Here there be dragons...
So I have been writing down a lot of fanfiction ideas lately (mostly while procrastinating, avoiding working on homework...), and I figure that I should probably post them here, for your enjoyment. Avatar: the Last Airbender has been on my brain lately. To give credit where credit is due, I drew my initial inspiration from several fills of suzukiblu 's mythological mini-meme, which was written a while back. I took a few ideas and ran with them - mostly the idea of dragon!Zuko and being able to switch between dragon and human forms by taking off one's skin (à la Selkie).
I should warn you guys that I write down my fic ideas in a sort of pseudo-prompt form, pseudo-stream of consciousness... which sometimes dips into actual text and dialogue. I apologize for any formatting confusion that results.
I'll probably post a few other ideas in similar formats over the next few weeks. Livejournal is useful as a back-up archive. ;)
Enjoy!
The Fire Nation Royal Family (and assorted high ranking Fire Nation nobility and aristocracy) aren’t human; they’re dragons. They can take off their scaly skins and become more or less “human” (like Selkies!), but it is an illusion. They spend the vast majority of their time in “human” form, because it is easier to communicate with (and thus give orders to) normal humans. Plus, easier to fashion pretty gold jewellery for oneself when in human form! Almost all of the Fire Nation - at least, those who have any sort of contact with the aristocracy - knows about the dragons-as-royal-family thing, but most people maintain a polite fiction about their “humanity”. It’s not spoken of very often - just an implicit elephant in the room.
Other nations don’t really know about all of this. They look at the entrenched fire nation aristocratic families and see them as being arrogantly obsessed with “pure blooded” lineages who wouldn’t deign to marry anybody of the nouveau riche, and never (shock/horror!) someone from an inferior nation (like the Water Tribes or Earth Kingdoms). Actually, it’s because they’re FUCKING DRAGONS. The sheer fact of the matter is that these families only marry amongst themselves because they physically can’t have children with normal human beings. They make these arranged marriages like that for a reason.
The children of the aristocracy are referred to as “dragon’s children”, and it is called the “dragon throne” and all of that, and there are several generals’ ranks (like “Dragon of the West”) that make mention of their draconic origins, but most nations just think that they’re continuing on the whole “Fire nation fire bending fire breathing dragon” kind of theme. There are legends of dragons taking the forms of human beings (case in point: Love Amongst The Dragons, a famous novel, which was later made into a play), but because of a paucity of friendly contact between the Fire nation and the other three nations over the last century, most people from the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes believe that they’re just that: legends. Seriously, you guys are overdoing the dragon-flame theme. Everything about you is all “fire fire fire”. Shut up about it. For serious.
None of the dragons go about invading countries in their “true” forms anyway (no matter how badass it would be). There were once tales told in the other nations of the Fire Nation royal family keeping dragons in the palace (as pets, obviously, because they like to show their control over their element, the arrogant bastards), so the Fire Nation palace is still designed in an oversized way to accommodate these historic “pet” dragons. Rumours have gone around the other nations regarding the disappearance of dragons in the past hundred years. They’ve heard the story of Iroh, the dragon-slayer (he slew one of his rivals/a traitor, perhaps?). That story got over-blown, turning it into an “evil General Iroh slaying the last of the dragons to prove how horrifically strong his fire bending is” type of story. In fact, he got the title “Dragon of the West” because of his lineage and his skill in battle. It had nothing to do with that fight (well, maybe a little bit, in showing that he still had the strength to drive off other strong dragons). Dragons have been “disappearing” because most of the aristocracy remain safely in the Fire Nation, where they can give orders from afar (and of course, almost no foreigners come to the Fire Nation itself, except as spies, and even THAT is a dangerous profession), and if they DO show up commanding troops in person, it is much easier to travel by boat in human form and to give orders to human troops while in that shape. So no dragons show up outside of the Fire Nation. One of the Fire Lords -Azulon, perhaps - realized the advantage of having dragons reappearing, coming into battle and CRUSHING all hope for the Earth Kingdom (by terrifying the bejeezers out of them), but for now, that card remains unplayed. The Fire Nation must wait for the ideal opportunity to show their superiority (perhaps on the day Sozin’s Comet comes and they want to CRUSH the Earth Kingdom once and for all).
