Blessed
posted April 2, 2010
They raised sail the next morning, the deck crew hauling away to chanteys as the topsails billowed out in the breeze and the anchor creaked slowly up. The Nu Shi Lian moved ponderously into the channel as Zuko watched from the stern, arms folded and Katara standing beside him.
Jin stood aft of the helm, issuing orders to helmsman and crew, watching the sails' trim and the ship's course. Her hands were white-knuckled with tension, clenched tightly at the small of her back, but her voice was confident and her orders true. A tight ship, Zuko thought with approval.
"Was your ship like this?" Katara asked suddenly. Her face showed curiosity and a faint wistfulness as she avoided his eyes.
He finally shrugged. "My ship was smaller. More like the Good Earth – Toph's ship."
Katara nodded, still watching the activity on deck, sailors making up lines and adjusting sheets. "And you were its captain?"
Zuko hesitated for a long moment, then nodded reluctantly. She said no more and he risked a glance at her; Katara now watched the horizon rather than the deck, her eyes unfocused and her brow faintly furrowed. He wondered suddenly what she was thinking, realized with a jolt that he wouldn't mind speaking of that time to her, if she wanted to hear of it. She stayed silent though, as the Nu Shi Lian cleared the land's shadow and the rigging sighed with the wind.
Low clouds poured over the channel and shadows of rain darkened its distant reaches; Zuko inhaled deeply to smell it on the wind. The flurry of making sail slowed and Jin dismissed the port watch as the crew aloft scrambled down from the yards. She turned to Zuko and Katara quickly, faint anxiety in her expression, but Zuko nodded slightly and she relaxed and turned back to the helm.
The air grew chill as the wind strengthened and Zuko tucked his hands into his sleeves. Katara copied the motion, glancing at him and folding her arms; their eyes met for a moment and he quirked his brow. She flushed slightly and frowned as she tried to keep the sleeves from riding up around her wrists.
"Your garments are very odd," she said irritably as another gust of wind hit the ship and shivered through the rigging. "Though I suppose I can see their purpose, if you do not work to move your ships."
Zuko surprised himself by grinning. She glared for a moment then smiled quickly and they watched the ship and the sea.
Jin ordered the sails furled and the anchor lowered as twilight fell. If their calculations and guesses were correct, Moon Rising Village lay beyond the channel's next bend, but Zuko agreed to not risk sailing an unfamiliar passage in the dark. Katara nodded as he translated the decision. "There are many shoals in our waters," she said. "Your ships are not made for this coast."
They took a quiet dinner in the captain's quarters. Jin stood to toast Katara and Zuko and the gathered officers raised their glasses in salute. Zuko raised his own glass in acknowledgement and Katara followed a moment later, eyes flicking to him to watch the motion. He grinned and clinked his glass against hers, then raised his brow and drank with the crew. She sipped shallowly and barely grimaced before she set the glass down, but her smile was warm as the conversation around the table.
Dawn broke as sailors scrambled into the rigging, the sea painted violet and silver with barely a hint of breeze. The Nu Shi Lian moved slowly through the water as they again raised anchor, then glided into the channel. The air lay still and silent and chill on deck, though the topsails belled out and the ship left a gentle wake through the water.
Zuko again stood on the stern deck, enjoying the sun's warmth; Katara stood nearby, watching the sea, when the silence broke with a great whoosh of air. Zuko looked up, startled, but Katara's face held joy as she rushed to the ship's rail; she scrambled up onto the gunwale and Zuko lunged forward to catch her, but she held tight to a stay with one hand and extended the other in greeting.
Zuko followed her gesture to see great, sleek black whales approach, the killers spoken of so reverently during the seal hunts. They moved swiftly towards the vessel, breeching and blowing, white patches green-gray beneath the water as their fins cut the surface like knives.
"Cousins," Katara said softly the whales split into two groups, moving around the ship in perfect rhythm. "I thank you for your welcome."
The crew paused in their tasks to watch; some tipped their heads reverently while others smiled. A good omen, Zuko thought.
