Day 188

[daughterofursa]

Who: Zuko and anyone!
Open: Open!
When: Day 188, morning
Where: Eastern Bastion
What: Tea time. =)
Format: I'll match.
Warnings: Honor.

It's not uncommon to find Zuko up at an early hour, but she usually spends the time doing something she considers productive--training or otherwise preparing for time on the Skyway. She doesn't leave herself much time for sitting and thinking, most days. She figures it's better that way, since her thoughts so easily turn negative. But this morning, she's trying her best not to let them.

She can be found seated cross-legged on the eastern side of the Bastion, just north of Dragonfield, watching the unaccountable sunrise with a cup of tea in hand. Actually, the whole set is with her, a plain but sturdy-looking earthenware pot and several more matching cups. She hasn't invited anyone to join her, but if any impromptu guests show up, she's decided to accommodate them. That's what her uncle would do, she's sure.

Comments

[skysung]

Kitten takes the cup carefully in her clawed forefeet, bending her long neck to take a sip. Drinking does nothing to impede her speech, so she asks as she does, "Does your world have dragons?" Zuko does seem to have some preconceived notions about them.

"You would never see one drink tea in part because how would they manage it? Most are far too big to drink from a cup like this size. I am still an infant."

[daughterofursa]

"It did." She looks into her teacup for a long moment before continuing, because this isn't the best thing to have to admit. "My people hunted them almost to extinction. There were only two left alive, that I knew of. I doubt they gave much thought to tea."

And of course, now they're gone, too.

[skysung]

Kitten hissed at that, snorting smoke that mingled with the steam rising from her tea. "Humans have killed dragons at home, too, and others have seen them as commodities or weapons. My mother was the most recent among those."

She has only a fuzzy memory or two of her mother, who died just after Kitten's birth. "That is why many of my kind did not approve of me staying with Mama and Papa. They wanted me back in the Dragonlands, where we have lived in isolation for centuries. There are old grudges, and dragons have long memories. Grandfather Diamondflame let me stay with my adoptive parents. He told everyone it was none of their business what he did with his own family."

[daughterofursa]

Awkward. Even if Zuko has never done anything personally (aside from inadvertantly suggest that she could take on a dragon), it was her family that started it, and so her responsibility. Hearing that humans in other worlds have been just as stupid doesn't help anything.

"I'm sorry to hear it. You deserve more respect than that."

[skysung]

Kitten tilts her head to the side in something resembling a shrug. "I do not agree with blaming an entire race for the actions of individuals." Her serious tone gives way to something with a hint of humor at her own expense when she continues, "And it is harder to command respect when I am still so small that Mama says I have to grow into the name Skysong. Everyone calls me Kitten for now."

[daughterofursa]

"Maybe it wasn't my fault, but as Fire Princess, my nation's crimes are my burden to bear. O-or at least, they would have been..."

She's not certain about now. About how much of her home she ought to carry around with her.

Her expression softens a bit as Kitten continues. "...I didn't even realize that wasn't your name."

[skysung]

"Princess isn't queen, and nothing can be done to change history. Only the future."

Kitten hates thinking about home, about what she lost. Her adoptive brother and sister, who she absolutely doted on, were only two and three years old. Supposedly there's a way to put things back, but Kitten doesn't know if she believes that. She can't bring herself to bring anyone else false hope, so she sits on her own and says nothing.

Until she bursts out into a series of clicks and whistles that are her closest approximation of human laughter. "Kitten is not a very dragonish name, but most of us have silly names until we grow up a bit. Icefall and Steelsings are older than I am, but they're still Scamp and Grizzle.

What does it mean to be a Fire Princess?"

[daughterofursa]

"How was I supposed to know?" Zuko asks, nevertheless looking sheepish at that laughter. A lot of people here have strange names from her perspective. She wasn't about to remark on a dragon having a name like 'Kitten' when she had no idea if that was normal or not for the talking variety. 'Skysong' is still a lot different from 'Paarthurnax' anyway.

"It doesn't really mean anything now," she says to Kitten's question. She even feels a bit silly for mentioning it, but it's been on her mind. "I was a member of the Fire Nation royal family, and about to be crowned Fire Lord. That's not so different from a queen, I guess."

[skysung]

"My mother's name was Flamewing. She left Mama Daine my name before she died, but Mama thinks I'm too young for it yet. Dragon names usually mean something." Paarthurnax has meaning too, Zuko just can't understand his language. Kitten can. She isn't about to say what his name means, though, because she thinks that Paarthurnax has grown to be much more than his name would suggest. It's his own decision whether to tell people.

Kitten tilts her head in curiosity. "There is a nation of fire? Is the name based in fact, or is it just imagery?" Even in her world, where magic is what has the strongest pull on her, dragons have an affinity for fire. "I like that your title does not vary from man to woman. More sensible that way."

[daughterofursa]

"What do you think? About being too young for your name, I mean." It doesn't seem like it should be someone else's decision. No more than regaining her honor had anything to do with other people.

