Beneath The Alder Tree- Chapter 1: Meeting
Disclaimer: AtLA and all associated characters belong to Bryke
I've experienced many things in my time. I've seen storms brew and felt the earth quake. I've seen my brethren burnt to ash and new saplings spring from their ruins. I've seen humans war with each other until none are left standing and the birth of new life. But there's one thing that I'd only ever heard of in the whistling of the wind and on the dying breaths of men. I didn't expect to see it and only had a vague notion until recently of what it entailed. For you see, it is hard to understand human emotions such as love when you are rooted to one spot.
Oh, excuse me. I'm being rude, I forgot to introduce myself! I am Nairn, the old alder tree at the center of the meadow in the forest. My meadow is located between two villages, the Fire and Water clan villages to be exact. I know you must be thinking it doesn't matter what the villages I live between are. All villages are the same. They have houses and taverns and roads and little people that walk through the streets with seeming purpose only to end up wandering about with none. But the Fire and Water villages are a special case. They have warred with each other since I was a young sapling. I have seen the pain, fear, and anger their fighting brings. My meadow has been coated red with blood many times as the dispute has waxed and waned over the years. Recently two wise men have held the positions of chief. Men I watched many times battle in my very meadow.
Hakoda, chief of the Water Clan, was a strong, level-headed man with a heart as vast as the lake that gave the clan its name and a battle cry that could rally the spirit of any warrior. He led his people with strength in body, heart, and mind, but with a gentle touch.
Iroh, chief of the Fire Clan, was a mastermind at tactics and one of the best warriors either clan had seen. But even with his great prowess he reveled in the simple pleasures of life, and was not one for conflict, preferring a calming walk through the woods to battle. He had, in fact, walked my meadow many an evening, even during the height of war.
When these two men rose in their clans the fighting slowed from battles to occasional skirmishes. Neither of them wanted to see more bloodshed, so they made a truce putting an end to the fighting that had plagued their people for far too long. With this truce they drew a border along my meadow. I saw very few humans during this time which leads me to the most interesting part of my story. Once the fighting slowed, two younglings took to wandering out to my meadow.
One was a boy. His hair was black as a raven's wing and he had a mark of fire that tore across his eye. I could tell by his red tinged clothes he was of the Fire Clan, so I could only assume at that point it had been a training accident. He appeared to be lost the first time he visited me, for he wandered through the woods as if trying to find something. When he came upon the meadow's edge he paused and looked at me. His golden eyes were tired and hard like a warrior who'd seen the unfathomable, but they softened back to a child's as he came toward me. He was soon beside me looking up into my branches and then back to the forest. He sank slowly to the earth and leaned against my bark. It had been many years since a human sat serenely in my presence and I found it quite pleasant, but I couldn't help but wonder why he was here. He stayed that first day almost till the sun set, leaving only once the shadows had grown long and robed the earth in violet. I thought that'd be the last I would see of him, but he continued to come. It was as if he could feel the sun's passing as my leaves did, for he always came at the same time every other day. I soon began to consider him my contemplative friend and looked forward to his presence beneath my branches.
The girl, however, was much more adventurous. The day she stumbled into my clearing she was chasing a butterfly. Her cerulean eyes were clear and as bright as the sky and the smile that graced her lips made my branches tingle with joy. She spotted me and ran. As she reached my trunk she leapt for my lowest limb and swung herself up. It surprised me, but I felt elated by her excitement as she tread across my beams climbing as high as she could. Like the boy, she would stay for hours, but she came more sporadically. I never knew what day or hour she would appear. From the whispers of the other trees in the forest this was common for the Water Clan. They were people of change and schedules were more of a suggestion rather than an absolute. Unlike the Fire Clan boy she did not sit silently. She talked to me, telling me everything that came to her mind. I enjoyed listening to the stories of her brother and father very much even though I was unable to reply.
It went like this for some time. Both of them coming and going, but never meeting. Some days neither of them would come, others both came with one at the beginning and one at the end. A few times just as one left the other appeared and that got me to wondering when fate would have it that they should arrive at the same time.
It took much longer than I would have liked for that auspicious event. Three whole moon cycles had passed. It still makes my roots tingle to remember that day, for it was quite… memorable. The girl raced out to me as usual immediately ascending to my highest branches and her favorite spot, a little crook that made a perfect seat. She started chatting to me right away. It was a story about her brother, Sokka, trying to get something called a fishhook out of his finger. She stopped talking almost immediately when the boy appeared right on time just like clockwork.
