Hey people! Another new idea that hit me square in the face and knocked me out of my bed in the dead of night. Well I'll see where this will get me. Let me know what you think. I hope you like it. going by the story line from episode 4-6 in this chapter
Disclaimer: Sadly enough I do not own avatar and I do not make any money off of this or any other story I wrote; if I did make money of it there would be at least ten new chapters uploaded each week, but since you don't see my stories finish with a month's time I do not make money off of it. I do own me isn't that wonderful? No? Oh well it's something and I'm all mine. LOL!
NOTE: I know there were five earthbender soldiers but now there's six! Again all my knowledge about herbs comes from a website about herbal medicine!
"speak"
'think'
/memory/
Chapter 4 The Spirit World: Avatar Roku (Winter Solstice)
"Uncle! UNCLE!" Zuko yelled as he stalked through forest. I had to run to keep up with his fast stride while collecting herbs. Just as I found some aloe and got the parts I would need off it Zuko came stalking back and grabbed my wrist pulling me along as he kept calling for his uncle. Finally we heard Iroh call back. Zuko quickly followed the voice and we found Iroh relaxing in some hot springs.
"Uncle! We're close to capturing the avatar! Let's go!" Zuko said still not letting go of my wrist.
"The water is nice and warm, come join me and rest some." Iroh says.
"No we need to go now or we'll lose track of the avatar! Let's go!" Zuko replied. Iroh shrugged and got up. I quickly turned around covering my eyes with my free hand, while blushing profoundly.
"UNCLE! Meet us at the ship in thirty minutes or we'll leave without you." Zuko said pulling me along as he quickly left.
"Zuko?" I said softly as I ran along.
"What?" Zuko asked looking at me from the corner of his eye. I was breathing raggedly now and struggled to keep up the pace Zuko forced me to run at.
"S-stop." I stuttered between ragged breaths. Finally Zuko stood still for a moment looking at me impatiently Still not letting go of my wrist. I leaned on his arm catching my breath for a second before standing upright again looking at Zuko expectantly.
"What?" Zuko said aggravated. I pulled up the arm he was holding tightly. Raising an eyebrow in silent question. Zuko looked at it and dropped my wrist before turning around. I noticed the faint blush that crept onto his face when he realized my point, but had no time to question as he stalked off again. We reached the boat in record time and Zuko went to his room immediately. I sighed putting away the herbs and laying down for a while exhausted from the 'walk'.
"Where is he? It's been over three hours! he should've been back by now. It's not like uncle to be late" Zuko muttered pacing across the deck.
"Maybe the general fell asleep?" one of the men said as he walked past Zuko. I chuckled lightly from where I sat perched on the bough. I had a nice view from there I'd sit near beginning and look at the men bustling around on deck or turn around and enjoy the sea view. This way I wouldn't be in the way; this mostly went for when Zuko was training or otherwise occupied on deck.
"That'd be so like him. I'm going to find him." Zuko said stalking off.
"Hey wait!" I said jumping down and following him.
"Stay on the ship Shula." Zuko said not turning around as he saddled a rhino.
"Something might have happened and if he's hurt I can help." I said putting my bag straight and getting onto the rhino with him. I always carried my herbs around in a bag with me just in case. Zuko sighed aggravated and gave the rhino the order to walk.
When we reached the hot spring Iroh was gone and the hot spring looked deformed somehow.
"Earthbenders." Zuko snarled. He jumped back onto the rhino and followed the trail of birdlike prints. We rode a good hour before Zuko stopped the rhino and jumped off he quickly returned with a shoe that belonged to Iroh. We moved on again until Zuko looked up as a flying bison passed us.
"What will you do?" I asked looking at the bison. Zuko looked at me in confusion and turned the rhino back to the trail we were following. I smiled as we continued to find Iroh. Not much later we heard talking up ahead. Zuko motioned for me to stay put and snuck up to where the talking came from
"The dragon of the west is to powerful to just take to Ba Sing Se! We must crush his hands so he will not be able to bend." said a voice. Others agreed. I tied the rhino down so it wouldn't escape and silently walked over I saw six men standing around a chained Iroh who had a large boulder hovering over his hands. At that moment the boulder went down with great speed. I closed my eyes and praying for someone to stop this. When I opened my eyes I saw Zuko kicking the boulder away and into a million pieces. The five earthbenders moved to attack and I watched as Zuko and Iroh fought them off.
"Wait weren't there six?" I questioned softly.
