Azula: Dragon Tales

Chapter 1. Meeting a Dragon

Azula panted as she ended her kata with a kick, the bright orange flame dancing throughout the room before it fizzled out, leaving the area to be illuminated only by the Agni's setting rays. She righted herself quickly, her sharp gaze landing on the two old crones who watched her, hiding the nervousness she was feeling internally.

'Perfect. Surely this one was perfect...' she thought, her nerves growing as Lo and Li shared a look she couldn't decipher.

"Incredible form..." Lo, or was that Li, stated as she looked down at the still princess.

"Almost perfect..." Her twin continued.

"A slight stumble..."

"A simple misstep..."

Azula felt her heart sinking even as she maintained her poker face, not allowing the growing fear that was encompassing her to show on her face. She silently stalked out of the room after a dismissal from one of the seemingly ancient women. She knew her father would not be happy with her.

Being the favored child, she found, was often a blessing and a curse. She was saved from the worst of Ozai's wrath for the most part, but the growing weight of his expectations was beginning to eat at her. The princess was too proud to admit that the growing weight of the responsibilities being placed was eating away at her. Not that she could admit it to anyone. Loneliness was not a new feeling but it had never been this prevalent before.

It was only a few months prior that her cousin, Lu Ten, had died. Crushed by a boulder during a prolonged siege on Ba Sing Se, just for his death to be for nothing as her Uncle withdrew from the siege, and the war as a whole. She felt some feeling bubble up in her as she thought of her cousin's sudden departure but she pushed it to the side, something that was becoming increasingly common.

While she didn't have much of an opinion on her cowardly, wayward uncle, she did feel her mood dim at Lu Ten's passing. He was a good cousin. He would often play with her when he was pleasant, despite being busy himself as the next in line for Firelord, behind Iroh. He enjoyed spending time with her and was one of the few who complimented her rapidly growing skills as a firebender. Something even her mother wouldn't do.

As she reached her room, she angrily shut the door behind her as she thought about her absent mother. Her relationship with her mother, Ursa, had been strained for as long as she could remember. While her brother, a boy who failed more than he succeeded, gained her affection, Azula had often only gained her ire. Various plans to try to get treated similarly to Zuko ended in abject failure and hurt feelings, though she made sure Ursa hadn't seen that humiliation. In this way, she understood how Zuko felt about their father.

While she had become her father's favored child for her prodigious skill, Zuko was seen as a failure for his lack of proficiency. Her relationship with Zuko had always been difficult due to that dynamic, but that had only increased after Ursa left a few weeks prior. Her stoic attitude clashed with Zuko's tears, putting even more strain on their relationship than was the norm. Her "heartlessness" and "disregard" for Ursa's "mysterious disappearance" caused her brother's short fuse with her to become even shorter. Azula scoffed to herself as she prepared for a bath before dinner, as was normal.

Azula was a bright child, any of her tutors would tell you that, so it wasn't difficult to see the connection between her grandfathers, Firelord Azulon's death, and Ursa's departure the same night. There was nothing mysterious about what occurred. Her father's ascension to Firelord only made the foul play more clear.

It was curious to Azula how the same man who taught her about loyalty (to him especially) would conspire to kill his father. She shoved that thought aside like many others, knowing that such a line of thinking could easily lead to painful consequences.