And we are finally on chapter 7 , hope the wait isn't too long for you all . But I've been trying to alternate between updating my Rising of the Shield Hero fic 'Dishonored Princess' and this story which is of equal importance to me . Hope I can get both of these stories on a somewhat consistent schedule but considering how college has been a b*tch to me these past few weeks that may take longer than expected .

But anyway hope you all enjoy the chapter and I think you all will like the last scene which hints at some important stuff happening in the future of this story .

But enough with me flattering myself , let's get right into the chapter !

" Why do we have to do this ? " Azula asked , slight irritation in her voice .

To be honest , Azula wasn't completely sure what she had been expecting when she flat out asked for Kazumi's help in recovering her former sanity . Or at least help make the damn voices and nightmares in her head stop once and for all .

What had she been expecting ? That Kazumi would use some kind of secret magical power that would erase most of her memory and finally get all voices and ghost to stop haunting her ? As if that would happen .

Instead what actually happened is that Kazumi dragged Azula out of the house and was now having her ostrich horse snuggle up to her as she sat next to Kazumi , who was petting her tigerdillo . They were all sitting by the lakeside at the moment .

Azula was seriously questioning the logic of how this was supposed to help her .

Kazumi smiled at her " No real reason , I just thought that this might be relaxing for you ..."

" It really isn't ..." Azula bluntly said , trying to gently nudge away the ostrich horse that was very slowly moving its head onto her lap . When she hadn't even offered it in the first place .

" Well , what do you like to do to relax Azula ? " Kazumi patiently asked .

" I ... I don't know " Azula was at a genuine loss for words at Kazumi's question " I guess firebending is calming for me but ... "

It took her about a full minute to realize that she genuinely didn't know what she did to relax . The closest she can think of is practicing her firebending , but even that always felt more to prove herself to father than anything .

All the get-togethers she had with Mai and Ty Lee in her youth ? That felt a bit closer . But even those became rare the older she became and after Zuko was banished , Ty Lee joined the circus and Mai went away , Azula was alone . With father .

She didn't have much time for herself , she was the princess of the proud fire nation and she always had to be constantly improving to meet his endless expectations and standards . Whether that be in firebending , studying and coming up with war tactics or memorizing fire nation history . Father wanted perfection in all of them . So that left little time for Azula to spend on herself .

In fact ... now that she thinks about it , the most recent she can think of is when all of them went to Ember Island to 'relax' ... and Azula opened up a bit about herself .

You're right , I don't have sob stories like the rest of you . I could sit here and complain about how our mother liked Zuko more than me but I really don't care anymore ...

My own mother ... thought I was a monster .

Her words that night still rang in her mind . She had played it off as a joke as a means to hide her vulnerability at the time . She didn't want to seem weak in front of Zuko or Mai or Ty Lee .

" Azula ? Are you okay ? " Kazumi's voice knocked Azula out of her stupor . Azula had almost forgotten where she was for a moment .

" I'm ... I'm fine ..." Azula tried to shrug her off .

" Azula ... I'm not a mind reader , but even I can tell that was a lie " Kazumi pointed out which made Azula flinch a little . Kazumi carefully rubbed the head of the tigerdillo gently as she looked at the young girl at her side .

" I'm willing to guess that you never had much time for yourself , right ? " Kazumi accurately guessed .

" ...Yes " Azula admitted after a moment .

She didn't have that luxury of relaxing . She always had to be improving to impress her father . Never even stopping to breath if he commanded it .

...

...

...

...

...

" Do you want to talk about it ? " Kazumi gently said after a moment , which made Azula look over to her in slight surprise .

Azula wasn't sure about how to answer that if she was being honest with herself . She wasn't sure whether she really wanted to talk about her sordid home life with Kazumi but ... she did agree to letting Kazumi help her but ...

She just didn't know . She just wanted to swallow all of her feelings . Like she always did .

" Azula ... " Kazumi softly started , moving a bit closer to the girl " I won't force you to talk if you're not ready for it ... but I know from experience that it does help to talk about it . Instead of pretending it isn't there and will go away eventually "

Kazumi spoke in that motherly tone of hers as she continued " ... And its okay you know ? To be admit that you're not 'fine ' ... that's always the first step when it comes to healing ... at least in my experience "

Kazumi spoke nothing but truth to Azula . She knew from her own past that it did help or at least would have helped if she had somebody to talk to about her experiences . But she had no one . Her own mother had passed away at that point and she didn't have any friends she could confide to .

Kazumi sometimes wondered how she had survived those dark days ...

Azula looked at the woman considered her words . She did ask for her help ... but Azula knew that if she wanted to get better ... she had to put at least some effort into it too .

" O-Okay ..." Azula slightly nodded after a moment " Where should I start ? "

" Wherever you feel comfortable dear ..." Kazumi said with a comforting smile .

