In the Moonlight I Felt Your Heart

That's right. I'm alive. And I have a new chapter for you all. Sorry about the wait. It was mostly a combination of something called "real life" and "I'm getting into my other two stories".

WOAH! I AM OUT FOR THE SUMMER! THAT'S AWESOME! TWO WHOLE MONTHS, AND HALF A MONTH IF YOU INCLUDE JUNE! SO TWO AND A HALF MONTHS OF NOTHING BUT UPDATING AND VACATIONING! YEAH!

Sorry for that little outburst. BUT IT'S TRUE! I AM OUT FOR THE SUMMER! And what makes it even better is that my sister has three more weeks. Is that mean? Well, I don't care, because it's true! So I decided to update all my stories today, since it's the last day I'll have school for two and a half months.

Disclaimer: Don't own Avatar, only own Tora and the OC's that are featured in this story.

My schedule for the next few days was relatively the same.

At six in the morning (the morning is evil) I'm woken up by Zuko. This is a rather rude awakening, as he just roughly shakes me awake and says, "Get up." I tell him to get out, and he says that since it's his ship, he can do what he wants. But he leaves anyway.

Three minutes later, I fall asleep again.

Seven minutes after that, Zuko comes in again, wakes me up again, and then leaves so I can get dressed. One time, he walked in on me, and I didn't have a shirt on. He left the room with a bright red mark on his face, to put it simply enough.

After spending more than half an hour to get dressed, I come to breakfast, and after deliberately spending forty minutes eating breakfast and making pleasant conversation with some of the other men on the ship, I am dragged to Zuko's room for questioning.

For an entire hour, I am asked incredibly stupid questions by Zuko. Even though I made it very clear that I had no idea where the others were, Zuko continued asking me questions. Things like how I could bend two elements, why I was with the Water Tribe, why wasn't I in the Fire Nation, things like that. I refused to answer him. They were completely personal questions and he had no business knowing the answers.

~~Water~~

"If you tell me how you got your scar, I'll tell you how I ended up in the Water Tribe." I said stubbornly. Zuko's face instantly turned a furious red, and he said, "THAT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, YOU PEASANT!"

"WELL, IT'S NOT YOUR BUSINESS WHY I WAS IN THE SOUTH POLE, SO YOU CAN TAKE YOUR QUESTIONS AND SHOVE THEM UP YOUR-" Before I could finish my sentence, Iroh came into the room.

"Prince Zuko, I think that Tora's questioning is done for today." He said calmly. I glared at Zuko. He glared right back, but didn't argue with his uncle.

~~Water~~

"Uncle!" Zuko yelled, barging into the control room (where the captain steered the ship). He stopped and stared at me and Iroh's Pai Sho game. His eyes narrowed as soon as he saw us playing. "What are you doing?"

"Playing Pai Sho." Iroh replied, not taking his eyes off the game board. He set down one of his white jade tiles, creating disharmony with one of the rhododendron tiles I had set down earlier. I cursed under my breath, before realizing I had set down a lily tile. I set down a jasmine tile.

"NO!" Katsu yelled. Katsu was one of the soldiers that lived on the boat. He had been one of the soldiers that wore the skull masks and that escorted me to the brig when I first got here.

Many of the soldiers were surrounding us, watching me and Iroh play. Apparently, I was the only person that managed to match Iroh's skill in the game, so now whenever there was a game going on between us, everyone would either bet on me or Iroh. The reason Katsu had shouted "no" was because he had bet on Iroh. If he lost, he - along with half of the soldiers on the ship - owed the other half the people on the ship thirty gold coins. In total. How they were going to split it up evenly between them, I had no idea.

"Why?" Zuko sounded so dumbfounded I nearly laughed.

"Because it is a fun game that deserves to be played." Iroh finally took his eyes off the board and looked up at his nephew. I debated internally whether or not to move one of his tiles. I decided not too, since there were bound to be people who would rat me out. "Would you like to play next? You can play whoever wins."

"No! I need to interrogate the girl!"

"I have a name, you know." I said, looking up at him. "It's Tora."

