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Fic Reposting!
Title: Separation
Rating: PG-13 for language
Genre: Crossover fusion
Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender and His Dark Materials
Timeline: Season One, immediately following 1x09, The Waterbending Scroll
Summary: Returning to his ship after the fiasco with the pirates, Prince Zuko stumbles across the body of a boy in the river. Quickly it is determined that the boy is alive, but that something is terribly wrong...
Warning: Inspired in part by avocado_love's Inner Nature but completely different from her story, I promise you. Original characters, who will be familiar faces for those of you who've kept up with my other works. Some foul language.
I
Nobody was particularly surprised that Prince Zuko was in an exceedingly foul mood after the fiasco with the pirates, least of all his dæmon Irie. She, too, was very unhappy; hissing whenever Iroh's Airi tried to soothe her. Finally, the catsquirrel dæmon informed Zuko and Irie that she was off until they stopped sulking, then leapt from Iroh's shoulder and darted off into the undergrowth. The aged prince just shook his head at Airi's whims. Sometimes he felt that his dæmon could be as sulky as his nephew, though he would never tell her that.
He and his nephew had gone only a half-mile further when Airi came pelting through the grass. "Turn back!" she cried.
Irie fluffed her feathers and glowered at the older dæmon. "What are you so excited about now?" she demanded.
Iroh frowned as his dæmon leapt back to her accustomed spot on his shoulder, her bushy tail brushing against the back of his head. Something had vastly upset her; he could feel her trembling. "There's a boy in the river!"
That, at least, caused the sulking prince to stop. Zuko, with one rather glaring exception, was very touchy when it came to children. "How far back?" he asked.
"A quarter-mile," Airi replied, then shoved her face into Iroh's neck. The former general took her from his shoulder and cradled her close to him, stroking her russet fur as Zuko took off running. Irie let out an annoyed noise and flew after the banished prince; Iroh followed at a more leisurely pace, trying to comfort his dæmon. Something was very wrong; the last time she had been this upset was after his return from the Spirit World.
Zuko's dæmon couldn't go as far from him as Airi could go from Iroh, but this restriction was such a common one that they'd long since worked out ways around it, and even managed to stretch their bond some — a painful process for both of them, but it had been worth it in the end. The tigershag dæmon was at their limit now, but her eyes were so keen she could well have been much farther.
But then she squawked in alarm and came flying back, catching hold of his shoulder at such a speed he was nearly knocked backwards. "Zuko, don't!" she begged, unaccountably upset. "Don't go, there's something wrong, please—"
Zuko ignored her pleas. He knew only that there was something so horrible his dæmon wanted him nowhere near it — and there was a boy in that vicinity. It was obvious he had to get the kid to safety.
When he finally made it to the riverbank, his good eye went wide: there was indeed a boy there, as Airi had said.
But he had no dæmon.
"Zuko…" pleaded Irie.
Resolutely, the prince made his way to the body. He must have drowned, the prince thought, and the river washed him ashore here. He had initially assumed the child to be Earth Kingdom, but realised his error quickly on seeing the crimson rags, all that were left of the boy's clothing. Now that he thought about it, there was a colony about a day or two upstream.
Feeling a sense of loss — the boy was so small, so young — Zuko reached to turn him over.
"Ishiko," moaned the boy.
Startled, the prince leapt away from him. The boy was alive! But how? And his dæmon — where was his dæmon? All too clearly, he understood why Irie and Airi had been so upset. To not have a dæmon was utterly inconceivable. How had this poor child survived so?
Steeling himself, Zuko reached out again, ignoring Irie's distress, and turned the boy over.
What he saw made him go absolutely still.
Iroh had almost caught up to his nephew when Irie flew from the woods and landed awkwardly on the ground beside him. "It's too horrible!" wailed the tigershag, turning her head to nervously preen. Airi dropped from the former general's arms to twine around the other dæmon, trying to calm her. Before Iroh could ask, Zuko came into sight, carrying a small boy in his arms.
The last time Iroh had seen an injury like the one the child bore on his chest, it had been on his nephew's face and left behind a permanent scar.
"He's coming with us," said Zuko in a tone that brooked no argument.
"He won't live long," the Dragon of the West told him gently. It was a miracle the boy still drew breath, even without the loss of his dæmon.
"Then he can die in comfort!" snapped the prince. He led the way back.
Current Location: my bed
Current Mood:  cheerful
Tags: character: iroh, character: zuko, crossover, fandom: avatar, fandom: his dark materials, story: separation
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