Again?
Ty Lee woke up to the sound of angry roaring and quietly left the tent. This was not the first time she had done so in the past nights. Living with Azula was always a headache, but these days, it was downright impossible. She cartwheeled away from the tent towards Mai before performing a handstand, flexing her lithe body while streaching away her drowsiness. Then flexed her body till her feet touched the ground from above her head. Azula's aura had always been red and angry. But never like now. Now it was raging. Azula has been raving, destroying anything, breaking the guards, for the last few days.
But she didn't understand, how could losing the avatar make her this unhinged. She untangled herself and skipped away to see Mai. She was still brooding near the lake under the lantern light. Mai was sitting with her knees curled up against her body. She kept looking at the still water.
"Hi besty!"
She propped herself down next to Mai, she was about to speak, but was drowned by the loud angry roar of Azula. The courtyard briefly turned blue, before it returned back to its normal state.
"Don't mind her, " Mai assured her, nonchalantly while looking at the dragonflies that hovered above water. "She's harmless for now."
"Are you sure?"
They both turned back, to see the court on fire. Mai then shrugged, before replying,
"Well, as harmless as she can get anyway. "
"Okee"
Ty Lee copied Mai as she sat at the bank, keeping her eyes on the dragonflies that flew above the water. It was calm for a bit, but Ty Lee had to ask,
"Do you have any idea why she's like that?"
Mai didn't immediately answer. When she answered, her tone was uncertain.
"I might have an idea. " she replied after some time. But seeing her refusing to elaborate, Ty Lee decided to press for answers.
"Ooh, juicy gossip, tell me more."
Mai remained silent and Ty Lee decided not to press her. Instead she triedto guess.
"Is it something related to the firelord?"
Only partially, Mai knew the answer but hesitated to reveal it. Maybe because she didn't believe the answer herself.
"Because the last person to bend white flames was prince Zuko."
Eh
Ty Lee's mind froze. Zuzu? The same guy who embarrassed himself infront of the firelord because he couldn't match Azula, and went crying off to mommy?
"Well, not the same Zuko you know." Mai replied shortly after.
"Afterall, not many met the real fire prince. Not many people were born so unfortunately."
"Why unfortunate?"
"Because he had ways to make sure they kept their mouth shut." Mai clenched her fists as she remembered. He had made sure she knew what was at stake for the secret. Not just her, dozen other guards knew what was at stake.
"What changed then?"
Mai knew the answer. Everything changed after the Agni Kai. When Zuko came back, he was different. He lost something. The people who saw his mask never noticed. Ursula didn't notice that change. Nor did the fire lord, nor did Iroh. They believed his mask so much, they didn't notice the change that happened to the 'real' prince Zuko. Only those who knew past that mask saw it.
"He changed" Mai answered vaguely. There was relief as well as melancholy mixed in her voice. Because for all the threats and stakes that kept her silent, there was something else that drove not just her, but others who knew him behind that mask, to keep following, enabling him. The charisma. The current fire lord lacked this, and resorted to fear alone to rule. But those who knew Zuko behind his mask? Thay couldn't stop themselves from following him.
Ty Lee, ignorant of all this, placed her head on her knees, thinking for a while.
"So Azula's mad because she got reminded of her brother's talent?"
"Maybe." Mai replied vaguely. But she was not sure. There was a high chance of Ty Lee being correct. But Mai didn't jump to that conclusion. Not when her gut told her different. Because she truly believed Azula loved Zuko more than anyone else.
There were a lot of advantages in flying. It gives a clear look at the terrain, it reduces the distance taken as well as the effort taken to travel through the uneven ground. Plus the view was splendid. This was why Appa was the MVP of avatar. The gaang was able to always be a step ahead of the fire nation only thanks to him.
So Zuko decided to try flying as well. His method came with several advantages as well. For example, the speed. His speed would be close to the speed of sound, or at least he believed so, because he couldn't hear nothing when he was airborne. He also didn't have to rely on anyone else for his method of flying. But of course, advantages come with drawbacks. Like, landing for one.
Zuko drew his swords and held them parallel to the ground as he tried to correct himself and make his fall transition into a slow glide. Not that it had much of an effect. But it was more effective than flapping them in mid air like a chicken as he had found out through trial and error.
Chi flowed to his legs as he kicked the air, before exploding out from his heels and slowing his fall into an unsteady descent. But that alone didn't completely stop his falling as he still reached the ground in a considerable speed.
Zuko looked at the rapidly approaching ground, and turned around a little to dodge a tree that was in his path.
'Here we go....'
Crack, snap swoosh
Thump!
Zuko landed feet first, and had to bite his lips to keep himself from cursing the universe in the most vulgar words that ever came to his ears.
This was another disadvantage, Zuko looked down to see his legs swelling in a rapid pace, already redder than a cherry. If you wanted to fly via bent tree express, you gotta have strong legs. Like solid metal level strong legs. That or chi.
Zuko gingerly lifted his foot up from the half inch deep pit and placed it on the ground. Bloody stones popped out from the bottom of his foot as chi healed his legs.
He winced, but when he looked to his left, he saw the oasis and a grin made its way even through the pain. Totally worth it. Pain was nothing compared to boredom.
.