An//: Please let me know what you think of this one!!!!!!

Predator vs. Prey

Zuko smirked as he viewed his prey about twenty feet away. She was completely unaware of his lurking presence. Cross out 'warrior skills'. The only option left as to why this bothersome bunch had avoided him for so long was that this group was darn lucky. However, this girl's luck was about to run out. With these thoughts in mind, her capture and other things to come, Zuko faded into the surrounding shadows.

Katara looked up at the dark, moonless night sky. As she lay next to her sleeping companions: her one and only irritable brother, Sokka and her best friend, Aang, she felt invincible. Today they had avoided a Fire Squad, which were basically soldiers who searched for rebels and eliminating them. Aang, the Avatar, was promptly the first on their list.

They hadn't seen Prince Zuko, that strange, determined teen that always tailed them, in days. No new threats had appeared and Aang was practicing waterbending with her. She secretly admitted to herself that Aang was much more cut out for waterbending. Soon, however, she would seek assistance from a master at the North Pole; then she could give Aang a run for his money, which he had an extremely low supply of.

Now that the North Pole was a few days ahead of them, everything seemed to be going perfect.
Just as content filled her body and she relaxed, her stomach rumpled in a deep throaty growl. The waterbender realized they were out of food.

Grumbling softly to herself, she reasoned that there had to be some sort of fruit around here somewhere. Almost in a sleep walk, she picked up a large flaming stick from the fire and numbly headed in a random direction. She stumbled out of the campsite, praying that food would just fall out of the sky.

In this daze, she walked towards the nearby river which she had recently begged Aang to land by. If she had been fully aware, she might have noticed the shadow that seemed to lurk behind her and the outline of something darting between trees. Maybe she wouldn't have forgotten her waterskin and perhaps she might have seen the glint of cold steel in the figure's grasp.

"Yes." Katara hissed suddenly, stopping in her tracks. She had spotted her favorite kind of berry, the plumappleach berry, clumped together three feet away. "Yes. oh yes… yes…"

Katara leaned over and held the makeshift torch close to the bush, trying to focus on the berries before her. However, her vision kept blurring. Yes, she was that tired. She brought her hand down to where the berries nestled, and snatched air.
"Oh…" Was the automatic response when the berries were actually five inches to the right from her fingers.
Shaking her head, Katara tried to clear her misty eyes. Unfortunately, her body had been deprived of sleep and food, making her senses much duller.

Yet, Katara's senses weren't totally out the window. Suddenly, she heard a swishing and parting of leaves, perhaps from the large willow tree. It was something big, something… coming for her!

Hoping that she was just overreacting, Katara whirled as fast as her body would allow. Nightmares filling her mind, she didn't dare look at the sound's cause and sprinted towards the river, torch light slanting. Her mind had pictured that she would sprint all the way to the river, twirl and spray whatever it was. This was not the way it actually worked out. It went something like this:

Katara spun on her heel, yes, and headed towards where she thought was the river. However, since it was extremely dark and her only light was a bit of fire on a stick… well, it was hard going. She stumbled over a tree root and nearly lit her hair afire.

The being was catching up. The footsteps thudded on the carpeted forest floor. Time seemed to go in slow motion. Terrified but still maintaining the bit of wits she had left, Katara twirled again and thrust the flaming stick towards her pursuer.

Her good fortune hadn't deserted her! The stick actually struck its target! Soon the thing would howl and flee, lighting the forest fire up in a pretty light show.
However, Katara wasn't as lucky as she thought. The stick hit, yes, but it didn't set the thing ablaze. Instead the flames flared before fizzling out and then relighting. Katara felt a choking lump in her throat as she saw a fist firmly grasping the end of the stick… a firebender! Katara gasped when the head came into view. Illuminated by his element, Prince Zuko's face was formed into a triumphant smirk.

"Interesting that you would use fire as a defense." He said teasingly to her.

Suddenly, the stick began to burn furiously. Panic intensified, Katara stared at the flames as they ate their way down towards her white-knuckled hands. As the heat reached her fingers, Katara's brain kicked in and she tore her fingers off and began to run.
A flame erupted in front of her path, forcing Katara to flee to the right. Another flame spouted in front of her, funneling her down a chosen point of direction. Two seconds later, Katara recognized a trap, but new flames forced her on. She tried to brave them and dash through. However, there was something about how her skin began to crack and the way the ends of her robes caught on fire that made her balk. As soon as she took a couple steps away down the desired trail, her flaming robes were extinguished.

This terrorizing herding only lasted a minute. A huge tree loomed up before her as she ran and Katara stopped, uncertain. Tears were streaming down her face at this point. This was by far the scariest thing she had ever experienced! The flames encircled her and the large tree, trapping Katara in a ring of fire. Flames lapped eagerly at her legs, desiring to taste her. Katara scarcely noticed as she pressed herself up against the tree and squeezed her eyes shut. She knew she was exhausted. She could go no further, she was at her breaking point. If Zuko wanted to kill her in some sort of cold-hearted revenge, she couldn't stop him. Worst of all, Sokka and Aang would be unaware until he was upon them and captured them! What could she do in the last few seconds of her life? Could she…?