"Well, it's not like the land itself was on fire... aside from the volcanoes... But many of the people are firebenders, myself included." Kitten should have seen that on the Skyway, even if she may have named it magic.

[skysung]

"My grandparents and my elder cousin Tkaa call me Skysong, and most others call me Kitten. I don't mind the nickname when spoken by people I like. From Mama and Papa or friends, it comes as an endearment. Anyone who doesn't treat me properly had best call me my proper name, though, or I'll bite them." She never really stopped to consider that before. The decision was made when Kitten was a newborn, and it's never bothered her. She knows full well she's still a baby, and Kitten has centuries ahead of her to shed the baby name. She's in no hurry.

"How does firebending work? It didn't feel like magic." Magic is a sense for dragons of Kitten's world, just as much as hearing or sight.

[daughterofursa]

Zuko scratches her head. "I'll- call you Skysong then." It doesn't occur to her to be counted among people the dragon likes well enough to tolerate the nickname.

"It isn't magic. Firebending comes from the breath, from the energy in a person's body."

[skysung]

Kitten tilts her head again in her shrug-like gesture. "Either name is fine."

Most of her attention is on the idea of firebending. "Magic is like breathing for me. It comes just as naturally. My ability to breathe fire is not limited here in the same way my magic is, though. Is your firebending limited? I would like to see it when not distracted by other things."

[daughterofursa]

"Yeah, it's limited," Zuko says grudgingly, not because she hates to admit it but because she hates that it's true. "Doesn't feel right, when it's always been a part of me."

She may not have been born the prodigy her sister was, and she may have been forced to hide the ability before, but being a firebender is still an important part of her identity. Having to ration it, using it only for brief windows each day, it leaves her feeling unbalanced.

[skysung]

Kitten chirps sympathetically. "I feel the same way about my magic. And it was a very unpleasant surprise, finding out. I am too short to reach door handles, you see. I whistled the door open going in, but then I got stuck." If Zuko has noticed automatic doors on many of the common spaces, those are recent additions. Colin installed them as a favor to Kitten.

[daughterofursa]

Like many things, automatic doors are a mystery to Zuko.

"...I guess I can say I've never had that problem." She's been trapped by earthbenders or waterbenders a few times, but aside from the doors in the Fire Sage's temple, she doesn't know of any that actually require firebending to open. It would certainly make things frustrating.

The first sentence of your tag made me smile a lot

[skysung]

"Will you be firebending today? Can I watch if you do? I spend more time using magic than fire, but I am a dragon, so of course I breathe fire sometimes. I am too young to do much of it." Kitten is always eager and curious, and she wants to watch firebending, to hear about how it works, to see if she can feel any magic in the elemental manipulation.

Zuko may wind up with an audience whether she likes it or not.

haha I'm glad =)

[daughterofursa]

"...sure," Zuko says, the hesitation only because she's surprised by Kitten's eagerness. "I'll probably train later today. I'll just have to see if Rin is interested."

Zuko doesn't really mind an audience, as long as that audience has some appreciation for what she's doing. The dragons here may not be firebenders exactly, and they may not understand it in the same way she does, but they still know fire. She's sure Kitten isn't about to call it 'jerkbending.'

[skysung]

"Thank you." Kitten is always eager to learn new things, and all the more so when they pertain to one of her own skillsets. "Another name for dragonkind in my world is the Firefolk. I will be much more proficient at wielding it someday, but the wait will be long. I am still only halfway through infancy."

That brings her to another question, something Zuko may have to get used to if she plans on spending much time around Kitten. The young dragon is forever curious and inquisitive, and her chattering is only increased by the fact that she acquired her mindspeech so recently. Kitten spent the first sixteen years of her life living among people who, for the most part, could not understand a word she said. It was the only part of being brought up by her human family that Kitten had disliked. She is a chatterbox by nature, and she still gets carried away in her excitement over being able to easily communicate. "Do you know what the lifespans of dragons were like in your own world?"

[daughterofursa]

She doesn't mind the questions either. It's letting her talk about her world, without letting her dwell too long on any thought in particular.

"You know, I'm not really sure. Longer than ours, I think, but... probably not so long as it sounds like yours is. How long until you can really use your fire?"

[skysung]

She snorts in mild exasperation. "I will be a child for centuries." If she has to be optimistic, though, "It is not so bad now that I have my mindspeech. For sixteen years, I could not speak any language humans would understand, though I understood every language of theirs."

That was always the most frustrating part of being young, growing up in the Mortal Realm raised by humans. She could never speak to her family or friends, let alone her enemies or acquaintances.

[daughterofursa]

Zuko's eyebrow raises in some astonishment. Spending centuries as a child, not even being able to speak her mind for sixteen years... "That must have been frustrating," is her first reaction.

If she'd been essentially mute her whole life... would her father ever have had cause to banish her? No, she'll take the scar and the years of hardship over what she might have become under his influence.

"I'm glad you found a way to express yourself."