Watch it Burn

Chapter 26

Zuko's POV:

"I'm so excited to spend the weekend on Ember Island," Ty Lee cheered in her usual obnoxiously happy tone, "it's gonna be great to hang out and do nothing!"

"Doing nothing is a waste of time! We're being sent away on a forced vacation. I feel like a child." I snapped at her. I was anxious to get back to the palace. I needed to work at regaining my father's respect and I couldn't do that on some stupid beach vacation.

"Lighten up," Azula said, "so dad wants to meet with his advisors alone without anyone else around, don't take it personally."

Ignoring my sister, I gazed out onto the water from the railing of the boat. Instead of the grey churning waters from my last trip this water was calm and a light teal. The peacefulness was offsetting. We were in the middle of a war (no matter what my father admitted) and I didn't have time for this.

"We used to come all the time when we were kids," I heard Azula tell Ty Lee.

"That must have been fun!" the girl squealed.

"That was a long time ago." I replied, not looking at them. If only she knew. I secretly had loved the beach, especially when my mother used to take us to plays. It was the last time I could clearly remember a sense of childlike happiness. The last time that I wasn't terrified every waking moment.

No, I wasn't scared. I'm prince of the fire nation, heir to the throne. I wasn't scared.

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"Amara!" I heard Aang shout behind me.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Roku wants us to go to his home to find out about how the war started, on the solstice." Aang explained.

"Oh well that's just great.....uh where exact;y is that?" I asked, turning to face the young monk.

"A deserted island somewhere." He shrugged and started to pack up Appa for the journey.

I sighed, all I wanted was a relaxing day, maybe meditate or something.

I guess that will have to wait.

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Aang used his airbending to create clouds to surround Appa. We had been using this trick sense we've been in the fire nation. Of course even though we were 3000 feet above the ground, I always got shushed by Sokka whenever I made the slightest noise.

We finally reached the island, there wasn't anything on it. It was completely barren and black with rock.

"How did Roku live here?" I wondered out loud.

"There's a whole village buried under us." Toph said as she felt the ground.

I looked toward the mountain and that's when I realised it wasn't a mountain, it was a volcano.

"We better contact the spirit world." Aang said and took my hand, leading me away from everyone else.

After about a half hour we found a secluded spot that overlooked the ocean. We both sat down and meditated.

The world slowly blurred and my focus cleared, we were on a giant rock that was above thousands of clouds. I looked over at Aang, who no longer had his hair and was now wearing his monk uniform. My hand immediately shot up to my hair, which was now longer and back to what it originally was before I cut it. I was also now wearing my usual green dress.