Dangerous Ground
Chapter 11
Zuko raised an eyebrow. Actually, it was his only eyebrow. "What do you mean? You can't possibly have a plausible escape plan."
It was my turn to smirk now. Wow, that felt good. No wonder he did it so often. "You'll see."
A few moments later the cell door screeched open and the guard, loaded down with two large buckets of water, stumbled into the room, panting.
"Huh... huh...here's your...water...miss." He said, leaning against the wall to catch his breath.
"Thank you." I nodded to the guard as he stumbled back out. As soon as the door was closed I began streaming the water from the buckets, pulling long ribbons through the air and into the small vents built into the cell wall.
"Water expands when it is cold, and contracts when it warms." I stopped streaming the water when I guessed that the cracks would be full. Taking in a lungfull of air, I blew on the water and listened to the sound of the ice crack and tinkle as it hardened against the rock.
"If I can get the water to expand enough inside the cracks, I may have a chance of widening the vents and weakening the integrity of the walls." My breathing increased as excitement flushed my face. This could actually work. I streamed water into the next vent and froze it as well.
"Now, if you could just heat up those rocks..." I pointed to the wall surrounding the cracks. Zuko nodded and pointed his fists toward the ice, sending a blast of fire that made the ice hiss and fizzle pop like firecrackers. I waited breathlessly.
Nothing happened.
I felt my hope collapsing inside of me like waves crashing and falling against a cliff. No! I would not give up! Setting my face in determination, I streamed more water from the buckets and froze it into the vents. I closed my eyes and sent up a prayer as Zuko super-heated the rocks again. This time, a thick cracking sound echoed inside the cell.
"It's working!" I shouted, pulling more water from the buckets and freezing it in place. Zuko and I repeated freezing and thawing for as long as the water lasted. Soon, tiny cracks had begun to appear in the walls. They widened, flaked and chipped as we continued our attack. Finally, the water ran out.
"I hope that was enough." I said softly as Zuko lined himself up against the wall. Letting loose a powerful yell, Zuko spun in the air and sent his foot, covered in flame, in a viscous kick against the cracks. A crumbling, tearing sound ripped through the tiny cell and suddenly a jagged hole appeared, letting in the dim glimmer of twilight.
"Hurry. They probably heard that." Zuko hastened me. But I didn't need hastening. I was out the hole almost before he could finish his sentence. I took only a moment to study my surroundings. I was on a mountain. Ah, so that was how the Earthbender fortress had remained undetected by the Fire Nation for all these years. It had been built into a mountain.
"Hurry!" Zuko hissed at me as he grabbed my shoulder and pulled me after him into the woods. I ran with him. Trees whizzed by and the forest floor was a blur beneath my feet. I rejoiced internally. We were free!
My joy did not last long. A booming shout brought fear crashing down around my head. I pushed myself to run faster, but I was already lagging behind Zuko, his war-trained body easily outpacing mine. True, I was one of the fastest runners among the girls back home, but that just didn't cut it out here.
I heard crashing behind me. Earthbender soldiers. They had already caught up to me. Something thudded at my feet. My eyes widened in horror as I recognized the feathered shaft of an arrow protruding from the ground. Several more thuds landed around me, some whizzing past my face or grazing my dress. Panic surged in my chest and gasping sobs formed on my lips. I was dead. Goodbye Sokka... Aang... Gran-Gran.
"UGH!" I suddenly found myself pushed to the ground with a mouthful of dirt. An arc of fire hissed into the sky as an arrow was turned to ashes and left to sprinkle over the ground where I lay. I looked up into Zuko's burning eyes.
"Get up, you foolish water peasant! You're going to get us both killed." He barked at me as he circled us in a wall of flame that turned more arrows into dust on the wind. I got up as commanded to, but it was too late. A wall of earthbender soldiers surrounded us. A burly man filled my field of vision...
And then everything went black.
"Uuuuuuuuuuh." Someone was moaning. "Uuuuuuuuunn." Someone familiar. Oh, it was me. I put a hand to my head. Sparks of pain flashed in front of my eyes and I instantly put my hand down.
"I see I underestimated you." A voice spoke. It sounded almost amused. Teikei.
"I have to admit, that was quite clever. I'm not sure I'd even be smart enough to think of it. But then, I'm not a waterbender." He continued, each word a messenger of pain to my throbbing head. I cracked one eye open and ventured a look around.
I was in a clean little room. The creamy orange glow of a fire filled the spartan cell and danced over the three figures that stood in the doorway. The tallest one grinned at me. It was Teikei, alright.
