So this is kind of a short chapter, but it gets a little heavy emotionally. I thought it best to break up what's about to happen in shorter increments.

Avatar Aang thought Azula was just leading her suitor on, but he couldn't be more off the mark. Azula wasn't leading Kuei on; in fact, that was what Azula believed about Kuei. Kuei was having fun with her, playing with her, enjoying her. Of all of her faults, Azula did pride herself on being lot of fun; who didn't like to be naughty from time to time? Most of her believed that he would tire in time and move on. Honestly, what else could it be? She scared all the children she'd ever met, so she assumed she would make a horrid mother. She disliked animals until Dominatia came into her life and flat out refused to leave. She wasn't sweet. She wasn't benevolent. She wasn't much of anything other than someone he could torment the Firelord with. At least, that was what she thought of herself.

I'm glad you were so nasty to me that day…

Azula shook her head as the line replayed through her head. Once again, she was full of unresolved energy and found herself climbing the temple to the plains above for bending, for release.

The light was fading, but that was always of little concern to a firebender. Instead of aiming at clay shots, Azula just wanted to deflect her confusion and fear into the clouds. She took up a stance and directed her blue streams into the heavens. The beautiful shards darted and danced erratically amidst the darkening sky.

Azula take it from another guy, a man doesn't give a woman a necklace like that unless he's really in love.…

Azula whirled and used two fists this time, all of her frustration and confusion draining from her. The lightning snaked across the sky, jerking and weaving as far as the eye could see. It literally turned the dark heavens purple, and for a moment Azula received the rare reminder of just what beautiful work she was capable of. She smiled, watching the light flash and then fade. Just as the last bit of illumination died out, she heard a bellow behind her and the sound of gravel scuffing across the earth.

Azula turned.

It was Dominatia.

For a long time, the two just looked at each other, their stare frozen and locked like two statues glaring across a courtyard. Azula saw Dominatia's eyes focus on her necklace; the bison cocked her head and warbled inquisitively.

Azula's hand crested the gift. "It is from him," she confirmed after some time, a light smile painting her lips. Even as she spoke and felt the necklace there was a small hint of disbelief there, but she couldn't deny the weight of it, or the fact that Avatar Aang had an insatiable habit for honesty.

Dominatia warbled again.

"Yes, I know what it means in some cultures, Dominatia," Azula was a little disgruntled that her bison remembered this sooner than she had, but she made an effort to stomp down her displeasure "and no I'm not giving it back." Several beats of silence passed between them during which a light rain began to fall. When Azula was halfway soaked she spoke again. "Look, Dominatia, you don't have to do anything you don't want to, but I'd like it if you stay here with me a while. I'll put on a lightning show just for you. What do you say?"

Dominatia licked her nose and sat down on her back four legs. She gave a slight nod of acceptance. The bison had always liked her mistress' lightning shows. She was the first one not scared by them. In the early days of their relationship, when Azula had tried to shoo her away with her bending prowess, Dominatia had only grown clingier.

That's when Avatar Aang had laughed at her and said: "Azula, that bison's not going anywhere! You're going to have to learn to live with her."

Now Azula didn't want to live without her.

Azula repeated the movements that had illuminated the night sky, adding to the spectacle above, not caring that she was getting soaked to the bone, or that her robes were clinging to her like a second skin. Her designs across the heavens turned, twisted, and formed elaborate, breathtaking patterns, taking her bending skill to new artistic heights. The cold rain was cathartic, invigorating and cleansing, spiritually, physically. It bore a sharp and welcome contrast to the breath of fire draining into the clouds. It chilled the right things in her, it chipped away at others. She'd spent so much of her life entrenched in fire she didn't know those places inside of her existed, or perhaps it had been more convenient to ignore them altogether.

Dominatia continued to watch her, also not caring that her coat was growing heavy from the water's weight. She didn't much care what she looked like these days.

Much to her chagrin neither did that damned male chasing her. Dominatia knew he was close by, so it didn't surprise her when a particularly bright display of Azula's revealed his spotted figure walking toward her in the distance.

Dominatia thought Rampage awkward, but earnest. It wasn't that she hated or even disliked him. Overall she thought him a good and decent bison. The problem was with her: she just wasn't sure of so many things. She told him this at last.

He bellowed back that neither was he, with the exception of one thing. He rolled the sake bottle toward her again.

This time, Dominatia accepted it.

Not long afterward the two bison dove into the temple shelf togethe,r and Rampage winked his thanks at Azula as they passed below.

Azula stopped bending to watch the couple disappear, not caring that she was abandoned up there in the rain and the darkness getting soaked to the bone. Nature wasn't fazing her; in fact there was something about its anger she found healing. She raised her face to the heavens and ran her hands through her hair, enjoying the cold, acrid sting on her skin. Throwing her head back and her arms up, she burst into a cascade of half tears and laughter, an insane melody that echoed off the cliffs and tinkered amidst the storm. Then she began to whirl; she spun and spun and spun until she was too dizzy and exhausted to continue, and she fell upon the sodden earth, still laughing and crying, her clothes and hair an absolute mess. A mess just like her.

# # # #

The plains about her were still, unearthly so. Usually there was at least a slight breeze blowing across the grasslands and through the canyon where the temple sat in its cliff-guarded niche. But not today. The grass was still, the sky gray and overcast, and yet tinted with a strange hint of orange. There was an odd sense of foreboding, like the calm before a tornado or hurricane, like the feeling in the air she got just before squalls at sea.

She stood, walking about on the plains. She whistled for Dominatia or the others, but they weren't around. It was very strange, even for mating season. Usually at least a couple of the bison was taking a break.

Azula got the sense that something was off. She turned toward the cliff to begin her long climb downward when Pie Chen suddenly appeared, significantly more materialized than the other times Azula had seen her; her hair even blew in the wind. The spirit smiled, and Azula noted she looked a little sad.

"You'd be proud of me," Azula said. "The book was helpful. I got the bison to mate, even Dominatia. It seems they won't die off after all."

The spirit clasped her hands together. "I'm glad," Pei Chen replied, but the tone of her voice betrayed her words. Azula thought she would cry if she were still flesh and blood. "But something's wrong. You need to leave the temple, as soon you can. "

"Why?"

Pei Chen seemed to shrink, her form suddenly growing dimmer, as though something were draining her. "Because I can't hold him off forever."

A shiver ran through Azula "Who?"she asked, and Pei Chen opened her mouth, but instead of the spirits' soft voice, the bellow of a sky bison rumbled from her.

# # # # #

The unearthly sky and spirit faded. Azula opened her eyes to a normal summer day and a very cross sky bison glowering down at her. The bison's bellow held equal notes of displeasure.

The Bison Lord groaned as she righted herself. Her head was pounding, her throat was sore, and she was trembling violently, from fever or cold Azula couldn't tell. "I stayed out here all night?" Azula squeaked, looking about that the plains, which still had little puddles dotting the grasslands.

Dominatia face-palmed, then growled: "YES!"

Azula groaned again. "I had a strange dream."

The Bison Lord stood, but she was too unsteady for Dominatia's taste. The bison nudged her up on her giant head, and when she was secure enough, she flew Azula to the temple shelf.

She settled down in her usual sleeping spot and gathered Azula against her belly, stubbornly refusing to let her out of her grasp, just like the first time they met.

After eating a light breakfast brought to them by Rampage, Azula drifted off again, still trembling despite the warmth of her therapy bison's coat.