Avatar the Last Airbender: The Admiral's Daughter Zuko and OC

The Avatar Returns

I stood below deck next to Zuko and several of the soldiers that were tasked with capturing the avatar. I felt hot in my thick red fire nation cloak, but I knew I would feel better once we got off the ship and outside onto the icy landscape.

Suddenly I felt a force push me back, the ship had made contact with something, it sent me backwards, but Zuko caught me and I straightened myself.

"Are you alright?" Zuko asked me, still holding my arm.

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks," I said, smiling at Zuko.

A soldier ran over to us, letting Zuko know that we were clear to get off the ship. Zuko nodded to him, and the hatch began to lower.

I heard screams and shouts from outside the ship and felt sorry for the villagers. I wished there was a way to explain to everyone that they weren't here to harm them.

Finally the hatch thudded to the ground and I had a clear view of the village. It was small with very few houses that all seemed poorly put together and falling apart. What must have been all of the village was standing in front of the ship quaking from fear. There were no men, only women and children I realized.

A boy rushed at Zuko to attack but was pushed away quickly and shoved into the snow.

Zuko stepped forward toward the villagers, "Where are you hiding him!" he yelled at the villagers.

Everyone was silent.

Zuko reached out and grabbed an old woman from the crowd, a girl about my age reached out toward the old woman in fear I felt pity for the girl.

Zuko shook the old woman and spoke in a harsh and annoyed voice, "He'd be about this age, master of all the elements?"

No one answered and Zuko threw down the old woman and earned a glare from the girl. Zuko let out a burst of flames that passed over the villagers heads, earning cries of fear from everyone there.

"I know you're hiding him!" Zuko shouted.

The same boy from earlier now launched another attack at Zuko, they battled for only a few short minutes and under the boy finally got a hit in with his boomerang. Zuko was enraged and made fire daggers with his hands, the boy looked terrified and I took a step back in fear that Zuko really would hurt the boy.

But everyone was distracted by the arrival of a young boy who was maybe twelve riding an otter penguin, everyone stepped back in surprise as he entered the village.

Snow flew up everywhere and when the boy stopped I was mesmerized. The boy had blue tattoos on his head, I had never seen anyone with airbender tattoos before, I had only seen them in pictures from the royal fire academy library books I had secretly borrowed.

As I had this thought an exchange was made between the airbender and the villagers, the villagers had seen the avatar but they hadn't told Zuko.

Zuko was shocked, "You're the airbender? You're the avatar?"

"Aang?" the girl from earlier turned to the avatar in surprise. I found it odd that the girl didn't know the airbender was the avatar. She also noted the avatar's name, Aang.

The boy from earlier was also surprised, "No way!"

"I've spent years preparing for this encounter. Training, meditating," Zuko stepped forward angrily. "You're just a child!"

Aang titled his head, "Well you're just a teenager."

Zuko launched a series of fire blasts at Aang in anger at the remark, who defended himself by twirling his staff, dissipating the flames.

Zuko fired another blast at Aang, who twirled his staff once again to ward off the attack.

The villagers cowered as the flames streamed through the air over their heads.

Aang widened his eyes in horror at the sight of the frightened villagers and immediately ceased to defend himself.

"If I go with you," Aang said cautiously while dropping his staff to the ground. "Will you promise to leave everyone alone?"

Zuko took a step back and nodded, Azari let out a breath of relief.

The guards around me hurried to the avatar to make sure he wouldn't escape.

The girl ran toward Aang, "No! Aang, don't do this!" she said, there were tears in her eyes as she said it.

"Don't worry, Katara. It'll be okay," Aang said, he gasped as he was shoved past me and onto the ship. "Take care of Appa for me until I get back!" he said.

I watched the girl, Katara, I felt sorry for the girl but I knew that if Katara understood the whole story she might sympathize too.

"Head a course for the fire nation," Zuko said to his crew. "I'm going home."

I felt a trickle of fear run across my back at Zuko's words.

Sorry for a short one, I've been trying to keep up but I was on vacation and sadly forgot my laptop. Luckily I'm back and ready to start writing again! I'm excited for the next few chapters, as you know episode three is where we meet commander Zhao and I'm just as curious as you as to what will happen when Azari sees her father for the first time in years. As always, sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes!