Chapter 11: the storm (or dancebending, just for fun :D)
"Katara?!" Aang asks again. "What happened?"
The girl stands trembling, her hands slowly goes down, she is still looking at Zuko.
"HE ATTACKED YOU?!" Sokka yells in an angry voice. "Aang said Zuko feels better, and that's why he attacked you?! For everything you did for him?! I told you we can't trust him!"
"Sokka, that's not why I hurt him!" Katara holds herself together and rushes to the Prince, tears run down her cheeks.
"Then why?"
"Help me lift him up, I'll explain it later." The girl raises him to a sitting position. Toph can feel Zuko's heartbeat, it's very frequent–he's shocked, and in pain. She feels dripping blood on the wooden floor.
"He's bleeding." She states and runs to Katara to help. Aang and Sokka help them manage with obstacles around them. When they reach the room, Katara quickly unrolls the mattress, lays Zuko on it and removes his wet tunic. Toph sits next to him and cups his left hand in her tiny palms, trying to calm him down.
Without any prompting, Katara pulls clean cloth out of her bag and tries to control the bleeding in Zuko's right hand by applying direct pressure. Then she takes her pouch, cool water comes out of it and wraps around the injured area to decrease pain and reduce swelling. Zuko lies with wide eyes, which seem to look at her, but somewhere else at the same time, as if they see further than human eye can see. Just like when he was standing in the rain, only this time his eyes aren't empty, she can see suffering in them, the agony, but she tries to hold her tears back and concentrate. The girl comforts herself that his bones haven't come out of their places and she will not need to reset them again without any sedatives or anesthesia, she has had enough once, a second time his screams would be unbearable for her.
Sokka and Aang sit next to her without any words. Sokka is closer to Toph, who is still holding Zuko's hand, which shakes violently between her fingers, while Aang sits in front of Katara, who can't see him because her eyes only look at the work she's doing. Soon she finishes, returns water back to the pouch and gently puts Zuko's hand on a small pillow.
"So, what happened?" Sokka breaks the silence. "You hurt him and now you're healing him again? Why? Didn't he attack you?"
Katara takes a deep breath. "No, he didn't. I made a mistake. I'm sorry, I'm really, really sorry." Her voice grows sadder, and she shakes her head, trying to be strong.
"I don't understand." Aang puts his hand on her shoulder, supporting her. "I thought everything was... good between you two."
"I thought the same too. He started talking to me little by little. I was patient and told him he could talk to me about anything if he needs to. I knew he wasn't ready yet, but I wanted to let him know. When he talked about his Uncle and smiled... I thought he is getting better, but..."
Zuko is still lying with his eyes full of horror, though Katara has already relieved his pain. She gets from the floor, walks around Aang, and sits in the head of Zuko's bed. Aang hands her a towel and she gently rubs his wet hair.
"I returned the knife to him." Katara continues. "The one we found in his pocket. He said that knife is a gift from his Uncle. Zuko apologized for taking my necklace, so I felt guilty for taking his knife. I didn't think of anything bad, Zuko looked way better than before. But then something changed. When I left him in the yard. When I came back, he... held that knife straight to his neck, tried to stab himself... I miscalculated and hurt him. I didn't mean to do that, Aang, I just wanted to save him."
"It's my fault." The monk whispers and lowers his head. "When you said he needs some time for himself, I didn't go to invite him in and told others not to bother him too."
"No, Aang, it's not your fault at all." Katara shakes her head again. "It's just... I'm not as good as a healer. Good healers know how to heal fractures. Instead of healing him, I hurt him even more by re-opening his wounds. He was already very tormented, how could I let that happen?"
"No, Katara, you are doing everything you can."
"I could have done better. I could have understood that he was smiling just because he was grateful to me, but in reality his condition is no better. I am a healer, I had to predict that things are much more complicated. Plus, we are short on money, and he needs medicine so badly... and they're too expensive, herbs alone won't really cure him."
"So, all we can do is find a job!" Sokka states, smiling widely. "We just have to leave this ramshackle house and move closer to the city! There are only forests and mountains in here!"
"Yeah, like we can do that so simply now." Toph intervenes. "There is a dangerous storm here. I mean, really dangerous one..." She sits with her unseing eyes fixed on Zuko, trying to read something out of his body. His heart now doesn't look like a bird trapped in a cage trying to escape, but she still caresses his hand.
"And I don't think it's a good idea to move Zuko to another place in this state." Katara explains.
"We can still use Appa." Aang smiles. At that moment, Momo lands on his shoulder in agreement and lovingly snuggles up to his face.
"Still... the trip would stress him out, we can wait a few more days for Zuko's condition to improve a bit. At least a bit. We still have enough food."
"We waited long enough! You can see for yourself, his condition is not improving!" Sokka objects. "And our situation is really getting worse! Oh, let me guess, you think Zuko will jump out of the saddle or something?"
"Sokka, it's not the right time to joke." Katara says completely seriously, her eyes turn to Zuko. He is now with closed eyes, breathing heavily, but she is not sure if he is asleep. The girl still cluches the towel in her hands, her fingers uncurl and slowly brush the strands of Zuko's hair that has visibly grown since the day he was brought in their home. After that, her hand retracts, but lands on his face again, gently massaging his forehead, until finally finds itself on his eyes, tracing timidly. And he twitches a bit. Katara barely holds herself from gasping and pulls her hand completely. She noticed before that he didn't like when someone touches his scar, and it's obviously for a good reason.
"I still can't stop thinking about who hurt him so badly, and the problem is that he doesn't talk about it." She says. "What kind of monsters can blind a man by throwing dirt in his eyes? It's such a wrong move."
