. The vision of loveliness smiled at them and both men inwardly sighed in unison, any thoughts of attacking completely forgotten. Moments passed and she finally spoke. "Zuko…Iroh…don't you remember me?" She pleaded softly, a bit saddened that they seemed not to know her. At that moment Zuko snapped out of the haze his mind had been in and blinked, staring at her with a frown. Iroh elbowed his nephew no-so-gently and Zuko made a strangled yelp and turned his frown towards his uncle. "Zuko, that is no way to treat an old friend; you should apologize this instant!" The young man in question spun back to stare and the lovely woman again and struggled to his feat in shock. "Umi!" he cried "you came back!" A huge smile appeared on the lovely young woman's face "you didn't forget me!" Zuko shook his head, "no, no how could we?" he looked intently at her and she began to blush slightly; he looked away quickly before she saw his answering flush. "We…we just didn't recognize you at first. You..look different. " Umi gasped and began to apologize "I'm so sorry, of course I must, I didn't even think…of course, I'm sorry!" She was about to start again when Iroh interrupted "Umi, you do not need to apologize my dear, it seems you have some interesting tales to tell, perhaps? We would love to hear them." The old man smiled hopefully and Umi relaxed and smiled back. She glanced at Zuko who almost smiled back and sat down once again. Iroh gestured for her to sit as well. "Tell us, Umi, what happened while you were away?"
Umi explained that she had been taking trips to connect with any water she could in an attempt to gather information about herself. She had been trapped in the tree for so long her memory was very incomplete; she believed that by connecting with as much water as possible she might learn and remember. She described how, whenever she would unite with another body of water, pieces of herself would sometimes be waiting for her, like fruit waiting to be plucked from a tree. Eventually she came to a vast ocean and that was how she was able to completely restore her former self. She told how the sea had been her home and it held every memory she had ever had; the fragmented pieces of her life, her memory and her very self slowly came together as she absorbed what the ocean had held for her for so long. She explained how she had actually come from the sea, hence the name she had been given. She was the ocean's child. A faraway look came into her sparkling eyes as she told of how she had come to be. The oceans and seas had, so very long ago, been together as one. The great sea turtles that called the vast waters home made a pact with the waters they journeyed. They would bring their ability to bend and manipulate the element they loved and the immense waters would offer up the power they possessed, and together they would create a protector and a progeny, a being with complete power over their element.
As they began to weave their creation, one who did not agree with their decision chose the very moment they were almost finished to release his hold on the power he was contributing and caused it to fracture what they had gathered. Instead of creating one being, the fractured, misguided power ran amuck and began to create dozens upon dozens of smaller, weaker beings. Acting quickly, the waters paralyzed the errant dissident and the other sea turtles used their combined power to instantly obliterate him; assuring that it could never happen again. Then, they set about the task of cleaning up the mess that had been made. A number of the beings were incomplete and it was easy to remold them. The rest of them were purified and allowed to scatter out into the waters and choose to live wherever they wished. The one that had been re-formed from the incomplete beings was imbued what power remained in the sea turtles and great waters. To that one they gave a name so as to set it apart from the smaller beings that were simply water spirits or beings that had no distinction, they named this being after the waters from whence life had come.
She paused for a few moments and allowed her listeners to take in all that she had said. Zuko simply stared at her with an incredulous look on his face, and Iroh simply regarded her calmly with a discerning gaze. "Umi." Her head snapped back to the young man who was still staring at her. "Yes?" she replied. "I meant, that was the name they gave their last creation, the name they gave…you." He spoke the words as if he hardly believed what he was saying. Umi nodded. "That is correct." Iroh cleared his throat. "I mean you no disrespect" he began "but how does a being imbued with that much power end up helplessly bound inside a tree?"
Umi closed her eyes briefly and sighed gently as she reopened them. "That was the consequence I suffered for the greatest mistake I made when I was still new to life and had little knowledge of the ways of others besides the sea turtles and the great waters." She paused as Iroh got up to retrieve another log to put on the fire that was threatening to burn down to coals if not fed. Zuko watched silently as his uncle 'assisted' the fire in taking a good hold on the fresh wood and waited impatiently for Umi to continue. She seemed to collect her thoughts before she resumed speaking. "As I said I was young; I was also curious. I traveled far and wide to see all that I could see. Time passed and the world changed, humans began to inhabit the lands that had separated and clear divisions started to show between the elements as humans learned bending from the original masters. With human bending came the Avatar." Umi fell silent and stood up abruptly; moving further from the fire as she began to pace slowly back and forth. "One of the very first avatars was a firebender by birth. He was a very powerful bender, even at a young age. In my travels to discover the world I happened upon him as a young man, practicing his art in the early dawn's light. At this time I had only observed humans but had never directly interacted with them and did not have the form you see before you now." She glanced at them briefly before continuing "I did not find it hard to communicate with him, and it was my first contact with human beings. I had never had what you might consider a bad experience in my existence so it is easy to understand why it never would have occurred to me that such a thing could take place. The more time we spent together the more he taught me about humans and about the Avatar. Learning that he needed a water bending teacher I was only too happy to offer my assistance. However, seeing as I had no physical human form it was very difficult for me to impart my knowledge to him. After much discussion and experimentation, we discovered that I had the ability to create a form very similar to his own; human. It didn't take long to re-learn my water bending using a human form and before long he was making progress. We…" Umi stopped pacing and turned away from them to look up at the moonless sky. "We became very close. He requested…that..I choose a feminine form. I did not mind as in a way I was created somewhat female initially. As time passed he grew into a powerful man and an even more powerful bender. He became the Avatar completely with full dominance over the Avatar state. I no longer traveled and wandered, I was always by his side. He had no more need of my teaching, but as I had chosen, according to him, a very beautiful female form he preferred that I stay with him." Her head lowered as her thoughts clearly turned to upsetting ones. Iroh and Zuko hardly dared to breathe for fear they might break the spell and she might stop speaking.
