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Recovery
I walk to the medical wing.
"What happened?" Neo, the doctor, asks concerned.
"Zhao," I sigh bitterly.
"How did you escape?" Neo asks curiously.
"I had help," I say bluntly as Neo motions me to sit on one of the beds.
"I don't know how someone could do this." Neo says quietly as he cleans my wounds then stitches the cuts.
"Put this on every night," Neo says as he puts some goop on my burn and hands me the bottle. "Have you slept at all since Zhao took you?" I shake my head. "You should sleep here then so I can keep on eye on your wounds." Neo says going to his desk and writing something down.
"Alright," I say lying down on the bed. I have to sleep on my back since it hurts to sleep on my side. Despite the fact that I think sleeping on my back is uncomfortable I fall asleep fast.
I wake up and look around and notice that Neo is not in the room at the moment. I get up and go to the window to look at the sun. "Must be around mid-afternoon." I then walk out of the room toward my room. I put on a shirt with sleeves that could cover up my wounds. I changed my skirt to pants and walked out to the deck.
"How are you doing?" Jee asks coming toward me.
"Fine," I say not looking him in the eye.
"Uh huh, I have to tell Ling that Iroh needs to stop at the nearest town. There's also a festival there that you might have fun at," Jee says. "He's almost out of tea," he explains why Iroh wants to go to the village.
"How horrible," I say smiling.
"Well, see you around," Jee says walking toward the navigation room.
"Yeah, see ya," I wave.
I walk deeper onto the deck and look around to see that the only person who's on the deck is Zuko. I walk up behind him and he turns his head. He realizes that it's me and turns back toward the ocean.
"Are you still mad at me? I did rescue you, you know." Zuko asks looking at the ocean.
I sigh heavily. "I could have rescued myself," I say angrily not wanting to believe that I needed the help though deep down I believed him.
"Yeah, you were doing such a great job," Zuko smirks at me as he turns around.
"Oh please," I glare at him as I say, "I bet I could beat you."
"Fine, let's go," Zuko says getting into a fighting stance.
"How about we make this interesting," I say.
"What do you have in mind?" Zuko asks raising an eyebrow.
"If I win we go the festival and you can't talk about Aang." I say.
"And if I win, you tell me where he is heading," Zuko says grinning.
"The north pole, well he's the one who said heading not where he is at the moment."
"Deal," I say copying Zuko's stance.
Zuko throws a fire punch which I use airbending at it to make it go over me. I keep dodging Zuko's punches until I have backed up until I'm a foot away from the railing. Zuko throws fire at my feet and I jump up backwards landing steadily on the railing. I smile at him and start throwing air spheres at him. He dodges the first two but, doesn't see the third one coming and he is pushed back ten feet. He glares at me and starts to throw fire at me moving forward. I use my airbending to dodge it and at the same time send an air attack at Zuko. We are to close now and he can't dodge it in time. This blow pushes him over the edge and he falls into the water.
"I win," I yell smiling at Zuko below. Zuko just gives me a fierce looks. I walk to the side of the ship to get a rope. I tie one end to the railing and throw the rope over the side.
"I don't need your help," Zuko shouts at me.
"Yeah, you're doing such a great job on your own," I smile saying back.
Zuko angrily grabs the rope and climbs up. He walks past me once he gets on the deck.
"Where are you going?" I ask. Zuko just smirks at me and I follow him. He starts heading toward the navigation room.
"Have we located the Avatar?" Zuko asks Jee.
"Hey, we had a deal," I yell at him. Zuko just ignores me and looks back at Jee.
"Haley, what was the deal?" Iroh asks.
"We fought and if I won we could go the festival and Zuko wouldn't talk at all about the Avatar. And if I lost I had to tell him where Aang was heading. I won."
"She pushed me over the boat," Zuko proclaims.
"So." I state back.
"That's cheating."
"Is not," I say crossing my arms.