The Nu Shi Lian sailed into Moon Rising village as the day slipped into afternoon, moving along the shore as much with the currents as with the wind. The village itself came into view slowly, a long row of houses like Looks-To-The-East village but with different painted patterns, different monuments. Just as she said, Zuko thought, studying the broad beach, the two rivers that framed it.
Figures on that distant stopped what they were doing and soon canoes launched from the beach, gliding through the water like the killer whales had that morning. Zuko shared that observation on a whim, but Katara shook her head. "Moon Rising Village is of the Otter Clan and the Heron Clan and the Salmon clan. There are only a few Wolf houses – most of them are Ravens."
Zuko opened his mouth to ask that that even meant, but Katara had scrambled up onto the gunwale again, spreading her arms wide and bending water from the sea. It spiraled into a tight column, then broke into a fine mist that rejoined the sea with hardly a splash. She nodded in satisfaction as she stepped back down to the deck. "Now they know it's me," she said simply, then turned to Jin. "Ask her if she is sure she cannot come ashore," she told Zuko. "Tell her that it would honor the village greatly if she and her crew were to visit."
Zuko nodded and translated and Jin smiled softly and shook her head. "We go – make tide, make ocean, for home."
Beside her, Song smiled and folded her hands. "If you come Earth Kingdom, we find? Port Chang Ye Shen."
Zuko clasped his own hands and bowed. "Yes. We thank."
"What'd they say?" Katara asked as he straightened.
"Jin declines; she wants to catch the tide so that they can get to the ocean and back to the Earth Kingdom. Song invited us to visit them in the Northern Earth Kingdom."
Katara smiled and inclined her head, then nodded at the rigging above. "Tell them not to… furl the sails."
Zuko quirked his brow in question but she only smirked and slipped into a bending stance, raising her arms slowly. Around them, the ship didn't shudder, barely even shifted, but he could feel the slight change in momentum, how the currents moved around them. He nodded and Katara's smirk deepened as he turned to Jin. "She holds ship now, with water." Jin's eyes widened as she glanced over the side, then back to him. "She say hold trim, lose no way."
"Tell her that the village will send canoes to meet us," Katara said as Jin nodded. "I will hold the ship through the greeting, then move them back into the channel when we've departed."
"What?" Zuko frowned in surprise. "This is an Eastman – this is a huge ship – I thought you were going to just guide it through the bay…" He stared at her. "Can you really hold it? Turn it back into the channel?"
She smirked in response. "Tell her."
Jin raised her brows as Zuko translated. "She really hold Nu Shi Lian?"
Zuko shrugged, trying to hide his own surprise. "She say she hold." Katara's smirk deepened into triumph as she watched the exchange. She's showing off, he realized, and folded his hands to watch.
The Nu Shi Lian slowed as the canoes neared, shouted a greeting. Katara called out, the words escaping Zuko before she nodded to him. "You should go with the canoes. I'll follow, once I've turned the ship." He quirked his brow again, but she just smirked and nodded towards the Zhong's ladder that the deck crew scrambled to deploy. Jin stood beside it and Zuko bowed deeply to her, folding his hands in the old gesture of thanks. Her smile was brilliant in return and he nodded again before scrambling down the Nu Shi Lian's great curving hull.
The warriors in the waiting canoe regarded him curiously. "Welcome, stranger," the steersman said and Zuko dipped his head in acknowledgement.
"Katara says to go – she'll join us in a moment." The steersman nodded and Zuko accepted the offered paddle and the canoe moved away from the great Eastman ship. He paused in his strokes with the other warriors to watch as the Nu Shi Lian slowed, lay dead in the water for an instant, then turned ponderously in its own length. The sails luffed, then hung slack for a moment, then billowed out again as the vessel turned into the channel and the wind caught them. Zuko found the sight unsettling, the patterns he'd learned to read meaningless as the water lay smooth around the hull.