"Yes!" someone said behind me. In reflex I moved aside as a boulder crashed down next to me. I got up and ran away trying to figure out how to save myself. However faith was cruel and led me to a cliff. I thought franticly trying to find away to get rid of my attacker, but found none.
"Hehe, nowhere to run now beautiful." the earthbender said. Something hit me from behind. Everything went black as I plummeted into the ocean below, the last thing I saw was black and white.
'I'm sorry Zuko.' I thought before losing consciousness.
? POV
"Look she's waking up!" Aang said happily.
"Hey are you okay?" Katara asked
"Ow my head, this is becoming a bad habit, ugh. Where am I?" the girl muttered.
"In the air. You were captured by the spirit of a nearby forest. My brother over there was captured by it too; he was carrying you when the spirit let you go." Katara said smiling gently.
"Strange, I remember some earthbender attacked me and…The fight!" the girl said looking around frantically seeing nothing but water and a little black blip in the distance.
"Are…you okay?" Aang asked worriedly.
"Yeah I'm fine, my name's Sh- eh I mean Kim. My name is Kim." the girl said.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Aang, that's Katara and that's Sokka. This is Momo and this…is Appa." Aang said patting the large saddle.
"So Kim, if that's your real name, what's a firenation girl doing in earth kingdom territory huh? Sokka asked looking at her.
Kim (me) POV
"So Kim, if that's your real name, what's a firenation girl doing in earth kingdom territory huh? Sokka asked looking at me.
"Getting my butt kicked apparently." I muttered not sure whether I should tell them everything. I stared ahead with a sigh. Sokka started yelling but having spend this much time around Zuko I easily tuned him out and looked at the boat that followed us. I asked a needle and stuff to fix my dress. Katara handed me the things I'd need and I set to fixing my dress. I wondered what Zuko was doing now.
Zuko POV
We easily beat the five earthbenders, but when we returned to the rhino which I left nearby with Shula. Shula was gone, there were signs of fighting and the sixth earthbender just reappeared. He looked shocked but quickly pulled himself together and smirked.
"Where is she!" I snarled.
"Was she important? I certainly hope not." the earthbender said evilly.
"What did you do?" Uncle said holding me back.
"Why I didn't do a thing, she walked off that cliff all by her pretty little self. To bad the He Bai spirit took her with him before she fell into the ocean. Maybe I should've saved her? She'd have made a nice pet." he said chuckling evilly.
"You bastard!" I yelled as I took care of him in record time before rushing out to the cliff. Shula was nowhere to be seen. I saw a piece of her dress hanging from the cliff and her bag lay near the edge. In the distance I noticed a black shape.
"The avatar!" I thought. I headed back to uncle.
"Let's go, we're closer to the avatar then I thought." I said as I flung Shula's bag onto the rhino before jumping on myself.
"What about Shula?" uncle asked.
"I didn't find her, she's okay though. I saw the avatar, now let's go." I said not looking at uncle. I didn't know why but I knew that Shula was safe and I would find her if I followed the avatar.
We quickly reached the ship and uncle told the men what happened. They were all sad, Shula had not been with us for very long but I could tell she had been a great influence to the men. They all treated her with respect and loved her greatly. Yao even called her his guardian angel. I handed the bag to Liu and ordered him to put it away. Then I ordered the men to follow the black blip on the horizon before going to my room. I laid down on my bed. I'd tried to meditate but found myself unable to clear my head.
Liu came into my room after knocking, he held the bag I handed him.
"These are Shula's pencils and paper. What should I do with them?" Liu asked nervously.
"Put it down here." I said not looking at him. Liu nodded and left the room after doing so. I sighed and grabbed the bag flipping through the sketches. I smiled as I remembered how we'd made a deal; I'd teach her how to fight and she'd show me how to draw. It'd taken me four days before I finally could make a decent looking face and her even longer to learn the proper basics of self-defence, but she was stubborn and she would push her limits to learn if I wouldn't have stopped her from doing so. No matter how hard she was knocked down she'd always get right back up and try again. I smiled and grabbed the papers and pencils. I tried to picture Shula's face in my mind as I made a start to a face on the paper. In my mind I saw her standing on deck talking with one of the men as she helped him with what he was doing and turning to me with a smile; her eyes shining like flames. I saw her tend to Yao's needs smiling as he weakly told her she was his guardian angel before falling asleep. Smiling as the men asked her to dance on music night and she accepted. Swirling around the deck with Ling, who was only three years older then Shula and I, as they danced and she smiled with that shining smile.
