Avatar is not mine.
Enjoy!
The Dragon's Hatching
The next day arrived. Zuko woke before anyone else thanks to the rising sun's energy. He grabbed his Dao swords and took the egg to the top of the cliff which the Western Air Temple was situated on.
He practiced some of his Firebending utilizing his swords as conduit. It was still dawn by the time he finished his best techniques.
I've got to do better than this, he thought. If Azula comes calling, I—and the rest of the gang—will have been run through with lightning before we turn around.
Thinking of lightning, he remembered his feeble attempts at producing lightning back when he and Iroh were fugitives in the Earth Kingdom. He remembered why he had not been able to produce it.
I was in emotional turmoil. I wanted to be back home but there were so many complications during that time. That was my block.
Zuko assumed the lightning stance he had taken what seemed years ago.
Positive and negative energy separated—complete emotional peace…
He knew, of course, that lightning had a very large ease when channeled through metal... he picked up his Dao swords and put them back together so that they seemed as if they were one sword. Then he moved the swords in the motion.
He could feel the sparks coming down his arm and into the sword…
And when he touched the swords together and stepped forward, for a couple of seconds, they glowed white hot.
Then a gigantic white column of energy erupted from the sword tips. It was so strong it caused Zuko to slam into a tree behind him.
When it was over, there was a large…. Thing in the ground. It was as if a large boulder had been dragged from the edge of the cliff in a straight line and had flown away where Zuko had previously stood.
I'd hate to be in the way of that.
He tried it again without swords. It worked normally.
He went back down to the temple. Everyone was up and getting ready for breakfast.
"There you are!" said Aang. "We've been looking all over."
"Why?"
"Well, everyone wants to see the dragon's egg."
"Oh."
They passed the egg around. When it got to Toph, she let out a little gasp.
"There's something living in there!"
Zuko rolled his eyes. "Duh, we know that. It's a dragon egg."
She shook her head.
"No, what I meant was, it's trying to get out."
Aang piped up. "Yeah. Roku told us that it would hatch today."
"Not exactly when, though," Zuko said, "It would have to be while the sun is up or it wouldn't make sense. So I think our best bet would be noon, when the sun is at it's peak, along with my Firebending."
"What does the sun have to do with Firebending?" Katara asked in an I-don't-think-you-know-what-you're-talking-about tone.
"As I hope you know, we Firebenders draw power from the sun. At noon it has the most influence in the sky. This is why a Firebender is unstoppable around noon on the Summer Solstice. If the Full Moon ever lands on the same night as the Winter Solstice, the same effect will be present for Waterbending."
"Oh," Katara said, disappointed that he had known what he was saying.
Aang and Zuko practiced Firebending until noon came. Aang had achieved sufficient mastery of the last bending art.
Zuko was teaching Aang how to create lightning.
"I only mastered the technique this morning, so my methods may not work so well for you."
"I just want to learn it so I can tell when Azula tries to shoot me again," Aang said.
Zuko nodded.
"Alright. Lightning is a pure expression of Firebending. Even though other Firebending is aggression and is fueled by emotion, or in many cases, rage, it requires a complete peace of mind. Some call Lightning 'the Cold-Blooded Fire.' It is precise and deadly, like Azula or my father."
"Being the Avatar, you may know that energy is all around us," Zuko said, and Aang nodded.
"It is yin and yang—positive and negative energy. Only a select few Firebenders can separate the two types of energy. When they do, it creates an imbalance. The energy in Lightning serves the same role as emotion in normal Firebending. When the imbalance is created, the energy wants to restore balance, so positive and negative energies come crashing toward each other. In the instant when they are one, right before the balance is restored, the Lightning is created. When using Lightning, you must adopt a different mindset than in other types of bending. Instead of manipulating the element, you are its humble guide and nothing more.
Zuko demonstrated a lightning strike for him.
Aang nodded. "I'm ready to try it."
He assumed the stance and went through the motion. Zuko saw that Aang was generating no lightning but did nothing. He needed the lesson.
When Aang thought that the lightning would come out, instead, a small explosion blew up in his face and he fell backwards.
"I was afraid of that. When you channel lightning, you cannot be thinking about anything that causes you emotion. You can't think about how you might hurt someone, how my sister shot you with what you're about to control, you can't be thinking about how much you love Katara—"
"Hold on," said Aang, "I never said—"
"Please," said Zuko. "I've seen the way you look at her, once I even heard you say her name in your sleep in a dreamy way."
"Oh," said Aang, attempting to hide his red face, "I didn't know I was that obvious."
"You couldn't be more obvious. And on that happy note, I end training for the day."
"Thank you Sifu Hotman," said Aang, bowing.
"Don't call me that!" yelled Zuko.
Later, at lunch, Zuko was holding the egg when he started to feel it rumbling.
"It's time," he said.
It was still a couple of minutes until noon by the time everyone got up to the cliff edge.
What should I do now? Zuko thought. Suddenly he got an image of himself heating the egg.
He didn't know what compelled him to do it, but he set the egg on the ground and started a steady stream of fire at the egg.
30 seconds… nothing…
1 minute… nothing…
2 minutes… the egg started to glow brightly.
About a second later a spiraling row of white energy in the shape of a dragon went up into the sky. The Energy Dragon roared and all who looked into its eyes saw a gigantic golden dragon that bore a resemblance to Ran and Cha.
Suddenly the Energy Dragon disappeared in a shower of sparks and the egg cracked cleanly in half, opened, and out stepped a small little golden dragon the size of a cat stepped out. It sniffed the air and a puff of smoke came out.
Zuko slowly approached it and offered it a piece of meat ("Don't waste it!" Sokka cried.)
It snapped it up and licked the hand. Zuko picked it up and held it up to his face and the dragon licked him again. Zuko laughed and said, "Great!"
