Katara sat in front of him on the ostrich horse. She was thinking hard about how she was going to get the stubborn prince to let her at least just look at the wound. But he didn't seem to keen on the idea of letting her help him. She didn't see why not. He had helped her and she didn't want it. She felt Zuko fall against her slightly, then jerk himself back up. She looked over her shoulder a little and grabbed his hands making him pull back on the reins and stop the animal. She turned half way around on the animal and looked at him. His eyes were glazed but still focused. For some reason he didn't realize that they had stopped. She slid down off of the animal and walked around to the side where he was bleeding. And lo and behold he was still steadily dripping blood from his shirt.

She shook her head. That was it. She had to get that blood stopped.

Zuko looked down at her with his famous scowl and started to say something, but stubbornness or not, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell off fo the animal. She tried to catch him but he ended up knocking her over as well. She caught his head before it hit the ground above her shoulder. A tinge of panic raced through her as all of the possibilities crowded into her head at once.

She moved out from under him and set him gently on the ground. She looked around. They were on a path. It was a bad place to be and an even worse place to try and fix him. She looked around and found an old large tree off the trail about forty, fifty feet. She bit her bottom lip as she looked at him. There wasn't any way she could drag him without hurting him worse and without possibly hurting herself.

She looked over at the ostrich-horse and smiled. She grabbed two large sticks that stuck up out of the ground. Long ago they may have been considered saplings, but they were long since dead. She grabbed the reins of the animal and tied one to either branch. She then grabbed the blanket out of his bed roll and quickly tied it around either of the lengths of the branches.

Katara looked back over at Zuko and assessed the situation. She walked over and gently put her hands under him one across his shoulders the other across his chest, considering he was on his stomach. She slowly, and hunched over, maneuvered him onto the make shift stretcher. She settled him down and nodded. She walked the animal slowly over to the tree making sure to walk carefully and at the animals side so she could watch both the animal and the man.

Katara untethered the branches and set Zuko down gently on the ground. She slowly lifted up his shirt so that she could see just how extensive the damage was.

The shirt tugged at his skin as some of the blood had dried and acted like glue. She finally tugged it loose and pulled the shirt up to rest high on his back.

She took in a deep breath and sat back on her heels. It was worse then she thought. But isn't it always worse then one thinks?

Katara leaned over him and picked pieces of cloth out of the three large claw gashes on his back. She twisted her lips to the side and thought for a moment. She grabbed his water pouch off of the saddle and looked again to assess the situation. She shook her head as she mentally decided against using her healing powers until she cleaned him up and seen just how deep the wounds were. She slowly poured a little water onto his back, and she noticed that his skin flinched at the touch of the cold water.

"Well at least part of you is responsive." She watched the blood drip from his back at the water poured over him. She was going to have to wipe the rest of it off or dab it off. She curled her nose a little and sighed. She really didn't want to have to touch his blood. She didn't know where he had been and what kind of god-knows-what he had.

Katara took a deep breath and let it out slow. HE had saved her life and not hesitated, as far as she knew, about touching her blood. She poured some of the water in her hand and gently wiped the blood from his back. It took her only a few moments and the wounds were clear and so was the extent of the damage. She frowned as she looked into the middle gash. Something was inside of it. She leaned over to get a better look and her frowned deepened. She rested one hand between his shoulders to support herself as she dove a finger of her other hand into the wound. She could hear the gush and feel the warm sensation flood over her hands and it made her throat knot up.

Katara angled her hand and maneuvered it so that it was under the object. She quickly pushed her thumb in to catch it in a pinch. With a quick jerk, and a fountain of blood, she pulled out what looked to be the very tip of a claw. She quickly jumped back on his back holding both hands over the wounds as the disturbance had sent even more blood pouring from the wounds. She couldn't tell just how deep the wounds actually were, and she couldn't feel how deep the were with out causing more damage.

She closed her eyes tight as she pushed down on the princes back. She wasn't going to let him die. Not like this. She could imagine that the animals claws tore through the muscle of his back and dove straight into his organs. If that was the case there was no saving him. She didn't have the medical know how to heal something that bad and she sure didn't have the power she needed to use her bending.

Katara opened her eyes slowly as she felt the blood flow ebb and start to become sticky around her hands. She let out a heaved sigh but she refused to take her hands off until she was sure that the flow wouldn't start up again.

She jumped slightly when she heard a sound echo from Zuko's chest. It almost sounded like a moan. She listened harder and she heard it again. Oh shit! Don't wake up yet! She screamed at him mentally. But all the power her mind possessed wasn't going to keep the stubborn headed prince from doing anything.

Zuko's eyes shot open and focused quickly. He started to move, but a strong tinge of pain that raced the length of his body kept him still, and caused his eyes to clamp shut.

