A Kindred Spirit [Reader x Zuko]

Chapter Five

A Kindred Spirit
Chapter Five

"It seems like you're not a liar after all. You're the new avatar."

"What?" You questioned instantly before you remembered who you were talking to.

The last avatar had been an airbender and sure it followed that the one after that should have been a waterbender. But as far as you were aware the avatar hadn't been seen or heard from in over a hundred years. He must have died a long time ago or something which meant that the next avatar would have been born already, they had to have had. There was no way the world could have gone a hundred years without hearing about the avatar. Your eyes looked around those who had gathered with a sort of instinctual panic. You knew that you'd been imprisoned for six years and thus you were a little behind on what was going on in the world (more like way behind) but...there was no way that you could be the avatar. Wouldn't you have already known about that if you were?

"I can't be the avatar," you whispered, unused to not voicing your thoughts.

"The circumstances are strange, I'll give you that. You see, my brother and I just killed the Avatar only hours ago. Yet the truth is that you're able to use both waterbending and firebending," Azula mused from her spot on the throne.

"And only the avatar can use more than one element," One of the girls Azula had brought with her chirped in happily.

You looked down towards the slowly dying Long Feng. Just the sight of him even as he bled out was enough to shake away some of the fear inside of you. You would never have seen the victorious look on Azula's face as you started to accept what she was saying, if only in a small part. She was right. There was no other way to explain how you had used both firebending and waterbending. The only thing that you had no way of knowing was the fact there had been only one other case of an avatar being created after their birth - Wan, the first avatar. Azula knew this all too well and it was an exciting prospect for her.

You tore your eyes away from Long Feng and put them back to the girl who had rescued you. You took a deep breath and nodded even though you didn't know why. It wasn't like you knew what being the Avatar meant, or even really how to do very much bending at all. You only knew how to heal and apparently your ire lit fires.

It was hard to breathe.

"Can I...May I go back to my room?" you asked as you lowered your gaze.

Azula looked down at you with a critical expression, "No."

You breathed in deeply and quickly. It felt like your head was swimming in everything that had happened and everything that was going to happen. Your ribs were in a vice and your limbs felt like they were wrapped too tightly. Even your head felt too heavy for your neck, as though it was going to explode. Or roll off your shoulders...whichever one came first. Your eyes searched her face despite the fact that you meant to have them lowered. They flickered back and forth as you tried to understand what was happening. What did she expect from you?

"You will travel with us back home. We're leaving immediately."

Home for her had to be the Fire Nation. Despite the fact that your father was a ranking officer in the army you had never been to the fire nation. It was just as mysterious to you as the rest of the world if not more so. You at least had a little over a decade traveling the Earth Kingdom with your father before his death. Of course you'd been kept out of the fighting and out of the war efforts since you were only a child but it was the only land you'd ever been to. Now not only was Azula taking you from your cell but she was taking you away from the land that you'd grown up on. Despite how frightening that was a small part of you was excited by the prospect as well which only added to the dizzy feeling inside of your head.

You tried to follow her out, you really did. But once you got around the corner your body finally gave out on you and all you saw was burnt flesh before the world went dark.

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It was an interesting sensation to come back to the conscious world.  One minute you weren't you exactly, you were part of everything around you. Then a sort of understanding of individuality followed. Like the fact that you had legs and arms and how your hips ached from laying in one position for so long. Your head felt like it was in a vice grip as you realized that you existed.

"Oh good you're awake!" A cheerful voice called out.

Voices were loud and painful, you had decided that. Slowly you sat up, regretting that decision with every passing second. You felt sick to your stomach and it felt like someone had tied a knot behind your tongue.

"Azula was worrying about having to find the avatar all over again. You can't imagine the types of vibes she was putting off."

You moved your legs off of the bed, your hands gripping around the edge as you felt as though you were somehow going to collapse into the earth. You squeezed your eyes closed once more as you tried to get a hold of all your senses. It felt like you were being pulled down into the earth and drowning all at once. There was a vibrant thread of light in your mind, just behind your eyes, that you kept wanting to tug on. But a familiar fear of the unknown kept you from focusing on that. It was your denial to see the sensation through that was making you feel so odd.

"Water?" Your voice was weak from disuse.

The younger girl moved to your side with a pitcher of water. It was part of a two piece set to help wash up in the mornings, you knew that much, but it was far more beautifully crafted than anything you had seen. You gulped down as much as you could stand once you had the pitcher in your grasp. As you felt the liquid quickly sliding down your throat you stood up. The rest of the water you poured over your body regardless of the fact that someone else was in the room with you.

There was nothing quite like feeling the water slide over your skin. You let out a deep breath and focused. Your body lit up wherever there was moisture as you internalized your healing. You might not be good at offensive measures but you had many years to study healing with your mother. Other than she, there had been no one in the Earth Kingdom that had rivaled your skills. The Dai Li had provided ample opportunities for you to practice.

"Oh wow that's neat," the happy girl commented as she stared at you. "I've never really gotten to see anyone use waterbending to heal before."

"It's the only thing I know how to do."

She smiled as she clasped her hands behind her back. Meanwhile you were just trying not to fall back onto the bed.

"I hope you don't mind but I changed you into something clean while you were out. Blood and yuck totally don't suit you."

Your chest seized up for a second at the reminder. "Thank you..."

You trailed off seeing as you didn't even know her name. The pink clad girl seemed to understand as she started to introduce herself.

"Ty Lee," she said proudly. "What's your name?"

You paused as you tried to push past the cobwebs. You had given Azula your father's family name and rank with little hestitation. Somehow introducing yourself to this woman child in front of you left you feeling more exposed. Volnurable. Almost like she had caught you while you were naked.

"Zahira Kaseishin."

"That's a pretty name. Kind of sounds like it would fit in with the water tribes as well," Ty Lee said exuberantly.

"I suppose my parents wanted to name me something that worked for both of them."

"Hmm, I should be going. I need to make sure Azula doesn't want anything before we dock."

"Dock?" You asked in confusion.

"Well yeah, we've been on the ship traveling through the Earth Kingdom for the last few days. Don't tell her I said this but she gets cranky when she's been on the water for too long. And it's bad if she takes it out on the soldiers," Ty Lee said with a smile before moving towards the door. "You should come too. I bet it would do your aura a lot if you got some sun. I don't know how you survived locked up for so long. I would have gone insane."

The only thing that made you positive that this wasn't another dream of being free was the sick sensations that knotted your stomach up. Dreams didn't feel anywhere near as noxious.