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Chapter 32

We arrived back at the air temple. I winced getting off of Appa. Sokka, and Katara ran over to us.

"Y/n? What happened, why are you burned?" Katara asked me getting out her water.

"And where'd you get the fancy spear?" Sokka asked poking it.

"It's not that important," I said. I pushed aside my shirt for Katara to heal the burns.

"How did the search for your mother go?" Aang asked me.

"Just as I expected," I winced, leaning on Toph for support. "My mother still hates me, and I discovered my father lived after the war. Not only that but my uncle is a traitor and now running around the Earth Kingdom."

"You should've taken care of this sooner," Katara said as she put away her water.

"I tried to tell her that, but she just kept insisting it would be fine," Toph said.

"Well it isn't, what'd you even do to cause this?"

I awkwardly scratched my head. "I may or may not have... shot a fireball at him while he was on top of me."

"Y/n, you know your body can't handle stuff like that," Katara said.

"I panicked. It was a natural response. I'm fine." I shrugged. "Now if you excuse me, I need a nap" I walked past them into my room. As soon as the door shut I collapsed to my knees. Tears poured down my cheeks. I changed back into the Fire Nation outfit, and sat in my room, crying.

The sun rose again by the time I came out. Zuko and Aang were training on one of the pagodas. I walked over and watched them.

"Now show me what you've got. Any amount of fire you can make."

Aang took a deep breath in and did a firebending move. A small burst of smoke came out of his hand. He smiled sheepishly. "Maybe I need a little more instruction. Perhaps a demonstration?"

"Good idea. You might want to take a couple steps back." Zuko gestured for Aang to step back. He did a firebending move, producing a small flame. I snorted. "What was that?! That was the worst firebending I've ever seen!"

Aang looked down at the floor. "I thought it was... nice." He looked back up at Zuko and shrugged. "Maybe Y/n can try?" They looked over at me.

I sighed and walked over. "Okay, how big am I supposed to make it? I want to be awake for lunch." Zuko shrugged, and Aang motioned for it to be big. I took a few steps back and did a move creating a large flame. I doubled over clutching my stomach in pain.

Sokka walked over biting an apple. "Hey, jerks. Mind if I watch you two jerks do your jerk bending? Oh by the way Y/n, Katara told me to tell you to not do any fire bending while you're hurt."

"You couldn't have told me this 30 seconds ago?" I glared at him as I walked past.

"Get out of here!" Zuko yelled at him.

"Ok, take it easy. I was just kidding around. Jerk bending, still got it." He followed me back to everyone else.

"Oh hey Y/n, did Sokka tell you-"

"Yeah, don't firebend. It would've been nice if he showed up just seconds before I did, in fact, firebend." I sat down next to Toph, groaning. "This week sure has been an absolute blast. Literally."

The rest of the day was spent doing almost nothing. Zuko and Aang continued to train, although that was more Zuko being upset by his firebending. To think I'm currently stronger than the son of the Fire Lord. Or at least without my injury I would be. Stupid uncle.

The sun was setting, and we were all eating dinner. "Listen everybody; I've got some pretty bad news. I've lost my stuff." We all looked at him.

Toph raised her hands up in defense. "Don't look at me. I didn't touch your stuff."

"I'm talking about my firebending. It's gone." I snorted, and Katara began laughing.

"I'm sorry. I'm just laughing at the irony. You know... how it would have been nice for us if you lost your firebending a long time ago?"

"Well it's not lost. It's just weaker for some reason."

"Maybe you're just not as good as you think you are," she suggested, glaring at him.

"Ouch," Toph said. I giggled.

"I bet it's because I changed sides," he said.

"That's ridiculous." Katara ate her dinner.

"I don't know. Maybe it isn't. Maybe your firebending comes from rage, and you just don't have enough anger to fuel it the way you used to," Aang said.

"That does make sense."

"So, all we need to do is make Zuko angry... easy enough." Sokka began poking him with the hilt of his sword.

"Ok, cut it out!" Sokka stopped, letting the sword drop. "Look... even if you're right, I don't want to rely on hate and anger anymore. There has to be another way."

"You're gonna need to learn to draw your firebending from a different source. I recommend the original source," Toph said. She began eating her food.

"How's he supposed to do that? By jumping into a volcano?" I furrowed my eyebrows, dumbfounded.

"No. Zuko needs to go back to whatever the original source of firebending is."

"So is it jumping into a volcano?" Sokka asked.

"No, it's dragons. How do you think I got my bending?" I asked him.

"You learned from the dragons?" Zuko asked.

I rolled my eyes. "No, I had their blood injected into me. Besides they're extinct now, aren't they?"

"What do you mean? Roku had a dragon, and there were plenty of dragons when I was a kid," Aang said.

"Well, they aren't around anymore, ok?" Zuko said, defensive.

"Ok, ok. I'm sorry."

"But maybe there's another way. The first people to learn from the dragons were the ancient Sun Warriors."

"I bet they didn't learn by injecting dragon blood into them," I mumbled. I ate some of the food.

"Sun Warriors? Well, I know they weren't around when I was a kid."

"No, they died off thousands of years ago, but their civilization wasn't too far from where we are now. Maybe we can learn something by poking around their ruins," Zuko said.

"It's like the monks used to tell me. Sometimes, the shadows of the past can be felt by the present," Aang said.

"So, what? Maybe you'll pick up some super old Sun Warrior energy just by standing where they stood 1000 years ago?"

"I mean, you never know. Blood worked."

"More or less. Either I find a new way to firebend, or Y/n has to teach Aang."

I widened my eyes and turned away, sipping my dinner. "You know maybe you guys should head out early."

"Do you want to come with us?"

"Huh?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Well you're a firebender too."

"Y/n needs to rest, she can't be going off and-"

I interrupted Katara and set my bowl on the ground. "You know actually I think I will join you." I stood up and walked over to them. "Sorry Katara it's a firebender thing."

She rolled her eyes and mumbled something along the lines of, 'hanging out with Toph too much'. Toph grinned at this.