Flames Of Fate (Zuko X Reader)

Chapter One: The Dancing Dragon

A hand curled around his and he turned to the owner. His mother smiled at him warmly, the flames that cast dreadful shadows across his sister and father's face heightened her maternal features, showing the comfort and love in her brown eyes. She squeezed his hand encouragingly and pulled away before anyone could catch it, they might have thought he was weak to be scared in the face of such absolute brutal show of power.

"Bring it in!" The Fire Lord ordered.

Zuko wandered what it could be. If he hadn't listened to his sister he wouldn't have missed what his grandfather had said, then he would've understood why everyone in the room suddenly looked frantically excited, his uncle looked worried and why his mother paled instantly.

Loud murmuring erupted in the throne room, excitedly rising until everyone was outright talking.

"Zuzu I told you grandfather went dragon hunting." Azula said to Zuko over the loud talking in the hall. This was the first time he'd ever heard talking in the hall that his grandfather allowed.

"There are no such thing as Dragons, Azula." Zuko snapped.

She smirked and she turned to him fully. "See for yourself."

As she said that the sound of heavy metal being dragged across the floor filled the room and everyone glanced towards the left of the Fire Lords throne. From out of the shadows Fire Nation guards pushed a giant metal crate that looked like a cage for an animal...or perhaps...a dragon.

"No." Zuko heard his mother whisper in a small pained voice.

Finally they pushed it to the centre of the room and the murmurs, hushed whispers and talking deceased faster than it erupted. General Enzo, Fire Lord Azulon's most trusted General stood next to the cage his whole right arm bandaged. The General glared into the cage. That looked like a recent burn injury, Zuko observed.

Zuko's breath hitched and his eyes widened.

If you dropped a pin in this room someone would burn you for being too loud.

The flames in front of Azulon's seat were so strong it lit the whole room with a strong orange glow. So bright no one could even question what they were looking at inside the cage.

It was definitely not a dragon...it was a girl; probably around eleven; Zuko's age.

No one dared to breathe a word of objectification, that this was a human child and not a scaled creature with claws that could breathe fire from its bowels.

Fire Lord Azulon laughed. Low at first but with every second passing it raised higher and sharper until it bounced off the walls and echoed even beyond the closed doors of the throne room into the hallways. The guards standing outside glanced at each other awkwardly.

Everyone who cared for their lives laughed along, despite an absence of humour.

The girl in the cage curled to the edge of the metal box she was imprisoned in, her (H/C) silky hair falling around her like a protective blanket. Her skin was pale. She looked like the white of a candle against the orange light from the flickering flames close to her.

Four guards stood around her cage and one went in front and opened it before cowering back with his weapon in front of him. Zuko clenched his jaw, was that even necessary?

With the cage door open the girl glanced at it numbly, her (E/C) eyes blank.

"Get up and dance, Child of the Forest." The Fire Lord commanded in a booming voice drenched in authority and power.

"Did he say Child of the Forest?" Iroh muttered in shock, his eyes widened. Only him and Zuko's mother knew how wrong this was and how it went against the balance of the human world and the spirit world. Everyone else in the room just watched eagerly, unaware.

Zuko felt a rise of anger inside of him; to put a girl in a cage, surround her with huge fully equipped guards and demand her to dance in front of power hungry adults and two kids was beyond sickening. He did not have the knowledge that his mother or uncle possessed but he knew that everything about this was wrong.

The girl in the cage looked up at the Fire Lord and barred her teeth, the fire in her eyes stronger than the wall of flame before her.

General Enzo, a tall bald man with little to no hair on his face, walked closer towards the cage and leered down at her. He whispered something and the girl's eyes widened; that seemed to break her resilience for now. She clenched her hands into fists and stood up.

The girl/dragon wore a long plain white dress. The bottom of her dress that touched the floor was shredded, burnt and covered in grime. Her hair was longer than he thought, reaching her hips; it fell around her like a (H/C) waterfall. Zuko was enchanted.

"Someone's growing a crush already." Azula teased.

"Shut up." Zuko said fiercely.

Azula's eyebrows shot up in shock. That was a first.

Everyone watched sceptically. She walked to the centre of the room, her pale feet barely making a sound. She stopped at the centre and glanced back defiantly at the throne, then after a few seconds of contemplative silence she turned to the audience.

The girl closed her eyes and she stretched her hands out as if to intimidate flying. She started singing in a foreign tongue; her voice was soft and pure, it brought shivers up Zuko's spine. Soon the roots of her hair started turning red, it spread from there, like red ink dropped onto a white cloth and seeping into the rest of the cloth. Everyone gasped as her hair turned red completely.

She began dancing as she sang. It looked more like a combat dance than actual dancing but it was done with so much grace and flexibility it was like she was born to do this dance. Every part of her body moved in sync Zuko watched with awe, he couldn't take his eyes off her.

Finally she twirled and extender her arms in the air, her red hair dancing in the wind and whipping around are small figure as she jumped up. She remained air borne for five seconds and from her open palms flames of all colours burst. She circled her hand to the ceiling and away from the audience. It raced up and burnt the ceiling with such intensity they could smell the ash and their eyes stung from the smoke.

Everyone gasped and backed away in fear of being burnt, everyone except for Zuko, he didn't care that the heat from the rainbow flames was heating his body so much it was like he was in an oven; he was transfixed on her.

The flames overflowed from the ceiling and rushed back down straight at her in a surging speed. Zuko felt his heart jump up to his throat; that flame would burn her alive!

"No! Move away! You'll get burnt!" He yelled to warn her but it was too late. The flames surrounded her and twisted around her, all the colours morphed against each other and twirled around her, engulfing her entirely.

Upon hearing his voice she turned and their eyes met beyond the fervid flames. Her eyes were now a glowing orange, she looked at him with curiosity dancing amidst the flames in her eyes. His gaze softened when he saw that she had the softest content smile on her face; the flames weren't burning her, they were caressing her, they were one with her and she was one with the flames.