Zuko's Point of View
I felt a soft cloth dab at my forehead. I opened my eyes a crack and found a girl leaning over me. The sun was setting, or maybe it was rising, behind her so I couldn't really see her features. I could definitely tell it was a girl though, because her hair flowed around her face and she was quietly whispering, "I think he's waking up." She then stood and moved slightly so the sun shown right in my eyes. I groaned and blinked against the light. "Angel, put a tarp over that window, it's hurting his eyes," the girl said.
The light then vanished and I could see what the girl looked like. She had brownish blond, shoulder length hair and tan skin. She wore a grungy shirt and blue pants that ended at her ankles. She had light brown eyes. Her wings were 14 feet long and pale tan with white streaks and some freckly-looking spots. I sighed. She was beautiful.
Suddenly, the small girl with light blond hair stifled a gasp. The other kids around the room looked over at her. I tried to sit up but my head felt so heavy I fell back on the small pillow. "Slow, dude," the beautiful girl said, "you got knocked out pretty hard. Sorry about that, by the way. What's your name?"
I rubbed my eyes and head and eventually muttered, "Zuko." I saw her exchange a glance with the boy nearby.
"Well, anyway, my name's Max, I'm fourteen. That's Angel, she's six," Max said, pointing to the small girl. She sure was small; she probably just reached my chest. Her hair was curly and white blond. She too wore blue pants, made out of the small material as Max's and a pink shirt. She had her wings unfurled around her. They were probably around 8 feet long and pure white.
"That's the Gasman, his sister, and he's eight" Max continued pointing to a boy standing next to her. He had blond hair, like his sister and blue eyes. He, along with the rest of the kids, wore blue pants. He wore a black shirt, as well. His wings were roughly 10 feet long and light brown with white streaks in them.
"This is Nudge…," Max began pointing to the other girl but the other girl jumped up and sat down beside me.
"I'm Nudge," she said quickly in a peppy voice, "my real name's Monique. I'm eleven years old."
"Nudge, please," the Gasman said, "we don't want him to go deaf."
Nudge, or Monique, had dark mocha skin and tangled brown hair. Her wings were a tawny color.
"This is Iggy," Max continued, "He, Fang and I are all fourteen." Iggy had pale skin and strawberry blond hair. His eyes were blue but seemed to be fogged over for some reason. He also didn't star directly at me, he stared to my right. I'd seen the behavior only once: with the Avatars earth bending friend. The blind one. Iggy was blind. His wings were white with black streaks and were over sixteen feet long.
Fang was sitting down a few feet away. He had dark black hair, dark eyes and olive skin. His wings were the same length as Max's and were jet black. He stood up at the mention of his name and walked over to Max and stared down at me.
"So where are you from Zuko?" He asked.
I slowly sat up and propped myself up on my elbows. "Well, I think this may sound very weird to you guys but I was the prince in the fire nation." I waited for their reaction. Max looked at Fang.
"What is the fire nation?" Iggy asked, turning toward my voice.
"Well, what I think happened was…,"I began but Angel cut me off.
"He lived in another dimension," Angel said, "he traveled here to escape his fate of killing the Avatar. He only recently got his wings." I stared at her in amazement.
"Angel can read minds," Max said, seeing my face. My eyes widened. That meant she'd heard what I'd thought about Max. "What's the Avatar?" she asked me. So I told them about my fate, and the Avatar and restoring my honor.
"Are you asking to join my flock?" Max asked once I'd finished.
I nodded slightly. "I don't know where I would go if I couldn't."
Max and Fang exchanged a glance but then motioned everyone to huddle together.
Max Point of View
"What do you think?" I asked Fang, when we'd all huddled in the corner.
"I don't know. He seems trustworthy but seriously, when did that ever become true?" He said.
"True," I said, "Angel what do you think?" Angel was staring off into space slightly but when I addressed her she snapped back into reality.
"Um, well, he's definitely telling the truth. His mind sure is messed up though. You don't want to know how he got that scar. It's horrible." That was reason enough to tell him no for me but Angel had endured worse things. "He also has some great talents that he's hiding."
I looked over at Fang and he shrugged. "It's worth a try," he said. With that we turned back to Zuko, who stood apprehensively. "So, Zuko," Fang said, "What do you have to offer our flock? Any cool talents?"
Zuko's eyes widened. He then pulled two swords out of a sheath he had on his back. My education on sword work was missing a few holes but I could still tell they were duel swords. Zuko drew the swords and started swinging them. It was so graceful, like a dance. Once he was done he sheathed them and looked at us. He was breathing hard and sweat glistened off his forehead, like little diamonds. Angel giggled and I repressed the thought, once again annoyed at her ability to read minds.
"Well, that was…impressive," Gazzy said. "Anything else?"
Zuko looked around at all of us and looked down at his feet. "I have one more thing," he said, hesitantly, "but you may want to step back." Slowly, gradually he held out his hands and clenched his fists. Suddenly, a small spark of fire shot out of his hand up into the air. We all gasped and backed up. After the spark went out, Zuko then drew a long line of fire in mid air. He then created a ball of fire and slowly shot it up in the air where it exploded into a display of fireworks. He then hung his hands by his side and shot a breath of fire out onto the floor.
We all stood in silence, in awe. He could create fire out of nothing! For a few minutes we all stood in amazement. Iggy was the first to speak. "What did he do?" He whispered to Gazzy.
The Gasman gulped and whispered, "He created fire. Like out of nothing. He can move it and control it. It's so cool man."
"Since I'm from the fire nation I'm a Fire bender," Zuko said.
"Wow, that's…sweet," Fang said.
"So can I be in the group or flock or whatever?" Zuko asked.
I looked over at Fang. He then gave the most miniscule nod. I smiled at him and nodded. "Sure, with skills like that you could be really helpful." Zuko's eyes lit up and he smiled slightly. "First however, we need to get you knew clothes." Fang nodded and said he'd take him with Iggy to go shopping with the little money we still had.
Once they had flown off I couldn't help but watch Fang's dark figure go off into the horizon. He was just so graceful sometimes. So strong and smart, but gentle and caring. And he was so downright attractive in those skinny black jeans. Angel stifled a laugh. I shot her glance. "Wow," Nudge said sitting down with Angel, "that Zuko guy is really…hot, even without the fire."
I saw Angel smile and said, "well, don't get your hopes up. He's already got the hot's for someone else."
"Who?" Nudge asked interested.
"Max."
I gasped. Oh Crap!