Zuko looked startled that I had said something to him that wasn't sarcastic, a swear word, an insult, or anything else that would offend him. He got over it quickly. "I know your name! You don't have to tell me what it is!"

"If you know what my name is, then start using it, Zuko." I moved my gaze back to the board. To be honest, I was a little tired of fighting with him all the time. If he wasn't so obnoxious and rude and boorish and pig-headed - you know what, scratch that. He deserves to be fought with, even if I was getting tired of doing it.

Zuko scowled and stormed out again. After placing a few more tiles on the board, the game was over, and it was time for the points to be counted up. The soldiers were all tense, waiting to see the outcome of the game - and more importantly, who would get thirty gold coins and who would owe half the ship thirty gold coins. Ryuu, another skull-helmet soldier, counted up the points to make sure no one would cheat.

"Hmmm." Ryuu started rubbing his chin as he stared at the board. "Tora has created about thirty harmonies. But Iroh has also made five disharmonies, so she only has twenty-five points now."

Half of the people in the room groaned.

"And Iroh has made thirty-five harmonies." This caused another half of the ship to groan even louder than the first half did. "But Tora, it seems, is a very good strategist, and has caused..." Ryuu quickly counted. "One, two, three, four... Ten disharmonies! It's a tie!"

Everyone in the room instantly groaned. Iroh and I both laughed. "Who would like to play now?" The Dragon of the West asked as I stood up and moved to a different seat. Instantly, Lieutenant Jee slid into the seat, and the game began again.

"Iroh, do you like the idea of the Avatar being captured?" I asked suddenly.

Iroh was silent for a moment, before he responded. "No, I do not, Tora. The Avatar is a twelve year old boy. And if the Fire Lord gets a hold of him, the world will be destroyed."

I shuddered at the idea of Aang, one of the sweetest boys I had ever met, being captured and brought to Ozai.

I glanced at the others. "What about you guys? What do you think?"

They all shifted, looking uncomfortable. I knew what they were thinking. Even Sokka could have figured it out. Maybe not Sokka, actually.

They were Fire Nation, through and through. They were on the winning side of the war. (Yes, the Fire Nation was winning. Nobody liked to admit it, but it was the truth, and we all knew it. Of course, that didn't mean that they would win.) So of course they thought that the Avatar being brought to the Fire Lord and destroyed was the best thing. But at the same time, they didn't want to go against Iroh's thoughts. That was how much they all respected him. Or maybe they didn't like the idea of Aang being captured anymore than I did. Maybe they knew that if the Avatar was captured and destroyed, the world would go up in flames. There would only be one nation - the Fire Nation. Maybe they knew that their families would live in a complete dystopia.

Or maybe they just didn't want Zuko to be the one to capture him.

"Capturing the Avatar will let the Fire Lord finally win this war." Lieutenant Jee finally spoke their thoughts. I noticed how he didn't say whether or not he thought that winning the war was the best thing in the world.

I didn't let it bother me for too long. I turned back to Iroh. "If you don't like it, why do you stay with Zuko? Couldn't you have stayed in the Fire Nation?"

Iroh took his eyes off the board and looked at me. "My nephew needs guidance, Tora. If he didn't have guidance, then he would have been killed as soon as he started his journey. He needs a level headed person to keep himself from doing something reckless enough to kill himself." For a split second, I thought he had looked at me with a weird look in his eyes. Then the look was gone, and he was staring at the board again. Must have imagined it. "And," Iroh added. "There is nothing left for me back in the Fire Nation."

I had to agree with that. What was there? His brother was a complete bastard, his parents were both dead, his son was dead, his wife was dead, and he was considered by some people to be a disgrace to the Fire Nation. After all, he had given up on Ba Sing Se after his son died during the Six Hundred Day Siege of Ba Sing Se. Heartless bastards who don't know how to feel is what I call people who dare to call the Dragon of the West a loser. He had lost his son, for Agni's sake!

Besides, I could see in the way Iroh acted that Zuko was like a son to him. There was no way he would let his son go around the world by himself. Although Zuko might not feel the same - or pretended not to - it seemed to me like he loved his uncle more than his father.

