AN: This is a story for the TRF DragonMother!Azula Challenge. It's going to be pretty long judging by how much I have planned out in my head. The rating might go up. This is just the prologue; the upcoming chapters will be longer (at least 1.5k words). Thank you and I hope you enjoy!
Beautiful Monsters
Ty Lee has always loved monsters.
For as long as she can remember, she has wanted to kiss them instead of slay them. She wanted the dragon to abduct her and it would ravish her and fall in love with her and she would want it instead of the noble and heroic samurai who would come rescue her.
Perhaps she wants to be held prisoner by Azula. The princess has not harmed her yet, despite the chains.
Right now, she watches a fire and three stones in it breathlessly with Azula beside her. The princess reaches right in and touches the jewel-hued eggs. She makes the flames burn blue and Ty Lee cannot look away. She thinks she is incapable of averting her eyes.
The princess sweats and trembles. Ty Lee has never seen her like that before.
"They have to make it," Azula whispers. "They will. They must have resilience…" Azula mutters other words that Ty Lee does not hear.
Pop. Snap. Pop. Snap. Crack. Shatter. Piece. Cry. Wailing. The cries remind Ty Lee of human babes, but they are just off enough to give her chills. It is uncanny.
Azula cuts open her hand without hesitation and offers it towards the flames. It is what the books said the mothers of dragons did. She hopes the scribes did not lie. Two of the three dragons, the size of human babies but able to stumble around on their newly discovered legs, walk towards the scent and step from the fire.
One collapses. Ty Lee does not think about the sick sound of the monsters lapping at and sucking on Azula's blood, or about the fact that fire hurts and burns when you touch it. She reaches in, ignoring burns on her hands, and pulls the little dragon out. She directs it towards Azula, towards the drink it needs, but…
It cries at Ty Lee instead.
Azula's eyes pierce into Ty Lee's soul as she glares.
Ty Lee knows now that she has done something horrifically wrong.
Especially since a newborn red dragon is pressing expectantly against her hand, and not her Queen's hand.
xxxxx
An hour later, in Azula's chambers, her dragons sleep as she paces. Ty Lee kneels before her Queen and hopes this is not as bad as she thinks.
"He imprinted on you instead of me. You understand the problem with that, don't you? A prisoner of war cannot be a mother of one of my… babies," Azula says sharply.
Ty Lee chokes. She hopes this does not go wrong.
"Please don't hurt me," Ty Lee whispers and Azula straightens, looking startled.
"I don't want to ever hurt you. I do hate that I now need you, but you must help me. There are only three dragons in existence and now one of them thinks you are his mother," Azula says, walking towards her kneeling subject. "Do you want me to be Phoenix Queen?"
"Yes," Ty Lee says. "Yes, my Queen."
"And are you willing to do anything for your new child?" Azula asks coolly.
"Yes, my Queen," Ty Lee whispers.
Azula pivots and kneels before her own captive. "Do you want to be more than my prisoner?"
"Yes, my Queen." Ty Lee is still stunned by Azula kneeling in front of her, at eye level with her.
Azula sets two fingers under Ty Lee's chin and lifts it so their eyes meet. "Do you always get what you want, Ty Lee?"
"Yes, my Queen," Ty Lee whispers. Azula caresses her face and it is perfection.
"Good. So do I," Azula purrs, and she stands and walks to the dragons in their cradle she had built. "Address me as my love not my Queen. I'd prefer it from you. You will be my wife if you mothered my son. It's only right. And I have always loved you. I imagine we can spark a new fire from the embers of our old adolescent fling."
Ty Lee hides her excitement. She should not be that thrilled about wedding Azula, but it feels a bit like a dream come true.
Then again, while Ty Lee believes Azula, she does know that Azula's thirst for power would make her sacrifice anything in her way. Even Ty Lee.
Azula takes the red dragon, the one that imprinted on Ty Lee, and it screeches at her. The Queen takes her knife and sets the dragon in front of Ty Lee.
She hands it to her captive.
"Go on," Azula says. "Prove your loyalty and feed him."
Ty Lee takes it, squeezes her eyes shut, and slices open her own palm.
xxxxxx
to be continued…
