Chapter 2: Learning History
"This is amazing," Leila shouted and she started laughing. "Oh, I love the sky and the sea," she said flopping down onto her back. They were nearly at Ba Sing Se now and it was about three o'clock.
"So you can air-bend," Sokka said. It wasn't a question it was a fact.
"Yep, I found some air-bending scrolls in a market and used them," Leila explained.
"But you can water-bend; you bend like a master, where did you learn?" Katara asked. Leila smiled.
"I met a lot of people down in the arena, some were master water-benders, and they taught me."
"But you're earth-kingdom, not air nomad or water tribe," Aang said.
"Yep, why I can bend these two elements, I don't know," Leila sighed.
"So where are you from?" Zuko asked. The smile on Leila's face dropped instantly.
"I don't actually know, I just know it's somewhere in the earth-kingdom," she said sadly. "I remember it had walls, lots of them it was beautiful. Flowers, a lot of them too and a large garden," Leila reminisced with her brow creased and a sad look on her face.
"Any idea's anyone?" Toph asked. Everyone shook their heads.
"Sounds like Ba Sing Se," Sokka said.
"We could ask Uncle?" Zuko suggested. "He might know," Leila beamed at him.
"Thank you so much," she said.
Appa landed outside of the 'Jasmine Dragon'. It was starting to go dark and the tea shop was shut for the evening.
"Uncle," Zuko said hugging the old man.
"It's good to see you," Iroh said. He gave everyone a hug but stopped when he got to Leila. He bowed to her and she bowed back. "You're not meant to be here," he said, everyone looked at Leila in shock.
"Excuse me?" Leila asked surprised.
"Uncle, do you know Leila?" Zuko asked. Iroh looked at Zuko with raised eye brows.
"You do too," he said. "You probably can't remember, but when you were little, she used to go to the palace and play with you."
"How could I go play in the fire nation palace when I'm just an ordinary girl?" Leila asked. Uncle Iroh laughed.
"You're not an ordinary girl, your father is the king of Ba Sing Se," Leila's eyes widened, before she passed out.
"Whoa," Sokka said as he caught her.
"Why couldn't she remember?" Toph asked.
"Kiazi must have done something to her," Katara said.
"Can we get inside she's kind of heavy," Sokka complained. Zuko rolled his eyes; he went over and took Leila of Sokka.
"She's light," he commented as Sokka huffed.
"We can put her on the spare bed," Iroh said.
"You don't have a spare bed," Zuko said.
"No she can have yours," Iroh said simply as they walked to his house.
"What?"
"She's a princess Zuko, she deserves it," Zuko shook his head as they walked up the steps to Uncle Iroh's house. He went to his room and gently deposited Leila on his bed. He walked out of his room and went to the living room where his Uncle was serving tea.
"Zuko, come get some Jasmine tea," Iroh called. Zuko rolled his eyes and sat down. Iroh handed him a cup of tea.
"Thank you Uncle," Zuko said.
"Kiazi must have whipped her memory so she couldn't remember her family," Sokka said.
"She could only remember parts like the garden and the walls, she told us about," Aang said.
"We'll take her to the king and explain everything," Iroh said, and it calmed them all down slightly.
"Can you tell us anything about her? I mean her past," Katara asked.
"Yes, I can. I'll start from when I first met her…
Iroh was standing by the palace doors; today he was greeting the king of the earth-kingdom. The earth-king was coming to Sozin to negotiate a peace treaty between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom. The Earth-king was a tall man with Brown hair and green eyes; he wore expensive looking robes in different greens. Next to the Earth-king was his wife and queen. Earth-Queen Isabella, she was originally from the southern water tribe and on a diplomatic visit, Earth-King Kuei, Prince Kuei then, fell in love and the two were allowed to marry. The Queen wore dark green robes, which went with her dark brown hair and resting on her hair was a gold crown which was made up of gems, stones and golden leaves.
The two walked arm in arm towards Iroh. Iroh smiled at them and when they got to the doors he bowed to them.
"It's an honor to have the Earth King and Queen in Sozin," he said. The Earth-King bowed back.
"It's an honor to see the incredible city of Sozin," he said. Iroh was about the say something when a small face peaked out from behind the Earth-Kings robes. Iroh eyes widen slightly surprised. Queen Isabella noticed and looked down.
"Leila, no messing around now," she scolded. A young girl came out from behind the Earth-King; She stood in between the two with her head bowed and her hands together.
