Day 17: Vague

Disclaimer: I do not own Zuko or Katara. That would be Bryke. Now, on with the show.

I've seen many things in my time. I've seen storms brew and felt the earth quake. I've seen my brethren burnt to ash and new saplings spring from their ruins. I've seen humans war with each other until none are left standing and the birth of new life. But there's one thing that I'd only heard of in the whistling of the wind and on the last dying breaths of men. I didn't expect to see it and only had a vague notion until recently of what it entailed. For you see, it is hard to understand human emotions when you are rooted to one spot.

Oh, excuse me. I'm being rude, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Nairn, the old alder tree at the center of the forest glen. My glen is located between two villages, the Fire and Water clan villages to be exact. I know that you must be thinking it doesn't matter what the villages I live between are. All villages are the same. They have houses and taverns and roads and little people that walk through the streets with seeming purpose only to end up wandering about with none. But the Fire and Water villages are a special case. They have warred with each other since I was a young sapling. I have seen the pain, fear, and anger their fighting brings. My meadow has been coated with blood many times as the dispute has waxed and waned over the years. Recently the villages have been civil enough that there has been little fighting which leads me to the most interesting part of my story. Once the fighting slowed, two young humans took to wandering out to my meadow.

One was a boy. His hair was black as a raven's wing and he had a mark of fire that tore across his eye. I could tell by his red tinged clothes he was of the Fire Clan, so I could only assume at that point it had been a training accident. He appeared to be lost the first time he visited me, for he wandered through the woods as if trying to find something. When he came upon the meadow's edge he paused and looked at me. His eyes were tired and hard like he had seen unfathomable things, but they softened as he came toward me. He was soon beside me looking up into my branches and then back to the forest. He sank slowly to the earth and leaned against my bark. It had been many years since a human sat serenely in my presence and I found it quite pleasant, but I could not help but wonder why he was here. He stayed that first day almost till the sun set, leaving only once the shadows had grown long and colored the earth violet. I thought that'd be the last I would see of him, but he continued to come. It was as if he could feel the sun's passing as I did, for he always came at the same time every other day. I soon began to consider him my contemplative friend.

The girl, however, was much more adventurous. The day she stumbled into my clearing she was chasing a butterfly. Her cerulean eyes were clear and as bright as the sky and the smile that graced her lips made my branches feel light. She spotted me and ran. As she reached my trunk she leapt for my lowest branch and swung herself up. It surprised me, but I felt elated by her excitement as she tread across my branches climbing as high as she could. Like the boy, she would stay for hours, but she came more sporadically. I never knew what day or hour she would come. From the whispers of the other trees in the forest this was common for the Water Clan. They were people of change and schedules were more of a suggestion rather than an absolute. Unlike the Fire Clan boy she did not sit silently. She talked to me, telling me everything that came to her mind. I enjoyed listening to the stories of her brother and father very much even though I was unable to reply.

It went like this for some time. Both of them coming and going, but never meeting. Some days neither of them would come, others both came, but one at the beginning and one at the end. A few times just as one left the other appeared and that got me to wondering when fate would have it that they should arrive at the same time.

It took much longer than I would have liked for fate to weave her web. Three whole moon cycles had passed before the day of their meeting. It still makes my roots tingle with joy to remember that day, for it was quite… memorable. The girl raced out to me as usual immediately ascending to the highest branches and her favorite spot, a little crook in that made a perfect seat for her. She started chatting to me right away. It was a story about her brother, Sokka, trying to get something called a fishhook out of his finger. She stopped talking almost immediately when he appeared right on time just like clockwork.

She stared at him as he walked towards my trunk to his usual spot. He sat down, not glancing up this time. I could tell something was weighing more heavily on his mind than usual. It was easy to tell when this human was troubled because his brow furled and he frowned ever so slightly. The girl simply sat in the tree for a while, studying him, not making a sound. It was probably the quietest I have ever heard her.

Finally, she started to inch down my trunk staying as quiet as she could. I could feel her small fingers tremble against my bark, what was this feeling she was having? It felt familiar. I had felt it in a human years before. A man caught in my branches with the enemy beneath him. Oh, what had they called it? Ah, yes. Fear. Her fingers were trembling with fear. So much in fact that she slipped and fell from my lower branches. She landed flat on her back next to the boy, the wind knocked out of her.

He jumped slightly to the side, taken aback by the abrupt arrival of the girl. For an endless moment he simply stared and she simply laid there. Once she regained her breath she leapt away from him. Fear carved on her face as if it were stone. She huddled closely to my trunk. I wanted to reach my branches down to cover her, but alas that is something I will never be able to do to my great regret.

The boy maintained his distance, but then moved more closely to the young girl. "Are you ok?" he asked warily.

She nodded her head, still huddled against my roots.

"You aren't hurt? That was some fall." He looked up into my leaves.

She looked up too, but not at me. She looked at him. Her natural curiosity taking over she asked, "Why haven't you started attacking me yet? Aren't going to beat me or set me on fire?" She asked with her head peaking slightly above her arm.

He gave her a mortified look. "Why in the world would I do that?"

"Because you're Fire Clan. All the elders said to be wary of your kind because you'll beat and burn us."

"Only because Water Clan is known for strangling and drowning us. What we do is to protect ourselves," he said defensively.

"Your clan are the aggressors! We only fight to defend ourselves!" She asserted while finally uncovering her face and sitting up.

"Hardly," he scoffed. "For hundreds of years we've had to protect ourselves from your peoples ambushes! Maybe I should attack you. But you look a little too puny to be much of a challenge. The fight'd be a little too uneven. And in the Fire Clan you don't take on an opponent beneath you. It's dishonorable. How old are you anyway? 10, 11?" He said eyeing her curiously.

