Katara Alone
"Just a little bit farther and then I'll spend the night in town." Katara says, talking more to herself than anyone else. Not that there was anyone else to talk to. She had been alone in the Western Air Temple for over a month now and it was starting to take its toll on her mental state. She had started talking to herself out loud a couple weeks ago. Anything to fill the haunting silence that she had to endure being on her own.
Aang had left her weeks ago with nothing more than a quickly scribbled on a piece of paper. He hadn't bothered to wake her up and let her know that he was leaving. That had ticked her off quite a bit in the beginning. She would have at least liked the chance to be dropped off at the nearest port, so she could go spend time with her friends while Aang was busy doing his Avatar duties. It would have been nice to visit Toph or her brother or even Zuko.
She hadn't seen Zuko in ages. The two of them used to write letters back and forth constantly, but with the constant moving and the seclusion that seemed to come with being the Avatar's girlfriend, they had lost contact. It had been about seven months since she had any kind of communication with one of her best friends and she missed him greatly.
Shifting her pack onto her other shoulder, Katara continues to follow the barely visible path that lead to the Village. She hoped that Aang would be back soon. In the note that he had left her, it said that he would be back soon, he was going on a journey with one of his past reincarnations into the spirit world and it wouldn't take long. The problem was that the passage of time in the spirit world was far different than that of their world, on top of that, Aang was just bad at gauging the passing of time. He could be back tomorrow, or she could be looking at another two weeks living alone in the temple.
"I'm going to get a nice dinner at the restaurant there. Maybe even some Jasmine Tea. I'll bring some back with me. I deserve to treat myself a little." She says, rubbing her aching shoulders. Her feet were starting to hurt from walking such a long distance. "I'll get a nice hot bath in the bath houses too." When Aang was with her, the two of them would take Appa to load up with enough supplies for a couple months at a time. Now that she was alone, she had to make the trip alone, on foot. She had put it off for as long as possible, but her food supply was starting to run low. Plus, the longer she went without human contact, the more that she craved it.
By the time Katara reaches the town, it is nearing sunset. The trip had taken a lot longer than she had initially thought it would. She was glad that she had decided upon stating the night in town before she had left without the money necessary for it. Turning into the nearest hotel, Katara walks up to the young girl sitting behind the front desk. "Hello, Rasa. I would like to rent a room for the night."
"Master Katara!" The girl says, jumping up to her feet and tidying up the desk. "Of course, we will get you a room." Turning around, Rasa yells back into the office area that doubled as housing for the family who was running the place. "Mom! Lady Katara needs a room!"
A rounded woman with muscled arms comes to the front of the hotel. "Master Katara, how pleasant to see you again. We have missed you." She says, a smile spreading across her stout face. "Rasa, prepare the Honor Suit for Master Katara."
"That's not necessary." Katara shakes her head, causing her windblown hair to fall into her face. That was one thing she couldn't stand about the air temples, they all made her hair unbelievably hard to manage. "I'm perfectly at home in one of the regular rooms."
"Nonsense." The woman says as her daughter rushes out of the room with a pile of new bedding. "Someone who saved the world deserves nothing but the best."
"I- I really didn't do all that much…"
"Again, nonsense." She says, waving her large hand dismissively. "You're getting too thin, Honey. Best go next door and get yourself a bite to eat. Every stay comes with a complementary meal."
The mention of food causes Katara's stomach to grumble loudly. Blushing, Katara thanks the woman for her hospitality before leaving to get herself something to eat.
Sitting in the back corner of the small restaurant, Katara watches the people who come in and out for dinner. Some of them appear to be regulars, young men who work in the nearby mines and have no idea how to prepare a decent meal for themselves. Others appear to be travelers who happened upon this place as they were heading to their next destination. The place was homey, most everything was built from wood and stone. The smell of baked goods and meat reminded her of being back home in the South Pole. The mummer of low voices created a white noise that almost lulled Katara to sleep. It was nice to be around people again, even if they weren't directly interacting with her.
"Running away from your boyfriend again?" Katara turns to her right to see a girl with dark hair and pale skin standing next to her. She looked almost identical to the last time Katara had seen her, except her right arm was covered in tattoos. Katara didn't recognize any of the symbols, but she supposed another bounty hunter would. "He just can't seem to keep you happy."
"Hello, June." Katara says, tucking a strand of chocolate brown hair behind her ear. "What brings you this far away from civilization?"
The bounty hunter grabs a large mug of beer off of a tray that a passing waitress was carrying. "Work." June says, taking a long drag from her newly required drink. "A pirate captain paid me to bring back one of his crew members who ran off with his gold. Who knows, if the guy took enough, he might be able to buy his freedom."
Katara frowns, she had never cared much for June's mercenary style, but she had to admit, the older girl was very good at her job.
