The Fire Prince and the Selkie Maiden

Obligatory Disclaimer: I in no way, shape, or form do not own the characters of Avatar: The Last Airbender. They are the property of Bryke and Nick. I am only here to play in the sandbox for my own amusement. The only thing I claim ownership for here is the idea itself.

A/N: This is an idea I've had for years that's finally seeing the light of day at long last. For those of you who've never heard of a Selkie, they are creatures from Celtic folklore. The Selkies were seal people, often beautiful women, who could remove their seal skins and walk on shore. The legends tell that if you steal a Selkie's skin, then you will have power over him or (usually) her, and there are several stories where fishermen would take them as brides. I've wanted to do a Zutara twist on this legend for a long time. I hope that this will be a unique spin on Zutara fairy tale fics, because to my knowledge, no one has ever done something like this before.

There are many stories that come from the Fire Nation. Some wondrous, some frightening. From the tale of Koh the Face Stealer to the tale of the benevolent Painted Lady and the mysterious Blue Spirit. However, there is one story in particular that is not well known as others may be. It is the story of a Prince of the Fire Nation who loved a selkie-one of the seal people protected by Yue the moon goddess, and stole her skin and made her his wife. It is a tale of great love and a tale of profound tragedy. Now, gather around the campfire friends, and listen well as I begin the tale of the Fire Prince and the Selkie Maiden...

Once, there was a prince, and he was the heir to a great and mighty nation that worshiped fire. His cruel and merciless tyrant of a father had long since been overthrown and executed and his equally cruel sister had been locked away because she had broken down into a sort of madness after their father's death. His uncle Fire Lord Iroh had taken the throne and he ruled over the country with benevolence and compassion. Peace reigned over the land and under his leadership, the people prospered and were overall contented. Since Iroh's son Lu Ten had been lost in battle many years before, he had named Prince Zuko as his heir, and he loved and cared for the boy as if he were his own, taking him under his wing and thus taking on the role of wise mentor to someday prepare him for ascension to the throne.

However, there was one thing that troubled Iroh, and left the court somewhat ill at ease.

Zuko was a couple of years past marrying age, and he had yet to choose a bride.

It was not that he was not handsome nor unappealing to look at. Quite the contrary, really. Girls at court often giggled, whispered and swooned over him, and would peer coyly at him from behind their ornate fans at balls and masquerades, their hearts fluttering with hope that he would choose to marry one of them and that someday they'd rule beside him as Fire Lady.

However, he never cast any of them a second glance, since none of the women that graced the court caught his fancy, in spite of Iroh doing his best to learn of some of their charms and pointed them out in the hopes of piquing his nephew's interest. This one had a lovely singing voice and played the harp beautifully, that one did fine needlework. Another one had a talent for haikus and yet another was quite the graceful dancer.

All of it was to no avail. The prince was more interested in perfecting his bending or his swordsmanship, and seemed to have little desire to pursue romance or entertain thoughts of marriage, since he had turned down each and every one of the (many, many) proposals that had come his way.

Iroh leaned back on his throne with a weary sigh, greatly perturbed, the flames flickering high before him. One thing was clear; Iroh's health was beginning to decline with the rigors of age, and Zuko needed to marry soon. As distasteful as the notion was to him, he considered offering his nephew an ultimatum: choose a bride after one year, or one would be chosen for him.

He felt that he would have no other choice.

Meanwhile, Prince Zuko had sequestered himself at his family's Ember Island beach house, wishing to get away from the pressures of the court for a time. He had relaxed by meditating and practicing bending forms and exercises in an effort to clear his mind.

However, in spite of his endeavors to achieve inner peace, he remained troubled.

The young prince knew all too well that it was expected of him to choose a bride from amongst the Fire Nation nobility. His well meaning uncle had done his best to not make him feel pressured, but he'd emphasized the importance of the matter often of late.

Zuko felt a stab of guilt inside him because while yes, there were many candidates that were pretty, and engaging, and charming, not a single one had been able to capture his heart. He found them vapid and shallow; they seemed to have no more depth and substance than the shiny baubles and trinkets they so loved to adorn themselves with.

In his heart of hearts, Zuko yearned for something more. He longed for someone who would equal his passion, who loved him for who he was and not simply for the position he held. He longed for someone more exotic, more exciting, someone...different.

Sighing to himself, the discontent prince decided to go for a walk along the beach.

As he walked, he paused to watch a small group of seals at play, barking joyously as they darted and chased each other, their lithe bodies breaking the water from time to time. He locked eyes with one, and was startled by their brightness and the intelligence they held. He would swear that there was something almost human about that gaze.

That night, he dreamed that he was underwater, and the sleek forms of seals swam, twirled, and danced around him.

He found that he was not afraid.

The next day, a savage tropical storm hit the small island, and everybody took the necessary precautions to ride it out as the winds howled, raged and blew as the rains lashed the buildings, and thunder cracked and lightning split the skies in half.

Come the morning after, as the island residents set to cleaning up the damage left by the storm, the prince stepped from the house and made a startling discovery.

