Chapter 14: The Fortuneteller

It was weird, being with the Gaang after spending so much time with Zuko. I didn't feel like I belonged here, despite the fact this was where I was supposed to be all along. I was the Prophet after all; I'm supposed to be helping Aang, not Zuko.

We camped by a lake after leaving the ruins of Taku with healthy Water Tribe kids. All last night I had fiddled with the pendant of Katara's necklace underneath my scarf. I hadn't forgotten to give it to her, I just didn't want to. It's selfish I know, but every time I touch it I remember Zuko, the way he put it on me and… just every moment that I found myself falling for him.

I was feeling the pendant with my thumb and pointer finger when Aang came up to me.

"Hey, Lucy! I almost forgot to give this back to you." He pulled out the Air nomad necklace I had given him back when we were both fleeing pirates.

"Oh, thanks Aang." I stared at the necklace for a long time. Great, now I really felt guilty. "Katara." I said, reluctantly undoing the choker from beneath my orange scarf, "I almost forgot, I, uh, I took it from Zuko."

"Oh Lucy!" She said hugging me, "Thank you so much!"

"It's taunting us." Sokka says, intently watching a flipping fish.

"Why don't you use the fishing line Sokka?" I ask, thinking it should be there now.

"I can't find it." He says as he throws a spear at the fish.

"What?" I say, generally surprised, "Where did it go?" I went looking for the line that should have been there. Meanwhile, Sokka throws another pole at the fish as it jumps again, but he misses and the fish disappears back into the water.

"STOP TAUNTING ME!" Sokka yells.

"Oh, Momo!" I exclaim as I find Momo tangled in the fishing line.

"So, how do I look?" Katara asks Aang now that she has her necklace on. I try to focus on untangling a struggling Momo from the fishing line, but I'm drawn to look. Suddenly I'm taken aback by how beautiful she is. I can't look away.

"You mean all of you or just your neck?" Aang stutters, "I mean, uh, both look great."

"Smoochie, smoochie, someone's in love." Sokka teases, breaking the spell. The fish in his hands flips, knocking him back into the lake just as I finish with the line.

"Got it!" I say victoriously, facing Sokka with the line. He's just getting back up, soaking wet, and spitting out a stream of water.

"Great." He says sarcastically.

A weird animal sound draws our attention, Momo flies into the lead on a rock, Aang just behind airbending himself on the same rock. The rest of us file behind like normal people.

"Someone's being attacked by a platypus bear!" Aang points to a huge bear thing with a platypus bill on its hind legs, baring teeth, threatening a man. The bear makes swings at the guy, but he just calming steps out of the way. Aang jumps up on a rock behind the bear where the man sees him.

"Well, hello there. " The man says calmly as he dodges another swing by the bear, "Nice day, isn't it?"

"Make noise, it'll run off!" Aang advises.

"No, play dead, he'll lose interest!" Sokka adds.

"Whoa! Close one. Haha!" The man says almost gleefully as the bear just misses him.

"Run down hill, then climb a tree!"

"No, punch him in the bill!"

"And then run in zigzags!"

"No need. It's going to be fine." The bear swings again, cutting through a large chunk of treeas the man ducks just in jumps up over the head of the bear landing in front and airbends a wall of air that pushes the beast backwards.

"Whoa there!" Aang exclaims. The bear rears up and roars, only to have Appa rear up behind him and roar bear drops an egg in fright before running into the river and swimming away.

"Mmm! Lunch!" Sokka picks up the egg and sniffs it then he turns to the man, giving him a haughty look, "Lucky for you we came along."

"Thanks, but everything was already under control. Not to worry, Aunt Wu predicted I'd have a safe journey." He puts his hands in a position of prayer and bows slightly at this.

"Aunt who?" Aang asks.

"No, Aunt Wu." He corrects, "She's the fortuneteller from my village. Awful nice knowing your future."

"Wow, it must be. That explains why you were so calm." Katara comments, she's already immersed in the idea of fortunetelling.

"But the fortuneteller was wrong!" Sokka points out, "You didn't have a safe journey you were almost killed!"

"But I wasn't. All right, have a good one!" He gestures goodbye and starts walking away, but turns back again. "Oh, and Aunt Wu said if I met any travelers to give them this." He hands Aang a wrapped up umbrella and walks away.