"What did he do this time?" June asks, propping her feet up on the table.
"Excuse me?" She asks, raising an eyebrow.
"What did your Fire Nation Prince do to make you leave him this time."
"Zuko isn't my boyfriend. He never was."
"I don't buy it. If you're not dating, or haven't dated, or whatever… You will eventually." She says, taking another long drink. "I know these things."
"I'm dating the Avatar." Katara says, defensively.
"I don't see the Avatar here." June says with a shrug. "Where did he go?"
"Aang's away on a spiritual journey." Katara says, as the waitress sets a large bowl of stew in front of her. The smell of the steaming meat makes her stomach start growling. Picking up a spoon, she shoves a heaping spoonful into her mouth. It was spicier than she expected, probably because the small town tried to service both the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation Travelers, but it was still extremely tasty. She quickly takes a few more bites as June continues on the with conversation.
"Isn't that why we had trouble finding him the last time that he disappeared?" She asks, finishing off her drink and wiping the foam from her thin lips. "It seems as if your boyfriend spends a lot of time in the spirit world."
"It's part of his job." Katara says, feeling the need to defend her boyfriend. "He has to do these things to keep the world in order."
June shrugs. "I thought he would spend some time with you. You know, for a guy that you keep claiming isn't your boyfriend, the Fire Lord spent an awful lot of time talking about you when he hired me to try to find his mother."
Katara nearly chokes on her soup. "We are just friends. Zuko was probably just being nice."
"Yeah… Nice." She says, rolling her eyes. "When's your Avatar boyfriend going to be back?"
Katara shifts uncomfortably. "I'm not sure. I thought he was going to be back weeks ago, but… I think its going to be at least a few more days."
June nods, her attention turning towards a game of poker happening on the other side of the room. "Well, I've got to go." She says, standing up. Leaning forward with her thin pale hands on the table she looks Katara right in the eyes. "You are going to be a lot happier when you stop running from your destiny."
Katara blinks, her jaw dropping open slightly. She tries to say something in defense of her relationship, but by the time she finds her voice, June had already disappeared into the growing crowd on the other side of the restraint. Katara eats the rest of her meal undisturbed. That night, her thoughts kept replaying the conversation she had with June. She didn't understand why it bothered her, but something about it certainly did.
Rolling onto her back, she lets out a sigh. She missed Aang, but nighttime made it easier. There had been many nights in the last year that she had gone to bed alone, because Aang was off somewhere meditating. There were some nights that she didn't think he came to bed at all. She wasn't sure if he had stayed out of not or had simply came in late after she had fallen asleep and left early in the morning before she had woken up.
He had at least been on time more meals, at least he was most of the time. There had been the occasional events in which time had gotten away from him and he would miss an entire meal. If there was one thing that she hated, it was dining alone. She wondered what her friends were doing, was Toph in the middle of yelling at her students for messing up a simple move, were Suki and Ty Lee working on an important mission for the Kyoshi Warriors, was Sokka working on another big project in the South Pole, was Zuko remembering to eat? She wished that she was with them instead of in a lonely hotel waiting for her boyfriend to come home.
"I'm sorry, Lady Katara." The man behind the counter of the shipping docks says, as he looks at her, a deep frown set on his darkly tanned, wrinkled face. "It doesn't appear that we have any letter for you."
"It's okay, Torren. I'll check back next time." Katara says, as she exits the building into the dim light of the rising sun. It had been three months since Aang had left on his journey and she had yet to hear anything from him. She had sent out a few letters to the others a month ago, but with the shifting tides and the onset of the winter months, it was making it hard for ships to enter and exit the port. She tried to use this fact to rationalize why she hadn't heard anything from her boyfriend, but the doubt still nagged at the back of her head.
A cold gust of wind blows from the ocean, sending a chill along Katara's tanned flesh. Winter would be here in a weeks' time. The ground had started frosting over last month after Katara had made it back to the temple from her monthly trip into town. It was no where near as cold as the South Pole, but the winter here brought a new set of problems. There wouldn't be food back at the temple, but thankfully she had foreseen this problem and had been stocking up, so she wouldn't have to make a trip during the worst of the storms. It was a different kind of cold here, one that left her soaking wet, unlike the one that she had grown up with that was more of a sharp bite.
Stopping at a nearby clothing store, Katara opens the door and listens to the bell that allowed the owners to know that someone had entered. She needed a new coat. She hadn't planned to be here this long. Initially, she and Aang had discussed spending the winter months in the warmth of the Fire Nation or perhaps the Earth Kingdoms. That plan had changed with Aang's absence. She had almost left last month when she went into town to restock on supplies., there had been a ship heading for the Fire Nation and she had sat on the dock for over an hour, debating climbing on board. She ultimately backed out when the thoughts of Aang coming back to an empty temple with no sign of her kept entering her head. Now she wished she had chosen differently.
