Calming Ice
Chapter Four
Aang was cleaning his poor Spirit Guide's stinging burns with fresh water, soothing Appa, urging him it would be alright. The great bison let out an occasional groan of pain. Sokka sat against a tree trunk, sharpening his boomerang with a stone. Zuko sat idly, without enough energy to even bend a small flame and pass it between his hands. I stood off to the side, waiting for Aang to be finished so that I could heal Appa's wound. Momo rummaged through our sack of food and ran off to sit by the oblivious prince with a peach. He nibbled on it quietly with twitching ears.
"Alright, Katara." my friend said, stepping back. I nodded and summoned the water from my canteen. It surrounded my hands in a glowing blue glove. My hands rested on Appa's side and I imagined his melted shin and fur repairing itself. I tried to imagine the pain of the flame against my own skin. I healed the burn in small sections as large as my hands would allow. When I'd finished, the water dripped from my fingers and seeped into the dry earth. I wiped my hands on my shirt and turned to face the others.
"Are we staying here?" I asked to no one in particular. No answer. I directed my next question to the dark-haired golden-eyed fire prince. "Not including the estimate for their stop time, how long would it take your sister's ship to get here?"
"About an hour." Zuko told me without looking up.
"We should leave in the next quarter hour." Aang piped up. "We need a little bit of a rest after that." The monk sat against a log, twirling a pebble around like he had when we visited Kyoshi Island. A silence filled the void.
"We need more supplies. We don't have any money." Sokka commented quite randomly. He sat up to ready himself for conversation.
"We can always do some spare jobs in the next town we stop at." Aang suggested with a shrug. "You made a pretty good fisherman, Sokka." He laughed, referring to a past mishap. My brother leaned back against his tree trunk, surprisingly not arguing. Another short pause occurred.
"I'm hungry. This shirt smells weird." Sokka said, sniffing the sleeve of said garment (A/N: kudos for people who know what movie I half-ripped Sokka's lines off of!). He was ignored by everyone but Momo, who brought him his half-eaten peach. He took it absentmindedly, not thanking the lemur. He didn't even notice when Momo chattered indignantly and scuttled off. And he didn't even notice he was eating after a lemur.
For the rest of our short break time, the boys were completely silent. I attempted several stabs at conversation, failing miserably. The only answers I received were from Aang. I sighed inwardly, leaning against Appa's soft fur. Every once in a while, I caught Sokka steal a glance at the Fire Nation prince, fingering his boomerang. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Even I honestly doubted Zuko would try to capture Aang at this point.
I don't know what made me think that. I mean, Zuko had been chasing us around the world for months! But in his disappearance, he seemed to have changed. I thought he did, anyway. I just believed he'd been through a huge internal battle; I could tell by the look in his golden eyes. He didn't lash out at people, he wasn't on edge, and- dare I say it- he was kind. The ruthless firebending Prince Zuko was being kind. Suddenly, my brother stood.
"We should get going." he stated. Aang murmured in agreement. We all stood, climbing onto Aang's Spirit Guide. With a 'yip-yip!' from the Avatar, the bison took to the air.
For the next several hours, all was silent save the whipping of the wind. I set to work on mending clothes, Sokka's stupid pants among them. How many times was he going to rip the same spot in his pants? What on earth had ripped the seam out so many times? My fingers fumbled slightly with the fabric. Never mind. I didn't want to know. I finished my work and tossed my brother his pants.
"Next time the seam rips, you're on your own." I commented. Sokka gave me one of his 'yeah right' glares.
"That cloud looks like a komodo rhino." Aang said from the bison's head. He was pointing to a puffy white cloud, lying on his back. Sokka leaned in to see it from the monk's perspective.
"I think it looks like a banana." This was going to be a long ride.
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"Princess?" the captain asked, knocking lightly on the princess's door. A light, almost inaudible, clink sounded. However, the door opened immediately. Before him stood Azula, surprisingly, out of her armor. Her baggy maroon pants and tank suggested she was getting ready to go to bed. But it was barely after sunset. Why would the princess go to bed so early when she usually stayed up until midnight, pouring over countless maps and battle plans?
"Yes, captain?" the captain noticed the princess's normal glaring features were calm and serene. This scared him more than the glares. Teenage girls were unpredictable. He'd seen her cry, and frankly, that was more than enough for him. He didn't know which was worse: a crying Azula or a stubborn and cranky one.
"Some of the men on the crew…" he began. He hesitated. What had he gotten himself into? "They were wondering if we could have…"
"The night off?" Azula guessed. She sounded bored, but wasn't using her dry sarcasm or questions.
"No, ma'am. A music night, you might call it." The princess raised an eyebrow. The captain's stomach turned flip-flops. Oh shit. He was dead.
"They teamed up on you, didn't they?" A hint of amusement was half-hidden in her voice.
"Excuse me?" he asked softly. Once again, he could barely be heard, but Azula's unbelievably acute ears caught the question.
"They voted on someone to ask me and they all voted for you." She was talking as if this sort of thing happened all the time. How did she know? The captain nodded. The princess smirked. "It's not like we can chase after the Avatar with so much of the crew injured, so go ahead." The captain froze. Did she just say…? Did he hear her right? Did she just give them permission to have a party on her ship? He gripped reality quickly as not to anger the princess. She seemed to be calm now, but teenage girls were impossible to predict. They were like komodo rhinos- quick to lash out.
