Laying in bed, Katara curled on her side and looked unconsciously on her room. Everything was in shades of gray, but her eyes adjusted and she was able to pick out the furniture. Even the clutter piled here and there had emerged in a softer form. Knowing what she knew of the brain and visual functions, she still wondered how much of what she was seeing was being supplied by her memory of the room. Was the errant collection of things on top of her dresser, for instance, not her jewelry stand, but her cup of pencils? Katara couldn't remember the last time she moved either object, but her mind and her eyes told her that she was seeing all the necklaces she never wore.
Memory was a fickle thing. It was a photocopier that destroyed the original, so one was always just looking at the copy of a copy. It's why some things deteriorated with time, or never made it into the memory in the first place. Pieces were dropped, there was a smudge on the glass, or the toner wasn't quite full.
Running her fingers over her bed, Katara's fingers remembered something else. It came from shadows deeper in a gray room, but it was well known.
The touch of the Blue Spirit's mask
The tactile memory hit her so hard, Katara rolled onto her back, staring wide eyed at the ceiling. A flashbulb went off; the photocopier was in perfect condition and the memory came out crisp.
Jang Hui was weeks behind them, but they still crawled along the banks of the river. They were following the threads of a supply chain, one that was small but lengthy. Specifically, it fed the prisons in the area. Suki had promised to get her and Sokka on the transports so they could refocus their efforts on finding their mother. But each time they stopped at a port, either the transport had just left or something in the town hindered them before they could jump on.
It was making Katara frustrated. The fouled waters of the river killed fish for miles downstream of the Jang Hui factory, and the rotting remains washed up at every slow bend. Being in an area with a lot of clay, the banks sucked everything in from fish heads to boots, and Katara trudged along in the stench and a cloud of biting flies. It was easy to get sick in such conditions, and Katara made them break early each day so she could purify their things and their water. A fever had been raging in the area - another thing that slowed them down as Katara passed through - and catching it would slow them down indefinitely.
With tensions mounting, Katara almost laughed when she realized the thing she feared the most was what got them what they wanted.
Reaching a small fishing village, also built on stilts and platforms, Katara saw the transport sitting off a ways in the shallows. Leaving the Warriors to camp in the woods, Sokka, Suki, and Katara went into town to see what had happened. The captain, they found, was in bed with the river fever and his crew was waiting until he either recovered or died before moving on.
That night, they rented a room and whispered together about their options. They could wait with the crew, but there was always a chance of running out of money or getting caught. Katara offered to heal the captain, but Sokka deemed it too dangerous.
"Well," Suki said after two days of waiting. "The Painted Lady is a Fire Nation spirit."
Sokka and Katara regarded each other, and he finally sighed.
They waited another day, scoping out the area and sketching out a plan. The captain was at the larger inn, put up in a room on the second floor. Being on the river, many of the buildings that could afford it had large windows that could be propped open. A clean breeze was refreshing and often sought after among the muck.
Their plan was to wait until evening, create a fog, and have Katara lift herself to the window. Throwing it open, she could put on some performance, heal the captain, and disappear under the platforms before anyone could blink. Then, while the captain got himself together, they would hide themselves on the transport and be off. It was the closest they could get to a perfect plan.
Which made it so frustrating when Katara found it thwarted from the very beginning.
As she rose on a column of fog toward the window, she could hear the signs of a struggle. Raised voices and clashing weaponry before a gunshot went off. Then, just as she made it to the window, it was thrown open.
A familiar started to lunge through the open window but, upon seeing her, fumbled. He dropped hard onto the platform below, but still went limping off.
Looking back into the room, Katara found it in complete chaos. People were yelling, the man in the bed was coughing with a thick chest, and someone had a gun pointed in her face.
"Be calm!" She ordered and the sailor lowered their gun. Moving into the room, Katara used her water bending to create a fog bank dense enough to push everyone back. Going to the captain, she collected water around her hands and, as they glowed, pressed them to his chest.
Healing a fever was easy, and the man relaxed as the cool water wicked away the heat. As he fell back onto the bed, she turned to the rest of the sailors.
The ones still there.
"I will see to the oni. You will make an appropriate sacrifice to the river for your transgression against me." Katara said and the sailors looked down, the ones with hats wringing them in their hands.
