Just a few notes: My story is going to stick pretty close to canon, but there will be a few differences. For one, Zuko is going to be around eighteen or nineteen. Also, in my story the only remaining free Earth Kingdom area is Ba Sing Se, so there are soldiers everywhere and just like in the show, Earthbenders are arrested and imprisoned. There are curfews and registries, so that's why Rei can't just travel freely between villages.
Aang, Zuko and the others are travelling around the world in the same way they did in the show.
Enjoy!
I didn't make it ten kilometers before the pain in my chest became unbearable. I had another five to go before the next village, but I knew I wouldn't be able to get there that day. Though the path was smooth and well traveled, every step felt like the burn was being remade and my broken ribs made a fast pace impossible. There was just no way to get around it, I would have to stop for the day with the sun barely touching the tops of the trees behind me. Just out of sight of the path and on the edge of the forest that had been my home for my entire life, I set up a tiny camp that consisted of one large tree, one knapsack for a pillow, and one small fire. Like a fool, I spent a good hour trying to make a fire from sticks before I remembered that fire lived right inside my body. After I cursed myself for being the most idiotic firebender on the planet, I let my frustration flow into my limbs and lit the bundle of twigs aflame. Fire established, I ventured into the woods after something that would dull the pain and help with infection. All I could find was some Cordial moss at the base of a tree and while it does wonders for keeping out infection, it doesn't do much for pain management. I applied it to my burn and scrapes, but the dull throbbing in my chest reminded me that I would have to deal with the pain for the night.
I sat against a tree for a while and tried to get some sleep, but the pain in my chest was making rest almost impossible. Why is it pain always seems ten times worse at night? I opened my shirt to let the night air cool the seared skin, but all it did was make the rest of me cold. My chest felt like it was on fire and the rest of me had the chills. One of life's little jokes, I guess. I scooted closer to the fire and lay back to try to sleep. That was when a soft voice cut through the quiet of the night and set my heart racing.
"Missy, mind if I share that fire?"
I shot up with a shriek that turned into a moan as some of the scabbed skin around my burn pulled open. I ignored the pain and yanked my shirt closed, scrambling into a defensive crouch before realizing that the person in front of me was an old man, leaning heavily on a stick. Still, I narrowed my eyes at him. "Who are you?" I said, my voice low.
"Name's Zhin. Won't hurt you, girly, just want a bit of warmth from the fire. I have food to share if you've got a bit of ground I can borrow." He reached into a bag he had around his shoulder and pulled out half a loaf of bread. My stomach wasn't as suspicious as I was, and it growled hungrily as I stared at the bread. I hadn't eaten anything more than the few berries I could scavenge since the night before. Zhin smiled at me, his mouth a checkerboard of missing teeth.
I sighed and reached across the fire for the bread, straightening out of my crouch. I couldn't help but wince as my burn stretched again, but I took the bread from the man and gestured for him to sit. I thought it was a good idea not to let this man know that the lone woman he'd encountered was injured, so I did my best to hide my pain. He plopped down with a grateful groan and I heard some joints pop as he relaxed. Once his stick was put aside and he was settled, I finally lowered my eyes to the bread and broke off a piece. It was stale and the grains were crunchy, but it felt good on my empty stomach.
"What's your name, girl?"
My chewing slowed as I considered him. "Sorry, but I don't think I'll say."
"Fair enough, just don't think it's polite to call someone 'girl'."
"I don't mind." I handed the bread back to him and I watched, confused, as he broke off a sizeable chunk, stuck it on the end of a stick, and held it close to the fire. "I'm pretty sure the bread is cooked, Zhin."
He chuckled, his voice breathy. "Ach, but the stuff is hard as a rock. You gotta let the fire heat the grains a bit before you eat it."
I smirked at him. "Sure, now you tell me." He laughed and I couldn't help but smile back. He reminded me of Iroh a bit, except for the long mustache and noticeably smaller belly, and this man looked clean, his clothes sturdy and designed for travel. The firelight threw his sharp cheekbones into relief, the shadows making his eyes appear like dark holes. "So tell me, where are you headed, Zhin?"
