𝐃𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐮𝐧 𝑍𝑢𝑘𝑜

Prologue

This journal has aged since I last wrote in it. It's a harsh reminder that my life is never going to be the same.

If this testimony has fallen into your hands, it means I am long gone. If you have read all the entries up to this point, you may know me in some sense. But that means nothing now. Everything has changed. Including me.

To whomever has found this journal, I implore you to tell my story. Publish my final testimony, tell your community, anything will do. As long as the world knows one of the Fire Nation's ugliest secrets, I can rest easy.

I was born into the Sun Warriors and raised as one. The world thought we had died out thousands of years ago, but in truth, we just began to live in secret, hidden from the world.

The history books don't do us enough justice. We came in all sorts of variations, I specifically of the more melanin-filled ones.

When the Sun Warriors went into hiding, we created a league of protectors called the Daughters of the Sun. They were our honorable guardians. But they were more than that. They were talented, formidable, cultured young women that kept us and the dragons we cared for safe. It didn't matter if they were firebenders or not. What did matter was the fire in their hearts, minds, and spirits.

Growing up, I idolized the Daughters of the Sun. I had an older sister that was one of them. She was the woman that raised me.

Once I was old enough, she trained me herself to become one. It was difficult sometimes, but I was too stubborn to give up. I pushed through. And when I was 13, I was ready.

I was inaugurated into the Daughters of the Sun, and I couldn't have been happier. The inauguration included receiving a sun tattoo on the right side of one's collarbone. It and the job came with many responsibilities.

The first year I started with small things. Patrols around the innermost area of the borders, assisting the people with everyday things, drilling with other newbies.

Once I showed I was capable, I got some more important tasks. In my second year, I took care of the dragons, or the masters Ran and Shaw, as we call them, I did patrols on the outermost parts of the border, and I ran some training sessions for future Daughters of the Sun.

Soon after I turned 15, we had our first dragon hunter in a long time. Fire Nation nobles and royals liked to hunt dragons to receive the title of "Dragon." It was a rotten thing, and the Daughters of the Sun killed anyone that tried to kill the masters.

I wasn't on the squad that caught the hunter, but I had heard rumors of what happened. He was behaving unusually when they found him, stressed and muttering. When they sprung on the hunter, he begged for mercy on his knees, swearing that he didn't lay a finger on the masters.

It was strange and unexpected, so he was captured and held captive while some went to check on the masters. I was the one watching over him. He was very pensive, and didn't show any signs of wanting to escape.

He was 16, the youngest dragon hunter to come around by far, and he was dressed in princely attire.

All it took was for me to ask his age, and he told me his entire story.

He was Prince Iroh of the Fire Nation. He admit that he originally came to slay one of the dragons, but once he met the masters, he simply couldn't do it. He felt guilty for alarming us, since he wanted to leave without causing a scene.