Avatar: Cry for Rebellion
Chapter 3
Rye awoke to the shifting of the boat, making her uneasy for a second. She jolted up, looking around. "Fire Nation! Why'd you take ME!" she screamed at the fire bender who was working near a table in the back.
On the table were plenty of mixtures, herbs, and fire lighting the table with vivid sparks of oranges, yellows, reds, and blues.
The fire bender turned around and stared at the girl, not anticipating that she was going to get up at that moment.
She saw the bender's broken mask and she jumped out of bed, throwing fire at where he was standing.
The man had run to cover when he saw such sudden movement. He covered his neck with his hands and was sprawled against the ground. He had narrowly escaped it. When the fire bender moved his sight, there, his table was lit on fire. All of the potions in the glasses had broken against the ground. His herbs had burned to ashes and the fire was spreading across the floor.
"What the hell is.." the scarred man's face appeared again, anger racing through his eyes. He scanned the room quickly, taking in the burning table.
"I said GET AWAY!" Rye screamed, on the ground. She had fallen to the ground from weakness and confusion. It felt like she was in a nightmare. Flares raging and fire benders coming to get her.
"You again.." he scoffed, yelling for some of his men to put out the fire.
Before the scarred man could answer, the fire benders trying to put out the fire fell to the ground, "ZUKO, WATCH OUT."
The man looked up at where they had left, "Idiots! GO FIX IT!" he yelled, moving towards it to put it out.
Rye looked towards the table. It smelt of rotten eggs and she wrinkled her nose. Before she could register what she thought, Rye jumped up and knocked him out of the way. "It's going to explode. What the hell were you thinking!" Her voice was drawn out by the eruption from the table. On of the glass bottles had fallen over onto another one and created flammable and toxic gas. The blast left the room darkened, smelling of burnt ashes. She fell onto the ground, feeling herself fly to the ground, knocking the air out of her.
When Rye felt her senses coming back, she moved her head a little. Everyone else was pinned against the floor, except for the scarred man. She felt herself being picked up, carried somewhere. Her eyes grew heavier as she started to move away from the room where she had wrecked. Rye's eyes fluttered shut, slow to open again, then closed.
When she awoke again, it was in a new room. There were a few large chests, a wall mirror, torches on the wall, currently lit, and plenty of Fire Nation furniture and random items. She was on a bed, it was fitted with red silk sheets and red and gold trimmed pillows. It had a drape over it, but it was put up.
She moved her head a little, her vision blurred. There was a man in front of her. He tore his shirt off from his body. She could make out the ashes on it, burnt holes, and ripped sides. His back was burnt, but he didn't mind it, or at least it looked like he didn't.
After rummaging through a large dark brown chest, he came up with a new shirt. He slipped it one and turned around the face the girl, who was now sitting up on the bed. He sat on the other side of the bed and turned his head, "Your back is still bleeding, I think I have something to wrap around it..," he got up again to look for the bandage wrap. "But tell me, who are you?"
"Why should I be telling you?" she mocked, "Now, who are you?"
He shifted his eyes a little, "Watch your mouth, I'm the one helping you here," he sharply said back. The man stood at the edge of the bed and wrapped on of the ends around her, covering part of the deep cut in her back. "Since you won't tell me who the hell you are, I'm Zuko."
"Never heard of you," she flipped her head back to the normal position so she couldn't see him.
"Never heard of me..," he mumbled to himself, "Well, we can change that. I'm Zuko, once Prince of the Fire Nation. My father is the Fire Lord, Ozai. He always loved my sister more than anything, so he gave her special treatment. My sister is Azula. She was the prodigy child. She is cold-hearted and a bitch to everyone. She's emotionally unstable and power crazed. The only person who truly understands me is Uncle Iroh. He's agreed to support me and watch over me."
"Zuko," she said, saying his name for the first, "what do you mean by once prince?"
"Banished, forgotten? Whatever you want to call me. I was only thirteen when I spoke against my father in a meeting and demanded me to a fight. That's how I got this. But no sympathy right, except for getting stripped of my birthright and sentenced to leave my home!" he started to yell angerly, his hands feeling like fire and burning the wrap. He dropped the ashes from the bandage and finished wrapping.
Rye looked down, seeing the wrap go around a few times and now feeling sympathy for the man. "I wouldn't have known.."
"I know you didn't," Zuko said cooling off a little. "And I still don't know your name," he put his hand on her shoulder and made her face him.
"Rye."
"Rye, you can stay in my room for the night then," he got up and walked out the door. As the door shut, all the torch lights went out and the room went dark for the night. She lay down, but couldn't seem to fall asleep from all of her wandering thoughts.