Disclaimer: the characters and places in the following work of fan-fiction are the intellectual property of Nickelodeon and, as such, they reserve the right to remove this story at their sole discretion.
This story is the ninth in a series, so please read the other eight before continuing!
Previously on Avatar
"We can launch a small fleet of ships to distract the southern edge of the Fire Navy Blockade," How explained, moving pieces across the large map, "and give you some cover while you slip into the Fire Nation.
"You know, for educated royalty, you aren't very bright," Toph observed matter-of-factly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Zuko asked sharply, feeling slightly wounded by her sudden insult.
"Well, if you were smart you'd realize that Aang could still be your key to going home."
Zuko scowled. "I already told you that it wouldn't have made any difference if I had captured…" he began, but Toph interrupted.
"Not as your prisoner, you dolt, but as your ally."
"I've always wondered why he didn't take the whole city back then," mused Toph, "He certainly could have."
The barren tree over the grave provided no shelter, and rain mingled with the tears tracing a line down Iroh's careworn face.
"Lu Ten died," Zuko explained softly.
"Why do you have so much trouble trusting him?" Aang asked, "He saved your life!"
At this, Katara's expression softened into regret. "I know, I know," she admitted, "but…somehow it's easier for me to trust him with my life that it is for me to trust him with yours."
"Why are you acting so over protective? Suki demanded gently.
"It's so hard to lose someone you care about," replied Sokka, looking away. "Something happened at the North Pole, and I couldn't protect someone. I don't want anything like that to ever happen again.
"You are in a very precarious situation, Aang." The Guru warned gravely. "By being cut off from the reincarnation cycle, you have been made vulnerable in many ways."
"What kind of ways?" Aang asked with a sinking feeling.
"If your body dies before the link can be reestablished, then the Avatar will cease to exist forever."
Fire: Chapter 9
The Shallows
Golden light from the setting sun danced along wildly shifting waves, and a small trading vessel, Earth Kingdom in design, cut across the broken surface of the water heading into the sunset. Aang stood in a horse stance on the deck of the ship, with Iroh standing a distance away, hands tucked into his sleeves.
"Again," the old fire bender prompted.
Taking a deep breath, Aang began going through the set he was learning, being extra careful not let the flames he was producing come anywhere near the wooden rail of the deck. Iroh glanced over his shoulder as he heard footsteps approaching from behind.
"Our pupil is coming along quite nicely, don't you think?" he asked casually as his nephew came up to stand beside him.
"You mean your pupil," Zuko corrected placidly. Iroh merely threw a knowing look at the teen and let out a small 'harrumph.'
"I'm not the one who taught him the 'Wankan' kata," he remarked slyly, turning his attention back to Aang.
Zuko winced guiltily, certain he was about to get a lecture about having instructed the young Avatar on such an advanced technique. He hadn't planned on Aang showing it off before Zuko had a chance to tell his uncle he'd learned it, and had rather hoped Iroh would forget about it after the tragic incident with Jet. But much to his surprise, the old man complimented him instead.
"I'm impressed you managed it so quickly," he said mildly. "I recall it took me months to teach it to you properly."
"He's a better student than I ever was," Zuko responded uncomfortably.
Iroh glanced at his nephew shrewdly for a moment, uncertain how to take the comment. Was Zuko was merely being modest, or was he fretting about his own abilities as a fire bender? With the prince, it was always so hard to tell.
"Perhaps," was all he said.
They stood silently for a moment, watching Aang as he finished practicing his set and began running through it again. But when a low gurgle erupted shamelessly from Iroh's belly, he chuckled.
"All this teaching is working up an appetite it seems," patting his girth. "Could you do an old man a favor, Zuko, and get me something to eat from the galley? I can't leave my student alone now, can I?" he finished when he caught his nephew's amused glower.
"I'll be right back," Zuko reassured begrudgingly, and he headed below deck.
As Zuko made his way to the galley, he heard a muffled moan coming from one of the cabins he had just passed by. He stopped in the hallway, and then slowly walked backward, until he was able to peek into the half-open door. Another groan drifted through the dim light, and this time, he recognized the voice.
"Toph?" he called tentatively pushing the door open a little further. "Are you okay?"
"Do I look okay?" she snapped.
Opening the door all the way, he stepped into the room and studied her closely where she stood, half doubled over. Her face was a sickly green color, and tiny droplets of sweat rimmed her upper lip. She had one hand clutched to her stomach while the other was gripped so tightly around a support pole that her knuckles were completely white.
"Actually, you look terrible," he remarked matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, well so do you," the girl grumbled back petulantly.
Frowning self-consciously, his hand went instinctively to his scar before he remembered, seeing her sightless eyes, that she had no concept of what he looked like…what his scar looked like. To her, it was just words: meaningless banter directed more at her own blindness than anything else. Upon realizing this, his expression softened and, letting out a short sigh, he took a step forward to begin gently prying her hand off the beam.
"Come on," he coaxed, "you need to get out from below deck."
"No way," she said stubbornly, fighting his attempt to disengage her from her support. "I'm not about to go anywhere feeling like this. I can't even 'see' properly."
"Toph, you're seasick," he explained with uncharacteristic tenderness, "and the fresh air will do you some good. I promise."
Too weak to fight him, and suddenly feeling too sick to care, she finally let Zuko take her hand and guide her toward the door, noticing that he was very careful to stay behind her. In this manner, with one hand on her shoulder and the other on her elbow, the prince deftly led her through the hold and up to the main deck. They reached the railing just in time for her to retch over the side of the ship.
