Bad Moon Rising | Book 4

12: The Lost Princess

Art: Artist Not Found

Zuko had been wrong. They stayed in Hira'a much longer than they expected. In the end, they were gone for nearly two weeks, and they still came up empty-handed.

Kida was getting more and more unsettled the longer she was away from Mitsuko, but she didn't have time to show it. All of her focus was on the Fire Lord...

The first few days were full of hopeful anticipation. There weren't too many problems between everyone, besides getting occasionally lost. The days that proceeded were less peaceful.

The more time they spent looking, the more on edge everyone became—especially Zuko. Aang finally suggested that they split off to cover more ground. Kida went with Zuko while the others went their own way. Doing this was certainly helpful but not a complete fix.

Kida hadn't seen Zuko that worked up since they first met. He was angry at almost everything, including the foliage that seemed to be fighting back. Once upon a time, she might have argued with him about it or maybe even attempted provoking him, but now she knew to wait it out. It was after two days of this attitude that he finally snapped, and she let him.

She waited patiently as he ranted and raved about Azula and how she could think it was a good idea to run off. She listened to him yell about how worried their mother had to be on top of dealing with Kiyi not wanting to be around her. She even watched as he threw several flaming punches at a tree. Then, when he had gotten everything off his chest, she was right by his side as he crumbled from all of the pent-up energy he had just exerted.

"Is this going to be my whole life?" Zuko groaned. "I'm just going to be constantly worrying about where Azula is and what she's doing?"

She knew it probably wasn't what he wanted to hear, but she couldn't help but let out a breathy laugh. He shot the woman a glare. Her laugh turned to a sigh as she reached out to take his hands, pulling his attention to her. "I'm sorry, but the answer is yes."

He tried to pull away after hearing her words, but she held on tightly. He then attempted to look away from her, but she followed his head.

"You're a big brother with a big heart, whether you like it or not," she added when he shot her a dark look, "which means you're always going to care. It might be hard to compare your relationship with your sister with mine and my siblings, but, in my own experience, it's just what older siblings do. We care, and we try to protect them even if they don't want or need us."

Zuko was silent for a long time. For a moment, Kida thought he was trying to ignore her, but he finally spoke up. "I've never been that, though." Kida didn't get to ask. He finally turned his eyes to hers. "I've never been protective of her. She's never needed it. Everyone else has always needed protection from her."

Kida nodded slowly. "I know." Zuko opened his mouth to question her, but she continued before he could. "Is that what this is about? Are you regretting the way you treated her?"

The man looked down at their hands, shifting uneasily before shrugging. "I was never exactly a big brother to her, but obviously, she doesn't care." He pulled his hands away and turned to glare at the scorch mark he had left on a nearby tree. "I told her that I wanted to make things better between us, and she just ran away." He took a deep breath, trying to keep himself from getting too emotional again. "She doesn't care, so why should I?"