"It looks like you'll be getting the comfortable room after all. That means that you'll be complying to my request. So, really, your escape attempt has worked out in my favor." Teikei said.
"I'll have my men bring you to the training ground as soon as you are healed." He spoke to Zuko. I twisted to see the Prince, bound and sitting against the wall, glaring as best he could at Teikei through a black eye.
"And as for you," I froze as I realized that the leader of the Earthbenders was talking to me. "You, I will not make the mistake of underestimating again." He chuckled and came forward with something.
"That means no more 'bath water' for you." A glint of amusement shone in his eye. "Here, just enough to heal yourself and your... companion." With that he walked from the room, leaving a small basin of water by my side.
I sat up, pushing against complaining, aching muscles. I was lying on the only cot in the room, which also happened to be the only piece of furniture. I reached forward into the basin and pulled a healing layer of water onto my hand like a glove. I touched my forehead gingerly, healing the bruise and leaving only a dull ache in its place. It would go away soon enough. I turned my attention to Zuko, who, from the look of him and the fact that he was still bound, must have put up quite a fight.
I knelt down and gently untied the ropes binding his wrists. He held still for me, but I could tell by the lines in his brow that he was angry. I pulled the basin over and reached out to heal his bruises, but he pulled away sharply and shouted at me.
"I don't want your healing. It is for the weak. If it weren't for your weakness, we could have escaped!" The fire in the fireplace leapt up and crackled furiously.
"Just because I can't run as fast as you doesn't mean that I'm weak!" I shouted back at him.
"Ha! If the Water Tribes spent half as much time in training as they do making ice sculptures maybe they wouldn't be losing this war." He said through gritted teeth.
"And if the Fire Nation spent half as much time learning to get along with other people as they do terrorizing women and children maybe we could all exist in harmony." I ripped off his shirt, a little more roughly than necessary, as I started working on healing the numerous cuts and bruises left by his struggle with the earthbenders. I pushed my hand roughly against a particularly nasty bruise, wondering why in the world I was doing this for some insane, arrogant Prince. He winced. Well, at least we know now that he can feel pain.
Katara! It was Gran-Gran again. Oh great. How can you preach condemnation toward the Fire Nation while you yourself harbor the flame of hatred in your heart? Do you desire to disgrace your people?
"No, Gran-Gran." I whispered under my breath. Taking a small amount of water in my hand, I began to touch and heal the cuts on his stomach. His muscles tightened under my hand, rippling in a sea of masculinity, but I was too busy wrestling with my thoughts to care or notice much.
"I just don't understand, Zuko." My voice was soft and soothing, matching the rhythm of the water beneath my fingers. "Why does the Fire Nation think that those who are not like them, who exhibit anything that they deem to be weakness, deserve to be attacked? To have their peace and their land taken from them?"
"It's nothing personal. Just a matter of survival of the fittest." He answered with an arrogant shrug of his shoulders.
"Oh, and I suppose the Fire Nation is the fittest, huh? Just because they can't control themselves and live in peace with everyone else? And I suppose you've never shown weakness once in your entire life, have you?" I challenged him.
"Yes. I did show weakness once. And I paid for it." The firebender's admission broke my concentration and the water I'd been using to heal spilled from around my hand to trickle down his abdomen.
"Is that where you got your scar?" The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. Stupid, Katara! Stupid! I covered my mouth and backed up, looking at the floor, preparing myself for the fury that would surely follow. But silence pervaded the tiny room. I slowly raised my head, daring to look into the prince's eyes. My brain screamed that I was treading on dangerous ground, but I willed myself to be strong and look him in the eye. I had said what I said, and I was prepared to face the consequences of that decision.
He didn't answer me. The silence was even more uncomfortable now. It roared in my ears, constricted my breathing like a band of metal across my chest, lit my face on fire. What could I say now? Zuko was angry with me again, that much was evident from the dangerous fire flashing in his eyes. But he didn't yell. It scared me more than anything else he could have done. His eyes were staring at the ceiling, but they were unfocused, staring past the earthen roof into some memory that haunted his expression.
"I'm sorry. That was... insensitive." I didn't want to apologize to the spoiled, arrogant Prince, but... well, it had been insensitive. I expected some water peasant insult, but he only nodded his head, accepting my apology. Hmm. Maybe he's part human after all.
"Water can be thought of as a weak element." I began healing him again. Hopefully it would dissolve some of the awkwardness of the moment. "Weak because it is not hard and strong like earth, or powerful and destructive like fire. Water is flexible, passive, moldable; things that might describe something delicate or feeble. But it is water's 'weakness' that makes it so strong. It is because of its flexibility that I was able to fill the cracks of the cave and break the walls down. Water triumphed over earth not because it was strong, but because it was weak."