"Princess Leila, I presume," Iroh said, the little girl looked up at her name.
"Yes sir," she said in a small but strong voice. The girl looked about seven, she had sweet green eyes and honey coloured hair. She wore green robes too like her parents. Except hers were a light green nearly yellow. She had a small crown on her head which was made up of gold and silver leaves. She turned her head slightly and looked behind her. "Rai, you can stop hiding," she said a little boy appeared next to her moments later; he had a smile on his face.
"Prince Rai," he said, he looked to be about nine nearly ten. He bowed and Iroh bowed back.
"Pleasure, please come this way your majesties," he said and walked through the doors. "I'll take you to your rooms then I'll have you given a tour of the palace,"
On their way to the rooms they past Princess Ursa's garden which had the turtleducks in the pond, sitting by the pond was Zuko, he was looking into the water. He looked up at them when he heard footsteps.
"Zuko, come greet our guests," Iroh called, Zuko got up and went over to them, he bowed to them.
"I'm Prince Zuko, fourth in line for the golden dragon throne," he said.
"This is King Kuei, Queen Isabella, Prince Rai and Princess Leila they are from the Earth-kingdom," Iroh explained "They are here to discuss a peace treaty with your grandfather, the Fire Lord."
"It's lovely to meet you," Queen Isabella said, smiling at the small boy. "I'm sure, Leila and Rai will play with you while we're here," she added.
"Thank you very much, your majesty. If you'll excuse me I have to go and finish my studies," Zuko said before he ran off. Leila watched him go with great interest.
"He's very well mannered," King Kuei noted. "If only you could be better mannered…" he said looking down at his son. Rai just smiled at him.
"Thank you father," he said cheekily.
"We must carry on," Iroh said. He took them to their rooms and made sure if they needed anything that they could ask. He then left then to go to the pre-meeting.
"I'm afraid I can't tell you much more," Iroh said sadly as he sipped his tea.
"You might not be able to but I can," a voice came from behind them. They all turned to see Leila gripping the door frame to hold herself up.
"You should be in bed," Iroh said. Leila smiled at him.
"No, it's alright, I'll have a cup of that Jasmine tea if you don't mind, it's my favourite," she said as she sat down next to Iroh, he gave her the cup and she took a sip and smiled happily. "Brilliant," she concluded, "I'll carry on the story…"
Leila sat down on her bed which was on the opposite side of the room from her brothers. She had finished unpacking and was waiting for her brother to finish so they could explore the palace.
"Are you done yet?" she asked, Rai was still unpacking.
"Nearly, goodness Lay wait a couple more minutes," he said as he put his clothes in the cupboard. Leila sat on her bed and looked around the room. It was full of red and gold, the floor was dark wood and the walls had red silk over them. The windows had gold Silk drapes lining them. The view from the window was beautiful, you could see the whole city, it was full of people and there was a market going on that day. "Okay, I'm done," he said as he shut his cupboard. Leila smiled at him and grabbed his hand.
"We'll go back to that beautiful garden," she said.
"Are you sure?" Rai asked.
"Come on Rai, we could practice our bending," Leila suggested.
"Okay, because you know that your water can't beat my earth," he said smugly. The two were walking down a corridor when they ran into three girls. The girls were in a kind of triangle formation with one in front and the other two flanking her.
"Who are you?" The front on asked in a snotty voice. Leila and Rai bowed to the three.
"Prince and Princess, Rai and Leila from the earth-kingdom," Rai said. The girl's eyes widened and they quickly bowed.
"I'm Fire Princess Azula," the front one said, she was dressed in a red and black kimono that looked a lot like armour. The one to her right wore robes coloured a deep red and looked to be extremely bored, though the one on her left looked to be extremely happy and excited. She was wearing a soft pink. "This is Mai and Ty Lee," she said motioning to the two girls. "And this is Zuzu," she said in a baby voice as she looked over the siblings shoulders. The two turned around to see Prince Zuko walking towards them.
"Azula," he said crossly, "Don't call me that!"
"We were wondering if we could go back to that beautiful garden, it looks lovely," Leila said softly, Zuko's expression softened as he looked at the girl about his age.
"Sure I'll take you and your brother," he said, "Azula, Mai, Ty Lee," he said before the two boys and the girl walked off. "You want to stay away from Azula," he warned, "She's no good, always teasing people," he muttered.
