Avatar; The Royal Firebender.

The Winter Solstice pt 2

"Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap this is bad. THIS IS REALLY BAD!!!" Zuko yells to himself as he paces back and forth between the two sides of what's left of the city gate. "Help us, Avatar. Keep the big freaking spirit monster from eating us. I just had to go and be the good guy didn't I? Now, I'm dead or a spirit. I don't even know what I am anymore! Ugh! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" He continues to rant, palming his incorporeal fist into his head repeatedly. "I don't even know why I can still stand on the ground. I phased through Katara trying to get her attention. Of course I get stuck in these stupid situations. I swear, this is the last time I fight an Agni-damn spirit monster. You hear me!" He yells to nobody.

He stands there in this incorporeal spirit form for a few moments before slumping against the crumbling wall with a thud. His body is not even disturbing the dirt on the ground. He exhales a breath of frustration before slapping himself in the forehead with his palm again before dragging it down his face. As he stares out at the clearing of the road, something catches his eye. Near the top of the curved branches is a twinkling light off in the distance. He stares in wonder at this shining entity as it gets bigger and bigger. As it continues to get larger, Zuko begins to be able to make out the details of the entity approaching him: large tendril-like whiskers over a bearded face, a set of wide batlike wings, and a snake-like body that slithers through the air as it flies. "I just had to open my big mouth. Didn't I?" Zuko asks rhetorically as he recognises this spirit as a Dragon.

Reacting predictably, Zuko takes off running away from the dragon while quickly trying to open Aang's staff. The now blue fan blades extend with Zuko jumping off the ground trying to get airborne. He couldn't even get the glider off the ground as it doesn't catch any wind and he faceplants into the dirt. "I can't bend in the spirit world!" Zuko says to himself wide eyed with shock and trepidation. His only choice now was to face this supposed threat head on. Knowing the wooden staff would only act as kindling against a dragon, Zuko plants the staff hard into the ground before turning and facing the beast. Balling up his fists to try to seem imposing, he instead flinches when the dragon lands in front of him. Knowing that he's completely outmatched by the creature, Zuko instead flinches and covers his face with his arm and his body with his raised leg. However what he was waiting for never came as, instead, the dragon maneuvers one of its whiskers closer to him and touches his head with it.

Feeling its whisker touch the temple of his head, Zuko suddenly feels memories and meanings being implanted in his mind. He could see the image of a burning comet streaking about the sky and the statue of Avatar Roku. When the whisker moves away from his temple, Zuko relaxes and converses with the dragon. "You're Avatar Roku's dragon. Fang." The creature nods at the mention of its name. "I need to speak with him. Can you take me to his temple?" He asks, prompting the spirit dragon to lean its head down and allow Zuko to climb aboard its back. He is careful not to step on Fang's horns as he climbs up the dragon's mane and takes a seat on a gap between two dorsal scales along its back. Standing back up to his full height, Fang extends his wings and takes off, a single flap strong enough to propel the spirit into the air at speeds far outpacing Appa.

Sitting on the back of Fang, Zuko feels a strange yet familiar nostalgia about being on the back of the dragon. He not only felt safe, but he felt as if this was something he was longing to do for as long as he could remember. Though, he thought it was odd to be moving this quickly and be feeling no movement from the air. From the back of Fang, the Avatar looks out at the world, watching as miles fly by beneath him. He watches as the ship he called home for the past three years comes into view at a port near the village where he and the others are at before it vanishes behind him due to Fang's incredible speed. In the brief instance he saw the men on the deck, he could have sworn he saw his uncle looking up at him. He continues to watch as the land turns to sea and then over the blockade that surrounds the Fire Nation mainland.