A figure stood on the high stern, arms raised and earth-green robes aflutter; Katara dropped her arms and the Nu Shi Lian lurched forward, cutting a fine wake through the water. Zuko watched her dip her head, then dive smoothly off the stern. The waves rose to meet her and she surfed towards the shore, a broad smile on her face as she passed the canoe, the currents moving around her so that she almost appeared to walk on the waves. Zuko smiled despite himself as he dipped his paddle into the water in time with the other warriors.
The canoe soon scraped the beach and Zuko stepped out of it, helped carry it ashore. He nodded his thanks to the warriors around him, then stepped up the rocks to the people gathered along the tideline. Katara stood there already there; her eyes held laughter and challenge and he almost grinned before she turned to the broad man before them.
"Arnook, leader of Star-That-Shines-To-The-South House," she began, her voice as cadenced and formal as her words. "I present to you a guest of my own father's house, who comes from across the oceans." She gestured to Zuko, sweeping her hand towards him. "As we are of water, so he is of fire." She grinned then. "My brother calls him Xtl'ikgut'tlak."
Dragon, Zuko thought wryly as Arnook nodded gravely; he bowed low, hand-over-fist as he would to the Eastern Earth King himself.
Arnook tipped his head as Zuko straightened, then spoke in a deep, somber voice. "Well met, honored guest. I am Arnook, of the Heron clan." His lined face held humor, then. "And what do you call yourself?"
Zuko folded his hands in his sleeves; he saw Katara's smirk beside Arnook and wanted to smirk in return even as he kept his own face impassive. When did this become a game? he thought, then focused on the formal greetings. "Xtl'ikgut'tlak is fine, Lord Arnook. I thank you for your greeting and your hospitality."
Arnook nodded graciously. "Welcome, then, Xtl'ikgut'tlak, guest of Wolf-Howls-At-The-Moon House." He turned to Katara and his face held warmth. "Welcome, Katara of Mist-Hides-The-Shore House."
Zuko saw his own surprise mirrored on Katara's face for an instant. She flushed, looked sidelong at Zuko, then dipped her head briefly. "Forgive me for correcting you, honored host, but I am again of Wolf-Howls-At-The-Moon House."
Arnook's brows lifted in surprise before he nodded, and tension lay suddenly over the gathering until a woman stepped forward. A water sage? Zuko thought as warriors parted and inclined their heads to allow her passage. She wore long robes intricately patterned with blue and white, necklaces of shells and stones and beaten copper; her eyes were vivid Water Tribe blue and her smile was gracious and sad. She lay her hand briefly on Arnook's forearm, then tilted her head to Katara and Zuko.
"Welcome, honored guests. May the Mothers' blessings lay upon you." She slipped her hand into one sleeve and withdrew a fluted shell; she dipped her fingers into it and extended her hand to mark Katara's forehead with thick blue paint. Katara smiled and closed her eyes, and the woman turned next to Zuko. Her eyes held curiosity and he met her gaze for a long moment before closing his own eyes to accept the mark. He barely felt the pressure of her fingers before it was replaced by the chill of drying paint.
Zuko heard the rustle of her robes as she stepped back and opened his eyes again. The calmness in her expression struck him then, the deep peace of spirit he had seen in ascetics who roamed the volcanic lowlands. She smiled slightly and tipped her head to nod, then Katara laughed and stepped forward and they embraced like sisters. "It is so good to see you, Katara," the water sage said softly.
"It's been too long, I know," Katara responded, then stepped back. "I have much to tell you." She didn't look at Zuko, didn't even glance in his direction, but he felt his face heat anyway as the two women turned towards one of the great houses standing farther up the beach.
Zuko watched them go, then quickly fell into step beside Arnook; he tried to remember how the Li-wuk guests had greeted Hakoda on that distant gray morning and cursed himself for not paying more attention to the protocol, but Arnook spoke easily. "My daughter, Yue," the chief said fondly, but with faint sadness beside a father's quiet pride. "She is One-Who-Remembers for the village."