Considering who his father was, I couldn't blame him.

~~Water~~

As I lay in my bed that night, I stared at the ceiling, thinking to myself. I was just letting my thoughts wander, not really thinking of anything in particular.

I wonder what the gang is doing right now... I thought. I had managed to avoid thinking about my friends during the day, but whenever I couldn't sleep, I couldn't help my thoughts from straying in their direction. Probably sitting around the campfire, sleeping, or eating, or discussing the fastest way to get to the Water Tribe from wherever they are... I sighed. I missed them. I couldn't wait 'till I joined them again. I wanted off this ship.

~~Water~~

Unknown to Tora at that moment, what she thought the gang was doing was in fact, far from what they were actually doing.

"Our people have never forgotten. You can never trust a Zhang."

~~Water~~

"We Zhang's will never forget that injustice."

"That's just terrible. You gonna finish that?"

~~Water~~

Tomorrow, I'll ask Iroh about teaching me firebending... Zuko won't like that. When I thought that, I smiled. Maybe I was getting tired of fighting with Zuko, but that didn't mean I couldn't enjoy it.

I let out a groan. I still wasn't tired. Screw this. I thought, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. I need some air. Iroh had managed to convince Zuko that I wouldn't need a lock on my door, since there wasn't any way that I would be able to escape the ship. Even if I did escape, there was no way I would be able to find the others. I had no idea where they were. And, if I got to the North Pole, at the rate I would be going, I wouldn't get there until spring. And by then, Aang would have mastered waterbending. Then I would have to go after them again.

But, Zuko had agreed with his uncle to not put a lock on my door on one condition - if we were anywhere near land, I would be locked in my room and under strict surveillance. But that night, we weren't anywhere near land, so my door wasn't locked. Lucky me.

So in a few minutes, I was standing by the ship's railing, staring up at the stars and the moon. It was a crescent moon tonight. Not as pretty as the full moon, but still beautiful.

I smiled to myself. It reminded me of a song that I had heard when I was younger. I don't remember who was singing it, but I remembered the lyrics. I didn't sing the song, but I hummed it to myself. Maybe I would sing it on music night.I wasn't even sure if I could sing. I had only sung to myself before, so I wasn't sure how my voice sounded. To me, it sounded sort of scratchy. But maybe to someone else, it would sound nice. I guess it depended on the person.

I shivered. It was getting cold, and I lit a small flame in the palm of my hand.

"What are you doing out here?"

The sound of Zuko's voice made me jump, and the flame extinguished. I whirled around and came face to face with him. I scowled. "None of your business."

"As long as you're on my ship, you'll follow my rules, and your business is my business." Zuko snapped.

I rolled my eyes. He sounded like a parent, the way he talked. "I couldn't sleep. What about you?" I asked, not really expecting him to answer.

He surprised me. "I couldn't sleep either." He shrugged. I raised an eyebrow, mildly surprised. I never really thought about Zuko needing sleep. The way he acted, I never actually thought of him as human before.

"Come and join me on the railing?" I gestured to my side, and his eyes narrowed.

"How do I know you won't try something?" He asked cautiously. I rolled my eyes.

"Please. If anything, I should be asking you that."

"There's water right there." He pointed over the side of the ship.

"I'm not really in the mood for getting in a fight tonight." I shrugged. "So, temporary truce?" I offered.

His eyes narrowed even further, but he joined me by the railing nonetheless.

"So..." I started, not really sure if I should be trying to make conversation or what. "Nice stars, huh?" I offered awkwardly, pointing at the sky.

Zuko gave me an odd look, before responding. "Yeah. Shiny."

After a few more awkward moments of silence, it finally gets to me. "How did you get your scar?" I burst out in one breath. Then, seeing his face darken, I clamped a hand over my mouth. "I'm sorry. The quiet was getting to me." I apologized.

"It was a training accident." Zuko said shortly.

I blinked at him. "That's all?"

"Yes!"

"Then why was it such a big deal to tell me?"

"Because it was private!"

"Okay," I lifted my hands in surrender. "Moving on. Know any stories?"

Zuko stared at me blankly. "Stories?"