"Maybe we should go see Aunt Wu and learn our fortunes. It could be fun." Katara suggests.

"Oh come on, fortunetelling is nonsense." Sokka said, like the logical science man he is.

"I don't know, Sokka. I think I agree with Katara, it does sound like fun."

"Lucy!" Sokka whines, "You're supposed to be on my side!"

"I don't remember making that agreement." I remark; truly amused for the first time in over 24 hours. Aang sheds the wrapping of the umbrella and just as it opens it starts raining.

"That proves it." Katara smiles, waterbending an arc of rain away from her head as she runs under Aang's umbrella. "You can come under the umbrella too Lucy." I'm just standing there in the rain, not even trying to waterbend it away like Katara did.

"I'm fine, I like the rain." I say. It's not entirely true, but I need to let out the tears I've held in for too long. If I let them drop silently no one will notice. Trying to control my flow of tears takes all my focus, causing me to get behind the group, Appa possibly the only thing moving me along.

When the rain stops, I manage to stop my tears along with it. I pet Appa, thanking him for keeping me company. Right after he walks forward, passing up Sokka and shaking the water out of his fur, drenching Sokka once again.

"Let me, Sokka." I say coming up beside him and drying us both from the rain water.

"Thanks." He says, albeit still grumpy.

"Aunt Wu is expecting you." Some guy, in front of a circular door that could only be Aunt Wu's, greets us as soon as we're in sight.

"Really?" Katara asks naïvely. As we continue walking towards Aunt Wu's, Sokka makes a sound of disgust.

"He probably says that to all the travelers." I comment under my breath so only Sokka can hear me.

"See, you are on my side." He whispers back.

"Now don't get ahead of yourself, I never said that." We walk into the reception room, to be greeted by a little girl in a pink kimono and crazy hair that sticks out from the sides of her head in braids.

"My name is Meng and I'm Aunt Wu's assistant." She starts staring at Aang like he had stared at Katara earlier. Disinterested, I went to sit on one of the pillows, admiring the ornate screen behind me instead.

"I can't believe we're here in the house of nonsense." Sokka says once Meng is gone.

"Try to keep an open mind, Sokka." Katara advocates, "There are things in this world that just can't be explained. Wouldn't it be nice to have some insight into your future?"

"It would be nice to have some bean curd puffs." I snort at Sokka's rudeness, Katara looks annoyed at the both of us.

When Meng arrives with the tray of snacks, her gaze fixated on Aang, she trips and almost dumps the food on Aang. Being the gentleman he is he helps her hold the tray.

"Enjoy your snack." Meng says, embarrassed, and quickly disappears.

"Welcome young travelers." Aunt Wu greets us, "Now, who's next? Don't be shy."

"I am!" Despite my mood, and my mixed feelings about how accurate this really is, I'm very curious to hear what Aunt Wu has to say about my future. I follow Aunt Wu into the back room. We sit next to each other on fluffy pillows in a dimly let room.

"Now just relax, I can tell you are anxious but you need to concentrate on the subject of your reading." She advised, handing me a deck of cards. "We are going to do a tarot reading, please shuffle the cards anyway you want." I did as she asked; shuffling the cards the way Aunt Mel taught me when I was 8. The whole time I thought about Zuko.

"Are you ready?" I nodded, handing her the cards. She laid them out Gypsy spread style, three rows of seven cards. She studied them intently, her eyes going wide for brief moments here and there. "You have been through many changes recently" She paused, looking to me for confirmation. I nodded, sounds about right. "With a new start you've developed chemistry with someone, but it's … complicated. Now, your life has come to a standstill." I nod again, that's what this feels like, a standstill. "The road ahead will be long and difficult. Prepare for the journey by resting up and letting people into your life, friends are always a great comfort." She smiled at me. I took that as a sign that we were done and stood up.

"Thanks Aunt Wu." Well, that wasn't what I expected. I was even a little disappointed.

"Sit down!" She gestured, "I'm not done. Now where was I?" She briefly glanced down to the cards again before looking me in the eyes. "Ah yes, your future holds many trials, most of them unfair and flowing with deceit and lies. You will reach the ultimate end of your goal, however," Aunt Wu made a dramatic motion with her arm, "you'll be forced to make an emotional sacrifice."