Azula carefully considered her words . She wasn't about to tell Kazumi her royal heritage ... but she did want to tell at least some of the truth .

" My father ... was a harsh man " Azula said after thinking it over " He wanted nothing short of perfection and nothing less from his children ... whether that be in bending , studies or intellectuality ... he wanted perfection in all of them " Azula felt saddened at just thinking about her father ... how he tossed her away like common garbage .

" I can't imagine that was easy for you ..." Kazumi quietly said .

Azula was silent for a moment before continuing " ... It ...wasn't so bad ...at first . I was the prodigy of the family . The 'Golden Child' so I didn't mind it so much when I was younger ... " Azula took a deep breath before continuing " But as I got older and father's expectations and standards kept rising ... I had to constantly keep improving to meet his standards ... but it was never enough . It was never enough . "

" But I kept doing meeting his expectations anyway . I didn't want to end up like my brother ... he was the failure in our father's eyes ... but father would not have hesitated to do the same to me if I failed too " Azula said somberly .

Kazumi was very careful before she asked " Azula ... did your father ever ... hit you ? "

Azula looked at Kazumi in surprise . And then she let out a humorless chuckle " No ... father never physically hurt me ... but he always knew exactly what to say to make it hurt just as much . Whenever I made a mistake , he let me know about right then and there to my face . Always knew exactly what to say to hurt my pride or my ego or make me feel like I was the most worthless person on the planet even more than my brother ..."

" ... I always knew that my father was not a good man . But I was just foolish to trick myself into believing that he just might have cared about me ... or at the very least be proud of me ..." Azula grit her teeth " But then I realized that I was nothing to him . Just another useful tool to be discarded as soon as it outlived its usefulness ..."

Azula looked out across the lake " You know its funny ..."

" What is Azula ? " Kazumi softly asked , moving closer .

" My father always said to my brother that he was 'lucky to be born' and that I was born lucky " Azula recalls the first time that father ever said that , like an old echo in her mind " Perhaps that was true at first . But later on , my brother lived luckily than me . He wasn't the one who had to put up with all of father's expectations and near impossible standards . It was me who had to put up with all of that . My brother at least had my idiot of an uncle and mother to make him feel better about his pathetic existence . I didn't have anyone ... and now there's no one left "

Kazumi was silent as she watched the young girl finish telling her tale .

What kind of parent does that to their own children ? Pit them against each other and make them compete to the 'best' ?

An abusive one that's for sure .

An in an abusive household , the abusive parent never just abuses just one of their kids . Even if they have a 'favorite' . Though from the way Azula told it , her father was abusive in the more mental and emotional sense . Making her feel worthless without his approval ...

What kind of man does that ?

Kazumi hadn't even realized that a few silent tears had started to fall from Azula's eyes .

Kazumi didn't waste a second as she moved to sit next to the young girl , grab her shoulder and pull her close . Letting the young girl rest her head on her shoulder as she let tears out .

" ... I know you've had it hard Azula ... but you don't have to be 'perfect' anymore ..." Kazumi reassured her " And you don't need to prove anything to anyone either ..."

Azula was quiet for a moment before speaking " ...I-is that true ? "

" I'm pretty sure it is ... "Kazumi said with a soft smile .

Azula didn't say anything more , deciding to simply enjoy the peace with Kazumi for a bit longer .

She might just learn to 'relax' at this rate .

Shin of the Yuyun Archers considered himself to be one of the very best among them . And no , this certainly was not his ego talking , no matter what his wife may say .

He had been a Yuyun Archer for over 25 years , surviving the war , seeing the Hundred Year War brought to and end and seeing a new Fire Lord get crowned was definitely not something he expected he would live long enough to see . But as Agni would have it , he did survive it .

And that also meant he had the skills and experience to show for his position as a Yuyun Archer .

Which is why it came as almost no surprise when the Fire Lord himself came to him and requested he and some of the other more experienced to track down the former Crown Princess , Azula .

He hadn't been high up enough to ever have encountered the princess in person but he had seen her once or twice during one of the war speeches .

He didn't know the exact details but according to the whispers among his peers apparently the princess had challenged her disgrace brother to an Agni Kai and lost her title of 'Fire Lord ' though Shin genuinely wondered whether that even meant anything at the time since the former Fire Lord Ozai had crowned himself the Phoenix King . Pretty strange title if you asked him .

But anyway getting back to the assignment , Shin was certainly surprised when Fire Lord Zuko approached him and asked him to track down Princess Azula . Who had reportedly fled into the Forgetful Valley and disappeared weeks ago .

Now Shin prided himself as an experienced and veteran archer and an even better tracker but this forest ...

This was comparable to hell .

First day he and his team arrived at the forest , they were attacked by the vicious plants and animals . He had heard of places where the animals and plants could be violent but this forest was on another level entirely .

