Lotus Flower | Sokka

.Prologue.

༺ ˖‧₊˚𑁍˚₊‧⁺˖˖⁺‧₊˚𑁍˚₊‧⁺˖˖⁺‧₊˚𑁍˚₊‧˖ ༻

| PROLOGUE |

༺ ˖‧₊˚𑁍˚₊‧⁺˖˖⁺‧₊˚𑁍˚₊‧⁺˖˖⁺‧₊˚𑁍˚₊‧˖ ༻

"YOU LOOK BEAUTIFUL, MY FLOWER," Nuan gushed as she ran her fingers through her hair.

Nuan was a gentle soul, even though she was merely in her mid-fifties, she possessed the aura of an ancient woman who had lived various lifetimes. Being in her presence always felt like a breath of fresh air, her spirit blowing away any bitter feelings that one might be battling internally.

Liena is bold enough to say, in all honesty, that Nuan was one of the few people she considered worthy of anything. Everyone else, in her eyes at least, wasn't deserving of praise. Call her fastidious, but she had never really encountered people that left a mark in her memory, no one stayed in her mind longer than perhaps a few hours. However, Nuan had made such an impression during her years as her caretaker, that Liena was sure that her memory of the woman could transcend lifetimes.

"It won't fall apart during training?" Liena inquired stiffly, meeting Nuan's eyes through the mirror in front of her.

She heard Nuan give a heavy sigh as she pushed her lips and Liena knew perfectly well why she was releasing that sound of exasperation; Nuan, as much as she loved her, hated her lifestyle. Her constant training, her father's desire to make her the perfect warrior as he made her work towards flawlessness and shaped her into whatever he envisioned he wanted to leave as his legacy for the future.

"I assure you it won't," Nuan smiled despite her disapproving eyes, smoothing down Liena's ponytail.

Liena gave an approving nod, rising from her chair and stalking towards her closet where she kept most of her training attire. Her training uniform was quite simple seeing as she was still just a pupil; it consisted of red wide-legged pants that cinched at her ankles, an equally red tight-fitted shirt tucked into her waistline and a black long and flowy robe that wrapped around her torso and was secured with a wide leather belt.

"Prince Zuko came by earlier today, he was wondering where you had gone," Nuan said, standing by the door with her arms laced behind her back.

"I was meditating," Liena said, partly disinterested though she couldn't deny the slight fondness in her voice. Prince Zuko was what she dared to call a friend, she couldn't possibly stand his sister, but he had something that Liena admired; determination. They'd known each other since they were children and while they had their differences, they'd managed to form a friendship. Besides Nuan, Zuko was probably the only other person she considered memorable. "What did he want?"

"He seemed rather excited about some ordeal–"

"Oh, yes, there's a war meeting today with the General, Zuko was hoping to attend," Liena explained as she put on her boots.

"But he's a child! He shouldn't be near any meeting of the sort!" Nuan fumed, a lock of her black hair falling out of place.

"We're the same age," Liena retorted boredly.

"Thirteen is still young!"

Liena shrugged, she knew it was pointless to argue about these matters with her caretaker, she was strongly opinionated and rarely ever changed her mind about something. While Nuan was expressive, Liena was indifferent. Her father had made sure she mastered the art of quieting down her emotions in order to have a better and more calculating head during battle. She hardly ever let herself show sentiment, and if she did, it would only occur when she was in the presence of people she trusted.