An Echo of Legends: An ATLA Mystery Story (on hiatus)

Chapter 9: Izumi

Izumi was nine years old when she first realized she was a firebender. She was on air temple island, exploring the wooded area with the other kids, fun-loving Bumi and headstrong Kya. Tenzin and Lin, too young to go exploring, sat with their parents in the grassy field nearby. It was dusk, and the trees cast long shadows on the forest path. 

"We have to push forward!" Bumi said. He picked up two sticks from the ground and handed them to Kya and Izumi, "We can fend off the dark spirits with these."

"Real spirits wouldn't try to attack us," Kya said haughtily, "The spirits are nice." Izumi was about to agree when she heard a high screeching sound.

"Aah!" She screamed, thrusting the stick in the direction of the sound. There was a rustle of the leaves as a flying lemur flew out of the tree. 

"Woah, Izumi, look," Bumi breathed. Izumi stared at the stick, which had suddenly gotten very hot. She dropped it, just as the edges caught on fire.  

"You're a firebender!" Kya exclaimed.

"I-" Izumi could only stare at the smoldering stick, "I guess I am." 

For a moment, Izumi could feel the pressure of the spirit water seeping into her clothing, its glow reflecting off of the rocks, but before she could think to open her eyes, it was gone, and she was in another memory. Izumi was older this time, maybe 12 or 13, and she and her parents were standing in the royal gallery of the fire nation palace. The walls were lined with tapestries of all the previous fire lords, all of them standing, victorious, before a backdrop of fire. 

When Izumi had told her parents she could firebend, they asked for proof, which, no matter how hard she tried, she was unable to provide. Eventually, days later, she managed to cause the wick of a candle to smoke a little, and it was decided that she could firebend, but she just needed practice. 

"Many of these people aren't figures that you should look up to," her father said, "But it's important that you know the history of our nation, so that you can seek to better it, when you're fire lord."

"Were they all firebenders," Izumi asked. Her mother nodded.

"As far as we know they were all firebenders, all men," she said, "It has long been a belief of the fire nation that the bending strength of their leader represented the strength of the land as a whole." Izumi stared at the tapestries. The eyes of her forefathers seemed to bore into her soul. If she was to be fire lord, how would that reflect upon the strength of the nation. Izumi clutched her book, an overview of the history of the fire nation, and continued to listen to her parents.

Once again, Izumi felt the spirit water, but she also heard something that wasn't there before. It was shouting. 

"We have an intruder!" it was Zhi Ruo's voice, "A criminal and a traitor to the fire nation. Apprehend Azula at any cost!" Izumi tried to reach out, to open her eyes, but once again she was sucked into a memory, a more recent one, from only a few days ago. She was on Druk, watching air temple island erupt into flames. 

"Wait!" she'd said as Zuko was about to leave to help fight the fire, "I- I can help." She was a firebender. She was the future firelord. She wasn't a child, and she wasn't powerless, but the look her parents gave her made her realize that she was lying to herself. She wasn't any of those things, not really.

"No," her mother said, "You can't." 

Izumi's eyes snapped open. She was still laying on the net, but this time she was level with the floor of the cave. Below her, the pool of spirit water beckoned. 

"Princess Izumi of the fire nation," Zhi Ruo said calmly, from a few feet. 

"I- how did you know?" Izumi sighed. 

"You think that you could mention arriving here on a flying bison, and not arouse suspicion. We were prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt, until we found who had taken you here," she replied, "You are to stay here until your families arrive while we deal with Azula." Without another word, she left the cavern. Izumi scrambled to her feet, being careful not to fall back into the water, many feet below. Then she realized that there were two fire stages stationed near the entrances. 

But she was a firebender. Izumi didn't feel different, but maybe the spirit water had made her stronger. She adjusted her stance, like she'd been taught. She stepped forward, thrust her fist outward... nothing happened, not even a puff of smoke. Well, something did happen. A high pitched, offkey sound seemed to invade Izumi's eardrums. The guards heard it too, evidently, because they immediately covered their ears with their hands. Izumi was about to do the same, when she saw a face through the exit, playing a wooden flute. 

Well, playing wasn't exactly the way to put it. It was a terrible sound. Sensing her opportunity, she picked up one of the rocks that were scattered on the floor of the cavern and dropped it onto the head of the first guard. He dropped to the ground, out cold. The other guard had her eyes squeezed shut and didn't even seemed to notice, so Izumi ran out of the cavern with Bumi, still playing the flute that Sokka had given him. 

"Did you see that!" Bumi crowed as the ran out of the mostly empty pagoda, "Just wait til we tell everyone how we took out two highly trained firebenders with nothing but a wooden flute and a rock. Izumi grinned, but inside she felt a hollow ache. 

The spirit water hadn't worked. As they ran down the stairs and into the grassy meadow surrounding the Pagoda, Izumi could see the sages firebending at a shape that was circling in the air. Oogie. And Azula, who must have spotted them, because Oogie dove towards them, clearing the area with his massive tail. Bumi and Izumi climbed on, and without a moment of hesitation, the bison lifted off again, before the fire sages could follow. 

"So," Azula said, "Did it work?" Izumi looked at her hand, trying to will the fire to come and set the evening sky ablaze.

"It worked, didn't it?" Azula said again.

"No," Izumi said, curling her hand into a fist, "It didn't."

~~~

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