"Emotional sacrifice?" I breathed; I didn't like the sound of that, especially when I wanted to know about my future with Zuko.

"Like giving up someone or something you love even when you really don't want to."

"Way to sugarcoat it Aunt Wu." I replied in a way I thought was sarcastic, but probably sounded like I was holding back tears.

I walked back out, contemplating the meaning of my reading, vaguely hearing Aunt Wu ask for whoever was next and Katara getting up. I think Sokka offered me some sort of curd puff when I sat down. I only heard the murmur of Sokka and Aang in the back of my mind, not even bothering to look up until Aang left.

"So what are you thinking about?" Sokka asked off-handedly, strewn over the other pillows, eating puffs.

"Just the things Aunt Wu told me."

"Oh don't tell me you actually believe in all this phony fortunetelling too."

"While I don't think it all comes true, I do think it's all possible Sokka. Aunt Wu may tell us what our future holds, but we're the driving force to get there, and can change it." I plan to do just that if I can't be with Zuko.

"It's all nonsense to me." He muttered between mouthfuls of puffs. Aang walks back into the reception area looking smug.

"Looks like someone had a pretty good bathroom break." Sokka comments unawares that Aang didn't really go to the bathroom.

"Yeh, when I was in there..."

"I don't even wanna know!" Sokka said quickly, cutting Aang off.

"Who's next?" Aunt Wu came in with Katara.

"Okay, let's get this over with." Sokka stood, but he didn't get anywhere when Aunt Wu started talking.

"Your future is full of struggle and anguish, most of it self-inflicted." If Aunt Wu wasn't for real, she was really good at reading people.

"But, you didn't read my palms or anything!" Sokka protested.

"I don't need to – it's written all over your face." Aunt Wu turned to Aang, ignoring the displeased Sokka, "You then, come with me." Aang walked back with the fortuneteller.

"Well, now you got to see for yourselves that fortunetelling is just a big, stupid hoax." Sokka said, as we walked back to the square.

"You're just saying that because you're going to make yourself unhappy your whole life." Katara comments, apparently she's unwilling to even doubt Aunt Wu's prediction.

"That woman is crazy!" Sokka exploded, "My life will be calm, and happy and joyful!" Upset, Sokka kicks a small stone off the ground, it ends up ricocheting off a sign and knocks him down by hitting him in the head.

"Ow!" He cries, "That doesn't prove anything!" I offer Sokka a small smile and a hand off the ground. At first he refuses only to slip on rather large and round pebbles trying to get back up, ending up on his butt again. He takes my help the second time.

"Well, I liked my predictions. Certain things are going to turn out very well."Katara commented, holding her hands in a gesture of hope.

"They sure are." Aang says knowingly.

"Why, what did she tell you?"

"Some stuff." He smiles, "You'll find out."

We approach the back of a large crowd around the center of the village square. The locals are all staring up at the sky.

"What's with the sky?" Katara asks, trying to see what's so interesting in the clouds.

"We are waiting for Aunt Wu to come and read the clouds to predict the fate of the whole village." Someone in the crowd answered.

"That cloud looks like a fluffy bunny."Aang points to the cloud, frankly all I see is a peace sign.

"You better hope that's not a bunny – the fluffy bunny cloud forecasts doom and destruction."

"Do you even hear yourself?" Sokka asks disbelievingly. The man looks at him annoyed.

"The cloud reading will tell us if Mount Makapu will remain dormant for another year or if it will erupt." One of the village women explains.

"We used to have a tradition once a year of going up the mountain to check the volcano ourselves, but ever since Aunt Wu moved to the village twenty years ago we have a tradition of not doing that."

"I can't believe you would trust your lives to that crazy old woman's superstition." Sokka says angrily, only to be quieted by his sister.

"Shhhh! She's coming!"

As Aunt Wu and her herald approached the stage, the crowd's separating like the Red Sea, cheering and clapping. She bows, draws a single breath and holds up her hands to the sky to start divining.

As Aunt Wu predicted the future through the clouds I paid more attention to my own future. A future with Zuko, which I wanted, but Aunt Wu hinted that I might have to give it up. My only solace at the moment was my belief that the future wasn't set in stone, that perhaps it was only this way now because of the path Zuko's on. He will change and he'll join the Avatar, and then maybe it could be, after the war. Yes, post-war Zuko was someone I would very much like to spend my life with.

