Saviors / Lullaby
A/N: More randomness born from frustration.
Saviors
They are bold and focused, daring and kind. They've got their hearts set in the right spot, their priorities are as carefully ordered as that of anyone setting out to safe the world.
Even if their actions were a little hasty, a little uncoordinated.
They saved him.
Him, who was forsaken by his own, forsaken and locked away by those into which he had put his hopes. Hope. He had so much hope for Zuko.
But pride is a poison and the prince has been poisoned at a very young age.
The watertribe girl (Katara.) offers him some water and a bowl of stew. It's the first time in days that his stomach has seen anything more substantial than stale bread. He wants to cry for this generosity, but bows low to thank her instead.
The watertribe boy (Sokka.) curses his niece and nephew in the most colorful ways. He'd never expected one of them to speak up on his behalf, to express outrage over the way he has been treated. He wants to rage together with this sincerity, but smiles benevolently isntead.
The blind little earthbender (Toph.) who has so much in common with his nephew, yet so little for her eyes might be blind but her heart isn't. She sits stoically by his side, arms crossed, eyes closed and senses alert. He knows that they are not out of danger yet and so does she. He wants to praise this vigilance, but resigns himself to keeping a wary eye out, too.
The avatar (Aang.); a child, nothing more. But a heart and a smile wide enough to encompass the entire world. He wants to celebrate this acceptance and cherishing of life, but he is so tired and weak that for now, drawing his strength from it will be enough.
Children at war with a world that has lost all hope and refuses to accept what is offered.
But Iroh doesn't.
"Aang... have you already thought about how to obtain a firebending master to instruct you in wielding the last element? Would it be too bold if I were to beg you to entrust me with this honor, my boy?"
It is the only way he knows how to repay them for saving him - not from a damp dungeon cell but from the clutches of despair.
Lullaby
Catching her was sheer luck. Azula had wanted the children to blackmail that village, the one that was planning an uprising and managed to turn into a real threat when they somehow enlisted the help of the Avatar. That was why they had taken the children: to convince their parents to surrender.
"No one is going to harm even a single hair on their petty little heads as long as they don't cause any trouble," she had said. And she had stayed true to her word - a rare occurrence with Azula, he knew.
She had even extended her promise to the peasant - more as a taunt to the waterbender than as a courtesy to him, but the result was the same: the children were all locked up and the girl who had offered to take away his shame with them.
All under his care while his sister dealt with the uprising villagers.
Zuko wanted to speak with her, wanted to revive the tentative kinship he had felt in that cave. The kinship that had allowed her to touch his scar, his shame, whereas others, whose intentions towards him had been much more 'favorable' than hers, had been halted, had not been allowed.
Because there was something, something special about this girl from the South. Something that made a elsewise mute chord in his heart sing and hum whenever the light faded. Something that did not have a name.
He watched her with almost predatory curiosity. How she soothed the children as if she had done it a million times already (she probably had, back in the South, in that tiny village of snow and ice where many children and only few adults lived), wiped away tears with a gentleness that only mothers and those forced into the role too soon could muster and smiled tenderly and reassuringly at her young charges, giving them confidence and disspelling most of their fears.
Zuko found himself basking in the calmness and reassurance she offered, felt calmed and reassured himself and wondered a great deal about it. He had forgotten how this felt, how he had longed for it.
And when she began to quietly sing a lullaby, Zuko's eyes drooped and sleep took him to a place, where all these things that were so important to him, did no longer matter.
Mothers have woven a black velvet ocean
And spread it between the night and day shores
So that children might sleep, gently rocked by the motion
Of waves beneath boats built by fathers like yours
With you safe aboard by the shore we will linger
And watch as your breathing it fills up the sails
You loosen the moorings... your grip on our finger
And leave on the velver a silvery trail
Alone on the shore with out hearts close to breaking
We stand in the wake as you glide from our reach
Calmed by the thought that the voyage you're taking
Will bring you at dawning back safe to this beach
We cannot sail with you, be there to guide you
Or pilot your boath through the black of the night
But not ocean can keep you, no darkness can hide you
Away from our love and its undying light
(~ 'Lullaby to Erle' by Silje Nergaard, taken from the album 'At first light', copyrighted 2001 Universal Music AS, Norway)
Saviors
They are bold and focused, daring and kind. They've got their hearts set in the right spot, their priorities are as carefully ordered as that of anyone setting out to safe the world.