They spent the remainder of the day in hasty celebration, Star-That-Shines-To-The-South House leading the village in honoring them as guests. Katara told of the capture, their escape, their journey to Moon Rising village, while Zuko leaned back and listened. Her expressions changed fluidly with the sweep of her arms, illustrating the tale and describing Jet's treachery, the crew's daring. She sat close beside Yue, though the sage – the One-Who-Remembers – sat atop a padded cushion.
Later, as Zuko nodded and spoke with Arnook and his nephew Anyu, who had steered the canoe away from the Nu Shi Lian, Katara and Yue bent their heads and whispered together like girls. Zuko overheard their talk at times, Tahnra and Akiak's names slipping through the conversation along with the descriptions of vivid blue dyes, and he found himself almost enjoying the formal meal. Three warriors soon stepped to the raised platform at the back of the lodge and as a fourth pounded a steady rhythm on a skin drum; their dance mimicked the sharp movements of a hunt, and Zuko sat forward with interest when one of them bent water as well.
Arnook turned to Zuko before he could consider that further. "What does it mean, that you are of fire?" he asked.
Zuko schooled his smirk, remembered the manners learned during long hours at countless formal dinners. "As your warrior bends water," he gestured to the dancer. "So I bend flame."
Arnook nodded graciously again and Zuko noted the intrigue beneath his façade of mild interest. "A rare talent, surely – one I had never imagined." He paused to incline his head. "Perhaps a demonstration?"
Zuko bowed in return. "If it would please my host." They turned to watch the rest of the dance and Zuko found himself surprised to realize that he was almost enjoying himself, enjoying the subtle exchanges of formality without the sharp machinations that lurked under the surface at Earth and Fire courts alike.
The warriors soon stepped down and Arnook nodded and Zuko stood. He pulled his long outer robes off, draped them carefully where he had been sitting; he bowed to Arnook, then to Yue, then to Katara. He allowed himself to let the smirk show as he straightened and met her eyes for an instant, noted how she returned the expression as he stepped up and into a beginning firebending stance.
As a firebender, he lacked the ocean's volume to work with, the power of tides and waves and deep currents, but fire was more fluid and flexible with the right touch, could disappear and flare in ways that water could never mimic. Zuko moved slowly through the opening forms, fire flickering around him, then launched into an advanced set, controlling his kicks and blows to make fire surge over the watching house. He drew flame from the central cookfire, making it coil into dragons then disperse into sparks, demonstrating control rather than volume.
He finally closed the form, dropping to knee and hand for an instant and breathing heavily; he bowed to an imaginary opponent as the house murmured in appreciation, then bowed again to Arnook. The chief nodded his approval. "A fine dance, Xtl'ikgut'tlak," he said, voice resonating through the space.
Zuko flushed as he dipped his head, held back his stammer; he hoped the darkness hid his reaction. "Your praise honors me," he said carefully, then regained his seat.
Katara sat beside him, and leaned close. "Truly a fine dance," she whispered as a group of young women move forward to take his place on the main floor.
Zuko scowled and refused to look up. "It wasn't a dance!" Katara said nothing, but he could hear laughter in the weight of her silence and his scowl deepened with his embarrassment. She danced next, pulling water from the cisterns and making it weave through itself, then inclined her head to Yue in invitation.
Yue smiled in response and stood and accepted a drum and a stick from another woman and stepped up to the platform. Katara bowed shallowly and stepped down to sit beside Zuko again, close enough that he felt the heat from her skin as Yue began to sing. She had a beautiful voice, the words describing a long journey along beaches and through forests, a wanderer searching for a home.
Katara touched Zuko's arm, leaned close. "Sokka wanted to marry Yue, once," she said softly. He glanced at her then, surprised, but she watched Yue turn gracefully around the platform as she sang. "The elders had approved the match and they began to court, but then the falling sickness struck her. The One-Who-Remembers said that the spirits had marked Yue for their service." Katara's eyes held sadness then. "It was an honor she couldn't refuse, even though Sokka begged her not to." She sighed. "He took to the woods for a long time, after. When he returned, he vowed to take no wife but her."
Zuko thought of Sokka as Yue's ballad continued, her voice hauntingly lovely.
