Thanks again to my reviewers! You all rock! I hope this next chapter doesn't disappoint anybody. R&R!
Disclaimer: Do you own Avatar? If you do, that's great. If not, join the club.
Oo——————————o—————————oOoOo—————————o——————————oO
Part One
WIND ON THE RIVER
Chapter 4: A New Face
Without thinking, Katara whipped around, striking her attacker with the heavy bag of fruit. It hit him hard in the side of the head, and he yelped with surprise. His grip on her wrist left, as he fell onto his back in a heap among the fallen fruits.
Katara glared down fiercely. Even though she wasn't carrying her water flask, on instinct, her body had fitted itself into a water-bending battle stance.
"Hey! Why'd you hit me?"
Katara's glower toned down, and she took up a normal standing position as she examined her attacker.
He was a boy of about fifteen or so. His head was topped with flaming thick red hair that had been pulled back and tied with a green strip of cloth. He was wearing an emerald vest of the same material as the cloth strip in his hair, layered over a long sleeve brown shirt. His pants were baggy and came down to the ground, almost completely covering his huge sandaled feet.
Definitely not Fire Nation as Katara had dreaded. From the green clothing, he had to be Earth Kingdom.
"Why'd you hit me?" the boy repeated, gingerly rubbing the side of his skull that had made impact with Katara's bag. He trained his brown eyes on Katara's astonished and relieved face.
"I'm sorry," she apologized, offering her hand. The boy took it, and Katara helped him up. "I thought you were—"
"A Firebender or something?" he interrupted, brushing himself off. He looked at Katara and smiled.
"Yeah! How did you know?"
"There's not much else to be scared of these days, is there?"
"No, I suppose not." Katara smiled back at the boy, and caught herself from going red. She had just noticed how handsome he was. "So…um…who are you?" she asked, hiding the embarrassment in her voice.
"Jedreck," the boy replied casually, "What's your name?"
"Katara. Why'd you sneak up on me?"
"Oh…" He paused a moment, as if trying to find the right words, "I didn't want you to run, I guess. Outlandish people are exciting."
"I see. Well, nice to meet you, Jedreck."
"Same to you," he said cheerfully.
"Um…where are we?"
"Tiaret Island," he stated simply, "By-the-way, you're stealing from the village orchard, just to let you know."
Katara gasped in shock. Now that he had told her, she suddenly noticed the trees were growing in unnaturally straight rows. She slapped a hand to her forehead as she saw a half-full basket at the base of a tree, which had sat undetected by her earlier. Her ears grew hot with shame.
Her reaction was rewarded with an amused grin from Jedreck.
"I-I-I didn't know!" she stammered, a pleading tinge to her voice. She crammed the sack into Jedreck's arms, and then aimed her gaze at the ground guiltily, twiddling her thumbs. "I was just looking for some food for my brother, friend, and me. I never meant to steal anything."
"It's fine. We have plenty. Here,"—he handed the bag back to her—"you now have my permission to eat this fruit."
Katara smiled meekly. "Thanks, this means a lot to me."
"My pleasure, Katara." He winked at her, and unexpected butterflies fluttered up in her stomach. Then she remembered Aang and Sokka.
"Hey, well, I got to go, Jedreck. My brother and friend will get worried. Um…maybe we'll drop by the village sometime today. It's just beyond the orchard, right?"
Jedreck nodded to confirm her assumption.
"Are there any Fire Nation soldiers around?"
"Nope!" He seemed proud of the fact, as if he had kept the Fire Nation away all by himself. Then his voice returned to its normal laid-back tone. "At least not yet. The village is really small, and I guess it just kind of got overlooked these past years. Lucky, huh?"
"Really lucky."
They became quiet for a moment, before Katara broke the silence. "I need to go. I'll see you later?"
"I'll come with you. Things will be easier for the village folk if you guys come in with me. With the war and all…most of them are really weary of strangers."
"Okay, that's probably true," Katara considered, and then added, "Does your village have a market where we can get some supplies? Fruit is great and all, but we could really use something that would keep longer. We don't have any money…but we could work for what we need."
"Yep, we have a market. But don't worry about money. I'll cover for you. You just take as much as you need, alright?"
"No, really, Jedreck, I can't accept anymore of your generos—"
"I insist!"
"No reall—"
"No really, I insist," he butted in again.
Katara gave up, much against her first impulse. Her mother and father had always been against taking advantage of people's kindness, but they did need supplies and they didn't have money. Work wasn't much of an option, either. She, Aang, and Sokka would most likely only be able to stay a day or two. Not enough time to pay off any debts for food.
