The dreaded obligatory dream sequence is over! Hah. Glad you liked that-- yep, I got a little too symbolism-happy with it. I actually meant it to be more weird and more random when I started, but my inner lit geek kept fighting to the surface and demanding that I let it out to play. So there were apples and bones. Just a note, though: the dream was intended as a mood interlude, not a plot device, so take everything said in the dream with a grain of salt (so to speak.) Dreams may be filled with symbols and images plucked from our subconscious, but they do not usuallyreflect reality and they do not predict the future.

Act 2

The Fisherman

Scene 3

Katara had decided the fisherman wasn't really a fisherman at all. His boat was eqipped for it, but he had no crew and little bait. More to the point, he never actually fished. She had to keep calling him "the fisherman," though, because he refused to give her any other name.

"I have to call you something."

"You don't, actually, but do what you like."

His casual dismissal to "do what she liked" was precisely the problem in this whole arrangement, Katara felt. She didn't know if they were guests or prisoners. He wouldn't tell her his name, so she had to make up one for him. He wouldn't tell her why he didn't have a crew or what he was doing with a fishing yacht this far out in the middle of the ocean, so she had to try to reason it out. He wouldn't tell her where they were going, so she had to guess that too. All she did know was that he had two kids about her age, and it was only out of fatherly pity that he picked them up at all.

"It was against my better judgement. But I'm soft-hearted, and I'd like to think a passing stranger would rescue my kids if they're ever stupid enough to get themselves lost at sea. I don't expect that to happen because they're smarter than you two," and here Katara frowned because really, it hadn't been her fault, but she wasn't about to argue outright with her rescuer, "but it doesn't hurt to give Lady Fortune some padding, you understand."

Katara had just frowned even more and kept her mouth shut. Only her gratefulness at being alive was allowing her to keep her temper through the insults. Despite the lack of outright information, however, she did manage to learn a few things during the days that Zuko was in a fever. She remembered that the first day they had met up with another vessel and a doctor had visited herself and the prince. She didn't recall much of those blurry hours, but Katara figured it was significant that they weren't totally alone in the ocean. It was most likely that the other boat had come from the wherever it was they were heading, and that meant something too. She started to compile a list in her mind of what she knew about the fisherman:

Physically he looked like he could be either Earth or Water tribes, and his boat was a mishmash of different cultures, as if it'd passed from owner to owner.

He was probably not a bender, based on his expression when she practiced.

He didn't like the Fire Nation, but also didn't talk politics much, so she wasn't sure how far his dislike extended. The only reason she knew he didn't like the Fire Nation was that he seemed to frown at the direction of Zuko's make-shift room fairly often, and he hinted that the only reason he'd rescued them was that Katara wasn't pale-skinned too.

He had some strong reason not to be taking passengers, and it had nothing to do with food rations.

And the last, most disturbing thing she knew: He had no idea who Zuko was.

He had no idea, because Katara hadn't told him. And even though she was under no obligation to tell a mysterious stranger that he'd accidentally rescued the only son of the Fire Lord--or under any obligation to hide that information on Zuko's behalf--Katara was disturbed because the cold wall of the fisherman's secrecy hinted of something ominous over the horizon. He wasn't supposed to be taking passengers and he wouldn't tell them their ultimate destination. Warning bells were ringing louder and louder in Katara's ears with each passing wave, and all those warning bells brought her thoughts back to Zuko.

Her reluctant companion was an inherently dangerous person. Dangerous as himself and deadly as a member of the Fire Nation ruling family.

The fisherman's mysterious motives and tight-lipped behavior told Katara that maybe, just maybe, he could be dangerous too.

She was sitting in the middle of a powderkeg and as soon as the jerk woke and opened his mouth the whole thing might explode.

Wow, 100 reviews! I love how sweet and responsive the Avatar fandom can be-- you really know how to spoil a girl. So here's another one for you. We'll be chugging along, chugging along in the next few days. Expect several updates, especially since school starts on Friday and after that my fandom life ends. Well, almost. ;)

This scene I'm not as pleased with as some others, but that's alright because I'm very happy with the next one. Can't win 'em all, etc.