It made him seriously wonder whether the Princess was still alive at this point . He and his team were barely surviving out here . And she had disappeared weeks ago into his hell of a valley .

At the moment , Shin and his team were taking a break while he sent out one of his men , Cheng to scout the route ahead . They couldn't burn a path open . The Avatar himself had warned against doing that , apparently it would have upset the 'Mother of Faces' or something ? He wasn't really sure what the Avatar was trying to say but it sounded like if they pissed this mother off , they would have to deal with the full force of this nightmare forest .

It had been yet another long day of scouring the forest and finding nothing to show for it .

Shin took a deep breath as he saw Cheng come out of some bushes nearby " Anything ? "

" I found a route that I think we can take , but we should we move before we run out of daylight " Cheng advised and Shin nodded .

" Alright , pack up ! We're moving " Shin ordered and his team responded with groans of tiredness .

" Stow it , you lazy bums , you're Yuyun Archers not some lazy Earth Kingdom bums " Shin rolled his eyes as they all started moving .

As they walked , Shin heightened his senses and kept his eyes to the ground . On the watch for whatever clues might pertain to whatever might have happened to the Princess . He's practically praying to Agni that they find a clue at this point .

Though one of the downsides to this is he could also hear some of his men chatting it up behind him , at the very back of the formation .

It was Zheng and Cho that was busy talking , and Shin didn't have the strength or will at this point to interrupt them . So he just listened .

" I'm just saying there's no way that the Princess made it this far , its impossible ! " Zheng complained .

" Maybe ... but wasn't she a prodigy or something ? Its possible she might have survived " Cho argued .

" Yeah 'maybe' , that's a pretty big maybe . And from what I heard the Princess was apparently losing it around the time of Sozin's Comet , banishing servants and shit . One of my friends that worked said that she was unhinged " Zheng countered " And from what I heard , Fire Lord Zuko put her in an asylum because she went crazy or something "

" Do you really think a girl with barely any sanity could survive out here ? We're barely getting by as it is ! " Zheng said way too loud for Shin's comfort .

" Maybe you two idiots should focus more on tracking that girl , instead of gossiping like a couple of school girls at a slumber party " Shin quickly cut in with a hint of anger in his voice .

Both Zheng and Cho straightened up and bowed their heads in shame " Sorry sir ..."

Shin let out a sigh as he turned to Cheng who walked up to his side .

" Zheng has a point you know . There's no way that the Princess could have made it this far on her own . She had no supplies and she doesn't have our navigation skill to make it in a forest like this as far as we know " Cheng argued " With no sign of her in the weeks we've been scouring the forest ... it may be possible that she has ..."

Died .

That word went unspoken by the both of them .

" What do you want me to do ? Send a letter to Fire Lord Zuko and tell him that we gave up and that he should presume that his sister is dead when we have found no evidence of the matter ? " Shin said with a bit of an icy tone .

" You know that's not what I'm saying ... but maybe the Fire Lord should start to consider the possibility " Cheng said quietly .

Shin knew that he had a point . They had found no traces of what had happened to the Princess since they had arrived ...

Maybe it was time to throw in the -

Shin stopped himself as something up ahead caught his eye . It would have easily been ignored by anyone else but it couldn't escape his hawk eyes .

Shin ran ahead without a word , towards the thing that had caught his eye . It was tangled on a sharp branch . Shin ran up to the branch and plucked the item from its sharp grasp .

It was a single piece of red cloth .

He stared at the simple piece of cloth as he felt it against his fingers , as his team ran up to him .

" What did you find sir ? " Cheng asked .

" This belonged to Princess Azula " Shin said without doubt .

" How do you know tha-"

" The cloth itself is too fine and is only worn by members of the royal family . And its not nearly as degraded as it should be if it was worn by somebody that hadn't just entered this forest weeks ago " Shin gave a small smirk to Cheng " Couldn't have made it this far , huh ? "

Cheng crossed his arms " You and I both know that's a thin lead at best ... not concrete at all ... but it does show that she did make it this far " Cheng looked up at the darkening sky " We should set up camp before it gets too dark "

" Agreed . Let's find a good spot to set up camp , let's move people ! " Shin stuffed the piece of cloth into his bag .

It was too early to give the Fire Lord the good news . He knew that it was indeed a very paper thin lead .

But if there was even the slightest chance the princess was still alive , he would take it .

He'd hate not to live up this reputation .

Hot damn this chapter was a twister to write ! But I hope the wait was worth it nonetheless . I'll try to keep these updates as frequent as possible .

And I am happy that I got to introduce the tracker group that is searching for Azula . They will be important to the story later . And thanks to HammerTide for giving some info in regards to who exactly Zuko tasked to find Azula .

Anyway that's all for now , see you all in the next one .

Angel Out .