The Warrior's Gambit (Zutara)

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HEY YOU ALL! WELCOME TO BOOK TWO!

This is just a shooooort little Prologue to get you all settled in, so enjoy ;)

If you're finding this when it's posted, this will likely make ZERO sense, so I implore you to go check out it's predecessor 'The Prince's Choice'. This is a Selection!AU, but it's become so much bigger than JUST that! I'd say it's for sure worth a read!

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Date: Night of the Palace Attack

Location: Deep in the Swamps of the Earth Kingdom

The windchimes tinkled lightly, and then a gust of wind swept them around with a gale-wind force. The trees around the windchimes, however, were still.

Below the deck of the shanty house, a Fire Nation girl sat with a basket held against her hip, one hand facing out toward the windchimes. She was grinning widely and flexed her fingers again, sending a second breeze through the windchimes.

She'd never tire of their sounds.

"Dhakiya, have you fed Appa yet?" Her father called from inside the house. "I can hear him complaining all the way from in here."

"Not yet, dad," Dhakiya sighed, pushing her fingers through her hair, wishing that the swamps didn't have to be quite so humid. She was used to heat, coming from the Fire Nation. The heat combined with the wetness here? It was a little overwhelming, but she'd gotten used to it. She pressed a sticky strand of hair behind her ear, fanning herself.

It was stupid to be using her airbending skills for something so trivial, but it was in moments like this she was glad for her abilities.

She tilted her head and, over the ringing of the fire bugs and the swamp creatures, she did indeed hear Appa moaning for his dinner.

She hastened through the vines to his stable, where he was dramatically laying on his back with his many legs splayed out, his tongue lolling as he made low keening sounds. When he saw Dhakiya approaching, he stopped for a second before resuming his moaning in a more dramatic way.

"Appa, you big lout," Dhakiya said, rubbing his nose. "You're acting like you're withering away! It's only half an hour past when we usually feed you. And, if you really wanted to eat, there are vines right there."

Appa rolled over, glaring at Dhakiya for even suggesting such a meal.

"I know, too slimy," she said, flopping the basket of straw and fruit in front of him. "I'm just saying."

Appa nudged her with his head affectionately, but since he was so large, Dhaikya lost her balance and stumbled into the marshes behind his hut. She spat out river water, picking a leech from her skin.

She got up, drying herself off with a gust of wind. She saw Appa looking at her with a sense of longing. Until she met him, she'd never met an animal that could emote eloquently.

"I know, bud, I know," Dhakiya said, feeling a little bad for airbending in front of him. "You miss Kuzon, er, Aang."

She'd never officially met Aang, only seen him at dinners or in the palace halls. Zuko had never attempted to introduce her, and she wondered now if that was intentional? However, she'd never given him much thought, in fact, nearly none at all...until the night she'd left. Zuko had explained everything on their last date, in hushed and frantic whispers and he told her how she was going to stay alive. Finding out that the kid who had hung around Prince Zuko was not his cousin-third-removed or whatever lie they had spun, but was instead the Avatar had been a shock of a lifetime, only second to the shock of her own powers manifesting. She hadn't been used to calling him by his real name and still slipped up in front of Appa.