"I'm not puny!" She insisted, standing and puffing her chest out. I have to say I chuckled at this, for she was on the smaller side.

"Could of fooled me," he said raising an eyebrow.

"I could beat you in a fight! You're only what, 12 or 13? That's not much older than I am," she said taking a fighting stance.

This made him rise. As he stood he looked at her, studying her form as if preparing to attack, but instead he crossed his arms and leaned against my trunk. "What's your name?" he asked.

I could tell this caught her off guard. Her stance faulted and confusion crossed her face. When it became apparent his act wasn't a ploy she relaxed. "What did you just ask?"

He gave her an irritated look. "I asked your name. I know Water Clan people aren't terribly sharp, but are you unable to listen as well?"

Her face scrunched at his taunt. "No, I just never expected a person of the Fire Clan to be so civil," she spat back. They stood there for a bit letting the sounds of the forest and meadow envelope them. Then, ever so softly, she broke the silence. "I'm Katara. What's yours?"

"Zuko," he muttered back. And with that their first interaction ended. No more words were traded or stories told until a considerable amount of time passed. They simply took their previous seats and watched the forest. As always, once the field was robed in the pale lavender of twilight Zuko stood and readied to leave.

"Will I see you again?" the girl inquired, looking up at the boy.

"Probably," he said and then turned and walked away.

Probably was right. They began to run into each other more regularly. Katara caught onto his schedule and, although still sporadic, she began to come at the same time he would. It amazed me, watching these two children, these two opposites. Katara embodied her clan's element. She was always shifting and moving. Climbing up my branches and then down full of energy one second and sitting quietly by Zuko the next. Zuko on the other hand was calm, but had a fire inside of him. It was controlled, but it still burned. He was more wary of their initial meetings, but never stopped coming.

I've wondered for a long time why they both continued to come. I'd seen so much pain and devastation pass between the two villages. How could two kids from these clans even think of being friends? They knew of their clan's hate for another. They knew the stories and legends of the war. They knew the wreckage… Then it occurred to me. They didn't know. They had yet to see the carnage war brought. The last battle, now that I thought on it, took place when they were very young. They wouldn't have the memories the elders did. That their father's must have. They only knew the stories they were told.

So I watched as years passed and their caution lessened as they learned they weren't as different as they thought. They both had families, elders, training, similar legends and gods but with small differences scattered throughout the stories. The largest disparity was why the war started in the first place.

"The elders say that your clan became greedy and was starting to hunt in territory that was ours. They say we tried to stop your clan by talking to your elders many times, but they wouldn't acknowledge that any wrong was being done. No one wanted to fight your clan, but something had to be done. So the men decided that they needed to protect our land and put out scouts in the woods. That's when the first skirmish occurred and it only escalated from there."

He looked away from her. "Our elders tell a much different story. They say that the Water Clan started to disrespect their land. That your people were hurting it, so it grew fallow and food became scarce. Our clan tried to offer help, but your people refused and said what they needed was more territory to grow crops and hunt. We didn't have that much land to begin with and your people started to take it anyway, so we sent out scouts, and just as you said there was a skirmish and it just continued from there."

They both sat there, unsure of what they had just heard, of what to believe.

"I guess we'll never know," she stated, looking at him. He looked back.

"No. I guess we won't, but we will still fight for the wrongs each side has committed against our own. It's a vicious cycle of blame that will never end."

"A cycle that we are caught in and can't escape," she added and then leaned against him. His eyes widened in surprise, but he didn't shrink away. This intrigued me.

I believe they were around 14 and 16 and by this time they never came to my meadow alone. There had been a soft shift in their relationship. Barely noticeable except for the way a strange gravity drew them closer over the years. I could tell some new feeling was growing between them, but I hadn't the word for it. This feeling kept growing stronger and soon when they were in my meadow some part of them was always touching, whether it was simply a knee or they were holding hands. More than once they fell asleep leaning against my trunk, Katara's head tucked under Zuko's.

One of those days, when Katara was tucked against him, he watched her with a sadness in his eyes and held her closer, his heart beat vibrating up my trunk. He kissed her head and her eyes fluttered open.

"What is it, Zuko?"

"I love you, Katara," he said. He looked at her like a man looks at the night sky in awe. There were galaxies in his eyes.

She looked back at him, the depth of his eyes replicated in hers. "I love you too."

And then their lips met, clumsy at first, but then gaining confidence it deepened. I could feel blissful energy passing between them. This is when I learned the word for the emotion I had felt growing, but could not name. It was Love.

But this bliss they felt did not last for long. It was only a few days later that their conversations became urgent and much more hushed. They did not come to the glen as often and stayed only for short intervals of time. The uneasy peace they had lived in for so many years was breaking. Their villages were preparing to fight once again. The small world that they had built beneath my branches was starting to fall to pieces.

To be continued…

Hi everyone! I am so sorry for the month of inactivity! (I can't believe it was a month). As you can see this story is longer than usual and I am breaking tradition. This one is going to be a two shot! I hope you can all forgive me! I was at a conference and then I had finals. This story has been brewing for a while, so I hope you enjoy it! If you want to stay updated with my randomness my tumblr is harky2192. And if you ever want to just chat send me a PM! Thanks to everyone who has been following me! Let me know what you think of the stories too! Hit that review button! Special thanks to peter pan's horcrux, wannabewonderbender, and SoapDuck for reviewing! And remember! Stay awesome!