Katara glanced up and tried to measure the distance to her campsite. Maybe… just maybe… she could scream and alert them! Aang and Sokka, especially Sokka, were usually very aware and would sometimes wake on instinct.

Katara prepared herself for the scream, her last warning, because Zuko would undoubtedly kill her if she called. Before she could release her notification, there was a hand clamped firmly over her mouth.

"If you scream, waterbender, I'll kill you."

Katara felt herself being turned to face him. Her eyes hardened slightly and nodded, barely. Slowly, the hand left its purchase on her face and fell to her shoulder.

"Aren't you going to kill me anyways? You already know I won't tell you anything. Why bother?" Katara whispered hoarsely.

Zuko looked intensely at her face, golden eyes gleaming. Inwardly, Katara winced as she noticed the tell-tale tears were still slipping down her face.

"No," he answered solemnly and gripped her arm.

Katara almost whimpered as he turned and drug her with him. Her legs were screaming out for mercy; her eyelids drooped. Vaguely, she noticed that the flames had died away as Zuko pulled her farther and farther away from Aang and Sokka.

At least he's not looking for them, Katara's terror-awoken brain whispered.

Finally, when Katara was well past her breaking point and onto her drop-dead point, Zuko released her arm and, almost gently, pushed her to the ground.

"Rest." He commanded softly before turning and vanishing.
Dimly, Katara looked around and noticed that this must have been prepared. She was slumped on a pile of leaves right by a leafy and branchy tree. Katara decided that she couldn't escape tonight and closed her eyes.

Before she could float into her dose of nightmares, Zuko reappeared with something coiled loosely in his hands. He grabbed one of her feet; she didn't have the strength to protest. Skillfully, he wrapped and tied the rope around the limb. It was tied tight enough to where she had no hope of escaping its restraints but not too tight as to cut the circulation off. Apparently, she wasn't much of a threat because the Prince didn't bother to restrain her in any other way.

"I'll be watching," he whispered before standing and slinking away into the darkness.

Normally, Katara would have become nervous by this statement; plus, she would have stayed up all night, pondering a way to escape. Yet, Katara could only think of one thing. It kept drumming a tattoo in her mind: sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep.

All too grateful to fulfill this order, the exhausted waterbender instantly fell into a deep sleep, unaware of her watchful captor.

"Sleep well," he whispered softly into the early, early morning air.

Katara awoke to a rhythmic two step beat. Fighting the drowsiness, the young waterbender opened her eyes and saw… nothing. Unnerved, she tried to feel her head, but her hands were bound by rope. Now, she tried to wiggle her feet but was again met by the confines of a weaving rope.

Who was carrying her? Wait, was she riding something?

"Morning," an extremely smug voice replied.

"Zuko!" Katara hissed, and realization hit her. Zuko was carrying her, no, she was strapped onto his back!

"Hey! That's not fair! Why'd you blindfold me? What am I supposed to do, stare you to death?"

"I can do whatever I want with you." The simple reply came.

"No! You can't! I can walk, you know!" Katara was galled by his matter-of-fact tone.

"Yes, I can. No, you can't. Don't you know what kind of position you're in? Seriously, you're not that stupid are you?"

Katara chose not to answer that one. Instead, she gingerly laid her head down on his shoulder and tried to find some sort of leverage to tear off the blindfold. Matter-of-factly, she whispered into his ear, "Oh okay. Well, in that case I know one thing."

"Really? Could you have possibly picked up some common sense?"

"You consider me a threat." Katara answered as she found the required leverage and the cursed blindfold slipped off.

"Stop flattering yourself." Was Zuko's chosen reply.

"Sure, sure. Deny the truth." Katara said, being as bold as she dared.

"Speaking of the truth, did you know that I am your sole protection right now? Whatever I say, goes."

"Who says I need protection?" Katara snapped.

Once Zuko began his dark, deep chuckles, Katara decided to let him win that one. Sighing inaudibly, Katara let her head rest on Zuko's shoulder again. It was really awkward having her legs wrapped around his hips and her arms looped around his neck. Whenever she lifted her head up, his long black pony-tail swished across her face.

They seemed to walk for hours on end! Katara found herself wishing for anything to a piece of jerky all the way up to a hired bodyguard.

"Then you'd be in trouble." Katara murmured to herself.

"What are you talking about up there?" Zuko instantly demanded.

"Wouldn't you like to know…" Katara muttered darkly.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," She said innocently.

The journey continued to trek on. Katara stared wistfully over her shoulder, she glanced at the sky. Perhaps Aang and Sokka would come for her soon.
The sun bore down on them. Katara could literally feel her skin cracking. Maybe she should have left that blindfold on, then she wouldn't be wearing her eyes out over nothing.

All that she wanted to do know was to stop! If she had known that Zuko would take long hikes, she would have screamed and had Zuko kill her.

She hadn't had water since last night. The sun was high overhead. In the distance, she was sure that buzzards were circling them high overhead. This was crazy.

