Sunday, May 31st
Third Person
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"Stop crying," hushed a mother, brushing the sweat off her own brow with her free arm. The child has been crying the entire trip up the volcano, as if it knew it was about to be abandoned. "Hush, hush." She looked back at the fires from the village. It was war, and the men of the village were doing their best to hold back the fire benders.
The mother regretted the child, for she was the offspring of a now-dead soldier. The mother was from an earth-bending family, while her father... a fire bender. She was ashamed of the child, and was left with the only choice now to abandon it in a place where she would never see it again. The baby kept crying, clutching onto the blanket that was much too hot for her now.
They reached the top, where there was a little cave, she turned behind her to see if anyone had followed her. She turned back, her cheeks red with shame. She placed the baby in the shade. She made eye-contact with the baby one last time whispering a soft, "I'm sorry," before turning her back and raising an arm to her eyes to hide the tears as she ran back down the mountain.
The baby cried and cried, never stopping even when the day turned into night, and night turned into morning. It only paused briefly while the baby dozed off for a few hours, before waking and crying again. Deep in the cave, a dragon was listening to the entire exchange. The child had stirred him from his Millenium sleep. Slowly, the dragon crawled out from deep in the cave.
The dragon reached the wailing baby, the daylight sparkling off his red scales. He dropped his muzzle down to the child; he hated humans, not even a rat would abandon their offspring. Suddenly the baby reached up and put a hand through one of the dragons' nostrils. The dragon retreated due to shock taking over his body. Then he noticed the baby was no longer crying, but giggling.
How peculiar, he thought, and ducked his head once more. "I shall name you..." there was a pause in the dragon's speech, "Kaida." The baby raised its hands again, but now the dragon knew better. With his large mouth, he grabbed the blanket that was tucked tightly around the baby and brought it deep into the cave.
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"Baba!" Little Kaida ran around the deep tunnels under the mountain. She was calling out for her father who was playing hide and seek with her. Uruloki took her in when she was just a helpless child, and now eight years later, he had taught her the ways of the dragon, she could hold her own against any bender.
The only way to find her father in these dark tunnels was to track his heat. He had taught her that any and all humans have body heat that you can follow and take away. She turned a corner and his heat was gone. She knew then that she had taken the wrong turn. She turned around, slowly tiptoeing so that her father didn't think that she was getting close. This eliminated his chances of getting away when she did indeed find him.
Soon the heat was overwhelming, her senses going into overdrive. "Baba!" She shouted, jumping onto his muzzle. She felt him chuckle.
"You found me, Kaida." Her name rolled off his tongue.
"It was easy!" She smiled, lighting her hand up with fire so she can see her father. "Can we get dinner now?" She walked over to Uruloki and climbed up onto his back.
He chuckled again, "yes, we can have dinner now." He let out a huff of fire, lighting his path as he ran down the once dark tunnels. Soon enough we were at the bottom of the volcano, which leads out into a thick green forest.
Kaida's stolen fire nation clothes blew in the wind, as she rode on her father back while they hunted for dinner. "Baba," She rested the side of her face on his back, "When will I meet the other humans?"
"Do you want to meet them?" He hummed back, dodging the trees as he ran full speed ahead.
"I don't know." Kaida sighed, "what are humans like?" They made it to the ocean, where they hunted for fish to eat. She slid off Uruloki, her feet touching the soft sand.
"Horrible." Uruloki spat out with disgust. "Humans are horrible creatures." He shook his head with distaste as he walked into the ocean. Kaida was behind him sitting in the sand, allowing the warm water to brush against her cold feet.
"Aren't I a human?" Kaida said innocently. "Does that mean I am horrible too?" Kaida said, frowning. "I don't want to be horrible." She played with the fire in her hands. There was a silence, "Baba?" Kaida looked up at her father.
She was shocked to see him looking back at her, his expression soft. "You are not horrible." Then he dove his head down, coming up with at least ten fish in his mouth. He walked over to Kaida, cooking the fish as he walked. He curled up around her, dropping one of the fish into her lap. She instantly put it up to her face, munching on it.
"Baba." She looked up at him. "I love you, baba." She snuggled into his side, appreciating his warmth.
