Full Summary: When the most unlikely person forms an alliance with Aang's group, Katara can't help but be suspicious…
Disclaimer: If I did own Avatar, Azula would be a purple 400-foot platypus bear. But she ain't, hm?
A/N: Hi! This is my third story on here, and it also happens to be the longest so far! I hope you'll enjoy it! I just watched DoBS two days ago, and the thought of -I'd say a spoiler here, but I won't- is just plain sweet! On with the fanfic!
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Chapter One: In the Forest
Katara couldn't sleep. And she could barely breathe. She couldn't even think, now that she thought about it—which she couldn't do, because she couldn't think any thoughts without thinking another thought which she thought she could not think because her thoughts were making her think she could not think any thoughts—
Yup, she couldn't think straight.
There were so many things going on in her mind, that she couldn't even focus on one thought to ponder on. The Day of Black Sun was a failure, true, but there was more to the story than just that… so many things had happened during that whole time.
First off, her father was almost in the state of dying in the battle. Thank goodness she was there to heal him, and that Sokka was there to lead the rest of the warriors. But what could have possibly happened if she wasn't there? She knew that Hakoda was a great fighter, but could he have been beaten senseless with every Fire Navy soldier there was, him being the leader and all. What could have happened then? Katara closed her eyes, the thought of her father's lifeless corpse in the middle of the fields breaking her heart. She was becoming quite pessimistic, true, so she didn't want to dwell on that any further. She should have been happy with all the people who she was around now--
Her eyes wandered around the whole group, her hair fluttering in the wind as Appa continued to fly in the twilight. She saw Haru and Toph, the two earthbenders sleeping soundly. She saw Sokka and The Duke, snoring in sweet peace. She saw Teo, his eyes closed in a happy reverie, though sitting stiffly in his wheelchair…
And then there was Aang, up in the front of the bison, gently holding Appa's reins. His head was tilted back in a funny way, as if he was dozing off.
"Must…stay…awake…" Katara heard him mumble in a groggy voice.
He didn't, however. He was just too worn out to do so. (Though, thank Agni Appa knew where they were headed. He didn't exactly need a pilot.)
Katara smiled. I mean, come on, it was Aang. Sweet, lovable Aang. The same kid who penguin sled with her in the snowy mountains of her nation. The same kid who just loved to have fun, all the time.
The same kid who wiped out an entire fleet of Fire Navy ships effortlessly.
The same kid who was the reincarnate of thousands of powerful forces.
The same kid who doubted his abilities to be the almighty avatar.
No matter how upset Katara was that Aang had changed so much, she just had to accept he was becoming more and more different. But she just didn't know what made him have a change of heart. A change of heart for her, that is. She was… extremely confused about what was going on. Was it love? Or was it last-minute hopelessness that drew him to kiss her…? She just didn't know, and she didn't really want anything to change between her and Aang. Everything was just… happening so fast.
At this point, Katara's mind was totally blank. She figured she could sleep now, so she went to one side of Appa's saddle, lied down, closed her eyes, and waited to fall into a dream. And she waited.
And waited.
And waited.
After twenty minutes, Katara was getting pretty bored, with nothing to think about.
Just then, Appa growled happily. This woke up everyone (except Sokka)—despite that it was still night—and Aang looked out at what Appa had his eyes on.
"Land! You found land, buddy!" He gazed down at his bison with a big smile.
This was true. Up ahead, just a couple of miles away, was a beach, that had a big forest right behind it, which was perfect for supplying all of them for food—with all the great great vegetation!
Earlier, almost right after Appa had taken off in the end of the siege at the eclipse, everyone had decided that they had to stray far away from the capital as much as possible. They had thought that this would be easy, but they never seemed to find any land after that. It took almost forever, especially since none of them had any real experience of traveling the Fire Nation. The last pit stop had been the invasion! And that was a whole day ago! That was even longer than the time when they had been chased by Azula—They were lucky that Appa had all that armor now, to protect him from the cold of the night.