Katara moaned softly and tried to seek shade. Luckily, he wasn't wearing his usual armor, but softer materials; it was probably much easier to sneak around in. Unfortunately, Zuko's swishing ponytail was the only shade available. That… or the scarred side of his face, but Katara would rather face Aang in Avatar Mode than Zuko's rage at the moment. Plus, that would be extremely awkward.

Absentmindedly, Katara swung her head quickly back and forth. It was a boredom thing. Without realizing what was occurring, Katara twisted her neck sharply and her long braid swished out and slapped Zuko across the face.

With a growl, Zuko snatched the offending hair and in blind anger gave it a yank.

Katara yelped with pain and surprise as her head was forced down at surprising speed. She clenched her eyes shut as her head slammed down onto Zuko's. Pain. Her hair roots were tingling and her head was ringing with a high pitched frequency.

"You're going to pay for that one, peasant." Zuko snarled, reaching behind him and rapping her smartly on her skull.

As the punishing blow struck Katara, she moaned softly. It wasn't her fault! Okay, maybe it was, but honestly, how could he blame her?

"You better not be smiling." Zuko growled low in his throat. His good eye was stinging. Stupid braid.

He tugged on it again, but not as hard as before. Katara still whimpered.

"Leggo!" She mumbled as her head was, yet again, knocked against his. "I'm not smiling!"

"I thought not." Zuko smirked and released her braid, trying to ignore the dirty feeling in his stomach.

"When are we stopping?" Katara moaned after a couple of minutes. The throbbing was leaving her as thirsty as ever.

"Whenever I say."

However, within the hour, Zuko stopped by a small grove of threadbare trees. Gingerly, he untied the heavy knots on the feet that encircled his waist. Her feet dropped, leaving her arms the only support, which happened to be around his neck.
With a choking sound, Zuko finally managed to lift her arms over his head. Maybe this wasn't the best way to travel.

"Finally." Katara grunted as her stiff limbs screamed.

"Oh, would you like to keep going?" Zuko snarled, angry at her for existing.

"No… I'm fine…" Katara answered in a meeker tone.

"Good." Zuko said, pulling out a flask of water and gulping its contents. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Katara look at the water longingly.

Guiltily, he capped in and threw it at her. She was so surprised that it bounced off of her.

"What?"

"You're supposed to drink it, peasant!" Zuko flared.

Comprehension appeared in those eyes, as well as something else…

Zuko stepped forward before she could uncap her element. He spun her around so her back was pressed against his front. With her shoulders flanked by his hands he said quietly,

"Drink. Don't bend. You'll never make it out of there."

Katara felt his heated hands on her body and carefully took a swig. She swished the water around her parched throat before slowly swallowing. Katara glanced over her shoulder for confirmation. Zuko continued to glare at her, so she carefully took another sip. This continued for the next ten minutes before Zuko ripped the canteen from her hands. He rudely shoved her to the hard ground. She looked up at him, offended and with contempt in her eyes.

"So, you mind filling me in? What's your brilliant plan?" Katara said calmly as she rolled her eyes.

"The usual." Zuko answered simply. He glanced up at the sky, it was still in the middle of the afternoon.

"And?" Katara prodded crossly.

"Wouldn't you like to know!" Zuko sneered before turning away. Darn. He was out of food.

Their brief talking ceased for a quarter of an hour. Zuko grumbled to himself and Katara tried to find some sort of shade. Did the heat have to kill all of those nice, leafy leaves?

Were her eyes deceiving her? There, not a mile away, was a nice big tree? She could see its thick branches, leaves the color of a rich green paste. She must sit by that tree.

With desiring showing in her eyes, Katara started to crawl towards her tree. She only gained three feet before Zuko spun around and gripped an arm.

"Where do you think you're going?" He snarled.

"Shade." Katara groaned, pointing to the leafy tree.

Zuko stared in disbelief at the spot where Katara was pointing. He glanced from her and back to her spot. There was nothing there. A patch of air; nothing that would offer any shade at all. In fact, it would be a step backwards. Great. His hostage was hallucinating.

"You wish." Zuko grumbled, pulling her to her feet. He forced her chin up, and stared into her eyes. They were dull, almost lifeless. She was sunburned and her lips were cracked. She was extremely dehydrated, even though she had just drained his water supply. How much water did this peasant need?

Zuko released her chin and her head sunk down. There was a town, not more than three miles away. It wasn't a very elaborate, nice, or even moderate town, but it was still a place to restock with supplies and food. Glorious food. Zuko never elaborated on food, physically, that is. Secretly, he loved eating but restrained himself in public. He reserved his boyish eating habits for when he ordered his food to his room. Alone, he would gorge himself on rare treats, not even his uncle knew of it. It was a secret that Zuko intended to keep and uphold.

"Come on." Zuko said roughly, stalking away in the desired direction.

Katara stupidly watched him stride away. Even though she hadn't walked all day, she still was tired, although not as tired as last night. Maybe it was all this stress at being with a known and hated enemy…

"I said 'come on'!" Zuko hissed, snatching his captive's hand and dragging her back along with him.