Dreamland

I was drowning.

Drowning in fire.

"Help! S-someone help me!!" I screamed as flames encircled me and I inhaled a lot of smoke in the process.

This was it. I am actually going to die. Desperately, I fiercely attempted to escape from the intense heat. Realization dawned on me. Something was yanking me by the ankle into the red waves. Even as the mysterious force pulled me deeper in the fiery depths of flames, I tried to kick my way out.

Hopeless.

My vision became even more fuzzy from the heavy smoke and my body finally gave in to the sweet temptation of exhaustion.

Darkness devoured everything and it was pitch black.

Suddenly, one tiny light ray cracked through the darkness. The sounds of cracking echoed as dark pieces of glass shattered on the ground. Light was dominating the dark. As soon as the powerful light shone on me, I instantly opened my eyes.

My wide gray eyes stared at a white ceiling, scared. I laid there so perfectly still that a rock would be envious of me. Slowly, I turned over, afraid of what my already frightened eyes might see.

Gold eyes started back at me.

Without a second thought, I screamed and almost fell off the bed I was lying still on.

I am not alone.

"Please don't be scared of me," a husky voice softly murmured.

By instinct, I turned to the source of the sound and a pair of gold eyes stared back. I could detect a hint of sadness and hurt in the voice. It sounded almost like the person was offended and depressed that I screamed once I saw those odd eyes.

The mystery person pulled open the curtains.

A boy was staring at me with hard gold eyes. His red hair gleamed in the sunlight and reminded me of the colour of the fire that I nearly died in. He was wearing a white polo and strangely, a red collar encircled around his neck. 

If you looked closely, you could see a bit of his black undershirt showing.  Snow white fangs sparkled from his open mouth. However, his eyes did not shock me the most.

The scar below his right eye did.

It looked as if someone tried cut his eye but missed. The scar looked as if a cat clawed me. 

Who gave him this scar? I'd not be that surprised if it was a cat, honestly.

"Who are you? Why am I here? What did you do to me?" I questioned fearfully.

After taking a step towards me, he answered, "Hisoka. I found you along the shore of this island. I simply took care of you while you were in an uncounscious state."

I blinked. "How long was I out?"

Hisoka avoided my burning stare. "Two months..."

My gray eyes widened drastically. "Two months! What are you? I've never met a human with gold eyes..."

"The banished prince from Atlantica," he solemnly answered.

Immediately, I stood up and growled. "You're the prince who ordered the attack on my country! You don't know how that war has affected the people! Me personally! I lost my mother during the war!! I hate you, Prince Hisoka," I glared at the red head.

"Stay away from me. I would have been happier if you just let me die instead of you, the banished prince of Atlantica, nursing me for two months! Go die."

    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It seemed like an ordinary day. Everything was normal. Mom was cooking my favorite macaroni in the kitchen as I walked outside in the garden. The pink tulips had blossomed and pink dots were scattered across fresh soil. 

Suddenly, I heard screams and yells from our neighbours.

 I rushed inside and screamed, "Mom! The neighbours are screaming!"

I skidded to a stop and my mom frowned. "That's strange. I'll go outside and see what's happening. Honey, just stay inside."

A pout appeared on my face. "But, Mom, I wanna see too!"

She smiled with gray eyes. "No, for your own safety, stay inside. We don't know what's happening out there."

On cue, a high pitched scream reached our ears. The sound echoed from outside. Is there a monster outside like in the fairy tales Mom reads me every night?

"Mom, I won't get hurt! Please let me come with you!" I whined as I tugged on her arm.

"No," her gray eyes narrowed, "my decision is final. I'll be back soon, Miyuki. Don't worry about me. Oh and look after the macaroni, okay? Love you!"

"Love you too, mom," I grumbled unhappily as she shut the door behind her.

With crossed arms, I watched the cooking macaroni. Just because I'm nine, she thinks I'm some helpless child! Well, I'm not that baby girl anymore! I can take care of myself. Once I turn sixteen, then I'm officially considered a woman. 

An adult.

By that time, I'll be able to marry (not that I want to or anything) and move out! Imagine that, me living somewhere in the Capital working in one of those cute tea shops. 

A familiar scream interrupted my thoughts. 

Mom.

I sprinted as fast as I could outside. There was fire everywhere. It was burning the whole neighbourhood down. Even the hills far away were decorated with red fiery flames and dark gray clouds. The intense heat was tickling at my skin as I tried to look for my dear mom.

"Mom! Mom! Where are you?! Mom!" I yelled frantically.

Then, I saw fire soldiers burning down another home down. Tears welled up in my eyes from the smoke and the thought of my mom being gone.

"Stop it! Stop burning everything!!" I cried out to one soldier.

He turned around. Once he saw I was only some kid, he ignored me and continued burning. "Kid, you're mom's gone. Dead. Go home! Actually, never mind," a dark laugh escaped his mouth, "your home is already burnt to ashes. Since I'm feeling content today, I'll let you go. Run! Run before I burn you too!"

A whip of flames came out of his hands as he almost struck me. It missed me by a couple of centimeters. So, I ran. 

Ran away as far as my legs could take me.

Eventually, I arrived at the next city, Natashu, and found my uncle's house. I just couldn't believe that my mom was gone.

Forever.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I stomped to the opposite end of the room. The wall was better company than my mom's murderer. I should have realized it was the banished prince when I saw those gold eyes! 

Pathetic.

"I... I'm so sorry. That's something we have in common," he stated.

In only those two sentences, I heard remorse, regret, anger, grief, and hurt between the words. Genuine emotions from the monster who practically killed my mother. He is playing tricks on me.