"I love you too-" then Uruloki let out a roar of pain. He flared his wings standing up. This forced Kaida to stumble away, she looked up at her father to see a large burn mark on his wings. "Run! Kaida!"
"Is it- Is it the humans?" Kaida shook with fear as she lit a flame in her hand, not knowing what to do.
"Kaida! Run!" Roared Uruloki again as he fired at the people on the cliff above. Kaida started to run away, though she couldn't forget the horrible laugh that was sounded behind her.
"Finally, I found a dragon!" Kaida looked back to see a man with a dark black beard. They made eye contact for a short second, "capture her!"
"Yes, Fire Lord Ozai." Kaida ran as fast as she could, but she couldn't help having someone catch up to her. The person wrapped their arms around her, and instantly she used her fire to burn him. She heard him scream in pain, but she broke free without another thought.
Kaida was running again but before long she felt something snake around her leg. It was a rope, and it pulled the world out from underneath her and she knocked her head against the hard ground, passing out instantly.
It was only an hour later when Kaida woke up, but now she was in a nice bed. She sat up and ran to the door. As she did, the door opened by itself, showing the man that attacked her father. He had a large frown on his face. "So, you are the girl." He huffed, closing the door behind him.
Kaida stumbled backward, scared of the man in front of her. "Where is baba!" She shouted at him, rising a fist full of fire. Fire Lord Ozai raised a brow, but then a smile came onto his face.
"He is alive." Ozai huffed looking out the window, which had a brilliant view of Kaida's home, the volcano. He clenched his fist, "I couldn't kill him before he ran off."
"Now I want to go home," Kaida then began to sob. This was the longest she had gone without Uruloki, and she was scared.
"We are going home." Lord Ozai walked over to her crouching down. He put a hand on her cheek and brushed away her tears.
"We?" Kaida rubbed her eyes, still crying.
"You are coming with me." Ozai smiled before standing.
"Am-" Kaida hiccuped, "am I in trouble?"
Ozai laughed and shook his head, his black and red robe fluttered as he turned away, walking towards the door. "Not at all." He opened the door, "goodbye..." he looked back, "well it seems I don't know your name."
"Kaida." She frowned, still trying to stop her tears.
"Goodbye Kaida, I will see you tomorrow." He closed the door before Kaida could get out another word. She ran to her bed and hid underneath the covers. She didn't want to go with these strange people; she wanted to be with her father.
Moments later, there was a knocking on the window. Kaida perked up and looked in that direction. Low and behold, there was Uruloki tapping on the window. Kaida ran over in his direction, and struggled a bit with opening the window but ultimately opened it. "Baba!" She said with a smile. "I am ready to go home!" She raised her arms, ready to climb onto him.
"No." This startled Kaida. She looked Uruloki in the eyes, watching him visibly frown, "you should stay with your species." There were shouts outside the house, people have noticed Uruloki talking to his daughter. "They will teach you."
Tears welled up in Kaida's eyes again, "But baba, I want you to teach me!" She cried out, her arms still outstretched to him.
Uruloki stepped back, "I will be here for you when you need me." He touched his head to Kaida's, a sign of love and loyalty. "I love you and will miss you," He leaned back, "now I must go," He looked down to see the fire benders trying to climb up to him.
"But there is one last thing I need to give you," he reached out a large claw hand, larger than Kaida's entire body. He wrapped it around her little arm. There was a tingling sensation, then there was nothing. When Uruloki withdrew his arm, she instantly looked down.
"Baba?" She said confused, her arm now had a tattoo of a dragon snaking around it. It was beautiful and peaceful.
"It is a mark of a dragon. I won't be seeing you for a long time. Even though your training isn't complete, there needed to be something to show the Fire Lord that he must protect my precious daughter." He gave Kaida a toothy grin, but she only cried.
"I don't want to go. Baba! I want to spend my life with you!" She pleaded, holding her arms out again for him.
"This is goodbye Kaida. But only for now." Then he took off. "I love you, my daughter."
"Baba!" She cried for him. "I love you baba!" She sobbed, as fire benders shot their fire at him as he flew away
"I love you baba..." She whimpered again, watching as his back disappeared off into the distance.