For a while they all sit in silence. The sky is already dark, although the day isn't yet halfway through. As Sokka guessed, the storm is horrifying. They hear a strong wind raging outside, whirling in all directions like a vortex and getting in through a cracked window. But the storm has just begun, they have no idea what will happen next and when it will end.
"Good to know we found that cave for Appa to hide." Aang says, caressing Momo's neck with his index finger. Purring, lemur jumps on Zuko's bed and sniffs his face, traveling from his forehead to his chin, then his small tongue licks his cheek. Zuko's face changes expression to frown. Katara giggles–that expression is somewhat funny for her.
"So what is our plan?" Toph asks, finally releasing Zuko's hand.
"First, we have to survive this storm somehow." Katara responds.
"And then what?" Sokka spreads his arms. "We can't miss the opportunity, when the storm stops, we'll have to travel until another one hits."
"I hate to agree, but Captain Boomerang is right." The Earthbender stretches her legs on the floor. "Otherwise we'll be stuck in this circle forever until we're found by that crazy maniac who's been chasing us all night, remember? Again, what's her name?"
"Azula, Zuko's sister." Katara whispers with bitterness in her voice. "But I don't think she will try to track us down in such weather conditions."
"Why not?" Sokka protests. "She's crazy! Who knows what that psycho has in mind? We barely got rid of her, she herself escaped from us only when Zuko and Iroh joined us, and what if they weren't? Zuko can't help us now, and she's even scarier than him! I mean, he's a soft baby now compared to her."
"Yeah, tell him that, Snoozles, and he will definitely like it." Toph scoffs.
A sudden crack makes them all flinch and listen.
"It's a window. I have to cover it with something before..." Katara rises and goes towards the crack, but suddenly a strong gust of wind breaks the whole glass and the shards fly straight into her. The girl covers her eyes with her forearm, but nothing reaches her. As she raises her head and looks ahead, the shards spin in the mid air. "Thanks, Aang." Katara smiles, realizing what happened.
The wind is constantly trying to get through exposed window, but the young Airbender controls it in his hands, trying not to cause too much chaos inside, and airbends the wind back outside. It swirls around Aang and comes out smoothly, but the gust goes all the way back in a few seconds and the boy needs to focus on sending it back again and again. Along with the wind, the rain rushes in, and Katara tries her best to contain it. Her legs spread, feet firmly pressed to the floor, arms working with water. It spins and revolves around her waist like a ribbon, then goes through the window in a similar way as the wind, except that it looks more elegant with feminine hands.
It's like a mesmerizing dance, with two benders controlling their elements gracefully. Katara feels as if she is actually dancing and blushes a little. They lean forward, controlling wind and water from going further, then their bodies lean back and bend elements out by leaning forward again. The new wave of storm comes after and they repeat the same movements that are almost identical as they swing rhythmically back and forth. Aang now helps Katara bend the rain, controlling the wind at the same time. She has never seen anything like that before.
"This house is in a bad shape!" Sokka screams, trying to stick close to Zuko as the gusts of wind gets inside. "If it keeps going, it'll collapse!"
"Then do something!" Toph yells, but suddenly a brilliant thought comes to her mind. "Hold on a minute, I know what to do! You watch Sparky here, I'm going outside!"
"Wait! Are you insane?!"
But she runs to the door without listening to him. Katara and Aang are too busy to talk, so they don't ask anything. When Toph opens the door and moves her legs off the porch and her feet touch the soaked ground, she walks a few more meters away of the house and turns around. The girl knows perfectly well what she is doing and stands firmly for a while, although the wind and rain lash her face and tousle her hair. She tries to concentrate and feel the shape of the whole house so that she doesn't make a mistake and destroy it completely by doing her job. Then her arms rise with a sudden movement, and two high rocky walls rise from the ground, covering the house like a giant tent. But it's not over, half of the house isn't covered yet, so she repeats the same movements again and two more walls rise up. Toph lowers her hands and smiles, satisfied with what she did, then makes a door on the wall that closes as soon as she enters the tent.
"Toph, you're a genius!" Sokka rejoices, seeing her in the hallway.
"Thanks!" The girl blushed for a moment, then shakes her whole body and water droplets splash everywhere. "Great! I look like a wet porcupine now!"
Her hair is shaggy and like spikes spread in all directions. The girl stands for a moment with an angry face and crossed arms on her chest. Her friends laugh at her funny expresion (except Zuko, he is still lying motionless in his bed).
"Let me bend that water out of you." Katara offers and goes to her. As she raises her arms, the water little by little leaves Toph's clothes and gathers in the whip, which soon goes through the window.
"You know, you two did a great dance here." Sokka says and points to Katara and Aang. "It made the room messy, but it was kinda cool! I wish I could do that too!"
"Now you wish you could do 'the magic'?" Katara smirks.
"I know, I know, it's called bending." Sokka gives up. "Can you make lunch now? I'm starving!"
"Sure, Sokka, whatever you want. But I'll check on Zuko first." The girl goes to the bed. "Nothing hit him?"
"No, I kept him safe."
Katara kneels and puts her hand on Zuko's forehead, checking for his temperature again. He slightly moves his head and mumbles a word 'Mom' in his dreams. She doesn't know what kind of storms are in his head now, she only knows that those storms are far worse than the one they've survived today.
To be continued...
AN: I have a problem. Zutara or Kataang? I want Zutara, but what do you think? I think Zutara is hot ant Kataang is cute! I even support Zukaang, I think it's a cute ship too! The problem is, I ship Zuko with everyone except Mai. Please don't hate me, she's just too boring, and Zuko is emotional, he needs a girl who can listen to him and not the one who yawns in front of him when he talks about his problems (that actually happened in Book 3: Episode 01).