Without another glance, Katara turned and jumped out of the window, letting the fog cradle her and rush her down to the platform. She could hear the shouts and calls of the missing sailors, going after the Blue Spirit.
Clenching her jaw, she pursued them.
The fog caught them up and chains of water tripped them, pulling them back and away from their quarry. As Katara pulled ahead alone, she finally saw the Blue Spirit jump onto the rocky mainland.
It was quite a leap, as the river had washed most of the clay away and left only sheer cliffs. They weren't monumentally tall, but the drop was enough to break a grown man's leg. The Blue Spirit made a grab but one of his legs didn't quite make it under himself. Probably the one he injured from his drop out of the inn.
He was still far enough in the lead that Katara lost sight of him by the time she made landfall. She paused, wondering if she should turn back, when she heard terrible trashing.
Running, Katara panted going up a hill and saw the twisted branches of a thin bush. The Blue Spirit had fallen into it and the roots did not hold. After it partially ripped free of the earth, the Blue Spirit went tumbling down the other side of the hill.
Picking her way down slowly, Katara pulled up the tattered hem of her veil and bunched the whole thing in her hands. Finally reaching the man, she loosely tied the material on top of her hat.
"What are you doing here?" She asked.
Laying on the ground, his feet pointing toward her, the Blue Spirit didn't even groan in response. Getting closer, Katara saw his mask had come loose and was askew on his face. Even knowing that he was a Firebender, it was still shocking to see the pale skin next to the black cloth of his hood. He wasn't some renegade colonial, he was from the Fire Nation homeland.
"Okay, what's wrong with you." Katara huffed as she knelt beside him. Reaching into a slit in her dress, Katara uncapped the emergency flask she had secured to her thigh. The oasis water felt cold before she pulled it completely over her hand and she shivered.
Rubbing her hands together to disperse the water, Katara hesitated before running them in the air over the man's body. Now that she was really looking at him, she wondered how old he really was. His body was lithe, but overall had a youthful thinness. It made her uncomfortable for a reason she couldn't fathom.
Her bending found the small cuts and bruises under his clothes and she soaked him in order to get the water against his skin. As she moved upward, she found the thickness in his lungs and the fever in his head.
The Blue Spirit had the river fever.
"Some spirit you turned out to be." Katara scoffed and went to work on him. It was an easy illness to fix and Katara replaced her water when she was done. As she screwed the cap back onto the flask, she sat back on her legs and regarded the man.
"What were you even doing in the inn?" She asked.
Her eyes traced down the length of him and noticed a small pouch tied to a belt around his waist. Katara leaned over to untie it and the man groaned below her. Freezing, she watched the mask jostle more to the left side of his face.
Black eyelashes curled against his skin, making a crescent cut above his cheek.
"Hmm." Katara intoned and went back to the pouch. Inside was a small device with one blinking red light and a folded up piece of paper.
Kneeling again, Katara put aside the device and unfolded the paper. It was a list of names with rows of items under each. The first four sections had been crossed out.
It was a form of the ship's itinerary.
"Now, I can't have you interrupting this ship." Katara said and folded the paper back. Looking at the man, she slipped the note under the flask.
"But here, as payment." She leaned down and put her fingers under the mask. As she started to pull it up, his hand moved limply to hold it down.
"Not m'face." He slurred. "Not again."
Confused, Katara let out a quick breath and kissed his exposed cheek.
"He's over here!" A voice called out. Like a deer fox, Katara leapt to her feet, staring in the direction of the sound.
"Well, gotta run." She said, pulling the veil down. Turning back the way she came, Katara sprinted up the hill just as someone came through the brush.
"Look there!" Someone yelled.
"Get her!" Another shouted.
Swearing under her breath, Katara ran for the cliff's edge. She could hear multiple pursuers and so, gathering up as much water from the mud below, jumped off the cliff.
The people behind her shouted in surprise and then again in awe as they saw her run on ice back toward the town.
When she got back, Katara found Suki and Sokka at the ship and they were able to stowaway surprisingly well. And the Blue Spirit didn't show up at any of their stops.
Now, as Katara grabbed her blanket around her, she wondered what would have happened if they had met again. If they had unmasked themselves earlier.
Maybe then she'd know if he actually liked her.