ARC 1: The Promise of Peace

DAY 7: Melt


Her scrawl is childish, crude beside his elegant script. Katara tries to make up for it with enthusiasm. She sends drawings and silly stories (even a neat parcel of seal jerky carefully fastened to Hawky's leg).

Zuko is as aloof in letters as he is in person, but he tries (he sends her back a pouch of fire flakes even). They talk about the Southern Water Tribe and she tells him about fishing and hunting and how weird it is that Master Pakku is going to marry Gran-gran (Zuko thinks they're crusty old people, but it's romantic!). In return he tells her about Azula's knife-throwing friend and his own training (he reached a new level of firebending and begun his own weapons training) and draws a turtle-duck on every letter. Katara thinks it's goofy, but touches her own turtle-duck hairpins and draws one back each time (she plans to teach him how to draw polar bear-dogs).

She tries not to think about the increasing tenseness in the air, the dark looks her father gets every time an official news hawk reaches him. Zuko's letters begin to dwindle, until months stretch between each reply (instead of a few weeks).

His last letter has three lines, wishing her a happy birthday and good health. The tiny place of warmth and hope and growing love for Zuko, nestled right beneath her breast, melts. She feels cold and empty and scared, confused by grim tribesmen and silence from the Fire Nation.

What happened? she writes back, What did I do wrong? Are you alright?

She never manages to send the reply, because the morning of her twelfth birthday she receives a gift in the form of the Southern Raiders appearing on the horizon.