Holy reviews batman! Now I will shout out to all my wonderful reviewers. Thank you so much MitaraiWaterDragon, Katara183, ZukoKrazy, Zuko's Love, and Starchic for your luverly reviews. You made my day. I want to also remind everyone that I have another story,the prince, the witch and the avatar,that really only has onereviewer, so if you like this then please feel free to read and review it as well.
Here's another shout out to Kissing off into the air, if you're still reading I just want you to know that I don't mind if you don't like my story, and I don't mind criticism, but I do mind getting someone all up in my face. I don't want to get into a flame war with you, so I'm holding back several harsh comments. Instead all I will say is that if you don't like my story, don't read it. It's as simple as that. I know my story isn't that original, it's just something I want to write and you can't change that.
Anyways, after that dreary comment. Here's my second chapter. Just to let you know, there is a small religious blip in here, if you are offended by that I will put little &&things around it so it can be avoided. I'm not trying to press my spirituality on anybody,this is just what my reaction might be in this situation.
Katie woke up and rolled over, rubbing her face. What a crazy dream. It seemed so real. She thought to herself, but immediately she noticed something was wrong. She wasn't on her own creaky spring mattress, but on a hard pad. She sat up straight and looked around. She was no longer in Zuko's room, but she knew she was still on the ship. She was surrounded by iron. Not only the iron plaited walls and floors, but iron bars. She was in some sort of prison cell and she saw two men in armor leaning against the wall watching her intently. Katie lay back down and covered her face with a groan.
Iroh walked silently down into the holding cell and peered around a corner. He could see that Katie was awake. She was sitting in the far corner of her cell with her knees pulled up to her chin and her face buried in her arms. The two guards were talking and laughing quietly amongst themselves, eyeing the girl with a hunger that made Iroh uncomfortable. He stepped forward and coughed to get the attention of the guards. They both stood immediately at attention.
"The prince wishes to interrogate the girl. Please unlock the cell." One of the soldiers stepped forward quickly and unlocked the door. The whole time Katie had not stirred. Iroh squatted down beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She lifted her eyes to his fearfully.
"Maybe we should do some interrogating of our own once he brings her back." One of the soldiers said to his comrade. They hadn't meant for Iroh to hear this remark, but heard it was. Now Iroh understood why Katie seemed so nervous. Who knew what things these dogs had been muttering for the last several hours that she had been down here. Iroh shot a glare at the soldiers and they immediately stopped snickering.
"Come with me. I'm sure you're hungry and some tea will do you a world of good." He got a firm grip on her arm and helped her up. "Your services will no longer be needed gentlemen." He said coldly to the guards as he led Katie from the cellblock.
Zuko was waiting in the dining room when Iroh and Katie entered. He studied her closely trying to figure out what nation she was from. She had the skin tone of the Earth nation people, but her hair was dark brown, almost as dark as the water tribes. He also found it very strange that her hair was so short. Perhaps a mere two or three inches long and it stood up in multiple directions. Her eyes looked black from a distance, but when she stepped closer he could see that they were dark hazel, her left eye greener than her right.
"What in the world is that thing on your shirt?" Zuko asked. Katie glanced down at her clothes. She was wearing her favorite pajamas which happened to be a baggy pair of blue plaid pants that probably could fit three of her inside and a gray t-shirt with cookie monster on it with eat cookies scrawled across the front.
"You mean cookie monster?" Katie asked.
"Huh?" Zuko said looking at the goofy blue creature. It looked nothing like a monster and what in the blazes was a cookie?
"No more questions for right now. Miss Lin must be starving. Please, sit down and dig in." Iroh said leading Katie to a cushion. She sat down on it cross-legged and looked around at the food in front of her. It all looked and smelled delicious, but she had no appetite. Her throat was dry though, so she reached for a cup of water and drained it. A servant immediately stepped forward to refill the glass but Katie didn't lift it up again. She sat staring at the table and traced the wood grain with her fingertip.
"Will you not eat anything Miss Lin?" Iroh asked. Katie glanced up and shook her head. How could all this be happening? This place and these people weren't real. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair making it spike up a little more.
"Your hair is quite curious." Iroh said, "If you don't mind me asking, why would you cut it so short?"
"I don't know. Because it's cute." Katie said meekly with a shrug. They sat in silence a little longer. Katie looked up and glanced around. She saw that Zuko was watching her intensely. She caught his eyes and stared straight at him. They had a silent staring battle where Zuko glared at her. Katie on the other hand didn't have any facial expression at all. Finally Zuko couldn't take her gaze any longer and he looked down at his plate, picking at some food.
"So tell me young one. Do you have a profession or are you a housewife?" Iroh asked trying to make her open up some more.
"I'm only seventeen. I'm not married." Katie said quietly and thought about her job. How would be the best way to describe her job assembling chairs? "But I guess you could say that I'm a…carpenter." The two men gaped at her.
