The sun was high above her head when Katara finally awoke. It really was a wonderful feeling to have a lengthy uninterrupted sleep after too full of a day. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and looked around her: typical fire nation foliage, more lush shrubs than thick trees. It was unfortunate for Zuko, Katara saw, that the leaves of fire nation trees were more sparse and supplied less shade. Sleeping under the sun had no effect on Katara's dark skin, but Zuko's, who was still asleep, had turned pink. Seeing this gave Katara a small sense of satisfaction.
Too tired to get up, Katara watched the clouds until she heard motion a short distance away from her.
"How long was I asleep- ack!" Zuko cringed and rubbed his sunburns. Katara smiled to herself and stood up examining the sky. It was close to noon.
"We should get going." Katara said curtly. A brief nod signified Zuko's agreement.
"We need to follow this shore line." He turned and started to walk down to the beach that they washed up on. Noticing how he carelessly strolled right in the open, Katara barked at him: "What are you doing?! The airships will easily spot you!" Zuko froze in his tracks.
"I redirected Azula's lightning to hit the engines, so they couldn't have followed us."
"You hit the engines?" Katara thought back to the vibrations she felt in her prison and the bulge in the wall from last night. "Alright…" Katara skeptically responded. Even Katara herself thought that she was being too paranoid. Azula had never tried to pull something near this elaborate out of her sleeve. Katara just wanted to cling onto the animosity she held towards him. The events at Ba Sing Se made it easier to view him less of a person and more of a scoundrel.
"Are you coming?" Zuko demanded. With all this negative thought, Katara subconsciously looked upon him with even more distain than usual.
"We're going to walk under the tree line." She commanded.
"The trees don't give much cover." Zuko said, rubbing his sunburns. Katara stiffened and scowled. "Alright, whatever you say." He made his way up the beach and continued to walk. Giving him an ample amount of space, Katara followed.
Aang and Sokka tore through the bushes and plants. They had been searching ever since it a gotten dark. After noticing Toph's and Katara's disappearance, they had begun to suspect the fire nation, but there's no way the fire nation troops could've took them on. Aang had taken Appa to search from above, but eventually Appa got tired, and Aang and Sokka had to travel on foot.
As they were taking a break, one of their concerns were settled. With a rubbing sound, Toph rolled in on a rock.
"Toph!" Cried Aang, relieved to see his friend.
"Where's Katara?" Inquired Sokka. Toph quickly explained what she thought had happened.
"I noticed yesterday Katara hadn't came back from wherever she went…"
"You noticed? When did she leave?"
"About five yesterday. When an hour had passed I went out to look for her. Once I got out a little ways I felt something strange, so I kept going. I didn't want to risk turning back and losing her."
"So what happened?" Aang pressed.
"I came back because- the presence I felt is coming towards us." Toph announced. Sokka pushed his way forward. "What do you sense, fire nation tanks?"
"No, in fact I've sensed this before, back when we traveling to meet up with the Solar Eclipse group: The metal man."
The building hadn't even become visible before they heard a furor of curse words followed by the sound of broken glass. Katara provided Zuko(whom she hadn't made eye contact with once the entire two hour walk) a pointed look before continuing to the shady run down slum.
"This is a town of criminals and outcasts and rebels- or one of many I should say. You'd be surprised how many of the Fire Nation's own citizens are its enemy."
Katara bowed her head. She always knew in her mind that the Fire Nation people were people just like her; in fact she had met so many in her most recent travels- but when she imagined the Fire Nation population as a whole she saw faceless heartless monsters. Zuko stopped abruptly.
A crowd was gathering at the pub(Katara assumed it was a pub- none of the buildings were marked.) that a man had gotten thrown out of. They were whistling and egging the man to fight back. The man in question had a round beer belly and a three inch long beard. With a warrior cry he charged back into the building, much to the crowd's thrill, and a soft oof was heard from inside. Katara's hand instinctively went to where her water canteen would be and stepped forward. When her hand met empty air instead of where she hid the canteen, she froze. Zuko tensed.
"Oh, I forgot... " He reached around and pulled out Katara's water canteen. Her heart fluttered. He handed to her. Careful not to touch his hand, she took it from him and hid it under the fluff of her skirt. "Thank you" She muttered. "Now what?" He looked around.