"Zuko, it seems to me that Haley won," Iroh says and I smirk at Zuko.
"We're almost to the town. You two should probably go change," Ling says.
"Why?" Zuko and I ask.
"It's a formal festival. The girls wear dresses and the guys dress up; armor doesn't count."
"Uhhh. I hate wearing dresses," I say quietly."Wish I knew that earlier." Zuko just smirks at me and I glare back at him. I head down to my room.
I pull out the red and black dress and the high heel shoes. I finish getting dressed and smooth out my hair to make sure my curls aren't out of place or frizzy. I look at myself making sure everything's okay. I walk out and head toward the deck.
"You look really nice, Haley," Iroh says. I look at Zuko who's looking at me. "Take a picture, it'll last longer," I think as I blush lightly. Zuko's wearing a red shirt with gold trimmings and black pants. The three of us head off the boat and into the village.
"Oh, a tea shop," Iroh says as he heads towards a shop leaving Zuko and I alone. We walk quietly to the festival. I look around there are games and people selling food. "Just like my world, except with different food."
"Win a platypus bear for the lovely lady," a man says behind a booth at Zuko.
"You want one?" Zuko asks quietly and I look at the small stuffed animal.
"Sure," I say wanting to see Zuko play the game.
"Just knock all those cans using this ball," the man explains.
Zuko throws the ball at the cans. "Wow, he has nice muscles." He knocks them all of except for one.
"So close," says the man. "Want to try, girl?" I nod and he gives me the ball.
"Just to let you know; I'm a girl and we're supposed to throw like this. " I say as I throw horribly and completely miss the cans.
Zuko just looks at me and I smile. "Give me another ball," Zuko says paying the man. The man gives him another ball and this time Zuko knocks down all the cans.
"Good job," the man says giving Zuko the platypus bear.
"Here," Zuko says giving me the bear and starts walking away. I smile and hold the bear with both hands against my stomach.
I catch up to Zuko. "Thanks." Zuko just nods at me. "What's he doing here?" I whisper looking over to my left and Zuko follows my gaze.
"Zhao," he whispers bitterly. "Come on," Zuko says as he leads me fast down another festival aisle. We stop and look back to see if Zhao is anywhere near us. We see Zhao walk into our aisle. We start backing up toward the woods. Fortunately for us, a man in a booth starts talking to Zhao. Unluckily for him, Zhao starts yelling at the man and sets his booth on fire. Zhao looks up toward the woods that we just entered. We look each other in the eye.
"Get her," Zhao orders pointing toward us. Zuko grabs my hand and we run deeper into the forest.
"Hold on," I say letting go of his hand and I take off my shoes. "You try running in heels," I say defending myself. We look back toward where we thought Zhao and his troops were following us. "Maybe they gave up?" I ask softly.
"I want this entire island searched," we hear Zhao shout.
"Guess they didn't," Zuko says and we run even deeper into the forest.
We run for what seemed like a half an hour before it starts to pour. "Great," I sigh heavily. The rain makes seeing anything practically impossible. Someone grabs me and I drop the stuffed animal as I hit the person.
"It's just me," Zuko says putting his face inches in front of mine.
"Sorry," I say as he starts walking away.
"Wait for me," I say as I run toward Zuko. "Running with bare feet in a muddy forest is not fun." I think as I make sure I can see Zuko at all times at the same time trying not to slip on the mud. The rain lets up slightly but, it's still pouring. Zuko abruptly pulls me to the side.
"What the…," I start realizing that we were in a small cave.
"Zhao probably won't notice this cave, I barely did." Zuko says as he sits down.
"No offense or anything but, if you saw it wouldn't he?" I ask sitting down across from him.
"I don't know, okay?" Zuko yells at me.
"Okay," I say quietly not wanting to start a fight. I look outside to only find out that it begun to blindly pour again. I lean against the cave and realize that I'm shivering. "There is no way I'm going to airbend myself dry in this dress. Airbenders airbend themselves dry by moving the air up," I think as I look over to Zuko. I see steam coming off him as he firebends himself dry. "Lucky."