Anyway, flash forward in time. Zuko was scarred in his human body, but injuries on that small, pale, fleshy thing are reflected on the skin of his true body. His scales are mostly red, with flecks of gold. The truly royal colours are either deep red or deep blue - Azula is the latter. Non-royal family members are a mix between the two (purple), or brown or green. Only dragons in human form have yellow-gold eyes; real Fire Nation humans have hazel irises. The scar on Zuko’s face doesn’t show up as noticeably on scales. They mostly just look crushed, and have lost some of their shine, but aren’t of a noticeably different shade of red than the other side of his face, although the eye is squinty and he has difficulty seeing out of it. (A good way to alarm him is by sneaking up on him on his blind side.)
The events of Season One happen pretty much identically, as did the first part of Season Two. Zuko actually enjoyed staying in Ba Sing Se towards the end, as his Uncle became happier. He still felt restless, though, because he couldn’t stretch his wings, so to speak. He did get to release the Avatar’s bison, though, so he got some ninja time in, at least.
Then Azula shows up and ruins everything. They fight in the Earth King’s palace (after being lured there by Azula’s “serve tea to the Earth King” ploy), and Zuko and Iroh are separated. (Uncle is probably holding off like a dozen Dai Li single-handedly.) Unluckily for Zuko, Azula comes after him and not their uncle. She transforms to fight him, which means that Zuko has to transform as well (it’s impolite to not “match” the person you’re conversing with, even if they’re trying to kill you, and plus, it’s so much easier to get killed if you’re small and pale and squishy and your opponent isn’t) and that’s when the Dai Li attack him, too. Zuko gets pretty badly bruised and beaten (perhaps with a broken “arm” and a few fissure breaks on the bones in his wings, making it painful to fly?), along with the slashes from Azula’s claws and teeth. He is driven off, out of the city, into the skies. Iroh can’t follow him - he’s been captured. Zuko hides out in the countryside for a while, preying on errant koala-sheep and the like. He’s too badly hurt to change back - shimmying out of his dragon skin isn’t exactly easy, and requires more range of movement than he is capable of doing at that point in time. He ends up settling in the Western Air Temple to lick his wounds and try to figure out what to do next. It’s fairly isolated, and few have been there in nearly a century (except himself and his uncle, early on in his exile, to try to find clues as to the location of the Avatar). He knows that it’s safe; no-one can get there unless you have the power of flight, and he
could spot the majority of incoming war balloons - or dragons.
After a week or two of trying to heal up (and maybe dealing with an infection or two?), Zuko tries to change back, but can’t. He feels like something in his mind has stuck. His fever-fogged brain worries that maybe he’s begun to forget what his “human” form feels like. He’s having a mini-identity crisis. He should prefer being in his “natural” state, and its simple needs - eat, sleep, breathe fire, etc. Azula prefers it - her viciousness is extreme, even for the human being she pretends to be. But he liked being human. He realizes that he’s not really made to be a loner, like most dragons are. He liked being able to talk with normal humans like Jin and Jet (before he turned into a bastard). He even began missing his uncle’s tea. He mostly just resents the lack of choice - the fact that he’s stuck and his uncle has probably been captured (not killed, no, that would be impossible to contemplate) by Azula… because why else wouldn’t his uncle have come to help him?
Zuko felt completely and utterly alone and ill during the Day of the Black Sun (which he didn’t know about beforehand). He felt like he was dying. His inner fire felt like it was going out. He hadn’t understood what was happening, just that he felt sick and lonely and certain something horrible was happening. It was ridiculously alarming.
Of course, two days later, the Gaang shows up at the temple. Zuko has taken over an entire building spire, settling his coils on the bottom chamber. He had been sleeping - still trying to heal up, but getting hungry because he was still too slow to effectively hunt - when he got his first clue that something had changed. It was night time, and Teo, The Duke and Haru had been exploring. Haru had Earthbended a slide for them to go down Zuko’s building, and they literally slammed into him in the dark. They hadn’t realized that he was anything but a statue until he opened wide golden eyes (well, one wide golden eye, the other one squinty) in shocked surprise and breathed fire at them, pretty much out of reflex. This plume of flame attracts the rest of the Gaang, who, of course, assume that some firebender has figured out their location. They rush over to that spire (Aang on his glider, all of the others on Appa) to find Teo and The Duke cowering in a corner and a disgruntled red dragon pinning Haru to the ground with his five-clawed hand, inspecting him, breathing sparks to see in the dark. Katara’s first instinct is to blast the thing with ice, but Aang stops her. It’s in his philosophy to preserve life, and this rare creature has made his people’s temple a home.
Aang tells Sokka to land Appa as far away from the dragon as possible. Zuko still flicks his head up and growls, air shimmering around his mouth with heat, but he doesn’t flame again. Aang approaches very slowly. He speaks calmly, with his hands out in front of him in a conciliatory gesture, not a bending form.