I decided then that I wasn't going to let my separation from Zuko get the best of me. I may be sad now, but it's not the end of the world, we'll see each other again sooner or later. I just have to distract myself in the meantime.

"I can't believe all these saps." Sokka says unhappily as Aang and I follow him through the square. "Someone really needs to scream some sense at them."

"They seem happy, Sokka." Aang points out. Looking about the smiling villagers, I have to agree.

"Not for long. I'm going to prove Aunt Wu's predictions are nonsense." Sokka forces the closest man to turn around so he can prove his point, "Hey, you. I bet Aunt Wu told you to wear those red shoes, didn't she?"

"Yah," he confirms, "she said I'd be wearing red shoes when I met my true love."

"Uh-huh. And how many times have you worn those shoes since you got that fortune?"

"Everyday."

"THEN OF COURSE IT'S GOING TO COME TRUE!" Sokka yell in frustration.

"Really? You think so? I'm so excited!" The man prances off excitedly. Sokka kicks a stone that then hits a duck which causes the duck to fly up onto his shoulders annoying him.

"I see you're point Sokka," I contribute, "but it's kind of hard to tell with such a specific fortune like that. I mean sure it's going to come true no matter what if he always wears those shoes, but what if he never went to see Aunt Wu and was still wearing those red shoes the day he meets his love, there's no way to tell if it's real or not. It's a bit like the chicken and the egg." When I finish I attempt to remove the duck from Sokka's shoulder, the duck flaps its wings, agitated, hitting us both in the face before it hops down and waddle's away.

"It wouldn't come true if he never wore those shoes."

"And that would be intervention, changing the future because you know what's going to happen." Sokka didn't really listen to me; he just kept trying to convince random people Aunt Wu's wrong. After trying a few times I was thoroughly convinced he was out of his mind.

"I don't care what Aunt Wu told you, you have to take a bath sometime!" He yelled at a filthy old man. The man just smiled, acknowledged that he heard Sokka, and just walked away in a cloud of dirt and dust.

"So, Sokka, you know some stuff about ladies, right?" Aang asks nervously.

"Some stuff? You've come to the right place." Sokka, looking smug, puts an arm around Aang's shoulders, "What can I do you for?"

"Wait! Hold up, hold up! You're asking him for girl advice?" I point accusingly at Sokka, "The guy's from a village where the only girl his age is his sister. If you want to know more about girls, I suggest you ask an actual girl. Like me." I wrap my own arm around Aang's shoulders and drag him away, to Sokka's complaint, "I know what he's going to tell you, that you should act all cool and aloof, but I'm here to tell you, don't listen to him."

"Why shouldn't I do that?" He was confused, the idea obviously sounds appealing to him.

"Because it's a stupid plan. It's not you and you want this girl to like you for yourself right?" He nodded, "Then just act like you."

"But how do I know if she likes me back?"

"Unfortunately, there's no sure-fire way to tell, although there are some signs that help, eventually you just got to tell her." Aang nodded enthusiastically and turned around away from my arm like he was going to go right up to Katara and tell her now. I had to stop that, so I quickly grabbed onto his shoulder and swirled him about. "Not right now!"

"Then when?"

"When she starts giving signs that she might like you." His face fell, "Not that she doesn't like you right now!" I tried to correct myself. I sighed, "The problem is, she probably only thinks of you as a kid, for now, but in time you'll get more mature and she'll realize how she really feels."

"You think so?" He was hopeful.

"I know so." I winked, patting him on the back encouragingly. Aang walked away with a new determined look on his face. He walks by Meng who's trying to draw his attention, but is disappointed when he ignores her. Feeling sympathetic, I walk over to the poor girl looking sad as she petulantly kicks the dirt.

"Meng?" I move in close, carefully as if she was a wild animal I didn't want to scare off. She looks up at me, a blush tainting her cheeks in slight embarrassment. "I know you have a crush on Aang." I say quietly, as if it was a secret.

"It's that obvious?"

"Kinda." I chuckle, but it quickly dies down, my voice becomes very sympathetic, "I'm sorry to tell you that he likes someone else." She looks down at the ground sadly. I place a hand on her shoulder in comfort. "I know it hurts Meng, but it just means you're one guy closer to finding your true love."

