Chapter 9: What happens in the forest...

I guarded all night. And had fallen asleep.

As I woke up, Zuko was gone. He had left no message and had even taken his dao swords with him. That last thing almost convinced me he wasn't going to come back. Still I would wait. A day if it was necessary. If he wouldn't be back then, I would leave. I didn't know where to go yet, but I would only start thinking of something during the last minutes.

So I waited. Out of boredom I ate the last flesh of the beast Zuko caught yesterday and watched how it started to rain. The rain gave me the opportunity to drink and to fill my little bottle.

The tapping of the drops of rain on the leaves was almost a lullaby which sang me to sleep. I got drowsy and lay down, intended just to rest for a few minutes. Eventually those few minutes turned out to be a few hours, since I fell asleep again.


Two fish circled around. The water of the little pond seemed to scrub gently through their fins. I could almost feel the balance, the gravity between the two and got sleepy just by looking at them. Then they melted together. One was white, one black. When the colours eventually blended, white vanquished.

The white light was so bright it blinded me. Fortunately it eventually decreased and I could see mom standing a bit further, watching the ground in front of her. I was sure she was waiting for me, like I felt like I had been waiting for her. Another woman was standing next to her, dressed in the colours of the Fire Nation.

As I got closer, they both looked up at me at the same time. I didn't look very long at the smiling woman of the Fire Nation with the golden eyes, even if I knew those eyes, and I knew that face, but I looked away, to my mom. A happy feeling settled in my heart as my mother's blue eyes crossed mine. I opened my mouth to say something, but "I missed you" didn't seem enough and the woman from the Fire Nation was first anyway. 'You've been very, very brave, Katara. You can be proud of yourself.'

Then everything faded out and turned black. 'No!' I screamed. I still had to say something to my mother, or at least hear her voice. She had to answer all my questions and tell me she still loved me, and that she was proud of me. 'No!' I kept screaming, but my hoarse voice just seem to disappeared in the black world.

In the back of my mind, I knew this was all a dream. I knew I had nothing to lose in this world inside my head. I knew my mom had to be here somewhere. And I was going to find her.

It all turned out very easy as there appeared two shadows in the distance again. I smiled and shouted at mom I was coming for her. The next few minutes I spent running towards the two shadows, but I didn't manage to come any closer. I stopped and shouted she didn't have to worry and I wasn't going to give up on her.

Then there was a deep voice which told me to let go. My heart almost sank, but I refused to listen and answered with a hard no. In a flash my mom and the woman stood in front of me again. 'To save those you cherish, you have to walk you own path', the woman said.


It was already noon as I woke up. 'Damned', I murmured.

'Had a bad dream again?' a familiar voice asked.

I sighed of relieve as I saw Zuko next to me, totally wet and trembling, but he didn't seem to care and stared outside. I could easily pull the water out of his clothes, but I wanted an explanation first.

'Where have you been?' I asked, ignoring his question, half because of I didn't know the answer myself.

'I've been searching for some dry wood', he said.

I looked behind me and couldn't see any wood. 'So where is it?'

Zuko looked at me. There were so many emotions in his eyes I had never seen there before. 'It rains.'

'Oh.' I cleared my throat. 'So what happened?'

'We have to go.' Zuko looked away and got up.

'What happened?' I repeated my question, not intended to move if he wouldn't tell me what the cause of all his emotions was.

'We have to go', Zuko repeated, narrowing his eyes. He wanted to walk away, but I grabbed his hand without thinking. He startled as much as I did with the sudden contact and just stared at my hand.

I ignored the beating of my heart and asked again: 'What happened, Zuko?'

Zuko pulled himself away from me. 'What do you care? You shouldn't even ask those questions, you're still my prisoner.'

I watched him with dibelief. 'Your prisoner? You left me here all alone, I could have escaped already a hundred times if I wanted to!'

'But you didn't want to.'