“Hey, shh…” Aang crooned, edging closer on light feet. He didn’t look the dragon in the eyes - that was a sign of disrespect, and was liable to get secondary characters and villains in plays eaten or roasted on the spot. “Hello, I’m sorry we startled you…” He stopped about ten feet in front of the dragon, and bent his body, slowly, into a traditional fire nation bow. The dragon watched with serious golden eyes, unmoving as the statue Haru had thought him to be, save for the small anxious flicking motions of the tip of his long tail.
“Come on, Aang, you can’t afford to get eaten right now!” Sokka stage whispered from the sidelines. “Just get back here!”
“Shh, Sokka!” Aang hissed back. “Dragons are intelligent! You can reason with them!”
“How do you know this?” Sokka called back suspiciously.
“Well, sometimes they talk, in the legends, and they usually have reasons for killing people. Unless they’re hungry.”
“Oh, well, that’s great, then. Because the legends say so. Of course. Very reliable sources of accurate information, legends are.”
“Shh!” Aang turned his complete attention to the dragon. “Oh great master-“ Dragons were always firebending masters in legends. Aang was speaking solemnly in what Sokka thought of as his “talking with spirits serious Avatar” tone of voice. “We are sorry for trespassing in your domain.” The dragon had clearly claimed this abandoned temple for itself. “We meant you no harm. We only wish to rest our weary feet from our travels.” The avatar paused. “Um, please release my friend? I assure you he - also¬ - didn’t mean you any harm. Please?” He looked up, a little, rising out of the bow, to see what was going on.
The dragon didn’t move for several long moments.
---
Zuko slowly lifted up his clawed hand and let the Earthbender scramble backwards.
“See, Sokka!” Aang crowed happily. “He understands me!”
“It’s probably just because you’re the Avatar,” Sokka said, dismissively.
Zuko let out a weary huff of breath and smoke before settling back on his haunches, staring at the group of the Avatar’s friends who had invaded his space. He’d have to find another spot to rest up, now. Only, he didn’t feel like moving himself anywhere. In fact, all he wanted to do was fall back asleep. And maybe eat something.
He flicked his tail dismissively as he stiffly retreated backwards to the wall for some cover, turned around in a circle, once, before, lying down, resolutely ignoring the loud children. Crisis averted. Time for some rest. He closed his eyes, but kept his right eye open a slit to keep an eye on them. The Avatar would probably only kill him by accident. He wasn’t sure about the Earthbenders or the Waterbender, though. He wasn’t worried about the ordinary human, the water tribe boy. Most of them weren’t threats. He just wanted some sleep.
Team Avatar wisely retreat, for now, back onto Appa and back to their campfire across the temple. Haru was still, understandably, freaked out about almost getting crushed and eaten by a creature he thought was extinct or just a myth, but Aang defends the dragon, saying that they’d invaded his territory.
“But you’re the last airbender!” Sokka protested. “This is your temple!”
“It hasn’t been mine for over a century, Sokka, if it ever was. Besides, do you want to argue with someone who’s twice the size of Appa and can breathe fire?”
Anyway, the next day, Aang decides to give the dragon an offering (a thank-you present for not eating his friend), and Sokka suggests meat. (“Hey, and this makes it less likely to want to take a snap at the rest of us if he’s hungry!”) Aang doesn’t like the idea, but realizes that dragons are uniquely carnivores. Sokka hunts… something… and they all bring it to the dragon together.
Zuko tried ignoring them when they first arrive, but can’t deny the fact that he was hungry. He scarfed down whatever the offering was very quickly. In the light of day, though, the Gaang can see that the dragon doesn’t exactly look healthy. They can tell he’s been in a fight, recently (or at least within the last few weeks or month), and is pretty beaten up and listless. What really worries them is the idea that something could take a dragon of this size on - and if it’s still around.
Aang insists, later, that he’s pretty sure that this is a pretty young dragon, but he has a hard time convincing Sokka of his belief that this dragon is a small one, too.
(Iroh is totally four times Zuko’s size, P.S.)
Katara tried to heal the dragon - her compassion showing through - and although Zuko refused to let her near him with water at first, he eventually gave in after some coaxing (with meat as a reward).
Zuko becomes a fixture of Temple life. Sokka hunts to feed him too, and everyone makes a point of visiting him every so often.
Aang begins speaking to “Sparky” (as Toph named him, because he shot off sparks when annoyed, which was often) as he would Appa. Zuko mostly just wants the Avatar to leave him alone, but even if he flew off, Aang is one of the only people in the world who could actually follow, and could probably out-fly him in this condition. Anyway, Aang begins to speak of his fears of firebending, and despite himself, Zuko listens. (He tells himself it’s because he can’t leave, so he’s being forced to listen, but even when he feels a bit better, he ends up staying.)