"You're shivering," Zuko points out.
"No kidding Sherlock," I retort starting to shiver more intensely.
"Why don't you just airbend yourself dry?" Zuko asks. I just give him the you-got-to-be-kidding glare. Zuko looks down as realization dawns on him. My teeth start chattering as I look outside again. I look back and become aware of Zuko sitting down right in front of me.
"Give me your hands," he says holding out his hands.
"Why?" I ask and he gives me the-just-do-it look. "Fine," I mumble as I place my hands in his. He closes his eyes so I close mine. I smile once I feel heat go through my body making me warm. Once I'm completely dry Zuko let's go of my hands and we both open our eyes. Gold meeting hazel.
"Thanks, Prince Zuko," I start.
"You can call me Zuko," he says.
I smile and kiss him. He kisses me back. It seems that time stopped and that we are the only two in the world.
Zuko stops unexpectedly and gets up.
He looks outside. The rain has now passed and it's starting to get dark.
"I'm going to go get some wood," he says walking away.
"And I'll go look for food," I say standing up as well as I follow Zuko to the cave opening.
"We'll meet back here in a half an hour. By then the sun will have almost set." Zuko emphasizes.
"Alright," I say as I go right and Zuko goes left.
"Be careful," I hear Zuko whisper and I smile as I continue walking. I look up at trees searching for fruit and looking at bushes for berries.
All of a sudden I hear a rustle in a bush. I see a man come out and he's all dirty.
"Are you alright, sir?" I ask.
"Perfect, deary," I hear a voice behind me. Rapidly a man turns me around and pushes me to the ground. He then kneels on my legs so I couldn't get up and presses a knife to my throat. I look up at a tree. "Whatever the case may be, I found fruit." Looking up was my mistake as I know realize that the first guy is forcing my hands down to the ground behind me so I can't possibly use my hands to fight. "Great, now what?"
"You're a pretty little one, aren't you?" says the second one who's holding a knife to me. The first guy starts snickering. The second guy vigorously kisses me and I can't possibly do anything. I begin to cry realizing this. As tears are pouring down the man starts to bring up the hem of my dress.
As his grubby hands get to my thighs my necklace begins to lightly glow. I grab the guy's hands that were holding me down and I throw him against a tree making him blackout. "Man, this lady must have been strong." The second guy looks up at this and I head butt him making him let go of me. He throws his knife at me and I catch the handle with my hand. I do a roundhouse kick and the man is thrown against a tree beside his friend and also loses consciousness. I look down at myself and dust the dirt off me.
"I should probably get some food so Zuko doesn't get mad or anything." I whisper to myself as I dry my tears. I quickly airbend to the top of the tree and grab four pieces of fruit. One for each of us tonight and for the morning. I walk back to the cave taking my time so my eyes don't look red when I get there.
Once I get to the cave I see that Zuko is drying out some of the wet sticks. He tosses the dry ones into a pile in the middle of the cave.
"I was about to come look for you," Zuko announces.
"I found some fruit," I say tossing him one trying to change the subject. We eat in silence and Zuko starts a fire once the sun went down.
Unexpectedely two shadows appear in the cave entrance. Zuko and I look up at this. I almost choke on my fruit noticing that they are the two men who attacked me.
"Who are you?" Zuko asks getting up.
"We are just travelers, sir," the second man says as the first one keeps looking at me. They walk in a little bit.
"We would appreciate it if we could stay here tonight," the second man says.
"Fine," Zuko says sitting down beside me. The two men sit down opposite us.
"I'm Deshi and this is my companion, Quon," the second man says.
"Nice to meet you," Zuko says suspiciously.
"You should get some sleep. I'm gonna keep an eye on these two for awhile," Zuko whispers to me.
"Alright," I say lying down. I close my eyes and hesitantly fall asleep.
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