He swallowed a mouthful of bread before saying, "After my wife was taken back by the sun, figured I'd had enough of the capital. Left the house and set out to live with my boy. Thought I had one adventure left in me."
I went still at his description of his wife's passing. Only Fire Nation citizens talked about death that way. It was just like one of those arrogant bastards to just assume that everyone they met freely on the road was Fire Nation and meant them no harm. Of course he wouldn't hesitate to tell me he's Fire Nation while I couldn't even say my name without fearing some kind of search. I didn't think Kenshin would see much point in looking for me, but I hadn't thought he would torture me either… I never wanted to take another chance where that monster was concerned. I couldn't help grinding my teeth in anger as I listened to the old man. Before Zhin could notice I'd found anything wrong with what he'd said, I relaxed my jaw and asked, "Where does your son live?"
"By my figuring, the next village ahead. Good thing, too. Been on the road a good two weeks, and I'm starting to run short on coins," he said with a cackle. I smiled tightly back.
"I just went through there. Your son a soldier?" I tried to sound as casual as I could.
"Mhm. Stationed there last year, but he's been in the army since he turned sixteen. Couldn't have been happier, having an untrained firebender in the house meant buying a lot of new furniture." He laughed again, but I couldn't force myself to even smile. His son could very well have been the one to hold one of my limbs down, break my ribs, bruise my skin.
"Be sure to thank him from me for his service," I said, my voice flat.
The man didn't notice anything amiss. He just smiled around a mouthful of bread and said, "Thanks very much, missy. Surely will do that. Now that the Avatar's back, our boys need all the morale they can get, I'd wager."
My eyebrows drew together. "I thought those were just rumors…"
"Nah. Imagine they don't want word getting out about the North Pole, but I was on a military ship from the capital. Lost a lot of ships and a lot of men trying to take that heap of ice. The admiral lost his life up there, even heard rumors that banished prince was killed—"
"Zuko? When?" I blurted, my voice shrill.
This time, the old man's eyes narrowed on me. "Bout a month ago."
I relaxed before I realized how stupid I was. Of course it was a month ago, I knew about the attack on the North Pole before I even met this old man. Zuko was with me long after that battle, and his wanted signs were everywhere. My thoughts were obviously frazzled and I took a calming breath as Zhin continued to study me.
"Where you from, girly?" he asked casually.
"Fire Nation," I tried to say confidently, but I wasn't really used to lying.
"Whereabouts?"
"I don't think that's relevant," I cleared my throat and nonchalantly picked a bit of dirt off my shirt.
"No, s'pose not. Just like to know who I'm sleeping next to." He looked at me steadily for a few more moments before lying down and closing his eyes. "Well, guess I'll just have to wonder. Got some Netroot tea in my pack, use it for my joints. It'll help with your pain, some."
My jaw fell open. The flames of the emblem burned onto my chest could be seen above my shirt, but I'd thought it'd surely been too dark to notice. I must not have been as careful hiding my pain as I thought. I sat up and watched him for a long time after he'd fallen asleep, telling myself I wouldn't take anything more from this old Fire Nation bastard. However, the pain reached a new level of stabbing heat after a while and with a sigh, I reached into the pack and took out the tea. I brewed it with some of the water from the nearby stream and was almost angry when the pain lessened. Help from the father of one of the men who caused these very injuries. The thought tasted bitter and even with the pain lessened, I couldn't sleep that night. I dozed a bit, but every time I started to drift into sleep, the thought of being betrayed by the Fire Nation man jarred me awake. He, on the other hand, slept straight through the night. I wondered how an old man got all the way from the coast to here without being killed on the road, or even robbed. Then I remembered that as long as you had Fire Nation papers, you had a free pass through every village in the Earth Kingdom except Ba Sing Se. I gritted my teeth as I thought how lucky I would be to even make it through the next village without being accosted by soldiers.