"Thank you," Rai said.
"Its fine, my mother might be in the garden, I think you'd like her," Zuko said and he was right, sitting by the pond was a beautiful woman in red and black robes, she had straight long black hair and a thin face she looked very regal. She looked up at them and smiled, she had lovely golden eyes which gave of a sense of kindness and compassion.
"Hello Zuko and who are these two?" she said, he voice was soft and kind as well.
"They are the Earth-king and Queen's son and Daughter, Prince Rai and Princess Leila," Zuko told her.
"It's lovely to meet you two," she said "Please come sit," she gestured for them to join her. The three of them did and they felt happy, safe, and calm and collected. "I designed this garden," she told them "It works with the balance of the earth; it's a very good place to think."
"It's very beautiful," Leila said.
"Thank you very much, Leila," Ursa said.
"Can either of you bend?" Zuko asked excitedly.
"Yes, I can bend earth and Leila can bend water," Rai told them.
"Impressive, why don't you give us a demonstration," Ursa said. Rai stood up and stopped the ground and a piece of earth flew up from the ground, he kicked and it few a couple of meters away from him. He did a quick motion with his hand and it went back into the earth. "That was lovely," Ursa applauded "What about you Leila?" Leila stood up. "Feel free to use the water from the pond" Ursa told her. Leila got a stream of water out of the pond and began dancing around; the water formed lots of different shapes and swirled around her. She finished with a ball of water in hand she directed it back into the pond. "Very nice as well, Zuko you show them a bit of what you can do," Ursa encouraged. Zuko nodded ad stood up and Rai and Leila sat down he did some kicks and punches sending flames around. Leila gasped in amazement. He finished, looking slightly tired.
"Leila, Rai," A voice called. Leila turned round to see her mother standing at the entrance to the garden.
"Mother!" Leila called.
"Are you allowed to be in here?" Isabella asked. Ursa stood up and smiled.
"It's alright with me," she said. Isabella gasped lightly and bowed.
"So sorry, Princess Ursa," she apologised.
"It's fine, you have two amazing benders," Ursa complimented.
"Thank you, your son looked very good as well," Isabella said smiling at Zuko.
"Thank you, your majesty," he said bowing.
"Please, Isabella," she said
"Yes your maj- Isabella," he said. Isabella laughed.
"I was coming to say it's time for lunch," she said.
"We'll join you," Ursa said standing up.
"That will be welcome," Isabella said smiling.
"We had lunch, but I can't remember much more, I just know though that Azula wasn't very nice," Leila said. Everyone was looking at her.
"How can you remember that so vividly?" Sokka asked. Leila shrugged.
"No Idea," she said.
"I thought I'd seen you before," Zuko said "It's because I'd met you back home," Leila laughed.
"Looks like it, flame boy," she said.
"Did you…" Sokka started.
"Just say…" Aang carried on.
"Flame boy?" They all finished. Leila looked confused and deep in though.
"Yeah, I remember a memory slightly me calling Zuko it," she said.
"Yeah, it's what you used to call me," Zuko said.
"How's Mai and Ty Lee?" Leila asked, everyone looked at each other.
"Ty Lee's joined the Kyoshi warriors and Mai…" Sokka started but trailed off and everyone looked at Zuko. Zuko looked down and cleared his throat nervously.
"Mai and I broke up, I haven't seen her in about a month," Zuko said.
"Oh, sorry about that," Katara said.
"It's fine honestly, she was starting to depress me. Everyone round the palace are all happy she's gone; she made that whole place sad, dark and depressed…" He vented.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Leila said "I hope you're happy though," Zuko looked at her.
"Yeah, I'm happy," he said smiling at her.
"That's good," she said.
"So, are we going to the earth-king or not?" Toph asked standing up.
"I will go with you, the Earth-king is partial to my tea," Iroh smiled everyone just laughed. Leila slowly stood up.
"Let's get this over with," she said.
"Alright let's go, we can get Appa to take us," Aang said. They all piled into Appa and set of towards the palace. Leila was wringing her hands nervously, Katara noticed.
"Why are you so nervous? You weren't like that in the ring," she said, Leila looked at her.
"That's different, in the ring I know what I can do and who I am, and coming here has changed all that, it's a big difference."
"Hey, we'll look after you we're your friends," Katara said, putting a comforting arm on Leila's shoulder.