Prologue
He should be running.
All logical reasoning suggested that he should be running. Running to find his uncle and getting off this blasted piece of ice. Running to evade the enemy that lived in this expansive frozen tundra. Running to escape the penetrating cold that had infiltrated down to his bones, making it difficult to even warm himself with his inner fire.
And yet here he stayed. His body unwilling to move. Frozen in place just starting over the side of the bridge into the icy waters below. The place, that just moments before, Zhou had disappeared. Dragged down into a watery grave by the angry ocean because he would not accept the help of the exiled prince.
I could have saved him. He thought
The thought that all the admiral had to do was reach out his hand to the prince, and he was sure he would have been able to save him. To pull the admiral from the giant grasp of the waves and pull him to the safety of the bridge. Spirits be damned.
Why would he not accept my help? Why would he rather die than accept help from me? He thought, finally breaking eye contact with the rippling water below to look at his hands. Am I really that repulsive? Is it really that terrible to accept help from me?
Stop mulling it over and run. The logical part of his mind argued. Start running. RUN! RUN! RUN! His mind seemed to scream at him.
But all the prince could do was stare back down into the water, wondering why of all things, he was so unwanted in the world. Why he never seemed to matter. And so, he stayed, until they came and found him.
Author notes.
Just wanted to verify that I own nothing that was created and developed by the original creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
This story is just an alternate version of what keeps rolling around in my head.
Rated M to be safe, (mostly because I am not sure exactly where things will take us at the moment.)