"It's that pretty Water Tribe girl, isn't it?" Meng says, seemingly ignoring what I just said. "Her hair is sooo manageable." Meng pulls down at her own pigtails, only for them to spring back up.

"I bet it's just the conditioning." I thought back to the shampoo Katara showed me how to make last night when we were washing off at the lake. "How about I show you? I'm sure it'll make your hair sooo manageable." I take the younger girl's hand, intent to help her with her hair problem.

The next day I couldn't find Sokka or Aang anywhere, they seemed to have gone on their own adventure, so I went to find Katara in the market.

"Hey Katara," I greet the girl holding several bags in her hands, "whatcha shopping for?"

"Supplies." She answers. There was silence for a few moments, as we just looked around at the food stalls. Every so often I'd glance at her, trying to think of something to say to break the silence. Questionably, I found myself admiring her, from the way she wore her hair in that elegant braid, to her slender and smooth hands as they checked the fruit. Then my eyes started roaming more and I nearly slapped myself. Am I… checking her out?

"Hey Lucy," Katara startled me, "which do you think is better?"She came up, placing a fruit in each of my hands, her hands nearly caressing mine.

"I…Uh…" I stutter. She was so close; my body involuntarily leaned towards her. She just looked at me with those bright beautiful blue eyes of hers.

"Uh, Lucy? What are you doing?" She asks. I realize just how close I had gotten to her.

"Nothing! Sorry." I backed up sharply, "Uh… here pick this one." I handed her a random fruit, and placed the other back on the stand, my only tactic to get out of that awkward situation.

What is wrong with me? I don't think about Katara in any sort of romantic way. Then I remembered that Aang's probably climbing that volcano right this instant, only thinking about Katara as he searches for a panda lily. Great, just what I always wanted: an emotional connection to a twelve year-old boy.

Katara and I stood outside Aunt Wu's door. I leaned against the wooden frame of the place, arms folded uncaringly. Katara on the other hand was staring down the door, arms folded in impatience with her foot tapping in the dirt.

"Maybe I should knock again." She moved to knock on the door for what seems like the umpteenth time. I intercepted, blocking her path.

"I think maybe you should just give up." I suggested.

"I can't believe this!" She threw up her hands dramatically, "She won't let me in, and after all the business I've given her."

"She doesn't charge." I point out.

"So?" Before I could bring up Katara's obsession, Aang and Sokka ran up to us.

"So how close is the volcano to erupting?" I asked at the same time Sokka said, 'Aunt Wu was wrong about the volcano!'

"Wait how'd you know about the Volcano?" He asked.

"I'm Psychic." I mocked.

"If you guys are trying to convince me Aunt Wu was wrong, it's going to take a little more than this set up to change my min –" Katara was cut off by the sound of the waking volcano. We all turned to see the plume of ash and smoke rising up from the mountain's mouth. "Oh, no!"

Without a word to each other we spread out to gather the villagers into the town square.

"Everyone!" Sokka called for their attention, "That volcano is gonna blow any second. Aunt Wu was wrong!"

"Yeh, yeh, we know you don't believe in Aunt Wu, 'Mr. Science and Reason Lover.'" Some random village chick said.

"If you won't listen to him, maybe you'll listen to me." Katara tried to appeal to them, "I want to believe Aunt Wu and her predictions as much as you do, but my brother and Aang saw the lava with their own eyes."

"Well I heard Aunt Wu's prediction with my own ears." The man from before says. I'm starting to realize why Sokka gets so frustrated with these people. Aang airbends himself up onto the roof of Aunt Wu's house shifting attention to him.

"Please listen to us! You are all in danger! And we have to get out of here. You can't rely on Aunt Wu's prediction. You have to take fate into your own hands."

"Look!" Sokka points to the mountain as it explodes again, "Can your fortunetelling explain that?"

"Can your science explain why it rains?"

"Yes! Yes, it can!" Sokka and I express simultaneously. Unconvinced, the crowd begins to disperse back to where we found them.

"They just won't listen to reason." Katara says, finally realizing what was wrong with her brother this whole time.

"But they will listen to Aunt Wu." Aang says, gliding back down to us.

"I know, that's the problem."

"Well, it's about to become the solution." Aang plots, "We're taking fate in our own hands. First, I need to borrow Aunt Wu's cloud reading book."