When the sun started to rise, I rose gently to my feet, careful not to wake the man. I gathered my meager supplies and only hesitated for a moment before grabbing his, too. I left him with nothing but his stick and a note scratched into the dirt that said, "Stream ¼ km straight ahead." While I walked farther away from the forest and Zhin, I briefly considered the irony that I robbed him because Fire Nation citizens like him did evil things like robbing people. But, I guess I was Fire Nation by then. After all, the Fire Nation was nothing if not practical. My mouth twisted as I thought of how practical the Fire Nation could be. The other nations were possible threats, so there was nothing else to be done but invade and conquer before they tried. The avatar was a threat, so it made sense to eliminate him and ensure a victory. Zuko took my medical supplies, not to spite me, but because he needed them and they were readily available. I took the old man's pack because he was weak and I was strong and I needed what he had. He was a short distance from his son and would make it by sundown, sooner if he met kind travellers along the way. I would not be treated as kindly, considering my haggard appearance and lack of Fire Nation credentials. If the soldiers caught an Earth Kingdom woman out after curfew without any kind of Fire Nation protection, I would have to fight my way out and I didn't think I could. Therefore, I had the greater need.
As I sipped my tea out of the clay cup the man had, I couldn't find one ounce of remorse. As far as I was concerned, that man had just performed a public service. He was going to aid in the removal of a menace named Kenshin. I looked over the fields crisscrossing my path west; my shadow pointed toward the Fire Nation and someone who could train me without questioning why I was untrained at twenty-one, why I wasn't in the army, why I didn't have a family in the Fire Nation, and why I didn't have any citizenship papers that claimed my Fire Nation heritage, no matter how humble. That's when I thought to look through Zhin's bag for his papers. I found them tucked in an inside pocket and looked them over carefully. No doubt, these would come in handy.
As I thought of how sweet it would feel to see fear in Kenshin's eyes as I burned him, I remembered something Zuko had told me. "If you embrace your anger…" Well, I had plenty of anger. At my mother, my father, Kenshin, Zuko, myself, everyone who ignored me or pitied me because of things I couldn't control… I had all that anger for a reason and if Zuko was to be believed, that reason was to make me a more powerful firebender, if I could only learn to harness and use it. At that moment, I really wished I could talk to him, ask him how to actually focus it. Also… I missed him. It was crazy, I'd only known him a few days, but there was so much about him that I didn't understand but found interesting anyway. I had little expectation of seeing Zuko or Iroh in the Fire Nation considering they were wanted criminals, but I couldn't help but hope. I wanted to apologize to him… I also kind of wanted an apology in return. He did steal from me and I wouldn't be a very good firebender if I just forgot about that.
As I walked, I looked down at my hands and thought about how normal they looked. They were almost my mother's exactly- strong, but feminine. Perfect for grinding herbs or massaging a strained muscle, setting a bone or drying tears. You would never know by looking at them that they had the power to burn a house to the ground or take a life. That's the danger with firebenders, I think. Earthbenders and waterbenders, they can create things. Airbenders couldn't create with their bending, but they never destroyed, at least not in the histories that I read. Firebenders can't create anything with our bending. We can destroy, intimidate, conquer, but not create. I suppose everything on earth needs an opposite, so I assume that firebending is the opposite of the other, peaceful kinds of bending. Like we're the negatives to the air nomads, destined by the universe to squash everyone different.
I snorted at my philosophical thoughts. Like firebenders had any kind of purpose. As far as I could tell, firebenders as a whole lived to do one thing and that was to serve the Fire Lord. The thing that really terrified me was thinking about how horrible the soldiers could be, and realizing how evil the man who commands them must be… but I'll leave ponderings about the moral soul of the firebender to priests from now on. After all, I didn't think I was evil, and I couldn't imagine Iroh being as heartless as his brother was. As for the prince… well, I didn't really see anything in him to persuade me either way. All I knew was that I had been given the power to exact some small revenge on the atrocities that were done to me, my family, and thousands all over the world. If I had to embrace some kind of evil inside me to do that, I figured it was worth it.