"Okay, thanks. But if there's anything we can do to make it up to you, just let me know."
"It's fine! It's fine!"
"Are you…are you sure?" Katara asked weakly, attempting to sway him one last time.
"Positive. Now let's go find your brother and friend."
"Okay." Katara adjusted her grip on the bag of fruit in her arms. She couldn't believe he was doing all this for her after she'd just hit him!
"Here, let me carry your bag," Jedreck proposed, taking the sack from her and clutching it against his chest with one arm. He grinned amiably at her. Katara returned the smile. Some people were extremely forgiving…
"Which way?" he asked, looking off in the direction Katara had been heading before.
"Follow me," she said, and led the way into the trees.
- - - - - - - - - -
It had been over an hour since Sokka had woken him. Katara still hadn't returned. Aang was getting anxious. It wasn't like Katara to go off without telling anyone, then again; maybe she didn't want to wake them up. Maybe she didn't know it was going to take so long.
Then a darker thought crawled into Aang's mind; what was her reaction when she woke up next to you? Was she angry? Upset? Did she run off to get away from you? To escape the confusion and embarrassment?
Aang lowered his gaze, a pang of guilt racing through him. He closed his eyes, and breathed in deeply. If she wasn't back in the next ten minutes, he was going after her.
"Aang, you really need to calm down. I'm sure she's fine. She's just getting lots of food for us."
The young Airbender looked up at Sokka. He forced a meager smile onto his face. "Yeah…You're probably right, Sokka."
"Of course I am—Momo! Get away from the crackers!" Sokka raced over and swatted the lemur's paw out of the bag. Momo backed away, ears flattened.
"Don't give me that! You can eat bugs. This is all we humans have!" Sokka dangled the bag before Momo's green eyes before drawing it back quickly. He muttered something about pain and suffering to all lemurs and stuffed the sack into his sleeping bag and rolled it up. "Now go find your own food!"
The lemur made a growling noise in the back of his throat before flipping his tail in Sokka's face and scurrying off into the undergrowth.
Aang shook his head fondly as he watched Momo disappear in the leaves. His contentment was short lived, however, as the problem at hand snapped back into his mind. Where was Katara? He couldn't stand it any longer.
"I'm going to go find Katar—"
"Sokka! Aang!"
Aang's heart leapt and a flicker of pure delight crossed his face. There was Katara, at the edge of the campsite, wearing a huge smile. She didn't seem to be mad at him at all. In fact, she looked positively overjoyed.
"Katara!" he shouted, leaping to his feet. He raced towards her, hoping to catch her in an enthusiastic hug. He stopped short, though, as a second unknown person stumbled out of the trees beside Katara, carrying a bulging brown sack. A closer inspection showed that the person was a green-clad boy with bright red hair: Earth Kingdom. Who was he?
"Who are you?" Aang voiced his question, blinking owlishly at the boy. Sokka strode up next to Aang, crossing his arms and staring the visitor down.
"Yeah, who are you and what are you doing with my sister?" he demanded.
Katara shot the boy an apologetic glance. "Don't mind my brother, Jedreck. He's just a little headstrong." Now she turned her attention to Aang and Sokka. "Guys, this is Jedreck. Jedreck, meet Aang and Sokka." She pointed to Aang and Sokka in turn with their names.
"What's with the arrow?" Jedreck inquired, giving Aang a weird look. His brown eyes followed the blue tattoo up Aang's forehead.
Aang glanced at Katara, silently asking permission to reveal his identity. Katara nodded pleasantly.
"I'm the Avatar. The arrow just means I've mastered air-bending. Nice to meet you," he said politely. He graced Jedreck with a small bow.
"Likewise, Avatar." Jedreck returned the bow almost…mockingly?
A glimmer of puzzlement ran through Aang's eyes as he recognized the ridicule in the boy's gesture. "Just call me Aang, please."
"Sure…whatever."
"What's in the bag?" Sokka piped up, suddenly noticing the lumpy sack in Jedreck's arms. "Food?"
"Yeah, purple fruit. Jedreck was carrying it for me. They're really good," Katara said. She took the bag from the Earth boy and tossed it to Sokka.
He caught it easily, then opened it up and stared in hungrily. He pulled a fruit out, and took a small cautious bite. As soon as it was in his mouth, a wide grin split across his face. He gobbled it up greedily, then pulled out three more and devoured them as fast as the first. Between his monstrous bites he mumbled, "This is delicious! Aang, do you want some?" He held one out towards the monk.