---
“See, look - I can’t even make a measly little flame!” Aang shot out one hand in a punching motion, and nothing but a wisp of smoke and a small burst of air resulted. He groaned, clutching at his bald head. “How can I be expected to defeat the firelord with just… smoke?! What do I do, sneak up really close and give him smoke inhalation?”
The dragon stared at him for a moment, then reached out with one paw. Aang froze as a single long, sharp claw poked at him. After the first two pokes, Aang realized the meaning behind them and altered his posture. The dragon poked him in the back, so he straightened it. One leg was nudged forward, and when the claw tapped him in his shoulder, he crouched a little bit, lowering his center of gravity. The dragon urged him to straighten his arm, then stared at him expectantly.
“Uh…” said Aang, intelligently.
The dragon gave him a look, then took a deep breath inwards, puffing out its chest. Aang mimicked it. The dragon released his breath in a roar of flame.
---
Essentially, Zuko teaches Aang some basics of firebending - perhaps even better than he could have in human form, because dragons were the original firebenders, after all. The others are shocked to find this out, but Toph supports Aang, a testament to the method of learning from the original benders, so they let it slide.
In this universe, it was Azula that hired Combustion Man - she took the glory for killing the Avatar, so it’s in her best interest to make sure he “stays” dead. When the assassin attacks, Zuko helps take him down, but not before being blasted at, breaking a few of his ribs and putting him pretty much out of commission. Katara does all she can, but he’s a massive beast.
Then, only days later, General Iroh shows up, having broken out of prison. He wanted to search for his nephew, but realizes that saving the world takes precedence over saving his nephew. (He didn’t come to this decision easily, however.)
Iroh is repentant, and wishes to teach firebending to the Bridge Between Worlds. The Gaang is mostly suspicious, because of Iroh’s association with Prince Ponytail, the-jerk-who-chased-us-all-over-the-world, but Toph gives him a good reference, so he’s in.
However… the Gaang has heard the stories of General Iroh, the dragon-slayer, and they don’t want him to get Sparky. So they don’t tell him about the dragon. And for a few days, this works. Sparky is too out of it to fly anywhere, and so he pretty much just stays quietly in his secluded corner of the temple. Every day, Katara comes for a healing session, and Sokka brings him meat, and the others keep him company. They mostly go one by one, or in small groups, so Iroh doesn’t notice their absence and come looking. Sparky doesn’t (can’t) talk back, of course, but it’s not too bad. Still, he’s not doing too well. He’s very listless, and he’s still in pain from his injuries from Combustion Man.
Iroh, meanwhile, is impressed at how quickly Aang is progressing. He has a unique and intuitive style of firebending, which Iroh attributes to his Avatar (and airbending) skills. He can tell that they’re hiding something from him, but as they clearly don’t really trust him, the brother of the Fire Lord, he can at least understand why.
Then, he stumbles upon his nephew.
Sparky had taken a turn for the worse in the middle of the night, and Katara was gone all day tending to him. The kids had been conscripted into helping her, as was Toph, and Sokka was clearly hunting for way more than the amount of people actually sitting around the campfire. The kids seem anxious, too, but aren’t speaking to each other about why... at least not in front of Iroh. Iroh is observant - he was a general, after all. He decides to find out what it is they’re worried about.
Toph feels him coming, of course, and tries to distract him, but it’s too late - Iroh has heard the dragon. He is determined to get in there, and there ends up being an all-out battle between Iroh, Toph and Haru. (They BARELY manage to hold him off for a bit, because they’re not really trying to hurt each other, so Iroh and Toph in particular have to reign in their awesomeness.) It gets out (somewhere in the yelling that goes on during their battle) that they’re worried about Iroh wanting to kill the dragon, and Iroh is horrified at the notion. He can’t quite convince them of his good intentions, though. When he finally fights his way into the room, Katara must turn and fight him as well. The dragon gets really agitated, roaring, shifting its wings and limbs, flexing its claws, etc.
Now Iroh has three benders (and then four, because Aang jumps in) fighting him.
The fight only ends when they get turned around and suddenly clawed hands sneak out and wrap around Iroh, pulling him in, close and safe. Sparky snarls at the kids that he has been helping - and who have helped him - for the past few weeks, in favour of protecting a man who clearly wants to kill him.
Then Iroh refers to the dragon as “nephew” and shit goes down…