'Oh that again? The I-know-you-better-than-you-know-me argument? Well you know, maybe you were very right about me yesterday, I didn't leave my friends because it was all too much. It is a part of my character to help wherever I can, and no, I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me.' I startled of the volume of my own voice and went on a little more quietly. 'So yes, I do care what just happened when you were gone while leaving me here alone without any sign you would come back.'

Zuko came closer to me, till he was so close I could feel the heat of his body. He leaned forward and looked deeply into my eyes. When I feared he was about to kiss me, I wanted to repeat my question one last time, but he just whispered in my ear: 'We have to go.'

Totally confused and stunned I watched Zuko walking away, into the rain.

My breathing was all of the sudden raspy and I thought I was about to faint every moment now, but I just got up and followed right behind him.

Out of the forest, Zuko quickened his step 'till we got to the edge of a small village. An old fisherman looked up tiredly and then paid his full attention to his recently caught fish again. Zuko commanded me to sit down and wait and then put his mask of the Blue Spirit on. In less than three seconds, he was gone. I could only stare at the spot he had disappeared. His fast movements and flexibility as he ran away kept surprising me.

The rain had already stopped and the sun shone through the few remaining clouds as Zuko came back. Not walking, as I had expected, but on a small boat. I bit my lip. 'You've stolen that boat?'

Zuko, without mask now, didn't answer and gestured me to go aboard. I sighed and pushed me off with the water between the boat and me.

'So what happened when you were gone?' I asked again as we were already in the middle of the lake. I didn't exactly count on an answer anymore, but Zuko surprisingly replied to my question.

'When I woke up in the morning, I saw you had fallen asleep, so I stood guard myself. Then the clouds gradually turned dark, it would start to rain, so I really looked for some dry wood to spend another few hours in the cave with a fire, but as I walked through the forest, I thought I heard someone and followed the noises.' Zuko paused and sighed. 'Although I looked everywhere, I couldn't find anyone. Then it started raining and I wanted to go back, but all of the sudden I got very sleepy and fell asleep in the middle of the forest.'

I frowned as I remembered my own sleepiness when it had begun to rain. Zuko and I both had slept during the night, but also both fell asleep at the same time. I didn't believe this had been coincidence.

'As I woke up again,' Zuko went on. 'I thought I heard someone again, closer this time. I looked for the noises one more time and eventually got to see a group of people robbing an old man from the Fire Nation. I considered helping him, but saw I had no chance of conquering the numerous people, so I had to let them get away with it. I tried just to forget and thought the sooner I got away there, the better, so I left. Unfortunately it didn't take long for them to surround me and I even had to bend fire to escape, risking they would recognize me. I climbed a tree and remained sitting there 'till I was sure they were gone. Then I ran to the cave we spent the night and found you still sleeping.'

'Actually I had awoken already, I had just fallen asleep again, also when it started raining', I said. 'Do you think that was just coincidence?'

Zuko hesitated, and then just shrugged his shoulders. 'I don't know. I don't think the group of people has something to do with it. You know, maybe it sounds weird, but I think it was all the forest. It could have belonged to a Spirit who didn't want us to sleep in the cave or me to catch that beast last night, so it tried to drive us mad in revenge as we were separated or something like that.'

I nodded thoughtfully.

'Anyway, I think you might want to know we won't look for your friends anymore. My search for the Avatar has come to an end, but we'll still travel to the Northern Water Tribe. We will arrive in two days', Zuko suddenly announced.

I gasped. 'What!? Why all the sudden so fast? And why would you still go there if you're not searching for Aang anymore?'

'I told you, my search has come to an end, but I still want to figure something out.'

I couldn't follow at all. I had always thought he would turn against me or just leave me somewhere as soon as we would find Aang and then try to capture him.

After a short silence, Zuko explained: 'I just think I should look for a little pond.'


AN: Hope you liked it! I want to thank you all for the nice reviews, the favorites and follower so far! (and if you don't belong to any of them, just thanks for reading!) It makes me feel like I'm doing something a bit useful for once in my life!