"I feel like I'm going to die," she groaned once she had finished.
"I'd tell you to look at the horizon," he offered hesitantly, "but that won't help you much."
"Ya think?"
"Just don't let Uncle Iroh know you're sick," cautioned Zuko mildly. "He'll make you drink some of his special seasickness tea," he finished glumly.
"Hey, a little medicine would be nice right about now," contended the girl feebly.
"Not this stuff," he insisted. "First of all, it tastes awful. And secondly," he added with an unusual tone of bitter annoyance, "it doesn't even work."
"You say that like you know from experience," she remarked dryly.
The two stood at the rail facing out toward the ocean, and neither of them noticed Katara come up behind them, silently listening to their conversation.
"I do," he admitted distantly, remembering it all far too clearly for his own liking. "I was sick my entire first month at sea….it was miserable."
"Yeah, well at least you could see," she argued halfheartedly, convinced that no one could possibly understand how horrid she felt.
"Actually, I couldn't," he confessed quietly, staring down at the water passing swiftly below them. "My face was still bandaged at the time. That's why it took a month to get my sea legs."
Confused at first, Toph let out a soft 'oh' when she remembered that Zuko's face had been badly burned by his father. Suddenly she felt horrible, and it had nothing to do with the churning in her stomach.
Katara stood in stunned silence at Zuko's words. It was the first time she had ever heard him mention anything about his past, and particularly about his life-altering injury. He always seemed so indifferent that she typically didn't give it much thought. But now, for the first time, she began to wonder if his gruffness was all just a means of pushing away the pain of the experience.
As the silence between her two companions lingered, she decided to break the uncomfortable moment and make her presence known.
"Is everything alright?" Katara asked casually as she stepped forward, not wanting either of them to know she'd been eavesdropping.
"Everything's peachy," growled Toph, thoroughly annoyed that she hadn't even sensed the water bender's approach.
"She's seasick," Zuko offered, with an unexpected tone of commiseration.
"Oh, Toph," Katara lamented sympathetically, finally realizing what had brought on the disconcerting conversation she'd just overheard, "Why didn't you say something sooner? We've been at sea for days now, you must be miserable!"
"It wasn't so bad at first," the blind girl explained bravely, making her seem all the more pitiful for her stalwart attitude in the face of her affliction, "I was just tired and not very hungry, but today…"
"That's probably because the seas were calmer before," Zuko reasoned, looking out over the choppy waters. "I think there may be a storm moving in."
"Oh, lovely," moaned the blind girl, slumping over the rail despondently.
"Here, let me see your wrists," requested the water bender, and she took Toph's unresisting hands. A moment later, she began pressing her thumbs into the other girl's forearms.
"What are you doing?" asked Toph, wincing a bit at the sudden pressure to her wrists.
"Believe it or not," Katara informed her knowledgeably, "seasickness is very common, even in the Water Tribes. But hitting these pressure points helps you get your sense of balance back and makes it go away."
"What, so your people walk around all day holding each other's hands?" Toph asked skeptically, sounding much more like her usual self already.
"No," she replied patiently, "we use special wrist cuffs that keep pressure on the arms. I'm sure I can rig you up a pair, but I'll need to find some small shells or pebbles…"
Her voice trailed off as she glanced around the deck, as if expecting to find what she needed, and naturally coming up empty. Zuko glanced around as well, slightly bemused that she would bother searching for stones and shells on a ship. Looking back at Katara, he tilted his head to one side.
"Would these work?" he wondered aloud, reaching over Toph's head to touch one of the tiny beads threaded in Katara's hair.
Her brow furrowed as she reached up to where his hand was, but upon feeling the bead under his fingertips, she gasped.
"You know, I think they might!" Katara exclaimed brightly.
Unfortunately, Toph's queasiness returned the instant Katara let go of her wrist, and the young earth bender swayed unsteadily on her feet. Seeing this, the older girl quickly grabbed her arm again.
"Come on, Toph," she said encouragingly, "let's get you fixed up."
Suddenly, however, Katara was presented with a slight problem, and she looked over her shoulder, then back to Toph with a perplexed frown. Since both hands were occupied with the task of holding Toph's wrists, the water bender would now be forced to navigate around the ship while facing the wrong way.
But just as she was about to take an awkward step backward, Zuko took one of Toph's arms and moved his fingers onto the pressure point, pushing Katara's aside. The water bender beamed at him gratefully, and together they led the ailing girl back down to her cabin.
Iroh smiled as he watched them from the other side of the deck, not minding at all that Zuko never brought him anything to eat. Casually looking up at the sky, he noticed dark clouds gathering on the horizon and, feeling another rumble in his gut, he held up a hand for Aang to cease his bending.
"I think that's enough for today," he suggested, "why don't we go find something to eat?"
"Oh good," Aang replied happily and he dropped from his stance. "I'm starving!"
Iroh chuckled in return and, sparing one last glance at the ominous sunset, he followed Aang down below deck.
Author's note: From this point on to the end of the series, I'm going to be very dependant on reader feedback. Not only will several of the main characters be making some pronounced personality changes, I'm also moving into areas the show has not yet touched on and will mostly likely be drastically different from the real season three. So I want to be sure that nothing gets too out of whack.
So please (please) leave reviews and let me know what things you feel are working in the story (plot, geography, character development, action…whatever) and what things are not.