It was a warm day, with the sun shining in the clear blue skies over the small garden of the Fire Nation's grand palace. The Fire Nation, the most powerful nation in the world, and has been for nearly a hundred years. Though once a proud nation filled with beauty and strength, was now a source of terror for all the other nations of the world.
It was even bathed in the blood of hundreds of air nomads, because of a fear the Fire Lord, Sozin, had at the time. That the Avatar would keep him from starting the war just as the previous Avatar did so many years ago before he was killed.
So, to begin the war and to show a sign of strength, Fire Lord Sozin issued an order to wipe out ever single air nomad in the world, so that the Avatar would not be reborn to face his nation, such as the previous Avatar did before. Little did he know that the avatar was still alive, hidden away until the day came for him to awaken to save the world from the Fire Nation.
However, that is not where our story begins. No, our story begins with a sunny day accompanied with the laughter of children running around in the gardens near the beloved turtle duck pond. In the back gardens of the Fire Nation palace, were the two young heirs to the throne.
Prince Zuko, a young boy of age six with a bright smile and an even brighter future ahead of him, as he was the only son to the second born of the Fire Lord Azulon, Prince Ozai. The young prince smiled, as his younger sister, Azula, chased after him laughing at the fun they were having. It was one of the few times the children ever had fun. Between their firebending training, their studies on ruling the nation, and their meetings with their Grandfather once in a while, they hardly had time to be normal children.
However, today would be the day that everything would change. Zuko was tackled by Azula, forcing him to the grass.
"Got you again, Zuzu!" Azula teased.
"Don't call me that, Azula!" Zuko said back, but smiling thinking that the nickname wouldn't catch on.
The two sat up in the grass, only to hear someone talking on the other side of the turtleduck pond. They looked up and saw two of the fire sages walking with someone in between them. They walked towards doors leading inside, when the stranger they were escorting stopped.
The sages looked down at the stranger concerned, "Is something the matter, milady?" One of them asked.
The stranger walked away from the sages and turned towards the young prince and princess. The two were finally able to get a decent look at the stranger. They were wearing a black cloak with a hood covering their hair and face, so the prince and princess couldn't see who it was. They were small, seeming to be about their age or so, and from what the sage had called them, the two knew the stranger was a girl.
Slowly, the stranger walked over to them.
"Milady, please, we must be going." The other sage said. The stranger shook her head.
She walked up to Prince Zuko and raised their tanned hand up to his head. Zuko backed away a little, but the girl stepped forward to get a little bit closer. She raised her hand and brushed out some grass that had gotten stuck in his hair from playing with his sister a moment ago.
"A prince of the Fire Nation, should not waver in his strength, nor his appearance" she said, her voice soft and delicate. Zuko could feel his heart thumping in his chest. He had never heard such a soft and delicate voice before. Everyone in the Fire Nation had loud and commanding voices, hardly ever holding a sense of delicacy or kindness, so hearing a voice such as hers was something that neither the prince nor the princess had expected.
The girl then turned towards Azula, brushing off a bit of dirt from her cheek and clearing the grass from her dress.
"Neither should a beautiful princess like you be so covered in dirt. A beautiful girl like yourself is something precious to her people." She said, and then walked back over to the Fire Sages, "Shall we get going now?"
The sages nodded and escorted the girl into the palace. Zuko and Azula only stared, watching as the girl disappeared behind the doors, neither of them knowing what her presence would cause in the Fire Nation.
A few hours later, Zuko was in his room reading the assigned scrolls given to him by his teacher, when a knock came to his door.
"Who is it?" He asked. The door opened, revealing his mother, Ursa. She was holding Azula in her arms, the little princess dressed in her best clothes.
"Zuko, your Grandfather has called all of us for a meeting with him. Hurry up, best clothes." Ursa said. Zuko knew not to keep his grandfather waiting, so he jumped up from his chair and got dressed as quickly as he could.
Once he was finished, he followed his mother to the chamber where his grandfather was always sitting on his throne. His family walked into the room, immediately feeling the heat from his grandfather's flames rising in front of him. Zuko's uncle, General Iroh of the Fire Nation, was already there with his son, Lu Ten. The family bowed to the Fire Lord in respect.
"Father, is something the matter?" Zuko's father, Ozai, asked, "You sounded troubled when you called for us here."
"On the contrary, I have called you here because I have acquired something very precious to the Fire Nation." Azulon said with a smile on his face.
"What have you found, Father?" Iroh asked.
Azulon shuffled away and revealed the same child dressed in black that Zuko and Azula had met a few hours ago. The same girl who spoke so softly to them. He looked down at the girl and patted her head.
"You may go down and meet them, child." He said.
The girl nodded and walked towards the edge of the platform towards the flames. The others were about to warn her about the fire, but all she did was snap her fingers and the fire parted for her. Bits of the fire next to her turned white as she walked and jumped down from the platform. She walked closer to the sons and their families before stopping a couple feet away from them and bowing respectively towards them.
Ozai was shocked by the appearance of a child that simply walked through the flames.
"Father, who is this peasant child?" He demanded an answer from the Fire Lord.
"Be silent, Ozai!" Azulon shouted, "I am placing the child under your care, Ozai. Take care to keep her well. She is very important and very special."
"Why my care, father?" Ozai asked even more annoyed by this fact, but still trying to contain his temper.
"Your brother Iroh is busy fighting in the war, so you are the only left to care for her."
"Father, if I may ask, why is this child so special?" Iroh asked calmly.
Azulon smiled, "Child, show them your power."
The girl nodded and held out her hand. Immediately, the flames around the Fire Lord were turned from their normal orange and yellow to a pure white color. The royal family's eyes widened when they saw the sudden change in the fire's color, and then, a single white flame appeared in her hand.
Zuko and Azula were the most entranced by the strange white flame. They had only heard legends about these colored flames, and they only belonged to the strongest Firebenders and a special type of person with an honorable title.
"This child... can consciously wield and bend white flames. Child, show them the mark." Azulon ordered. The girl, with no hesitation, shook her flame from her palm and reached to the collar of her cloak to pull it down.
The family could clearly see a dragon's mark on the girl's chest. A symbol of what and who she was.
"It can't be..." Lu Ten gasped.
"Is this child is what I think she is?" Iroh asked just as surprised as his son.
Azulon nodded as the girl allowed her collar to go back to its rightful place.
"This child is a reincarnation of the mighty Dragons. A Dragonborn." He announced, "Therefore, this child will be trained by the best and used in the war when she is properly prepared to fight. Ozai, take her to a room in your section of the palace. She is to be watched carefully and no harm is to come to her unless it is under training. Do you understand?"
The flames in front of the Fire Lord slowly turned back to their normal shades of orange and yellow as Ozai nodded and the family began to take their leave. But just as the girl started to take a step, she tripped on her long cloak and started to fall. She would've hit the floor if it wasn't for a pair of small, thin arms catching her in time.
The girl looked up to see Ozai's son, the young Prince Zuko, holding her up. Zuko felt his cheeks and ears burn like a bright flame as he looked into her eyes. It was as if he was seeing a rainbow, her eyes sparkling with so many colors that changed in the light of the glowing flames.
The girl quickly pulled herself away from the prince and bowed, "I'm sorry for falling into you, My Prince." She quickly said, "I hope that you can forgive me for my disrespect towards you."
Zuko couldn't say a thing, only thinking about seeing her eyes again from under the hood of her cloak. All he could do was nod and walk away with his family as the girl followed behind them.
This was the beginning of the destiny that all the Fire Nation would follow. That all the world would follow.