There, lying on the beach, was the form of a naked woman lying face down. Zuko approached and carefully rolled her over and found that she was still alive, and that she had an exotic beauty to her. He wondered where in the name of Agni she could have come from, since she looked nothing like a Fire Nation citizen.

He looked about, and found that near her was what appeared to be a skin. He picked it up and examined it curiously, finding that it was a seal pelt. It was soft and supple to the touch, and it somehow seemed to repel sand.

He deduced that it belonged to the woman. He wondered, what was she? She didn't seem real, or quite human to him. She was something other. She had an, he struggled to find the right word, ethereal quality to her.

Making a decision, he picked her up into his arms, making sure to cover her with the skin somewhat, and brought her back to the house. There, he carefully laid her in one of the spare bedrooms.

He did not leave her sealskin with her.

Katara groaned, frowning as she slowly came to and sat up. As she came fully more awake and able to take stock of her surroundings, she realized that she was in a place that she'd never been before, and her ocean blue eyes widened in shock.

Great Tui and La! She thought to herself as she climbed out of the bed, pulling a silk sheet around herself to conceal her nakedness. I'm in some kind of human dwelling. But how? Why? There was a storm last night...and then... She didn't remember anything after that.

As her gaze tentatively cast about the room, a terrible fact dawned on her. Her seal skin was missing.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, no, no, no..." she whispered. Panic surging inside her, she all but turned the room upside down in search of it.

"Looking for this?" came a deep voice.

She spun around to see a young man with piercing golden eyes standing in the doorway, and held in his right hand was her precious skin.

She rushed towards him, her arm extended. "Give it back. I need that."

"Oh? Why should I?" he asked, raising a brow in curiosity.

"I'm a selkie. I need it to return to the sea, back to my own kind. Give it back. Please." Her tone was beseeching, imploring. She felt a cold knot of dread deep in her stomach; her grandmother had once told her that to have a selkie's skin was to have power over him or her, and that she should never fall asleep anywhere man may dwell, for fear of discovery and having her skin snatched up and thus ending up trapped and landbound.

A selkie. Zuko had heard of them from the stories his mother used to read to him, many years ago. As he recalled, it was a belief amongst the Water Tribes that a person who drowned or was lost at sea would become a selkie, or seal people. He had suspected this enchanting beauty was no ordinary woman. She held his fascination the way no woman ever had. He didn't want to let her go.

"And if I don't?" he asked, even though he was certain he already knew the answer.

"Then I'll be trapped here on land forever," her voice shook as she found this an unbearable prospect and her eyes shined with unshed tears. She belonged with her brethren swimming freely in the ocean, along with her brother and father, and all her friends. Her throat tightened at the thought of never being able to see them again. She knew that with the skin in his possession, she was bound to him. She looked away, pulling the sheet around herself tighter.

"I see," he replied, something inside him softening at witnessing her obvious anguish. She was the loveliest thing he'd ever laid eyes on.

"I know you love the sea, but the land has its wonders, too. I could show them to you, if you'd give me a chance. Come back with me, to the capital. Stay with me at the palace. I'm a prince of my country, and I can give you anything you desire. If in a year you find that you do not love me, and are unhappy, then I'll return your skin to you and let you go."

She looked him straight in the eye then, steadily. She didn't have much of a choice in the matter, she knew, but he seemed like he was a man of his word. "Do you swear it?"

"On my honor," he said sincerely.

She nodded, "Forgive me my prince, but I don't know your name. What is it?"

"Zuko. And yours?"

"I am Katara," she said.

Katara. Even her name was beautiful, and he found that it suited her well. The sound of it brought to mind cascading waterfalls and flowing rivers and streams.

Zuko then left her, and locked her skin away in a chest, ensuring that she would not escape.

And so it was that she returned with him to the capital a few days later, and there were many whispers of the exotic beauty that had come back with the prince-who was she? Where had she come from? She was certainly no Fire Nation girl. Was she to be the prince's bride?

Iroh was taken aback by her unexpected arrival, but he welcomed her readily enough. He did his best to grill Zuko as to her origins, but his nephew proved to be rather vague on the details. Zuko told him that her ship must have wrecked and she washed up during that storm, miraculously surviving. Perhaps she was a nobleman's daughter from a faraway land.

Iroh noted that Zuko was enamored with the young, enigmatic beauty, so he didn't press him further. But that didn't quell his curiosity and suspicion about her. He noticed that her movements were almost preternaturally graceful, and she had an otherworldly quality to her, and judging by her reaction to things, everything around her seemed alien and new, like she wasn't quite familiar with the ways of humans. In the back of his mind, he wondered if she wasn't some kind of spirit made flesh...or something else entirely.

Meanwhile, Zuko made sure that Katara had the best of everything, the finest clothes and ladies in waiting to attend her. She grew accustomed to being fussed over, although in spite of the fact that she wore the most expensive of silks that coin could buy, she still somehow felt naked without her skin.

