DISCLAIMER: I don't own AVATAR.
And… I'm back!
Chapter 11: The Festival Part 3
The world became a haze for Zuko. He heard himself screaming, and running towards the fallen figure, and cradling her in his arms. Something was wrong with this picture.
Flame's eyes opened a little. There was a figure above her, a blurry one, but it reminded her of her father. Then, it slowly rearranged, and lo! It was indeed her father. Flame put a hand on his chest.
"I'm sorry, dad, I failed." Zuko rose his eyebrow. He was not her father she must be hallucinating.
"Give me the girl, Prince Zuko." The Prince looked up to see his father looming over him.
When Zuko didn't reply, Ozai grew frustrated.
"We had a deal, she lost, I won, she's mine, Zuko. Give her to me." Zuko glared, he didn't want to give her up!
Suddenly, Flame's eyes snapped open as if she woke from some horrid dream. She saw Zuko above her, and Ozai next to her, screamed, and bolted out of Zuko's arms and through the crowd.
She was small, so Ozai and Zuko, who were trying to be hot on her trail, could not see nor find her.
Flame's heart was beating loud, and over at the edge of the crowd was her kimono and boots. She quickly stopped at her pile of clothes, and started to hastily put on her boots. Out of the corner of her eye, Flame saw the Lord and Prince steadily making their way towards her. She bit back a cry, grabbed her kimono, and ran.
Both Fire Lord and Prince growled when they no longer saw Flame. But Ozai simply didn't care. He had enough maids and concubines; he could hunt down the little half-breed some other day.
But Zuko, on the other hand, ran into the crowd, half crazed in his search to find her. Never had a prisoner escaped, (except the Avatar, but he didn't count) and Flame sure as heck wouldn't either.
Flame now had her sleeved shirt on, her kimono that went on top on, her arm guards, and her hair had been ripped from the ponytail it had been in for the Agni Kai. She was normal again.
She ran through the Earth Kingdom section of the festival, ruined some crazy guy's cabbage cart, and made it into the Water Nation part of the festival in record time.
Yells were heard as a black and red clad figure rushed for refuge from the banished Prince of the Fire Nation, hoping to escape him. Hair fell into her eyes, but she could still see her godmother holding out items to be sold at her stand.
"Icy Water! Hide me!" Flame cried desperately. Icy Water looked at her, then rushed into the crowd, and dragged Flame back to her stand, and shoved her under the counter. And not a minute to soon, Zuko had just arrived at her stand.
"Hello again, sir, have you found your woman yet?" Icy Water asked silkily with a hint of teasing in her voice.
"I'm not his woman!" Flame hissed. Icy Water just smiled. Zuko stared at Icy Water long and hard.
"No, but I know how to make her come out." Zuko's hand rushed out, and grabbed Icy Water. Zuko's hand lit up in fire, the flames licking just beneath Icy Water's chin, desperately trying to reach their way up and burn her skin.
"Come out, Flame, and this woman won't be harmed!" Zuko called out. All the business the market stopped immediately, just staring at the Fire Nation man threatening one of their own. They were not fool enough to try and stop him. Flame felt the edge of panic in her mind.
No, no, no…No more, I won't lose Icy Water too…"Zuko! Stop this madness! Let her go! Please! Don't hurt her!" Flame cried out, bursting from under the counter; she ran up to Zuko and grabbed his elbow, begging him to let Icy Water go, her big green eyes pleading with him with all her heart and soul. The Prince smirked down at her, and the flames around his hand extinguished, and Icy Water was thrown out of his grasp; in replacement, Flame was crushed against his frame.
When Icy Water turned around, she saw Flame fighting back tears, and winning.
She needs to cry.
Icy Water thought sadly. But she could not force anything upon her goddaughter.
"Oh Waters Bend! Since you are so desperate to find out about this festival, you must go to the dance floor! It should have the greatest experience for you!" Icy Water called out. Flame's face paled, and she shook her head. Zuko looked down at her angrily.
"Oh no, this is not going to be a waste of time. We're going." What Zuko hated most was when something was a waste of time, so he always did everything in his power to make sure it wasn't. Flame immediately started squirming in his arms when Zuko started to drag her towards the dance floor. She couldn't go there! Not to that place!
Somehow, Flame managed to crawl out of Zuko's arms. She bolted through the festival, and bumped into an old friend of hers, Blue Horizon.