"It was in this time that I began to realize that the man I had stood beside and trained and had grown close to all those years was not the same man as the one I currently knew. One night, after taking me to a deserted island he…" she cleared her throat nervously "he demanded..that I become..physical with him ..i..in the…after the fashion of a man and a woman. I…became afraid. Perhaps I had worn the female form too long, but…but I was afraid. I refused. He became furious, and instead of sparring as we usually did, he quickly ascended into the Avatar state and proceeded to attack me with..with the intent to…kill." Umi shuddered and Zuko reached out as if to comfort her and quickly drew back his hand, blushing as his uncle glanced over at him knowingly. "I did not want to fight him, and so I fled. We ended up not so very far from here, even though it was so very long ago. In my human form my bending was slightly limited, as well as my power, and before long I began to tire. He drove me into a forest and backed me against a tree. As he realized I was completely not a natural being and that he could not kill me, he began to do something I couldn't fathom, something I'd never seen before, and almost before I realized what was happening; somehow I had lost my control over my physical form and I was dispersed into water particles. Using my fatigue and shock, he bended my..particles into the tree and used his Avatar power to seal me there; placing a curse on me, and the tree. I could still hear, even though I could no longer see as I was once accustomed, and I will never forget the cruel laughter in his voice as he told me the terms of my confinement; the rules of my prison. How no one and nothing but an extremely powerful firebender could possibly release me from the tree since even a forest fire would only slowly kill a tree of the size that it was, even back then. By the time any normal fire would consume the tree I had been bound to I would have been slowly released little by little and without the rest of me to connect to those parts would have become permanently lost, effectively destroying a basically immortal being. He made sure of my eternal imprisonment" she paused "at least…he thought he did." She turned back around and looked at her silent audience. Both Zuko and Iroh were sitting with shocked looks on their faces, as if they couldn't quite take in what she had been saying. Iroh attempted to say something but he only opened his mouth to find no sound coming out. Umi managed a sad smile. "That was a very, very long time ago. This story would have a much different ending if Zuko had not come to my aid. The cave-in below ground that had begun would have slowly swallowed up the tree I was bound to and I would have eventually ceased to exist after an excruciating loss of small parts of me over a period of time before the last of the tree completely died." She looked directly at Zuko and smiled, a real smile, no longer a small, sad one. "I am in your debt, one I can never repay." Zuko shifted uncomfortably and rubbed the back of his neck with a slightly sweaty and trembling palm. "Ah..well I'm just glad I was able to help…" Umi nodded "as am I". She blinked "actually, I believe, if it is alright with you and Iroh, I would like to stay here, with you. I mean" she stammered "with the two of you..of course." Zuko fought a slight blush that attempted to betray him and looked over at his uncle, realizing the older gentleman hadn't spoken a word for some time.
Iroh kept silent a few moments longer, if for no other reason than allow the suspense to build. Age made you do funny things, he thought to himself. "Of course, Umi, you are welcome here in our camp or with us as we travel, it does not matter where; your place is with us as long as you will it to be so." Zuko let out the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding with a small 'whoosh' and the ancient, powerful water being known as Umi smiled at them both before mentioning shyly that it had become quite late while she was speaking. Before long the firebenders were in bed, if not asleep. It had been a very revealing evening and both their minds were still racing from the amount of information they'd received. Iroh somehow managed to fall asleep far faster than Zuko, who was still awake when dawn's rays called to the fire inside him; something that normally woke him up. This time he simply groaned and squeezed his eyes shut, willing the sun to leave him alone so he could rest.
After seeing Umi's new form and hearing her revelation Zuko didn't really seem to know how to treat her. He felt awkward, and he didn't like it one bit. Uncle was, of course, just fine. Uncle had taken to asking her to show him some waterbending moves that were original to the ancient sea turtles and oceans. She happily complied, sometimes using her human form if she could, or using her natural water form when the human body was a limitation. During these times Zuko watched with curiosity and a bit of jealousy. He wanted to be spending time with the lovely waterbender, but it was Iroh who had the confidence to ask, not he. After a week he finally worked up that nerve he needed and ask Umi to go walking with him. To his relief she looked pleased with the idea and they spent the majority of the rest of the day meandering around the forest, talking about anything and nothing and just spending time together.
It became a daily ritual for them to take a walk in the forest together, and after about a week Iroh began to grin whenever he saw them saunter off together. He understood at least somewhat, the kind of being she was, and she could certainly never give him grand-nephews and –nieces, but as long as she made his nephew happy, especially after all he'd been throught, he didn't care what she was.
A/N: Well what do we have here? A little history on Umi? *gasp* Who'd have thunked it?! So, still not much plot movement but hey I'm tryin' here..lol :)