"I know you're nervous, but firebending itself is not something to fear." Zuko says as him and I stand before Aang away from the others. "But, if you don't respect it, it will chew you up and spit you out like an angry komodo rhino."

(If you do not remember what he is talking about, the rhino is in the gif above.)

I laughed listening to Zuko's last comment. "Come on Zuko. Let's just start alright?" I say smiling. "Fine. Show me what you got." Zuko says folding his arms across his chest.

Aang breathed in before making a move and going to side. A puff of black smoke came out making me groan inside. From the basics and up...

"Maybe I need a little more instruction. Perhaps a demonstration from one of you?" Aang looked between us as Zuko nodded. "Good idea. You might want to take a few steps back."

Aang and I step a few feet away from Zuko as he breathed in before making fire come out of his hand, except it was like Aangs. "What? Is that it?" I ask looking at him. He growled trying to make fire come from his hands again.

"Zuko stop before you hurt yourself." I say sighing before he continues. "Here, maybe it would help if you took some from me." I say lighting my hand. Zuko looked at it before taking some only for it to disappear.

"Well that was unusual." I say before Aang walks over to us. "Maybe you could show me something since his isn't working out right." I nod to him before Zuko grabs both of my hands. "I'm not finished yet."

A slap could be heard echoing off the mountain side as I walked away backwards. "What was that for?!" He yells before a little fire comes out of his hands. "That." I say pointing to his hands.

"I'll show you Aang." I smile before facing the cliff side away from the two boys. I held my hand up before breathing in and punching it out. Fire came out in a long strip. "Wow. That was good."

"Thanks." I say before turning to Zuko to see him sulking. "Oh, come on it's probably just the day." I say patting his shoulder.

~~~~~~~~

"Here's a bowl, Arabella." Toph hands be a bowl of hot soup. I thank her before starting to eat it only for Zuko to come over, finally done sulking. "I've got some bad news. I've lost my stuff." Or so I thought.

"Don't look at me. I didn't steal anything." Toph says putting her hands up. "I'm talking about my fire bending. It's gone." As soon as Zuko finished saying this, Katara started laughing.

"I'm sorry it's just the irony in that. It would have been better if this happened a long time ago." She says before continuing to eat her soup. "It's not lost, but it's weakened. I think it's because I changed sides."

"He could be right." Aang starts getting everyone's attention. "I think your fire bending comes from rage and anger. When Arabella hit you earlier, it came back before your rage left again." I look down regretting the slap, but hey he was getting on my nerves.

"So, all we have to do is make Zuko mad. Arabella could do that again." Sokka says smiling as he picked up his sword and poked him with the handle. "Easy enough."

"Okay! Cut it out!" Zuko yells as Sokka drops his sword and backing away before standing on one leg with his hands up. "I don't want to rely on hate and anger anymore. There has to be another way."

"You could get it from the original source." I say sipping the tea I had made. Zuko looked at me. "They're all extinct." I shake my head. "You could go to those crazy people who live up in the mountain."

"My dad took me there once. It was how I learned to firebend from them. That was the worst and last mistake he made." I say shaking my heed before continuing. "I'm sure they would help. They're not with the Fire Nation, but they're from it."

"But they're long gone. Maybe going there and rummaging through their town would help." Zuko says looking down at me. "I can take you there." I say standing up. "It's actually not too far from here. It would be nice to see that place again."

"Alright. We'll leave in the morning." Aang says standing up with a smile.

~~~~~~~

Zuko and I were now laying in our beds in complete silence.

"What did you mean it was the worst and last mistake?" Zuko ask making me sit up to look across the room at him. "I want to know." He says looking over at me.

I sigh looking at the candle beside my bed.

"A week from my 12th birthday my father decided that we were going on a trip. He didn't tell me where we were going and didn't intend to. It was a three-day travel to the mountain where they live, and when I got there, they tried to teach me how to tame my bending." I started looking down.

"I had always had a lot of trouble with my fire bending. I would always catch things on fire without every intending to." A flash of the burning house came to my mind.