"Yeah, you know, to pass the time."

"You're still not tired?"

"Not even a little bit."

Zuko appeared to be thinking very hard. "Well..." He finally said, slowly. "I know this one story..."

"Tell it!" I said eagerly. "There's nothing better to do!"

Zuko gave me a look of impatience. "I have to remember it first!" After spending a few more minutes thinking, he finally began to spoke. "My mother told me this story a long time ago. She said that it was a true story, one hundred percent real." He looked at me. "That's the beginning of the story."

"Okay, get on with it!"

"I would, if you'd stop interrupting me every two seconds! Anyway, here it goes." He took a deep breath, before he started speaking.

~~Water~~

This was a time before the Avatar. When there were no benders. There were Diviners, and the Oracle. A full grown Diviner was as powerful as a full-fledged Avatar.

~~Water~~

"What the hell is a Diviner?"

"I'm getting to that!"

~~Water~~

Diviner's are considered now to be "magic-benders", "wizards", or "witches". But they are not any of these things. Magic-benders, wizards, and witches would be honoured to be compared to a Diviner. Diviner's have magic flowing through their veins. They are the very essence of magic.

The Oracle is not at all similar to the Avatar. The Oracle can not bend all four elements. The Oracle cannot bend even one element. But the Oracle is just as powerful as the Avatar. The Oracle is possibly even more powerful than the Avatar, but in a different way. The Avatar learns to bend all four elements so he or she can keep harmony in the world using their abilities.

But the Oracle doesn't do this. The Oracle is blessed by the Spirits with dreams... dreams that understand everything. The Oracle is the wisest of us all, wiser than Wong Shi Tong, He Who Knows Ten Thousand Things. The Oracle tells prophecies, to let the Avatar know what is coming in the future. But the Oracle doesn't tell the Avatar how to stop the problem, for that is what the Avatar must figure out himself.

They are the thing that keeps the Spirit World alive. Without them, the Spirit World would crumble and fall, leaving the world in chaos. Not even the Avatar could stop that chaos.

One man did not know this. Fire Lord Zuko, the man I am named after. He was born thousands of thousands of years ago. He only understood the power that Diviner's and the Oracle held. He was frightened of the power they had. So, he decided to destroy them.

~~Water~~

"Wait, what?"

"He decided to destroy them. He made sure to ask the rulers of the other Nations, because at that time, all the Nations were ruled by one person."

"Well, what did they say?"

"The Earth King agreed with him, the Water Tribe Chief's were neutral. They didn't think that the Diviner's would attack, though they knew that if they did decide to attack, they would all be doomed. And the Air Nomads didn't agree."

"So, what happened?"

~~Water~~

He destroyed them using the power of a massive shooting star, named Agni's Star, like how Fire Lord Sozin destroyed the Air Nomads using Sozin's Comet. Only a handful of Diviner's survived, but the Oracle died. Unlike the Avatar, the Oracle cannot be reborn. At least, that's what everyone thought at the time. But it turned out that the power of the Oracle is so massive, that it takes a century for the power to return to earth and find a host strong enough to have the power. Also, the Spirits must have time to mourn the loss of their Oracle, for the Oracle is more important to the world than the Avatar. The Oracle goes hand in hand with the Avatar. You cannot have one without the other. The Oracle was reborn a hundred years after the destruction of the Diviner's, into a member of the Earth Kingdom. She recreated the Spirit World, as it had weakened when the Diviner's had been almost destroyed. She brought peace to the world, something the Avatar was unable to do.

Zuko stopped talking, and I stared at him with wide eyes.

"And?" I asked, hoping for more.

"And what?" Zuko asked, looking confused.

"And then what happened?"

Zuko rubbed the back of his neck, looking mildly embarrassed. "That's the thing. I don't remember the rest of the story."

I gave him a look of complete disbelief. "You remembered everything else with incredible detail, and then you just leave me with a cliffhanger?"

"Yes."

I put my hand against my forehead. "Spirits help me."

"Okay, well do you have a story, smart girl?" He demanded, looking irritated.

"Please, I grew up in my father's library." I rolled my eyes. "I think I could remember a little fairy tale."