I was riding through the clouds on Appa's back. I couldn't resist the temptation of trying to touch a cloud, even though I knew it was just condensed water vapor. As suspected my hand came back moist, and all I really felt was the cool sensation of cold vapor running across my palm. It was still fun and I'd do it a million times over.

"Clouds are made of water and air so between the three of us we ought to be able to bend them into any shape we want."

"I found it." Katara stated, reading Aunt Wu's cloud interpretation book, "The symbol for volcanic doom." We stared at the image for only a few seconds before heading to work. Aang, Katara, and I bent the surrounding clouds into the giant shape of a skull.

The villages were all gathered in the square, some staring at us, some staring up in horror at the skull in the sky.

"We can still save the village if we act fast. Sokka has a plan." Aang addressed the crowd.

"Lava is going to flow downhill to this spot." Sokka explained, "If we can dig a deep enough trench we can channel all the lava away from the village to the river."

"If any of you are earthbenders come with me." Aang waved them over.

"I'm an earthbender!" One of the village twins say.

"I'm not!" says his brother.

"Everybody else grab a shovel…" an explosion sounds as Sokka's talking, "come on, we've got to hurry!"

The crowd runs like lightning to the ground just outside of town. Appa and the townspeople labor to dig the trench, using both earthbending and shovels. Another explosion rips from the mountain, now spewing lava.

"Dig faster! Dig faster!" Sokka encouraged, digging as fast as he could himself. Finally, the earthbending twin connected the trench to the river.

"Everyone needs to evacuate! We'll come for you when it's safe!" Aang ordered.

Everyone runs as they're told. Ash falls from the sky, the lava follows engulfing the village gate, burning it away. Everything begins to take on the red tinge of the lava, which now passes through the cemetery, consuming headstones as it flows downhill. The lava reaches the trench and begins to fill rapidly, its progress only temporarily halted.

"It's too much! It's going to overflow!" Katara observes. I try to think of a plan, practicing what Aunt Wu told me, 'look before you leap'. Maybe I could try to—

My thoughts are interrupted by another explosion, this one of fiery rocks, my favorite. Katara and Aang each grab a side of me to run away from the falling, flaming debris, but Aang hasn't moved yet. Instead of running away he runs towards the lava, airbending as the lava overflows so it moves straight up; with a mighty breath he cools the lava to stone, creating a stone shield to protect the village. Finished, Aang starts to meditate.

"Man, sometimes I forget what a powerful bender," Katara's expression instantly changes at these words, "that kid is."

"Wait, what did you just say?"

"Nothing, just that Aang is one powerful bender." Katara glances over to Aang, still meditating and wreathed in the red glow of the lava behind the shield.

"I suppose he is..."

Early the next morning we set to leave, the villagers milling around to send us off. Aang stands in front of Aunt Wu, offering her back the cloud book he "borrowed."

"By the way, we kind of borrowed your book." Aang admits sheepishly.

"So you messed with the clouds did you?!" Aunt Wu feigned anger, taking the book and making Aang cringe.

"Very clever!" She laughs.

"No offense," Sokka addressed the people in one last attempt to place some common sense in these people, "but I hope this taught everyone a lesson about not relying too much on fortunetelling."

"But Aunt Wu predicted the village wouldn't be destroyed, and it wasn't." Stated the calm man we encountered before reaching the village, "She was right, after all."

"You know Sokka," I added, "Sometimes our fortunes do come true, just not always the way we expected them to."

"I hate you." Sokka said pointing at my nose.

"Oddly enough, I think I'll live."

"Bye Aang." Meng said as Aang was walking by her, he had to do a double take.

"Meng?" Aang asked, unsure if it was really her. The shampoo we made had smoothed Meng's hair, so it fell in elegant waves, it made quite a difference.

"Like her knew 'do?" I asked coming up behind Aang.

"Yeah!" Aang said, I think this was the first time he really noticed her.

"Thanks." Meng said smiling, "Poi and Ping think so too." Her gaze slide over to the identical twins waving at her. Aang was frozen with wide eyes and an open mouth.

"Come on lover boy, time to go." I pushed the shocked Avatar towards Appa's direction intent on following… after I turn back to Meng real quick; two fingers raised "So, two boys closer to finding true love?" She doesn't respond besides an embarrassed giggle and a blush.