"The people helped me tame my firebending, but it didn't last long." I say crossing my arms and gabbing my arms. "When my father and I got back from the trip, I wanted to show my mother and grandma my new tricks. They were just as excited as I was knowing that I could control the fire now."

"It was all good at first. It was beautiful and graceful, just like I had been shown. But that changed when too much fire started to come out of my hands. I tried to stop the fire from coming out, but it just kept coming out of my hands." I pause in fear as if I was hearing my mother yells of pain all over again.

"Things started to catch on fire. I even caught my mother on fire. The fire spread around the house and before I knew it, I was out on the streets. My father had pushed me out before the second story fell, crushing the house." Tears were leaking out of my eyes before arms went around me.

I leaned into Zuko before holding onto him as I cried more. "I ran after that. I thought people were going to take me away and put me in prison or even worse kill me. I couldn't stay there anymore. You tore me apart when we went back there." I say as he holds onto me tighter.

"You tore me apart even more when you kissed her and held her and loved her." I whisper as he starts rubbing my back. "I promise, I'll make it up to you."

We stayed like that the whole night until Aang came to the door to wake us up.

~~~~

"We've been flying for a while. Are we getting close?" Aang asks. I was covering myself with my cloak trying to sleep. Zuko got all the sleep and I got none. "Arabella." Zuko says patting my shoulder.

I sit up looking to see a land mass in the distance. "That's the island." I say taking my cloak off and putting it in my bag. Aang landed Appa and told him to stay put as we walked further into the city. "It's just like I remembered." I say with a smile plastered on my face.

"These look like the temples back in the capital." Zuko says looking around. "At least I learned something about architecture. Hopefully we'll learn something about fire bending." Aang says looking around. That's when I saw it.

"Aang look out!" I yell just as he walks into the vine. The concrete moved before spikes came out of the ground. Aang blew air out of his mouth before flipping over to land on the other side.

"These traps must be centuries old, yet they still work." Zuko says leaning down to pick up the vine. "No Zuko don't!" I yell tackling him back as knifes come out of the wall. I sit up sighing in relief. "Thanks." Zuko says helping me up as we walked around the spikes.

"Does this mean we shouldn't be here?" Aang says looking around more, being careful as we walked up the stairs. "They wouldn't have traps, if they didn't have something to protect." Zuko says.

"Hey look." Aang ran towards a golden door trying to open it. "It's locked!" He yelled looking back at us two. "Do you know how to unlock it?" Zuko asks looking down at me. I look behind me before holding my hand out.

"Can I borrow a sword?" He grabs one out handing it to me. "When I came, it was a summer solstice. That's the only way you can open it." I say squatting down looking at the golden stone with a red ruby in it.

"You're going to try to trick it." Zuko says looking at the door. "Yep." I say putting the sword under the red light on the stone. Soon, I got the red light to shine on the red ruby above the door.

"Nothing is happening." Aang says looking at the door. "Come on." Zuko mumbles just as the door started to shake before it opened.

"Wow they're still in tacked." I say touching one of the statues. "What is it?" Aang asks going over to the first statue. "It says the dancing dragon."

Aang then proceeded to copy the first statue. A brick went in making him look around. I smile sitting on the stand for the statue. "Zuko come on! I want you to dance with me!" Aang dragged Zuko over to the other statue.

They copied each move until the got to the center on the other side. Something moved in the middle of the room making me hop down to see a golden egg. "Well that's odd." I say before Zuko and Aang came over to join me.

"No, don't touch it." I say grabbing Zuko's moving arm. "Why not?" He looked back at the golden egg. "It could be another trap." Aang says waving his hand. I let go of Zukos arm only for him to grab the egg.

"It feels almost alive." He says before green stuff comes out of the center shooting Zuko up. "I told you not to touch it!" I yell as the door closes. Aang runs to get his staff as I back up and climb on the top of a statue.

I panic as my foot slipped getting stuck in the green goo. "Araballa!" Aang yelled as his staff got stuck. "Hang on!" He yells before hoping over to me and grabbing me before shooting up to the grate where Zuko was.