"Then give me one!"

"What?" I blinked, looking at him.

"I told you a story, now you have to tell me one!" Zuko looked even more irritated now.

"Let's see..." I put my chin in my hand, leaning against the railing. I thought of all the fairy tales and legends I had read and heard while I was growing up. There had been a lot of them. I had to think of one. "Oh, got one!" I cleared my throat, before beginning. Then I stopped.

"Wait, if the Avatar can't exist without the Oracle, then does that mean that the Oracle had died when Aang disappeared?"

Zuko stared at me blankly. "What?"

"Aang disappeared a hundred years ago." I explained. "So, I was wondering if that meant that the Oracle had died when Aang froze himself in that iceberg." I put my hand against my chin, thinking. "Hmmm."

"Okay, whatever, just tell me your story." Zuko interrupted my thoughts.

"Okay, impatient one." I rolled my eyes. "It all started a long, long, LONG time ago..."

~~Water~~

A long, long time ago, the land was overrun by deep forests. Within these forests lived the Gods of old.

There was a child being born, in a city that is now known as Omashu. Back then, Omashu was nothing more than a farming village. This was before the benders colonized the Nations. This story takes place when benders were shunned as Demon spawn.

As the child was born, a wolf's howl could be heard throughout the world. The howl came from the Wolf Goddess, Moro No Kimi. Moro had just given birth to her three wolf cubs, but the Forest Spirit - the God of Life and Death - took the third, a female, away from this life. Moro's howl had come from nothing but pure grief.

The father, who was there helping his wife give birth, since the midwife was not there, heard the howl, and he thought, "The Gods are angry." He was wrong. The Gods were not angry. One Goddess was mourning the loss of her daughter, who was meant to become the alpha of her Clan.

As the mother gave one final push, the child fell from the womb into her father's arms. But as the father looked at his daughter, he recoiled in disgust. For the child, while having a human body, had the ears, eyes, and tail of a wolf. When the child screamed, the father saw sharp wolf fangs in it's mouth, instead of the empty gums that all babies have when they are born.

"The child has been cursed by the Spirits!" The man screamed. Despite his wife's protest that the child was not cursed, but blessed by Moro No Kimi, the man took the child, cleaned it off (for fear of bringing the wrath of Inari Okami, the Goddess of childbirth, upon him) wrapped it in blankets, and deposited it in the forest, to be eaten by the animals.

What he had not been expecting, however, was for Moro No Kimi to come along, and pick up the child and carry it back to her cave. From that moment on, the child became her child, and thus became the the Princess of the Wolf Gods, Láng shén de gōngzhǔ, in the ancient language, Ōkami kamigami no purinsesu in our language today.

~~Water~~

I finished, and I found Zuko staring at me, like I had been staring at him earlier. "What?"

"Is there anything else?" He asked. He didn't sound hostile, for once. He sounded curious.

"No. It's based on a true story, apparently, but my dad said it was a violent story, so he didn't want me reading it. That was when I thought my dad knew what was best for me, so I agreed, and when I came to my senses - six years later - I tried to find it again, but it was gone from the library." I shrugged. "I'll never know if there's more to it."

"Shame. It sounded like a good story." Zuko sounded... almost disappointed.

"You like stories?" I asked in surprise.

"If they're interesting, yeah."

I stared at him with wide eyes. Finally, I looked away. "Zuko?"

"Yes?" There's no hostility in either of our voices, and it puts me on edge, but at the same time it puts me at ease. It's weird.

"How come you're hunting the Avatar?"

Silence.

"Why do you want to know?" When he spoke, his voice was icy.

"Aang is my friend. If you want to hurt him, I want to know why." I said quietly.

More silence. "I need to regain something I lost three years ago." He said finally, not looking at me. "Capturing the Avatar and bringing him to my father is the only way to do that."

"You lost something?" I repeated. He nodded. "Do you need any help looking for it?" He shook his head.

"Sorry." He said, not sounding sorry at all.

I smiled. "That's alright. Anyway," I looked away from him and out across the water. The moon and stars reflected against the water, making a beautiful scene. "My dad told me once that things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end... if not always in the way we expect."