Zuko remained silent, following the motions of my hands as I healed the last of his many bruises. I sensed that I was still not on good terms with him, but at least he wasn't shouting. No wonder the Fire and Water people couldn't get along. They were just too different. In one, weakness was just another way to be strong, while in the other, it was a punishable offense. I sighed.
Maybe it was just always meant to be this way...
Maybe there was no way to achieve balance among the elements.
Maybe the world would just continue to fight...
A never-ending battle that would never...could never... be won.
Finished with the healing, I buttoned Zuko's tunic back up. The prince's eyes stared in intense concentration at the ceiling. Was it anger that was flickering in his eyes right now? Confusion? I hated to think of what he might be contemplating. Certainly it must have something to do with how to kill me while I was sleeping and make it look like an accident. I pushed aside my morbid thoughts and tried to find something to say that wouldn't be a touchy subject. Unfortunately, most things turned out to be touchy subjects with the Fire Prince. Except maybe one...
"Tell me about the Fire Lands."
"Excuse me?" Zuko's eyes locked on mine and I steeled myself to meet their gaze and not back down.
"Remember that day when I asked you about your homeland, and you started telling me things about exotic orchards and sunny meadows?" Zuko nodded.
"Well, it sounds very pretty. What... what else was there?"
'What should a water peasant care what the Fire Lands look like?" Zuko growled at me. Oh, that boy sure knew how to nurse a grudge. I just wanted to reach out and slap that annoying little sneer off his face...
The first step in overcoming your enemy is to understand him. I'd heard father repeat those words to Sokka every time my brother had wanted to go knock a few firebender heads with his boomerang. And now, those words were coming back to me, reminding me of the ways of my people.
"I...I was just curious about what it must have been like to grow up as royalty." I pulled my hair out of my braid and shook it, letting it cascade down my back in chocolate waves as I tried to get comfortable for the night. But the hard, earthen floor just wasn't comfortable. I wiggled on the floor, twisting until I found a comfortable groove. I laid on my side, one hand fingering the soft blue fabric of my dress as it draped over me, the other propping up my head as looked at him with wide, hopeful eyes.
A strange looked crossed his face as his eyes met mine. It was so fleeting that I didn't have time to analyze its meaning. But, knowing Zuko, it must surely have been anger. I frowned.
"What's wrong?" Zuko's voice was unusually harsh. It reminded me of when Sokka was first going through his man-changes and was trying to cover up the cracks in his voice.
"Nothing." I sighed.
"Fine. I'll tell you about the Fire Lands." I looked up, surprised. Whatever I'd done to make him change his mind I'd have to remember so I could use it again.
Zuko closed his eyes and laid back, his chest rising and falling in a slow, steady rhythm. I began to think that maybe he'd just said it to shut me up and was now falling asleep. Then, he spoke.
"Mostly there was red. Red houses, red statues, red clothing. It is a beautiful color, the color of my Nation and my element." Zuko's voice betrayed pride and... boredom? I began to feel a little bored, myself. I hoped that this would not turn into another Fire Nation superiority speech. But then, Zuko paused, and his voice softened.
"But there was one place where color abounded." I waited a long time for Zuko to continue, but he remained silent.
"Where?" I prompted. Zuko tensed, his lips pressed tightly together. He simply wouldn't open up to me. That's when I did the unthinkable.
I reached out and touched his shoulder. I felt his muscles jerk and tighten beneath my fingertips, but he did not pull away as he had done before.
"I just want to know more about you." I said, gazing into his eyes, willing him to understand that I meant him no harm. He stared back at me for a long time, his golden gaze boring into me, searching me, fighting, struggling.
"The garden... it was in the royal courtyard. My...mother made it. She brought plants from all four nations and planted them there. I remember... there were so many colors. She used sneak me into the garden when I was little and let me sit with her while she told me stories. I used to think that her voice was so pretty that the flowers must be listening, too." I sat in stunned silence. Somehow, I'd not expected this from the Prince of the Fire Nation.
A little prejudiced yourself, aren't you, Katara? Gran-Gran's voice scolded me.
"Wait. She had to sneak you in? Why?" I was surprised by the sudden change in Zuko's voice from soft to hard as he explained.
"My father despised the garden. He despised anything that was fragile and beautiful. He would have destroyed it if my mother had not stood up to him."
"She sounds like a wonderful woman." I said truthfully.
"She was." We sat in silence for a while. No more words were needed or expected.