Prisoner | An ATLA Fanfic | ZukoxOC

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚃𝚠𝚘

┏━━━━━━━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━━━━━━━┓

La'kea had only been at sea for a week and she had already learned three things.

One; the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation, Zuko, had been banished by the Fire Lord. Which is why they were at sea, to chase down a long dead legend. The avatar. The prince could not return to the Fire Nation until he had captured the avatar. 

La'kea had no idea someone who could bend all four elements was even possible, but apparently they did exist... Over a hundred years ago. The prince's father had sent him on a wild goose chase, he might as well have killed him. Which is why La'kea was here actually. 

Two; she wasn't really here to be a guide, or a navigator, or a healer. The Fire Lord had fully expected her to destroy the ship and it's crew as soon as they reached open sea. A tragic accident, they would call it, a rouge slave gone mad, who could have predicted this? The ship's crew knew this too, they seem torn between giving her space as to not upset her and wanting to turn her into a pile of cinders. 

They hated her, but they were afraid of her, even in chains. Good, La'kea thought bitterly, part of her did want to summon a wave so large it would snap the ship in half. But she couldn't bring herself to do it, as much as she fantasized about it, she could already hear her mother chiding her. How would that make you better than these people?

Three; the prince absolutely hated her guts, for no conceivable reason other than she existed. General Iroh, the only person who showed her kindness since she was stolen from her home, insisted that it wasn't the case at all. That he was just going through a hard time, that she should give him the chance to show her that he really was kind.

Hard time? La'kea wasn't one to believe whatever excuses people made for royal brats, which is exactly what the prince was. How could someone who had probably never had to lift a hand for anything in his life being going through a hard time?

The burn. It flashed through her mind against her will. But the prince was the only soul on the ship that spared no expense expressing how much he wouldn't mind incinerating her. There was no fear from him unlike the other crew members.

Perhaps he wanted her to strike back.

There were nights like tonight, standing on the edge of the ship, where La'kea tried to judge if she could survive jumping overboard. But the chains prevented her from swimming, let alone bending a bubble to breathe in, and she had no idea where land was. Waterbender or not, everyone needed the land to survive. There would be no escape, at least not tonight, so she leaned against the railing, eyes closed and head tilted back to feel the breeze.

A week at sea and she still could not take the fresh air for granted, or the spray of the sea, nor the sight of the moon hanging low in the sky. What was probably years alternating between a dry prison and a dark mine shaft, that night she was brought to the palace was the first time she had breathed properly. Opening her eyes, La'kea looked over the sky, connecting the stars, and only recognized a few patterns. She was far from home but not as far as she thought, maybe a month's voyage, the thought was comforting.

She wanted to stay out here longer, but dawn was approaching and the shackles on her wrists were starting to become unbearable. They had to come off, but only once she was safe in her quarters. Even if the crew feared her, that same fear might make them take her out on the spot if they saw her without chains. To the crew, the chains were the thin wall between them and death.

There was no sneaking around the ship with the racket the chains made when she walked down the dark hallway. She hoped that it woke up the soldiers if only to spite them. Even if officially she was logged as the ship's healer slave, she had no such official duties besides the stray accident and the prince's irregular healing sessions. Her mother would have been proud of the progress she had made, the once fatal burn had been reduced to only an unsightly scar, but more work would have to be done for his hearing in the burnt ear.