"Thank you, princess." he said with a bow. "Will you be joining us?"
"Depends." Azula replied, leaning against the doorframe. Her arms were folded, legs crossed. A smile graced her lips. The captain's heart skipped a beat. What the hell was going on? "Will there be poker?"
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I sighed, rolling onto my stomach, resting my head on my hands. My eyelids drooped with fatigue. My brother twitched hearing my third sigh in less than ten minutes. Aang took no notice and continued doing airbending tricks with his marble. Zuko looked out over the ocean with a glazed expression. Something told me he was thinking about his 'dear' sister.
"How old is she?" I asked suddenly. All eyes- including Momo's- snapped in my direction. Zuko looked at me for a moment.
"Fifteen." he answered. I was surprised he knew what I was talking about. I watched as realization of my question sunk into Sokka and Aang's expressions. Zuko glanced back at the ocean, letting an almost inaudible sigh escape his lips. He turned to look at my brother, who was, yet again fingering his boomerang. It looked like he was about to tell Sokka off, but I beat him to it.
"Sure, Sokka. He's going to try and capture Aang when we're in the middle of the ocean on a giant flying bison." I said dryly. Sokka glared at me, pulling his hand away from his weapon and looking out over the horizon. I felt like pounding on his head and screaming at him to grow up.
The sky was tinted an orange-pink color with the bright sun sinking lower and lower each moment. We'd flown all afternoon as not to allow Zuko's sister to follow us. Though our attack should have taken a day or two to recover from, we decided not to take any chances. I smiled as the sun reached the horizon, sending waves of color over the sky and clouds. I loved sunsets. They were relaxing. No matter what had happened during the day, the sun seemed to take frustration and worry away, if only for a short while. Living in the South Pole for the majority of my life, I was not accustomed to these beautiful things so much.
"Do you think it's safe to stop or should we keep going until morning?" Aang asked to no one in particular. He rolled to the side, onto his elbow.
"The distance we just covered would take a Fire Nation ship nearly twice as long to cover." Zuko spoke up. All eyes fell on him. "If we fly to that island," he pointed straight ahead, "it would take about an hour to get there at this speed. Then it will be dark enough that we won't be spotted when we land. If we leave shortly after sunrise, we'll be fine."
"Sunrise!" Sokka burst out. "I can't wake up at sunrise!" He threw his arms into the air.
"I will." Zuko replied calmly. "Firebenders rise with the sun."
"Firebenders rise with the sun." Sokka mocked, wiggling his fingers. He crossed his arms. "There is no way I'm getting up that early."
"Fine, if you want to be captured. Azula doesn't waste time. It wouldn't surprise me if she was already following us." Zuko retorted, unable to keep a hint of venom out of his voice.
Little did Zuko know what his younger sister was actually doing.
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"I'll raise you a silver piece." the princess said. The soldiers that had long since been out of the game stayed to see the outcome. They hung over the game like fog hung over water. The princess's only opponent, the helmsman, sat across the wooden table from her with a bead of nervous sweat trailing down his face. He looked at Azula, trying to determine whether or not she actually had anything in her hand. Their small audience watched with bated breath. In the end, curiosity got the better of the helmsman and he threw his coin in the center.
The two players laid down their hands. The princess smirked triumphantly when she saw he'd only had a pair of eights. The onlookers cheered and whooped for Azula, who had a royal flush laid out on the table. The helmsman sulked off with a hunched back while she pulled the pot in toward her.
"Any other takers?" she asked with one of her signature smirks. Some of the soldiers scrambled in to take a seat, emptying small bags of money onto the table. Among them was the captain.
"Hey, Akuzo, I thought you didn't want to be thrown overboard!" one of the soldiers said to him. The captain sneered mockingly.
"Who said I'd beat her? She's got a real poker face." he smiled toward the princess, who smiled back. Akuzo's heart skipped another beat. Was Princess Azula smiling? No one else seemed to notice and if they did, they didn't see anything strange about it. But this was the complete opposite of normal.
Music boomed behind the princess and shadows of people danced across the metal deck of the ship. One of the men from the crew came over to watch the game, bringing a large bowl of nuts and several bottles of rum. Some of the players absentmindedly ate a few nuts while looking over their hands.
"Oi, Zazi. It's your turn."
"Okay, I'm goin'." The man called Zazi waved his arm to the other across the table, taking a swig from his bottle. The men and woman all took their turns, pausing for occasional remarks. Azula threw in a silver piece.
"I'm done." Zazi said, pulling back his arms from his fallen cards.
"Princess." Azula looked up to see one of the soldiers standing to her left. "Do you want a drink?" He held up a bottle of rum. Azula smiled, taking the bottle.
"Just don't tell my father and you won't get your head burned off." Several of the crew members around her roared with laughter.
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A/N: Splee!
.: Jumps around doing happy dance:.
Chapter four! Chapter four! Chapter four! Chap—
.:Gets hit in head with flying brick:.
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