"Sure!" Aang's face brightened and he took the fruit from Sokka's outstretched palm. He bit into it eagerly, careful not to let any of the juice dribble down his chin. He took another bite, relishing the flavor.
Over his fruit, he saw Jedreck subtly point at him and whisper something to Katara. She giggled a strange girlish giggle Aang had never heard before. His expression became quizzical and he turned his concentration back to his snack. What had he said? What was going on? He finished the fruit, and rejected the second one Sokka extended to him, eyeing Katara and Jedreck suspiciously.
Suddenly, Jedreck's eyes grew wide as he looked over Aang's shoulder and he exclaimed, "What the heck is that?"
Aang broke his gaze from the two and glanced in the direction of Jedreck's bug-eyed stare: Appa. Jedreck was giving the typical first impression.
"That's just Appa, Aang's flying bison," Katara notified him, putting a comforting hand on the boy's rigid arm.
"How does that thing get off the ground?" Jedreck wanted to know.
Katara gave the Earth boy a mischievous grin. "Aang, would you care to give our guest a demonstration?"
"Okay," Aang said, grabbing his staff propped up against a tree. He used a gust of air to propel himself up onto the bison's saddle. "Appa, yip yip!"
The bison shot up into the sky. Aang grinned as the wind rushed past his face. Appa circled higher into the clouds, diving and looping. When they were at just the right altitude, Aang suddenly leapt from the bison's back with staff in hand. He hurtled towards the ground at break-neck speed. The trees were rushing up to meet him, the clearing was right in front of him, Katara's eyes were staring into his. Then, just before he struck the hard ground, he flicked his staff and bright red wings sprung out of the wood. He positioned the glider behind him and he pulled up on it in a split instant, forcing the air currents under wing skywards. He sailed back up out of the trees, curved around, and dropped slowly down, his clothes rippling. His feet touched the ground, and only seconds later, Appa alighted as well. Aang flashed his audience a triumphant grin. He eagerly awaited the inevitable praise.
"Aang, that was really risky!"
Aang's grin fell as he spun his staff rapidly in a quick circle and the wings disappeared.
"Don't you think you were cutting it a little close?" Katara continued to scold him like a small child, "Please be more careful next time!"
Katara's voice was full of concern and disappointment. Not the awe and admiration Aang had expected for accomplishing such a feat. He hated being told off in front of Sokka and Jedreck like a little kid, almost as much as he hated worrying her. He met her serious eyes with his own guilty ones sheepishly. "I'm sorry, Katara."
He let his stare drift to Katara's side where Jedreck was. Strangely, Jedreck wasn't looking at him as Katara and Sokka were. Jedreck was looking at Katara with an unfamiliar look to the monk. An almost longing look…like the ones Aang gave the Waterbender when no one was watching. A lump began to form in Aang's throat; he did know that look. All too well.
"So!" Jedreck said suddenly looking up, "How about we go to the village now?"
"Village? What village?" Sokka asked, discarding the empty fruit bag off to the side.
"Tiaret Village. This is Tiaret Island."
- - - - - - - - - -
A burst of flame went rushing towards the soldier. He raised his arms to deflect the blow, but was overpowered. The force of the fire sent him soaring backwards. He hit the ship's low wall with a dull clang, and groaned pathetically, his head drooping down against his chest.
"Same time tomorrow," Zuko said absently, relaxing his combat posture, and turning to leave. He watched another soldier walk past him to tend to his fallen comrade.
"How was your training session, Prince Zuko?" Iroh questioned comfortably, as Zuko walked in from the boat's deck. The old man lifted a tea cup to his lips and drank deeply.
"Fine." It was Zuko's usual simple reply.
"That's good to hear. It is also good that our destination is only two days away. The meals are becoming quite desperate, have you noticed?"
"No, and remember, we're just taking a short stop."
"Why the worry, my nephew? It's a small secluded Earth Kingdom island in the middle of the ocean. The Fire Nation has so far left it alone, at the least the map says. There will be no Fire Nation soldiers to hassle our cause."
"It's not that, Uncle. The Avatar is gaining progress over us every day."
"I'm sure we'll spot him any time now."
"We still can't afford a large delay."
"As you wish. Our stay on Tiaret Island will be brief."
oO——————————o—————————oOoOo—————————o——————————Oo
For those of you who were hoping for some awesome, action-packed chapter, forgive me. Hopefully something like that will happen in the next chapter or so. So just hang in there!
And please review!