Even if their actions were a little hasty, a little uncoordinated.
They saved him.
Him, who was forsaken by his own, forsaken and locked away by those into which he had put his hopes. Hope. He had so much hope for Zuko.
But pride is a poison and the prince has been poisoned at a very young age.
The watertribe girl (Katara.) offers him some water and a bowl of stew. It's the first time in days that his stomach has seen anything more substantial than stale bread. He wants to cry for this generosity, but bows low to thank her instead.
The watertribe boy (Sokka.) curses his niece and nephew in the most colorful ways. He'd never expected one of them to speak up on his behalf, to express outrage over the way he has been treated. He wants to rage together with this sincerity, but smiles benevolently isntead.
The blind little earthbender (Toph.) who has so much in common with his nephew, yet so little for her eyes might be blind but her heart isn't. She sits stoically by his side, arms crossed, eyes closed and senses alert. He knows that they are not out of danger yet and so does she. He wants to praise this vigilance, but resigns himself to keeping a wary eye out, too.
The avatar (Aang.); a child, nothing more. But a heart and a smile wide enough to encompass the entire world. He wants to celebrate this acceptance and cherishing of life, but he is so tired and weak that for now, drawing his strength from it will be enough.
Children at war with a world that has lost all hope and refuses to accept what is offered.
But Iroh doesn't.
"Aang... have you already thought about how to obtain a firebending master to instruct you in wielding the last element? Would it be too bold if I were to beg you to entrust me with this honor, my boy?"
It is the only way he knows how to repay them for saving him - not from a damp dungeon cell but from the clutches of despair.
Lullaby
Catching her was sheer luck. Azula had wanted the children to blackmail that village, the one that was planning an uprising and managed to turn into a real threat when they somehow enlisted the help of the Avatar. That was why they had taken the children: to convince their parents to surrender.
"No one is going to harm even a single hair on their petty little heads as long as they don't cause any trouble," she had said. And she had stayed true to her word - a rare occurrence with Azula, he knew.
She had even extended her promise to the peasant - more as a taunt to the waterbender than as a courtesy to him, but the result was the same: the children were all locked up and the girl who had offered to take away his shame with them.
All under his care while his sister dealt with the uprising villagers.
Zuko wanted to speak with her, wanted to revive the tentative kinship he had felt in that cave. The kinship that had allowed her to touch his scar, his shame, whereas others, whose intentions towards him had been much more 'favorable' than hers, had been halted, had not been allowed.
Because there was something, something special about this girl from the South. Something that made a elsewise mute chord in his heart sing and hum whenever the light faded. Something that did not have a name.
He watched her with almost predatory curiosity. How she soothed the children as if she had done it a million times already (she probably had, back in the South, in that tiny village of snow and ice where many children and only few adults lived), wiped away tears with a gentleness that only mothers and those forced into the role too soon could muster and smiled tenderly and reassuringly at her young charges, giving them confidence and disspelling most of their fears.
Zuko found himself basking in the calmness and reassurance she offered, felt calmed and reassured himself and wondered a great deal about it. He had forgotten how this felt, how he had longed for it.
And when she began to quietly sing a lullaby, Zuko's eyes drooped and sleep took him to a place, where all these things that were so important to him, did no longer matter.
Mothers have woven a black velvet ocean
And spread it between the night and day shores
So that children might sleep, gently rocked by the motion
Of waves beneath boats built by fathers like yours
With you safe aboard by the shore we will linger
And watch as your breathing it fills up the sails
You loosen the moorings... your grip on our finger
And leave on the velver a silvery trail
Alone on the shore with out hearts close to breaking
We stand in the wake as you glide from our reach
Calmed by the thought that the voyage you're taking
Will bring you at dawning back safe to this beach
We cannot sail with you, be there to guide you
Or pilot your boath through the black of the night
But not ocean can keep you, no darkness can hide you
Away from our love and its undying light
(~ 'Lullaby to Erle' by Silje Nergaard, taken from the album 'At first light', copyrighted 2001 Universal Music AS, Norway)