Katara watched as he again opened his eyes. She leaned back, still not taking her hands off of his back, just enough so that he could see her.

"Don't you dare try to move." Zuko glared at her as her order came to him as more of a challenge.

"What ...hap.."Katara frowned.

"Shh." She hissed and looked back to his back. She frowned. Once again his back was covered in blood that would have to be washed off. But now since he was awake she didn't have any time to just wipe it off. She raised one hand and brought some water to her from the water pouch in a small sphere. She quickly spread the water over the blood and lifted it, water and blood both, off of him

She sent the sphere far into the bushes. She looked down at him and nodded her head. He wasn't gushing blood anymore, so she could safely take her hand off of his back. Or so she thought.

As soon as she removed her hand, Zuko pushed himself up to a sitting position.

"What are you doing!?" Zuko looked at her with a scowl over his shoulder.

"I can fix myself. I don't need your help." Katara pushed her anger back reasoning that he was delirious from the loss of blood. She looked at him with warm eyes.

"You are hurt. Very badly. You do need my help." Zuko glared at her and his temper flared.

"I need no such thing!" He yelled at her fire spitting from his mouth. She gasp and stared at him. He pushed him self up to stand. He stood perfectly still for a moment as he tried to regain his balance. He wobbled and stumbled clumsily over to the ostrich-horse, and started to dig through the saddle bag.

Katara watched him intently from her place on the ground. She was still knelt on the ground in the same place she had been working on him, and to add insult to injury she was drenched in his blood. That would make it the second time since this whole ordeal started that she was covered in someone else's blood.

Zuko fumbled through the bag and found what he wanted. He stumbled a few feet away from her and fell to his knees. Katara jumped up and ran over to him to make sure he wasn't passing out again. She touched his shoulder, but he just jerked out away from her touch.

"Leave me a..alone." He growled with a stagger. She stood up straight and looked down at him as he repositioned to sit cross-legged on the ground.

Katara watched intently as he pulled his shirt off over his head and threw it to the ground beside him. He slowly ran his hand up his back and found the three gashes. Then one by one he ran his fingers over them to see how long and how wide they were. He gritted his teeth as his fingers lid over the very painful wounds.

Katara watched silently as he threaded the bone needle, which he had pulled out of his bag along with some thread that Trua had packed. Her eyes widened at his next move. He blindly moved his hands to the back and using one had to stitch and the other to guide him, he stitched up his own wounds.

Katara's breath caught in her chest and hung there like a hunk of bread. She couldn't swallow, she couldn't breath. All she could do was stand there and stare. She had never seen, nor hand she ever imagined, some one actually do what this man in front of her was doing.

He quickly finished and, with his hands still behind his back, twisted the thread around his hand and broke it off. He sat there for a moment, then pushed himself to stand up.

He turned around and looked at her.

"See? I told you I didn't need your help." Katara nodded dumbly as if her entire body was paralyzed. Her senses finally came back to her and she walked over to him.

"You did good job. But you didn't clean it. It could get infected." Zuko glared at her and snarled his nose.

"I didn't ask you did I?" Katara frowned trying to keep her temper under control.

"Listen, I know that you are a prince, and it is obvious that you are a male, but pride shouldn't come before your health. I can heal you. If you let me help you."

"What do you think you are trying to do, woman? I can see straight through your games." Katara took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"I am just trying to help you Zuko. You helped me, now let me return the favor." Zuko shook his head.

"I am not some weak woman that need someone to look after me." Katara clenched her teeth.

"I didn't say that you were weak, but even you need help sometimes." Zuko scoffed and turned around.

"Thanks for the advice. I'll let you know when it happens." Katara growled and looked at the ground. At her feet was a very large rock. It was almost too tempting to pick it up and bash him in the back of the head just so she could help him. But she decided against it, for the small chance that she would kill him. Zuko started to walk off when she got an idea. She gloved her hand in water and hid it behind her back.

She caught up with him and grabbed him by the arm turning him around.

"What now!?" She looked at him and shook her head.

"Zuko, I think you need a hug." But before he could refuse she wrapped her arms around his waist and held on tight.

Zuko became very rigid. He didn't know what to do. Should he push her away or just wait until she got it out of her system?

Katara grinned into his shoulder as she placed her hand on his wounds ever so gently. She could feel it working and by the reaction Zuko had he could as well. She felt the last of the wound heal up and the thread fall into her hand.

She closed her eyes and sighed. She pulled herself back and let go of him. She looked up at him and he glared back down at her.

"See now was it that bad."

"Don't make a habit out of that." Katara grinned and shrugged her shoulders. Zuko pulled himself upon the horse and put his hand down to help her. Just as she grabbed his hand he clenched it and glared at her.

"Snake." He hissed and pulled her up to the horse