Zuko gave me an odd look.

I grinned. "It doesn't really make sense, does it?"

For a second, I thought I saw the ghost of a smile pass over his face, but it was gone almost instantly. "No, it doesn't."

I laughed. Then I became quiet. "Zuko, take off your armour."

He blinked. "What?" He sounded so confused, I nearly laughed again.

"Take off your armour."

For a moment he didn't say anything, but I saw his face getting a bit red. I instantly knew what he was thinking. I gave him a punch in the arm. "You're such a perv! I was not thinking about that! Just take off the stupid armour!"

He rolled his eyes - I noticed his face hadn't gotten any less red - but he unfastened whatever was keeping his armour in place, and I helped pull it off his chest. Underneath he was wearing a regular blackish red long sleeved shirt.

As soon as he was free from the armour, I set it on the ground. I stared at him for a moment. Then I reached down and took his hand gently. Slowly, I started moving it - to my chest.

And Zuko saw this. "What are you doing?!" He demanded, yanking his hand back. His face was getting redder.

I rolled my eyes. "Don't flatter yourself. Just trust me." I took his hand again, and I felt it tense, but he didn't pull away this time. I moved his hand and put it right over my heart, so he could feel it beating.

"Do you feel it?" I whispered. He slowly nodded. He clearly couldn't see where this was going. I used my other hand and put it against Zuko's chest, right over his heart. "I feel your heart beating." I slowly gave out one of the lines of a song I knew. "In the moonlight I felt your heart. Zuko, we all have beating hearts and blood flowing through our veins. We're different. We're all different. But really, we're all the same. We live under the same sky, we see the same sun and moon and stars, and we're all the same race. So why do we fight so much?"

Woah. That was weird. I had no idea where that had come from. That had never happened before. I always knew what I was saying all the time, and why I was saying it. But this time, I really didn't know why I had said that. It was like some sort of alien force had taken over my brain.

The last time I had said anything like that… it had been before I changed my personality.

Suddenly, I was very cautious. Zuko was making me act like my old self. I didn't want to be like my old self. Not anymore. Not only because my old self had gotten herself abandoned by her father, but also because I was comfortable with my new self. I didn't want to go back.

I pulled my hand away and dropped his. I had clearly made things awkward. "I had no idea where that came from, I swear." I said, looking away from him, ignoring the blood that was rushing to my cheeks.

He shrugged, looking away as well. "It's fine."

I sat down and rested my back against the side of the ship. "Must be the moon light getting to me." I laughed.

Zuko sat down as well. I noticed he didn't put his armour back on.

We sat in silence for a moment, before I said, "We will never speak of this again."

"Agreed."

"In the morning, the truce will be over, right?" This calm sort of friendliness was making the hairs on my neck stand up.

"Right."

I seriously don't know why I put in that last part... maybe I just needed to end the chapter or something.

So, yeah, next chapter the truce will be over. Get ready for more fighting! Fun, right?

I completely made up the stories! That's awesome, right? I got the translations for "princess of wolf gods" from this website that translates English to whatever language, and then to see what it sounded like I used google translate. If I got either translations wrong, I apologize. There's no one else around to tell me if I'm wrong, since I don't speak Chinese or Japanese, but I wanted to use Chinese and Japanese for some reason. I don't know, to make it seem more mystical or something.

And, for those of you who are wondering, no, Tora is NOT the Oracle. Didn't you hear? The Oracle isn't a bender. So HA! And she isn't a Diviner either. So don't you go around thinking she is, because she's not.

Oh, and I might possibly do a Legend of Korra fanfiction based on that story. I've had the idea for a while, but because of this story, and my other two stories, and school, I've never gotten to write it down on the computer. What do you think about this idea?

By the way, I apologize for my "Tora the mary-sue" chapter. But let me tell you, in my opinion, there's a fine line between a mary sue and an interesting character. So two out of 59 comments were negative. So what? But it ticked me off a little, I don't know why, but it did. So I apologize for that.

SEE YOU LATER! FUN STUFF HAPPENS NEXT CHAPTER! YAY!