Chapter 25: The Water Trail

A/N: I am so sorry I haven't written in the longest time. Many things have been happening and I just haven't factored in writing, but I miss it more and more every day so I am going to try to carve out some time to update regularly. Thank you for all your wonderful comments that have encouraged me to come back! This is a little bit transitionary but next one is going to be a little more… action packed shall we say…

Zuko was fire. He was floating and flickering, drifting apart and coming together on a heat current, shimmering, wavering… leaving patterns through the idea of his body, spreading out to his fingertips, erupting from his fingertips, giving sensations to the burned, dull part of his face, lifting it off so that it encompassed everything around him, the whole world, looking down from above but also looking up at the same time. The whirling, dancing of the air currents around him and through him as he descended from a great height, spiralling back into his closed body, and with it came the realisation that he was asleep on a bag, warm winds tugging at his hair.

Zuko opened his eyes, not quite sure where he was, but at peace with the world. He realised he was breathing heavily, nostrils flaring with he effort, but at the same time he felt calm - it was from a wish to connect with the world in the same way he just had in his dream.

From his side there was a steady hot breeze that would tickle his skin. Then it would stop. Then it would start again. Sitting up he realised that it was no breeze that pleased him so much, but the regular, warm breath of the dragon, curled up next to him.

It was difficult to think those thoughts; a dragon! He had spent most of his life believing that the dragons had been exterminated by his ancestors, doomed to fly only through the history books. But here, next to him, lay his own dragon. When the dragons had hatched, their scales gave a peculiar translucent feeling, as if you were able to look through the thick hide into the blood and bones of the beast. This, however, was not the case. If anything it was more of a reflection of the light around the dragons, or a strange murky concoction of the colours bouncing here and there before their eyes.

In the few days of life, the little dragons had solidified, although they still shimmered in the sunlight like the heat rising from the ground. Their immense intelligence started to show in their exploration of their surroundings. For some reason Zuko's dragon could more or less understand when he or Katara spoke to it but found it difficult to react in the same way when Toph or Ty Lee said the same words. They decided that it might be because in the egg stage each dragon only heard the voices of those carrying it and so was used to their timbre… or maybe there was more of a connection than that. Equally they seemed to push certain ideas into their benders' minds. These were tentative and required a good amount of guessing as well as some growls to call attention to the fact they wanted something. They spent a long time sleeping in the sun, and Zuko spent a long time observing them. It seemed that every breath made them more real, more solid, slightly larger. In just a few days they had doubled in size it seemed with little more than the energy of the sun for the group didn't really know what to feed them.

However, their lack of practical knowledge weighed on everybody's minds. The food they had brought was tentatively being eaten by the dragons but it seemed to provide little sustenance - and it didn't last long with two extra mouths to feed. They had to ration but the dragons would often nose about the packs containing the food and growl for more.

The four were sitting in the shade of a large palm having finished going through Kyoshi exercises and attempting to bend air - again - with limited success. In truth they were all distracted by the dragons and their current predicament.

"We're going to have to split up," started Toph. "We can't take them near any of the villages without a fight on our hands… remember what they did to Appa…" she said, turning in Katara's direction. Years before, deep in the same desert, Appa had been taken by Sand Tribe poachers while Toph tried to save her friends from being buried in the sand as they explored the infamous spirit library. She still counted it as one of her greatest failures.

Katara placed a hand on Toph's shoulder in sympathy.

"At least we're all here to protect them," she replied reassuringly. "But yes, we need to be wary. We need to get to the main Sand Tribe town and find what wisdom they have to offer as well as learn how to take care of dragons and find some more food…"

"Exactly… that's why I'm saying we need to split up Two stay with the dragons and two go in search of food…" repeated Toph.

"That won't change our situation though," sighed Zuko. "We will still be stuck here with no more knowledge than we already have. We need to get closer to the Sand City to juggle everything. And even then I don't know if there will be anything to teach us about dragon- care!" he paused. "Why couldn't they teach us anything useful!" he cried suddenly, "Like what dragons eat and how to train them! Oh no! Only how to hunt them and how powerful they are! Destruction, all the time! We only learned to destroy!" he got up and stomped off into the distance angrily. His and Katara's dragon understood something was wrong and it sprang to its feet, trotting off after him.

Katara let him go. She knew he sometimes needed to be alone and cool off. Later she would soothe his nerves. Right now though there were bigger problems to be solved.

