Kiss of the Rose Princess 2

Kiss of the Rose Princess
Chapter Two

She stood before the deceptively handsome young man and the aging King. The young man was Li, the King's great-grandchild; cruel as he was handsome, she doubted he loved her. Few knew of his cruelty, she and the aging King were among those. The silhouette moved closer. Her hands shook as the King spoke about the sanctity and the happiness of the day. Here was here chance. It was such a surprise, the engagement, he continued.
"I will follow…my own destiny…"
The words were barely whispered when she was launched into the air by the earth. Fire sprung all around. She landed in someone's arms. They were in the air! Strong, the arms held her tight. She heard voices but felt a pain in her arm. Li. He must have missed whoever it was that carried her and hit her instead. Everything dulled, so she knew that it was a tranquilizer and that she would not die. Air flew past. They were flying…

"It's a tranquilizer…but just in case we should have Ty Lee look at here when we get back."
"Sparky, do you think you could have gone a bit easy on the fire back there?"
"There were archers that could have-"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say Sparky. Twinkletoes, can we go faster? I really want to see and not be totally blind."

She woke up in a bed of furs. Topped by the circlet, her head covering and veil were in a neat pile next to her slippers. As she slipped into the slippers, she realized she was in a caved that had been, Bended?, into what appeared to be a room. She pushed open the door and followed the sound of voices down a passageway lit by glowing crystals. She reached the entrance to the room where the voices emanated from and stood in front of the doorway, not daring to enter.
"Hey, Sleeping Beauty woke up."
It came from a girl with large green eyes that would have been expressive if not for the white film over them. She was…blind?
The conversation around the circular table stopped and they turned around to look at her. Five pairs of eyes turned to where the girl-with-green-eyes had looked at. A pair of gold eyes caught her, they were the same eyes as from the boy in the dream…the dream was real?! Her breath got caught in her chest, not noticing the bubbly girl in pink with a long braid that seemed to dance over to her, she only saw the gold eyes in the male face near her. The pink clad girl, Ty Lee was her name, led her speechless form from the room.
"I guess my scar scared her…"
"No Sparky, she didn't even notice your scar."
Gray eyed Ty Lee said she had been asleep for some hours. She was bombarded with questions by the bubbly girl, but she didn't speak. She was in too much shock to find her voice.
Ty Lee came back to the room with the circular stone table to bring some food to the shocked girl.

"You know Zuko, if I didn't know better, I would say she's mute! She hasn't said anything!"
"Maybe she's in shock?"
The gray eyed boy spoke up.
"She's in shock alright Twinkletoes, but because of something else."

She was undoing her hair, removing the jeweled pins when Ty Lee entered the room followed by the others. They had glimpsed part of an intricate flower on her back before the black-brown hair cascaded down. She placed the jewels on the bed of furs before she turned around.

Zuko.

She almost fell once she saw the boy with golden eyes once more, the name came to mind, spelled out in golden fire. As she took a step forward, she fell, she writhed in pain on the floor.

Fire. Blood. Death. They attacked. They overpowered the guards. The woman encased the child in a coffin of ice and sent her down the river in hopes that she would fall into safe hands. Fire. Blood. Death. They attacked. They overpowered the guards. Fire was everywhere. Blood was everywhere. Death was everywhere.

"Zuko."

The name crossed her lips. Her blue eyes stared at his golden. Darkness, her world went to darkness while she saw the golden eyes.

Who was the boy? Zuko.
Who was he? Her friend.
What happened? Everything went wrong, they were discovered.

"Sparky…how does she know your name?"
"Toph, do I look like know? Scratch that."
"Yeah, you don't SOUND like you know."
Zuko had answered his younger sister's question without thinking at first, forgetting that she saw through the vibrations and feel of the earth, all that was forgotten due to the girl in front of him that had collapsed after saying his name.
"She's amazingly light."
Sokka, the one closest to the girl, picked her up and placed her on the bed.
"And beautiful.:
That was added by Aang, the boy with gray eyes.
"Ty Lee," Zuko began, "can you wake her up?"
"Sure!"
After a quick jab by Ty Lee, the blue eyes snapped open. Sokka glanced at Zuko and dragged both Ty Lee and Aang out. Toph followed while smirking to herself. They had agreed that Zuko, the gang's unofficial leader, would question the girl.

"What's your name?"
"The Blue Rose."
"No, I mean your name, not your title."
"That is the only name I have."
"How old are you?"
"I turned sixteen some months ago."
Zuko hid his disbelief at her only having that name by immediately asking her age.
"How long have you lived in the Earth Kingdom?"
"All of my life, I believe."
He watched the enchanting blue eyes and saw sorrow.
"How do you know my name?"
"What?"
The sadness faded away instantly from her eyes and was replaced by puzzlement.
"Earlier, you said my name."
The blue eyes were thoughtful.
"…Zuko?"
Her soft melodic, lilting voice was familiar. He soon found out that she didn't know it was his name nor how it came to her mind. He then asked the most important question, the one that give basis to their suspicions.
"Why was Prince Li marrying you?"
Emotionless, the answer came out. The answer they feared and dreaded.
"He wishes to become Huang Long."

She was the Blue Rose.