She stared at him as he walked towards my trunk to his usual spot. He sat down, not glancing up this time. I could tell something was weighing more heavily on his mind than usual. It was easy to tell when this human was troubled because his brow furled and he frowned ever so slightly. The girl simply sat in the tree for a while, studying him, not making a sound. It was probably the quietest I have ever heard her.
Finally, she started to inch down my trunk staying as quiet as she could. I could feel her small fingers tremble against my bark with... what was this feeling she was having? It felt familiar. I had felt it in a human years before. A man caught in my branches with the enemy beneath him. Oh, what had they called it? Ah, yes. Fear. Her fingers were trembling with fear. So much in fact that she slipped and fell from my lower limbs. She landed flat on her back next to the boy, the wind knocked out of her.
He jumped slightly to the side, taken aback by the abrupt arrival of the girl. For an endless moment he simply stared and she simply laid there. Once she regained her breath she leapt away from him. Fear carved on her face as if it were stone. She huddled closely to my trunk trying to hide. I wanted to reach my branches down to cover her, but alas that is something I will never be able to do to my great regret.
The boy maintained his distance, but then moved ever so slightly closer to the young girl. "Are you ok?" he asked warily.
She nodded her head, still huddled against my roots.
"You aren't hurt? That was some fall." He looked up into my leaves.
She looked up too, but not at me. She looked at him. Her natural curiosity taking over she asked, "Why haven't you started attacking me yet? Aren't going to set me on fire or hurt me?" She asked with her head peaking slightly above her arm.
He gave her a mortified look. "Why in the world would I do that?"
"Because you're Fire Clan. All the elders said to be wary of your kind because you'll beat and burn us."
"Only because Water Clan is known for strangling and drowning us. What we do is to protect ourselves," he said defensively.
"Your clan are the aggressors! We only fight to defend ourselves!" She asserted while finally uncovering her face and sitting up.
"Hardly," he scoffed. "For years we've had to protect ourselves from your peoples ambushes! Maybe I should attack you. But you look a little too puny to be much of a challenge. The fight'd be too uneven. And in the Fire Clan you don't take on an opponent beneath you. It's dishonorable. How old are you anyway? 9, 10?" He said eyeing her curiously.
"I'm not puny!" She insisted, standing and puffing her chest out. I have to say I chuckled at this, for the girl was on the smaller side.
"Could of fooled me," he said raising an eyebrow.
"I could beat you in a fight! You're only what, 11 or 12? That's not much older than I am," she said taking a fighting stance.
This made him rise. As he stood he looked at her, studying her form as if preparing to attack, but instead he crossed his arms and leaned against my trunk. "What's your name?" he asked.
I could tell this caught the girl off guard. Her stance faulted and confusion crossed her face. When it became apparent his act wasn't a ploy she relaxed. "What did you just ask?"
He gave her an irritated look. "I asked your name. I know Water Clan people aren't terribly sharp, but are you unable to listen as well?"
Her face scrunched at his taunt. "No, I just never expected a person of the Fire Clan to be so civil," she spat back. They stood there for a bit letting the sounds of the forest and meadow envelope them. Then, ever so softly, she broke the silence. "I'm Katara. What's yours?"
"Zuko," he muttered back. And with that their first interaction ended. No more words were traded or stories told until a considerable amount of time passed. They simply took their previous seats and watched the forest. As always, once the field was robed in the pale lavender of twilight Zuko stood and readied to leave.
"Will I see you again?" the girl inquired, looking up at the boy.
"Probably," he said and then turned and walked away.
Probably was right. They began to run into each other more regularly. Katara caught onto his schedule and, although still sporadic, she began to come at the same time he would. It amazed me, watching these two children, these two opposites. Katara embodied her clan's element. She was always shifting and moving. Climbing up my branches and then down full of energy one second and sitting quietly by Zuko the next. Zuko on the other hand was calm, but had a fire inside of him. It was controlled, but it still burned. These traits made it unsurprising to me when only a moon or so later Katara ran into the field with a water skin thrown over her shoulder.
"Zuko! Zuko! I can bend! I'm a bender! Look!" In her shear excitement while taking the top off her water skin she nearly spilt it all over the boy. Luckily he was quite agile and able to avoid the down fall.
"Sorry!" Katara started, "But watch this!" She made a motion with her hand as if grapping at the ground and the spilt water came at her call then wavered and splashed back down. She then attempted to pull a tendril out of her water skin and it wound like a snake about her arm until it too wavered and fell.
"I know I'm not that good yet, but my father says I'll be able to start training soon! There aren't many benders in the clan anymore. It's such an honor to be chosen by the spirits!" She babbled on and as she did Zuko's face fell as he looked at his own hands.