"Waters Bend! Shala bless us! It's been so long!" Blue Horizon cried happily, hugging her friend. Flame looked hastily over her shoulder, seeing the figure she was running from steadily get closer through the crowd.
"Yes, it's nice to see you too, Blue Horizon. But honestly, I must be going…" Flame said quickly. Blue Horizon shook her head, her deep blue eyes tinkling with lost memories.
"No, you must meet my new boyfriend! Oh, where is he! There!" Blue Horizon pointed to a boy with long hair and dressed in green and yellow. He turned around, and smiled at them. He walked up to the two girls, and bowed.
"Waters Bend, this is my boyfriend, Haru!" Blue Horizon said happily. Flame nodded at him quickly.
"Nice to meet you Haru, but please, I must be going!" Blue Horizon looked at her confusedly.
"Why?" Flame's childhood friend asked sadly. Flame scoffed. Now she remembered why she had given up on Blue Horizon when she was 7…
"Why do I need to hide?" Blue Horizon asked, crossing her short, seven year old, parka clad arms in confusion. Waters Bend just gaped at her friend.
"Because I'm suppose to find you!" Waters Bend cried in exasperation. Blue Horizon tilted her head stupidly.
"Why?" She asked. Waters Bend screamed in frustration, and stomped away, snow shifting from the bender's anger, leaving Blue Horizon standing in her wake, still not understanding the point of the game, Hide-and-Seek.
"I give up!" Waters Bend cried, and threw her hands into the air, and two pillars of snow followed her hands.
"Excuse me, miss, but why are you hugging her?" Zuko asked with as much Princely dignity as he could muster. Blue Horizon looked up at him kindly.
"Oh, hello, sir, this is an old friend of mine, and we have just met after two years of separation after a mean Fire Prince came and took her away. You look sort of like him. Are you him?" Blue Horizon asked suspiciously. Flame groaned. Zuko smirked.
"No, I think you have mistaken me for someone else." Zuko said smoothly. Blue Horizon suddenly looked even more stupid then she truly was.
"Sorry sir. Bye Waters Bend, I hope you go listen to the music they play! It's so wonderful!" Blue Horizon called as Zuko dragged Flame away. She looked at her friend with pity.
"Blue Horizon, you fool, someday you will be slapped for being so stupid, and I hope I get to see it." Flame muttered.
Once they reached the gate towards where couples were slowly waltzing to the music that magical musicians were playing, Zuko wrapped one arm around Flame much to her disgust, so that they would look more like a couple. To Flame's disappointment they were allowed in.
The Prince and double bender slowly waltzed with the rest of the couples. Flame tried to shut out the music, for it was a curse. Any who listened to it would fall in love with the first person they saw.
Unfortunately, Zuko did not know, and was listening to the music happily.
Damn this curseful music.
Flame thought bitterly. She tried to focus on other things other than the music, but all she could think of was her parents, waltzing in this same spot, falling head over heels for each other, her father dressed in his Fire armor, flames leaping across his belly, her mother, dressed in a calming blue kimono, hence her name, Calm Water, and they were dancing to the same music their daughter was dancing to now, the music…
Flame screamed with all her strength, shoving Zuko away. The musicians stopped playing, the dancers stopped dancing, but Flame never saw it. She had hunched over, her eyes squeezed shut, her hands clamped over her ears, trying to shut out the ringing of the music in her ears, trying to blind the sight of her parents staring at each other with love-filled eyes, but she couldn't. She ran into the forest next to the festival, and never heard Zuko calling after her. She never saw the tree right in front of her…
Flame slammed into the tree, and fell to the ground, unconscious; and began to dream of one of her worst memories.
Woo! Finished! Now, for an important ANNOUNCEMENT:
I know you all like this story.I know you want me to update ASAP. But please realize, I'm a person too. And people have lives. Which consists of homework, jobs, ect. And this uses up quite a bit of my life. So I have limited time to update. So please, don't tell me to hurry and update, because this pressure just adds up and makes me less willing to write. And I have lots of stories to write, so this makes life really unfun for all my readers. (and that's quite a few) If I'm unwilling to write, it takes longer for an update, and you can figure out the rest. Please, don't tell me to hurry, that pressure is the reason why I went on hiatus in the first place.
INSANITY AT ITS FINEST
LONG LIVE THE HIPPIES!
Zukoscute2
