Kissed By Fire

Part 11: Zuko's Threat

For a few days, it seemed as though Zuko would never visit Anut again. Now that Iroh was bringing her food and heating her bathwater, he no longer had any responsibility to look after her. But the reason he agreed to let her stay on this ship in the first place still remained.

"Have you had any more dreams about the Avatar?"

The girl's head rolled to the side, her red hair splayed out around her, as she blinked the sleep out of her eyes. "Have you ever heard of knocking?"

Quick as lightning, Zuko's hand wrapped around her throat, cutting off her air supply. "Don't think for a second that my uncle's favor will protect you. I wonder if Commander Zhao misses you? All it takes is one letter and he comes to claim what's his. Or if that sounds too unpleasant, I could just kill you myself, make it look like an accident; I'm creative like that. Do you understand?"

Anut tried to nod, but his grip was too tight. She couldn't move her neck or jaw, nor could she speak, her throat squeezed shut. Black spots started to cloud her vision, moving from the outer edges to the center, until she could scarcely see.

"I said, do you understand?"

His voice echoed through the chambers of her mind, until a blazing orange light filled the room. Had he set her on fire? 

No, it was just the sun. Anut stood on a ship, a Fire Nation ship. But it wasn't a war vessel; it was a prison. The deck of the boat was cluttered with earthbenders, their faces covered in soot.

"Beautiful isn't it?" She whipped around to see Zhao. "So glad you came back to me, Firesprite."

Anut shook her head slowly, backing up to the railing; she wouldn't go back. Looking over the side, she saw the waves crashing against the hull, ready to smash her to bits, and floating by, encased in an icy coffin, was Avatar Roku, his eyes open and bright white.

"Roku? Roku! Help me." 

"Join him." The voice came from everywhere and nowhere and sounded eerily familiar. "Join your beloved Avatar, Anut." She peered over the bow, realizing who the voice belonged to too late, and she was swallowed whole by the red-eyed unagi.

She shot up in bed screaming before Zuko clapped his hand over her mouth.

"Shush," he said, pressing her back into the pillow. "Are you trying to wake up the whole fucking boat?"

Glaring at him, Anut shoved him away from her, rolling till her feet found the floor, putting the bed between them. "First you nearly strangle me to death, and now you try to smother me? Have you lost your mind? I ought to-"

"You ought to what?" Agile as a pather-fox, he hopped over the bed, sticking his face in hers. "What are you going to do? Tattle on me again?"

"I didn't tattle, get away from me!"

She shoved him hard in the chest, sending him flying backwards onto the bed. But it was more than a simple push. It felt as though, for a moment, she reached through him, touching not just his body, something less solid and substantial. And it certainly affected the Prince more than a shove from a tiny girl should. He struggled to make it to the water pitcher before vomiting up bile.

"What the hell was that?" he spat after a final dry-heave.

"I don't know, it's never happened before."

"But how-"

"Do you want to hear my vision about the Avatar or not?" Zuko nodded, lifting himself up onto the dresser and sitting cross-legged, back straight. "I was on a boat, it belonged to the Fire Nation, but it wasn't a war vessel. It held prisoners; earthbenders. That's where he is."

"Are you sure?"

No, of course she wasn't. She hadn't even seen the bald monk there, just Roku. And she'd left out seeing the unagi and the Commander; the former would lead the Prince to believe she was feverish again, and the latter would make him think it was just a dream. But it wasn't a dream, she knew that, it didn't even happen at night. "I'm sure."

He nodded, hopping down to the floor with silent feet. "I know what place you're describing. Ships designed to keep earthbenders far from anything they could bend, just water and metal for hundreds of miles."

"That's horrible."

"They're savages," Zuko said with a shrug. "Who cares?"

You do, young Prince, Anut thought to herself. I can feel it.