"But you're a girl. How can you be a carpenter?" Zuko snorted.
"Back of pal before I show you my skills with a sander." Katie said glaring at Zuko. He glared back and another staring contest ensued.
"We found an interesting book in prince Zuko's room this morning. We wondered if it belonged to you." Iroh said after the silence became unbearable. "Zuko, would you please hand it over to Miss Lin?" Iroh said. Zuko reached under the table and pulled out a book, still keeping his eyes locked on Katie's.
"It's full of strange pictures. We wish to know if these are sorceries or some kind of code." Zuko said. Katie looked down at the book in his hands and almost laughed. It was her sketchbook. Her mechanical pencil was still tucked in the spiral binding. She took it from him and ran her finger on it smiling, happy to see something familiar.
"Well, are you going to tell us the meaning behind those pictures?" Zuko said impatiently.
"There's no meaning behind them. They're just things I drew in my free time." Katie said clutching the book to her chest. Slowly a smile appeared on her face. Then she began to chuckle, which soon turned into laughter.
"What is so funny?" Zuko demanded.
"This." Katie said waving her hands around. "I finally know what's going on. I've finally lost my mind. I've trapped myself in a delusion of a cartoon show and now I'm probably locked away in a loony bin somewhere." She stood up and began walking around the room. "And you, you aren't really prince Zuko. You're just another nutter who's here because he thinks he's Julius Caesar. Any minute now they'll begin applying shock therapy to me and I'll be back to normal in no time." Katie said looking around expectantly. Zuko stood up as well and walked forward. There was no doubt to him that this girl had lost her mind. He wanted to just lead her back to her cell. But Katie saw him coming and jerked away from him yelling, "Don't even think about touching me Julius!" She walked backwards until her back was to the wall and she leaned against it sinking to the floor in a sobbing heap. She had been holding back these tears for hours, but she couldn't hold them back anymore.
"We should get her back to her holding cell." Zuko said quietly to his uncle.
"No. I don't trust the men. We have been at sea a very long time and a pretty girl alone and helpless is too tempting for some of them." Iroh said just as quietly.
"What else are we supposed to do with her?" Zuko asked.
"Well, there are no spare rooms, but me and you are trustworthy enough. She could share a room with one of us, that way we can keep a close watch on her. But it would have to be your room because I snore."
"Uncle, are you out of your mind. This girl tried to kill me this morning and she's obviously not right in the head." Zuko glared down at Katie who was trying to regain control of herself and was wiping her eyes furiously.
"She is merely afraid and confused, try putting yourself in her position. We will bring an extra mat into your room for her. Oh! And make sure you hide those swords." Iroh said smiling. Zuko couldn't believe this was happening to him.
Katie grew extremely nervous when Zuko led her to his room. There were two mattresses set on the floor instead of one now.
"You will be sleeping there." Zuko said nodding to the mattress against the wall. Katie walked straight to it and collapsed on her knees at its side. & She said a short prayer for the strength and comfort to get through this. She then climbed into bed and smashed her face into her pillow. It was kind of itchy, but at least it was clean.
"What were you doing?" Zuko asked quietly.
"What do you mean?" Katie asked lifting her head to look at him. He had taken off his armor and now stood in front of her in a pair of pants and a shirt which he also began peeling off. He then sat on his own mattress and began taking off his boots.
"Just then when you were kneeling there. Were you meditating?" he asked.
"No, I was praying." She said. Zuko looked at her curiously for a second.
"You don't look like a priestess. I thought you said you were a carpenter." He said suspiciously.
"You don't have to be a priest or priestess to pray." She said. Zuko opened his mouth to pursue the matter but Katie lay back down. "You know, I'm too tired to talk religion right now. Goodnight." & Zuko extinguished the lamp and went to bed.
It had been several hours later when Zuko woke up. He rolled over to look at Katie and saw that she was sitting up, her feet on the floor. She was staring off out the window at the small patch of starry sky that was visible. He could see be the faint moonlight that tears were glistening down her cheeks. Her shoulders were shaking silently as well. Zuko tried to put himself in her place and realized she must be scared out of her wits. Zuko climbed out of bed with a sigh and crawled over to her mattress which was only two feet away. Katie froze and watched apprehensively as he sat right next to her and began to rub her back awkwardly. Well, you asked to be comforted, was her last coherent thought as she buried her face in Zuko's chest and began sobbing. Zuko tensed a bit, but gradually wrapped his arms around her and held her close, resting his cheek against the top of her head. Katie cried herself to sleep.
Yay! Please remember to review, I could really use some inspiration. I know the general direction I want to take this story, and it might cause the rating to go up to M, but I don't know for sure right now. I also don't know how I'm going to end this story. Who knows, maybe I'll follow Kissing off into the air's advice and just have myself jump off a cliff or get run over by the bandwagon;-)