Destiny Altered (READ DISCLAIMER)

14 - The Princess and the Fire Lord

The sound of raindrops hitting against a window pane woke me from my slumber. Cracking my eyes open, I remembered that I hadn't fallen asleep in my room. The sky was still dark but beginning to lighten. It was almost dawn. I felt a chill go up my body as I realized that I was alone in bed.

Sitting up, I looked for Azula. She was seated in the chair I usually occupied, her golden eyes regarding me as a small smile played at her lips.

"What are you smiling at?" I asked, unable to keep the smile off my own face. She shrugged and said nothing, instead getting up from her chair to sit on the floor.

"Meditate with me," she finally said. Stretching as I rose from the bed, I sat cross-legged beside her. I spent several minutes focusing on my breath before going into my main meditation. After about a half hour, I brought myself back to the room.

Azula came out of her meditation at the same time. I noticed that her body temperature had increased slightly. I could feel the warmth radiating from her.

"That was the best meditation session I've had in months," I told her quietly. My meditations were usually more powerful when I was doing them with other people. Although, that probably had something to do with the kind of people I would meditate with—all high-level benders or warriors.

"Same here," she said, her voice also at a low volume. "Actually, that was the first time I was able to meditate for more than a few minutes since the day after the Boiling Rock incident," she admitted before extending her right arm in front of her body, and deepening her breath. Pooling her energy to her hand, Azula created a small flame in her palm—a red flame. I could tell she was focusing, maybe trying to make the flame bigger or maybe even make it burn blue.

Bringing my gaze from the flame to her face, I could see her expression change ever so slightly to a scowl before she extinguished the flame, clearly frustrated.

"What's wrong?"

"My bending. I focused all my breath and energy, and that measly red flame was all I could produce? I know I'm not that weak. It doesn't make any sense," she said, shaking her head.

"Hmm…" I wanted to tell her what happened to Zuko, but was hesitant after what happened last night. I decided to try anyway, since I doubted her panic attack really had to do with Zuko and had more to do with Ozai. "You know, a similar thing happened to Zuko."

"Oh?" she asked, her curiosity somewhat tempered by her resentment of Zuko.

"You'll have to ask him about it. All I know is that when he first tried to teach Aang firebending, his forms would only produce weak flames. But I wasn't with him when he learned the true art of firebending."

Her eyes narrowed at me for a moment before she gazed down at her lap. She knew what I was doing—trying to create a bridge between her and her brother that she would be willing to walk across. "I always did wonder how his skills seemed to greatly improve so suddenly after his defection."

A knock on the door interrupted our conversation as Zee entered, her expression quickly turning to one of surprise when she saw me sitting on the floor with Azula.