'My flame' I wrote above the picture I had drawn of Shula dancing with Ling, but instead of Ling I drew myself guiding Shula through the dance. I stared at it and shook my head. I put the papers away and went to the navigation room. I stared at the map following the path the avatar was leading me on. Toward Roku's isle.
back to me!
I'd fallen asleep apparently because I was awoken by us being attacked. Aang skilfully steered Appa away from the attacks. Finally after much trouble we reached a crescent moon shaped island. Aang tried to talk with the guardians of the temple but they soon chased us through the temple. Just when it seemed we reached a dead end one of the guardians turned out to be on our side and led us to the room where Aang could speak with Avatar Roku the avatar before Aang. The door wouldn't open, so Sokka came with an idea but it failed.
"Why didn't it work? It was as good as the real deal." Sokka said disappointed.
"But it wasn't real bending. Maybe it has to do with the intensity of bended fire in proportion to other kinds of fire, but it was indeed as good as real bending." I said looking at the door with them.
"That's it, Sokka you're a genius! Like Sokka said it looks like real bending so if we.." Katara explained her idea and we set to work.
We hid and waited the other guardians came and bought the trick they opened the door believing Aang had found his way in. But Zuko came out of the dark holding Aang. I stared at him, but said nothing. Then as the doors closed Aang got away from Zuko and entered the room. The door closed and Zuko tried to open it again. Katara and Sokka were tied up. I looked at them sadly as Sokka angrily claimed I was a traitor for helping Zuko. Katara told him to calm down and stop yelling.
Zuko finally stated that the door could not be opened now the avatar was inside, Zhao, 'monkey face' as I called him, showed up and captured us. I fought bravely manoeuvring out of the soldiers' grasps and especially avoiding Zhao himself. Suddenly the door to the shrine lit up as it opened and I felt dizzy. I sunk to my knees as images attacked my mind at a rapid speed. I grabbed my head and screamed in fear as the images were all but pleasant.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! Make it stop! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!" I screamed as tears of fear and pain ran down my face. Then darkness surrounded me and finally the images were gone.
? POV
Zhao stood on his boat and watched as Roku's isle was destroyed he glared at it and orders the men to bring the five temple guardians below deck to the cell blocks. Zhao laughed as he looked at the smaller boat leaving the firenation.
"I may not have the avatar, but I have something else. Take her to my chambers." he said. A soldier nodded and carried the unconscious form of a young girl in his arms to the commander's chambers.
Halfway there another soldier takes the girl and brings her to the room. Later that night Zhao comes in and watches the girl. She's still asleep, she's barely breathing at all, her skin is extremely pale and a sheen of sweat can be seen on her forehead. Zhao calls for his doctor. The Doctor then says the girl is very ill and that no one is to come near her for two days. Zhao angrily growls and stalks off. Once he's gone the doctor takes the girl out of the room and hands her to a soldier giving the man orders. The soldier takes the girl to the back of the boat where a small vessel is trailing behind he lowers the girl in one of the lifeboats and someone onboard the small vessel heaves it on board.
An hour later the soldier goes to warn Zhao that the girl escaped and the doctor had been knocked out cold. Zhao angrily rushes off, but soldier tells him that the girl is probably far away by now since one of the lifeboats was gone also.
Zuko POV
I had to return to the ship empty handed once more. The avatar got away and on top of it all Zhao has Shula. I couldn't sleep again this night. I stood on deck and glared at the water. I could only think of what Zhao might do with Shula which made me angry. On top of that Shula had passed out at the temple so she might not even know what is going on and that made me even angrier. I took a deep breath and breathed out large puffs of smoke to relief myself of the stress of things. Suddenly I heard a noise near the backside of the ship. I snuck over silently and watched as two men climbed aboard carrying something between them.
"Careful! she very weak we have to hurry." hissed the man that climbed in last.
"I know, hurry up! If he sees us our butts are toast! He'll kill us when he finds out and I prefer he does so tomorrow rather then now." the first hissed back.
"Finds out what?" I asked glaring at the two from where I stood. The two men looked up in shock but the first withdrew his mask immediately.
"We went and got Shula back, Sir. My brother works for Zhao he helped us get Shula of their boat. We didn't think you would've approved of it so we didn't tell you. Shula needs to be taken to Liu immediately she has a bad fever and is barely breathing!" Yao said holding his mask in one hand and holding Shula's improvised bed steady with the other. Ling who was holding the other end took of his mask also. I nodded and led the way to the infirmary.
