ZUTARA WEEK 2014, Day 4: COBALT BLUE
Tell Me Your Secrets
DISCLAIMER: Avatar: the Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra belong to Bryke, but Zutara Week belongs to all Zutarians. I write in the context where neither Kataang nor Maiko happened.
NOTE: At first this prompt left me stumped but after a while, I came up with two ideas for it. So here is my first take on it.
This is set early on in Book 2 when the Gaang are wandering the Earth Kingdom. I've taken some liberties with the story and I have made the Blue Spirit mask fit the prompt for me. But this was fun to work on. This is only from Katara's point of view but I think it still works for the ship in its subtle way. Hope you enjoy the story!
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Katara had never been one for impulse buying.
On the contrary, she had always been unflinchingly practical in her purchases, much to Sokka, Toph and Aang's consternation. Ever the homemaker, she was always there to enforce discipline on her companions during their travels because even with the Avatar, sometimes their resources were limited and she always made the best she could with what they had.
So she could not explain why she had bought this particular item. It was of no real use to them although she could imagine the others having some a lot of fun with it. But for some reason, she did not want to share it with them. It would be her own little secret and knowing this gave her a strange thrill. After all, there was no harm in keeping some things to herself. They shared almost everything else with each other anyway.
The waterbender stared intently at the mask in her hands. The artist had only used off-white and cobalt blue but the effect was striking. The mask bore the face of a powerful spirit, a design both fierce and beautiful and it fascinated the girl greatly. She held it carefully; almost afraid to so much as mar the surface even if it had clearly been worn before. She had found it hanging in a wandering merchant's caravan, looking out of place among the other items which all had the familiar, Earth Kingdom colors, a mix of browns, yellows, ochre, orange, and various shades of green.
Katara wondered if she had been drawn to it because it bore the colors of her tribe. That was one explanation that made some sense. An affinity to blue was no surprise to a waterbender. But something told her that it was more than that.
"If only you could speak," she thought, looking at the mouth of the mask, with two sharp fangs jutting out among a row of white teeth, "I have a feeling you have some really good stories to tell."
But the mask's expression didn't change and Katara found herself slightly disappointed before shaking her head and berating herself for being so ridiculous.
"I'm having conversations with inanimate objects now," she reflected with some alarm, "I must be more tired than I thought."
She realized that she had lingered long enough in the market and needed to rejoin the others before they suspected that something was amiss. With great care, she wrapped the mask in some cloth and secreted it into her bag. Making sure that she had finished all her other errands, she made her way back to their camp. They would be on the move again in a few days, on to the next Earth Kingdom village or town that they could find. And somehow, they hoped to reach the walled fortress city of Ba Sing Se. She needed to keep her mind on the journey and on her part in helping Aang fulfill his destiny.
But the mystery of the blue mask was never far from her mind, no matter how hard she tried to shove it aside. Eventually, she just stopped fighting against it.
Instead, she gave in to her curiosity and spent every spare moment she had concocting theories about her enigmatic possession. Who had used it before? A bandit or a freedom fighter? A waterbender or an earthbender or maybe even a rogue firebender? What had he or she been doing? Was hiding his or her identity a necessity or a choice? Who else had seen this masked wanderer? What kind of adventures did such a person had who wore the mask?
The possibilities were endless and Katara found that she enjoyed this new pastime. It was a welcome distraction from some of her worries. But sometimes, when she did not feel particularly imaginative, she simply stared at the mask intently, willing it to give up its secrets.
"Will I ever know your story?" she would ask silently, and though the mask was unresponsive as ever something told Katara that she would meet its owner one day.