ZUTARA WEEK 2018, Day 5: CRYSTALS
Through the Dream's Guiding Glow
DISCLAIMER: Avatar: the Last Airbender belong to Bryke, but Zutara Week belongs to all Zutarians.
NOTE:
A very complex prompt to work on and one that gave me a lot of trouble. I knew this would have to tackle the Crystal Catacombs somehow but all my other ideas didn't work. In the end, I chose to go with this one instead of just rewriting the scene in "Crossroads of Destiny." I wrote this as fast as I could so that I could still meet the deadline.
This is just a short, speculative piece that hopefully still sets things up nicely. I looked up some basic dream interpretation and it is fitting that seeing a glow in a dream symbolizes enlightenment and understanding and that seeing a glowing person means you finally understand them.
Enjoy and let me know what you think.
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The dream had haunted Katara weeks before they arrived in Ba Sing Se. She would begin by walking in the dark, lost and confused, almost frantic until a path would appear before her, one that was illuminated by shining green crystals.
She would follow the crystals until she reached a large chamber that was full of them embedded in sturdy pillars. She felt like she had stumbled upon an ancient city, a sacred place that was about to reveal its secrets to her. She could never explain it but she felt overwhelmed by the significance of that moment, as if her arrival in that chamber of crystals somehow heralded a historic event.
She thought she would see Aang there, being the Avatar and all, but she always arrived alone. And then, after she got her bearings in that mysterious, glowing city, another figure would emerge, bathed in a warm, yellow light. As the stranger approached her, she recognized the figure of a man but his face was always obscured by something though his whole body seemed consumed by light.
Seeing him thus always sparked some indescribable understanding in her, like she was finally recognizing an important truth. But in the mysterious ways of dreams, she could never fully explain what was happening, only that she was filled with a certainty and sense of purpose that she had not had before.
Instinctively, she would reach out towards this person and then he would take her hand, as if they had reached some unspoken understanding. Katara would be filled with hope and confidence that, no matter what obstacles lay before them, they would fulfill their destiny. They would help Aang restore balance to the world.
The glowing figure would move closer to her and every time she was about to finally see his face, she would wake up, struggling to cling to the threads of the dream. She never spoke of this dream to the others, choosing to keep this strange secret to herself because she didn't quite understand it.
After a while, she stopped getting frustrated about not recognizing the person in the dream. Something told her that when the fateful moment arrived, she would recognize him immediately. And they would somehow know what they needed to do next. So she eagerly awaited that day when she would follow the path of the crystals to some new, important journey.
Then, they arrived in Ba Sing Se, and the dream came more frequently. Katara sensed that the day was drawing near and that she would very soon meet that glowing figure who would be an important part of her life. Every day she grew anxious to find some clue in the vast, walled city, some path to the crystals that had filled her nights with mystery and longing.
Then came that fateful confrontation with Princess Azula. The waterbender found herself at last wandering alone through the city beneath the city, basking in the glow of the green crystals.
And when another prisoner was thrown into the catacombs with her, she knew at once what this meant. And judging by the look of recognition in his eyes, he had had the same, enlightening dream.