"What can I get for you, Lady Katara?" A worker asks, approaching her cautiously. It didn't take long to find a coat that would be appropriate for the upcoming winter. Katara thanked the owner before heading on her way back to the temple.
She could feel the sinking feeling building up in her stomach as she started walking back towards the air temple. With each step, her anxiety seemed to get worse. She was sick of being alone. She wished that Aang would have at least left Momo with her so that she wouldn't have to be completely alone. It would be nice to have the presence of something other than her shadow to talk to.
"You'll be home soon." She says, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Not that she really considered the place home. More like a place that she was being forced to stay in isolation. A part of her wanted to stay in the village, but there was no way that she could afford the nightly rent of the hotel room for however long it would take for Aang to come and get her. She supposed she could try to get a room with one of the townspeople who always seemed to want her to stay with them, but she didn't want to impose. "You'll be okay. It's not for much longer. Aang will be back soon and then the two of you can go to a place with lots of people."
It was well after sunset when Katara finally arrived back to the temple. The winter didn't exactly work here the same way it did in the poles. Instead of having six months of alternating light and dark, this part of the world had days that would last longer during the summer and grow shorter during the winter. Forgetting to accommodate for this change, had resulted in Katara making the last few miles in the dark. It wasn't too bad, she had navigated in the night before, but the sound of hungry wolves in the distance had caused her to become rather uncomfortable.
It was when she was walking down the long staircase to the entrance of the air temple that she misplaced her footing. The weight of the bags attached to her body had made it nearly impossible to stop rolling. Coming to a stop on the landing, Katara stays flat on her back gasping for air as she tries to assess the damage, she had caused herself. With stinging eyes, she carefully eases herself into a sitting position. Her arms seemed to be okay, no blood, but probably bruising. Her hands were skinned from trying to stop herself from rolling. Reaching up to her head, she winces when she comes across a tender spot, pulling away her hand she looks at the thick blood that covered her fingers. It shined slightly in the moonlight. Looking down the rest of her body she seemed to be intact until she saw the back of her calf. The sight of the bloody wound almost made her puke. Dirt and twigs seemed to have impaled themselves into the wound, her pants had been ripped open and blood was starting to soak the ground underneath her.
"Shit." Katara says, using a word that she never had been too fond of, but at the moment it seemed appropriate. With shaking hands, Katara feels for bending water that should have been attached to her hip only to realize it was no longer there. Panic sets in as she quickly scans the area, struggling to see in the dark through the haze that clouded her vision. The water wasn't anywhere to be found. Taking a deep breath, she forces herself to her feet, using the wall of the cliff to keep herself upright. "Shit. Shit. Shit."
Leaning heavily against the stone wall, she looks in the direction of the temple's entrance. If she could make it there, she could get to the fountain and heal the gaping hole in her leg. Hobbling with all the grace of a newborn deer-cow, she makes her way across the dirt path. She struggled to keep her mind clear as the pain and blood loss invaded her mind, causing her head to spin like it did when she was younger and would turn herself in circles in what was an improper dance. Her vision began to darken, not that there was much to see anyway. She had travelled this whole way by the light of the moon, maybe that had been her first mistake.
"Yue, help me." She mummers, drawing a deep breath as she powers through the pain. Each step sent a jolt of pain through her legs and up her spine. She allowed herself to cry out, there was no one to hide her pain from. No one was here to hear her cries of pain and rush to help her. No one was here to hide the pain from while she pretended to be strong because letting herself sink into the agony would scare them.
When she tries to leave the support of the wall to cross the courtyard to the fountain, she makes it only a step before falling flat on her face. In what was probably the most demeaning and pathetic show of her life, she crawled across the stone floor, leaving a trail of blood behind her. When she finally made it to her destination she was shaking, her body covered in a thin coat of sweat mixed with dirt. Pulling herself onto the edge of the fountain, she all but falls inside. It took only seconds for her bending to kick in to save her. The soft blue hue of the glowing water made her relax as the feeling returned to her toes and the immense pain slowly started to fade. The wound was deeper than those that she had previously experienced on her own body. It took a few minutes before she was able to remove herself from her watery bed and cross the courtyard to strike up a fire.
Kicking off her pants, she twists her leg this way and that, surveying her leg for any damage that she could find. It appeared that her bending had done its job. The skin of her calf was perfectly smooth and bare of any scaring or skin breakage. Pulling off her top and jacket, she bends the water out of her clothes before going back outside to gather the supplies that she had left scattered all over the landing of the stairs. Her leg was better, but she couldn't stop shaking. Her delicate hands trembled as she picked up her bags and carried them back into the temple. Dropping her bags on the floor, she lays down on her sleeping and allowing herself to the one thing she hadn't done in years.
She cried.