It's another week before Aang and Zuko decide to head to the sun warrior ruins Lyra is up and walking as much as she can.
She stays mostly to herself Sokka keeps a close distance on her watching her back along with Toph.
Haru and the others stay close to Katara as their are closer to her in views about her and the prince.
Lyra takes out her wand and she raises it in her shaking hand she aims it at a stone target she has made herself. "Diffindo!" Lyra says she breathes a sigh of relief when the stone piece breaks in half. Lyra breathes deeply before repairing the target with "reparo"
A day and a half after Aang and Zuko went to the sun warrior ruins Lyra is the the first person to see Appa flying back towards the temple. Lyra is sitting at the highest point of the temple her arm is out of the cast as she had fixed it with her own magic and potions she's doing a kata moving slowly her fire a pale yellow ...she stops and presses her arms down as Appa lands and she walks slowly over to him and she buries her face in his fur.
Zuko lands next to Lyra and he puts a gentle hand on her shoulder. Lyra turns to him her face not revealing what she's thinking.
"How was it?" Lyra asks Aang and Zuko share a glance and Lyra says "what is it?" Zuko takes something from his tunic and he blows into it. To Lyra's surprise a beautiful golden dragon like creature flies over to Lyra and swirls around her before kneeling it's head.
"Zuko?" Lyra says softly not taking her eyes off of the creature.
"The chief said our arrival was foretold and...this egg was just hatched and the dragon is.."
"Yours" Zuko says.
Lyra tilts her head. "Mine?"
"He called you the last of the dragon speakers a daughter of Emyrus himself" Aang says.
Lyra's eyes widen. "Emyrus is like my great great great great grandfather." Lyra says softly.
The dragon like creature beside Lyra makes a musical noise and Lyra turns to her her eyes widen.
Hello child Lyra's eyes widen.
She touches the dragon's head and the soft feathers of the young dragon nuzzles her.
It is alright little one. I am a descendant of the Great Dragon
Ayska
Lyra whispers the name to Zuko and Aang it sounds like a hiss but they still understand the name.
Lyra gently touches the dragons head and she looks to Zuko and Aang. "Ran and Shaw?" She asks softly. Zuko nods once and he says "they gave us permission to tell you but only you. We were tested and we passed" Lyra raises an eyebrow
"In other words ...you have your bending"
Zuko nods smiling at her.
He gently takes her arm and together they walk to the main area where Sokka and the others are waiting with Aang who is waving his arms around telling the others the agreed upon story given to them by the sun warriors Ayska is sleeping curled up like a large cat next to Appa.
"Is someone going to explain what that ...creature is?" Katara asks.
"It's a dragon ..bird" Lyra says quietly. "You stole it?!" She turns to Zuko accusingly.
Zuko backs up and raises his hands "of course not ...it was uh given to us" Toph raises her eyebrow behind Katara and Lyra says "Sokka didn't you mention that you and Zuko were going to go on a fishing trip tomorrow?"
Sokka's eyes widen
"Oh! Yes he says nodding we're going to take the war balloon in case we need to travel...in the air" he says.
They all begin eating and taking turns of telling stories about their childhood. "Your turn Sparky" Toph says after she told about the first time she earth bended with the badger moles.
"Uh..I'm good" he says quietly.
"Surely there must be something" Katara says.
Thunder cracks outside the air temples walls they've moved inside the temple to a room with windows made of colored glass. This is the room they all sleep and eat in the individual rooms are still present if they need privacy for projects or other things.
Zuko shakes his head and he takes a sip of tea. "come on you must have something" Zuko doesn't speak even as Katara says "come on we've all told stories there must be something" she says
Zuko again shakes his head he rubs his temples and he finally says "I'd rather not talk about it"
"Come on you're a prince!"
Zuko stands up and says "so? Do you really think my childhood was all that great? Have you even met Ozai?! Oh wait you haven't ...you also have no idea what it is to grow up believing you are week simply because you show COMPASSION! Oh and then it's literally beaten out of you until you're numb because you can't allow yourself to feel ANYTHING! Then you find out everything you knew is actually a lie to be betrayed by your own family lose two family members all in one day" Zuko shakes his head
"do not presume to know who I am or what my life was like" Zuko blinks a few times noticing that he's standing up and the fire is flashing deep oranges yellows and reds. He sighs and he begins to walk away from the group.
"Well what about you Lyra?" Katara asks after the awkward silence.
Lyra looks to where Zuko is staring at the rain outside and she says "there isn't much to say really"
"What about your parents?" Aang asks.
"I never knew them. My father was killed and I don't know what happened to my mum" Lyra takes a sip of tea and Sokka says "who took care of you?" His voice is soft and Lyra says "Kreacher"
"What?" Toph says. Lyra smiles.
"Kreacher my elf...he...he raised me...my only other family was either loyal to the guy that killed my dad or wrongly imprisoned" Lyra says.
"But what is a Kreacher? What's an elf? What about grandparents?" Katara asks.
Lyra sighs.
"I wouldn't live with my fathers parents and they're probably dead anyway." Lyra says.
"But that doesn't make any sense! What about your mom?" Katara says.
"I never knew her" Lyra says she stands up and quickly makes a cup of tea. "I'm don't talking about it" she says before she walks over to Zuko and offers him the tea. He takes it with a small smile.
"Thanks" he says using the tea to warm his hands. Then he says
"You're different aren't you?
Lyra tilts her head.
"I mean ...I've seen you do things that don't...they don't make sense. Sometimes when you don't know I see you with a wooden stick and it seems like some kind of power I activated from it"
Lyra looks away and she nods
"I was taken from my world and brought here. My aunt's husband sold me to Ozai. He didn't want me interfering with his plan..." Lyra trails off and she wraps her arms around herself.
He gently takes her hands.
"I promise you after we end this that even if my uncle doesn't want to be firelord I'll convince him to take over while I help you find your way home" Zuko says quietly.
Lyra leans on Zuko shaking slightly he puts an uncertain arm around her and he gently cards her hair.
"Will you visit me?" Lyra asks quietly.
Zuko looks at Lyra surprised.
"You'd want me to?" He asks quietly.
"Of course. You're my..."
Lyra trails off as Zuko looks into her eyes slowly they begin moving towards the other until they hear Sokka's voice
"Hey Zuko what- he stops when he sees Lyra who rushes off towards the rooms. Zuko pink faced turns from Sokka who just says " I only wanted to make sure we were leaving in the morning for the fishing trip" he says.
Quieter he says "dude what was that?" Zuko blanches unsure of how to answer and he says "well leave at sunrise" before he goes after Lyra.