They shouldered their packs. Katara's was a lot lighter than Zuko's, because he'd had a fit of gentlemanliness back at the campsite. He'd insisted on carrying all their heavier items. Katara, who was willing to fight the girl-power-fight most of the time, let him win that one. They trailed behind that stupid monkey, walking side by side with their hands nearly touching. The woods were beautifully bathed in reddish tones.

The leaves were all changing colour and slowly falling from the canopy above. It reminded her, suddenly, a little of Jet. Jet and his autumn forest home. Jet and his blind fanaticism to destroy anything firenation. Even the good things. The innocent things. That was the problem with fanaticism. It lacked perspective.

Jet had been charming and she'd been swept away by the force of his charisma. She hadn't known him well at all and had decided he was perfect. Ever since Jet, she'd been more careful about whom she bestowed her affections on. She wanted to know someone well before she gave her heart. She wanted to be sure of them.

She looked at Zuko out of the corner of her eye. She felt differently about him than she did about Jet. For one thing, their history was much longer and more complicated. She'd seen him at his worst, as an arrogant, taunting opponent. She'd seen him at his most noble, trying to fight Azula on his own, so nobody else would have to get hurt. She'd seen him be vulnerable last night, vulnerable in a way that she didn't even know he could be. The more she got to know him, the more she liked him. But he had so many layers and secrets. Everyday she found out something new about him. He could still surprise her, like this morning with the dragon berries. That had been a good surprise. But what if the next surprise was a bad one? He'd give her a few bad surprises in the past.

They came to a second clearing which had a small moon gate through the middle of it. Tim gestured through the gate. 'Ta da- the first task. A test of logic.' Tim said in a booming voice. Zuko and Katara both started to walk toward it at the same time. 'Stop' the monkey said, suddenly in front of them, holding up his palm. 'Only one of you may go.' Tim said with a smile.

Katara and Zuko looked at each other for a long moment. She didn't want to get separated and from the look of his face, neither did Zuko. They worked better as a team. Finally Zuko said "I should probably be the one to go. This was my idea, my quest after all." Katara couldn't argue with that. This whole thing was definitely a Zuko idea. But still she stared at him for a moment longer before acquiescing. They put their packs down and she sat down to wait for him. "Good luck" she said as he turned and gave her a little smile and a wave before entering. Then he walked through the moon gate and out of sight.

Katara suddenly felt uneasy, in what had been a very beautiful clearing only a few moments ago. She side-eyed Tim the monkey. He was a sneaky, cheeky monkey. How long would this take? What was happening? She couldn't believe she felt this anxious about Zuko, of all people. He could take care of himself, for the most part, except when he was being an idiot. Which he was. Most of the time. Katara felt another pang of worry. Zuko had been gone ages now and she felt saddened by his absence. She just didn't like being separated. Whatever. She didn't want to analyze it.

Suddenly there was a bright flash of light, a startled cry and Zuko came flying through the moongate. He landed with a loud thud near her feet and lay motionless with his eyes closed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"As punishment for not being able to see what is right in front of your face, you are sentenced to four hours of blindness, in the hope that you will be able to see better in the future." The deep voice of the sphinx boomed and suddenly the world filled quickly with light and then dark and Zuko was flying.

He landed painfully on his back and felt winded, like all the air had gone out of his lungs during his landing. Katara was there in an instant. She grabbed his head, her graceful fingers checking his pulse while she shouted his name frantically. Zuko wanted to tell her he was okay, for the most part, but he was so winded and hadn't got air back into his lungs yet. Then her hands left his face and he heard the sound of ice daggers forming, being thrown and hitting their mark, whatever it was, with a thud.

'What did you do to him!' Katara yelled and her voice had a very dangerous edge to it.

'Oi! Crazy girl!' He'll be okay.' Tim replied indignantly. "You've ruined my pants crazy girl!" he added.

Zuko groaned and stretched and called out to her before she buried their wise monkey guide in a giant ball of ice.

'Katara, I'm okay. Mostly.' He rasped out and tried sitting up. She was back and kneeling at his side in a heartbeat. 'It blinded me, but only temporarily.' He said as he tested the ground below them, feeling it with his hands. It was grassy. He felt one of Katara's hands on the side of his face and her other was covered in water and trying to heal his eyes. It felt good, but he still only saw blackness.

"Better?" she asked worriedly.

"Well it feels better, but I still can't see." Zuko replied.

"That won't work, crazy girl. It'll last for four hours and then he'll be fine." Tim said in a tone that sounded like he was talking to an extremely slow and difficult child. His voice came from somewhere near the moongate and he was making noises that sounded suspicionsly like he was trying to pull slippery ice daggers out of something.

"You shut up before I bury you in an ice ball." Katara snapped back. She was really mad. Zuko wanted to calm her down. He reached for where he thought her hand was but got arm instead. Oh well, close enough.

"No Katara, it's telling the truth. There's a giant sphinx thing in there that asks you a riddle and if you get the answer wrong it blinds you." He explained, trying to make it sound like it was not big deal and that not being able to see didn't really freak him out. How did Toph stand this? This was awful, just being surrounded by blackness and noises.

"So you can't see anything at all." Katara asked, her voice sounded very close.

"Not at the moment."

"Not even this?" Zuko had no idea what 'this' was so he answered negative.

"Come on, I'll take you back beyond the bridge." Tim said with reluctantly with a sigh.

"What? Why?" Zuko asked.

"You've failed the first task. The quest is off. Shame I had high hopes for the pair of you." Tim said from a bit closer. Zuko lowered his head. He'd failed. Over something as stupid as a riddle. It just wasn't fair. They'd come so far. He'd scaled a sheer cliff with a truculent passenger to get here!

"Wait, let me have a go!" Katara said suddenly, standing up.