But as time passed, Zuko showed her nothing but kindness and doted upon her, and she found herself gradually warming to his attentions as he spent nearly all of his spare time with her. During their talks she discovered his hopes, his fears, his dreams, and how sensitive and caring he could be, and how he hoped to be a good and just ruler to his people when the time came for him to finally take the throne. She in turn told him about the wonders and secrets that the depths of the ocean held that no human eyes had ever seen. It seemed like she had a hundred stories, and he was enthralled by all of them.

The seasons turned, and the love between them quickly grew and flourished, and Katara found that she was content to stay. She had come to love the land and the people that inhabited it.

When the year was up, Zuko asked for her her hand in marriage, to the consternation of much of the court, and the disappointment of many a Fire Nation noblewoman.

She beamed at him and without hesitation, she said yes, her heart full of love for him. Arrangements were made, and there was the grandest, most elaborate wedding that the Fire Nation had seen in many years. Shortly after their marriage, Zuko ascended the throne and Iroh stepped down.

The years passed, and over time, six children were eventually born to them, all with eyes the color of the ocean depths and hair as black as coal, and the Fire Lord and his Lady were very happy together. The common folk embraced their foreign queen for her kindness and compassion, and Fire Lord Zuko ruled fairly, justly and honorably, and both royals were deeply beloved by their people.

However, despite how much Katara loved her husband, their children, and his country, there was a part of her that yearned fiercely for the freedom of the open sea. To swim with her own kind once more. She thought of her brother, Sokka, who ate nearly everything in sight, and her father, and her friends. Whenever she and Zuko visited Ember Island once a year, she would slip away in the night from their shared bed when the moon was full to watch their lustrous forms gleam as they broke the surface for air and played beneath the waves. Their mournful barks and moans seemed to call out to her, full of sad longing. She understood perfectly the message they were conveying in their seal tongue: Come back to us sister, daughter. You are missed. You are loved. Our hearts are broken. Come back and swim with us.

Though she could not communicate with them, she made a solemn promise in the back of her mind.

I will return to you all. Someday.

During those times whenever Zuko would reach for his wife in the night, he would find her side of the bed empty. He knew where she was, and he pretended to be asleep when she would return to him just before the cold grey light of dawn would begin to peek over the horizon and awaken the fire that flowed in his veins.

He opened his brilliant golden eyes and studied her lovely face. He loved her so much it hurt, and he knew that she loved him. But he knew, deep down, that she was a creature of the sea, and she did not belong here, with him, truly. Her home was the sea, and it always had been. And while a selfish part of him didn't want to let her go, he knew that a time would come when she would have to go back to the ocean, to her people. He had been both blind and foolish to think that he could tame her, make her forget the sea and the family she'd been forced to leave behind in order to start another.

As he held her close to him, Zuko took a deep breath, and came to a decision.

It was the most difficult one he'd made in his entire life.

But it was the right thing to do.

Katara was puzzled the day her husband summoned her to his office, wondering what it was about. He'd sounded grave and serious when he'd done so. When she entered, she saw that he was standing, looking regal and somber. She saw that a chest had been placed there by the servants.

Wordlessly, he gave her the key. She unlocked the chest, and flung it open, and there before her was her skin. She reached out with trembling fingers to touch it, scarcely believing that it was real.

"The choice is yours," he said simply. "Although I already know what choice you will make. You are free now, Katara. You may go."

She held her skin to her breast, tears of gratitude falling from her eyes. She loved him as deeply as he loved her, but he knew that she could not stay here with him.

"Thank you," she managed to choke out. She gave him one last lingering, bittersweet kiss.

The next day, she was gone. Rumors swept amongst the servants and throughout the court as to what had become of their Fire Lady. She had disappeared as mysteriously as she'd appeared to them. Accounts varied wildly, depending upon whom you asked. Some speculated she had left with another man. Others said that she'd caught the Fire Lord in the arms of another woman, and she'd thrown herself into the ocean, so great was her humiliation and despair.

Regardless, the Fire Lord went into such a deep mourning over the loss of his love that he could not be brought out of it. He locked himself away for weeks, months afterward, and wasted away as he pined for his queen.

There finally came a day where Zuko could endure no more. He set his affairs in order, and in his final letter, he appointed his oldest son to be his successor.

And then, he went to Ember Island. There, on the beach, he stripped himself naked, and stepped into the ocean. Then he swam out as far as he could, until he could swim no more. He saw the seals circling him, watching him with their bright, curious, intelligent eyes.

He closed his eyes, sank beneath the water, and surrendered himself as the seals circled around him.

He found that he was not afraid.

And so ends the tale of the prince that once loved a seal woman, or so you might think. Many believed that he was driven so mad by grief and sorrow that he drowned himself so that he did not have to deal with the pain of being without her. However, many believe that he gave himself to the sea so that he could rejoin his beloved once more. You may believe what you like. However, to this day, some fishermen spot two seals swimming side by side together. One is a deep silver in color, and the other is said to be pure black, with eyes the color of the purest gold.

The End

I confess that this piece is a bit...rushed and unpolished in some places, and I may go back and do some fine-tuning and revising, but I'm overall happy with how it turned out. Reviews and criticism is greatly welcomed!