"Isn't that …" Katara paused as she finally noticed Zuko's lack of enthusiasm. "What's wrong? Is bending not a good thing in the Fire Clan?" she asked slightly crest fallen that her new friend did not share her enthusiasm.
"No, no it's not that," he began, "It's just that in the Fire Clan if your bending is not powerful right away, it's almost worse than not being able to bend," he finished and looked at his hands again.
Understanding crossed Katara's face. "You can bend too, can't you?" she said with slight awe. "Why didn't you tell me? How long have you known? Will you show me? I've never seen a firebender before! I've seen earth and air when their clans have visited, but never fire!" She looked at him eagerly.
"I'm really not that good," he whispered turning away.
"Please? Just a little flame, that's all! I promise," Katara pleaded.
Zuko lifted his head and let his eyes meet hers. I think as he looked into their depths he found the reassurance he needed. That he would not be admonished for his flame being too small or not bright enough. So he took a deep breath letting his chi flow to his palm and produced a small flickering light.
"Wow, that's amazing. You don't even need your element there already. You are the source," she whispered as if speaking to herself while leaning in to examine the little light more closely.
"It actually comes from the breath," he corrected, looking pleased that the water girl enjoyed the demonstration.
"It's so different. You're older than I am, right? You must have started training. Will you show me a form?" Katara asked with the same eagerness in her eyes as when she asked to see the flame.
The flame disappeared almost instantaneously from his hand. "I'm not far. I told you my fire isn't the most powerful," he stuttered out.
"Then won't practicing make it more powerful?" she replied earnestly.
"It should, but I've been having trouble." Zuko looked surprised and ashamed that he had admitted this fact to the girl. The gossip on the wind had been that the Chief's brother's eldest was far beneath the skill level that any of his predecessors had been at that point. It must have been what was worrying him as he sat for so long at my trunk's base.
"We can practice together then!" Katara proposed. "It'll be perfect! I've just started and you need more practice. When we come here to meet we can go through our forms with each other."
"I, I don't know. I guess that would be good," he uttered still mulling it over. "Yes," he stated with more conviction, "Let's do that."
And so began their new pass time beneath my branches. Each child explaining then showing new found skills to the other. Both practicing the manipulation of their element. Zuko was more wary of their practices initially, but never stopped coming.
I've wondered for a long time why they both continued to come. I'd seen so much pain and devastation pass between the two villages. How could these two children even think of being friends? They knew of their clan's hate for one another. What the other's element had done to their own. They knew the stories and legends of the war. They knew the wreckage… Then it occurred to me. They didn't know. They had yet to see the carnage war brought. The last battle, when I thought on it, took place when they were very young. They wouldn't have the memories the elders did. That their fathers' surely had. They only knew the stories they were told.
So I watched as the years passed and their caution lessened as they learned they weren't as different as they thought. They both had families, elders, training, similar legends and gods but with small differences scattered throughout the stories. The largest disparity they discovered was why the war started in the first place.
"The elders say that your clan became greedy and was starting to hunt in territory that was ours," Katara began one afternoon as they sat resting against my bark. "They say we tried to stop your clan by talking to your elders many times, but they wouldn't acknowledge that any wrong was being done. No one wanted to fight your clan, but something had to be done. So the men decided that they needed to protect our land and put out scouts in the woods. That's when the first skirmish occurred and it only escalated from there."
Zuko looked away from her. "Our elders tell a much different story. They say that the Water Clan started to disrespect their land. That your people were hurting it, so it grew fallow and food became scarce. Our clan tried to offer help, but your people refused and said what they needed was more territory to grow crops and hunt. We didn't have that much land to begin with and your people started to take it anyway, so we sent out scouts, and just as you said there was a skirmish and it just continued from there."
They both sat there, unsure of what they had just heard, of what to believe.
"I guess we'll never know," she stated, looking at him. He looked back.
"No. I guess we won't, but we will still fight for the wrongs each side has committed against our own. It's a vicious cycle of blame that will never end."
"A cycle that we are caught in and can't escape," she added solemnly and then leaned against him. His eyes widened in surprise, but he didn't shrink away. He leaned in too, and with this their relationship began to slowly shift.
A/N: Hi everybody! Thank you for reading the first chapter of Beneath the Alder Tree! This story originated as a drabble in my drabble series A Last Confession and got a little out of hand, so now it has its own fic! I would really like to hear what you all think about the first chapter! Special thanks to SoapDuck, wannabewonderbender, and peter pan's horcrux for their encouragement and support for making this a story!
Review Question: What do you think of the AU so far? How do you think that's going to effect Zuko and Katara's relationship?