Liu was surprised but he tended to Shula immediately and send Ling to get uncle. Shula's fever broke quickly and Liu made a tea from sage and fed it to Shula as best he could once she woke up. He said she was very weak and the sage would help her gain strength. The next week Shula slept most of the time when she was awake she told me about what had happened before we met at Roku's isle. I spend most of the day hunting the avatar. Once I nearly had him yet again, but those idiot pirates turned on me and thanks to that stupid water tribe peasant and his sister the avatar got away again.
Tonight was music night…again. Shula lay in her bed, Liu had forbidden her to leave until she was back to normal again. She was doing better but still very tired often. I decided to go see her and bring her, her paper and pencils so she'd have something to do.
My POV!
"Hey." I said softly when I saw Zuko come in. I still felt weak from the events at the temple.
"Hey, I thought I'd return these to you." Zuko said equally soft as he handed me my bag with my art supplies. I smiled happily and flipped through the finished drawings until I came upon one that wasn't of my hand. It displayed myself dancing with Zuko and said 'my flame'. I looked at Zuko who had sat down next to my bed in the chair. The drawing had his signature which made me wonder. I remember teaching him how to draw and smiled.
/"Now think of someone you want to draw. Imagine what they look like and what they're doing." I said calmly. Zuko nodded and closed his eyes.
"Okay, now what?" he asked. I giggled slightly at his eagerness to learn.
"You keep holding on to that image and you start with the basics I showed you before." I said Zuko started to draw. Slowly but surely I could see his drawing take shape and portrait his uncle bending fire./
"Why are you smiling?" Zuko asked confusedly with a suspicious look. I held out the drawing to him and watched his eyes grow wide. I giggled softly as he turned slightly red.
"You…weren't supposed to see that." he mumbled stuffing it away. I giggled again.
"Am I missing something?" uncle Iroh asked as he entered the room.
"No you are not." Zuko said stalking out. once I was sure he couldn't hear me I let the fit of giggles that I had held back loose.
"Something tells me I missed something good." Iroh said with a knowing smile. I sighed deeply and lay back down. I sketched Zuko again but this time I sketched him like I'd seen in Roku's temple in one of the images. Iroh asked me what had happened and I once again recounted the moments in the temple. Iroh smiled gently and asked me again what happened. I realized he wanted to know what I saw. I sighed sadly and recounted every image I'd seen as far as I could remember them. Then Iroh pulled me into a hug and told me everything would be okay. He told me that Roku want to show me something important and that it was the reason I was here. (I'd told Iroh about my world and he seemed to believe me for some reason.) He said I had a mission which was connected to that vision and the avatar and even to him and Zuko. It didn't take long before I was exhausted again and after drinking my sage tea I fell asleep again.
Iroh POV
I watched as Kim, or Shula as everyone on the ship calls her, fell asleep. The poor child had been through an experience usually reserved only for the avatar. She's been touched by Roku, he gave her a vision of what is to come and it wasn't pleasant. Though I fear she saw more then she told me she saw and she was still having nightmares because of it.
I went up to the navigation room where Zuko can be found most of the time, though this time he's not there. I decided that he was either meditating or on deck. He wasn't on deck so I went to his room. Where I found him sitting at his meditation table working on something. He must've heard me because he immediately slipped some empty pieces of paper over what he was doing. I smiled when he turned to see me and sat down with him.
"I'm not coming to music night uncle." Zuko said calmly.
"Shula has fallen asleep." I said calmly.
"Good she needs to rest." Zuko said closing his eyes for a few seconds. I silently let my sleeve move over the papers on the table and let the one he pushed away slip into my sleep. Zuko sighed deeply before opening his eyes again.
"Is there anything else you wanted to mention uncle?" Zuko asked me finally. I smiled and started toward the door.
"No just that. Goodnight Prince Zuko." I said closing the door behind me. I smiled at myself and pulled out the paper. It was a drawing; a well made one of Shula staring at the sky and someone holding her hand. Apparently Shula's artistic talents have inspired Zuko. I walk back into Zuko's room where Zuko is searching for something and chuckle to myself.
"Did you lose something nephew?" I asked calmly.
"Yes- I mean no! What do you want uncle." Zuko asked. He seemed aggravated. I smile as I stand next to the table and let the drawing fall behind me.
"I just wondered if you wanted some tea." I said innocently. Zuko looked at me for a second then closed his eyes again.
"No uncle I don't want any tea. Now could you please just leave!" he then said angrily trying not to explode. I chuckle and leave the room quickly. When I close the door I hear my nephew's triumphant cry which signals he found the drawing. I quickly hurry to my room If Zuko hears me laugh he'll not be happy.
another one is done! now let's see to the next part!