"Seems like I need to find another oasis nearer to the Sand City," she said out loud.

"That's still a long way away," chimed in Ty Lee, "Maybe just the next oasis along, if there is one, and we can edge towards it? Maybe you could teach us how you do it Katara and we can help!"

Toph chuckled.

"Bet its meditation, right Sugarqueen?" she said dryly.

"Uhhh… yeah. It is. Like at the tree in the swamp but focussed on water. Its easier here because there isn't much water to contrast with…" Katara regarded Ty Lee speculatively. Was giving Ty water bending so soon after her air bending a bad idea? Perhaps Ty should spend more time with the element which was innately hers before being pulled in the other directions. Here would be the ideal place though because the senses could only focus on one water source at a time…

"Is there something wrong Katara?" asked Ty Lee, cocking her head to one side inquisitively like a little bird.

Katara shook her head quickly, breaking her thoughtful gaze at Ty Lee.

"I was considering teaching you to water bend but I think you need to become better at air bending first. Tonight I will try to feel as far as I can and find us another oasis. And I guess I'll go check on Zuko," she added with a sigh, getting up and dusting herself off.

Ty Lee watched her go and turned to Toph.

"Why doesn't she meditate now? Is it too hot?" she asked.

"What? Oh no, its because the moon and the water are connected so she is most powerful under the moon. Yue is the moon-spirit and she helps water benders everywhere," explained Toph. She chose not to go into tides and pushes and pulls and blood… Katara was right. Ty Lee needed to understand and truly appreciate air bending first before being thrown into their world of multiple bending. She didn't know how long it would take but part of the reason Toph, Katara and Zuko trusted one another with the immense power of the multiple bending was their mastery of one form - their true, deep understanding of their potential and of their element before taking on something new. Somewhere in the back of Toph's mind was a ticking clock. She felt as if there was an alarm about to go off but she didn't know how long till it did, as if time was running out and there would be a moment to test them and their part in the bigger picture. Would Ty Lee have enough time to catch up and make up the whole?

"Come Ty, we should bend. You can try to make those stupid air balls Aang always bounces around on…" Toph got up and pulled Ty after her to practice more.

Katara found Zuko sitting some way away on the outer edge of the oasis. She expected him to be doing the classic Zuko-sulk or the Zuko-angry-fire-bending but in reality found him sitting cross legged staring intently at their dragon. She stood back to observe their exchange. After a while of nothing Zuko blew some flames out of his mouth and smoke from his nostrils. The dragon made one of those deep growls, too deep for its size, and then tried to imitate him. At first nothing happened, but then Zuko showed it again and this time the dragon coughed out a few feeble flames. Zuko blew out a larger, controlled ball of fire off to one side and looked expectantly at the dragon, who tried to do the same. Again, at first it only managed to cough up a little fire, but then it stared intently into Zuko's eyes and seemed to breathe more deeply than before. It puffed itself up and an enormous fireball erupted from its mouth into the sands, so hot it melted the sand nearby creating some thin cracked glass.

The dragon looked surprised - as much as dragons can look surprised - and stood for a moment breathing smoke from its nostrils. It then emitted a strange gargling noise and jumped up and down on the spot, intelligent eyes beaming at Zuko.

Zuko looked towards Katara. "I think it's happy," he said, grinning.

Katara smiled in response, coming closer. The dragon sensed her presence and immediately ran to her and started running circles around her legs making her laugh and bend down to pick it up. It was still only as tall as her knees but a fair bit longer and growing every day.

"We should give it a name," he continued as she sat down next to him, trying to contain a very excited and wriggling dragon.

"Do you think its a he or a she?" asked Katara. How did one find a dragon's sex? Did they even have a sex?

"I don't know," replied Zuko, thoughtfully, "maybe they don't have males and females since Agni has to intervene for a dragon egg to be created…"

"But there still need to be two dragons right?" mused Katara, who had by now given up on holding the dragon and let it free to blow the sand surrounding them into shards of glass.

"I don't actually know. At the Sun Tribe there were two dragons but we also got two eggs. Maybe each dragon created an egg or maybe both are needed and they jointly created two eggs. I've been thinking about it. I really don't know."

"Alright well it needs a name anyway so what name can be both male and female?"

They both thought for a while, watching their dragon play with its new found ability.

"I really can't think of anything that fits," sighed Zuko.

