Several people asked what a sextant is. Well, a sextant is a... Oh my God! Look, there goes a dictionary! Hurry, catch it! Run!
Seriously though, thanks for all the reviews so far, guys. It's very encouraging, and I really appreciate the thoughtfulness.
Act 2
The Fisherman
Scene 8
He found her sitting on the bow some hours later. Katara had situated herself on the last corner of open space just behind the prow, cross-legged with the sextant in her hands. She glanced back and forth from the brightly starred sky to the sailor's device, every once in a while adjusting its few knobs and dials.
"You have no idea how to use that thing, do you?"
She looked over her shoulder with a frown. She was frequently frowning at him, Zuko had noticed. But then he'd also noticed that he tended to inspire that reaction in people.
"I sort of do."
"'Sort of,' she says. Don't your people take rustic exhibitions into supposedly 'uncharted lands' on your little yearly fishing trips? Isn't this all part of your people's--" he made a dismissive gesture, "--coming of age training?"
Katara glowered at the prince and swallowed a distasteful sensation in her throat.
"The women of our tribe weren't allowed on our seasonal great whale hunts," she replied, "of which there hasn't been one anyway for the last two years."
Zuko had her figured well enough by now to know she'd tell him all about why, even if he didn't care.
Then again it's not like he had anything else to do.
"The men of our tribe are at war with the Fire Nation, something I'm sure you remember from your friendly visit to my village. If we'd stayed at home Sokka would've started learning star navigation from one of the grandfathers when he turned sixteen." Katara looked away and mumbled, "I was going to learn it from him."
"So... you can't do anything?"
"I, at least, can tell my own constellations!" she snapped, jumping to her feet. "But we're not exactly in the Southernmost ocean, are we? Out here, without star charts or trade currents charts to compare to, we might as well be in the capital city of the Fire Nation for all the sky can show me."
"Some use you are," Zuko sighed, and Katara swore she could almost feel the hair on the back of her neck rise. His ability to infuriate her was nothing short of boundless.
"What about you! You were at sea for years, you couldn't even be bothered to learn basic night navigation?"
"I'm a prince," he stated, as if this explained everything.
"Spoiled brat," she muttered, and stalked off to the cabin to return the sextant to Cerlo. "Too busy learning to kill people to absorb anything practical."