I felt the sun before I saw it.
I opened my eyes to find it was probably late morning. I clung to my sleep a moment longer before I let go and sat up. My back screamed at me as I got up. Who knew sleeping on rock could make one's back hurt so? I stretched and yawned, waking my body up.
The fire was out and the morning sun filled the cave. At least the storm from last night was gone. I looked across the fire, looking for Zuko, but he wasn't there.
I panicked for a moment thinking "What if he left me?" But I calmed down when I remembered last night. I was sure he just wouldn't leave me after I saw a deeper side of him.
I got up and moved myself to a rock near the entrance and let loose my hair which was in a braid. Well, what was left of my braid.
I combed through it with my fingers and tried to get as many knots out as possible. These knots are endless! I sat for a long time doing that and thinking about my new companion, when I spotted him coming up the hill upon which this cave was located.
He carried a few more rabbits behind him. Great, rabbits again.
My sour thoughts disappeared though when he looked up at me and gave me a half smile. Hmm, nice Zuko was out to play, and this time I hoped it was for good. I gave him a smile back and drew my hair back into a pony tail. I didn't feel like braiding it today.
I started walking towards him and met him on his way up the hill. I greeted him and began to walk by his side as we made our way up back to the cave.
"I see you got breakfast." I said as we walked.
"Yeah, it won't taste good, but it will keep you alive." He said.
I laughed and began to bend down and gather fire wood along the way. Unless I liked rabbits raw, we were going to need to build a fire.
Once, we got there Zuko started the fire and I placed our morning meal above it.
I ran my fingers through my hair and got frustrated. I'm a girl without a brush and haven't washed in two days!
I looked out of the cave and closed my eyes, feeling and looking for my element. I sensed the strong river rushing quickly over the land to my right. I tried to look harder.
Being surrounded by water my whole life had made me quite tuned to it. When I left the South Pole, I felt the significant loss of water, and whenever we passed bodies of it, I could feel it. It was like was reaching for home again.
I looked harder.
There.
I went back into the cave then toyed with the idea of asking Zuko to go for a swim with me. I looked at him and remembered what he had been through. I decided he needed a little fun.
"Zuko, wanna go for a swim?"
~0~
This morning on my way back to the cave, I walked up the hill then looked up and saw Katara sitting on the rock outside the cave. Her hair was loose and when she looked over at me, it seemed as if the sun was in just the right place behind her head. The light made her glow.
She finally releases her hair from her apparent onslaught of the knots, and smiled at me. She looked almost angelic.
I mentally slapped myself back to reality and smiled back.
I could feel now that things were going to be different. It seemed that the relief of going against what my father would have wanted, wasn't just a one night thing. I felt freedoms arms reaching out to embrace me, but yet I was too far away to reach it.
There is a war inside of me and I am afraid of the outcome. On one side there was my father and Azula, who raised me for the majority of my life and on the other was my mom, Uncle, and strangely, Katara.
I suppose I should meditate and sort everything out and plan ahead. I was about to leave when Katara asked me to go swimming. That should be relaxing. Maybe it could help mind relax.
Wrong.
As soon as we got to a lake, which Katara seemed to know the exactly location of eerily, she stripped down to her under clothes then jumped right in.
Huh?
Was this normal for girls to strip down to their underthings then jump in the water? I shook my head and took off my shirt.
She was so different from any other girl I knew. I knew enough not to compare her to Azula, but what about her friends Mai and Ty Lee? I would never imagine Mai being this wild. Actually I could never even imagine her laughing without the "Ladies" polite giggle. Katara didn't hold back her laughter.
Ty Lee was the exact opposite of Mai and I could remember her maybe doing odd and random things when we were smaller, but that school for girls they all went to must have beat out any unruliness in them. Ty Lee is now as graceful and ladylike as the rest of them.
I think I like unruliness better.
She resurfaced and yelled "The water's fine and your missing it!"
I shook my head and began to run into the dive. A second later I was submerged. Underneath, it was beautiful. I could see the fish looking at me through the seaweed. I swam back to the surface only to be splashed in the face.
"Hey!" I said while returning the splash.
I heard her giggle as she disappeared below the surface once more. And I followed.
She was towards the bottom when she looked back at me did a movement with her hands, creating a sort of whirl pool around her spinning herself around. Her hair swirled around her and I realized it was much longer than it was when it was in her braid. I decided I like her hair loose better.
I wonder if I can fire bend under water. I concentrated but all I could achieve was making the water boil and form billions of tiny bubbles with my hands. At first I was disappointed but thought of something else.
I resurfaced and took a deep breath of air. Katara came back up as well and looked like she was having the time of her life in her element while showing off her water bending skills. I motioned for her to follow me and swam deep I looked back to see her right behind me. I turned around so we were face to face.
She looked at me silently, her long hair billowing behind her. I began to heat the water and bubbles began to rise. I did this until we were surrounded in bubbles.
She looked around, confused then looked back at me. I smiled at her look and began to chuckle a bit. I actually swallowed a bit of water and had to swim back up. I wiped the hair from my face and found Katara surfacing beside me.
I might have laughed a bit because Katara looked surprised and began to laugh as well. We laughed and for right now, I felt at peace and I felt happy. I just wanted to forget my father, Azula and the war. Even forget about chasing the Avatar. I would be just fine right here.
(A/N Ooo! Nice Zuko is out to play! But he's avoiding facing his problems face on, just like he always does. I sense a deep internal thinking ahead! For now, he is just trying to be free and forget the pain and Katara's nonsense and laughter helps him forget and he enjoys it. I hope you guys liked this chapter! Thanks for reading)