"I don't know crazy girl."Tim sounded dubious.

"I at least deserve a shot at it." Katara said, all determined. Zuko heard her stamp her foot.

"Katara no, it asks really hard riddles." Zuko said. He wanted to find out where his mother was, of course he did. But he didn't want Katara getting hurt on his account. Being blind was really scary, when you were used to being able to see.

"Well if I get it wrong, I'll just be temporarily blinded. In four hours we'll both be fine. We've come so far Zuko, to fail over some stupid riddle." Zuko had just been thinking the same thing, but still he felt really reluctant to let her go. Not that he could stop her from doing whatever she wanted to do anyway. But he couldn't help thinking that if anything bad happened to Katara he'd… he stopped that trail of thought. It went to a dark place. "Besides I'm highly logical." Katara added firmly. Zuko could feel himself nod. Suddenly her voice was really close, just in his ear.

"You stay right here and I'll be back as soon as I can." She whispered and gave his shoulder a squeeze. He could hear her footsteps walking toward the moongate. Zuko found it really easy to follow her directive. Where did she think he would go anyway, in this state?

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Katara walked through the moongate and into a small hall. At the end of it sat a Sphinx. Katara though a Sphinx was meant to stand regally and be all impressive. This Sphinx had obviously thought its work was done for the day. It was lounging back, lion legs in the air in an especially undignified pose, lazily filing its nails and humming what sounded suspiciously like 'Secret Tunnel'. It got to the chorus and did a little air-zitar move, using its nail file as a pick and sang 'Secret Tunnel! Secret Tunnel! Through the mountains!' It was, hands down, the weirdest thing Katara had ever seen in her life.

The Sphinx hadn't noticed her come in so she gave a little cough to announce her presence. It gave a startled yelp when it saw her and threw the nail file away and tried to assemble a more majestic pose. 'What are you doing here?" It asked shrilly. Then it seemed to collect itself and added in a much deeper tone. "Welcome the one they call crazy girl" it bowed slightly in her direction.

"They don't call me that! Who calls me that?" Katara said, a bit indignant.

"Oh sorry." The Sphinx seemed taken aback. "I heard Tim the Wisemonkey call you crazy girl at least twice. I just assumed it was you name." The Sphinx explained, looking confused.

"Well it's not! My name is Katara." She said firmly.

"Good to know!" the Sphinx said a bit more chipper. "Okay we should start again. This is going all wrong." Katara didn't know what it meant by start again, but it gestured at her to walk back down the hall. "Look just pretend like you're coming in for the first time!" It called out encouragingly. When she was at the far end she began walking towards it again.

"Welcome the one they call Katara. I am the great and powerful Sphinx….." it boomed out majestically. "I am older than time. I am…." It started. Katara could sense this was a long speech coming up and she really just wanted to answer a riddle and get back to Zuko. She started coughing very loudly to interrupt the Sphinx. As soon as she had its attention she would ask it to hurry up. On the third loudly interrupting cough it looked at her.

"Hi, look I'm sorry to rush you, but can you ask me the riddle now? My friend is waiting outside and I'd like to get back quickly." She said in a tone that was polite but allowed no room for argument.

"Don't you want some deep metaphorical mumbo jumbo about the meaning of life and shit?" The Sphinx sounded a little surprised and disappointed.

"No, I'm good." Katara shrugged. She didn't know how much she could learn from a Sphinx that lived with a talking monkey in pants and sang 'Secret Tunnel' off key. "Let's just get to the riddle." She said firmly.

"Oh… Um okay then." The Sphinx said and looked about in a bemused manner. It didn't say anything for a long time. Katara started tapping her foot with impatience.

"What? What is taking so long?" she eventually asked.

"Sorry, you've just thrown me off my Sphinx groove. No one ever skips the mumbo jumbo." The Sphinx said a little defensively.

"Look, I understand it's difficult when things don't go as expected, but I'm kind of in a rush. So if you could riddle-me-this quickly, I'd be grateful." Katara said, trying to keep the impatience out of her voice. Zuko would never say it, but he'd be scared to be left alone, not being able to see. Katara would hate that herself.

"I'm thinking of one okay!" the sphinx huffed back at her before muttering. "Jeez. Bossy." under its breath. It thought for a bit more and then stood up, rearranged itself to be more majestic again and said in a deep tone.

"I'm going to Ba Sing Se, on the way I meet a man with two sisters and his wife, each woman is leading two ostrich horses and has eight children and each child is holding a basket full of seven baby rabbiroos. How many are going to Ba Sing Se?" It said and gave her a look that said hardy-har-har-solve-that! Katara thought for a sec. It would be a tricky question. It was all in the wording. She had it!

"Umm, just you. I'm pretty sure it's just you…Otherwise I'll need a sec to do the maths." She answered simply.

"Is that your final answer?" the Sphinx said evenly.

"Yes." Katara replied.

"Want to lock it in or call a friend? " The Sphinx asked again.

"Can I do that?" Katara replied excitedly.

"No" The sphinx said firmly.

"Oh, Okay, I'll lock it in then." Katara said and there was a long pause in which the sphinx didn't say anything. It looked around the hall like it didn't quite know what to do. Oh for goodness sake! She'd answered the question, what more did it want!

"What is it? Am I blinded?" she asked a bit exasperated.

"Umm well, you are correct actually" the Sphinx said and paused again. "Look, I'm just so used to blinding people ominously. I'm out of practice about what to do when somebody gets it right." The Sphinx explained. "So um… I guess you can go to the next task. Tim, the wise monkey will give you directions." It gave her an odd look like it didn't know quite what to make of her and then added a dismissive little wave. Well that was anticlimactic Katara thought as she turned and ran out of the room and back to Zuko.