The goo went up our backs before it stopped. "You just had to touch it didn't you." I say looking over at Zuko. "I didn't know it was going to do that!" He yelled trying to move before he quit. "At least we have air. Maybe if we stay calm, we can figure a way out."

Soon, the sun set making it pitch black out. "HELP!" Aang yells beside me making me cringe. "Can you not!" I yell back groaning.

"Who is down there?" A man all too familiar says. "No way." I say looking up at him. He was the guy who greeted my father and I.

People came up beside him and removed the bars before taking us out of the goo. They carried our stuck together bodies down the stairs to have animals start to lick us. I hate this.

"For trying to steal the stone, you must be severally punished." He said to all three of us before turning to me. "And you should be ashamed of yourself. You have been blessed by the dragons, yet you return to steal our precious stone."

"I wasn't trying to steal it." I say to the man rolling my eyes. "Okay I don't normally play this card, but I'm the Avatar." Aang says just as we fall apart.

"Just hear us out." I say standing up and wiping some of the goo out of my hair. "My name is Zuko, crowned Prince of the Fire Nation, or at least I use to be. I know my people have distorted the way of firebending. It's been all about anger and rage, but know I want to learn the true way." Zuko says looking up.

"When I came here, I didn't know the sun warrior tribe was secretly alive. I'm honored to be in your presence." Zuko and Aang bowed their heads before I did, but only a little. I have anger and hatred against these people.

"Please teach us." Zuko and Aang look up at the man goes silent for a moment. "If you wish to learn, you must learn from the masters, Rin and Shaw." I look up at him in question. 'Does he mean those dragons?'

"When you present yourselves, they will look into your hearts, your souls. They will look deep within your family history. They judge you and only when they deem you worthy will they train you. If they don't approve of you, you will be killed on the spot." The man says looking at both Aang and Zuko.

We stayed overnight and the next day we went to the tall temple to where a fire was going. The fire that never stops.

'You must take it my child and present it to the dragons.'

"When you meet them, you will need to give them the flame of eternity." The man got out a big flame before splitting it in two.

I turn around prepared to follow them before the man stops me. "I can see what has become of you. You must ask for their forgiveness." He got out a flame before holding it out to me. I look at it before sighing and taking it for the second time in my life.

I follow the boys up the mountain a little behind them. This is insane. Ask for two dragons for forgiveness? No one has ever done this without getting fried. Dragons do not forgive so easily.

We stop as we come to the center of the mountain before the people met us again. "We're not turning back now boys." I say squeezing in between them. I stop at the stairs and look back at them.

"Bring them out." Zuko says before him and Aang came towards me. The people around us started chanting and playing music. We started to walk up the stairs together. When we got to the top, one of the people spoke through a horn.

"Those who wish to meet Ran and Shaw must present their fires." Zuko turned left while Aang turned right I stayed in the middle holding my fire up before bowing my head. The caves shook before Aang started flipping out.

"Let me have some of your fire." Aang says reaching over Zuko's arms. "Stop it both of you." I say just as Zuko's fire goes out. They both turn to me. "Idiots." I say just as the red dragon comes out followed by the blue one.

They danced around us as I watched them. "Zuko I think were supposed to do the dragon dance. Arabella hold your fire up in the middle of us." Zuko and Aang started dancing beside me as I kept half of my concentration on my flame.

They finish by busting fists and making me go in the middle of their arms. The dragons stopped moving as they stared at us. They went down more before my flame went out as they shot fire into the air.

"Now I remember." I mumble looking at the multiple colored fire. "It's so pretty." Aang says looking around. "I've never seen so many colors."

The fire faded out as they went back into their caves. Zuko and Aang walked down the stairs before Zuko turned to me. "Arabella?" I was staring off into the sun before I wiped my tears and turned towards Zuko.

"I don't think I'll be catching anything on fire for a while." I say looking at the caves before walking down with Zuko.

Zuko and Aang turned away shooting fire from their hands. I looked down at my hands before smiling.

'Thanks Dad.'

2/5/2020