The bison landed on the island, and once everyone was off of his back (since Sokka was still asleep, Aang had to airbend him out of the way), he lied down lazily, and slept. (The sand was surprisingly comfy!)
"Everyone," said Aang, "get some rest. We gotta collect some food for Appa tomorrow, as well as build up our camp—G'night." He curled himself up on his bison's tail, with Momo doing the same thing.
Haru, Teo, The Duke and Toph returned half-hearted replies, and slept again. Katara, on the other hand, didn't really feel sleepy at all, so she snuck out of camp, with one of her water skins still full, and walked into the forest.
The forest had quite a spooky feel to it, though at least it wasn't as muddy or eerie as that swamp they went to last time. The trees were tall, and Katara could barely see the stars above her, since they were so bushy. There were also pretty flowers here and there, but she wasn't quite certain what type of flowers they were, because it was so dark. Katara knew it was pretty stupid wandering into a forest she wasn't familiar to without a torch or at least some sort of light, but since her mind was so blank, she couldn't think straight.
Katara wandered a little more for a couple of minutes, and she was getting slightly drowsy. It was time to head back to the others. She turned around, trying to figure out which way the campsite was. She started getting confused, turning and turning, seeing a bush, a cobweb, a flower, another bush, a tree, another tree, another-nother tree, tree, tree—Oh boy, now she just saw trees! Was that boulder just there? Wasn't that duckfrog hopping the other direction a while ago? Hey—why did that stump look like Gran Gran?!
Katara eventually got to the hopeless conclusion that she was lost. Scratch that—she was definitely lost. Her heart pounded at the thought. How on earth would she be able to get back? Her head started to ache, and she was getting dizzy from all the stress. She rubbed her temples, and sat on that Gran-Gran-stump. "Sorry Gran Gran," she apologized. Sweet Agni, she wasn't just dizzy, she was getting delusional! For a few moments, she just stayed on the stump, trying to relax, and to clear her mind (which was, ironically, blank just minutes ago).
In the distance, a young man watched Katara trying to calm herself down. He figured now was the perfect time—she was totally distracted anyway. Thank goodness he found her. He was… kind of lost, too. But maybe she could lead him to her little friends once she was ready. Or maybe he should just attack. Or follow her, and then attack. Or maybe try to befriend her so she could trust him.
Yeah, he liked that idea.
Eventually, after some time, Katara stood up and looked around, a little more level-headed than she was earlier. The guy, this whole time, had been watching her, crouching behind a bush. Oh, how his legs were cramping from sitting there for so long!
Katara glanced around, squinting in the dark, trying to find some kind of clue to which direction she had gone. All she seemed to remember seeing before was that bed of flowers she had stopped to smell earlier. Though this was just a faint memory, it was good enough for her, so she started walking.
The more and more she walked, the more things she recognized—like the big cobweb, a family of little duckfrogs, a special tree that had smoother bark against the others… she was very lucky. After a while, she saw a huge trail of rocks that led to the campsite, which looked like it was just a quarter of a mile away! She was happy and proud that she made it—She would have ran there… If she just wasn't so tired!
Katara yawned, her sleepiness getting to her. But she kept going, thinking that once she reached the campsite, she could sleep as long as she wanted to…
The moon was full and bright, giving her strength to keep going. But then…
One strong hand grabbed her wrist. Katara was shocked and taken aback by this sudden gesture, and struggled frantically to pull free. The hand wouldn't let go—Its strong grip wouldn't let her! However, Katara grunted and groaned as she tried to pull away with all might, and was free. She attacked the stranger with her water whip, and the man defended himself with a fire shield.
For a split second, Katara saw the light of the fire reflect off of the man's gold eyes giving off a frightening glare.
She wanted to give off another whip, but she was exhausted, and couldn't push herself to do so. And so, with the little energy she had left, she ran towards the campsite, her feet pounding as fast as her heart.
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A/N: Yup, writing a 1000-word chapter is my idea of procrastinating at school! Cheers! Reviews are definitely welcome!
