Avatar part 2
Recap: Now it was just a matter of the right timing…
Chapter two…
But, Prince Zuko did not boil over as she had expected. Without further interrogating her, he threw Kaguya over his shoulder and roughly abducted her back to the Fire Nation ship he had docked in the charred harbor—all the while keeping her wrists firmly apart. How did he know how to subdue her? Of course, thought Kaguya, he had watched the fight and learned how she worked around her glaring size disadvantage. The heat on her wrists—a clear warning that if she tried any thing he would burn her badly—ended any plans to talk her way out of the current situation. They turned corner after corner until finally Kaguya was tossed like a rag doll against the bulkhead of the ship in a small, dark chamber in the belly of the ship. Her celestial powers helped absorb most of the pain from the impact, but Kaguya still had trouble getting to her feet after the violent toss to the ground.
"There is something about you that feels wrong," Prince Zuko announced. Kaguya was recovering quickly, but not fast enough to make any kind of move on the powerful and prideful bully of the Fire Nation. "I will consult my uncle as to what to do with you. If you are truthful and you do not know where the Avatar is, then perhaps I will let you go so that you can rebuild your 'neutral' village once again." Zuko began to leave, but paused in the steel hatch. Turning back with a crooked smile, he added, "But something tells me that you will be dead by dawn." And with that, he slammed the door shut and locked the helpless Kaguya into the steel cell.
"What do you mean we have to let her go?!" Prince Zuko exclaimed. He turned angrily toward his uncle and demanded, "Uncle, tell me why I cannot keep her as my prisoner."
Kaguya knew that she may not be able to escape through a steel cell. But, if someone were to unlock the cell door, then she would quickly make her escape, back to her precious village. But, why would she go back? All of her beloved villagers are dead. There can be no rebuilding…
Prince Zuko went to go unlock Kaguya from inside her cell. As soon as the door opened, Kaguya leapt out, and tackled Prince Zuko to the ground, all the while pulling a wakazashi from her kimono, putting the blade up to his neck.
"You will let me go free!" She demanded.
Zuko kicked her off, and pushed her to the ground with such force, she slid back, and hit her back on the other end of the wall, in her cell.
"I was going to let you go… but, you had to go ahead and attack me, didn't you?" Prince Zuko said, approaching her. Just when Zuko was about to hit Kaguya, Iroh appeared in the hallway.
"Zuko, what are you doing to this beautiful desert flower? I thought we had a discussion that you were going to let her go, did we not?" He stepped inside the cell, and approached Kaguya. He extended a hand, and helped her up. "Many apologies, Miss Kaguya, for he doesn't know how to treat celestial maidens such as yourself, you are free to leave as you wish." Iroh said, bowing his head, as a sign of respect.
"I'm sorry. I can never go back to my village. It is destroyed. So, if you don't mind, I will stay in this rusted cell. But first, I must say my final good byes to the dead villagers who had to endure the pain set across them. You are obliged to come, Prince Zuko." Kaguya said, as she walked out of the cell, and back to the charred harbor.
Zuko followed Kaguya, as she went into the woods, probably looking for any villagers whom had tried to escape. She soon disappeared behind a tree. Zuko however walked more into the dark woods. As soon as Kaguya resurfaced from the tree, she heard a startling scream, from the woods, in the direction Zuko went in.
When she got to the source of the screaming, she saw that Zuko had encountered a bear. It was about to attack him, when Kaguya had put up an invisible barrier, throwing the bear off guard. Zuko looked back, and saw Kaguya struggling to keep the barrier up. Apparently, barriers are not her strength. Just as Kaguya's barrier was about to give in, Mimyoh in her monstrously big form flew down, behind the bear, and gave a loud roar, letting the bear flee away.
Kaguya grabbed Zuko's hand, and helped him onto Mimyoh's back. Kaguya delighted in the anxious expression her passenger had on his face as Mimyoh took off into the air. Obviously Prince Zuko was not used to having his feet off the ground. Fire benders stuck to land and sea. Kaguya wasn't sure exactly what would happen when they finally made it back to the harbor where the Fire Nation ship was docked. Would Prince Zuko recapture her or send her on her way? That was incidental since she knew she could easily give him the slip as she'd done before--what worried Kaguya was whether she wanted to be parted from the handsome prince of the Fire Nation.
Kaguya shook the thoughts off. First things first. She had to take the prince to see the Seer. Her vision would give the lost prince guidance and help him choose the right path. Kaguya wasn't sure if that included capturing Aang, but she figured it was better to know for sure so that Prince Zuko lived his life with fewer regrets. The Seer knew other things too—her wisdom branched much more than the visions she conjured in her copper bowl. She told Kaguya of her abilities. She found Kaguya mentors to develop her powers. The Seer was like the grandmother that Kaguya had never known.
"I must trust him," she thought as Prince Zuko's nervous grip around her waist tightened. "I wouldn't be taking him to the Wise One if I didn't trust him."
Prince Zuko had similar battles within his own conscience. He was stunned by the sheer power of the kidnapped priestess and humbled by her willingness to save his life after his behavior toward her. Prince Zuko was unsure of how to handle this situation. In other times, he would have consulted with his uncle, but here alone hundreds of feet up in the air, Zuko was on his own. Would he continue to press the priestess for the location of the Avatar? He knew that she was hiding the information from him. But for some reason he could not bring himself to the cruelty he would have shown any other prisoner standing between him and the honorable homecoming that he longed for. Prince Zuko cared what this girl thought of him. He respected her loyalty to a friend. And Zuko wanted her to have her freedom, though he did not want to see the priestess leave him. Relief filled the empty spaces around his initial shock from the battle with the bear when she decided to take him with her. Deep down he wished that their journey would be so long that it eclipsed his duty to locate and capture the Avatar.
The pair climbed a few more feet above a misted mountain peak before the slow descent toward a stone temple nestled in the crook of the mountainside. The Seer's compound. To Kaguya it felt like home. Prince Zuko saw it as a safe-haven from all of the unnatural flying in the air they had to do to reach the temple. Solid ground made Zuko a happy man.
An elderly woman stood at the open gate with a basket filled with ripe fruit and a giant grin as Mimyoh landed and the travelers climbed down off her back.
That's all I hope you all liked this installment of the story! Summer break is soon, and I have the last of the finals tomorrow. Intro to chem and Phys, and Algebra 2!
(We get out Friday the 13th!)