Lotus Flower ↬ Zuko

prologue

"Whatever you do, whatever you hear...Promise me you'll stay right here until this is all over"

I remember it like it was yesterday, I always do.

"B-but how...how will I know"

I was so young. I didn't know what war was, much less why men insisted on solving all their disagreements and hunger for power with it. Honestly, I still don't know the answer to that question till this day. I might never know.

"Listen for the quiet my Lottie...for the calm"

That's exactly what I did. I waited and I listened. The entire time that I was in that cold closet I kept my eyes shut, tears still managed to escape. I sat with my legs crossed holding in any and all sobs of sorrow or fear. I couldn't let anything keep me from listening.

The attack was part of the Six-Hundred-Year Siege and was led by the legendary "Dragon of the West". Just another catchy name, another greedy man, another story for the history books.

When fire broke loose across Ba Sing Se, that's when everyone knew. Well everyone except me. I was too busy being afraid of the flames themselves rather than the soldiers dressed in red and black armor. Once my mother realized the dreadful truth she gripped my hand as tightly as ever and ran towards home. She slammed the door of our little shack called home and ran to the other room, leaving me staring out the window like I was in a trance. I was so hypnotized by the fire. I knew exactly why but was too afraid to even think about it.

My mother ran back into the room I was in and pulled my hand once again, leading me through another door and breaking my thoughtless trance. I collapsed on the closet floor and my mother followed. She dropped herself gracefully on her knees and put her arms around me.

When she knew I was calm and was sure that I knew what to do if she was not to come back, she gave me a warm smile and shut the door. She didn't come back. Ever since that moment, I burned her sweet smile into my brain.

I did what she said though. I stayed completely still and quiet. My hands stayed glued on the wooden floor. I completely cleared my mind, concentrating on nothing but my hands. My mind was no longer in my head but in my hands. For hours all I felt was chaos.

Eventually, I felt the calmness in the ground. The rumbling and explosions stopped. I slowly opened the door of the closet and before I made my way to the window my eyes found their way to my kitchen table. On it was an olive green small squared bowl. Inside the bowl sat a beautiful Lotus Flower floating on a small puddle of water. The pointed petals were an eggshell white that gradually faded to a pastel pink at the tips. I picked it up and stared at it.

A Lotus Flower: My mother's favorite flower.

Author's Note: SORRY for such a short and Zuko-less chapter. I was super excited to publish this story and to start it off I decided to dedicate the publication to my character's background story. Meet Lottie (can you guess what she's named after?)

Alsoooo if you've made it this far, please be patient, Zuko will make his debut very soon (;