"It will come to us I'm sure," agreed Katara, "and tonight I'll find us a way out of here closer to the Sand City so we can make things work." She paused a second before leaning towards Zuko and giving him a kiss on the cheek before leaving him alone again.

That evening the moon was not full. But it was a cloudless night as it had been since they arrived at the sands, and all the energy flowed around Katara. She went to the water's edge and lay down next to it, facing the moon in the sky and letting one arm fall into the now-cool water of the oasis. She levelled her breathing and just before losing herself to her water bending she sensed the overly-hot form of her dragon join her by the water. It did nothing but watch her and eventually lay down near her peacefully.

Katara left her body on the shore and immersed herself in water. She loved the sea far more than these little pockets because she could feel the tides - the push and pull that brought life around her. Here the water was still and very very deep. She followed it down rather than jumping immediately to reaching out across the desert, more out of curiosity for the depth of the oasis than anything else.

Down, down, down it went, deeper than she would have thought, deeper than the sands, deeper than the light, a thin shaft of water getting thinner as it sank into the earth… and then… and then suddenly much more water… rushing, flowing, fast and unchecked deep underneath, feeding this little oasis as it squeezed itself through some gap in the earth above it.

Katara followed this underground river, vaguely noting how different the earth surrounding it felt to the earth they stood on - harder and thicker. She followed the water. Every so often there was a crack in the surface of the tunnel and water would be pushed up and funnelled upwards. Many times these did not make it very far but Katara recognised the relentless pushing of water slowly eating away at the earth above it. Perhaps some of them would make it to the surface. A few already had and Katara had to find a way to pinpoint these in relation to surface features around them. It came as no surprise that there were more living things around the springs - but she was looking for a lot of living things…

Eventually she found what she had hoped; the underground river flowed closer to the surface, allowing more springs to appear and as such a city to grow. There were many also just under the surface, within reach of humans but of course nobody knew. Around the highest concentration of springs grew a city. Oh! In fact there was another river meeting hers deep underground, forcing the water upwards! That would make sense. The other river must be the one following the line of Sand Villages that lead to the main Sand City. However, her river still gave little oasis springs scattered in odd directions away from the city. Those were the ones they needed to aim for. They needed to follow the river.

—

Katara opened her eyes to stare up at the moon, now high in the sky. She knew there were stars around it but she couldn't quite focus on them for the fire that burned not far from her, making sure she stayed warm in the cold desert night. Her friends were chatting quietly by the fire. Nobody had noticed she had come out of her meditation - nobody apart from her dragon, who trotted over to her and lay down on her stomach, fixing her with its big eyes. Abruptly, it broke their gaze and sprang down her outstretched arm into the water. Katara gasped and sat up, looking into its dark depths for the little dragon.

It resurfaced and floated on the water, sending small ripples in all directions, distorting the reflection of the moon. The silver light outlined the creature beautifully as it maintained half its long body above the water and half below horizontally. It didn't even look like it was kicking underneath in order to keep itself afloat.

Katara crouched on the side and put her hands in so they too floated above and below the water. She slowly lifted one hand, a thin strip of water following it upwards. She played with the stream, curling it around her entire arm and then sending it curling near the dragon, who watched intently.

It opened its mouth and scooped in some water. Fixing Katara it spat the water out to hit her stream, breaking its acrobatics. Katara giggled a little. She sent a small jet of water to hit the little dragon between the eyes playfully. The dragon returned the favour and gurgled in delight again. It swam in little circles and ducked under every so often reminding Katara of he massive sea serpent they had encountered on their way to Ba Sing Se all those years ago. She distantly wondered whether the two creatures were related.

Still playing, Katara created a small whirlpool that swept the little thing up in it. It gurgled more and then jumped up from the water to get out of the spinning, before splashing down again. But what made Katara gasp was the fact that to jump that high, that quickly from an essentially stationary position the dragon needed to have interacted with water in some way. Not water bend, surely? Maybe heat? Explosive heat would do it! Or air bending? But surely that wouldn't really work underwater - you had to bring air down first in order to use it to spring upwards.

Katara had an idea.

She held some water in her hands and slowly increased the temperature of the water until it vaporised. Again, the dragon watched her carefully. It then scooped some more water into its mouth and blew out steam. It blasted itself out of the water - this time Katara could feel the temperature change left behind - and landed beside her, immediately steaming off any water left on its scales instead of letting it roll off on its own. The dragon gargled gleefully and blew little shots of fire out of its mouth, attracting Zuko's attention.