"I used to think that this was the mark of the banished prince, cursed to run away forever. But, lately, I realized I am free to choose my own destiny. This scar just marks my mistakes in the past. I can still change the present. Thank you."

I stared at the prince in confusion and boldly walked right in front of him. "Why thank me?"

Hisoka looked embarrassed for a moment. "... you talk in your sleep. For these past two months, I told you about basically my life. One day, you yelled at me, 'Get a life and make your own decisions!'. I took your advice and stopped hiding. Fire Lord Tekken, my father, knows I reside on this small island."

"I might be able to heal your scar."

Hisoka looked not convinced. "It's a scar. Scars cannot be healed."

"See this," I held out a pouch of water, "is magical water from the mermaids. It can heal just about anything."

My hand lingered in front of his cheek as I stared at him for permission. The prince nodded and closed his eyes as I touched the scar. His once tense facial muscles relaxed and a tiny smile replaced his frown. The scar felt rough under my trembling hand.

He sighed. I was about to pull away my hand until Hisoka quickly put his hand on top of mine. I could literally feel him lean into my gentle touch.

"Sorry if I scared you. I just... Was actually excited to talk and meet the person who I talked to for the past months. I miss this human contact," he explained in embarrassment.

A smile creeped on my mouth. "Don't be humiliated, I think it's quite cute," the words blurted out of my big mouth before I could stop it.

His gold eyes met mine. "A-actually?"

I smiled and awkwardly stated, "Um, you can let go of my hand now."

His cheeks heated as quickly removed his hand. "...sorry. It's just that your touch felt... um..."

"Good? Comforting? Pleasant?" I offered.

Hisoka smiled for the first time in front of me. "Yes. I didn't want that pleasant feeling to leave yet."

This time, it was my turn to blush.

Suddenly, something crashed through the wall. Broken pieces of wood were flying from the impact.

Startled, we both jumped away from each other.

My eyes shot open. The alarm clock was ringing like crazy and I slammed the off button. Beads of sweat rolled down the side of my face. I was just in my bedroom.

Looks like I visited Dreamland again.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

That particular short story, Dreamland, was inspired from Avatar: The Last Airbender. It's an awesome cartoon show and I recommend everyone of all ages to watch it! You won't regret it~ To be more specific, the scar part reminded me about that part in one episode where Katara and Zuko are stuck in a cave. Then, Katara's still mad at him for trying to capture 'the world's last hope', but she starts ranting about how she hates the Fire Nation or something like that.

Later, Zuko says he's sorry and that's something we have in common. He was referring to the fact that they lost their mothers to the Fire Nation. Well, Ursa, could still be alive like the last episode suggests. But, Ozai could have just gotten some assassin to kill her when she left.

Anyways, Zuko starts opening up and says, "I used to think this scar marked me. The mark of the banished prince cursed to chase the Avatar forever. But, lately, I realized I'm free to determine my own destiny, even if I'll never be free of my mark."

Pretty deep for Zuzu. I mean, Zuko. I kinda stole that quote and changed the words a bit if you actually read Dreamland. Just like Miyuki, Katara also offers to heal his scar with water from the oasis that Pakku of the Northern Water Tribe gave her.

Yeah, I think it's kinda obvious that I ship Zutara at this point. I was so sad and mad when Katara ended up with Avatar Aang. Even though Aunt Wu said that she'd marry a powerful bender, (which was most probably Aang, but I wished it was Zuko) Katara said something about wishing he was tall and handsome.

Tall and handsome.

Does that ring a bell? Who's tall and handsome? Not Aang because frankly, he's quite short. Maybe, just maybe, she meant Zuko!

Also, that Ember Island Play or whatever it was called, had a bit of Zutara hinting in it. The actress, Katara seemed to have a liking for the actor, Zuko, because she was always like, "Oh, Zuko, you're so cool!" Okay, she's not like that in the cartoon reality... But, you gotta admit, it was pretty funny when Katara and Zuko moved away from each other at the scene. The real Katara and Zuko.

Technically, it's Water Tribe tradition to propose with a betrothal necklace, correct? So, technically, that would mean Zuko accidentally proposed to Katara when he handed back her necklace! Ha, maybe the writers did that on purpose or simply forgot. I hope they did that on purpose.

Fortunately, there's a Zutara like couple in Legend of Korra, the sequel to ATLA. If you haven't guessed it yet, it's Mako and Korra. Firebender and waterbender Avatar. Hehe, it's Katara and Zuko in the next generation! I feel bad for the brother though... He liked Korra, but Korra liked Mako, and Mako first liked Asumi (or something like that, I forget honestly) but eventually liked Korra back.

It's like an Avatar love triangle!

Anyways, before I get even more talkative about ATLA or Legend of Korra.... The name Hisoka actually is one of the characters in my WWYFF quizzes on Quizilla called Stuck in Virtual Reality. 

Originally, I first wrote this on my bio on FictionPress. (by the way, I'm iAnimeDarkAngel if you're wondering) Currently, I am spending most of my time editing Kidnapped and posting new chapters on Fantasia. Yeah, I kinda stopped writing for two months or so... To be fair, I'll work extra hard now to update quicker! 

I'm thinking on making a sequel to Kidnapped, but I dunno if I'll have enough time to even make one. Perhaps in the summertime when there's no school... It all depends upon the situation.

Also, these stories aren't literally scrumptious. For your own safety, don't try eating these stories. Nothing good will come out of it. I guarantee it. It's 100% guaranteed.