""""
The sun was just starting to set when I started to see vendors' huts up ahead. The timing couldn't have been better because I had just run out of Zhin's water and my breath was raking in and out of my lungs, my broken ribs causing pain with every inhale. The Netroot tea was long gone, but I was sure there would be a healer's hut somewhere in this village, and that was my first stop. I'd never heard of a pain-numbing tea as effective as my own mixture was, but any healer would have Netroot or dried junmin berry on hand. I just hoped no one would recognize me. We really weren't that far from my village and I know people have travelled from the outlying towns for my skills in healing. Even with my questionable heritage, I was never left wanting for business. I find that people get pretty tolerant when they're in pain or sick and desperate enough. Even the soldiers get real polite when I'm controlling their pain treatment.
I tried to look as insignificant as possible as I hobbled into town, but I still drew stares. A single female with obvious injuries is bound to be noticed, either as an object of pity or as a target. I nervously searched for the heat inside me and found it lying dormant in my chest, waiting like a well-trained dog until I needed it. I felt a little disgusted with myself when I drew comfort from the heat, but it was beginning to feel like an old friend. After all, I still would rather take my beating and burn over being raped by Kenshin, and my bending was the only thing that saved me from that fate.
About halfway through town, I saw a hut with a bandage drawn on the door and quickened my pace toward it. My hand closed over my pocket where I could feel the comforting weight of the coins there. Zhin had said he was running low on coins, but I'd found two gold pieces, five silvers, and ten coppers in the bottom of his bag. That was more money than I had ever seen in my life, and he considered it pocket change. Anyway, the dark skinned healer seated behind the counter looked up with a bored expression when I knocked on the doorframe to get his attention.
"Can I help you?" he drawled.
I limped to the counter and before I could say a word, he watched my steps and immediately started picking things off the shelves behind him. I watched with narrowed eyes as he ignored me and gathered supplies. With his back to me, he said, "Come back and sit on the table, I can fit you in before I close. I see you've got some bruised muscles there and from the sound of your breathing, you've got a broken rib or two. What, did your husband catch you in a soldier's bed or something?"
My jaw dropped open at his rude tone and I said, "That's none of your damn business. I don't need your healing, just your supplies." I jangled the coins in my pocket so he could hear.
He raised an eyebrow but laid out the things he was gathering on the counter. I looked at them all and the prices written on them and blanched. "How do you sleep at night? You're charging ten coppers for Netroot? I can find that in the woods behind this place! And I don't even need the elder, it's for fevers! No, I'll take the Netroot, the bandages, the ginger root, and I need some burn salve. Do you have junmin?"
The man sighed, but gathered what I asked, and said, "That'll be four silvers."
"Four silvers! No, I'll give you two silvers and that's being generous."
The man stepped around the counter, and I noticed for the first time how small he was, barely coming up to my shoulder. "No, that'll be four silvers, or I'll have to take it up with the soldiers in the tavern next door."
I clenched my jaw, but I couldn't afford to be questioned by soldiers. "Fine, but you are a crook. You might as well dress in red." I flicked my hand toward his green Earth Kingdom clothes. "I don't want the bandages." I could just use strips from my old bag.
I walked out the door feeling dirty. I had never appreciated the isolation and privacy of my little hut in the woods more than when I was forced to mingle with the dregs of society, and I'm sure that healer was one of the more pleasant people I would encounter on my path toward the Fire Nation.
I was right. He was one of the more pleasant ones, something I discovered almost immediately after exiting his establishment. I'd just gotten the bag situated around my shoulders and was continuing through town, nodding at whoever was out lighting their lamps for the night. When I reached the edge of town, a hard female voice stopped me. "Hey, you! Curfew is in effect for all Earth Kingdom citizens after dark, you know that."
I sighed and turned to see a soldier coming toward me, her hair pulled into a tight ponytail on top of her head, her long, straight black hair hanging down her back. She had a pretty face, but her features were almost too angular and she looked like she'd never smiled in her life. I plastered a smile on my face and said, "Evening, ma'am. I do know about the curfew, but I'm not from the Earth Kingdom."
She raised an eyebrow as she reached me, cocking her hip out and glaring at me. "Interesting choice in wardrobe then, Miss. Where are you from, and why are you on a lonely Earth Kingdom road after dark?"
