Blazing Crystal (Revised Version)

Chapter 13: Budding Passion

Chapter 13: Budding Passion

Zuko POV

We'd just saved the helmsman. I felt relieved to know that he was uninjured on deck. The rest of the crew seemed to be accounted for too. Just as another lightning strike painted the sky, I saw a familiar flying-sky bison shoot straight out of the water in front of our ship. It flew up towards the clouds with swift speed.

I was both amazed and excited. "The Avatar!"

Lieutenant Jee glanced over at me and shouted over the storm, "What do you want to do, sir?"

At first, all I wanted was to chase after the brats, but then I stopped myself. I'd finally come to realize that it wasn't safe for us to be in this storm any longer. I got some sense at last, as my uncle would say. "Let him go. We need to get this ship to safety."

Uncle nodded. "Then we must head directly into the eye of the storm."

Just as Iroh finished his last sentence, the ship lurched sharply. We all stumbled but managed to catch ourselves on the slippery deck. However, as all of this occurred we heard something from behind us. It was a piercing female scream. It was a scream I never imagined I'd hear in such a wild storm. Turning my body completely around, I looked down the ship deck to see one of the guards was standing at the rail looking at something. The ship had leveled out by this point. The same guard at the railing shouted in horror, "Man overboard!"

The crew near me gasped, but I was already running. No one needed to tell me who it was. I already knew. There was only one possible owner of that scream.

Rushing over to the guard, I shouted, "Where did she fall?!"

The guard quickly pointed down below, and I darted my eyes to the raging waters. To my complete bewilderment, Crystal was still above the water; she had made herself a sheet of ice for a raft. From what I could see though, her raft was being bumped against roughly by waves, and the warm water below was melting her flotation device.

"Get me some rope!"

The guards scrambled around at my order, and only a moment later a long rope was tied around my waist. The other end of the rope was secured to a metal mast on the ship. Uncle had come over and was watching the scene before him helplessly. "She's definitely persistent, but she's not going to be able to hold it up much longer. Her ice is getting smaller by the second!"

"I'm diving in," I stated. My heart was pounding a hundred times a minute. Everything was happening so fast. "Pull me up when I have a hold on her!"

As soon as I finished my sentence, Iroh gasped. "Crystal!"

My eyes shot back to the rough sea, but where Crystal's ice had once been there was nothing but water. She'd lost her strength and fell in.

Without hesitating, I raced to the rail and jumped over. I knew how to swim, especially since I'd gone to Ember Island so many times growing up. Diving perfectly into the water, I resurfaced quickly and swam through the pounding waves as fast as I could. My legs and arms burned, but I refused to stop. Crystal was in trouble... I couldn't lose her! I wouldn't lose her!

It was dark, the rain was hard, and I couldn't see anything around me but water. Diving under, salt burned my eyes as I tried to see through the dark endless abyss. I knew she was nearby, but without any light I would never be able to see her. As I began to panic and fear the worse, lightning struck above and light filled my vision. That's when I saw where she was. Or more so, that's when I saw her necklace reflect from the light above.

Her body drifted a few feet in front of me, her hair tangled and floating around her. I didn't take much more time to look over her dark figure. I quickly swam towards her and grabbed her around the waist. Then with one arm and two legs, I kicked us back up to the air we both needed.