Zuko went over to the two of them and looked questioningly at Katara. She perceived the look from his half-illuminated face. The good side. Like this, in the half light of the fire plunging his other side into darkness she could imagine him as he would have been without his scar. Frighteningly handsome. Frightening because that was not the Zuko she knew and … well … had fallen for. That was a strange figment of the imagination, a Zuko who did not stand up for the people of his Nation, the model Fire Prince.

Katara shuddered and turned away, pretending to busy herself with getting up off the ground and encouraging the dragon to follow her to the fire and to her friends, carefully avoiding Zuko's scrutiny.

"How come your dragon can breathe fire now?" moaned Toph, eying her dragon uneasily.

"Zuko sat with it and showed it how to make fire. And then I showed it how to make steam. It swims as well…" mused Katara aloud. She wasn't really sure how they had showed it to do those things, but somehow by watching and copying it had picked the skills up. It was asleep now near the warmth of the fire. At night they slept curled up, their long bodies neatly curving into a compact shape and their head resting on top of the body so as to have full view if they needed to wake up. During the day when they slept in the sun they were on their backs, their bellies up to the rays and completely vulnerable. She wondered whether this was because they felt more uncomfortable without the presence of the sun or whether they absorbed more heat that way. Perhaps a bit of both.

"Ooooh maybe I can teach ours how to fly!" cried Ty Lee, "I'll try tomorrow!"

"Anyway as I was saying, there's an underground river which intersects another river at the Sand City. So if we follow this one and stop before that intersection we should get close enough without attracting attention to ourselves."

"Yeah alright so we'll set off tomorrow," yawned Toph, standing up and rubbing the back of her neck. "I'm beat. Night!" she wondered off into the darkness and they heard the grind of rock as she created her usual earth tent.

"Me too! I'm so excited to try teaching my dragon to fly tomorrow! See you in the morning," said Ty Lee, jumping to her feet and almost skipping away to make her bed.

Zuko and Katara were left by the crackling firelight alone. Kata could feel his eyes on her. He had seen her flinching earlier and if she knew anything about him she knew he wouldn't let it slide. She sighed.

"What is it Zuko?" she asked finally, not looking away from the fire.

"Why won't you look at me?" he countered.

Katara tore her eyes away from the flames and looked him in the eyes. Relief washed over her as the familiar scar on his face was clearly visible now. She relaxed slightly, not even realising she had been tense in the first place.

"I am looking at you," she replied innocently.

He blew smoke form his nostrils.

"Earlier you looked at me and you saw something and it scared you. What was it?"

"Well you don't mess around do you? What if I don't want to talk about it?" She was just being stubborn now.

"That is your choice," he replied looking away, but he couldn't hide the pang of hurt that crossed his features.

"I saw you without the scar," she said finally. Zuko's jaw clenched. "The firelight only lit one side of your face and it was like seeing you without the scar because I could imagine the other side without it."

"The scar scared you?" he said in tight words. Technically it was a question but he phrased it as more of a statement. Katara shook her head, hair swinging with the movement.

"The lack of scar," she replied. There was a silence between them.

"It was horrific, what Ozai did, but I thought you already knew that… from the crystal caves…"

Katara was so far from his train of thought this jolted her out of her reverie. She hadn't thought about the caves in so long… why was he thinking about those caves? She frowned.

"What are you talking about Zuko? I know what happened, I know what Ozai did, and I know why he did it!"

"Then… did you prefer the version with no scar?" he said quietly. He was always quiet when he gave voice to his insecurities.

Katara's eyes widened as she understood finally what he was getting at.

"No! It terrified me! You but without the scar means you as Ozai's perfect Fire Prince, means you not standing up for your people, means you ruling from the court in fine clothes rather than chasing the Avatar on some La forsaken mission! I do not want the picture of the scarless-Zuko in my mind. It puts me on edge and it was so real for a second I could have attacked you," explained Katara, stumbling over the stream of words falling from her lips. "But then we came to the light and your scar is there, as it should be. I'm alright now," she added with a weak smile. She reached up and gently cupped his scarred face as she had in the crystal caves.

Zuko closed his eyes for a few breaths, letting her caress his scar. He then caught her hand in his and brought it round to his lips, kissing it softly.

"My scar… as it should be…" he repeated to himself.