I ruffled in my bag for Zhin's papers, but I didn't miss her shifting her weight defensively and aiming her palms toward me. A firebender, then. Finally, I found them and handed them to her, hoping my expression was confident. She snatched them and looked them over with narrowed eyes. "Zhin? Why do you have the travelling papers of a 53-year-old lumber contractor instead of your own?"
I took a deep breath and said, "He's my father."
Her suspicious expression never wavered. "That doesn't explain why you wouldn't have your own papers. How do I know you haven't stolen these, peasant?"
It wasn't hard to sound nervous as I spouted the story I'd come up with. "I… I'm not his… legitimate daughter. I don't have a last name. My father gave me these so that I could try to find a life in the Capital." I pretended to lower my face in shame.
Her eyebrows shot up and her face filled with disgust. "I see. Well, I'll still need proof that you come from the Fire Nation, otherwise I'll have to detain you until your father can come corroborate your story…"
"I can prove it." I let my anxiety and anger at her arrogance flow into my palms and held them up in front of me, letting them burst into flame. She jumped back in surprise and reflexively put a hand on the sword strapped to her hip, her other hand palm out towards me, but when I didn't move to attack, she quickly recovered and relaxed.
"Alright, good enough," she said, holding out Zhin's papers. I tried to calm the fire in my hands, but I was tired and rattled and I was having a hard time getting my thoughts calmed down. The soldier glanced back and forth between my hands and my face, taking in my anxiety. Her hand moved back to her sword. "Stand down, girl."
The harder I tried to stop the fire, the more it grew. It was now rising a foot off my palms. "I'm trying, I'm just not very good at it…" My heart was pounding as I thought of what she would do if I didn't get the damn fire out.
"You need to calm down." Her hand tightened around the hilt of the sword and she pulled it out of the sheath an inch.
Before she could take action, I crouched quickly and buried my hands in the dirt, wincing as my burn stretched. I don't know if the dirt extinguished it, or just tricked my mind into calming down, but the fire went out. Smoke rose from where my hands were buried as I looked up at the soldier. "I'm sorry about that. My father tried to teach me, but he didn't have a lot of time…"
She dropped her sword back in the sheath and said, "It was negligent to leave a firebender untrained. I recommend you find a master as soon as you arrive in the Fire Nation."
"That's what I'm going for—"
"You'll have a hard time as a bastard, but someone will take you. Once you're trained you can join the military, but don't expect to rise higher than corporal without a family." She glanced down at my hands and I noticed that the smoke had stopped rising. I pulled my hands out to find them normal, if a little dirty. I took the papers she held out to me. "You shouldn't travel at night until you have some training."
"Thank you, ma'am, but I'll be careful. I'll be on my way now." I hefted the bag more securely around my shoulder and bowed to the soldier, who grimaced and turned her back without bowing back. I wasn't surprised, from what I've heard, bastards didn't have honor enough in the Fire Nation to be acknowledged.
I travelled this way for about two weeks, probably following the same path Zhin followed from the Fire Nation. I asked for directions when I needed them, bought supplies when I ran out, and by the time I got to the coast, my injuries were almost completely healed. The burn across my chest was now an ugly red scar, one that I would carry the rest of my life. Kenshin should have been an artist- it was a perfect depiction of the Fire Nation symbol. I was stopped by soldiers in every town I passed through, but once I told the story of my illegitimate birth, how my father's honorable wife wanted me out of the house, how I was an untrained firebender on my way to the Capital for a master, they all let me go. A few eyed me with blatant interest, but none would actually deign to touch a bastard. I chuckled darkly to myself as I pictured their reactions if any of them got close enough to get my shirt off and see the scar marring my chest. Luckily, I was never that starved for amusement. I had an easier time once I swallowed my pride enough to purchase some red Fire Nation clothes. It hurt to throw away the only physical evidence I had from my Earth Kingdom roots, but it was necessary; I left my Earth Kingdom garb in a scrap pile outside a village seamstress's hut.
I'm sorry it was such a long time since the last update, but I'm cooking up a great story for you guys, and I have it all pretty much planned out now. I would love some reviews!
And a shout out to my new Beta, BabyAngel9614!