Chapter 12

Episode 9, The Waterbending Scroll

"Uncle!" Zuko exclaimed full of disbelief as he barged into the room. My head immediately whipped into his direction and I took a step back. Iroh shook his head to snap back to reality and looked at his angered nephew.

"She is dangerous, what are you doing here?" he scolded his uncle and dragged him out of the cell before locking it again.

"She is not dangerous Price Zuko," Iroh told him, "she has an ability that not many people have. She is a blood bender. That's a special form of water bending, just like lightning is of fire bending," he explained with a bit of excitement in his voice.

Zuko eyes me but before he could say something, Iroh decided to step in, "Did you get the Avatar?" he asked calmy.

My eyebrows shot up and my eyes widened. The Avatar? Oh no, I hope Aang and my siblings are safe. I was still worried about Sokka because of the shouts I heard. "He and his two friends escaped," he told Iroh and I smiled when I heard that both of my siblings are alive.

"Why are you smiling?" Zuko asked me furiously as he was looking at me through the prison bars. I rolled my eyes, "I'm sorry that I'm glad my siblings and friend are alive," I commented with sarcasm.

"Your siblings don't make much effort to get you back," he commented. Ouch, that hurt. Right in my feels, but I felt like that was true. And as much as that pained me, I would never admit that it affects me. My face turned to a blank expression, "yes, that's why I don't understand why I am still here. I'm of no use for you," I stated.

And that's true. He told me, he wanted to keep me here because Aang is my friend and now he's telling me that my siblings don't care about me. And in addition to that, I didn't even help him once to catch Aang. So why in the Avatar's name am I still here?

"Everything that is somehow connected to the Avatar's existence stays with me until I catch him," he stated. "How can someone be so obsessed with the Avatar?" I mumbled as I shook my head slightly. "Because your honour doesn't depend on him," Zuko suddenly shouted and I jumped.

This boy is just getting crazier by the minute, "And you're also going to the Fire Lord. He will be extra pleased when he gets a person who can bend two elements," Zuko added.

I looked at him wide eyed and Iroh also didn't look happy with that statement. "Prince Zuko, I think we should let the innocent girl go at the end," Iroh suggested and put a hand on Zuko's shoulder. "No," he simply replied and grabbed his uncle by his arm and dragged him out of the room.

Before he could leave, I spoke up, "You wouldn't want me to be rotten or dead down here by the time you're giving me to the Fire Lord, would you now, honour boy?" I smirked when I saw him tense at my words. The only thing I wanted right now was to get out of this horrible cell.

I've been in here since yesterday evening and it's getting dark again. I certainly don't want to sleep here on the floor again this night. He turned to look at me with narrowed and I only raised an eyebrow at him while crossing my arms over my chest.

The prince huffed as smoke came out of his nose, "fine, but you do as I say or else the cell will be the best thing that happens to," he threatened and unlocked the cell for me.

"Thank you very much, your majesty," I smirked a bit and bowed to him. He sighed, "Don't call me your majesty," he only said before leaving the room without looking back. Iroh smiled at me warmly before leaving too.

I stayed behind for a bit as I was deep in thought. The conversation with Iroh was just getting interesting and confusing. I didn't expect this outcome at all. I only wanted to know why he knew the same song as my mother, but he was so shocked that I knew it.

It literally seemed like I wasn't allowed to know this. And then he started to get emotional after hearing my mother's name. He can't possibly know my mother, can he? I mean she is from the northern water tribe and he is from the Fire Nation's royal family. And there are probably a few thousand Kyas in this world.

I sighed and decided to talk to Iroh about this another time and made my way to my chamber because right now I needed a good sleep.

The next morning, I decided to stay in my room and lay in bed the whole day. But my plans were once again destroyed by the people on this ship as there was a knock on the door.

I sighed as I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. I walked to the door and opened it and in front of me was a guard. "Good morning miss, General Iroh is waiting for you on deck," he told me before leaving immediately.

I blinked a few times dumbfounded before closing the door and freshening up quickly. After I looked presentable, I made my way on deck to see what Iroh wanted from me. I got excited when I thought that we might continue our conversation from yesterday because I really wanted to know why he reacted that way.

"Good morning Jasmine dear," he greeted me with a big smile. Is just me or is he being extra nice to me since he found out my mother's name. "Good morning," I shot him a half smile.

"I want you to watch the training today before you join in tomorrow," he told me and before I could reply he left the deck. I turned around with knitted eyebrows and saw Zuko coming on deck.

And wow, what a surprise, he looked angry. I rolled my eyes at his attitude an crossed my arms over my chest as I went towards the edge of the ship. I leaned against it and waited for the training to start. It was boring to only watch people shooting fire balls at each other, but I remained silent and hoped for it to end soon.

My wish came true as the ship suddenly changed its course. It turned around with a sharp movement and everyone stumbled but me. I almost fell out of the ship since I was leaning against the edge on the side the ship changed its course to.

Thanks to Zuko, who stumbled towards me, I didn't fall out. He grabbed my arm and pulled me closer to him so that I wouldn't fall out. I looked at him and noticed that we were very close at that moment. Our noses were almost touching and I could see his beautiful amber eyes looking down at me.

I so badly wanted to stay like this and admire his beautiful facial features but a movement from a guard caught my attention from the corner of my eye and I snapped back to reality.

I cleared my throat awkwardly and took a step back blushing like crazy. I scolded myself for thinking that he was beautiful. He also snapped back to reality and a slight pink covered his cheeks. But he ignored that and immediately stomped off.

I didn't bother to follow him and sat down on a little chair on deck and decided to enjoy the fresh air. Zuko and Iroh came back on deck while Zuko was mumbling angrily about a Lotus tile and a stupid game while Iroh looked pleased.

I raised my eyebrows at the two, "we're going on a market," Iroh told me after seeing my questioning expression. My face lit up at the thought of going back on land but Zuko had to ruin that moment, "You're not coming with us," he said and crossed his arms.

I was about to protest when he changed his mind, "you know what, you're coming too before you escape again." A smile made its way on my face.

Finally some land. Though, I won't be able to escape from there because I'm sure Zuko will keep a close eye on me. But I didn't care at that moment since I only wanted to walk around on land. I could find another chance to escape another time.

Though, I was curious, why we would stop at a market so spontaneously and I laughed after Iroh told me everything, Zuko didn't look happy that we had to stop looking for the Avatar because of a Lotus tile but I found it hilarious.

After we stopped on the port of the market, we got off the ship. I got excited because I had never been to such a big market outside the south pole. The people here dressed so differently from the people of our tribe and it was interesting to see all the different things they sold here.

We looked through all the shops here but Iroh couldn't find the Lotus tile he was looking for. I was tired since we had been here for a few hours already and we had walked through the whole shops.

Zuko was furious by this situation, "It's good to know this trip was a complete waste of time for everyone," He shouted with his arms crossed over his chest looking at his uncle pointedly..

"Quite the contrary, I always say the only thing better than finding something you were looking for, is finding something you weren't looking for at a great bargain," Iroh said smiling as all the guards were passing us with their hands full of things Iroh had bought.

I chuckled at the old man's behaviour because he bought so many things he didn't need. But I stopped and turned back to looking serious after Zuko shot me a glare.

We continued our way to the ship when Iroh stopped us by pointing at a big shop that was a ship, "Oh, this looks promising," he said excited. The shop gave me bad vibes and I hesitantly followed them towards this shop.

I really had a bad feeling about this place as we entered it. It just gave me bad vibes. I froze as soon as I had stepped foot into the ship. Now I knew why I had a bad feeling about this, we just stepped into a pirate ship.