#salixj

Habits are a simple, yet important thing. One of those which seem to dictate your life, yet do so in an invisible way. Good habits will elevate you and make your life a wonder. Bad habits will destroy your life. There is one thing about good habits though – do it in moderation. Working hard is good, working sixteen hours a day is bad, moderation is needed. Unfortunately Azula never really grasped the notion of moderation, the woman operated on the dichotomy of “overkill” or “don't bother”.

Which is why she – in her early thirties now – was being driven bonkers by not having anything to do. There were plans to be made, people to be blackmailed, councilmen to be investigated and she was sure that a certain General T'sao had grown an unhealthy obsession with chicken leading to a bizarre incident on a ship with which she wanted nothing to do with, but her job required action. The doctors were clear – collapsing from overexertion is not normal, especially at her age. She was to take a week off and find herself something to do outside of work.

The sixteen hours workday, her doctors announced with Zuko nodding next to them, was a thing she'd have to put in the past. After her seven day “vacation” was over she'd have to go to an eight hour workday and find something “relaxing” to do with the rest of her time. Which would be difficult since she had no idea what that “relaxing” thing was. The last time she was wasting time leisurely was before she was a teenager.  

The first day was a pain, the second they even more so. The third day she felt like she'd have a nervous breakdown if she didn't do anything, so she did the only relaxing thing she could find in the recesses of her mind. She explored the old palace tunnels and hidden rooms. She remembered scouring them as a child from top to bottom. There was the memory of them, but it was starting to fade.

The day was spent climbing rocks, going through hidden doors and illuminating tunnels long forgotten. She hadn't had that much fun, since she was eight. So she did the same thing on day four.

Day five had a twist. She had found a tunnel to one of those storerooms royalty use to store old objects given by visitors that no one planned to use, but couldn't throw away, because it'd look bad. The room was dark and damp, though she recognized some items in it. After a while she actually found something she remembered seeing - a giant golden egg on pedestal, given to Zuko some ten years or so ago by people who looked like they haven't seen civilization in the last few hundred years.

There was something weird about the egg. No one could feel it in the grand hallways when receptions were going or in the brightly illuminated-by-seven-fireplaces central rooms, but there was warmth coming from the egg. A small, barely detectable warmth. This object tucked in darkness had heat radiating from it.

It was weird. Azula neared the object and placed her hand on it. It truly was warm. In this cold, damp room this thing was warm. Why? She didn't know. What if she transferred some heat into it? Not like she had anything better to do.

It didn't feel like she was warming the object, but rather that the egg was absorbing the heat. At this point, she decided that she could be excused some mischief so she stepped a few steps back and firebended at the egg. The object absorbed the fire.

Well now Azula was interested, this was fascinating, so she walked to the other side of the room and decided to stress-test this thing. Firebend at it until it breaks. It's not like anyone would care if she destroyed this room. Heck “everything burned in a fire” is the excuse multiple firelord had used to clear places like this.

Thirty minutes later the object actually cracked. At that point Azula's curiosity was mimicing that of her eight year old self. What could make this egg warm from inside? What absorbed the fire? Was it just magical mumbo-jumbo material? As she stepped towards the egg the few cracks started to push from the inside, as if something was popping out of it. It was a slow and nonthreatening push.

Then a giant lizard head appeared out of the cracks. Azula was watching in stunned silence. She had some reflexes built-in for emergency cases, but nothing for this. She watched for awhile as a giant lizard-baby made its way through the shell. As the small creature was finally coming out it started to veer downards as the part of his body outside of the egg was big enough to tumble him...it?...down on the floor.

Which was when Azula's reflexes kicked in and she grabbed the baby-lizard. It was twice the size of her arm and the moment she held it, it started to snuggle at her. If Azula was a cautious person, she'd probably leave it and scream for the guards, but cautious people do not challenge the Avatar during an eclipse. No, she just sat there and observed the lizard snuggling up to her. Then the lizard gave a small puff of fire with a satisfied murmur.

It was a dragon. A big smile spread on Azula's face. It was an actual dragon. She found a dragon! She had to look for more eggs like that, there were probably a few in other store rooms.