"I was so glad when he met Suki," Katara continued after a moment. "She helped heal something in him. They know they'll never marry, and on Kyoshi, the children always stay with the mother's family, but… they make it work."
She said no more and soon Yue stepped from the stage to appreciative silence. Katara reached out to take her hand for a moment and Yue smiled sadly. No other performers took her place and the lodge soon quieted with sleep.
Zuko bent fire on the beach the next morning, enjoying the thoroughness of a long routine without fear of setting the rigging ablaze. He tried to stifle his disappointment when he finally turned and found the beach empty, tried not to think of the smirking challenge in Katara's eyes.
"Moon time," Arnook said simply when Zuko returned to Star-That-Shines-To-The-South House and Zuko tried not to roll his eyes. Instead, he accepted the bowl of stewed clams and seaweed that a young woman handed him.
"I worry that those of Faces-To-The-East Village will miss her," he said simply as he ate, but Arnook smiled.
"They do not worry. The Ones-Who-Remember have spoken." Zuko nodded, though the meaning escaped him, and tried to lay aside the worry.
"You remember Anyu, my nephew," Arnook said after the meal had finished; the young man stood beside his uncle and Zuko tipped his head in greeting. "Anyu is honored to serve as your guide during your stay at Moon Rising Village."
Anyu proved quiet but likable, younger than Zuko but with an air of experience. He led Zuko through the village, naming each house with a gesture and introducing Zuko to the crafters and warriors they met in between. They paused for a long time to watch warriors shape spear-points, then the familiar shape of a canoe prow drew Zuko's attention. Anyu grinned and introduced him to the carvers: an old man named Ontak and a young woman named Sialu with an infant slung across her back. She smiled warmly while Ontak sized Zuko up.
"You work with Orvik?" he asked, and Zuko nodded. Ontak sniffed, but his gaze held approval. "He's a good carver – but you won't learn this from him." Zuko accepted an adze and worked with them the rest of the day, Anyu lingering nearby and carving a mountain sheep's horn, and as evening fell Ontak nodded in satisfaction.
"You'll do," he said as he set his adze back into a chest and Zuko accepted the comment as high praise. Sialu smiled at him and Zuko returned the smile – then hastily looked away as he realized she nursed her infant. He flushed as Ontak chuckled, but the old man bade him a polite goodnight as Anyu stood and accompanied Zuko back to Star-That-Shines-To-The-South House.
What is moon time? he wondered yet again during the evening's songs and dances. Katara and Yue seemed to be the only women absent, though Zuko admitted he couldn't be sure. He found himself missing her then; her company and her laughter, the easy closeness that had grown between them through captivity and planning, the way she lay her hand on his arm or shoulder to emphasize a point or get his attention. He remembered the laughter and silent challenge in her eyes as they stood on the beach, the easy silences on the Nu Shi Lian's deck.
Careful, Zuko, he thought, and tried to think instead of returning her to Tahnra and Akiak, but the memory of her fingers between his lingered.
A few days passed slowly but pleasantly as Zuko spent his time carving with Ontak and Sialu and as a guest of Star-That-Shines-To-The-South House. He bent fire on the beach one morning, then paused to watch the sea as had become his habit. He thought of the Nu Shi Lian, hoped the ship had made it through the archipelago and into open waters to catch the trade winds. He thought of the great open oceans and the lands far across them, of Looks-To-The-East Village through the winding passages south.
He finally turned to make his way back to the house, but Katara sat atop a huge driftwood log, a warm smile on her face. Zuko started to smile as she hopped lightly to the stones below, but then her hair tumbled around her shoulders and his innards twisted. She tipped her head to grin but Zuko could only stare, his heart pounding and his mouth dry, as she picked her way carefully down the beach.
You're in love with her, Zuko, he realized suddenly, and then didn't know what to do except slide into a bending stance.
He lost the sparring match, toppling backwards into the water with barely a fight; he stared up at her from where he sprawled in the shallows. Katara quirked her brow and stepped forward and extended her hand to help him up and he tried not to flinch at the feel of her palm against his.