"Do you have spare change?" Chimed a sweet voice behind Katara. All the negativity melted away as Katara turned. A little boy, his face caked with black dirk, smiled up at Katara. Before Katara could react, Zuko stepped forward.
"This little guy is probably a gang member." Zuko warned. Katara tisked at him while reaching for her wallet (that she didn't have on her) when Zuko continued.
"Gangs recruit younger children to collect donations; the tourists and naïve adults always give them a profit." Katara gave the boy a sympathetic smile; she had nothing to give anyway. As she watched him scamper off, she noticed a gathering of people whom came from the way she just did. After many months of traveling and weeks of hiding in the fire nation, Katara could identify when there was trouble. Five maybe, seven grown men were whispering and pointing. Zuko, completely oblivious thought out loud their next course of action.
"Okay, we'll just grab a boat ride to main island, the boat rides are cheap here, or maybe we should get something to eat fir-" Katara grabbed his arm and hissed:
"Those people are watching us!" Dumbly Zuko turned around and look at the group.
"It shouldn't be a problem, it's not like they can know-"
"Exuse me," one of the members nervously walked up. "Are you prince Zuko?" She giggled shyly. More and more people were watching now. An elderly man had ran to the edge of the crowd once he heard prince Zuko might be there. With a dirty look from Katara, Zuko answered her cautiously.
"Well... uh... why do you want to know?" It was then when Katara, after thoroughly scanning the crowd, noticed there were some people holding posters. Without bbeing able to see the contents Katara figured it was best to safely assume those were wanted poster for Zuko.
Whether the news of last night had spred quickly, or this town was so far out of the loop they were posters from the time of his exile, it didn't matter.
"Prince Zuko!?" The old man laughed and walked over to the pair. He had a tanned and wrinkled skin from working, his white hair stood in little tuffs, and his lips were pulled into a grin. "I'm honnerd that you think my grandson looks so majestic, but this isn't a prince!" He slung an arm around Zuko playfully; Zuko stiffened and had to bend down to accommodate him, but he didn't pull away. "This is my grandson- Lee!" He finished with a slight hesitation. The rest of the group looked from Zuko to the man.
"But this scar..." said a little boy, looking at the paper. So it was a wanted poster after all. Katara thought to herself.
"It's called a birth mark! Come on, do you people seriously think I'd be the type of person who'd lie about having a grandson just so I collect a reward?" A man next to the little boy put his hands in the air.
"Nobody's meaning any disrespect Shing, it's just that, well we're all trying to survive, and no one here ever knew that you had any kin."
"Sure I do! Haven't you seen my son visit me?"
"Uh no."
"Actually," a woman a said. "I may have. Is he tall with a bald head and nose piercings?"
"Uh yeah. Sure." Shing answered unconvincingly. The murmuring continued.
"Well you can all hang around here all day in the blasted heat, but I'm taking my grandson and his... cousin to my cool little hut." With that he stormed off, dragging Zuko with him, and forcing Katara to follow.
Once they were clear of the crowds, Katara halted. Once Shing had noticed this, he stopped as well.
"Is there a problem?"
"I'm grateful for your rescue, but how can we be sure that you aren't about to drag us into a trap?"
Sighing he pulled his arm from around Zuko's neck. With releif Zuko stood up and stretched his back. A serious look came across the man's face, then he lowered his head to Zuko.
"Prince Zuko. I knew your greatgrandfather." He then looked him in the eye. "You may not be aware of this, but you are the descendent of Avatar Roku." Katara's lips parted with disbelief.
"What!? How can that be?!" Gasped Katara. Ignoring her, Zuko's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"Yes I knew that. How did you come to know him?"
"I was a young boy when he died, but we were on friendly terms and I remained that way with the rest of his family." Zuko's heart was pounding. A huge knot formed in the pit of his stomach. He couldn't breathe. Maybe he was just overreacting, but could possibly...?
"And I know about your mother."
Hello internets and fankids, hope you enjoyed reading my work and found it enjoyable. Unfortunately nobody has reviewed me yet. Forgive me if I don't understand how it could kill a reader to just take three seconds out of their day to help a writer out. pls. I have no idea if you people are liking this or just reading it cause you're bored.