Spark [Prince Zuko - Book One]

❃Chapter One❃

Two years later . . .

Everything had changed. Asake's life was flipped upside down on that cursed day. The chaos that ensued after she woke up from passing out was almost enough to make her regret her decision. Yet she would never regret saving Prince Zuko's life, even though he got on her nerves every single day after they were thrown together on this ship. At first, Asake thought that the ship was big, bigger than anything she had ever been in besides the Palace. Two years later, she knew all of the hiding places because it had shrunk. Prince Zuko's permanent bad mood invaded each space on the ship.

Still, after everything her and Prince Zuko been through together, she wouldn't change it for the world. She had met some great people in this journey so far. For some reason, she felt like great things were on the horizon for her.

Just not today. Prince Zuko was in another one of his bad moods again. Asake thought he was slowly becoming Anger; that was the main emotion that would always transform his handsome face. His long legs took him through a path set out on the floor of the ship as a furious look appeared on his face.

"Prince Zuko, you need to calm down," Asake said to him. 

It was just the two of them standing on the forecastle. Generally, the forecastle was used for archers to shoot down people on other ships. On their ship, they didn't have any archers, so her and Prince Zuko stayed there for most of the day, watching for any sign of the Avatar. She usually kept to herself, but he was really unnerving her with his pacing.

"I don't need your input," Zuko said icily. 

His amber eyes flicked toward her; one of them was wide open and intense. The other was a slit like the gilacorn had. A bright red scar painted across the slitted eye. The color matched the scar that tingled on her calf. It wasn't the same shape, but it was for the same reason. They both were burned because they cared for the wellbeing of other people.

"We'll find him," she said, placing a hand on his shoulder. The muscles underneath her palm tensed up at the sudden touch. She hadn't anticipated on doing that, and he also looked surprised that she did that. "It's only a matter of time before we catch the Avatar."

"It's been two years," Zuko snapped. He lifted her hand off of her shoulder and pushed it away with a slight flick of his hand. He was acting like she was a disgusting creature, which she definitely was not. A small fire lit in the pit of her stomach, but she brushed it off. He had a lot on his mind right now. "How much longer do we have to wait?"

Asake sighed. She glanced to the side and saw Iroh, Prince Zuko's uncle, sitting at a low table, playing some sort of game. She hadn't realized that he had joined them because she was focused on Prince Zuko. He had on an easy smile, so she shot him a withering look that asked him for help. He only shrugged before concentrating on his game again.

A brilliant shaft of white-blue light shot up into the icy air, casting a soft blue glow around them. Asake gazed up at it with hope racing through her veins. Zuko must've had the same thought because he ran to the telescope that balanced on the railing of the ship. He angled it up toward the early morning sky and breathed out, "Finally. Uncle, Asake, do you realize what this means?"

"I won't get to finish my game?" Iroh asked dejectedly. Asake hid a laugh behind her hand or else Zuko would have killed her.

"It means my search - it's about to come to an end," Zuko said. He looked up from the telescope and turned his narrow-eye gaze, first to Iroh, then to Asake. She met his gaze with her own hopeful one. "That light came from an incredibly powerful source. It has to be him!"

"I agree," Asake said, coming to Zuko's rescue. Iroh looked wary of how Prince Zuko immediately jumped to that conclusion. Prince Zuko had done that a lot in their first days on the sea, but Asake knew that this couldn't be anything other than the Avatar. "That light can't have been anything else. Nothing is as powerful as the Avatar."