Zuko barely made it through the morning as he and Katara were honored again, this time with gifts beside the words. Arnook presented them with provisions for their journey back to Faces-To-The-East Village: a canoe, paddles, tarps, winter clothing, baskets of smoked fish and meal. "It honors our village to help you return to yours," Yue said graciously as she swept fragrant cedar smoke over the canoe, over Katara and Zuko in turn. Like a favor paid forward, Zuko thought, trying not to fidget during the blessing.
Katara stood beside him, accepting each gift and nudging Zuko for the proper response. The brush of her arm along his felt electric and he tried not to shiver, tried not to think of how they sparred together on warm windy days as he nodded and bowed and again expressed his thanks to Arnook and his house.
The midday meal seemed part of the ceremony, each dish formally presented with its own blessing, but Zuko barely tasted the food through the nervousness that settled in his belly, increased every time Katara smiled or caught his eye. The conversation flowed around him, meaningless as he tried to stifle his rising panic, until Yue waved slightly to catch his attention.
"What?" he asked, his mouth full, and Yue smiled patiently. Stupid, Zuko thought, and swallowed hastily.
"Are you a Wolf, Xtl'ikgut'tlak?" she asked, "Or a Raven?" Her voice held nuance, her eyes an intensity that Zuko didn't understand, so he shrugged.
"Sokka," he started, then faltered at the sadness that shadowed her face; he forced himself to continue. "Sokka… said once that I was under the protection of Wolf-Howls-At-The-Moon House? My – where I come from, it's not – I don't know," he finally admitted, but Yue nodded, the sadness gone and a gentle dismissal in its place. He bristled as she stood, then forced himself to calm, forced himself to not shiver as Katara glanced at him and rose to follow Yue, forced himself not to watch her go.
He startled again when Arnook cleared his throat and Anyu raised his brow. "You are ready to be cleansed?" the chief asked, humor in his voice, and Zuko forced himself to nod. He followed them and a handful of warriors to a steam bath set behind Star-That-Shines-To-The-South House, absently told the story of re-taking the Nu Shi Lian again, and finally the heat reached his bones, relaxed his muscles and with it his mind.
Wait, Zuko, he told himself as another billow of steam filled the bath. Just wait. And see.
They feasted again that night, this time in farewell, and the singing and dancing stretched late. Zuko grew almost bored, the long steam bath making him pleasantly tired despite the anxiety that still gnawed at him. He had seen Katara only briefly during the meal, when she had smiled warmly and his stomach twisted in response, but now he sat beside Arnook and Yue's cushion lay empty as another singer took the main platform. Wait, he told himself again, but the memory of her smile made him shiver.
The feeling only grew as he heard a commotion beside him and Katara and Yue finally slid into their places, trying to stifle laughter. Katara glanced at him and giggled and Zuko felt himself flush as he tried both to scowl and smile. Yue regarded them both somberly but with a smile in her eyes as she withdrew the fluted shell from her sleeve.
"Another blessing?" Zuko asked softly, hoping his voice sounded casual.
Katara nodded, her cheeks flushed as she smiled. "A very special blessing."
Yue smiled as she dabbed paint on Katara's forehead, then turned to Zuko, her face intent as she marked him as well. He scowled and tried rub it off but Katara grabbed his wrist as Yue raised her brow and handed him a carved cup. "Drink," she whispered under the dancer's songs, and the intensity in her eyes made Zuko flush again.
Another blessing, he thought with an internal groan, but he drank and handed the cup back, trying not to tremble at the feel of Katara's fingers brushing his wrist. She intercepted the cup, though, drank deeply and handed it back to Yue, who accepted it with a smile and a nod and a whisper that Zuko didn't quite hear. Katara giggled again and took Yue's hands and they seemed as young girls sharing a secret.
Zuko forced his attention back to the dancers as the sound of her laughter made the steam bath's calm resolve shatter. He tried to think of firebending, pure and clean and consuming, but he shivered when Katara slipped her fingers gently through his.
