The Blue Spirit ღ (Zuko x OC)

Chapter ⅠⅤ: Sowing Fates

The girl awoke after several hours of much needed rest in the burrow beneath her tree. She stretched, before digging through a sack of belongings to retrieve a pair of loose black pants and a shirt that seemed to float above her body at the openings. She tied a pale sash splattered with mud around her waist, reminding herself to find some laundry soap in the next few days.

 She made her way to a part of the marsh with plenty of tree cover, before putting her hand in her pocket and retrieving several small pouches. She opened one and poured its contents into her free hand, dozens of tiny black seeds trickled into her palm, and she let some drop onto the ground, then scattered them sporadically around the first few. She did the same in different spots with each pouch.

She stood at the edge of the clearing and took a deep breath, letting the thick scent of loam fill her nostrils. She started to hum softly, a song she had known for lifetimes, that had fallen almost completely through the cracks of time, and began rotating her wrists. She felt the swirling energy trickle from the top of her head, down her throat, feeling like sorrow in her chest, and down into her stomach. She stretched out her right foot, flexing her toes and shifting her weight, feeling the marsh moving with her underfoot. With another breath, she skipped, then twirled slowly, balancing herself on one foot as she dipped herself low, her arms swinging gracefully over the seeds, causing them to sprout. She sung and continued to dance elegantly about, losing herself to her act as the seeds all grew rapidly, manifesting into all kinds of plants, from vegetables, to herbs for medicine and tea bushes. The girl seemed to lose herself in her dancing, twirling about without a care for how the mud splattered onto her clothes, and she did so for quite some time.

*✧*

"Nala!"

A voice cracked her bliss and caused her to freeze. Footsteps began to approach, causing her to scurry behind a tree to hide, crouching low as she continued to listen. Nala tried to steady her breathing, she had begun panting from moving with such vigor.

"Nala, a-are you there?" The girl recognised the voice now to be Zuko's.
"Zuko?" She called back, her voice seemed restrained.

She watched as he came through the through the trees, stopping abruptly as he was about to step on a pumpkin.

"What the-..."
"Why did you come?" Nala edged out from behind the tree and made her way over to him.
"I wanted to see er ..." Zuko cut himself short. "What is all of this? How'd you get it to grow here?"
"I'm good at gardening." She replied nonchalantly.
"No kidding..."

"To see what?" She prompted.
"Y-you ... I guess." He said, his cheeks flushed.
"Oh?" A smile crept up on the girl's lips and filled her eyes. She found Zuko to be very intriguing. He seemed to hold on to his emotions very tightly, all except anger and aggression. That part she did not like, and they seemed to get the better of him. She studied his face intently as he spoke.
"My ship ... we've gotten orders to stay put, so we're not allowed to leave." He said.
"I see." Her eyes seemed to glint. "Are you hungry?"

Zuko nodded and watched as Nala began to harvest different things from the garden, handing him an armful of ripe mangoes and a large pumpkin. She gathered a number of spices as well as whole leafy stems. He felt a lumpy guilt rise within him as he remembered how he'd reacted to her trying to give him what he'd thought was poison. She really had been trying to look after his Uncle.