Flame of the Heart - Book 1 // Zuko

Chapter 13

Zuko groaned when he woke, he next morning. He didn't realize it, but he had slept in, the shutters having kept the light out, so it seemed like it was still early. Sighing he got up and retied his hair before grabbing his pants and pulling them on over his boxers. He grabbed his shirt and was about to pull it on when he heard a loud grunt from above. Bursting through the door and up onto the deck, Zuko crouched, ready to pounce but slacked when he saw what was going on.

The men were standing on the sidelines of the ship, watching as Raven went at it full force against Uncle Iroh! Zuko watched with slacked jaw as his uncle shot a ball of fire at the girl but Raven brought her foot up and kicked it away, shooting a series of ice spears at his uncle which the old man dodged.

Iroh shore five consecutive balls of fire and there was no way that Raven could dodge each of them. The girl smirked before she took two summersaults back, putting some distance between her and the oncoming fire. Crouching down low to the ground like a panther, she brought both hands behind her before sweeping them forward. Zuko felt his heart literally stop when ice formed out of thin air and leapt toward the fire before forming a huge wall in front of the girl. Raven rushed forward when the first fire ball hit the ice, partially melting it. Pressing her hands against the ice, she kept it frozen as the other balls struck.

When the last ball struck, she began to move her hands in a circular motion around her head and everyone watched as the ice wall began to float in clumps of ice around her head before she suddenly drove her two fists together and they seemed to burst.... until Zuko saw what had happened.

While everyone had been distracted by her swirling show, the girl had secretly created a casing of ice crystals around uncle Iroh and when she slammed her fists together, she frozen them around him, holding him down.

"Impressive," Iroh said, his voice definitely showing admiration. "But what if I melted the ice?"
Raven smiled before jabbing her thumb at the handle of her sword which still hung at her belt, "I'd knock you out."
Iroh chuckled before he melted the ice, brushing the shards off his clothes, "Excellent! Good strategy. I think that's enough for one morning though. I'm off for some tea."
Raven nodded before removing her scabbards and placing them against the side of the ship, near a bucket of water and a towel. Grabbing the towel, she dried the sweat from her arms and neck before dampening it with water. She began to wipe her face and her neck, sighing at the coolness when Zuko approached.

"You're not bad at fighting," he pointed out. "Though I would like to see you fight with swords."
Raven smiled, draping the towel around her neck, "That sounds nice......"

Zuko noticed her face heat up but it wasn't from the exercise. That was when he realized he still didn't have his shirt on, and he quickly pulled it on. When he pulled it over his head, Raven had turned around to hide her blushing face and was wringing out the towel.

Zuko was about to speak when his eyes fell on the sliver of skin that the top of her pants and bottom of her shirt did not conceal. The first thing he noticed other than the tanned color of her skin was the wide scar that ran from the left corner of her hip bone diagonally across her back, disappearing under her shirt.

"Where did you get that scar?" he breathed.

Raven's hand shot to her lower back to conceal it before she spun around, ducking her head, "it was before I was sent to Ducranah."

Zuko was about to ask further when uncle Iroh poked his head back above deck, "Raven! Would you like some tea?"
Raven quickly grabbed her swords before nodding, "I would love to."
A little too hastily, the girl hurried to Uncle Iroh before disappearing down. Zuko didn't fail to notice how quickly she tried to get out of his presence. Did he tread too far into a sensitive area? But where did she get a scar that big? He was wide and from the color of it, it had been very deep.

Uncle Iroh followed his nephew's curious gaze and his keen eyes fell on the scar that was just visible beneath Raven's shirt... before she pulled on her jacket and hid it. The old man frowned, wondering why such a sweet girl would get such a wound like that. The last time he thought that was with....... SHIRA!

Uncle Iroh felt the world freeze around him. Same height.... Same eyes.... Different hair but she could have died it.... same gentle voice.... And that scar could very well be part of the same wound that was planted on Shira's back before she was banished....

The man shook his head. He couldn't get his hopes up, or Zuko's. He mustn't tell his nephew till he was absolutely sure.